April 16, 2025 • 57 mins
Pastors Ryan and Tim explore how human expectations affect our relationship with God, using the powerful contrast between Palm Sunday's "Hosanna!" and Good Friday's "Crucify him!" as a spiritual metaphor.
• Examining the significance behind Palm Sunday's palm branches, cloaks, and celebrations
• Understanding how misaligned expectations with God can lead to disappointment or anger
• Recognizing the difference between what people wanted from Jesus and his actual mission
• Learning to surrender our allegiances to Christ while maintaining healthy priorities
• Finding sacred spaces where we can hear God's voice above competing influences
• Distinguishing between "deliverance problems" and "discipline problems" in our spiritual lives
• Identifying the ultimate "good" God is working in our lives as conformity to Christ's image
• Creating intentional time for God to speak without distractions or competing voices
This Easter week, examine your expectations of God and ask what deeper work He might be doing in your life that you could be missing. Find your mountain - that sacred space where you can meet with God.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast broughtto you by A Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined with PastorTim and Tim.
We had a couple week breakthere because you and I are both
a little busy.
Particularly, you were out inSan Diego marrying your daughter
off, and so we had a chance togo out there and be a part of
the celebration.
(00:48):
Didn't have anything to do butshow up, but it was a privilege
to do that.
Man, it was great to see Maddieget married and spend some time
At least it wasn't all thatwarm while I was in San Diego,
but the sun was shining and thatwas good to see.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, but it's perfect weather for the big guy,
you know, right around 65, 70degrees, that's perfect all day
long.
I think my daughter loves itout there so much because in in
the morning and in in theafternoon or around noon she can
go to the beach and you know at-shirt and shorts and then in
(01:26):
the evening she can put on herpatagonia stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
So it's like fashionista she can do the whole
.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
You get all the accessories, yeah, all the
accessories, and they all apply,um, but yeah, it was beautiful
out there.
The wedding went really welland, um and and it was beautiful
too we had to pay our dowry,but those goats Teresa will miss
(01:52):
those goats we had to give up.
Now it all turned into just agreat celebration and, if you're
listening out there, I want tothank everybody who was involved
, especially my sister-in-law,shimmy, who worked so hard to
(02:16):
make it like Maddie wanted it,and it turned out to be just
like she wanted it.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It was beautiful.
That was Joy and I's first timein san diego, um, but yeah,
city's, city's pretty, it'slovely having the ocean right
there and, um, but yeah,maddie's wedding, just venue,
everything was great, um, andwas fantastic, phenomenal.
But most of the time peoplehave a wedding band like we're
(02:42):
gonna do a live band and you'relike we're going to do a live
band and you're like, oh, uncleJoe and his drinking buddies.
Yeah, this band was good, had meup and singing a couple of
those punk rock songs once theystarted playing those.
So that was fun and I wassurprised I didn't dance.
I didn't dance but I would sing.
I'd sing along, joey and I wetried to because we didn't have
(03:08):
any expectations on us.
You know, we're just here tohang out.
So we tried to make the most ofSan Diego.
We ran around with Pat andKathy and got to see all kinds
of seals and ended up seeingdolphins, went to Slab City,
salvation Mountain, we fed abunch of stuff in, had a some
great gelato and little italy.
It was man, we we did it all.
(03:28):
Um, I don't think we could fitanything else in, but we had a
great time.
But we're both back and, uh,time to get busy.
Time to get busy.
Um, I think when I picked youguys up from the airport it was
30 and sleeting, um, so that'syeah, rained all the way to the
house um so so welcome home backto the grind.
(03:49):
And uh, this past sunday, uh waspalm sunday and uh, we're
starting, you know, kicks off,holy week.
We got some exciting stuffcoming up this week looking
ahead to easter, but, man, Ithought the message on Sunday
was so important.
Don't overlook what we'retalking about on Palm Sunday
(04:10):
with the anticipation of Easter,because you'll miss some pretty
big stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, I enjoyed preparing for this.
We usually spin off, you know,palm Sunday into whatever we're
looking to build for the end ofthe week, but this year I just
thought let's just talk aboutwhat's going on right here.
And there was a lot of things.
(04:36):
It was in the present, it wasprophetic.
The present, it was propheticuh, had to do with, uh, the way
people saw jesus, who, who theythought he was, and they were
correct.
They just didn't know thedirection he was going and uh, I
(04:59):
I thought it went really well.
I think, um, learning a littlebit about what the donkey meant
and learning a little bit aboutwhat the cloak meant and the
palm leaves and all that kind ofstuff kind of gives you a
broader perspective of whatthose people were thinking.
And that's what the story isthere.
If those people are not thinkinghe's the king, then there is no
(05:21):
triumphal entry.
He just shows up in Jerusalemand gets arrested.
There's not.
You don't see the contrastbetween hey, I've got this
really high expectation for youand you're not giving me what I
want, so crucify you.
And that's basically whathappens in this scenario.
(05:42):
And it's so human, yeah, it'sso human to especially being
raised in a republic where wevote for a representative to go
to Washington and represent meto the government, and then he
tells you this is what I'm goingto do.
(06:03):
And you're like rah re, let'sgo get up there.
And then he completely turnsback on you and does something
else and uh, so, but we livethat over and over and over
again and it's just a humanconcept.
Uh, you were telling me aboutellie.
You know, dad, you gotta comepractice soccer with me.
(06:24):
You gotta teach me soccer.
I want to be a soccer with me.
You got to teach me soccer, Iwant to be a soccer player.
And you get out there and thenshe's yelling you don't know
nothing about soccer.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I tried to tell her.
I said, girl, you're alreadybetter than I am.
I don't know how to add to this.
She's like well, all the otherdads.
So I got up off the couch, wentout to practice soccer and
she's like no no, no, not likethis.
No, that's not what I want todo.
No, you're doing it wrong.
I'm like, I think I'm goingback inside.
You are a mean coach.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Misaligned expectations, and it's just a
human thing.
I want to look at myself andsay what am I expecting from God
that I might not get?
And if I might not get it, isit going to turn me against him
(07:15):
or give me anger issues with God?
And a lot of Christians do haveanger issues with God and he's
not.
If you do have anger issueswith God and you think not, If
you do have anger issues withGod and you think that's a big
deal, it's not.
And well, you don't know myissue.
Yeah, but he's God and you canbe mad at him.
(07:36):
He's okay with that because heloves your passion, even if it's
passion against him right now.
What did he say in Isaiah?
He said come on, let's arguethis out.
You know your sins may be asscarlet, but I can make them
white as snow.
I want to wrestle with you.
You know, I picked a peoplethat I named.
(07:59):
Wrestle with God, that's whatIsrael means yeah.
So I think, um, I think thisexpectation thing is the story
there, um people's expectationof him coming in and taking over
and making their lives, uh,better and uh, he did uh he.
(08:21):
they just didn't understand Uhdidn't get what they thought
they were going to get andthat's a difficult pill to
swallow in a lot of situationsin life.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I mean, I think you nailed it on the head earlier.
You said it's so human.
I mean, the contrast betweenPalm Sunday and Good Friday is
striking.
The same people saying Hosanna,lord, save us, and laying their
cloaks down, waving palmbranches, are shouting crucify
them less than a week later.
(08:54):
And it's like how did we gethere?
What is that?
But when you understand the Jew, the Israelite, for hundreds
and thousands of years have beenlooking towards a Savior, a
Messiah, to come and save them.
And then all the expectationsthat get wrapped up in that when
(09:15):
they finally start to sense man, he might be the guy, it might
be him.
And so they're ready to go.
All in, let's go, grab yourswords, come on, we're taking
this back.
And then he walks in and he'snot doing any of the things that
you thought he was gettingready to do.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Shows up on a donkey instead of a war horse.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah it now you're, you're crushed, you're, you're
frustrated.
I mean you're talking about howpeople might be angry at God.
You expected something.
Maybe you got sick and youprayed that God would heal you,
and he didn't heal you, or atleast hasn't healed you yet and
you're angry.
(10:00):
We're talking hundreds,thousands of years of
expectations.
Your anger is one particularperson, one situation.
Maybe we're talking an entirenation's expectations,
everything you know.
When was it Saul King, saul,they said all of our.
Oh.
How did they word that?
(10:22):
When they were putting Saul in?
Like all of our hope is in thisguy right that's not how it was
worded.
Added a second ago first.
Samuel yeah, it's in Samuel, um,but everything was riding on
Jesus.
I mean, as he comes in, it'sall riding on this guy to be who
we thought he was going to befor the entire nation, not one
(10:43):
person's, not.
You didn't heal my mom or dad,or business fell apart and we
went bankrupt.
The whole nation is sayingwe're all in on you.
You've got to come save us.
And then he comes in, like yousaid, on a humble donkey instead
of a war horse.
You said on a humble donkeyinstead of a war horse, and it's
(11:08):
different.
It's not what they expected andthey're so angry.
By the end of the week they saycrucify him yeah, it's a
difficult.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
They were being led to that, um, and one of the
things that that we're going totalk about a little bit when we
talk about sacred spaces is thatthere's always voices trying to
take our angst and turn it intosomething that someone else can
manipulate.
(11:39):
As Christians, we've got to becareful of that all the time.
The best way to manipulate aperson is to get them fired up,
you know, and then you can twistthem and turn them, and it's
part of the art of the deal youknow, Get them to where their
emotions are too high for themto think strategically, and then
(12:07):
you can win against them.
And that happens to us when theLord doesn't meet our
expectations, or our wifedoesn't meet our expectations,
or our girlfriend, or you know,whatever our church, whatever it
is.
I need you to fix me, I need youto help me.
I need you to help me.
I need and it's just fertileground for Satan to steer you
(12:33):
into a wall, and we have to bevery careful with that, and I
think these people were.
There was a lot of revolts thathad gone on.
There was even a guy namedYeshua that led a revolt right
(12:56):
before Jesus, about 100 yearsbefore, and he was crushed by
the Romans and he was crushed bythe Romans.
But Jesus' ministry for threeyears had convinced these people
.
This guy's different, this guyhas the power.
This guy, he can do it byhimself.
(13:18):
He's not leading us into battle, he's.
He's something different.
He's got the power of Godbehind him.
And whether they thought he wasGod or not, I think the
disciples knew it at that timeor were struggling with the
realization, but they thoughtthat God was going to be the God
(13:43):
of Egypt.
You know who stood out in frontof them.
Let them get a good night'ssleep before they crossed the
Red Sea.
You remember that scene wherethe glory of God and this big
angel thing on the side, which Ithink was Christ, was blocking
the Pharaoh's army from gettingto him until the morning, and
(14:08):
then Moses opened the Red Seafor them to escape.
I think that that's where theywere looking.
We don't have to fight, he'sgoing to fight, and it didn't go
the way they wanted to.
And there's a little bit ofhumanity in that.
(14:28):
We have expectations and whenthey're not met we're
embarrassed right that we fellinto that trap or or whatever it
is, you know why did I?
go there.
Why did I get all excited?
All that has made this justworse.
You and I, we counsel people inmarriage and premarital
(14:55):
counseling and we hear it allthe time.
You know how you guys get alongright now.
Well, it's a little rough.
There's a lot of screaming andyelling, but when we get married
that'll fix it and I'm like no,whatever's going on right now.
you can multiply that by 10 whenyou get married, at least yeah
(15:16):
and uh.
So, um, well, we're you know,our marriage is falling apart,
so we're going to have kids andand uh, that will weld us
together.
No, that's not how that works.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, I'm actually in the middle of premarital
counseling with three differentcouples right now, which I've
never had to do three couples ata time like this so that's been
a little challenging gettingall their stories straight when
I meet with them and I feel likeI just keep talking.
If I've already told you this,just tell me to shut up.
But what I've told all of themis you know, if you're coming to
(15:50):
marriage thinking that marriageis going to fix you or fix a
situation that kind of JerryMaguire mentality you complete
me.
Marriage is two broken peoplecoming together.
Now we just live under the sameroof, right Like.
You never leave, you're alwayshere.
So all those little things thatyou could overlook and were
(16:11):
cute, petty little things whenyou're dating now just become
these monster things and boom,all of a sudden you explode.
Right, the expectation istotally different than the
reality.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Right.
So Jesus comes in on thisdonkey and they have these high
expectations, but I love the waythey receive him.
I mean they receive them theway they should.
Their expectations are high andmight might be wrong.
They're really not wrong,they're.
(16:44):
They're bringing him as Kingand he's he's going to take the
authority of the world that thelord is going to after his
resurrection.
Father puts all authority onhim and gives him the world.
He takes the keys.
Uh, it's his.
So their expectations weren'twrong.
It just didn't reveal itselfthe way they wanted it to reveal
(17:07):
itself.
So, uh, but they receive him.
They're waving palm brancheslike he's the victor.
They're throwing down theircloaks, basically giving their
allegiance to him.
It's a special scene, and whenwe don't acknowledge it, like
(17:28):
you said, we're going intoEaster and we're focused on the
end of the week and we kind ofskip over Palm Sunday or use it
as a prop to get us to the endof the week we miss some pretty
relevant things, and thoserelevant things are the fact
that one day he's going to comeagain.
We're going to greet him thesame way.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, who is he really?
He is the king of Kings, he isthe Lord of Lords and, honestly,
the way that the people respondthis day is the only way.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Right, exactly, that's a good way to put that.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
They're not in error.
And you can hear us say todayyou know they have these
expectations and it wasdifferent than reality.
Don't hear us say in that tolower your expectation of Jesus
right, that's the right.
The right result is to to layyour coats down to to wave your
(18:29):
palm wrench.
He is the King of Kings, he isthe Lord of Lords.
It didn't turn out the way thatthey had thought.
They misaligned expectations.
It was different, but he is whothey actually thought.
It didn't happen in the timingthat they wanted, it didn't
happen in the way that theywanted, but this King of Kings,
(18:56):
this Messiah who would come tosave, he is that thing.
So don't lower yourexpectations of Jesus.
If anything, you need to raiseyour expectations of Jesus.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And they gave us an example of the way that we are
to receive Him.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Correct Yep.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
And so, even though that they get mad in the future
and I don't know how many ofthem got mad, but they, they
were led in that direction byspiritual forces and the
religious leaders and so we havethis entire, uh, this moment in
(19:28):
time where we see a prequel towhat the whole world will do
when he comes back, and everyknee shall bow and every tongue
will confess that he is.
Lord, just like that they weredoing today.
So they are a good example forus, even though they didn't have
it all straight in their mindhow it was going to turn out,
(19:53):
but, and their reception ofJesus was just awesome, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
And you know, to lay their coats on.
And I think you talked aboutthis in the message, or maybe in
the message, or at least alittle bit ago, you used that
word allegiance.
Right, I'm surrendering myallegiance to Jesus.
Before our Come to the Mountainseries that we're in, we did a
sermon series called the Fightand it was, you know, this idea
of the boxing ring and as youwere talking about that, I had
(20:21):
that vision of the boxer and youknow he comes out and he's in
that silk robe or whatever, buton that has got patches of
different companies who you knowadvertise and sponsor him.
We have that same stuff going ontoo.
We're all wearing differentrobes, right, and we got all
kinds of things that we havegiven our allegiance to, and so
(20:46):
your cloak might have yourcompany on it, it might have a
sports team on it, it might havesome, you know, vision board
pipe dream this is.
We all have given ourallegiance to these things and
it's all over our cloak.
You know, this robe that wewear shows who we've pledged our
allegiance to.
I tell people all the time ifyou want to know what's really
(21:07):
important in your life, look atyour calendar and your checkbook
, which nobody carries acheckbook anymore.
So your online bankingstatement but what you give your
time and money to will tell youwhat's important.
Is God a priority in your life?
Is it on your calendar?
Is being in the church apriority in your life?
Is it on your calendar, or doother things take place?
(21:28):
And so look at your robe andsay, man, what have I given my
allegiance to?
And then to see these peoplelay theirs down and let Jesus
ride over them.
Man, this is how we're toapproach God.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
God, I take all these things that I've pledged, my
allegiance to, all the thingsthat I've pledged my allegiance
to all the things that I'veallowed to define my life, all
the things that I try to projectto the world so that people get
a certain image of who I am.
God, I lay it all down.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And don't get Ryan wrong here what he's saying is
really important.
None of those things have to bewrong.
They could be good allegiances.
You could have an allegiance toa group that does great things
your church, your small group,your school, it doesn't matter.
(22:30):
All those things are not allbad because you have an
allegiance to them.
What we see here is they'relaying those allegiances
underneath their allegiance toChrist, and that is how we are
supposed to live.
That should be what we'retrying to accomplish in
(22:52):
sanctification.
Lord, this is what I want, butwhat you want is more important,
Lord.
This is what I believe inpolitically, but what you
believe in is more important,and I give my allegiance to your
thoughts on this and not mine.
And that's how we break downstrongholds in our lives is by
(23:16):
taking every thought captive andgiving it to Christ and letting
him tell us this is okay, thisis not okay.
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Paul says make it obedient, that I am forcing that
thought to be obedient toChrist.
It doesn't just happen.
He says you make that thingobedient.
You got to put in the work, man, I can't tell you how many
times.
And probably because of my job,right, I'm a pastor, I teach
the Bible and people will comeup and say what do you think
(23:46):
about?
And put any hot topic in.
What do you think about?
And put any hot topic in, whatdo you think about this?
And I tell people all the timewho cares what I think about
that?
You don't need to hear what Ithink.
God already said this.
He has already given us histhought on that.
My job and my responsibilityand your job and your
responsibility, if you're afollower of Jesus, is to make
(24:07):
your thought about that obedientto what he says.
Right, who cares what you think?
And that man it's so tough forpeople to hear.
Well, yeah, but what do youthink?
You don't need to hear what Ithink.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
There's two.
Teresa and I were talking aboutthis not too long ago.
Teresa and I were talking aboutthis not too long ago.
But spiritual warfare andspiritual responsibility goes
hand in hand, Right?
You just say, okay, I wantdeliverance, and God says you
(24:48):
don't need deliverance here, youneed discipline, you know?
No, I don't want this to be myfault, it's your fault.
This is a discipline problem,not a deliverance problem.
Oh, you need here deliverance,here I'll give you a deliverance
here, but over here, this isyour responsibility, man.
It's a struggle betweenspiritual warfare, spiritual
(25:11):
responsibility.
What's what?
And and and.
When Jesus says hey, bring yourthoughts to me, we'll
straighten this all out andyou'll know what's you, You'll
know what's your enemy andyou'll know.
But we don't want to do thatbecause unfortunately, that
discipline raises its head a lot.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, it's almost easier to just say there's got
to be some deliverance thinggoing on here.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Right, because I can't be this wrong all by
myself All the time.
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Like no, no, yeah, it's usually just you Be more
disciplined, um, and so I mean Ilove this, this symbolism of
them laying their cloaks down,pledging their allegiance not
that their allegiances are bad,no, but that their allegiance to
jesus is over all that.
(26:06):
Well, and and that's what hesaid right he says you deny
yourself.
Pick up your cross and followme.
So whatever that looks like inyour life again, it might be
great things, that ministrymight be great, your church
might be great, your allegianceto even your quiet time and
prayer is good things.
We're just saying everythinggets surrendered to christ.
(26:28):
There's nothing, no part of methat I I hold back.
I give it all to him.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
He is lord, he's, he's seated at the top of the
pile, everything goes throughhim and if you call yourself
politically a libertarian or aRepublican or a Democrat, as a
Christian you're saying, yeah,I'm aligned that way until Jesus
(26:58):
says no, and then I'm notaligned that way in that
specific thing.
Generally I'm this until mymain allegiance, jesus, says no,
that's not going to happen inmy kingdom.
You need to put your foot downfor that, and that used to be
okay, but it's not okay in ourpolitical system.
(27:22):
Now, hey, what are you thinkingon your own?
For you knocked that off.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah, yeah, everyone, you go, be you as long as you
is, just like me.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
And you're like well, no, that's not me, that's Jesus
.
That's even worse, you know sowe have to.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Let me stop you real quick, because I talked about
Jesus being on the top of thepile.
I'm talking about in thatallegiance thing.
I'm not talking about inworship, where we would worship
all these other things.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
No, no, no, no.
We're talking about prioritiesin life, correct, and so I just
want to make that clear forpeople.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I'm not saying you get to go and worship all these
things as long as Jesus is atthe top.
There's only one God.
You shall worship only him,right?
We're not talking about that.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
But these other good things that, yeah, just take
priority.
Allegiance.
There's a lot of things in ourlife that are good and we're
just saying all of it comes.
It's full stop at Jesus, right,what do you say on this?
And then we have to go his way.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Right.
We have a, and I don't think alot of Christians have a Bad
expectations.
They're just.
They don't understand whatGod's doing right.
What expectations am I placingon God that might miss the
(28:47):
deeper victory he's working in?
Speaker 1 (28:49):
my life.
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
That is what we're trying to accomplish here, in
what we're talking about and howwe're relating to these people
here.
And and sometimes we get mad atGod because it doesn't turn out
the way we want it as pastorswhen people leave the church and
move on and it hurts and what.
(29:12):
What is God doing?
You know, I I expected thatperson to grow and be a partner
and be with us in this comingstruggle that we have, but now
they're gone, and that's apastoral struggle.
(29:32):
But you think, hey, mydaughter's going to live around
me and take care of me and haveme some grandkids and I'm going
to watch them and love on themand get them all sugared up and
give them back.
And she says, no, I'm going togo live in San Diego.
Oh what?
And you miss that expectation.
But you don't know what theLord is doing with that.
(29:56):
So we need to.
But you don't know what theLord is doing with that, so we
need to not step back, be all in, but let the Lord lead you in
those things.
And I think that's one of theproblems that we have in our
society today is that the Lord'svoice is not clear to us
(30:17):
because there's so many voices.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
When you're saying the expectations we place on God
, that might cause us to missthat deeper victory.
I immediately thought of Paul,who says God is working all
things together for the good ofthose who love him and are
called according to his purpose.
We want that to say or meanGod's working everything for my
(30:44):
good, in the sense that life iseasier for me.
I'm getting all you know, I gota job and my relationships are
all great and I make good moneyand I'm not in debt and I get to
go on two or three vacationsevery year and we think for our
good means our happiness.
What is the good God is workingin your life is he's conforming
you into the image of his son.
(31:05):
Sanctification is that good.
God is working every situationin your life towards that end
that you look like Jesus.
One day you're going to see himface to face and scripture says
we will be like him.
God is conforming us into theimage of his son.
That's the good that God isworking in your life and he's
(31:28):
working every situation towardsthat end and we can expect God's
victory in our life to looklike I reached the next level.
I get the promotion For almostevery single one of the
disciples.
It was execution.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
For their good.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Well, that didn't happen the way that we expected,
right.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Well, I think what God is doing and our expectation
of what he's doing is one ofthe problems that we have is
because we're reading the Biblethrough a self-help lens, and
it's not all our fault.
Okay, satan was the first one toread the bible through a
(32:18):
self-help lens to jesus, youknow?
Uh, he was the first one to say, hey, you hungry, make some
bread.
And so it's not all our fault,but we are.
We are being bent towardshearing the word of God that way
.
Paul said in 1 Timothy 4, 8,physical training is of some
(32:42):
value, but godliness has valuefor all things, holding promise
for both the present life andthe life to come.
So, as God sanctifies us tomake us more like Jesus, that
training he gives you is thegood right.
From his perspective.
(33:04):
We don't see it.
That's why do I have to strugglewith this every day?
I hate my job.
Why do I have to go in there?
Everybody says I supposed tolove my job and I'll never work
a day in my life.
But every hour is like athousand to me when I'm in there
.
What is going on here?
Physical training is good, butI'm training you to be godly and
(33:28):
that's going to affect you nowand in the life to come.
Now, we discussed thatyesterday.
How big that statement is,we're not going to go into it
here.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
It's a wild thought, though.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, it is, and we don't realize that these
struggles that we have now arethe struggles that we need to
have now to prepare us for ourfuture.
I think the problem is mostChristians think, okay, jesus
(34:10):
comes back, or I die, orwhatever, I go to heaven and
it's over.
No, that's the beginning andwe've lost our minds on that
because we don't have anyinformation about what's going
to happen on the other side.
Paul says I'm not allowed totell you, but it's going to be
crazy, you know.
But saying all that to put usback in that mindset that these
(34:31):
things that are happening, theexpectations that we think God
is not meeting, that we thinkGod is not meeting in our lives,
are the struggles that he'susing to make you like him.
Now, what does that mean?
To make us like him?
Oh, to be good little boys andbehave.
No, that's not what he's doing.
(34:52):
He's making you like our God,king Jesus, the guy who was
tempted in all points and neversinned, the one who took
everything on the chin,everything Satan can throw at
him, and was victoriousVictorious over death.
He wants to make us like him,and there's a purpose in that.
(35:18):
Not so there can be a lot oflittle Jesuses around.
That's actually what Christianmeans.
Is little Christ right?
That's not the point.
The point is, I need a group ofpeople who live like Jesus did,
and I'm going to do somethingwith you.
That's so wild.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
And I'm going to need it for the rest of eternity.
Right, I'm going to need you tobe like my son.
Yeah, what is God going to dowith us in heaven?
No eye has seen, no ear hasheard, no mind can even conceive
what God has in store.
And he says listen, I need youto go through all this so that
when you get there, you're readyand you're going to be like my
(36:02):
son and we're going to go dosomething crazy.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
You're not going to be my son, you're not going to
be me, you're not going to beGod, but you're going to be like
him, the way that Adam was, noteven when Adam was perfect.
So I'm leaning towards writinga book on all that, but before
we get moved into that let's goback to this verse Godly
(36:32):
training is good for all thingshas a value in all things now,
in the time to come.
We are being trained, we'rebeing trained.
We're being trained every day.
The algorithms are out there.
We used to, you know, plow afield.
(36:55):
We'd be out there with the, thehorses and slapping them, and
it would be me, the holy spiritand temptations of satan, and
we'd be three of us and if I wastrying to align myself with god
, it'd be two against one andthen, if it was, I was leaning
the other way and it'd be, youknow, satan against the Holy
(37:21):
Spirit trying to lead me as aChristian.
Now the world has completelychanged for the Christian.
We don't even when we go out tomow the grass which is my
correlation to plowing the fieldwe go out to mow the grass, we
put on a headset and listen tosomeone influence us.
We don't even mow and justthink anymore.
(37:44):
We don't drive in a quiet car,we've got to have something
playing A podcast or music,music that's influencing you
with communication and words,and music adds emotion to that,
you know, with music makes youemotional.
And then we have uh, websiteswith algorithms trying to figure
(38:09):
you out what you want, what youcan't say no to.
Don't these companies.
You know, we talked about alawnmower just a few minutes ago
because we think we need to buya lawnmower for the church and
I've already got ads popping upon my phone about lawnmowers.
People are trying people.
(38:31):
We have the Holy Spirit who'sconstantly trying to influence
you and help you make the rightdecisions.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Teach you the deep things of God Right.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
And we've got Satan who's trying to constantly get,
trying to trip you up, catch youin a scheme that'll eventually
ruin your life or give you ahabit that makes your life with
Christ.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
destroy Right Life with.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Christ Right.
And then you have your doctortrying to sell you a drug,
because a drug company came andsaid we'll give you a little bit
of money every time you sellthis drug to.
And is that the drug that'sbest for me?
No, this will work for you.
Is it the best one for me?
This will work for you, Is itthe best one?
(39:22):
Well, it's the best one for me,this will work for you.
Is it the best one?
Well, it's the best one for methat I'm giving you because it
makes me a little extra money.
And the doctor is like well,this is the business model you
know.
So we watch tv.
They're trying to influence us,right, matthew mcconaughey?
He's telling us all look,football is about eating food,
it's not about the game, it'snot about the sports, it's about
(39:44):
wings and jerry rice.
And if you remember all thosecommercials and he's like 50
right I mean, if you watch thesuit might be more than 50,
right?
If you're watching a footballgame, there is just one
commercial about it.
It's like, hey, we need to goout and get something to eat.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
How many pizzas, buckets of chicken wings and
cases of beer are sold onSaturdays and Sundays, right,
and we have this.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
We're online and whatever we search for, we get
on YouTube.
Whatever we listen to, thealgorithm is like okay, how can
I influence this guy and thenmanipulate him in the way I want
him to go?
This is happening every day.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Yeah, the social engineering is happening at
every level.
I mean, I remember working in abank and I was just customer
service rep teller isessentially it and for a while I
was top salesman in the entireCleveland region, getting people
to sign up for new loansrefinance their car, refinance
(40:53):
their house, get this creditcard you know all these
different programs open achecking account and a savings
account.
And then, all of a sudden, Ifell down and I was more middle
of the pack, so much so that theregional manager took notice,
took me out to lunch, said hey.
Ryan, what's going on here?
You know you are a top salesmanalmost every month.
Now you're more middle of thepack.
What happened?
How can we get you back upthere?
(41:14):
And I looked at this guy and Isaid, john, the problem isn't my
ability to sell.
The problem is I care moreabout the person in front of me
than this bank's bottom line.
You guys are just wanting me topush products so that you can
make money.
I'm not going to put thisperson because I have to look at
him every time he comes in hereand I see what his finances
look like.
I'm not going to push a producton him.
(41:34):
That's going to destroy him.
I won't do it.
And he was product on them.
That's going to destroy him.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
I won't do it and he's like well, hey, thanks for
coming and having lunch with me.
I guess you're a middle of thepack guy, so, and, and that is
unfortunately we are gettingthat from all angles everywhere.
Yeah, can't escape it sesamestreet before we even go to
school.
We get it in school, we get itin college.
We go to work and we have ourhr trainings and and this is how
(42:03):
you're supposed to think aboutthis and we don't want you to
deviate from that used to be wedon't want you to say this, we
don't care what you think, don'tdo it.
And we were like okay, and nowit's like no, no, no, no, no.
We need to change how you thinkabout this, you know.
And then you know that's alittle intrusive to have someone
(42:26):
always listening to you andtrying to influence your ability
and you think, man, we need toget all this out of our life.
And then Google and Amazon comeand live right with you.
Right, they're the.
You know, I got Amazon listeningto me every day.
Every conversation I have withmy wife, every time I'm playing
with my grandkids, Amazon isover there.
(42:47):
Hmm, they probably need thislittle book.
You know, let's sell them thisbook and this book has got a
message.
And Amazon's like sell themthis book, and this book has got
a message.
And Amazon's like I want tosell this thing.
The book is.
I want to influence you.
So it's happening every day,and this is why I think a
Sabbath is really important.
(43:09):
There's got to be a day whereyou sign a non-compete for the
Holy Spirit in your life andjust say, hey, Jesus, today's
your day, you be my topinfluencer and let me just enjoy
the family and enjoy you andyou speak to me and, um, that's,
(43:31):
that's a tough thing in a worldthat you know.
We want to be entertained 24seven.
We want to find out what thisguy said about that.
Or, uh, we watched this.
Uh, two YouTube channels One'scalled um raising voyagers.
Teresa found that some guybuilding a rock house in Italy
(43:54):
and all's we do is watch himshape stone all day long.
It's an hour podcast and he'sjust chipping away at a stone
and we're staring at him.
Not sure where that's gettingus, but she likes it, so we
watch it.
And the other one is calledDesert Drifter and this guy is
out in Utah, all the deserts outthere, Colorado, and he's
(44:15):
looking at these trying to findancient works, where people
lived and what they did backthen.
And we watch him go through allthose deserts and we like that
one.
But you know, if we miss it andwe get backed up, it puts a
little pressure on us.
(44:37):
You know, hey, we, we got towatch these shows Where's that
coming from.
You know these are meaninglessshows.
I mean, there is no meaning inthem at all.
He's chipping rocks, the otherguy's walking in a desert.
There's nothing there.
There's nothing.
I got to see it, I got to catchup up.
I'm behind and I have anxietybecause I'm behind.
(45:00):
What if he runs into somethingthat I don't see?
You know, and it's a, it's aweird thing, but that attitude,
that feeling, has been trainedin us since we started watching
a show that only comes on once aweek and where we plan our
whole life around being aroundthat show, and now it has moved
(45:23):
into this.
We're influenced all the time,we're being told what to think,
what to do all the time, andeven when we take a break, we
have, we have anxiety thatnobody's telling us what to do
and what to think.
It's a weird, crazy situation,this social engineering going on
(45:48):
, and I think we need to starttaking a better look at our
Sabbath, which is not a greatSabbath for me, is to sit in the
backyard with a fire, justrolling through different
sermons of different peoplepreaching and listening.
I'm not sure I should be doingthat, you know, uh, shouldn't I?
(46:12):
Hey, you guys are.
You guys are great.
I love the word of God, I loveto hear it being preached and
being preached well, but I Ineed to turn you off and listen
to the Holy spirit.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
Yeah.
And here's football's gettingready to start, so let me just
throw something.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Oh, I didn't even think about that.
Take everything we just said inthe last 15 minutes.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Cause I'm going.
I'm about to blow it up.
You're talking about how thisthing comes on.
Once a week, we rearrange ourwhole schedule.
Yeah, what if, on Sundays, yousaid God, where do you want me
to be today?
Instead, we're like Browns,come on at 1 o'clock.
I have to be there to watchthem lose this game in
(46:56):
spectacular fashion.
I have to be there to watchthem lose this game in
spectacular fashion.
God doesn't speak during thosethree hours, apparently because
we're like no, those are blockedout.
God understands.
When's the last time you justsaid hey, God, what would you
want me to do?
And listen, we're in the sameboat.
But I'm just saying like wedon's that, it's got that strong
(47:22):
of a grip and we, when's thelast time you asked god about
your schedule?
God, what should this look likefor me today?
We're not doing that.
Speaker 3 (47:28):
We're not asking those questions the questions I
ask is you're not going topreach long today, are you?
Speaker 2 (47:37):
correct or hey, this council meeting is.
We got wrapped this sucker up.
The browns are starting.
The browns are starting yeah,isn't that something?
Speaker 3 (47:45):
yeah, we have a a lot of people vying for our
attention and and one of them isthe one we're saying we're
laying our cloak down to, andour allegiance should be to him
and he wants our attention.
So give him your attention inyour daily devotion and give him
your attention on your sabbath.
(48:08):
Let him speak to you, so he canspeak over all these other
voices that we hear every dayand that, so that we know that
it's that voice, his voice, thatwe are to obey.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
What did he say?
My sheep know my voice Right,and my fear is there's so many
Christians that even if Godspoke, we wouldn't even know it
was him, right?
His sheep knows you've got togive him that space.
We're in this Come to theMountain series and it came from
that idea when Moses said thathe brought the people outside
(48:47):
the camp to meet God at themountain.
And mountains just throughoutScripture tend to be this place
where divine things happen.
God meets people, and that'snot the only place God meets
people.
That's not the point of theseries.
But look at Jesus.
Some of the most significantmoments in his life happened on
(49:10):
a mountain.
When he needed to pray and bealone with God, he often
withdrew to the Mount of Olives.
He was tempted out in thesemountain places.
All these moments happen onthese mountains and I think we
need those sacred places in ourlife.
And I'm not saying you got togo to a mountain.
It could be a corner of yourbedroom, but this is the place I
(49:34):
go to meet with God and Iremove the distractions.
That's what this whole mountainthing is, god.
I go to meet with God and Iremove the distractions.
That's what this whole mountainthing is, god.
I want to meet you.
I want you to reveal who youare.
You're even saying I'mlistening to these sermons.
Maybe I need to turn those offso that I'm not just being
influenced by what other peoplesay about God.
I want to know who God says heis, what he reveals to me about
(50:00):
himself.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
And that's what the mountain is all about.
It's what it's all about when helooked at Elijah, what are you
doing here?
I came back to you.
I came back, yeah, but you gota job.
You know can't be running backhere.
It's time to get to work.
You know, can't be running backhere.
Yeah, it's time to get to work,you know.
And god fed him and cared forhim and loved on him and uh, and
(50:25):
then said, okay, I got somethings for you to do, let's go
do them.
And I think, uh, we, we getthis idea that, uh, going to the
mountain of god is some kind ofgreat sacrifice for us, you
know oh, I gotta'm going to goupstairs and kneel by the bed
and pray for my five minutes.
And aren't I worthy?
(50:45):
And it's like no man.
That's that's where you go torecharge and get your life set.
Um, and it's.
It's not about you giving asacrifice to God of your time.
It's not about that.
It sacrifice to God of yourtime.
It's not about that.
It's about becoming his friend.
I think the big transition thatwe see in this sermon set from
(51:08):
you know Mount Sinai and allthat kind of stuff is that the
disciples go to the mountain andthey meet God on the Mount of
Olives as a friend, as a teacher, as a prayer partner as a you
know which is which is different, and we need to go to God and
(51:28):
and make that friend, you know,and the friend that tells us, no
, don't do that.
Oh yeah, you're probably right.
No, I'm not probably right.
I'm right, you know, and uh,and we have friends like that.
You know, I look at, uh, myrelationship with my dad was
(51:51):
like that, you know, he's myfriend, we joke.
And then when he says that'snot funny.
I say, whoa, you're right, thatshouldn't be funny to me.
And so all of this podcast,interesting things your
(52:12):
expectation of God should be forhim to speak to you and train
you to be like his son.
That's right, and it's tough attimes and it's glorious at
others and just let him do it asyou take all your allegiances
and place it under his, so youcan take every thought that
(52:38):
comes from those allegiances,from the world, from the TV,
from the internet and make themobedient to Christ.
And that's what our world is.
And when you do that, you beginto understand what Micah meant
when he said act justly, lovemercy and walk humbly with your
(53:07):
God, and that's what we need todo.
That's who we need to be.
Anyways, man, there's a lot inthat there's a sermon series
right there.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
That's what I love about the midweek podcast Um
cause, fleshing all this stuffout in a 35, 40 minute sermon
I'm preaching could be 45.
Man you just there's a lotthere.
We're studying for thesesermons that God's bringing up
and these different ideas andthoughts, perspectives, and I
(53:44):
love that this format gives us achance to kind of peel back the
curtain and reveal some ofthese other things that God's
teaching us as we prepare foreach Sunday and so really hoping
that God will speak to you inthis.
Find that place Like I said, itdoesn't have to be a
mountaintop, the mountaintopsare great.
Find that place where God canspeak to you.
(54:05):
Give him that Sabbath, give himthat time.
I love what you said thenon-compete clause.
You know God, you get to speakand no one else is here to
influence me.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
And, as he does, lay those allegiances down to him as
he speaks.
Just say yes before you evenget started.
All right, god.
Whatever you say here, I'msaying yes to that.
As you say yes, man, our spiritbecomes more in step with his.
We desire the things that hedesires.
We'll start to love the thingsthat he loves.
We're going to look more andmore like Jesus.
That's the good God's workingin your life, um and we get to
(54:46):
know him.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:49):
Right, we get to know his character.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Oh, you can't know.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
God.
Then why is he trying to get usto know him?
Right, he wants us to know himand, yeah, we're going to us to
know him right, he wants us toknow him and, yeah, we're going
to get to know him.
We we've got millions of yearsahead of us to get to know him,
and we're going to get to knowhim as well as any other being
(55:12):
that he ever created, and it'sgoing to be a, it's going to be
a wonderful eternity as we headin that direction.
So get used to it, we'reheading in that direction.
Oh man, let's pray.
Father, I want to thank you thatthose people, the Israelites,
(55:43):
yelled Hosanna for you, screamedblessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, and waved palmbranches like you were a victor
because you are, and laid downtheir cloaks, pledging their
allegiance to you because you'reworthy.
Thank you for that visual that,even though they had the wrong
(56:08):
expectation of what was going tohappen, their reaction to you
was perfect.
Lord, let us be that to you,even when our expectations are
out of alignment with whatyou're doing, and let us be
(56:34):
humble enough, when they don'tline up, that we shift to your
alignment.
Instead of being bitter andhurt because of ours, we lift
you up and praise you and wethrow our cloaks at your feet
(56:57):
and cry out Hosanna, because youare the only Savior and you are
worthy.
We love you, jesus, amen, amen.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you, letus know how God is using this
resource in your life, or sendany podcast questions or topic
ideas to podcast atafreshwindorg.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext ANYAMOUNT to the number
(57:32):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast broughtto you by A Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined with PastorTim and Tim.
We had a couple week breakthere because you and I are both
a little busy.
Particularly, you were out inSan Diego marrying your daughter
off, and so we had a chance togo out there and be a part of
the celebration.
(00:48):
Didn't have anything to do butshow up, but it was a privilege
to do that.
Man, it was great to see Maddieget married and spend some time
At least it wasn't all thatwarm while I was in San Diego,
but the sun was shining and thatwas good to see.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, but it's perfect weather for the big guy,
you know, right around 65, 70degrees, that's perfect all day
long.
I think my daughter loves itout there so much because in in
the morning and in in theafternoon or around noon she can
go to the beach and you know at-shirt and shorts and then in
(01:26):
the evening she can put on herpatagonia stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
So it's like fashionista she can do the whole
.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
You get all the accessories, yeah, all the
accessories, and they all apply,um, but yeah, it was beautiful
out there.
The wedding went really welland, um and and it was beautiful
too we had to pay our dowry,but those goats Teresa will miss
(01:52):
those goats we had to give up.
Now it all turned into just agreat celebration and, if you're
listening out there, I want tothank everybody who was involved
, especially my sister-in-law,shimmy, who worked so hard to
(02:16):
make it like Maddie wanted it,and it turned out to be just
like she wanted it.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It was beautiful.
That was Joy and I's first timein san diego, um, but yeah,
city's, city's pretty, it'slovely having the ocean right
there and, um, but yeah,maddie's wedding, just venue,
everything was great, um, andwas fantastic, phenomenal.
But most of the time peoplehave a wedding band like we're
(02:42):
gonna do a live band and you'relike we're going to do a live
band and you're like, oh, uncleJoe and his drinking buddies.
Yeah, this band was good, had meup and singing a couple of
those punk rock songs once theystarted playing those.
So that was fun and I wassurprised I didn't dance.
I didn't dance but I would sing.
I'd sing along, joey and I wetried to because we didn't have
(03:08):
any expectations on us.
You know, we're just here tohang out.
So we tried to make the most ofSan Diego.
We ran around with Pat andKathy and got to see all kinds
of seals and ended up seeingdolphins, went to Slab City,
salvation Mountain, we fed abunch of stuff in, had a some
great gelato and little italy.
It was man, we we did it all.
(03:28):
Um, I don't think we could fitanything else in, but we had a
great time.
But we're both back and, uh,time to get busy.
Time to get busy.
Um, I think when I picked youguys up from the airport it was
30 and sleeting, um, so that'syeah, rained all the way to the
house um so so welcome home backto the grind.
(03:49):
And uh, this past sunday, uh waspalm sunday and uh, we're
starting, you know, kicks off,holy week.
We got some exciting stuffcoming up this week looking
ahead to easter, but, man, Ithought the message on Sunday
was so important.
Don't overlook what we'retalking about on Palm Sunday
(04:10):
with the anticipation of Easter,because you'll miss some pretty
big stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, I enjoyed preparing for this.
We usually spin off, you know,palm Sunday into whatever we're
looking to build for the end ofthe week, but this year I just
thought let's just talk aboutwhat's going on right here.
And there was a lot of things.
(04:36):
It was in the present, it wasprophetic.
The present, it was propheticuh, had to do with, uh, the way
people saw jesus, who, who theythought he was, and they were
correct.
They just didn't know thedirection he was going and uh, I
(04:59):
I thought it went really well.
I think, um, learning a littlebit about what the donkey meant
and learning a little bit aboutwhat the cloak meant and the
palm leaves and all that kind ofstuff kind of gives you a
broader perspective of whatthose people were thinking.
And that's what the story isthere.
If those people are not thinkinghe's the king, then there is no
(05:21):
triumphal entry.
He just shows up in Jerusalemand gets arrested.
There's not.
You don't see the contrastbetween hey, I've got this
really high expectation for youand you're not giving me what I
want, so crucify you.
And that's basically whathappens in this scenario.
(05:42):
And it's so human, yeah, it'sso human to especially being
raised in a republic where wevote for a representative to go
to Washington and represent meto the government, and then he
tells you this is what I'm goingto do.
(06:03):
And you're like rah re, let'sgo get up there.
And then he completely turnsback on you and does something
else and uh, so, but we livethat over and over and over
again and it's just a humanconcept.
Uh, you were telling me aboutellie.
You know, dad, you gotta comepractice soccer with me.
(06:24):
You gotta teach me soccer.
I want to be a soccer with me.
You got to teach me soccer, Iwant to be a soccer player.
And you get out there and thenshe's yelling you don't know
nothing about soccer.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I tried to tell her.
I said, girl, you're alreadybetter than I am.
I don't know how to add to this.
She's like well, all the otherdads.
So I got up off the couch, wentout to practice soccer and
she's like no no, no, not likethis.
No, that's not what I want todo.
No, you're doing it wrong.
I'm like, I think I'm goingback inside.
You are a mean coach.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Misaligned expectations, and it's just a
human thing.
I want to look at myself andsay what am I expecting from God
that I might not get?
And if I might not get it, isit going to turn me against him
(07:15):
or give me anger issues with God?
And a lot of Christians do haveanger issues with God and he's
not.
If you do have anger issueswith God and you think not, If
you do have anger issues withGod and you think that's a big
deal, it's not.
And well, you don't know myissue.
Yeah, but he's God and you canbe mad at him.
(07:36):
He's okay with that because heloves your passion, even if it's
passion against him right now.
What did he say in Isaiah?
He said come on, let's arguethis out.
You know your sins may be asscarlet, but I can make them
white as snow.
I want to wrestle with you.
You know, I picked a peoplethat I named.
(07:59):
Wrestle with God, that's whatIsrael means yeah.
So I think, um, I think thisexpectation thing is the story
there, um people's expectationof him coming in and taking over
and making their lives, uh,better and uh, he did uh he.
(08:21):
they just didn't understand Uhdidn't get what they thought
they were going to get andthat's a difficult pill to
swallow in a lot of situationsin life.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I mean, I think you nailed it on the head earlier.
You said it's so human.
I mean, the contrast betweenPalm Sunday and Good Friday is
striking.
The same people saying Hosanna,lord, save us, and laying their
cloaks down, waving palmbranches, are shouting crucify
them less than a week later.
(08:54):
And it's like how did we gethere?
What is that?
But when you understand the Jew, the Israelite, for hundreds
and thousands of years have beenlooking towards a Savior, a
Messiah, to come and save them.
And then all the expectationsthat get wrapped up in that when
(09:15):
they finally start to sense man, he might be the guy, it might
be him.
And so they're ready to go.
All in, let's go, grab yourswords, come on, we're taking
this back.
And then he walks in and he'snot doing any of the things that
you thought he was gettingready to do.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Shows up on a donkey instead of a war horse.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah it now you're, you're crushed, you're, you're
frustrated.
I mean you're talking about howpeople might be angry at God.
You expected something.
Maybe you got sick and youprayed that God would heal you,
and he didn't heal you, or atleast hasn't healed you yet and
you're angry.
(10:00):
We're talking hundreds,thousands of years of
expectations.
Your anger is one particularperson, one situation.
Maybe we're talking an entirenation's expectations,
everything you know.
When was it Saul King, saul,they said all of our.
Oh.
How did they word that?
(10:22):
When they were putting Saul in?
Like all of our hope is in thisguy right that's not how it was
worded.
Added a second ago first.
Samuel yeah, it's in Samuel, um,but everything was riding on
Jesus.
I mean, as he comes in, it'sall riding on this guy to be who
we thought he was going to befor the entire nation, not one
(10:43):
person's, not.
You didn't heal my mom or dad,or business fell apart and we
went bankrupt.
The whole nation is sayingwe're all in on you.
You've got to come save us.
And then he comes in, like yousaid, on a humble donkey instead
of a war horse.
You said on a humble donkeyinstead of a war horse, and it's
(11:08):
different.
It's not what they expected andthey're so angry.
By the end of the week they saycrucify him yeah, it's a
difficult.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
They were being led to that, um, and one of the
things that that we're going totalk about a little bit when we
talk about sacred spaces is thatthere's always voices trying to
take our angst and turn it intosomething that someone else can
manipulate.
(11:39):
As Christians, we've got to becareful of that all the time.
The best way to manipulate aperson is to get them fired up,
you know, and then you can twistthem and turn them, and it's
part of the art of the deal youknow, Get them to where their
emotions are too high for themto think strategically, and then
(12:07):
you can win against them.
And that happens to us when theLord doesn't meet our
expectations, or our wifedoesn't meet our expectations,
or our girlfriend, or you know,whatever our church, whatever it
is.
I need you to fix me, I need youto help me.
I need you to help me.
I need and it's just fertileground for Satan to steer you
(12:33):
into a wall, and we have to bevery careful with that, and I
think these people were.
There was a lot of revolts thathad gone on.
There was even a guy namedYeshua that led a revolt right
(12:56):
before Jesus, about 100 yearsbefore, and he was crushed by
the Romans and he was crushed bythe Romans.
But Jesus' ministry for threeyears had convinced these people
.
This guy's different, this guyhas the power.
This guy, he can do it byhimself.
(13:18):
He's not leading us into battle, he's.
He's something different.
He's got the power of Godbehind him.
And whether they thought he wasGod or not, I think the
disciples knew it at that timeor were struggling with the
realization, but they thoughtthat God was going to be the God
(13:43):
of Egypt.
You know who stood out in frontof them.
Let them get a good night'ssleep before they crossed the
Red Sea.
You remember that scene wherethe glory of God and this big
angel thing on the side, which Ithink was Christ, was blocking
the Pharaoh's army from gettingto him until the morning, and
(14:08):
then Moses opened the Red Seafor them to escape.
I think that that's where theywere looking.
We don't have to fight, he'sgoing to fight, and it didn't go
the way they wanted to.
And there's a little bit ofhumanity in that.
(14:28):
We have expectations and whenthey're not met we're
embarrassed right that we fellinto that trap or or whatever it
is, you know why did I?
go there.
Why did I get all excited?
All that has made this justworse.
You and I, we counsel people inmarriage and premarital
(14:55):
counseling and we hear it allthe time.
You know how you guys get alongright now.
Well, it's a little rough.
There's a lot of screaming andyelling, but when we get married
that'll fix it and I'm like no,whatever's going on right now.
you can multiply that by 10 whenyou get married, at least yeah
(15:16):
and uh.
So, um, well, we're you know,our marriage is falling apart,
so we're going to have kids andand uh, that will weld us
together.
No, that's not how that works.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, I'm actually in the middle of premarital
counseling with three differentcouples right now, which I've
never had to do three couples ata time like this so that's been
a little challenging gettingall their stories straight when
I meet with them and I feel likeI just keep talking.
If I've already told you this,just tell me to shut up.
But what I've told all of themis you know, if you're coming to
(15:50):
marriage thinking that marriageis going to fix you or fix a
situation that kind of JerryMaguire mentality you complete
me.
Marriage is two broken peoplecoming together.
Now we just live under the sameroof, right Like.
You never leave, you're alwayshere.
So all those little things thatyou could overlook and were
(16:11):
cute, petty little things whenyou're dating now just become
these monster things and boom,all of a sudden you explode.
Right, the expectation istotally different than the
reality.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Right.
So Jesus comes in on thisdonkey and they have these high
expectations, but I love the waythey receive him.
I mean they receive them theway they should.
Their expectations are high andmight might be wrong.
They're really not wrong,they're.
(16:44):
They're bringing him as Kingand he's he's going to take the
authority of the world that thelord is going to after his
resurrection.
Father puts all authority onhim and gives him the world.
He takes the keys.
Uh, it's his.
So their expectations weren'twrong.
It just didn't reveal itselfthe way they wanted it to reveal
(17:07):
itself.
So, uh, but they receive him.
They're waving palm brancheslike he's the victor.
They're throwing down theircloaks, basically giving their
allegiance to him.
It's a special scene, and whenwe don't acknowledge it, like
(17:28):
you said, we're going intoEaster and we're focused on the
end of the week and we kind ofskip over Palm Sunday or use it
as a prop to get us to the endof the week we miss some pretty
relevant things, and thoserelevant things are the fact
that one day he's going to comeagain.
We're going to greet him thesame way.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, who is he really?
He is the king of Kings, he isthe Lord of Lords and, honestly,
the way that the people respondthis day is the only way.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Right, exactly, that's a good way to put that.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
They're not in error.
And you can hear us say todayyou know they have these
expectations and it wasdifferent than reality.
Don't hear us say in that tolower your expectation of Jesus
right, that's the right.
The right result is to to layyour coats down to to wave your
(18:29):
palm wrench.
He is the King of Kings, he isthe Lord of Lords.
It didn't turn out the way thatthey had thought.
They misaligned expectations.
It was different, but he is whothey actually thought.
It didn't happen in the timingthat they wanted, it didn't
happen in the way that theywanted, but this King of Kings,
(18:56):
this Messiah who would come tosave, he is that thing.
So don't lower yourexpectations of Jesus.
If anything, you need to raiseyour expectations of Jesus.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And they gave us an example of the way that we are
to receive Him.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Correct Yep.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
And so, even though that they get mad in the future
and I don't know how many ofthem got mad, but they, they
were led in that direction byspiritual forces and the
religious leaders and so we havethis entire, uh, this moment in
(19:28):
time where we see a prequel towhat the whole world will do
when he comes back, and everyknee shall bow and every tongue
will confess that he is.
Lord, just like that they weredoing today.
So they are a good example forus, even though they didn't have
it all straight in their mindhow it was going to turn out,
(19:53):
but, and their reception ofJesus was just awesome, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
And you know, to lay their coats on.
And I think you talked aboutthis in the message, or maybe in
the message, or at least alittle bit ago, you used that
word allegiance.
Right, I'm surrendering myallegiance to Jesus.
Before our Come to the Mountainseries that we're in, we did a
sermon series called the Fightand it was, you know, this idea
of the boxing ring and as youwere talking about that, I had
(20:21):
that vision of the boxer and youknow he comes out and he's in
that silk robe or whatever, buton that has got patches of
different companies who you knowadvertise and sponsor him.
We have that same stuff going ontoo.
We're all wearing differentrobes, right, and we got all
kinds of things that we havegiven our allegiance to, and so
(20:46):
your cloak might have yourcompany on it, it might have a
sports team on it, it might havesome, you know, vision board
pipe dream this is.
We all have given ourallegiance to these things and
it's all over our cloak.
You know, this robe that wewear shows who we've pledged our
allegiance to.
I tell people all the time ifyou want to know what's really
(21:07):
important in your life, look atyour calendar and your checkbook
, which nobody carries acheckbook anymore.
So your online bankingstatement but what you give your
time and money to will tell youwhat's important.
Is God a priority in your life?
Is it on your calendar?
Is being in the church apriority in your life?
Is it on your calendar, or doother things take place?
(21:28):
And so look at your robe andsay, man, what have I given my
allegiance to?
And then to see these peoplelay theirs down and let Jesus
ride over them.
Man, this is how we're toapproach God.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
God, I take all these things that I've pledged, my
allegiance to, all the thingsthat I've pledged my allegiance
to all the things that I'veallowed to define my life, all
the things that I try to projectto the world so that people get
a certain image of who I am.
God, I lay it all down.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And don't get Ryan wrong here what he's saying is
really important.
None of those things have to bewrong.
They could be good allegiances.
You could have an allegiance toa group that does great things
your church, your small group,your school, it doesn't matter.
(22:30):
All those things are not allbad because you have an
allegiance to them.
What we see here is they'relaying those allegiances
underneath their allegiance toChrist, and that is how we are
supposed to live.
That should be what we'retrying to accomplish in
(22:52):
sanctification.
Lord, this is what I want, butwhat you want is more important,
Lord.
This is what I believe inpolitically, but what you
believe in is more important,and I give my allegiance to your
thoughts on this and not mine.
And that's how we break downstrongholds in our lives is by
(23:16):
taking every thought captive andgiving it to Christ and letting
him tell us this is okay, thisis not okay.
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Paul says make it obedient, that I am forcing that
thought to be obedient toChrist.
It doesn't just happen.
He says you make that thingobedient.
You got to put in the work, man, I can't tell you how many
times.
And probably because of my job,right, I'm a pastor, I teach
the Bible and people will comeup and say what do you think
(23:46):
about?
And put any hot topic in.
What do you think about?
And put any hot topic in, whatdo you think about this?
And I tell people all the timewho cares what I think about
that?
You don't need to hear what Ithink.
God already said this.
He has already given us histhought on that.
My job and my responsibilityand your job and your
responsibility, if you're afollower of Jesus, is to make
(24:07):
your thought about that obedientto what he says.
Right, who cares what you think?
And that man it's so tough forpeople to hear.
Well, yeah, but what do youthink?
You don't need to hear what Ithink.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
There's two.
Teresa and I were talking aboutthis not too long ago.
Teresa and I were talking aboutthis not too long ago.
But spiritual warfare andspiritual responsibility goes
hand in hand, Right?
You just say, okay, I wantdeliverance, and God says you
(24:48):
don't need deliverance here, youneed discipline, you know?
No, I don't want this to be myfault, it's your fault.
This is a discipline problem,not a deliverance problem.
Oh, you need here deliverance,here I'll give you a deliverance
here, but over here, this isyour responsibility, man.
It's a struggle betweenspiritual warfare, spiritual
(25:11):
responsibility.
What's what?
And and and.
When Jesus says hey, bring yourthoughts to me, we'll
straighten this all out andyou'll know what's you, You'll
know what's your enemy andyou'll know.
But we don't want to do thatbecause unfortunately, that
discipline raises its head a lot.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, it's almost easier to just say there's got
to be some deliverance thinggoing on here.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Right, because I can't be this wrong all by
myself All the time.
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Like no, no, yeah, it's usually just you Be more
disciplined, um, and so I mean Ilove this, this symbolism of
them laying their cloaks down,pledging their allegiance not
that their allegiances are bad,no, but that their allegiance to
jesus is over all that.
(26:06):
Well, and and that's what hesaid right he says you deny
yourself.
Pick up your cross and followme.
So whatever that looks like inyour life again, it might be
great things, that ministrymight be great, your church
might be great, your allegianceto even your quiet time and
prayer is good things.
We're just saying everythinggets surrendered to christ.
(26:28):
There's nothing, no part of methat I I hold back.
I give it all to him.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
He is lord, he's, he's seated at the top of the
pile, everything goes throughhim and if you call yourself
politically a libertarian or aRepublican or a Democrat, as a
Christian you're saying, yeah,I'm aligned that way until Jesus
(26:58):
says no, and then I'm notaligned that way in that
specific thing.
Generally I'm this until mymain allegiance, jesus, says no,
that's not going to happen inmy kingdom.
You need to put your foot downfor that, and that used to be
okay, but it's not okay in ourpolitical system.
(27:22):
Now, hey, what are you thinkingon your own?
For you knocked that off.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah, yeah, everyone, you go, be you as long as you
is, just like me.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
And you're like well, no, that's not me, that's Jesus
.
That's even worse, you know sowe have to.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Let me stop you real quick, because I talked about
Jesus being on the top of thepile.
I'm talking about in thatallegiance thing.
I'm not talking about inworship, where we would worship
all these other things.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
No, no, no, no.
We're talking about prioritiesin life, correct, and so I just
want to make that clear forpeople.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I'm not saying you get to go and worship all these
things as long as Jesus is atthe top.
There's only one God.
You shall worship only him,right?
We're not talking about that.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
But these other good things that, yeah, just take
priority.
Allegiance.
There's a lot of things in ourlife that are good and we're
just saying all of it comes.
It's full stop at Jesus, right,what do you say on this?
And then we have to go his way.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Right.
We have a, and I don't think alot of Christians have a Bad
expectations.
They're just.
They don't understand whatGod's doing right.
What expectations am I placingon God that might miss the
(28:47):
deeper victory he's working in?
Speaker 1 (28:49):
my life.
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
That is what we're trying to accomplish here, in
what we're talking about and howwe're relating to these people
here.
And and sometimes we get mad atGod because it doesn't turn out
the way we want it as pastorswhen people leave the church and
move on and it hurts and what.
(29:12):
What is God doing?
You know, I I expected thatperson to grow and be a partner
and be with us in this comingstruggle that we have, but now
they're gone, and that's apastoral struggle.
(29:32):
But you think, hey, mydaughter's going to live around
me and take care of me and haveme some grandkids and I'm going
to watch them and love on themand get them all sugared up and
give them back.
And she says, no, I'm going togo live in San Diego.
Oh what?
And you miss that expectation.
But you don't know what theLord is doing with that.
(29:56):
So we need to.
But you don't know what theLord is doing with that, so we
need to not step back, be all in, but let the Lord lead you in
those things.
And I think that's one of theproblems that we have in our
society today is that the Lord'svoice is not clear to us
(30:17):
because there's so many voices.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
When you're saying the expectations we place on God
, that might cause us to missthat deeper victory.
I immediately thought of Paul,who says God is working all
things together for the good ofthose who love him and are
called according to his purpose.
We want that to say or meanGod's working everything for my
(30:44):
good, in the sense that life iseasier for me.
I'm getting all you know, I gota job and my relationships are
all great and I make good moneyand I'm not in debt and I get to
go on two or three vacationsevery year and we think for our
good means our happiness.
What is the good God is workingin your life is he's conforming
you into the image of his son.
(31:05):
Sanctification is that good.
God is working every situationin your life towards that end
that you look like Jesus.
One day you're going to see himface to face and scripture says
we will be like him.
God is conforming us into theimage of his son.
That's the good that God isworking in your life and he's
(31:28):
working every situation towardsthat end and we can expect God's
victory in our life to looklike I reached the next level.
I get the promotion For almostevery single one of the
disciples.
It was execution.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
For their good.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Well, that didn't happen the way that we expected,
right.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Well, I think what God is doing and our expectation
of what he's doing is one ofthe problems that we have is
because we're reading the Biblethrough a self-help lens, and
it's not all our fault.
Okay, satan was the first one toread the bible through a
(32:18):
self-help lens to jesus, youknow?
Uh, he was the first one to say, hey, you hungry, make some
bread.
And so it's not all our fault,but we are.
We are being bent towardshearing the word of God that way
.
Paul said in 1 Timothy 4, 8,physical training is of some
(32:42):
value, but godliness has valuefor all things, holding promise
for both the present life andthe life to come.
So, as God sanctifies us tomake us more like Jesus, that
training he gives you is thegood right.
From his perspective.
(33:04):
We don't see it.
That's why do I have to strugglewith this every day?
I hate my job.
Why do I have to go in there?
Everybody says I supposed tolove my job and I'll never work
a day in my life.
But every hour is like athousand to me when I'm in there
.
What is going on here?
Physical training is good, butI'm training you to be godly and
(33:28):
that's going to affect you nowand in the life to come.
Now, we discussed thatyesterday.
How big that statement is,we're not going to go into it
here.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
It's a wild thought, though.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, it is, and we don't realize that these
struggles that we have now arethe struggles that we need to
have now to prepare us for ourfuture.
I think the problem is mostChristians think, okay, jesus
(34:10):
comes back, or I die, orwhatever, I go to heaven and
it's over.
No, that's the beginning andwe've lost our minds on that
because we don't have anyinformation about what's going
to happen on the other side.
Paul says I'm not allowed totell you, but it's going to be
crazy, you know.
But saying all that to put usback in that mindset that these
(34:31):
things that are happening, theexpectations that we think God
is not meeting, that we thinkGod is not meeting in our lives,
are the struggles that he'susing to make you like him.
Now, what does that mean?
To make us like him?
Oh, to be good little boys andbehave.
No, that's not what he's doing.
(34:52):
He's making you like our God,king Jesus, the guy who was
tempted in all points and neversinned, the one who took
everything on the chin,everything Satan can throw at
him, and was victoriousVictorious over death.
He wants to make us like him,and there's a purpose in that.
(35:18):
Not so there can be a lot oflittle Jesuses around.
That's actually what Christianmeans.
Is little Christ right?
That's not the point.
The point is, I need a group ofpeople who live like Jesus did,
and I'm going to do somethingwith you.
That's so wild.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
And I'm going to need it for the rest of eternity.
Right, I'm going to need you tobe like my son.
Yeah, what is God going to dowith us in heaven?
No eye has seen, no ear hasheard, no mind can even conceive
what God has in store.
And he says listen, I need youto go through all this so that
when you get there, you're readyand you're going to be like my
(36:02):
son and we're going to go dosomething crazy.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
You're not going to be my son, you're not going to
be me, you're not going to beGod, but you're going to be like
him, the way that Adam was, noteven when Adam was perfect.
So I'm leaning towards writinga book on all that, but before
we get moved into that let's goback to this verse Godly
(36:32):
training is good for all thingshas a value in all things now,
in the time to come.
We are being trained, we'rebeing trained.
We're being trained every day.
The algorithms are out there.
We used to, you know, plow afield.
(36:55):
We'd be out there with the, thehorses and slapping them, and
it would be me, the holy spiritand temptations of satan, and
we'd be three of us and if I wastrying to align myself with god
, it'd be two against one andthen, if it was, I was leaning
the other way and it'd be, youknow, satan against the Holy
(37:21):
Spirit trying to lead me as aChristian.
Now the world has completelychanged for the Christian.
We don't even when we go out tomow the grass which is my
correlation to plowing the fieldwe go out to mow the grass, we
put on a headset and listen tosomeone influence us.
We don't even mow and justthink anymore.
(37:44):
We don't drive in a quiet car,we've got to have something
playing A podcast or music,music that's influencing you
with communication and words,and music adds emotion to that,
you know, with music makes youemotional.
And then we have uh, websiteswith algorithms trying to figure
(38:09):
you out what you want, what youcan't say no to.
Don't these companies.
You know, we talked about alawnmower just a few minutes ago
because we think we need to buya lawnmower for the church and
I've already got ads popping upon my phone about lawnmowers.
People are trying people.
(38:31):
We have the Holy Spirit who'sconstantly trying to influence
you and help you make the rightdecisions.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Teach you the deep things of God Right.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
And we've got Satan who's trying to constantly get,
trying to trip you up, catch youin a scheme that'll eventually
ruin your life or give you ahabit that makes your life with
Christ.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
destroy Right Life with.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Christ Right.
And then you have your doctortrying to sell you a drug,
because a drug company came andsaid we'll give you a little bit
of money every time you sellthis drug to.
And is that the drug that'sbest for me?
No, this will work for you.
Is it the best one for me?
This will work for you, Is itthe best one?
(39:22):
Well, it's the best one for me,this will work for you.
Is it the best one?
Well, it's the best one for methat I'm giving you because it
makes me a little extra money.
And the doctor is like well,this is the business model you
know.
So we watch tv.
They're trying to influence us,right, matthew mcconaughey?
He's telling us all look,football is about eating food,
it's not about the game, it'snot about the sports, it's about
(39:44):
wings and jerry rice.
And if you remember all thosecommercials and he's like 50
right I mean, if you watch thesuit might be more than 50,
right?
If you're watching a footballgame, there is just one
commercial about it.
It's like, hey, we need to goout and get something to eat.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
How many pizzas, buckets of chicken wings and
cases of beer are sold onSaturdays and Sundays, right,
and we have this.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
We're online and whatever we search for, we get
on YouTube.
Whatever we listen to, thealgorithm is like okay, how can
I influence this guy and thenmanipulate him in the way I want
him to go?
This is happening every day.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Yeah, the social engineering is happening at
every level.
I mean, I remember working in abank and I was just customer
service rep teller isessentially it and for a while I
was top salesman in the entireCleveland region, getting people
to sign up for new loansrefinance their car, refinance
(40:53):
their house, get this creditcard you know all these
different programs open achecking account and a savings
account.
And then, all of a sudden, Ifell down and I was more middle
of the pack, so much so that theregional manager took notice,
took me out to lunch, said hey.
Ryan, what's going on here?
You know you are a top salesmanalmost every month.
Now you're more middle of thepack.
What happened?
How can we get you back upthere?
(41:14):
And I looked at this guy and Isaid, john, the problem isn't my
ability to sell.
The problem is I care moreabout the person in front of me
than this bank's bottom line.
You guys are just wanting me topush products so that you can
make money.
I'm not going to put thisperson because I have to look at
him every time he comes in hereand I see what his finances
look like.
I'm not going to push a producton him.
(41:34):
That's going to destroy him.
I won't do it.
And he was product on them.
That's going to destroy him.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
I won't do it and he's like well, hey, thanks for
coming and having lunch with me.
I guess you're a middle of thepack guy, so, and, and that is
unfortunately we are gettingthat from all angles everywhere.
Yeah, can't escape it sesamestreet before we even go to
school.
We get it in school, we get itin college.
We go to work and we have ourhr trainings and and this is how
(42:03):
you're supposed to think aboutthis and we don't want you to
deviate from that used to be wedon't want you to say this, we
don't care what you think, don'tdo it.
And we were like okay, and nowit's like no, no, no, no, no.
We need to change how you thinkabout this, you know.
And then you know that's alittle intrusive to have someone
(42:26):
always listening to you andtrying to influence your ability
and you think, man, we need toget all this out of our life.
And then Google and Amazon comeand live right with you.
Right, they're the.
You know, I got Amazon listeningto me every day.
Every conversation I have withmy wife, every time I'm playing
with my grandkids, Amazon isover there.
(42:47):
Hmm, they probably need thislittle book.
You know, let's sell them thisbook and this book has got a
message.
And Amazon's like sell themthis book, and this book has got
a message.
And Amazon's like I want tosell this thing.
The book is.
I want to influence you.
So it's happening every day,and this is why I think a
Sabbath is really important.
(43:09):
There's got to be a day whereyou sign a non-compete for the
Holy Spirit in your life andjust say, hey, Jesus, today's
your day, you be my topinfluencer and let me just enjoy
the family and enjoy you andyou speak to me and, um, that's,
(43:31):
that's a tough thing in a worldthat you know.
We want to be entertained 24seven.
We want to find out what thisguy said about that.
Or, uh, we watched this.
Uh, two YouTube channels One'scalled um raising voyagers.
Teresa found that some guybuilding a rock house in Italy
(43:54):
and all's we do is watch himshape stone all day long.
It's an hour podcast and he'sjust chipping away at a stone
and we're staring at him.
Not sure where that's gettingus, but she likes it, so we
watch it.
And the other one is calledDesert Drifter and this guy is
out in Utah, all the deserts outthere, Colorado, and he's
(44:15):
looking at these trying to findancient works, where people
lived and what they did backthen.
And we watch him go through allthose deserts and we like that
one.
But you know, if we miss it andwe get backed up, it puts a
little pressure on us.
(44:37):
You know, hey, we, we got towatch these shows Where's that
coming from.
You know these are meaninglessshows.
I mean, there is no meaning inthem at all.
He's chipping rocks, the otherguy's walking in a desert.
There's nothing there.
There's nothing.
I got to see it, I got to catchup up.
I'm behind and I have anxietybecause I'm behind.
(45:00):
What if he runs into somethingthat I don't see?
You know, and it's a, it's aweird thing, but that attitude,
that feeling, has been trainedin us since we started watching
a show that only comes on once aweek and where we plan our
whole life around being aroundthat show, and now it has moved
(45:23):
into this.
We're influenced all the time,we're being told what to think,
what to do all the time, andeven when we take a break, we
have, we have anxiety thatnobody's telling us what to do
and what to think.
It's a weird, crazy situation,this social engineering going on
(45:48):
, and I think we need to starttaking a better look at our
Sabbath, which is not a greatSabbath for me, is to sit in the
backyard with a fire, justrolling through different
sermons of different peoplepreaching and listening.
I'm not sure I should be doingthat, you know, uh, shouldn't I?
(46:12):
Hey, you guys are.
You guys are great.
I love the word of God, I loveto hear it being preached and
being preached well, but I Ineed to turn you off and listen
to the Holy spirit.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
Yeah.
And here's football's gettingready to start, so let me just
throw something.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Oh, I didn't even think about that.
Take everything we just said inthe last 15 minutes.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Cause I'm going.
I'm about to blow it up.
You're talking about how thisthing comes on.
Once a week, we rearrange ourwhole schedule.
Yeah, what if, on Sundays, yousaid God, where do you want me
to be today?
Instead, we're like Browns,come on at 1 o'clock.
I have to be there to watchthem lose this game in
(46:56):
spectacular fashion.
I have to be there to watchthem lose this game in
spectacular fashion.
God doesn't speak during thosethree hours, apparently because
we're like no, those are blockedout.
God understands.
When's the last time you justsaid hey, God, what would you
want me to do?
And listen, we're in the sameboat.
But I'm just saying like wedon's that, it's got that strong
(47:22):
of a grip and we, when's thelast time you asked god about
your schedule?
God, what should this look likefor me today?
We're not doing that.
Speaker 3 (47:28):
We're not asking those questions the questions I
ask is you're not going topreach long today, are you?
Speaker 2 (47:37):
correct or hey, this council meeting is.
We got wrapped this sucker up.
The browns are starting.
The browns are starting yeah,isn't that something?
Speaker 3 (47:45):
yeah, we have a a lot of people vying for our
attention and and one of them isthe one we're saying we're
laying our cloak down to, andour allegiance should be to him
and he wants our attention.
So give him your attention inyour daily devotion and give him
your attention on your sabbath.
(48:08):
Let him speak to you, so he canspeak over all these other
voices that we hear every dayand that, so that we know that
it's that voice, his voice, thatwe are to obey.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
What did he say?
My sheep know my voice Right,and my fear is there's so many
Christians that even if Godspoke, we wouldn't even know it
was him, right?
His sheep knows you've got togive him that space.
We're in this Come to theMountain series and it came from
that idea when Moses said thathe brought the people outside
(48:47):
the camp to meet God at themountain.
And mountains just throughoutScripture tend to be this place
where divine things happen.
God meets people, and that'snot the only place God meets
people.
That's not the point of theseries.
But look at Jesus.
Some of the most significantmoments in his life happened on
(49:10):
a mountain.
When he needed to pray and bealone with God, he often
withdrew to the Mount of Olives.
He was tempted out in thesemountain places.
All these moments happen onthese mountains and I think we
need those sacred places in ourlife.
And I'm not saying you got togo to a mountain.
It could be a corner of yourbedroom, but this is the place I
(49:34):
go to meet with God and Iremove the distractions.
That's what this whole mountainthing is, god.
I go to meet with God and Iremove the distractions.
That's what this whole mountainthing is, god.
I want to meet you.
I want you to reveal who youare.
You're even saying I'mlistening to these sermons.
Maybe I need to turn those offso that I'm not just being
influenced by what other peoplesay about God.
I want to know who God says heis, what he reveals to me about
(50:00):
himself.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
And that's what the mountain is all about.
It's what it's all about when helooked at Elijah, what are you
doing here?
I came back to you.
I came back, yeah, but you gota job.
You know can't be running backhere.
It's time to get to work.
You know, can't be running backhere.
Yeah, it's time to get to work,you know.
And god fed him and cared forhim and loved on him and uh, and
(50:25):
then said, okay, I got somethings for you to do, let's go
do them.
And I think, uh, we, we getthis idea that, uh, going to the
mountain of god is some kind ofgreat sacrifice for us, you
know oh, I gotta'm going to goupstairs and kneel by the bed
and pray for my five minutes.
And aren't I worthy?
(50:45):
And it's like no man.
That's that's where you go torecharge and get your life set.
Um, and it's.
It's not about you giving asacrifice to God of your time.
It's not about that.
It sacrifice to God of yourtime.
It's not about that.
It's about becoming his friend.
I think the big transition thatwe see in this sermon set from
(51:08):
you know Mount Sinai and allthat kind of stuff is that the
disciples go to the mountain andthey meet God on the Mount of
Olives as a friend, as a teacher, as a prayer partner as a you
know which is which is different, and we need to go to God and
(51:28):
and make that friend, you know,and the friend that tells us, no
, don't do that.
Oh yeah, you're probably right.
No, I'm not probably right.
I'm right, you know, and uh,and we have friends like that.
You know, I look at, uh, myrelationship with my dad was
(51:51):
like that, you know, he's myfriend, we joke.
And then when he says that'snot funny.
I say, whoa, you're right, thatshouldn't be funny to me.
And so all of this podcast,interesting things your
(52:12):
expectation of God should be forhim to speak to you and train
you to be like his son.
That's right, and it's tough attimes and it's glorious at
others and just let him do it asyou take all your allegiances
and place it under his, so youcan take every thought that
(52:38):
comes from those allegiances,from the world, from the TV,
from the internet and make themobedient to Christ.
And that's what our world is.
And when you do that, you beginto understand what Micah meant
when he said act justly, lovemercy and walk humbly with your
(53:07):
God, and that's what we need todo.
That's who we need to be.
Anyways, man, there's a lot inthat there's a sermon series
right there.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
That's what I love about the midweek podcast Um
cause, fleshing all this stuffout in a 35, 40 minute sermon
I'm preaching could be 45.
Man you just there's a lotthere.
We're studying for thesesermons that God's bringing up
and these different ideas andthoughts, perspectives, and I
(53:44):
love that this format gives us achance to kind of peel back the
curtain and reveal some ofthese other things that God's
teaching us as we prepare foreach Sunday and so really hoping
that God will speak to you inthis.
Find that place Like I said, itdoesn't have to be a
mountaintop, the mountaintopsare great.
Find that place where God canspeak to you.
(54:05):
Give him that Sabbath, give himthat time.
I love what you said thenon-compete clause.
You know God, you get to speakand no one else is here to
influence me.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
And, as he does, lay those allegiances down to him as
he speaks.
Just say yes before you evenget started.
All right, god.
Whatever you say here, I'msaying yes to that.
As you say yes, man, our spiritbecomes more in step with his.
We desire the things that hedesires.
We'll start to love the thingsthat he loves.
We're going to look more andmore like Jesus.
That's the good God's workingin your life, um and we get to
(54:46):
know him.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:49):
Right, we get to know his character.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Oh, you can't know.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
God.
Then why is he trying to get usto know him?
Right, he wants us to know himand, yeah, we're going to us to
know him right, he wants us toknow him and, yeah, we're going
to get to know him.
We we've got millions of yearsahead of us to get to know him,
and we're going to get to knowhim as well as any other being
(55:12):
that he ever created, and it'sgoing to be a, it's going to be
a wonderful eternity as we headin that direction.
So get used to it, we'reheading in that direction.
Oh man, let's pray.
Father, I want to thank you thatthose people, the Israelites,
(55:43):
yelled Hosanna for you, screamedblessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, and waved palmbranches like you were a victor
because you are, and laid downtheir cloaks, pledging their
allegiance to you because you'reworthy.
Thank you for that visual that,even though they had the wrong
(56:08):
expectation of what was going tohappen, their reaction to you
was perfect.
Lord, let us be that to you,even when our expectations are
out of alignment with whatyou're doing, and let us be
(56:34):
humble enough, when they don'tline up, that we shift to your
alignment.
Instead of being bitter andhurt because of ours, we lift
you up and praise you and wethrow our cloaks at your feet
(56:57):
and cry out Hosanna, because youare the only Savior and you are
worthy.
We love you, jesus, amen, amen.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you, letus know how God is using this
resource in your life, or sendany podcast questions or topic
ideas to podcast atafreshwindorg.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext ANYAMOUNT to the number
(57:32):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
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