January 5, 2024 • 31 mins
Be sure to check out PART 1 of this episode to get this whole conversation, because it is rich!
This episode further entwines the threads of faith and joy, with the addition of Dr. Greene's insights on the Christian perspective of true happiness. Together, we ponder the Sermon on the Mount, how pride keeps us from a joy-filled life, and how to trust Jesus with your life, embracing the notion that real joy can emerge from the midst of life's challenges.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So glad you're joining us for the part two
episode.
I invite you to join us forpart one if you haven't listened
to that yet, and if you arejust joining us from part one,
welcome back.
Here we are for part two.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Let's get to it.
["the Endrest Podcast"].
(00:23):
Welcome to the Endrest Podcastwith Noah James Wieb.
I'm your host, Noah, and todaywe are talking about joy.
We're talking about joy as, yes, a theme in scripture, yes, as
theology in our society, butalso joy as something that can
be received in our union withJesus.
(00:45):
I have here with me MerrillGreen Dr Merrill Green and I'm
really thankful to have him tobe an interviewee today.
So any other thoughts in thatcategory?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I mean, it's often cliche in people who we always
talk about.
The people who have everythingoften aren't happy when they
have those things right.
We often look at the rich andsay are they actually happy?
But there's some truth to that,because one of the passages
that always confused me for along time in the scriptures was
Jesus says if your eye is good,then your whole body will be
(01:20):
full of light, but if your eyeis bad, it will be full of dark.
Yeah, healthier, unhealthier.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, healthy eye, and I was like what does that
mean?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And I didn't understand this until I studied
more.
But I was like this is a Jewishway of saying if you're
generous or if you're stingy,right?
If you're a generous person,your whole body is full of light
, but if you're a stingy person,your whole body is full of
darkness, right?
So just from that one principle, like if you are a stingy,
self-centered person, likethat's where all types of evil
(01:47):
things come from, right, but ifyou're a generous person, like
you're only gonna create more ofthe fruit of the spirit, cause
you're like, those are the twoplaces, right, we often talk
about, like, the differencebetween fear and love, but we
don't often talk about thedifference between generosity
and stinginess.
They're almost just oppositesides of a spectrum, right?
And I think that if you're astingy person, you can
(02:09):
experience joy, and that doesn'tmean you have to be, you know,
giving all your money to thepoor or not, kind of stuff but
you should be giving it some.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Well, it's funny, the word miserly.
You know, when we talk aboutEbenezer Scrooge, he was a miser
, he was miserly.
So to be miserly is to besomebody who keeps things to
themselves, basically a hoarderwith a little cruelty splashed
on, you know, just with a little, you know.
And but that's where we get theword miserable.
(02:37):
Miserable, so you're able to bemiserly, meaning you're a
pretty unhappy, horrible person.
Now, horrible being miserablecan mean that of quality, but
also that sense of being overallpretty sad.
But it's interesting how yousay, like generosity versus
(02:58):
stinginess, right, you know,health versus unhealth light
versus darkness.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Now either love God or you love money.
I mean, that's just what Jesussays, right.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
And he says it literally, that right after he
said that in Matthew chapterfive.
I'm pretty sure Matthew chapterfive, maybe Matthew six, but he
said that we're still in thesermon on the mountain, I guess.
But he says right after he saysthe I thing you cannot serve.
A person cannot serve twomasters.
They'll either hate one andlove the other, although the
spies the one and adore theother.
(03:27):
You cannot serve both God andmoney.
So you can't be all in on oneway or the other, you gotta.
You can be on all in, but youcan't be all in on both.
You have to do one or the other.
So I thought that was funny.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It's funny because most of the sermons I hear on
that verse they always like makemoney like a metaphor for other
things.
Right, like no, he just saidmoney.
It could just be that yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And I mean there's the extension like because what
you do with your money is whatyou do with your life in a way,
oh yeah.
But like.
I think that creating turningmoney into a metaphor rather
than as an extension of thecondition of your heart, because
there's the actual practicalextension, like if I'm not
willing to give money to you,merrill, for some reason, like
(04:13):
say, you're in a position ofneed and I don't, I have a few
things going on Like I don'tbelieve you, so I don't trust
you, so I don't really love youor have relationship, like
sometimes you can love peoplewithout fully trusting that you
know they're going to followthrough on commitments and so on
.
I mean, plenty of people havedone that for me.
But like, but when, when youhave that, there's these other
(04:34):
things that come in, where it'slike, well, I don't want to give
you money because whetheryou're in need or not, I don't
care enough, I'm not motivatedenough.
You know, somebody once calledmotivation and I can't remember
who it was, probably one ofthose self-help group or Max
while somebody did yeah, orsomebody one of those guys.
But motivation is basically I ismore painful to not have this
(04:57):
thing than it is to do the workit takes to have it.
That makes sense.
So it hurts me more to give youmoney than it would be for me
to just give you the money andgive you the general to give you
the thing that matters.
But if you're, your situationand you're suffering mattered
enough to me, if your interestsmattered enough to me, that the
(05:19):
pain that might be involved withme sacrificially giving for
your benefit is worth it,because it's more painful to me
personally for you to go throughneed than it is for me to give
that money.
And so when you see thattension and that balance or
maybe a ratio be better, you seethat ratio work out in the
(05:40):
right way, you have motivation.
If you have no motivation,basically you have to go back to
apathy, laziness, you don'tcare enough, you don't have the
motivation.
And sometimes you don't have themotivation because you're
exhausted, because theexhaustion means that it's I
don't have it in me to face thepain or face the cost associated
with doing my dishes or goingto work or whatever.
(06:02):
But although sometimesexhaustion can look like that,
that's that motivation piece isstill present.
That's the idea of it's morepainful for this situation to
exist than it is for me to paythe cost than I'm motivated to
do it.
So I'm not sure where theetymology comes from with the
word choices there.
But if we care, if we, if weserve money, that means that it
(06:29):
hurts more for us to give thanit does for us to see God's
interest before us and miss theopportunity to partner with it.
If we're serving God, we don'tcare if we have to give every
cent we have.
We're going to give everythingwe, everything within us, to
make to partner with what he'sdoing, because it would be way
worse to miss out on what allthe God had for me than it would
(06:53):
be for me to just lose somemoney.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You know what I mean.
I mean, and the New Testamentsays you know, if you see your
brother and you don't give himhis the things he's for his, you
know for your daily well being.
I mean, it asks the questionhow can that person have the
love of Christ in them?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, the answer is they don't Boom Right, and I
think that, where we're in aprocess of maturity, sometimes
God will bring up a verse likethat and he'll address something
in us Like there's probablybeen times when I've gotten
angry during my devotionsbecause I'm like what the heck
this?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
is offensive.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Do you mean to say that I am ungenerous?
And then basically, the answeris basically yeah, so repent,
it's not.
It's not a you know, it's notthat this situation is now final
forever.
But, anyway, yeah but that'sthe situation, that's the
reality, one way or the other.
So when you said some peopledon't want to be happy, that
(07:51):
made me think of the cinematicmasterpiece DreamWorks Trolls.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Now I'm worried about where we're going.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
You're like, oh man, he's going to bring up, gone
with the wind or something.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Shindler's list.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
That's some deep stuff there, avatar 2.
No sir Anna Kendrick and JustinTimberlake in Trolls.
So the first Trolls moviethere's a line from that.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Russell, they're breaking down for me because I'm
not familiar with Trolls.
Not really, no, okay.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
We're maybe just having kids.
For me it's just, I'm just intouch with that sort of stuff.
But there's a character thathe's actually an antagonist.
But Russell Brand plays thisguy.
I think his name is River, maybeanyway, but he says to Poppy,
the main character, that well,some people just don't want to
(08:39):
be happy and at the time thecharacter that he was
referencing was self-oriented,self-centered, prideful, but
also deeply wounded andsuffering from the tragedy of
the loss of a loved one.
So if you watch the movie, youhave Poppy Branch and this guy,
river, whatever his name is andRiver is presenting as this very
(09:02):
peaceful, happy character.
Poppy is just like hey, likewherever the part is at that's
where I'm at but she's also aleader in that sort of generous
which is very giving character,right, sort of almost a naive
kind of generosity, not one thatwas birthed out of a process of
partnering with God andrepenting, but the kind of
(09:23):
process of just like hey, likehave whatever you want, like it
was just a sort of a culturalthing that she's grown up with
versus Branch, who is suspiciousof that and is actually against
that because he's aware of thetruth.
There's some real danger in theworld and we should really
address it.
So Branch is kind ofrepresenting this other immature
(09:44):
voice in which he's talkingfrom this place of pain and
tragedy and woundedness and lossand addressing on some really
hard truths.
And Poppy is on the other sidewhere she's more immature and
but she just she wants all thegrace, if you wanna say maybe
this is too much, but it is true.
When you watch the story you cankind of see those motifs
playing out.
But then you have Branch saying, no, we can't be happy right
(10:07):
now, we have to address reality.
And Poppy's like well, what doyou mean?
Reality is just fine as it is,let's just be happy and dandy.
Then you have this antagonistwho maybe would present more the
prideful, the more evil, themore self-centered,
self-oriented, self-interestedcharacter who in the end spoiler
alert who actually in the endturns out to be the betrayer,
(10:28):
the one who is actuallysacrificing everybody else's
life in exchange for saving hisown.
And he says about Branch, who'strying to present truth and to
do so out of a motive of love,perceivably, that he's saying
some people just don't want tobe happy.
But you notice that in all ofthese examples, in that, whether
(10:50):
it's from a place of naivete ortragedy, loss, woundedness and
pain, or self-centeredness andself-interest, pride is at the
root of these I find that thekind of people who suffer most
with pride are the same kind ofpeople who have suffered most,
people that I know who end upturning into, say, a vulnerable
(11:11):
narcissist.
That's a DSM-5 little thing inthere, because it's basically a
variant lineage narcissist.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Slightly more sinister.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, but it's the reason why is because a
vulnerable narcissist presentsas very needy and yet, at the
same time, still completelyself-centered and self-oriented.
But every person on planetEarth struggles with pride, and
one of the ways that we canstruggle with an emphasis in
that way is in struggling withegoism as a whole is having our
(11:45):
lives be flipped upside down andgrasping for that control,
grasping to have our needs met.
So Jesus doesn't only address alack of generosity, also
addresses anxieties.
He addresses cares, things thatpeople are worried about,
people who he's talking to havegone hungry before, and so he's
(12:06):
not presenting a life that isn'tgoing to be painful.
But he is addressing that youcan't expect that your
self-sufficiency is going to winthe day.
Why are you anxious and worriedabout these things?
He even addresses it by sayinghow many of you, by worrying,
can add a single hour to yourlife or a single strand of your
(12:27):
hair or whatever right, youcan't even make one hair gray or
, in the other, black.
Like you, don't have theability to change a lot of the
fundamental circumstances ofyour life, but you can trust the
one who can, and so I find thatwhat happens in a person who,
whether they're wounded or evilor just unexperienced and not
(12:50):
really in touch with reality andthe truth of how difficult life
is, what happens as a result ofknowing Jesus, following him
and giving into his love, iseither hey, they get to this
place where they're like, ah no,thank you, right, you might be
all on the evil side of things,or you might find the person who
(13:12):
is the more naive orinexperienced.
They can't handle it, theycan't handle the truth of the
difficulties of life and theycrumble and then they live in
this sort of vacuum where theyrefuse to listen to basically
chosen ignorance, right.
And then you have this otheralternative, where you have
healing and joy, when thehealing comes in with humility,
(13:34):
that humility precedes the joy,humility precedes the healing
and humility happens afterward.
Right, it comes at theconclusion.
So I say all of that all fromusing the Trolls movie as a
metaphor, because Branch'scharacter, this rigid, hard,
(13:54):
broken person, eventuallyhumbles himself, confesses the
thing that he's been woundedabout this whole time and finds
true, deep joy.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
So I preacher, I listened to you just made a
reminder about.
He always used to say faithalways precedes the
manifestation.
Right, you have to actuallyknow what you believe in order
to experience all the people whoget healed.
Your faith has made you well.
Right, but we don't like that.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, because well, just what we're saying if you
trust, if you're having faith,you're trusting that somebody
else is gonna handle this foryou, or you're trusting that God
is going to take care of itwith, in partnership with you,
or whatever, however it looks.
If he's the one calling theshots, that means that you are
not.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And if faith precedes the manifestation, then then if
we're going to see that change,then we're gonna have to be
okay with the discomfort thatcomes from trusting in Jesus,
trusting in the one who can addan hour to my life.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Trusting in the one who can Many hours, Many hours.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I mean, I probably should be dead by now, Compared
to, like in my life, withoutJesus.
Why would have died, you know,and he has added many hours,
many days to my life, and butregardless, even if he hadn't,
they used to worthy to betrusted, you know.
So, all of that aside maybe noteven all that aside let's just
(15:29):
use that as a segue into whatdoes it look like to have the
practical outworking of joy inour life.
So we've talked about a littlebit of you know, the themes of
joy in scripture.
We've talked a little bit aboutthe theology, a little bit of
joy in society and in day-to-daylife and people's lives.
(15:49):
Tell me a little bit about howwe receive joy.
What are the things we do toreceive joy?
I mentioned a little bit aboutBranch and his healing journey
from the cinematic masterpieceof DreamWorks' Trolls, but that
kind of yeah.
I think that's a helpful segueinto yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I mean in the Sermon on the Mount, jesus almost just
addresses that outright.
He says the B attitudes right.
I mean like happy is the onewho you know is poor or is poor
in spirit, or who is apeacemaker, right, those things
bring happiness.
So if we want to experience joyand experience happiness, we
position ourselves in the waythat Jesus says.
(16:31):
These are the type of peoplethat experience joy, right.
Why do the poor experience joy?
Because they're not spendingall their time trying to get
right and they're not trying tohave self-focused thoughts,
right.
Why do peacemakers experiencejoy?
It's because anger and divisiondoes not bring joy, right.
(16:52):
Peace and reconciliation bringjoy.
Like.
So, if we want to experiencejoy, we need to become the type
of people that God has in the Battitudes.
But in heart it does come withsacrifice, right.
Like it's not from our naturalminds, it doesn't make sense,
yeah, right.
But you know, I often think ofthat passage from Corinthians
(17:16):
where it says like.
You know, like who knows thethought of a person except the
spirit within that person, right.
And who knows the things of Godexcept the spirit of God?
And his spirit testifies to ourspirit.
You know the truth of thosetruths and when we try to
intellectualize, intellectualize, I can't say that word.
(17:37):
When we intellectualize ourfaith.
We I think that we're missingthe boat, because it's not a
cognitive thing, right?
If you were to live your lifein a rational life, from the
world's standard, you would notexperience joy.
Right, we need to livecompletely upside down and then
(17:57):
when we do that, then we'llexperience joy.
And it's gonna be really hardbecause you have to learn to do
things that seemcounterproductive and things
that, will you know, scare yousometimes, right, when God asks
you to do things and you're like, well, why am I going to do
this thing?
He might not tell you right,and you just have to trust and
obey.
Right, trust and obey.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Trust and obey.
It's true.
It's true To be happy in Jesusis to trust and obey, To be
happy right.
To be happy in Jesus.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
you know Exactly, I used to like I used to hate that
, but I was just like that's sostupid.
We hate just trust and not have.
You know, people are alwayslike you have to have, you have
to use wisdom.
It's like, yeah, but sometimesthe wisdom you're using is
worldly wisdom, right, but allthe time people are just like,
well, exactly the wisest thingto do.
I was just like, oh, jesus didit.
It seemed pretty wise to hithim.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Like that's the thing is.
People use wisdom, theyredefine it to be like well,
this is wisdom, because everyonesays it, because Oprah said it,
you know.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
We have to write in our gratitude journals or like
right?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
No, like what is the wisdom of God?
And you have to read the Bibleand search the scriptures to
know that.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yes, yeah, oh wow.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
But people, I mean.
I've heard so many sermonswhere, like this, the
straightforward meaning of thepassage is just completely
neglected because they want to,because that's too hard, right?
I remember my friend Ben alwaysused to say you know, at the
end of a prayer, people wouldalways say and all God's people
said, and they would usually sayamen.
Well, he would say and allGod's people said that's too
(19:25):
hard.
Oh, oh man, yeah.
So yeah no joy comes fromweirdly doing hard work.
Yeah, yeah, but again, we'rebuilt to work.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Right so yeah.
I'm sure that's not what youexpected to hear in the EnRest
podcast, peeps, but it's true.
Man, yep, and working from ourunion with God, not to earn
union with God, but workingbecause we're loved.
Yeah, because we receive thatlove.
We live it out, because we'refounded on what Jesus did for us
(20:01):
on the cross, because thefundamentals of our life are not
in our own interests, butinstead of something, instead in
something much more solid.
Jesus also makes the claim to,not the claim, but he says so
that anybody who builds theirlife on my commands anybody who
obeys what I've told you in theSermon on the Mount.
(20:21):
I like how we've basicallygravitated around Matthew five
to seven.
This is awesome, but he says itin chapter seven he says anyone
who does, who hears these wordsand kind of comes with that
sort of undergirding of whounderstands what I'm saying, who
kind of takes it to heart, whohears these words of mine and
(20:43):
puts them into practice, right,like last series that I did
before, the Live your Best inChrist series was all about
practices for peace, right,practices that result in peace.
But he says if you hear thesewords of mine and put them into
practice, then you will be likethe person who built their house
(21:04):
on a rock.
The winds blew, the rain cameand the storms beat against that
house and it did not fallbecause it was built on a rock.
And that's the kind of lifethat we get to live.
Adversely, if we insist on ourown way, then it's like we, like
(21:25):
Jesus, says if you hear thesewords of mine and do not put
them into practice, and there'sa sense of almost like a
wrestling with it, like you'rehearing what I'm saying but
you're basically saying nah, no,thank you, and do not put them
into practice.
It's like you're building yourhouse on the sand and the winds
come and the rains will fall andthe storms will beat against
that house and it will crumbleand great will be its fall.
(21:47):
Whoa, you know.
Great in the sense that atleast when I read in the New
Testament maybe I mean you'rethe New Testament scholar, not
me but whenever I read the wordgreat in the New Testament, I
kind of think of not just likegreat, like woohoo, great, like
great, you know, Frosted Flakes,great.
But like great in the sense ofvery big, very widespread.
(22:09):
There's a large scope to howthis fall takes place and the
crumbling of this.
What do we do to practice this?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Building our lives on the rock, do you mean?
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, building our lives on the rock, but, yes, the
extension also of okay, yeah,we want the byproduct of joy,
but not just for our ownself-interest.
We want that because it seemsto us that this is the life that
God has for us.
If that's what God is offering,I want it.
You know, maybe you've heardthat when people have heard
about a Christian story of beingsaved, rescued, delivered,
(22:44):
redeemed from addiction orwhatever else, and they said I
see the joy in you and I wantthat.
How do you, what do youpractice practically to see this
lived out?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
For some reason, John 14 keeps coming to mind.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Talk us about that.
John 14, where he says don'tlet your heart be troubled.
Believe in God, believe also inme.
My father's house are manymansions.
I'm going to go prepare a placefor you.
And he says if you love me, youwill obey me.
Recirculating the same themesalmost this joy seems to come
(23:27):
from because it's a lack.
Of don't be anxious don't fear.
The opposite is having this joyand peace.
It comes from love andobedience and it comes from
being able to sacrifice thethings that the world does not
promote.
I think it comes down to takingthe heart the actual things
(23:48):
that the New Testament, theBible in general, says about
what it is like to live in thekingdom, and then you will
experience joy.
I think that it comes down toobedience.
At the end of the day, there isno joy where there's no
obedience.
Even from a practical level,when we think of the effects of
(24:10):
disobedience in the OldTestament, for example, I guess
we're going to get invadedProbably show love to God more.
I wonder if it's Persia today isgoing to get us.
I just think that there's asimple but difficult answer to
(24:31):
the question.
Abedience isn't easy, but it'sgood.
It's like eating veggies.
We don't always want to eatvegetables.
That's what you'll learn tolove them.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
That's it.
Thank you for that.
I think that whatever you'relistening, whatever you're going
through right now strugglingwith reading in your devotions
lately and you get the sensethat God is saying something to
you and he's putting somethingon your heart.
Maybe it's nothing that we'vetalked about today, but maybe
(25:03):
it's something that you know,that he's been wrestling with
you about this thing for a while.
Maybe it's that check that youneed to cash.
Maybe it's that lie that youneed to figure out how to stop
believing.
Maybe it's that counselingsession that you need to book
(25:23):
today.
Maybe it's that business thatyou need to start, or a church
that you need to plant, or aministry that you need to take
steps toward.
Whatever it looks like for you,obey Jesus.
He'll give you his joy, notjust because of the byproduct,
not just because oh awesome,there's joy.
That's cool.
That joy and peace that comesfrom our relationship with God,
(25:50):
which is given from him, whichcomes as a result of working and
living the way he calls us tolive and work.
That sustains us, it empowersus.
I think the Bible says inRomans 15, 13,.
I've been hearing this verse alot and it's may the God of hope
fill you with joy and peace inbelieving or, as you trust in
(26:15):
him so that, by the power of theHoly Spirit, you will overflow
with hope, guys this is not aworldly joy.
This is a spiritual joy.
This is a joy that comes fromthe Holy Spirit, from God
himself, given to us.
So it doesn't depend on whetheror not you have your act
(26:36):
together.
It depends on whether or notyou're willing to have union and
ongoing relationship with Godand love.
Relationship with God that isbased on trust and obedience,
because as you trust and obey,he will entrust to you the thing
that you're called to do.
He'll trust you with the peopleyou're called to lead or care
(26:58):
for.
He'll trust you with theministry, the service, the car,
the money, whatever.
He'll trust you with thosethings and he'll follow through
on his promise to provide foryou and to care for your needs
and, in the end, to give youwhat your heart has truly longed
for, which is the day whenJesus gets everything that he's
(27:22):
been waiting for.
And the day that Jesus comes andmakes all things new, when all
death and crying and sorrow andmourning and pain are gone.
You'll receive not just thefulfilling of his promise today,
but even greater.
Those things will just be aglimpse of the stuff that you're
going to look forward to in theday to come, and we can rejoice
in that hope, in the assurancethat that good is on its way.
(27:46):
If you have nothing else to bejoyful for today, be joyful that
the day is coming when therewill be no longer any more
sorrow or mourning, or crying orpain.
The day will come when theFather will wipe every tear from
your eyes and all will be well.
So if you have nothing left tobe happy for today, if you're in
(28:08):
literally rock bottom mode,today and your coffee sucks and
that's rock bottom.
Listen, no man.
Listen, if you ain't gotnothing and you're drinking
churrig.
You lost your family, you gotto divorce, your dream, your
career's falling apart and youain't drinking nothing but
Nescafe instant coffee withdirty water.
(28:30):
Man, that's not good.
But seriously, if you havenothing left, you have the
permission and the approval tobe happy because of that bright,
prosperous future, as you trustin Jesus and obey his word and
(28:52):
his will for your life.
Dr Mary-El Green, thank you somuch.
Thank you For being with ustoday.
How can my listeners connectwith you in the future?
I know that you've writtenbooks or you're writing books.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Tell us about that.
Yeah, so I just published myfirst book this year, which is
called the Weirdness of God, sothat talks all about basically
like how can we discern whatthings are truly from the Holy
Spirit and which things are not?
And we can't just look outsidephysical things to determine
that.
And I'm writing a new bookright now called Drunk in the
Spirit.
Which actually touches on thetopic of joy, like when we look
(29:26):
at people in certain circles whoare on the floor and they're
experiencing something thatlooks odd to us.
Is that really from God?
And if it is from God, what arethey experiencing?
And there's a lot of people whoexperience great joy that comes
from that.
So I talk a little bit aboutthat.
But the best way to connectwith me is probably I mean, I'm
on social media, but alsothrough my website, weirdgodcom,
(29:46):
and then everything that isabout me is on that website and
there's ways to contact me thereas well.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Okay, thank you so much for that.
So if you're just in Google, DrMary-El Green, Weird God, and
hopefully you don't get anyother weird results from that,
Thank you again so much forbeing with us.
If you are an in rest podcastsubscriber, thank you hey leave
a rating on Spotify or whereverelse you're listening to this,
so that the word can get out toother people.
Share this with somebody whoyou think will benefit from it,
(30:15):
and feel free to send us a DM aswell.
Inrestinsta on Instagram,facebook, it's just inrest
podcast Facebook page.
That's awesome.
We'd love to hear from you andconnect with you.
This is on Spotify, it's alsoon YouTube, so that's cool too.
So if you're like, hey, listen,I have no interest in listening
to Spotify or getting a Spotifyaccount, okay, all right, relax
(30:35):
, just go to YouTube, that'sfine, or iHeartRadio or wherever
else, but we'd love to connectwith you.
We'd love to hear how God ismoving in your lives and hear
how to pray for you.
Thank you for being a listenerand thank you for joining us
today on the in rest podcastwith Noah James Weeb and with Dr
Mary-El Green.
Would you please pray for us aswe close?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Thanks man, definitely, father.
Thank you so much that youbring joy, but it's not joy from
the world, it's not the waythat the world approaches it,
and we pray that everyone who'slistening, everyone who is calls
on the name of Jesus, theywould understand what it is that
you're calling them to, andit's a place of adventure and
joy and peace.
And even in the times where itseems so difficult, lord, you'll
(31:14):
make a way, and I just ask thatfor everybody who's listening,
that if they're going throughjust tumultuous times right now
and chaos in their lives, thatthey would stop and breathe and
remember your promises, lord,and rely on you and on their own
understanding.
Praise things in the Lord Jesusname, amen, amen.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Amen elected president Malcolm Jones.
So glad you're joining us for the part two
episode.
I invite you to join us forpart one if you haven't listened
to that yet, and if you arejust joining us from part one,
welcome back.
Here we are for part two.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Let's get to it.
["the Endrest Podcast"].
(00:23):
Welcome to the Endrest Podcastwith Noah James Wieb.
I'm your host, Noah, and todaywe are talking about joy.
We're talking about joy as, yes, a theme in scripture, yes, as
theology in our society, butalso joy as something that can
be received in our union withJesus.
(00:45):
I have here with me MerrillGreen Dr Merrill Green and I'm
really thankful to have him tobe an interviewee today.
So any other thoughts in thatcategory?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I mean, it's often cliche in people who we always
talk about.
The people who have everythingoften aren't happy when they
have those things right.
We often look at the rich andsay are they actually happy?
But there's some truth to that,because one of the passages
that always confused me for along time in the scriptures was
Jesus says if your eye is good,then your whole body will be
(01:20):
full of light, but if your eyeis bad, it will be full of dark.
Yeah, healthier, unhealthier.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, healthy eye, and I was like what does that
mean?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And I didn't understand this until I studied
more.
But I was like this is a Jewishway of saying if you're
generous or if you're stingy,right?
If you're a generous person,your whole body is full of light
, but if you're a stingy person,your whole body is full of
darkness, right?
So just from that one principle, like if you are a stingy,
self-centered person, likethat's where all types of evil
(01:47):
things come from, right, but ifyou're a generous person, like
you're only gonna create more ofthe fruit of the spirit, cause
you're like, those are the twoplaces, right, we often talk
about, like, the differencebetween fear and love, but we
don't often talk about thedifference between generosity
and stinginess.
They're almost just oppositesides of a spectrum, right?
And I think that if you're astingy person, you can
(02:09):
experience joy, and that doesn'tmean you have to be, you know,
giving all your money to thepoor or not, kind of stuff but
you should be giving it some.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Well, it's funny, the word miserly.
You know, when we talk aboutEbenezer Scrooge, he was a miser
, he was miserly.
So to be miserly is to besomebody who keeps things to
themselves, basically a hoarderwith a little cruelty splashed
on, you know, just with a little, you know.
And but that's where we get theword miserable.
(02:37):
Miserable, so you're able to bemiserly, meaning you're a
pretty unhappy, horrible person.
Now, horrible being miserablecan mean that of quality, but
also that sense of being overallpretty sad.
But it's interesting how yousay, like generosity versus
(02:58):
stinginess, right, you know,health versus unhealth light
versus darkness.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Now either love God or you love money.
I mean, that's just what Jesussays, right.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
And he says it literally, that right after he
said that in Matthew chapterfive.
I'm pretty sure Matthew chapterfive, maybe Matthew six, but he
said that we're still in thesermon on the mountain, I guess.
But he says right after he saysthe I thing you cannot serve.
A person cannot serve twomasters.
They'll either hate one andlove the other, although the
spies the one and adore theother.
(03:27):
You cannot serve both God andmoney.
So you can't be all in on oneway or the other, you gotta.
You can be on all in, but youcan't be all in on both.
You have to do one or the other.
So I thought that was funny.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It's funny because most of the sermons I hear on
that verse they always like makemoney like a metaphor for other
things.
Right, like no, he just saidmoney.
It could just be that yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And I mean there's the extension like because what
you do with your money is whatyou do with your life in a way,
oh yeah.
But like.
I think that creating turningmoney into a metaphor rather
than as an extension of thecondition of your heart, because
there's the actual practicalextension, like if I'm not
willing to give money to you,merrill, for some reason, like
(04:13):
say, you're in a position ofneed and I don't, I have a few
things going on Like I don'tbelieve you, so I don't trust
you, so I don't really love youor have relationship, like
sometimes you can love peoplewithout fully trusting that you
know they're going to followthrough on commitments and so on
.
I mean, plenty of people havedone that for me.
But like, but when, when youhave that, there's these other
(04:34):
things that come in, where it'slike, well, I don't want to give
you money because whetheryou're in need or not, I don't
care enough, I'm not motivatedenough.
You know, somebody once calledmotivation and I can't remember
who it was, probably one ofthose self-help group or Max
while somebody did yeah, orsomebody one of those guys.
But motivation is basically I ismore painful to not have this
(04:57):
thing than it is to do the workit takes to have it.
That makes sense.
So it hurts me more to give youmoney than it would be for me
to just give you the money andgive you the general to give you
the thing that matters.
But if you're, your situationand you're suffering mattered
enough to me, if your interestsmattered enough to me, that the
(05:19):
pain that might be involved withme sacrificially giving for
your benefit is worth it,because it's more painful to me
personally for you to go throughneed than it is for me to give
that money.
And so when you see thattension and that balance or
maybe a ratio be better, you seethat ratio work out in the
(05:40):
right way, you have motivation.
If you have no motivation,basically you have to go back to
apathy, laziness, you don'tcare enough, you don't have the
motivation.
And sometimes you don't have themotivation because you're
exhausted, because theexhaustion means that it's I
don't have it in me to face thepain or face the cost associated
with doing my dishes or goingto work or whatever.
(06:02):
But although sometimesexhaustion can look like that,
that's that motivation piece isstill present.
That's the idea of it's morepainful for this situation to
exist than it is for me to paythe cost than I'm motivated to
do it.
So I'm not sure where theetymology comes from with the
word choices there.
But if we care, if we, if weserve money, that means that it
(06:29):
hurts more for us to give thanit does for us to see God's
interest before us and miss theopportunity to partner with it.
If we're serving God, we don'tcare if we have to give every
cent we have.
We're going to give everythingwe, everything within us, to
make to partner with what he'sdoing, because it would be way
worse to miss out on what allthe God had for me than it would
(06:53):
be for me to just lose somemoney.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You know what I mean.
I mean, and the New Testamentsays you know, if you see your
brother and you don't give himhis the things he's for his, you
know for your daily well being.
I mean, it asks the questionhow can that person have the
love of Christ in them?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, the answer is they don't Boom Right, and I
think that, where we're in aprocess of maturity, sometimes
God will bring up a verse likethat and he'll address something
in us Like there's probablybeen times when I've gotten
angry during my devotionsbecause I'm like what the heck
this?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
is offensive.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Do you mean to say that I am ungenerous?
And then basically, the answeris basically yeah, so repent,
it's not.
It's not a you know, it's notthat this situation is now final
forever.
But, anyway, yeah but that'sthe situation, that's the
reality, one way or the other.
So when you said some peopledon't want to be happy, that
(07:51):
made me think of the cinematicmasterpiece DreamWorks Trolls.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Now I'm worried about where we're going.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
You're like, oh man, he's going to bring up, gone
with the wind or something.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Shindler's list.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
That's some deep stuff there, avatar 2.
No sir Anna Kendrick and JustinTimberlake in Trolls.
So the first Trolls moviethere's a line from that.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Russell, they're breaking down for me because I'm
not familiar with Trolls.
Not really, no, okay.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
We're maybe just having kids.
For me it's just, I'm just intouch with that sort of stuff.
But there's a character thathe's actually an antagonist.
But Russell Brand plays thisguy.
I think his name is River, maybeanyway, but he says to Poppy,
the main character, that well,some people just don't want to
(08:39):
be happy and at the time thecharacter that he was
referencing was self-oriented,self-centered, prideful, but
also deeply wounded andsuffering from the tragedy of
the loss of a loved one.
So if you watch the movie, youhave Poppy Branch and this guy,
river, whatever his name is andRiver is presenting as this very
(09:02):
peaceful, happy character.
Poppy is just like hey, likewherever the part is at that's
where I'm at but she's also aleader in that sort of generous
which is very giving character,right, sort of almost a naive
kind of generosity, not one thatwas birthed out of a process of
partnering with God andrepenting, but the kind of
(09:23):
process of just like hey, likehave whatever you want, like it
was just a sort of a culturalthing that she's grown up with
versus Branch, who is suspiciousof that and is actually against
that because he's aware of thetruth.
There's some real danger in theworld and we should really
address it.
So Branch is kind ofrepresenting this other immature
(09:44):
voice in which he's talkingfrom this place of pain and
tragedy and woundedness and lossand addressing on some really
hard truths.
And Poppy is on the other sidewhere she's more immature and
but she just she wants all thegrace, if you wanna say maybe
this is too much, but it is true.
When you watch the story you cankind of see those motifs
playing out.
But then you have Branch saying, no, we can't be happy right
(10:07):
now, we have to address reality.
And Poppy's like well, what doyou mean?
Reality is just fine as it is,let's just be happy and dandy.
Then you have this antagonistwho maybe would present more the
prideful, the more evil, themore self-centered,
self-oriented, self-interestedcharacter who in the end spoiler
alert who actually in the endturns out to be the betrayer,
(10:28):
the one who is actuallysacrificing everybody else's
life in exchange for saving hisown.
And he says about Branch, who'strying to present truth and to
do so out of a motive of love,perceivably, that he's saying
some people just don't want tobe happy.
But you notice that in all ofthese examples, in that, whether
(10:50):
it's from a place of naivete ortragedy, loss, woundedness and
pain, or self-centeredness andself-interest, pride is at the
root of these I find that thekind of people who suffer most
with pride are the same kind ofpeople who have suffered most,
people that I know who end upturning into, say, a vulnerable
(11:11):
narcissist.
That's a DSM-5 little thing inthere, because it's basically a
variant lineage narcissist.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Slightly more sinister.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, but it's the reason why is because a
vulnerable narcissist presentsas very needy and yet, at the
same time, still completelyself-centered and self-oriented.
But every person on planetEarth struggles with pride, and
one of the ways that we canstruggle with an emphasis in
that way is in struggling withegoism as a whole is having our
(11:45):
lives be flipped upside down andgrasping for that control,
grasping to have our needs met.
So Jesus doesn't only address alack of generosity, also
addresses anxieties.
He addresses cares, things thatpeople are worried about,
people who he's talking to havegone hungry before, and so he's
(12:06):
not presenting a life that isn'tgoing to be painful.
But he is addressing that youcan't expect that your
self-sufficiency is going to winthe day.
Why are you anxious and worriedabout these things?
He even addresses it by sayinghow many of you, by worrying,
can add a single hour to yourlife or a single strand of your
(12:27):
hair or whatever right, youcan't even make one hair gray or
, in the other, black.
Like you, don't have theability to change a lot of the
fundamental circumstances ofyour life, but you can trust the
one who can, and so I find thatwhat happens in a person who,
whether they're wounded or evilor just unexperienced and not
(12:50):
really in touch with reality andthe truth of how difficult life
is, what happens as a result ofknowing Jesus, following him
and giving into his love, iseither hey, they get to this
place where they're like, ah no,thank you, right, you might be
all on the evil side of things,or you might find the person who
(13:12):
is the more naive orinexperienced.
They can't handle it, theycan't handle the truth of the
difficulties of life and theycrumble and then they live in
this sort of vacuum where theyrefuse to listen to basically
chosen ignorance, right.
And then you have this otheralternative, where you have
healing and joy, when thehealing comes in with humility,
(13:34):
that humility precedes the joy,humility precedes the healing
and humility happens afterward.
Right, it comes at theconclusion.
So I say all of that all fromusing the Trolls movie as a
metaphor, because Branch'scharacter, this rigid, hard,
(13:54):
broken person, eventuallyhumbles himself, confesses the
thing that he's been woundedabout this whole time and finds
true, deep joy.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
So I preacher, I listened to you just made a
reminder about.
He always used to say faithalways precedes the
manifestation.
Right, you have to actuallyknow what you believe in order
to experience all the people whoget healed.
Your faith has made you well.
Right, but we don't like that.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, because well, just what we're saying if you
trust, if you're having faith,you're trusting that somebody
else is gonna handle this foryou, or you're trusting that God
is going to take care of itwith, in partnership with you,
or whatever, however it looks.
If he's the one calling theshots, that means that you are
not.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And if faith precedes the manifestation, then then if
we're going to see that change,then we're gonna have to be
okay with the discomfort thatcomes from trusting in Jesus,
trusting in the one who can addan hour to my life.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Trusting in the one who can Many hours, Many hours.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I mean, I probably should be dead by now, Compared
to, like in my life, withoutJesus.
Why would have died, you know,and he has added many hours,
many days to my life, and butregardless, even if he hadn't,
they used to worthy to betrusted, you know.
So, all of that aside maybe noteven all that aside let's just
(15:29):
use that as a segue into whatdoes it look like to have the
practical outworking of joy inour life.
So we've talked about a littlebit of you know, the themes of
joy in scripture.
We've talked a little bit aboutthe theology, a little bit of
joy in society and in day-to-daylife and people's lives.
(15:49):
Tell me a little bit about howwe receive joy.
What are the things we do toreceive joy?
I mentioned a little bit aboutBranch and his healing journey
from the cinematic masterpieceof DreamWorks' Trolls, but that
kind of yeah.
I think that's a helpful segueinto yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I mean in the Sermon on the Mount, jesus almost just
addresses that outright.
He says the B attitudes right.
I mean like happy is the onewho you know is poor or is poor
in spirit, or who is apeacemaker, right, those things
bring happiness.
So if we want to experience joyand experience happiness, we
position ourselves in the waythat Jesus says.
(16:31):
These are the type of peoplethat experience joy, right.
Why do the poor experience joy?
Because they're not spendingall their time trying to get
right and they're not trying tohave self-focused thoughts,
right.
Why do peacemakers experiencejoy?
It's because anger and divisiondoes not bring joy, right.
(16:52):
Peace and reconciliation bringjoy.
Like.
So, if we want to experiencejoy, we need to become the type
of people that God has in the Battitudes.
But in heart it does come withsacrifice, right.
Like it's not from our naturalminds, it doesn't make sense,
yeah, right.
But you know, I often think ofthat passage from Corinthians
(17:16):
where it says like.
You know, like who knows thethought of a person except the
spirit within that person, right.
And who knows the things of Godexcept the spirit of God?
And his spirit testifies to ourspirit.
You know the truth of thosetruths and when we try to
intellectualize, intellectualize, I can't say that word.
(17:37):
When we intellectualize ourfaith.
We I think that we're missingthe boat, because it's not a
cognitive thing, right?
If you were to live your lifein a rational life, from the
world's standard, you would notexperience joy.
Right, we need to livecompletely upside down and then
(17:57):
when we do that, then we'llexperience joy.
And it's gonna be really hardbecause you have to learn to do
things that seemcounterproductive and things
that, will you know, scare yousometimes, right, when God asks
you to do things and you're like, well, why am I going to do
this thing?
He might not tell you right,and you just have to trust and
obey.
Right, trust and obey.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Trust and obey.
It's true.
It's true To be happy in Jesusis to trust and obey, To be
happy right.
To be happy in Jesus.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
you know Exactly, I used to like I used to hate that
, but I was just like that's sostupid.
We hate just trust and not have.
You know, people are alwayslike you have to have, you have
to use wisdom.
It's like, yeah, but sometimesthe wisdom you're using is
worldly wisdom, right, but allthe time people are just like,
well, exactly the wisest thingto do.
I was just like, oh, jesus didit.
It seemed pretty wise to hithim.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Like that's the thing is.
People use wisdom, theyredefine it to be like well,
this is wisdom, because everyonesays it, because Oprah said it,
you know.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
We have to write in our gratitude journals or like
right?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
No, like what is the wisdom of God?
And you have to read the Bibleand search the scriptures to
know that.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yes, yeah, oh wow.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
But people, I mean.
I've heard so many sermonswhere, like this, the
straightforward meaning of thepassage is just completely
neglected because they want to,because that's too hard, right?
I remember my friend Ben alwaysused to say you know, at the
end of a prayer, people wouldalways say and all God's people
said, and they would usually sayamen.
Well, he would say and allGod's people said that's too
(19:25):
hard.
Oh, oh man, yeah.
So yeah no joy comes fromweirdly doing hard work.
Yeah, yeah, but again, we'rebuilt to work.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Right so yeah.
I'm sure that's not what youexpected to hear in the EnRest
podcast, peeps, but it's true.
Man, yep, and working from ourunion with God, not to earn
union with God, but workingbecause we're loved.
Yeah, because we receive thatlove.
We live it out, because we'refounded on what Jesus did for us
(20:01):
on the cross, because thefundamentals of our life are not
in our own interests, butinstead of something, instead in
something much more solid.
Jesus also makes the claim to,not the claim, but he says so
that anybody who builds theirlife on my commands anybody who
obeys what I've told you in theSermon on the Mount.
(20:21):
I like how we've basicallygravitated around Matthew five
to seven.
This is awesome, but he says itin chapter seven he says anyone
who does, who hears these wordsand kind of comes with that
sort of undergirding of whounderstands what I'm saying, who
kind of takes it to heart, whohears these words of mine and
(20:43):
puts them into practice, right,like last series that I did
before, the Live your Best inChrist series was all about
practices for peace, right,practices that result in peace.
But he says if you hear thesewords of mine and put them into
practice, then you will be likethe person who built their house
(21:04):
on a rock.
The winds blew, the rain cameand the storms beat against that
house and it did not fallbecause it was built on a rock.
And that's the kind of lifethat we get to live.
Adversely, if we insist on ourown way, then it's like we, like
(21:25):
Jesus, says if you hear thesewords of mine and do not put
them into practice, and there'sa sense of almost like a
wrestling with it, like you'rehearing what I'm saying but
you're basically saying nah, no,thank you, and do not put them
into practice.
It's like you're building yourhouse on the sand and the winds
come and the rains will fall andthe storms will beat against
that house and it will crumbleand great will be its fall.
(21:47):
Whoa, you know.
Great in the sense that atleast when I read in the New
Testament maybe I mean you'rethe New Testament scholar, not
me but whenever I read the wordgreat in the New Testament, I
kind of think of not just likegreat, like woohoo, great, like
great, you know, Frosted Flakes,great.
But like great in the sense ofvery big, very widespread.
(22:09):
There's a large scope to howthis fall takes place and the
crumbling of this.
What do we do to practice this?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Building our lives on the rock, do you mean?
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, building our lives on the rock, but, yes, the
extension also of okay, yeah,we want the byproduct of joy,
but not just for our ownself-interest.
We want that because it seemsto us that this is the life that
God has for us.
If that's what God is offering,I want it.
You know, maybe you've heardthat when people have heard
about a Christian story of beingsaved, rescued, delivered,
(22:44):
redeemed from addiction orwhatever else, and they said I
see the joy in you and I wantthat.
How do you, what do youpractice practically to see this
lived out?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
For some reason, John 14 keeps coming to mind.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Talk us about that.
John 14, where he says don'tlet your heart be troubled.
Believe in God, believe also inme.
My father's house are manymansions.
I'm going to go prepare a placefor you.
And he says if you love me, youwill obey me.
Recirculating the same themesalmost this joy seems to come
(23:27):
from because it's a lack.
Of don't be anxious don't fear.
The opposite is having this joyand peace.
It comes from love andobedience and it comes from
being able to sacrifice thethings that the world does not
promote.
I think it comes down to takingthe heart the actual things
(23:48):
that the New Testament, theBible in general, says about
what it is like to live in thekingdom, and then you will
experience joy.
I think that it comes down toobedience.
At the end of the day, there isno joy where there's no
obedience.
Even from a practical level,when we think of the effects of
(24:10):
disobedience in the OldTestament, for example, I guess
we're going to get invadedProbably show love to God more.
I wonder if it's Persia today isgoing to get us.
I just think that there's asimple but difficult answer to
(24:31):
the question.
Abedience isn't easy, but it'sgood.
It's like eating veggies.
We don't always want to eatvegetables.
That's what you'll learn tolove them.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
That's it.
Thank you for that.
I think that whatever you'relistening, whatever you're going
through right now strugglingwith reading in your devotions
lately and you get the sensethat God is saying something to
you and he's putting somethingon your heart.
Maybe it's nothing that we'vetalked about today, but maybe
(25:03):
it's something that you know,that he's been wrestling with
you about this thing for a while.
Maybe it's that check that youneed to cash.
Maybe it's that lie that youneed to figure out how to stop
believing.
Maybe it's that counselingsession that you need to book
(25:23):
today.
Maybe it's that business thatyou need to start, or a church
that you need to plant, or aministry that you need to take
steps toward.
Whatever it looks like for you,obey Jesus.
He'll give you his joy, notjust because of the byproduct,
not just because oh awesome,there's joy.
That's cool.
That joy and peace that comesfrom our relationship with God,
(25:50):
which is given from him, whichcomes as a result of working and
living the way he calls us tolive and work.
That sustains us, it empowersus.
I think the Bible says inRomans 15, 13,.
I've been hearing this verse alot and it's may the God of hope
fill you with joy and peace inbelieving or, as you trust in
(26:15):
him so that, by the power of theHoly Spirit, you will overflow
with hope, guys this is not aworldly joy.
This is a spiritual joy.
This is a joy that comes fromthe Holy Spirit, from God
himself, given to us.
So it doesn't depend on whetheror not you have your act
(26:36):
together.
It depends on whether or notyou're willing to have union and
ongoing relationship with Godand love.
Relationship with God that isbased on trust and obedience,
because as you trust and obey,he will entrust to you the thing
that you're called to do.
He'll trust you with the peopleyou're called to lead or care
(26:58):
for.
He'll trust you with theministry, the service, the car,
the money, whatever.
He'll trust you with thosethings and he'll follow through
on his promise to provide foryou and to care for your needs
and, in the end, to give youwhat your heart has truly longed
for, which is the day whenJesus gets everything that he's
(27:22):
been waiting for.
And the day that Jesus comes andmakes all things new, when all
death and crying and sorrow andmourning and pain are gone.
You'll receive not just thefulfilling of his promise today,
but even greater.
Those things will just be aglimpse of the stuff that you're
going to look forward to in theday to come, and we can rejoice
in that hope, in the assurancethat that good is on its way.
(27:46):
If you have nothing else to bejoyful for today, be joyful that
the day is coming when therewill be no longer any more
sorrow or mourning, or crying orpain.
The day will come when theFather will wipe every tear from
your eyes and all will be well.
So if you have nothing left tobe happy for today, if you're in
(28:08):
literally rock bottom mode,today and your coffee sucks and
that's rock bottom.
Listen, no man.
Listen, if you ain't gotnothing and you're drinking
churrig.
You lost your family, you gotto divorce, your dream, your
career's falling apart and youain't drinking nothing but
Nescafe instant coffee withdirty water.
(28:30):
Man, that's not good.
But seriously, if you havenothing left, you have the
permission and the approval tobe happy because of that bright,
prosperous future, as you trustin Jesus and obey his word and
(28:52):
his will for your life.
Dr Mary-El Green, thank you somuch.
Thank you For being with ustoday.
How can my listeners connectwith you in the future?
I know that you've writtenbooks or you're writing books.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Tell us about that.
Yeah, so I just published myfirst book this year, which is
called the Weirdness of God, sothat talks all about basically
like how can we discern whatthings are truly from the Holy
Spirit and which things are not?
And we can't just look outsidephysical things to determine
that.
And I'm writing a new bookright now called Drunk in the
Spirit.
Which actually touches on thetopic of joy, like when we look
(29:26):
at people in certain circles whoare on the floor and they're
experiencing something thatlooks odd to us.
Is that really from God?
And if it is from God, what arethey experiencing?
And there's a lot of people whoexperience great joy that comes
from that.
So I talk a little bit aboutthat.
But the best way to connectwith me is probably I mean, I'm
on social media, but alsothrough my website, weirdgodcom,
(29:46):
and then everything that isabout me is on that website and
there's ways to contact me thereas well.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Okay, thank you so much for that.
So if you're just in Google, DrMary-El Green, Weird God, and
hopefully you don't get anyother weird results from that,
Thank you again so much forbeing with us.
If you are an in rest podcastsubscriber, thank you hey leave
a rating on Spotify or whereverelse you're listening to this,
so that the word can get out toother people.
Share this with somebody whoyou think will benefit from it,
(30:15):
and feel free to send us a DM aswell.
Inrestinsta on Instagram,facebook, it's just inrest
podcast Facebook page.
That's awesome.
We'd love to hear from you andconnect with you.
This is on Spotify, it's alsoon YouTube, so that's cool too.
So if you're like, hey, listen,I have no interest in listening
to Spotify or getting a Spotifyaccount, okay, all right, relax
(30:35):
, just go to YouTube, that'sfine, or iHeartRadio or wherever
else, but we'd love to connectwith you.
We'd love to hear how God ismoving in your lives and hear
how to pray for you.
Thank you for being a listenerand thank you for joining us
today on the in rest podcastwith Noah James Weeb and with Dr
Mary-El Green.
Would you please pray for us aswe close?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Thanks man, definitely, father.
Thank you so much that youbring joy, but it's not joy from
the world, it's not the waythat the world approaches it,
and we pray that everyone who'slistening, everyone who is calls
on the name of Jesus, theywould understand what it is that
you're calling them to, andit's a place of adventure and
joy and peace.
And even in the times where itseems so difficult, lord, you'll
(31:14):
make a way, and I just ask thatfor everybody who's listening,
that if they're going throughjust tumultuous times right now
and chaos in their lives, thatthey would stop and breathe and
remember your promises, lord,and rely on you and on their own
understanding.
Praise things in the Lord Jesusname, amen, amen.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Amen elected president Malcolm Jones.
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