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December 8, 2023 13 mins

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What if you held the power to revive the church? That's right, the journey towards restoring the Christian influence in today's world starts with you. Each one of us has the potential to spark a spiritual renaissance, and this episode is all about harnessing that power to enact meaningful change. We're not just waiting for miracles – we're making them happen. Through sharing the love and message of Christ intentionally, and understanding the profound impact our actions can hold, we can turn the tides on the declining church. Inspired by a powerful meme from our friend, Cliff, we delve into the transformative influence that each individual can have, potentially touching a billion lives. 

Even as we get practical, we never lose sight of the spiritual core of our faith. As Christmas draws near, we're reminded of the need to be a beacon of hope and positivity in a world that often seems dark. More than just celebrating, we're embracing the Holy Spirit – letting it fill us up and flow outwards, touching the lives of those around us. So, join us as we navigate the complexities of prayer, the beauty of blessings, and the joy of being a light in the world. We wish you a Merry Christmas, but more importantly, we implore you to not just receive blessings, but to become one yourself. Tune in and let's light up this world with love, one person at a time.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, good evening everybody, and welcome
to another edition of the Jordanand Kristen records show.
It's good to see you.
I hope you guys had a greatweek.
Tonight's topic is gonnaactually be part two of last
week's message, or last week'sRanting me complaining, so the
actual topic was the decliningchurch and what to do about it,
and it was just kind of mecomplaining about how I got
bored and church and why thisweek is going to be actually

(00:21):
about what to do about it notbeing bored and church, what to
do about the decline ofChristian influence in the
United States and, I think,globally also.
Before we get to that, though,chris, and why don't you pray
about us?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Pray, not just pray about us, but pray for everybody
and about this message.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'll pray about everybody.
Thank you, lord.
Thank you that your mercies arenew every morning.
Great is your faithfulness, god.
We hold on to your promises,god.
All of your promises are yesand amen.
God, you have Given us life,and life abundantly.
And when the world seems darkand our world seems like there's

(00:57):
just no way out, god, youprovide that way.
You are the way, the truth, inthe light, and I just pray for
anyone who's discouraged rightnow or just feels down or maybe
the holidays bring up Justinteresting feelings and, and
for different reasons, god, thatyou would just comfort, comfort
your children today and givethem the Presence of your light.

(01:18):
In Jesus name.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Amen.
Great job, baby.
Hey, so I don't know if I toldyou, but my mother actually
talked to me the other day.
She actually listened to thatmessage that we did on the
family dynamics.
Oh, of course which we werehoping our parents wouldn't
listen to, and I said, well,what do you think of it?
And she said, well, it wasgreat, but you talk way too fast
.
And I was like, well, I know,mom, but it's, you know it's.
We only have 12 minutes, wehave a lot to say.

(01:40):
And she goes yeah, but this isridiculous here, listen to this.
And she was playing.
She played it back for me onher phone, but she had it on one
and a half speed, like that'sjust how she's been listening to
our messages.
I mean, I sounded like ahamster who had taken a hot dose
of caffeine or something likethat, and like my heart rate was
like, you know, 300 beats aminute or something.
But you actually sounded prettynormal, which was weird because
I don't think of you asspeaking all that slowly.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I just guess compared to me, maybe I do sometimes.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
All right, let's get into this.
So Part two declining churchand what to do about it.
If you missed part one.
Last week, we really kind ofgot into how the church was
declining and the data behindthat.
I want to talk, chris, in todayabout really what's to be done
about it.
So why don't you kick off withthat?
Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, when we're talking about the church, we're
talking about us, right, we arethe body, we are the church, we
are representing Christ, and so,you know, we can say we need to
be Christ to everyone.
What would Jesus do?
Remember those bracelets thatsaying what WW, jd, what would
Jesus do?
But that sounds great, but whatare the?
I feel like we need somePractical ways to do that and I

(02:43):
was just thinking recently aboutthis.
I think we need to really thinkabout different ways we can be
practical about this, and oneway is Maybe if we took every
day and said, okay, who are thefive people I'm gonna bless
today, give a compliment to?
I mean, it could take twoseconds sending a Facebook
message to someone saying thankyou for encouraging me in my

(03:05):
life.
I mean, it does not have to becomplicated, but it's gonna make
a big difference.
I know when I get thosemessages, or when someone tells
me a compliment, how it justmakes my day and makes me feel
that's one way we can.
You know there's, I feel likethere's practical things or not
being just totally self-absorbedwhen we go into the grocery
store or go into some place andwe just got to go in and get out

(03:26):
, say holy spirit.
If you need me to talk tosomebody today, if you need me
to bless somebody you know, showme, show me who that is and be
more aware of our surroundings.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
So you're saying you like getting compliments?
I had no idea.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
I know I told you, if I was like a dog on that dog
show, my tail would be wagging.
That's right.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
One of the things I love is how you, instead of
speaking in theory, that youwent right into the practical,
like here's an idea of what youcan do, and I think we can't
overstate the importance ofDoing this on an individual
level.
Right, when you look at thedecline of the church and we get
into the numbers, we say, well,there's whatever it is 350
million Americans and 10% fewerdoing this to 10% fewer going to

(04:13):
church.
That's a decline of 33 million.
You can look at the world andfeel totally overwhelmed, like
I'm one person.
But you know funny thing, chris, I don't know if you ever heard
the statistic they say in thecourse of your lifetime you will
probably get to know about athousand people.
Well, if you know a thousandpeople and each of them knows a
thousand people, that's abillion people.
So you won't.

(04:33):
You're only one degree ofseparation away from influencing
potentially a billion people,and that was probably before
social media.
So, you should never reallyunderestimate exactly what
you're talking about, chris, andthe the role of just how one
person can really make adifference.
I saw a meme that our friendChris Chris Cliff Gibbons put up
here that we love, cliff rightshout out to Cliff shout out to

(04:55):
Cliff If he's listening, and thememe he put up was he said if
you want Christ back inChristmas, then feed the hungry,
comfort the afflicted, love theoutcast, forgive the wrong doer
and Inspire the hopeless.
It's not just about complaining, it's not.
You're getting into a Facebookwar about.
Well, you know this is a.
This is about Jesus Christ.
It shouldn't say X message, sayChristmas, and you know this is

(05:18):
.
You know we should be able tosay Merry Christmas, that are
happy holidays.
That's some silly.
You know culture war doesn'tget you anywhere.
Do exactly what you're talkingabout understand that one person
Can make a very meaningfuldifference in the lives of
others, and if enough of us aredoing that, then that's how you
begin To change the world true.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
I you're reminding me about a story and I'm gonna
have to go look it up afterafter this discussion today.
We're a man, a missionary,every single day shared the
gospel with just one person andafter his whole entire lifetime
they measured, and this is justthe people that they know of
that came to the Lord, and thosepeople then Also, in turn, of

(05:57):
course, shared the gospel withsomeone else, and I forget the
number.
Honestly, I don't want tomisspeak, but it was just an
astronomical number of theamount of people that he shared
the gospel with and then theamount of People that they
shared the gospel with.
And I just think about all thelayers.
You know we were talking lastweek also about revival and
prayer, and you know the BillyGraham's who were up there

(06:19):
speaking.
Then there's somebody else inthe wings, maybe literally, or
back at a hotel or something ontheir knees, praying for the
event.
And I think about all thedifferent layers and spiritual
layers to us as a body, as achurch as a whole, that we need
to Really understand our partand our calling and how it's

(06:41):
different things for differentseasons.
But even if it's unseen, godsees it and that's all that
matters.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah, and I think to build off of that, it's not just
praying in general and prayingfor change that's important, but
pray for change in you.
I told you, chris, in, that oneof the things I actually admire
about the Muslim community isthat they are committed to
praying five times a day.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
There's a practical thing.
You did, did you did.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
You know, actually I'm not making this up there's
actually I have a watchcollection for those who don't
know and and there's actuallysomething called Muslim watches,
islamic watches I'm not makingthis up where the watch will
actually go off five times a dayfor the five different times
You're supposed to pray.
And so what I did was I took myphone and I created five
different Alarms, basicallysilent alarms that would just

(07:24):
vibrate five different timesduring the day to remind me to
do that.
And you know the?
The idea here is I'm not justpraying in an abstract sense,
I'm praying for God to change meand to use me.
Yes, one of my favorite quotesand actually you were the one
who told me who said this butit's preach often and use words
when necessary.
Now, you know I am not one tosit through lengthy sermons.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't like that.
Was established last week thatwas established last week.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Okay, but I absolutely I love that saying
preach often and use words whennecessary.
What's what it's saying is thebest way to really testify to
people is not through preachingat them through sermons.
It's how you live.
I began to say it last week andI know I'm going a little bit
long.
I'll let you speak in a second.
But if you have a job, youshould be the first one there

(08:11):
and the last one to leave.
When you go to a restaurant,you should always leave the
biggest tip, you should alwaysbe the kindest, you should be
the person who is known as themost reliable, so that even
someone who's an atheist saysyou know, I know, I can count on
that person.
I mean, if you're doing that,then I can't think of any better
way to preach the gospel ofChrist right than that.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I want to be vulnerable here for a second and
say that we're talking aboutall the ways that you can do
this.
But also, don't be afraid.
We're human.
We're going to make mistakes inlife.
But don't be afraid.
God can use.
Through your mistakes, god canuse you in a great way.
When I was a teenager, Iremember I was in this

(08:52):
department store and the saleslady was really rude to me and I
responded to that.
I kind of got rude back to her.
My excuses.
I was a teenager.
I know that I had an attitude,but I did not respond.
Let's just say in the Christianway that I should have.
But it was from a worldlystandpoint.

(09:15):
It was definitely justifiedbecause she was rude to me.
Whatever, I left that store andas a teenage girl I remember God
speaking to my heart and sayingChristian, if someone saw you
and you know from church orsomeone you have just witnessed
to, would that be the behavioryou would want them to see?
And I said no.
And what about witnessing tothat woman, that saleswoman?

(09:38):
And I said no.
He said go back in that storeand apologize to her.
And I said what?
And God and I went back andforth.
But at the end of the day Iwent back in the store and I
apologized to the woman and shejust looked at me like just
shocked what are you even saying?
Like nobody does that.
And we had a great conversationand I still remember that

(10:00):
moment now, like years later notthat many years, I'm not that
far away from being a teenagerbut seriously, I still remember
that moment and I remember thatGod not only uses the great
things we do, but he uses whenwe are humble about our mistakes
.
He actually uses thoseopportunities for his glory.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, that's very good.
And the other thing, the flipside of that coin when we're
talking about preach, often usewords when necessary the flip
side is we have to learn how tolisten.
And this is, I think, one ofthe fundamental problems with
church services in general, butalso when we talk about the
church, meaning the greater bodyof Christ, is that we're very
lecture oriented.
You go into church, you hear alecture, but there's not a whole

(10:42):
lot of listening going on there.
That you know.
Is the pastor really hearingwhat the congregation is saying?
Well, not if he's the only onespeaking.
And in our, our, our day to daylives, I think it's very easy
for us to criticize, it's veryeasy for us to go around and be
judgmental.
It's very easy for us even togo around and say, look, this is
.
You know, Jesus died for yoursins.
That's the sort of thing that'sgreat.
But we also have to take timejust to be quiet, be still and

(11:07):
listen to what other people aretelling us.
You can't diagnose problems,you can't.
You can't develop an emotionalrelationship with somebody that
you need to help influence themif you're not listening.
I think it's a failure on aninstitutional level and on an
individual level.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Okay, I'm gonna try not to get in the flesh here for
a second.
I know we don't have that muchtime left, but you mentioned
your soapbox about the sermonslast week.
My soapbox would tend to bewhat you just said about
listening, one of the things I'minvolved with Mary Kay.
There there's definitely aculture of listening, looking in
the eye and making a personfeel valuable.

(11:42):
I feel that in churches andpastors I've been.
I can't tell you how many timesI've been in a church where you
feel like the pastor is justtheir mind is somewhere else and
they're not even looking inyour eye and they're just kind
of like hi, how are you?
And walk past you.
So I?
That's all I'm gonna say aboutthat.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Eight seconds left, so why don't you press out in
five?

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Okay, all right, right, thank you, lord, for your
goodness.
Lord, may we be, may we be thelight, may we be the change that
we wish to see.
Lord, may we truly, just truly,be filled with your Holy Spirit
and pour it out all over thisworld in Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Amen, merry Christmas .
We'll see you next week andhave a great week.
Absolutely, as always beblessed and be a blessing.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Merry.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Christmas, merry Christmas.
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