October 15, 2024 • 50 mins
In this episode, Brody provides updates on our team’s response to the recent floods in Western North Carolina, emphasizing the importance of helping our neighbors during times of crisis. Brody shares important lessons learned from disaster relief experiences, along with touching stories that showcase the strength of community in difficult times.
Brody explores how to cultivate godliness and joy amidst overwhelming evil by looking to Christ and eternity. Discover five biblical principles through insights from Psalm 37:1-11 that can guide us:
- Trust in the Lord and do good
- Delight in your relationship with Jesus
- Commit your life to Him
- Be still and patient before the Lord
- Turn away from anger to embrace grace and kindness.
Join us for a message of hope and practical steps to experience joy, even when evil seems to prosper.
Psalms 37:1-11
Snowbird Marriage Conference
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, in this week's episode of no Sanity Required, I
want to do a couple of things,really three things.
I want to give you an update onwhat our team's been up to with
the recent floods that havejust devastated western North
Carolina mountain communities,from Bat Cave and Chimney Rock
up to Yancey County, spruce Pine, burnsville, down through
(00:21):
Weaverville and then into alittle bit further west into
Haywood County, where my familyall is from.
And I want to give you anupdate on what we've been doing
to help our neighbors and somethoughts that might help you as
you think about disaster reliefnow or in the future.
Some things I've learned, somethings I've observed.
And then I want to share astory with you.
(00:45):
And then, um, I want to sharefive thoughts from a passage of
scripture that has helped helpedsteady me in my life at
difficult seasons.
Seasons like I've shared inrecent episodes.
Difficult things we've gonethrough, um, big decision
moments like, uh, things that wehad to go through during
COVID-19.
And we're trying to figure outif we're going to run camp or
(01:06):
not.
Things that have helped anchorme.
Going back to the interview withJohn Rouleau and a lot of the
feedback that I got on that.
People were really encouraged.
It meant a lot to me, and so Iwant to give you some follow-up
thoughts to how we've navigatedsome of the more difficult
seasons of ministry.
Something that has anchored meis a passage of scripture.
I want to share five principlesfrom that passage that
hopefully will help you and giveyou a better outlook today and
(01:30):
a better outlook on this weekand this season.
It's crazy election season, andthen, with all the storms and
everything that's going on, it'scraziness right now, yeah, so I
hope it'll be an encouragementWith that.
Welcome to no sanity required.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Welcome to no sanity required from the ministry of
snowbird wilderness outfitters.
A podcast about the Bibleculture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So the recent floods that hit uh Western North
Carolina, I heard I heard oneguy call it a thousand year
flood.
You know, people were sayingthings like this is a storm of
the century and a lot of peoplewere, uh, that that I I'm first
off, I don't really I'm not onsocial media so I have to kind
of go online and look up newstories and videos and things
(02:22):
like that Um and so, from what I, from what I've seen, there's
been a ton of influencers.
I want to share somefrustration with the way I think
a lot of people have handled,um, flood relief.
So there's a lot of people thatcame into Western North
Carolina and videoed andinterviewed and uh, flew around
(02:44):
helicopters and pointed thingsout.
There's this one cat.
He's like an Army Ranger orArmy Delta Force guy, mma
fighter, kind of like a man'sman kind of guy.
I don't know the guy, I don'twant to speak to anything about
him other than he came towestern North Carolina.
(03:06):
First off, let me say these aremy people.
I love the mountain people ofwestern North Carolina.
My family goes back in thesemountains a long ways.
John Jackson Kilby lived in theYadkin Valley in the Civil War
period.
He was a Civil War veteran andit was his descendants that
migrated just West into WilkesCounty.
They were in Wilkes County,then out of Wilkes County into
(03:29):
Watauga County and in theNorthwestern mountains of North
Carolina and then it was my, mygranddad that then, um, came on
down further West into HaywoodCounty and, uh, both my
granddads Haywood County.
Both my parents raised, my momand dad were raised in Haywood
County, north Carolina, which,if you're unfamiliar, that would
be Waynesville and Canton arethe two towns that's just West
(03:52):
of Asheville, it's a good bitEast of where I live.
I Andrew's North Carolina,where snowbird is located, is a
couple of counties further West.
We're as far West as you can goin a state of North Carolina,
but we're still in the WesternNorth Carolina mountains.
So I love these people.
I love the culture, the people.
It's home to me.
And it's not just home to me,it's home to all of my ancestors
(04:13):
, um, who were Americans.
You know what I mean.
You got to go back to acrossthe pond.
The first Americans, uh, thefirst, the first folks from the
United kingdom, from Scotlandand England, and then some folks
from the United Kingdom, fromScotland and England, and then
some folks from Germany on mydad's side that came here in the
1700s and early 1800s.
(04:33):
That's how far back you got togo before I don't have mountain
people in the southernAppalachians.
And a quick crash course historylesson Prior to the Civil War,
there wasn't a lot of whitesettlement in this part of the
state.
Um and this always spins peopleout a lot of people freak out
when they find this out butafter the civil war, a lot of
union officers, particularlycommanding officers, generals,
(04:57):
high, high-ranking brass, weregiven land grants in the western
part of north carolina, thearea I live right here in
cherokee county, there was a lot, of a lot of guys.
If they trace their, if theyreally trace their their stuff,
they'll find that, um, their,their ancestors from post-civil
war came from up North andsettled here, which is totally
fine.
It was, uh, it's just, it'sjust history, you know.
(05:18):
But but regardless, my, mypeople are mountain people and,
and in more recent generations,not so much Like my parents,
especially my mom and my cousinsand siblings, don't you know?
We still hold to the mountainculture, but there's, you know,
the true hillbilly.
(05:38):
We're not that.
Things are modernizing and Igot an iPhone and I drive you,
uh, you know a a nice vehicleand um have the internet.
I don't.
I don't live off of the landper se, but we still hold to
some of those practices.
You know this, this week, uh, Itook, I took a wild game animal
with my bow, and I'll do itagain this coming week and
(06:00):
probably next week, and I'll puta dozen animals in the freezer,
um or or on the shelves, canned, you know, for for the next
year to eat, and we'll kill ahog, and we'll kill a cow and,
uh, a beef and, and so I likethere there are principles of
the old ways, there's someexercising of the old ways, but
(06:20):
man, for the most part, myfamily's not.
Uh, they don't look like a lotof historic, traditional
mountain people look, and so,just like any other culture,
we're blending with modern timesand and it is what it is.
But, that being said, it's inour blood, it's in our roots.
My neighbors, the people I careabout, um in in my community,
(06:42):
um have have mountain roots, andso one of the things I've
learned you might be going,what's all that matter?
Well, here's what I've learnedthese mountain people are tough
and they are resilient, and mostof them just figure it out and
do for themselves and they worktogether.
And so I've spent several daysin the last week in Yancey
(07:05):
County, north Carolina, which isup in the high mountains.
If you're driving fromAsheville, north Carolina, to
Johnson City, Tennessee, you'regoing up I-26.
You go through at the stateline.
Around the state line you gothrough Sam's Gap.
If you look back to the east,you're looking back up into
those mountains that are the topcorner of Yancey County.
(07:27):
It's very rural.
There's a river that runs upthrough there called the Cane
River.
I think it's the Cane River.
Then there's a smaller creekcalled Jack's Creek.
My buddy, timmy Burnett, who'sa pastor just north of Asheville
, he connected me with some guysup there.
We were just trying to see howwe could help out and a couple
of days I ended up way up in themountains.
(07:49):
Just just, uh, very rough roads,very hard to get.
Everything was washed out.
Bridges are washed out, roadswashed out.
It was crazy, man.
It was very apocalyptic.
It looked like somebody had hadgone down through those
mountain canyons with an F-15EStrike Eagle and just blasted
away and opened the mountain upinto like a gorge, a ravine, and
(08:12):
all the water had run down.
These rivers swelled 20, 30feet higher than their normal
Imagine a river 25 to 30 feethigher than its normal run and
flow, and that's how high theywere.
So they took trees and theyjust cut into the sides of the
mountain If you can imagine agorge where there's a mountain
going up on either side of theriver or the Creek and now that
(08:34):
Creek rises up 20 to 30 feet oneither side of that gorge and
just washed all the trees out.
So now you've got this grandCanyon.
Looking bottom, the river isnow, instead of, say you, 100
feet wide, it's now 200, 300feet wide, and it's just crazy.
And then all the trees washedfor miles and just kind of
settled in the lower valley.
(08:55):
And so there's one area thatyou can drive past, thousands of
massive trees that the rootball, the tree, everything's
just laying there.
It looks like somebody scrapedthem off the side of the
mountain and just laid them outacross these fields.
It's the craziest thing.
And so when that happened, itwashed out the road that ran
with that river, and so gettingup there was a big ordeal.
(09:17):
We had to had to leave the roadand cross some narrow paths and
some, you know, somefour-wheeler type trails,
logging trails, and need an ATVto get to a lot of it, and so,
anyhow, saying all that, say,get up in there and meet people
that you realize, man, thesepeople, just they're looking out
for each other.
I filled my truck up withfirewood because I'd heard some
(09:38):
folks had lost their wood sheds,all their firewood had washed
down the river, and so we'vetaken a couple loads of firewood
and just give folks enough toget them through a week or two,
and then we'll bring you somemore and stuff like that.
Um and just uh, what I'mfinding is that they're happy,
they're joyful, they're, they'redurable.
Man, these mountain people aretough, but then, in contrast to
(09:58):
that, something that has stoodout to me that I want to learn
from, um, I want to, I want togive you some some things that
I've learned.
The first one is that thesepeople are tough and they're
resilient and they, they'resurvivors and they help each
other.
Second thing that I want topoint out is that the church of
Jesus Christ has been the handsand feet of Jesus and all this I
don't know.
(10:19):
I mean, there's so many, uh,christians that have rallied,
just different ministries,churches, organizations,
evangelical organizations, northCarolina Baptist folks that are
like disaster relief and theirboots on the ground.
We've been working with them,not in Yancey County but down in
(10:39):
Bat Cave and Chimney Rock.
We've been working with them.
They're based out of FruitlandBible College and Fruitland
Baptist Church and so we've beengetting assignments from them
and doing a lot of tree work inthat part of the state.
We've run man, we've run whoknows how many gallons of gas
and oil through chainsaws in thelast two weeks, and so I know
(11:02):
one property gosh I think wetook out half a dozen big poplar
trees and cut up three or fourlarge white oaks that had fallen
, and so just trying to helpfolks.
And what I've learned in that?
The second thing I've learned isthat man, the church, is on
mission when it comes todisaster relief, and I love that
(11:23):
, because when you look backthrough history you see that, uh
, hospitals and schools andrelief efforts in every war man,
the church of Jesus Christ iswho is spearheaded and led the
way in that, and it's still likethat today.
I'm really thankful for that.
It's very encouraging, so muchso that man, me and Rob Conti
were were riding around one dayum day trying to make some
(11:45):
connections and we saw a coupleof busloads of people and it was
like these people don't knowwhere to go or what to do
because nobody needs their help.
They had truckloads of clothing, but people have just flooded
that area.
Now I'm not saying that there'sno more help needed.
I'm just saying it was cool tosee people saying, hey, we can't
(12:06):
take any more pallets of water,don't send us any more canned
goods, don't went.
I'd heard that people neededthose little green bottles of
propane um, that they could cookon little propane stoves and
that if we could get some ofthat.
And so we found out, nope, some, there's so much of that that's
already been delivered torelief stations.
And then people are shuttlingin and out of these mountains.
So local people that know themountains are driving in and out
(12:30):
of these communities withbottles of propane and blankets
and it's getting, it's, it'sgetting cold this week.
I mean, we're going to see, uh,it's, it's going below freezing
for the rest of this week.
Um, I'm filming or not filming?
I'm filming or not filming?
I'm not filming.
I'm recording this on Mondayand it'll drop on Tuesday, but
on Monday I got up this morningit's like 54 degrees and felt
(12:52):
nice like t-shirt weather forthis time of year.
But then by this afternoon youcould tell cold fronts coming
through and it's just coolingdown and there's people up there
that might be a year beforethey get power, because those
rivers are just all the powerlines are in the river and so,
um, anyway, saying all that tosay it's cool to see how many,
how many Christ followersflooded to the area.
(13:15):
If they couldn't come, they sentfood and clothing and so much
that they've overwhelmed um,like supply station.
Somebody called, somebodytexted us today and said hey, I
know y'all are working in Clyde,north Carolina, every day this
week.
Can we send clothes as a localchurch, a good partner church of
ours?
And, uh, can we send clothingand food?
Can y'all take it todistribution center?
(13:36):
I'm like sorry, we can't.
We like they won't take itwhere we're working, they won't
take it.
Now again, I know there's goingto be further need, but it's
just cool to see people justjust pour that kind of support
out and then to be able to praywith people and encourage them
and and to hear people's faithhas been strengthened.
The people that that know theLord, that have been hit by this
, uh, their faith is strongerand that just that's a biblical
(14:00):
principle, that in our mostdifficult situations we feel the
strength and presence of theLord more so.
Um, the next thing is, uh, howproud I am to be part of the
family.
I'm a part of the, the, theearthly family.
My brother, um my brother Duke,who a lot of people know, I
think, um him and and, uh, someother family members that are
(14:21):
part of Pisgah high school inCanton, north Carolina, I think
Duke told me that for ninestraight days they went from get
up to get down every day, justworking their tails off trying
to minister and help Not even alot of people not even
ministering, cause there's somenon-believers that are working
alongside of them but trying tohelp the families of students in
their school.
And then several of my cousins,michael and Amanda Ballou.
(14:45):
Amanda Ballou was um day to dayjust organizing um help for
people and and really trying toengage her community and doing a
dang good job and gave us acouple of leads that turned into
more opportunities and just say, anyway, just saying all that,
to say I'm proud to be a part ofthe family I'm a part of.
(15:05):
They all just got on mission,and so Michael Ballou, michael
and Amanda Ballou, my brother,duke, really cool and others,
everybody else.
I only named a couple of them,but that's been awesome.
And then the next thing Ilearned is that a lot of people
and this is a little bit of this, one's a little negative, with
a little bit of a bite to it Alot of people and this is a
little bit of this, this one's alittle negative, with a little
bit of a bite to it A lot ofpeople, they want to do what
(15:27):
they want to do.
They want to come and help, butonly certain jobs.
You know, like I met severalguys that they want to run their
quads and run their chainsaws.
They, you know, I got a quad, Igot a chainsaw, I can go help
people.
Well, within the first 48 hoursof the flood, kind of back the
(15:48):
water, backing off and subsidinga little bit, all the roads
were as far as chainsaw work.
90 of the roads were open.
From what I could see, nowthere's roads that are washed as
far as pavement, embankments,mudslides, but chainsaw work and
four-wheeler work.
There's very little of thatneeded but that.
So I I met several people thatthat's what they want is riding
around with their four-wheelersand taking their chainsaw.
Where the flip side of that Ihave to bring that up to say the
(16:09):
Snowbird Leadership Institute,our interns and then the
entirety of the Snowbird staffthat's jumped in.
Man, they have done grunt workwith no glamour.
We got kids that came in fromcollege just to spend a day
working with our team, kids thatwork here in the summer and
help on weekends, and I'll tellyou what they did.
(16:30):
They went into a trailer park inClyde, north Carolina.
I think there was eighttrailers and every one of them
had been flooded and when I sayflooded, they're sitting right
on the pigeon river, which wasup 26 and a half feet.
So these trailers were werepretty much underwater.
Um, it was up to the ceilingsand they went in there and they
gutted every trailer.
They put on hazmat suits, masks, hazmat suits, and they crawled
(16:54):
under these trailers, rippedall the insulation out, had to
get all the insulation out ofthe trailers, drywall flooring,
and they gutted them all sothose people could get power
restored to get ready to startback building.
You know, following up withwith cleaning and then getting
those trailers put back togetherso they have a place to live.
These are poor people.
They don't have a lot and uh,and I didn't see a lot of uh aid
(17:17):
coming in there.
We were fortunate that wedidn't have to deal with, like
fema or any government agenciesin there, because I think it was
just this little trailer parkdown along the river.
No, you know, fema got biggerfish to fry, but those people
were so grateful and uh, so thatthat that's the.
That last thing that I learnedis what what the SWO staff is
(17:37):
made of.
And just to encourage y'all aslisteners, there are 20 year
olds on planet earth right nowthat call themselves Christ
followers, that will do whateverit takes to show the love of
Jesus to people, and I'm proudto be associated with them.
They're out today as I'mrecording.
They're out today.
Um, tomorrow I've got to takemy quad to a player's dealership
(17:57):
.
It it got, it's been rolled,it's been wrecked, it's been
trashed.
I got to get some work done onit.
Polaris guys said man, youbring it, I'll move you to the
front of the line, we'll get itfixed and get you back out there
.
Um, which I don't think we needit anymore.
There was a few places where toget some propane and water to
people.
My truck wouldn't wouldn't getover a, you know, a mud slide or
(18:19):
a water break.
I think we're good there, butjust cool to see how people have
pitched in.
So I'm out today and tomorrowand or yesterday and today
rather and our teams out there,they leave.
They leave in slow, at seven inthe morning and just grinding
all day getting it done.
I just I'm so proud of them.
I'm proud, proud, proud to beassociated with these young men
(18:39):
and young women.
They are awesome.
The Lord is always going toraise up a strong remnant of his
people that are going to do thework.
So I want to turn to uh, uh,something that has given me a
lot of encouragement and andhopefully there's some, there's
some scriptural truth andthoughts here that will be an
(18:59):
encouragement to you this week.
So take the rest of our time,second half of our time, and and
and share some thoughts.
Okay, so I'm going to tell youabout, uh, a guy named Morgan.
Morgan uh worked here, um, hewas on, uh, what's now called
our element team.
At the time it was calledservant team and Morgan Um the
(19:20):
the year that we talked about,2007, where so much death and
destruction and devastationhappened at SWO.
I didn't share Morgan's story,um, and I thought about if I
should or shouldn't, but I'mgoing to share it now.
So Morgan was here working thatsummer and he was one of a
couple of brothers that ended upspending time here.
(19:40):
He had a brother named DavidsonI'm sorry, named Davis that
came and served a few summerslater, but in that 2007 summer
Morgan was, you know, in highschool.
It was 17 years ago.
Morgan's now a grown man with afamily and he's doing great and
proud of him.
But Morgan was in an accident atSWO and was burned severely I
(20:04):
mean severely burned, uh, and hewas.
He was at Erlanger children'shospital in Chattanooga.
Now this happened on, uh, theThursday, I think, of week one
of camp, so about a week and alittle more nine days before the
accident that claimed the livesof those folks that we talked
about a few episodes backMichael, daniel, suzanne and
(20:29):
Ashley and Morgan.
Morgan got burned severely andwe were back and forth to the
hospital visiting Morgan thatthat week leading up to the
accident.
And then the accident happenedand everybody just kind of
forgot about Morgan.
And it wasn't it.
It people didn't forget aboutMorgan, but people became so
(20:49):
overwhelmed in their own griefand emotion and trying to
survive and get through thesummer.
And Morgan sat over there inthat hospital for I don't know
how long and, as a 17-year-olddude, fought his way back to
functional health.
And not even years later I wantto say it was months later it
(21:11):
dawned on me that I felt like Ihad abandoned Morgan.
I felt like I had turned myback on Morgan and I had not.
That was not my intention, itwas just so overwhelming.
And in my life in ministry I'velearned that a lot of people
hold a lot of expectation overyou.
There's people that have livedin my home that turned on me
because they didn't feel like Iwas a good enough father figure
(21:34):
to them, you know, or uh little,and I've dealt with that.
I met expectations to the pointthat now I'm very careful about
how close I will bring peopleinto our sort of our inner
family circle because, uh, if,when you open yourself up to
that and hear me out, I'm notlike pushing people away, I'm
(21:55):
just saying we've had to learnhealthy parameters and
boundaries because we used tojust anybody and everybody was
family.
If you came work at Snowbird,your family, you're part of SWO
family, part of Holloway family.
So we had several people livewith us and we had a couple, two
different instances where folkswent to the mission field and
went and did a two-year stint.
When they came back, uh, they,they were very disappointed that
(22:18):
we didn't stay in more engagedwith them, didn't come visit
them when they were, uh,overseas and and and I realized
they felt like, uh, I owed themsome sort of a fatherly
investment, maybe something likethat, and I didn didn't meet
that expectation and I apologizebut I think the damage was done
.
I didn't, it didn't make themfeel as cared for as they felt
(22:42):
like I should have.
And so now, please hear me out,I'm not feeling sorry for
myself, I'm not defending this,is all, you know, been dealt
with in my own heart and withwith people involved.
But it sort of helped me set anew, a new precedent for my own
life, little and I of sort ofwhat safe and healthy parameters
look like.
(23:02):
And so we've been able to, Ithink, establish those and as
our kids got older, our threeolder kids, you know, with their
friends, obviously there was,there was an insula, insulatory
factor, like there was a littlebit of an insulator where
someone comes into our home andbecomes sort of part of our
family.
But they're an extension ofthat.
You know, like Lely her friendgroup, we bring you know, we
(23:24):
welcome them in, but there'skind of this understanding we're
Lely's friend group, so, um, sothat's been good.
And you know, one of the thingsI think about is disappointing
people, and that came up in theinterview with Little and I and
I've had some folks press me onthat and ask me, you know, how
hard is that?
Is it really tough to meetpeople's expectations?
And it is.
(23:44):
It's hard to be what peoplewant you to be.
And so I'd be lying if I said Idon't have regret over some
relationships and where I thinkwe faltered through the years.
But I felt like I let Morgandown because two, three months
later he was back home and doingwell, and I had just thrown
(24:05):
myself into the two survivors ofthat crash, which were Dawson
and Kara, and we were doingeverything we could in our off
time to go see them, minister tothem, try to stay connected to
them.
And years later, well, firstoff, morgan's little brother
came and worked Davis yearslater.
There's a good bit of an agegap there, and so it was very
(24:28):
healing for me to know, okay,this family still loves this
ministry and doesn't feelneglected.
But then I had someinteractions with Morgan.
It's funny.
Morgan called me one time and,uh, he'd gotten into a hunting
club like a hunting lease, hesaid.
Hey, I got a hunting question.
He calls me and they had a bearon their property.
He's getting.
He's getting pictures.
If you put out trail camerasand you put out corn, I know
(24:52):
here in West North Carolina ifyou put out corn like a corn
feeder, it ain't long untilyou're going to have a black
bear or a whole family of them.
Right now there's I don't freaknobody out, but there's a sow
and three, three pretty goodsized cubs living on snowbird
property on the far corner ofthe swole property, kind of back
on the backside of the mountain, and then they're covering
three or four properties.
(25:12):
Morgan calls me and he sent me apicture.
It was a monster boar.
I bet it was a 300 pound boar,if I remember correctly.
And he said I just want to pickyour brain, how would you deal
with this?
And we just had the coolestconversation and it was like the
most refreshing thing to havesomebody not stay sore or
(25:33):
offended at you and I justappreciated that.
And so I bring that story up tosay whatever you go through in
life, you can choose how you'regoing to deal with it.
You can see it as something theLord is, is is teaching you
through and carrying you throughand helping you through, or you
can use it to grow bittertowards the Lord or towards
(25:53):
other people.
And I've learned from these,from the SWO staff this week,
this past couple of weeks, andI've learned from the people,
the good mountain people ofWestern North Carolina, and I've
learned from Morgan and othersin my life that you, you can be
positive and you can be quick toforgive, quick to see God's
grace, and I want to be likethat.
(26:14):
And so I want to read to you nowthis Psalm 37, there's a couple
of verses in here that are veryoften quoted and it is uh, um,
what delight yourself in theLord.
He'll give you the desires ofyour heart.
I don't know if you ever heardthat.
A lot of us have used it,you've probably heard it,
familiar with it, um, but I wantto want to give you some
(26:36):
context and then expound on that.
I want to give you these fivethoughts.
I'm going to give you thesefive thoughts from the first 11
verses of Psalm 37.
It goes like this Don't worryabout the wicked or envy those
who do wrong, for, like grass,they soon fade away, like spring
flowers, they soon wither.
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely inthe land and prosper.
(26:58):
Take delight in the Lord andhe'll give you your heart's
desires.
Commit everything you do to theLord, trust him and he'll help
you.
He'll make your innocenceradiate like the dawn and the
justice of your cause will shinelike the noonday sun.
Be still in the presence of theLord and wait patiently for him
to act.
Don't worry about evil.
(27:19):
Don't worry about evil peoplewho prosper or fret about their
wicked schemes.
Stop being angry.
Turn from your rage.
Don't lose your temper.
It only leads to harm, for thewicked will be destroyed, but
those who trust in the Lord willpossess the land.
Soon the wicked will disappear.
Though you look for them, theywill be gone.
The lowly will possess the landand will live in peace and
(27:42):
prosperity.
I love that passage, especiallyin times like this where, uh,
you know, share those storiesabout, you know, not growing
bitter and and and justdelighting in the Lord and
seeing his hand and evendifficult things.
But also right now there's alot of hatred and venom and fire
man in our culture and you know, I really want to do an episode
(28:05):
in the next couple weeks.
We're going to do an episodewhere we really go a little bit
further than what we did acouple weeks ago into, you know,
the election and how Christiansshould really think about being
involved in government and thegovernment process, especially
in America, where we are aconstitutional republic, where
we're more than just a simpledemocracy.
(28:25):
There's more complexity to it,and the founders of this country
, they were so brilliant in theway they set things up and maybe
brilliant, but also, I think,led by God.
And so I think and some peopleget real up in arms when they
hear that statement it's like,oh, were they led by God when
they endorsed slavery?
Well, no, but there there aretimes where God works, even in
(28:50):
the evil of governments, youknow.
And so we can look back at ourcountry and see the sovereignty
of God play out, because thatinstitution did finally come to
an end, and it was a violent endand a lot of people died, um,
but but the?
The reality is that that we cansay that God is involved in
government and in our country, Ithink we can say it, we can see
(29:15):
it more clearly than in someother countries, you know, a
dictatorship or something likethat.
But the verses I just read, letme give you some thoughts on
this, because what he'sdescribing in this 11 verse
section of scripture is what Iwould call the quiet spirit.
(29:35):
If I was going to entitle thissomething, I would entitle it
the quiet spirit.
The Bible will often use a veryimportant principle of
interpretation that I think ifyou're going to really
faithfully study the scriptureand study it faithfully, then
this would be something that'dbe helpful to learn, and that
(29:57):
principle is called thisprogressive interpretation.
Progressive interpretation.
What that means is it's theprocess of a doctrine being
introduced in early sections ofScripture and then unfolding
more and more and more as youwork through the passage.
So if you read all of Psalm 37,you'll see this play out.
(30:19):
So another example would be thebiblical teaching and the
doctrine of the afterlife.
Those are rudimentary in theOld Testament but after the
resurrection of Jesus they'remuch more clear.
They're much more frequentlyspoken of and referenced.
Like you read through the OldTestament, there's less pointing
to the afterlife.
It's there, but it progressesas you get into the New
(30:43):
Testament, especially after theresurrection of Jesus.
And then sometimes this willhappen sort of in reverse.
Jesus or one of the earlyapostles in the book of Acts
would teach or mention an OldTestament passage and then they
would be basically explainingthat passage.
It would be like an expositionof that passage.
And so what we've got here, Ithink in Psalm 37, is an example
(31:07):
of that.
In Matthew 5, where Jesus isdoing the Beatitudes, the third
Beatitude.
Jesus says blessed are the meek, the Beatitudes, jesus, the
third Beatitude.
Jesus says blessed are the meek, the meek.
And so he speaks about meekness.
You know, another word for thatwould be gentleness.
There's a strength ingentleness.
It's not gentleness that's weak, it's gentleness that's strong.
(31:30):
You know, I like to think of apowerful, you know, like, think
of Sully in Monsters Inc.
This big, powerful creaturethat that is, you know, so
tender and compassionate andgentle with, with that little,
with the little girl boo, youknow.
And then, um, or I think of, uh, the guy, and I don't know if
you've ever seen this, uh, riseof the guardians.
(31:51):
It's like, you know, st Nickand the Easter bunny and Jack
Frost and the sand man, it's allthese fairytale creatures, uh,
and but the guy, the, the, thecharacter that is St Nick, he's
got, you know, big old forearmsand and he's just big, thick,
burly guy, but then he's justgot this, really, this strength,
but this gentleness, and I lovethat.
(32:14):
It's a picture of who we are inChrist, and then I think Jesus
is the ultimate example of it.
So so he's unpacking that forus in these verses, and so this
idea of progressiveinterpretation is that as we
read, the idea that we'relearning builds and becomes more
and more clear.
So hopefully that that makessense clear, so hopefully that
(32:38):
that makes sense.
Okay, so let me give you, Ijust let me, let me give you,
let me do it this way.
The way that I kind of workthrough this is I break this
into.
There's five imperatives orcommands.
An imperative is a command fivethings we need to do If we're
going to experience godlinessand joy, even in the midst of a,
of a world where evil seems toprosper.
So, overarching lesson, thetitle of this lesson would be
(33:03):
joy when evil seems to prosper.
So how do we experiencegodliness and joy even when evil
seems to prosper?
Well, in the verses that I justread three different times
verses one, seven and eight thisphrase is used Don't fret,
don't fret, don't fret.
(33:25):
And how do we not fret whenevil seems to prosper around us?
Well, there's two things welearned to do and these five
imperatives will drive at thesetwo things.
The first one is we look toChrist.
The second one is we look toeternity.
If we get our eyes off of thewickedness around us, off of the
brokenness and the insanityaround us, and we look to Christ
(33:46):
, we experience joy.
And if we think about eternity,we experience joy.
So let me give you these fiveimperatives real quick.
Okay, the first one is this hesays trust in the Lord and do
good.
So this is trust, is is anotherword for faith.
So he would say have faith inthe Lord and do good.
And that sounds like twocommands, but I'm putting it in
(34:09):
as one, because this is a faithor a trust that is active.
It's faith that leads to action.
You do something.
This generation of AmericanChristians has shown me in the
last week what it is to work.
The last two weeks, rather,since these floods, I mean,
people are putting their faithinto action.
(34:31):
So trust in the Lord and havefaith, but then act on that
faith.
And I think that's important,because if you just sit still
and try to have a quiet faithand just believe it in your
heart and your mind, but youdon't act on it, I think you can
get swallowed up in despair andso trust in the Lord, but but
have active faith that works.
Number two, second imperative,second command delight yourself
(34:55):
in the Lord.
That's in verse four.
Take delight in the Lord,delight yourself in the Lord.
We need to find more than ourhope and peace just in Christ.
We need to find joy in Christ.
So should we find our hope inJesus?
Yes.
Should we find peace in Jesus?
Yes, but we need to find joy inJesus.
And he says delight yourself inthe Lord.
(35:15):
And I would add we bring himhonor when we delight in him.
A child who longs to spend timewith their daddy is honoring
him the most.
And when we delight ourselvesin the Lord, he gives us himself
in a fuller way.
We get more and more of him.
That's why he says he'll giveyou the desires of your heart.
The things of earth grow dimwhen we delight ourselves in the
(35:38):
Lord.
So the first two instructionsand commands when you're going
through hard times, difficultseason, um, trust in the Lord
and act out on that faith, thattrust.
Trust the Lord and do good.
Delight yourself in the Lord,find joy in the Lord.
Should you find joy in yourwork?
Sure, should you find joy inyour exercise regimen?
Sure.
Should you find joy in yourhobby or your relationships or
(36:00):
your finances?
Sure, those can all be thingsthat add to your joy.
But we find the source of ourjoy is in our relationship with
Jesus, and so we press into timein the scripture time and
meditation on the scripture timeand talking to him and
listening to him and singingsongs of praise and listening to
.
Look, I got nothing againstlistening to Luke Bryan, nothing
(36:22):
against it.
It's uh, it's okay, drive downthe road and listen to your you
know your favorite artists.
But I would just say, make surethat there are times where
you're feeding your mind, uh, adiethonoring, christ-exalting
music that feeds your soul, thatbalances that out.
Number three the thirdimperative or command is in
(36:43):
verse five commit your way tothe Lord.
Commit your way to the Lord.
First, peter 5, 7 says to castall your anxiety on him because
he cares for you.
So to commit my every way tothe Lord is to lay all of me,
all of my life, over onto Christand simply follow him.
He's the bearer of my burdensand my decisions.
Commit your way to the Lord.
There may be otherrelationships in your life that
(37:06):
feel out of reach or broken oryou can't do anything about them
.
Commit your way to the Lord.
Cast all your anxiety on him.
Just cast it on him, comm,commit it to him.
Let him carry the weight ofthat.
And then, in verse seven, thefourth imperative be still
before the Lord.
Be still before the Lord, bestill in the presence of the
Lord and wait patiently for himto act.
(37:28):
I've told the story a thousandtimes, I've told it multiple
times here on NSR.
But I remember my granddad, mymom's dad, who I had a much
deeper relationship with All thegrandkids probably did.
He's just a very presentgranddad and I remember and my
(37:52):
dad's dad.
I didn't have much of arelationship with him, I didn't
even really know him very well.
I mean, I knew him, but I justhe.
We weren't around each other alot, um.
But.
But my mom's dad, um, I prayedfor him from the time I really
surrendered my life to Jesus,when I was about 19.
And even before that, as a kid,when we would do like you know,
(38:14):
my mom would pray with us atnighttime, before bed, or, or,
you know, we'd have familyprayer.
We would always pray for forPapa, because we weren't sure
about his soul.
We weren't sure about hissalvation.
He drunk heavy.
He was a real heavy drinker, um, and a lot of that, I think,
was directly connected to hisexperiences um, during world war
(38:36):
two is combat experiences andso he was a heavy drinker and
then he just was.
He could be a harsh man.
So we prayed for him and um,and when I was in my thirties I
watched the Lord change hisheart.
I don't, I think that's when hesurrendered his life to the
Lord.
I think that's when he gotsaved.
I think that's when he became aChrist follower.
(38:57):
What had happened is, uh, somefamily members um, biggin we
call him Biggin Jody Mathis andthen my brother, duke, and I
don't remember who all elsemaybe Cobb is several of my
family members had to go and gethim loaded onto an ambulance
Cause he had, he had justdrunken himself into.
He couldn't get out of thefloor.
(39:18):
He was, by this point he was inhis late seventies, pushing 80
years old.
My grandmother couldn't get himup and got him into a treatment
center, rehab, and she wasgoing to have him put into a
long term extended.
You know like she's going tohave him put into a long-term
extended, you know, like she wasgoing to put him in a home.
And I went and talked to her Idon't know if even my cousins
and everybody knows this, theyprobably do but I went and
(39:39):
talked to my grandmother and Isaid he could come live with us
and let's see if we can get himon his feet.
You know, until you figure outa long, because she felt really
she was very afflicted andconflicted about sending him,
you know, right into a like anursing home.
She don't send him to a nursinghome cause he's still pretty
good health.
And so we ended up I'll neverforget it we set up a camper in
(40:04):
my backyard, like that wasalmost connected to my house,
like you walked right out myback door and you, you were at
the steps to this little, thistravel trailer.
But we ended up putting him inthe house and he took he took my
son's room.
We lived in a 750 square foothouse and he stayed in that
(40:27):
house with us for for that mostof that winter and my, my son,
just we moved him in.
I just had a couple of smallkids at the time and and I think
we moved him in with his sisterand they were like you know,
they were maybe like I think.
We moved him into our roombecause I think tuck was like
one, and so, um, and my granddadstayed with us and I watched
the lord change his heart, sitin family devotions and he and I
(40:47):
would sit up late at night andtalk and I journaled through and
wrote down the experiences thathe shared from his time in
France, in Europe, in theEuropean theater, and it was a
powerful season of life for me.
And I watched him begin to callon the name of the Lord and I
had heard him pray.
He would pray a lot of timesover a meal because I think,
(41:10):
because I think it was kind ofcultural thing to do.
But so it wasn't like he was anatheist, he just was cold to
the church he had.
He was very frustrated anddisenchanted with organized
religion and the church andanyway I watched the Lord turn
his heart.
And so I believe, when I, when Isee, commit your way to the
Lord, cast your anxiety on him.
(41:31):
Let him carry the burden, evenif that's a burden for, for
someone you care about, give itto the Lord and trust him with
it.
Um, but then, and and that thatfourth um imperative be still
in the presence of the Lord andwait patiently for him to act.
(41:51):
That's where I think it reallycomes into play is like and
sometimes it's hard to wait onthe Lord to act.
You know, I remember mygrandmother telling me he said
he's a different man.
She'd say Brody, he's adifferent man.
I've been married to this man.
She would say I've been marriedto this man for 60 years and
he's different.
The Lord changed him.
So we waited for the Lord toact.
(42:12):
Blaise Pascal said this mandoes not know how to stay
quietly in his own room.
So we've got to learn to becontent.
Philippians 4.11,.
I've learned, whatever stateI'm in, to be content, I need to
be still before the Lord, becontent before the Lord.
So this election season, you'refreaking out.
Look if you're freaking out.
If Kamala Harris, carmeloHarris wins, a lot of Christians
(42:37):
are freaking out.
A lot of non-Christians arefreaking out if Trump wins.
But most Christians that I knowat least in my circle, because
I'm in more conservative circlesthey freak out.
I heard someone the other day Ithink I mentioned this on a
previous episode.
I had a family member say man,if she wins, it's kind of like
like what, what?
Nothing's, it's fine.
(42:58):
The lord is still in control.
I don't want her to win, um.
I don't want x, y or z to win.
I don't, I'm not.
I don't want anybody to winbecause I think they're gonna
save us.
You know what I mean, um, but Ido want to vote for the person
that's going to upholdrighteousness.
And so is it concerning when wehave candidates and elected
(43:20):
leaders that don't upholdrighteousness, that promote and
push the things that anger God.
Yeah, we don't want that.
But you know what the Lord's incontrol and I can be content.
I can be content, I can trustin the Lord.
Man does not know how to stayquietly in his own room.
Like Pascal said, you got tomeddle, got to try to get into
(43:44):
business and make somethinghappen.
Learn to be still before theLord.
Learn to sit quietly before theLord and say I trust you, jesus
, I trust you, heavenly Father,I'm giving you my relationships.
I trust you with the government, I trust you with the economy,
I trust you with my health, Itrust you with my future.
(44:04):
I trust you with my wayward sonor daughter.
I trust you.
And so then, the last thing isin verse eight that we read and
it says this stop being angry,turn from your rage.
Esv says refrain from anger,forsake wrath.
I think there's threecategories of anger that
Christians tend to, or thathumans rather tend to deal with
(44:26):
anger against God, anger againstothers and anger against
circumstances.
And I've watched people be suchan encouragement in this last
week because they're not angryat God, they're not angry at
others, they ain't mad at theircircumstances, they're living
out Psalm 37, eight refrain fromanger, forsake wrath, stop
(44:48):
being angry, turn from your rage, don't lose your temper.
It only leads to harm.
Now he follows that um, that,that fifth one.
He follows it, uh with, becausethe second thing we saw that we
were to do and not frettingwhen the evil world around us
seems to be prospering is tolook toward eternity.
Right, so we look to Jesus, welook to eternity.
(45:08):
Listen to how those last threeverses go that we read for the
wicked will be destroyed.
So he says stop being angry,turn from your rage, don't lose
your temper.
It leads to harm.
Then he says for the wicked, formeans, because the wicked are
going to be destroyed, but thosewho trust in the Lord will
possess the land.
We may not possess the freedomsthat we've held so dear to our
(45:31):
lives, and there may be a day inthis life where we lose them,
but we will possess the landthat God has promised us.
Soon the wicked will disappear.
You look for them, they'll begone.
The lowly will possess the landand will live in peace and
prosperity.
So the second thing we looktoward eternity.
The world around us is temporal.
(45:52):
We need to always have eternityinside.
It's the I like to calleternity and that eternal
perspective, the overarchingcontextualizer, no matter what
you're going through.
Uh, we have a dear friend tothis ministry and to my, my
family, little, and I loveShelly so much, shelly Burns,
who is in a battle with cancerand, as hard as it is to imagine
(46:18):
what that's like to go through,and many of you have dealt with
it her positive outlook isconstantly challenging and
overwhelming and I'm justgrateful for people that have
that kind of faith.
We look to eternity.
So you look to Jesus, you lookto eternity and, uh, and you
don't live with bitterness orresentment, you live out the
kind of grace and kindness thatMorgan Meager showed me.
(46:40):
Uh, you, you, you live out thethe kind of I don't know the
kind of perspective that theseflood victims have showed us, um
, perspective that these floodvictims have showed us, um.
Anyway, I hope that Psalm 37will be an encouragement for you
.
Five things what's your takeaway?
What's your homework this week?
Five commands or imperativesTrust the Lord and act on it.
(47:02):
Trust the Lord and do good.
Number two delight yourself inthe Lord.
Number three commit your way tothe Lord.
Your thoughts, your, your, your, your past, your steps, your
thoughts, your past, your steps,your work, your money, your
relationships.
Commit it all to the Lord.
Number four be still before theLord.
Be still before the Lord, sitwith contentment before the Lord
(47:23):
and trust him to act.
And number five refrain fromanger.
Don't let your anger consumeyou.
Don't be eaten up with angerand wrath.
Don't lose your temper.
It doesn't accomplish anything.
Anger towards God, angertowards other, anger towards the
circumstances you're dealingwith.
Refrain from that, turn fromthat and in all of that, two
things Keep your eyes on Jesusand keep your eyes on eternity,
(47:45):
and it'll stabilize you andit'll steady you.
So that's what I've got forthis week.
Um, I did want to, as, as wetransition, and kind of get
ready to, to jump off of hereand and, uh, you get ready to go
about your day.
Uh, this weekend is, uh, swomarriage conference Number one.
The next two weekends we willhave our fall, our annual fall
(48:07):
marriage conferences.
And uh, there's still I thinkthere's still some space.
I know this, this will be avery spontaneous thing, but, um,
come, come, come, be with us Ifyou don't have anything planned
for one of the next twoweekends.
Um, it's an awesome time.
Pray for these couples that aregoing to be coming as we look
into God's word and talk aboutmarriage and family and what it
(48:28):
is to to strive and seek tohonor the Lord in the way that
we love and honor our spouses.
It's going to be an awesometime.
Then, another shout-out to myman, andy Miller, who is the
food service director at SWO.
He's only been with us sincethe end of summer, but he's
doing a phenomenal job.
He's coming up to speed quick.
(48:48):
It's a tough transition to stepinto such a big job and he's
doing a great job.
But everybody's excited aboutthe marriage, the marriage, the
men's conference, women'sconferences and marriage
conferences.
People get real excited aboutthem because the food goes up a
notch, you know, and so I'mexcited to see what we're going
to eat this weekend.
I can't wait.
This is going to be awesome.
I'm sure it's always a treatand uh, so it's going to be good
(49:11):
, going to be a good weekend.
Y'all pray for us.
Fall is here.
I'm going to be doing somehunting the next month, next
next two months, really, thenext three rest of this year and
into January I'm going to bedoing some hunting.
But I love to hunt in November.
Y'all pray for me.
I can't decide where I want togo hunt the rut.
Do I want to go up North?
Do I want to bow hunt in Ohioor Illinois, something like that
(49:31):
?
Do I want a rifle hunt inGeorgia, georgia or some some,
you know, somewhere furtherSouth where it'd be warmer and I
can use my rifle?
Do I want to go up into colderweather and use my I don't know
man decisions, decisions, so, um, anyhow, that's where we're at.
That's what we're dealing with.
What a good problem to have.
That's a good struggle to be inthe middle of.
(49:51):
So I'm happy to be here.
I'll let you know what ends upcoming out of it.
Y'all have an awesome week.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SWOutfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources.
We'll see all of ourprogramming and resources and
we'll see you next week on noSanity Required.
Hey, in this week's episode of no Sanity Required, I
want to do a couple of things,really three things.
I want to give you an update onwhat our team's been up to with
the recent floods that havejust devastated western North
Carolina mountain communities,from Bat Cave and Chimney Rock
up to Yancey County, spruce Pine, burnsville, down through
(00:21):
Weaverville and then into alittle bit further west into
Haywood County, where my familyall is from.
And I want to give you anupdate on what we've been doing
to help our neighbors and somethoughts that might help you as
you think about disaster reliefnow or in the future.
Some things I've learned, somethings I've observed.
And then I want to share astory with you.
(00:45):
And then, um, I want to sharefive thoughts from a passage of
scripture that has helped helpedsteady me in my life at
difficult seasons.
Seasons like I've shared inrecent episodes.
Difficult things we've gonethrough, um, big decision
moments like, uh, things that wehad to go through during
COVID-19.
And we're trying to figure outif we're going to run camp or
(01:06):
not.
Things that have helped anchorme.
Going back to the interview withJohn Rouleau and a lot of the
feedback that I got on that.
People were really encouraged.
It meant a lot to me, and so Iwant to give you some follow-up
thoughts to how we've navigatedsome of the more difficult
seasons of ministry.
Something that has anchored meis a passage of scripture.
I want to share five principlesfrom that passage that
hopefully will help you and giveyou a better outlook today and
(01:30):
a better outlook on this weekand this season.
It's crazy election season, andthen, with all the storms and
everything that's going on, it'scraziness right now, yeah, so I
hope it'll be an encouragementWith that.
Welcome to no sanity required.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Welcome to no sanity required from the ministry of
snowbird wilderness outfitters.
A podcast about the Bibleculture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So the recent floods that hit uh Western North
Carolina, I heard I heard oneguy call it a thousand year
flood.
You know, people were sayingthings like this is a storm of
the century and a lot of peoplewere, uh, that that I I'm first
off, I don't really I'm not onsocial media so I have to kind
of go online and look up newstories and videos and things
(02:22):
like that Um and so, from what I, from what I've seen, there's
been a ton of influencers.
I want to share somefrustration with the way I think
a lot of people have handled,um, flood relief.
So there's a lot of people thatcame into Western North
Carolina and videoed andinterviewed and uh, flew around
(02:44):
helicopters and pointed thingsout.
There's this one cat.
He's like an Army Ranger orArmy Delta Force guy, mma
fighter, kind of like a man'sman kind of guy.
I don't know the guy, I don'twant to speak to anything about
him other than he came towestern North Carolina.
(03:06):
First off, let me say these aremy people.
I love the mountain people ofwestern North Carolina.
My family goes back in thesemountains a long ways.
John Jackson Kilby lived in theYadkin Valley in the Civil War
period.
He was a Civil War veteran andit was his descendants that
migrated just West into WilkesCounty.
They were in Wilkes County,then out of Wilkes County into
(03:29):
Watauga County and in theNorthwestern mountains of North
Carolina and then it was my, mygranddad that then, um, came on
down further West into HaywoodCounty and, uh, both my
granddads Haywood County.
Both my parents raised, my momand dad were raised in Haywood
County, north Carolina, which,if you're unfamiliar, that would
be Waynesville and Canton arethe two towns that's just West
(03:52):
of Asheville, it's a good bitEast of where I live.
I Andrew's North Carolina,where snowbird is located, is a
couple of counties further West.
We're as far West as you can goin a state of North Carolina,
but we're still in the WesternNorth Carolina mountains.
So I love these people.
I love the culture, the people.
It's home to me.
And it's not just home to me,it's home to all of my ancestors
(04:13):
, um, who were Americans.
You know what I mean.
You got to go back to acrossthe pond.
The first Americans, uh, thefirst, the first folks from the
United kingdom, from Scotlandand England, and then some folks
from the United Kingdom, fromScotland and England, and then
some folks from Germany on mydad's side that came here in the
1700s and early 1800s.
(04:33):
That's how far back you got togo before I don't have mountain
people in the southernAppalachians.
And a quick crash course historylesson Prior to the Civil War,
there wasn't a lot of whitesettlement in this part of the
state.
Um and this always spins peopleout a lot of people freak out
when they find this out butafter the civil war, a lot of
union officers, particularlycommanding officers, generals,
(04:57):
high, high-ranking brass, weregiven land grants in the western
part of north carolina, thearea I live right here in
cherokee county, there was a lot, of a lot of guys.
If they trace their, if theyreally trace their their stuff,
they'll find that, um, their,their ancestors from post-civil
war came from up North andsettled here, which is totally
fine.
It was, uh, it's just, it'sjust history, you know.
(05:18):
But but regardless, my, mypeople are mountain people and,
and in more recent generations,not so much Like my parents,
especially my mom and my cousinsand siblings, don't you know?
We still hold to the mountainculture, but there's, you know,
the true hillbilly.
(05:38):
We're not that.
Things are modernizing and Igot an iPhone and I drive you,
uh, you know a a nice vehicleand um have the internet.
I don't.
I don't live off of the landper se, but we still hold to
some of those practices.
You know this, this week, uh, Itook, I took a wild game animal
with my bow, and I'll do itagain this coming week and
(06:00):
probably next week, and I'll puta dozen animals in the freezer,
um or or on the shelves, canned, you know, for for the next
year to eat, and we'll kill ahog, and we'll kill a cow and,
uh, a beef and, and so I likethere there are principles of
the old ways, there's someexercising of the old ways, but
(06:20):
man, for the most part, myfamily's not.
Uh, they don't look like a lotof historic, traditional
mountain people look, and so,just like any other culture,
we're blending with modern timesand and it is what it is.
But, that being said, it's inour blood, it's in our roots.
My neighbors, the people I careabout, um in in my community,
(06:42):
um have have mountain roots, andso one of the things I've
learned you might be going,what's all that matter?
Well, here's what I've learnedthese mountain people are tough
and they are resilient, and mostof them just figure it out and
do for themselves and they worktogether.
And so I've spent several daysin the last week in Yancey
(07:05):
County, north Carolina, which isup in the high mountains.
If you're driving fromAsheville, north Carolina, to
Johnson City, Tennessee, you'regoing up I-26.
You go through at the stateline.
Around the state line you gothrough Sam's Gap.
If you look back to the east,you're looking back up into
those mountains that are the topcorner of Yancey County.
(07:27):
It's very rural.
There's a river that runs upthrough there called the Cane
River.
I think it's the Cane River.
Then there's a smaller creekcalled Jack's Creek.
My buddy, timmy Burnett, who'sa pastor just north of Asheville
, he connected me with some guysup there.
We were just trying to see howwe could help out and a couple
of days I ended up way up in themountains.
(07:49):
Just just, uh, very rough roads,very hard to get.
Everything was washed out.
Bridges are washed out, roadswashed out.
It was crazy, man.
It was very apocalyptic.
It looked like somebody had hadgone down through those
mountain canyons with an F-15EStrike Eagle and just blasted
away and opened the mountain upinto like a gorge, a ravine, and
(08:12):
all the water had run down.
These rivers swelled 20, 30feet higher than their normal
Imagine a river 25 to 30 feethigher than its normal run and
flow, and that's how high theywere.
So they took trees and theyjust cut into the sides of the
mountain If you can imagine agorge where there's a mountain
going up on either side of theriver or the Creek and now that
(08:34):
Creek rises up 20 to 30 feet oneither side of that gorge and
just washed all the trees out.
So now you've got this grandCanyon.
Looking bottom, the river isnow, instead of, say you, 100
feet wide, it's now 200, 300feet wide, and it's just crazy.
And then all the trees washedfor miles and just kind of
settled in the lower valley.
(08:55):
And so there's one area thatyou can drive past, thousands of
massive trees that the rootball, the tree, everything's
just laying there.
It looks like somebody scrapedthem off the side of the
mountain and just laid them outacross these fields.
It's the craziest thing.
And so when that happened, itwashed out the road that ran
with that river, and so gettingup there was a big ordeal.
(09:17):
We had to had to leave the roadand cross some narrow paths and
some, you know, somefour-wheeler type trails,
logging trails, and need an ATVto get to a lot of it, and so,
anyhow, saying all that, say,get up in there and meet people
that you realize, man, thesepeople, just they're looking out
for each other.
I filled my truck up withfirewood because I'd heard some
(09:38):
folks had lost their wood sheds,all their firewood had washed
down the river, and so we'vetaken a couple loads of firewood
and just give folks enough toget them through a week or two,
and then we'll bring you somemore and stuff like that.
Um and just uh, what I'mfinding is that they're happy,
they're joyful, they're, they'redurable.
Man, these mountain people aretough, but then, in contrast to
(09:58):
that, something that has stoodout to me that I want to learn
from, um, I want to, I want togive you some some things that
I've learned.
The first one is that thesepeople are tough and they're
resilient and they, they'resurvivors and they help each
other.
Second thing that I want topoint out is that the church of
Jesus Christ has been the handsand feet of Jesus and all this I
don't know.
(10:19):
I mean, there's so many, uh,christians that have rallied,
just different ministries,churches, organizations,
evangelical organizations, northCarolina Baptist folks that are
like disaster relief and theirboots on the ground.
We've been working with them,not in Yancey County but down in
(10:39):
Bat Cave and Chimney Rock.
We've been working with them.
They're based out of FruitlandBible College and Fruitland
Baptist Church and so we've beengetting assignments from them
and doing a lot of tree work inthat part of the state.
We've run man, we've run whoknows how many gallons of gas
and oil through chainsaws in thelast two weeks, and so I know
(11:02):
one property gosh I think wetook out half a dozen big poplar
trees and cut up three or fourlarge white oaks that had fallen
, and so just trying to helpfolks.
And what I've learned in that?
The second thing I've learned isthat man, the church, is on
mission when it comes todisaster relief, and I love that
(11:23):
, because when you look backthrough history you see that, uh
, hospitals and schools andrelief efforts in every war man,
the church of Jesus Christ iswho is spearheaded and led the
way in that, and it's still likethat today.
I'm really thankful for that.
It's very encouraging, so muchso that man, me and Rob Conti
were were riding around one dayum day trying to make some
(11:45):
connections and we saw a coupleof busloads of people and it was
like these people don't knowwhere to go or what to do
because nobody needs their help.
They had truckloads of clothing, but people have just flooded
that area.
Now I'm not saying that there'sno more help needed.
I'm just saying it was cool tosee people saying, hey, we can't
(12:06):
take any more pallets of water,don't send us any more canned
goods, don't went.
I'd heard that people neededthose little green bottles of
propane um, that they could cookon little propane stoves and
that if we could get some ofthat.
And so we found out, nope, some, there's so much of that that's
already been delivered torelief stations.
And then people are shuttlingin and out of these mountains.
So local people that know themountains are driving in and out
(12:30):
of these communities withbottles of propane and blankets
and it's getting, it's, it'sgetting cold this week.
I mean, we're going to see, uh,it's, it's going below freezing
for the rest of this week.
Um, I'm filming or not filming?
I'm filming or not filming?
I'm not filming.
I'm recording this on Mondayand it'll drop on Tuesday, but
on Monday I got up this morningit's like 54 degrees and felt
(12:52):
nice like t-shirt weather forthis time of year.
But then by this afternoon youcould tell cold fronts coming
through and it's just coolingdown and there's people up there
that might be a year beforethey get power, because those
rivers are just all the powerlines are in the river and so,
um, anyway, saying all that tosay it's cool to see how many,
how many Christ followersflooded to the area.
(13:15):
If they couldn't come, they sentfood and clothing and so much
that they've overwhelmed um,like supply station.
Somebody called, somebodytexted us today and said hey, I
know y'all are working in Clyde,north Carolina, every day this
week.
Can we send clothes as a localchurch, a good partner church of
ours?
And, uh, can we send clothingand food?
Can y'all take it todistribution center?
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I'm like sorry, we can't.
We like they won't take itwhere we're working, they won't
take it.
Now again, I know there's goingto be further need, but it's
just cool to see people justjust pour that kind of support
out and then to be able to praywith people and encourage them
and and to hear people's faithhas been strengthened.
The people that that know theLord, that have been hit by this
, uh, their faith is strongerand that just that's a biblical
(14:00):
principle, that in our mostdifficult situations we feel the
strength and presence of theLord more so.
Um, the next thing is, uh, howproud I am to be part of the
family.
I'm a part of the, the, theearthly family.
My brother, um my brother Duke,who a lot of people know, I
think, um him and and, uh, someother family members that are
(14:21):
part of Pisgah high school inCanton, north Carolina, I think
Duke told me that for ninestraight days they went from get
up to get down every day, justworking their tails off trying
to minister and help Not even alot of people not even
ministering, cause there's somenon-believers that are working
alongside of them but trying tohelp the families of students in
their school.
And then several of my cousins,michael and Amanda Ballou.
(14:45):
Amanda Ballou was um day to dayjust organizing um help for
people and and really trying toengage her community and doing a
dang good job and gave us acouple of leads that turned into
more opportunities and just say, anyway, just saying all that,
to say I'm proud to be a part ofthe family I'm a part of.
(15:05):
They all just got on mission,and so Michael Ballou, michael
and Amanda Ballou, my brother,duke, really cool and others,
everybody else.
I only named a couple of them,but that's been awesome.
And then the next thing Ilearned is that a lot of people
and this is a little bit of this, one's a little negative, with
a little bit of a bite to it Alot of people and this is a
little bit of this, this one's alittle negative, with a little
bit of a bite to it A lot ofpeople, they want to do what
(15:27):
they want to do.
They want to come and help, butonly certain jobs.
You know, like I met severalguys that they want to run their
quads and run their chainsaws.
They, you know, I got a quad, Igot a chainsaw, I can go help
people.
Well, within the first 48 hoursof the flood, kind of back the
(15:48):
water, backing off and subsidinga little bit, all the roads
were as far as chainsaw work.
90 of the roads were open.
From what I could see, nowthere's roads that are washed as
far as pavement, embankments,mudslides, but chainsaw work and
four-wheeler work.
There's very little of thatneeded but that.
So I I met several people thatthat's what they want is riding
around with their four-wheelersand taking their chainsaw.
Where the flip side of that Ihave to bring that up to say the
(16:09):
Snowbird Leadership Institute,our interns and then the
entirety of the Snowbird staffthat's jumped in.
Man, they have done grunt workwith no glamour.
We got kids that came in fromcollege just to spend a day
working with our team, kids thatwork here in the summer and
help on weekends, and I'll tellyou what they did.
(16:30):
They went into a trailer park inClyde, north Carolina.
I think there was eighttrailers and every one of them
had been flooded and when I sayflooded, they're sitting right
on the pigeon river, which wasup 26 and a half feet.
So these trailers were werepretty much underwater.
Um, it was up to the ceilingsand they went in there and they
gutted every trailer.
They put on hazmat suits, masks, hazmat suits, and they crawled
(16:54):
under these trailers, rippedall the insulation out, had to
get all the insulation out ofthe trailers, drywall flooring,
and they gutted them all sothose people could get power
restored to get ready to startback building.
You know, following up withwith cleaning and then getting
those trailers put back togetherso they have a place to live.
These are poor people.
They don't have a lot and uh,and I didn't see a lot of uh aid
(17:17):
coming in there.
We were fortunate that wedidn't have to deal with, like
fema or any government agenciesin there, because I think it was
just this little trailer parkdown along the river.
No, you know, fema got biggerfish to fry, but those people
were so grateful and uh, so thatthat that's the.
That last thing that I learnedis what what the SWO staff is
(17:37):
made of.
And just to encourage y'all aslisteners, there are 20 year
olds on planet earth right nowthat call themselves Christ
followers, that will do whateverit takes to show the love of
Jesus to people, and I'm proudto be associated with them.
They're out today as I'mrecording.
They're out today.
Um, tomorrow I've got to takemy quad to a player's dealership
(17:57):
.
It it got, it's been rolled,it's been wrecked, it's been
trashed.
I got to get some work done onit.
Polaris guys said man, youbring it, I'll move you to the
front of the line, we'll get itfixed and get you back out there
.
Um, which I don't think we needit anymore.
There was a few places where toget some propane and water to
people.
My truck wouldn't wouldn't getover a, you know, a mud slide or
(18:19):
a water break.
I think we're good there, butjust cool to see how people have
pitched in.
So I'm out today and tomorrowand or yesterday and today
rather and our teams out there,they leave.
They leave in slow, at seven inthe morning and just grinding
all day getting it done.
I just I'm so proud of them.
I'm proud, proud, proud to beassociated with these young men
(18:39):
and young women.
They are awesome.
The Lord is always going toraise up a strong remnant of his
people that are going to do thework.
So I want to turn to uh, uh,something that has given me a
lot of encouragement and andhopefully there's some, there's
some scriptural truth andthoughts here that will be an
(18:59):
encouragement to you this week.
So take the rest of our time,second half of our time, and and
and share some thoughts.
Okay, so I'm going to tell youabout, uh, a guy named Morgan.
Morgan uh worked here, um, hewas on, uh, what's now called
our element team.
At the time it was calledservant team and Morgan Um the
(19:20):
the year that we talked about,2007, where so much death and
destruction and devastationhappened at SWO.
I didn't share Morgan's story,um, and I thought about if I
should or shouldn't, but I'mgoing to share it now.
So Morgan was here working thatsummer and he was one of a
couple of brothers that ended upspending time here.
(19:40):
He had a brother named DavidsonI'm sorry, named Davis that
came and served a few summerslater, but in that 2007 summer
Morgan was, you know, in highschool.
It was 17 years ago.
Morgan's now a grown man with afamily and he's doing great and
proud of him.
But Morgan was in an accident atSWO and was burned severely I
(20:04):
mean severely burned, uh, and hewas.
He was at Erlanger children'shospital in Chattanooga.
Now this happened on, uh, theThursday, I think, of week one
of camp, so about a week and alittle more nine days before the
accident that claimed the livesof those folks that we talked
about a few episodes backMichael, daniel, suzanne and
(20:29):
Ashley and Morgan.
Morgan got burned severely andwe were back and forth to the
hospital visiting Morgan thatthat week leading up to the
accident.
And then the accident happenedand everybody just kind of
forgot about Morgan.
And it wasn't it.
It people didn't forget aboutMorgan, but people became so
(20:49):
overwhelmed in their own griefand emotion and trying to
survive and get through thesummer.
And Morgan sat over there inthat hospital for I don't know
how long and, as a 17-year-olddude, fought his way back to
functional health.
And not even years later I wantto say it was months later it
(21:11):
dawned on me that I felt like Ihad abandoned Morgan.
I felt like I had turned myback on Morgan and I had not.
That was not my intention, itwas just so overwhelming.
And in my life in ministry I'velearned that a lot of people
hold a lot of expectation overyou.
There's people that have livedin my home that turned on me
because they didn't feel like Iwas a good enough father figure
(21:34):
to them, you know, or uh little,and I've dealt with that.
I met expectations to the pointthat now I'm very careful about
how close I will bring peopleinto our sort of our inner
family circle because, uh, if,when you open yourself up to
that and hear me out, I'm notlike pushing people away, I'm
(21:55):
just saying we've had to learnhealthy parameters and
boundaries because we used tojust anybody and everybody was
family.
If you came work at Snowbird,your family, you're part of SWO
family, part of Holloway family.
So we had several people livewith us and we had a couple, two
different instances where folkswent to the mission field and
went and did a two-year stint.
When they came back, uh, they,they were very disappointed that
(22:18):
we didn't stay in more engagedwith them, didn't come visit
them when they were, uh,overseas and and and I realized
they felt like, uh, I owed themsome sort of a fatherly
investment, maybe something likethat, and I didn didn't meet
that expectation and I apologizebut I think the damage was done
.
I didn't, it didn't make themfeel as cared for as they felt
(22:42):
like I should have.
And so now, please hear me out,I'm not feeling sorry for
myself, I'm not defending this,is all, you know, been dealt
with in my own heart and withwith people involved.
But it sort of helped me set anew, a new precedent for my own
life, little and I of sort ofwhat safe and healthy parameters
look like.
(23:02):
And so we've been able to, Ithink, establish those and as
our kids got older, our threeolder kids, you know, with their
friends, obviously there was,there was an insula, insulatory
factor, like there was a littlebit of an insulator where
someone comes into our home andbecomes sort of part of our
family.
But they're an extension ofthat.
You know, like Lely her friendgroup, we bring you know, we
(23:24):
welcome them in, but there'skind of this understanding we're
Lely's friend group, so, um, sothat's been good.
And you know, one of the thingsI think about is disappointing
people, and that came up in theinterview with Little and I and
I've had some folks press me onthat and ask me, you know, how
hard is that?
Is it really tough to meetpeople's expectations?
And it is.
(23:44):
It's hard to be what peoplewant you to be.
And so I'd be lying if I said Idon't have regret over some
relationships and where I thinkwe faltered through the years.
But I felt like I let Morgandown because two, three months
later he was back home and doingwell, and I had just thrown
(24:05):
myself into the two survivors ofthat crash, which were Dawson
and Kara, and we were doingeverything we could in our off
time to go see them, minister tothem, try to stay connected to
them.
And years later, well, firstoff, morgan's little brother
came and worked Davis yearslater.
There's a good bit of an agegap there, and so it was very
(24:28):
healing for me to know, okay,this family still loves this
ministry and doesn't feelneglected.
But then I had someinteractions with Morgan.
It's funny.
Morgan called me one time and,uh, he'd gotten into a hunting
club like a hunting lease, hesaid.
Hey, I got a hunting question.
He calls me and they had a bearon their property.
He's getting.
He's getting pictures.
If you put out trail camerasand you put out corn, I know
(24:52):
here in West North Carolina ifyou put out corn like a corn
feeder, it ain't long untilyou're going to have a black
bear or a whole family of them.
Right now there's I don't freaknobody out, but there's a sow
and three, three pretty goodsized cubs living on snowbird
property on the far corner ofthe swole property, kind of back
on the backside of the mountain, and then they're covering
three or four properties.
(25:12):
Morgan calls me and he sent me apicture.
It was a monster boar.
I bet it was a 300 pound boar,if I remember correctly.
And he said I just want to pickyour brain, how would you deal
with this?
And we just had the coolestconversation and it was like the
most refreshing thing to havesomebody not stay sore or
(25:33):
offended at you and I justappreciated that.
And so I bring that story up tosay whatever you go through in
life, you can choose how you'regoing to deal with it.
You can see it as something theLord is, is is teaching you
through and carrying you throughand helping you through, or you
can use it to grow bittertowards the Lord or towards
(25:53):
other people.
And I've learned from these,from the SWO staff this week,
this past couple of weeks, andI've learned from the people,
the good mountain people ofWestern North Carolina, and I've
learned from Morgan and othersin my life that you, you can be
positive and you can be quick toforgive, quick to see God's
grace, and I want to be likethat.
(26:14):
And so I want to read to you nowthis Psalm 37, there's a couple
of verses in here that are veryoften quoted and it is uh, um,
what delight yourself in theLord.
He'll give you the desires ofyour heart.
I don't know if you ever heardthat.
A lot of us have used it,you've probably heard it,
familiar with it, um, but I wantto want to give you some
(26:36):
context and then expound on that.
I want to give you these fivethoughts.
I'm going to give you thesefive thoughts from the first 11
verses of Psalm 37.
It goes like this Don't worryabout the wicked or envy those
who do wrong, for, like grass,they soon fade away, like spring
flowers, they soon wither.
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely inthe land and prosper.
(26:58):
Take delight in the Lord andhe'll give you your heart's
desires.
Commit everything you do to theLord, trust him and he'll help
you.
He'll make your innocenceradiate like the dawn and the
justice of your cause will shinelike the noonday sun.
Be still in the presence of theLord and wait patiently for him
to act.
Don't worry about evil.
(27:19):
Don't worry about evil peoplewho prosper or fret about their
wicked schemes.
Stop being angry.
Turn from your rage.
Don't lose your temper.
It only leads to harm, for thewicked will be destroyed, but
those who trust in the Lord willpossess the land.
Soon the wicked will disappear.
Though you look for them, theywill be gone.
The lowly will possess the landand will live in peace and
(27:42):
prosperity.
I love that passage, especiallyin times like this where, uh,
you know, share those storiesabout, you know, not growing
bitter and and and justdelighting in the Lord and
seeing his hand and evendifficult things.
But also right now there's alot of hatred and venom and fire
man in our culture and you know, I really want to do an episode
(28:05):
in the next couple weeks.
We're going to do an episodewhere we really go a little bit
further than what we did acouple weeks ago into, you know,
the election and how Christiansshould really think about being
involved in government and thegovernment process, especially
in America, where we are aconstitutional republic, where
we're more than just a simpledemocracy.
(28:25):
There's more complexity to it,and the founders of this country
, they were so brilliant in theway they set things up and maybe
brilliant, but also, I think,led by God.
And so I think and some peopleget real up in arms when they
hear that statement it's like,oh, were they led by God when
they endorsed slavery?
Well, no, but there there aretimes where God works, even in
(28:50):
the evil of governments, youknow.
And so we can look back at ourcountry and see the sovereignty
of God play out, because thatinstitution did finally come to
an end, and it was a violent endand a lot of people died, um,
but but the?
The reality is that that we cansay that God is involved in
government and in our country, Ithink we can say it, we can see
(29:15):
it more clearly than in someother countries, you know, a
dictatorship or something likethat.
But the verses I just read, letme give you some thoughts on
this, because what he'sdescribing in this 11 verse
section of scripture is what Iwould call the quiet spirit.
(29:35):
If I was going to entitle thissomething, I would entitle it
the quiet spirit.
The Bible will often use a veryimportant principle of
interpretation that I think ifyou're going to really
faithfully study the scriptureand study it faithfully, then
this would be something that'dbe helpful to learn, and that
(29:57):
principle is called thisprogressive interpretation.
Progressive interpretation.
What that means is it's theprocess of a doctrine being
introduced in early sections ofScripture and then unfolding
more and more and more as youwork through the passage.
So if you read all of Psalm 37,you'll see this play out.
(30:19):
So another example would be thebiblical teaching and the
doctrine of the afterlife.
Those are rudimentary in theOld Testament but after the
resurrection of Jesus they'remuch more clear.
They're much more frequentlyspoken of and referenced.
Like you read through the OldTestament, there's less pointing
to the afterlife.
It's there, but it progressesas you get into the New
(30:43):
Testament, especially after theresurrection of Jesus.
And then sometimes this willhappen sort of in reverse.
Jesus or one of the earlyapostles in the book of Acts
would teach or mention an OldTestament passage and then they
would be basically explainingthat passage.
It would be like an expositionof that passage.
And so what we've got here, Ithink in Psalm 37, is an example
(31:07):
of that.
In Matthew 5, where Jesus isdoing the Beatitudes, the third
Beatitude.
Jesus says blessed are the meek, the Beatitudes, jesus, the
third Beatitude.
Jesus says blessed are the meek, the meek.
And so he speaks about meekness.
You know, another word for thatwould be gentleness.
There's a strength ingentleness.
It's not gentleness that's weak, it's gentleness that's strong.
(31:30):
You know, I like to think of apowerful, you know, like, think
of Sully in Monsters Inc.
This big, powerful creaturethat that is, you know, so
tender and compassionate andgentle with, with that little,
with the little girl boo, youknow.
And then, um, or I think of, uh, the guy, and I don't know if
you've ever seen this, uh, riseof the guardians.
(31:51):
It's like, you know, st Nickand the Easter bunny and Jack
Frost and the sand man, it's allthese fairytale creatures, uh,
and but the guy, the, the, thecharacter that is St Nick, he's
got, you know, big old forearmsand and he's just big, thick,
burly guy, but then he's justgot this, really, this strength,
but this gentleness, and I lovethat.
(32:14):
It's a picture of who we are inChrist, and then I think Jesus
is the ultimate example of it.
So so he's unpacking that forus in these verses, and so this
idea of progressiveinterpretation is that as we
read, the idea that we'relearning builds and becomes more
and more clear.
So hopefully that that makessense clear, so hopefully that
(32:38):
that makes sense.
Okay, so let me give you, Ijust let me, let me give you,
let me do it this way.
The way that I kind of workthrough this is I break this
into.
There's five imperatives orcommands.
An imperative is a command fivethings we need to do If we're
going to experience godlinessand joy, even in the midst of a,
of a world where evil seems toprosper.
So, overarching lesson, thetitle of this lesson would be
(33:03):
joy when evil seems to prosper.
So how do we experiencegodliness and joy even when evil
seems to prosper?
Well, in the verses that I justread three different times
verses one, seven and eight thisphrase is used Don't fret,
don't fret, don't fret.
(33:25):
And how do we not fret whenevil seems to prosper around us?
Well, there's two things welearned to do and these five
imperatives will drive at thesetwo things.
The first one is we look toChrist.
The second one is we look toeternity.
If we get our eyes off of thewickedness around us, off of the
brokenness and the insanityaround us, and we look to Christ
(33:46):
, we experience joy.
And if we think about eternity,we experience joy.
So let me give you these fiveimperatives real quick.
Okay, the first one is this hesays trust in the Lord and do
good.
So this is trust, is is anotherword for faith.
So he would say have faith inthe Lord and do good.
And that sounds like twocommands, but I'm putting it in
(34:09):
as one, because this is a faithor a trust that is active.
It's faith that leads to action.
You do something.
This generation of AmericanChristians has shown me in the
last week what it is to work.
The last two weeks, rather,since these floods, I mean,
people are putting their faithinto action.
(34:31):
So trust in the Lord and havefaith, but then act on that
faith.
And I think that's important,because if you just sit still
and try to have a quiet faithand just believe it in your
heart and your mind, but youdon't act on it, I think you can
get swallowed up in despair andso trust in the Lord, but but
have active faith that works.
Number two, second imperative,second command delight yourself
(34:55):
in the Lord.
That's in verse four.
Take delight in the Lord,delight yourself in the Lord.
We need to find more than ourhope and peace just in Christ.
We need to find joy in Christ.
So should we find our hope inJesus?
Yes.
Should we find peace in Jesus?
Yes, but we need to find joy inJesus.
And he says delight yourself inthe Lord.
(35:15):
And I would add we bring himhonor when we delight in him.
A child who longs to spend timewith their daddy is honoring
him the most.
And when we delight ourselvesin the Lord, he gives us himself
in a fuller way.
We get more and more of him.
That's why he says he'll giveyou the desires of your heart.
The things of earth grow dimwhen we delight ourselves in the
(35:38):
Lord.
So the first two instructionsand commands when you're going
through hard times, difficultseason, um, trust in the Lord
and act out on that faith, thattrust.
Trust the Lord and do good.
Delight yourself in the Lord,find joy in the Lord.
Should you find joy in yourwork?
Sure, should you find joy inyour exercise regimen?
Sure.
Should you find joy in yourhobby or your relationships or
(36:00):
your finances?
Sure, those can all be thingsthat add to your joy.
But we find the source of ourjoy is in our relationship with
Jesus, and so we press into timein the scripture time and
meditation on the scripture timeand talking to him and
listening to him and singingsongs of praise and listening to
.
Look, I got nothing againstlistening to Luke Bryan, nothing
(36:22):
against it.
It's uh, it's okay, drive downthe road and listen to your you
know your favorite artists.
But I would just say, make surethat there are times where
you're feeding your mind, uh, adiethonoring, christ-exalting
music that feeds your soul, thatbalances that out.
Number three the thirdimperative or command is in
(36:43):
verse five commit your way tothe Lord.
Commit your way to the Lord.
First, peter 5, 7 says to castall your anxiety on him because
he cares for you.
So to commit my every way tothe Lord is to lay all of me,
all of my life, over onto Christand simply follow him.
He's the bearer of my burdensand my decisions.
Commit your way to the Lord.
There may be otherrelationships in your life that
(37:06):
feel out of reach or broken oryou can't do anything about them
.
Commit your way to the Lord.
Cast all your anxiety on him.
Just cast it on him, comm,commit it to him.
Let him carry the weight ofthat.
And then, in verse seven, thefourth imperative be still
before the Lord.
Be still before the Lord, bestill in the presence of the
Lord and wait patiently for himto act.
(37:28):
I've told the story a thousandtimes, I've told it multiple
times here on NSR.
But I remember my granddad, mymom's dad, who I had a much
deeper relationship with All thegrandkids probably did.
He's just a very presentgranddad and I remember and my
(37:52):
dad's dad.
I didn't have much of arelationship with him, I didn't
even really know him very well.
I mean, I knew him, but I justhe.
We weren't around each other alot, um.
But.
But my mom's dad, um, I prayedfor him from the time I really
surrendered my life to Jesus,when I was about 19.
And even before that, as a kid,when we would do like you know,
(38:14):
my mom would pray with us atnighttime, before bed, or, or,
you know, we'd have familyprayer.
We would always pray for forPapa, because we weren't sure
about his soul.
We weren't sure about hissalvation.
He drunk heavy.
He was a real heavy drinker, um, and a lot of that, I think,
was directly connected to hisexperiences um, during world war
(38:36):
two is combat experiences andso he was a heavy drinker and
then he just was.
He could be a harsh man.
So we prayed for him and um,and when I was in my thirties I
watched the Lord change hisheart.
I don't, I think that's when hesurrendered his life to the
Lord.
I think that's when he gotsaved.
I think that's when he became aChrist follower.
(38:57):
What had happened is, uh, somefamily members um, biggin we
call him Biggin Jody Mathis andthen my brother, duke, and I
don't remember who all elsemaybe Cobb is several of my
family members had to go and gethim loaded onto an ambulance
Cause he had, he had justdrunken himself into.
He couldn't get out of thefloor.
(39:18):
He was, by this point he was inhis late seventies, pushing 80
years old.
My grandmother couldn't get himup and got him into a treatment
center, rehab, and she wasgoing to have him put into a
long term extended.
You know like she's going tohave him put into a long-term
extended, you know, like she wasgoing to put him in a home.
And I went and talked to her Idon't know if even my cousins
and everybody knows this, theyprobably do but I went and
(39:39):
talked to my grandmother and Isaid he could come live with us
and let's see if we can get himon his feet.
You know, until you figure outa long, because she felt really
she was very afflicted andconflicted about sending him,
you know, right into a like anursing home.
She don't send him to a nursinghome cause he's still pretty
good health.
And so we ended up I'll neverforget it we set up a camper in
(40:04):
my backyard, like that wasalmost connected to my house,
like you walked right out myback door and you, you were at
the steps to this little, thistravel trailer.
But we ended up putting him inthe house and he took he took my
son's room.
We lived in a 750 square foothouse and he stayed in that
(40:27):
house with us for for that mostof that winter and my, my son,
just we moved him in.
I just had a couple of smallkids at the time and and I think
we moved him in with his sisterand they were like you know,
they were maybe like I think.
We moved him into our roombecause I think tuck was like
one, and so, um, and my granddadstayed with us and I watched
the lord change his heart, sitin family devotions and he and I
(40:47):
would sit up late at night andtalk and I journaled through and
wrote down the experiences thathe shared from his time in
France, in Europe, in theEuropean theater, and it was a
powerful season of life for me.
And I watched him begin to callon the name of the Lord and I
had heard him pray.
He would pray a lot of timesover a meal because I think,
(41:10):
because I think it was kind ofcultural thing to do.
But so it wasn't like he was anatheist, he just was cold to
the church he had.
He was very frustrated anddisenchanted with organized
religion and the church andanyway I watched the Lord turn
his heart.
And so I believe, when I, when Isee, commit your way to the
Lord, cast your anxiety on him.
(41:31):
Let him carry the burden, evenif that's a burden for, for
someone you care about, give itto the Lord and trust him with
it.
Um, but then, and and that thatfourth um imperative be still
in the presence of the Lord andwait patiently for him to act.
(41:51):
That's where I think it reallycomes into play is like and
sometimes it's hard to wait onthe Lord to act.
You know, I remember mygrandmother telling me he said
he's a different man.
She'd say Brody, he's adifferent man.
I've been married to this man.
She would say I've been marriedto this man for 60 years and
he's different.
The Lord changed him.
So we waited for the Lord toact.
(42:12):
Blaise Pascal said this mandoes not know how to stay
quietly in his own room.
So we've got to learn to becontent.
Philippians 4.11,.
I've learned, whatever stateI'm in, to be content, I need to
be still before the Lord, becontent before the Lord.
So this election season, you'refreaking out.
Look if you're freaking out.
If Kamala Harris, carmeloHarris wins, a lot of Christians
(42:37):
are freaking out.
A lot of non-Christians arefreaking out if Trump wins.
But most Christians that I knowat least in my circle, because
I'm in more conservative circlesthey freak out.
I heard someone the other day Ithink I mentioned this on a
previous episode.
I had a family member say man,if she wins, it's kind of like
like what, what?
Nothing's, it's fine.
(42:58):
The lord is still in control.
I don't want her to win, um.
I don't want x, y or z to win.
I don't, I'm not.
I don't want anybody to winbecause I think they're gonna
save us.
You know what I mean, um, but Ido want to vote for the person
that's going to upholdrighteousness.
And so is it concerning when wehave candidates and elected
(43:20):
leaders that don't upholdrighteousness, that promote and
push the things that anger God.
Yeah, we don't want that.
But you know what the Lord's incontrol and I can be content.
I can be content, I can trustin the Lord.
Man does not know how to stayquietly in his own room.
Like Pascal said, you got tomeddle, got to try to get into
(43:44):
business and make somethinghappen.
Learn to be still before theLord.
Learn to sit quietly before theLord and say I trust you, jesus
, I trust you, heavenly Father,I'm giving you my relationships.
I trust you with the government, I trust you with the economy,
I trust you with my health, Itrust you with my future.
(44:04):
I trust you with my wayward sonor daughter.
I trust you.
And so then, the last thing isin verse eight that we read and
it says this stop being angry,turn from your rage.
Esv says refrain from anger,forsake wrath.
I think there's threecategories of anger that
Christians tend to, or thathumans rather tend to deal with
(44:26):
anger against God, anger againstothers and anger against
circumstances.
And I've watched people be suchan encouragement in this last
week because they're not angryat God, they're not angry at
others, they ain't mad at theircircumstances, they're living
out Psalm 37, eight refrain fromanger, forsake wrath, stop
(44:48):
being angry, turn from your rage, don't lose your temper.
It only leads to harm.
Now he follows that um, that,that fifth one.
He follows it, uh with, becausethe second thing we saw that we
were to do and not frettingwhen the evil world around us
seems to be prospering is tolook toward eternity.
Right, so we look to Jesus, welook to eternity.
(45:08):
Listen to how those last threeverses go that we read for the
wicked will be destroyed.
So he says stop being angry,turn from your rage, don't lose
your temper.
It leads to harm.
Then he says for the wicked, formeans, because the wicked are
going to be destroyed, but thosewho trust in the Lord will
possess the land.
We may not possess the freedomsthat we've held so dear to our
(45:31):
lives, and there may be a day inthis life where we lose them,
but we will possess the landthat God has promised us.
Soon the wicked will disappear.
You look for them, they'll begone.
The lowly will possess the landand will live in peace and
prosperity.
So the second thing we looktoward eternity.
The world around us is temporal.
(45:52):
We need to always have eternityinside.
It's the I like to calleternity and that eternal
perspective, the overarchingcontextualizer, no matter what
you're going through.
Uh, we have a dear friend tothis ministry and to my, my
family, little, and I loveShelly so much, shelly Burns,
who is in a battle with cancerand, as hard as it is to imagine
(46:18):
what that's like to go through,and many of you have dealt with
it her positive outlook isconstantly challenging and
overwhelming and I'm justgrateful for people that have
that kind of faith.
We look to eternity.
So you look to Jesus, you lookto eternity and, uh, and you
don't live with bitterness orresentment, you live out the
kind of grace and kindness thatMorgan Meager showed me.
(46:40):
Uh, you, you, you live out thethe kind of I don't know the
kind of perspective that theseflood victims have showed us, um
, perspective that these floodvictims have showed us, um.
Anyway, I hope that Psalm 37will be an encouragement for you
.
Five things what's your takeaway?
What's your homework this week?
Five commands or imperativesTrust the Lord and act on it.
(47:02):
Trust the Lord and do good.
Number two delight yourself inthe Lord.
Number three commit your way tothe Lord.
Your thoughts, your, your, your, your past, your steps, your
thoughts, your past, your steps,your work, your money, your
relationships.
Commit it all to the Lord.
Number four be still before theLord.
Be still before the Lord, sitwith contentment before the Lord
(47:23):
and trust him to act.
And number five refrain fromanger.
Don't let your anger consumeyou.
Don't be eaten up with angerand wrath.
Don't lose your temper.
It doesn't accomplish anything.
Anger towards God, angertowards other, anger towards the
circumstances you're dealingwith.
Refrain from that, turn fromthat and in all of that, two
things Keep your eyes on Jesusand keep your eyes on eternity,
(47:45):
and it'll stabilize you andit'll steady you.
So that's what I've got forthis week.
Um, I did want to, as, as wetransition, and kind of get
ready to, to jump off of hereand and, uh, you get ready to go
about your day.
Uh, this weekend is, uh, swomarriage conference Number one.
The next two weekends we willhave our fall, our annual fall
(48:07):
marriage conferences.
And uh, there's still I thinkthere's still some space.
I know this, this will be avery spontaneous thing, but, um,
come, come, come, be with us Ifyou don't have anything planned
for one of the next twoweekends.
Um, it's an awesome time.
Pray for these couples that aregoing to be coming as we look
into God's word and talk aboutmarriage and family and what it
(48:28):
is to to strive and seek tohonor the Lord in the way that
we love and honor our spouses.
It's going to be an awesometime.
Then, another shout-out to myman, andy Miller, who is the
food service director at SWO.
He's only been with us sincethe end of summer, but he's
doing a phenomenal job.
He's coming up to speed quick.
(48:48):
It's a tough transition to stepinto such a big job and he's
doing a great job.
But everybody's excited aboutthe marriage, the marriage, the
men's conference, women'sconferences and marriage
conferences.
People get real excited aboutthem because the food goes up a
notch, you know, and so I'mexcited to see what we're going
to eat this weekend.
I can't wait.
This is going to be awesome.
I'm sure it's always a treatand uh, so it's going to be good
(49:11):
, going to be a good weekend.
Y'all pray for us.
Fall is here.
I'm going to be doing somehunting the next month, next
next two months, really, thenext three rest of this year and
into January I'm going to bedoing some hunting.
But I love to hunt in November.
Y'all pray for me.
I can't decide where I want togo hunt the rut.
Do I want to go up North?
Do I want to bow hunt in Ohioor Illinois, something like that
(49:31):
?
Do I want a rifle hunt inGeorgia, georgia or some some,
you know, somewhere furtherSouth where it'd be warmer and I
can use my rifle?
Do I want to go up into colderweather and use my I don't know
man decisions, decisions, so, um, anyhow, that's where we're at.
That's what we're dealing with.
What a good problem to have.
That's a good struggle to be inthe middle of.
(49:51):
So I'm happy to be here.
I'll let you know what ends upcoming out of it.
Y'all have an awesome week.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
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