"He Is Not Here: Are You Looking for Jesus in the Right Places?" - Easter Podcast - The Neighborhood Church, Bentonville, AR

Episode Transcript
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Pastor Joe Liles (00:00):
Is back. The jingles back is back. Welcome to

(00:03):
the TNC podcast. We are recordedin studio, and we have some
special guests joining us today,back in the studio after eight
weeks, joining us here to bringback, really the the true three,
not the Trinity, right? We haveanother three that exist in the
church. Um, we're going to talkabout that in a second for our
Easter message. But we have thethree hosts of the podcast back

(00:25):
live today. Tom is not with ustoday, but should be back next
week. But to my right, sittingas a new father, right of a
Gosh, nine weeks old now, twomonth old, two month old, two
month old, baby. Hope it is theone. The only Tavo table is
back. We're so glad you're here.
Well, thank you, Rose. I have somany questions about how time
with baby hope is yes, yeah, andit's gonna be wonderful. We're

(00:48):
gonna talk about that. Okay, tomy left, you've heard her
wonderful voice already. She isthe director of operations at
the neighborhood church, makingsure everything runs smoothly
and that everyone iscommunicated with on a daily
basis. She gets all thequestions. So if you have them
call the church line, it is theone, the only Roseanne.
Roseanne, that's great. It'sgreat to have you on the
podcast, Roseanne, and then andI am Joe Liles pastor at the

(01:08):
neighborhood church, and so welove to just talk with you on
our podcast about littlebreakdown of the message,
usually what we experienced onSunday. And for the first time
in our podcast, right on ourpodcast channel, we posted the
message like so we're not justtalking about it. You go, oh,
there Sunday, I have no idea.
You can actually go back andlisten to the message. Now we're
going to continue to do that. Sothat way you can listen on

(01:30):
Mondays to the message,typically on a Wednesday or
Thursday, we'll post thepodcast, and that way you can
follow up. And what we do on thepodcast is we try to dive a
little bit deeper into the lifeof the church, maybe into the
parts of the message thatweren't out there on Sunday,
because we have about 20 to 30minutes to preach, and that
means that there's a lot ofinformation that we might not
have got to that we can sharemore about on the podcast, and

(01:51):
we just dive deep into it. Wereally talk about our own
stories within the midst of themessage and so But speaking of
story table, you've been out foreight weeks, eight weeks, eight
weeks on parental leave. Mm hmm,with Kara at home. Kara,
amazingly, has like 13. How manyweeks is she? Is she like

Unknown (02:06):
19 weeks? Uh, honestly, I don't know. She goes back on
June 1. Wow. She's got another445, we've got another

five weeks.
Wow, that's awesome. Wow. That'sreally got a good tell us. How
has life been at home. Oh,

Unknown (02:21):
man, with baby hope, I don't know, I don't know where
to start. Where should I start?
Start at

the beginning.
So, baby hope, born. She wasborn early at the beginning,
yeah, born early, beginning ofher life. Born

Unknown (02:32):
early. Okay, well, yeah, she was. We went to the
doctor. The baby was very small,and so we went to get an
extracurricular ultrasound, andsome doctor came in and said,
You guys ready to have a baby goto the hospital right now? Okay?
And we were like, who are you? Idon't trust you. I don't trust
you. I have plans today. Yeah,right, yeah. I we had a whole

(02:54):
set of plans. I was going to gohave lunch with my mom. I was
going to watch the Book ofMormon with Taylor Smith later.
That's right, was that a wholeday planned out. We were having
a wonderful Saturday, yeah, uh,turns out we ended up having to
have a baby that day. So, yeah,it we had two more weeks of
church planning. Yeah, we're inthe book. Oh my gosh, yeah, that
just disappeared, and that onewent out the door, yep. So we

(03:16):
went weeds for you. Theyinterrupt your plan. I They sure
do. Oh, man, yeah,

she took your schedule

Unknown (03:22):
right away, right away, and that owned you. And I was
navigating a very tight line,you know, like every day had the
very specific goals that neededto be achieved, and it was all
it was all out the door. So,yeah, I mean, we went and we had
a baby, somewhat dramatic, yeah,and, but yeah, Carol was induced
and the baby was born. She wasfive, five pounds, seven ounces.

(03:44):
Little, tiny baby. She was bornon the point fourth percentile.
Wow. Seriously, very small baby,wow, which is big part of the
reason why we essentiallydisappeared for two months.
Yeah, right, because a couple ofthings. One, if the baby is a
little has a little more weight,you can fight the baby a little
bit and just learn tobreastfeed. Yeah, yeah, right.
We didn't have that luxury. Andso we just had to, we had to go

(04:07):
to bottle because the native thebaby needed weight, yes. And
thankfully, the baby neededweight so fast that we couldn't
wait for a carous milk to fullycome in and oh, wow, we drove
over to Kim's, who was still intown. Say, Kim, do you have any
milk for because we need itimmediately. Wow, there were
tears. It was a Yeah, there wasa thing. But yeah, thankfully,

(04:28):
she's, she's, she's, she's beengrowing well, yeah, we went to
the doctor yesterday. She, sheis at 10 pounds now, great. And
she's skipped on up to the 19thpercentile. That's a huge skip,
something like the 12thpercentile, the head
circumference. And there's someother yeah tiles, but they're
all healthy, all on the smallside, but, like, well within
range, they're not, like, pointfourth percent, yeah. So yeah,

(04:50):
that was a little dramatic. Thefirst, you know, we have family
in town, and we're, like, wehave been advised by our medical
team, yeah, to create a. Bubblearound the baby, just because
the baby being so small, ifthere is any disease, it
wouldn't, it would be straightto hospitalization because the
baby has no fat, yeah. And so,okay, it looks like we're gonna

(05:12):
have a bubble, which was not ourplan. We had planned to just be
out and about very quickly,yeah. But we had, we created a
bubble. And if you know Kara,she does not like to sit at
home.

No, Kara is not a homebody, no. But

Unknown (05:25):
mostly, Kara has been wanting to have babies ever
since I've known her, yeah,being a mom has always been her
greatest dream, and so she'sloving it. She is loving every
minute of it. Me, on the otherhand, the Switch comes in. I've
experienced some bouts ofpostpartum depression. Oh, okay,

(05:46):
alright, just because I am Ihave many interests. I have many
things that I like to spend mytime doing. I have, you know,
projects I like to work on. Igot books to read. I got to view
shows to watch, Sure,absolutely. But a lot of like,
useful things that I like to do.
I like

how you said, I have projects, and you name
it, a couple like, like the joythings, yeah, watch TV.

Unknown (06:08):
There's some, there's some. Like, music, but I love
things. I had projects, I hadplans. I have a piano to tune. I
have languages to learn. I havebooks to read. I have so many,
oh, please tell me your pianogot tuned. Well, it's tuned by
me. Oh, great. To an acceptablerange, to an acceptable range.
Okay, that's good, yeah, um, so,so it's been tough being

(06:28):
completely at the mercy of a asyet irrational creature.

Yes, there, yeah, there's nothing that
creature demands, right? And andyou have to

Unknown (06:39):
provide. And just literally, 24 hours a day, just
being pulled to and fro from onedirection to another, not a
single moment being able to dowhat he had planned to do, and
just watching the weeks go byand your taxes not getting done,
right? And the I had a studio Iwanted to set up my studio never

(06:59):
got it done. Isn't it

amazing? Like you imagine that you have eight
weeks, and you're like, I canget so much done in it,
squeezing a couple projects, andthen you get to the end eight
weeks, you're like, whathappened? Yeah, like, all the
same things that I had before,yeah, are still there, yeah,
yeah. And

Unknown (07:14):
that's why, when somebody said, Oh, you're back
from vacation, and they saidthat word vacation in my blood
boiled, because this is not avacation. It is not so, yeah, we
talked to Adam Lewis at somepoint, and we just, kind of, we
stopped by the house to picksome something up. And he's
like, oh, yeah, because he had,he got exactly two months too

(07:35):
from State Farm, yeah, yeah. Andhe said I had plans. I was going
to build the build out the shedbehind my house, yeah, turned it
into an apartment for family tocome visit. He's been monitored
every year, yeah, yeah. And Ihad two months and I said, this
is this is my opportunity. Youknow what? He said, Yeah, didn't
swing a hammer. Like nothinghappens. There is no way. Yeah.

(07:56):
I mean, like mom is busy 100% ofthe time, yeah, either trying to
feed baby or trying to do thethings that come before or after
feeding the Yeah, right. Ourbabies struggle to eat, struggle
to latch, which mean we werewhat they call triple feeding
learning, okay, yeah, great.
Means you try to breastfeed, andthen you pump, and then you do
the bottle, yeah? And the wholeprocess takes two hours, and she

(08:17):
had to do it every three hours.
Yeah, correct. And so what elsedo we do? So Kara is literally
all day long, every singleminute sitting on the couch
trying to either feed the babyor get ready to feed the baby,
yeah, which means, literallyeverything else

is is on you, is on me, yeah, yeah, you're
moving. You're moving. I ammoving. Everything else running,
right? We

Unknown (08:37):
went camping a couple of with that camping trip that
we always do, and I loaded thatwhole truck and that whole
trailer, and I drove the wholeway, and then I unloaded that
whole truck and that wholetrailer, and then I unloaded it
again. Yeah, I unloaded itagain, yeah. And Carol was just
watching me. She's like, I'm sosorry. I can't

this is a different camping experience
than we've ever I don't know

Unknown (09:00):
very different. So, yeah, you know, we're getting
used to it. I've never been,I've never been too crazy about
babies. You know your baby guy,Joe Tom's a big baby guy, I

wanted to, I was like, Kara, yeah, like,
early on, Father only. Like, Iwanted to be a father. So, I
mean, really, it's the reason Idrove an all nighter last night
to get back to Kaylee's meet.
Like, my desire and heart is tobe the best father that I can
be, and I wanted that from anearly

Unknown (09:25):
age. Yeah, well, I'd like to be a good father to talk
about the infant stage. Yeah,I've been greatly encouraged by
the the vast swaths of othermen, yeah, who have told me that
they didn't have any fun at allfor the first couple years.
Yeah,

so I actually shared that for the first four
months, like that post partum,little bit depression, like
there's, there's a reality thatI don't think men talk about. So
one care amazing, right? There'ssuch a side of this that men
don't understand. I'm going tosay that out loud, right? That
that is existing where we want.
Help want to be a part of, andwe just don't understand that,
and and you guys are in it, andso we love that and appreciate,

(10:03):
like, that's so important. Thereis a side that I often talk to
men about, right, when sharingabout the life of an infant,
right? I am one. Like, evenwanting to be a father. I
expected this interaction withmy child, yeah, out of the gate,
like, like, ready to go. I holdthe baby. The baby looks I'm
like, You're my dad. Like,you're my dad. This is amazing.

(10:24):
Am I here? And I cannot eventell you how bad it got in the
first four months for me, whereI was like, the expectation I'd
set for myself was so differentfrom the experience I was having
that I really felt lost way. Andthen I couldn't help in the way
that I wanted to. I do thefeedings, and I couldn't do
this, like, even the things, Iwas like, Oh, this is going to

(10:45):
connect me to my chat. Like, Iwasn't involved, you know, and,
like, and then I would stay up,then I would get in trouble for
staying up at the same time shewas up, because one of us needs
sleep. And so then I would getin trouble for that. And and I
was trying to help, but now I'min trouble for helping. And,
like, all these things arehappening. I'm like, Oh my gosh,
and I can remember to almost tothe day, the first time that,
like, Kaylee actually looked upat me, like, at four months. And

(11:05):
this was four months I was inthis looked up at me and was
like, Oh, that's my dad's voice.
And I kid you not. I rememberthe look, I remember the smile,
I remember she keyed off, likemy vocal Pat, like, all the
things that I've been hoping forfor four months, yeah. And then
finally she looked, and I waslike, Oh, we're in it, you know.

(11:27):
And, and it's interesting to saythat, because I just went and
saw my new nephew, yeah,Ezekiel, right? And Ezekiel is
also Zeke two months old. Imean, born within weeks of each
other, yeah, yeah, they were.
And so got baby time. But yeah,that baby, I mean, I would be
talking that baby's just lookingoff at the world, nothing. This
Uncle Joe, not a deal, right?

(11:48):
Only mom,

Unknown (11:49):
I will say, I always like to lead with the negative,
but there's, there's always, youknow, she's, she's a cutie bite,
you know? Oh yes. And she's kindof adorable, yeah? And it's fun,
you know, to kind of look,there's, there's some fun
moments here and there,fleeting, yeah, yeah. But you

(12:12):
know, she's alright. She justkind of chills. She was, I went
to bed last night, finally,like, finished whatever,
everything I needed to do. Shewas taking care of. Care was
taken care of. It's midnight.
Yeah, you have between midnightand eight, yeah, to sleep. This
is my window, yeah, and I lay inbed, and there she goes again.
She starts because she's flight,she's in her basket, and she's
here right both arm, and she'ssucking on that passive fire

(12:34):
aggressively violently. I'mlike, Oh, no. Two hours later,
she had eaten two full meals,wow. So just out of nowhere, she
decided to cluster feed andyeah, and Kara and I are the
opposite, because Kara, likeKara, if she's tired, like a 10
or 11, yeah, she is gone. She'sa zombie. She's completely gone.

(12:58):
She is, you're talking aboutKara. Kara, oh yeah, yeah, she,
she's out. Yeah, on. I can, ifI, if I'm up, I can pretty much
stay up indefinitely. I can stayup till seven tomorrow, yeah,
but if you wake me up, I'museless. I cannot respond. I'm
limp, yeah, you know. And Karais the opposite. And so at
midnight, when the baby startsgoing, I was like, Okay, this is
me, because Kara is not if I tryto talk to Kara, all she'll say

(13:20):
is, you know, like a whale. Thisis such family life. I love it,
yeah? So it's like, this one,this one's on me, so I guess
it's gonna be a tired datetoday. Yeah, yeah. So here we
are,

and then 12 to two nailed it down, yep, nailed
it down. Cluster feeding.
Cluster

Roseann Bowlin (13:36):
feeding. Okay, that's great. She's gonna grow
Yeah,

Unknown (13:39):
which we were wondering why she slept so much yesterday,
and then she woke up and she ateso much. Yeah, that's gross,
right?

Yeah, growth, yeah. I got in trouble at my
sister's house because I had, Ihad the baby while the baby was
sleeping, which sleeping withthe sleeping baby is one of my
closest to heaven delights inlife, because you cannot do
anything else except be withthat child without child asleep
in your arms, and it sets well,

Unknown (14:02):
you can roll over and suffocate. Wow, wow.

That was a moment. That was a moment, yeah,
yeah, I sleep in the chair.
Yeah? Bobby, like that. Bobby,on the ball. And so this child
is just sleeping in my arms, andI'm in heaven, right? And
apparently they have a schedule.
Brother, Joe, yeah, so take thatin, like, secondly, I'm Uncle
Joe. So when Uncle Joe comes,I'm the fun Uncle Joe. So like,

(14:26):
schedule, like, I don't know, Icome in for 10 hours. I was
there for 10 hours. I'm comingin hot. And so they all looked
at me. My parents were therebecause they're helping out
right there. They're living overthere right now for three or
four months. And then Andrew'shome, her husband, Heather's
home, and I'm looking at it, andthe baby's just sleeping, and
it's wonderful. And they go,hey, the baby needs to wake up
and feed. And I'm like, No, thebaby, baby's sleeping. I was

(14:47):
like, so the baby sleep? Andthey're like, No, we have a
schedule, right? So they hand methe bottle. They've already
prepared it. They hand it to melike they force me to have the
bottle. And I'm like, Okay, andso, so I baby sleeping, and I
put the bottle next to baby'smouth, and baby starts like, so
can. Like, right, ready to go.
And they're like, no, no, thisneeds to be awake feeding. And
I'm like, but the baby's eating,and they're like, Oh, wow. I was
like, What do you mean these beawake? Somebody read a book.

(15:08):
Yeah. It's like, Baby needs tobe awake. And I was like, I
don't want the baby to be awake.
My mom's like, you wake up thatbaby, right? Eight o'clock, I'm
about to start a fight. Grandma.
Yeah, I got grandma. I gotgrandma. So the baby woke up.
The baby woke up, and then theythought, I couldn't get the
onesie off. Like, they had aswaddle onesie on right? And,
like, let us do it for you. AndI'm like, Look, I've been around
the block, and I was like, I'mgonna take i one handed that

(15:30):
swaddle onesie like a champ. Mymom looked at me, and she was
like, it was really good. And Iwas like, one, I don't know if
there's like, a really good fora swaddle onesie. Like, I don't
know if that's a like, at somepoint I'm just going to unveil
her and unzip things.

Unknown (15:43):
You know, it's funny.
Hope won't take a swaddle. No,she's like, if she's extremely
tired, she'll accept it. Yeah,sleep. Most of the time. She
won't accept it. She'll just,like, fight. Her arms are out
and up, which is kind of funny,but also very frustrated, yeah,
very frustrated. How do we doit? Yes, right. Yeah, that was
like that too,

real thing. Oh yeah. She was fighting it, and
she wanted out. Oh

yeah, yeah, all right. So that was baby
talk. That's the baby section.
That's the baby so how arethings right now? So, 10 pounds,
10 pounds, that's amazing. Sodoubled in weight, doubled in
weight. Super healthy on Easter,adorable. She's super healthy.
Slept through Easter. She sleepsthrough a lot. She sleeps
through a lot. So we are rocking160 B in here, and baby slept.
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing.

(16:26):
Yeah, we're

Unknown (16:26):
definitely, we're not doing the schedule thing. We're
doing the Wake window thing. Oh,that's great. So it's like, you
just let the baby sleep, andwhen the baby wakes up, you
know, you have a there's aclock, there's two hours, you
gotta do the thing, and she'stotally unpredictable. And so we
don't, we don't know what we'redoing, but yeah, hey, they're
figuring it out.

I'm not gonna lie. I'm gonna tell you I'm 15
years in right with kids in highschool. Hey, that's the same
statement. Like every day is anew day. Like I said today, we
had to come in and do kind of atighter podcast, because Landon
shipped a tooth yesterday, andthen Jess was like, Hey, cool
schedule this. And I was like,Cool. My calendar was booked.
And I was like, so I'm gonnahave to change a lot in order to
get that but, yeah, gotta gopick them up and get a tooth
extract. Tooth extracted today,which was none of the plan as of

(17:05):
Tuesday. So that's great. Sothat's life. Well, that's great
question for you regardingworship, experience with a new
baby in worship, should weprovide little baby earmuffs for
babies when they come intoworship?

Unknown (17:20):
I have no idea. My baby doesn't need anything. She's
not, yeah, she was good. Yeah,she's fine. She was good. Hey,
she's, you know, she's tooyoung, I think, okay, too, yeah,
to care too much where we'll seewhen she gets into toddlerhood,
yeah? What? What it's going tobe like?

We should call that to watch for that startle
reflex, yeah, but, yeah. Butwhat? I mean, it's worship. I

think I want to call the toddlers in our
church now, toddlerhood from nowon, toddlers, toddlerhood in the
neighborhood. Alright, I kind oflike that. That's really
alright. Hey, let's jump in alittle bit and talk through our
Easter but really the Holy Week.
And the first thing I want to dois, if people are listening, I
just want to shout out a hugethank you to all our volunteers.
One can we say how incrediblethe volunteers are that help

(18:05):
make this church go so manypeople were involved in Holy
Week, because what people don'trealize is they show up on
Easter, but it's a whole week ofexperiences that take every
single day in the life of thechurch and many weeks before
that, right? So Palm Sundayinvolves one ordering of all the
palms and getting everythingready. That's two months prior
to anything that happens withPalm Sunday. And then in

(18:25):
Roseanne, you were huge inhelping out with that and
sitting down and going over thatour worship coordinators getting
everything set up. We have PalmSunday set up. So we have people
in here on a Saturday laying allthe palms, because you can't lay
them early, because they getcrunchy, right, and then the
room kind of smells musty,right? So you lay them the day
before, and it's beautiful. Andwe lay them everywhere in them
everywhere in the church, uh, wehad people building Easter
crosses, right? Gary Dennisbuilt the Easter cross for us,

(18:46):
right? And then built it so wehad pegboard inside it so we
could place palms in the Eastercross on Palm Sunday, which
ended up being beautiful. And Ithink we'll do every year from
now on, because it was gorgeouslearning experience. We did that
also on Saturday, we put all thepalms in the Easter cross.
Beautiful. We had peoplehelping. We came Palm Sunday
morning, and all the palms haddrooped on Saturday. Beautiful.

(19:08):
It looked like this fullexpression of like, a Palm
Sunday ground. We came in andall the palms like, oh, like,
and so that was a moment. Sowe're going to do that on Sunday
morning next year. That'll bethe change. And then we have
good Friday. Good Friday, wecome and reset the whole space.
We change all the chairs, webring the altar out, we clear
the whole stage. We set upcandle stations all around the

(19:29):
church, right for our ending inprayer. Well, prayer station,
prayer stations with candles,with candles, that's a better
way to say that. And and then weset all those up so that whole
space is reset. And thenSaturday, Sunday, Easter.
Saturday, we reset the wholespace again. This is involves
2030 people in addition to,like, the house band right,
which practiced four or fivetimes before Easter and before

(19:50):
our dress rehearsal on theSaturday. Right. They were
amazing. They were amazing.
Loved Easter. Loved Easter. Um,incredible. And so they put in a
ton of. There are 17 people inthe house band. So that was, and
that's in addition to the GoodFriday band. That's addition to
the Palm Sunday stuff that'sgoing on. And we still had youth
on Wednesday night. So likethat, youth bands going on. So

(20:10):
like all these things, life ofthe church still goes during
this time. And then you hadbroadcast and media. We had, I
think, 30 plus volunteers forworship that were greeting at
the doors and helping out withfellowship, right, and setting
up the space. And then kid cityhad nursery toddlers and a 1500
Egg Hunt back there, so theywere setting up back there. So I
just want to say huge thank you.
On behalf of the leadership ofthe church, the staff of the

(20:32):
church, as we sit here, right,knowing that our work is made
possible by the volunteers,which are really incredible. We
had a photographer in on Sunday.
So I'm hoping that we captured alot of the neat volunteers
helping, right and do the andthen we have all pictures. So
we'll share out those picturesand make sure there's a place
where you can kind of see thelife of what was happening in
the church and all the setupthat went in. And if you haven't

(20:52):
check your email, because we dida thank you to the volunteers in
the weekly email too, with someextra pictures in there.

Unknown (20:57):
So do you remember the photographer with the loud
shutter? Oh, the ELCAphotographer,

he came up to me beforehand. It was like, Do
you mind if I like, get close toworship? And I was like, Look,
you have full freedom. And I waslike, if you see something and
you have a creative vision forit, please take it. What he
didn't tell me is he has a loudshutter,

Unknown (21:15):
which is a setting, but I guess he forgot, right? And

then he went on the automatic shot so and you
can hear it. Oh, worship. Oh sodistracting, yeah? So we had
Scott, Scott and Scott wood inthis past, amazing, awesome.
Yeah, church guy, but also, likepastors kids, so knows the life

(21:40):
of the church. So we're going tobe able to see a whole bunch of
the life of what Easter waslike, which is really
incredible. So So yeah, so wetalked on Easter a lot, just
about our Easter experience. Butwhat was your moment of worship?
On Easter table, you attendedEaster. You came as a family. On
Easter Roseanne, you were here,right? Attending Easter, also,
right, and helping out wherever,because you just jump in and

(22:00):
help out, even though it wasattending. What was your moment
of what was your moment ofworship on Easter? Just from
sitting in and being present

on Easter? Mine what I and I don't want to take
away from any discussion that wehave, but mine truly was, Jesus
is not here. He's already movingforward, yeah? So we need to
follow him. Yeah, that's great.
So that was, that was it for me.
It was, you know, why are welooking in the tomb? Yeah, yes,

(22:32):
he's already gone, yeah. But Ialso think about the people of
that time and how they trulywere crushed because their king
had died a sinners death. So Ithink about that too, and how

(22:52):
impacted they were by theresurrection.

No, I mean, it's, it's really great, because
I think something that hit methis year is what you just
talked about, the positioning.
The positioning of the crossoutside of the city gates, right
on a path right as you'rewalking in. Is this reality
that, yeah, he was put out withthe marginalized and the
outcast, right? This was not aroyalty, you know, moment. This
was a crucifixion and it wasgritty. Oh, yeah. Gritty is a
great way to explain that, raw,gritty, right? Yeah, and, and so

(23:19):
this resurrection reality is thehope from all that, right? But I
love it, because we're stilllooking in the tomb, right, like
all of us want to see where. Andit was a very important that
that first point of the messagethat you just made was the first
point that I made on Sunday waswe're looking for where Jesus
was in our life. Like the womenwent back to see where Jesus had
been laid, and they had alreadybeen there. They had gone back

(23:40):
to prepare the spices andeverything else for the burial.
And so they had already seenJesus in zoom. And we do that
constantly, to go back to whereJesus was in our life, where we
last experienced God, and wewant that experience again. And
I think the most importantmessage we can hear is that,
hey, he's not here. And I lovewhat the angel said in the tomb.
They said, Why are you lookingfor the living among the dead?

(24:00):
Right? It's like, that's just apowerful statement, right? And I
think we go back into our livesand constantly look for Jesus
where we were in our life. Andmaybe that's a part that we've
moved on from a past that we'vekind of, we've died to ourselves
already, yet we're trying tofind that Jesus again, and so we
need to move forward with Jesusand see that. So, yeah, that's
great. That's great. That was awonderful takeaway. What about
you table attending as a newfamily? Attending as a new

(24:22):
family?

Unknown (24:23):
I think one lesson is that babies are very
distracting. That's true. Soit's, you know, shout out to
whoever works at the nursery,because that's an invaluable
work. It's huge to let peoplesit and participate in worship
and focus, I think there's,there's, there's a moment of

(24:50):
coming, coming together withyour brothers and sisters in
Christ, and with all thesepeople you know and you know on
a you know, varying. Degrees ofdeath, I suppose, but, but, but
that you know, with some qualityto what their life is and to
what they're going through andand you can see their story,

(25:12):
yeah. And for many of thesepeople, you can see where,
knowing their story, you knowwhere Jesus came in and where
Jesus continues to come in totheir lives, and to be able to
to hug all these people onSunday morning school and sing
together He is risen, and allour hopes are fulfilled. Yeah?

(25:35):
Is a really, really specialmoment, yeah, and it always is
for me, this Easter was a littledifferent for me, obviously. And
he's typically, there's lintleading up, leading up to
Easter. And typically, for Lent,I will do something, you know,
sometimes something moreinvolved, sometimes something
just simple, depending on whatthe circumstances are. We're

(25:57):
flexible, you know, yeah, we'renot crazy. But this year, I told
Kara, we're just having a baby.
What is the one thing we gotthere's we don't have the brain
space to even figure out whatelse to give up. We've already
given up. We don't even knowwhat we've given up, where we've

(26:17):
given and but, but there's athere's something really, really
special when you do thatpreparation work during Lent,
because when I've done it in thepast, you get to Easter, and the
sensitivity that you feel to thespirit when you when you come
together and worship andworshiping on Easter, it's

(26:37):
something that's hard todescribe and hard to replace,
yeah, and so I missed it. Yeah,I missed it. It was my worship
was, you know, he is risen andand everything's changed. But
there was something of a memorypast that I was hoping. Mm, I
there's a geneseq that I'm thatI'm that I'm missing here, yeah,

(27:02):
you know. And so I guess thatjust speaks to the importance of
prayer, you know, yeah, andhaving a life of prayer and and
devotion, it just, it kind ofclears the fog a little bit,
right? You know? So, yeah, so,the So, so I guess that's kind
of the picture I'll paint. Yeah,

no, I love how you name that, though, because
that was, I mean, that goes backto illustrate that first part
that we're looking for Jesus,sometimes our relationship with
God, mm hmm, in how we'veexperienced it, right? And those
experiences are special. Thoseexperiences are where we've felt
God's presence, right? And so weyearn for that again, right? We
yearn for this kind of momentwhen Jesus walked with us, yeah,
we felt this special moment withGod, and Easter became this

(27:45):
reality, and then we realizedthat, like, Oh, our lives have
changed, yeah, like, and ourhope is like, Wait, will I not
experience that again? You know?
Like, there's almost this like,yeah, like, you can name it,
like a missed opportunity, orlike, there's this moment, like,
I'm missing it. Is it not goingto come back? Or does it change
now, and I have to rediscoversomething entirely new, right?
And maybe there's a season whereit does come back, because in an
interesting way, I sat outhearing Kaylee sing on Sunday,

(28:08):
that's right, right? So, and sheled the last song, and it was
interesting, because we're now15 years into the church, right?
So imagine that, I think thechurch has been going for 14
years. We got here a year early,right? We knew we were playing
in the church about a yearbefore that. We got, actually
to, like, northwest Arkansas so,and so we're starting this
family, and everything else ishappening. You know, Kaylee was
born when we got here. She'sArkansas native, and so is

(28:29):
Landon, and I'm sitting out hereat the end of first service, and
Kaylee's leading and for one ofthe first times in leading
worship, she kind of justreleased, Mm, hmm, right? She,
she moved, yeah, like she, shefelt the spirit, and just went
out to the different people,right? And, and I was watching
this moment, and I was realizingthat, you know, this church that

(28:53):
I've planted with so many peoplelike you said, you gather with
all the people that you've donelife and faith with. And I
looked at and I was like, I'venever considered in 15 years
that this would be a churchwhere other parts of my family
would lead in, and that Godisn't doing the work just in me,
right? And maybe it was alwaysintended, never about that, that

(29:14):
there's another life of thechurch coming right, where, in a
beautiful way. It's not me likeand it's the other leaders
raising up, right? And it's theother staff that are coming in,
and it's other people leading,and we're seeing that in Tom
hellmuch and the kid cityleaders and the preschool now,
right? And everything else. AndI stood back, and I looked at
Kaylee from a perspective offamily, and I realized, like, oh
my gosh, this is a moment whereI'm worshiping with my daughter

(29:38):
leading worship, you know? And,and it just stopped me, right?
And I look over and Jess isteared up, right? And she's
right, and we're just standingnext to each other. And it's a
moment like, look in his familygoing, oh, like word now in the
presence of, like, being led byour family in a different way,
right? And, and it was likethis, almost like, proud parent
moment, and the. Same time, itwas like this very faithful,

(30:00):
like, almost like, oh, we canrest into this now, like we can
rest in this beautiful momentthat God is doing a work here,
in so many people, and reallyspecial moment, right for Jess
and I. And then Jess tried toleave, and I said, you have to
stay for two services so. Andthen she was like, ah. And then
we became a church family again,right? So it

was beautiful.
Though. You could see the HolySpirit working through that
song, through Kaylee in theentire space. Oh, and yeah, was
amazing. And

yeah, it was just beautiful. And here's the
other part too. Is like, if Ithink about the neighborhood,
these kids flooded out fromtheir seats, right? Not
prompted. They just flooded outfrom the seat and started
dancing in the front, right?
And, and I was like, Oh. I waslike, this, this is who we are,
like, unprompted. This is thelife of the neighborhood church,
right? And this is the life ofhow the spirit moves through

(30:54):
this church. And, and you couldsee it. And I was like, okay,
like, you know, just a beautifulmoment to actually rest from all
of the all of the strategy andall of the programming and all
of the planning and thepreparation, and then to realize
that he's, I think he said, in agreat way, he's risen like at at
the end of it, all right, welive into the miracle that Jesus

(31:14):
rose from the dead as a promiseto make the kingdom real. And
you just step back and you'relike, the kingdom is so much
bigger than anyone of us, anyoneof us at all times. And so just
a beautiful, beautiful Eastermoment. But let's talk through
Scripture. Let's kind of open upthe word, dwell in the Word, and
see what's going on and and talkthrough the Easter message a
little bit. So we're going to bein Luke chapter 24 and we always

(31:36):
like to take a little moment aswe prepare our hearts for the
word, just to take a breathpause, to slow down and just
take in the word while we are onthe podcast. And so Roseanne, if
you'd like to start us off inLuke chapter 24 the resurrection
of Jesus in verse one,

verse one, but on the first day of the week, at
early dawn, they came to thetomb taking the spices that they
had prepared, they found thestone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they went in, they didnot find the body. While they
were perplexed about this,suddenly, two men in dazzling
clothes stood beside them.

The women were terrified and bowed their faces
to the ground, but the men saidto them, Why do you look for the
living among the dead? He is nothere, but has risen. Remember
how he told you, while he wasstill in Galilee that the Son of
Man must be handed over to thesinners and be crucified and on

(32:36):
the third day rise again? Thenthey remembered his words.

Unknown (32:44):
And returning from the tomb, they told all this to the
11 and to all the rest. Now itwas Mary, Magdalene, Joanna,
Mary, the mother of James, andthe other women with them, who
told this to the apostles. Butthese words seem to them an idle
tale, and they did not believethem. But Peter got up and ran

(33:06):
to the tomb, stooping andlooking in, he saw the linen
closet by themselves. Then hewent home, amazed at what had
happened.

This is our gospel reading as David when I
found joy, my verse ended rightin the middle of a sentence,
right? Uh, Verse eight says,Then they remembered his words.
And that's verse nine, which gotus into the canonization of
Scripture and how this waswritten, and why did they cut it
in the middle? Because there'salways a point. I mean, that's
in verse eight. Then theyremembered his words,

Unknown (33:35):
yeah. Why? Why would you cut the verse there? Yeah.
So verse eight is then theyremembered his words. So

typically, when you cut a verse in the
middle, it's because they'reemphasizing two parts of that
singular verse, right? And thethe first part holds such
presence that they it needs itsown weight, right? In Scripture,
then they remembered his words.
Speaks of all the promises ofthe kingdom, that you will rise
again. I must go to the crossand I must rise again. And it's
actually this. It's almost likea break separating what's
happened in the first part towhat's happened in the second

(34:02):
part. Right? The first part isthis discovery that the tomb is
empty, the angel saying this, weknow these things are true. Them
thinking it's not true,everything that's happening. And
then the shift to, hey, this iswhat Jesus spoke. Right? Jesus
spoke these words. And honestly,we talk about it every year, the
disciples. So it talks about theapostles. Apostles are those who
walked with Jesus, right? Whonow walk after Jesus, but even

(34:23):
in the same before theascension, they're still kind of
walking with Jesus, but it's aresurrected Lord. But we have
this apostolic nature of now thedisciples, where they hear the
story from the women coming backfrom the tomb, and they still
don't believe, right? We get tothis place where they still
don't believe, and they have togo see it for themselves. And so
you have Peter running to thetomb. And I really broke down
this first part of the message,which we've talked about in a

(34:45):
little bit. But the he is nothere. It is such an important
part, because we look for Jesuswhere Jesus was in our life to
experience that again. And yetJesus is on the move. So I
intentionally did not choose anyother part of the scripture
where they actually meet Jesus.
The next is the walk to Emmaus,where the. Who have their eyes
closed to seeing Jesus, walkwith Jesus, and they finally see
him, and then Jesus disappears.
I love that. But if you seethis, it's not about knowing

(35:06):
that you're with Jesus, it'sabout trusting that God is still
with you, right? That's why thewalk to maze is so important.
Once they recognize Jesus, Jesusis gone, right? There's no more
of that. And so you have thisreality where we really need to
understand that Jesus has goneahead of us, and is still going
ahead of us, right? It's almostlike Jesus now walked with us,
is now drawing us to him, right,drawing us to where Jesus is at.

(35:27):
And right now that's thekingdom. And so we continue to
walk on that. And so I sharedthat first, that we continue to
look for Jesus, where Jesus wasin our life. And so I guess one
of my questions would be, wherehave you look for Jesus before
in your life like, where is thatbeen? That profound experience?
Because the women went back tothe tomb, because that's where
they last saw Jesus. They sawJesus being placed by Joseph,

(35:48):
who had asked for the body,received the body, went to the
tomb and buried Jesus inceremonial fashion, right,
wrapped him in linen claws, andthen the women went and saw
where Jesus was. Knew he was inthe tomb. The stone is put
there, but they prepare thespices for the burial, right?
And so they're waiting for thiskind of three days before the
body starts, and then they burythe body. So you have this
moment where the women are goingto experience where they last

(36:11):
saw Jesus. They're going toexperience where they know where
Jesus is at, when has been atime in your life where, where
you've sought to get back to aplace where you last experienced
Jesus or maybe a faith moment inyour life.

I think it's important to note that they were
going to prepare his body forburial, for final burial. It was
done when he wasn't there, theyhad a paradigm shift. They had
to, yeah, had to, and he wasfulfilling prophecy. Fulfilled
prophecy. So where do I findJesus? Where do I look for

(36:55):
Jesus? Where he has been? Ithink for me, it's in prayer
like you did this for me. So dothis again for me.

Yep, say more about the prayer.

I knew you were going to say that. It's a prayer
of expectation. I think I expectthis to be fulfilled because it
was fulfilled before. Mm, hmm,yep. And instead of like you
said, move forward, yeah, askfor something beyond that, not,

(37:37):
not like a genie in a bottlewhere, you know, God give me
this, yeah, it's asking forpeace or serenity, or whatever
it is. Go beyond that. That'swhat I need to do. Go, go to

(37:57):
where Jesus went. Yeah, where?
Is Jesus now, rather than wherehe was? Yep.

What about you? Tebow?

Unknown (38:07):
I think, I think if I can try and, I guess, interpret
where you're coming from alittle bit,
I'd imagine what you're talkingabout. When you're talking about
going to where Jesus was, is isyou're speaking into a sort of a
spirit of stagnation, right?
That can correct me if I'mwrong.

No, I think you're right. It's a spirit of,
I would say where Jesus was inyour life. Is a spirit where
you've experienced Jesus before,right?

That place of comfort,

it could be, well, here's here's the part. It
could be a place of comfort, itcould be a place of tragedy,
where Jesus and you felt God inyour life, right? So it might
not necessarily be stagnation,as much as it is. It's tied to
an experience of, I had thishappen in my life, but I felt
the presence of God here, right?
And so, and then tying that tothe women of the tomb, this is
tied to the crucifixion forthem, right? But that's also

(39:00):
tied to their ministry withJesus. They walked with Jesus,
right? They walked with Jesus tothe cross. They they were
present on this journey to thecross because they were present
in Jesus's ministry. So theyremembered, you know, they
remember Lazarus, and theyremember the feeding, and they
remember the teachings, right?
And they also remember thecrucifixion, but they are going
to the place where Jesus died,which means that they are in a

(39:21):
space with Jesus, that Jesus hasdied. They're not in the
resurrected Jesus yet, right? Sothey're living into this moment
that has I'm with Jesus in aspace that I've known Jesus
before, right? And I think evenin my life, I do that often too,
where I go back to that momentwhere I've experienced God,
right? Where I've experiencedGod. And if that sometimes it's
like in quiet prayer at night,right? And I know that there's

(39:43):
this, like 1130 hour, like tolike 130 hour, where, if I go
outside, and I sit out in thesechairs that I have, and I look
up at the stars, and it'speaceful and quiet, I've
experienced God there before. Sosometimes, when I feel lost or I
feel like I need a moment withGod, I'll recreate that
experience. I'll. Go back to theplace where I knew Jesus was
before in my life. And I'll belike, well, if I found Jesus

(40:04):
before here, I'm going to goback to there, right, instead of
in this resurrected Jesusreality, believing that the
promise is true and going aheadwith that knowledge of the
promise. So I think in thequestion of, where did you
experience God before, it's doyou go back to places where you
have felt the tangible and realpresence of God before in your
life, seeking that same thingagain.

Unknown (40:25):
Well, I mean, I think if you sat in your chair
outside, yeah, do you call it achair when it's outside?
Furniture, patio chair. Patiochair, there you go. Still,
chair. Somehow, instinctively, Iknow the furniture names change
depending on locations. Butanyway, you sit in your patio
chair and you look at the stars,and it's peaceful, and that for

(40:47):
you, is a moment where youexperience God, because it's a
moment where you're opened up inprayer. Yeah, I don't see any
reason why you shouldn't keepgoing back to that spot.
There's, I don't I don't thinklike I think God is always
calling it to growth, and sothere's always going to be a

(41:08):
challenge to growth. But at thesame time, God is the same,
yesterday, today and forever.
And the truths of God aretimeless and eternal. And if
something is true once, it'strue forever. And if it's true
that you encounter God when youmake room and space for God when
you're in this watching thestars. Man, go watch the stars.

(41:29):
You know, that's, I thinkthat's, you should totally keep
doing that. You know? I think ifwe, if we can draw something
from it, is that there is, thereis a next chapter, you know, in
all of our lives that we arealways being called for. And I
think that is one big problem,if in that we can get to in

(41:52):
church life is, I guess I'll usethat word again, but a spirit of
stagnation, where, where it isnot assumed that growth is part
and parcel of the Christianlife. It is. And if there isn't
growth, something is veryseriously wrong, yeah, in your
Christian life. And so growthneeds to be happening, because

(42:12):
something that's alive grows,yeah, something that's dead
flows downstream, right? Butsomething that's alive growth.
And so it's one of those teststhat you can, I suppose, make
when you look at your own lifeand you study your own behaviors
and where your relationshipsare. And you can, you know,
obviously, we're not going to beperfect, but are you growing?

(42:35):
And are you growing in faith,and then even asking the
question, what does it mean togrow in your relationship with
Christ? So I think, I think,yeah, I think there's always
looking forward to what is thenext layer of pretense and sin
and deceit that I live in? Yeah,that God's calling me to shed,

(43:00):
yeah, you know. And what is theactual, the next, actual,
practical hands on work thatGod's calling me to do. And I
think I mean something I harp onall the time to separate the
internal from the external,yeah, is to try and create
discombobulated human beings youcannot, like you cannot just
say, Oh, I'm just a hands onpractical Christian. I don't do

(43:22):
this prayer stuff and Biblereading. That's, you know, I'm
just more about, more about themission. Yeah, my friend, what
you are about is works. And thisis, it's not going to work. It's
not going to work for you. It'sonly it's i, if that's what your
mindset is, I don't care. Like,because that happens on anywhere
along the spectrum of ourideological and political
leanings, right? You can be avery conservative or a very

(43:46):
liberal workspace worksrighteousness person, and if
that's where you're at, you'reeither gonna grow very
moralistic and judgmental ofpeople, or you're gonna grow
very, very exhausted. And so onthe other hand, you can't just
say, all I do is pray and then,because then you're also going
to feel holier than thou. Youknow, you're going to walk

(44:08):
around thinking that you'reyou're just you pray more, you
out, pray everybody else. But atone point the book of James
needs to come into play. Youryour prayer life. It just, it
naturally should, yeah, workitself out in some kind of
practical application of yourlife, and to separate those

(44:29):
things, I think is, well,technically heresy, yeah, you
know, if you know, if we'regoing to go all the way back to
Augustine and the Pelagiancontroversy, that you know you
can just work yourself tosalvation anyway, yeah,
technically heresy. So we cannotseparate these things. Mm, hmm.
And so there's growth in every,in every part of our lives that

(44:50):
we're being called for. I hearyou talking

about spiritual disciplines, right?
All the time, all the time,well, and that's what I hear
too, right? Like stagnation ornon. Nation, right? And going
back to the things where we dofind God, yes, those timeless
truths, is kind of how you spokeabout it, those timeless truths
of, hey, scripture, reading, andthe discipline of prayer, right?
And the discipline of going intothese different ways to
experience God, those don'tchange, right, like, but you

(45:16):
can't strengthen them. I meanthat. That's why, when people
need to get healthy, we go backinto great I need to walk more
often. I need to run. I need towork out. I need to eat
healthier, right? Those aretimeless truths. If you want to
get healthier, there are ways toget healthier, like it across
the board, you can go back tothose, right? We can also
understand that as we changelike as new dead, getting
healthy now looks entirelydifferent, very the time that
you had as a single person to goget healthy and go do all these

(45:38):
things that looks entirelydifferent, right?

Unknown (45:40):
And then I didn't do it then, yeah. What do now? I don't
know,

but that's, that's the movement forward,
right? I think as our liveschange, we need to come back to
God and say, Great. How do weexperience God? Now, if I go
back into the place where I wasa in college and I was single,
and I was sitting at that outbench looking up at the stars,
yeah, I'm recreating experiencewhere I experienced God, yeah,
in its space where I was not inthe same season a lot. Yeah, if
I go back to that season, and Igo back to that experience,

(46:05):
thinking it's the same now I'mat a I'm at a loss. It's gonna
be a new one. I'm gonna lostsuccess. I have to embrace that
experience as a father, as achurch planner, as a staff
person, as a all these differentthings that are happening, as a
brother, as you know, the son,all these kind of I have to
experience that entirelydifferent now, and I have to go
sit in that space, entirelydifferent, yeah, but still
treated as a discipline. Yeah,right, where I go back to it.

Unknown (46:26):
I think, you know, as much as I talk about the
spiritual disciplines, it'simportant awesome to also
caution that they are we canstart to get, I mean, we're so
hopelessly given to works,language, you know, that we can
just manufacture for ourselvesthe heart that God wants us to
have, and and we can't. And Ithink that's the heart of the

(46:47):
gospel. Well, one of the heartsof the gospel, the gospel has
many hearts. Yeah, you can't.
You can't fix yourself. Youcan't. You can't do it your
heart. You cannot just byworking. You can't. We can do
all the spiritual disciplines inthe world. You cannot change
your own heart. The disciplinesthat we do, we do in response.
And so I am always that passagein in Hebrews, is it Hebrews? I

(47:10):
think so, where he says, if, if,today, if you hear His voice, do
not harden your hearts. I thinkthat's where I think that, like,
it's always a response to a callthat the gospel places on your
life, yeah, and it's a naturaloutworking Well, if, if I hear
His voice, and I don't harden myheart, What's tomorrow look

(47:34):
like, and it should look like, Ireally want to pick up the
Bible, and I just want to devourthat thing. And I want to
understand. I want to hear thatvoice again, because his voice
is so delicious, yeah, you know.
And so I want to hear it again.
And where do you encounter God'svoice, if not through Scripture?
Yeah, you know. And not, notbecause you understand it all,
not because it all makes sense,but because, as you dig, you

(47:56):
start to discover the auniverse, yeah, of as as many
mysteries as there are answers,but through that, you'll start
to look at yourself, and if,voila, your heart starts to
change, yeah, you know? And it'slike, I didn't do it, yeah? And
it's not by works, yeah, it'sjust by God, right? But it is by
faith somehow, and it's justsort of happening, and it kind

(48:19):
of doesn't end either, but itdoesn't, it doesn't matter that
it doesn't end, because it's notsomething that I'm trying to
accomplish, grasp, complete andcheck off and move on. It's now
something it's a river I'm nowgoing to float on for the rest
of my life. Yeah, it is. It's aliving organism. And ultimately,

(48:39):
it's it's not like the sort ofthe Christian life, and the life
of faith isn't just somethingabout acquiring knowledge, just
reading books. You can read allthe you can read the Bible a
million times and not betransformed. You know, we don't
worship the Bible. You can alsopray and do all sorts of

(49:00):
penances and rosaries and all ofthose things and find nothing.
Yeah, there's just somethingabout the Spirit indwelling in
you, and these things start tomanifest themselves. And that's
the only way answer to howChristianity even works in the
first place, because the Spiritfell down. You know, we're in
Easter season now, absolutely inI think seven Sundays Pentecost

(49:23):
is coming. Yeah, that's the onlyexplanation to the church. Even
in this passage that we readtoday, it says, when they heard
that Jesus had rose again, theythought it was idle tail. Yeah,
right. Because, yeah, that'swhat it sounds like. And if you
think about it for a second, youthink that an invisible man died
for your sin, like yourmistakes, and then somehow your

(49:45):
mistakes are written off becauseinvisible man did that, an
Invisible Man's going to comeback. You can put it in a very
crude term, Oh, yeah. And itsounds very ridiculous. Sounds
vital. It sounds like idle tail,yeah. And, and what Paul says,
though? He says, Greeks wantwisdom. Jews want what is glory?
I forget. Hebrews wantsomething, yeah, but we preach

(50:07):
Christ crucified, yeah? Which isfoolishness? Yeah? To Gentiles,
yeah. But to us, guess what itis? It's power, yeah? It's power
because the Spirit has beenpoured out on us. And so the
spirit comes down on the day ofPentecost, and everybody goes,
Well, what we thought was idletail, turns out, is the the
thing that's transforming how weunderstand the world. From here

(50:32):
on, Paul says, when he goes tosomewhere, I don't, I forget. So
one of the letters he says, WhenI he says, I didn't come to you
with lofty intellectualpresentation of the gospel, but
I came with a demonstration ofpower. And so I think, yeah,
there's, there's something inyour heart that there, there is
a response, there is a hearing,there is a looking for it, and

(50:55):
there's a thirst. There issomething that that you're
you're going for, you're lookingfor. And in looking, you find
without fully noticing thatyou're finding, but you only
kind of understand it inretrospect. Yeah,

you know, I lived off of Hebrews 11 one for
years. Yeah, which was faith, isthe assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of thingsnot seen. So you're talking
about this vanishing, you know,this invisible man, right? Yeah,
that's the reality of what'shappening here, right? It's the
assurance of things hoped for.
Yeah, right, and we hoped, butthere's an A blessed assurance
now, right, like that. This istrue, right? And then our

(51:30):
conviction, right is, eventhough we don't see it, that we
are convicted by it, right, andthat we move with it. And I
think that's the most importantnarrative. And how I kind of
closed out the message on EasterSunday was that everything that
you're sharing right now, wecannot hold ourselves. If you
have an amazing prayer life andyou read Scripture every day and
all you do is hold that in yourown personal relationship with

(51:50):
God, right? The Kingdom does notgrow. Yep, it cannot grow
because you're not sharing thatexperience of God with anyone
but yourself, right? I thinkthere's this dual reality of our
experience with God, that wehave this personal relationship
and this, it's almost thisinward expression and this
outward expression, right, likeand the inward expression is how
we are filled. It is how we aresustained. It is how we are

(52:12):
deepened with our relationship.
It is how we go through life inorder to take the next step. And
the outward expression isvalidating the truth of God's
word. Yeah, right. Saying that Iam a walk I've called people a
walking miracle before, becauseof how things have happened in
life and how they were healed.
And I said, you're literally awalking miracle. You are a
testimony to a relationship withGod on this earth. And if we
don't share that with people,then we end in the space where

(52:34):
the kingdom cannot grow.

Unknown (52:36):
You're I think you're right. You can have some folks
emphasizing that you need tolove God, and some folks
emphasizing that you need tolove neighbor. And here to here
again, be trying to make surethat we don't separate those
things, yeah? Because I thinkthe fact of the matter is
they're both the samecommandment, yeah, right. And
the more you love God, the moreyou love neighbor, yeah. But one
does not exist without theother, yeah. It

cannot. It cannot. And so now I want to
change my answer. That's great.
Now I'm just kidding, but Ithink that where people
experience God like that, firstaha moment, they want to keep
doing that as Christians, andthat's not always possible,

(53:20):
because they're not in the same,like you said, stage of life,
yeah, yep, and but they keepwanting it, you know, like I
experienced God at 13, so Ishould be able to experience God
that way at 23 or 33 and

it doesn't now discerning why you experience
God at 13 and discerning how youcan experience God at 33 right?
Or, that's beautiful, right? Togo back and I'm like, wow, this
is what led to me experiencingGod. I might get close to that
again, but I'm gonna have toexperience God in a new way.
That's an incrediblediscernment, and it should never
be done alone, right? That's whyit's so important to figure out
how people have experienced Godin their life. Because when I

(54:00):
hear how you've experienced Godand where you've met God, I'm
like, Oh, wow, I didn't, Ididn't think I could experience
God in that way. And all of asudden my heart has been open
into other ways that I canexperience God, right? When we
experience God in any lifescenario, right? And hear other
people that have gotten throughit and experience God in that
time, you're like, oh, I canexperience God in this because I
feel God is absent, but you'retelling me I can still
experience God.

Unknown (54:20):
You know, it's funny when Kara gave birth to hope,
and her birth was somewhatdramatic, because she was
induced, and it was, she endedup having a natural birth and we
were, she was like, on the vergeof saying, Okay, we need an

(54:40):
epidural. It needs to happennow. But then the doctors like,
well, you're kind of almostthere now. And so it's like, no
epidural. And then she wentthrough the thing, yeah, it was
extremely painful. It wasextremely emotional, yeah, she
it was extremely exhausting. Shewas, I mean, she her, she was,
she had a sore throat for fourdays from. Is the amount of
scraping, yeah, right, you know,we'll definitely have a,

(55:03):
definitely very differentstrategy. And so we go through
that, and it's an extremelyintense experience that we have.
And then we go to talk to someother people, and we have this,
some this thing that we feel wecan write a book about, and what
we learn is uh, everyone doestoo, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah.

(55:24):
They have their we, they haveWilder experiences, right? You
know, just sitting around andsharing birth stories with other
women. Well, I'm not a woman,yeah, listening yeah to to birth
stories. I was like, You What?
What? What happened? Yeah, youknow, like your baby was bigger
than your body, yeah? You know,yeah. And then you did that, a
couple of people were like that,like, the baby does not, cannot

(55:46):
come out, yeah? So it's like,just crazy stories like that,
yeah. And I think that's thesame thing when you like, you
have, when you first, like,start to experience God, you
know, and there's that depositof the Spirit in your heart that
you feel. And it was like, man,something's changed in me, and
you go through a season ofintense, something like you need
to figuring out what happened toyou. And I kind of kind of

(56:09):
settles a little bit down theroad, and but it feels
something, it feels likesomething that's so intense you
could write a book about it,yeah. And then you go and meet
somebody, and then you start tohear their story, and you're
like, Wow, that's crazy how Godmet you, it is, and how, how
you, how you lived through this.

(56:30):
And it's incredible. What anincredible experience.

So there you go, Easter Sunday, an incredible
experience of God meeting us ina new way, right? And hearing
how different people met God inthat way and and then we travel
forward. I think we're doingsomething really neat, uh, we're
traveling forward, actually, ina really neat way, with how the
disciples traveled forward andstarting the early church. So we
are getting to this Pentecostlanguage. We are getting to this
early church. And the nextseries is going to be truly

(56:55):
about right, understanding thedifferent years of the church.
How did Sunday morning come tobe? How did we end up here in
2025 on a Sunday morning, for anhour, right? Worshiping
together. So we're going to goback to year 100 we're going to
go back to year 1500 in theReformation. We're going to go
to 1990s mega church, multi sitechurch, right? Kind of the media
of church, right? That Adventand that nature 90 Sunday music.

(57:16):
That's going to be an incredibleSunday. I'm looking forward to
that. And then after that sacredSunday, which is going to be our
traditional Sunday. So, I mean,it's going to be el Ws, our
Evangelical Lutheran worshipbook out the hymnals are going
to be in the church. Acolytes,the whole deal. It's going to be
amazing. Um, I actually thinkwe're going to do communion in
the little trays too, like thecommunity, where you pick up and
pick a tray, right? You come on.
That maybe look like a kneelerup here, which I

Unknown (57:37):
think would be really people, so long as everybody's
not drinking out of the samecar.

This is true.
Yeah, that. Well, man, that's acommon cup. They just call it
common sick. No thanks. That'swhat that is. So, so really
great series. We're calling itchurch shopping all the years of
the church right as we gothrough. So that'll be coming up
next, and a lot of great thingis then Tom Helmut ordination.
So Tom Helmut can coordinate inMay 21 so really be good right
before graduation Sunday. Sothat is the life of the church
coming up the next couple weeks.
And the TNC podcast and allGod's

Unknown (58:03):
people said, I want 234-793-6722,

85, neighborhood

Unknown (58:13):
church,

that's great.
Table. You forgot the number,alright, no

Unknown (58:18):
one uses all the

time now, all the time. Now, all the time. How
many calls you get today? 15.
Yeah, a couple. A couple.
Alright. Jesus loves you. You.

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"He Is Not Here: Are You Looking for Jesus in the Right Places?" - Easter Podcast

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}"He Is Not Here: Are You Looking for Jesus in the Right Places?" - Easter Podcast