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Listen to Preachers Hour - 10_13_23, 9.55 PM by The Garage Church MP3 song. Preachers Hour - 10_13_23, 9.55 PM song from The Garage Church is available on Audio.com. The duration of song is 01:16:57. This high-quality MP3 track has 192 kbps bitrate and was uploaded on 15 Oct 2023. Stream and download Preachers Hour - 10_13_23, 9.55 PM by The Garage Church for free on Audio.com – your ultimate destination for MP3 music.
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The speaker is giving announcements about various events happening at the church. They mention Tuesday night Bible study for women, Wednesday morning prayer, Wednesday night Bible study, Thursday prayer nights, and Friday nights for young adults. They also invite people to Sunday morning services. They talk about a live podcast event and a community outreach opportunity called Fall Fest. They end by introducing themselves and explaining the purpose of their podcast. Good stuff, guys. Awesome. I'll give it to you guys. Sorry. All right, guys. Here we go. All right. Well, we're going to give you guys some quick announcements before we get started into tonight. We got a little something different planned for you guys. But first off, we got Tuesday night's page. Tell the people what's going on for Tuesday night. Okay. How many of you ladies in here have been to Tuesday night Bible studies? Woo! All the ladies in the house. All right. So we have Taylor who's running women's Bible study. It's every Tuesday. It's every week, every Tuesday on Tuesday at 6.15 p.m. And she does bring food. It's a fun time. We have many, many discussions nonstop. We're here super, super late sometimes, but you guys should come through. We love to talk as women. We love to talk. We love to talk. So you're not just getting food for your soul, but also food for your tummy. For Wednesdays, early in the morning, we have morning prayer. Here at the church at 6 a.m. So if you're not having to be at work at 6 a.m. or are just an early bird and just need to start your day off with a little more Jesus, the church will be open. And they can catch us here also Wednesday night at 6.30 for Bible study, led by a couple of our pastors here at the church. And honestly, truly, it is so great. If you're looking to get deeper in your word, to learn more stories about the Bible, to get more of that knowledge and awareness, definitely come to Bible study because we have some awesome pastors who really just break down the word to where it makes sense and it's really just fun doing it with community and other people with you. Yes. And if you miss Wednesday prayer morning, if you can't make it in the morning, there's also prayer nights at 6.30 on Thursday. It's every other Thursday. So it's not every Thursday, it's every other Thursday. And then we also have, obviously, Friday nights for young adults, but I have bad news, guys. Kind of. It's good and bad. So next Friday, we will not be here. We will actually be going to Cup of Joy on Echo Street for a worship night. Yes. It's called Cover the Love. Carry the Love. No, it's Carry the Love. So don't come here. There's nobody going to be here. So go to Cup of Joy on Echo Street across the street from Fresno High. We're going to have a worship night at 7.00. Can we pack it out with TG Young Adults? Can we pack it out? Yes. Show up and show out, guys. And we also have Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. So if you do not belong to a home church, you're just looking to come visit a church, come check out a Sunday morning with us. We would love to see you. You're already basically church family because you're here gathering with us on a Friday. So if you have nothing to do or you're like, I just need a different flavor, a different vibe of Jesus today, come join us for the morning. 10 a.m. is where we start. And you'll see some of these familiar faces when you walk through the door. But we're not going to take too much more of your time. We're going to jump into what we have for you guys today. And we are doing something different. We are doing a live podcast. But actually, before I say that, my lovely friend Amadeus reminded me of one other thing. We are doing our first outreach community opportunity here at the Garage Church October 28th called Fall Fest. So we're going to have vendors, games, fun, just a lot of stuff, music. So please come out. This will be one of our first community events that we're doing. We really want to let this community know that we are here for them, that there is a church here that loves them, that's for them. So if you guys want to volunteer for that, please come see either myself or Amadeus and get our phone number so we can get connected with you because we are going to need volunteers for this event. We're going to need people to help clean up this parking lot, to set up things, and just to be a nice, lovely, welcome smile for those coming. So anyway, let me catch my breath. The chili kickoff. There's a chili kickoff sign-up sheet right there. Oh, there is also a chili kickoff sign-up. There's a sign-up sheet right there. But we're going to hand it over to these two lovely gentlemen, John and Jeff. Which one is John and which one is Jeff? Yesterday I had someone call me Jeff and I just went with it. We look very similar. So before we start, Jerry, when does your album come out, bro? Give it up for Jerry. That's a different kind of talent boostedness. Welcome, everybody. We are Preachers Hour Podcast. I'm Jeff. I'm John. We are not only pastors of this church, TG, we have a podcast that we've been doing for a while now. We just hit 100 episodes. So this is 101, right? This is our celebration of hitting 100 episodes. We started in 2019. So I've been doing it for a while. John has been in and out and now he's like my full-time co-host. So it's really crazy to be like, okay, so here's how it happened. So I'm listening to episode 100 in my kitchen. Yes, I listen to my own podcast. I do that. And I'm washing dishes and my son, who's one years old, is like right on the floor doing crazy stuff. And I got this idea, like, yo, we should do a live podcast in front of a people. You guys are the people. So I called John. I'm like, yo, we should do this. He's like, all right, I'm down. So I called Cam. I'm like, can we take over Young Adults? He's like, sure. So here we are. I'm going to put some expectations for everyone here tonight, by the way. So we're doing this live. Usually we do this on an early Saturday morning and we're doing this in a room together. Just like, oh, yeah. We never do, actually. We never do. So the expectations tonight, are we ready? By the way, this is going to be a little bit looser tonight than you've probably seen Pastor John and Pastor Jeff. We're not like in pastor mode right now. But I am here to talk to all of you at the end about some other stuff as well. But in this moment, I just want to kind of just take some time. You have like really tense shoulders. Go ahead and loosen them a little bit. I'm looking at a couple of people. Yeah, there you go. Right. And so when you hear something that was so like, what's the word? Just impactful, impactful. Touched your soul. Just made you just do your oohs and ahhs. Why are you hyping this up? We might not be all that. I'm talking about you. For them to do it to you, not me. So when you hear that, feel free to give a little bit. Oh. Right. And then if it was awful, what's the response you guys can get? No tomato throwing. But yeah, we will accept booze. Right. So as much as this is going to be a live podcast, part of why we want to do this is because we want to make sure that this is actually an engagement with other people. So one of the things we're going to do after we're not going to speak way, way too long. I know we're called Preacher's Hour, but we are not going to do an hour of talking. Okay. Dang, you was real excited about that. Eddie was too excited about that. He said, good, good. Okay. I'm glad you ain't speaking it out. It's okay. I'm really excited for the end. We want to do a Q&A. Correct. Okay. So as we're talking, like if you got your notes out, you got physical notes because you have good handwriting, unlike me. Okay. Write down any questions that come up, confusions, concerns. Okay. Now I'm going to stress this now. And at that point, we're going to have a Q&A as in question, not comment. Okay. If you have a comment, maybe not revelation. Yeah. There's a Bible verse. Listen, okay. We'd love to say your comment after the fact. We will hear it after. Okay. You can come up to us after. We'd love to hear your comments, your feedback. You have like, you think this was terrible, this stupid idea and never do it again. Cool. Okay. But question is what we are going to be looking for. All right. Awesome. Got some of the, what do they call it? House rules or whatever. I don't know. Something like that. Got that out of the way. Something also, before you introduce, I'll have you introduce what we're actually going to be discussing tonight. But also Jeff shared about kind of the history of how we ended up here tonight at 101 episode, right? But I also just want to give like a heart kind of behind also why we do what we do, right? One of the clearest ways I saw this kind of show up this past year, I was at a mosque here in town, which if you don't know what that is, like where Muslims come, kind of like a church. I guess it's a really simplistic way of putting it. And I was there for a class purposes wise, but something that they were doing during that time was basically sharing about how they converted or basically gave sorry, I'm using Christian language, gave their life to Jesus, gave a testimony basically how they converted. And all of these people, these three particular people, and they were young adults around your guys' age or so. And all of their testimonies had a commonality in it, right? And that commonality was, yeah, I grew up in church and I asked questions and everyone just told me, don't worry about that stuff, just believe in God, believe in the Bible and that's it, right? And for a lot of them, I could even feel the tension and I was even upset to a certain extent for them where I was like, yeah, that's not fair. Because ultimately I think God encourages our questions, right? Bringing them to the faith community, of us actually being able to dialogue, go deep, have deep conversations that sometimes can't actually be had on a Sunday morning or whatever it actually is, right? So one of the biggest hearts why me and Jeff have committed and sacrificed the time to actually do this is because we want to be able to be a resource to the church, right? We want to be able to be not just simply the pastor to say, blind faith, go believe in it, figure it out for yourself, but to be able to actually say, hey, let's have this conversation and come to the conclusion together, right? So that's the heart behind what we do. Okay, I'll take it. You're such a professional. So Jeff, introduce our topic for tonight. Okay, so if you saw on the Instagram, we're talking about culture. Okay, specifically how the culture that all of us are in interacts with following Jesus. Now, when I say culture, I'm talking about like American capitalistic culture, not like your individual ethnic cultures that you may be a part of, right? We're all made of multiple cultures, but like the overarching culture that we are all swimming in is like American Western culture, right? So we want to define that, kind of like diagnose it and see how it is impacting us good and bad in following Jesus. Now, if you are not a Christian already, or if you're not a Christian, not sure about this whole God thing, we're really glad you're here. And I want you to know that me and John are coming at this question from already being believers in Jesus. So that's going to impact what we say. But I think there will still be a lot of helpful insights to you if you're in a place where you're like, I'm not really sure about this whole God thing, Jesus thing. Y'all were raising your hands during worship, that was super weird, but cool, I'm here. Hey, I'm super happy that you guys are here. Okay, I forgot what we were going to start with. You were going to start with the, yeah, go ahead, John. So let's define culture, right? So all of us have a different connotation and different meanings, understandings when we're talking about culture, right? Jeff already basically mentioned the biggest one in the room, right? If we look around and if we take an honest look, right, and if we, quote unquote, see color, we do see color, you will see that people if we're coming from different ethnicities, different backgrounds, or AKA different cultures, right? So we naturally come to the table with something, right? But I really want us to actually take a real deep dive into, or not a deep dive, a shallow dive, there you go, into really like what are we talking about when we talk about culture, right? And a really couple ways in which, again, comes up and what defines culture is the idea of sometimes the arts, right? Arts are impacted and you see an expression of the culture through the arts. Sometimes the laws and how we choose what is right and what is wrong, what we choose to punish and what we choose to be, you know, the normative of what's okay. And then we also see even, again, certain customs, certain practices that you grew up maybe doing within your household, maybe that were expectations at your school, maybe at the local even like liquor store that's on the corner, like there's a lot of different things, right? But I think ultimately there's a really simple way of understanding like what culture really is and what we're going to be talking about tonight. And that's the idea that it is like basically these stories, these scripts, or this narrative that has been given to every single one of us, right? And you may say, John, I don't have a story that I've been influenced by or I'm living according to or, you know, that impacts me in any way or others that I live close to. I'm my free person. I have free will. I'm doing me kind of thing, right? But I would really, really press in onto that because whether we want to acknowledge it or not, whether we want to take an honest reflection or self-inventory or observation about what's really happening and why do we make certain decisions, why do we choose to dress certain ways, why do we choose to go certain places, the jobs we pick, the relationships we're involved in, they are all, I truly believe, based and they come back to, grounded in some sort of narrative, a story, or a script that we're all living according to, right? That's good, John. I like it. Can we keep going? I can keep going, but I just wanted to give you a chance to talk. Okay, I appreciate you. So I like that definition of it is a story that we have been given that we believe, whether consciously or subconsciously, right? So what is the story that we have been given in our culture that we're in right now? So there's a lot of ways we could go at this. The most compelling one to me is that we live in a personalized world rather than a personal world. We don't get that when we do this. When we do this in my house, in the room, we don't get the, you know what I'm saying? Okay, so what does that mean, right? Before 2004, before social media comes into account, right? We had more of a personal world where you interacted with persons, right? You go to the grocery store, you see people, you walk down the street in your neighborhood, you're going to interact with people. There's like this built-in into our culture, these built-in opportunities to interact with persons and everything is organized around other persons, right? And then we moved, 2007, the iPhone comes out, smartphone comes out, Facebook really starts to get going, 2012, Facebook buys Instagram, okay? So like as technology and social media starts to take over our world, we move into a personalized world. What that means is everything is personalized to us. So I have this device that basically shapes my whole world to my preferences. It makes me the main character in the whole world, right? The algorithm sends me things that I want to watch, things that I want to buy, places I want to go, people I want to follow, like it tailors my entire world to me and it makes me the center of attention. And it's happening to all 8 billion people all at the same time. Right? So what are the pros and cons, the negatives and the positives of a personalized world, right? So what do you think about that? Yeah, I think that's a great point that you kind of made the observation of. Think about this. Is there a lot of good things about things being able to be personalized in our life? Yeah, absolutely, right? Because I don't have to waste my time trying to dig through a million different options, trying to figure out, you know, whatever it actually is. I get the opportunity to, in a sense, save time and utilize it the way that I actually want, right? Here's a very practical example that you brought up the other day, right? Both of our wives, we're not going to say anything bad on here, Sienna, if you hear me okay, and Felina. Good, thanks. They both are adamant about having this thing called Amazon Prime and they have carts. Sometime last time I checked on my cart, I was like, what are you doing? Like, why is there, I'm not going to even say the amount because I don't want no one to trip out. She didn't buy that much, but just all kinds of stuff in our cart. Like, what are you doing, right? Oh, it's just for later. I just want to keep it for later because it got promoted to me. The algorithm said it to me. I'm interested in actually looking at it, right? And there's a lot of things that she has found and bought on there that is very convenient, that is easy, that is personalized, and she doesn't have to waste time going to Walmart to Target, going through different aisles, wasting her time like that. Especially if you have a little child, your time is limited, so this in a way saves it, right? As soon as you want something, even I had something the other day, I ordered something and it got there within literally the same exact day and I was like, this is witchcraft that's going on right now. It's crazy. I don't know how it got there that fast. I'm not going to lie, like, I'm the bad guy when it comes to Amazon in my house. There it is, Felina. Okay, so I mean, she'd be having her stuff, but like, I have different lists. So I got my wish list, I have like my technology list, I have my clothes list, okay, and I save stuff to my list, all right? And, you know, part of the whole personalized world is like, you can literally say, man, I need to like, I don't know, okay, I wanted to grow my beard out, right? And I kept saying the word beard all the time. And then when I went on Instagram, every fourth post is an ad, and guess what the ads were for? Beard problems? Like, oh, yeah, you know, I've been thinking about my beard. Right? Like, that's what this personalized world does for us. Now, what has this got to do with following Jesus, right? Yeah. So, and you mentioned it like the whole Amazon delivers sometimes the same day. How does that shape us and our expectations, right? We live in a world that the highest values are speed, efficiency, you know, convenience. Speed, efficiency, and convenience. The problem with those three things is that they are antithetical to love. What do you mean by that? Love is not fast, convenient, or what was the third one I said? I don't know. Efficient. Thank you, guys. This is why you have a live audience. They can tell you what you're doing. They're listening for me. I'm doing. So, like, that's not how love works, right? Like, I've been married for, I'm under, it's going to be eight years next month. Shout out to the wife, okay? It has not been fast, efficient, or convenient at all, right? Like, there is some struggle. There's some difficulty. We have stupid fights over things. Like, things happen that are difficult. We have financial issues. Like, we have bills we've got to pay. We have kids. Like, so, if I'm being shaped by this world that prioritizes those things, I'm going to expect them everywhere in all of my relationships, even my relationship with God. Yep. And let me talk to that in a second. So, if you follow us, you might have heard me mention this on a podcast in the past a couple episodes, and we talked about the multi-ethnic church, right? Which is a big place that God has put inside of my heart through a lot of reasons. If you want to know more about that, we'll talk after. But think about this. There is within Fresno metropolitan area, and again, I'm going to give a critique, but then also a good thing, right? There's 500 plus churches in Fresno metropolitan area, right? In a certain radius. And they all offer a whole lot of great, beautiful, Holy Spirit filled God things, right? And we're able to say, you know what? This one actually meets something that I'm interested in. The pastor at that church actually preaches the way I like to preach. I can understand it, right? Even at certain churches, if I prefer certain worship styles, right? I'm able to actually select those certain preferences that actually meet and match my things that I desire. It's meeting your personalized world. Correct, right? On the surface, that can be really great, right? Because if you have someone, a friend or someone you know, that you're like, hey, I want you to start going to a church, but maybe the church you're a part of isn't necessarily the best suit for them based off their characteristics, personality, background, etc., right? Even parts of what town they actually live in. You're able to direct them to a church that appropriately meets those needs, right? So, positive. Put a check mark on that side. But now think about this. Is what is always the most convenient and personalized and always makes sense and comes with less resistance always actually what God calls us to? Because think about this. This is where now I was talking about this in the multi-ethnic church sort of conversation. I am 100% convinced that ultimately church is not meant to be another place where we simply just get all our preferences met. It is ultimately meant to be a place where we are uncomfortable. And I don't mean like, you know, you need to be sweating in the building, right? That's the old garage days for people who are here. That's those days. We've gone past those. One little AC unit in the corner. Everyone tries to sit in that corner. It's hot. It's terrible. This is what happens, by the way, all the time. We lose our train of thought and we're coming back because we're making a bunch of crazy comments. Anyway, but I'm back on it. But the thing is, I don't believe it's meant to be a place where we gain comfort or we gain familiarity, so to say, or we come to a place, again, that matches everything we want, right? And as soon as it doesn't match what we want, we just automatically dismiss it and go find another church down the street. And we just end up hopping from one place to another, never actually having genuine, authentic, raw community with each other. And then also I would even go as far as with God, right? So what is the beautiful thing when we all decide to be intentionally uncomfortable together, come from these different, again, scripts, the stories, the cultures together, place ourselves in an environment just like this, is I truly believe this is where God shows up. And if you really want to know what God is like, this is where you begin to really actually find out who He is. Amongst the plurality of actual voices, right? Blacks, whites, Asian monks, Koreans, Japanese, all these different cultures that are represented. If you want to get a clear picture of both who God has created us to be, the church, right? Not a building, but us, and also who God is, I believe this is where we need to push back against these preferences. So I want to take that, everything you said, like, a little step further, because like this is a lot more serious than I think we realize, okay? So there is a push in our culture, like we said, things need to be convenient, efficient. I cannot remember the third fast. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Angel. So if I expect that, right? The moment anything is difficult, right? I'm used to having my algorithm, like, meet my personalized needs. I can just, I'm just going to find another church. I'm just going to just keep moving. There's nothing wrong with trying to find a church that fits you. That's not what I'm saying, right? But the problem with this culture is that it creates anti-commitment. I said this in a sermon a few sermons ago. The greatest threat to the church this generation is a lack of commitment, right? Because we are told to keep our options open with everything, right? Hey, are you guys boyfriend and girlfriend? Nah, nah. We're just talking because, like, you know. Lean into it. Lean into it. How long have y'all been talking? Like, you know, four years. But, like, I'm, you know, like, you gotta, I gotta keep my options open. Y'all been in the same house so long, the law is like, y'all are married, okay, fine. We're living together. Like, yeah, but, you know, options, right? Like, I can't commit. Hey, man, we want you to serve at church. Oh, you know, but I be going to the gym sometimes. Also, sometimes there's, like, brunch. You know, we have samosas. I can't really commit. I might, I mean, the good churchgoers, I think 33% of churchgoers, good churchgoers go once a month. One Sunday a month means you are an amazing churchgoer in today's culture. Because you gotta keep your options open, right? Now, does coming to church on Sunday mean you're a good Christian? That is not what I'm saying, right? But God is calling us to commit. Not just to him, but to each other, right? If I'm not here consistently, I can't get to know you. I can't get to know your needs. I can't, like, really care about you deeply. And that's probably what we want with this culture. Because I gotta protect myself, and I gotta keep my options open. I don't want to be like, you got too many problems because I ain't trying to deal with that. Right? That's not convenient, right? It's not efficient. It's not fast. Yeah. So let me even add another component even on there. Even if you're not Christian or religious or spiritual, whatever word you actually want to put out there, like, I think this has direct implications also for yourself even as well, right? That's for all of us. But think about this. If everything is personalized, if everything is very specific for us, right? And what partly has come with that is this huge trying to figure out two different things, I think at least. Our identities, who are we, what are we, what are we to be doing, right? The purpose aspect on it. Like, am I doing what God called me to do? Am I living according to my passions? Am I just wasting time? Like, what is my purpose? Am I happy? And then we get to this whole cycle because we're so hyper-focused on everything that we're actually feeling, on everything that needs to be, again, convenient. What were the ones, guys? We're going to keep forgetting. There we go. We're just going to say the three. The three, right? And then again, it leads us into a place where now we just become so anxious that we can't even get up in the morning. I want to speak to this a little bit more clearly, okay? So, I was listening to a podcast, okay? And they talked about we have a huge burnout issue right now in culture. Everybody's burnt out. And they've been looking into this, well, what's this about? Most people thought, okay, well, people are overworking, working 80 hours a week, you've got to work less hours. That's actually not the problem anymore. There are people who work three days a week and they're burnt out, right? And they're like, why? There are three things that are leading to this burnout, okay? One of them is overabundance. We have too many options. Going back to Amazon, like, oh, we need fill in the blank. And you go search for it. And there's so many of them. My wife cannot buy anything because she has to read the reviews on everything. And it's like, babe, we need a stroller. The kid, he needs a stroller. Yeah, but I've got to read, like, 10 more reviews on all of it. And I'm like, no. But, like, she's burnt out by the overabundance of options, right? Speak into that. What does that imply for us, then? Like, our identities, our relationships? Yeah, I mean, like, people struggle to have friends, not because there's not people to be friends with, but it's like, I don't know about this person. I'm like, there's too many options. I've got too many options open. I can't be committed, right? The second thing that's leading to burnout is pleasure as work. Pleasure has become work. So, think about this. We go to concerts. You go out to eat. You go to the beach. You go on vacation, right? Before the world we lived in, when you went to these things, you were just there. You were present. You enjoyed it. Now, if you go to the Taylor Swift concert, what do you have to do? You've got to record it. You said, let everyone know. I've got to have the right captions. I've got to hit the right pose. I can't just go to the concert. I have to tell you, I'm having a great time. I'm enjoying this so much, right? I can't just eat the food. I've got to take the right picture of it, get the right filter, do the right boomerang, you know, whatever y'all do. I know, but I can't just enjoy anymore. It's become work to enjoy things, to have pleasure, right? That's a problem. And the last one, all of that leads to what we're talking about is a fear of difficulty. We're actually afraid when things are difficult. Man, I'm at this job. I have this co-worker. They're hard to deal with. I'm going to leave. I've been there for two weeks. They want me to do all this stuff. It's hard. This relationship, this girl, she's great and everything, but she wants me to leave. It's too hard. I'm out. You're afraid when things are difficult. What's the problem with that mindset when you're trying to follow God? Life is hard, guys. There are going to be difficulties. That is built in. But if I'm afraid of difficulty, I'm out. It's not going to work. And that's why everyone is just burnt out from these three factors and many more. And we're not aware of it. Even when you're not, you're trying to take a break from social media. The problem is we live in this self-creation world where I have to create myself. I've got to create my brand. I'm in competition with everyone. I'm in competition with myself. So even when I'm not online, I'm still competing. I'm still thinking about I've got to get the right life hack. I've got to be on the right diet, the right workout, the right this, the right that. I've got to eat my AG1. There's just so much. I've got to create myself. I've got to create my own identity and my own meaning. That's why everyone is burnt out. You're exhausted. Think about this. Let's go back again to where we started. We were defining culture and we said talking about stories, scripts and narratives which we have been either chose to accept and live according to or we have not, what's the word, subconsciously chose to accept and live by according to. That gives us definition of how we should live, who we are within the greater grand of this world and to give meaning to it. And again, as Jeff talked about, it just seems extremely exhausted when you try to be the writer of your own story. I know now you hear that all the time. You're the author of your own story. Write your own path. Tomorrow's a new chapter. All these quotes, right? And they seem on the surface, sounds great, right? Until you actually see the consequences later on, a couple of years later on, right? Or when you get older and then realize, oh, wow, that actually wasn't great advice, but it sounded really good when I was younger. But think about that. Can we just be honest for just one second? Just for a second. Just for a second. And then we'll go back to being fake and churchy, okay? Cool. Is anyone just genuinely tired sometimes? Yeah. If you're watching our podcast and I'm looking at the mic right now, everyone raised their hand. They all raised their hand. It was a lot of people, yes. But I appreciate that. But have you really ever asked the question of why that actually is? Like, maybe you're living according to someone else's story. Some story that God never had you, intended for you to ever actually live according to. But you just said, well, this is what everyone else is doing. This is the way my family taught me to actually do. This is the way whatever you fill in the blank has taught me to do. I mean, it's true. That's why it hit me so hard, too. And I want to say, I want to affirm something in all of you guys, okay? Living in America today, this is one of the, if not the most difficult times in human history to follow God. You live in one of the most hostile environments to following God. Not because somebody's trying to persecute you for your faith. Because they're trying to say, hey, look at all these options you have. Look at all this stuff you can do. Look at all this freedom you can have. That's actually a bigger threat, almost, than direct persecution, okay? You live in a very difficult time and place to follow Jesus. I want to acknowledge that, okay? Recognize that, though. But here's the good news. Come on, John, bring it. If I wasn't preaching, I mean, if I wasn't on a podcast, I would just start preaching. You preached when you got up here. Before, that was good. Come on, John. There is good news for every single person who decides to trust in Jesus. Because you know what's really being offered? We hear about the, and this is all 100% valid, true, theologically correct, biblically correct, whatever you want to say, right? Jesus did die for our sins on that cross, right? He did do all those different things for us. But one of the parts when we say that Jesus gave his life up on the cross for us and he talks about us having to, in a sense, getting to, I should really say, die to the old self, man or woman, and being able to rise to this new life, is that the old stories that have been placed on you, the old stories that drive you crazy and make you exhausted and build up frustration within you and make you not even want to look in a mirror when you pass by it because you feel like you're too ugly to look into it because of whatever you think is an imperfection, God says it's time to leave that behind. It's time to leave that weight behind. It's time to accept this new invitation of this new quote-unquote script narrative story. And guess whose story that is? That's God's story. And that's why it's so essential that we are in community as we'll talk about here in just a second. But then we also even start off and say what does God's word tell about me? Because if we're really honest a lot of these kind of questions we ask ourselves about purpose and identity like, don't be wrong, there's some people that have talked about these things for thousands and thousands of years, right? But also there's this brand newness within, I would say, the last 100, 150 years, that's even a stretch right there where we start hyper-focusing on what is my purpose? What is my identity? Right? Whereas because before then, even though a lot of people will critique it, especially, I know, like Gen Z, everything, whatever, like has this big old critique about, oh well that's not good for people to have to be told what they are and who they are and all that sort of stuff, right? But actually look at the tendency and say, were those people actually as anxious as us though? Who have everything and all the knowledge in the world? Were those people as depressed? Or also were those people like not satisfied with the little things in life? Because for you and I, we need to pay thousands of dollars to be pleasured and to be satisfied, right? And even then, when we pay all that money last for a second, and even then, we'll find things to critique while we're doing all that sort of stuff. Whereas people before us, right, because we're in a grander story, would appreciate even things just like we're sitting here just having a conversation like this. Sharing a meal with one another, talking about how yes, about religion and spiritual things, about how God's love is massive for every single one of us. And that would have brought pleasure to the soul. And none of those things you just said are the three. Like they're not fast, efficient, or convenient, right? So, what story is Jesus inviting us into then, right? So, I got a couple notes here. We got six minutes. We're doing good, man. Questions and answers. So, I wrote down in my notes three mile an hour God. There's actually a book called Three Mile an Hour God. Why three miles an hour? It's the average walking speed of a human. You are smart. That dude is big smart. He sent me the notes this week and I was like, I think it was a typo, like words per minute or something on there, but hey, you got it. Yeah. So, there's a reason why we call it our walk with God. It's not a run. It's not a sprint, right? Sometimes in our lives, we're so focused on trying to get somewhere so quickly, we've outrun God. God's like, I'll get there. I don't know why you're in such a hurry. You don't want to go that way, right? We've got to learn our world is all about speeding us up. Things are getting faster and faster and faster. Slow down. What are you in such a hurry for? I mean, if we're honest, again, okay, most of us spend our time passing the time. Have you ever said that comment? Oh, man. Let's just binge watch this season real quick. Let me just go on TikTok real quick for three hours because I just got to pass the time. I don't want to be bored, right? Slow down. God's with you. He wants to walk with you. Slow down, right? I'm going to get to this part. I'm really excited for this part. The question we have to ask ourselves, are we becoming people of love? Are we becoming more loving? Is our personalized world making us more loving? Have you ever bought a bunch of stuff on Amazon and be like, man, I feel like loving people right now? No. God wants us to gather so we can become more loving. This is the last thing I'm going to say and I'll let you wrap it up. I've been thinking about this a while. Why do we come to church? Now, if we come to church to hear a sermon, if you believe that the sermon is the main highlight, as long as I get there for the sermon, I can miss the worship, I can miss the announcements, but as long as I hear the sermon, I've done church. What's wrong with that? Here's the thing. If the goal is to just hear a sermon, why do I have to come to church? If that's all the church is offering is a sermon, sermon series, and listen, I'm talking about us. I'm talking about TG. Come on for the sermon. I'll be working hard on that sermon. But if that's all we're offering, you can go on YouTube and watch better sermons. You can go on TikTok and get a great sermon. We've got to offer something more. I believe we are called to offer something more. Jesus called us to make disciples. He didn't say preach 52 sermons a year, make sure it's really high quality, make sure you can clip it, put it out there on social media. Nothing wrong with those things, but if that's the main reason why we are gathering on Sunday, I think something's wrong. I think there's three things we gather for, to celebrate God's goodness throughout the week, to be equipped and built up to do ministry, everybody, not just people on stage, and then to grow in unity. Now you cannot grow in unity at home. So the real reason why we should be coming is not just to hear the sermon on Sunday, it's to do those three things. And remember, there are six other days throughout the week. This building is not the church, we are. I think it's actually more important what you guys all do, what is that, Saturday through, you guys know, other days. You looked at me weird and left me out. Having coffee with people, meeting with people, calling somebody, checking on them, texting somebody, to me, that is more important, that is more disciple-making than what we do on Sunday. I had to say that. I'll finish with this and then we're going to go into Q&A. I'll say Q&R because I don't know if I got all the answers. On that note, and I'm a big guy because one of the major capacities I do here, and then I work also full-time at Youth for Christ, so I know people like Pastor Angel, who's in the crowd right now for those who are listening, and some other people, is because I truly 100% believe that the church, again, is meant to be out there. It's meant to be engaged with the community. It's meant to have a life out there. And I know a lot of, again, the culture can make easy excuses and say, well, they're all just as caught up in their own stuff as mine, like there's no need for it. But I truly believe, whether it be going to Pyle Elementary like we do every Friday, Saturday sports, whether it be even at the job that you can't stand with a co-worker you absolutely hate, that class that you absolutely try to avoid at all cents, this is where I truly believe God wants to show up. But I want to ask even the question, I wonder, how many times do we block God from showing up for other people around us? And I won't even go as far as saying, because you're not extending the invitation and it's your fault, like you're conscious of it. But maybe it's just a sense of just fearfulness too. Or a risk of what's going to be thought of me. Or even far of like, I don't know if I have the capabilities or qualities to be able to do this for other people, right? Again, I'm trying to just reason with all of us, because I have the exact same thing even as a pastor. Or you're too busy looking down. But think about this, I have two different quotes and this is where we're going to end for tonight. The first one is this, not even a Christian, Socrates, why is it important that we ask questions like this? Why do we ask how are we to engage with the culture? Why is it important to even have conversations about what story am I choosing to fall in line with? And even Socrates says, the unexamined life is not worth living. Like if you never take what they call a self-inventory, or where you currently are, or how you ended up where you are, or why do you choose to respond certain ways when certain people come around, or certain attitudes or behaviors, whatever it is, like you're going to just go with whatever flow is given to you, right? And let's be honest, the flow that usually is given is not any good place. If anything, it's going to lead you to a place the opposite of where you actually want to end up to be. And the last one comes from a shared professor of both me and Jeff's, Brian Ross. And this is not published, so sorry, I just threw it out there yet. But he has a piece in a commentary if I'm correct. And this is something he said, and it fits perfectly with why is it so important that we have and engage with the faith community around us. Why is it just not simply we come and consume and then we leave, but we actually know names and not just faces when we enter into these spaces, right? And here it is. If I recognize that I need a newer and better way to live, if I recognize that my natural life, or the normal ways in which I live or choose to live, right, those stories, tends to warp me and hurt others. And if I am genuinely open to becoming a different kind of person in the manner of Jesus of Nazareth, I need to regularly engage a community of faith to be formed in this way. There's no way you're going to truly be an authentic Christian or a true Christian or whatever you want to say it is without actually engaging with the church community. Because last time I checked, a toe by itself is not a body. All it is is a toe or a dead piece of flesh is all it is. So keep on that image, and I have no idea how to transfer from here. There you go. That's where we're ending it. Alright, awesome. Alright. Yeah, I don't know how. There you go. Okay, so question and response time. Again, questions. Okay. We got one already over here. Jerry. Can we actually get a mic so can they hear the recording also? Oh, no, no, just so the people who will listen to this later on will be able to hear. What do you do in order to help counteract that fast, efficient, and other one lifestyle that we are so accustomed to? Great question, Jerry. I do when I am aware. It's really hard. I mean, like, first thing I do 99% of the time when I wake up in the morning is check all my notifications, right? And my wife, I think one of the things I do is listen to my wife because she is like, get off your phone all the time, okay? And she's right. Like, I recognize if I've, you know, if my average screen time is more than four hours a day, I get a report every Sunday. I average between four and five hours. I'm usually not a nice person. I'm just not, right? I recognize I'm impatient. I'm, like, short. I'm tired, right? If I spend less time on my phone, just that little tweak, I'm more personal. I'm more engaged with people. I'm more present with people around me, right? That automatically forces me to slow down. I have to say, hey, John, how are you doing today? What's going on in your world? That slows me down automatically. It gets me out of my personalized mode where it's all about me. You know what I'm saying? I think a simple response. Jeff talks about it all the time, but sometimes it's churchy language and maybe not all of us understand. Jeff talks about this idea of spiritual disciplines, right? What's a discipline? Not church-related. I hope you all know. Y'all are a lot of college students. What does it mean? What is a discipline? Habit. It's an intentional thing that you commit yourself to that's regular, consistent, and usually difficult. Again, that aspect, right? Placing ourselves, which causes us to stretch and grow, right? Because a lot of us, if we're honest, it's pretty okay because it's just part of the culture. Like, we'll go to the gym or maybe not. You will. I won't. Other people will. I'm trying to go to the gym more again. Anyway, we'll do that sort of stuff, but when it comes to prayer, we'll overlook it. Ah, that's not as important. I don't have time for that. Scripture reading, devotional, ah, that's not important as much. Meeting up with someone, texting someone, ah, that's not as important. Actually going out again and serving in whatever capacity that actually looks like, ah, no, I can get by without it, right? But we're not recognizing, but these are the very things, and this is what I found in my own life, that helped me to follow Jesus more faithfully and to slow down. Because you be honest, you ask me right now, Jerry, most of the time, do I want to do these things? It's inconvenient. Man. I mean, I'm just tired. I'm just like, bro, I don't want to be here. I'm tired. But when I decide to take that first step and show up, then I'm like, man, this was awesome. I'm so glad that I made that step, you know what I mean? So hopefully that answers a little bit. Questions. Right over here. Can we get him a mic too? Oh, we'll go here and then we'll come back over here. Alright, ah, my question's not really about the topic, just about the podcast as a whole. Um, I really enjoyed this live session. I just wanted to know, like, what are the plans for the podcast you guys have? The 100th episode for 101? Yeah. And how many, like, do you plan on coming here, like, once a month, something like that? How often? Because, like, I like this with the live. I listen to you guys online sometimes, you know, so seeing it live is really interesting. Appreciate the support, brother. Man, uh, I haven't thought about it. I did not expect to get to 100. I didn't expect, I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to get to 10. I'm just like, like, literally coming up with a topic. We got some guest podcasters in the back, some amazing people at their own podcast. We got Phil. What's the plug? Go ahead. No, no, shut him out. What's the plug? Phil, you're just newer. I forget the name of it. Yeah, it's that weird made-up word that you came up with. Yeah. Um, it's fire, okay? And then Aaron, you got so many, Aaron's a creator's creator. This dude is amazing, right? So, you guys know, coming up with podcast topics is so hard. That's why we do it once a month now. We were doing it, like, we were doing it every week, which is stupid. Then we did twice a month, and then we've come back because we're both busy. So, to answer your question, I have no idea. This was fun. It was cool. I don't want to take away from Cam too many times. No, no, no. Yeah, I think this, if this was fruitful and beneficial for the faith community, me and Jeff were willing to do this again, right? Absolutely. And if it was awful and terrible, tell Cam. I don't know. Complain to Cam. I'm joking. Tell us, we'll make sure it never happens again, right? But I think, for sure, one thing I would say, me and Jeff have definitely, like, looked at each other and talked to each other and been like, no, we're committed to this thing in the long run, even if it is the slow, drawn-out pace where it's not getting as much traction because it's once a month kind of thing, because I truly believe the conversations we're having, it's not that John or Jeff have all the answers, but our conversations are worth at least trying to have a conversation about, right? Because I imagine if we're struggling with this stuff, I know there's someone and numerous someone who's also asking the same questions, right? We're going to go here, and then I see some other hands. Alright, I have a few different questions. Two of them are the same kind of. What creates this expectancy and what creates this demand as far as culture, like fast, efficient, convenient? I think it's technology, especially, and then, like, I hate to just blame Amazon, but, like, I remember a time where I would buy something online, and it would say, like, 7 to 10 business days. And I would be like, that's cool. Now I'm like, bro, two days? It needs to be here tomorrow. And that expectation has literally shaped me with everything, right? Like, I haven't seen Avatar because it's three hours. I'm like, man, that's too long. Right? But I'll binge watch eight episodes of a season and they're each an hour, so I don't know. That doesn't make sense. Anyway, and then, like, the algorithm. Like, instead of, like you said, having to go, before, we had to go shopping. You had to, like, go shopping physically, look for stuff. Now it's just like, it all comes to me. That shapes my expectation of everything. Everything should be convenient because it is. Technology is all about convenience, and that shapes us to be convenient-focused people. I'll just add on, and then you can ask the other question. I think whether we want to acknowledge it or not, again, our American culture, Westernized culture, has quite literally considered us consumers and has built all lives, even to how our neighborhoods are set up, to what we rely on, to our education systems. Dude, we spent a decade in education, Fresno Unified. It's all shaped a certain way, unfortunately. So, it is highly intentional that, as far as Jesus, we, I don't know, I don't want to get too crazy with my words, but we actively make sure, yeah, we live counterculture to it. That's great. Good question, though. Okay. Is hard? No, no, it's all right. Oh, okay. I thought you said it was hard. Come see us after Easter. Yeah, I'd love to. Who else did we have? This is actually, I'm surprised. We were all scared, like, no one's going to ask questions. I was like, Jeff, I got you. I got some, you know, back pocket questions. So, in the slowness and inconvenience and inefficiency of life, if we want love, we are to seek a slower, more inconvenient, more uncomfortable situation. How do we maintain a lifestyle of seeking discomfort if it's always uncomfortable? That is a pastoral question right there. Good stuff. That's good stuff. Okay. So, man, it might mean you make less money. It might mean you work less hours. It might mean you don't have as nice a car, as nice a house, or as nice a Jordan, like, because you prioritize people over things. I said this last time I preached here. We live in a culture, and I got this from Levi, where instead of loving people and using things, we love things and use people, right? So, I've got to, like, be intentional with how I set up my life to make sure that I'm being personal and not just personalized. It's easier said than done. And I think, Jeff, I think if I'm hearing your question even a different way as well, which I think that's a good response, I would say, how do we have something sustainable for the long run, right, where we're just like, I'm just going to beat myself into submission, right? You hear sometimes language like that in church, but I think, if anything, you have to recognize, and this guy loves talking about this, that's why I'm not going to give him the opportunity to talk about it, because we'll be here all night, about this thing called the Sabbath, right, which is the person of Jesus who comes and brings rest for us, but also, I mean, I don't want to go as far as saying, like, it's commanded of us, but I would almost go as far as that and saying, we are supposed to have active cycles of rest in our life, even, like, weekly and daily patterns. With other people. We're supposed to be around the table with others. I know, yeah. Good stuff, though. Great question. Where are we at right now? Yes. Go ahead, bro. So, let me give a pretense before I ask the question. So, recently, I left a friend group that I was in, just sort of abruptly, mainly because I didn't feel like it was, like, and this was, I think, roughly around the time of the last message that you gave, where we, you know, we prioritize ourselves, we prioritize things, and relationships aren't about what we get out of them, but I think, sometimes, when it comes to directing our focus towards perhaps that be something that, you know, we want to do for God, or, in my case, I want to learn psychology and go to school for that, I just started to, as I resensitized myself to what was going on around, and culture, and people, I guess it made me want to withdraw, and I do think that there is a time and a place, that there might be some merit to that, and so my question to you is, when is it time to withdraw? What time, you know, is it to look at the ladder or the other side of this? That's a great question, actually. Go ahead, Jeff. I think it's it's got to be regularly, right? It's got to be consistent, that's why I'm going to go back to Sabbath, right? So if I think regularly, once a week, God has gifted us with this thing called Sabbath, to be able to withdraw and to delight in Him, and others, and to rest. Right? Turn off your phones, unplug from technology, and just, like, withdraw, retreat, so that you can be rested to go back into the world. Because most of us just remain in that withdrawal space, and then we'll look at the Bible and say, well, Jesus was withdrawn, and then we'll make the excuse why we're withdrawn for 40 years in our lives. I haven't found the right church yet. So that's a great question, though. We had one, I forgot where the mic went. He had one, next to Hunter. Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't know who has the mic. Caden has the mic. I got you, though. Caden, you're doing great, man. Give it up for Caden! Hey, notice something. He had a bigger clap than we did. He was like, mm-hmm, I'm doing this. So my question is, you talked about how the American culture really focuses on those, like, three big things. Do you think, like, a lot of other cultures around the world focus on those three big things, and, like, more kind of like, I guess, like, Christian or, like, Catholic-based cultures? Like, do you think they focus on those big three things as well, like countries, you know? Okay, so, good question. I would say America, I would include us in Western culture, which includes all of North America, if you're not a geography person, that's Canada, United States, a little bit of Mexico, okay? And then Europe, right? And then Australia and New Zealand, even though they're not geographically in the West. They're Western culture, right? The rest of the world, like, what's called the Global South, which is South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, they just culturally live at a slower pace, right? And even, I could say, even, like, in Italy, there's parts of Italy where they live at a slower pace. But anyway, so I would say, like, not everybody is struggling with this issue. And the crazy thing is, by 2030, 70% of the world's Christians will not be in the West. They will be in the Global South. So our Christian experience is already the minority Christian experience. We're not the typical Christian in the world, right? So what we're facing, you can't go to, like, Chile and be like, hey, man, listen, personalize the world. And they're going to be like, what are you talking about? But I think there are aspects of Western culture that are trying to infiltrate those parts because they're new customers. Hey, guys, don't you guys want some technology? A new iPhone with titanium? Who cares it has titanium? Every commercial, who cares about titanium? Anyway. That's great. No, I'll stop there. Next question. Yeah, let's go to him. He won't come over here. Who is it? Tori will ask you a question? Oh, Linda. I was like, we can skip Tori. No, I'm joking. Hi. Hey. So you might have answered my question with the status, but my question is how do you balance seeking the presence of God and to communing with others and fellowshipping and having that communication with others? How do you have, like, that balance? Don't worry. Don't worry. She ain't part of this conversation. We have the technology trying to infiltrate the conversation. That's the devil. The devil's alive. You got your question off? Yes. Seeking the balance. So I'm answering all the questions. I'm sorry. No, no, no. Go ahead. No, no. Please. So I would say you've got 24 hours, right? Okay. I don't know. How many do y'all sleep? Come on. Hey, you see, he's a stay-at-home dad, guys. How many do y'all sleep? No, I only get, like, five hours. You're right. My bad. So I would look at Jesus and he regularly got up early to be with his Father before the sun came up. I'm not saying you've got to get up at 4 or 5, but you might have to. I don't know. But regularly, every day, prioritize your time with God first. It ain't got to be for 7 hours. It could be 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever the case may be. Then you've got the rest of the day to be with other people. But as long as you're regularly making that routine, you know we make routine a bad word. It's not. You have a gym routine. You have a coffee routine, whatever you do. Have a routine with God where you regularly start your day spending time with him and then take that schedule of being with God out into it with other people. That's good. So I feel like this was kind of already answered, but I'm going to ask it anyways. In a world where we have so many temptations and it's so easy to just slip and do this or do that with your worldly friends, what would you suggest to do in that case where you're, like, one foot in and one foot out where you want to commit to Christ, but there's so many distractions. As far as having discipline in your relationship with God, what would you recommend? I have an answer, but I don't know. Go ahead, because I'm just listening. I'm taking in right now. So that is such a good question for, like, this age group, right? And we've been there already. John and I haven't always been married with kids. You know what I'm saying? So, like, we used to be in college. Not together. Yeah, that would be a little weird. Anyway, to our wives separately. So I heard this on another podcast. I listen to a lot of podcasts, guys. I heard this on another podcast where they said, like, Jesus didn't hang out with sinners. They hung out with him, right? I used to be, when I was in college, like, I'm the Christian friend. I'm the one in the group that's a Christian. And I'm going everywhere with them. And I got to be the Christian. That's really hard when everyone around you is drinking. Everyone around you is just like, but I'm like, okay, yeah, sure, I'll take one shot. Versus, like, hey, guys, I'm having people at my house. You guys should pull up. Right? Or we're going to meet at Starbucks or we'll meet somewhere, like, and bring your Christian friends and your non-Christian friends, which you should definitely have non-Christian friends. Like, you need non-Christian friends. Right? But, like, let them hang out with you, not the other way around. You know what I'm saying? That's easier said than done. But that's what I would say, John. Great response, guys. I'm sick of you, John. Alright, a couple more questions. I see one over here. Yeah, I like that. I like that. I see you two in the corner. And, yep. Oh, right here. Kaden first. Or, I mean, whoever. We'll go there and then Destiny and then right here. That's fine. And I can talk to Levi anytime. I'm just kidding. I'm probably going to struggle to, like, how to word this question because I appreciate, obviously, like, the knowledge and what you guys are sharing. I think it's more so, like, how do we continue to share, like, the message that you guys are sharing and bring that out into the world when we're talking, like, culture, right? And Hansel culture is huge as well. So how can we, how do we combat someone that would be, like, you guys are talking about, you know, the culture of social media and all those things, but yet using it as a platform to share the message. Like, are you contradicting everything you're saying by using that? And it's not that I don't appreciate it. It's more so, like, how do you address that? I know you're going to go. I appreciate you. Go ahead. So, like, we have a Preacher's Hour Instagram. We put our podcast on Spotify. We use the technology. Unfortunately, people are on the platform. You have to go where they are, right? You can't just, like, we're not going to do technology. We're going to just okay, cool. No one's going to listen to you, right? What was the first part of your question? Because it was really good and I forgot it. Oh, man. Roll the tape back. Oh, okay. Okay. And then you can go, okay? So we don't have to, like, take on the whole world with this. It's as simple as if I'm out with my friends, I'm like, hey, guys, can we just be present to each other? Can we put our phones away? Can we just have, like, a rule when we hang out we just not know what's on their phones? That small little thing, you're fighting it back against the culture. That's a huge step, right? Go ahead, John. I think you answered it really good, but I think there's one part of that thing I just wanted to, like, touch on, right? And this is something I'm discovering the last couple years as we try to ask questions of, like, how do we share, like, you know, our heart, right? Because I don't ever think a combating or a, like, a debate. I don't even like using that word, debate, combat. Like, I'm trying to prove my point to someone or anything that is always helpful. I think, and I've told this to some people who've met me, so you've heard this before, I think the best thing we can do is be curious in another person. Because when we actually express that we're curious about them in a good and honest way and not with just, like, some evil intent or even intent, like, now I'm going to reel them in and just talk about Jesus, right? And all things are illegal. But taking a true, genuine interest, which I truly believe is what Jesus did do and encourages us as his followers to actually do. Through that, you'll naturally, people are also curious about, hey, why is it that you're the way you certain are? Why is it that you're even curious about me in a culture that has no care for anyone else besides those who are themselves, right? You seem so at peace. Yeah. You seem so unanxious. Why? Yeah. Well, I got this Jesus dude in my life, you know what I'm saying? That's a good question. Okay, destiny. And then, my sister right there. And then you get to Levi, okay? This might be a different variation of a few questions already asked. Go ahead. Speaking on a literal sense, what words of encouragement or advice would you say to young adults, even adults, who feel like the pace they're going is what's keeping them afloat? People who haven't known rest in a while. And people who feel like if they rest, they won't be able to pay for this. If they rest, this grade will drop. If they rest, their parents are going to get on them again. Yeah. Yes. What a question. I already know you're going to answer it and I'm just going to tag team with you. Go ahead. Cool. Alright. There's an element to Sabbath that is fighting injustice, which is there are people around us that don't have an opportunity to Sabbath. They got three jobs. They got kids at home. They cannot take a day off. It is up to the community of faith around them to make it possible for them to rest. Hey, you know what? We're all going to chip in. You don't have to take that shift at your job on Friday because you can rest with us. We have to enable people to be able to rest. Now that's easier said than done. I ain't got a whole lot of money, but I'll give you a little something. I can contribute. But if enough of us come together, man, we could set people free from this rat race that we're stuck in. Right? You know what I love about our generation and even beyond there? I don't know where I lie. Millennial, early, early Gen Z. Gen Z almost. You're like right there. I'm somewhere in the middle. Right there. No places home. Son of man. Anyway, yeah, you got the joke where I'm going. As a dad, Pastor Joe goes off. OK, guys recognize it. But I love about this is because I think if anyone is inclined to recognize where injustice is taking place in the world, it's all of us sitting in this actual room. Right. Or we can go into just simply walk out and we can begin to recognize where things are not the way God desires and plans and what ought to be done. Right. So there's even I knew I was going to come back to this verse. Look, I already have it in my notes and everything. Micah 6 8. He has shown you, oh mortal, all of us in here. What is good and what does the Lord require of every single one of us to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God? But a lot of people get it twisted. A big part of actually truly following Jesus is also seeking the justice for other people where injustices like me having to work 17 jobs in order just to get by like where that is. I think about the book of Acts. Right. If you're kind of familiar with it, it's basically Jesus is gone. Church is trying to figure out how to be the church right with people. And one of the things that says they do now, this is radical and I don't even know how I feel. It stirs things in my own heart where it says that they sold all their possessions. They came together and they said everyone was out without need. So I'm not saying that's what we need to all do and come together and live under communism. Yeah. Like whatever. Marxism, like everyone, like whatever. But I'm just saying is does scripture command us to make sure that when things like that are happening to take note and not just to take note, but to try to find solutions like that? Absolutely. Right. And again, that can't happen, though, if we're not having honest conversations, all we do is we come in here to show each other's face. I'm doing good. All right. Bye. And then run out. Right. Because, again, I'll be honest. Now, this is where forget the podcast. This is now Pastor John. This is where I will speak on the behalf of patient of Pastor Patient, Pastor John, Pastor Jeff, Cam, everyone else. You want to list down that you're leaders right of this church. We genuinely like want to like do life with every single person possible. We can. And we want to be able to meet every need. That is, we have the ability to actually meet. Right. And we are doing that stuff, even if it's not always preached about some of the things that actually from the pulpit. Right. We talk about power, but no one sees how many times the churches and maybe this is a little prideful. OK, I'll be careful. But like we pay for people's rent. We've done plenty of this stuff. Obviously, we're not vocalizing this from what's actually going on. But the only way we can actually do any of these things, make sure people have places to live, food to actually eat and all this kind of stuff, resources when someone actually is trying to get clean and they need to actually know where can I actually go? Teen Challenge, Fresno Mission, whatever it is, is when they actually have honest conversations about where they're currently at. Thank you for asking that question. Thank you so much. OK, over here. Hey, my brother in Christ. I'm Morgan, by the way. So I definitely agree with what you were saying, like we do live in a time and a world where it's really difficult because of the freedom that we have and the opportunities. Oh, the opportunity for Tinder, social media, phone, all of that toxicity. And again, going back to the theme of all of us, this culture, this world going in fast pace, would you agree that maybe if we had the mindset that we serve an audience of one and not an audience of the world, that maybe things would be a little bit different in our culture? Amen. Yeah, I agree. Amen. I agree with you. Honestly, how do I say this? You know God is giving us, here's Pastor John again, you know God is giving His Spirit to every single one of us in here. And you know what I've learned? When God's Spirit speaks, shut up and listen. So I think really through that is absolutely 100%. Who are we living to please? Who is our person we really want to live up to? I only need one like on my sub, John, and it's from God. Amen. Really, that was crazy text, man. Okay, but who cares? But the truth is that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the truth really is that. So yeah, 100%. I love it. Levi. Is there anyone else want to ask? Okay, we're going here and that'll be the last question because I want to do something else really close. Okay. All right. Oh, Levi, cut it. Here we go. So my question, I'm going to try and word this the best way I can, but like say we can't like, we love this person that's a Christian, but like we don't really agree with, gosh, let's see, kind of like the Sabbath, right? So like there's the Sabbath and you know it's a commandment, but like say it's like they go to the T of the Bible, right? So how do you, if you don't agree with it exactly the way like, well, it's in the Bible, but like how do you like love them and show them love but with like respect for how they live? You talking about like the extra religious folk? Like somebody who's like really like zealous. You don't drive, it's like sundown to sun. Oh, you talking about like, oh, okay. It's not bad, right? As long as they're not like forcing it on you. But like if you're like, I don't know. Let me talk to them. No, I literally, I've done so much digging into the Sabbath. Like if they're having their interpretation of it, they're taking it a little too far and stuff like that. Let me handle it. I'll try to set them straight. That's all I can say. I think too, like in the reality, just like echoing what he said, like it's going to sound bad. Because you definitely, like people you were in a genuine relationship with and you really do care about, you should really care about the decisions and choices and actions that they're making, right? So I affirm that part. But then also I've just started to learn like I don't have the time or energy the older I even get. I'm like 90 or something. But if you have a kid, it feels like you just boom. But I just don't have the energy and I don't even think God calls me to try to convince anyone. I think last time I checked in the scriptures, that's God's work of the Holy Spirit doing in people's lives. Pray for them. If you've made your argument to them, say, man, it's cool. I still love you. You would not drive. I'm going to be driving on Friday. So like when you were saying like the three things, the fear of abundance, pleasure of work, and fear of difficulty. So when you were saying the fear of difficulty, I was taking it in a, I don't know if I took it the right way, but I was like wondering like, so say you want to pursue something, right? But you're also like you're fearful of pursuing that thing because you know it's going to be difficult. But you also fear because it's going to be so difficult, like you're not going to have enough time for God. So like how do you deal with that? Did God call you to it? It's more of like part of like your way of living. Like work. So you don't think God cares about that? No, I know he does. I'm not trying to put you on the spot. But I think it's more of like the difficulty that comes with like the work is fine. Like I know I can do that. But it's more so like the fear of like not having enough time for God. Like how do you like? I mean, I would say try it. And then if it's not, if it's taken away from God, like man, okay, I'm leaving this. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Okay, last question. Hey, while he asks this question, we are going to finish up here because I do want to respect people's time. But I'm also going to offer like for those who want to linger a little longer, I'm going to give you an opportunity to do that as well. Can I have some of the people who are willing for the worship team come back on up? Y'all have amazing voices. And I know y'all know songs. So I'm not worried about y'all trying to figure out what song to sing or what kind of stuff, right? Yeah, come on up and ask your question. So ask your question when you get up there on the piano. Okay, my question, I had another question, but I'm going to ask this one because it's shorter. But I think I'm talking about community. I mean, I mean, culture. Talking about culture, I just felt like. So we live in a culture where you give a diagnosis of the culture. And I just want to and I think in this culture, we don't live in a culture where people don't know who Christ is. Everybody knows who he is and has an idea of him. And they have a very bad view of Christ in the world we live in. So I want to know how do we represent or introduce God to a culture that already has a negative idea of who Christ is? So part of it is making good Christian content, right? Like I mentioned, my podcast and homies in here, the reason why we do this podcast is because there's so much nonsense out there. We want to at least offer an alternative view. Not that we have all the answers, not that they're just completely wrong or anything like that, but just like we've got to be the best representation of Jesus that people are ever going to see. We don't have to be perfect. That's actually part of being a good representation is not being perfect. Right? Bless you. Bless you. It's all right. Bless you. Do you have anything on that? All right. Thank you, Levi. Amen. Thanks, guys. Yeah. Go ahead and clap it up. Feel free to cut us now if you want, if you're still recording. So this is what we're going to do. To respect people's time, it is officially 9.31. I'm one minute over, right? So I understand completely if you need to go.
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