1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:02,720 Welcome to Beyond Sunday. That's. 2 00:00:05,560 --> 00:00:06,640 Good. Welcome back, Joe. 3 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:10,480 Well, I, I just told you that I didn't listen to the whole 4 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:14,240 podcast last week, but you guys were making fun of me the way I 5 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:16,880 introduced. We did make fun of you a little. 6 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:19,880 Bit that's all right. Welcome to Beyond Sunday. 7 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:23,040 Which is. An extension of the preaching 8 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:26,760 ministry here at LEMC and I am joined. 9 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:30,440 I am Joseph Penner, the Associate Pastor here at LEMC, 10 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:34,280 and I'm joined, as always, by Jonah Chitty. 11 00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:37,400 Jonah, we can't say pastors anymore. 12 00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:38,880 We're not pastors. We're just people. 13 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,000 We're just people. But you preached this last 14 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,000 Sunday. We were not here. 15 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,640 We we were away. But I did listen to the sermon 16 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:51,920 and, you know, you guys got to share in the Lord's Supper this 17 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:52,720 last weekend. How? 18 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:54,280 How was church this last weekend? 19 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:57,320 It was good. Church was really good as 20 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:00,560 always. You know, you nor Jake were here 21 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:05,480 and so I was a bit whatever frazzled, but we have a good 22 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:07,280 team here. Like the Deacon team did an 23 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:09,400 awesome job setting everything up. 24 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,160 I didn't ever really think about communion much. 25 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:15,280 Mr. Phil Ham took care of the the Scripture reading and 26 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:17,640 getting us in our hearts ready for that part. 27 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,960 So that was, that was easy, easier than I was expecting. 28 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:22,600 I was a little worried when I woke up was like, oh, I haven't 29 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:24,760 heard from anybody. But then why don't I even care? 30 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:26,720 I mean, they, I knew they would already have it done. 31 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:29,000 So. But yeah, the church was, I 32 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:30,440 thought, I thought things went really well. 33 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:32,560 Good. We have a good worship team that 34 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:35,760 you've trained up that knows what's that, what they're doing. 35 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:38,040 And, yeah, everybody knew what they were doing. 36 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:40,000 And yeah, it's good to know that. 37 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:42,640 Honestly, it is good to know that you're not really needed. 38 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:45,600 Like the, the. That's a weird thing to say, but 39 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:47,000 it is good that the church is built. 40 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:51,680 It's full of people, and we all have the abilities to help and 41 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:54,400 do things. And so, yeah, it went out. 42 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:56,160 It went, it went like normal. Yeah. 43 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:58,680 Yeah, that's good to hear. No, it we are so blessed to have 44 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,240 so many people who are willing to serve and to give of 45 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:05,480 themselves and to help the body. It it is such a blessing to know 46 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:07,960 that, you know, there's times where we're we're not going to 47 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:09,479 be able to be here. We're going to be away. 48 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:11,520 Those are few and far between, actually. 49 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,080 But it is a blessing to know that people are there to to 50 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:15,880 serve and to take ownership of this thing. 51 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:17,360 So we're very blessed in that way. 52 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:19,200 Yeah. All right. 53 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:21,840 Well, you preach a sermon. We're here to talk about your 54 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:23,120 sermon. And then making a little bit 55 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,720 further application, you know, the rubber hitting the road. 56 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,720 Did you get my title? I I didn't. 57 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:31,520 I worked so hard on my title, Joe. 58 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:34,720 No, it was priorities for godly living. 59 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:39,040 Priorities for godly living? Well, why don't you give us a 60 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:42,240 quick overview of your sermon? So it came from Nehemiah Chapter 61 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:48,160 7, picking up on really the priorities that Nehemiah had as 62 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:51,840 he was setting up the city that they just finished building the 63 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:57,680 walls in record time, 52 days of just just under two months as 64 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:01,080 it's done complete something that over 100 years hadn't been 65 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,920 done. He comes in with a plan. 66 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:07,640 He's got priorities there too, but but it's finished. 67 00:03:07,640 --> 00:03:11,080 And so now they've got to figure out all right now what like, I 68 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:13,840 think I use the example of like a house is dried in, but now 69 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:15,160 they're the hard work comes in, right? 70 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:19,080 Like you've got, you've got baseboards and walls to put up 71 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:20,800 and you've got carpet and flooring to put in. 72 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:22,720 You got to figure out who's going to pay the bills and take 73 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:24,200 out the trash and all those different things. 74 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:26,080 And so that's that's where Nehemiah comes in. 75 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,560 He starts to like figure out and put people in place to really 76 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:31,160 set the city up for what it's meant for. 77 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:35,040 And so Nehemiah, he prioritized the my points. 78 00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:39,400 My points were Nehemiah prioritized the, the praise of 79 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:43,480 God, the pursuit of godliness, the people of God and the 80 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:46,560 purpose of God. And the implication is that if 81 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:49,520 Nehemiah's priority was the were these things, then we should 82 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:51,720 have these priorities as well in our, in our Christian walk. 83 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:55,200 And so, yeah, the city is built and made for worship. 84 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:59,320 Like we will know that like I, I didn't go into this when I was 85 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:04,240 preaching, but like, you know, in Revelation, whenever God is 86 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:07,080 or Jesus is giving John the revelation, he's talking about 87 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:09,840 how like the dimensions of the city and it's like, it's a new 88 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:13,000 Jerusalem, you know, And so like Jerusalem is a purpose. 89 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:14,440 The purpose of that city was worship. 90 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:17,320 And so like Nehemiah is setting the tone for that. 91 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:21,079 And I think I saw I said something about like our hearts 92 00:04:21,079 --> 00:04:24,400 are meant for or we're designed for worship. 93 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:26,720 And so like the city's also designed for worship. 94 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:30,640 My second point was that Nehemiah prioritized the pursuit 95 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:33,680 of godliness by the people he chose. 96 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:36,480 So he chose his brother Hannah and I who brought in the news, 97 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:38,600 but he also chose this guy named Hananiah. 98 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,080 So it's pretty convenient that they're that close in name. 99 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:43,760 You can just start like if you're calling them for for 100 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:46,120 something you say Han and both of them respond. 101 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:48,000 That's like us all pastors having. 102 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,040 This Jane and Jane Joe. Jonah, Jane. 103 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:56,680 So, yeah, so but to talk about Hananiah's, his character being 104 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,160 one of a man who was like really godly. 105 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:03,400 And so that was his, that was his biggest qualification. 106 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:05,280 Even though he's really qualified for the job, His 107 00:05:05,280 --> 00:05:08,200 biggest qualification was that he was more God fearing man than 108 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:11,160 many. The Third Point was prioritizing 109 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:16,280 the people of God. That's just there in the text, 110 00:05:16,280 --> 00:05:17,880 like really throughout the whole chapter. 111 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,280 I mean, like Nehemiah, he knew that he had to figure out who's 112 00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:25,400 going to like populate the city. And so he went to the census and 113 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,440 looked at the census and said, OK, this is the list of people 114 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,080 who we have. So he prioritized the people of 115 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:35,440 God and who he put it in there in the city. 116 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:37,840 And then my final point was prioritizing the purpose of God 117 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:41,360 linking the, the story in the grand, the grand narrative. 118 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:46,000 Like there's a rubable connection to the, like he's in 119 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:49,560 the genealogy of Jesus. He's in here, but he's also in 120 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:53,200 the genealogy. So he's, Zerubbel is, is part of 121 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:58,280 the people who came out of the Babylonian captivity. 122 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:00,840 He's part of that original group that came to Jerusalem. 123 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:05,840 And then he's also a part of like this new this, this new 124 00:06:05,840 --> 00:06:08,880 people of God, which is ushered in through Christ and through 125 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:12,120 the genealogy of Jesus. So God is doing way more than we 126 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:15,600 can ever imagine, even though like, even though they're doing 127 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:17,720 a lot here, like they have no idea what God's doing. 128 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,120 He's like Doctor Betts in his commentary said is like this 129 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:23,280 weaving this like beautiful tapestry that we, we can't see 130 00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:24,760 because it's, we're looking at it really close. 131 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:27,480 But God is standing back and looking at this whole picture, 132 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:29,560 and he's doing so many amazing things. 133 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:34,000 So yeah, prioritize. We should prioritize what 134 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:35,920 Nehemiah prioritized. That's kind of the basic the 135 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:37,760 basic point of the sermon. Good. 136 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:40,840 Yeah, no, it was really good. I, I really enjoyed listening to 137 00:06:40,840 --> 00:06:41,880 it. I thought it was really good. 138 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:44,240 I, I know at the beginning you sort of addressed like, man, 139 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:46,320 there's a lot of names in this chapter. 140 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:49,880 Yeah, I really started reading it to Valerie, she says. 141 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:51,560 Jonah, you can't read that. It's too boring. 142 00:06:51,840 --> 00:06:55,560 And I'm like, it's not boring. You know, everything is 143 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,280 profitable for us and so. Well, and I just thought like, 144 00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:01,640 like somewhere in your sermon, you did say, you know, that 145 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:05,920 numbers matter to God and and because people matter to God, 146 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:08,120 they should matter to us. You said something to that. 147 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:10,960 Warren Wearsby, I think, is the one that said he's he's like, 148 00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:14,080 it's not so much that the people were counted, but that the 149 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:16,720 people count, right. So like that they these these 150 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:17,760 people matter. Yeah. 151 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:22,080 Like, and there was another one somebody else like texted me and 152 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:26,400 said that the Joshua connection is like the high priest Joshua. 153 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:29,560 And he comes up later and too and, and and and so it's like, 154 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:31,920 yeah, these all these names and these people, they're just not 155 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:34,960 arbitrary names. They're, they are people and 156 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:38,120 families like that that were part of like this. 157 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:42,160 Literally, they put their lives on the line to leave Babylonian 158 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:46,280 captivity and to to go back and to start like this city and 159 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:48,840 like, yeah, they these are the real heroes. 160 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:52,920 Nehemiah comes in and like, and you think, oh, in 52 days he did 161 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:54,160 the wall and it is amazing, right? 162 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,560 But these people left without really any kind of idea that 163 00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:00,800 anything would be successful. Like these 42,000 people said, 164 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:02,960 we're OK, we're going to go. We've been able to go and 165 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:04,800 Nebuchadnezzar said we can. So we're going to go. 166 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,120 And then they just didn't have the direction that they needed. 167 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:11,320 So Nehemiah comes in 100 years later and gives them direction 168 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:13,640 and, and there we are. So I don't know. 169 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:16,120 Yeah, and I thought, I thought that was a really interesting 170 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:18,600 point that you brought out. Like these people risked, like 171 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:20,880 you said, they sort of risked their lives to go out because it 172 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:23,000 was like, yeah, OK, we're going to let you guys go back. 173 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:28,240 It, it wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like looking for the 174 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:30,720 promised land in the sense of like, oh, we're looking for 175 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:31,920 this. Great, it's not going back to 176 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:34,720 ruins. Exactly, it was a skin it you're 177 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:36,440 you still, the enemies are still all there. 178 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:38,640 They don't like you. They don't want you to rebuild 179 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:39,240 that. That's clear. 180 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:42,000 That's been clear from the book of Nehemiah as as we come back. 181 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,680 And so the thought that like they really were taking a big 182 00:08:44,680 --> 00:08:46,280 risk and going back. I thought that was really 183 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:47,560 interesting, the way you drew that out. 184 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:51,600 Yeah, it was a, it was a a dangerous endeavour and and the 185 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:53,280 fact that they did it is, is amazing. 186 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:57,160 Yeah. What I thought I, I, as I was 187 00:08:57,160 --> 00:08:59,240 reading through the text again this morning, I, I sort of 188 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:02,560 thought about, you know, there's this one verse in verse 33 where 189 00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:07,840 it says the men of the other Nebo 52 And I just I, as I 190 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:09,520 thought about that, I thought about like, what if you did this 191 00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:11,920 in our church? We got a lot of people, we got a 192 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:13,840 lot of people with similar last names, right? 193 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:16,600 So you go like you know the of the family of the Friesens, you 194 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:19,440 know the other Friesens. One of the things if I had, if I 195 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:21,520 had more time, I might have gone down this road. 196 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:24,120 But like in the early stages of like when I was looking at the 197 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:26,600 text and trying to figure it out, I was like, all right, we 198 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:27,760 could. We could literally do this. 199 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:29,760 Talking about church membership and the importance of the 200 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:31,920 importance of being known in your church is what I was 201 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:34,720 thinking. Yeah, these people are known as 202 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:37,960 inhabitants of Jerusalem, right? These are, these are like the 203 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:40,760 people who came back. So like it is important for for 204 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:44,480 the people you like are in church with, it's important that 205 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:47,600 you know them and they know you. And so because people matter, 206 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:49,880 right. And so like my, one of my first 207 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:52,640 ideas was like to just to like read off these names. 208 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:54,720 A portion of them. I probably wouldn't have read 209 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:58,320 all 73 verses, but then, but then like to like break in there 210 00:09:58,320 --> 00:10:03,040 and like read in like Penner, the men of Penner, you know, 18 211 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:08,600 the, the fairs, you know, 39 the other fairs, 52 whatever, you 212 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:11,400 know, but sort of sort of like that to, to sort of like just 213 00:10:11,400 --> 00:10:14,000 bring home the point that, you know what it does matter that 214 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:16,600 you're counted. And so like for that church 215 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:19,520 membership in my mind is it's so important like for us to know 216 00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:22,880 who is like, who is, who are the people who have, who have come 217 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:26,360 together and said, for lack of a better word, there is no better 218 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:28,120 word. I don't think covenant together 219 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:31,880 where we come together and we we we commit to one another that 220 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:34,560 this is our family, this is our this is our family around the 221 00:10:34,560 --> 00:10:36,880 word and around around the Lord and what he's doing in this 222 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:39,600 community. And I just think it's it means 223 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:41,080 so much. And like that's why these 224 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:43,360 censuses are that I think that's what they point. 225 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:44,600 That's one thing they point to anyway. 226 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:45,600 Maybe that's the most. Important. 227 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:47,040 No, I think that's exactly right. 228 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:50,880 I think that point exactly that that is a very powerful 229 00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:54,520 illustration and reminder because you read these names and 230 00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:56,840 we have no connection or relation to these names 231 00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,080 whatsoever. So you just read them very like, 232 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,680 you know, your brain sort of switches off as you go through 233 00:11:01,680 --> 00:11:03,240 them. But like you said, if you sort 234 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:07,040 of think about the people in our church, and it's like, well, 235 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:08,800 it's easy for us to look at all these names and numbers and go, 236 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:10,760 how does it really matter? And it's like, well, exactly 237 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:12,640 like what you said. Do the Friesians matter? 238 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:14,680 Right. You know, that guy who's married 239 00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:16,720 to that, does he matter? Does his wife matter? 240 00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:18,880 Do his kids matter? Do his grandchildren matter? 241 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:21,280 Yeah, they do. They matter a lot because, like 242 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:23,960 you said, they matter to God. And so we have to remember when 243 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:26,320 we're reading these names that these were families and 244 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:28,800 households of people that were connected. 245 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:32,920 Like, yeah, like, like verse 30, just just for fun, the men of 246 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:37,360 Raima and Giba 621, the 621 isn't an arbitrary number. 247 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:42,240 That's 621 men in that in that group, not counting their wives 248 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,840 and children or their servants. And so like those are people. 249 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:49,280 And that's why I think whenever we like we made the comment, I 250 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:54,360 think in our last big meeting is like numbers matter because they 251 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:59,440 represent people, Like they represent individuals who are 252 00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:03,160 coming here, learning the word are, are coming here and, and 253 00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:05,280 being participants and like teaching the word. 254 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:08,120 Numbers matter because they're people, not because they're 255 00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:10,440 numbers, like not because we want to just count numbers or be 256 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:12,680 like, no, oh, we got 750 people on a Sunday. 257 00:12:12,680 --> 00:12:17,960 No, there are 750 people here and they, they have 700 people 258 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:19,720 who have been exposed to God's word. 259 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:22,200 And that's that's an important thing to to count. 260 00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:24,000 Absolutely. Because they count, right? 261 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:25,800 Yeah, Anyway. Well, and we see this consistent 262 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:27,000 all through Scripture too, right? 263 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:30,160 Like God, God keeps records. He he has numbers. 264 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:32,760 You know, even in we think of the early church, you know, we 265 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:35,080 know that 3000 were added to their number. 266 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:37,720 How do we know that it was 3000? Because somebody was counting. 267 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:40,800 Somebody counted it right? And so it they, it matters, 268 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,800 numbers matter very much to God. And so like you said, I think 269 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:46,160 there's, there is a pitfall there where we have to be 270 00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:48,560 careful of like, you know, that's the only thing that 271 00:12:48,560 --> 00:12:50,000 matters. It's no, it's not. 272 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,040 It's about, like you said, those are people being exposed to 273 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:54,640 God's word. Those are people that can build 274 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:57,760 relationship and connection. It can be in community together 275 00:12:57,760 --> 00:12:58,720 and be in. That's right. 276 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:02,800 And the more people that come to faith is that's the whole goal 277 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:04,240 of what we're doing as a church and. 278 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:06,880 Committing to each other is, is equally important, right? 279 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:09,360 Like I think that's why I think membership is important, yeah. 280 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:12,520 Like we're going to commit and covenant with each other. 281 00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:14,640 We're going to know. I know that, oh, you're in it 282 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:16,680 100%. I'm in it 100%. 283 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:18,480 We can hold each other accountable to that. 284 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:23,920 But also like, if like we know who like, for lack of a better 285 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:27,120 phrase as well, is like, we know who that we're in charge of or 286 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:28,760 not in charge of is the wrong word. 287 00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:31,400 We know who we're supposed to be shepherding, right would be the 288 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:32,920 right word using biblical language. 289 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:36,120 Yeah. Like the flock at LEMC is all 290 00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:39,200 the membership at LEMC and we have a lot of people who aren't 291 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:41,920 members but are, you know, are here. 292 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:43,440 They would probably consider it their home church. 293 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:45,360 They might even consider themselves members, but haven't 294 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:47,160 like done the official thing, right? 295 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:50,200 It just makes it harder, like, and I don't know, you know, 296 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:53,200 anyway, we could go down that rabbit trail if we want to, but 297 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:56,120 that was my whole point there. I would have done that in the 298 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:57,880 sermon had we had time to talk about that. 299 00:13:57,880 --> 00:13:59,040 Yeah, you were. You were limited. 300 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:00,800 Because of, because of communion, Yeah. 301 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,640 But do you think that? Do you think that's a, would you 302 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:07,000 draw out that application further when it comes to when it 303 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:09,760 comes to the people who came and they couldn't prove their 304 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:12,120 father's houses and they couldn't prove where they that 305 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:15,280 they belong to Israel, Do you think that that that translates 306 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:17,120 and applies to the church as well? 307 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:19,920 I don't know. That's a good question. 308 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:23,200 Like people who can't prove that they're Christians or what? 309 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:24,160 Yeah, I guess. I guess that's. 310 00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:25,400 What I'm sort of thinking of like. 311 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,240 No, I think that's true. I think it's important like one 312 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:31,040 of the ways, like one of the things about membership, like 313 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,520 when we take up membership, is that like there's an interview, 314 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:34,840 right? Like there, there is at least 315 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:36,680 some kind of questioning about your, your faith. 316 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:39,240 It's not, it's not in depth, right? 317 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,600 It is, but it's not right. We're just, we basically just 318 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:44,120 want to know, do you understand the gospel and have you have 319 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:46,480 you, do you profess faith in Christ? 320 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:49,800 That's essentially what it is. And so like, I think so like 321 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:52,480 our, our, that in that way you're tracing your lineage back 322 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:55,160 to if you're adopted into the Kingdom or not. 323 00:14:56,440 --> 00:14:59,360 The important thing to hear to note is that they didn't turn 324 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:02,160 them away, right. He didn't say you're not allowed 325 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:06,200 to stay in the like you can't, you can't live here. 326 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:08,920 You can't even consider yourself Israelite. 327 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:12,000 It just means you can't serve in like the priestly places. 328 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:16,080 Like you may not be one of the 10th percent, like the 10% that 329 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:19,800 live in Jerusalem, but you can still, you can still be here. 330 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:23,080 You're still welcome in. I mean, the, that was one of the 331 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:26,520 other points too, is like the in the, in the big grand picture of 332 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:28,840 what God is doing throughout the history of the world. 333 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:31,560 He's, he's always been drawing people from outside of Israel 334 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:35,880 into his chosen people. He's always done it even like 335 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:38,240 even in the exodus, we were reading the exodus in our 336 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:41,200 reading plan. You'll read like the the rabble 337 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:43,120 or the others that that came along with them. 338 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:46,120 Those aren't Israelites. Those are Egyptians or people 339 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:48,520 from other areas that were enslaved that came along with 340 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:51,120 them in the Exodus that came along. 341 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:55,080 You know, So he's always been about bringing people to 342 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:57,800 himself. And then like even Rahab, all, 343 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:00,240 you know, all of those stories that we see of outsiders, Ruth 344 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:03,680 coming in from the outside and he's he's God. 345 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:05,360 God loves us all. He welcomes us all. 346 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:07,600 We just have to believe in him and believe in the promise, 347 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:08,600 right. In the Old Testament, they 348 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:13,080 believed promise. The Messiah is coming anyway. 349 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:15,680 I'm getting off on a rabbit trail, but yeah, I think so, 350 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:17,200 Joe. I don't, I think there's 351 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:18,400 something to think there. I don't know. 352 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:20,400 I haven't given it a ton of thought. 353 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:23,000 No, I just. I just, so I figure I'd draw on 354 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:26,000 that, 'cause I think, I think the, the, something that's 355 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:29,240 important is making a distinction, you know, 'cause, 356 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:31,160 you know, in our church boundary plan, it's like we're, we're 357 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:35,400 going through Exodus and, and God makes a distinction between 358 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:37,800 his people and not his people, right? 359 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:40,080 Then when he starts sending the plagues, at some point, I think 360 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:43,360 it's the, the 4th plague, he, he starts to make a distinction 361 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:47,080 between, all right, you know, your, your animals are gonna 362 00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:50,600 die, all the Egyptians, but not one animal of all of the 363 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:53,440 Israelites will die. And so I think when we think 364 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:57,000 about the church, I think it's important for us to think, you 365 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,400 know, we do have membership and we do have, you know, those, 366 00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:04,280 those sorts of things so that we can determine, like you said, 367 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:07,720 who, who is a part of our church, who is a part of our 368 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,240 flock and who is not right. And that's where we have things 369 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:12,839 like church discipline. Because if you know, someone 370 00:17:12,839 --> 00:17:16,000 might come in and like you said, on the one sense, you know, we, 371 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:18,280 we do have an interview process where we're trying to determine 372 00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:20,079 if people understand what the gospel is like. 373 00:17:20,079 --> 00:17:21,839 Are you truly a follower of Christ? 374 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:25,520 And so in a sense, there's, there's like a, there's a step 375 00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:28,640 that you have to take. It's not necessarily a hard 376 00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:33,560 step, but at the same time, we we we're affirming whether the 377 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:37,120 truthfulness of that profession of faith over the next coming 378 00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:39,480 months and years, right? And so if we see someone living 379 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:42,720 in sin, we are supposed to call them out in their sin. 380 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:46,600 And if they refuse to obey and eventually even to the church, 381 00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:49,240 then we're supposed to remove that person from membership 382 00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:53,240 because their profession of faith is not valid because 383 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:56,520 they're refusing to be corrected by by God's people. 384 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:02,000 And so there there are things that we're supposed to do so 385 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,640 that we're truly discerning who who is a Christian and who is 386 00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:08,480 not a Christian, who is in the family of faith and who is not. 387 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:11,280 Yeah, there are ways to do it and they in their biblical ways, 388 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:12,000 right. That's the thing too. 389 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:13,560 It's not arbitrary. It's not man made. 390 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:15,840 This is something that that Jesus said to do. 391 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,040 Exactly. Yeah, I think, I think 392 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:21,520 membership matters that that if that's the point that I'm 393 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:26,160 driving at, there is like it's it is important to to covenant 394 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:28,280 with your church. Yeah, it is an important step, 395 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:31,160 absolutely. And and that's it's people are, 396 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:32,800 people are. That's the, that's the beautiful 397 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:34,280 thing. You know, we, the more we talk 398 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:36,200 about things like that, the more we show the importance that's in 399 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:39,600 scripture, people respond. And I'm grateful for it for 400 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:40,320 sure. Yeah. 401 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,560 Yeah, well in your in your point about prioritizing the praise of 402 00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:45,840 God, I, I really appreciated that you talked about you've 403 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:49,480 already mentioned alluded to it. We were created for worship and 404 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,520 Nehemiah sort of sets up worship that you have already said, like 405 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:56,280 Jerusalem was a city, it was created for the worship of God 406 00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:58,800 and we was sort of made for worship. 407 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,480 And then you sort of ask this applicational question, do we 408 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:04,280 prioritize the praise of God in our lives? 409 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:08,360 And so I, I just wanted to maybe have you like expand on that a 410 00:19:08,360 --> 00:19:11,080 little bit and then maybe even ask the question about like, how 411 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:14,480 can we like, what ways can we be prioritizing the praise of God 412 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,160 in our lives? So praise would be like 413 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:19,560 something that you immediately think of what when you hear the 414 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:20,840 word. Singing, Yeah. 415 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:23,840 It's not necessarily that it can be right. 416 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:26,600 So, but it isn't it is what most people think of the immediate 417 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:31,160 thing. I I just link it to what what do 418 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:33,720 you worship? And like that's even a foreign 419 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:36,200 concept to a lot of people like the the word worship. 420 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:39,680 What do you what do you make the most important thing in your 421 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:43,760 life? Like is it, is it we would marry 422 00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:45,760 people might say their spouse or their kids. 423 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:48,720 That's idols. That's, that's, that's an idol. 424 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:50,600 If you make that the most important thing in your life, 425 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:53,600 that's an idol. You, you might worship that and 426 00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,160 you might praise that like, Oh, I'm praising my son for his 427 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:59,520 great hockey skills, you know, at the hockey match last week. 428 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,920 So dude, I, I think it's going to sound like a, like a dead 429 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,520 horse that were beaten right? The same thing over and over 430 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:10,480 again. But like the way that you can 431 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:14,560 prioritize the praise of God is by, by making your life centered 432 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:15,960 around his word. I I. 433 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:18,880 I don't know any I don't know any other way to do it, right. 434 00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:24,480 Yeah, it it can include singing, which that's the most it is a 435 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:26,720 response, right? The doxology and like like 436 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:30,080 singing, like our, our, our theology, though, like the word 437 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:33,000 needs to be what informs what we worship and what we like, what 438 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,600 like outward expression of our worship is like. 439 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:40,160 So I think like a heavy diet of the word like is so important 440 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:44,400 for you to get to get it to like to make God the center of your 441 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:48,160 life. Yeah, I just want to, I want to 442 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,360 explain a little bit. So like you, you said theology 443 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:54,240 and we use the word theology and we talk about theology. 444 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:57,280 And I think a lot of times when people hear that word, they sort 445 00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:00,760 of they get scared and they sort of disassociate themselves and 446 00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:03,520 they immediately put that in a class of something that they are 447 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:05,720 not, Yeah. And that they don't think of. 448 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,920 But everybody's a theologian. Everybody is a theologian. 449 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:11,000 What is? Made that famous, yeah. 450 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:14,120 So theology is what Theos is gone. 451 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,040 Yeah. And then ology we we know that 452 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:20,080 it means the study of by all the different subjects you study in 453 00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:23,240 school, like biology and sociology and psychology. 454 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:25,000 It's just the study of something. 455 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,800 So yeah, theology is just the study of God. 456 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,360 Yeah, it's, it's exactly, it's the study of God. 457 00:21:30,360 --> 00:21:34,240 And so when we read the Bible, we are being informed of who God 458 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:36,520 is, right. And so when you read the Bible, 459 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:39,040 you're studying God. You, you're being a theologian. 460 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:40,600 And so. And you're interpreting it. 461 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:42,400 You're, you're reading it, you're trying to make 462 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:44,200 connections and you're trying to figure out what does it mean? 463 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:46,080 Yeah, like what is it saying about God? 464 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:48,240 What is it saying about me? What is it saying about the 465 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,000 world I live in? You're developing a theology. 466 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,400 Yeah. Study of what God has done, 467 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:55,600 whether you know it or think you are or not. 468 00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:57,080 Exactly. Everybody's a theologian. 469 00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:59,520 Yeah. And so when you see someone 470 00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:03,920 living a certain way and you go, that's a sin, you just said 471 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:06,360 something about theology, right? You just said something about 472 00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:08,360 who God is or who God isn't, right. 473 00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:12,840 And so your beliefs, how you think that you should live or or 474 00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:15,840 that we should live as Christians, what you believe 475 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:17,800 about God and what you believe about the Bible, what you 476 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,400 believe about being a Christian, that is theology, right? 477 00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:21,840 And so I'm just, I just wanted. To. 478 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:24,040 So yeah, that's good. Clarify that just so that like 479 00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:26,200 people don't separate themselves, right? 480 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:29,000 Everything that we do to understand who God is and and 481 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,000 how we how he is to be worshipped is is theology. 482 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:33,880 Yeah. So here's a challenge for you. 483 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:36,560 For anybody else that that's listening is just like, OK, so 484 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:40,880 figure out where does this idea like you use the example of 485 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:43,160 like, OK, that's sin. You pointed sin out in someone 486 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:45,360 else's life. OK, where does that idea that 487 00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:49,480 that's a sin come from? Does it come from my experience 488 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:51,520 in my family? Is it come from just like 489 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,720 cultural things that's handed down to me or does it come from 490 00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:57,360 me seeing it in God's word? Right, right. 491 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:00,000 So that's the distinction. So like you need to figure out, 492 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:05,800 is my belief system, is it, is it driven by God's word or is it 493 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:12,800 driven by culture and family, tradition, background, whatever. 494 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:15,120 And then then maybe they're right. 495 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,160 You know what I mean? They probably are right. 496 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:19,600 And a lot of the times we get it right. 497 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:23,120 Absolutely, we do get it right sometimes and maybe they're 498 00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:24,040 reading their Bible. That's great. 499 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:26,000 But you want to test everything. You want to make sure that it's 500 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:28,280 all like that's centered and driven around the word. 501 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:32,600 So, so like I think that like our our worship or the praise of 502 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,800 God, prioritizing the praise of God in my life means that I'm 503 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:38,800 I'm seeking him out. I'm trying to know him right. 504 00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:42,360 So that's that's the goal. I think that and I and for, for 505 00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:46,080 Nehemiah, what they were doing is they were, they were setting 506 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:51,040 Jerusalem back up as this, as this image or this model of, of 507 00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,480 worship and praise. So basically Jerusalem was 508 00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:57,480 supposed to be this beacon of light in the world showing like 509 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:01,600 these people worship Yahweh and like you should too, right? 510 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:02,920 So that's what that's what it is. 511 00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:06,000 So setting your life up to be that way would be OK. 512 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,600 I'm making the word a priority in my life and and I'm making it 513 00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:14,080 such a priority in my life that I can't help but someone else 514 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:17,440 see me and say, oh, there's something different about that 515 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:19,720 person. You know, it's like that guy who 516 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,240 told us about meeting someone in the store and he's like, he was 517 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:23,840 telling us about that guy loves Jesus. 518 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,240 You know what I mean? It's like that's like something 519 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,240 wears on his sleeve. It's not a T-shirt, it's just 520 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:30,600 who he is. Yeah, you know. 521 00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:32,280 Anyway. It just sort of naturally comes 522 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:35,000 out in your conversation and the things that you say or do. 523 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:36,240 Yeah. Yeah, I think that would be, 524 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:37,320 that would be where I would draw it. 525 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:38,560 I don't know, maybe that's not what you're going. 526 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:40,360 For no, that's great. But yeah, you're right, 527 00:24:40,360 --> 00:24:43,280 theology, we need to we can't be scared of the word, right? 528 00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:44,520 Don't shut down when you hear it. 529 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:46,720 And when there's a Wednesday night class offered about it, 530 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:50,680 don't don't shut down and say, oh, theology one O 1. 531 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:52,760 That's no, we're just going to study God. 532 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:54,240 We're just going to figure out who God is. 533 00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:56,200 And so, hey, don't be scared of the words. 534 00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:58,880 Well, and it's like you said, like we, we have to center it 535 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,440 on, on God's word. And, and that's going to be the 536 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,000 focus of my sermon next week in Nehemiah chapter 8. 537 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,400 If you want to read ahead, you'll you'll see that that it's 538 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,360 it is about. Let's put God's word back at the 539 00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:11,720 center right of everything that we do. 540 00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:14,760 I think, by the way, before we move on from like setting up the 541 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:16,520 city, like that's what Nehemiah is doing. 542 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:18,840 So Ezra's going to come and read, right? 543 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,120 I named my kid Ezra because he's a helper. 544 00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:26,760 Ezra means help helper in Hebrew anyway, so Ezra's going to come 545 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,040 and read the word to the city as the priest. 546 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,480 But Nehemiah has done all the hard work to get this, the city, 547 00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:38,120 secure so that they can all just stand there without worrying, 548 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:39,880 right? And listen to God's word. 549 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:41,600 That's what the city's intended for. 550 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,720 Yeah. So that's what he's doing. 551 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:47,160 So yeah, he prioritized praise. Yeah, absolutely. 552 00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:49,520 Yeah, that's really helpful. I think that's really good. 553 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:51,600 Yep. And then you sort of talked 554 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:55,200 about, I kind of wanted to hone in on your second point, which I 555 00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,520 don't have written down correctly prioritize. 556 00:25:57,560 --> 00:25:59,600 The pursuit of holiness. Pursuit of holiness. 557 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:01,520 And in there you started to mention this Hananiah and 558 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:05,320 Hananiah. And Hananiah is is chosen 559 00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:12,080 specifically because he's he is, as the text says, yes, more 560 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,840 faithful and God fearing man than many. 561 00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:19,680 And so he doesn't note his like skill, his ability or anything 562 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:22,600 like that, but his character. Yeah. 563 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:24,680 So why don't you touch on that a little bit? 564 00:26:25,360 --> 00:26:32,160 Yeah, I mean, so often we look at we look at people who it 565 00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:36,160 says, I was just reading there. It says he, he Oh no, he gave 566 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:37,720 him the governor of the castle. So yeah. 567 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:42,840 So no, no, sorry, I'm I'm pausing there because I'm 568 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:44,240 reading it. So he get I gave my brother 569 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:47,600 Hananiah and Hananiah the governor of the castle. 570 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:51,640 So that's the parenthetical the governor of the castle charge 571 00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:53,520 over Jerusalem. So I gave these two guys charge 572 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,080 over Jerusalem. But Hananiah specifically, he 573 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:57,840 had skills, right? So I don't want to overlook the 574 00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:01,680 fact that he did have skills, but what the most important 575 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,920 thing for him was, and Nehemiah like picked up on is like this 576 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:09,280 is a God fearing man. He's more God fearing than many. 577 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,040 He may not have been the most qualified person there. 578 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:14,520 And that's the thing to think about. 579 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:17,960 Like he may not have been the most qualified physically or 580 00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:22,160 with his leadership capabilities or whatever, but he was known as 581 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,920 a God fearing man. And I think that that's like, 582 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:27,880 like in our lives, we, we need to make that our like a 583 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,640 priority. We need to make the pursuit of 584 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:32,160 godliness like a priority in our life. 585 00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:34,840 And that goes back to like all the things, the disciplines that 586 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:36,640 we talk about. We talk about Bible intake, we 587 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:39,920 talk about prayer, we talk about like silence and solitude and 588 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,080 meditation and fasting and all these things. 589 00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,080 Those are the outward signs that show people that you're a God 590 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,680 fearing person, right? And then the way you treat other 591 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,040 people also shows that you're a God fearing person. 592 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:53,800 But like we, the world tells us to prioritize everything else. 593 00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:58,040 Like literally you need to do whatever it is, build every 594 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:01,400 skill you can in order to, to get ahead in your job. 595 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,600 The way you're going to get a job and to get a get promoted is 596 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,080 you're going to do a good job. You're going to like, you're 597 00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:08,920 going to do more than you're expected to. 598 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,320 You're going to, you know, whatever you maybe, maybe you do 599 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:14,720 something unethical to get ahead and you and to, to get 600 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,720 accolades. So doing the like the best job 601 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:19,840 or the person who seems like they do the best may not be the 602 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:23,600 best person out there. What's most important is to be 603 00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:25,520 known as a godly man or a godly woman. 604 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,240 That is such a good encouragement because you're 605 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:30,960 exactly right. Our, our temptation is always 606 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:34,320 to, to feel like spending time praying, reading the Bible, 607 00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:36,880 going to the Bible study, going to church, like those things are 608 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:42,160 a quote, UN quote waste of time. And like you said, that's always 609 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,760 the temptation in our mind. You know, that we don't want to 610 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,600 like slow down and stop to spend time with God, but that is the 611 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,200 most important thing that we can do. 612 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:53,080 And we have to avoid that temptation so that we can make 613 00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:55,200 sure that we are being faithful. To exactly Yeah. 614 00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,160 And another temptation is like to feel like you're going to 615 00:28:57,160 --> 00:28:59,560 miss out on something. I may miss out on something if I 616 00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:02,160 spend 30 minutes in God's word now, I may miss out on whatever 617 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:04,600 the the next thing. And that's both social media 618 00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:06,640 feed is right. Who cares? 619 00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:11,320 Like you literally are going to be like sitting with the, the, 620 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:14,000 the person who created the universe. 621 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,400 And that's just like, like, why would you? 622 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:19,400 Why would you think that? Honestly, I think it's because 623 00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:21,120 we are just so weak. We don't see it. 624 00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:23,040 Yeah. And so it's really hard for us 625 00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:24,480 to to understand it. So. 626 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:26,720 Yeah. We're very short sighted. 627 00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:27,680 Yeah, we are. Absolutely. 628 00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:30,960 We can only like, yeah, that that's our faith is weak. 629 00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:34,200 Mine is for sure. Well, it is so weak. 630 00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:36,920 You know, I, we were talking about, you know, our Bible 631 00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:39,920 reading Exodus chapter 16 and 17, where, you know, the people 632 00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:42,200 of Israel begin to set out. They start to grumble, they 633 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:44,520 start to complain. And then God says he's going to 634 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:48,000 provide, he's going to provide food for them and he's going to 635 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:49,960 provide mana. And he does this to test them. 636 00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:55,240 And so he first says, OK, you know, go out, take, you know, an 637 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:59,320 Omer for each person in your house for the day and like don't 638 00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:01,200 leave any over till the next day, though. 639 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:03,560 And then, you know, there were some, some people who were like, 640 00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:05,360 wow, I ain't eating this all today. 641 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,800 You know, I'm not, I'm not sure there's going to be any 642 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,000 tomorrow, right. So they save a little bit and 643 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:12,080 then it breeds worms, which. Is an Omer. 644 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:17,360 It's actually a 10th of 22 liters, that's what that's what 645 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,880 my footnote said. 2.2. Liters. 2.2 liters per person. 646 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:23,240 I don't know how you measure bread in liters. 647 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:28,440 Sorry, sorry for that guys. But yeah, it's interesting. 648 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:30,120 And then the next and then on the 6th day. 649 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,200 Spoils in your house, smells bad and everything, yeah. 650 00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:36,040 And then on the 6th day, it's like gather, gather enough for 651 00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:38,280 two days and don't come out the next day. 652 00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:39,760 What do the people do the next day? 653 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:42,760 They come out, right? And the Lord, like, just why are 654 00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:46,360 they not listening? I have given you the Sabbath to 655 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:48,160 enjoy. And it's like, why won't you 656 00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:50,520 just listen and heed my word? Yeah. 657 00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,480 And it's just, you're right. We're so short sighted. 658 00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:57,960 And I find so often that it's like, you know, the same thing, 659 00:30:57,960 --> 00:30:59,040 right? It's easy for us to look at them 660 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:01,240 and go, man, you guys are just so dumb. 661 00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:04,760 You know, it's like their fingers pointed right back at me 662 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:05,800 too. And it's like, why are you? 663 00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:07,200 Why do you have such little faith? 664 00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:10,360 That's right. Why don't we trust God and his 665 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:14,440 promises and his commands more and trust that he is going to 666 00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:17,480 bless us if we're faithful to him instead of always feeling 667 00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:18,760 like. And, and the thing that I 668 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,320 thought was really interesting about this season of Israel's 669 00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:23,880 life is they're just starting a journey in the wilderness that's 670 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:27,880 going to last 40 years. And then in that entire 40 671 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:33,000 years, they don't do a single thing to make food for 672 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:37,120 themselves for 40 years. You wake up, you pick it up off 673 00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:38,080 the ground. Yeah. 674 00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:40,880 They don't, they don't plant a garden, they're not farming. 675 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,320 They're they're doing nothing. And God is literally providing 676 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:49,120 for them for 40 years and he's wanting them to learn to trust 677 00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:50,880 him. It's like I am going to take 678 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:52,920 care of your needs. I'm going to take care of you. 679 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,560 Your responsibility is to listen to my word, to follow my 680 00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,000 instructions, to hear me. And the other interesting thing 681 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,920 is we talk about, well, well, God's people following God's 682 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:05,200 revealed word at any given point in time, right? 683 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,000 They don't have the 10 commandments yet. 684 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:11,240 They don't have all the laws. Here's God's word for you today. 685 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,560 Go take an Omer of manna for each person in your house. 686 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:18,520 That's God's revealed word for them at this point. 687 00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:23,080 And it's like, just obey that. And for us, it's like, you know, 688 00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:25,560 we are in the New Testament. It's like we, so we have all 689 00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:27,880 this, all the scripture from the Old Testament that leads us to 690 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:29,520 the New Testament. And we have all of Jesus 691 00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,040 commands which are summed up and love the Lord you God with all 692 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:34,120 your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor 693 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:37,240 as yourself. But it's like, do we trust God 694 00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:41,040 enough, like you said to not take the shortcut of like, how 695 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:42,240 am I going to get ahead in business? 696 00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:44,000 It's like, do I trust God enough to go? 697 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,400 No, my integrity and honesty is more important than another 698 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:49,880 dollar. Yeah, it's and it's work, It is. 699 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,360 It's not like you're not going to get godliness. 700 00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:55,280 You're not going to be I think this was one of the points I 701 00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,760 made in the sermon is like you're not become known as a God 702 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:01,080 fearing man unless you put in the work and do the things that 703 00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,560 that that are required to be 1 Like you can't just be known as 704 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:08,560 a God fearing man, right? Like a God fearing man fears the 705 00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:10,480 Lord, which means he like reveres him. 706 00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:15,800 He prays, he reads his word, he he, he prays with his family. 707 00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:21,120 He demonstrates how to properly love a spouse by loving his wife 708 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:23,520 and praying for her. Like in the presence of the 709 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,880 kids. Like you don't. 710 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:28,360 You don't get there without working. 711 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,160 That's actually a really helpful way of thinking about this. 712 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:33,280 OK, well, how do you know who's like a God fearing man in the 713 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:34,920 church? Probably a good way to to answer 714 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:39,080 that question would be, well, if if you wanted help or advice or 715 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:42,200 assistance or, you know, from some godly man in the church, 716 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,080 like who comes to your mind. Yeah, and that those would be 717 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,200 people that you would instinctively think of like, OK, 718 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,640 those are people that that are godly people, right? 719 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:54,120 Like you, you know them for for that the fact that they love the 720 00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:57,240 Lord and and their desire is to live their lives to be faithful 721 00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:58,800 to him. Right, and that shouldn't be 722 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:03,120 like our we should look for leadership for people who are 723 00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:05,200 qualified to do the do the actual tasks. 724 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:07,840 But like if there's two people or three people that are 725 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:10,199 qualified to do the task, look for the most God fearing person. 726 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:13,280 That's that is that. To me, that's the application. 727 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:17,639 If you're looking for leaders, yeah, that is the application. 728 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:18,920 That actually, hey, you know what? 729 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,440 We never talk about single people on the podcast. 730 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:24,040 It's true. We don't I'll draw in something 731 00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:24,320 here. It's. 732 00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:25,880 Harder though. All right. 733 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:29,199 So yeah, in we're married. We're not single anymore. 734 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,159 It is harder to like. Anyway, sorry, I'm. 735 00:34:32,639 --> 00:34:34,639 I'm now making excuses. No, that's OK. 736 00:34:34,639 --> 00:34:37,360 I, I, I've heard people say this before and I, I do think it's 737 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,239 something we need to address more often, but something you 738 00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:42,159 just said, maybe think about something that I've heard a 739 00:34:42,159 --> 00:34:45,320 pastor say about, you know, like people single who are single. 740 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:49,639 A lot of times we, you know, people get to a point maybe 741 00:34:49,639 --> 00:34:51,840 where they're, they're thinking too much about like trying to 742 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,080 find this perfect person, this perfect soul mate. 743 00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:57,120 And, and he sort of says I know. Where you're going with this? 744 00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:59,360 He sort of says, you know what, what you ought to do instead of 745 00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:01,920 trying to find like this soul mate that's out there somewhere, 746 00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,080 which you know, I don't believe in either. 747 00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:08,720 You ought to find the most godly person you can find and just 748 00:35:08,720 --> 00:35:11,440 marry them. That's obviously like that's 749 00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:13,760 obviously stretchy, right? Like we are, we're not talking 750 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:16,080 about like go pick a person and go marry them tomorrow. 751 00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:19,400 That's not what we're saying, but the the point stands strong. 752 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:22,640 It's like if you're looking for any characteristic in a person, 753 00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:25,680 the one that should matter the most is their godliness. 754 00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:28,560 That is, that's the thing that God is the most concerned about 755 00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:30,480 their heart. And that's the thing that you 756 00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:31,520 ought to be the most concerned about. 757 00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,760 Find the most godly person of the opposite sex that you can 758 00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,600 find, it's so true, and begin to pursue them. 759 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,640 And you'll have what what you'll have from that is like that 760 00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:43,800 person will point you to Christ every day, right? 761 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:46,200 Like you, if you're especially if you're, if you're pursuing 762 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:49,720 godliness yourself, you're going to sharpen each other and your 763 00:35:49,720 --> 00:35:50,720 marriage. They're going to point you to 764 00:35:50,720 --> 00:35:52,040 Christ. They're going to encourage you 765 00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:54,720 when you're down. You're going to be there for 766 00:35:54,720 --> 00:35:56,520 them. And yeah, exactly. 767 00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:00,040 It's so it's such good advice. Yeah. 768 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,000 So that that that goes beyond just leadership, Right, Right. 769 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:05,680 And all your relationships to even your friend groups, like 770 00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,880 picking friends, but yeah, specifically spouses. 771 00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:10,560 That's important. That is a good advice. 772 00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:11,360 Yeah. Yeah. 773 00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:13,080 What else did you want to talk about? 774 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:18,840 Priorities for godly living. Man, I just, I thought there was 775 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:21,240 so much good stuff in your sermon, like. 30 minutes too, 776 00:36:21,240 --> 00:36:22,960 Joe. Yeah, you can't do it, No. 777 00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:31,200 As a low blow, that was I'll, I'll accept it. 778 00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:35,040 But yeah, even your your point and prioritize the people of God 779 00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:38,840 and point #3 you shared this anecdote from Doctor Cook. 780 00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:41,240 If you don't love people, you have no business being in 781 00:36:41,240 --> 00:36:43,400 ministry. But you sort of began to apply 782 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:45,880 that to to every Christian, everybody, every Christian. 783 00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:49,520 It's if you don't love people, then you don't really have any 784 00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:51,120 business with you. Now I'm even thinking of like 785 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,520 your business, you know, like if you own a lawn care business or 786 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:57,840 if you work, no matter what you do, like you should do it out of 787 00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:02,720 a love to serve people, right? If if your priority is making 788 00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:06,240 money, it's like that's the wrong priority to have as a 789 00:37:06,240 --> 00:37:08,360 Christian that that shouldn't be your priority. 790 00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:11,040 It should be to love people, to serve people. 791 00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:14,120 Those are opportunities for you to be a blessing and to use your 792 00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:17,560 business as an opportunity. Because you said in a previous 793 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:21,200 point that you know, Israel, the whole point of Israel was to 794 00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:24,240 show the world what God is like, who God is. 795 00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:26,160 And that's our goal as Christians. 796 00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:29,480 The way that we live shows who God is and what he's like. 797 00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:32,800 And so every way that you live in your business, in your home, 798 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,400 in your marriage, and as parenting, when you go to work, 799 00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:38,120 when you go to school, when you go around you, your life should 800 00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:41,240 show who God is. I think it's one of the the best 801 00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:43,320 apologetics. OK, so apologetics, another big 802 00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:44,320 word. Sorry. 803 00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:46,720 It just means defense of the faith. 804 00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:50,000 So the so one of the best ways that we can prove to the world 805 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,920 that Jesus is real and that like, like salvation and like 806 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,560 what he does, life change is real through Christ is how we 807 00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:57,520 treat each other. Yeah. 808 00:37:57,520 --> 00:38:00,000 I think I said that in the sermon in some way, in some form 809 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,360 like that. But like, that's your best, your 810 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:07,480 best, like defense, that proving to the world that that what what 811 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:09,120 you claim is real. Yeah. 812 00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:11,560 Is by how you treat other people, especially those who are 813 00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:12,520 closest to you. Yeah. 814 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:14,240 Like your family, things like that. 815 00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:16,880 Yeah. Yeah, people matter, yeah. 816 00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:18,520 And if you if you don't love people, if you don't have a 817 00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:21,360 heart for people, pray for one, pray that the Lord will give you 818 00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:22,640 like that's that's one thing too. 819 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:25,560 Like I, I, I, and I think I even like did some confession in 820 00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:29,840 this, in this point where I, I am a very like I could be a 821 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:33,000 recluse if I wanted to be and not talk to anybody and not like 822 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:34,880 engage in any kind of relationships. 823 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:40,880 I to an extent I need, I need like one or two to be like, OK, 824 00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:46,880 but like you just have to ask the Lord for help. 825 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:49,800 Like if you, if you need, like if you, you need to really 826 00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:53,600 truly, if you don't love people, I mean, that's the I have to ask 827 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:57,440 the Lord for help all the time, like help me to love my family 828 00:38:57,720 --> 00:39:00,640 like, because right now I'm pretty angry, you know what I 829 00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:02,000 mean? Or whatever, Pretty like pretty 830 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,200 like just whatever. I could just go be by myself for 831 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:06,760 if I, if you ever hear me say I need to go get in the woods 832 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:08,880 somewhere, I just need to go be alone for like 2 days. 833 00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:13,000 But but yeah, I mean, I need to pray and ask the Lord to help me 834 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:14,400 with that. And so that's that's the thing. 835 00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:15,880 If you don't love people, you can. 836 00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:18,160 You can. You just need to ask for the 837 00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:21,160 Lord's help. Well, and and you and you should 838 00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:24,080 right, like, like if you don't love people. 839 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:27,240 I mean, John talks exact specifically about this in in 840 00:39:27,240 --> 00:39:28,600 First John. First, John, Yeah. 841 00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:31,640 It's like if you don't love your brother. 842 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:32,840 You can't say you're from me, right? 843 00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:34,680 Then you can't say you love God. Yep. 844 00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:38,880 And so that is a prerequisite to, to loving God. 845 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:41,640 You can't, you can't love God if you don't love people because 846 00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:44,600 God loves people. And so we actually have to. 847 00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:46,880 Yeah, we are absolutely right. We have to be prioritizing that. 848 00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:50,520 And I think sort of to a further point, if people feel like they 849 00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,280 genuinely could live without other people, like I, I 850 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:57,280 definitely don't need people. I, I guess just thinking off the 851 00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:00,760 top of my head, my, my initial thought to that is you haven't 852 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,880 had a real friendship, right? You haven't really truly 853 00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:07,240 experienced any good friendship that really edified you. 854 00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:09,720 Because I, I get those feelings at times too. 855 00:40:09,720 --> 00:40:11,200 I think everybody has them where you're like, you know what, 856 00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:13,960 sometimes I just need, I need to be able in my house and just be 857 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:15,480 able to. I think that's healthy. 858 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:16,960 Yeah. I think it is healthy to like, 859 00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:21,440 just like to, to be pursue some silence and solitude. 860 00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:23,880 We talk about that as a as a personal spiritual discipline. 861 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:28,560 It is a healthy thing to do. Pursue it, but don't like live 862 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:29,760 there, right? Right. 863 00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:32,440 But when you have, when you have a true, like true, genuine 864 00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:36,240 relationships in your life with people that you can have godly 865 00:40:36,240 --> 00:40:39,720 conversation, conversations with the Bible and you can really 866 00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:43,240 feel like when you leave feeling like really encouraged and 867 00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:45,240 blessed for having had that conversation. 868 00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:48,120 I, I don't, I don't see how you could ever say you could live 869 00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:49,720 without people. And I, I just think those people 870 00:40:49,720 --> 00:40:51,480 just haven't truly experienced it. 871 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:53,720 We got to write that book on friendship. 872 00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:56,760 That's good. Yeah, for sure. 873 00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:59,400 Well, then your last point was prioritizing the purpose of God. 874 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:03,800 So just reminding us that like, you know, we're zoning in on a 875 00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:07,880 specific time in history, but as you sort of zone out, like zoom 876 00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:10,000 out and look at the whole scope of things, it's like God is 877 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,640 doing something bigger than just what's going on here in the book 878 00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:13,760 of Nehemiah. Yeah. 879 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:16,240 And the, the application there is like in your own life too, 880 00:41:16,240 --> 00:41:21,280 you're very, very focused on the, the 24 hours than that day 881 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:25,320 that you have, or you're very focused on like the, the, the 50 882 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:27,760 square feet that you live in the most, like wherever you are, 883 00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:30,600 whatever is around you. But like God is doing so much 884 00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:31,720 more. I think we've shared that quote 885 00:41:31,720 --> 00:41:34,440 so many times from John Piper is like he's doing whatever, 886 00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:36,200 however many millions of things at once. 887 00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:38,960 And you're, you know, you have like the knowledge of like two 888 00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:42,000 of them. And so just keeping that in mind 889 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,800 is like God is doing so much and we see like a, a picture of it 890 00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:46,840 with Zuru. Dr. Betts. 891 00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:48,960 His commentary was so good that to point that out. 892 00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:53,080 And so I didn't, I can't claim credit for that, but like he, he 893 00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:55,480 pointed out that connection and I was like, this is, this is how 894 00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:57,280 you connect this to Jesus. Because that was one of the, 895 00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:00,600 that's one of the things we always try to do in our sermons 896 00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:02,960 is we try to point to the gospel in some way. 897 00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:05,840 And this is like the most obvious thing, like what what 898 00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,120 Nehemiah is doing, what God is doing in this time with Nehemiah 899 00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:13,160 is part of something way, way bigger and way more beautiful. 900 00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:16,240 Because Jerusalem's not going to be around, right? 901 00:42:16,240 --> 00:42:21,040 It's going to fall. It's, it's it's temporary. 902 00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:22,720 Like I think you said that in one of your sermons, too. 903 00:42:22,720 --> 00:42:25,360 They're doing all this work for something that isn't going to 904 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,520 last. Yeah, and, and, but, but what 905 00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:30,600 God is doing in the underneath of it all is like he's he is 906 00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:31,960 doing something that will last forever. 907 00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:34,880 And he's drawing people to himself throughout it all. 908 00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:36,840 It's an incredible story. It is. 909 00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:39,000 And that's such an encouraging thing to think about, right? 910 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:42,200 Because there's a sense in which everything that we're doing in 911 00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:47,120 this life, like from an earthly temporal perspective, is going 912 00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:48,560 to, like, fade away. Yeah. 913 00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:51,280 No matter what I do to my house, no matter what business I build, 914 00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:54,600 it's, it's all like, it's all going to be torn down, right? 915 00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:55,880 Like we've talked about this church, right? 916 00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:57,640 In 100 years, it's like it might not be here. 917 00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:00,280 It probably won't be here. You know, it will be replaced by 918 00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:01,880 something else or whatever, right. 919 00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:05,640 And if we focus on those things, it can feel sort of depressing. 920 00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:08,200 But that's where we're focusing on the eternal things that last 921 00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:10,600 forever, right? And whether people's souls, 922 00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:12,280 that's really the thing that matters. 923 00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:15,920 Right. And and then also like, like you 924 00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:18,160 just made me think maybe this doesn't even really connect, but 925 00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,280 the building won't be here. And maybe and the people won't 926 00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:22,640 be either. The same people won't be here, 927 00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:24,520 right. But our ancestors will 928 00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:28,600 potentially like the people who are the like the legacy of faith 929 00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:33,080 if unless Jesus comes back and it's all done, right, Yeah, the 930 00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:37,040 legacy of faith will be present in some form in this area, in 931 00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:39,280 this community. That's what we're building. 932 00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:43,520 We're not building like programs or anything like that, where the 933 00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:45,800 reason that we want you to focus on the praise of God and 934 00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:48,720 prioritize on that is because you're building a legacy of 935 00:43:48,720 --> 00:43:51,600 faith in your own heart. But also as you, as you give it 936 00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:54,520 to your kids, other people's children, if you're, if you're 937 00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:56,520 teaching Sunday school to other people's children, you're, 938 00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:58,240 you're adding to that legacy of faith. 939 00:43:58,240 --> 00:44:00,920 And so that's important for us to remember like God is doing 940 00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:04,680 something through us that's going to outlast us and, and 941 00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:06,160 into eternity. Yeah, it's incredible. 942 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:08,760 That's really encouraging. So he's doing a big thing. 943 00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:10,920 Absolutely. Yep. 944 00:44:11,240 --> 00:44:14,120 All right, well, do you have any last words on Nehemiah Chapter 945 00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:16,360 7? No, I think, I think we hit it. 946 00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:18,400 I, I think like the priorities matter. 947 00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:22,400 And I really like the, the point that hit me the hardest in the 948 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:25,960 sermon was the people part. Like people matter to God and so 949 00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:28,280 they have to matter to us. Yeah, they have to. 950 00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:33,000 And so like if I made this connection and, and I cuz I, I 951 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:35,440 struggle with it too. There's there's if you have 952 00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:37,800 someone in your family that's like that, you have a like a 953 00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:41,400 strained relationship with, go for it. 954 00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:43,520 Go, go like send it. You know what I mean? 955 00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:46,560 Go to those person to go to that person, those people. 956 00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:50,920 If it's your parents, if it's your sister or brother, go to 957 00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:52,760 them. And then be humble. 958 00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:55,200 Like don't be proud. Don't don't go into the place 959 00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:58,600 that got you there. Forgive, like forgive everything 960 00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:02,880 and seek forgiveness for your own sin and work to re establish 961 00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:07,560 those relationships because you only have so much time here and, 962 00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:10,000 and you want, you want them to see that, that you're 963 00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:14,800 prioritizing God in your life. And what did God do for you? 964 00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:17,960 He reconciled you to himself. And so that's the thing that we 965 00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:19,600 have to, we have to seek reconciliation. 966 00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:22,040 We have to seek unity. Yeah. 967 00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:24,880 And so people matter to God, so they have to matter to us. 968 00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:25,400 Yeah. So. 969 00:45:25,840 --> 00:45:29,440 I'm going to launch into from there, into things that we like. 970 00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:31,520 Sometimes we do this. Thing about things, you got 971 00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:33,160 something you like. Well, because I felt like this 972 00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:35,240 tied in really well with a book that I read. 973 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:38,000 Well, while we were away on vacation, I, I read a book. 974 00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:42,720 I read a book. It was recommended to me by 975 00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:46,680 Brother in the Church, The Devil in Pew #7 Ouch. 976 00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:50,120 It was. It's a true story of this 977 00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:52,360 couple. It gets married. 978 00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:54,240 I would highly recommend it to anybody. 979 00:45:54,240 --> 00:45:58,600 It's a it's a crazy story. This couple goes and plants a 980 00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:01,240 church in Sellers Town, North Carolina. 981 00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:06,480 And there's this man in the church who isn't even a member 982 00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:09,480 of the church but has authority and power because of his 983 00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:13,920 position in the community. And that sort of gets taken away 984 00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:16,480 from him with this pastor who comes in and sort of gives the 985 00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:19,800 authority back to the church and sort of pushes this guy out. 986 00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:23,200 And he doesn't like it. And so he spends like five years 987 00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:26,840 trying to get them out. And we're talking like, cut the 988 00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:31,160 phone lines, shoot the lights out, slash the tires, detonating 989 00:46:31,160 --> 00:46:35,400 bombs in their backyard, hiring snipers to shoot in their home. 990 00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:40,680 Like they lived in constant fear from this man and people that he 991 00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:43,120 would hire to try like getting them to leave. 992 00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:48,760 And it is insane. And the entire time the pastor, 993 00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:52,400 his wife, and like it's written from the from the daughter, 994 00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:55,920 she's writing this story like with hindsight, she's like a 995 00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:59,080 young girl at the time. And she talks about like her 996 00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:01,480 parents constantly. Their attitude through this 997 00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:05,520 whole thing is forgiveness. Like the whole time it's going 998 00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:08,000 on, it's we need to love like Jesus. 999 00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:12,000 They're praying for this man's salvation and forgiving him over 1000 00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:13,920 and over and over and over again. 1001 00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:16,920 And it's just a like you said, you're talking about people 1002 00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:20,840 matter because and just to think that, you know, this husband and 1003 00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:24,360 wife could continually forgive someone who was so attacking 1004 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,200 against them. It's just a phenomenal story 1005 00:47:27,200 --> 00:47:32,000 about forgiveness and grace and and just loving people that are 1006 00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:35,480 unlovable. And it's just, it's just a crazy 1007 00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:37,160 story. I'd, yeah, I would recommend it 1008 00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:40,480 to anybody. The Devil in Pew #7 by Rebecca 1009 00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:42,840 Nichols. Crazy. 1010 00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:44,960 You were almost there in North Carolina. 1011 00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:46,160 You should have just visited the town. 1012 00:47:46,760 --> 00:47:48,760 That's where that sniper shot came through. 1013 00:47:50,560 --> 00:47:52,320 Things were like, I don't have anything ready today. 1014 00:47:54,160 --> 00:47:56,840 I mentioned in my sermon I've been playing with chat with AI 1015 00:47:56,840 --> 00:47:57,680 for. A while, that's the thing I was 1016 00:47:57,680 --> 00:47:59,120 going to ask. I was going to say the thing. 1017 00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:01,520 Maybe you'd want to mention your your app that you mentioned your 1018 00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:03,120 sermon. I'm building an app, an 1019 00:48:03,120 --> 00:48:06,240 application also known as an app. 1020 00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:12,040 I just got bored and I was pulled up the the AI that's 1021 00:48:12,040 --> 00:48:14,400 linked to Twitter. It's called Xai Grok. 1022 00:48:15,080 --> 00:48:19,400 And I said, what like can you help me build an app that would 1023 00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:21,800 help me journal my Bible journal using the here method? 1024 00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:23,760 And it said, sure, I can help you build an app. 1025 00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:25,400 And then it helped me build 1 for my computer. 1026 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:28,920 And I was like, huh, can you, can you help me build it for the 1027 00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:30,160 phone? I said, sure, I can help you 1028 00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:34,160 build it for your phone. Then he had me download he, it 1029 00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:37,680 had me download some things from my computer and then it wrote 1030 00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:39,480 the code for me. And you type it in and then then 1031 00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:41,880 you just spend time just asking it to make refinements to the 1032 00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:44,880 code if any errors pop up. It was a lot of fun. 1033 00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:49,200 One thing I did the danger at the I made the comment in the 1034 00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:52,440 sermon it on like in the moment. It wasn't in my notes to talk 1035 00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:55,640 about it. Is that it I can get fixated on 1036 00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:57,760 things like that. My personality is one that can 1037 00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:00,960 fixate on things and stay there for a long time and like make it 1038 00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:04,440 an idol, like making creating something, not the not the AI an 1039 00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:06,960 idol, but just making like the fact that I'm I'm making 1040 00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:08,920 something. I'm I'm, I'm using this or doing 1041 00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:11,640 this, using this tool to do whatever takes up all my time 1042 00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:14,840 and I ignore family or whatever. That was my point in the sermon. 1043 00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,560 But it is really fun. So I'm I'm trying to play with 1044 00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:19,120 it some more. Maybe maybe one day you'll see 1045 00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:24,920 an app from, from, from Jonah. I don't know, maybe, maybe not. 1046 00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:26,800 No, it was fun. It is a lot of fun. 1047 00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:30,360 It's something to honestly, I've been going through some like 1048 00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:35,080 some discouragement in my life and not, not necessarily related 1049 00:49:35,080 --> 00:49:37,200 to anything that's like I could point at right. 1050 00:49:37,200 --> 00:49:40,560 But but it helped me distract myself for a little bit. 1051 00:49:40,680 --> 00:49:43,080 This is if I'm, if I am alone and I don't have anything to do 1052 00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:45,920 for a while, I'll, I'll find myself spiraling out and this is 1053 00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:48,280 just fixating on the negative things. 1054 00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:50,120 So I found something like I was just trying to find something 1055 00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:53,280 positive to, to fixate on for a little while and it did distract 1056 00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:54,520 me. My and even Valerie was like, 1057 00:49:54,520 --> 00:49:56,000 yeah, that's, that's really cool. 1058 00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,080 I'm glad you were able to do that because you know, you're 1059 00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:01,040 not really fun when you're fixated on negative things. 1060 00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:04,720 So anyway, yeah, it's true we're not, but yeah. 1061 00:50:04,800 --> 00:50:06,800 That sounds cool though. You know, having a tool that you 1062 00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:10,240 can sort of like categorize and keep a list of all your here 1063 00:50:10,240 --> 00:50:10,880 journals. And stuff. 1064 00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:12,520 Yeah. So it'll, yeah, it's, I'm trying 1065 00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:15,280 to get it where it'll save to the cloud and all that stuff. 1066 00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:18,400 Yeah, yeah, that's cool. My mom says she wants it. 1067 00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:21,600 But then, you know, moms always want what you do. 1068 00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:26,800 It's like here, here's my, here's my ashtray you know that 1069 00:50:26,800 --> 00:50:30,920 I made in crafts today. I know you don't smoke, mom, but 1070 00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:32,480 here's an ashtray I made with clay. 1071 00:50:33,040 --> 00:50:35,440 It's cool. And then you know, it's like 1072 00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:37,600 here, here's an app for your phone. 1073 00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:41,600 I know you barely know how to use it, but anyway, Mom, I know 1074 00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:42,920 you know how to use the phone. It's fine. 1075 00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:45,600 You're good at that stuff anyway. 1076 00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:47,040 That's good. Yeah, it was fun. 1077 00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:48,720 Yeah, well, thank you for sharing. 1078 00:50:48,720 --> 00:50:49,720 Yeah. Welcome back, Joe. 1079 00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:53,160 Yeah, Well, thank you back. I know that Kyle and Ryan are 1080 00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:54,960 glad they don't have to be on the podcast today. 1081 00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:59,720 So yeah, it's been good. So you got you got Chapter 8 1082 00:50:59,720 --> 00:51:00,640 coming up. Yes. 1083 00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:02,840 Looking forward to it. Yeah, me too. 1084 00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:07,120 I'm very excited for it. Yeah, you get, I was thinking I 1085 00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:11,040 got assigned Chapter 7 because, well, it was, it was out of 1086 00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:13,760 necessity. You were on vacation, right? 1087 00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:16,640 Jake had an emergency. But then you get Chapter 8 with 1088 00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:20,680 Chapter 8 looks easy so. I felt that way a number of 1089 00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:23,480 times throughout Corinthians. I'm like, I'm getting all hard 1090 00:51:23,480 --> 00:51:24,640 chapters. I'm getting all the hard 1091 00:51:24,640 --> 00:51:27,120 chapters and everyone. But we're looking forward to it. 1092 00:51:28,080 --> 00:51:30,160 Yeah, to Sunday. So hey, would you want to pray 1093 00:51:30,160 --> 00:51:31,320 to close this out? Yeah, great. 1094 00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:34,240 Cool. Well, we're so grateful for your 1095 00:51:34,240 --> 00:51:36,760 word and every single part of it is inspired. 1096 00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:39,640 Every single part of it is authoritative and useful to us 1097 00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:41,760 in some way. And we're just so thankful for 1098 00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:44,680 Jonah and, and, and the way that you worked through him by the 1099 00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:48,080 power of your spirit to give us things that we could glean out 1100 00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:51,120 of this passage of Scripture. Some of them take a little bit 1101 00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:53,440 more work than others, but we trust, Lord, that your spirit 1102 00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:56,520 has given us exactly the word that you want us to have so that 1103 00:51:56,520 --> 00:51:59,200 we can learn from it and grow, grow in it, Lord. 1104 00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:02,120 And we pray that that we could be a people of your word, a 1105 00:52:02,120 --> 00:52:06,280 people that put your word at the center of all that we do and 1106 00:52:06,280 --> 00:52:09,080 that your spirit would faithfully transform us through 1107 00:52:09,080 --> 00:52:09,920 it. And so I want to pray 1108 00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:13,120 specifically for our church and in their Bible reading. 1109 00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:15,560 I know there's many people who've joined us in in the Bible 1110 00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:18,000 reading plan and and maybe others are doing different Bible 1111 00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,400 reading plans or we're just so grateful to have your word, word 1112 00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:23,640 and pray that your spirit would continue to be at work in and 1113 00:52:23,640 --> 00:52:27,840 through us as we spend time in your word, as we grow in it. 1114 00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:30,560 Lord, that you would grow us and shape and mold us into the image 1115 00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:33,560 of Christ and Lord that you would grow us together as your 1116 00:52:33,560 --> 00:52:36,000 people as we seek to build your Kingdom and make your name 1117 00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:38,200 great. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. 1118 00:52:38,800 --> 00:52:40,840 Amen. Well, thanks for joining us. 1119 00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:43,840 We will look forward to seeing you again next week. 1120 00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:44,960 Have a great day.