All this talk about planting seeds...what about the ones we plant in our own lives? How much or how often do we really take a hard look at the value (or lack) of what we let in? In this episode, we're all getting a real gut check. Listen as we discuss the ripple effects of letting the Word of God penetrate us and lead us.
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All this talk about planting seeds...what about the ones we plant in our own lives? How much or how often do we really take a hard look at the value (or lack) of what we let in? In this episode, we're all getting a real gut check. Listen as we discuss the ripple effects of letting the Word of God penetrate us and lead us.
Support us and tell a friend to tell a friend about what we're doing here!
Home Page: https://www.churchosity.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/churchositypod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/churchositypod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/churchositypod/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/churchositypod
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/churchosity-podcast-015b7a2b1/
Get your official Churchosity merch! https://churchosity-podcast.printify.me/
Sowing Seeds: "Pulling Back The Curtain"
All this talk about planting seeds...what about the ones we plant in our own lives? How much or how often do we really take a hard look at the value (or lack) of what we let in? In this episode, we're all getting a real gut check. Listen as we discuss the ripple effects of letting the Word of God penetrate us and lead us.
[Music]
What's up everybody! Welcome back to another episode of the Churchosity Podcast.
If you're looking for the place to have a conversation about church culture but through the
lens of a Gen X or well then guess what? You have landed in the right spot. My name is Heath
Brady. And I'm Andrea Brady. And we are your faithful Churchosity Podcast personnel.
Coming atcha! Coming atcha! I'm in a good mood today. Awesome! Yeah! Can you tell? I can tell. I can hear it
in your voice. Yeah. I don't sound all knowing, call you or you need to press on this episode. No.
I'm pretty fired up for this episode. Good! We're gonna have a good time. All right. How you doing over
there Andy? You're doing okay. Yeah. Yeah. What's going on? Same old, same old. Yeah. Yeah. How about a
little Oscar update? Oh, our little puppy. Yeah. He's getting really big. Yeah. And he's so good.
Even when he's naughty he's good. I mean how could you not love this cute little face? I know. He's
really sweet. Yeah. Yeah. He's definitely a lovey. He's got me wrapped. Yeah. He sure does.
He's teething right now. Poor guy. Got those little teeth coming in. You can hear him whimpering when
he's chewing and stuff. It's cute but at the same time it's kind of like when your kids have the flu. You
can't really fix it for him. I know. It's rough. I know. Really rough. It's rough. Are you FF? But I'm
psh. Good one. Sorry. I'm so punny. Yep. You are. Well obviously we fared well during the Arctic blast
of 2024 for the greater Salam Oregon area. Yeah. We did okay. Although it was it was it was pretty
intense. Yeah. I was scary. Yeah. Some serious snow but even more serious ice. Yeah. Like inches of ice.
It looks like snow but it's not snow. It's ice. Yeah. So you can't go out and play in it. No.
It's kind of lame. Can't even walk out the front door. No. And poor the poor puppies. You know
whenever they have to go out to go to the bathroom. Yeah. They're like what are you doing to us?
Can't get traction. Yeah. I just leave it. I'll just leave it there. But I do have to say
that I have about had it with Oscar’s “Dung Sui”. Yeah. Oh gosh. And for those of you who are not dog owners
or are dog owners and are not familiar with the term “Dung Sui”. This is the process by which your
pet animal decides where they're going to go to the bathroom. Yeah. They take their own sweet time
doing it. That's to be just right. Yeah. And like especially during that Arctic blast. Like it's 12
degrees outside. It's like we were here. And I'm like bro. Yeah. I'm going to turn into an ice
sculpture out here. And then you're going to have to come thaw me off. Yeah. So yeah. I'm thankful
that that's coming gone. The Arctic blast and it's starting to warm up and things have melted or
starting to they're almost done melting. And there's a lot of green grass out there. So the Dung Shwee
doesn't last as long. Oh gosh. Another quick update. I'm very proud of us. We got all the Christmas
stuff done. Yeah. And finally put away everything. All the boxes and everything. We are officially
undecorated. Yeah. I don't even think there's a towel or a place map. I know. Left lingering. So we're
pretty. I'm pretty happy about that. I went out in the yard to take care of some things and I came
back in and I was like, where'd everything go? Yeah. And you were up there next to the closet. And I
was like dang girl. Yep. And it makes you want to spring clean now. Once you get all those
decorations down and all the boxes put away. It's like, oh, now we get a spring clean. It's
some dusting. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. It was funny. I was taking down the red and white lights out in
the yard and one of the neighbors walked by and he was like, you could just leave him up. They could
be Valentine's Day decorations. And it's funny because I had just said the same thing to you before
I went outside. Can't we just leave him up? Because it was cold. I didn't want to go out there but
it had to be done. Had to be done. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, as I said, I'm really looking forward to this
episode and continuing our seed planters conversation. But before we get into all of that, we want to
remind all of our lovely listeners that if you want to support us here at Churchosity, it's really,
really simple. Just give us a rating. And if you feel like it, you can also leave us a review
because your ratings and your reviews not only help popularize Churchosity, but they make us
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and how much you think they're going to enjoy us too. Absolutely. Just one final little plug. We always
have to bring up our Patreon people. We love our Patreon supporters and we thank them so much for their
extra mile that they go to to support us here at Churchosity. We are well underway on our bonus
episodes for our Patreon's going through the Book of Revelation. So if you would like to jump in and
participate in our Bible study through the Book of Revelation, become a Patreon today because
besides the bonus episodes, you also get early access to our brand new episodes and so much more.
So look for us at patreon.com/ChurchosityPod. Do it. All right, Andy. Yes. Business handled. Let's
get into this. All right. So we've been having this conversation about planting seeds that we as
followers of Jesus Christ are constantly casting seeds in the direction of others, whether we like it
or not. And not all of those seeds are good seeds. Some of them are bad seeds. And the goal is to
cast as many good seeds as we possibly can. Remember how we discussed on our previous episodes that
it's like we have these two bags one on each hip. And the one on one side which represents the
good seed is constantly full because we're saved by grace alone through faith alone. And so we have
constant unending access to that bag of good seeds. And then we also have the bag that is for bad
seeds which is empty most of the time. And then we have to work to go find those seeds. Remember
Romans 623 the wages of sin is death. We have to work at it. How ironic that it takes a lot more work
to do the things that we shouldn't do. Yeah. What do I always like to say that Christianity is simple
but Christians make it hard? That's true. Yeah. So along those lines of this rather wonderful and
lengthy conversation about seeds and seed planting and seed casting and all of that stuff.
I thought we'd shift gears a little bit maybe go in a bit of a different direction in this
conversation. Still talking about seed planting. But from the vantage point of the seeds that we
plant in our own lives. Okay. You know like let's let's take a hard look in the mirror here ladies and
gentlemen. Gut check. This is your gut check episode ladies and gentlemen. I just want to warn everybody
that on this episode you're going to be in for a treat because you're going to experience something
that rarely ever happens on this show. What? I'm going to get a little preachy and opinionated. Yeah.
Because that never happens. Great. Well I like to say that if I wasn't occasionally preachy
and opinionated we wouldn't even have a podcast would we? No. No. It'd be instead of the church
Ossity Podcast it would be the Christian Ees Ossity Podcast. Yeah exactly. I wouldn't be on it either. Wow.
You go start your own show. Yeah. We want to just kind of look within ourselves and not in like the
naval gazing new age kind of way. But from the through the lens of scripture and the high calling
that we have placed before us as followers of Jesus Christ. Because it is a high calling. And yet
you know we we talk a lot on our show Andy about proper theology you know having having the
proper view the correct view of who God is and how a person is saved. Right. We talk about that a
lot. We also talk about secondary issues you know doctrinal differences. You know
eschatological differences hermeneutical differences things like that. And how 99% of those things are fun
conversations around the water cooler but certainly not anything to like split hairs or split company
over. Right. We also mentioned tertiary things things that just like you know who really cares like
do they really matter like whether you go to church on Sunday or Saturday you know for an example.
Or do angels have wings. Yeah. Yeah. Did Adam and Eve have bellybuttons? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
There and then there's all these other levels of conversation in between that for the sake of time
I won't thoroughly go into right now. But I I mentioned that now I bring that up here because
part of this conversation about the self seed planting is kind of needing to do an inventory of
the things that make us tick in our walk. And how we relate to others when we are walking in our walk
when we are working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. You know Paul wrote that it was
for freedom that we were set free. Yeah. That we were released from the bondage of sin and death that
we were released from the bondage of religion that we were set free from being captive to feeling like
we have to do or say things or not do or not say things in order to get God to accept us or like us
more. Right. That Christ because of his salvific payment on the cross we have been released from all of
that. And there is so much to say about that liberty that we have because while on the one hand Paul
would say that it's for freedom that we are set free. On the other hand he would also say what then
should we send up a storm so that grace may abound may it never be so. Right. So when it comes to
what I'm getting at here is that looking at the inventory the spiritual inventory the religious
inventory of our own lives. Looking at the shelves of seeds and plants that we have in our own lives if you
will. Those different convictions that we have those different beliefs that we have those different
doctrinal views that the the theology etc etc. How much do they not only impact our closeness with God
but the ripple effect also of our closeness or how we relate with others. Because there is a fine line you
can get yourself into trouble here when you're constantly feeding yourself the same seed over and
over and over again especially when it's a secondary or tertiary issue and you can run into legalism.
Right. Because you start feeling like you have you know all the boxes checked off in your religious views
and everybody else should tell the line and do as you do and if they don't then they're not worthy
of your time or they're not as good as you are. You know thank you Lord that I'm not like that tax
collector over there you know that that kind of an attitude. On the flip side you can get yourself
into a lot of trouble when you start feeling like you can do whatever you want to because you're saved
by grace alone through faith alone. So there's there's this fine line between legalism and liberty
is what I'm trying to get out here and that's where the freedom lies and I feel like
Paul does a really good job of addressing this in the book of Romans. Okay. Specifically in Romans chapter 14
and I wanted to read several verses here. This is a letter that Paul is writing to the church in Rome
depending on the Bible or Bible app that you are using there might be a header at the top of this
chapter. From mine it says principles of conscience. Normally I'm not much of a plug for man's
effort to summarize what scripture is about and print it in the Bible but I feel like they kind of nailed
it with this one because this section of scripture in Romans 14 deals with your conscience the things
that you are convicted or not convicted to worry about or not worry about. And I think Paul does
a really good job handling this. So I just want to read through it and address a couple of things and
then we'll move on. Is that cool? Sure. Yeah. All right. So Romans chapter 14 starting in verse 1.
Now accept the one who is weak. That's ACCEPT. Accept like accept receive.
Accept the one who is weak in faith but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.
We just preach a whole sermon on that verse. One person has faith that he may eat all things
but he who is weak gets vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one
who does not eat and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats. For God has accepted
him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls and he will
stand for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person regards one day above another,
another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.
He who observes the day observes for the Lord and he who eats does so for the Lord for he gives
thanks to God and he who eats not for the Lord he does not eat and gives thanks to God.
For not one of us lives for himself and not one dies for himself. For if we live we live for the Lord
or if we die we die for the Lord. Therefore whether we live or die we are the Lord's.
For to this end Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Verse 10. But you why do you judge your brother or you again why do you regard your brother with
contempt for we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live says the
Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall give praise to God. Verse 12. So then each one
of us will give an account of himself to God and then he drives it out of the park in verse 13.
Therefore let us not judge one another anymore but rather determine this not to put an obstacle
or a stumbling block in a brother's way. I know that's a lot of scripture but I'm a context
Christian and I could have just read verse 13 and then we would have sat here for the next 20 minutes
with me trying to explain what Paul was getting at. So the best way to have scripture be explained
is to let scripture explain scripture. Yeah in context. Exactly. So Paul is addressing some issues that
some some literal issues that the church in Rome is struggling with things about eating and things
about what days to worship on and etc. And he uses this conversation as an example to say that not
every single follower of Christ has the same level of convictions about things. And that depends on
so many different factors. And the obvious go to one that everybody likes to references like the
example of drinking wine or alcohol. Right. Right. There are some people believe that drinking alcohol
is fine. Some people believe that alcohol is the devil's drink and then there's everybody in between.
That's not the focus of the conversation. The focus of the conversation is verse 13 that we
should not judge one another but determine this not to put an obstacle or stumbling block in a
brother's way. So for instance, if if person A doesn't think that drinking alcohol is bad,
but invites person B over to their house for dinner who does believe that alcohol is not good for
them. They're not going to have wine laying around the house to upset them or cause a problem.
Not like they're going to hide it from them. That's not what I'm getting at here. But to respect
one another's convictions is what I'm getting at. What does this have to do with the seed planting
conversation? Well, I feel like we in the church run into a lot of trouble casting negative
seeds that look like this where we're passing judgment on other people because we don't see eye to
eye on secondary and God forbid tertiary things especially. Even theologically, maybe our hermeneutic
is different. Maybe one person is a dispensationalist and the other person is covenantal but they can't go
out and get a coffee because their systematic theology is different. So rather than be unified in the
fact that whether you are covenantal or dispensational, Christ has died for your sins and you are saved by
grace alone through faith alone. We would rather cast those negative seeds into our own lives
by saying that person isn't as good of a Christian as I am because of XYZ. Well, that's pride.
That's the root of it. Sure. I would imagine. Yeah. What are your thoughts on that Andy?
Well, yeah, I mean, that seems very judgy and I know that we have to try not to be judgy all the time.
I think as Christians it's easy to fall into that trap of being judgy but that's just because we lose
sight of our like I say the eternal divine perspective that God saved us. Christ saved us. We're not
knee better than anybody else. We're all in the same boat and without him we're nothing. Amen.
And those negative seeds in that area is just pride of you thinking that you're better and that
you've got it all figured out and somebody else they just aren't as far along in their Christian
walk as you are or whatever you want to say but when you're when you catch yourself doing that you
really need to repent and go to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and be full of praise and thank
thank the Lord for the relationship that you have with him. Exactly. Be thankful and praise Jesus
for your convictions for the things that you that he shows you and it's between you and him.
Right. And when you start thinking that you need to be
Jiminy cricket and somebody else's life that's the that's a problem. Yeah, I think Jesus said
something in regards to that about uh specs and planks in eyes. Yeah. Yeah, you do have to be careful.
I mean we're not supposed to turn a blind eye when your your brother is in sin but yeah,
we really need to examine ourselves before we take any steps to try to show their brother your
brother sister in Christ what what's wrong. Right. It's a fine line and we have to be careful because we
can fall right into that sin or into the sin of pride. Mm hmm. Yeah. That's all part that's such good
stuff. Andy, that's all part of that freedom that we were set free for the freedom to worship Christ,
the freedom to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Mm hmm.
Everyone's path of sanctification looks different. And even if you're a Christian for 50 years,
you're still not going to agree on everything with another Christian that's been a Christian for 50
years. There's so many factoring things that go into convictions and and things that you regard as
quote unquote right or wrong. Like you mentioned pride, Andy, that's that that's that fine you know
that fine line between legalism and liberty. You know, either you're stuck in the pride of doing
whatever you want to do or you're stuck in the pride of making sure that nobody else gets to do what
they want to do. Mm hmm. They all have to do what you're doing, right? Mm hmm. Or think how you think
or talk how you talk. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, when I was a baby Christian,
I walked that line of being judgy kind of and wanting everyone to
try to see things the way I saw them at the time. But I didn't realize that
some of the things that people were you know that they were liberal about are we're actually
them displaying their maturity. And I was the one that was actually the baby.
You know, because I had such hard nose, black and white views of every single thing. And I thought
everybody else should feel that way too. It doesn't that kind of rob the Christian of Christ-like love
when they're operating from that attitude. Mm hmm. It's kind of like the difference between say being
a John the Baptist versus being a noisy gong. Right. Because who's I mean who's not to say that the
things that you were communicating in that situation weren't right, it's just like we were we fall
into the trap of being so judgmental. And those those judgmental those loveless seeds that we plant in
our own lives, man, those things grow. And the more we do it, the more we act like that, the more
holier than now we can get. And it's so dangerous. And the freedom that we were set free for is the
freedom to be one in the body of Christ. And yet we just find so many different ways to cut off
fingers and toes in the body. Because oh, you know, that person that person's a cessation list and
that person's a continuation-ist or that person thinks that you should eat fish on Friday or that
you know what I'm saying? Mm hmm. You know, and I'm I'm being kind of flippant just trying to pull
examples out of the out of thin air for things that people divide over. Mm hmm. But that's not freedom.
That's another version of slavery. Mm hmm. That's much like the the church of the Galatians
who Paul was shocked that they had returned to this works oriented religion because at the end of
the day, that's what legalism is. Right. It's you know, all the boxes I got to check off. You know what I mean?
Yeah. In that spiritually immature attitude with that attitude that I had that was spiritually
immature, I feel like at the moment I thought I was casting good seeds, but really I was casting bad
seeds. Mm hmm. And it was in my pride that I felt like I was I must have been blinded by my pride.
In the moment to continue casting those kinds of seeds around. Right. And you know, I feel bad about
that looking back. I mean, there's nothing I can do about it. Now I've just grown a lot and I can see
that kind of stuff in my all the way. Sure. Which is good. But but but being able to recall that because
because we've all what's that the the the cage stage. Yeah. Of Christianity. We've all been there.
And it's healthy to look back at that and remember like Paul says, remember the things that were
before. You know, Paul says as were some of you formerly like these are things that that we've
all wrestled with to one degree or another. That's part of the pruning process. Yeah. Like to see the
unfruitfulness that we put on display, even in ignorance. You mentioned fruit and really the
source of all of your seeds should be love your good seeds. If you're casting a bunch of seeds
that don't have love in them, they're really from the bad seed bag. Yeah. Like when we talked about
the fruits of the spirit, the very first one is love. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says these three
remain faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Jesus said that the world will know that
we are his disciples in that we love each other. Right. So is it or is it not loving one another
in the church when we divide over and fight over things like this. That's not loving. No, it's not.
It's not. And you know, I dare say that it can lead down the path of
becoming a self-deputized sin police. And that's not fun. Talk about hard work at sinning.
There you go. I had another thought about this in this conversation about the seeds that we
plant in our own lives. You know, we have we do have to take responsibility for the things that we do
and do not allow in our lives because let's face it, even as Christians, especially as Christians,
because we do know the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness. We have this tendency to
have garbage in, garbage out mentality. But along those same lines of legalism, as we were discussing,
we also have to be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that things that bring us joy,
things that we enjoy in our life as being quote unquote, worldly. What do you mean? Well, you know,
there's this view in Christianity that when you become a Christian, that when you become a
follower of Jesus Christ, that you know, you shouldn't do things that are worldly. Like go to the
movies or listen to music or watch certain TV shows or you know what I'm saying? Right. And a lot of
times, Scripture can be weaponized in that regard. True. But we also have to make sure that we're
guarding our heart. Yes. Because I mean, honestly, it starts small. You can just think, Oh, this is fine.
And you know, I'm not going to worry about this. And it's maybe a little questionable. Maybe it
rubs you a little bit the wrong way. And it's a, you're sowing a negative seed or a bad seed in your
life. And that grows and grows and grows. And all of a sudden, you realize your desensitized.
Yeah. There's one particular verse that speaks to this Psalm 101 verse three. And it's funny to me
because I've heard this verse misquoted and misappropriated so many times. It's I will set no
worthless thing before my eyes. Now I have heard this quoted as I will put no unclean image before
my eyes. I have heard this quoted. I will put no unclean thing before my eyes. I've been in people's
houses where they have made a sign or bought a poster and hung that phrase above their television.
Well, now playing devil's advocate, no pun intended. Okay. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
No, I don't because it tells me that that person has a certain level of conviction about the type of
programming that they watch. What I want to get at here is that that is not what this verse says.
It says, I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. What I'm getting at here is that when we think
about the things that are unclean, let's just use that improper rendering of this verse as an
example. I will set no unclean image before my eyes. Okay. It's fair. I mean unclean worthless
whatever. Right. But what is it about the thing that makes it unclean? It has no eternal value.
And that's what this word here in the Hebrew actually means. I will set no worthless thing before
my eyes. It is of no value. It's utterly worthless. It is completely unprofitable. Which makes it wicked.
It leads to destruction. So you were talking about those bad seeds that we water and cultivate that
over time, they sprout up and they can become a huge problem that we are responsible for guarding
our own hearts. That starts with how much value we put on the thing.
Looking at all things through the lens of the eternal perspective, is this thing that I'm doing,
is this thing that I'm involved in, is this activity, this people group, whatever, is their eternal
value to this? Is it for my eternal good or is it not? Rather than saying, oh, that show contains
such and such. So it's from the devil. True. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. And I want to let you know
that it is not only is it okay to have a high level of conviction for yourself to hang that
sign above your television as an example and be very, very strict about the things that you watch
because I understand that. There's because I have certain levels of conviction about things too
because I don't want stuff in my head. But it's also okay to not have to have that sign hanging
above your television and let the Holy Spirit work on your heart. Right. Both are okay. That's part
of that freedom that we were set free for. And I know that I'm getting myself in the trouble here
by saying this, but go back to Romans 14 about respecting one another's convictions. Remember,
where Paul says that we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. It's like you said earlier,
Andy, our walk is between us and Jesus. Right. It's not we're not responsible for somebody else's walk
outside the extent that we don't create a stumbling block for them to trip up and fail.
Oh, right. So if something isn't worthless to us, it doesn't mean it's not worthless to the next guy
or go. And so when we're thinking about in context of planting seeds in our own lives,
how many worthless seeds are we planting in our own lives? A better way of looking at that is
because you mentioned on a previous episode, Andy, about time, talent and treasure. Yeah.
How much of our time, talent and treasure is being wasted on things that are eternally worthless?
A lot.
Eternally unprofitable. A lot.
That lead to wickedness. That could lead down the path of everyone or destruction.
I don't know. Yeah. And I want to be careful here because I don't want to come across this sounding
like I'm legalistic or I'm trying to sound trying to be legalistic here because trust me,
ladies and gentlemen, I am not legalistic. I know that. That's for sure. Wow. Sorry.
But at the same time, the words of Paul once again resonate with me personally.
Why is it that I do the things I don't want to do? Read that worthless things.
And why is it that I don't do the things that I know I should be doing? The things that are actually
profitable, right? Yeah. Whatsoever things are wholly pure just, if there be any virtue or any
praise, think on these things. Well, those are the good seeds that we should be planting in our lives.
And I don't ever like to speak for anybody else. So I'm going to speak for myself only right now.
I'm not very good at this all the time. Yeah. I waste so much time, talent and treasure
on things that have no eternal worth or value whatsoever. Doesn't necessarily mean that they're
all bad for me, but it also doesn't necessarily mean that they have value. And that's why I've been
excited to have this conversation because it's kind of me pulling back the curtain and showing you
the wizard behind the microphone. I mean, I think if we could have a time machine and actually go
back and experience life in the first century church and see what the first century Christians,
how they lived their life and the things that they occupied their time with, the things that they
thought about and the things that drove them and motivated them and excited them, the things that
they pursued on a daily basis and the ways that they loved each other, helped each other, loved God,
spread the good news, we would be in shock. Yeah. Because in today's society and culture,
I mean, we just have so many distractions. We have so many things, ways to entertain ourselves, ways to
I don't know, waste our time, talent and treasure, distractions that will render us in effective
over and over and over again all day long. Yeah. And it's a constant battle and struggle. And
may not to be legalistic about it, but I just think honestly we would be in shock. If we went back and
saw what things were like back then, I agree. I don't even think, I mean, it just because of who we are
and how we live and in our society, we can't even fathom what life would be like.
Not to mention the fact that some of the heaviest church persecution
Yeah, took place in the first century. Yeah. And yet that's when the church exploded in Europe and Asia.
And we don't even have the first clue of what real persecution for your faith looks like in this country.
We are so blessed. Happy, fortunate, lucky in the United States of America to, I mean, think about it
this way, Andy. And I don't mean to sound like sarcastic or or flippant here, but just imagine the
first century Christians trying to have a church-osity podcast. Okay. You see what I'm getting at? Yeah.
Like we have so much freedom and and I find us wasting so much of that freedom.
So the question therefore comes up. How do we shift gears? Yeah.
You know that phrase, the youth is wasted on the youth. I was thinking the same exact thing.
I mean, freedom is wasted on the free. Yeah. Yeah. I literally was bouncing around my head. I'm just
I'm thankful that God loves me despite and He saved me and He chose me and He is working on me despite
everything. Well, and that's grace, right? Yeah. All of life is grace. You know, I mean, I know that
this is kind of a heavy episode, but it shouldn't be. It's a reality check. Yeah. This is really the nuts
and bolts of the Christian faith here, ladies and gentlemen. You know, are you saved by grace alone or not?
Are you saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone or not? Absolutely. And
therefore, what do you do about it? Right? Mm-hmm. Or rather, how do you find out what to do about it?
Spend time in the Word. Exactly. My my tie offer is suggestion. Hmm.
Psalm 119 verse 11. Your Word, I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you.
We've probably heard that verse millions of times. Mm-hmm.
That verse is so convicting for me. Your Word, I have treasured in my heart, literally hidden,
literally treasured, stored up, like stacked to the rafters. So we ask the question, how do we change
focus? Where do we start? Where do we even begin? And you mentioned Andy, spending time in the Word,
spending time with the Lord. I dare say that that's where our good seed bag gets full.
I mean, it doesn't, you just don't wake up every day and it's full. Right. I mean, in some ways,
God gives you the wisdom in the moment to spread a good seed. Sure. But, you know, I think spending time
in the Word really fills up your good seed bag. Hey, the Israelites had to go get their mana.
That's true. They did, didn't they? Just imagine if God had let it fall where they were sleeping.
Mm-hmm. Well, that'd be like the quail. Yeah. And yet, they still complained. Well, at least we had
fish back in Egypt. Well, they had so much quail. It was coming out their nose. I know. Not funny.
Yeah. So funny. Your Word, I have treasured in my heart. I have stored up. I have hidden
so that I might not sin against you. I love Psalm 119 because every single verse talks about
God's Word. Mm-hmm. It's beautiful. Yeah, just a few verses down on verse 15, I will meditate on your
precepts and regard your ways. I shall delight in your statutes and shall not forget your Word.
Like it's, I mean, you hit the nail on the head, Andy. Mm-hmm. You know, those things that are deemed
worthless in our lives, what if we took those seeds of worthlessness and cast them away, burn them
and replace them with the good seed of the Word? Yeah. So that we were stored up with the Lord's
precepts, the law of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, our time with the Lord to the point where
our bounty overflows. Right. Let's look at verses 17 and 18. Okay. Deal bound to flee with your
servant that I may live and keep your Word. Open my eyes that I may be hold wonderful things from your
law. And I think that it just really shows a good relationship with Jesus seeking him, keeping
your eyes on him and knowing that, you know, from him, he'll discipline you, he'll strengthen you,
he'll show you the way to go, he'll help you keep his commandments. And, you know, if there be
any wicked way in me, he'll he'll show it. But you have to keep your eyes on him and seek that truth
from him. 100%. I think that verses 17 and 18 are a beautiful prayer. Deal bound to flee with your
servant. Have your way. You know, I mean, be careful what you pray for. Yeah. But seriously though,
you know, you you want to have a life that produces good seed over and over and over again in your
own life so that you can cast good seed into the lives of others. Let the Lord deal bound to flee with us
so that we can live and keep his Word. Amen. And that's all we have to say about that.
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Churchosity podcast, the show where we try to
give you the Gen X take on church culture. And thank you once again as always to my phenomenal co-host
and amazing wife. You're very welcome. Be sure to follow us on all the socials that's Facebook and
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and we look forward to catching you all on the next episode of Churchosity podcast. Peace!
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