Ready to Thrive?

Tune in as Dan Schilling & Michael Blue share about the launch of FeedSheep.org and how they desire for you to: Hear God's Voice. Follow His lead. Thrive as a Disciple. 

Transcript

00:00:08 Dan Schilling
Hey, welcome to the.
00:00:08 Dan Schilling
Feed sheet podcast.
00:00:10 Dan Schilling
I want to say thank you for tuning in.
00:00:12 Dan Schilling
This is our first episode of the Feed Sheet Podcast and I'm a good friend Michael Blue.
00:00:18 Dan Schilling
Today, we're going to be regulars here on the podcast Michael, that just looking forward to having some time together over the next season that God has for us here to.
00:00:28 Dan Schilling
For sharing the truth of his word.
00:00:29 Dan Schilling
So thanks for joining today.
00:00:32 Michael Blue
It is gonna be a lot of.
00:00:33 Michael Blue
Fun then looking.
00:00:34 Michael Blue
Forward to it.
00:00:35 Dan Schilling
Yeah, well, I want.
00:00:37 Dan Schilling
To pray for us to get started.
00:00:39 Dan Schilling
And then we're going to jump into.
00:00:41 Dan Schilling
It today.
00:00:41 Dan Schilling
So let me pray for.
00:00:42 Dan Schilling
Us father, thank.
00:00:43 Dan Schilling
You today, as you give us this opportunity that your word goes forth that.
00:00:48 Dan Schilling
It bears much fruit.
00:00:49 Dan Schilling
Thank you for the ones who have been called.
00:00:53 Dan Schilling
For such a time as this ones who desire to walk and intimacy and fellowship with you, and so today I pray that the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be pleasing to you.
00:01:04 Dan Schilling
I pray that you would help us.
00:01:05 Dan Schilling
To be faithful and all.
00:01:07 Dan Schilling
That we do and all that we say.
00:01:09 Dan Schilling
That brings honor and glory to you.
00:01:12 Dan Schilling
God, we love you. Thank you this time together. Now give you thanks for it. In Jesus name. Amen. All right, so, Michael, this is the the beginning of a new work called feedsheep.org. And our podcast here, the feed sheep.
00:01:32 Dan Schilling
Podcast that's a part of the.
00:01:34 Dan Schilling
Part of the process and I just want to start off.
00:01:40 Dan Schilling
You've now been in the financial ministry space for a number of years.
00:01:44 Dan Schilling
Developed friendship now for a number of years and just been a pleasure as we've gotten to know each other.
00:01:50 Dan Schilling
You're not going through some changes this last year too.
00:01:52 Dan Schilling
Some rule changes and last and and just wanted to just open the floor to you for a moment here.
00:01:54 Michael Blue
Very nice.
00:01:59 Dan Schilling
As we start to launch the podcast and share what what's what's what do you see heading into this next season of of ministry and sharing God's word with folks?
00:02:11 Michael Blue
Well, it has been exciting time for both of us to and I know that you've been going through some changes and I've been going through some changes and what's fun about it for.
00:02:19 Michael Blue
Me is is just to.
00:02:20 Michael Blue
To walk with.
00:02:23 Michael Blue
Simply trying to follow where Jesus is leading and and maybe the change that I made may not look like it.
00:02:30 Michael Blue
Maybe looks like a step backwards.
00:02:31 Michael Blue
It feels like a step backwards, but it it certainly feels like a step.
00:02:35 Michael Blue
Forward as far as following and so.
00:02:38 Michael Blue
I'm really just excited about exploring what God has for all of us in in the adventure of following him right where we are.
00:02:46 Michael Blue
I think so much of my life has been spent thinking about where I'm going to be, meaning that it's like once I get there, then I'll I can do this or once I am doing this then I can.
00:02:58 Michael Blue
Do extra why and and?
00:02:59 Michael Blue
And kind of helping all of.
00:03:01 Michael Blue
Us work through this idea of.
00:03:03 Michael Blue
Following and thriving today, just as we will tomorrow, wherever God takes us, because none of us are guaranteed tomorrow anyway.
00:03:10 Michael Blue
So really settling in and and I think for me and you know, financial ministry talks a lot about contentment.
00:03:19 Michael Blue
And this is an area of contentment for me.
00:03:21 Michael Blue
It it's always wanting to be something different or something more or something whatever.
00:03:26 Michael Blue
Meaning that you know, it's not just my finances.
00:03:28 Michael Blue
I have to learn.
00:03:30 Michael Blue
And it's it's life it is.
00:03:32 Michael Blue
Where I am and finding you know the presence of God is here with me, just like he will be there tomorrow.
00:03:37 Michael Blue
And so I'm really excited about helping people learn from my many failures and many struggles.
00:03:44 Michael Blue
And and I.
00:03:44 Michael Blue
Think that that's.
00:03:45 Michael Blue
That's where you and I connect so well on is that.
00:03:49 Dan Schilling
We're very aware.
00:03:50 Michael Blue
That we want badly to follow Jesus, but we we fall down and.
00:03:55 Michael Blue
Struggle regularly in doing so.
00:03:58 Michael Blue
But that's part of the journey.
00:04:01 Dan Schilling
Well, this journey is again just been a pleasure to be on it with you and this next season of the journey has been.
00:04:09 Dan Schilling
For us, exhilarating and exhausting.
00:04:13 Dan Schilling
Because just like you feel like there's something ahead of us.
00:04:16 Dan Schilling
Good things ahead of us, that God is desiring for us, another level of faith to trust him that he wants us.
00:04:24 Dan Schilling
To to see in the work in our lives even more.
00:04:29 Dan Schilling
And and this next step for us was to launch feed cheap.org the ministry with the goal to do a couple of things.
00:04:37 Dan Schilling
The first one really was to help folks to hear God's voice and then to follow his lead and then to thrive as the disciple. And that's part of what we're going to talk about here today.
00:04:49 Dan Schilling
On our time, but the last year when we transitioned away from.
00:04:55 Dan Schilling
The the ministry we've been with really the ministry with Howard Dayton.
00:04:58 Dan Schilling
Over the last 18 years.
00:05:00 Dan Schilling
And that's, you know, with your dad, you know, they were friends, and that's probably how our our relationship got started this several years ago at an event together.
00:05:08 Dan Schilling
And so I'm I'm grateful for that and grateful for the opportunities and how God used it.
00:05:12 Dan Schilling
But I knew God was calling us.
00:05:14 Dan Schilling
I've been speaking to my heart for a number of years.
00:05:17 Dan Schilling
To feed sheep.
00:05:19 Dan Schilling
And and and that process was unfolding this last year and just began to make it clear that it.
00:05:28 Dan Schilling
To go beyond just financial ministry and that it was really about every aspect of following and surrendering and calling us to help folks.
00:05:36 Dan Schilling
And so this is the next step.
00:05:38 Dan Schilling
For us on the journey and.
00:05:39 Dan Schilling
We haven't surely got we don't have.
00:05:41 Dan Schilling
It mastered the following thing, but we're glad to be on the journey with folks like you.
00:05:49 Michael Blue
Yeah, it's been.
00:05:51 Michael Blue
It's been interesting as as our journeys have kind of paralleled each other and and and watching the feed sheep.
00:05:58 Michael Blue
Ministry be birthed and and and born.
00:06:01 Michael Blue
And the idea that you know you know after living in in the middle of financial ministry over you know you know you say 19 years 18 years.
00:06:09 Dan Schilling
Yeah, 18.
00:06:11 Michael Blue
And I, you know, mine was the last seven, but you know quite frankly before that I was born in, in the House of a person who was in financial ministry.
00:06:19 Michael Blue
So it's been.
00:06:20 Michael Blue
A part of my life.
00:06:22 Michael Blue
For a long time, but the the reality is, is even if we get our finances in order, you know.
00:06:29 Michael Blue
If you will.
00:06:30 Michael Blue
We still have a lot of things that we.
00:06:32 Michael Blue
Need to work on in terms of following.
00:06:34 Michael Blue
And in many ways, that just clears away that clutter.
00:06:38 Michael Blue
In some way so that I can begin to really focus in on on following with my whole life.
00:06:45 Dan Schilling
Well, again, I want to go back to that.
00:06:47 Dan Schilling
You know, it's more than the tagline for us really as a mantra.
00:06:49 Dan Schilling
You know we want to.
00:06:50 Dan Schilling
Help folks to hear God's voice, follow his lead, thrive as disciples again. We don't have it down, but we do feel cold to bring folks together as a community of disciples on that quest. And it's it's not an arrival.
00:07:04 Dan Schilling
Place it's not a destination, it is a journey.
00:07:07 Dan Schilling
But we're on that.
00:07:08 Dan Schilling
Search for sheep that are desiring.
00:07:11 Dan Schilling
To to hear God's voice and we're going to look at some passages today that go around that. But one last thing I wanted to say, Michael, in this.
00:07:20 Dan Schilling
In this last year, as I began to.
00:07:23 Dan Schilling
Here the Lord.
00:07:24 Dan Schilling
Just bring some clarity to this.
00:07:26 Dan Schilling
I felt like he's shown me three things.
00:07:27 Dan Schilling
That are keeping.
00:07:28 Dan Schilling
Me and others.
00:07:30 Dan Schilling
Obviously, as you look back through history and hearing his voice and following him, and there was three.
00:07:34 Dan Schilling
Things, it was pride.
00:07:36 Dan Schilling
Money and infidelity.
00:07:39 Dan Schilling
And when I was going through the scriptures, the last number of years at a pretty, pretty good pace in the Bible in 90 days, four times a couple of years ago went to the New Testament.
00:07:49 Dan Schilling
13 times.
00:07:50 Dan Schilling
This last year.
00:07:51 Dan Schilling
And our good friend Jeff Anderson has the Bible in 60 days I went through that just recently and finished that.
00:07:56 Dan Schilling
And so as I've been going through the Bible.
00:07:58 Dan Schilling
At that pace.
00:07:59 Dan Schilling
I see the the threads and I see how really the area of pride in so many areas in my life and how it's been manifesting and what it's been doing and keeping me from hearing God.
00:08:12 Dan Schilling
And just like you're talking about, sometimes we get our identity wrapped up in the wrong.
00:08:15 Dan Schilling
Thing we get our money wrapped up in the wrong thing and and obviously we see in in much of not just Christian of the peoples lives where the infidelity piece gets a hold of them and it costs them not just personally but corporately and their organizations, churches, whatnot.
00:08:33 Dan Schilling
So I think those three things are some things we're going to be tackling.
00:08:36 Dan Schilling
Over the next season, as we address what's keeping us from walking in this fullness that God has for us, of hearing his voice following his lead and thriving.
00:08:47 Dan Schilling
I do believe that those three things, pride, money and fidelity are a big part.
00:08:53 Michael Blue
And each one of those.
00:08:53 Michael Blue
Things you know feeds this idea of the false self, right, as theologians would talk about and.
00:08:59 Michael Blue
And so it's this idea that I can find sufficiency or identity in those things and in myself, pride, ride and money, and and what I can accomplish or in in in the satisfaction of a desire and infidelity.
00:09:13 Michael Blue
And it all is false and it falls apart.
00:09:16 Michael Blue
It provides moments of feeling like I've got it.
00:09:20 Michael Blue
Figured out or moments of.
00:09:22 Michael Blue
Satisfaction, or whatever it might be, but always in the end it it leads to.
00:09:25 Michael Blue
The false self and it.
00:09:26 Michael Blue
Falls apart and the floor.
00:09:28 Michael Blue
Falls out from under under US and we look.
00:09:30 Michael Blue
Up and wonder.
00:09:31 Michael Blue
What happened and where we are?
00:09:34 Dan Schilling
Yeah, that's a great point, so.
00:09:36 Dan Schilling
What I'd like.
00:09:36 Dan Schilling
To do is there's a scripture that was key to us.
00:09:39 Dan Schilling
The last number of years.
00:09:42 Dan Schilling
That it's out of Hebrews and I.
00:09:44 Dan Schilling
Would like to.
00:09:45 Dan Schilling
Bring it up here.
00:09:45 Dan Schilling
It's Hebrews 3.
00:09:47 Dan Schilling
And it it spoke to us years ago when I first got started in the financial ministry space and we were taking some folks through a Bible study and at the end of that Bible study, one of the folks that I was talking with, I asked them, I said, well, what was the fruit?
00:10:03 Dan Schilling
And they said, well, honestly, we feel worse.
00:10:06 Dan Schilling
And it's like, worse.
00:10:08 Dan Schilling
And they said, well, because now we know the truth and we're no, we're not living.
00:10:11 Dan Schilling
You know that we we can't do this on our own.
00:10:13 Dan Schilling
We need help.
00:10:14 Dan Schilling
We need someone to come alongside us.
00:10:16 Dan Schilling
And so this passage was was a key for us in the development, which is now going to be a key part of our ministry outreach, which is helping folks put the truth into application.
00:10:26 Dan Schilling
And there's a a methodology.
00:10:28 Dan Schilling
That we're going.
00:10:28 Dan Schilling
To start talking about here in future.
00:10:30 Dan Schilling
Other podcasts and other trainings and things using a Lam methodology and you helped me kind of reshape.
00:10:37 Dan Schilling
That a little bit.
00:10:38 Dan Schilling
I'll leave that as a teaser.
00:10:39 Dan Schilling
We'll give you what that land methodology is another time, but we want to see folks put the truth in practice.
00:10:46 Dan Schilling
But here's some some verses Mike would like to.
00:10:49 Dan Schilling
Have you read them if you would?
00:10:51 Dan Schilling
In Hebrews this is Hebrews 37 to 13. So if you'd start there in verse.
00:10:56 Dan Schilling
Seven. Start there.
00:11:00 Michael Blue
Does this?
00:11:00 Michael Blue
It says that is why the Holy Spirit says today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts, as Israel did when they rebelled.
00:11:08 Michael Blue
When they tested me in the wilderness, they are your ancestors, tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for 40 years, though I was angry with them and.
00:11:19 Michael Blue
I said their hearts.
00:11:20 Michael Blue
Always turn away from me.
00:11:22 Michael Blue
They refuse.
00:11:23 Michael Blue
To do what?
00:11:23 Michael Blue
I tell them so in my anger, I took an oath.
00:11:26 Michael Blue
They will never enter my place of rest.
00:11:29
Hi this is not different.
00:11:30 Michael Blue
Be careful then.
00:11:31 Michael Blue
OK.
00:11:31 Dan Schilling
Let's stop just a second, because this is I want to.
00:11:34 Dan Schilling
Just maybe look at this section for.
00:11:35 Dan Schilling
Us and this is.
00:11:38 Dan Schilling
Couple key things here.
00:11:39 Dan Schilling
The first one is when he says you know that this is what the Holy Spirit says, the spirit of God wants to speak to us, right?
00:11:45 Dan Schilling
He wants to comfort us, the scripture says.
00:11:47 Dan Schilling
Counsel us lead.
00:11:48 Dan Schilling
Us in.
00:11:48 Dan Schilling
The truth.
00:11:50 Dan Schilling
And so this.
00:11:51 Dan Schilling
What stood out to me is how often do we need to be hearing his voice.
00:11:58 Dan Schilling
And he's.
00:11:58 Dan Schilling
You gonna see multiple times throughout this passage.
00:12:01 Dan Schilling
It's not like once a week when I go to church it it's not once every great once in a while, you know, Christmas and Easter.
00:12:07 Dan Schilling
It's not when I.
00:12:08 Dan Schilling
Get a you know, a free moment.
00:12:10 Dan Schilling
And I think it.
00:12:10 Dan Schilling
Goes far beyond just having devotions in the morning.
00:12:13 Dan Schilling
I think this is a a desire of God to speak to us throughout our day, throughout our life, moment by moment, whether we're sleeping, whether we're on the road, you know, the Deuteronomy talks about, you know, we're sharing the Deuteronomy.
00:12:27 Dan Schilling
It's mandate, you know, while we while we're traveling put on our door post, but I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us.
00:12:35 Dan Schilling
But the issue was.
00:12:37 Dan Schilling
Throughout history, the children of Israel were always hardening their hearts, which is many times translated as a hardness.
00:12:43 Dan Schilling
Of heart or pride.
00:12:44 Dan Schilling
That pride hardens the heart, and that pride leads to rebellion, and we see that these ancestors of ours who are Israelites, harden their hearts.
00:12:58 Dan Schilling
And they turned away.
00:12:58 Dan Schilling
They were refused.
00:12:59 Dan Schilling
They wouldn't follow.
00:13:01 Dan Schilling
God's lead.
00:13:02 Dan Schilling
And so they wouldn't hear his voice and they wouldn't follow his lead.
00:13:05 Dan Schilling
And they surely didn't thrive.
00:13:07 Dan Schilling
And I think that that place of entering his rest or that place of peace is what he wants for all of us, not just a a good nap and not just a a good night's sleep.
00:13:18 Dan Schilling
Entering that place of rest where we can experience this peace experience, his joy, his patience and kindness and goodness.
00:13:25 Dan Schilling
And so I just want to stop here for a second to might get your thoughts on a couple of these too as well.
00:13:32 Michael Blue
Yeah, it's so interesting the idea.
00:13:36 Michael Blue
I think sometimes we feel like we're not hearing and we're not you.
00:13:40 Michael Blue
Know able to follow his voice.
00:13:43 Michael Blue
Throughout our day and our solution is we kind of come back to that time of prayer in the morning, right?
00:13:49 Michael Blue
Or that time when we we spend with God and and disconnect it from the.
00:13:55 Michael Blue
Rest of our days.
00:13:57 Michael Blue
Throughout the day and and the reality is is my.
00:14:00 Michael Blue
My prayer life is directly impacted in the fruit of how I'm living my life, and so my ability to hear and listen.
00:14:08 Michael Blue
It comes.
00:14:08 Michael Blue
Out of I believe.
00:14:10 Michael Blue
Kind of my my life. So if I'm disconnected from God, if I'm disobedient, if I'm living in pride, all the rest of my 23 hours a day. But that one hour that I'm with God, I really try to connect and listen.
00:14:22 Michael Blue
It doesn't work that way, right?
00:14:24 Michael Blue
And so if I'm I'm hearing it's it's a lifetime of of hearing.
00:14:28 Michael Blue
That's not a implying perfection by any means, but it's it's it's more of.
00:14:33 Michael Blue
I'm daily walking.
00:14:34 Michael Blue
That's, and I think that's a lot of what it means by pray continuously is I'm living in prayer.
00:14:38 Michael Blue
I'm living out prayer and then when I'm speaking to God and and and and setting time aside to do that, I I'm I'm listening and I'm I'm more able to hear.
00:14:49 Dan Schilling
Yes. Well, I think it's.
00:14:50 Dan Schilling
Kind of like our relationship with our our wives.
00:14:53 Dan Schilling
Right. How often are?
00:14:54 Dan Schilling
We available to talk.
00:14:56 Dan Schilling
Me, if she calls maybe right now right now, cause would say I'm on a podcast right now.
00:15:01 Dan Schilling
Can we talk?
00:15:01 Dan Schilling
Later, right.
00:15:03 Dan Schilling
But whenever they call, we're available.
00:15:07 Dan Schilling
And So what I think what we have to do is avail ourselves, make ourselves open and say Holy Spirit, you you have permission to to tap on my heart at 3:00 AM.
00:15:17 Dan Schilling
Because my wife can tap on my, you know, on my shoulder at 3:00 AM.
00:15:19 Dan Schilling
Say, honey, there's somebody at the door, you know, or or something's going on.
00:15:23 Dan Schilling
I need you I.
00:15:24 Dan Schilling
Need to talk with you and when we avail ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit and give him permission, so I want to hear your voice.
00:15:32 Dan Schilling
And and years ago had a good friend, his daughter.
00:15:35 Dan Schilling
Gave a great line.
00:15:36 Dan Schilling
You know.
00:15:37 Dan Schilling
How do you know?
00:15:37 Dan Schilling
How do you know it's?
00:15:38 Dan Schilling
The Holy Spirit speaking to you.
00:15:39 Dan Schilling
And she.
00:15:40 Dan Schilling
I think encapsulated this as good as.
00:15:43 Dan Schilling
I've never heard that they were trying to sell their house.
00:15:45 Dan Schilling
And and he was talking to her one night and and and she said Daddy, did God tell you?
00:15:49 Dan Schilling
That we're supposed to sell her house.
00:15:51 Dan Schilling
And he said he said kind of fell.
00:15:54 Dan Schilling
With a person.
00:15:54 Dan Schilling
Did I?
00:15:55
You know, like he was trying.
00:15:56 Dan Schilling
To push this deal and.
00:15:59 Dan Schilling
And he said I.
00:16:00 Dan Schilling
Don't know, honey, what do you think?
00:16:01 Dan Schilling
And she said, I don't think.
00:16:03 Dan Schilling
God wants to sell a house.
00:16:05 Dan Schilling
He said.
00:16:06 Dan Schilling
Oh, really, why?
00:16:06 Dan Schilling
She said because.
00:16:07 Dan Schilling
Something's pushing on me on.
00:16:09 Dan Schilling
The inside and it just won't go away.
00:16:12 Dan Schilling
And I believe that's how I've experienced the Holy Spirit.
00:16:15 Dan Schilling
It it?
00:16:16 Dan Schilling
It doesn't.
00:16:16 Dan Schilling
It's not limited to my my quiet time in the morning.
00:16:20 Dan Schilling
It's there and.
00:16:21 Dan Schilling
It's it's like just that little still small voice, that little gentle nudge just kind of pushing me from the inside.
00:16:28 Dan Schilling
Here and just trying to get my attention and this, you know, asking me questions sometimes I was telling the boys we're doing one of our groups that we do is called point make groups.
00:16:37 Dan Schilling
We'll share more about that in the future and I was with a group of young men last night and we were talking about this.
00:16:42 Dan Schilling
And I said.
00:16:42 Dan Schilling
There's been so many times over the years where the spirit of God would say to.
00:16:46 Dan Schilling
Don't say that.
00:16:47 Dan Schilling
Keep your mouth shut.
00:16:47 Dan Schilling
As in relation to.
00:16:49 Dan Schilling
Talking with my wife and I'm about to say something stupid, you know, or say something I shouldn't.
00:16:53 Dan Schilling
Hurtful or something else.
00:16:54 Dan Schilling
I could hear him just prompt me.
00:16:56 Dan Schilling
Don't don't say it.
00:16:57 Dan Schilling
Don't do it, I said unfortunately.
00:16:59 Dan Schilling
And and many times in my younger years, I'd still go ahead and say it and then say, you know, all I did was get me in.
00:17:05 Dan Schilling
More trouble the relationship, you know, more severed.
00:17:10 Dan Schilling
And and so I believe the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us.
00:17:13 Dan Schilling
So he's telling us here in this passage he wants us to, but don't heart in your heart when when he's.
00:17:17 Dan Schilling
Trying to to.
00:17:18 Dan Schilling
Counsel you and give you wisdom and instruction.
00:17:22 Dan Schilling
And how many times do we like?
00:17:23 Dan Schilling
I want my way.
00:17:25 Dan Schilling
I'm going to do it.
00:17:25 Dan Schilling
I'm going to say it.
00:17:26 Dan Schilling
I'm going to express it.
00:17:28 Dan Schilling
I'm going to do whatever I want to do and.
00:17:30 Dan Schilling
If this is what we're going to see here in just a moment in the next part.
00:17:33 Dan Schilling
Of this section.
00:17:34 Dan Schilling
So Michael, if any other thoughts and if not, let's go ahead and read this here starting in verse 12.
00:17:41 Michael Blue
Yeah, just one thought before I read verse 12 and you know it's it says today when you hear his voice, don't harden your heart.
00:17:47 Michael Blue
Since I think the important thing to remember is the holy.
00:17:49 Michael Blue
Spirit is speaking.
00:17:51 Michael Blue
He is directing, and so you know, a lot of the problem isn't, God, why aren't you?
00:17:55 Michael Blue
Speaking it's, it's how, what's blocking.
00:17:57 Michael Blue
My like is my heart hard to hear.
00:18:01 Michael Blue
And so it we need to be aware of that issue.
00:18:05 Michael Blue
Alright, so verse.
00:18:06 Michael Blue
12 goes on this way.
00:18:08 Michael Blue
Be careful then.
00:18:10 Michael Blue
Dear brothers and sisters, make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away.
00:18:15 Michael Blue
From the living.
00:18:16 Michael Blue
God, you must warn each.
00:18:18 Michael Blue
Other every day, while it is still to day so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.
00:18:25 Dan Schilling
For if we are.
00:18:25 Michael Blue
Faithful to the end trust in God just as firmly as when we.
00:18:28 Michael Blue
First believed we will share.
00:18:29 Michael Blue
In all that belongs to Christ.
00:18:32 Michael Blue
Remember what it says today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts, as Israel did when they rebelled.
00:18:39 Michael Blue
Coming right back to that idea of today.
00:18:41 Dan Schilling
Yes, many times here again and and what I.
00:18:41
Let me here.
00:18:46 Dan Schilling
What I can't miss here multiple things.
00:18:48 Dan Schilling
The first one is a warning, right?
00:18:50 Dan Schilling
Be careful, some actually, you know, let's say warn each other.
00:18:54 Dan Schilling
Like this one says, some say cautions.
00:18:55 Dan Schilling
You know, different versions will bring out different aspects, but it's a warning a that be careful.
00:19:04 Dan Schilling
That this the sin, the desire to do things my way.
00:19:08 Dan Schilling
I think that's the essence of what I see.
00:19:10 Dan Schilling
Sin throughout the scripture.
00:19:12 Dan Schilling
Like when Genesis 4 with Cain and Abel and and that's talking to Kane when he won't obey him, what he wants him to do with the offering.
00:19:20 Dan Schilling
He said sin is about to have it's.
00:19:22 Dan Schilling
About to to kind of get you up here around the neck.
00:19:25 Dan Schilling
And if you would just do what's right.
00:19:28 Dan Schilling
And I believe that was trying to to bring him to do what was right, but his heart was bent on doing things his way or that sin nature, which all of us have none of us are exempt from it.
00:19:38 Dan Schilling
None of us can beat it, but he has sent the Holy Spirit to give us and we we were talking about this in our group last night in Galatians and talking about how he.
00:19:48 Dan Schilling
He gives us the Holy Spirit, right?
00:19:51 Dan Schilling
He wants us to, to live in that place where the Holy Spirit is speaking to us and we follow.
00:19:59 Dan Schilling
But the problem is many times is we get as we're talking about pride.
00:20:04 Dan Schilling
In our heart thinks that our way is better than God's way, that our thoughts are higher than God's thoughts and what it ends up producing is that list of fruit that we see in in Galatians dissension, division arguments and all those things that we see in that list of things in Galatians.
00:20:24 Dan Schilling
But I would think here again that what God wants for us is to be faithful.
00:20:28 Dan Schilling
And I know you.
00:20:29 Dan Schilling
And I've been talking about this lately too, about our desire as men is to be faithful so.
00:20:34 Dan Schilling
What are your thoughts?
00:20:36 Michael Blue
And I I think you.
00:20:37 Michael Blue
Know we've had a lot of conversation too, and this this passage highlights too the importance of each other, right?
00:20:43 Michael Blue
He even addresses it to the dear brothers and sisters.
00:20:46 Michael Blue
You know, there's a lot of.
00:20:49 Michael Blue
The idea that you must warn each.
00:20:50 Michael Blue
Other every day, while it is still.
00:20:52 Michael Blue
Today, so you know.
00:20:54 Michael Blue
This happens together when I isolate myself.
00:20:57 Michael Blue
That's another one of the things I think that happens when we get cut off, when we.
00:21:00 Michael Blue
Don't hear is.
00:21:02 Michael Blue
I I've become so insular in myself, I I disconnect from brothers and sisters.
00:21:07 Michael Blue
And I don't.
00:21:08 Michael Blue
I don't kind of.
00:21:09 Michael Blue
I'm not protected against those things that, you know, harden my heart and the send that happened.
00:21:14 Michael Blue
So I, you know, just to the following isn't an individual endeavor.
00:21:18 Michael Blue
And and too often, especially in the West, I think we get this idea that it's up to me about myself.
00:21:23 Michael Blue
I'm going to go and and run and do this on myself.
00:21:25 Michael Blue
When we're this is, this is a journey.
00:21:28 Michael Blue
Meant to be journeyed together in community and and so.
00:21:32 Michael Blue
You know, that's how we.
00:21:34 Michael Blue
We will best here and that's how we.
00:21:35 Michael Blue
Will best follow is together.
00:21:38 Dan Schilling
Well, as I think about verse 13 as well, you must warn each other every day.
00:21:44 Dan Schilling
I mean, how often in our arrogant, prideful selves I'm holding my hand up for me, I'm not accusing anyone else.
00:21:52 Dan Schilling
But how many times when someone was trying to give me a?
00:21:54 Dan Schilling
Warning like I'm.
00:21:55 Dan Schilling
Like, who are you thinking?
00:21:56 Dan Schilling
Who are you telling me?
00:21:58 Dan Schilling
Like I see the sign in.
00:21:58 Dan Schilling
You, you know, and we we don't allow open ourselves up with humility.
00:22:04 Dan Schilling
For folks that want to help.
00:22:06 Dan Schilling
Us because we have this.
00:22:09 Dan Schilling
Foolishness inside of our heart that believes it.
00:22:11 Dan Schilling
I I'm not going to be deceived by sin.
00:22:13 Dan Schilling
I'm not hardened against God and we don't even recognize areas of our life where we've shut the Holy Spirit out where that hardness is keeping us from hearing voice.
00:22:24 Dan Schilling
And this is again what he's trying to to warn us and to speak to us that today.
00:22:29 Dan Schilling
When you hear his voice, the problem is for some of us, we've we've shut God's voice off in certain areas of our life.
00:22:37 Dan Schilling
And so our goal through this process is to to journey together and we again don't have it figured out.
00:22:44 Dan Schilling
I don't have a a direct, you know, pipeline here.
00:22:47 Dan Schilling
That guy just, you know, automatically calls me up and we talk, you know it it's still a journey.
00:22:51 Dan Schilling
It's still trying to discern is this where you're leading out?
00:22:53 Dan Schilling
Is this what?
00:22:54 Dan Schilling
You're speaking but.
00:22:56 Dan Schilling
Like you said, when we're doing it.
00:22:57 Dan Schilling
Together, that's what I believe God once for us is to be on this journey together and encouraging one another, warning one another daily that we need to keep going keep.
00:23:07 Dan Schilling
Hearing his voice.
00:23:11
So how do?
00:23:11 Michael Blue
You do that, Dan. How do you hear God's voice? I know that's one of the goals here is is the first is to hear in this passage, points us toward this.
00:23:20 Michael Blue
So how how? How do we help each other and how do we hear God's voice and identify it?
00:23:24 Dan Schilling
Well it it is.
00:23:26 Dan Schilling
It's our our goal as an organization is really coming out of our own journey.
00:23:32 Dan Schilling
Michael, I know you're not both have been seeking and and searching to hear.
00:23:37 Dan Schilling
God's voice.
00:23:38 Dan Schilling
To follow him with even greater.
00:23:41 Dan Schilling
Openness, willingness and I.
00:23:44 Dan Schilling
I say that.
00:23:46 Dan Schilling
It it's it is a journey and there have been times along the way that we've felt God was asking us to do some pretty radical things that we won't share those stories today for the sake of time.
00:23:56 Dan Schilling
But there were things that that were that were hard.
00:23:59 Dan Schilling
But when I look at Hebrews 11, when I look at that Hall of Faith, I think men.
00:24:03 Dan Schilling
Were some of those things hard was hard.
00:24:07 Dan Schilling
To follow, was it hard to to ask, you know, to relent our life and say, God, I want to do it, I want to.
00:24:14 Dan Schilling
I want.
00:24:14 Dan Schilling
To follow you.
00:24:16 Dan Schilling
And and I think the what I'm seeing majority over the last couple of years, Michael, is as I begin to ask the Holy Spirit.
00:24:30 Dan Schilling
To to impart that humility, that Christ centered humility, that I don't put my ways above his ways.
00:24:36 Dan Schilling
I don't put my thoughts above his thoughts.
00:24:39 Dan Schilling
I I think.
00:24:40 Dan Schilling
That his voice gets clearer and clearer, I said years ago.
00:24:43 Dan Schilling
When I first went through.
00:24:45 Dan Schilling
The Bible study that Howard Dayton did it with Crown ministries.
00:24:50 Dan Schilling
And I said it was like going through that Bible study because I started to submit to his lordship the area of finance.
00:24:59 Dan Schilling
And I I felt like I started to hear.
00:25:01 Dan Schilling
His voice better.
00:25:02 Dan Schilling
Because the money wasn't keeping me from decision because so much of my life money was the master.
00:25:09 Dan Schilling
You know, I've talked about this.
00:25:10 Dan Schilling
We'll talk about it in the future.
00:25:11 Dan Schilling
Again, I'm certain that you know what?
00:25:12 Dan Schilling
You can't serve that other master when it is the master.
00:25:15 Dan Schilling
That's what I'm listening to.
00:25:17 Dan Schilling
And I think this is a key piece is why pride and money.
00:25:22 Dan Schilling
Can lead us astray, but when we get these things and surrender them to his lordship.
00:25:29 Dan Schilling
It begins to open up.
00:25:31 Dan Schilling
Our hearts to allow us to.
00:25:32 Dan Schilling
Hear God's voice.
00:25:35 Michael Blue
Yeah, it's it's like you said the the sins, the, the idea of pride and money and infidelity, the pride oftentimes.
00:25:42 Michael Blue
Keeps me from listening and hearing.
00:25:44 Michael Blue
Because I'd rather hear my own voice, quite frankly.
00:25:47 Michael Blue
Or I want, so I make God sound like me and claim it's God and and and move that way or I get.
00:25:55 Michael Blue
I think this is.
00:25:55 Michael Blue
A problem for a lot of people.
00:25:56 Michael Blue
I earnestly want to, but I I do.
00:25:58 Michael Blue
I I'm so my mind is so full of self and pride and and these other things.
00:26:05 Michael Blue
That I can't really distinguish between the world's leading and and God's leading because I'm just not that familiar with the sound of this.
00:26:15 Dan Schilling
Well, it's.
00:26:17 Dan Schilling
It's something that what we're.
00:26:20 Dan Schilling
Going to do on this journey is how do we, how do we cultivate them?
00:26:23 Dan Schilling
How do we continue to grow in humility, grow in serving and loving God, not the money that he entrusts to us?
00:26:34 Dan Schilling
How do we?
00:26:35 Dan Schilling
You know, when we talk about infidelity?
00:26:37 Dan Schilling
I haven't talked about that in detail here a lot.
00:26:39
We'll talk about it more.
00:26:42 Dan Schilling
But I I think infidelity is more than just sex that that infidelity can is idolatry in some ways, you.
00:26:49 Dan Schilling
Know we put other.
00:26:50 Dan Schilling
Things that were faithful to, you know, the word.
00:26:54 Dan Schilling
Fidelity means faithful.
00:26:55 Dan Schilling
You know that when we're unfaithful and so that unfaithfulness many times, I believe it is sexual and we.
00:27:02 Dan Schilling
It's not like, oh, you know, thanks, Captain obvious Dan, for telling me like that the world.
00:27:06 Dan Schilling
There's a lot of issues going on with folks, you know, infidelity of their, of their sexual life.
00:27:10 Dan Schilling
Right.
00:27:13 Dan Schilling
This is an area that, if it's not under his lordship, and we all know that we see it in our own lives.
00:27:20 Dan Schilling
For some of us, we see it.
00:27:21 Dan Schilling
In lives of many.
00:27:22 Dan Schilling
Folks around us that this if this if.
00:27:25 Dan Schilling
If it's not under what the Holy Spirit?
00:27:28 Dan Schilling
Bringing self-control, we see the damage and the issues that it causes in.
00:27:36 Michael Blue
So what's the next idea so.
00:27:39 Michael Blue
We we here.
00:27:39 Michael Blue
We follow.
00:27:40 Michael Blue
So tell me a little bit.
00:27:41 Michael Blue
About this idea of following and what that looks like.
00:27:45 Dan Schilling
Well, I want to use this verse kind of tie these two together. Michael. It's in John, 1027 says my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
00:27:55 Dan Schilling
And so in A1 simple passage kind of tie together all that that feed sheep is really about, right. We want to, we want to be sheep.
00:28:04 Dan Schilling
That hear his voice.
00:28:05 Dan Schilling
That we have a relationship that we're there to know, is an intimacy in relationship.
00:28:10 Dan Schilling
And I believe when we are in that intimacy and relationship, we're thriving.
00:28:15 Dan Schilling
And that thriving drives us to even more desiring to follow him.
00:28:20 Dan Schilling
Jesus says if you love me in another passage, obey my commands, that he says that they'll know your disciples by your love.
00:28:28 Dan Schilling
And our I believe as we love him and we love one another, we begin to bear good fruit and others want to taste and see then what?
00:28:36 Dan Schilling
What is it in you?
00:28:38 Dan Schilling
What's going on in you?
00:28:39 Dan Schilling
And I believe as we follow as we begin to take those steps.
00:28:45 Dan Schilling
Of faith right when we talked about that, Hebrews 11, we take those steps of faith when he's leading us to do something, and we start to experience.
00:28:54 Dan Schilling
We start tasting and seeing that his ways.
00:28:56 Dan Schilling
Are good.
00:28:57 Dan Schilling
His desires are good that he's.
00:28:59 Dan Schilling
He's not a.
00:29:00 Dan Schilling
Guy, who's up there trying to just make.
00:29:01 Dan Schilling
Us follow a bunch.
00:29:02 Dan Schilling
Of rules, right, he he desires.
00:29:04 Dan Schilling
The best for us.
00:29:06 Dan Schilling
And that's what we want to see.
00:29:07 Dan Schilling
Here we want to help.
00:29:09 Dan Schilling
You as a follower.
00:29:13 Dan Schilling
As one who desires to know him and follow him to experience that joy, that thriving in that relationship.
00:29:22 Dan Schilling
And so I think there's there's sequence here as I've been thinking through this last year.
00:29:26 Dan Schilling
Michael is, is that you?
00:29:29 Dan Schilling
You can't thrive without following.
00:29:31 Dan Schilling
You can't follow without hearing.
00:29:33 Dan Schilling
And many times the reason I'm not hearing and following is because of again, pride money and.
00:29:39 Dan Schilling
And so this desire of following comes as we lay down.
00:29:47 Dan Schilling
Our ways, our thoughts and we decide to say God, I I don't want to do it.
00:29:51 Dan Schilling
Have it your way.
00:29:52 Dan Schilling
I don't want to do it my way anymore.
00:29:53 Dan Schilling
Have your way have your way and help me so that can be the husband that you want me to be.
00:29:57 Dan Schilling
That can be the the father that you want me.
00:29:59 Dan Schilling
To be that.
00:30:00 Dan Schilling
I can be the leader that you want.
00:30:01 Dan Schilling
Me to be.
00:30:02 Dan Schilling
Whatever the role that I.
00:30:03 Dan Schilling
Play I want to do it in a way that brings honor and glory to you.
00:30:06 Dan Schilling
I want your Holy Spirit.
00:30:08 Dan Schilling
To be manifesting so much in and through.
00:30:12 Dan Schilling
That the ones around me, especially those in which.
00:30:14 Dan Schilling
The sheep, the ones you've.
00:30:16 Dan Schilling
Put in my own backyard that they see you and that that seeing you in in my life would be such a way that they would, they would desire.
00:30:28 Dan Schilling
Him. Right, not.
00:30:30 Dan Schilling
They they would desire the things of God because they see him in me and to me.
00:30:35 Dan Schilling
That's what God's plan was for us from the beginning, that we would reflect his glory in such a way that especially those in our own home, right. It isn't just about religion and going to.
00:30:45 Dan Schilling
Church and and.
00:30:45 Dan Schilling
The rules and duty.
00:30:47 Dan Schilling
But when we are living, walking in the spirit and folks can taste and see the goodness of that around us, especially those.
00:30:56 Dan Schilling
In our home.
00:30:57 Dan Schilling
That they're going to want to.
00:30:59 Dan Schilling
That's what I think the best aspect of following.
00:31:01 Dan Schilling
The good ones for us.
00:31:04 Michael Blue
And when you?
00:31:05 Michael Blue
Hear thrive, what?
00:31:07 Michael Blue
What do you mean by that?
00:31:08 Michael Blue
Is a thriving life.
00:31:11 Dan Schilling
Well, I think the danger, Michael, that you and I have talked about over the years is that we start to define this as an American, as a Western culture that we think that means I've got, you know, the home, the cars of job, the resources, the retirement, the whatever it is.
00:31:28 Dan Schilling
I've got all this.
00:31:29 Dan Schilling
It's all here.
00:31:30 Dan Schilling
Look at me. I'm blessed.
00:31:31 Dan Schilling
I'm blessed. I'm.
00:31:33 Dan Schilling
But as I've been reflecting on this, I've been since the spirit God just continue to draw me to.
00:31:39 Dan Schilling
You know when he's saying, you know I was.
00:31:41 Dan Schilling
Beaten, shipwrecked, starving. You know, whipped 39 lashes multiple times. You know, I've been stoned, you know. And I've drug stoned. He been through a lot.
00:31:55 Dan Schilling
And I think if you ask Paul, even then, Paul, you thriving, I think he said, man, you don't know how good it is because he was experiencing that's presence even when he knew he was going.
00:32:07 Dan Schilling
You know, the folks around him said no, don't go to Rome.
00:32:09 Dan Schilling
You're going to die.
00:32:10 Dan Schilling
Don't go.
00:32:11 Dan Schilling
And he's like, yeah, I've got to.
00:32:12 Dan Schilling
But he experienced the the power and the presence.
00:32:17 Dan Schilling
Of the Holy Spirit is life, and that, to me is what thriving is.
00:32:20 Dan Schilling
When I'm walking in that intimacy, it I I I'm no longer worried about the temporal things of this life.
00:32:27 Dan Schilling
And I think that's to me what true thriving really looks like the things of the spirit continue to increase in US, you know.
00:32:34 Dan Schilling
The key increases.
00:32:35 Dan Schilling
As we decrease.
00:32:37 Dan Schilling
And the more that this Holy Spirit comes alive in us, and we begin to say.
00:32:41 Dan Schilling
That's, this is what?
00:32:42 Dan Schilling
I want I want to thrive.
00:32:44 Dan Schilling
I want.
00:32:44 Dan Schilling
To walk in that.
00:32:47 Michael Blue
Yeah, that's good.
00:32:48 Michael Blue
I mean, obviously Philippians 3 is kind of that Hallmark Passage where where Paul says, you know, more or less that he says that I may know him and may share his sufferings that.
00:32:58 Michael Blue
By any means.
00:32:59 Michael Blue
Possible I may attend the resurrection from the dead.
00:33:02 Michael Blue
He's he's longing, he said.
00:33:03 Michael Blue
I don't care what I've.
00:33:05 Michael Blue
I've been to the pinnacle.
00:33:07 Michael Blue
But what I want, and I'm willing to give anything by.
00:33:09 Michael Blue
Any means possible, just I'll.
00:33:11 Michael Blue
Suffer so that I can.
00:33:13 Michael Blue
You know associate better with my savior.
00:33:17 Michael Blue
Yeah, I think thriving is.
00:33:19 Michael Blue
You know, it's presented so often as, as as the American dream or something like that when there's something so much deeper and lasting and more.
00:33:30 Michael Blue
And ultimately it's the presence of the Savior with us.
00:33:34 Michael Blue
As we'll experience in eternity, and so we begin to taste that today and it's his presence.
00:33:40 Michael Blue
That causes us to thrive.
00:33:43 Dan Schilling
Well, Michael, we're going to wrap up today.
00:33:44 Dan Schilling
We got a lot in front of us though, brother.
00:33:46 Dan Schilling
So buckle up everybody.
00:33:48 Dan Schilling
We're going to continue.
00:33:49 Dan Schilling
To be just seeking God to to see what he wants, to encourage us with, and so looking forward to having you on the journey with us. Someone encourage you to go to the feed sheep website feedsheep.org.
00:34:03 Dan Schilling
Feetsheet.org and you can connect with us there via social media or reach out to us on the sign up page there and we'll get connected with you via e-mail.
00:34:13 Dan Schilling
Just to put a bow on.
00:34:15 Dan Schilling
For today, the three main points again.
00:34:17 Dan Schilling
What we want to.
00:34:18 Dan Schilling
See for you and see you got to do in and through you.
00:34:23 Dan Schilling
Is, as you hear his voice.
00:34:24 Dan Schilling
You'll follow his lead and thrive as a disciple.
00:34:26 Dan Schilling
Now again, it's not just a tagline, it's our mantra.
00:34:29 Dan Schilling
You're probably going to get so sick of hearing, but you're going.
00:34:32 Dan Schilling
To hear a lot.
00:34:33 Dan Schilling
If you tune in because we believe it's really what God wants for us, that his desire is that we would thrive, that others can taste and see the goodness of who he is because of him and us.
00:34:43 Dan Schilling
That hope before.
00:34:44 Dan Schilling
So Michael much pray for us.
00:34:45 Dan Schilling
Close up for today.
00:34:50 Michael Blue
Loving father, we are.
00:34:52 Michael Blue
Grateful that you have invited us into a relationship.
00:34:55 Michael Blue
Where you lead.
00:34:57 Michael Blue
Where you speak and and and we can follow and and ultimately it's where we'll find life that is truly life.
00:35:03 Michael Blue
It is the zoo eternal life connected to you and so.
00:35:07 Michael Blue
As we begin on this journey as Dan.
00:35:10 Michael Blue
Begins this organization feeds sheep.
00:35:12 Michael Blue
I just ask God that you would draw many hearts and minds nearer to you to listen to, follow and and ultimately to experience the life that is experienced when we're walking and step with you and so God, I pray that you would be with all those who are listening.
00:35:31 Michael Blue
Encourage them.
00:35:31 Michael Blue
Let them feel your presence as a loving father and let them go trustingly in in the.
00:35:38 Michael Blue
Way following you.
00:35:39 Michael Blue
I just pray for your blessing on on Dan in this podcast and and.
00:35:42 Michael Blue
All that come after in Jesus name, Amen.
00:35:47 Dan Schilling
Thank you.
00:35:47 Dan Schilling
I'll thank.
00:35:48 Dan Schilling
Thank you, Michael.
00:35:48 Dan Schilling
Thank you, everybody tuning in.
00:35:49 Dan Schilling
We'll see you next time.
00:35:50 Dan Schilling
God bless you.