00;00;02;20 - 00;00;24;26
Brenton
This is further a weekly show for the people of Harmony Bible Church, where we seek to revisit and expand on Sunday sermons with the goal of growing deeper and biblical truth that transforms our lives. Welcome back to further. I am Brendan Grimm. we have Clay here with us today. So welcome, Clay. How are you doing?

00;00;24;28 - 00;00;26;11
Clay
Great. Thanks for having me back.

00;00;26;12 - 00;00;37;19
Brenton
Yeah, absolutely. I always appreciate all of your, movie references in your sermons. So thanks for another, Star Wars. I don't know if you've used Star Wars before in your sermons, but. Oh, it's it's,

00;00;37;23 - 00;00;53;04
Clay
Seems like a must have, I don't know, off the top of my head, but I would be surprised if I haven't. And and. Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity to share a movie reference. It makes me feel a little less guilty about watching movies. Right? So, I can can use it for God's glory there.

00;00;53;06 - 00;01;08;25
Brenton
That's right. The benefit in everything. You say? okay. So quick question. last Jedi. What's your what's your brief take on it? You know, like where would you put it in the order.

00;01;08;28 - 00;01;30;01
Clay
Oh, I know this is somewhat controversial. It's actually one of my favorite of the nine episode Skywalker saga, and it's been panned a lot. And so that's why I say it's controversial. A lot of people do not like it. There are aspects of it that I don't like. but we don't need to get into those. But I love the ending.

00;01;30;02 - 00;01;48;10
Clay
I love that last battle scene that I referred to in my sermon. And then to see, kind of the conclusion to Luke's, life, really, and his efforts as a Jedi. And I just think it was really well done. So I personally enjoy it. But, a lot of people don't. So. Yeah.

00;01;48;13 - 00;01;51;25
Brenton
Yeah. Okay. I do remember that scene. I remember like in that scene a lot.

00;01;52;00 - 00;02;20;26
Clay
He is, he has just expended all of himself in, in a self sacrificial act of love to save others. He is a total Christ like figure there. And he has this moment where he realizes that he is at the end, and he's looking off into the sunset of Octo, which I believe just has one son. But for a moment there as his John Williams composed theme plays.

00;02;20;28 - 00;02;36;12
Clay
he sees two suns, which is what tattooing has his home planet, right? And so you've got his his theme music playing. He's looking off into two sons, and then. And then he disappears as he as he gives up his life. And, Boy, just, beautiful stuff.

00;02;36;13 - 00;02;39;04
Brenton
Yeah. We could do a whole different podcast here.

00;02;39;06 - 00;02;42;06
Clay
We sure could. We are going to do further. Further? What he say is right.

00;02;42;07 - 00;03;10;06
Brenton
That's right, I think so. We get it on the schedule. let's transition into the sermon here. So you gave a quote from the Heidelberg Catechism. which I really appreciated. I think it was, it was a useful quote to think through this, but, I won't read the whole thing here, but it starts out by saying I trust God so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul.

00;03;10;08 - 00;03;28;01
Brenton
I think that the, the lack of trust that we have is at the root of a lot of our decision making. whether it looks like us completely ignoring God's will in our lives or, you know, maybe just kind of hedging our bets a little to make sure we, we have a backup plan in case he doesn't come through for us.

00;03;28;02 - 00;03;40;09
Brenton
And, what do you think causes the the lack of trust in God that that he will be faithful in, in all of our circumstances?

00;03;40;11 - 00;04;04;11
Clay
Well, it's a great question. and not to sound like a broken record, but I think one of the main reasons that we and I often lack trust and succumb to anxiety or fear or whatever, is that we forget just how faithful God has been. And that is why that was one of the reasons why that was a theme of, of the sermon.

00;04;04;13 - 00;04;31;07
Clay
obviously I saw that in the passage with the holiday of Purim, but there's just a number of ways we can remember God's faithfulness. And we do that as we spend time in his word, and we do that as we look back in our own life and and remember all the ways he's been faithful to us, first and foremost by the provision of His Son, Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation back to God.

00;04;31;10 - 00;04;50;25
Clay
but even beyond that, I mean, I would think every single one of us, listening to this could look back at times in their life where God has really been there for them in a tangible way. And, I know I'm just prone to forgetting that. And then the next, the next worry of this world comes along, and there I am.

00;04;50;28 - 00;04;54;17
Clay
fighting anxiety or fear or lack of control, you know, all over again.

00;04;54;21 - 00;05;24;17
Brenton
Yeah. Yeah. As we kind of go through, you know, passages like this where it's just so obvious that God is is faithful to his people. It it does kind of it's a reminder to us that that he that we actually can trust him. But it's so easy to lose that. And and you almost feel, you know, silly that we haven't been but but yet, you know, in the middle of circumstances, it's hard.

00;05;24;17 - 00;05;32;23
Brenton
It's hard. And we, we see that in both Esther and Mordecai to some, to some extent in Esther.

00;05;32;25 - 00;05;56;00
Clay
well, and that's what I, you read the beginning of that quote from the Heidelberg Catechism. I love the end too, just as much. But these are things we forget. There's two parts here. He is able to do this because he is Almighty God, and he desires to do this because he is a faithful father. Yeah. So he's he's able because he's almighty.

00;05;56;00 - 00;06;19;01
Clay
So he's sovereign. And how often do we forget his sovereignty? But in addition to his sovereignty, he's also good. He's a faithful father who knows how to give good gifts to his children. And how often do we forget that? For sure. And when we remember both things, his sovereignty and his goodness, that's when we can begin to trust in him.

00;06;19;03 - 00;06;39;28
Brenton
Yeah. Yeah. I was going to follow that up with a question about, you know, how we can rely on him more. And I think you kind of answered that a little earlier, and I think we're going to get into it in these next questions. So, the next one I have really you had kind of laid out some suggestions for people and just application coming out of this.

00;06;40;00 - 00;06;45;24
Brenton
so I want to dive a little deeper into those. you mentioned, corporate worship.

00;06;45;26 - 00;06;46;07
Clay


00;06;47;26 - 00;06;54;28
Brenton
why do you think the regular Sunday gatherings are so important for believers?

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Clay
Well, first and foremost, I mean, God's word says they are. And I, you know, quoted Hebrews 1025 in that regard. But even experientially, I think any, any of us who are regular Sunday attenders, we can attest to the, the feelings we have. at least when we're engaged, you know, I mean, I'm sure sometimes we come in there and we're less a little less engaged, or we've got other things on our mind, but but, boy, when when we come in there with, the right heart, expecting God to to be present and working in a special way.

00;07;24;29 - 00;07;50;23
Clay
And then we interact with our brothers and sisters in the Lord in that mindset, and we participate in the corporate worship service with that, with that heart, that attitude. boy, week in and week out, I just leave, encouraged and filled up and thankful. you know, remembering, knowing I'm not alone in this and, primarily God's here and it with me, but also my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

00;07;50;26 - 00;08;07;05
Clay
And I just feel encouraged by all that. So I think it makes total sense when God work. God's word says we're not to neglect meeting together or to do it all the more as we see the the day drawing near and and expressly referenced in that is encouragement. We're to encourage one another. And I know I am encouraged by weekly services.

00;08;07;10 - 00;08;35;08
Brenton
Yeah, for sure. okay, so would you say that there's, an increase of kind of devaluing the Sunday morning gathering in, in maybe culture at large, but specifically in Christian culture. You know, it seems to me like it's not something that's taken as seriously. And I don't know when that would have changed, I don't know.

00;08;35;10 - 00;09;02;28
Clay
I think it's been happening gradually over time. I mean, the survey data would suggest that just as as time passes, at least in this country. And, and I know I believe others as well, not everywhere, but many places. People are less and less frequent in their church attendance and even those who consider themselves, you know, committed believers in Jesus, are becoming less and less compared to decades past.

00;09;03;00 - 00;09;32;18
Clay
yeah. I mean, I can speculate, there's and certainly I mean, I can relate to some of these things, but, you know, we there's a phrase, life, life is busy or life gets busy. And so there's other things in this life that compete for our time and attention and, and and for each individual thing there might be, you know, good and great reasons for prioritizing that over any particular Sunday morning service.

00;09;32;20 - 00;09;51;27
Clay
and I'm not going to be one to say that, you know, that's you that you've got to prioritize Sunday morning service every single time, without fail. Can never miss. I don't I don't believe that. but at the same time, I know that if we don't actively make it a priority, there are any number of things that can crowd crowded out.

00;09;51;27 - 00;10;10;18
Clay
And it would be very easy to fall into a habit, then of not going, not participating. And then just like a lot of things, you get out of the habit of it, the routine of it, the rhythm, and you lose your savor for it. You kind of forget why it was good and the good it was doing for you.

00;10;10;20 - 00;10;15;20
Clay
and then you're just out of it, you know, and it's hard to get, you know, once you're out of something, it's. It's hard to get back in.

00;10;15;25 - 00;10;37;02
Brenton
Yeah. It's funny, they reminded me of when I was when I was growing up. We went to a church here in Burlington and the, the pastor at the time, I don't know if it was like a, spoken expectation or what, but like, if you were on vacation, he wanted he wanted bulletins from from the churches that you went to from the Sundays.

00;10;37;05 - 00;10;42;04
Brenton
I remember bringing some back. We wouldn't miss a Sunday.

00;10;42;06 - 00;10;50;07
Clay
I, I won't say no. I hope that was edifying for you. That's good.

00;10;50;09 - 00;11;22;05
Clay
But I'm. I'm also glad we don't require bulletins for some of our attenders or members when they come back. You know, I think another thing, too, though, is there's so many things in this world and increasingly so that are highly entertaining. And if we approach church with that mindset, like an entertainment mindset, church then is going to have a hard time keeping up with the world because quite frankly, the world is much more entertaining.

00;11;22;08 - 00;11;42;24
Clay
so I really think we need to get back to basics about like and, and hopefully I spoke to this at least a little bit on Sunday about what were there for and were there there to principally glorify God. But we glorify God as we more and more reflect him and his image. And he does that by conforming us into his image.

00;11;42;24 - 00;12;07;02
Clay
And he does that through various means. but he definitely does that on Sunday mornings in the worship services. So we're there to be formed by him to better reflect him. it's really serious business. And yeah, it is fun and it can be entertaining and I'm glad that we laugh at times. and I'm glad that we're we're just we're smiling as we praise and talk to each other, and that's great.

00;12;07;05 - 00;12;22;21
Clay
But it is really serious, godly business that we're doing on Sunday morning. and so when we, when we, when we approach church from that mindset, hopefully then we can see how it's different from anything else that the world has to offer.

00;12;22;23 - 00;12;49;24
Brenton
Yeah. It's a really good that, I think so we've been kind of talking about, this from the receiving end of it. So, you know, almost what can we get out of out of, coming to Sunday gatherings. But so much of, you know, our role in the church is service and to so a lot of that takes place on Sunday morning and that that can be just as beneficial for us as that as it can be for, for other people.

00;12;49;24 - 00;13;17;19
Brenton
And so, yeah, there's just a lot of different facets of, of the Sunday morning gathering that I think are so important to to look, look back at the New Testament and see how how Jesus set up his church. okay. So let me ask you this. If if you kind of like, ran into someone that that said, that their, their religion is, is very important to them.

00;13;17;19 - 00;13;31;17
Brenton
They, they have a good relationship with Jesus but don't really see any, any need to, to plug into a local body. How would you challenge them on that?

00;13;31;20 - 00;13;58;22
Clay
well, I mean, I would I would want to take them to Scripture and be talking about like the, the various one another's of Scripture and how it's impossible to live that out. if you're not in community with other believers and I mean, the Bible, you know, especially the New Testament, but really, all of it, it's it's written with like, this, presumption that the reader is in community with other believers.

00;13;58;24 - 00;14;22;07
Clay
and that's just that's just how it's been for God's people. They've been in community. And so Scripture doesn't even really make sense in many ways. or certain aspects of Scripture doesn't make sense outside of community. So the one another's don't make sense. you think about, first Peter five, where Peter is exhorting the elders and how they are to shepherd the flock.

00;14;22;09 - 00;14;50;09
Clay
Well, what in the world is that all about? If people aren't gathered together at a church, who who is shepherding whom there? And who are the flock? Yeah. So. Yeah, there's any number of aspects, as you read that. It's just implied. It's it's assumed that the reader, the believer, is in community with other believers, and that that has always happened in the context of a local church, and they've always met for as long as as long as we have recorded church history, they've been meeting on the Lord's Day, which is Sunday in the New Testament time.

00;14;50;09 - 00;14;51;13
Clay
So. Yeah.

00;14;51;16 - 00;15;10;24
Brenton
Good. okay. So let's talk about Christian community in general. And I think, you know, here at Harmony, the the kind of sponsored avenue for that is community groups. Right. So what role can can Christian community in general outside of Sunday mornings play in reminding us of, of God's goodness.

00;15;10;26 - 00;15;29;09
Clay
Yeah. Well there's a lot of practical benefits, to being involved in a community group or any kind of, smaller group of believers outside a Sunday morning. for one, it's another. It's another opportunity to be around believers and encouraging one another and like, literally at a different day of the week. So your community group could meet on a Sunday evening.

00;15;29;09 - 00;15;48;20
Clay
And I know some do, and that's fine. Ours meets in the middle of the week. I like that. it's just a nice it's just a nice boost to be able to encourage and be encouraged, by others. pray for one another. Getting God's word together. Check in on life. so I think that's really good. Gives another opportunity for that.

00;15;48;22 - 00;15;57;11
Clay
also, I lost my train that year just to explain this in.

00;15;57;13 - 00;16;23;29
Clay
And also, you know, Harmony is a pretty big church. And community groups, I think are a great way to to help a big church feel small or even, like, be small. so it can be challenging or really impossible to for the leaders of the church to know everything that's going on in, in everyone's life. even among our members, as much as we would, we would love to.

00;16;24;02 - 00;16;39;25
Clay
It's it's just a real challenge of a big church. So it's a challenge to know. It's a challenge to be known. And that's why community groups or other types of small groups, settings, can be really helpful so that you can know others and be known by them and be cared for them in a more, a more practical way.

00;16;39;27 - 00;16;41;14
Clay
Yeah.

00;16;41;17 - 00;16;47;09
Brenton
Yep. yeah. I think that those are good thoughts. I remember being in your community group until you kicked me out.

00;16;47;11 - 00;16;53;29
Clay
You multiply it out. We commissioned. We commissioned you to multiply and make disciples. And you're doing a great job.

00;16;53;29 - 00;17;12;12
Brenton
Thank you. You kicked me out in the best way possible. yeah, I, I can say just we started. We started our own group. months ago. And I can say that, you know, we've already seen so much fruit from just inviting people into our house and.

00;17;12;15 - 00;17;12;23
Clay
Praise.

00;17;12;23 - 00;17;37;12
Brenton
God and opening up, to others. And, you know, it's amazing. You're right. I think Sunday mornings do feel big and and that's that's fine. but to be able to get people that are really wanting to grow and wanting to just have accountability and have people pray for them in your house is is it really is a blessing?

00;17;37;15 - 00;17;55;04
Brenton
So yeah, I encourage you guys to think over that. If you're not in one. okay. So another one that you mentioned was I think you called it Daily worship. But what you're really talking about is just personal, worship, with just you and God.

00;17;55;04 - 00;17;58;27
Clay
And so maybe quiet time, devotional time, whatever you call it. Sure.

00;17;58;29 - 00;18;14;08
Brenton
So, I think some, you know, everybody has some sort of, idea of what this can look like, but can you just kind of talk about the the kinds of things we should be doing during this time?

00;18;14;10 - 00;18;32;22
Clay
Yeah. principally spending time in God's word and in prayer. this could be, you know, as the name Quiet Time implies, it could be a time of quiet or solitude, but it wouldn't have to be. You could do this with a spouse or a friend or children. so it could be a little more interactive if you.

00;18;32;22 - 00;18;57;07
Clay
And if you include your kids, it could be noisy. but, you know, definitely spending time in God's word. And the church provides harmony, provides a Bible reading plan, to help with that. There are other reading plans out there that can be of help that are widely available. and also time in prayer. And there's lots of good, frameworks for prayer that that you can use to help structure that time.

00;18;57;09 - 00;19;23;23
Clay
there's the acts acrostic, adoration, confession, Thanksgiving, supplication. You could go through that. There's kind of a concentric circles model of like closest to you prayers, like the personal prayers, then going out from there to pray for your family, going out from there, your friends, neighbors, community or church? Community, and then the world. so you could think of it that way, too.

00;19;23;25 - 00;19;47;04
Clay
Or you could pray through Scripture as you're reading and, but just spending time communing with with the Lord through his word and through prayer are the principal things to be doing in that time. but also, if you're listening to music or you might, you might be fasting during during some of that or certain days. memory verses Scripture memory could be an aspect of that.

00;19;47;07 - 00;19;52;09
Clay
And, and I'm sure other things too, that I'm either forgetting or not aware of. Yeah.

00;19;52;11 - 00;20;02;04
Brenton
Yeah. And I think that maybe, maybe even more, than Sunday mornings, I think we're prone to that busyness get in the way of this.

00;20;02;05 - 00;20;03;20
Clay
Oh, yes.

00;20;03;23 - 00;20;15;19
Brenton
there's, you know, there's probably very little accountability on what we're doing when we're alone. And so, you know, there's kind of built in accountability for Sunday mornings, but.

00;20;15;22 - 00;20;41;01
Clay
I can even speak to that personally here. So even just recently. So, yeah, this is something that I struggle with to some degree or another my whole Christian life. And I'm sure all of you out there can relate to this. but even very recently, I was just convicted that my time with the Lord, was just a little brief, a little shallow, and I knew that that was my problem and not God's problem.

00;20;41;01 - 00;21;01;07
Clay
But I didn't really know what to do about it. or I really wasn't, giving that enough, enough attention, to to figure out what I should be doing differently. but my dear brother in the Lord, Matt Mitchell, our Fort Madison campus pastor, he, gave me a book. And this is why I referred to the Heidelberg Catechism on Sunday.

00;21;01;07 - 00;21;27;06
Clay
This is why I prayed from the Book of Common Prayer on Sunday. Because in this little volume here, there's reference to those things and quotes from those things, and it is called Be Thou My Vision by Jonathan Gibson. And he really lays out in there a, a format, kind of an explanation, first, of what he calls daily worship is and can look like.

00;21;27;09 - 00;21;56;19
Clay
And then he lays out 31 days of daily worship, for the reader. And he's just got a certain fixed structure for each day. a lot of praying and and some Bible reading. but the content, even though the structure stays the same for each of the 31 days, the content is different each day. And then there's cross-references to a couple of different catechisms, ones, the Heidelberg Catechism ones, the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

00;21;56;22 - 00;22;21;17
Clay
So he incorporates those and he cross-references a Bible reading plan. It's, it's the one that Robert Murray McShane used. He's an old, I think, Scottish Presbyterian minister from centuries ago that, if you go through that reading plan, it's about four chapters a day and you'll read the whole Old Testament, once in a year, and you'll read the New Testament in the Psalms twice in that same year.

00;22;21;19 - 00;22;42;24
Clay
And, boy, when I've started going through this and being disciplined about it, yeah, it takes a little longer to get through, than just a few minutes and one chapter at a time. But it has really helped me get more disciplined and structured in my quiet time. And and it's just the opposite of what I was talking about earlier.

00;22;42;24 - 00;23;03;00
Clay
I talked about earlier getting out of the habit of going to Sunday morning, you know, like like exercise. I guess you get out of the habit of it. It's hard to get back in. The opposite is happening as I spend more time in God's Word and in prayer, my desire for it is increasing. such that I genuinely get up in the morning and I'm excited to do that.

00;23;03;00 - 00;23;11;19
Clay
Or if I if I can't do it on a particular morning, I'm really looking for that opportunity. in the afternoon or evening to do that because I miss it.

00;23;11;22 - 00;23;38;10
Brenton
Yeah. I really appreciate that. I, I, I appreciate you bringing up that book too. I I'll, I'll put a link to that in the description below. So check that out. but yeah that's a, that's a helpful way. Sometimes I think it's probably just mixing it up a little bit. things, you know, we, we are kind of creatures of habit, but, if things are feeling dry, there's, there's lots of different options for for doing that.

00;23;38;16 - 00;24;03;10
Clay
Yeah. My, my wife mentioned that there day. I think it was, our sister in the Lord, Paige Dietz, who said something to her about how there's just something about change that can be good. Yeah. kind of in and of itself. And so I don't quite remember what the context was there. It might they might have actually been talking about quiet time, but just changing something up sometimes can, can bring a new freshness or vitality to it.

00;24;03;12 - 00;24;27;00
Brenton
Yeah. For sure. Okay. I think the last, the last thing we're going to talk about is, you would you would. It was kind of a brief aside, but I wanted to dive into it a little bit. in the idea of family worship. and I think you had just kind of said that in, in reference to your daily worship that you could do with your family as well.

00;24;27;00 - 00;24;41;27
Brenton
But, you know, there are people, even in harmony that are very diligent about, doing like a structured family worship. And that's, that's something I've tried. It's really hard to stay consistent with that stuff.

00;24;41;29 - 00;24;43;00
Clay
Well, good for you for trying.

00;24;43;01 - 00;25;01;00
Brenton
Well, and so I guess, can you kind of talk about your experience with and not necessarily structured, but you know, how how do you disciple your kids in, in a systematic way or something that you have a plan for at home?

00;25;01;02 - 00;25;21;02
Clay
Well, it's funny you mentioned you say it was kind of a brief aside in my sermon. That's because I don't have a lot of personal experiences to share with it. I didn't grow up in a household where we were doing, you know, family, corporate or family worship time. And that's not. I'm not part of that in my current household, maybe to my shame.

00;25;21;04 - 00;25;36;28
Clay
but, you know, you also mentioned people in our church doing that, and I, I've mentioned Matt Mitchell already, but I know he's, he's he and Olivia, his wife are intentional about that with their kids. And, and Matt's got the great benefit to, the skill of being able to play the guitar and sing a little bit.

00;25;36;28 - 00;25;55;10
Clay
So I think they incorporate that, but but yeah, I mean, obviously we're trying to my wife and I were trying to raise our kids in the Lord, too. So, you know, I know, I know that's that's something that she does with them every day. Is, is read, read scripture. So they've got a little Bible reading plan they go through, and they read that every day.

00;25;55;12 - 00;26;19;02
Clay
we've got, family, like scripture memory verse, for each week we've got a whiteboard in our house. And so she writes, I don't, I honestly, I don't know where she pulls the verses from or how she picks them. but but every so often there will be a new one up on the board. But she writes the first letter of each word, of the verse up on the board.

00;26;19;02 - 00;26;37;06
Clay
And then with the, the reference to the chapter, you know, the book and the chapter in verse. And so that's just like a little prompt of like it kind of helps you remember what the words are. But at the same time, it's still challenging because the words aren't actually written out. That's just the first letters. And so that's that's just a tool that we use as a family to memorize scripture.

00;26;37;06 - 00;27;02;10
Clay
And that's kind of fun. you know, the kids are plugged in with Sunday morning stuff. So they're they're here on Sunday mornings, which has its own, Bible lesson and, application points. And I always talk about that after church. Well, what did you learn today? You know, in children's ministry. And, and they're almost always able to tell me what they learned and what the main point was or what the story was.

00;27;02;13 - 00;27;21;12
Clay
and, sometimes and I often ask him, who is your teacher today? And sometimes they don't know their names, but so they're the teachers or at least prioritizing the right things. God's God's word. And the main point, if not their names, but, that's, that's more of the problem of my kids when they're younger. They get better at that when they get older.

00;27;21;12 - 00;27;42;04
Clay
But, yeah. So we're the kids are in God's word and they're learning God's Word. They're trying to memorize God's Word. We're talking about God's Word. certainly on Sundays and at other times during the week two and and just as life happens and I mean kids that they're in conflict all the time. Right? And, you know, whether it's with each other or with you as the parent.

00;27;42;06 - 00;28;12;17
Clay
So there are no shortage of opportunities to bring them back to the gospel and what, what God has done for them in Jesus and how that should shape and affect, how they treat others and how they, how they view a certain problem or situation they're having. And then it's great opportunities to for me. And I just had to do this the other day with one of my kids, to, you know, to acknowledge that I fell short of God's expectations for me and to apologize and ask for their forgiveness.

00;28;12;17 - 00;28;19;07
Clay
And, you know, then they're really sweet and they do. And we hug. And that's great. So that's just that's what more what it looks like in the Baker household.

00;28;19;15 - 00;28;39;25
Brenton
Yeah. And I think that that's that's a good thing to get across. It doesn't have to look the same for every family. And I think to to a large extent you need to know your kids and know know your family and know what what they need to benefit from at the time. but I think the, the main point here is engage with your kids on, on what we're learning and what they're learning.

00;28;39;25 - 00;29;03;19
Brenton
And, I know that's something that I always need to improve in. I think one thing that I've realized about myself is when I want to start doing something, I'm like, I'm going to go 100 miles an hour at it, but it's going to be for about a day. And so, so start slow and, just be faithful and engaging with your kids.

00;29;03;19 - 00;29;26;28
Brenton
With that, I know the things that have been consistent for us. It's been, every night we pray together and the kids can't go to bed without without praying. And one thing that's been a little less consistent is trying to read, read Scripture together at some point during the day recently. It's, it's kind of been at night, but again, consistency is a hard thing for myself.

00;29;26;28 - 00;29;29;02
Brenton
So but yeah.

00;29;29;02 - 00;29;29;26
Clay
You're not alone in that.

00;29;29;26 - 00;29;38;00
Brenton
Written. Well, engage with your kids and and you're right. The Sunday Sunday mornings is a good time to kind of recap what, what we talked.

00;29;38;00 - 00;30;11;07
Clay
About. Well, and I know, Chris has mentioned from the front before that, discipleship is more often caught than taught. And he's, he's referred to his own dad and seeing his dad, you know, reading his Bible in his certain chair at home and, and the impact that had on his life. And same for me, season a life there as a kid where my dad was really plugged into the student ministry at the church we were going to and, you know, seeing him and his word regularly and with other men, too, doing Bible study, big impact on me.

00;30;11;09 - 00;30;27;25
Clay
And I just love it. Then when I'm having my quiet time or daily worship, whatever you call it, in the morning and 1 or 2 or more of my kids, you know, they make their way downstairs from bed. I love it when they catch me doing that. Yeah, and I don't have to say anything, you know, just give him a hug.

00;30;27;25 - 00;30;38;02
Clay
Whatever. But, they're seeing me read my Bible and spend time with the Lord in that way. And I'm just hopeful, by God's grace, that'll have an impact on them, too. Yeah.

00;30;38;04 - 00;30;57;23
Brenton
That's that's certainly true. I've vivid memories as a child of seeing my my parents doing that. And so it's it's definitely something that that carries over. okay. Clay. Well, I appreciate, you coming on here and really appreciate your work. ending another series for us.

00;30;57;23 - 00;31;00;06
Clay
Yeah. My pleasure. Yeah. Is it my niche button?

00;31;00;06 - 00;31;28;29
Brenton
I think it might be. Yeah. You're just going to stay there and you're you're closer or any closer. so, yeah, I guess just logistically, here we are. this is our last episode for, the summer. We're going to come back, when we start our John series. So, really appreciate you guys listening. we've been going this is episode 71 right now, so we've been going for a while.

00;31;29;01 - 00;31;51;10
Brenton
I'm thankful that you guys have have stuck through this. but, we will definitely let you know when we're when we're coming back. but, yeah, it'll it'll be a good, good time to take a break. And, who knows, maybe something will get released in that time, but, Yeah. Thanks again. Clay, and we will, talk to you guys later.