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Intro
That's why we got to know God's word and why.

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Intro
Theology really, truly does matter. Why I loved to preach God's Word and why I try to do it so passionately. Because it's not just facts or things that that don't really matter to the day to day program of our lives. They literally matter in everything we do, every environment we live, every relationship that.

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Intro
We are in.

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Brenton
Welcome back to further. I am Brenton Grim. Today we have Nathan Williams in studio. How are you doing?

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Intro
I'm doing good. Thank you. Good to be here. Good.

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Nathan
Yeah. So we've had a couple weeks off. First one back in 2025. So excited to be here. And, I, am grateful for your work this week. On the beginning of John six. I want to start out by just seeing how your Christmas went, though. How was it?

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Brenton
Hey. Had a good Christmas. Pretty uneventful, which in my mind, makes that pretty good.

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Nathan
Yeah. That's good. Yeah. We, we have quite a bit of family, and pretty much all of our family is around this area, so it makes our Christmas pretty easy. But it's also pretty pretty busy, so.

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Intro
Yeah.

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Nathan
Yeah. So it always wears you out a little bit.

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Intro
We went out to our daughter's, and our other daughter came up from Saint Louis. So, because her son is over in Europe, so we didn't have that, but, didn't even have the mess after Christmas to clean up. We just be able to come home and leave it there. So that's great. It was pretty nice to come.

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Nathan
Home to a clean house. All right, well, let's let's jump in to, the passage from this week. So you ended your sermon with quite a few application points you talked about. You know what we could learn from the crowd, from Philip, from the boy, and from Andrew. I'm wondering if you could if you could narrow down this passage to, like, one application point.

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Nathan
What? What would it be? What is the most important thing that stuck out to you?

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Intro
So really, the application for all of them is, is, is is not trusting in ourselves, but trusting in God and Jesus as God, you know what I mean? So all these things the crowd were trusting in, in a prophet who they didn't really necessarily see as God, you know, I mean, you know, Philip was trusting in his own abilities, which he should have been trusting in Jesus as God, because that's above our.

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Intro
But, you know, really every one of these, even Andrew, even though he had that small amount of faith saying, hey, I'm bringing you this lunch and what can we do with it? But his, his, his faith wasn't really in the God who can do absolutely ain't the God who can create everything from nothing could also create, a feast from the seemingly nothing of a meal.

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Intro
So so, so one of the thing is, it's stretching us. How can we be stretched beyond our thinking, of what's physically possible or or even maybe, maybe out of the ordinary to just thinking about what is only possible by God and and is which is the whole idea of, of the book of John is like that.

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Intro
We might believe that Jesus is God. Yeah. You know, and have salvation through him, you know, then. Right? Yeah.

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Nathan
Yeah. And, I mean, it's really a, a story of God's provision, right? And that we, we need to trust that, our things are not our own and and that it all comes from God anyway.

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Intro
Right. Well, but but really, when you think of it, you know, as we look at all the crowd and Philip and the boy and Andrew, the different characters in in that and it's easy to look at them critically like. But but are we really any different? I mean, am I different? I, you know, I find myself at the same time, you know, a lot of times just, you know, how can I figure this out and going to God and sort of say, but God, you got it.

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Intro
You know what I mean? So I think it's a challenge to every single one of us. How do we think of this as in, this is a God problem. This is not our problem. Not not saying we we shouldn't work things out. We shouldn't do the best we can. But but ultimately, to trusting God and have faith in him is is really the big, big thing for me at this because he is bigger than all our rational thinking of how to solve a problem.

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Nathan
Yeah. So speaking of that, you know, Philip saw the situation as impossible based on kind of logistical problems, right? So but that's a natural reaction for us. So today we often face challenges that that require careful planning and wisdom. But we also believe that God is not limited by these things. And so how should we think about the balance between, you know, being wise and dealing with real constraints and then, trusting in God's ability to do impossible things, like, where is that balance?

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Intro
Yeah, I mean, God gave us a brain, and he wants us to use it. He does. Doesn't want it just to go blindly, just, you know, so so that's a great question. Really. So so how do we how do we do that? I think the thing we need to be doing is you, the apostle Paul talks about praying continuously.

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Intro
And I think that's the one of the things we don't do often. We we just rely totally on our own. And then and then when all else fails, then we're like, oh God help. You know, I mean, we're really, you know, as we're going through and trying to figure out things on our own, we should be praying for God to help us, give us wisdom, really realizing that he can are all things are possible with him.

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Intro
I can do all things through Christ that gives me strength, and I need to remember that through Christ. Because a lot of times when when I'm trying to do things on my own, God's the last thing in my mind. I'm trying to do all things through Nathan. Right? Right. So so, so God wants us to to work things out.

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Intro
I mean, the boy, the boy is the great example because he used his childlike faith, right? And says, here, have my lunch. Yeah. And God wants us to have that childlike faith. Now, he still used the boy and used his generosity, used his open hands. And God gives us possessions in the same way. And and we could say, well, God, you don't need me.

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Intro
You can just do it on your own. He could. True. But he wants to use he wants us to use what he has given us and then say, but, but if I do it knowing that I'm doing it with his, with him in mind, that he can do even greater things if I'm willing to do it through him.

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Intro
So. So I think it's that idea of of it's not either. Yeah, yeah. It's me using my abilities and then relying on God to help me through that or. Yeah, to multiply it in an amazing way that I wouldn't even expect.

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Nathan
Yeah. Well, I think it's important to realize that, you know, God working through us includes the things that he's given us. So, like how you started that out? God gave us a brain. Right? And so we we need to to use that brain. One one example it came to mind was like saving for retirement, right? That's a that's a perfect example of you could just, you know, give all your money away now and trust that God's going to take care of you.

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Nathan
But I don't I don't think that that is necessarily a wise way to approach your your retirement. Right. Sure. Like we have, we have a responsibility to our, our families to take care of them. And so, you know, using your your money wisely, keeping what you need, but giving away what you, what you should like. There is you're right.

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Nathan
It's both. It's not it's not necessarily either or, but there's a balance there.

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Intro
Yeah, well, even in that story, I mean, Jesus used tells a story about a man who who plans to build a tower. You know what I mean? And, he says, what a fool who who starts to build a tower without planning for it. And he is halfway done. You know what I mean? He doesn't have the finances to finish.

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Intro
And everyone says, what an idiot. You know what I mean? So he wants us to plan. He wants us to be wise. So, yeah, I agree, you know, so. So use your ability. But, you know, don't make mate. Don't make your goals the God either. You know, me and I, you know, you talked about retiring for for, planning for retirement.

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Intro
You know, it's my plan to retire. So that so that when I get older and I'm not able to work so that my children don't have to look after me, that I have enough income to, to, or do I want to make millions and millions because then that becomes the God and what I'm replying and say, hey, I don't need that much.

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Intro
I can put this much in retirement. That's all I need. And now I can invest the rest of this, you know, for God's kingdom too. So yeah.

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Nathan
So this passage, really parallels, the Old Testament in a couple of ways. One is obviously God's provision of manna to Israel. I think that's, that's, a pretty simple, conclusion here. But you you also brought one up before we started, here today from Second Kings. Can you expand on that?

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Intro
Yeah, it's just it's just, it's a great example. And I also talked about, some of the people here, they're, they're like, hey, you know what? And, and one of the other gospel, they're saying, you know, who is this guy? Is who is it? Is he one of the local prophets? Is Elijah. Is it one of the other great prophets come back to life, you know what I mean?

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Intro
And you can almost see why they're saying this, because there's so many stories in the Old Testament of prophets doing miraculous things. I mean, truly remarkable, miraculous things. So how is Jesus different than these other prophets? And one of the ones that really parallels with this one is barley loaves of bread feeding more than they should, and in this case, in in Second Kings chapter four, there's a man who brings some.

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Intro
He actually brings 20 loaves of barley bread. And he brings them to feed 100 prophets. And, Elisha, Elisha says, hey, give it to the man to eat. And the guy says, you know, very similar. His response to Andrew is this, but how can I set this before 100, man? You know what I mean? I mean, there's not going to be enough.

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Intro
And Elisha says, and here's the interesting thing. Elijah said, give it to the people to eat, for this is what the Lord says. And and that's important because he wasn't saying, hey, this is going to do it. I'm going to show you how powerful a prophet I am. And in this case, the was left over. Now to two things to consider here.

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Intro
You know, I mean, you know, this is 20 loaves feeding 100 man. This is well that's kind of enough. Well it was and some leftover. And as compared to, to Jesus taking five barley loaves and feeding thousands of people and some leftover. So so, so, so the the magnitude of the miracle was, was greater for a start. But ultimately all these Old Testament prophets, they didn't claim to do this in their own power.

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Intro
They all did it. This is what the Lord says. There will be enough. You know, you look at, Elijah the prophet to him in whom many of these people says, is this Elijah? And everything he did when he called down fire from heaven? You know what I mean? He prayed to God to send down fire. He didn't call out fire.

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Intro
He prayed to God to send down fire. And then he said, he said, this is so the people will know. There is a God in Israel, none of it taking credit. Jesus, on the other hand, he didn't say, this is what the Lord, because he is the Lord. And he says, this is what happened, will happen, you know, so, so and likewise.

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Intro
Then we get in the New Testament and we see the, the, the, the disciples doing some miraculous things and healing and, in, in acts chapter three, we see it, we see after Jesus had died, rose again gunderman and and and the Holy Spirit to come upon the disciples, and they start doing some miraculous things and healing, just like Jesus had been doing a lot of healing.

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Intro
And, but but they say, you know, when they in acts chapter three, when they heal this, this, this crippled beggar. And they said, then Peter said, silver or gold? I don't have what I have. I give you get this in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. So all the miraculous things they were doing, they were doing in the name of Jesus.

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Intro
Jesus, on the other hand, didn't need the need to give. Do it in the name of anyone. It's because He is God in the flesh, which is the whole idea of the Gospel of John is like Jesus is God. Believe in him. Yeah.

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Nathan
Yeah. Over and over in the New Testament, we see these parallels of, Old Testament prophets. And I mean, the consistent, kind of narrative here is that Jesus is the fulfillment of these things. Right? So, absolutely. Where is all is where all of this strength comes from. And so, that that is interesting to look back at that and see, you know, that it was it is in the power of Jesus now that these things happen and not not in the prophets.

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Nathan
But this was obviously not what, the crowd thought at that point either. Right? They and he even says at the end of it, they, they, you know, wanted to force him to be king.

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Intro
Right, right. Yeah. For, for what reason? So they can be saved from their sins? No, because they wanted what they wanted for their own benefits. Really? Yeah.

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Nathan
Okay. So, another application that you brought out of this passage was the boy's willingness to to give, even though he had very little. How would you, encourage someone who who doesn't have much to to wrestle with the topic of generosity? And honestly, I, I shy away from this question a little bit just because of the kind of the prosperity gospel.

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Intro
Sure.

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Nathan
I think that there's been many, many people who have taken advantage of people that don't have very much for their own gain and that, you know, that's that's certainly not what we want to do here. We, you know, I think the, the consistent message, that, that is given here is that it's an act of worship, right?

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Nathan
That that if we are not, generous with what we have, we're, we're holding back from the Lord. And so. Yeah. What are you what are your thoughts on that?

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Intro
No. That's that that's great question. Because here's the thing. What does the prosperity gospel it's about how can I am vast what I have for my personal gain. Yeah, right. How can I gain from this? It's a selfish, super selfish motivation. A way of thinking, as opposed to the boy. I mean, he did. He didn't. Gave give up his lunch so that he could get more.

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Intro
He gave it up for the kingdom of God. I mean, he was giving it up at the risk of maybe not getting any lunch. Yeah, but in his faith, you know, he says, hey, Jesus, I hear you go. And that's that's the difference between the prosperity gospel and investing in the kingdom of God. When we invest in the kingdom, we don't invest so that we can grab so that God's going to bless me and I can driving around in a Ferrari.

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Intro
I mean, we invest in the kingdom so that God can get the glory, not the we can get the glory. Yeah. Now, we're told to lay up our treasures in heaven. You know what I mean? Where moth and rust don't destroy and where thieves don't break in the sand. But so, so so then other people will say, well, well, yeah.

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Intro
If I'm invest in the kingdom, when I get to heaven, I'm going to be super rich. You know what I mean? It's like an even that is a kind of a convoluted way of thinking, because what are we investing in? We're investing souls, right? So, so if I'm investing in the in the Kingdom by, by maybe giving financially here right now, thinking God use it for your kingdom so that souls can be saved.

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Intro
So when I get to heaven, I'm going to be blessed by seeing all the people that I had a part in being here. Because I was investing in the kingdom. That's the treasures we lay up in heaven. Can God bless us here on earth? Sure. But I don't think that's the main point here. This is the boy wasn't investing in himself.

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Intro
The boy was investing in the kingdom of God's. And Jesus use this and it it blessed other people, you know what I mean? And and that's the that's the motivation we need to be given to thinking about when we're giving or being generous is like, am I doing this so I can be better off? So so God will bless me and I have a better band?

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Intro
Or am I doing this because I want to see the glory of God being spread and his name being famous in our community and throughout the world. And that's the motivation I should have, so that I can see God being glorified and that's worshiping him.

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Nathan
Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think where to go with it from there. I think that's good.

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Nathan
We're already in 18 minutes, so we can we can skip move.

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Intro
How long? How long you got?

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Nathan
Total? I don't know, 19, 25 to 30. We'll fill it. Okay.

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Nathan
We're going to go back to the, king thing. So. So the crowd, you know, was eager to listen to Jesus, but ultimately, they they misunderstood his, his mission, in the earth. In fact, you know what I mentioned earlier, the passage ends saying that they wanted to make him king. And so how can we, you know, thinking about evangelism, how can we ensure that when we share the gospel, that we communicate who Jesus truly is and not just what he can do for people?

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Nathan
Because I think that is what we're seeing. You pointed that out to you. I think that's what we're seeing in this crowd is like, hey, this could be really good for us. If he's in charge.

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Intro
Yeah. You talking about evangelism? You know, how do we portray Jesus? You know what I mean? Because. Because we do want to perceive Jesus as the king, right? And the king of our hearts, the. You know, I mean, he's only going to be the king and he is the king now and in a lot of ways. But but a lot of people, when sharing the gospel, you know what I mean?

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Intro
Or when people are hearing the gospel are like, oh, this could be the answer to all my problems, you know what I mean? If I trust in Jesus, I'm going to have he's going to take away all my my problem is I'm not going to you know what I mean? Some of that might be true because, you know, when we live in a, in a, in a sinful lifestyle, that in itself brings a lot of problems.

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Nathan
Many of our issues are self-inflicted.

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Intro
Yeah, absolutely. 100%. But but but so, so some of that is true. But but ultimately, as I pointed out Sunday, you know, I mean, Jesus didn't come this time to, to set, set everything right for us politically or financially. He came for our heart because this is his biggest problem. As a as I point out of Sunday, you know what I mean?

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Intro
And, it was Joseph, actually, who had the dream of the angel and came and said, hey, you know, call you to call his name Jesus, and he will save his people from their sins. And this is what Jesus came to do. You know what I mean? So, so am coming to the end of Jesus life. Jesus is standing before, it was a punch pile of yeah, I believe.

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Intro
Yeah, yeah. Or was a King Herod? I can't remember on the top of my head. But anyway, so he says, so are you the King? And he says, I'm paraphrasing here, but not in the sense you think of it as a king. Because if I was, you know, I mean, I'd I'd already be king, you know what I mean?

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Intro
I came for a different reason. And he's king to be to be. He came for our sins. He came to to be the sacrifice for our king, for our sins. And, that's why the people weren't just getting it. They were thinking this promise prophet was going to, free them from the bondage to servitude to the Roman government.

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Intro
He was going to be, like many of the of the judges or from the Old Testament, who, who, who God raised up and they read them from their enemy and, and led them in, in miraculous ways. And Jesus is going to be that person. And he's like, no, no, if you make me your king by force, I won't get to do what I really came to do, which was actually to die.

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Intro
Yeah, I mean, so, so Jesus, which is a great thing to when you when you think about that to Jesus, one purpose was to come and live a sinful life, sinless life. Sorry to live a sinless life so that he could be the perfect sacrifice and and, and, and in order to do that, he had to be humble and, and just.

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Intro
He couldn't have been made king in an earthly sense, because then he wouldn't have been able to fulfill his purpose.

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Nathan
Yeah, yeah. Just thinking about, you know, the the state of evangelism today, it seems like a lot of us have the tendency to kind of present Jesus as well. He can take away your shame. He can take away your guilt. You know, we kind of point out the things that appeal to people, when we talk about Jesus, rather than presenting him as King who is worthy of your glory.

00;22;53;00 - 00;23;08;04
Nathan
Like we have a responsibility to him before he has a responsibility to us. Right? And so I guess just when you know, when you're evangelizing to someone, how do you how do you kind of think about how we present Jesus?

00;23;08;06 - 00;23;32;28
Intro
Yeah. And before we get into that, I think Jesus never portrayed himself as that, you know what I mean? And yeah. Did did Jesus heal sick people? Sure. Did he bring people back to life? Sure. But but but he also said to be sure, you will face many trials. Trials. He says he says, he says, you want to follow me?

00;23;33;00 - 00;23;36;00
Intro
Take up your cross daily and follow me.

00;23;36;00 - 00;23;36;28
Nathan
That's his call to us.

00;23;36;28 - 00;23;54;26
Intro
Yeah. Now, Matthew 24, you know, he talks about the end times and he says, people will hate you because of me. That's not saying they trust me and everything is going to be perfect. You know. In fact, his his message birds of the air is up next Fox up dans. But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

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Intro
Are you sure you want to follow me? He's saying. He said it's going to be tough, but he's also saying it's going to be worth it. Yeah, you know what I mean. In the long run for, for for two main reasons is because the guilt that we have a sinner will be taken care of, that he will die for that, that we will have everlasting life.

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Intro
And in the long run, the investment in investing in him right now, as our Lord and Savior is going to give us an eternity with him. So, so I think it's the long old picture. It's this whole mentality we have, even in our Western society of of instant gratification. We want to see that instant gratification. No, trusting in Jesus is the long term.

00;24;37;14 - 00;24;59;14
Intro
So now, in the meantime, even when we're going through those trials and tribulations, you know, James, one God talks about consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds, because, you know, the testing of our faith, right, produces better things. Yeah. So so here's here's the question. I mean, we almost need to ask ourselves, is it worth it?

00;24;59;17 - 00;25;23;07
Intro
Is it worth it? And Jesus asks us, make sure count the cost, count the cost. But it's it's investing for an eternity makes it so worth it. And so your question was evangelism. How do you because you almost don't want to scare people off. But but the opposite to that is giving them a false gospel. You know what I mean?

00;25;23;15 - 00;26;02;28
Intro
So. Oh, you're having problems, I trust Jesus, all your problems will go away now. Your sin problems will go away. You know, I mean, in a way. And we will still all deal with sin, don't get me wrong there. But, but, but we'll be forgiven. And that's the key. And when people trust in their because they want big, because they want to repent, because they, they, they are affected by their sins and the guilt of their sins, then then he's going to give them the Holy Spirit, which includes joy, peace, patience, all the fruit of the spirit which come, which even though I still might have cancer, I still might have a broken family.

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Intro
But internally I can have that peace and joy that God gives through the Holy Spirit, even though the whole world might be crumbling around me and the assurance of everlasting life, and we get a peace that comes that, as in Philippians four, talks about the peace that surpasses all understanding that I haven't even I know how I can have this peace, but it comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

00;26;29;29 - 00;26;56;21
Nathan
Yeah, yeah, I think that's why it's important in our in our thinking, you know, that that God comes first, right? So, so had none of these benefits even come to us, the, you know, the the removal of shame and guilt and, peace and all of these, these benefits in a in an eternity with him. If all those things still like, didn't exist, God is still worthy of our worship.

00;26;56;21 - 00;27;17;06
Nathan
Right. And so that that's the first the first point here is that God is we explain who God is and we explain who we are before him. Right? And we we get we get that point down that he deserves our worship. And then after that, the rest of bonus is for us, right?

00;27;17;09 - 00;27;18;08
Intro
Absolutely.

00;27;18;08 - 00;27;26;14
Nathan
So so I think it's just a matter of how we think about these things. Instead of being man. First we need to be God first in how we talk about. Yeah, we talk about Jesus.

00;27;26;19 - 00;27;45;10
Intro
And yeah, you know, you put it perfectly. It's all the bones. Because because it really boils down to who are we worshiping? And if we're worshiping food, trusting in Jesus so that I can have a better life, who am I really worshiping? I'm really worshiping me. I'm doing it for what I can gain rather than for what I what I can do for his kingdom.

00;27;45;10 - 00;27;54;12
Intro
So, so boils down to who am I worshiping? I'm. I'm worshiping me or I'm I worship with Jesus for who he really is. Yeah.

00;27;54;15 - 00;28;10;00
Nathan
So Jesus showed compassion for the crowd by meeting both their physical and spiritual needs. Right. So how can compassion open doors for sharing the gospel?

00;28;10;02 - 00;28;13;07
Intro
Yeah.

00;28;13;09 - 00;28;18;15
Nathan
And feel free to give some examples here, because I know you have a lot.

00;28;18;18 - 00;28;45;15
Intro
So, so Jesus was all but the example of how to to show the example of how to show love. Right. And what what kind of love do we show as Christians as an example of, of Jesus Christ. We're always going around with a smile on her face, you know, or like someone when he's helping, like, well, James talks about, like, what good is he?

00;28;45;15 - 00;29;03;07
Intro
A brother says, oh, it's cold out and and needs a coat. And you say, hey, go have a good day. God bless you. You know, I mean, it's like, no, you're our actions show that we truly are followers of Christ, in the way we act and and and treat other people. And it really boils down to this.

00;29;03;07 - 00;29;28;07
Intro
I think it's like if we've experienced the grace of God in forgiveness and mercy and the way he has blessed us in so many ways, shouldn't we shouldn't we extend that to other people and show them? You know what I mean? So, so so you want people to be happy and and trusting Christ and and I mean, and you're going around kind of like, yeah, you're not welcome here.

00;29;28;12 - 00;29;56;21
Intro
And like, no, no, we need to like, Christ looked after the needs of the of the crowd there by feeding them, by healing them at the beginning of the chapter. And, so to we need to be showing the love of Christ when we show the love of Christ to other people by looking after needs through our food pantry or our benevolence ministry, or so many other people where people are hurting and coming here, and then to say, you care, don't you?

00;29;56;23 - 00;30;15;15
Intro
When they know that we care, they're more ready to hear why we care. And the reason we care is because what Christ has done for us, we get to share that with them. They get to hear that. And then we rely on the Holy Spirit to do a work in their life so that they can have the same peace and joy that we have.

00;30;15;17 - 00;30;36;05
Nathan
Yeah, yeah. And we have, you know, a few different ministries here at Harmony where we can specifically do that. But yeah, but these things can take place outside of, outside of, you know, the, the walls of harmony too, right? This this can be our daily lives of looking for needs that we can fill in in an attempt to, to get to a spiritual need.

00;30;36;10 - 00;30;59;02
Intro
Oh, yeah. We hear about stories all the time. You know, people in our community Army is it's like, that that people in our church are Christians. They don't even have to, you know, but but believers that that, you know, they they're working with somebody and that person is in financial need or in terrible, and they're generous and they help them out and they give to them and, and maybe years past, maybe months, but sometimes years.

00;30;59;08 - 00;31;16;13
Intro
And all of a sudden that person comes back and says, hey, you remember you helped me out. And, you know, I tell me a little bit more about why you would help me out. Why would you? And it's like, hey, let me share the gospel with you. This is why I'm generous. This is why I care. Because Jesus cared for me.

00;31;16;13 - 00;31;33;02
Intro
So what a great opportunity we we give for ourselves to be able to do that when we when we're generous. Yeah, when we're loving, when we're kind. All them things that are only possible because we have the Holy Spirit within us. Yeah.

00;31;33;04 - 00;31;41;22
Nathan
Well, as we wrap up, why don't you kind of give us an update on, you know, the state of community ministries here at Harmony. What's been going on and how's it going?

00;31;41;25 - 00;32;06;01
Intro
Yeah. So community ministry under that is really how we we interact with the community. And two of the biggest ways that I oversee is through Celebrate Recovery, of course. And we have Celebrate Recovery here in Burlington on Thursday nights. And on Tuesday nights we have it in Fort Madison and and Mount Pleasant. But, we just see a lot of people coming in to, again, people.

00;32;06;07 - 00;32;36;11
Intro
People who are broken people. Let me just say anyone who doesn't have Christ is broken. And a lot of us, even who have Christ, we're still dealing with a lot of brokenness, right? Because we still live in this in full body. But but ultimately, they're coming to a place where they know they can find hope. And one of the things we we really hit hard at Celebrate Recovery is, is you can come and find peace and forgiveness and all those things, but they're only found in Jesus Christ.

00;32;36;13 - 00;33;01;15
Intro
You know, a lot of people think, you know, I'm not one of those people I don't have. We're all some of those people. And here's why. Because we're all broken. We all need Jesus. We're all dealing with a different hurt, a habit, a sinful behavior that you know what? But there's peace and help found in Jesus Christ, too, that so should be able to come along and then find other people.

00;33;01;22 - 00;33;32;03
Intro
They're there. They're not to judge us, but to encourage us and to motivate us on to good things because of what Jesus Christ has done in our lives and how we can help other people encourage them in the same way. Also, benevolence is a great way to as we see people basically, and pretty much everyone who comes, most of the people, the vast majority of the people we do benevolence with in the community are people who do not even attend Harmony Bible Church.

00;33;32;06 - 00;34;01;03
Intro
And I would say the vast majority of the people who who come that don't come to harmony are not believers either. They might have gone to church or grandma's a kid or something, but most are not. Followers of Christ at all. And as we see them coming in, it's just amazing, to see the response of people as we sit down and talk with them to, to pray with them, to share the gospel with them.

00;34;01;08 - 00;34;19;11
Intro
Maybe we're just helping them pay utility bills or whatever it might be, but to see them open up and a lot of times when you pray, more times than not, I would say when you finish praying, you look up, there's tears rolling down their down their face. Now these are the opportunities. So so let's go back to the boy here right.

00;34;19;14 - 00;34;41;24
Intro
Giving financially for the kingdom right. Sacrificially not expecting the same. We are able to do this and share the gospel because a people in Harmony Bible Church who give to the benevolence ministry and sort of say, hey, we want to give. Again, going back to your last question about love, you know, how do we show love? Why should we show love?

00;34;41;26 - 00;35;03;00
Intro
They show love by saying, hey, I want to give so that you can give to some of these people that never would have come and heard the gospel, but because of their hard situation, they come through the doors of Harmony Bible Church. We get to sit down one on one with them, talk about their financial situation, invite them to church, share the gospel with them.

00;35;03;02 - 00;35;27;19
Intro
We got these little Bibles right now. Just just the gospel in a very easy to read form. So it's not intimidating if we started giving them out. But what a great opportunity we get to share, you know what I mean? Other ways we we work with the community is, of course, through, city Hope Foundation at the food pantry at the Maple Leaf Center on on Wednesday nights or.

00;35;27;21 - 00;35;45;09
Intro
Yeah. And, it's just, again, interacting with the community and with a community who doesn't know Christ. But it's another way of just sharing Jesus love with them and having the opportunity to to tell about his love for them. And hopefully the people are coming to Christ.

00;35;45;09 - 00;36;05;29
Nathan
And so for people listening, to this, you know, I think sometimes it can be easier to, to do these things, to evangelize people or just meet people's needs in a structured environment. Right. So is there, is there opportunities for people to get involved, volunteering.

00;36;06;01 - 00;36;29;22
Intro
Yeah. So so first of all, let me just say that that you don't have to be a part of anything that's a structured format at Harmony Bible for for the person you, you work with day by day. I'll tell you, when I was working in the secular field, I had more opportunities to to share with people. And one of my good friends is is an auto mechanic.

00;36;29;28 - 00;36;53;21
Intro
And he tells me regularly, I get more chance to share with nonbelievers every day than you do. Because I work with, I see so many people and I love that attitude. You know, you have more opportunities most people than I do because you work in a in a factory or in a construction site or wherever in an office with unbelievers every day rubbing shoulders with them.

00;36;53;21 - 00;37;18;09
Intro
So, so, so maybe that's your first goal is like, how can I have a mindset of sharing the gospel with the people I see every day? For it starts with just letting them know who you are, that you have a faith in Jesus. Don't hide your faith starts with that. But, but but otherwise, you know, I mean, yeah, we have we have formed a team recently of different people that come in and, and help do, benevolence interviews.

00;37;18;09 - 00;37;34;21
Intro
So when someone comes in looking for benevolence, they, they sit down with them, they take their application and share the gospel with them and pray with them. So, so. And that depends on how open the person. So that varies from person to person. You know me as they come in but but a great opportunity. So so that's been good.

00;37;34;21 - 00;37;48;00
Intro
You know other ways. You know I mean helping at the food pantry and I mean praying with people. These are, these are different ways that people are and have been serving over the over the past years. In some of these ministries, you also celebrate recovery. Yeah.

00;37;48;02 - 00;37;52;12
Nathan
So if somebody wanted to get involved, who the day who would they talk to?

00;37;52;14 - 00;38;13;10
Intro
Yes. So so if you wanted to get involved in the food pantry either here in Burlington or Fort Madison, I think Tim Svoboda would be the person to talk about there. I think they got quite a few volunteers. Otherwise, on Wednesdays we take applications for benevolence, and I'd be the person to talk about with that.

00;38;13;12 - 00;38;31;10
Intro
We do have a pretty good crew right now, but we can always take on 1 or 2 others. Yeah. Celebrate recovery. Yeah. Our other main community ministry. Ministry? Again, I would be that person that one of the things we always say for for anyone who wants to help out is, hey, come be a part of it.

00;38;31;13 - 00;38;48;27
Intro
Go through the program yourself. You know, when we started out this program, we had, several of our church family people saying, hey, I want to help those people. And we said, okay, great, come on in. Let's do the program ourselves first. Everyone wants to go through it so you know what to do. And every single one of them person says, wow, I didn't realize that.

00;38;48;27 - 00;39;10;24
Intro
I need this program by myself too. So that would be one of the things we wanted to do. But but to see those people years later still involved and because they were able to work through some stuff, now they're better equipped to help the, the people who are newly coming in. So, so that's a that's kind of a process, but a great way to be able to be involved in the lives of other people.

00;39;10;27 - 00;39;30;13
Nathan
Good. Well, so, if you guys are interested, feel free to check out our website. You can just go to the staff page, and, both Nathan and Tim's email. Will be on there. So, yeah, I appreciate you coming in today. And thank you for your work on this message. And, yeah, appreciate the conversation.

00;39;30;16 - 00;39;32;01
Intro
All right. It's good to be here.

00;39;32;03 - 00;39;39;00
Nathan
Where, if you if you do have any questions, ask it for the podcast.com, and, I'll talk to you next week.