So what's going on, everybody?

Hey, everyone.

We are here today. Just the two of us. Just the two of us.

We sang in unison.

Isn't that nice? That's crazy.

That's the first time that's happened.

Yeah, it's probably not, is it?

I don't know. I don't know a time where he

maybe broke out, maybe simultaneously.

Yeah.

Broke out. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah, it's. It's not. We've had a lot of guests going on lately and such and it's been a bit since you and I were just.

And I. Yeah. And just as a reminder, I'm Derek.

And I'm Matt.

And yeah, we are. We're here. Just going to talk about some fun stuff today.

Fun stuff.

But first I'm just going to get this out of the way. Yeah.

Like, it's shameless Plug.

This is. This is awesome. So I.

New product line.

I had a friend here at the church. He suggested I. I make. I made this cross, right. And it's. It's a large cutout cross. Different paintings and anyways of. Of Jesus. And the cross is like cut out around him, right? Or his face is in it, whatever. So he was like, if you could do that on a hat, that would look really cool. And like, I was like, I wonder if I could cut out hat patches. Like, I know that you can. I can engrave on them, but I didn't know if I could cut them out. And sure enough, see what's a good one to show off. The brown one.

This one.

Yeah. There you go. So check this out.

That's pretty cool, right?

It's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome. So I have these now. And I can do other stuff too,

but we love new product stuff. Actually, you know what? I'm wearing my hat today, aren't I?

Yeah, you are.

Yeah. So he made this one for me and you can't hear. You can hold it up to the camera. It is actually an image, the face image from the Shroud of Turin that he got into the leather and then made me a hat with it. And so that's pretty cool. Very talented. I was really excited about it, as you all should be too.

Yeah. You can reach out to either strider design gmail.com or our social medias or here at the response. I can. I check all those emails. I'm the one that has the access to all of that anyways. So yeah, just shoot. Shoot me a message if you. If you want a hat, you're looking for a specific whatever. Let Me know, and I can make it happen.

Yeah, so. So, yeah, but. Yeah, so awesome new products. But today we are talking about fruit.

No, we're talking about fruitless fruitlessness.

Well, you know, I, it's off the sermon, right?

Yeah.

So this is so last Sunday, for those who go to the church that we are at, they would have heard me preach about fruit and fruitlessness as well as some other points. But we want to talk about that sermon and the questions that came along with it today. And so if you haven't heard that sermon, it is online and you're welcome to go on and check it out.

Yeah. Do you want to give like a brief, like a brief recap of kind of what you talked about? Just.

Yeah. So we. I preached on Mark, chapter 11, verse 11 through 25, and it focuses on the Monday of the last week of Jesus's life. And on Monday there was the cursing of the fig tree and there was the temple scene where he's flipping tables and stopping people from walking through the temple area and flip. Getting rid of the changer, the money changers and all that. And so. But I, I went back and I just kind of pointed out that, like, this is Jesus coming into his house and he's inspect. First he inspects things and then he decides, like, this isn't, this isn't going to happen anymore. He sees things going on he doesn't like. The cursing of the fig tree was very prophetic in the fact that, you know, his mind's on the fact that some of the things that they're allowing to happen and doing within the Sanhedrin, the. Those running the temple are not okay. And so he sees a fruitless

fig

tree and he curses it. Of course, we find out that the fig tree withers away. And it's kind of symbolic for the fact that this, this way of doing things is, is done. He goes into the temple, he stops those taking advantage of people who are trying to approach God in the court of the Gentiles. He is mad about the people that are making money off of that and taking advantage of people. He's mad at people taking shortcuts in their faith and providing ways to do that. And he doesn't like people trying to literally take a shortcut through the temple grounds. So a lot of it that he's just like, this is not how it's supposed to be. This is supposed to be a house of prayer, not a den of thieves, not used in the improper way. And he's not going to stand for a mockery of what he had designed and how he intended things to be. And so because that is a failure, that's going to go away. And Jesus is actually starting a new way, which is not a temple. It is a direct path to God through what he is going to do throughout that week, which is lay himself down and then raise himself back up. Yeah. So that's kind of a quick gist, right?

Yeah. Hashtag table, flippin mad.

Hashtag table. Put that in the comments. That'll be amazing.

Hashtag table, flippin mad. Okay. And for those of you who don't know what a hashtag is, that's just the number sign or the pound sign.

Yeah. My favorite part of the sermon was when I got to yell at anybody that's misusing that text to promote protests or rioting or moments of anger.

I hadn't heard of the first two being used in that way, but the third one I have.

Oh yeah, that one gets used a lot. But starting in 2020, I heard a lot of people doing it to try to defend some of the big protests and some of the rioting that was going on. And I got in arguments with people and it's not, it's kind of still been there. There's people still. To me, well, you know, Jesus did this. I'm like, that's. That's not what that is.

Yeah, yeah. Although I think that it can be used in the proper context to being that kind of angry.

I think there's such a thing as righteous anger. Sure.

But I don't know that. I mean, obviously scripture says that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. But. No, but I think that there are some things that we can be semi righteously angry about and get to that spot where something needs to happen to make a statement.

Yeah.

It was a good message though.

Thank you.

Solid message.

I, you know, actually, I'll be honest with you guys. So preparing that sermon was a lot. As I was doing my deep dives into the scriptures and stuff. I mean, God was just beating me up with it. And you know, I was thinking, man, if this is beating me up, it's going to beat up others. And I love giving nice, encouraging sermons. Not, not a everything's okay all the time kind of fruit and flowers. But like, I love to encourage people to go deeper in their faith and to recognize where they need work. And this is one where it felt less encouraging and more like I was up there trying to beat people. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was. I mean, but I, you know, that's just. I try to be obedient to what I feel the Lord leading me to do. And so I was like, all right, here we go. And I got a little more animated at times, too, than my normal.

Yeah, it was good. It was definitely a solid, solid message. And it was more. Yeah, it was definitely more not nice.

Yeah.

But it was kind. It was right, you know.

Well, you know, I had somebody come to me, and one of. I got it. Like, my favorite thing is when somebody tells me this in earnest that, you know, like, you know, I had heard that story, but, you know, know, I really helped him understand it in a new way. And I was like, that's. I mean, that's really what I want. I want people to be able to understand what I'm saying. And, you know, if I can help someone understand something in a new way, maybe for the first time, or find new way to kind of apply it and check themselves with it, man, that's a win in itself for me. But, I mean, I'm just trying to be faithful to whatever God tells me to do. And then, you know, the outcome is in his hands. I just.

Yeah.

You know, do it.

That's good. That's good. All right. Well, we're talking about fruitlessness today. Fruitlessness and talking through questions. It'll be good. It'll be. It'll be fun. It'll be a different. Different style. A little bit.

So, yeah, a little bit different. A change of pace. And then we got some cool things that we're planning in the next few weeks. So.

Yeah.

Yeah, that'll be fun, too.

It will. It will. Don't forget, 250 is coming April 24th. Get your tickets on Eventbrite, the Truth Response Live.

Yes, but as for today,

well, we're gonna talk about fruitlessness.

Yeah. But as for today, we're talking about. I'm gonna do it.

Welcome to the Truth Response, Sam. So you want to pray today?

Yep, I'll pray. I've done a lot of praying lately. Yeah, you don't even have a hat on. All yours are on the table.

Yeah, I got my haircut, so.

Oh, you're looking styling. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for today, for all the blessings that you continue to produce in our lives and for all the opportunities that we have to serve you and be obedient to you. For some, it might be strange to pray. Thankfulness over obedience. But we are so glad that you helped get us to those places to where we are grateful to just be a part of what you have going on and to recognize the benefits of being obedient to you. Father, help us to get into this conversation and possibly bring even more understanding and bring fruit to a fruitless place in someone's life and even talk about where we're at. And all these things help bless someone who's listening and maybe even have them share with someone who could also use it. And Lord, just be involved in it all as we bring glory to your name, your kingdom, and in all things we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. All right, so I heard a thing today.

You heard a thing?

I heard a thing. And I think that it kind of applies with this idea of us being the fruit and all that. I heard somebody say today that there are five gospels.

Okay, hold on. I have one in mind, but go ahead.

So they said the four that, you

know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Right. And then you're the fifth.

Oh, that's.

And I thought it was. I thought that was really good because, you know, he said. He said people may not be reading the four Gospels, but you can be sure they're reading you. And is. Is your fruit enough that they're getting the gospel from watching and reading what you're doing. And I was like, whoa, that's pretty wild.

I like that a lot. Yeah. I thought you were going in a little bit of a different direction because I often refer to Romans as Paul's gospel.

Okay. I could see that.

I do. Which is funny because in a way, Luke is kind of Paul's gospel, but the way that he fleshes out, it's Paul's gospel and theology.

Very.

Just brilliantly laid out in Romans.

Ironically. I never thought about it that way. But Luke is kind of Paul's gospel.

Yeah. So I really like. I really like what you said. That's good, because you're right. I mean, I teach my students. I said, you know, you could be the only Bible anyone ever reads. You could be the only church service they ever attend, and many things like, you know, because that's what it is. You know, when we become a follower, we put on the uniform in it. So it's like, how are we representing him?

Yeah.

And that's where the fruit comes in. Like, what are we offering those that come to us?

So, yeah, I thought it was pretty good. And just like, I think it's a good way to start off what we're going to talk about today because it's like, with that in mind. Right. We're going to talk about this other stuff. But like, that should be embedded in our head that, like, people are watching, people are reading you, and they may not be reading the Bible, but they are seeing you.

We are Walking gospel. Yeah, that would be a cool T shirt.

Walking gospel.

Walking gospel.

Could be.

Could be. That's a lot of responsibility to be wearing on a shirt, though.

Well, and, you know, I've actually had several people say things like, I don't put bumper stickers on my car.

I don't.

I don't, you know, I don't incorporate. I didn't incorporate any kind of religious anything into my, you know, business stuff, like iconography and that sort of thing. Just because, you know, that's. I don't want to show a bad name, but at the same time, like,

that's like, you should use those things. So, you know, what's funny about that is. So it's the same reason that something that once was my fear is now my motivation. So when I. What kept me from ministry for so long was James, James, chapter three. And we've gone over this, but, like, you know, not the one I read when I was a kid. Not everyone should be teachers because teachers we know that will be judged more harshly. And I was like, yeah, I can't do that. I can't. I was so afraid of my imperfections that I thought, I can't possibly do that because I'll be seen for what I am. And that'll, you know, I don't know. It just kept me. I ran from it for a long time because of that. I refused, flat out refused to speak for God because of that. But now it's more of a motivation. Like, when I read it, I'm like, well, that means you need to hold it together. You know, you got to keep yourself in check. You got to have that accountability. You got to do everything that you need to do in order to, you know, live so that it doesn't hurt your witness.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, if you're afraid, I mean, like, I don't. I get on the cars, and not because I want to drive recklessly, only because I don't trust people to mess with my car. Like, having your car without any extra attention to it. And that's coming from a guy that used to build cars to be obnoxious, but, like, I can get it.

See, I'm. I'm of the opinion that if something's going to happen to my vehicle, it's going to happen to my vehicle. I mean, like.

But I will say this, like, business stuff, like, I think that's A great place to put it. You know, is it going to hurt your business? Maybe the people who have really big heart problems. But what's more valuable, your witness or your wallet?

Yeah.

Because I happen to think it's my witness. That's why I wear. Often wear shirts or hats or something with. That is a talking point for me for someone that were to come up and ask me what it is.

Sure.

So that I can talk about Jesus, so that I can have that witness. And, you know, if I'm wearing something that says, y' all need Jesus on my shirt, and I'm acting like a fool, then I mess that up and I try not to be that person.

Yeah. On my business cards, I put Ephesians 2:10, which is for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. And because of the fact that God in advance prepared this business and me to be in a place where I'd be there. And so. And the whole handiwork and all of that is that whole mindset of like, doing something out on my own, but because of God, you know?

Yeah. I. I mean, so, yeah, I saw this video recently where I can't remember what restaurant it was, but they put little Bible verses the bottom of their cup. And I think that's cool. Like, one of them was John 3:16. There's this person who's. I'm gonna say, obviously not a believer. And they were there and they were. Did a video complaining.

You mean like on the bottom or, like the bottom?

I don't know. Somewhere along the bottom.

Okay. Like on the side of the cup.

And they're just complaining because they're like, I don't want this on my cup. Like, here's the thing.

I think I heard about that.

Yeah. Here's the thing about that. If you honestly don't believe it, then what's the harm? That's a big one. Let that one just sink in for a minute. If you honestly don't believe in it, if you think it's all hogwash, then what's the harm? There isn't. Because if I'm wrong, fine. But if I'm right, then it's significant. And here's the thing. I think y' all know in your heart to hearts that it's right and it's messing with you because you don't like it, interrupting your little peace that you have of ignoring it. So that's your problem, not that company's and not mine. So I'M still, I'm kind of on

a thing, but I like the new you. I like it. So. Okay, surface level, reflection surface level to start. We're going to start at the surface, right? All right. So Jesus inspected the temple before acting.

Yeah.

Taking time to step away from it and plan his approach appropriately.

Yes.

What situations in your life require you to slow down and reflect before responding? And why is that difficult for you?

The one that's the most difficult for me is with my kids because I, you know, that's a place where when I get home, I try to just relax and I can be easily, as we're trying to put value in our relaxation. Other things that interrupt that can irritate us. And I find myself more irritated sometimes by things that would normally not bug me when I'm trying to relax, which is weird. And so. Yeah, so that's the time where I have to watch like my, my kids will say something and, or do something or whatever it is. And I have to watch that I don't let whatever I'm doing make me overreact.

Sure.

Or, or say or do anything that I don't want to do. And you know, because it's so easy to do. It's so easy to be like, I just want to relax. And then somebody does something, you're like, ah. And then next, you know, that is leading you to get a little more animated or, or, or come off more harshly or have the wrong tone. And so that's, that's something that, you know, taking a second and going, all right, I know this is irritating me. I know I. All I wanted to do is relax down, but this is just, this is just how it works. And so I just gotta. And that helps a lot. So that's definitely an area that I have to work on. I'm pretty. That, yeah, that's my most sensitive area.

Yeah. Yeah, I would agree with that. For me, like, my daughter is a great kid and sometimes I expect more of her because she's a great kid than you should expect from any third grader, you know, any nine year old. And it. I sometimes will snap. But I was going to say like the thing that I need to slow down and reflect before responding is every word that comes out of my wife's mouth. Like I. Not in a rude to her way, but like I am so ready to jump on whatever it is. Like. And I don't know, I don't know if it's like, I don't know. I just take things so personally whenever it's her, you know, And I don't mean every word, obviously, but, like, I mean, for somebody who is a fairly sarcastic person, you know, her love language is sarcasm, and that's totally cool. I've known that the whole time, and mine is, too. But I just. I don't know, whatever comes out of her mouth, it's like I take it. Take it to heart. Whenever. If I just step back for a moment and gave it a breath, I wouldn't react any. Any. Any kind of way, and it would be taken differently, you know? So, yeah, I think it's the close people in our lives that we. We often tend to react to.

Well, we. It's funny because the more comfortable we get with people, or, like, home is a place that we generally see as our place to relax and be comfortable, and so. And so with that in mind, you know, we let our guards down.

Yeah.

You know, a little bit. There's other times for me where I can say I could feel like I got to watch how things snowball on me, because, like, it's when it's a slow thing like this happen, and then a little while later that happens, it's not a big deal. But when things happen in rapid succession, yeah, that's harder for me to emotionally manage. So I just got to watch my heart condition in there because where I'm. I'll find myself in a really bad mood because this, this, this, this, this all at once, and I'm like, why am I, like, this? Why am I feeling this way? And then I look at things that really aren't a big deal. Like, they are a big deal. And I'm like, how did I get. Get there? Oh, it's because I let it snowball. And the other thing, I think I was thinking about it, for me, if I. If something catches me really off guard, that just. Where suddenly everybody just blows up at one another, and I don't understand what happened. That's hard to, like, manage sometimes. That. It's not necessarily that I say something is sometimes I'm not saying what I need to say in that moment. And I'm like. Just because I'm, like, so flabbergasted would be a good word.

I would say I'm the opposite of you in that. Like, you just start going, if, If. If you're gonna yell, let's do it. Oh. Like, and. And honestly, like, it's the flesh side that's, like, I'm ready to fight. I've just been looking for one, you know, Just been looking for a reason to you know, looking for love in all the wrong places. I'm looking for fights in all the wrong places, if you know what I mean. So, yeah, something I've been trying to slow down. Right. And. And think before acting. Yeah. Reacting is such a bad thing. Like, it's. You. You should be. You should definitely try to minimize reaction and be ready for situations to pop up and be ready to slow down. I like that question.

Using a very easy example, like if you looked over and you saw a kid with a butter knife in their hand and they're getting ready to stuck it into a light socket. Okay. Yeah. Stop immediately.

Right.

Okay. A little overacting just to get him to stop. Okay. Probably okay. Going off the handle afterwards. Probably not. Okay.

Right. Well, I would say in that situation, you know, the right thing to do.

Yeah.

So.

So like I said, there's times where it's like, yes, there are times where we do have to say, react, address something quicker, but as often as we can, like, we want to be peacemakers.

We want to.

We also want to be those who. Who help situations as best we can, whether it means trying to correct them, speak into them. And so. But you want to make sure that you are very thoughtful. You know, we want to have an answer for people. Season with salt, obviously. But if you aren't careful, it can definitely mess it up.

I would say is as long as you're prayed up, right. Like, as long as you're. You've, you know, been meditating on His Word, which doesn't necessarily mean reading your Bible every day, but if you. If you're taking it and putting it in your heart and you're thinking about it and you're, you know, mumbling through it, like then, then and praying on it and all that sort of thing. Like, whenever you come into those situations, I feel like you're gonna be way more ready and way more prepared for whatever that that thing is, then you're going to react.

I think it'll definitely help. I mean, it's not a. There's still whatever we haven't dealt with inside.

Sure.

It's always going to be there. But I mean, that's part of the journey is to constantly do those evaluations. You know, where am I? How am I right now? Are there things I haven't dealt with? Are the things that I need to deal with? You know, is there something that I'm going through? Is there? You know, and so having some. That we talked about this before on another episode, but like having people that you can reach out to. And just kind of debrief sometimes or, or, hey, this feed made me feel a little weird, and I just want to talk about it with someone and, or can you just listen to me for a while? And then afterwards, can you see if you see anything or that I'm saying that I'm not hearing or seeing myself? And those things can be really beneficial to you. And in some cases, if you have a lot that you need to work on it, there's nothing wrong with finding someone who has training in professional to sit down with and help them help you go through. I think, you know, we have. There are so many great counselors and therapists out there who can help you kind of work through a lot of things and talk about the things that you're struggling with. If you find yourself with just so much, you're like, I don't know if just talking to a friend's gonna. Yeah, maybe that's a, That's a good avenue to take. I would definitely recommend trying to find one that has a good Christian background. Would be amazing if you can, because that way they're not giving you something that's gonna. I doubt that most would give you something against your faith, but you want someone that understands your faith and is gonna try to encourage you to bring God into these situations. That's what I want to go for.

And I will say that, like, free piece of counseling advice is you should first try to just stop it. And if that doesn't work, stop it or I'll bury you alive in a box.

Wow.

Bob Newhart, man, his. His. His comedy's so good. But the whole idea of willpower is, is a lot. Willpower is a lot stronger than, than you realize. And so if you take a stand, you may be able to get through whatever it is just based on willpower. Now, that being said, I agree with, with all that you said about finding a counselor, but you should really try willpower first. I mean, a lot of times we just don't. We don't believe that we can make it through.

Yeah, but just clarify. I think on what you're saying, it's not about willpowering of dealing with it all yourself. It's necessarily, it's. It's reckon when you recognize there's things that you're doing that you're not.

No, I'm saying like, I am saying, like, willpower is very strong, and each person just needs to tap into their willpower. It's harder for some than others, I'll give you that. But I think that you can decide to stop things.

Well, sometimes stop. Like counseling, stuff like that. It's not necessarily about stopping things or starting things. It's about dealing with things. Sometimes we have a tendency to push

things down, and I can see that

those are the things. Like, if you're not dealing with stuff that happens in your life in one way or another, sometimes they can come back in weird moments and you don't even realize it. So, yeah, I had. I. I had a thing happen the other day, slightly embarrassing, but I got myself all mad over something that our puppy did. Like, because I. I was frustrated about some things, and I just kind of kept pushing them kind of down a little bit. And I was looking. I think I was working on power washing my sidewalk, and I watched the puppy go to one of my screen doors and push the screen in. Like, the screen came out of the door, and I was like, oh, my gosh. And so I go over there and I'm trying to fix it back into place. And then I. I recognize I'm like, I need to get some new stuff to fix this properly. And. But I had it kind of fixed for the moment. And as soon as I walk away right through it again, and I was like, oh, my gosh. And it was just setting me into this really strange anger. And even my wife's like, it's a puppy. I'm like, it's not. It wasn't even the puppy. It's just that, like, you know, I was all pent up, and I didn't even, like, I couldn't even figure out what it was that. Exactly. It was that I was more pent up at the moment. Is this. I knew that this is the thing that's trying to release it.

I've been there.

So.

Yeah, I have. I have been there recently. I've been there.

Yeah. So it happens. Yeah.

So, okay, so the next thing that we're going to talk about is personal fruitlessness.

Personal fruitlessness.

Personal fruitlessness. The teaching said the tree gives the appearance of fruit but delivers nothing.

Yeah.

Are you that tree? Where do you see a gap between the appearance of spiritual life and the actual fruit of the spirit in your daily habits and relationships?

Well, yeah. So the context. Yeah. He went to the tree and there was no figs on it. And now that. Just to clarify for those who didn't hear the teaching on the sermon, so when he goes, it says that he saw leaves on the tree, and he went up to see if there was fruit, and he didn't find any because it wasn't the season for fruit. And it almost sounds confusing, but as I as explained in the teaching, is that actually in that part of the world. And those fig trees would have been expected to find what's called an early fig. So if you. They usually happen right before or right as the. The early leaves came in the tree. So it is totally logical, not illogical, to go to a tree that had leaves on it that were showing leaves and find fruit. It gives you kind of the promise of fruit. So that's the whole thing. It's like the tree gives the appearance as if there will be something, but it's not there for my life. It's difficult to kind of pinpoint daily. I'm not sure there's times where I have to watch, where I'm making sure I'm doing self study, not just lesson study. Because when you get busy in ministry, I spend time, obviously I have to study for a sermon study for middle school study for high school teachings and all the things in between. And you're making sure everything looks good. Right. Message is right. And that takes up a good amount of time. But you always have to have self study too.

See, I am, I am the, the weird one in, in that category. I don't, I don't think you have to. I think that something you need to learn to do and it's really. I think it's difficult have. I mean, I've been in those shoes. Like, I think it's difficult, but I think it's something that you can learn to do as a pastor, as a youth pastor, as whatever. Um, even just somebody who's going to teach class, whatever. Find how God's speaking to you in that. Because those who teach oftentimes learn more when they're. When they're studying to be able to teach something. So, yeah, I mean, that's like. I think that. I think it can be enough. Now, I'm not saying don't do personal study as well. I'm not saying that. But I see more often than not pastors running themselves ragged because they think I gotta do this and this and this and this and this. And then I have to do this and this and this and this and this.

I gotta find. I always try to find a good, healthy rhythm.

Yeah, there's gotta be a balance. And honestly, like, scripture does not necessarily support. There's one lesson for you and one lesson for the congregation.

Oh, no, no.

You know, and so like, I take that from. So there's a movie that he's gonna resonate with that I resonate with because of our dads. But movie Backdraft, right?

Oh, my goodness. I just made reference to this the other day.

So Backdraft, there's a scene where the two brothers race up these, this, this set of stairs, this fire escape with set of hose. Right. And at the end of it, he, the younger brother is yelling like, you know about. You're going to have one, one set of whatever for the company and one for me. Like, what is this like, and that's, it's too much like, there's not, there's no scripture that I've seen that supports that. Now, it doesn't mean don't be studied up. I mean, you're going to have to do a whole lot more study in order to do the preach and the teaching than the average person necessarily does on their own. But I don't, I don't want to see pastors or teachers or whatever to get. I don't want to see them get burnt out.

Okay.

You know what I mean? And that's easy to do.

Let me clarify why I say this.

Yeah, go for it.

Well, I mean, you probably know, but for those listening, so why I do this and why it's important for me. So there are times, like for instance, when I prepared for that last sermon, like I was getting so much out of it that. That's moment. Right. I can just focus on that because. But what I mean is I try to have a regular self Bible rhythm because I want to be poured into too.

Sure.

You know, I want, I want to get things that, that I'm not necessarily bringing for everyone else. This is, I want to be fed too. And so, you know, sometimes you get into some lessons and, you know, I don't. The struggle for me isn't. Yeah, there's lessons I can put together and it's not like I'm really learning big new things. It's stuff that I. Oh, this and this and this. And now it's there. And that's just coming out of the well that I have. And so that's good. But I want to keep my wealth poured into.

Right. Let me, let me challenge that a little bit.

Challenge me.

Push back a little bit on that. Is there any part of scripture that's not going to grow you?

Oh, I don't think there is.

And so, like, if you get to a point where you're putting together a lesson, that's this and this and this. Like you said, like, not. I'm not, I'm not bashing you. I'm just Saying this is a way that it's described so often to me, and I've heard other people talk about it this way, that it's like, okay, you're going through the motions of this, right? And it may be good. What you're producing to them is good. But how are you putting your life experience into this? The more that it's relating to you, the more that. That you're getting from it, the more that you're in tune with the spirit with it, like, the better the spirit's gonna have to.

And that's part of what I'm doing. I'm trying to help enhance.

And I'm not saying you're not. I'm just saying.

So I want. I mean, like, I, you know, I want to know the Bible better. I want to work, constantly work on my faith, you know, and he's been working on me a lot lately, which has been great. Man, I love it when I know God's working on me. I tell you, there's something about that part of the relationship where, you know, he's like, all right, Matt this. Okay, Matt this. I'm like, okay, great. And sometimes that's not an easy thing. So, I mean, it's weird to celebrate the hard, but I do enjoy. So when I know, okay, this is God working right now, He's. He's. He's showing me this right now. He's showing me that this could be challenging me, or. I get really excited when I see things for the first time that I've never seen before. And it's cool, because I love. I like calling it my toolbox, really. It's like, I want to put a lot of things in my toolbox so that in any situation, I'm prepared for all this stuff. And then I can make connections that I've never made before, and I can be better for those that God sends me. And I love getting closer to the Lord myself. I think it's important. One of the things. And this all came about, really, because when I first entered seminary, they said to us, hey, make sure your schoolwork's not your only Bible work.

Sure.

And I was like, oh, I guess that makes a lot of sense, because I took that right into ministry. Like, I can't only pour out. I need to be poured back into.

Well, and I guess my argument is that you're not only pouring out.

Oh, yeah.

See, that study, even when, like, that study is not you pouring out, when you're studying to give that message, that's not you pouring out. You pouring out is when you're giving the message.

Oh, yeah. And I do.

Talking people through that. I know you. I know. And I know that I'm not knocking anybody.

Right. I'm not.

I'm not saying people don't. What I'm saying is there's a distinction there that I think that we oftentimes skip over or think it's not enough. And that is that you. You should be. Right. You should be approaching the study for the lesson as being poured into. Because you are waiting on the Lord. You should be waiting on the Lord to. To be guided to what you're to be teaching.

Oh, yeah.

And I'm not saying that's the only teaching you got to have. And I'm not. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is, is whatever. Whoever you might be out there that's listening, that may be getting ready to give a lesson or whatever, like, if you feel burdened, like, you have to, you're constantly being pulled to do this or that and do this and that. Whenever, like, you're like, oh, I don't. I don't have time to. I feel guilty because I don't have time to. To do my own personal study as well as all of these things that I've been called to do. Like, that is personal study. Like the things that God is calling you to do. Is that's a part of that? Yeah.

I'm not gonna disagree. I think it is part of it. But I'm always looking to just.

I want to make sure that you've got the time. I'm not Sabbath.

Well, I mean. And so that's. So a couple other things that I have to watch. Number one is that I'm also giving my time, myself time to Sabbath to rest, because it's easy to go, okay, I have this time now I can go do these things. But what is really beneficial to me is when I realized that. And serious. I just realized this last year, which is strange because I. And I never made the connection until I heard another pastor say it. You know, I work so much with my head that I enjoy working with my hands. I love working on cars. It's a fun thing for me. And doing certain things with my hands. And so when I have a project I can do with my hands on, like a day off, that's actually me relaxing, which for some people, that doesn't make sense. But when I work with my head, I Sabbath with my hands. And for some people, when they work with their hands, Sabbathing with your head can Be a really great thing, too. Instead of just doing nothing, you're getting poured into, you're learning, and that can actually be now. I also need time to just relax. There's times where my wife and I like to say, we just need a lazy day. You know, we just need a day where we kind of just let go. And that's really beneficial spiritually. But the other thing I need to make sure that I'm doing is I gotta watch. There's a lot of pressure to be a certain way, and I got to make sure that I don't put on the facade that I'm okay. More okay than I am sometimes.

Sure.

Because there, you know, but with that

comes the responsibility of letting people know.

Oh, absolutely.

You know, I need.

And. And so not lying.

Don't lie. Don't lie. Don't lie. In church, it's not good. Somebody asks you how you're doing, you

know, but that goes back to, you

know, find a creative way to say, yeah, you know, that you're not good if you're not good. Right. Like, yeah.

So, I mean, those are things, like,

better than I deserve.

Oh, I'm great. Everything's fine. As if I'm just sitting here like a fruitful apple tree, and it's like, yeah, it looks like some of that fruit starting to turn over there. You know, we're not gonna talk about. You know, we need to talk about. We need to be like, all right. We need. This has been bugging me, and I've been a little angry about this, or this is. This is a worry of mine, and this is something I've been struggling with lately. And. And to be able to talk with that with certain people is wonderful. Wonderful to where, you know, we're meant to carry each other's burdens. And, you know, you don't have to act like you have it all together all the time. The only one was that had it all together was the Lord, for sure.

And. And I think something we haven't talked about with this appearance of. Of spiritual life versus actual fruit is a lot of times it's motivation. Right. And motivations are. Are very apparent when. In certain situations. Like, for instance, do you do those things when nobody else is around? Like, would you be doing whatever it is that you're doing for the Lord? Right. Whatever the things are, would you do that even when there's no one around to praise it, no one around to comment on it, no one around to. Because if it's just a part of who you are, yeah, that's Fruit.

Yeah.

And if it's because I am looking, I'm seeking the right thing. It's kind of like when my daughter asks, was that a good prayer? Right.

Oh, interesting. Yeah.

And she's looking for an example. But I'm gonna use this as an example of what I'm talking about. Like, it. It's one of those things. It's like, it's not. This is not me. Like, you're not talking to me.

Like.

Yeah, you're talking to God. Everything you say to God is good. Right. Like, you're. You're good with it. But. So if. If you're looking for that approval or that whatever, I would say that you're. Your priorities are in the wrong place. At the very least, I'm not going to say that you're not bearing fruit, but I will say it's something to start checking because if you're just. You do it right. You just. I don't know. Like, I would be doing the things that I'm doing without any of the people that I do it with.

Yeah.

Or if new people came along or if nobody was here at all. Like, it's just. It's who I am. It's part of my life. I think anybody that knows me would. Would be able to testify to that. But. And well, I guess you could tell by the fact that I'm willing to fight with anybody. So I don't care who. Who I push away. Right. So, like, there' too. But then. And it's not an always situation. Right. Everybody, every. There's always exceptions to the rules, right?

Yeah.

The only. Whatever. The only universal is the fact that there are exceptions to the rules.

Yeah. Well, so, I mean, I. A lot of things I do, you know, I. I do just because I want to. I want to know. I want to know more about the Lord. I want to know more about the Scriptures. And I love seeing things, like I said, so that's something I would do. I knew a lot of things privately that I don't even get to talk to anyone about because it's just at that point, it's for me. So I will say, though, like, kind of like your prayer thing, like, yeah, sometimes you're doing something and it's. Other people just need to understand it's not for you for them, it's for the Lord. And like, one of the things that when it comes to prayer that I will always cherish was this moment. Well, the first time it happened. And I. And I just saw the beauty in the moment. I have A brother in law. He's just older than my daughter and he is very autistic. And he gave the blessing for food one night, we sat down for dinner and he wanted to give the blessing. And I'll be honest, I barely understood a thing that came out of his mouth. But in that moment, I also realized I don't need to. God understands everything that's coming from him and understands the heart behind it. And I was like, how beautiful is that? I don't need to understand what he's saying in order to appreciate his heart. And what he's doing.

Reminds me of Sunday mornings. Right? Yeah, the music. Music's too loud. The music is not the style I like. The music is. And it's like, too bad we're not worshiping you. Like, this isn't for. To you. Like, this is an outpouring of our spirit to God. So if it was for you, we would adjust. But it's not, it's not so. But yeah, no, that's, that's, that's real good. I like that, that whole like, yeah, I just realization that like, you know, like, it's, it's not for me to understand. He's not talking.

I just remember he started praying and it didn't take but a few moments where I'm like, I don't understand anything. But it was just as quickly as I thought that I thought, and I don't have to. And that was so cool. And yeah. I mean, sometimes, and it comes down to it, it's like we, we want to do things just because we want to do things for the Lord, you know?

Yeah.

That's part of the not letting your left hand know what your rights doing where it's not about for show, you know, if everything you're doing in faith is so the other people can see it, then you're worshiping the wrong things.

Yeah, I, I've got a, got a new song out under Breath and Bone or Breath and Bone Music. It's called I'm on His side. And one of the lines in it is, I'd have quit long, I'd have given up long ago if I was doing it for you. And it's the whole mentality that like, yo, I, I'm not doing this for you. So like, don't think that you're the one who gets to tell me how I do this thing for Jesus. Right. But it's, it's so true though. Like, if you're doing it for anything but Jesus, you are gonna encounter a point in which it's too much.

Yeah. And sometimes it's just gonna seem like to some people, sometimes I think he's causing us to do or calling us to do is crazy. I mean, look, let's go back to Noah. No, they must have thought he was a crackpot and a half. But he was doing it because the Lord told him to. And it wasn't for them, it was for the Lord.

And that's an Old Testament. That's an Old Testament example.

Yeah.

New Testament known just past the New Testament, like 10 years ago.

Oh yeah.

We were called down here for a part time to 1400 mile drive. You know, living away a place to live up there, nowhere to live down here. Two full time jobs there, one part time job here. Like that. That in and of itself is crazy. Like we were set there, right. Bigger house than we have now. Like, like we were. It was great, great community. Like everything was good. Now we didn't have a good church home. So that's, that was rough. But everything else by the world standards specifically was great. Why do we leave? Right. Like sometimes I thought, okay, if it wasn't for God, there's no way we would have ever left. There wouldn't have been. It doesn't make sense, right? On paper it didn't make sense. Yeah, but there's a calling that gets placed on your life. You do things that don't make sense and God makes it all work.

Yeah, I, you know, it's funny, when I left the automotive field for ministry, I went, I left. And then it was a few months went by and I had to take my car back to where I worked for an oil change. And I thought that was really interesting. But I remember running into one of the higher managers and in the company and there had been a recall on a bunch of engines of that manufacturer. And he was just like, oh man, you left at the wrong time. We're making all this money on this stuff. And I realized like the difference in perspective in that moment.

Yeah.

You know, he's thinking about it only through that lens.

It's funny that you say that because the bridge goes, my pockets may be empty and I may stand alone. Like, yes, that lens is very different.

Yeah, it's wild because I was sitting there like that. I mean, the money they were making, yeah, they were making money, but it's, that's temporary. That's not going to go on forever. And what I'm looking to do is.

Yeah, so do you want to make dollars or jewels?

I want to serve the one who

has Dollars or jewels. Right. Are you going to do it for. For yourself and this brief kingdom, or are you gonna do it for God and his kingdom? Right. Like, whose side are you on? Right.

Yeah, it was just. It's just strange with the. For those. You know, the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. And it's so weird to see that played out in way. A lot of different ways in the world where people who don't get it.

Yeah.

Have such a wild perspective on life. And, I mean, it's. It's like a stark reality sometimes. But, yeah, I remember just kind of in that moment, just realizing it at. In real time going, wow, you just don't get it.

Yeah.

And that's. You know, I wish I could help him more with it, but he's got to come to terms with that too. Anyways, so. Yeah.

Yeah. Next question. Still. We're still on track. Worship and integrity is. Section three, question three, Section. Going through the question, Jesus declares, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves, exposing the difference between activity and authenticity. In what ways can religious busyness or church culture distract you from genuine worship, obedience and prayer? And I like the way this question is worded because it goes along with a question from a listener, I think two weeks ago, I think. And that was like, the whole, like, why don't we ever see people pray for obedience? You know, and that sort of thing. So I like the. The. That comparison because so often we get so caught up in. I got to do this, this, this, and this for church to happen.

Do me a favor, read just the question again.

In what ways can religious busyness or church culture distract you from genuine worship, obedience and prayer? So with. With that, like, we get so caught up in. I gotta get the communion cups there between services. I've gotta make sure that. I've practiced my sermon four times. I've gotta make sure all the chairs are in a certain order. I've gotta make sure that the Baptist ministry is hot, which is appreciative.

That is really nice.

But. But we get so caught up in. Every chord's got to be right. Every. Every singer's got to be doing perfect harmonies. Like, we get so wrapped up in this church busyness that as much as excellence is important, like.

And excellence can be an expression of one's worship.

Absolutely.

So that we're not downplaying that.

No, no, no, no, no. Not downplay, because those are great things. But whenever we are focused on that so much, and you can see this. Whenever something falls through, right. We lose sight of why we're doing any of it. And when something falls through, the crack. Worship leader sick. What you doing now? Pastor got sick last minute. Now what? You know, it's like. Which rarely happens, but I think that's why that was the last thing always working out.

I mean, it's handleable. We have, okay, besides myself, besides myself. We have, we have people that can get up there and give a message one way or another, right. Or, or lead a prayer Sunday or whatever we need to do. But this is all part of it.

But when those things happen, a lot of times people go, you know, or where we get so distracted in the fact that it's got to be perfect that we forget that if that's not there, Sunday's still going to happen, you know, and next week will still happen. You know, like barring the end of the world and Jesus coming back. Like most of the things that distract us so bad are things that if it got missed once or twice. Yeah, life moves on. Like, I understand we do a lot of these things and if, if it was never happening, it would be tossed on somebody else's plate. And I get all that and, and I get that our service is for the Lord and, and all of that, but we're talking about the. Are you fruitless? Right? Like that's, that's kind of our, our topic here. And so like that, that church busyness, that religious busyness or church culture stuff that you're doing definitely distracts from the intention of all of it.

A lot of times a couple of things you need to look at, especially for those in any kind, any kind, any kind of serving position within the church. I don't care if you're holding doors, making coffee, wiping floors, kissing babies. I don't care what it is.

Yeah, right.

There can be a time where you're doing it and you're not doing it in worship. You're not doing it from the right heart space. And that is, we gotta try to be as aware of times we're moving in that direction as possible. I remember when that was happening to me. I was at. This is when I was living up north. I ran a setup and tear down team. So we had, we were a Martin. I was part of a multi campus church and the campus that we were at was actually the only one that wasn't what we call brick and mortar. It was always the church. We shared a facility with a athletic center and they gave us a large amount of space that we could use not only during the week, but also with like a huge space for worship and stuff like that. That being said, every Sunday we had to go in and set up everything and then after church service, tear it all down and put everything away. And when I first took over that team, I was just loving it. And I had some really great people with some really good hearts, and we just did it with everything that we had. And it really was an expression of our worship. But as time went on, there was a period of time where it felt more like a burden, you know, where I was doing it out of. Because this is what I do. This and it. And this is what I need to do and it has to be done. And my heart went through a time where I was like, I don't enjoy this. There's no worship in this for me. This does not feel good. And it's not that I'm looking for the. Everything's got to make me feel really great inside. But the heart, the reason. The heart behind the reason why I took over in the first place was. Was starting to go dull. And I. I had to recognize that and try to, you know, put myself in a better place. And we, you know, it was amazing because we had some of the. Some of the best volunteers I've ever worked with in a church. And we have great volunteers here, but we had some people that made that mobile church, so to speak, just work in ways that just. It was amazing. It was amazing. I loved every single one of them. But, yeah, you gotta check yourself. I mean, if you're at the door and it's just because this is my responsibility and this is what I'm told to do, and I got it. You might need to talk to somebody about either taking some time off from that or somebody help you get in back into the right heart posture there. Because we don't want to be doing things just because we have to do them. We don't want to have to go through the. Go through the paces of something without the heart behind it. The reason that we want to serve in the church, no matter what you're doing, the reason that you want to smile at people when they come in the door and shake people's hands, because you. This is a way that you can help worship the Lord by showing them the heart of the Lord. And that's in you.

Yeah.

One of the things I mentioned in the sermon was that, you know, Jesus is going to send people to you, and if you don't have any fruit for them, how are you supposed to feed them.

Yeah.

You know, if you're. If you're in a bad place with that kind of thing, you're. You're basically eating your own fruit and you have nothing for anyone else, and. And you won't even see it. You're fed, but you're not able to do the things, you know, And I don't want to be that person. I don't want any. I don't want anybody here to be that person. I would much rather somebody come to me and go, look, I'm really just. I'm not. I don't know what it is, but for some reason, I'm just not loving this right now. And then. Okay. Helping them either work through it. I don't know, sometimes you can fix it, and sometimes it's like, okay, let's see who can step in and give you a break.

Yeah. Well, just like love is not a feeling, but it's a choice. Worship is not a feeling, It's a choice.

Yeah.

And it's something that is. As love is hard to do. I would say. I would almost argue that worship's easier than loving, but based on the definition of love expressed in First Corinthians. But it's a choice. It's not just a feeling. Like, I don't. I get tired of hearing people, which. I actually haven't heard this in a while. So none of you that are on the praise team now? I don't think so. But I get tired of people on the praise team being like, we're doing this song again. I'm tired of this song. It's like, yo, check your heart. You know, we need a check heart sign. Like, church check heart light. Right? Check heart. That would be nice, right? To have, like a.

You also need a light for Nick on his long sermon. Oops. Wrap it up. Wrap it up.

He would. He would challenge that and go twice

as long as he would. He'd be like, well, 10 more minutes.

Challenge accepted.

So, yeah, I mean, I think that's right. And yeah, I also want to point out something that because we brought up worship and we keep saying something, but I just want to broaden the horizon of what we're talking about. Worship isn't just music or singing. It's not just serving, holding a door, or doing anything inside the church. When you come to faith, worship is everything you do. We worship and how we live our lives. Everything that we do is part of our worship to him. Because if you're living for the Lord, then everything you do is for Him. And that means everything's worship for him. So how we interact with people can be part of our worship to him. And when we think about it in those contexts, when you meet someone for the first time and you show them a little bit of Jesus, when you show them the fruits you give them where you're like, hey, and you welcome them and you make them feel like there's somebody who's important, and then you show them a little bit about how God has changed your life, even in just how that you approach them. That's part of our worship. You know, there's a responsibility in worship to live it out in as many ways as we can possibly do so. And, you know, one of the things we talked about, when it comes to what are some areas, if there's areas of your life that you're not trying to live out the gospel that you're not trying to live in worship to God, or you recognize that this isn't good for my walk with God, Jesus would not approve of this. That's an area that, that. That there's no good fruit there. And so what can we do? What can. How can we fix this so that it can be a fruitful part of your walk? It can be some more of your life in worship to God.

Yeah, that's good. That's good. So I want to end a little differently today. I want to try something. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna say, like, subscribe, do all the things, leave some comments. We've got that event on Eventbrite. It's the truth response live. Go sign up, get a ticket. It's free. And I know the food that's gonna be there because I know the people that are making the food and they've graciously decided to donate. Oh, my God. All of that food. So the truth response does not have to pay for it, which is yummy food. Wonderful. Thank you. You know who you are?

Awesome.

Love you so much. But the food is gonna be awesome. It's gonna be like a step up

from what I was explaining the events of April.

April. That's exactly what I was actually.

That's. I can't say that because Easter's in April. It's gonna be the second greatest event.

I don't know. Easter may not have enough food.

Oh, man. It's gonna be good.

It's gonna be a good time. It'll be. It'll be a good time. And we plan on having giveaways and

merch and who knows, one of these hats could shop.

You never know, I mean, could be hats, could be all kinds of stuff. So if you have suggestions or something you'd like to see us selling or giving away, let us know. Our big prize is going to be fun. I can't wait to get our hands on that. But it's definitely, it's all going to be truth response because you guys are just as much a part of the truth response as we are. And we thank you guys so much for all of the support and the love that you shared with us. So I just, I thank you guys so much. Go get a ticket on Eventbrite. They're free tickets.

It helps us do with the head counts. We know what to get there.

Yeah. And, and invite your friends. Bring, bring everybody. It's going to be a fun time. Even if you don't like podcasts, right? That's right. You're not listening to the podcast. You're listening to a live room. It'll be great conversation. And I'm sure there's going to be heckling. I, I know the crowd that's coming, some of them, so I know there's going to be heckling.

They even hear their heckles on the mic microphones.

I might set up a mic to where they can be great, wouldn't it? Oh, gosh. Yeah. So be careful what you say. No, I'm just kidding. So, so that all out of the way and said, I want to leave you guys with this. If Jesus inspected the roots of your life today, what would he find? And what step of repentance, surrender or obedience is he calling you to take next? God bless. Hey, thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and give us a like on itunes and Spotify so that you will never miss a show. And while you're at it, check out our Facebook and Instagram pages and make sure you tell your friends about this show. You don't want them to miss out on the truth because we are all about the truth here. Thanks for joining us this week and guys, God bless.