Navigate Podcast
Welcome to Navigate, we are two long term friends doing life and ministry together. I got tired of the same ole answers when I started looking for help when it came to my walk with God. So together we go deeper than most would on topics that most people have heard or were taught but never fully understood. It is our way of simplifying concepts that we may have over complicated throughout our lives. Bringing theology and life experience into each episode. It is our hope and desire to help Navigate your Christian walk with you
Navigate Podcast
Do Not Envy: Commandment #10
TJBHpodcast@gmail.com
What if the essence of our internal struggles could be traced back to a simple word: coveting? In this enlightening episode, we promise you’ll gain a fresh perspective on how deep-seated desires can shape our emotions and actions. With a playful nod to British accents and their cinematic allure, we begin by examining "The Professor and the Madman," using it as a springboard to explore the uniquely internal nature of coveting as outlined in the Ten Commandments. We unravel the intertwined relationship between coveting and envy, shedding light on how these seemingly innocuous feelings can ripple through our lives and society.
Hey guys, welcome back to Navigate. Justin, yeah, buddy.
Speaker 2:How are you? I'm uh, how are you? I'm thumping good, something, good Thumping.
Speaker 1:Thumping. Good, that was my.
Speaker 2:I watched um what was it? Oh, uh, the, the professor and the madman. Do you know what this is?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we read that book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like forever ago right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the dictionary right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's about the making of the English dictionary the first one. It's a fantastic read. There's a movie with Mel Gibson in it. And so I watched it last night and everybody had an English accent and he had a good Scottish accent, you know, which was like William Wallace.
Speaker 1:It was kind of hard to watch. I'm like hmm, Just say the line freedom Shave the beard, paint your face blue.
Speaker 2:Say it again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, but anyway so.
Speaker 2:I got British accent stuck in my head, but I will do my best to avoid speaking in a British accent for the rest of this podcast.
Speaker 1:I would appreciate it, I think we all would Govna. All right, let's finish off these 10 commandments. Let's go. I hope this has been satisfying in some manner, dude, I've enjoyed it. I've actually liked talking through them.
Speaker 2:I think that everybody hears about these growing up in the church and they're on some wall or something, but nobody actually takes the time to think about how this is literally God's prescription for a flourishing society.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know everybody's like yeah, yeah, yeah, do this, Don't do this. Yeah, yay, god Rules, no, exactly Rules, exactly Thanks or rules. This is actually God, like here. This will help you not to kill each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this will help you not to kill each other. You're welcome. I don't think we could talk so much about just one line, one sentence. Do not steal, there's 45 minutes for you.
Speaker 2:Tim, you underestimate my love for nerdiness and theology.
Speaker 1:You underestimate my genius. I don't know if I'd call it that, but some kind of weird fixation.
Speaker 2:you know, yeah, it's a condition. I have a parasite, but I'll be fine. Anyways should I read this thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, number 10.
Speaker 2:Here we go. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant, or his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Speaker 1:All right, specifically just those things.
Speaker 2:Well, yep, that's it. His car is fine, but you look at his donkey too long. By the way, in the KGV it's a different word and it's you know I got a wicked heart, so pray for me. But no, it's really trying to give you a list, which is interesting because, like Tim, you bring this up. The other commandments are like you shall not murder. It doesn't say this and this and this and this. It doesn't say you shouldn't commit adultery with Gina or Jim or you know.
Speaker 1:I was going to say I can imagine Don't murder your wife, Everybody else.
Speaker 2:It doesn't say don't steal this list, right. It doesn't say you shouldn't bear false witness. You know, in these ways this is the one where it's trying to give you like a look at me, look at me, this or that or that. He might as well be standing outside somebody's house pointing at all of his stuff that you've been ogling all day.
Speaker 1:You know what?
Speaker 2:I mean it's very telling. And what's weird about this commandment Tim is the other ones are like externally verifiable. Yeah, all right so if you think about stealing, you know if somebody stole it or not. You know hypothetically like the item is gone. He has it. He doesn't Whether somebody knows that or not, there's physical evidence for it.
Speaker 1:If you get murdered, you'd probably know it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stealing, murdering, lying it's all external stuff. This commandment is in a category of its own in that it's an internal thing the Lord is telling you not to do.
Speaker 1:All right, which will probably explain why he went into a little more detail.
Speaker 2:Well, it's at least, and remember, we talk about this right, just because something is a sin doesn't make it a crime, but this is what Jesus does. When Jesus is talking about adultery and he's like listen, if you've lusted after a woman in your heart, you've already committed adultery, he's talking about adultery. And he's like listen, if you've lusted after a woman in your heart, you've already committed adultery. If you're angry at your brother, you're guilty of murder. Covening is that type of commandment where he's saying, hey, hey, hey, I'm not talking about the action here. I'm actually talking about your own thought, life in your own heart, which is pretty interesting If you just consider the implications of that. This is not something that somebody else is going to be able to look at you and say, oh, he's definitely doing this. This is something between you and God that you were either doing or you were not doing, and the implications of doing this wrong man it's everywhere.
Speaker 1:What's the actions that get involved when you're coveting over somebody else's stuff? It's an internal thing, but is there an external? I like to define like our world.
Speaker 2:The word I would use instead of coveting is envy. Envy Like that, to me, is the word that really sums up like what is actually happening. What does coveting mean? It is having a desire for something that is not yours, that God didn't give you, and it creates a hatred, a frustration, an irritation with the person that has those things. Coveting never stops at I want this. It always ends in and you shouldn't have it either, right?
Speaker 1:When you don't deserve it. I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it seeks to punish the person who does have it. In your behavior towards them or in your behavior towards God. It's this really nasty thing where we don't just want what they have. We hate them for having it, For having it. That is what they have. We hate them for having it. That is what it is Ultimately. Tim, if you look at Satan, this is the hypothetical way that Satan felt he sees God, even though he's a created being that's perfect. He wants what God has and in that, becomes bitter rebels against God and falls. So you could say, oh, it's just, you know, it's pride. Well, yes, ultimately pride is rebelling against God. But what was it? What was the mechanism here? Desiring what somebody else had and feeling as though, because they have it, you should also have it. It's a perverted form of justice, that kind of we have going on inside of us. Now I would like to maybe tell a story in the Bible to help play this out a little bit, if you're interested.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, one of my favorite texts in the Bible that I feel like I bring up ad nauseum so if you're like, oh no, he's going there again, yes, I am Cause I feel like it's so important is the parable of the talents. Oh, yeah, okay, I feel like nothing brings this story home more than understanding the 10th commandment. Okay, matthew 25,. You have these three guys. One gets five talents, one gets two talents. One gets one talent. Okay, um, let's, let's paint it in the talent. Okay, let's paint it in the story that we have in our own world. Okay, so imagine you and two colleagues. You got a couple of coworkers. You'll work at the same job for years.
Speaker 2:One day, the owner decides to sell the company and gives each of you a small fortune. All right, it's not, you didn't have part of the company. Ok, he just sells it and he's like you guys have been great. I'm dividing it up, I'm giving it, I'm giving it to you, but instead of dividing it up equally, like one for one, one colleague receives a massive sum, another gets half of that sum and you receive a fraction of even what the second guy got. Now you don't say anything, right, yeah, but inside you feel maybe overlooked, frustrated, unworthy. And the owner's decision maybe wasn't personal, it wasn't a vendetta, but it feels personal, does it not?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think when we tell this story externally, in the framework of Matthew 25, really, yeah, god can do whatever he wants to do. You tell the story in the framework of our own lives. You're like how dare he do this particular thing? The scenario resonates with us because we all know what it's like to feel left out or undervalued. But the real issue isn't fairness, it's the assumption that we deserve what other people have. That's it. We think. If so-and-so has this, I should also have this. That is coveting. And underneath all of it is this profane idea of just what we think we should have and what, uh, you know, compared to what, what other people have. And from childhood we expect fairness. If only one person gets candy at the you know, at the department store, two of your other kids are going to freak out you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Well, they got candy. I should also have candy. That that's actually not true. Um, if someone is praised, we should be excited about that. If somebody in your life is being told, great job, you did an amazing thing, we should also want to jump on board and say man, you did way to go, great job. But the thing in our heart that is this breaking of the 10th commandment is well, how come I'm not getting praised? How come this isn't happening for me?
Speaker 2:We start comparing gifts, talents or blessing and we rewrite a narrative in our head that leads us from gratitude to resentment when we ask ourselves about the motives of why it happened and the deservedness of the person who received it. Um, it's, it's messy, it's, it's rewriting the story. Yeah, yeah, um, you could even say it this way Envy tends to distort your reality. God gives good blessings. He's deciding how things happen and where it's happening and what's happening. And in your head you're like no, they shouldn't get that. I should get that. I know better. I'm going to rewrite this in my head and now I'm bitter and frustrated and I am the victim in my own story.
Speaker 2:Okay, tim, enter Marxism. All right, for those of you that don't know what Karl Marx was trying to do is show that the entire story of human history is ultimately a struggle between those who have power and those who do not, and revolutions happen and all these different things happen. You have oppressor and those who are oppressed, you have victims and victimizer, and that's the story of all of history. The winners write the story, the losers continue to lose. The winners continue to hoard power, and until power is equally distributed amongst everyone, we will never have peace. That's kind of the story and you can see how you know. He was a child who got frustrated with his brothers and sisters a lot, you know. It's this perspective of turning how things are and the way things are written and what's being done into a weapon against other people that helps you feel validated in your feelings toward people that are totally unjust and wicked.
Speaker 2:Does the person with one talent have the right to be angry at God? No, why? Because it was a free gift already. So if you didn't know what the other guys received, you'd be like this is the best. Can you believe? He sold off his business and I got $200,000 of this thing. Amazing, your buddy comes up and you're like man, I got $500,000. And you're like, okay, this guy's a monster, right Like that. That is what our heart's condition is. That's what god does. He blesses us, he gives us life, he gives us good things and, uh, this distorted reality that we get with envy, man, oh my gosh, it can just eat you alive you know I see this play out when I watch pond star.
Speaker 1:Sometimes when somebody brings in, like I just want 100 bucks for it.
Speaker 2:And then it's like worth eight grand.
Speaker 1:It's like oh well, then I'll take $8,000. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:Suddenly their chin comes up, their shoulders come back. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:It drives me crazy watching that show sometimes. But to that point though, when you start coveting over your neighbor's stuff. Right, if I want that bitterness, resentment builds up.
Speaker 2:Do you think it falls into this fear of? Well, if I want what he has, I need to be like him. I think it can become that where you, so another I brought up kind of this Marxism from an economic standpoint, but Marxism, the way that we see it today, is being played out in race right, so like if somebody is. We talk about white privilege. Ok, so this is ethnic Gnosticism, which is what Woody Bauckham, I think, coined this phrase, but his idea is that these people have a specific power. Therefore, white people won't be able to understand and are outside of the realm of capturing or understanding that information and therefore unable to fathom or resonate with what it is. Ok, I want to like fight that right now, but I'm not going to go there. I want to like fight that right now, but I'm not going to go there. The idea that white people have a privilege OK, or just better than have all this stuff is this is this ultimate idea of envy that because they are this way, they have all these extra things and if they weren't this way, they would not have those things. But who gives, you know, things to people? Who is the ultimate decider of who gets what and when and how, and we would say God. God, ultimately, is the one who gives blessing. God is ultimately, the one that puts people in particular times and places in history, and oftentimes we just don't like what he's doing and we come up with reasons for why things shouldn't be the way that they are. I say it all the time, but Thomas Sowell has this quote. He says the middle class doesn't love the poor, they just hate the rich. It's not that they actually want to help people who have less, they're just mad at the people who have more and they leverage the people who have less to try to get more for themselves. Yeah, it's pretty messy. It's pretty messy. So this, ultimately, tim, is why we have cancel culture too. Okay, so you think about? Somebody has a position of power. If, if you want to think about it that way, I'm able to communicate these things, say these things, maybe on a podcast or on a platform where I'm able to speak to all these people my opinion, and so somebody else says I don't want you to have that platform, that platform belongs to me, and so I will leverage what I have to cancel your voice so that I can get what you have. What is that Envy? Ultimately, it's coveting. You shouldn't have that. I should have that. It's mine now. So I will silence anybody who thinks other than what I think, even if they worked for that or had this opportunity.
Speaker 2:Cancel culture with businesses, tim, is like people who are. You know, you're not allowed to espouse these things and if you do espouse them, we'll cut your funding. What is that? No, no, no, no, no. You have to go along with what we're saying and we should have what you have. How dare you be able to speak or defend these things when I think you shouldn't be able to? Now I'm taking them from you. Envy is ultimately why the Pharisees killed Jesus. All right, he's got these large followings, he's speaking the truth to people, he's doing miracles and people are like coming along and oh, this is great, and following him and not listening to them. And so why do they kill Jesus? Ultimately, because the claims that he's making and the power that he wields and the truth that he's speaking ultimately are all things that they want to hold for themselves, and when they can't have it, they'll kill the guy that does. Yeah.
Speaker 1:They lose the power for it.
Speaker 2:A murderous heart. Man is an envious heart and it's it's worth worth noting that Not just like Cain and Abel, you know. Yeah, well, think about this. This turns you on your brother, right? So that story in Matthew 25, the guy with the one talent says master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. What is he saying? You're a jerk.
Speaker 1:I'm not doing what you said I was going to do.
Speaker 2:And then they're jerks because they took what they shouldn't have taken. You know what I mean. But yeah, it's ultimately it's comparison. Yeah, cain and Abel, it's every other story in the Bible of conflict. They have what I want We'll kill each other for it right.
Speaker 2:When Jesus gives us the Ten Commandment, he's ultimately trying to communicate to us like, hey, this is a way to live that will actually keep you from blowing yourselves to pieces. This is a way to live that will keep you safe, because what's happening on the inside of you will eventually come out in all these other ways. If there's a commandment that is closer to the 10th commandment than any other 10, it's the first commandment. Right? It's to love the Lord, your God, like know him, follow him, know his heart, what he's doing, because if you align your values and your desires and what you're seeking with him, then it doesn't come out in all these weird kinds of profane ways. Like, if you get that, god owes you nothing. It goes a long way for you and we live in the wealthiest era in history.
Speaker 2:Yet we're still some of the most discontent people on the entire planet because we measure ourselves against others instead of seeing what we've been trusted by with God. We had all these self-help things and we got freaking antidepressants like crazy and everybody's like eating until they're absolutely disgusting and fat. And we all have housing and we just we think we need more and we're mad at everybody else from having it and it's like dude, god has given you so much more than you deserve. You could see yourself right now, what you look like from God's perspective. If I can see myself right now and my wickedness and how God sees me, I'd be like oh man, I'm a mess. I got a lot of this in my bones and it's not good People are just bored.
Speaker 1:That's why you know what I mean, do you think? I'm just trying to think through that a little bit.
Speaker 2:I just think they think that they know better than God. Yeah and um.
Speaker 1:Or they're just sitting around waiting for God to show up.
Speaker 2:Yeah sitting around waiting for God to show up. Yeah, I was just listening to this famous comedian. I can't even pronounce his name. Several of you would probably know it if I said his name but he was talking about how he's like the thing is real man. He's like you get a bunch of money. No-transcript changes nothing. The human condition stays the same and it's it's worth noting this man. So the comparison that we have and the the caricatures of life that are painted by everyone on their social medias and the pictures they display and everything else, are these beautiful like oh, look at me, and it's it's. It's this perfect discontentment ground that envy and covetousness grows in that everyone is infected with. If you think you don't have this problem, listen to me, you do. Yeah, yeah, you do.
Speaker 1:I remember several times after we got saved I was getting that resentment towards you a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember that. Was it because of my chest hair? I confessed that a lot.
Speaker 1:Your hair in general. Actually, okay, dig into this, tim, dig into this Because we did a lot of the same stuff together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And that was a blast, Don't get me wrong. But I had to turn to this point of everybody would kind of trample over me to get to you, yeah. So it was like what has he got that? I?
Speaker 2:don't? They wanted my donkeys. What?
Speaker 1:has he got? You know what I mean? Yeah, and it was worth it. Am I not the same? Like what genetic code that God bless you with? That I don't have, and I think this was with my brother a lot too. You know what I mean. He's a lot similar, kind of like you you know what? I mean Personality stuff. But yeah, I started getting that way with you too, Cause I'm like I want those things, you know, and I feel like I'm doing the same stuff, but yet I'm not.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm still the sidekick, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's. It's funny because it's a good thing to value what somebody else can do and has. It's another thing to want it for yourself. Right Like that. You know, you see somebody who's really good at something. Have you ever seen somebody who's like, uh, amazing, like the crystal glasses, you know what I mean. Like they'll have like 50 of those crystal glasses out in there that you know, with the finger around the rim where it makes like the, it makes the noise. You know what I mean. Like playing the glasses, you know.
Speaker 2:Okay, I think that's awesome. I don't want to be that person, you know what I mean. I just think we have to apply that kind of mentality to everything, just because if somebody is amazing at something, it shouldn't be. Gosh, I wish I could do that as much as it should be. Man, that's amazing. You could do that. And now consider what is best for me, considering who God has called me to be and made me to be, and I've, I've learned that I've you know yeah this is years and years ago, so it's worth bringing is Jesus.
Speaker 2:You know, in Matthew 25, jesus tells these guys hey, well done, good and faithful servants, you guys get to enter into the joy of your master, these guys who actually did something with what they had. But the other guy, the guy with one, the unfaithful servant, he let comparison steal his joy and purpose. Okay, so look, this is important that you hear this right. I'm going to say this is a good line. All right, Take this with you.
Speaker 2:Envy doesn't just bury your gift, it buries your gift and it buries you because God gives you something. But if you get bitter and frustrated and in your guts you're like, well, I didn't get that, I didn't get that, then what you do? What does this guy do? He takes his gift and he goes and he buries it and by burying the gifts and stuff that God has given him, he eliminates himself from having the opportunity to do something. He buries himself, he buries his gift and then he buries God, because you're the one, ultimately, that stole from me and didn't give me what I wanted. Envy buries the person as much as it buries the gift. And you see this kind of in our culture today a little bit Tim, because there's so many people that are upset and frustrated with everyone else. Everybody's watching the person who's the greatest at this ever on YouTube or whatever doing all this stuff, and then what do they do? Well, I won't even try because, well, I'm not like that, so I can't.
Speaker 1:I do that all the time Right.
Speaker 2:And what does it do? Well, I have gifts, I do have abilities, I am good at things, but I'm not going to do it because I can't be them if it's, if I'm not as good as that guy, then what's the point?
Speaker 2:then what's exactly?
Speaker 2:That's?
Speaker 2:That's how envy gets you to bury yourself, because, ultimately, the things that you could be doing or how you could be walking out of the fruitfulness that you could be having, um, ends up being buried and and you don't even give it a go, you don't do anything with it because you feel like it can't be what you, what you want it to be.
Speaker 2:You got to ask yourself like are you missing out on fruitfulness in your life Because you're so busy comparing? Are there things that, like gifts that God has given you uniquely that you're too busy looking at everyone else so you've decided not to use? And is envy turning you into a critic instead of a contributor? Are you the guy who is constantly like oh, instead of giving and helping be a part of what's going on? I just I spend all my time critiquing everybody else and telling them how not to do it, not because I'm actually helping be valuable in the situation, but because I like reminding other people that I know more than they do. It's just another kind of power play in that whole area, right?
Speaker 1:I like what you said once about the talents, about the guy who got the one. You said this one time it was like maybe God knew he could do more with that one than the other two guys could do with hers. 100%, I'm like that's such an interesting thought.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and is it possible that the five talents you know what I mean that he's given? Is it possible that if he gives that to the guy with the one, it absolutely crushes him? Yeah, and he actually he blows his life up because he can't deal with that kind of resource.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. It's not something he's able to do. Yeah, it's such a it's, it's such a weird deal, man, that he goes and he hides his talent in the ground. Envy isn't just wanting what others have, it's it's like this, resenting them for having it. And one of the ways we punish others is through, you know, inaction. You know we punish God ourselves sometimes by not doing anything with what he's given us, because we're too busy comparing to other people. So I'm going to punish the people around me and I'm going to punish God by not doing anything with the gift that he's given me.
Speaker 1:We keep talking about that gift that we have, but how do you find that?
Speaker 2:Man? That's a great question, so it does lead back to some of this conversation, so let's talk about it. Envy is noticing what other people have in a way that creates bitterness, frustration and immobility. All right, let's say adoration or respect or honor are noticing things that people are doing or what they have in a way that is consistent with what God has required, which is, if something good is happening, I should notice that, I should care, I should want to contribute. Again, envy is the opposite direction. I notice it, I'm frustrated and I'm going to try to attack it. And I attack it by, like I said, burying what I have or by actively assaulting what you have.
Speaker 2:But when you notice something that somebody is doing that is fabulous, that you feel like you can actually contribute to, then you should All right. So if you're reading, this is me all right, I'm just going there. But if you're reading theology books and you're trying to teach people about Jesus and you're trying to help do some life coaching and help them catch momentum where they've got stuck in some things, and you hear somebody doing that, you're like man, that's awesome, I can do that too. I want to do that. I can't do it like you can.
Speaker 2:But I can help this guy. I can't do it the way that you're doing. I don't have the resources or ability. I don't have the brain power of an Al Mohler. You know what I mean. Who does I feel like that guy's he's insane. But I do have the ability to create an impact and contribute to what God is doing through that man in some unique way in my own life. And either you look at that and say I shouldn't try, or you look at it and you realize, oh, something of what God has placed inside of him, God has also placed inside of me which is a way of seeing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because, well, or because I feel uniquely called to it, there's some things I want to do. Tim, I want to play the saxophone. Okay, do I feel like that's highest and best for me right now? No, I'm fascinated by tons of things that I don't feel like are the talent that God has given to me.
Speaker 1:All right. So how do you figure that out?
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's get into this for a second. All right, so let's talk about, like, the office of apostle, all right. And then I want to talk about the gifts of the apostle, and then I want to talk about the calling of an apostle, all right, just to break this down for some people. Just to break this down for some people. Okay, an apostle is an office that God gives to people that is to function in an authoritative position within the church. All right, the calling of an apostle is somebody who is uniquely called by God to function in this role as an ongoing vocation, so it's not just in one location or one church, it's anywhere I go. This is what I'm going to do. The gifting of an apostle is usually like administration, leadership, discernment, wisdom. They're the person who comes along and is able to function in a lot of these attributes that help them in the office of apostle that uniquely come alongside the calling of an apostle.
Speaker 2:Okay, so remove the title of apostle and insert whatever unique thing you think you're talking about. All right, so if you play the saxophone, you may have a knack for music in general, but the way that you use music is through the saxophone. And how do you. What's the category for saxophonist or whatever it is? Is musician, all right? So you should be asking yourself am I contributing to the music? Um, that that God has called unique people to all over the world. I can't play the piano. That's fine, that's okay. God hasn't called you to do that. If, uniquely, you're good in this particular area, now could you learn with some of those things, learn how to play alongside some of them, or things like that? Yeah, totally. But but you need to know hey, what is it that I'm supposed to be doing? How do I grow in that and some of that? You, you figure out through. You know, I guess experimentation is a good way to see it, but a lot of like identifying your gifts.
Speaker 2:Tim starts, starts like with a shotgun right, it's buckshot, you're doing stuff and you pull the trigger. Somebody asks you to do something and you're like I will literally do anything and I'll do it everywhere. All right, every one of those little BBs represents something that you're giving your time to. You're just you're. You're willing to just try different stuff. This is kind of high school. It's like try this, try this. Listen, check out this subject. Check out this subject. Check out this subject. I don't know if you like this College is a little bit more of that, but it's also a little bit tighter.
Speaker 2:We've moved from like the classic 12 gauge to like a 410 shell. Okay, it's a little bit less, it's a little more isolated. Potentially, you know, a larger grade or something like that, where I'm trying to give less effort and attention in all these different areas over a larger span. I'm trying to give more effort in a smaller area and eventually, if you continue in that, tim, if you keep practicing and working at it, it gets even narrower. And now I'm more like a 30-06.
Speaker 2:I'm high impact and a lot of force in one small area for maximum impact.
Speaker 2:The more buckshot won't kill a deer, it'll wound it, but it doesn't have the force in one area to make an impact that it should. It'll scatter across the thing, might put it out an eye, but you'll never have the impact you could have if you're focused in every area as much as you could, if you really focused on one or two things that you're actually very in solid at, and I would say those one, two, maybe three things, if you're very gifted, coincide. This is why an apostle tends to have an office, a calling, and he usually has leadership, wisdom, discernment you know what I mean Administration All of those tend to go together. Discernment you know what I mean? Administration all of those tend to go together. Um, and he and he finds a way to load them in a way where, when I use this, I'm hitting all three of those gifts at the same time. Somebody who's, uh, great at theology and great at writing and great at studying Okay, those it's like. Well, that's the best case scenario.
Speaker 1:You got all the gifts that work in the same area.
Speaker 2:That's not always the case. Some guys, tim, are fantastic public speakers who may not be, let's say, theological magicians. You know what I mean. And so what do they do? Well, they hire somebody who is Now I got two, two talent guys working together you know what I mean and they're helping become the five talent person together that they couldn't be otherwise. Right, and man, I want to talk about like gifts and who, and not how, and all this stuff that can come along. There's some leadership principles in here that can overflow into finding your unique gifting or your signature strength, or whatever you want to call it. But all of us are good at certain things.
Speaker 2:I've said it a bunch of times what irritates you and what gets you really passionate are usually good indication of something that God has put inside of you.
Speaker 2:The question is are you going to let envy, comparison and frustration empty you of the purpose that you should have in your life by making you bury it and with it yourself? And oftentimes people have gifts and abilities and cool things that they could do that they bury because of envy. And the 10th commandment is this way of saying hey, with people's wives, with people's husbands, with people's cars, their houses, their stuff. Listen. If you don't keep that under wraps and by that I mean if you don't control yourself and submit your thoughts and your actions to God, you will become the kind of person who will end up either A destroying the people around you or B ultimately destroying yourself. Hear me on this In defiance of God, because it's an act of anger and you're trying to punish him. This is why Satan hates creation is because he wants to kill the thing that's made in the image of God right, and that kind of thing is what leads you to be sitting on the couch more than you should be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, right, and that kind of thing is what leads you to be sitting on the couch more than you should be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, it's this. Well, when we say things like, well, I wouldn't have done anything anyways, you just buried your gift, that's all you did. That's you telling God well, if you would have given me more, I would have done more. And that's not true. Again, if it's a business and some guy sells the thing and gives you $100,000, you shouldn't be sitting there asking how come I didn't get more. You should be sitting praising this man for hooking you up and giving you an amazing gift. That is our relationship with God. God has given you gifts. He's put breath in your lungs. He's put strength in your hands. He's given you abilities. He's given you insights. He's given you in the gospel of Jesus, in the gospel himself. There's no reason for any of us to sit back and bury anything, and when you do, you need to realize that you are trying to punish God. You have an envious, covetous heart and you're responding by being destructive instead of constructive.
Speaker 1:I think I've always been waiting for God to come to me in a dream. Just do this, you're good, okay.
Speaker 2:So let's do that real quick. Let's take that. Why do you think, why do you want him to come to you in a dream?
Speaker 1:Because that's for me, that's when I can pay most attention.
Speaker 2:No, no, you like that idea because other people have had that happen.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:You are comparing yourself to somebody else. You're saying, well, Joseph had a dream, If I just had what that person had, then I would really take it seriously. It's very true. It's only because we have that comparison mentality that we drag it into our own lives and we think that if I just had that then I would. And it's not true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or if I just had somebody like you know what, do this than I would, and it's not true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or if I just had somebody like you know what? Do this? Well, cause people, people look at what we have right now and they say the same things we say about the people that we're comparing ourselves to. Yeah, you know, there's. There is no excuse for any of us, and when we stand before God, none of us get to tell him you know, well, here's why I didn't do. Or here's what. There are no excuses before the almighty. When here's what? There are no excuses before the almighty, when he gives you something and he blesses you with something, he expects you to use it for his kingdom and build it and do something valuable, and that that wicked servant in Matthew 25, in the same story in Luke, gets thrown out into the outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. I think in. I think in Luke, the story might actually say something like um he, he has him executed in front of the other guys, like it's brutal.
Speaker 2:You're like oh man, it really is wickedness. Not just because he didn't do something with it, because ultimately, his heart was rebellious and angry at God. And when he did that, if you consider what happened, the other guys went and took something valuable that God took out of his own resources and gave to them, and they did something with it. This wicked servant received something out of God's own grace and out of his own pocket and buried it in anger against him. It's just wickedness, it's all it is. So when you think about, like I said, cancel culture, racism, the worst aspects of a capitalistic society that leverage people's jealousy and envy to try to sell product All of those things are standing in direct opposition to the Ten Commandments and what God is telling people to do. And again, it's not an external thing. This one starts in your heart and it will define whether you do something with your life and worship God or whether you will bury your life and blame God, and all of us have to make that kind of decision. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I know I have this problem where I daydream a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Mostly because I'm by myself, you know, doing mindless stuff all the time. That sounds nice, but there's a past, yeah. If there are changes, I'll miss it, but I think that's why I'm so good at it too. Practice, practice but somebody told me that like that's just another form of jealousy and envy is that you're trying to prescribe your future yourself and not allowing God to do it.
Speaker 2:I think I would have two takes on this. One would be if you're fantasizing about all these really cool things that could be happening or how it would feel or what it would look like or whatever. Yeah, that's, that's probably sin. Yeah, the other side of it is are you creating your own mythos to make sense of what's happening around you? Like to me, most guys like stories of war and fighting and battle and dragons, because they actually kind of feel those things happening around them.
Speaker 2:And God has given us these grand stories of angelic, supernatural beings and things to help us understand what's more of what's actually going on.
Speaker 2:And your imagination is touched by the divine in such a way that you can see those things in a way that is pretty amazing, a way that you can see those things in a way that is pretty amazing, and you think about not having an imagination or being able to create things in your mind or, like, come up with these ideas.
Speaker 2:That's a good gift from God and you either use it for him to understand and comprehend what's more of what's going on around you and put faces and scenarios to the grand battle that you're actually in, or the grand difficulty or the glorious finish that you're actually in, or the grand difficulty or the glorious finish that you're hoping to have, or you leverage those things in rebellion to God, which is what I should have had and how I feel.
Speaker 2:And it's the difference between listening to a worship song, tim, and a country song. I hate to say this, but you know there's some songs where it's like depression and frustration and anger and it takes your heart to this place where you feel so comfortable in this victim mentality and it's like when you use your emotions and imagination to sit in a puddle of your own slime, that's sin. When you're using your emotions and imagination to help you live in the way that God has called you to, or to reflect the glorious calling that you have, that's a wonderful, good use of that which is probably closer to worship you. You know you got to choose, you make those decisions, but yeah, all of that, all of that matters, all of it matters.
Speaker 1:Wow, Cool man. I think that will conclude our 10 commandments Nice.
Speaker 2:Guys, it's been fun. I've enjoyed going through these. Sorry, we've been a little bit spotty getting these done. It's just been crazy and busy in some different ways, but I've really enjoyed talking about it with you all. We'll be back here very soon. We've got another series and some other stuff that we're going to knock out for you, so stay tuned and we'll be back at it again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, guys, all right.
