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
Surrendering Expectation
Surrender rarely feels natural. It runs counter to our cultural values of independence and self-determination. Yet paradoxically, it sits at the very heart of authentic Christian discipleship.
In this thought-provoking conversation, we explore what God truly expects from His followers. The answer is both simpler and more demanding than most realize: complete surrender. Not partial commitment. Not weekend worship. Not Christianity-as-a-supplement to our pre-existing life plans. But a total reorientation of our desires, ambitions, and identity.
This surrender begins with death—the death of our autonomous self that runs on its own desires and seeks its own glory. As Jesus taught, unless you deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Him, you cannot be His disciple. These aren't merely poetic words but a radical call to let our old self be crucified so Christ might live through us.
We wrestle with challenging questions: How do we discern between our desires and God's desires? Why do we often wait for better circumstances before being obedient? What's the difference between a Sunday attender and a true disciple? Drawing from powerful biblical examples like Gideon, we discover how God wants to transform what we have—our apartments, jobs, relationships, skills—into altars for His purposes.
Most profoundly, we confront the uncomfortable truth that what we're unwilling to surrender is precisely what stands between us and spiritual growth. The areas we grip most tightly are exactly where God is working. When we loosen our hold on our expectations and embrace His, we discover a life infinitely more meaningful than anything we could design ourselves.
This isn't prosperity gospel. God's plan might not include health, wealth, or comfort. But it does promise something greater: the privilege of participating in His redemptive work and experiencing the true life we were created for. Are you ready to turn your tables into altars?
Email: Tjbhpodcast@gmail.com
what's up guys? Welcome back to navigate. Yes, it's here, dude, we are back. We're so back. It's weird to see you through a computer screen bro.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, we got to tell everybody that there's a ghost in the room with us. Uh, we do. Yeah, the spirit of fred is Fred is now on every podcast doing tech shenanigans behind the scene. I think we're randomly going to reference Fred, or you know, like on those fancy podcasts, tim, where they're like you know whoever their name is. Look that up for me real quick, you know what I mean. Like we have that guy now and he's here, he's here in spirit guy now and he's here, he's here in spirit. So all of you listen to the podcast today. I want you to know that there is a there's a comforter with all of us besides the holy spirit when you listen to this podcast the spirit of fred haunts haunts the navigate podcast hi fred, yeah, um, so great you're, yeah, so grateful You're out in Texas now.
Speaker 1:I am, yes, I am in our old place. We used to record just staring at your empty chair.
Speaker 2:No, Tim, you were staring at me on a screen and I look more blonde because the sun has already began to kiss my hair with the sweet southern spirit of hospitality and gracious vicissitude of the deep south.
Speaker 1:Wow, you're going to do great out there.
Speaker 2:Had some barbecue. It's going well. Yeah, I'm enjoying it BS, I'll tell you what I mowed the grass today Felt right. Put a straw in my mouth while I did it, wow, yeah. For those of you that can't see, uh, I have a mullet now too, and uh, an American, no Confederate flag on my shirt, something like that. I don't, I don't.
Speaker 1:But we can dream, all right. Well, I wanted to actually revisit an old topic. Okay, this was probably the third topic we did. Cool, it's about expectation.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, let's talk about it Really, my first question to you would be like what kind of expectation does God have for us as we try to be a disciple for him? Man, it's a good question, because what you're trying to do is quantify what that looks like for each individual person, without me just saying, well, your whole life and all that you are and your allegiance and everything. But ultimately I mean that is in fact what it is God, when he saves you, ultimately kills you first. You know it's a death and it's a resurrection and it's learning to live in this. You know resurrection and it's learning to live in this. You know new way, oftentimes new patterns of you know thinking. Sometimes that looks like a new job, sometimes that looks like moving across the country to start a church, things like that. But yeah, I mean the Bible's pretty clear that God's expectation for us is ultimately that we would allow or enjoy real life coursing through us and Him living out life through us.
Speaker 1:It's a what's the real life Like. Is that a feeling You're talking about, like emotion?
Speaker 2:Yeah, think about it this way. You like, you know, uh, you grow up, you're doing your things, you're living the way that you want to live and, by and large, your desires are what make 90 of your decisions. For you, it's this is what I want, this is what I'm trying to achieve, and obviously there's going to be. You know, your parents aren't going to let you, um, you know certain things, but even that is a type of allegiance to my parents, because I love them and I want to do what they've called me to do. And you know, people say, like I have your best interest at heart, which ultimately means this is ultimately for you, that you're doing this thing, that you, uh, you know that, that you're waiting on doing this thing that you want to do, or whatever, because ultimately it's supposed to be better. But every drive is first a desire. It's a response that you have for things that you want in the way that you want to live, in the way that you want to go Correct. Yeah, does that make sense? That doesn't sound very Christian. Well, it's not. I mean, that's my point is our natural wiring is first our own desires, proclivities, propensities, the things that we are trying to chase after all the time that is constantly acting on its own desires and its own way and kind of bouncing like a pinball from one series of gratifying moments to another, trying to experience something that's closer to the life that we were meant to have in the first place, jamming, you know, the hole in our heart full of things that are momentary and, you know, vapid.
Speaker 2:If you want to say it that way, god kills that person and places new desires inside of you that are for something more than just yourself. He's, literally God is nailing you to the cross with Jesus. That's that Galatians 2.20. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.
Speaker 2:This functionally means that what I have said yes to is God murdering the scumbag and the empty vacuum that could continue to consume and only ran after its own pleasures and its own passions. He kills that guy, places his own spirit within you and gives you a new spirit that is to work in tandem with him so that his life could be lived through you. You are now a vessel for the kingdom of righteousness being made back, let's say being reverse-engineered to become what you were ultimately supposed to be, which was not an autonomous individual, bouncing around from one desire to another, but actually working out God's ultimate purpose in you, which is not your will, it's not your plan, it's not your way, it's not what you thought it was going to be. This is why, in Romans 8, it says your flesh and your spirit are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want.
Speaker 1:Well, here's what's tricky about this, and this is the trap I fall into. I have this thing I want to do, but if God's not in it, then it's probably just going to fail. So how do I know if God's in it? If I don't know for sure God's in it now I don't even know if I should try it Sure.
Speaker 2:Sure, I think some things are like. Think about it this way so God gives you new desires when you're made new right and what you're saying is Justin, sometimes I can't tell. Am I following a good desire that God has placed in my heart, or am I actually following an old, sinful desire that is still haunting? You know my brain and the way that I function right.
Speaker 1:This is the idea, right. It's like if this works out for me, then this is going to be great for me, my family, my finances, my everything. But now it's back to well. That's pretty selfish. How has God magnified in that Well?
Speaker 2:even that mentality starts with me, my finances, what I want to do, where I want to end up Like. That's probably not a great place to start, so, and this is unpopular, but let's just go there, all right. First century, all of these fishermen, you got, you know, guys like Nathaniel that are a Levite, that are probably going to become a priest. You have Matthew who's a tax collector. You have Simon the zealot. You got Judas, whatever you know purse snatching he was doing before he became a disciple or whatever happened there. All of these guys had lives. All of them had directions. They were going, the ability to accumulate wealth and pour into their family and do all the things that they wanted to do. And God says come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men right. And they start following him, they start walking with him and his crowds start to show up and more and more people show up. He starts to say more and more aggressive things Luke 14,. He literally says hey, just so we're clear and it says this, just so you know, while large crowds were following him if you don't hate your own father and mother and brother and sister and, yes, even your own life, you cannot be my disciple, and I think this is important, because what he's pointing to theoretically is the 12 guys that have actually given everything up and are now following him and have changed their entire life. And what are their desires now to follow Jesus? What's their direction Wherever he's going? What are we going to eat? What he tells us to eat? What are we learning about? What he wants to teach us? Yeah, but like what do your relationships look like? I don't know. I'm learning as we go, but we're making lots of friends and, you know, finding new things. Like everything that they did was new and they lost all these things. I mean they did. They lost the entire life that they used to have. It became a new thing entirely, and what's weird is it was in the same city and in the same place. Like they functionally became brand new people living entirely different lives.
Speaker 2:In a moment when Jesus said come, follow me. And he says you know, if you don't deny your own life, you're not worthy of me. So it's like he's pointing at these disciples, when he's saying you cannot be my disciple unless you're willing to do what these guys over here just did. Like you're not going to be able to do it. Well, what does that mean? A disciple means I have one ultimate allegiance to one teacher, and that teacher defines what I'm doing in my life.
Speaker 2:Now, did the disciple still get to decide when they needed to like use the bathroom? Yes, all right, like was it. Did they still have jokes and, you know, play games and do all the things? Yes, yeah. But the overarching theme of their life is God is ultimately directing. When he tells me to go, I'm going to go. When he tells me to stay, I want to stay. When he tells me to go to this town and you know, find the guy with the water jar in his head he's going to take me to the place we're supposed to have this dinner. Okay, that's super weird, jesus, but cool, I'll take this kid and we'll go get it done.
Speaker 2:Their life changed. And I think, when we're talking about desires and you're asking the question, how can you tell the difference between your own desires and these other desires? Over here, I would say, well, are they lining up with what Jesus is telling you to do? And if your first thought in your Christian life is my finances, my future, my kids, you know the family that I want to have and how that's going to work out and the house I want to live in. Ultimately, all of that would have to be in line with what Jesus is calling you to do first. And if Jesus has called you and has said I want you to give up your life, I don't want your family to get in the way of what I'm calling you to do. I don't want your own desires to get in the way of what I'm telling you to do right now, then you're not really a disciple. You're not really following me. You're just someone in this crowd over here and I can't help but feel like all the people that showed up in this crowd were. I should be careful but like their Sunday morning attenders. You know they show up and man, he passes out a really good communion that day and you know we got bread and fish and he's feeding people and you should see the light show when he does these miracles. You know what I mean. It's crazy. I mean I can't even wait for Easter. It's going to just be insane at this church.
Speaker 2:And I think that the thing is is, if your Christian relationship with Jesus is a couple of checkpoints where you meet up with him and his actual disciples, you're not actually a disciple, you're not actually following him, you're enjoying the parade of people who are living that way in town while you yourself have not given your own life up and ultimately have broken allegiances Like this is. This is kind of the the verbiage in James, chapter one yeah, what is it? Verse five through eight, where he's like the double-minded man who's unstable in all that he does. He shouldn't expect to receive anything, because he's like a way being tossed back and forth. He's like dude, you don't know what you want and because of that you're never actually going to be able to accomplish the fullness of what I've called you to do and ultimately, you're not even going to be able to accomplish what you want to accomplish because you're stuck in some kind of in-between.
Speaker 2:So navigating the what are my desires and what are God's desires question obviously is incredibly difficult in some sense, and in another sense it can be pretty easy. There's a lot of stuff we know we're not supposed to do. There's a lot of stuff we know we're supposed to do. The question in between, then, is what is going to allow me to leverage what I have to the greatest ability to serve Jesus. But if you're already starting with. Here's the prerequisites that I have for you, jesus, and if I don't have these things, I can't follow you. It's not going to work out.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that's the expectation we have towards God. Is that? A lot of times, I think I'm expecting a miracle rather than following him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just show me another sign and I will come back tomorrow. And if you keep showing me signs every day, I'll come back every day. But that's not the same as saying, right, but I'm going to give up my stuff. I mean, jesus said radical stuff, like a guy literally is like Jesus, my father died, can I have a second? You know what I mean? Can I bury my father? Probably take a week before I'm able to come back and then actually do this.
Speaker 2:And he said let the dead bury their own dead. And this is an intense statement, because the point that he's making here is all the people who are not following me are dead. All the people who are not following me are dead. Let them bury the dead. Let the people who are already dead bury the dead. And I mean that's a dang, jesus. You know that's just a. That's a savage thing to say to a guy who just lost his dad, but he was no pun intended Dead, serious yes, about what it actually meant to follow him.
Speaker 2:And even if your father has just passed away and Jesus says it's time right now and you don't follow him, what you're saying is I'm dead, my allegiance is somewhere else, I don't have that life. I mean, you've got crazy stories In Ezekiel, tim I was just talking about this with a couple of guys where God tells Ezekiel hey, your wife's going to die. And what I want you to know is that you're not allowed to mourn her death. You're not allowed to because I'm trying to show the world something through your circumstance right now. And so what's the ultimate requirement that Jesus is telling him? It's my life through you, right now, I'm trying to live through you. I'm trying to use you as a vessel and an entity that would communicate to the world the radical glory of God.
Speaker 2:And if your, let's say, appetites are continuing to trump what Jesus is telling you to do and comfort is trumping what Jesus is calling you to, then ultimately you are not a disciple. You're one of the people in the crowd that are following Jesus along and enjoying the benefits of what other Christians are doing, but you're not part of it. And, tim, you've worked at churches for a long time. You know how this is. There's a ton of people who show up at a church on a Sunday, who don't serve, who don't give, who don't get in groups, who don't find community. They're not actually involved in the life of the church or the thing that sustains the life. They're more interested in enjoying the life that's being provided by people who are doing the real things.
Speaker 1:I was going to say they're the most, I think, demanding. Yeah, those types of people, yeah, they really are Like, they have this expect oh, you're a church, therefore I could use your facilities for anything I want, when I want to.
Speaker 2:It's a little bit like the welfare system, you know and I'll be careful about this, because here's the deal there are people who are coming to church, who are just in recovery mode and it's like, dude, my whole life just blow up. I literally can't do anything. I'm just here falling on my feet before Jesus, trying to get my head on straight and worship and pour into him. But the vast majority of people who are living in that kind of turbid state of religiosity are not actually in that place at all. They're just more interested in everything else that they have going on in their own life. Our welfare system is similar. There's so many people on the welfare system that should not be. They can work, they can get jobs, they can provide, they can do things, but ultimately it's bloated with a ton of people who are just getting away with enjoying everything else that's going on. And Jesus looks at those people and says you're part of the crowd, you're not a disciple, I mean. And later in that text he says it's like if you want to follow me, think about it this way. It's like a guy who goes out to build a tower and he's actually got to calculate am I going to finish this tower, or am I going to stop halfway when something that I see, more important than that than that tower, shows up? Or like a guy going into battle, you know, and he's got 10,000 troops and another guy's got 20,000 troops. What, uh, you know what? If, what? If he decides, no, I'm going to go to war with that guy and then, um, later on, oh, I made a mistake, you don't get to change your mind halfway through, right before he's at your door. It's not going to work. You have to make a conscious decision that when I'm following Jesus, I actually mean I'm dying and it's going to feel like this, because the thing that I didn't say earlier is you have to deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Jesus, which is in that same spot. But I think he says daily, take up your cross daily.
Speaker 2:And there's some scholars—Tim I brought this up Sunday there's some scholars that think that there were probably people that were randomly, like, actually crucified outside of the city. You know what I mean? Like it was a death that was brutal, but they would do it randomly for really bad guys, for murderers, for things like this. It was a way of death. It's very possible that where Jesus was located, he was able to point to people who were actually crucified and say if you don't take up your cross and point to those people over there and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. And everybody would have been. You know, like low key, like calm down, jesus, could you do the bread multiplying thing again? That would be great, that would be really helpful, you know. But he's telling them something so serious.
Speaker 2:And what struck me this week, tim, as I was going through this text with some of the people in our church plant, is the reality that Jesus, his kingdom, the wrath of God, if you want to think about it that way is set against those who are dead and he's welling up wrath to provide the second death for people who refuse to choose life and give up their ground and their territory and their stuff and all the things that they're addicted to. And he's saying I have a better life for you, but if you will not give it up and allow my life to live through you, if you're going to continue to proliferate the behavior of Satan himself, which seeks to create a counterfeit kingdom that is set against me, then I will set myself against you, because what I'm creating, the new kingdom that I'm building does not have space or room for people who are going to live in that kind of reality and actually continue to tarnish the good ground that God is coming to redeem. And I was thinking about that passage and it's a good reminder to us, because Jesus is the Prince of Peace who comes to offer us peace, and in John 14, it talks about this right. He's the one who comes to offer peace to us. The word for peace there is literally when somebody was surrounded by an army and would offer them terms of peace instead of destroying all of them. Jesus is the one who comes to give us peace with the Father. So when he talks about an army of 20,000 men and you with 10,000 men going against him, he's literally saying I want you to know I'm offering you peace now. Take it now, because if you don't take it now, you will not be able to ask for peace later. You won't get it On the other side of things. There isn't a second opportunity on the other side for offering peace when the wrath is coming.
Speaker 2:And then he tells them if salt loses its saltiness, what is it good for If you lose your ability to contribute to the thing that we're actually trying to accomplish. What is it good for? And the story rings true throughout most of Scripture, man that people who desire to hold on to all of their belongings and things and try to salt Jesus into their life, jesus is calling them dead into their life. Jesus is calling them dead. And you could say you're a Christian and you can go to church on a Sunday and not allow the life of Jesus to actually be living through you and say, god, what I have, where I'm going, what I'm doing, it's ultimately for you. It's like the word here, tim, is surrender. So when you ask about expectations, really the expectation that Jesus has is full surrender.
Speaker 2:If he is your king and he offers you terms of peace before he comes in and destroys the entire city, that king would then send like somebody in who would then tell everybody here's what life is going to look like now. Here's what you're going to look like now. Here's what you're going to have to give up. This is what belongs to the king. This is what we're changing in the city. They wouldn't blow everything up, but they change a bunch of stuff and it's the same in your life. You have a new king. God's not looking to blow everything up in your life, but he is looking to change who the ruler is and who you're answering to ultimately in the decisions that you're making and how you're making them. I was going to say it does feel like that, like a new king, and a new ruler?
Speaker 1:No, he just wants to blow up your life.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, think about it this way If you're holding onto a bunch of stuff that is not good and not God-glorifying, I mean, he is coming to kill you.
Speaker 1:Right yeah, but about that, like is it? There's still a responsibility, I think, like we have as being a father or husband or whatnot. You know Totally, Totally.
Speaker 2:And that's part of God's commandments is that you take care of your family. Right Part of God's commandments would be all that.
Speaker 1:God, I want this promotion, I want this job or I want this desire that I can't get rid of, or whatnot, because it'll be better for them. Yeah, is that still a sinful way to look at it? Not at all.
Speaker 2:Not at all. I think you can make requests to God for stuff that you want. I think you can do what he's called you to do, which is, take what he's given you and multiply it. The question is, what is he asking you to multiply? What has he given you to actually do? And are your priorities lined up in such a way that you're not 10 steps behind or 10 steps ahead, trying to get something else done when you haven't even built the foundation?
Speaker 2:I think a lot of us, myself included, want to be farther along than we are, and one of the most frustrating things in my Christian walk, tim, is running into old sins, running into stupid stuff. That I shouldn't be struggling with this anymore problem you know what I mean with my attitude or I shouldn't still have this degree of, you know, difficulty having faith about this circumstance or this thing. But, man, the longer I'm a Christian, the more I realize how often my allegiance to Jesus is challenged and I have to continue to say am I surrendering? Am I doing what God has called me to do, or am I going to continue to fight against the one who has come to give us life and actually give us joy and turn the blighted ground into something beautiful. And you have to come to grips with the reality that we are the ones that are blighting the ground, with the reality that we are the ones that are blighting the ground when we fight against God. Ultimately, even with expectations that you know we hope seem good for us, oftentimes we can be poisoning the very water that we're trying to produce, and only God knows how to actually produce life. And so for the disciples this didn't look like doing all the stuff that they wanted to do. I mean, most of them became, you know, missionaries in different places. Or you know Peter's, helping run the church and put stuff together and teaching the Bible.
Speaker 2:And I'm not saying everybody is supposed to teach the Bible, give up all their stuff and go become a missionary. I am saying everyone is on mission and everyone's mission can be very different. I don't think God's plan for everyone is health, wealth and happiness, and I think the sooner we come to grips with that, probably the better off we will be. Now I'm not saying we shouldn't fight. I think God blesses people and he makes it clear that when people do what he's called them to do and walk out what he's called them to walk out. It literally benefits everybody, like everything gets better and his blessing will rest on people. But that's not an isolated thing where one person gets lucky and this guy just had a good break, or God just loves this guy more than I do. No, it's a series of people giving up their life and God giving back to them what they were willing to give up. And I don't mean the same thing, I mean the same value with whatever it is that he wants to do through them for his kingdom and for what he's trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2:You know, and I think it's okay to look at other people who are crushing at a particular area there's a lot of like communicators that I look up to, that I'm like man, I'm never going to be that good at that, and that's okay.
Speaker 2:There's some people that know stuff that I just I don't. There's some people that are incredibly wealthy and know how to manage wealth in a way that I just I can't even fathom or understand, and if I look at those people with frustration and I have an expectation that I'm supposed to also be all those things I'm just wrong and actually that's what starts to poison the ground. The question is God, what have you given me? How am I using it for what you've called me to do and how do I make sure that my heart and my appetites actually line up with what you've called me to, rather than having a dual allegiance of also building a tower of Babel on the side for what I want to do? And as long as me and Jesus are running in the same way, it's fine. But when there's a fork in the road, I have to sit down, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just uh, I just had my birthday right A couple of days ago. Yeah, I'm only 35, but this one hit different, I don't know why, and I remember just staring around. I've looked up my two girls and my son and my wife and this crappy little apartment. I'm like I've worked so hard and this is all I have to show for it. Yeah, yeah, I'm like what the heck am I doing? You know, yeah, and I don't know how to get out of that, right, or because you start kind of reminiscing of opportunities you should have taken, that you didn't take, or should not have chosen that decision over this decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know you don't see a lot of that in the Bible, and what I mean by that is nostalgia, like it's not a thing. You know, even in Ecclesiastes it says do not look back and say why were the former days better than these? You know, the goal is to, wherever you are, acknowledge where you are and do something with it. There's a text that I just read in Gideon Tim that kind of blew my mind for a second and I don't know if this will help encourage you through some of that. But the picture is Gideon and he's in his cave sifting wheat because he's trying to hide it from the Midianites. They own the land and if you sift wheat outside, they're just going to come through and steal your stuff. They were just robbing the entire nation blind. Robbing the entire nation blind and in a fit of a glorious civil disobedience, gideon finds himself in a cave trying to sift wheat so that he can continue to provide for his family and not have to give it away to everybody else. Um, the angel shows up and is like you know, calls him a mighty warrior and all this stuff, and and he's arguing back, he's like where are your miracles? You know, where's the God that did all the awesome things to get us out of this situation. You know what am I? You know where's that God? And God doesn't even answer the question. He basically tells him have I not told you to do this? Well, told him what To liberate all the Israelites from the situation that they're in? Have I not told you? He doesn't say I'm telling you to go, do it now, although that's implied. He's also saying that it's already been within your grasp to do it. And then he tells them to go and, like, tear down the altars in his dad's backyard, which is wild because he would have lived on the property Like Israelites, literally, like they kept the same part of land You'd build a home on for your own family, that would be on the same land as your father's, and like it was a whole thing. So, really, gideon's got an altar for Baal and Asherah in his backyard and God's like you know what you're supposed to do, you know you want this stuff to get better. I want you to take care of these circumstances.
Speaker 2:And then this thing happens and this is this is what I wanted to get to. He brings out a sacri, a meal for this angel, and it's in a basket and the the angel tells him I want you to put it on this rock. And he puts it on this rock and then fire comes up from the rock and devours the sacrifice, which was meant to be a meal, like it was like we're going to break bread together, we're going to eat, we're going to. You know, let's do the way they did it. Then it was like fondue, it was like here's the meat, we're going to put it in the boiling, you know, and it'll be delicious, we'll eat it together.
Speaker 2:And what occurred to me? Into an altar. I want you to take what you have and I want you, instead of using it or keeping it in the basket or using it for us in this moment, I want you to take it. I want to make it an altar and I want you to use it to create sacrifices for God.
Speaker 2:And I think about our own life and our own circumstances. Wherever we find ourself, are we seeing opposition or opportunity? Are we seeing what we have is not enough, or do we see it as a basket that we have that God wants to turn into a sacrifice for something really beautiful? And I don't know, I could be wrong, but it is very possible that the circumstances you know of, like looking at man, I'd like to get out of this or I'd like to do that. Well, maybe there's work that's not done in that area yet. Maybe there's something that God uniquely wants you to do.
Speaker 2:Maybe your strategic positioning in that place at this time, with those things, is the thing where the angel shows up and says I've already given it to you, I've already told you what to do. Now get these idols out of your house and turn your table into an altar. Turn your apartment into an altar. Have you surrendered it to him, or is it? I'm waiting for him to get me out of this circumstance before I can be used, and I think a lot of us are waiting for our circumstances to change before we're willing to be obedient to God. And I'm not saying that's your circumstance right now. Look, sometimes sin is in the world. Broken stuff happens.
Speaker 2:Not everything is perfect, but I do think there's a key principle there that when we are willing to turn tables into altars, when we're willing to turn apartments into altars, homes into altars, god actually uses it to do all the stuff that you wanted to see done. But when you're waiting for you know your own stuff to be done a certain way. He'll sit there under the tree and wait for you. I've already told you what to do. You let me know when you're ready to figure it out. When you're ready to turn this table into an altar, I'm willing to let you, you know, liberate this entire nation from the garbage that's going on. Let you, you know, liberate this entire nation from the garbage that's going on.
Speaker 2:And I think you know, me and Tiff man, every home that we've ever lived in. One of the first things that we do, we walk in, we move our stuff in and we get in a circle and we pray and we say, god, this is your house, what do you want to do with it? How do you want to use it? Or, in many circumstances, god, this is your apartment. Lord, this is your table. Every opportunity that we've had in the home, we've really seen it as a sacrifice. Tim, you've been to so many Friday night dinners and Sabbath dinners and all the things. We're always trying to invite people in and use what little we have and watch God break the loaves and fish and multiply it and make it work for what we're trying to do. And we've never had a lot but, man, we've had a lot with regard to the work that God has been able to do through me, like through my family, through my kids, through friendships that have—the amount of like gospel work that has gotten done around the table in my house by just whipping up whatever was left over in the cupboard that I could figure out and inviting people that we didn't have enough, you know, food to feed at the time, and just like.
Speaker 2:I just think. I think your life is supposed to be like that. I think the question ultimately is am I willing to be the altar? Am I willing to be the sacrifice on that altar? Am I willing to be the Hebrews, you know? Or Romans 12, right? Therefore, by the mercies of God, I urge you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual service of worship.
Speaker 2:And that whole text there is about transformation. It's got the word right in there about transforming your mind right. It's met the word right in there about transforming your mind right. It's metamorphosis. Either you can live in the dead brain that you used to have, that was a slave to its own appetites and a slave to the flesh, or you're going to allow the Spirit to actually live through you and it's going to change your whole life. It's going to change the trajectory you are on and, like I said, I like the brash language of God's going to kill the trajectory you were on and I liked that. Like I said, I liked the brash language of God's going to kill who you used to be. That guy has to die. He is a sacrifice. He is not going to make it, he's going to die.
Speaker 2:But what's going to happen in the process is you will begin to see miracles in your own life, and I don't mean the miracles of I got all the stuff I wanted and everything worked out. You're going to see miracles in your own life, and I don't mean the miracles of I got all the stuff I wanted and everything worked out. You're going to see miracles of man. This is a crazy life that I was not intending to live, that I guess God wanted to live through me, and I never thought these things could ever happen. But they did, when I was willing to lay these things down and see what I had as an opportunity instead of opposition in my own life. And so I think expectations it's an interesting word because it's our thoughts on what should happen. Right, it's our belief about the way that things should go, and it's a heck of a presumption. You know what I mean. It's a heck of a word when you really think about it.
Speaker 1:I think it's more entitlement.
Speaker 2:It really is. Yeah, it's your money. Use it when you need it right.
Speaker 1:It's that Well, we see it in the church all the time.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think we see it everywhere. And that's the old dead, like Luciferian spirit that wants to build and wants to leverage God to build but does not want to submit to God ultimately, or surrender. And when the King of Peace is coming with that army and he offers you terms of peace, it would be wise for us to acknowledge that if we continue to build the way that we're building, if we do not surrender, there is wrath coming. Or we can accept terms of peace and allow the thing in us that continues to build and actually while we do, it is creating blighted ground and poisoned water. We let that guy die so that we can become something else and do something transcendent.
Speaker 2:Jesus lived a crazy life man. Nobody would have looked at him and been like that's the way to do it. I'm not sitting here telling my kids you know what you should do, become a wandering sage. You know, like the way that he did stuff and how he operated, the way that the disciples did, or Paul or any of these guys. They were a slave to the Spirit of God and in that got to see wonders beyond any of our dreams.
Speaker 2:And again, I'm not saying that man, if you're working on a farm, or you're working in a dentist's office, or you're training dogs, or whatever you're doing, do it to the glory of God, but do it with the anticipation and excitement of the Lord is working through me.
Speaker 2:I want to listen for Him and I want to turn whatever I have into an altar so that he can use it for Himself, instead of me trying to build up stones to make a tower that is ultimately for me. Something has to burn on the top, and that's the question what am I willing to put there for God and let Him use? And that's the question what am I willing to put there for God and let him use? And whatever you're holding back, that's probably what he's coming for, and if you hit a point where you're not willing to give up what he's coming for, you will not progress. You'll sit in a place where you're frustrated with God and frustrated with your life because you got that one foot in, one foot out mentality. And if God's trying to kill something that you're not willing to let see die, then you will be like Gideon, asking God where the miracles are at when he's saying you're on the cusp of it. If you would just do what I was telling you to do, yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:Do you think people in your life hold you back from that kind of stuff too?
Speaker 2:Tim, I think people are the greatest difficulty in any circumstance. Any job you're in, you know what I mean. The hardest part is people and, like you know, ask any programmer this Everything works until you touched it. You know what I mean. Everything was fine until you put your hands on it. You know you screwed with my spreadsheet or whatever it was. Everything works until you invite people into the process. This is why everybody in the AI world right now is like we got to get to the singularity and merge people with machines and ultimately we won't exist anymore, because people, whether they acknowledge God's existence or not, realize that people are the broken problem in our world and God is coming to take care of that problem and they want to use machines to do it instead of the Lord. And the problem with machines is that they're full of the DNA of people. You know what I mean. It's an ill-suited replacement or solve when we're its own creator.
Speaker 1:I think John the Baptist has something going for him when he was in the desert for as long as he was. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it gave him perspective.
Speaker 1:It's going to get away from all these freaking people, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's something, there's something really helpful about getting out to the mountains or finding time by yourself, away from the machine, to just focus on Jesus, get your heart right, get your head right and remember what you're actually trying to do. And as Christians, I would say, if you don't have time blocked out on your calendar where you're going to go, walk out of your house, leave your phone or whatever, and just spend time in the Word, transforming your mind, allowing the spirit to flow through you, change you, remind you of where your allegiances are. Bro, you can get really banged up in the process of trying to figure out what the next steps are, but I have found personally that if you will just continue to be faithful and use what God has given you for his glory and stay focused on him, he usually provides the first steps, the next step for you, and oftentimes we'll just push you right through the door himself. You know what I mean, and I think sometimes that's what we're afraid of is again our expectations not being what God's plan is for us. And let me just go ahead and be a buzzkill for you now God's plan for your life is not your plan for your life.
Speaker 2:Just buckle up, put your seatbelt on. It's going to be a different ride than what you think it is. It is worth it, it is beautiful and it is full of glory and the goodness of God in all kinds of ways that you wouldn't define as goodness right now. But if you're willing to die, you get to live. But if you're not willing to die, you will experience total death. You'll experience the second death. Cool yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks, man. Yeah, buddy, that's the time Dude, it's good. Hopefully this works out. Yeah, it's good hanging out with you.
Speaker 2:I'm enjoying being able to do this man from across the state. It's going to be good. We'll keep these going, guys, and keep pushing out goodies and you'll get to continue to hear both of our wonderful voices playing over those sound waves for you, wherever you are right now. Wow, we need yeah, I was like we need some kind of, you know, sweet music we play at the end to calm people down and let them reflect on everything they heard. I realized this was kind of a heavy, heavy topic for you guys today. So, tim, is it cool if I close this out with a prayer?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:God, I just pray for everybody today who has identified things in their life that they're not willing to die or surrender. God, I pray that you would give them the strength by your Spirit to show them the futility of laying cracked foundations and trying to build houses and build their own kingdom, lord. That is not good and it's not healthy. Build their own kingdom, lord. That is not good and it's not healthy, and I pray that you would allow, by your mercy and grace, lord, them to loosen their grip and actually trust you with what you want to do and where you want them to go, lord, and how you've called them to live. I pray that your word would guide them, your spirit would encourage and strengthen and comfort them, lord, and that your presence would ultimately rest on them and give them the ability to allow you to live through them, lord, so that we would die, so that you could live. Pray in Jesus' name, amen, amen, right on Cool Well it was good seeing you, buddy, you too, man.
Speaker 2:All right, have a good week everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, catch you all next time, all right.
