Living Water & Light of the World

Jesus didn’t pick a quiet moment to explain Himself. He stepped into the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, surrounded by water rituals and blazing lampstands, and made claims that could not be misunderstood: come to Me for living water, I am the light of the world. That single move helps explain why John 7 feels so dangerous. Some people lean in and believe, while others decide He has to go.

We talk through what our modern reading often misses: the sheer scale of Jesus’ impact, the way His healings shattered the idea that suffering always equals personal sin, and why the crowds in Jerusalem were not reacting to a vague teacher but to a Messiah-level announcement. We also touch the reliability of the record, from early manuscript evidence like P52 to how quickly news of Jesus traveled across the ancient world, even without modern media.

Then we bring it home. Jesus calls His followers to reflect His light in everyday life, not just in “church jobs.” We get practical about prayer at work, prayer in hospitals, forgiving people who don’t deserve it, apologizing to your kids, and building a steady life that others can trust. We also share why we’re pushing toward 30,000 gospel conversations and how VBS Illuminate fits the same mission: shining light so people can see Jesus.

Subscribe for more through the Gospel of John, share this with someone who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the Midweek Podcast. What’s one place you can pray and shine light this week?

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome

Welcome And Series Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:09

and thanks for joining us on this episode of the Midweek Podcast, brought to you by a Fresh Wind Church. Each week, our team brings you new content to help you take steps towards Jesus and discover more in Christ. Today's episode is hosted by Pastor Ryan.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan joined again this week. I always say as always, but uh last week we had Pastor Jared. This week, Pastor Tim is back on the podcast. And uh we're in week nine of our series Signs and Glory, where we've been walking through the Gospel of John. And this one was uh a little bit uh contentious, man. Um opens up chapter seven with uh Jesus doesn't want to travel in Judea because they're trying to kill him, and so uh doesn't get much better from there.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I think when we read the Bible, um we're so far out of context in Jesus' life um that we don't we don't really get the gravity of what's happening. Um I think it's in Luke where he says he went to this town and he healed

Why Jesus Upset Their Theology

SPEAKER_01 1:20

all of them, and he went somewhere else and he healed all of them, and then he left this town and he healed all of them. So this was a phenomena. This was Jesus' wrecking the theology of the time. Who is this guy and why is he doing this? You know what, you know, obviously these people have sinned and they deserve to be in the situation that they're in. That was their theology. And Jesus came in and let them all go. Let them all go from God's judgment. Can that be right? So the theology was under attack, and everybody loved Jesus, everybody loved uh being redeemed. Uh that's the way they saw it. Yeah, I'm being punished by God, but Jesus redeemed me with his healing. And uh so this is wrecking the world, man. This is not, this doesn't compute. And uh it's like the great big revivals that were happening here, uh, we call them the Great Awakenings, uh, in England and here where thousands of people were being saved and their lives were completely changing, and people were shocked. They didn't know how to make it compute. And I I uh I long for the for one to happen to us. Uh Revelation actually predicts one. And I I can't wait. Um I'd like to be here when it uh when it happens, but um the great turning to God and and these people were um seeing God's grace in a way that they didn't understand. And I don't know if Jesus spent a lot a lot of time, you know, explaining that their theology's wrong, this is not about sin, this is not about judgment, this is about about fallen world. You know, we've been explaining that for 2,000 years, and we all kind of understand, you know, sometimes you get cancer, and it has nothing to do with the way you lived your life or anything like that. It's just we live in a fallen world. I don't know if he spent a lot of time preaching about that, but he he definitely was blowing up the doors on their theology.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

When you read John's gospel, so we've only covered a couple of the signs and a couple of the I am statements, and you're like, man, they're already wanting to kill this guy. We can't forget John, and John tells us right at the very end, you there's not enough pages, there's not enough books to contain all the things that Jesus did. And so Matthew, Mark, Luke, they capture some more of them. But yeah, he's walking in and healing entire towns and villages, you know? And so don't look at, well, he's only done a couple things. No, there's a lot going on. John's just handpicked a couple of them for us, but out on the periphery, there's all kinds of stuff that Jesus is doing that John's not telling us about. And yeah, it's all got to this point where they're like, this guy's gotta go.

How We Know Jesus Was Real

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Yeah, and I I've tried to explain this to a lot of people who you know said, Well, we don't know if Jesus existed. We don't listen, there was no internet, there was no news agency, there was nothing like this. They knew about Jesus all the way back to Rome. They everybody knew about him. Um John P52, uh, that little scrap of uh the oldest scrap of John's uh gospel, it's uh Pilate saying, What is truth? You know, um they found that in Egypt and they think 125. So, and it could be up to 150, but 125. So it got from wherever John was, which is we think he was on the island of Patmos in Greek all the way down to Egypt by 125. And that was a copy. So um this Christianity thing was going crazy. This was uh like a revolution and everybody was in or everybody was out. And uh so it was it you had to choose sides. This was not a um oh yeah, I heard about that guy, you know. No, he was on everybody's lips, everybody was talking about him. And listen, that's why it changed the world.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Yeah, it changed the world. I had a college professor say that we have more historical evidence for the life of Jesus, that he was a real person, that he existed, you know, whether he was God or not, you know, people will decide that, but just that he was alive on the planet and doing the things that are written about him, then we do that George Washington is our president. And people freak. They're like, what are you talking about? Everybody believes George Washington's the president, and I'm not here to dispute that, you know. But when you look at the accounts, how early is that account, how many of those accounts do we have? Do those accounts m match up? And all of a sudden you start stacking all this stuff up because it wasn't just Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John writing about Jesus. You know, we have Josephus, who his writings aren't in the Bible, but he was a historian back then and writes about a lot of the same exact things we find in the Bible that this Jesus guy was out here doing. We we have all this evidence, and it's you know, 125 you're saying, you know, a lot of the books that we read in the Bible. I mean, we're talking 70, 80 AD, you know, just a few years really removed from Jesus' life. I mean, it's close. These are people that knew him. Um in Acts, they're like, man, you can there's actually people saw the risen Jesus, you can go talk to him right now. I mean, that's how close they were to this. It's not like, oh, yeah, I one time heard this story from so-and-so about this guy who rose from the dead. They're like, No, my my Aunt Jane saw it. She saw him. Just go talk to her. Here's her address. Right. That's how close they were to this moment, and he was out here doing some incredible things, flipping the world upside down.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

And I think because of movies, we we all get it dumbed down to the 12, you know. Uh there's there's 12 disciples. Well, he had 70 that quit their jobs and followed him around. He had 70. He sent out 70. Um, two by two. But he chose 12 to be his inner disciples, that to be the apostles, and then he chose three. But when we think about that, we kind of dumb it down to the movie outline, which is uh there's 12 guys, we're gonna focus on these three, and they'll meander in the background. And no, no, no, no. There was hundreds of people following Jesus everywhere he went. He couldn't go anywhere to be alone. Um it shows him running off in the mountains to be alone. It shows him getting on a boat just to get out in the water to be alone. They followed him everywhere. Um, things were going on. He was doing some miraculous things, and he wasn't always um politically neutral as far as the Pharisees and Sadducees uh went.

Feast Of Tabernacles And Living Water

SPEAKER_01 9:06

He was doing things that freaked him out, and that's what you preached about on Sunday, the Feast of the Tabernacles, they have a special thing that goes on all the time. Now it it's like um I can't believe I'm saying this. Remember a few weeks ago, Trump put out a picture that he was like Jesus. He says, uh, no, I I meant that I was a doctor. Uh yeah, you're glowing and you're got your arms out. It's like you're the most ridiculous person. Um so uh yeah, you people do dumb things sometimes. It doesn't, I'm not making a remark on his presidency, just that was a bad choice. Um but Jesus does this at the Feast of Tabernacles. He comes out and says, This is about me. Yeah. And you talk about freaking everybody out. This was the this was the cool stuff. You know, the the pour in the basin. I mean, they had this big I don't want to say the word montage, but this big procession that came from the temple all the way down uh to get the water out of Saloam and then to bring it all the way back up and then break. Yeah, and then they they pour that around the altar and pray for rain, pray for the Messiah, and pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon his people. And Jesus says, Hey, that's me. You know, he puts the meme out, you know, standing in front, arms open wide, saying, You're thirsty, come to me. This is me. Yeah. And oh my goodness, um, you talk about going crazy. And he's dodging uh the groups that want to kill him, you know. And uh so everybody's, you know, if you're with Jesus, you're being secretive, secretive about him, and you know, this clandestine, then he shows up and he does something crazy. We gotta get over there and get him, and then he's gone. And I mean, this is a this is a big deal. Uh people were coming to Jerusalem just to see if he'd show up. And I I don't know what Pilate was thinking or the Romans were thinking, but they sent letters back to Rome saying, I don't know what's going on here, but this guy, he's got he's got something going on. And uh if you heard about it and you didn't see it for yourself, you probably wouldn't believe it. No, he healed them all. Well, that village is twenty five miles away. I've never even been there. I've lived my whole life with this within this 15 miles. Right. I'm not buying that. That's a lie. When he comes here, we'll see. Um, but you know, it's it it's it's hard to think about that. Everybody in the village who had something wrong was healed.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Well, it's hard to picture it removed from our context, you know, because yeah, they they those people would live within about a 15-mile radius. Most of them didn't travel outside of that. Um, and so yeah, you heard a story that happened over here. We don't have Facebook evidence, right? Fox News isn't showing up or CNN saying, this paralyzed man is walking, what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Yeah, it's AI. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_03 12:38

AI. There was no AI back there. Um, and so we we were like, man, wow, why wouldn't they believe? If this was really going on, why wouldn't they believe? Well, it's because they didn't see it. They don't make it over to that part of town, you know, that part of Israel to verify. These people got real lives. If I don't show up today and build this table or, you know, pull this stuff over here or or put this thing together and sell it, I'm not making a living. I I don't got time to go over there and deal with that.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

All of us were on you know, our phones looking up, is this true? Um man, Lindsey Graham passed away this weekend. I was like, that's gotta be fake. So I pull out my phone and I'm looking it up. You couldn't do that back then. No, and so it's yeah, they're they're flabbergasted, but yeah, who believes, who doesn't believe, the they're all upset. And you know, I'm wondering, I I speculated about it in the sermon because scripture doesn't tell us, but I'm like, man, it almost feels like his brothers are just trying to get rid of him.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

You know, well, I think one of the problems were is Mary followed him around. And uh so Mark got all his information from hanging out with Mary uh to write the gospel of Mark and um and Peter. But Mary followed Jesus around in and um so if you were trying to take care of your mom and she was following your crazy brother around, and it's like mom, you gotta stay, they're gonna kill this guy. You're you don't wanna be in that mess. You know, think you gotta think storylines outside of what just just Jesus, you know. His brothers were probably like, Mom, you gotta stay home. You don't understand they're trying to kill him. You're gonna get caught up in that mess. And I bet you if they got her in a safe place and said, Okay, now if they kill him, we we end this thing. So I know I like to develop storylines like that too. It's hard to it's hard to speculate to to know what was going on. But when he came back to Jerusalem that last time, they welcomed him like a king. You know, and everybody knew that was going on.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

And uh so that's not the only thing that happened though here at this Feast of Tabernacles. Um told us that um the lampstands were lit in the court of women, and it's this beautiful uh thing that we wouldn't understand. It was like DC fireworks, you know? And then he just stands up in front of it and says, I am the light of the world. And just just taking the thunder out of of what they what they thought. And but here's the thing, it that everybody knew the theology that yeah, the Messiah was gonna come, he's gonna be the light of the world, he's gonna have healing in his wings, he's gonna uh bring the Holy Spirit, he's gonna do all these things, and they just they just couldn't accept it.

Old Testament Symbols Jesus Fulfilled

unknown 15:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

You know, even with um you made a comment before we started that um the old testament was a loaded gun that Jesus pulled the trigger on, and uh that's that's what it was. That they had been hoping and waiting and praying, and here it was, and they couldn't accept that it was happening.

SPEAKER_03 16:14

Everything he does and this is why being in the word is so important, knowing scripture, but especially because we're not Jews, we didn't grow up reading you know the Torah um and memorizing it. And we don't know a lot about these festivals. We you know, we read, and oh, he was at this this festival. Well, okay, what does that mean? Right, we have no clue. And so the pouring of the water in that procession, we don't know about that. The these 75-foot tall lampstands with you know hundreds of gallons of fuel in the bowls, and they would use worn-out priest garments for the wicks of them, and you had to get on a ladder to get up there to light the thing. We don't even that doesn't register for we've never heard of that. We don't get the significance of it. But you start pairing that with the old testament, and all of a sudden, you know, you're reading through Exodus, you're reading through Leviticus, you you read some of the Psalms, and and all of a sudden these things start to come alive.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

This is what we've been talking. The reason we pour water is because God provided water out of the rock back here, and we need his provision now, and he's promised to pour out his holy spirit, and we're asking that he'll do that. And we like these lampstands because God led us as a pillar of fire back in the wilderness. And and well, all of a sudden, it's like, whoa, Jesus is the most intentional preacher ever, because he he's very specific when he says these things.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

He's right on, and he uses everything that's happening around him to make a point. And this Feast of Tabernacles, he was the point, and he was just sharing look, we're doing this. This feast is about me. It'd be like Trump standing up on the top of the White House when all those uh fireworks going on just got up there and said, I am freedom. You know, something stupid like that. And I think everybody's looking at what is he doing? What? No, this can't be right. This can't we're waiting, and nobody really believes it's gonna happen in their lifetime. Just like I said earlier, this revival that happens in Revelation, I'm already convinced that it's not gonna happen in my lifetime, but it could happen tomorrow. And then when Jesus uh said I'm gonna come like a thief in the night, that's what he means. You can't believe it's happening, you know. Um I grew up uh my dad got me a room in the basement, he thought it would be great for me, but I was seven and it was it was tough because I always thought there was a guy standing in my room, you know. And uh but back in the back of my mind it says there's nobody standing there, you know. I just you know, you you don't believe you're gonna be robbed until you're believ until you're being robbed, you know. And uh very few people have the faculties to realize what's going on while it's happening, and that's why thieves get away with things that you're not expecting. Um pickpockets, especially in Europe, you gotta hide your wallet or get a uh crappy wallet and um put it in your pocket so they steal that and leave you alone and uh put a nasty note in it. But you you don't believe it's gonna happen, and it's happening right in front of them. The Messiah is here right in front of them, and you see, even Pharisees that are that are making the decision, this is the guy. You got Joseph a a Marath uh Marath can't say the word.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

Marathia?

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Yeah, he took the body of Jesus. That was his tomb. Uh Nicodemus helped him do it. So you'd see even two Pharisees had decided that Jesus was the Messiah, and and we we it's um I I think we're so far out of the context of what life was like before all of our stuff and we're only talking a hundred years. Life a hundred years ago, you we would be miserable. We would be miserable. I pick up I know what's going on in the country all the time. I don't wait till six o'clock when the news comes on. You know, I don't I don't have to wait.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

No, you get breaking news pushed right to your phone, like one of them, you know, fresh wind notifications.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Here it is. I don't I don't know who gets traded until the sportscaster on the news at six or seven o'clock tells me who gets traded to the Browns and who's not. I there's no way of me knowing. I can't my wife can't call me all the time. I have to pull over and find a phone to call my dad, you know, and say my truck broke down or whatever. Not saying that I'm a hundred years old, but even that was me when I was a kid, so that's 50 years ago. A hundred years ago, people were still pulling carts around with horses. We we live in a in the beginning of a new era. It's it's really just the beginning of what we're gonna be involved in. But when we look back, we look back through our glasses and say, Well, you know, they knew this or they knew that and all this kind of thing. They didn't know. They were fifteen miles away. They lived their whole life, never even heard the story. And uh so Jesus comes in and says, I'm gonna make a splash. And he made one. He wasn't teaching, you know, a few guys on a hillside. He was teaching 5,000 men on a hillside that gave up that day of work and their families to come hear some guy.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Disciples are like, we should send him home. Jesus' like, no, you feed them. We're gonna keep them here.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

So I think we need to understand when Jesus made these statements, and a lot of people say all the time, I hear this all the time. It comes around every 50 years ago, Jesus never said he was the son of God. You know, they decided that he was God in 325 at this council, Council of Nicaea, and it's like, no, that's not what happened. It's in the history books. They have records from that council. You can read them. Um, let me tell you, Jesus was making the statement, I am, and everybody there knew what he was saying.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Plus, I brought that up in the sermon. They didn't pick up rocks to stone them because they didn't understand what he was saying. They picked up rock stone because they understood perfectly what he was saying. Absolutely. He's claiming to be God, the eternal I am, the God who spoke to Moses, the God who called Abraham. He's saying, that was me. I mean, the whole line in question, you you're not even 50 years old. So you're saying, you know, you you've met Abraham? Uh no. I'm telling you before Abraham was I am. I have been eternally exist. There's never been a moment where I haven't. And that's what they're so upset about. They he claimed to be God. And, you know, you brought up the Pharisees, you know, there's some of them that start believing in them. You even have the temple police that go to arrest them, come back empty-handed, and they're they seem just amazed. Man, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

Have you ever listened to that guy?

SPEAKER_03 24:01

I love those guys come back, like, where's Jesus? And they're like, We've never heard anybody teach like this before. Right. Just, I mean, falling into it.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Even uh the Roman centurion who said, This was definitely the son of God. I've been serving a bunch of guys who said they're the sons of God, and you know, we've had all these stories, but if there ever was one, this is him.

Stop Taming The Supernatural

SPEAKER_01 24:24

It's him, yeah. And uh, so I I think we play that down uh because of our well, ever since uh our country got started, we've been playing down the miraculous and um just talking about the natural, you know, evolution, all those things, and we're embarrassed when we cross that line into the supernatural.

SPEAKER_03 24:49

Well, wasn't it was it Thomas Jefferson that cut out all the miracles and stuff out of the Bible? Is that him?

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Yeah, he he cut out all the all the miracles that happen, and made his own Bible without the miracles uh in the gospels. Uh I think that's what we do in our minds. You know, it can't be too crazy. Look, you believe in a guy who died and rose again on the third day. It doesn't get any crazier than that. Let's it was conceived by immaculate conception. Right. So we need to pull this back a little bit and say, uh, we need to embrace the supernatural because that's what was happening with Jesus everywhere he went. Um and he was he was the light of the world. And they and people were realizing it. As many people who picked up stones, there was those who said, that's the Messiah.

SPEAKER_03 25:40

Well, John even tells us that as Jesus was saying these things, many believed. He didn't give us a number, but many. I don't know how many many is, but it's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

You know, many of them believed especially at the Feast of Tabernacles in in the world. Well, there could have been millions of people in town. Yeah. So I I think well, we need to, we need we can talk about how fascinating Jesus' life really was. Um we have we have dumbed it down, I think. Uh so it's not so spectacular. So people can swallow it, you know? And uh, but I I don't think it was swallowable. I I think that's what the problem everybody's having. There's no way. There's no way. Those ten lepers, they weren't even allowed anywhere, anywhere near him, and they said they could they heard Jesus' name and they're like started calling for him. They were supposed to say, stay away. And Jesus walks right up in the middle of them. Guess what? He walked right up in the middle of them all alone because there wasn't one disciple or anybody else that was gonna walk into that mess with him, and he healed them all. And here's the thing only one of them believed. They all went to the priest, they were all healed, and only one came back and said, Thank you. And then Jesus told him, You have been made whole. You're not not just healed from your sickness, you have been made whole. And so these things were happening to people who didn't believe. And you you talk about living with a um oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Where you're always struggling with something for the rest of your life. Um, those people had to struggle. And we get one picture of one one lady who reached out and grabbed his garment. And um that could have been happening all the time, and they just recorded one. So we we we don't know what happened. So I don't want to stop that beating that horse because we like to beat dead horses around here. Um and I want to move on to No, remove from context, that sounds terrible.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

Yeah, that'll be clipped.

You Are The Light Of World

SPEAKER_01 27:58

I want to move on to the light of the world. Jesus turns around and says, I'm the light of the world, and now you are too. You are the light of the world. And you need to shine. You need to shine, you need to reflect my light. Just like those lampstands were reflecting me, you need to do the same thing. Um, that was a big I am statement, but for us, him telling us that we're the light of the world. And uh a lot of people say, Well, I I I get that. I don't think we get it. What is being the light of the world? Well, you gotta be a missionary, you gotta be a pastor, you gotta teach Sunday school, you gotta no, no, no. That's not what Jesus was talking about. Wherever you are, whatever you do, whatever your family's doing, reflect my light.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

And this isn't even new, you know. This wasn't a Jesus thing. He he told us you're the light of the world. Um, but this traces all the way back to Genesis. Right. We were created to be image bearers of God to reflect him in the world. So when Jesus says that, he's he's hearkening all the way back to the purpose that we were created for. Right. We are supposed to image and reflect God in the world. And man, they've been waiting for the Holy Spirit to be poured out. You know, that's that was part of the whole pouring of the water. We're waiting for God's promised Holy Spirit. And John says, they haven't received it yet because Jesus hasn't yet been glorified. Well, then Jesus dies, buried, resurrects, ascends, and then he sends his spirit at Pentecost to live within believers. So now the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, and he says, You, you're the light of the world. Well, hold on. I thought it was it was you. It is me, but now it's you. I live in you and through you, and you need to go and reflect me. Every, I mean, we we do, we have this tendency to think, well, that's for the pastors, that's for the you know, the Christian professionals, you know, whatever. No, this is for you in your everyday life. You are the light of the world. What does that look like when you go to work to be the light? What does that look like when when your kids having a bad day for you to be the light? What does it look like when you're on the highway and you know, some guy cuts you off and then throws a cigarette in the back of your car? That happened to me driving to church on Sunday. First time in my life, someone threw their cigarette out their window directly at my car. I'm like, what the heck was that for? I don't know if I shine light in that moment. You know, what does it look like to be the light of the world in that moment?

SPEAKER_01 30:48

And we think, well, you know, I gotta make this big presentation or whatever, you know, be theologically sound and um fundamental doctrine. I gotta have all this stuff before I can be the light of Jesus. And no, you don't. You don't. You just gotta be good to people. Um, love your neighbor as yourself. Uh that that is that is the Ten Commandments right there. Love God

Praying For People Where You Are

SPEAKER_01 31:20

and prove it by loving people. And we've got people in this church that are testimonies to the light of Jesus. I mean, I was talking to one guy and he said, Yeah, we had a guy at work who was the safety guy. Uh, and this, I'm not gonna mention his name, um, but he goes to this church and uh Are you talking about I'm just kidding, I'm kidding. So he said, We all knew, this is before this guy was saved, we all knew that if we were in trouble, we go to the safety guy and he'd pray for us and things would happen. And so we would tell everybody, oh, you guys, you you and your wife having trouble, go to the safety guy, he'll pray for you. And uh, and it's it's crazy. Um, the safety guy knows nothing about this, but it it's happening. It happened to me at work. I had a lot of guys who would tease me about being a Christian and being a pastor and you know, make terrible jokes about it. And and I'd be walking, you know, past the area and he'd pull me back behind the radar screens and say, Will you pray for me? And would they stop teasing me and and uh making fun of me in front of everybody? No. Heck no. No, but they wanted me to pray for them. And um and they would even say, Can't hurt, can it? And I said, nope, but it can help. And so we you first of all, if you're gonna be this person, you're gonna have to be tough. We have a lady here that uh when she was she's retired now, but she was working and and uh everybody knew go to her office, she'll pray with you. Go to her office, she'll pray with you. If you got a problem, go to her office and pray with you. Lost people who didn't believe in Jesus would bring people to her office to be prayed for. That is that is light. And uh when you're that person who will take a minute, um in my book, Ministry 101, oh that's a plug right there. Yep, there you see how I did that coming out soon, coming out soon. Um what we talk about in the class is that the hospital is just a burning pot of hurt. You know, it's just every time you go in there, somebody's hurt, not just um people whose loved ones are sick or or the person that's sick, of course, they're gonna be hurt, and there's some people who are crying, they just got a diagnosis that they didn't expect. But you got you got doctors, you know, they got 25 patients. 15 of them, he's thinking, okay, that everything goes right, everything we're doing, they're gonna be fine, they're gonna get out of here. There's five over here that are gonna be touch and go. I don't, you know, we gotta really watch them. Uh, if they take a turn, we don't know if we can save them, and then there's five over here that are not gonna make it. That's what they deal with every day. That's what they're carrying. When they go to work every day, there's 15 that's gonna make it, there's five that might not, but we think we can save them, and then there's five that's not. They deal with it every day. You telling me they don't need prayer? Telling me they can't they can't uh take Jesus' yoke upon them. Um that's that's a tough, and the nurses are the same way. So there's always you walk into that, it's like a battlefield. There's someone who's gonna need prayer, and when you open your eyes to it, you're you're gonna be shocked.

unknown 35:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

And uh you should be ready. Hey, look like you're having a rough day. Hasn't been the greatest. Can I pray for you? No, no, I don't want to pray for you. Lord, he doesn't want me to pray for you, so I'll pray by myself. Um give him what he needs to get through this day in Jesus' name, amen. And that's all it takes. And someone says, someone believes in Jesus and they prayed for me. And he's just you're just reflecting Jesus to him and calling out to Jesus, hey, here's a guy I want you to look at, Lord. Remember, we talked about what happened in Cana, you know, it doesn't matter until someone Jesus loves says, It matters to me.

SPEAKER_03 35:46

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

And that that makes them work. So God doesn't do much unless we pray. So this is this is not about gospel conversations and sharing Jesus. That'll come as the Lord works, but we should pray about everything and bring God's grace down on people. And uh I've been um going up to the hospital a lot lately. I got a friend in there, and uh he got a big bucket of 500 plastic Jesuses, and he's been handing them out to everybody, and God saved his life. Uh, he was one of those five that they thought, man, he's right on the cusp. We can't get anything wrong or he's not gonna make it. And uh the Lord saved him, and uh he's praising Jesus to all those people in there, and it's great to go in there and see him doing my job so I can just sit next to the bed and watch him. Um, but it's uh we need to be people who uh engage the supernatural for people when you pray, that's supernatural. I know a lot of people think, well, it's not, it's making her no, no, no, no. You are talking to the king, the king of the universe who controls everything, and you are a person he listens to.

unknown 37:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

And I I think we don't understand it. We haven't embraced the fact that Jesus will listen to me. And and he might not listen to your neighbor because he might not have a relationship with Jesus. But he'll listen to you, and if you pray for your neighbor, supernatural things can happen. And I I think we kind of give it up.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Man, it changed the universe.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

It would change definitely change our church and then our entire community around the church.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

That spreads, man. If people would grab a hold of that, there's that's one of the most important ways you can shine light and you don't even know, you know, um what God's gonna do through that. And Pat, he he loves to say, Is it Pat or Dave? I think it's Pat says all the time, you know, you don't know the testimony that you you make on your neighbors when you just get in your load up your family in your car every Sunday morning and come to church. Your neighbor sees you do that and thinks, man, there's someone over there that this is important to them. And you'll be shocked when they get into a situation like those guys you were talking about at work. They come to you. Not because anything you've necessarily said or did, other than they know that guy gets his family in that car every Sunday and takes his family to church. He believes in something, and I need some of that right now, you

Small Acts That Illuminate A Life

SPEAKER_03 38:45

know. Yeah, it's even these small little things that we do. You know, one of the things that we we we say around here a lot is we need to live a life worthy of imitation. When we live that way, we shine light into the darkness, man. When everyone at work's all upset about a situation and they're ready to explode, and you come in and you're level-headed, you shine light. When someone does something at work or, you know, wherever, and and they make a bad move and they're expecting you to freak out because they cost the company money or they took credit for work that you did, whatever it is, and you forgive them. You shine light. You know, when you you say something to your kids and it was harsh, they didn't deserve it, they spilled milk, you freaked out. And the truth is they're an eight-year-old pouring a cup of milk, you know, and you go to them and say, Hey bud, I got that wrong. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? You shine light. And you you start. I mean, if you could almost think, you know, when we did our Christmas Eve service here, we did the candlelight thing and lights are off in the building, you know, and people just light these candles and it the place glows. Imagine what it every time you go and you shine light in those little situations, just lighting a little candle. And a little candle in a big room doesn't do much. But you light that candle over here because you shine light, and then you lit this one because you shone light over there, and then you light that one, and all of a sudden you live a life that illuminates, man. And people look at you and say, Golly, there's something different about that guy, there's something different about that lady. And I don't know what it is, but I I don't I like being around them. And when I have problems, I I want to go to them. I want them to pray with me. That's gonna happen. You can live that kind of life. And for those who are you know younger on the podcast thinking, well, that's you know, you gotta live 50, 60 years and have faithful. What did Paul tell Timothy? Tim, don't let anyone despise you because of your youth. Set the example. He said, faith, love, hope, life, purity. Set the example, Timothy. And when I was on the football team back in high school, I, you know, just trying to follow Jesus, so I didn't go to the parties that the other guys went to. Um, didn't use the language that a lot of guys on the team used. I just showed up and people called me Jesus Boy all the time. So, and I don't think they were being friendly about it, you know. They were making fun of me, poking fun at me. I didn't do the things that they were involved in. Every team meal, they asked me to pray. After the game, we didn't line up on the 50, and they want me to lead the prayer. To this day, I just had a buddy a couple years ago, probably haven't talked to him in a few years. But his brother died real unexpected. He calls me out of the blue. Ryan, I don't know what to do, man. Can you can you pray for me? Can you pray for my family? All because of the example I set as a 15, 16, 17-year-old kid. You know, those people still to this day know there's someone I can call and he's gonna pray with me. I I've officiated some of their weddings, you know. That might be, ah, we know he's got the license to do it. I don't know what that means, but they know here's a guy that all the way back in high school, there's something different about him. That's who we want you to be, the kind of people who just shine light. And when you do it, you don't even have to do too much. You know, who was it said, preach often and when necessary, use words. I love that quote. Now, there's times you need to use words. I mean, please use words, pray for people out loud, let them hear it. It's one of the most powerful things. Share the good news with people. But man, sometimes our life speaks louder than any words we could use. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

If you go to the forge, you know what I'm about to say. Righteousness matters. Righteousness matters. Um people who are in misery love company, and they're always trying to engage Christians into their misery. Um, but the scripture is very clear. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Nobody's better than anybody else on this planet. And uh, but some of us have been forgiven, and other people would like to experience that. They don't know they would like to experience that. In their hearts, they say, I hate that idea because I deserve whatever I get for whatever I've done. But the way the Lord works on them is to see someone who's forgiven live like they're forgiven. And that means I'm gonna I'm gonna turn around and I'm not gonna live that way anymore. And I know we've probably got guys who Ca come to this church that if I started living that way in front of my friends, they'd call me a hypocrite. Yeah, but at this time you're a hypocrite the other way, you know? You were living like that and now you're not living that anymore. And uh though there's gonna be some ana animosity in that situation, but don't be afraid of that, because pretty soon you'll be able to pray for 'em. And uh once you get over that hump and uh someone says, you know, um, my wife is whatever, or my you know, my bills I'm behind, or or whatever, and you stop and throw your arm around him and say a quick prayer for 'em. That's that's what this um gospel conversation is all about.

Building A Habit Of Gospel Conversations

SPEAKER_01 44:53

Um that we talk about here, 30,000. We need 15,000 more. And uh just throw your arm around him and say, Lord, help my friend. He needs help. So just help him. And in Jesus' name, amen. You don't know what that friend needs and and what the Lord's gonna make him walk through till he gets the help that he wants. You don't know any of that, but you can ask Jesus to help him. And Jesus will. And once you do that, you'll you'll see people start showing up because he'll he'll tell some people. That weirdo over there prayed for me. What a dork. Really? He prayed for you? He's a dork. But I'm gonna go talk. Do you have his number?

SPEAKER_03 45:37

You know, I had a guy on on Sunday, um, it was his first time visiting the church, and he goes, This is the second time in you know, 17 years, someone has told me this. This one was a little bit different, but he goes, you know, I I hop around for churches quite a bit, but his reason was um he goes, Man, there's I just love them old hymns, and I need that piano and the lady on stage singing slightly out of key. I it just does something for me. I was like, I get that, man. But he goes, Man, I I loved being here. And he goes, When I get in my truck, I'm gonna call some buddies of mine that I know are looking for a place like this, and I'm telling them they need to come to this church. I've been here one day, and he goes, You'll see me around, maybe not every week. He goes, I hop around, but man, there's something going on here, and I'm gonna call some people and tell them about it. And I'm like, man, I'm getting goosebumps, just thinking about it. Um, it excites me, man. And gospel conversations, you know, 30,000, you guys all about the numbers. What we're trying to do is just build a habit, you know? When when we reach 30,000 gospel conversations, we'll check that mission off and say, God, what's next? And maybe he'll say 100,000. I don't know. So we'll check that one off. But that doesn't mean we stop. Hopefully, it's so ingrained in us that it just becomes a part of who we are. It's I hear my kids talk about gospel conversations. When we had our last business meeting, I read a gospel conversation that Violet submitted. Violet's in second, third grade, fourth grade, whatever. She's having gospel conversations with her friends and saying, Mom, we got to go put that in the app.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:15

We gotta, we gotta remember this and write this down.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

Someone who finally puts it in the app. I know a lot of you guys think that um that's a weird thing. And I I have people that I I was talking about, my friend in the hospital. He writes down all his gospel conversation and makes me put them in the app. I am not suggesting that. I don't just put them in the app. It's as easy as texting me and saying, I had five. The gospel conversation thing in the app is just as easy as putting a number five in. So it's very simple. Take that 35 seconds, maybe. But listen, um one day something's gonna happen at church that ruffles your feathers. And on that day you can look back and say, you know what? I'm gonna let that go because this church, this one, they kept track, they had thirty thousand gospel conversations and they're doing what I know needs to be done. And what other church can you say that about? You look at the numbers and the people showing up. Um, but we know how the Lord works. Sometimes they show up over there or they show up over here, and we don't know what the Lord's doing in that. But if we can say we had thirty thousand gospel conversations, um when you get to heaven, you can say I was part of that.

SPEAKER_03 48:51

Right. And notice we didn't say 30,000 invites to a fresh win. Because that's it's never been about that. We'll trust the Lord with the increase, you know, and being faithful to grow his church here. So this is just praying, whether or not you ever mention a fresh win. That doesn't matter. You don't get we don't ask that in the app. Did you invite them the church? We don't even ask. We just want you to be the kind of people who shine light. 30,000 gospel conversations is one way we're trying to shine light right now of just get people focused on man, God has called me to go out here and live a life worthy of imitation to reflect and image him in the world. And man, there's brokenness all around me, there's darkness all around me. And so I'm gonna light a candle here, and I'm gonna light a candle over there, and I'm gonna light a candle over there. And over the next five, ten, thirty lifetime, I'm gonna have that 75-foot-tall lamp stand that lights the whole city. That's how bright I'm gonna shine. And it all started just because I took Jesus serious. His spirit lives in me. There's nothing I can't do, and he's called me to be a light in the world.

VBS Illuminate And How To Pray

SPEAKER_01 49:58

So before we uh roll on with this, I want to uh praise a bunch, about sixty about sixty-five people uh here at the church that's putting on VBS for a hundred kids so we can share a gospel conversation with these kids personally. Um they have they were here all day yesterday. Um we had church, then we had a little meeting, and then people were decorating their rooms. They've been going to training, they've been getting ready, and we start tonight, or it's we're recording this on Monday, so we tar we start tonight um to get ready to share a gospel conversation with over a hundred kids. And uh I want you to pray for that. And the reason I want the church to pray for it is I know you love Jesus, and I know he loves you, and he listens to you.

SPEAKER_03 50:57

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

So pray for that for us that these kids will hear the gospel. Uh, this is the reason we do. BBS is kids can understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, why he came and what he's offering.

SPEAKER_03 51:11

Well, what better theme this year than Illuminate, right? Jesus is the light of the world. They're gonna learn about it all week. And you might think, well, man, it's half over by the time I listen to this podcast. Well, Thursday is the night that we're very intentional about having gospel conversation, sharing it, the gospel, laying it out for these kids. So you're not too late. Be keep praying, and uh, we're trusting that the Lord's gonna do some amazing things in these kids' lives.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

And if you can't be part of VBS this year, I get it. VBS is a load. It is a load. But you could fast on Thursday and pray all day for the salvation of a child that's here today, and that'll be more that'll be the heavy lifting of VBS that night if you do that for us. Um and I know I know some of you will. Thank you for that in advance. Pray for us, right?

SPEAKER_03 52:01

Father, we thank you so much that you are the light in the darkness. And Lord, I thank you that you've poured out your spirit, um, that it produces streams of living water that well up deep within us. And Father, I pray that it would flow out and that we would, Lord, we would reflect, radiate your light into the world, into our jobs, our communities, our families, our churches. And Father, I pray that as people look at us, that they would see you, that they know that there's something different, that we would be people that that our friends and the fa our families, people we work with, they trust, not because of who we are, but because of who you are in us. And Father, I pray that you would continue to give us opportunities to have these gospel conversations to help people discover more in Christ. And Lord, we're just gonna trust you to bring the growth in due season because we know that you're faithful and that your word never returns void. And so I pray that even now it would go out and accomplish all that it's supposed to. In Jesus' name.

unknown 53:01

Amen. Amen.

Closing And How To Connect

SPEAKER_00 53:03

Thanks again for joining us for this episode of the Midweek Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know how God is using this resource in your life or send any podcast questions or topic ideas to podcast at a freshwind.org. If you would like to support this ministry financially and help us continue offering new resources that equip you to discover more in Christ, simply text any amount to the number 84321. We're so grateful for your support. Make sure to tune in next week for a brand new episode of the Midweek Podcast. Be blessed and have a great week.