But we do have some guests in the house it's all my family and they bleed purple and gold for a reason .
Speaker 2Lakers , yeah , come on .
Speaker 1They are not just Laker fans , but they're more Clipper fans , but they are Minnesota Viking fans , which leads to the fact that we have another guest inside of our house . It is Jordan Kanoshek . Wow .
Speaker 3How'd I do ? Wow , not very good , not very good , I'm just kidding . That was perfect Was it really .
Speaker 3Yeah , perfect , great job , mark . I grew up going to church . I grew up hearing about Jesus dying on the cross for my sins , but I didn't know how that applied to me , and I wore a cross around my neck and I would be one who would profess to know God with my lips . But my life was far from anything pertaining to God . The verse that really comes to mind is when Jesus talks and says this is eternal life that they may know you , the only true God in Jesus Christ , whom you have sent . So I knew about him , but I didn't actually have a relationship with him . In fact , my life was crazy .
Speaker 3When I was 10 years old , I smoked pot for the first time . I got arrested two times in middle school shoplifting , getting suspended from school , getting in fights but I had this desire to serve , which was a miracle for me , because I was a greedy kid . I would have thought how much am I getting paid for this work ? But that thought didn't come across my mind . And so , like many kids who come home from a mission trip or anything like that , you come back and you're on fire and as I begin to reflect , like , why is that the case ? And it dawned on me . It's because you do the things that you should do as a Christian . You spend time in God's word , you spend time in prayer , you spend time in fellowship , you spend time serving my affections , my desires , my motives , everything changed what happened you ?
Speaker 3changed . It dawned on me that I had become born again , that god took my stony heart . He reached into my heart with his invisible hands and he took out that stony heart and he gave me a heart of flesh . He gave me a heart that no longer loved my sin , but he gave me a heart that loved righteousness . He gave me a heart that no longer loved my sin , but he gave me a heart that loved righteousness . He gave me a heart that wanted to please him and honor him and obey him , and I just had this insatiable desire to want to grow in my relationship with him and to know him and to know his word and to begin to share my faith , begin to tell people about Jesus . And I didn't really know how to do that , but I just said I need to do this .
Speaker 4Well , I would say something here that I just is oozing out of you , and that is the high-octane fuel of gratitude . It's something that motivates me . It's always motivated me . When I saw my sin back 50-something years ago and then suddenly saw the cross , gratitude exploded in me and it never , ever dies down . And I can detect that in you . You've seen your sin , you've seen the cross . You realize what God's done and what we have in store for us .
Speaker 4Earlier on , you mentioned someone saying do you believe what he believes ? And he says no , but
he does . Speaking of a Christian , that was David Hume . A skeptic of the 18th century Saw a friend going to hear George Whitefield and he says you don't believe that , and the guy says no , but he does . And that's because the man with an experience is not at the mercy of a man with an argument . When you're truly born again , you've truly seen your sin , you've truly been made a new person in Christ . There's no denying that it's an experience and that gratitude is so essential to drive us to reach the lost . Amen , wow , thank you .
Speaker 1You know , I remember meeting Tony Dungy and he was across the table , the same size as this about , and I saw down he was wearing his Super Bowl ring and I commented on it and I said , oh , you're wearing your Super Bowl ring and without me even asking to be able to see it , he took off his ring and he bounced it across the table over to me . He didn't even know who I was . I picked it up and I was just thinking this man was not playing or coaching for a perishable crown right , that his goal , his desire , was to coach for an imperishable crown right . I like in Matthew 16 , it says then Jesus told his disciples if anyone would come after me , let him deny himself , take up his cross and follow me , for whoever will save his life will lose it , and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it . Or , as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said , when Christ calls a man , he bids him to come and die right that there has to come a moment . There has to come a time and a point I remember .
Speaker 1I mean I never played college ball , right , but I remember when I played high school ball and I had torn a ligament in my knee . Now we won our league , but it's high school and I still . I found my identity in the sports that I played and when the coach told me that I was done for the season , I remember crying like a little baby inside the doctor's office , thinking you don't understand . You know I've got all these plans . You know I wanted to run in the Olympics and run the high hurdles . I had a teammate of mine who ran in the Olympics as well and we're talking to each other just going . This is what we're going to do .
Speaker 4This is so great , but when I became a christian I lost my competitive edge . We talked about the atmosphere in a crowd of 80 000 people . It's , I've been in a crowd of 80 000 people . I'll never forget it . It was , uh like was called the commonwealth games , the mini olympic games . The roar of the crowd was magic . You cannot duplicate that on an 80 80 inch flat screen tv . It's just not there . The roar of the crowd was magic . You cannot duplicate that on an 80 80 inch flat screen tv . It's just not there .
Speaker 4The spirit of that and that is so appealing to humanity . But that to me , is just a tiny fraction of what you feel when you're truly worshiping god . And that sort of adulation is for god and not for human beings , because it doesn't matter how much people compliment you and say you're great , you just get to sleep at night alone . You close your eyes , you're alone . And the only way you can get that satisfaction I don't like to say it is through trusting in Christ , because I don't want to preach a man-centered gospel and say come to Jesus , because he'll give you satisfaction , because they've got to come through the door of genuine repentance , genuine contrition , to find that completeness that you find in Christ .
Speaker 5The telos is this idea that the Greeks believe that each one of us was created for a purpose . So , if you think of like and telos is the perfect version of that thing . So I use the example of a watch . The telos watch is the watch that tells time on time all the time . It's never a second early or a second late . It never dies of batteries , and all other watches are created to be like the telos . But all other watches will fall short . They run out of batteries . They're early , they're late , whatever the case .
Speaker 5And so the question is what is the telos of man ? And the telos of man is Jesus Christ . He lived the perfect life . He lived the life that we should have lived when we think about how we were created to be .
Speaker 5The Heidelberg Catechism what is your only comfort in life and death ? That I am not my own , but I belong to Christ . I have been created to glorify and enjoy God forever , but I fall short of my created order by glorifying myself , by glorifying creaturely comforts , by glorifying sin , whatever the case might be . And the beauty of the gospel , of course , is that God means to redeem us , back to being more like his son , the telos , or making us be who he intended us to be .
Speaker 5So many of us are living our lives in the way that like I'll explain it to people on the street If I tried to use a watch as a hammer , nothing good would come of it . The watch would break . The goal of hammering the nail would not come about . We so often are living our lives outside of our telos . We are our watch trying to be a hammer . And that gets back to the question I want to ask you , jordan Earlier . I asked you to say what does it mean to find your identity in football ? Now tell me what does it mean to find your true telos , your identity in Christ .
Speaker 3There's a verse in 1 Corinthians 8.6 .
Speaker 3It says Yet to us , there is one God , the Father , from whom all things and we exist for him , and one Lord Jesus Christ , through whom are all things and we exist through him .
Speaker 3And so when I realized that I am not my own , that I've been bought with a price the precious blood of Jesus when I realized that I've got to wear some great titles in life I've been able to put on a college uniform , I've been able to put on an NFL uniform , three different teams , four different teams but the greatest joy that I get to have is I get to be an ambassador of the Most High God .
Speaker 3I get to be an ambassador of Jesus Christ . So that's the greatest hat that I've ever worn and the greatest hat that I ever will wear , and that is a stewardship that I hold very highly , and it's not something that I take lightly . You know . I tell people often that to be a follower of Jesus is a great privilege , it's a great honor , but it's also a great responsibility . And I get to bear the name of Christ , and so I live like a hypocrite for so much of my life that I no longer desire to live that way , so to be able to put my identity in him , knowing that those moments of running out the tunnel are fun , but the reality that I am a child of God , made possible through faith in Christ . There's no greater joy than that .
Speaker 1That's awesome . Somebody's listening who wants to enter into professional sports or their profession , whatever that may be . What words of advice , what counsel , what challenge perhaps would you give to them ? In other words , like if you could go back in time and you could talk to a 17 , 18 year old Jordan right , Knowing the future , knowing all that you know right now , what advice would you give to that person ?
Speaker 3I think , answering this question , it kind of brings me back to what Ray and Oscar were just talking about , and I can't help but think about the woman at the well when Jesus approached her and he said whoever drinks of this water will thirst again . But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life , and so , drinking from the things of this world , you will thirst again . There's only one who can truly satisfy that thirst he is the bread of life . He who comes to him will never hunger and he who believes in him will never thirst . And so I would say work hard at that , enjoy those moments , but never let it be at the altar of your relationship with Jesus Christ . Cherish that Bottle , that Bottle that Represent him , honor him , glorify him in all that you do .
Speaker 3As Mark said earlier . Jesus said Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven . Let it not be about you , let it be about Jesus Christ , because all of our names will perish , not in the stat book of eternity , but there's one name that has been given among men by which we must be saved and there's one name that will endure forever , and it's the Lord Jesus Christ . So let that be the name that we play , for , that we work for , that we do all things for , amen .
Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast . Friends , we value your time , so we've created a bite-sized version of our podcast for listeners who want to get equipped . Without the jokes and fellowship . Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday where we dive deeper into the topic . Until then , you can watch the full podcast episode available now on livingwaterstv .