The After Sermon /// What could God build through your yes?

Welcome to The After Sermon by Plum Creek Church.

This bite-sized discussion is where we get to sit down with our communicators and ask a few follow up questions connected to the weekend message, unpack it on a deeper level, and explore how it all relates to our journey of following Jesus more fully.

God doesn’t build his kingdom only through experts, professionals, or people who feel completely prepared. He builds through ordinary people who are willing to trust him and participate.

In this episode of The After Sermon, Michele and Eric explore why we so often disqualify ourselves, how busyness can keep us focused on building our own smaller kingdoms, and what becomes possible when we simply make ourselves available to God. The conversation also turns personal as Michele reflects on the unexpected breaking and rebuilding God has used to shape her own life.

Following Jesus may cost us comfort, but a life invested in God’s bigger story is never wasted.

This conversation is also available on our YouTube channel along with the full sermon that this discussion is based on.

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@plumcreekchurch

You can learn more about Plum Creek Church by visiting our website as well.

Website: https://plumcreek.church/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome, welcome to the after sermon where we get a chance to sit down with this week's communicator, like literally right off the stage, and talk about maybe things that didn't get talked about in the sermon. And if you haven't listened to the sermon, I'd encourage you to go to our YouTube channel or any of your podcasting platforms, listen to it. But Michelle, you literally just came off the stage.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

I did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

You chased you down in the lobby, drug you up here.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Kind of terrifying, actually.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Daniel can be. Daniel can be.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Daniel can be aggressive. Like, get it.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Well, this podcast is important. So let me ask you, as you kicked off the series built, we're talking through Nehemiah. Um, you really you used a singular line that I think is exceedingly important as it relates not just to the wall, but to our lives. Would you reframe that for us?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Uh the big idea was God built his kingdom through ordinary people willing to serve. And he does it over and over and over. I mean, it's it's kind of mind-blowing when you think about it that this is God, like like God of the entire universe, creator, author of all things, who chooses to build his kingdom through just ordinary people like you and me. Like, why would he do that? Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Why would he do that?

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Why would he do that? And yet that's how God operates. And it's it's so exquisite and beautiful that he that he chooses to do that way. So we get to participate in what he's doing, which gives us a window into his character, but also gives us the opportunity to participate in his glory.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Well, I think when you say participate, I think that's really key because sometimes I get the sense that I don't get the sense, like I sit across from people who feel like they're observers of their own life. That all of life is just sort of uh, you know, sort of they're just watching it happen, and then think about the kingdom, and it's almost magnified where it's like, oh well, it's a bunch of other people, professionals, uh, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

They have skills and talents, and they're like, yeah, that somehow they've gotten a degree in it, and that's why they're doing it.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Yeah, how do how do I mean talk to that person? What do you say to that person um who is like, I don't, I don't think they're meaning to sit on the sidelines necessarily, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Yeah, uh but they just don't think that they have anything to offer, and yet that's the beauty of the story of Nehemiah. So chapter three lists uh the people that participated in the rebuilding of the wall. And uh, and by the way, this was a massive endeavor to rebuild a wall that was nine feet thick in some places. That's huge. Yes. Uh they did it, so the wall had been desolate for a hundred years, they rebuilt it in 52 days, not even two months. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

I wonder if they could work on the new Broncos Stadium.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Do you think maybe? Or maybe construction on I-25? Um, and these were perfume makers, goldsmiths. Um one verse talks about the daughters of this guy stepped up and helped out. Um, there were priests who were not construction workers, and then there were offices like uh palace administrators, and like these were not your typical construction crew, and yet that's how God operates. And you know, it really wasn't about the skills that were brought, you know, even though it's always nice to use our gifts, but it really wasn't about the skill set that was brought to the project, it was about willingness and faithfulness, yeah, and belief in God, like belief in the power and the presence of God to do what he said he was going to do. And boy, something happens when we just offer our ordinary selves to a God who's extraordinary, and man, he can multiply even the tiniest of offerings.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah, um there's a saying availability is an ability, yes. Like just the general sense of like being available. And how many times for real do you come across a story personally, anecdotally, in passing, where someone says, My life was fundamentally altered because someone just cared, they just were available, they just listened, they reached out, whatever that looks like. And I think we underestimate that ability of just yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

I mean, David, we see that in the life of David, he was just a shepherd, not a warrior, and he took down Goliath and became a king. We see it in Moses, who was like a convict. I mean, he was like a murderer who had run away, and God uses him to be the deliverer of his people. I mean, we can go on and on and on, men and women who simply said, you know what, I'm a mess, but God, I'm yours, and use me however you see fit. And God said, I will.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

He really did. And he did, he still does. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I mean, I even think, you know, I I've talked about this before, but like I have a speech disability. I'm the last person that should be speaking, and yet for whatever reason, God says, I can use that. Like, and so those of us who tend to disqualify ourselves based on what we lack, God's saying that's not even what I'm looking at. That's not even the qualification I'm looking for. I'm looking for just believe me and trust me and be willing. That's all.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Well, I think you have one category of probably people who disqualify themselves because of ability, where they say subconsciously or consciously I don't I wouldn't know what to do, I don't know what the Bible says. So that's one area, right? Where you say, look, it's about availability. All the other things will fall into place. But I do think in our culture there's a second type of person, and it's the person who just is so busy um just cranking through life.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

We self-select out.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Right. What if you were talking to someone like that, what what would be what what would you say to them? Well because it's most of us. When I say them, it's us, it's us, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:16

And I talked about this, I talked about this uh in the message where um we are so bu busy building our own little kingdoms, right? We are so busy because we really have started to see the timeline of our life from birth to 75 or 77, whatever the average lifespan is now, that that is our kingdom and that we're going to we're going to make it count, right? But we're seeing such a small story compared to the gospel story. And so part of what we need to do ongoing is to shift and see God's kingdom. See our little stories in God's bigger story, seeing these lifespans of ours as being part of something far grander, far better, and far more lasting than anything we can do in the 75 years of our life. Um, and that requires um spiritual eyes, quite frankly, like the ability to say, is this really enough? Like my 75 years, is that really enough? But the truth is, it all comes to an end. And we're gonna say, okay, well, I need something that's gonna last beyond me. Well, guess what? God has that.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

And I I do know this. Um I've never met someone who gave themselves to this concept of, hey, God, use me in other people's lives, that they look back and went, Well, gosh, I wish I wouldn't have done that.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

No, it's just not true, it doesn't happen that way. It doesn't happen. It doesn't mean it's easy.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Like the journey, I mean, building a wall required sweat and work. I'm sure they had blisters on their hands and everything else. But when the wall was done in 52 days, I don't think of one of the people that lifted the stone regretted being a part of it.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Well, and I see it all the time where you think about some of the biggest moments of your life, moments where your life um was bigger than your kingdom. Um, uh, an interaction with someone, caring in a way that was, you know, um wasn't required of you. And you look back at those moments, and there is something about them where you you see someone thriving in a way that they wouldn't have through been thriving if you wouldn't have been available to be Jesus in their life. And that isn't to say that we carry some sort of well, we do carry something though. That's just it. Like as a believer, we carry the whole thing. And that matters, yeah. It's important, and you don't regret it, you will not regret it.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

No, uh you know, that's so interesting because I I I had another birthday this past week, and you know, every time you grow a year older, at least for me, you do a lot of reflecting, right? And so I look back, and let me tell you that my life has not turned out like I thought it would. Like I can at every turn, some kind of plan that I had got derailed, derailed, derailed, derailed. And yet when I look at my life now, I would not have it any other way. Like there is something that God has done through all of the breaking and rebuilding that is so far beyond anything I could ask or imagine, that there is no way you could tell me, like if somebody said, Can if you could go back and do it all over again with you, no way, no way. Because what God's kingdom has accomplished is far grander than any of my lesser kingdoms and plans.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Gosh, that is like such an important lesson because I think we we've had side conversations all week about the last few weeks. Um, and I have thought a lot about I don't, I'm not having a birthday. In fact, I'm wearing this little bandit said I'm getting younger.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Um Well, look at you. My husband does the same thing, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

And I'm like just I want to check with I want to check with Troy as he if we can compare. Are we getting younger? But he likes to meet up.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

He goes, I'm 56.5 this week.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

I'm like, oh but he and I are gonna have a talk. But but even in that journey, I I look back and I think, you know, um, the best seasons of my life are not the seasons where I was uh comfortable, uh, where um I was building my little kingdom where it was all about me. I'm tempted to do that.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Oh, I'm tempted at every turn.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

At every turn, I'm tempted to be more comfortable because I think about the wall. It's like, well, I could go home and chill out and um eat some pita bread, or I could lift these. I'm a perfume maker. I'm or I could lift this rock and build this thing. And every time we step into um a God direction, no matter how much the lift, how much it costs, we step out of it, we choose his kingdom over our comfort.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

I have looked back in the same way and thought, wouldn't have it any other way, no other way, but right not easy in the moment, but boy, so worth it. It's worth it, so worth it, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:00

And there's a there's a generation, there's a people looking for a way to live, right? To build something that means something. Like in this short life that we have, to leave something behind. And I think this story, uh, and this is just the beginning of the story, just the beginning. We've got three more weeks of and and then beyond, like you you look neah, it's pointing to something as the scriptures do, the something that leads all the way to us. That's pretty cool. It is well, thank you for preaching, and thank you for tuning in. As I foremention, if you have not listened to this message, I want to encourage you to do so. Uh, go to YouTube, watch it, go download a podcast app. If you don't have one, get one and listen to the message. I promise you it is worth the time. So thank you. Thank you and thank you. We'll see you next time. Race in peace.