WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.439 Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center podcast. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:08.080 Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:13.679 For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net. 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:15.919 Hey, good morning. 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:16.960 Good morning. 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:18.480 This is exciting for me. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:23.519 She she gave me this side on the right because it's my my good side for camera. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:24.879 I'm really excited about that. 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:27.440 So if anyone wants to take a picture, it's now. 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:30.559 This is really exciting. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:31.440 Thank you. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:33.119 At the back there. 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:35.840 This is great. 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:39.039 How many of you know this is the family day weekend? 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:41.439 And we're so grateful to have family together. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:42.719 This is great. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:49.119 Many of you were able to enjoy uh Valentine's Day this week. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:51.600 How many of you had a great Valentine's Day? 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:55.039 Yeah, that sounds good. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:59.759 You know, there's an actually an anti-Valentine's Day movement. 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:02.000 It's like uh there's a few out there. 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:03.520 Yeah, that's right. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:13.359 Um today is uh a day where we just want to celebrate the facts of life and uh enjoy the family that we have. 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:16.159 So as you know, um my wife is here with me. 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:17.519 It was awesome. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:26.879 You know, with having a woman on on stage with you is really exciting, especially when you're talking about emotions and getting this different perspective. 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:29.280 She just brings a totally different perspective. 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:43.439 Like this morning, um she got up early, got ready, and I was I was meditating before the Lord in bed, and uh and I was laying down, and she came in, she's like, Hey, I'm uh you know, you're gonna get get ready. 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:46.560 I said, I just told her I'm just not feeling very good. 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:52.560 And there were like two very different emotions that it happened at that point. 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:54.319 For me, I was joking. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:56.159 I was like, ah, this is funny. 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:57.680 She was not very pleased. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:59.599 She's like, you get out of bed now. 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:03.439 She's like, come on, I'm okay. 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:07.760 So we uh I put a little fear in her there. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:13.280 That that's probably not a good thing for today's topic, but it should be love, right? 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:29.759 But we actually want to want to bring this perspective, male, female, man, woman uh portion to this uh series that we're doing on emotions because we believe that God created us different and we're designed different. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:36.080 And so we just have a few like areas to show you where men and women differ uh by design. 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:42.879 Um, these are tendencies, they're not particularly rules in terms of there's always an exception to the rule. 00:02:43.039 --> 00:02:52.719 My daughter thinks she's an exception to the rule in terms of when we discuss these things, but just see whatever lands with you, and if it lands with you, that's great. 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:54.800 If it doesn't, that's great too. 00:02:55.039 --> 00:02:55.919 Go ahead, Natalie. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:59.439 All right, so the first one is women remember everything. 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:06.319 We actually have uh we have a larger hippocampus, which is like a, did I say that right? 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:07.919 You practice it like all week. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:09.360 Hippocampus. 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:14.960 Hippocampus, which is like a little horseshoe area in your brain. 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:17.919 And um, that's where we store our memories. 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:27.759 And so this is why we as women can recall every single word from a conversation or argument that could have been like five years ago. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:28.960 We know it. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:37.039 So emotions are actually often attached to our memories, and so men don't actually have the emotional capacity. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:43.360 That sounds rude, but they just don't have the emotional capacity to recall things, they just simply forget. 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.000 And so they don't have that room to remember. 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:54.000 Now, this is on an excuse, you can still write things down to remember, but it's a good blame it on the hippocampus, dudes. 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:55.039 That's right. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:58.240 I'm sorry, I just have a small hippocampus. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:01.360 It makes a difference, okay? 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:03.759 Like it's just a different one. 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:12.639 But the fact that our emotions aren't attached to these memories because we just don't connect with our memories as well as uh women folk do. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:19.439 So another uh difference is that women feel while men use logic. 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:26.639 And uh men take more fact-based approach to their uh environment often. 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:43.920 We're scanning for threats, we're scanning for danger, we're looking at like we're always looking at the exit signs, we're checking things out, and uh women oftentimes have a deeper connection, a stronger connection uh than men tend to have to uh their environment. 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:49.920 So men will lead with logic, and women will lead oftentimes with feeling. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:05:06.319 And so uh you may want to share on this email aspect, the fact that so I know sometimes like when a when a woman gets an email, she gets an email and she's like reading between the lines, trying to understand the whole thing, and you know what does this person really mean by this? 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:09.439 And whereas a man it's like he just looks at it and he's like, Well, did she say that? 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:11.519 No, then she didn't that's not what she meant. 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:16.000 Whereas sometimes we read between it all and try and try and understand it. 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:19.600 Have you ever sent your wife a K message? 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:22.639 And they what does that mean? 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:23.680 What are you trying to say? 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:24.480 I'm just saying K. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:26.639 Like, okay, that's it. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:27.920 So men lead with the other. 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:30.879 But give me more, give me more than we did with logic. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:34.639 Women feel, they want to understand the feeling aspect. 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:37.360 Okay, another one is we problem solve differently. 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:48.399 So men like to isolate issues where women like to kind of the same thing with the email aspect, come at it from a a feeling, a bigger perspective. 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:58.959 And um men like to place their emotions in a box, focus on one thing where women entwine all their emotions and you know they like to tell the whole story. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:01.680 You gotta know every single point of view. 00:06:02.079 --> 00:06:07.279 Not just like a man sees a nail and a hammer and goes, hammer, nail. 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:08.480 Good. 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:16.240 We don't we don't look at we don't look at what it's building or why we're building it or how we're feeling as we're building. 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:19.120 We just strike nail with hammer. 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:20.959 Good. 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:24.319 It makes sense to me. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:33.680 Oh, men and women handle conflict differently. 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:35.360 Do you realize that? 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:47.680 Um oftentimes uh men tend to depersonalize and externalize issues or problems, and giving themselves times to time to think. 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:54.879 Like when we deal with conflict, we actually need time to like process before we engage. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:04.720 And uh oftentimes that processing is where we do the best processing is in solitude, i.e. 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:06.240 the bathroom. 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:10.959 No, not usually, but it's it's it's the stereotype. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:18.560 Like just men need that place to actually find that quiet space to actually process their thoughts. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:24.399 And uh we don't personalize every emotional connection that we have. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:28.639 Women will oftentimes feel it out where men actually think it out. 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:31.519 We think it out, so we handle conflict differently. 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:35.439 We're we're thinking about things, and oftentimes that happens in isolation. 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:38.639 Women oftentimes like to talk about it and process it. 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:41.920 Yes, love to talk about it and process it for sure. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:51.120 Um, men and women actually think differently, so men need time for their brain to unwind and explore and to decide to do what next. 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:58.160 So when you ask a guy, what are you thinking about, and he says nothing, he literally is thinking about nothing. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:02.160 Which is impossible for us because we're always thinking about something. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:06.399 Our brains are going a million different ways, but it is nothing. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:12.720 I I like to think of it this way: men love to put their emotions on hold. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:17.279 Let this sink with you for a little bit. 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:19.360 We put them on hold for a bit. 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:31.199 Now, there's actually like there's actually like like actual scientific, like here's a picture of a brain of a man at rest and a brain at a with a woman at rest. 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:32.720 Yes. 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:35.600 So we know how to rest well. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:39.919 I think it takes more work for women to learn to rest. 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:41.840 I think we have to really work at it. 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:43.519 I agree. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:47.519 And to be supported in it. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:49.279 We're just better. 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:52.159 We're just better. 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:56.240 We're just better at thinking about nothing because of our design. 00:08:56.559 --> 00:08:59.120 But it's it's here's the thought. 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:00.960 We're gonna think about nothing. 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:03.440 And this is honestly the way men think. 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:05.600 They're gonna think about nothing. 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:09.279 And and they're gonna allow their emotions just to be put on hold. 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:16.399 But when the time comes to actually execute, they're gonna put a hundred percent of their effort into the execution. 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:20.639 So don't make, don't, don't think it's just like lazy. 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:35.360 It's not lazy, it's actually like a reserve quality that men have to actually move forward and attack a situation, or uh, like in today's environment, we don't have wars or hunt or things like that, particularly for our survival. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:48.080 But oftentimes there would have to be this time, okay, I gotta go out and I have to harvest this field, or I have to go and bring in food for the family, or I have to go and protect land or whatever it may have been at the time. 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:56.879 It looks different today where we have to go into our job or go and engage relationships or take on situations that are complicated. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:03.440 It's first gonna require like a reserve quality before actually we attack that qual that that situation. 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:13.120 So there's a value in men and women at risk uh at rest, and uh we learn from each other and we and uh there's a quality to it. 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:21.840 So I I found this picture of um a man's day versus a woman's day. 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:29.360 And the only two things I see in common here is that we all wait, we wake up happy and we all go to bed tired. 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:32.879 And I'm for some, I'm sure maybe don't even have that in common. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:33.519 I don't know. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:38.240 But there's a whole lot of difference that goes on in in the in between here. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:44.240 And um, you can see there's a few more variety of emojis in a woman's day. 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:52.480 But actually, I have to say that maybe you can't all relate to that, but I know Brody's pulled up a few of those um emojis this week. 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:58.159 We've been we've been uh I it's my turn. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:10:59.600 I get to do this. 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:08.639 So we've been watching this transformation show on like on a on a weight loss transformation show, but it's just an amaz it's actually a really great show. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:22.879 They go through the the weight loss and the the mental um state of how they've just come to another place, and it comes to the end and I hear and I'm like, are you crying? 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:24.559 My eyes were leaking. 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:26.960 I have very weak eye dots. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:28.720 And he's like, Yeah. 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:32.399 And of course I was crying too, but I was like, good, that's great. 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:32.639 Yeah. 00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:33.840 Yeah, that's great. 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:34.720 We're in touch. 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:36.240 That's great. 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:39.360 It's an emotional week for me. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:44.879 Uh, we're addressing emotions because we believe that your emotional health is important. 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:51.279 Your emotional health is important to your physical and your spiritual health. 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:59.519 And uh those not only is your emotional health important to you, but it's important to those who are around you. 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:11.519 When you're in a home with people who are struggling emotionally, it's actually worthwhile to it's not just your emotions that matter, it's the people that are around you that matter. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:16.080 You want to create an emotionally supportive environment for each other. 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:21.039 So emotions are actually core to who we are. 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:23.200 Emotions are core to who we are. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:26.320 Yes, emotions take uh energy. 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:31.840 Everything takes emotion, and emotion is energy in motion. 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:39.759 And um, it takes energy to smile, it takes energy to frown, actually takes more energy to frown, but it still takes emotion. 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:43.679 And emotion is often to connected to the things that you value. 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:45.759 So I value my children. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:54.960 So if they're out in the in the cul-sac and they're they're riding their bikes, I am on guard, I am watching to see, to make sure that they're safe, because I value them. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:56.480 That's that's what you do. 00:12:56.639 --> 00:12:59.840 Your your emotions are connected to your what you value. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:01.919 I just forgot where they were. 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:04.559 It's a weak hypocampus. 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:08.879 Um today we want to actually affirm your feelings. 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:12.799 Will you turn to your neighbor and just say, I affirm you as a feeler? 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:16.159 I affirm you as a feeler. 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:19.919 Feelings are very important. 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:29.039 And today we want to target the one of the, I believe, is one of the most important feelings, and we sang about it this morning, the feelings of love. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:32.720 Feelings of love are very important to your emotional health. 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:36.879 Feeling loved is very important to your emotional health. 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:42.080 Love uh from all sources will breed a sense of trust in you. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:50.720 And that trust develops into confidence, and that confidence breeds actual affirmation and motivation and movement. 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:54.080 So knowing that you're loved is really important. 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.519 It's it's why the Bible talks about love so much. 00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:06.639 In fact, the Bible talks about over 300 times, the Bible mentions love as something valuable and something to be attained and to have. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:21.360 Even a whole scripture in 1 Corinthians 13 talks about love, saying, You can have all these things in the world, and after everything falls apart, the the things that remain are like faith, hope, and love. 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:23.840 And the greatest of those is love. 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:26.000 Love is important. 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:29.200 And men, we love to discuss love. 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:41.919 We love to uh we discuss it, we tend to analyze it, we tend to want to understand it, we want to process it, and we want to somehow want we want to be able to master love. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:53.279 But and it's important, I don't I don't ever want to negate the fact that we want to engage our mind and be intellectually uh present uh when it comes to feelings. 00:14:53.600 --> 00:15:00.960 But I have to be con I am convinced that there's more to love than just knowing about love. 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:13.759 We'd love to we would love to have someone who just gave us a book on this is love, this is what it looks like, this is how to get it, this is like fit it into a nice package for us, it'd be great. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:20.320 It makes sense to us, but there's more to that than than just knowing about love. 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:28.159 In fact, feeling emotional and feeling the emotion of love is crucial. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:29.840 It's crucial. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:37.919 Uh love may never be able to be fully defined or articulated, and we need to just think about it this way. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:41.519 We need to give up on trying to understand love. 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:56.960 Like I can tell you, okay, there's familial love, there's family love, there's there's uh phileo love, the like the love between brothers, there's agape love, God's love, there's eros love, which is a sexual, erotic love. 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:58.960 There's all kinds of love. 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:07.120 If you want to talk about love, we can talk about it, but what means more is actually experiencing it. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:15.279 It's like going online on YouTube, probably a video that may exist but shouldn't exist, how to swim. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:28.960 You can go on YouTube and you can look how to swim, but you can't you can watch that video a hundred times, but you'll never know what it's like until you get pushed into the deep end of a pool. 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:31.279 And your mind is going, breathe. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:36.960 You move arms together, think buoyant, and it's not gonna work. 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:40.639 You can't learn swimming through correspondence. 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:43.039 Swimming needs to be experienced. 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:45.519 Love needs to be experienced. 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:49.840 It's more important to experience it than to know it. 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:51.840 Understand it. 00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:55.840 Feeling love is extremely important. 00:16:55.919 --> 00:17:01.759 Uh, it's actually the fact that it defines us as Christians. 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:07.839 We are people who know how to love, and we're defined by our love. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:22.160 In a culture in the scripture, that this culture that was broken by race, it was broken by prejudice and tension, all like over land and property and all these other things. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.720 Um, there were wars that were happening. 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:31.279 Christians were known, they could be seen because of their love that they had for one another. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:35.440 It actually is a defining factor of the church. 00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:36.799 It should be. 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:43.519 And sometimes I think about it, I go, how good are we at feeling and expressing love? 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:46.640 Is the church known for their love? 00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:49.680 And that's a big question for us. 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:57.200 And so, relationship, really, because God is love, and in order to know love, you need to know God. 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:00.960 The relationship is your first primary key. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:03.759 You need to you need to make that priority. 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:06.160 Having the relationship is priority. 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:14.720 So, for example, we have a marriage certificate, but that marriage certificate does not define that we have a relationship. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:19.279 It's the relationship that defines our marriage certificate. 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:27.200 And that takes energy, emotion, it takes everything to form to form a marriage. 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:30.160 And so every single thing flows from a relationship. 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:35.119 And when we encounter God, we encounter true organic love, really. 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:38.160 And you know, I think about babies. 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:48.160 When babies are little, they have no intellectual ability to think about love or to talk, you know, they it's all about an experience that they have. 00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:54.720 They experience it through through the mother's touch or the dad's care and through all these areas. 00:18:54.880 --> 00:19:08.799 And studies have been done where emotional contact was removed from children and their their immune system actually suffered, and their growth was impaired, and they just didn't have the same strength as others. 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:11.839 And I think we're what were they missing? 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:13.599 The intellectual conversation? 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:18.640 No, they were missing the pure the experience of human love. 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:21.279 And so it's so crucial. 00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:29.039 And I think so many of us in church today don't we know God's love, but we have never felt it. 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:40.880 And I know that I've even when it comes to peace, I've known peace, I know what it is, but there's times where I haven't experienced it or I haven't felt it. 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:44.480 And when you feel when you feel that, that's what changes you. 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:47.440 And you know, in Ephesians 3. 00:19:54.480 --> 00:20:00.400 Of how wide and how love and how deep God's how deep God's love is for us. 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:08.720 And so it's just extremely important that we grasp it and and know it, experience it. 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:10.400 I get it. 00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:25.519 Um The fact that love was really a a base emotion is in in culture, people didn't value love the way God intends us to actually value the love for one another. 00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:29.519 And we're supposed to actually chase after it. 00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:32.240 Go get it, look for it. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:44.319 Like go after love and and actually find go and pro go and chase it more than you would chase property, more you than you would chase money, more than you would chase fame or prestige. 00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:48.079 Go and get love because love will save you. 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:52.640 Love will change you, love will make you better. 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:57.519 Knowing and experiencing the love of God will make you better. 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:06.240 I look at the scripture, one of my favorite in the Bible is really this portion that talks about the prodigal son. 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:16.400 And the prodigal son was really a son that had taken his inheritance from his father and had decided I'm gonna go and I'm gonna live my own life. 00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:21.119 And he left early from the home, leaving his father at the home and his brother at home. 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:25.279 And he went uh he went out and he spent everything. 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:36.160 He wasted his inheritance, and he wasted the inheritance on partying and hanging out with the wrong people and the wrong crowd, and he at the end of the day, he was left with nothing. 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:51.200 And he found himself even in a place where he was feeding pigs, a pretty low place for him, having come from a place where there was, he had resource and had a title and had a pla had a position in a family. 00:21:51.440 --> 00:22:02.079 And the Bible says, gives us great ills, like illustrates this perfectly, is that he comes to a place in his own mind, he goes, I got to get back home. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:08.559 And I believe that's in every person this desire to actually find home again. 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:17.599 And the Bible says that when he started making his way home, the father saw him from a long ways away. 00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:36.400 And when he saw him, had been expecting him, and when he saw him, he got up and he ran to his son and he jumped into, which was a really undignified thing for a man to do to run towards someone who's been feeding pigs and hanging out with pigs. 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:39.440 And he grabs them and he hugs them. 00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:46.960 And that hug, I believe, that hug is what actually communicated so much. 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:51.519 It wasn't what he said, it was what he experienced in that moment. 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:52.880 You're welcome back. 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:54.799 You're affirmed as my son. 00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:55.680 I love you. 00:22:55.839 --> 00:22:56.960 I care for you. 00:22:57.440 --> 00:22:58.640 I forgive you. 00:22:58.880 --> 00:22:59.680 I want you. 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:00.880 I desire you. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:03.200 The hug says so much. 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:08.079 You didn't have to go through and deliver him a book on how he was feeling. 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:10.319 He just gave him a hug. 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:12.079 And he welcomed him. 00:23:12.160 --> 00:23:13.279 He said, This is my son. 00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:14.240 He was lost. 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:15.839 But now he's found. 00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:17.039 Welcome him. 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:18.000 Bring him in. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:34.799 And I think it's so important that our children and we as a community need to be able to be the type of community that knows how to express and pass on that feeling and that love to each other, but especially to our own families. 00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:36.400 I think about my kids. 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:39.359 I want them to know that love as well. 00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:48.559 I look at the scripture from Romans 2, where it says, don't disregard, and virtually it's the emotions of God. 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:51.200 Don't disregard his kindness. 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:53.920 Don't disregard his patience. 00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:58.000 Don't disregard his tolerance with us. 00:23:58.319 --> 00:24:03.680 Realize that it's the kindness of God that leads men to repent. 00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:09.440 You notice it's not a logic, it's just God's kindness. 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:25.680 So when people open themselves up emotionally and they welcome in the love of God and the care of God, then they'll find themselves actually making change, making a difference, and and looking for and finding forgiveness and finding hope. 00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:29.839 So it's really important that we open up our hearts to God. 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:31.200 So how do we do that? 00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:36.160 How do we open up our heart to experience the love that God has for us? 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:38.799 So first off, it's your offering. 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:44.400 It's what you're offering God in Romans 12, 1 to 2, it says to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:47.759 So to offer your heart as a sacrifice to God. 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:53.680 And I think often the problem with a living sacrifice is it keeps trying to get like crawl off the altar, right? 00:24:54.319 --> 00:25:01.519 And you gotta every day say, I choose, I choose, and constantly submit your heart to God. 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:05.279 And um I just think that's r extremely important. 00:25:05.440 --> 00:25:09.200 And and it's also you can't give you can't give half of your heart. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:11.200 You gotta give it all. 00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:14.880 Like I can't give half of my heart to Brody. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:17.519 It's I gotta give it all. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:20.319 The good, the bad, and the ugly. 00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:21.279 That's right. 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:22.079 I want it. 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:22.640 That's right. 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:25.519 He doesn't get my Instagram reel, right? 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:27.759 He gets he gets my whole story. 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:29.920 He gets he gets everything. 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:31.839 And um Lucky me. 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:33.599 It's true. 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:37.519 I think I get something that that I see that is valuable. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:39.039 I see that as precious. 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:41.440 It's the whole of her, is what I want. 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:43.759 I want like imagine Valentine's Day. 00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:45.440 I give you half my heart. 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:48.000 No, I give you my whole heart. 00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:49.279 I want everything. 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:49.920 That's right. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:50.640 Yeah. 00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:54.960 And I think that we often come to God thinking we have to be perfect, right? 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:58.480 That we want to present ourselves as perfect, but it doesn't work that way. 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:04.960 You have to come to God with your whole heart, everything, and allow him to perfect you. 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:08.000 And so, or else it's just not gonna work. 00:26:08.079 --> 00:26:08.880 It's not gonna happen. 00:26:09.119 --> 00:26:10.960 Yeah, too many people try and come to church. 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:14.880 They're like, I'm I'm waiting to come to church because I'm not good enough to come to church. 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:21.599 It's like, oh my goodness, you need to get here and let God do something in you. 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:24.000 Let God work his way in you. 00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:27.759 Come as you are and let God work with you. 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:35.039 And so he found you as you are, and just just welcome, we just welcome you into the church. 00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:38.559 Um, this is why I love King David, the story of King David. 00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:44.640 Before he was king, you read the Psalms of where uh his writings are super emotional. 00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:50.319 He he shares his pain, his anger, his confusion, his angst. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:53.279 He gave his whole language to God. 00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:57.200 He said, Here I am, this is me, you want me, you got me. 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:06.799 He's he's just talking to God that way, and what's awesome is that God says he was a man after God's own heart. 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:09.359 That God loved that about him. 00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:22.799 God loved that about him, and the fact that God isn't scared of your feelings, God isn't scared about, I may be scared of her feelings, but God's not scared of feelings. 00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:29.599 And so you can express your heart to God and communicate to God what it is that you're feeling. 00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:31.440 God wants that offering. 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:40.319 So the first thing you need to do, just like I need to do with her, is the first thing, if I want relationship, I want to experience that love, I have to offer my heart. 00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:44.720 Yeah. 00:27:45.519 --> 00:27:48.559 Um, the second point here is renewing your mind. 00:27:48.960 --> 00:28:09.039 Uh we read in in the rest of Romans 12, it says, listen, there's a pattern of the world, but then there's also uh a pattern of God, and the way our we have to move from the pattern of the world, be renewed in our thinking to the pattern that God would have us uh think, process, live by. 00:28:09.279 --> 00:28:12.079 And so we need our mind to be renewed. 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:21.839 And until our mind is renewed, it's hard to actually know the heart of God, because um we're dealing with missed truths or lies. 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:28.880 So we need to be able to separate the lies from the truth, and the only way we'll know the truth is if we're thinking his thoughts. 00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:34.240 So we have to move ourselves to actually begin to think his thoughts. 00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:36.960 And that's where transformation actually begins. 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:37.680 Right. 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:41.680 So we know that there's a kingdom of light and there's a kingdom of darkness, right? 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:48.960 And so when we uh experience thoughts that are rooted in fear, that comes from a kingdom of darkness. 00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:54.559 And when we experience thoughts that are rooted in love, that comes from the kingdom of light. 00:28:55.200 --> 00:29:03.680 And we it's super important that we take captive those thoughts and say, is this a thought we're gonna is this a thought that comes from fear or love? 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:07.440 Because some you may have to just put in the trash, right? 00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:08.720 And keep the others. 00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:19.599 And I think about actually fear, when you are thinking thoughts of fear, the energy that it takes away from you, like it depletes you, right? 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:26.559 And when you think thoughts that are of love, that's what it actually gives you energy, it lifts you up. 00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:34.400 And um I think we gotta really watch that because we only have so much energy to use, you know? 00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:37.440 Yeah, so 2 Timothy says it this way. 00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:39.920 He says, God hasn't given us a spirit of fear. 00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:48.480 So if God didn't give you the spirit of fear, like God hasn't given you a spirit of fear, then where is this coming from? 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:50.480 A place out not from God. 00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:52.799 So you don't want anything of it. 00:29:53.119 --> 00:30:00.000 So, but God gives you us a spirit of love and power and peace, a sound mind. 00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:05.359 So anything that brings us love, power, soundness of mind, like think on those things. 00:30:05.519 --> 00:30:14.079 Uh, one of our kids, uh I won't say which one, uh, the other day was sharing his need for the evidence of God. 00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:17.119 And oh his. 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:26.799 Followed by some incredibly good questions, like really good questions, and thank goodness Natalie was there to help me answer them. 00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:30.000 She was like, see you, Brody, I'm going out with my friends. 00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:32.640 And for an hour, what's that? 00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:40.319 I I can give you a hug, cook you food, but if you want to have a theological debate with me, I'm like, bye-bye. 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:45.039 And so I decided to do what a man does. 00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:47.200 I began to reason with him. 00:30:47.839 --> 00:30:50.559 And I began to use my logic. 00:30:50.799 --> 00:30:52.000 You want evidence? 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:54.240 Well, let's talk about evidence. 00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:56.880 What if God came through here right now? 00:30:57.039 --> 00:30:58.960 Would you even recognize him as God? 00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:00.880 How do you even know to see God? 00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:02.960 You don't even know what he looks like. 00:31:04.880 --> 00:31:06.480 I thought that was good. 00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:10.319 And then I was, I said, you know, it's like the wind. 00:31:10.400 --> 00:31:11.279 We know the wind. 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:12.720 Like, it does the wind exist? 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:13.680 Yes, the wind exists. 00:31:13.839 --> 00:31:15.279 I borrowed this from the Bible. 00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:18.480 And the the the I know the wind exists. 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:20.960 I said, Well, how do you know the wind exists? 00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:26.079 Well, the wind exists because you can feel the effects of the wind. 00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:28.000 So, how do you feel the effects of God? 00:31:28.079 --> 00:31:40.079 And I, for an hour, I'm talking about the nature of God, the character of God, who God is, the doubting what faith looks like, and the element of doubting Thomas. 00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:47.119 And I'm going through everything until finally he's like, but it I want to see God. 00:31:47.279 --> 00:31:50.640 Like, I want God, I want evidence that God is here. 00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:53.039 And so I said, okay, stop. 00:31:54.480 --> 00:31:57.839 The Bible says, taste and see that God is good. 00:31:58.559 --> 00:32:01.680 Ask and the door will like knock and the door will be open. 00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:02.720 Ask and you'll find. 00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:04.000 So, you know what we're gonna do? 00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:05.200 We're gonna stop right now. 00:32:05.279 --> 00:32:13.599 We're just gonna ask God to reveal Himself to you and allow you to experience God. 00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:17.680 And at that point, he's like, forget it. 00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:23.119 I know what happens, I'll die. 00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:28.880 Maybe I'll do it when I'm 30. 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:33.680