Reflections on the Book of Joshua

Join Trey Overton, Mavric Herrera, and Abigail Woodring as they provide some thoughts and reflections on their reading of the Book of Joshua. The church started reading the Bible chronologically together, and this podcast will reflect on the past couple of weeks of reading the church has done together. Trey, Mavric, and Abigail discussed different points within the reading last week, along with sharing some teaching points behind some of the passages. Join in and reflect with us as we discuss the Bible Recap reading from First Baptist Church in Fort Smith, AR. 

Mavric Herrera - mherrera@fsfbc.org

Trey Overton - toverton@fsfbc.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Psalm 119.11 says that Scripture is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. That means God gave us His Word to guide and equip us in practical ways as we walk through our everyday lives. Join us now for this episode of From Seat to Street, as our FBC staff and church members talk about how this week's Sunday morning message comes alive as we walk through the streets and moments of everyday life.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

Hey everyone, thanks for joining us. My name is Trey, and I'm your host along with my good friend Maverick Carrera. Good morning. Today we have a special guest with us, Mrs. Abigail.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Hey!

SPEAKER_04 0:42

Abigail is a youth pastor here at First Baptist Church. We've had her here a couple times. This is your maybe like third time with us.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I think it's the third.

SPEAKER_04 0:51

Yeah, something like that. So she's been here a couple times and has been a highly requested return guest. So we decided, hey, yeah, let's get her on. It's a great week to do it. So this last week, uh Greg was out. Um he's got some family stuff going on. So um he was out. Maverick was out, left us hanging out there at Chaffee. Uh Taylor did an awesome job. Um and so um and saying Greg is a new grandfather. He is, he is a new grandfather, so everybody praise Jesus for that. Um and then so we had uh you know, we had a guest speaker out there at Chaffee, and then Dave brought the message out here um that to downtown. So um, and saying all that, today's podcast is gonna be a little bit different. We're not gonna really recap the sermons as much as we're gonna recap the overall reading that we've been doing. So we just finished um a couple days ago, we just finished the book of Joshua, right? Um, and in the book of Joshua, we see where God uses um, you know, Joshua can take over as a leader, takes over kind of Moses' position um as a leader over the nation of Israel, and and and God uses Joshua to go in and and conquer the land that God promised his people, right? Um and so this is kind of an all-encompassing book of that. Um, some things, some there's some highs, some lows, and all that, and we're just gonna kind of spend today reflecting on that a little bit and um kind of give some different insights that we took from our readings um in the book of Joshua. So let's just start off with with something that you learned about God's character through reading the book of Joshua.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Yeah. I mean, I think about the story of Rahab, and I really loved um this the image of salvation through there. And so not only is God going to accomplish what he needs to accomplish, like we see that through the passing of Moses and the passing of the torch to Joshua, God is still going to make his plans and he's going to achieve what he'd set out to do um through whoever he chooses. And so and also the fact that he can use whoever, like Rahab was there, and because of her faithfulness in the city, and because she testified and she knew who the Lord was and had a fear for the Lord, um, that that was um almost accounted for her as righteousness and righteousness as well. And so her family was saved through that. And so we I I thought it was a pretty cool picture of salvation there, and so I really just saw God's faithfulness and God's steadfast love and unveiling love for the people, for his people, and also that he uh wants to make a way for every single person, and that he has that that passion and that drive to make a way for whoever wants to call on his name. And you know, we can even though that's in New Testament scripture, we can see that very clearly in the old testament in the story.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

Yeah, that's uh that's good. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Yeah. Um what stood out to me through the whole book is just that God is powerful and he is faithful, he keeps his promises and he's serious about them. Yeah, serious about his covenant uh with his people. Uh, but that like he is good and righteous and he has a plan and we can align our lives with him and we can trust his plan. Yeah, it's comforting to know that he's he knows what he's doing. I might not, but he's right.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

Oh yeah, 100%. That's right. Well, and I think uh right along with that, um we see in the book of Joshua that like how serious God takes sin. You know, we we look in this covenant, right, and a lot of this covenant is about sin. I mean, and how they have to atone for that using sacrifices and all that stuff. Um God takes sin seriously. I mean, it's not like, oh, yo, no, you messed up again. Oh no, you messed up again. That's okay. You know, like he takes sin seriously because he's a just God. All right, he is just, and and um that is that is the whole, you know, maverick you're pointing to, the images of salvation. I mean, that's the whole reason we need Christ, because of how serious God takes sin. And we see that throughout the book of Joshua, throughout the book, you know, we've been reading that through Deuteronomy, and we're and now we're in Judges, and we're reading that now. I mean, he takes sin seriously, but at also his mercy is just infinite. Like, despite the the Israelites turning from him time to time. And it's like just one generation. It's not like you know, you know, you get towards the end of the book of Joshua, right? And it's like we're just one generation in. Like, yeah, God took these people, you know, out from you know, out of Egypt, and then they were in the wilderness, and then we got this new generation. Then he does this miraculous thing and split the water again to cross the Jordan and then go and defeat all these people that defeat, you know, knock the walls of Jericho by what? Blowing some horns and praising God, right? The fault walls just fall. And all this crazy stuff. God rains stones. And in one generation, by the end of the book of Joshua, the people are already turning away from God. Isn't that insane? But but regardless, despite that, God's mercy is infinite, right? And he still uses, and we see that as we go into Judges and we get to Gideon and all that, we he's still gonna use people who know God and and and and search his heart to be leaders for the nation and to lead them back to a relationship with him, right? Um, and so we just see that, and that's a big thing in his character that we see is just how how infinite his mercy is. Yeah, right. It's just it's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. So like, you know, reading through obviously Joshua is is full of battles. You know, it's full of, you know, they defeated this and they defeated that and they did this and then they lost, and you know, all this stuff. Like there's some ups and downs in there. Um, but of all the big occurrences and battles, and everything that happened in the book of Joshua, what is something that stuck out to you the most?

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Well, really, I say when you talk about the battles, but um what came to my mind was the cities of refuge, and just it that was honestly a new idea for me. And um I'm still still kind of trying to really understand it, but a lot of people I've just heard it spoken about as like, oh, this really like ties to Jesus and really ties to salvation. But I was really confused on what it was, so it was really nice to go through it, um, learning about how, like it says in Joshua twenty uh verse three, that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or with or unknowingly may flee there. But they shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood. It reminds me of the time when Moses and the angel of death was passing over. This is almost like a similar view of the blood being put over the doorways. Now it's these it's these cities that you can actually flee to and flee from the Avenger of Blood. You know, whoever is rightfully so coming after you because you have killed someone that they are responsible for. Um God still is looking for ways to save people from their sin. But specifically, you know, this one's talking about without intent or unknowingly, you know. Um and I almost just think about how these are sometimes the people who are still living in s in sin and cannot see their sin. And so they're unknowingly sinning because they do not have the law, so they don't know their sinning. Um God is still making a way for them and still chasing after those people and kind of giving them that common grace as I think of it. Um so I know it's a lot of a lot of ties into, but it made me think back to Moses and how God is making a way for those people for the for Egyptians as well. You know, he was making he told that to everyone. It wasn't just applying to his people. If you put blood over your door, your firstborn will be saved. Period, to everybody. In the same way in this, even though you're doing this unknowingly without the intent to murder and to hurt, you still have a way out, and you're still going to be given a way out to these cities of refuge. Um and so I just love God is like so uh continuous through his story and constantly making points to salvation and points to Jesus. Um but also I feel like you're able to just look at these stories and remind yourselves of the things that God did in the past and just thinking back to that story of Moses. And so I just love I forg I forget the word for it. Um, but just God's steadfastness in his character. Um and truly, you know, we meet these people sometimes in our in our day where, you know, they say one thing and they the next day they say another. Um and it's hard because it's easy to fall into that because our minds are so ever changing. Yeah. And we can believe different things and have different methods, and it just changes week by week often. But God is steadfast in his ways and he knows what he's talking about, and he has never shifted from his original plan.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

Yeah. Well, and it just points there again, we kind of talked about that a minute ago, but um points to you know how how his justness is, you know, he he is faithful to be just, and there's there's no way, you know, the cities of refuge point to that, like like I'm gonna be just and I'm not going to, you know, allow you to murder somebody just because they, you know, an axe fell off and flew off and they accident it accidentally hit somebody in the head. Like, no, they didn't intently murder that guy.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Right.

SPEAKER_04 10:26

So, you know, I'm gonna just God and I'm not gonna allow you to go and murder him. Yeah. Because then that would make you a murderer, you know, like we can't allow that, right? So that's that just kind of points to his justness and um which is just amazing. Yeah. So I like that.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah. God is just and he is merciful, he's a god of truth. You know, you were talking about kind of the the picture of Passover there with the cities of refuge. It makes me think of going back to Rahab, she had something I like realized as I was reading was she has this red marking outside of her home. It's not blood on the doorpost, but it's a red rope out the window. It's like if you're if you want your household to be safe, keep them inside, don't go outside. That was another Passover thing, don't go outside. Uh and the city was destroyed, and Rahab and whoever was in her house like joined the Israelites. Um and so more of God's mercy and more of that picture of Passover that's ultimately a picture of Jesus later.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

That's really cool. Um a big like battle that stood out to me was right after Jericho. There's the guy, I don't know how to say his name, A-C-H-A-N. Do you know how you pronounce it?

SPEAKER_04 11:35

Akan? Akan.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Akon?

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Aken. Well, he like I know it's not Akon.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

It's not Akon. Okay. Well, he he takes some stuff from Jericho, right? And he was not supposed to do that. Uh and then they go and fight AI, and it goes very bad. And they're like chased off, and a bunch of guys die, and uh it says like the Israelites' courage melted away uh because like God wasn't with them. And over and over already, God has said, like, obey my commands, like do what I say, and you will succeed. And he also says, like, be strong and courageous, for I am with you. And so like that strength and that courage comes from the s the presence of God. And we see immediately, first time the Israelites get a little like confident, they're like, Jericho was went great, let's just go fight these next guys and not check in and make sure we're right with God first, make sure we all followed the rules. Um and their courage is gone. They're fearful because God isn't with them. Uh their courage comes from the presence of the Lord. Yeah. Because that's where their strength comes from. Right. Their success.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

I read that and my first thought was kind of going towards like, if I just you know, of course, with AI going on, you can't s read AI and think about AI. And of course, you know, have all these theories and all this stuff on AI, whatever, but it's like if we hold on to things that are of this world as we approach AI, look at the outcome that's gonna happen in our lives, right? So like if we aren't obedient and we aren't um really sure in our relationship with Christ, we can be fooled by AI and we can be overtaken by AI. So just a little Ted tick for tack there. Um But for me, when I was reading through Joshua, and the one that like stuck out to me most was right after that. All right, so right after they defeated AI, of course, everybody's like, oh, you know, these guys are coming in, they took out Jericho, they took out AI, you know, we're all scared. So what happens? You know, the the Gibeonites, they're like, We'll come over there, they they tricked them, right? They put on the sackclaws and all this other stuff and say, Hey, we came from far away, we want to make a peace treaty with you and all this stuff, right? Well, what did the Israelites do? They didn't they didn't seek guidance from God, right? They just were like, Oh, they're from far away, they're not even from the land that God told us that we're supposed to take over, so we're just gonna yeah, I mean, like, it's not a big deal, you know? Like, it's not really gonna affect anything we're doing. You're not from around here, we're not taking your land, so let's just make the treaty and we'll be fine, right? Right. Well, they didn't seek God, they didn't seek his counsel, they didn't go, you know, in in and or any of that stuff, they just went ahead and made the treaty, right? And then what happened? They're a thorn in their side forever, right? And so I think that's a lesson. How many times in our life do we do something without seeking God's guidance? And then it really is something that affects us the rest of our lives.

unknown 14:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

We do something out of reaction, we do something out of um, it's something everybody else does, like somebody else does this, so we're gonna go ahead and do it, or whatever, something of this world. We don't seek God's guidance, and then the next thing you know, we spend the rest of our lives with something hanging over our head. You know, something that's a thorn in our side. Maybe something we've always done. Something we've always done, right? Or it's generational, something our family's always done. Like my family's always done this, so I'm gonna do this, right? And it can be a generational thorn, just like these Gimeonites are for the Israelites. Like it's everlasting thorn in the Israelites side, right? Um, and so I did just yeah, I I read that and it stuck out to me. I was like, dude, man, I've got stuff in my life like when when I was younger, you know, that that I did and I was young and dumb, and like it still like lingers to this day, you know. Like, um, I've got a scar on my leg that's like eight inches long because I was stupid. And after I graduated college, I was gonna go with my friends, and we decided to go to the mud park, and like it was like storming outside, and I should not have been there. And I wrecked my fool wheeler and I ended up with this giant gash across my leg. So I've got the scar forever on my leg, you know, like I almost lost my leg because I ended up with an infection and like it was a bad deal. But like that's to say all that that's just like one example of how we could do just these some things and dumb things, and and I'm not saying like I'm just saying we need to be seeking God in everything we do every day, you know, and that's that kind of it's given, but sometimes we think we can handle everything on our own, like we can make especially big decisions, like, oh, well, this doesn't affect me, or this isn't a big deal, like, oh, or but it is, and it is to God, and he has a plan for you, and so we should need we need to be seeking him in everything that we do, we need to seek his wisdom, and and sometimes like if we're in a relationship, we we may think, oh, this is a no-brainer, I'll go this way. Well, God's like, Well, no, I've got this for you down the road, let's let's hold up a minute. Um, and so I I think this is a great example of that, how we can just kind of be cautious, um, especially I mean, even though it could be a little decision you're thinking about, um, we need to be cautious. And, you know, um I I think of and and I'm just gonna go just a little a little bit further in that. I think um we do a lot with financial stuff. It's like um I've I've been one that trade, I I get new vehicles every couple years, and it's like it doesn't really affect anything because my payments don't really change because I'm really like I pay my truck down and then I kind of get the same priced vehicle, you know, and I just kind of get a new truck. So it doesn't really change anything, it doesn't affect anything. Yeah, is it the smartest thing? You know, no, I should probably pay it off and not have a truck payment, right? But like it's it's never really, you know, it's something that I really really thought about, really affected. Um, but you know, as I as I do it more and I have other things that happen in life, I have kids, it's like maybe I sh it would be better if I didn't have that and if I would have just bought a truck and paid it off and not have one right now. And I could not that I couldn't get one eventually, but I never sought God in any of those decisions. It was like my bill, my budget doesn't change, you know, like what's coming out isn't gonna change and all that stuff. So in my head it didn't matter. Yeah. But right now, for me, you know, just like right now it does. Like I've got, you know, I've got two kids now and I've got more bills, and we've had to move and do all this stuff, and God knew that. I didn't know that this stuff was gonna happen. And if I'd have been seeking him, he may have told me, hey, maybe we should just hold on to the truth that you have, and that we would have that paid off by now.

SPEAKER_03 18:21

So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

Um it's just like little things like that. But um, anyways, I know I'm not saying, well, I'm just saying seek him and everything. That's it. But yeah. So as we read the book of Joshua, is there anything that you read where you were like you didn't understand or maybe caused you to question um question things more like you know, uh maybe had to dig a little deeper or whatever?

SPEAKER_03 18:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

I mean, originally was the the cities of refuge. I really didn't understand what those were for. Um I guess it was just the first time I really had heard of them. But honestly, the other thing was the the raining of stones.

SPEAKER_04 19:01

Okay. Um I really not honestly still, then I'm just like I was really confused as to Like were they little stones, or was it just like huge hail that fell from the sky?

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Did they just not know that it was ice yet? Or there's a desert or something, you know.

SPEAKER_04 19:18

Well, would they well we know that's not the case because that it you know it hailed um on Egypt, right? So you know, so they they knew what hail was and that hill was already yeah, it was already in the Bible. So um I mean I think I'm still like what what was the point of that? Oh, but if it showed the power of God. I mean it it because it literally after it said that it said God killed more people with the hail than the Israelites killed with the sword. It showed that they didn't God didn't need them.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:49

To fulfill his purpose.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Like yeah, because I guess how it's just like it he's been he's been using the army the whole time. Like now he just wants to show up and flex. He's gonna flex, yeah. But to be fair, he's been flexing the whole time. Right. Yeah. It's been his might and his strength in the army within itself.

SPEAKER_04 20:05

Yeah. So he does I mean, and at the end of the day, it's kind of like what Moses went back to, you know, whenever God was talking about destroying them all and starting over with Moses. Like, if you use these people that are let's, you know, these people to fulfill your purpose, they're gonna show your might will show to the you know, to the world. Right. And this was just another glimpse of that, I think. And that's my you know, that's my opinion on it.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

But I wasn't I wasn't sure if the stones had any meaning as well of just like um there there seems to be just a lot of stones in a bunch of different ways. Sometimes they mean something really deep. Yeah. Like I didn't know. Well last week we talked about um the the striking of the stone with Sam and the stone was really, really significant. Like the stone being a stone itself was significant. I just I didn't know if you had known anything about the stones being significant.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

Not the stones themselves, no, I don't uh it could be. I mean, I don't not not that I know of. Right. Maybe somebody's gonna we're getting an email from somebody. Sam, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Sam, when you hear this, send me an email. Yeah, if there's anything.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

We're gonna get an email this week from a listener and they're gonna be like, just so that you know.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Yeah, that's right. That's right. I don't know. Maybe you can you can tie it to a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 21:15

Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

You know, there wasn't like a ton that I felt like I needed to like slow down and look at. I liked something that stood out to me was uh in chapter 22 when the eastern tribes returned to like their side of the Jordan River, they were like, before they entered the land of Canaan, they were like, hey, we want this spot over here. But God was like, okay, go fight for like seven years, right? And then you can come back and have this land. Uh and so they do, and then they build an altar to God over there, or like on the west side of the Jordan, right before you crossover. Um and I just I forget about this story and it kind of cracks me up because the rest of Israel, like, kind of they panic. They're like, what are you doing? Like, are you not worshiping God? Blah blah blah. And they were like, whoa. It's just a reminder like for our future generations that we also worship Yahweh. Like this altar that we're building here isn't for like sacrifices and burnt offerings and stuff. It's just like a symbol and a reminder.

SPEAKER_04 22:15

That we're still connected to you.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

That we're still connected to you guys. Um it's funny because the rest of Israel's like they like they're ready to go to war. They're ready to fight the eastern tribes.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

And then they send out like a group with um was it Eliezer or was it Phineas?

SPEAKER_02 22:33

One of the Levites, one of the priests.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

And uh they like send out a little group to go talk to them, and it was solved, problem solved, pretty quick. Um, but I forget about that story.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

Yeah. Well, I read that one and well, there's two things I take from that story too, and it's like, number one, how often do we f see something and like something somebody else does or has or whatever, and then we freak out, and it ends up being nothing, right? Or like their actually intentions were good. Yeah. Or their intentions were good and like we just completely jumped all over them and over-escalated everything. And um, if we would just shut up and it'd be fine. Yeah. Um button. Which, you know, by doing that, everybody knows more, whatever. But yeah, um, the other thing I got from that too was like, you know, whenever that happened, they sent people down to confront them, right? Yeah. And through that interaction, you know, that peace was made, everybody understood, and then they were like happy about it, right? I think we in the church today, um, things happen in our conclusions. We may jump to a conclusion, like I said, we may freak out and whatever, overreact. But instead of going to the person that you're having a problem with, we see we go to a bunch of people different people and we go to this and we try like we go all through it and then we just try to tackle things from through the back door, and it's like, did if we would have confronted this like face to face, like everything would have been all right, and we would have been like, oh, okay. Well that wasn't a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Trey, I need advice. I need I need to go to other people first so I can know if I'm crazy or if I'm you know if I'm if I'm making it up in my own head. I have to seek other people's advice first, right?

SPEAKER_04 24:21

Well, I mean a person or you know, or like one or two people. Like so, like, and that goes back to your, you know, we've talked about accountability partners. Um, like I know that I can go to Maverick and be like, hey man, I've got this thing going on, and I could be crazy, and I could all just be me, but I just kind of want to see what your what your take is on it. And I know I trust Maverick's going to give me an honest answer and be real with me. And if I'm not wrong, he's gonna help me come to a solution that's not going to be, well, I'm gonna go to this person, this person, this person, this person, right? Yeah, so like I can trust Maverick in that scenario, right? But sometimes we go to people that we just want affirmation, right? So like I have people in my life where I just want to be like, like if I just want to feel right, like I just want to feel affirmed in how I feel and what's going on, I'm gonna go to them, then they're gonna they're gonna be my people that just affirm what I'm doing, and then yeah, they're gonna go to somebody else. And you know, I just know that that or if I just want word to get around, I'm gonna I know who to go to, right? You know, so like um, so that's there's a difference there, right? Am I really going to check my feelings? Because if I am, you know who you can go to that's gonna, you know, uh be confidential in what you share and also be all be straight up with you. Um and if you don't have that person, you need to find that person, right? Um that's that person's important. That person's important to have in your life um and everything that you do. But yes, good. Good good thought. Love that. Um for me, you know, reading through Joshua, uh, one thing I read and I hadn't read before, going back to, of course, we Rahab seems to be a hot topic here. But you know, when the spies went there, it says that Rahab lived within the wall, and she was told not to leave her room, and the walls of Jericho came falling down, as the we hear in the song. And so it's like, did this that section of wall not fall? Or, you know, like you know, she was there, you know, she was supposed to put the red thing over a window and and stay in within, you know, they were supposed to stay within their their house or room or whatever, you know, and it's like, but then all the walls came falling down from Jericho. Yeah. But we know reading further, you know, after the walls fall, they do get in touch with Rahab and them, and and they, you know, we know that it all works out, but it's just interesting. That was something I never really caught. It's like her her house room was in the wall. Was in the wall that came falling down. So the blood, going back to this imagery, imagery, imagery, imagery, the imagery, the the red strand that covered the window protected them as the wall fell. And you know, whether it was just her section that didn't fall, whether it it fell and they were just okay, whatever. Was there just this one pillar of right? Like so like one square foot that just didn't fall. So we know like one square foot. You know, they're just like all hugging each other. But like you know, the red strand, which we could use as imagery for the blood of Christ, protected them from everything crumbling down around them, right? So, regardless. Um but my question, you know, there again, going back to red and caused me to question more was like, well Rahab's rooms in the wall and the wall came crumbling down, you know, like I learned the song as a kid, like it was a thing. And absolute truth. It was in the song. It was in the song. You gotta believe it. No, but seriously though, it's um but anyways, so that was interesting. It's like, I wonder, wonder what the deal with that was. Um did she did her house like just was it like just one section of pillar that didn't go down? Or you know, but regardless, like I said, I guess the blood first question we ask when we get to heaven. Yeah, for sure. I don't know that's gonna be the first question. Probably not the first, yeah. Probably not gonna be the first person I ask. I have I have questions. Yeah, why didn't the butt dodo birds stay around? Honestly, yeah. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, seriously. Um why land turtles and sea turtles? More about that next week. Yeah, no more about that next week. All right, so uh going on to the last just question here. If you were to have one solid teaching point from the book of Joshua that you would want to drive home, what would it be?

SPEAKER_02 29:09

Seek the Lord in everything. I mean, like I it's hard for me to understand and genuinely it creates it creates some doubts in me. Like, is God as serious now as he was then? 100%. Um, because you know, when I look at all of the consequences that they face, um, and they're very clear, you know, they're very much they're very prominent, I'm like, man, sometimes when I disobey the Lord like nothing happens to me. But when the Bible says that the the penalty for sin is death um and though we don't have to pay that penalty anymore because of Christ, I still think there's a like a how do you say it? Like there is still a death. There is still a there's still a dying there's a part of my life that is like dwindling away because of my sin and because of the choices that I've made. And though I may not see them at first, um they'll come back, you know, they'll come around and I think th I'd I think I'll see them someday, you know.

SPEAKER_04 30:15

Well I think what like you're more referring to like a it's the separation from God. I mean, you are losing life because uh you're being separated from God because sin separates us from God.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

Right.

SPEAKER_04 30:29

Yeah. Um Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

And so I think like in seeking God in everything, you know, and also to what extent? To what extent do we truly seek God in everything? You know, do I need to ask him what I'm having for breakfast today? Yeah. Do I need to ask him what's you know, what should I make a left or a right turn here? Which should I take my normal route or should I just randomly go on it every other way? And maybe it is sometimes. Like I've had I've heard stories of friends, like they're like, I don't know why, but God told me to go this way to work, and I just happened to run by a person whose car was broken down, you know, and so I helped them out and I shared the gospel with them. Like that stuff can happen. Um but I think also I get I get a lot of people.

SPEAKER_04 31:06

But I don't think that person was like praying, should I take a left turn? They were already praying for God's will to be shown, revealed to them, and that He led them because of the prayer that they had in that.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

Yeah, that's exactly it. I think I was gonna say I get bogged down in like thinking that I have to constantly be checking in with God when truly it's a an awareness of God and a and a a constant, you know, praying without ceasing, you know, it's like, well, I c I have to work, I have to do stuff, I have to talk to people, I have to minister to people, like I can't just stay in my room and pray to God all day. Um and so I heard it compared to like you know how you have sometimes some some of us have these friends that we can just be on FaceTime with and we don't really have to talk to them. It's like I could be making dinner and my buddy is playing a video game or something, and I'm just eating and watching TV, but I always know he's there, and at any moment I can be like, hey man, and he's like, Yeah, what's up? You know, and just having that having that awareness of God and having that familiarity with him, um I think it just attunes our ear to hear him, like you're talking about, in those moments where God just speaks and we're able to pick it up like that. Um so I would that's kind of what I would drive home is seeking God in everything. Um doesn't just mean always, always asking for every individual choice, but growing familiar and growing aware and opening yourself um to the voice of God and the more time you spend with him, the more attuned your ears gonna be to him.

SPEAKER_04 32:37

Yeah. And maybe should I be finding friends that I can stay on FaceTime with all day? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:43

Okay. Absolutely. No, no, okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

God is that friend. Yeah. So yeah, it's that like that's the whole like sanctification process, right? You're aligning your heart with the Lord, aligning your life with him, um, being made holy, made more like him. Yeah. My um my main point goes with that pretty much. Um earlier I mentioned like our strength and our courage comes from the presence of the Lord, right? And because of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit living in our hearts with us always. Uh and we can be strong and courageous, confident not in ourselves, but in God, in God in us, confident that He can work through us and will work through us if we're aligning our lives with Him and trusting Him to guide us and lead us and not finding strength and courage in ourselves because we're gonna fail ourselves. Um, we still submit to the Lord's plans and the leading of the Holy Spirit, but uh I think it's uh a great comfort to uh be on God's side, to know that you're with him and he has a plan and he's got a goal and he's gonna get you there. Um know that he is in control.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:56

I like that. I I think um you can definitely take comfort in him being in control. It should take away all fear as well, like him being in control. I I and that kind of goes along with my point. I I think when I was reading as I read Joshua, we're reading Judges, we were just got done with Deuteronomy, and it's like God's going to fulfill his purpose. And sometimes we walk around in fear because either A, we don't feel sufficient, like we feel inadequate to be able to do anything that God would use us for. Uh, we also live in fear because we feel like we're gonna mess up. Uh we feel like whatever, like if if I'm gonna, you know, God calls me to go speak to somebody, share the gospel with somebody, well, if I go over there and I do that, I'm just gonna mess it up. Like I'm not gonna be able to do it, and I'm gonna ruin everything. Right. Um, if there's something that we can take comfort in in reading Joshua, it's that God's going to fulfill his purpose. Like, he's going to. I mean, he can, you know, he doesn't even have to use the soldiers to defeat countries. He doesn't have to he doesn't need them to defeat Jericho. He didn't need them to defeat um whoever it was that he reigned hell on. I can't remember now off the top of my head, but you know, like he didn't need them to do that. He's gonna fulfill his purpose. Like, and despite them, I mean despite the Israelites turning from him and sinning and and taking these idols and doing all those things, like despite all of that, he still chose to use them to fulfill his purpose and ultimately lead to Christ, right? Yeah, and um, no matter who you are, what you've done, no matter where you are in life, no matter what you know, like what your knowledge standpoint is, God wants to use you. He has a purpose for you, he has a purpose for this world, he has this overall overarching plan, and nothing about you is going to stop that. Understand that. Now you can either choose or not choose to be used by God, but he's going to fulfill his purpose. Like, and it's an awesome experience to be used by God. And and so I just encourage you, those who are listening, don't live in fear. Like, don't let the fear overwhelm you, consume you, and thinking you're not, you don't know enough, you're not good enough, you can't do this, you can't do that. I'm gonna mess it up or whatever. Don't let that over overwhelm you, consume you, because that's what the devil's lies want to do. He wants to use you. So um just seek him. And it goes back to what you said, Maverick. You know, just seek him in all things, just seek him and in everything that you do, and he's gonna lead you to do all those things. He's gonna speak through you, he's gonna use you, and he's gonna do all of those things if you you know, if you allow him. But no matter what, his purpose is gonna be done. It's gonna be fulfilled. Um, and his overarching plan to say the universe is it's done through Christ, right? We got the Easter coming Sunday, you know, he's risen. Like he is risen. He is risen indeed. It's all one, right? His purpose is is is going to be fulfilled, it is fulfilled, is nothing's going to stop that, right? And and so we can um we can just spend time praising him for that and just allow ourselves to be used. I am. Um, and so that's my point. So I'm gonna close with that. I want to thank everybody for listening. I want to um encourage you that you know, Easter is a Sunday. If you don't have a church home, come visit us. Um, if you do have a church home, I you know I encourage you to go where you where you go. Um and um if you haven't been a church in a while, it's a great Sunday to come. I mean, we're just gonna I mean we're gonna be spending time talking about our risen Savior. Who doesn't want to do that, right? For real. And and seriously though, and praising Jesus, we're gonna have some food out at Chaffee um after the service. So if you want to come out, check us out, have some fellowship, we're gonna have that going on in the crawfish boils next week. Shameless plug is on the 12th. So out at Chaffee, we're having Crawfish Boil following BCM Sunday and BCM Sunday following the service. So um if uh you haven't been out there yet and want to check it out, it's a great day to do it because we're gonna have free crawfish, hamburgers, hot dogs, all that good stuff. So come check us out. Um and once again, I appreciate everybody from listening, and we are out.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Later. Woo! Thank you for joining us for this week's From Seat to Street Conversation. This podcast is the Ministry of First Baptist Church, Fort Smith. As a reminder, you can always listen to each of the messages we discussed here on our chapter and first sermon podcast each week. Thank you for listening.