The Foundation for Pursuing National Revival (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Join Trey Overton, Mavric Herrera, and Rebecca Martin as they reflect on Pastor Greg's Sunday sermon, continuing the Bible recap series. The church started reading the Bible chronologically together, and this sermon continued the series that dives deeper into the readings. During this episode, Trey, Mavric, and Rebecca discussed how we as a church can begin to set the foundation for a national revival. There is a promise to the nation of Israel found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that applies to Christians today. This promise points believers to humility, repentance, and submission to the Lord as we seek revival in the church. This episode provides an application for this passage and how we can begin to seek revival in our nation. Join in and reflect with us as we discuss the sermon 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 State 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 0:29

Hey everyone, thanks for joining us. My name is Trey Overton and I'm your host today, along with my good friend Maverick Rera. Good morning. This week we have an extra special guest, our good friend Rebecca Martin. Say hello.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Hello.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

Rebecca serves all over the place here. She does a fantastic job working with killed children. You're even doing the reading uh this summer, right?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Doing what we've got a story time. Story time. That's what it is. Tell us about it. Well, basically, we're showing up every Wednesday. What's the big area called?

SPEAKER_04 1:01

Um the we'll call it foyer.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

In the foyer. We show up every Wednesday morning in the foyer at 10. It's great for preschool, elementary. And every week we've got some sort of theme. So yesterday was Wednesday and it was garden week. And so we read four books about the garden. We read Peter Rabbit. We read a couple of books that are more Christian. Um and so like one of them was called Why Did God Make Worms? And it went through different animals you find in a garden and why did God make this in creation? Um, and the last book we read even shared the gospel, which was really fun. But we did some little rhymes, we read our books, we did a craft with flowers, and we had, I think, 18 kids yesterday. And so next week is I think it's July 1st next week, maybe. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_04 1:49

What day do you do it on again?

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Wednesday.

SPEAKER_04 1:51

Wednesday, yes, it's first.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

So we're having a birthday party for America, which will be very fun. Um, but we just have a different theme each week. It's basically taking the story time idea of the public library and then sanctifying it.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

So it's it's fun because we're like last week there was a book with Paddington, and I think in a few weeks we'll do a Curious George. So there's an entry point where kids are familiar with these characters and books, and then there's also just Christian versions too. And so it's it's been fun.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

This is Wednesdays at 10?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Wednesdays at 10. And it's for everyone. So we had women and their um children or grandchildren yesterday. Some were church members, some go to other churches in town, or maybe some are trying to figure out how to get plugged into our church, and it's been a really fun summer opportunity for our community.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

All right. So if you got some kids and think that like my son, he loves going to the library. That's probably one of his favorite places to go and do story time. Also, just he likes to run around places, so whatever. But anyways, um, if you're have kids that are like that, come on down. Wednesdays at 10 o'clock, um, and it's a good time. Um, so getting kind of the to the meats and potatoes, um, Greg began his sermon Sunday pointing out to the fact that this generation has never seen a true revival. Uh, what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Do you think you've seen a revival? I mean, I've never seen a well, if you're thinking about it, like I have never haven't been able to see a revival by that standard, you know. Um, so honestly, I don't know. Yeah, living in blissful ignorance. Uh well, like, I mean, I've heard of revivals happening and like um, you know, and maybe not to the scale that it has in the past with like the Jesus Revolution. Like I know that was you know crazy, right? Um, you know, I see stuff on social media and how much of that is true, I don't know. Um, but of you know, a lot of colleges and um like their chapel services just going on and on and on and on and on, and they just something just happens.

SPEAKER_04 3:59

Or was it like Redkurs or something like that that happened year before last something like that?

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Cavalry Asbury, that'sbury happens a lot, so it's kind of like hmm, is there one happening there? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

Yeah. Um that's probably the closest thing that we've seen, I think, in the in the in the recent Asbury College revival, you know. Um yeah, so um I it's definitely not to the scale of what you what we see, you know, there again in the Jesus Revolution or anything like that, but um it's definitely a small scale. Yeah. But I think that's probably the closest thing we've seen, um, which is interesting.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Yeah, and you you kind of have to look at it like, okay, they're having a prolonged worship experience, but then what happens after when that's over? Are their lives truly transformed? Do you see people committing to lives of ministry or just to enhance not enhance, but extra evangelism or whatever? And so, you know, does it last or is it just a really awesome worship experience?

SPEAKER_04 4:57

Which, you know, I mean, we don't we really don't have a say on any of that in any standard. But um, yeah, that's a good thought too. And and how many, you know, and I think some of that too is is just keeping your eyes open. I mean, there's you know, going back to Blackaby and what he says about being vigilant to be looking for where God's working, you know, our you know, as a church, we need to when we see sparks of revival, even if it's not in our own church, you know, if you're seeing it happen on a local college campus, you know, are we being diligent and looking for that and moving when it happens, you know, or reaching out to the to the students that are there and all those things. Um we have a ministry here that just kind of started out of a out of uh the pregnancy center whenever they have women that have salvations, you know, there's nobody really reaching out. There's nobody following up. And so we started started that. So those those little things, I mean, that's not revival necessarily, but um that's a good point. You know, we do need to be more diligent in following up. Um I think it's definitely interesting when we see, like you go back and you look at um the movie, The Jesus Revolution, and you go watch that as I, you know, and I'm right there with you. I I've never seen anything like that personally. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

And I heard, I haven't seen it, but I heard that the movie that just came out a few weeks ago about the Great Awakening was really good to be.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

I want to go see that so badly.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

I've heard it's fantastic, and it's such a good part of American history. And we've had two of those Great Awakenings, and you've had, you know, the Billy Graham moment and the American, not the American Revolution, um, the Jesus Revolution. So we have those historical markers, and there's been like revival moments within college campuses a lot that spurs on toward missions. Um but my own boss wrote a book um talking about a revival on some specific college campuses that then spurred on a huge international missions movement in America. And so you can see the ripple effect. So sometimes that revival might not be the entire nation, but a specific subset of the nation that then affects the kingdom.

SPEAKER_04 7:08

Yeah. Well, I definitely think it's interesting to think about, and that's what kind of thing Greg was pointing us to when he said this was you know, we haven't seen a big revival. And and why, why is that? You know, why are we not seeing, you know, revivals on that kind of scale? Um, and and this last Sunday he used a passage in 2 Chronicles 7 14, which which most if you're a Christian and have been a Christian any amount of time, you've read this verse, right? You've heard it preached, even if you didn't read it, right? It's been it's pastors have used it to emphasize different points about humbling yourselves or about seeking God or or various things. And I'll just go ahead and read the passage and I'm gonna read it out of the ESV, but it says, If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and for will forgive their sin and heal their land. Um so so using that passage, he points to um a truth, um, which I want to uh, you know, with the let's kind of start back on on where where he started, um, which is who is this promise for? Um so originally this was written to who? The Israelites, right? Um this was a this was a promise to the Israelites. So so is this promise still relevant today? You know, can our nation be healed? Well, this isn't written to the United States of America, right? You know, it was written to the nation of Israel. Does that mean it's any less relevant today?

SPEAKER_03 8:38

No. No, I don't think so. Because I think well I really liked Greg's point about it of like the principles of the scriptures still apply to us. Yeah. The principles of like what he promises whenever we do something, you know, it's it is a promise directed towards Israel, but it's a hey, when you do this, this is what happens. Yeah, you know, yeah. Um so those principles still apply to us a lot, but when we when we humble ourselves, um that naturally just brings good things because it's just good to be humble. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

And it shows God's consistent character. I mean, you see how he responds to his people humbling themselves and praying and repenting, and so we know he doesn't change, so he's still going to honor repentance and humility and all that from his people.

SPEAKER_04 9:26

Yeah, and I think it's important to always point out that scripture, especially when you're looking at Old Testament versus New Testament, will repeat itself. Right. You know, the principles are repeated, um, some of the laws are even repeated. You look at how Jesus took took what you know, things from the law and repeated them in the Sermon Amount and things like that, maybe emphasize them a little bit different, but I mean they're they're the same thing, right? Um, and so you this this is a um this is one that usually is repeated. Let me see here. So we can have confidence that this is still to us. And I'm gonna read a passage out of 1 Peter. Um this is uh chapter 2, verse 9. It says, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Umce you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So in that passage, we see that we are still God's people, right? You know, the nation of Israel was his people, but we as followers of Christ are God's people. Um scripture calls us his his adopted children, his, you know, and all those things, right? And so um we can have confidence in in reading that and other scriptures that associate with that that we are God's people, right? And if we are his people who are called by his name, by the name of Jesus Christ, we can have confidence that this promise still applies to us, right? Um, and so I think that's an important thing. Um, how does this verse apply to revival?

SPEAKER_03 11:08

Because I think a revival, it always begins with the individual heart. Uh, and I think that's what Greg was kind of driving on was that it has to first, if we want to see revival happen again, it has to happen individually. We can't just worry about, oh come on guys, let's all you know have a revival together. You know, it's like, no, I need to look at myself. And if you're in a room of 60 people and they're all focused on themselves, and they're all focused on like and not like in a bad way, but focused on humbling themselves and addressing themselves and getting themselves right with God. If you're all in the same room aligning on that truth and nobody else is looking at you or looking at your problems or the things that you need to face, like, oh you're the thing that's holding us back, you're the reason that we're not having revival. And if we all just have that oddly enough, like the me mindset of like addressing the plank in my eye, um, then that's where revival begins. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

And I've heard a lot of um church history people talking about how so many of the missions movements or revival movements really start rooted in prayer. And so I I love that from this verse too, that it talks about the humility and it also emphasizes prayer and seeking God.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:23

Well, and I think to your and and to your point, Maverick, and to Greg's point, um let's, you know, my my wife's been she's been gardening. Um, I like to tell people I have a garden, but the reality is my wife has a garden, I just get to eat the fruit.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Hey, that's a great part of it.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

You know, uh-huh. So we have tomato plants and and we have okra and green beans and everything else. I don't know what all we have. But um whenever the plant is dead, if the plant dies, so for instance, we had squash and we got squash bugs.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Oh, welcome to Arkansas.

SPEAKER_04 13:01

Yeah, so we got squash and then all of a sudden it decided to die. We got some fruit off of it, and then next thing you know, there's no fruit because the plants are dying, right? Um, we as a church are not going to see fruit if we're dying, right? Um, we have to be revived. And this verse I think applies and and to your point, Maverick, and I think this is kind of where you are getting to on the individual person. Um, but the church is gonna have to be revived, yeah, right, to see revival. We have to be healthy to have fruit, right? A healthy plant produces fruit. And then Jesus talks about that in his ministry. Uh we'll see that in the gospels, you know, we see that in the epistles, but a healthy plant produces fruit. And in order for the church to produce fruit, we have to be revived, right? And and so this this passage applies to us and to my, you know, God is addressing if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, seek my face, right? So we as the church, um, we need to humble ourselves and seek God, seek him, turn from our wicked ways, so that he can heal us so that there can be fruit, so that there can be revival, so that there can be sparks. And then once the church is healthy, then that's when all the fruit, you know, that's whenever you know we got tomatoes coming out of our ears, right? That's when that's gonna happen. Um that's the goal. That's the goal, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Tomatoes or souls, right? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

So um, and and and and that's obviously easier said than done, right? It's kind of like um I can control myself, but I can't control everybody in the church and all those things. Right. Um, and so that's kind of where this application starts to come into play. You know, how do how do we do that? So, so let's just kind of talk about that. What are some some practical ways that we as believers can can commit to these um acts of obedience? Greg talked about them, which obviously they're in the scriptures, not like he just came up with them, humble yourselves, you know, um pray, repent, seek, um, and turn, you know, what are some some practical ways that we as a church, as the body, can begin to do that so that we can be a healthy plant that produces fruit.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

I think it starts, um, you know, if you're thinking individually, right? Um I I I'm I'm a part of a just a discipleship group. Um, and so I have I mean one or two guys that are we are all walking with Christ together. And um so I'm like it's always easier, you know. It's well it gets really overbearing if you take what I said earlier about focusing on myself individually. I'm I lean on the side of shame. Like I lean more to shame myself um and not forgive myself. And so sometimes I need people in my life that remind me, like, man, like yeah, you are a sinner, but the thing is, like you've been bought and you've been redeemed, and you are now the Bible says you're the righteousness of God. And it's like that's crazy, you know. Yeah, and that I have to s I have to it's it's it's such a weird balance for me, and I still struggle to really get it of like humility, but also stepping in confidence in Christ and not in myself, but in what he's done and what he has given me, you know. Um but anyways, with the discipleship group, if you three are walking together like that, holding each other accountable, um, I just think that that's where the big biggest growth happens is whenever we're walking together in that and people are able to walk um to speak into your life and able to call out those things where you're you're missing that uh like man, you're you're not living with fruit. Yeah, you know, you're you're you're in a stasis where where you just you just have the gift and it's not going anywhere, you know. Um and so if you all have I like to think of the church as like we have the big C capital church, right? Cap Capital C church, uh which is every believer was and isn't it to come, and then you have your local church, which is our body, first Matthew's fourthsmith. Um, but then you've got maybe a community group of uh a mixture mixture of genders and kind of things and life stages and all that. So you know I have elder people speaking to my life, I have kids that I'm pouring into, um and then you go even smaller, and this is my my individual group of like two or three guys, you know. And these are the people that nothing is off balance, like everything is on the table. Um and so I think if we start to see our walks like that and realizing we're a part of something much bigger than us, and we're a part of something much more eternal than us, I think that just adds a lot of drive to what we're doing and why we're doing it.

SPEAKER_04 17:42

Well, well, and and and realize too, for those that are listening, um that's not something that's just that's made up. Like we didn't just create that in the 21st century where all of a sudden this is a thing. No, this is all stuff you're gonna find in scripture. You know, you have 12 disciples, you know, a group of guys that are are walking under Jesus, learning everything from him. And when when Jesus sends them out ministry, how does he send them out? Two by two. Two by two, right? So we have these small groups of guys that are going out doing ministry together and and walking this out together, right? You read through the book of Acts and you see the accountability that's found within the group of believers there and and people writing to each other, and you see, and Paul make effects to that, you know, and comments about that, how he's writing to to brothers here and there. And and this is all stuff that's found in scripture. We're not inventing something that's not there. This is something that's been around since the beginning of the church, since Jesus was here himself. Um, and so what Maverick's talking about is is essential, you know, and and the word that comes there is accountability. Yeah. I mean, it's accountability. I mean, just just and I think um it's it's where I think we have lost the accountability too, and and something that just as I study scripture and where the church began and all those things, I I think we're a lot of where we've lost it is in the homes. Um, because the original that I mean the original church started in homes. I mean, that's you know, as we had house churches and um and and and it was family units that were meeting together, different families. You know, it wasn't just you know multiple families getting together in their houses and they were meeting, but that accountability was found in the home. Um and I don't think we're open enough and talk enough about this stuff with our families. Um as men, we want to hold things together and act like we have things all together. We're not talking with our wives, we're not sharing our failures with our kids, we're not, you know, and and talking these things out, right? And so I think that's where some of the failure is found. Um, but I that's not the only place. You know, we we also are not, you know, keeping each other accountable in the church. I mean, that takes a lot of work. You know, for you to meet with those three guys, it takes effort. You have to take time out of your day to reach out to them.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

You have to plan stuff around it. You can't just be like, oh, I've I have this coming up, and so hey, this is an empty slot, let's just put it there, and then I'll move the discipleship. Like, no, I'd say no to people so that I can still attempt this.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

Yeah, yeah, and and and you have to realize the importance of this. I mean, and and for us with kids, you know, it's it's you know, and I don't I don't mean this in a bad way, Maverick, but you know I get it. I get it. You you have a little bit more free time. And so there's some of us that have kids, um, and some of us that have more kids than others, um, that you that your your time is pretty limited on how you can do that, right? Um, and I think that's why it's so important to do that in the house.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Right.

SPEAKER_04 20:41

I think also we live lives that for those that are listening, Rebecca, if you could speak into this a lot.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

We live lives that are seasonal, right? Um and so Maverick feels busy because he is. He's busy in his season. Um and God builds our spiritual muscles differently in each season. And so I love to tell younger women, college girls, women, college women, um, don't waste this time where you're single, where you don't have children, where you have academics that are important and take your time, but your schedule is different and you feel super busy because you are. And God is teaching, can teach you right now how to do these spiritual disciplines, how to be sharing your faith, how to be reading the word, memorizing scripture. And when you transition to the next phase of life, whether that's engagement or marriage, things naturally start changing. Maybe it's not engagement in marriage, and you find yourself in your 20s or your 30s, and you're still single, but you have a career. I mean, your seasons change and God meets you where you are. And if you are faithful to pursue Him and to pursue spiritual disciplines, He'll be faithful as your seasons shift. So when I was single, my quiet time. Could be two hours in the morning if I wanted. And I didn't have to wake up at five to do that. But now I have five children and my time is vastly different. And so the Lord has been faithful. All of that scripture I memorized in my 20s. I can still recall it as long as I'm faithful to kind of keep it up. Yeah. You know. Um, but that comes into parenting, and my quiet times now are gonna be 20 or 30 minutes before children wake up, but it doesn't it it just changes. So God doesn't change, but my season does, and he's faithful to meet me and hold me in my season um and use my brain differently throughout each season. And so I see personally in my season of life, other moms who get overwhelmed by their season because it's overwhelming, and the first thing that goes is their spiritual community or their quiet time, or they just feel like they don't know how to get their children to stay in bed in the morning and so they can't have a quiet time. But what God does is He's faithful to meet us where we are and sanctification requires hard work. And so we have to deny ourselves daily and take up our cross and follow him, and sometimes that means you have to wake up at 5 30 instead of seven, like you did 10 years before. Sometimes that means your quiet time is 20 minutes instead of an hour, and sometimes that means you give up a little bit of your evening, you know, I don't know, just the calm time where you're getting to do something in your free time. And maybe that is a time where you're dedicating for prayer or something. But the seasons change. God doesn't, and he's faithful to provide ways for us to humble ourselves and repent. And the repentance part has been a big part of my motherhood. Um he put very solidly in my heart as I was having children that you, Rebecca, must confess your sins to your children and ask for their forgiveness. And I think he's blessing it. I mean, I had to repent to them this morning. So but but what what our children learn is often caught, not taught. And so if we're we're keeping our list short with God and modeling that for our children, then hopefully they're picking it up too. Um but but yeah, it's all just different in our seasons. And I was in one of our Sunday school classrooms about a month ago with some of our senior women, and they're dealing with the same things. Yeah, but their lives look vastly different than mine, their homes are empty. Um, but they still have to fight to make time for God because our time just slips through our fingers unless we're intentional.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

And seasons change, God doesn't, and he's faithful to meet us where we are, but we have to die to ourselves every day to pursue him and his things.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

So good.

SPEAKER_04 25:07

Well, and that's that's one of those, you know, those three acts of faith or obedience that Greg talked about, you know, humbling yourself before the Lord. I mean, that's right here in the scripture. Pray, seek his face, repent, and then turn from your wicked ways. Like these are these are things that that we have to do on a daily basis, and it's a posture, it's a life posture that you have to create that I I and I deal with it too. There again, for the longest time, and I still struggle with it, but for the longest time with kids, you know, the evening times are the time that when the kids go to bed, I finally have like an hour of peace and quiet before I have to go to bed. And all I want to do is like turn the TV on and not think. Like I just want to like shut down, yeah. I just want to shut down and just relax. And and as my kids get older, it's been harder to get up in the mornings to do my quiet time because you know, my three-year-old likes to get up at five o'clock in the morning. And so like it's just and so like I that's been a struggle, and so now I've really got I I like it's it's a need that I have to spend that evening time after they go to bed as my quiet time. That's for the longest time been my shutdown time, but now it's the um submit, and and that's part of that humbling yourself and and seeking God, like it's a posture, and and however you that's a great point. However, your season of life looks right now is different. But that's important, and it's a posture. It's it's humbling yourself, it's putting your selfish pride away the time that you're whatever, um, whether it's hobbies, hobbies can get in the way. You know, for me for the longest time, that's been a thing. Hobbies will I I've build my life around what I'm gonna do on Fridays, you know, like it's just a thing. So sometimes I have to give those up. Um and it's seeking out people that will keep you accountable in those things. Um whether it's your family unit, whether it's your um discipleship group or the all the above.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Yep. Don't let the spiritual formation go. Like you have to be in your spiritual community. So like even if seasons are hard, even if you're busy busy, don't let your your church attendance or your Bible study or whatever it is, don't let that go. Because when you do that, it just turns into it's like that slippery slope, you know. You let one part of your spiritual like non-negotiables go, and soon they can it just crumbles. And we've gotta keep pursuing what the Bible commands us, which is gathering together. And Maverick's talking about his discipleship group, and I'm sure part of that is if you look in James, it talks about um we confess our sins to one another so that we may be healed. And it's not just talking about like, oh, if you confess your sins, you're gonna get over your sickness, but it's that spiritual healing that needs to happen that when we confess our sin, not just to the Lord, obviously that's important, but when we're doing it in community and confessing it out loud, there is some of that spiritual healing that happens in in pursuing eradicating that sin, you know. And so you do you have to have that community, and it's it's not just showing up and listening to the sermon every week, you need to do that too, but you need that deeper spiritual community.

SPEAKER_04 28:35

Yeah, and I think I mean going back to that garden concept, you know, um if you have a garden that you only water every once every week and a half, it's it's struggling, right? Um and that's saying that goes to the same thing with the believer that only gets the word whenever they come to hear a sermon on Sunday. Yeah. Um if you and and and I've been and and I say this coming from somebody that's been there. Like I I show up to Sunday service, and that's the only time I'm getting the word, and that's the only time that and it's like it's like going a water with going a week without a drink of water. And all of a sudden, like my I I'm quenched, my thirst is quenched, you know, and all that. Well, if I would just spend time every day doing those things, having it and I had those accountability groups and all that stuff, I wouldn't deal with that. My garden would be plentiful, I would have all kinds of fruit. Um instead, if I only show up on Sundays and that's the only time I get the word, well, my plants are dying and not producing anything. And so that's where this revival, you know, it's gotta start. It's gotta start with the the people, the people of the church, me, you, everybody listening, Maverick said it, the individual, it starts with each and every one of us humbling ourselves, putting our time away, our things away, and putting all that aside and seeking the Lord, turning from our wicked way, turning from our sin. And that's part of humbling ourselves. It's putting away that selfish pride, the selfishness of if it's sin, if it's time, it's whatever, putting that aside, seeking Him, and then our plant can be growing, you know, healthy. Trying to think of a word, but then our hell, you know, it can be healthy and producing fruit.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

And if you're not sure what he's talking about, go plant a tomato, and you will quickly learn it is not easy. And suddenly all these agricultural references in the Bible come alive.

SPEAKER_04 30:26

Oh, yeah, there's a reason why Jesus uses agricultural references. I mean, it can go, I mean, we could even go even further into pruning and you know, all that stuff, but we'll we're not gonna go into that. Um so let's we're running out of time here, but but I I wanna I want to get to one final point, um, which was Greg's final point when he said that um people must have faith and reliance on God's character to hear and answer. Um, how much do you think we struggle with this?

SPEAKER_03 30:51

Ooh, so much. We were just talking about this the other week because of like my own age. Um it feels like sometimes I don't have enough to well, I say that I do have enough, but um, like just the fact that God has saved me is enough for me to rely on him, you know. But um sometimes it's it's hard because you you it feels like you can't recall as many things that God has done for you. And so, you know, for um I was talking about with Greg, but Greg was like, I have a whole life of God's faithfulness to look back on, you know, and so not that he's near the end of his life, but you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_04 31:30

Well, I think that's why that we talked about earlier, why the elders having somebody as an elder in your life is important because they have experienced that.

SPEAKER_03 31:38

Yeah, you can tell them, hey, I'm dealing with this, and he's like, Well, God did that for me. Like, this is how God got me through that. I did that same thing, you know. Right, and here you go. Um, but I would as I was saying, like, for someone my age, you know, you're we're I'm building God is being faithful to me, and he's building his like repertoire of his faithfulness in my life, and he knows that I am weak, he knows that I'm um just dust, you know. And so he's good to me and slowly, slowly learning that process. But um I think it gets it gets so much easier to look back on that, like you're saying, like when we're in community because one brain is just weak, you know. Um and that's why he says like a strand of three chords is not easily broken. Um it's because when I'm you know, in my sin and I'm I'm down and I'm I'm shaming myself. I have people that can look at it from the outside to remind me of the truth and God can use them to speak into that directly. You know, he can he can literally like I don't I don't think understand if or I don't think we understand that God can speak into our lives through the mouth of someone else. Yeah, you know, and it's just like limitless possibilities.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Okay, so something you and Greg have both said was talking about who God is, right? And when I was in college, I was at a summer discipleship deal and we were learning how to study the Bible and share our faith. And one of the things that stuck with me, and this is not for everyone, but it stuck with me, is we read excerpts from a book by A. W. Tozer, who was a prolific like theologian and writer in I think the early 1900s. Um but he wrote a book called Knowledge of the Holy. And it changed my life because it taught me about God's attributes, which I had never really heard of or considered growing up. Um, and he writes in like a beautiful language, and so sometimes it's hard for people because he's using words that are not in our colloquial norms today, and so um, but I love it because he goes deep into the different attributes of God. So there's a chapter on, you know, that his omnipotence, and there's a chapter on his holiness, and um it just transformed how I think about God because I had never considered his attributes. And so I have not sat down and been reading chapters of A. W. Tozer, but I started a devotional, which is just different snippets from his various writings, and he it's I think a three-volume set. And so I picked up the one on God the Father. And yesterday morning I was reading, actually, no, I think this was today. This morning, I was reading about how God is a person, and there is a phrase that reminds me of what Maverick's talking about, and it says the full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. And it's such an encouragement that your lifelong pursuit of knowing God is going to bring more and more fruit as you get to know him and who he truly is more and more. And so, like you're saying, I feel like I'm a youth or whatever, and so I don't know God. Well, no, you don't know him fully, but what a blessing that our entire spiritual lives we get to know him more and more. And so every time we are pursuing him and pursuing to know his character, which is one of the reasons I love the Bible recap because it's like, okay, we just read these proverbs. Where do you see God? Where do you learn about God? And so we put the application on ourselves, but part of the application is also who is God? Yeah. And so I love that idea. I love that as we study his attributes, we become more like him because we know who he is. And so we're able to trust him more. We're able to see how he provides for us and how he holds us through circumstances. Um, and I've noticed even in the scriptures we've been reading about the building of the temple, how much his name is referenced. And that's something else. I'm studying that this summer, I'm doing Bible study on the names of God. Um but like we don't we miss that because we don't know his attributes, we don't know his name until we actually dive into it. And his name has so much power and communicates his attributes, and we don't know Hebrew, and so we miss it. And I've just been I've been surprised by how often his name is mentioned in the building of the temple and in the worship of him in this new season of the Israelite, you know, community. So it's been really cool.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

Well, and at the end of the day, I mean it's like a child is not born trusting their parents, you know, right? Because well, how's that happened? Well, the parents want to feed them, right? So a baby is fed by their mother, and so that builds a bond, and that builds a trust, and that builds, you know, and as a parent takes care of them and provides for them, the child learns to more trust their parents more and more and more, and then they get to uh uh you know, elementary age, and the next thing you know, you're giving your children shots and they don't trust whether they're gonna go to the doctor and get shots, right? And so, like, but the child has to grow up and and and learn to trust the parent and and and the more that the parent provides, the more that the child trusts and and all those things. And so, um, and it's to your point, Maverick, you know, the more that you grow up and the more that the more that we experience God and the more that we see him working actively in our lives, uh, the more that the faith and and and trust and reliance on him is gonna grow. Um now we can choose to neglect that. Um we can choose to not be observant to how God's working. We can choose to be non-observant to to how he's working and and completely ignore that, and then we're not gonna gain anything from him actually working, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:35

We miss it when we are only expecting really giant things, we miss all the little things in between, or or we just don't have that practice of like thankfulness of what God has done.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

That's one thing we've seen in the Psalms, even in the Bible recap this year, is how many of the psalms are recounting what he has done for them as a people. Yeah. And so how are we doing that in our lives? Because that also requires the humility and pursuing the relationship and worship.

SPEAKER_04 38:04

So so that's a good point. I mean, and to just kind of make that a take-home point, keep your eyes open, ears open to how God's working around you. Um, keep your eyes open and ears open to how he's working in your lives, and and and you can use that to build your trust and obedience in him. And and if your eyes and ears are truly open, you're gonna see where God's working, and that's where revival spark.

SPEAKER_02 38:27

Right.

SPEAKER_04 38:27

You know, that's you go look at you watch the Jeepish Revival movie and how that happened, and and and the pastor is is changed by how you know this guy comes in and and and is telling him, hey, open your eyes. There's there's people out here that are looking for something, and we have something. You know, so and so, anyways, and saying that, eyes, ears open, that's how revival sparks. That's also how you learn to trust and and stay obedient to God and and trust in his faithfulness. Um, and I'm gonna end on that. I appreciate everybody for listening and for um being patient with us as we miss some weeks here. You know, it's June, so this is the time of vacations, and so we've been kind of on again, off again, but I appreciate everybody being patient. Um just real quick, um, yeah, July 1st, which is this coming Wednesday, we have our big um 4th of July Independence Day celebration. Um, and it's gonna be a big we're gonna have hamburgers, hot dogs, bounty rounds, games. We've got horseshoes set up, playgrounds gonna be open. Everything's gonna be going on. We're gonna have a bunch of games for kids and everything else. So um on the first, and we're gonna do it's gonna be starting at uh 5:30, I believe, is when we're gonna start kind of kicking things off. Six o'clock's kind of the food should be ready by that time. And so um I encourage you to come out and join us. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Um, and then we're gonna have our big um Sunday service uh on July 5th, which is it's gonna be a joint service. So if you're a Chaffee person, we will not have service at Chaffee that Sunday. Everybody's coming here on July 5th, and we're gonna have a huge blowout service. Um Craig said it's bigger than Christmas. I don't know that that's possible, but um it is gonna be a huge deal. So I encourage you to come out and and um and join us in that. If you have any questions or anything um about anything we see on here, our emails are always in the bio, so just reach out and we'd love to uh love to connect with you, even if it's just if you need prayer or anything else. So uh once again, I thank everybody for listening, and we are out.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

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.