A Roadmap to Spiritual Renewal (Hosea 12:6)

Join Trey Overton, Mavric Herrera, and Katie King as they reflect on Matt Passmore'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 Katie discussed how the journey to spiritual renewal begins with understanding who Christ is and the need to bring everything to Him first. Believers often think they must handle everything on their own, and Christ just wants us to submit it all to him. It's not about getting yourself right first, it's about coming to him first. This relationship cultivates a continual trust that is vital to a believer's relationship with Christ. 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_02 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 Herrera. Hello. Today we've got a special guest with us, Miss Katie King.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Hello, hello.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

So Katie has been on here once before. Is this your second time? Yeah. So this is Katie's second time. Made the cut. Yeah. So Katie has been interning here for a few months now. What, three months or something like that or so?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

February or April, September?

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Maybe longer than I thought. All right. So um she's been. She just showed up one day. She's been here. Yes, she's been here. She has been interning with us uh for a few months now and um helping out the Chavvy campus and with students, with young adults a little bit, and uh worship with the students, um, just kind of a little all over the place. And um, and so she's been really helpful, especially with me out of Chavvy, you know, and and just kind of getting in the rotation with students or the I say students, they're not students yet, uh preschoolers. Preschoolers, yeah, babies, little babies, yeah. So that's been really good and helping organize that. So um, but anyways, and we're we're even taking a step further, and uh we'll be starting a children's ministry out there. What? Is that public? Yeah, so first yeah, we're making that public. Uh first of September. So that's our goal date.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Um that Bo is ecstatic about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

He I don't know. Like we've been Well, he's basically a young adult. So yeah, so Bo, you know, up until First Baptist, Bo's really been in church with us. Like we've been in churches that didn't have, or if their children's church was, he's always worshiped with us, he's always been in church with us. And so like when he's we came here and he started going with Eli, you know, of course he loved it. But whenever we go out to Chaffee and he's with us, he's fine there too. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Hey, I think that's good though. I think a lot of kids get a little too spoiled in children's church sometimes. They aren't able to come and send the service or listen. So I don't know. He's probably got more theology than the average.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

He at least thinks he does. Um so this last Sunday, uh, Matt actually did the preaching at both campuses, and which is really good. I always enjoy hearing Matt. And um he always he always has good analogies. Like whenever I can always count on him to bring something in, a prop, usually, but yeah, you know, something in that's gonna bring the sermon together and today or this week it was a roadmap. And uh which have have either of you two ever never use a roadmap? Nope.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

No, I had them in my in my freshman year college dorm. I had some road roadmaps on the wall. Okay. As decor, okay. So that was like historic. They're cute, but that's about it. Never really looked at it.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

I don't know how I feel about that. All right. So um I grew up.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

I would get so lost if I tried to use it.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Like I and also because there's constantly construction. So how do you keep that? That's what I was thinking about.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Dude, you come up on construction, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Like you know, so here's the deal. Um, and this is I was talking when I had lunch with a guy today, and we were kind of talking about that with generational gaps and how technology just kind of created that separation even more. But um a lot of it, it's like it's like me and Maverick, you know, we don't we don't really text a lot. Yeah. Um, but you know, me and we sit down, I'll sit down in your office and we'll chit chat, you know. And so like um I would say more of our conversations are face to face than through text. Yeah. But that's not super common nowadays with everybody else. A lot of people text, a lot of people, and that's just kind of how the conversations go. So you're used to looking at that for communication, for and you know, and so um roadmaps are kind of like not a whole lot different, you know. Like before phones, before that form of deal, now we're looking at phones to communicate, but before it was face to face. And um maps are kind of like that. When when I was looking at a map and I was gonna go on a road trip, um, I would look, you know, you planned your route, yeah, but you're looking at numbers. And you could, if you knew what you were doing, you could do that today. And I honestly do better with a map half the time because with the phones, when the GPS is going, you're just screwed to that screen. Whatever that screen says, that's what you're gonna do, right? But if I'm looking at a map, I'm looking at highway numbers.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

So if I can see if I'm actually got my eyes ahead and I'm going down the road and I can see a mile ahead and I can see highway 42 and 22's exit off right, and I know I need to take 422, I'm a mile ahead of where I need to be just by keeping my eyes up and knowing that's the highway I need to take. But and so it's just a little bit different, and it's kind of like the difference there again. I know that's kind of a weird analogy, but I see where you're going.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

Yeah, so like I see where you're going.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Instead of having your eyes on the phone, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

I think I'm starting to follow.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Instead of having your eyes on the phone all the time, you know, in in that form of, you know, navigation, your eyes are forward and looking ahead.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

No, that's great. And it's it's like a lookup thing. Look up, pay attention. I think that's good because a lot of times we do that with with God's word. People get so stuck in just looking down at God's word that they never end up actually like like being a part of the Great Commission and sharing the gospel. They're so focused on theology. And then there's the opposite of that. People who they have no clue how to read God's word, they have no clue how to study God's word, and instead they um they just get lost on the well, I like to worship and like I pray, but like they have no clue what it means to have a relationship with Christ. They just like to have the emotional experiences.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

I think we see a little bit of that and a little mixture in between, but um, but yeah, this this this roadmap analogy that Matt used was pretty, you know, pretty spot on and and kind of especially for the older generation who knew what roadmaps were, you know. Um but we we were we were you know I was able to see that and be like, okay, yeah, I see where you're going with this. Like this is a roadmap ahead. I'm looking forward, I've got my eyes up on how I can move forward in my relationship with Christ and for his point towards spiritual renewal, right? Um, so in his first point in this, Matt explained that we as believers need to make us, you know, we have to make that step. We have to take that step to return to the Lord. And and he was using um Hosea 12, and it says, so you return, right? Um, so where where do you see the most struggle people have with taking this step to return to the Lord? It's just like that initial, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Yeah. I I mean, for myself at least, it's a lot of pride, it's a lot of stubbornness. Or sometimes it's just like lack of awareness. Like I don't I think I'm I'm pretty good and I just I get blind to it, you know. It's uh it's scariest whenever you don't sense that conviction, you know, uh from the Holy Spirit. It means you've you've silenced him. You know, he's he's always speaking up, he's always making himself clear. But we can easily quench the spirit and shut his voice out. Um so oftentimes I'll I'll find if I if I don't have a good week, you know, or um even a bad day, you know, where I'm not in God's word, I struggle to hear God more that day or that week and my uh my temper starts to go more haywire and uh I get more impatient and all the things like that. But I think when it comes to repenting and turning back, I think I also used to always get stumped on like, oh, I have to feel bad enough to come to God. Yeah. Like I have to get to a point where I feel so bad, then I can come to God. But I mean like where is that, you know, in scripture. Just go back. Like tell the Lord how like God, I don't feel bad right now. I don't feel bad for my sin. And that scares me, you know. That should scare me. Yeah. I don't feel bad for this, I don't feel like coming back to you, but I'm here I am, you know. So Lord, please like draw me back, draw me back to you, change what you need to change. And so yeah, that's I'd say pride and just kind of like a this weird complex that we put on ourselves that we have to feel a certain way to come back to God.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Yeah, kind of put our own parameters around it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Yeah, I think the Lord honors that. Like when whatever heart posture you come to him with, even if you're coming to him in your pride, like you're still there and that still means something. Like he's and he and he's gonna humble you one way or another. Um something I see a lot with with our youth kids, and you can probably speak to this too, Maverick, is there's a I feel like a lot of just straight up unwillingness to go back to the Lord. Um just love for their sin that and they they just haven't gotten to the point yet where they understand the consequence. They understand there will be a consequence. Or their neighborhood. Or they understand the depth of the comp of the consequence. Um and that is something truly that the Lord only the Lord can give you. Um and and with that it's too like a lack of tenderness to their need. Um like they're just not aware of you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

So it kind of, you know, what you were talking about, Maverick. I whenever I was obviously I I grew up in sports, you know, I was a football coach and I was growing you know, grew up in and and and there was always a saying that um your the biggest growth that you had in the gym were the whenever you push yourself through the days that you just did not want to be there. Um and so and and that was always and it was true, like those days that I do not want to be there working out, do not want to be there pushing through, do not want to do all that. Um there's there was those days, and whenever you got finished with that workout on that day, you just even felt the growth and and how in yourself pushing through. And so sometimes I think that's you know, we get in those moments, like you said, Maverick, where we're just kind of in a funk, and uh we feel like we have to be in this mode. Sometimes, you know, like going back to the gym scenario, I feel like I've got to be in the right mindset to get this workout done. I've got to be energized, I can't be tired, you know, that all the parameters have to be right, but at the end of the day, as long as I show up, you know, that showing up is half the battle, um, and then pushing through those days. Um, and I and I and I think too, you know, I just looking at this first step deal, this is something I've been kind of working through in my personal life, um, just kind of thinking through ministry in general and and how this works with people, but um you know, a thought that I have i if you truly were to understand the power of God, his sovereignty, his mercy, like if you begin to you know understand the character of God more, we'll never understand the depths of it. But if you truly just begin to understand that, why wouldn't you submit everything to him? You know, and so some days, and I and I say that you know, I've been working through this a little bit, just kind of thinking in my own life, you know. Some days I'm I'm stressed out about my marriage, some days I'm stressed out about my finances, some days I'm stressed about and then I get to the end of the day and I've been thinking of whatever it is that's been on my brain, and I get to the end of the day and I've wasted all that time and I'm like, you know, I think if I really, you know, if God is who he is, which he is, why haven't I brought this to him first? You know, why didn't I start my day? Why didn't I start my mindset? Why didn't I start with or my posture with bringing this before him? And and so a lot of that's you know, I've been working through that so my own life and then just kind of trying to, you know, working that in the culture here too, but but I think just kind of looking at this first step of spiritual renewal, it's it's coming to the understanding of who he is, because if we truly do understand who God is, if we truly begin to understand the depths of his mercy, the depths of his love, the the infinite power and and and holiness, I'm gonna submit everything before him before I do anything.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

How many times have we started this podcast? And this is me telling all myself, how many times we started this podcast, Maverick, without praying first?

SPEAKER_03 12:53

More than we have with praying.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

It's you know, and and this is us telling ourselves, like we're this is this is being honest, like, and if we if we truly understand how God works through people and desires to work through us and desires us to submit these things before him, why wouldn't we bring that to him first? Yeah, you know what I mean? And I think a lot looking at the spiritual renewal and that first step, I think a lot of it starts with recognizing God.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

You know, recognizing who he is, you know, and and coming to that and having to come to that on a regular basis, you know. Um and so that's kind of my thoughts on it. And so um foundationally, I mean, I think that first step starts with recognizing that, and and and um I I think a lot of people struggle with their need to their need to be a certain way or them needing to do certain things, um, or it all being dependent on them for then for there to be spiritual renewal. You know, like for me to for for me to have spiritual renewal, to have um to have a rededication, let's just call it of the spirit or whatever, like there's gotta be certain steps that I've gotta do, and it's all dependent on me, right? Um what do you think about that? Do you think that's the case? And Matt kind of you know touched on this a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Yeah, and it's so easy to think that way because of kind of what I was talking about earlier. It's like, well, on the days, like I'm a very logic guy, and I just do deductive reasoning kind of thing, and I'm like, hmm, I felt really good today. Why? Because I read my Bible, and on the days that I don't feel good, I didn't read my Bible, therefore, whenever I read my Bible, I have a better day, you know? And so I think so simply like that, and not even like consciously, you know. I just kind of you just notice that and pick up on it. But it's so yeah, it's so easy to go into that thinking that, oh, I did that. That's why I had a good day. Because I did that. Yeah. It's like, well, no, you just came to the fountain, like you you drank the water. And so yeah, but it wasn't you that did that to yourself, it was what you put into yourself. That thing wouldn't be there if it wasn't for Christ. Yeah. You know, and so it just it's uh but it's so hard to get there for me sometimes because I'm you know it's so it's just so easy to think that it is me, it is me doing that. Yeah, but I mean you're going to the source of life. What do you expect?

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah, I've also noticed the opposite of that to be true though. There are some days where I've been struggling to read my Bible, I finally sit down and read it, and then I'm just in a grumpy mood the rest of the day, you know? And like what how obvious can spiritual warfare be? Yeah, yeah. Um, or like when I was a kid, I'd come back from camp and I'd be like, I'm going to be the best Christian ever. And then I'd immediately get in the garage and I'd be so mad at my mom, or so mad at, you know, whatever. And just be like, oh, what is wrong with these people? No, it's what's wrong with you. It's like you are not um you are not humbling yourself to really become who God's word is asking you to be. Um and and like uh it's the same thing with church. Like, I don't when I leave church, there's sometimes I'm like, geez, I need to go work on some stuff, you know? Yeah, right. Got a lot of get to get better at. But but that that um that building that spiritual consistency of every morning you wake up, you read your Bible, that truly, like the more you build on that, the more it becomes easier, and the more it gets that point that I feel like you're talking about, Maverick is like it might not always be easy, it might not always make you feel good, but that's not why we do it. Eventually, you learn how to lean on God. And and that's what that looks like is like, okay, I can trust the Lord, like you were saying, Trey. When something hard happens, I can trust the Lord to handle this. When your marriage is hard, when your kids are yelling and you don't know what to do, you can trust the Lord that you're gonna be able to get through it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Yeah, I agree. And I think just to kind of piggyback off that is I think we and we and we see it a lot in the church today, but people feel like whenever they whenever they, you know, I I somebody has been walking the wrong way, wrong path, let's say maybe they did, you know, they knew Christ, but they've just kind of been living their own life, and then they all of a sudden decide that they're um gonna renew their relationship with him, they start seeking him some more, you know, the first thing their mind a lot of times goes to. And I say they, that was me for a long time. So like, and just from experience, but I've got to get my life back together.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

You know, I've got to start going to church, I've got to stop doing this, I've got to stop doing this, I've got to stop doing this, I've got to get my act together. And um, and you know, I'm gonna read my Bible more, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do this. And we think that the spiritual renewal depends on all of these things being done. All of a sudden, because I decided to, you know, you know, say, you know, you somebody that struggles alcohol, so maybe I've decided to quit drinking, I've tried to decide to quit smoking, I've decided to stop cussing, I've decided to do this, I've decided to do that, I'm gonna go to church, I'm gonna and do all of these things, I'm gonna pray in the mornings, and all of a sudden, because I do this, this, and this, and this and this, it's all of a sudden gonna create spiritual renewal. No, spiritual renewal comes from that moment that you decide that you're gonna submit everything to him, right? You're gonna start seeking him. If if if spiritual renewal decided on everything that depended, sorry, depended on everything that I did, I would never have it.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Because I'm not perfect. I fail all the time, right? And so spiritual renewal would leave me all the time, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

But because it doesn't, it depends on Christ, it's all about submitting these things to him. And I think just as an encouragement, you know, looking at, you know, Matt using this roadmap to kind of spiritual renewal, I mean, that's I think the point he was trying to make was like, it does not depend on him. And if it did, we wouldn't be serving the God that we know we do. Right? It's all on him. It's all he asks for us to come to him is to submit all of it to him. If you've got if you've got alcoholism, if you're a smoker, if you're, you know, all these things like all these addictions or or you know, whatever that you struggle with, anxiety, you know, for me is a long time as anxiety, you know, all these things that you struggle with, he just asks you to bring it to him and and seek him through it all, and he'll work out the rest. I mean, you're all those things, like if you truly submit it to him, you know, all of a sudden you're not gonna want alcohol anymore. I mean, we've seen it time and time again when people bring it before him and truly submit it to him, it it has nothing to do with you know their strong will, it has everything to do with God's power and sovereignty. Um and so I think that's just kind of a lot of what Matt was talking about, is how if we depend on ourselves, we are gonna fail.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

If I if I depend if I've de if if if if me getting right with God depended on me, I'm gonna fail. It's gonna just it's not gonna work, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:13

When I was when I was a kid, I I had I was probably I I say a kid, I was probably seventh or eighth grade. I just became a Christian and or had just learned what it meant. I don't know when I fully understood um I was probably seventh or eighth grade when I understood what it meant that Jesus died for me. And um I was like, okay, I'm gonna stop sinning now. And I would be like, okay, I'm gonna stop every sin that I've ever done. And and when I wasn't able to, I would go back to the Lord and I would have like this super dramatic repentance moment. And I'm seventh eighth grade, like it's not like I'm murdering people, you know, like my sin is still not like it is still not okay, but I would be so upset that I had lied because it was like that nailed Jesus to the cross. And I saw my sin as like almost like, how could you do that? How could you add to this burden that Jesus died for? Um and at one point I decided, okay, I'm not gonna go back to Jesus until I can figure out all my sin. And like what a logical fail that is.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Oh, I can figure it out on my own. Like, let me let me deal with my sin and then I can come back to Jesus. And obviously that didn't last very long because I I realized like, no, I I actually I cannot do this, I cannot beat this. My my flesh is overwhelming, and the only thing I can do to to fight it is to grow my spirit, to build those spiritual formations of fasting and being consistent in God's word. Coming to church every Sunday, being in small groups and Bible studies, surrounding yourself with people who love the Lord. That's how you begin to fight your sin and surround yourself by people who are a few steps ahead of you, who can encourage you. Um, and just let the Lord do his work in your life because you cannot fight against that. Right. So well, you can if you try, but you shouldn't.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

You'll wear yourself out for you. You're gonna wear yourself out. Yeah, absolutely. It's always been about like I just heard the phrase like the greater surrender, the greater the glory kind of thing. I like that. The more, you know, the the more you give up, like the more glorious your life is gonna seem. And I don't mean glory as in fame or riches or blessing, like well, I do mean blessing a bit, but maybe not blessing as you think it is, but I mean you'll you'll gain him more and more and more, and he doesn't run out there, you know.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Well, and I think you know, at the end of the day, the flesh and the mind are weak. Yeah. I mean the flesh and the mind are weak, and the more that you see God, the more you will be attacked. You know, I mean I I'm going through right now just on some mental stuff, just some mornings I just wake up and and I can just feel it's it's more of just thoughts or feelings, or just some days I'm just I can just feel just an attack on it by the devil. And and those are the days even more so you have to realize how weak you are and and that you have to submit all of that to him. And and those are even some of my biggest growth days is when when I when I come to realization like I can't fight this off, I can't shake this, I can't, I have to submit all of this to you. And I'm gonna just pray God that you reveal it to me and you you show me the way and you you you pull me through this. And and then he is faithful every time to do it. Yeah, and it's just overwhelming. And that kind of brings, you know, to that last point that Matt had was how that that brings you to an understanding of cultivating trust. Like you're gonna begin to trust God more every time you do that, every time you bring that stuff to God, every time you, you know, every time you uh lean on him and every time you you uh go through hard times and and he pulls you through it and he leads you through it every time it's it's gonna lead to trust him. All right, so um if you haven't seen us, haven't been down to visit us, this first time listening, something like that, I encourage you to do so. We've got some cool stuff coming up. Uh we've got you know men's, women's ministry and I wanna's kickoff coming up in here in a couple weeks, uh mid-August, and then we've got um pool party. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 24:18

Pool party.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

We got a pool party uh this next Wednesday, not today, a week from today. We're having a pool party at Creekmoor. So we've got the whole pool rented out. I encourage as a slide, as an obstacle course. Yep. There's a pool. There's a pool. It's a million degrees outside, and we're all you know, we're gonna have water, so it's awesome. Uh, but anyways, so we encourage everybody to come out for that as well. Um, and uh there's in that. So I want to thank everybody for listening. We are out.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

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.