Truth to Life
Truth to Life exists to help people take the truth of God's Word beyond Sunday and live it throughout the week.
Truth to Life
Verified Authentic | S2E15
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Welcome back to Deeper Life. We're back to the second to last episode of the season. It's kind of sad to say, but um it's good, man. Uh going verse by verse in First Corinthians. We're in chapter 16. You did verses 5 through 20. Um, verified authentic. And you kind of open with saying that like text like this at the end of a chapter could be like a flyby, but this is definitely not a flyby. So I just kind of want to. It's deep. There's a lot of incredible stuff here. So it was a good, it was a good message.
SPEAKER_00Does anybody feel like Dom feels like when he starts it, like there's like Dom's super full of energy, right? Like all the time. Like, let's go. And then sometimes like the podcast starts and it's like, he like, you just woke up. No? I just don't even, I don't know what to do here. We're back. And it's like, Dom, dude, like, what's up, everybody? We're back. Let's run through some walls. So listen, here's the deal. I think we need to be talking first and good going. I think that if you're listening to this and you think Dom needs to intro this podcast with some more intensity and excitement, let him know. Yes. All right. Now, the two of you that listen to this, text Dom and let him know. Just be like, hey, intro with more intensity. Anyways, yeah, good. I think it was cool. I think um, I think going back to the text, joking aside, um, I think that when we come to a portion of scripture that has gone through um the scrutiny that it has gone through to be verified that it is believed that this is God's word. Uh and it is accepted as a portion of scripture. I just, again, I'm not mad at churches who don't do this. I'm not mad at pastors who don't do this. I think they have they they got their own, you know, their own way of doing it. I just don't think that is something that we hurry through. I just think it says, why is it here? It's here for a reason. So what do we need to learn from this? And and I kind of enjoy that journey of, hey, here's something that seems like this could be just passed over. And and crazy enough, most did. A lot did. When I go to read a book or go to read uh, you know, somebody or see, hey, how did they preach through this passage? It's uh it's a crazy how how empty the the sermons are on or how just not there on this portion of scripture. And so I just uh yeah, I'm I'm uh convinced that if it's in God's word and we believe, again, remember conviction fuels our commitment, which fuels our conduct. So if our conduct is expository preaching because we have a conviction that this is God's word, then every ver every part of it is God's word. Let's figure out what it is and why it's there. That's our job. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02I agree. I mean, it goes back to you know, 2 Timothy. All scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training, and righteousness. So even if this is something to where, you know, in our you know, worldly mindset, we say, oh, well, that's just the the end of the letter. No, there's there's something teachable in it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, let's not let's not humanize this or uh take this away from God too far. Is it a letter? Yes, it is a letter, but it's not just a letter. That's what we've got to understand. So we often say, well, Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, and and sometimes saying that we can have a tendency to almost make this a human letter written by a human author to a real church that is just a letter. And it is a letter, it is all of that, but it's not just a letter. We need to understand that. But this is a letter that was written by Paul as he was moved by the Holy Spirit, recording the words of God that he wanted the church in Corinth to receive and the church in Las Vegas to receive in 2026.
SPEAKER_02Amen.
SPEAKER_00So these are God's words. It's not just a letter. If it was just a letter, then sure, it's just travel plans and logistics and some closing, endearing thoughts. But it is the word of God. We have to remember that. And if that's our conviction, then the conduct needs to be well, then it's here for a reason. Let's study it. And what when we study it, we've got to figure out what we learn from it.
SPEAKER_02Amen. So so I wanted to know the thought behind the title that you named this passage. I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_01I'm still caught up on what you said about me opening the episode, man. Don hasn't said a word since.
SPEAKER_00He's just sitting there quiet, like, all right, shoot.
SPEAKER_02Um, I mean, it's it's a very interesting title because it's talking about two positive things verified and it's authentic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think that um, all right, well, let me let me go back to my process here. As I was reading this, I thought, what's happening here? That's the question I'm asking, right? What's happening in this text? Well, what's happening in this text is the apostle Paul, moved by the spirit, is giving us some insight into ministry. If it's the apostle moved by the spirit, then this must be real ministry. That's the word I was thinking. Real. Authentic, not man-made, not seminary-trained, spirit-led, gospel-centered, God-glorifying, genuine ministry. And verified authentic just goes back to the fact that we live in a world where there's so many fakes, there's so many counterfeits. So what we need is we're looking for the stamp, verified authentic. And I feel like if the Bible's on it, if if the if it's in the Bible and God's hand is on it, then it is a stamp of approval that this is God's way of doing ministry preserved by the Spirit. Therefore, verified authentic is what's happening here. That's great.
SPEAKER_01It's good. I mean, your first point, this is you get eight points. Funny, yeah, funny opening joke about how long it was gonna go because you had eight points. Uh I think I laughed the loudest, honestly. I was like left side, and nobody else really laughed.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna be a little bit at point three. I'm like, is he gonna finish? Is this gonna be a part two?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it could have been, but no, I thought I got a little nervous too.
SPEAKER_01No, but it was great. So you opened up with strategic planning. Um, and you you talked about uh Paul planned carefully while remaining surrendered completely. So I guess like a super practical way is just Christians balancing and planning without becoming controlling or prideful. Yeah. Which is, man, I was just thinking yesterday I was talking to Haley about like planning our meals at our house.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And obviously, super simple strategically planning, but like not being reactive to hey, we we know what plans we have tonight. And so talk a little bit about that because the surrender part of Paul and how he lived, but was strategic, was I think so powerful.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think that, yeah, I think there's two pillars that hold up this point. One is that Paul strategically planned his life for the purpose of discipleship. That's what he's talking about. I'm gonna pass through Macedonia. Why, Paul? Because I need to check on the churches there and strengthen the leaders. Then I I um I um am going to come to you, but I don't just want to be with you a little bit of time. I want to spend some time with you. And uh then, you know, that there's all these elements, right? So his planning regularly throughout his life, you can see it in Acts, you can see it all over, was he always had in his mind, how am I going to leverage this journey for the purpose of gospel ministry and discipleship? That was intentional planning. So the challenge is this is that if we are gonna do authentic ministry, then we always are going to see the thing that we're doing as an opportunity for discipleship and ministry. We're always gonna leverage. So we're gonna leverage our job, we're gonna leverage our lunchtime, we're gonna leverage our coffee breaks, we're gonna leverage our um park visits, we're gonna leverage our kids' little league games. We're always gonna be like, how can I strategically plan this thing to make it more impactful for the purpose of ministry? Now, listen, that's not every meal. There's meals you can say, I'm just gonna spend time with my family. But listen, what better time to leverage a meal than to disciple your kids? Let's do that, or to invest in your marriage. Let's do that. But you also then say, I'm also gonna hold this loosely because the Lord may call an audible on my plan. And he may, I may think I'm going to lunch for this person, but actually it's that person, or actually it's not this place, it's that place. And I get all flustered because my plan didn't work out. But at the end of the day, God sovereignly directed my paths to the place he wanted me to be for the purpose of discipleship and ministry. If that's a perspective that we lead our life with, then we are going to be better and more effectively in authentic ministry.
SPEAKER_01That's two weeks in a row. We've had my phone. Phones go off in the middle of the podcast. This week, it's not Andrew, it's Chuck. I'm so disappointed. I've never been more disappointed. I got called out in the first minute of the episode, and then Chuck's phone goes off. Here, listen, real life example versus discipleship versus convenience. Having dinner with my kids is intense sometimes, bro. And they don't want to sit down. My boys don't like to sit down. But we go around the table talking about what our favorite thing about the day is and our favorite thing about the person on the left of them. That's inconvenient because when they eat, they want to get down and go play, which I love that they want to do that. But like your discipleship of caring about your family is way more important than my convenience of maybe not dealing with the hard time.
SPEAKER_00Don't waste your don't waste your wasted times. So, like I think about every morning I bring my son to school. It's about a 22-minute drive. And we can sit in quiet. And sometimes we do sit in silence and we just turn on radio and listen to music. Sometimes we talk about nothing. But at least half of the time or more, we read something scriptural. We I have him, I'm having him read for me, to me, the new city catechism on his phone. I'm like, hey, read the next one. And then we talk about it. Right now we're talking about baptism. What is baptism? Did you understand that? What do you think about that? So my thing is like, I just want to be, and again, I'm not perfect at this by any means. Paul makes me look stupid in so many ways in this, but I just want to make sure that I'm planning those moments well so that I'm not just reacting to things. I'm actually being proactive in planning and then trusting the Lord in calling audibles on those situations. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02No, when you were preaching, it was reminding me of just my time in the Marine Corps. Like when we would go on Libo on Friday mornings, our gunnery sergeant wouldn't. Don't be using acronyms.
SPEAKER_00Explain to the civilians what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01I don't know what that is. You asked me to give him a hard time. He just dropped the Marine card on the podcast. I didn't think we were going to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_03When we would go away for the weekend for our for our liberty and liberty, okay.
SPEAKER_02But we will all be in formation, and our gunnery sergeant, she would have us all uh uh stand in line and she would give us a speech, but she would end it with prior, proper planning prevents poor performance. And it was just like, okay, we need to have this money.
SPEAKER_00She could have picked a better word than words to start with P because that's the weakest way.
SPEAKER_02But I remembered it. But I I think it it reminded me of this because like Paul was planning all this stuff, like it wasn't as though he was arbitrarily going, like he had a strategic plan of moving forward to minister to people. Yeah, and then, like you said, he kept his hands open because when he was prevented from going certain ways, he was like, Okay, well, now I need to restructure my plan to move to the uh this way. Yeah, it's cool.
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah, let's just jump right in the next point. I like the next point. I persevere courageously. Yeah, um, you talked about when Paul says in verse eight, I will stay. And that was so awesome, dude. Like, he's like, but I will stay. And then you said sometimes the clearest open doors are surrounded by the fiercest opposition. Yeah, I mean, that's it. That's the truth for sure. So let's talk about that.
SPEAKER_00You don't think like like logic, human logic doesn't say if you see if you hear I will stay, you're like, Oh, it must have been going really good in Ephesus. I will stay. What do you mean, Paul? Well, tell us what's happening there. Yeah, why door for effective work is open to me, but there's many adversaries. Well, why are you staying? Why would you stay? Well, because that presence of adversity is not an indicator that opportunity is not there or that God is not working. In fact, it's an indicator that God probably is working. And the the if if I it's like this, and I didn't use this on Sunday, but if like if I touch something and you say ow and I'm a doctor, I'm like, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna probably search there because that's probably the right spot. So if he's touching something and the enemy is coming at him saying ow, he's like, I got the right spot. Something's gonna happen. I'm in the right spot. God's working. The enemy doesn't like it. So they're at if if the if God wasn't working and the effectiveness of his ministry wasn't happening there, the adversary wouldn't care. The adversary's not threatened by ineffective ministry. He's upset by effective ministry, and that's why he's like, I'm in. So I think it's a change of perspective to say adversity is not an indicator that I need to leave. Adversity might be the indicator that I need to lean in and I need to stay and I need to persevere with courage in the face of adversity. And I think I will stay then becomes different. If you read I will stay in that context, then man, that's a cool three-word sentence for us to just declare. I will stay. If there's adversity, yeah, it's okay, but God's working. I'm I'm staying. And that and that could apply in so many areas. Marriage, I will stay. Is it tough? Sure. That doesn't mean I'm leaving. It means it's worth fighting for. I'm staying. Kids, I'm staying. Work's not going well. That's okay. I'm gonna stay because I can testify to the glory of God in my job. Ministry, church, I'm gonna stay. I'm gonna say, and it's funny, more people after church actually was like that sentence was what God wanted me to grab onto in that sermon. And I was like, cool. Three simple words that weren't, it wasn't even in my notes necessarily to emphasize I will stay as I'm preaching. God's like, hey, emphasize I will stay. And I'm like, cool, let's emphasize that. Let's lean into that.
SPEAKER_02This is another reason why going through this verse by verse is so important because like it's those things that that we would have probably overlooked. Sure. Yep, 100%.
SPEAKER_01I uh yeah, dude, I love that. That's like just a such a clear picture of life. Yeah, and just what it is and the Christian life, not easy, nothing about life is easy, yeah. But I just been on this kick of don't let the hard days win. Yeah, man, and that's just that could be every day. But I will stay like, yeah, play, and we we're fighting from a position of victory.
SPEAKER_00I heard Chuck Swindahl the other day. He was talking about this. He said his he was testifying to the fact that his 45th year of ministry was the absolute hardest year of ministry he ever had. 45th year. I'm not even that old. His 45th year, and and uh I'll I think I think Chuck Swindell is one of those guys who's, and I'm you know, he's a man, has all kinds of, you know, probably issues. I don't know, but he's just been a uh model of faithfulness, and I appreciate that. And he said, 45th year has been his hardest ministry, and he would not have made it if he didn't have friends around him who supported him and a wife who supported him. And then I just thought, 45th year of ministry, at that point, you're thinking, like, I might be retired, I'm probably gonna be hanging out on a beach somewhere. I hope not. But like nobody would have faulted him for that. Right, yeah. But he's like, I endured, I persevered through it because God was at work in my 45th year of ministry. That was my hardest. Crazy.
SPEAKER_01Dude, I mean, sorry to pivot, but shout out to your cone illustration. I mean, the construction cone illustration was just crazy.
SPEAKER_00I it's like an that was an honest confession, man. That's real, dude. I hate those things, hate those things. I threaten to run those over like crazy. I'm like, I'm just gonna run these over and knock them out of the way. I always think, like, what would happen? I wonder what would happen.
SPEAKER_01I've never rent maybe never ran a cone right now. Yeah, right. So just how could they store all these traffic cones?
SPEAKER_02I don't know, man. Have you ever seen that that that uh meme? It's like what people think Las Vegas is. It's like it's good, it's like all the stuff, and it's like what Las Vegas actually is.
SPEAKER_03It's like all these traffic cones.
SPEAKER_01The real interesting thing is is was my favorite part of what you brought up is when there's nothing going on the street and they're not working. No, I'm like, why are the there's no current construction. If there was like current construction and they weren't there, yeah, I'd be like, okay, cool, man. We have a backup tearing up the road, there's nothing wrong. Nothing. The the street is great, nothing. And you have cones.
SPEAKER_00I can't, I can't. Here's I'm convinced there's a conspiracy, there's a corruption of some sort. I don't know. This podcast is not about that, but it easily could become that. And I got some opinions. So Las Vegas paving, get your your uh your traffic cones taken away.
SPEAKER_03Oh man. Shout out to the guy that puts them together. They're like always evenly spaced, though.
SPEAKER_01Don't try to go there, Chuck. Chuck, get out of here. You know what? Right into our next point. I welcome graciously. You're good. So um, yeah. Put Timothy at ease.
SPEAKER_00So you talked about that. What a cool phrase. Put him at ease. Make his make his job easy. Listen, uh, there are people in church ministry who do not make the job of ministry easy. And you know who you are. I'm just joking. I'm not thinking of anybody specifically, but um, but what a phrase to be like, hey, just just support, he's doing the work of the Lord. Is Timothy perfect? No. Is Timothy gonna make all the right decisions? No. Is he gonna say some things probably that that seem what they maybe this or that? No. He he he's gonna do all of that. He's timid, he's not the charismatic, you know, Apollos. He's Timothy. Man, don't don't be a don't be a resistance to him. Put him at ease. He's doing the work of the Lord. Welcome him graciously. He's he's my helper, he's getting the job done. Let's celebrate that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then this goes back to even what we were talking about, like in staff meetings to provide us a word of encouragement, talk about you know, Hebrews 13. Like, obey your leaders. Yeah, why? Because this is gonna be profitable for you. Yeah, like it's it's gonna, they're gonna be able to do this with joy when you are submitting to their leadership and walking in obedience to what God has commanded, and they're the ones that's keeping watch your soul. So I would imagine that this is even an encouragement for Timothy. Like, hey, these people, they're gonna be taken care of.
SPEAKER_00Well, even the even the um the church in Corinth had a track record of comparing leaders, right? Right? I'm a Paul, I'm a Paul's, I'm a Jesus. They had a track record of this, and that was the Corinthian way was to line yourself behind your favorite philosopher. And so he's like, Don't pull, don't suck Timothy into that, don't put that kind of expectation on him, just let him do the work that he's it. But I love this too. Help him on his way in peace. And this is almost kind of a warning that he may return to me, for I'm expecting him with the brothers, and he's gonna tell me how you treated him. So you better treat him right, or else apostolic fury is gonna rain down on you. I don't think that's what he meant, but there was a sense in which he was like, He's gonna give an account to me on how you treated him, and I hope you treat him well. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's good. Yeah, you said yeah, Timothy was faithful but timid. I think about even going back to last week, you talking about like when you enter a room. Like, are you, you know, are you a good presence or a bad presence? And talking about encouragement, yeah, and talking about like criticalness and cynicism and the things that's like when you're critical, not for the right reasons, because critical you can be good critical if you're you're trying to love someone well, but the non it's just feels so terrible.
SPEAKER_00It's just like I just wish I would have encouraged and what you just said about you know, you're so a modern day example of this would be so let's say, okay, I'm I'm what 40, 40 something weeks out of the year, I'm preaching on Sunday. But one of these days soon, Dom's gonna preach on a Sunday. Now, the church could be like I don't know if that's approved, by the way. That's not I'm not allowed up there. Yeah, well, as long as you don't know. I totally cut you off. That was on purpose. Yeah. Um, but you could totally be like, oh, Dom, yeah, I don't like it when Dom preaches, or or not encourage him or whatever, right? So what could have happened here is they could be like, Man, Timothy's not Paul. Why didn't you just come to us, Paul? Why aren't you? Uh we don't really like Timothy. Timothy's just not as good as Paul, or Timothy's, Timothy's not as good as Apollis, or whatever. My point isn't that. My point is that when when somebody else, maybe a Timothy, is ministering among you, you should be the kind of church that puts him, excuse me, puts him at ease, encourages him, pushes him along the way, graciously embraces him, says, good job, thanks for serving us, and puts him at ease in the ministry that he's doing. That's what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00Or a person from another church comes. We want to be the kind of church that just welcomes other ministries graciously and kindly and puts them at ease. Or ministries within the church, we're just gonna put him at ease. We're for you. Let's go. We're gonna encourage you along the way. We're not gonna compare you to this guy or that thing or this church or that leader. You're doing the work of the Lord. And for that, we can celebrate. We're excited, we're for you.
SPEAKER_02And I think that's the biggest thing. It's like we're doing the work of the Lord. Yeah. Like that's that's the main purpose. He said, Listen, Timothy is gonna come because he's doing the work of the Lord, just like I'm doing the work of the Lord. So be grateful for the work that is being done, not necessarily like hitching your wagon to the person that's doing it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the personality that's doing the work isn't the thing, the work that's getting done is the thing. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's good. Yeah, it ties into your next point perfectly, right? Kingdom building or platform building, yeah. Harmonious partnership. Um harmoniously, dude. That was a pretty solid word there. I was like, oh, look at it, you know. You you got the talent, but I was like, when you throw in a word that I'm like, whoa.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, harmony. Yeah, it's because I sing harmony so well that I use that word so easily. Did you have any other picks besides that?
SPEAKER_03I'm trying to figure out if it was just. Just Dom's lack of vocabulary, or Andrew's just expansive vocabulary.
SPEAKER_01I just got hit twice on the same podcast. This is just probably my lack of vocabulary.
SPEAKER_03I'll be yeah, I'm gonna be that was a good word.
SPEAKER_01Like now, you said a word before like six months ago, and I was like, I have literally never heard that word, and you were like, What? Well, I mean, I can't this is more common, harmonious. I knew what the word was to be worse too. This is right when I made the joke about me being up there on the stage, you might not see me. So, anyways, uh yeah, we're just trying to get you to stop cussing, let alone learn words. That's just all right. We're gonna we're not coming back next week.
SPEAKER_00Well, the harmony here to pull it back is that he's hey, my brother Apollos. That's my brother. Yeah, and I think that's that's such a cool thing because in the Christian world, competition, rival, comparison, um, casting shade on people who may be doing it different or that are potentially competing for similar turf, it just becomes so gross. It's so gross. Um, and I just think I'm I remember, I remember this evidence. I was planting a church in Phoenix. Now, just mind you, Phoenix proper is the fifth largest city in America. The Phoenix Metro is um like I think top 10 largest metros in America. So we're talking six million people, right? That's where I was I was going to plant a church. And I remember calling this pastor, I don't remember his name. I just remember calling him. We're talking a massive city. And I called him because I was coming to plant and I just wanted to get his opinion on it. Genuinely was like, hey, you've been there, you've lived there for a long time. Help me know a good region to plant a church. And he's like, Well, we pretty much got this city kind of covered. Um, you probably should go to Wickenburg, which is like an hour away. And I was like, he's like, Yeah, I wouldn't come here. I'm in this area. And I he's his area that he's saying I'm in was like the whole northwest of the Phoenix Metro, which is like a million people. I'm like, so you got a million people? You're good? All right, cool. I'm, you know, well, immediately what what I realized was there was a territorial. Don't don't come to my area. I got my area covered. You know, I don't want you taking whatever. It's just craziness, right? Where where I felt like what we should have done and and the the model would have been, man, we we there's so many people here. I could you could be across the street from me, and I you would reach different people than me. Let's go. We just need the gospel to go. And the more of us here that can do this, let's go. So I think that's what Paul's modeling here is hey man, I uh Apollos and I aren't competing. We're fighting on the same team against a common enemy for a common goal for the glory of one general, and that's the glory of God. So we're not at odds. We're on the same team here. Yeah, there's no jealousy.
SPEAKER_01All right, your next point was you and I serve selflessly. I know, man. I felt that one actually. Man, I've fall asleep, please. I just wish I just wish this was over. All right, so when you serve, yeah, when you serve selflessly, I don't even know. I don't know, yeah. I didn't know what selflessly was, so thanks for that, Chudka. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so verse 15 is one of my there's phrases all throughout here that just get me so pumped, but devoted themselves to the service of the saints. Man, what a cool phrase that could be said. Who's Stephon is? I mean, we could we got some things to know about a little bit about who this is, but man, what a phrase. Like, oh man. Like, so like when when your name comes up in conversation amongst other people, what do they say? Are they like Chuck? Oh my goodness, that Marine is using acronyms or you know, whatever. We what comes up when you when your name is brought up? What comes up when Stephanus' name is brought up? That guy devoted himself to the service of the saints. Wow. And it not only, not only that, but the household of Stephanis, what that means is that they opened their doors wide, they rearranged their lives, they organized their home so that they could more effectively serve the saints. That is a that is a um epic thing to be said about a person and their life in the church. So that's obviously Paul's like, that's good. That's authentic ministry. That's what I'm talking about right there. So we've got selfless serving, man. Authentic ministry.
SPEAKER_02Man, that's like such a good thing for your household to be named after.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like, not only Andrew, yeah, but like the Reed household.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like not only Dom, but the whole Adams family. Get it?
SPEAKER_01I'm sure are we gonna make it to 10? 10 things you guys are gonna say about me today. Right. I was thinking when you're describing someone, obviously Dom doesn't know vocabulary, but you know, maybe you serve faithfully. No, it is awesome, honestly. Like that that's when you quoted in your sermon the things that don't matter. I don't know what the quote you said that's in your bathroom. What was the quote? What was the quote?
SPEAKER_02Like, I I want I don't I want to succeed at things and not, you know, be a failure. I'm blanking on you. Yeah, well, anyways, come on, serving faithfully cast all the shit on Tom while you're fumbling over the saying on your bathroom.
SPEAKER_03It's been a great podcast. I'm losing I'm I forgot all my stuff now.
SPEAKER_02But um, I don't want to um succeed at things that don't matter.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Great. Well, I think too, how how cool would it be to start like this, like encourage the Stefanus ministry? And it'd be like, what does that mean? What means that we we our household devotes ourselves to serving of the saints, which I think meant that they welcomed people into their home.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So this was small group ministry. This was, I'm not keeping people out, I'm I'm welcoming them in. This was hospitality. This is rearranging my life for the purpose of ministry to serve. These people worked, they had jobs, they had little league games to go to or whatever it was that they did back then. They had grocery stores to run to, they had traffic jams to navigate, they had traffic cones to we all life happened, but they still devoted themselves to the serving of the saints, which I think was oh man, it's such a cool thing to be said about somebody. So a thriving ministry, an authentic ministry. Um, it it really is uh maintained or built by people who who my my life's not my own. My house isn't my own. God gave me this to steward for the purpose of ministry. I'm gonna open up my life and my home and my household to that purpose.
SPEAKER_01Well, we've talked about this throughout the entire letter or um 1 Corinthians, like serving and all these points all build on each other, right? When you plan and when you persevere, and like when you're not attached to convenience and when you're attached to discipleship and you go from a spectator to a servant, spiritually, like it's like the coolest thing what God does. It's actually the greatest thing ever. Yeah. And you're like, yeah, was it inconvenient to go from hockey practice to home to having people over at my house for another two hours and cleaning my house? But what came out of it? Yeah, like that God even let me be allowed, like to experience have that is like unbelievable.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, man. It's going back to okay, is my perspective trying to cater my comfort or is it the Lord's work? Yeah, like am I gonna continue to do the Lord's work? And that means partnering with other people, making sure that I am supporting those that are continuing to do the mission and being faithful in the mission is myself. That's good.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Next one. Paul calls uh believers to submit to faithful leadership. So that through humility is what you talked about.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, so I think it's cool. I mean, there's a connection here, verse 16 to verse 15, right? So Stephanus devoted himself to the service of the saints. Then he follows up to the church in Corinth is like, be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. So it's probably a little unclear on who exactly he's saying be subject to. So there's just this like mutual submission and humility. Like, just let them serve, follow their lead. And if they're the leaders of the church, elders, we know, like hey, like follow their lead, submit humbly, follow humbly. So there is a sense in which there's not this like proud bowing up to service and leaders, there's a bent towards following their lead. So Hebrews third, uh Hebrews was just mentioned, you mentioned Hebrews about obey your leaders, follow their example. Um, they serve you, and it's good for you when you do have them and you follow them. I think that's what's taking place here is that Corinth had a tendency to be proud and competitive. And if Stephanus was serving, they could have resisted his service because they could have accused him of wanting the glory or wanting the attention, uh, whatever. There could have been all kinds of those kinds of feelings and undercurrents. And he's like, no, stop that. Just be subject to let them serve you and lead you and care for you, and to every fellow worker and laborer. Timothy's coming, be subject to him. Apollos may come one day, be subject to him. When I come, follow my lead. When Stefanus serves you, when anybody comes to serve you, how's this manifest? I think this is manifested like whoever's preaching. I'm gonna I'm just gonna submit under their leadership and let them serve me. Whoever's serving, whoever's singing, whoever's leading, whoever's overseeing a ministry, I'm gonna submit to their leadership and uh not be proud or stiff-necked when it comes to other people serving and leading in these ways. Right. Yeah. So not much more to say there, but that's pretty much what I think he's getting at.
SPEAKER_01Dude, and then you and I refresh joyfully. Like he starts in verse 17, I rejoice at the coming of them. Then he in verse 18, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people. So refreshed, what a great word. And then giving recognition, like showing appreciation to those people and just that they served.
SPEAKER_02I loved your point because it it made me think about the different interactions that I have at church and outside of church. Like I do greet people differently. Yeah, like it's it's not a holy kiss. I ain't going around you know, kissing people in the mouth and all that stuff. But but it is a separate set apart greeting that I have for people that are in the body and then for people that are in the world.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Well, think about Stephonis, he gets mentioned twice here as devoting himself to the ministry as well as being refreshing to Paul. Fortunatus and Achaeus, we don't know pretty much anything about them. Um, they were this this we know very little. But man, to say hey, I rejoice. So I think about that. If I sh if I show up to someone's life, am I received with rejoicing? Or is somebody like Andrew's here? Like, all right, all right, cool. Let's just grit and bear his presence. Paul's like, I rejoice that they're coming. Why? Because they refresh my spirit. Like when they leave, I am better because they were with me. I feel like serving the Lord. I feel loved, encouraged, full of joy. Worship happened, discipleship happened. Man, I love, I love it when they come. I love it when Chuck's here because man, I just feel refreshed. I'll stop what I'm doing to receive him. And those are the people that you should give recognition to. So I just think I could be, I could be a um a uh received, or I could be a drain, that's the word I'm looking for. Drain on somebody's energy and their vitality, or I can be refreshing. Yeah, I'd rather be refreshing. I can't, I gotta admit, I'm probably not always that way, but trying. I'm trying. Stefanis and I are trying to work on this.
SPEAKER_01So oh, that's good. Yeah, this was the garden hose illustration, dude. Literally one of my favorite illustrations you've probably ever had. Come on, man, those are because dude, my sons will drink out of anything, actually, probably. So that's just that's so real, man. It's so real.
SPEAKER_00Like, yeah. Naturally, listen, man, when I was a kid, you go up in the summer, uh, anywhere's hot, but Vegas is, you know, it's summer star, uniquely hot. So you're out there playing, and we we really weren't kids who I mean, I'd never really played video games all the way through my my childhood. I mean, we had RBI baseball and Nintendo and played some of that, but it was like ride the bike, go outside and figure out what to do, go play football at the school up the road. And it didn't matter whose house it was. If their hose was out, we're gonna go. And we we learned we were desert rats, so we knew turn the water on, let it run for a minute, because if not, you're gonna burn your tongue off. Then you're gonna get the underground water that's cooled by the natural underground, and it's gonna be nice and cold. And man, is it refreshing? And I just remember so often just drinking that, putting it on my head. I still think about it, man. How refreshing! Listen, I never ran, I never owned a water bottle. Uh a uh um Stanley. Stanley? I never owned a Stanley or the new one that that is kind of cool. Can't remember the name of it. My kids all have anyway. I've never owned one of those. Never did. I was like, uh, is there a hose? Cool, I'm good. Give me the hose. Never look for a bottle of Desawny or whatever. I just drank from the hose. And those were, and that was the illustration, just the refreshment of that.
SPEAKER_01You know, sometimes we're playing out front, and my kids have gotten this habit. It's so funny because they are they would drink out of a hose any day, but they'll go in the fridge and get a water bottle. And I've just been wondering when they come up, just slap the water bottle out of their hand, bro, because then they waste it, they don't drink the whole thing, whatever, right? So we've been working on that. So it's funny. It's it's probably why it's hit different because I just been wasting water bottles. Uh I won't drink from the hose today. I'm a little more snobby. Yeah, but I mean when you're young though, dude. Come on, no, whatever. Heck yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um But I think the the desire for them to be refreshed is that that same illustration.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like running around in the hot summer heat is like, listen, I'll take anything that's refreshing. And that is what was there. So Stefanis and all those people that are serving in the ministry, it's like there is a they're they're ministering to a real need.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I just think that the way you do this in the church is you just check your face, check your tone, check your topic. Like if if if whenever you're around anybody in ministry or about ministry and it's just complaining about something you don't like, listen, if you wanna, if you want to complain about things you don't like about your church, get in line. I'm in front of you. I got plenty of things that I can be like. I don't I don't really care for that. I I look there, we're gonna have a long list. It always is gonna be. If you wanna, if you wanna complain about something that isn't the way you think it should be, and you want to talk about that to somebody else, that it's pretty soon that people are gonna mark you as I don't really want to talk to that person. They just drain me. They're always talking negative about something and they're always complaining about something. I just think that you individually need to determine I'm going to be a person who speaks positive, speaks good, encourages. I'm gonna celebrate the wins, not point out the negatives. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna celebrate what God is doing. And do I love everything always about every ministry, every kid's life thing, every student thing, every worship? No, of course not, because we're human and we're not nailing it every time. Man, we want you to stop being the person who just drains the life out of other people and drains the life out of the atmosphere of the church room when you walk into it. So just determine, I'm not gonna be that person. I'm just not gonna be that person. Don't be that person.
SPEAKER_02Amen.
SPEAKER_01I love it, dude. Let's go. Um, loving genuinely. Like, I think this is so important. Um, this was in definitely like more impactful, I felt, because I think oftentimes people can get caught up in the knowledge rather than the love. And like, you know, since I'm a first generation Christian, I did basically have no knowledge for quite some time, but the love that you get from from Jesus to love others is that you can't explain. And so starting there is such a good step.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's one thing I've I've grown to love about this church. Like me and Janae were just reflecting the other week. Um, we've been in Vegas 10 years, and this has been the most loving church that we've ever been a part of, and it has been consistent. Like, even when we do, you know, intro to life, like people come and they tell us the things that they're looking for in a church, and they're like, Well, I've been looking for a church like this that just you know genuinely loves people, we can build genuine relationships, and it's just evident of we're just making disciples who live out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00It's it the thing that gets me on this point is and and maybe as I look at this point now, loving genuinely is there could have been maybe even a better word, maybe loving obviously. Um, where there's there's just this, not just an I love you statement, but an I love you action. And there's just something about when somebody's willing to do the thing that closes the gap between you and them to express their love. Now, in this context, it was greet one another with a holy kiss. We joke about that, don't kiss me, all that sort of thing. Great. But what's the equivalent to that? It's a it's a hug, it's an appropriate hug. This is an appropriate kiss. This isn't a weird kiss, this isn't sensual, this isn't inappropriate, this is an appropriately holy and distinct form of greeting. And what's funny is that it feels so it can feel so um uh just normal, like just uh second nature to shake a hand or give a hug. But there is something to that. When you're mad at somebody, you're not like shake their hand, give them a hug. When you're divided, you're not going out of your way to give them a hug, give them unless you just are the absolute perfect faker, right? But if you're genuine, you're gonna be like, hey, I just I wanna I wanna close the gap here and let you know through this act, I love you. I'm for you. We're together. When you when you reach out and hug or shake the hand of somebody who's not like you, who maybe doesn't look like you, maybe doesn't feel like they belong in this place, and you go out of your way to welcome them with an embrace. Hey, you're coming off the street and this place isn't where you would normally be found. But we want you to know that we're not holding you at arm's length, but we're welcoming you into our family by extending an arm to hug you and embrace you and shake your hand and say, You are welcome here. We love you. Come in. And it is a genuine feel. By the way, you can feel when a handshake or a hug isn't genuine. Yep. You know when it's not. If it's just like a oh, hey, and you're like, that was not genuine. I don't like that. That was fake, right? You know that. Yeah, the dead fish. Man, I'll tell you what, the hardest lesson to teach my son is how to shake a hand like a man. How many times I told that? I was like, how did you I he shook a hand of a man the other day? I was like, How'd you shake his hand? Show me. And he shook my hand. I'm like, dude, that is so wimpy. Grab my hand and squeeze that thing, son. What do we got to do here? Anyways, that's a little rabbit trail. But you could tell, you can tell, right? So I think what he's talking about here is that he's like, hey, like, make sure that you are greeting one another with that embrace, that holy kiss that is uniquely a Christian welcome to our our fellowship. Amen. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Man, that's so funny. When I when I uh worked in my last career, they often taught us that the handshake was the sign of like just the the final deal, the final deal going down or equal whatever playing field or anything.
SPEAKER_00So um that is yeah. Check, check, man, check your handshake. Just like be like, hey, is my ask some guy, is my handshake okay.
SPEAKER_01But there's a here's the thing, man. I'm real passionate about this, actually. There's a balance there, dude, because you don't want to be the guy that's squeezing too hard. I saw it is 100%. I'm not down with that, dude. You don't need to squeeze my hand for me to know this to be a man.
SPEAKER_00It's gotta be strong. All right, it's good. And um, I think there's a there's a debate on whether or not there needs to be lotioned hand or a rough hand. Okay, an old pastor used to train his guys to make sure they have nice, welcoming, soft hands that is firm in handshake. However, I pastored in Colorado for seven years, and if I had lotion on my hands, they would have kicked me out. Yeah. So I went out in the dirt and would rub them around to get them rough, you know. I'd shovel just to get some calluses so that my hand was stronger because I got sandpaper hand shaking my hands off.
SPEAKER_01You're doing, you're doing handshakes and he's stopping and they're feeling your calluses.
SPEAKER_00Comment, listen, you want to, I'm not joking. You know how many times people commented on rough hands? They're like, hey, I'm glad I'm grateful my pastor has rough hands when I shake it. I'm like, dude, I'm glad I did that yard work yesterday because my hands are sore and I got calluses. But they commented about it, right?
SPEAKER_01So that's kind of cool, man. When we went to Brazil when being like integrated into the culture, that isn't even important. I mean, I'm just talking mission field, but generally, I mean, when you're that's cool.
SPEAKER_02I mean, a shepherd has to do the work, right? Yeah, you can't be a shepherd with soft hands.
SPEAKER_01I don't know how we got to that, but let's just let's just go back to whole can't be a shepherd without soft hands, dude. What a line, Shaq. Let's just do there. I don't know. I don't have anything else. You'd have no truth to life, but um, I just want to round it out. Eight points, practical living. Um you had said um you probably latch on a couple of these.
SPEAKER_00So I think that's how you ended it with us. Yeah, I think the two things to pull away from this is when you have eight points, you run the risk of it being so oversaturated that you're like, I don't even know what to do with all that. So my kit challenge is don't try to figure out where all eight fits. Let's pick one or two and say that's one or two that resonate with me a little stronger. And maybe these are uh eight points that you follow in your book in your Bible and you come back to and be like, hey, I think I've I've got that one pretty solid. I've really paid some attention to that. Let me see where else I can be better, have authentic ministry. Maybe these are somewhat codified for you that you're like, I want this to be the truth of our home. I want this to be the truth of my life. So that's a big thing. And the other part of that is let's let's just not mistake that if we just have a list of to-dos without connecting them to Christ, we're just more religious. And what I think Paul is modeling for us is the life of Christ, that every one of these things was true in the life of Christ. And so when he is saying, here's what my life is, or he's exposing his life to us, we're not just following the example of Paul. We're following the example of Christ, modeled by Paul as he follows Christ. So the example of Christ is that this is what life is like as a gospel-centered person, because none of these things are natural. These are all supernatural, these are all result of regeneration. And so the greatest need a person has is not to be a thriving, authentic minister. The greatest need a person has is to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, made new, regenerated, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live these things. Because if I try to live these things without the power of the Holy Spirit, I become a legalistic, works-based religious person. But if I do these things dependent upon the Holy Spirit to empower me to live out these things, then I am thriving in these things and finding a sense of flourishing and joy in serving. So it's gospel connected, following the example of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I appreciate that because a lot of people, like we said in the beginning, can read this passage and be like, ah, there's nothing here for me. Now you have eight things that you can go back to and say, okay, you know what? This one's applying to my life now. Yeah. And I need to, you know, be intentional about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01It's good. Um, yeah, second to last episode. If you guys like the podcast, don't worry. I promise I will come in with more energy on the intro, um, but share it with someone, man. We just want people to hear this, go deeper in the message. This is it's awesome.
SPEAKER_00So absolutely. And uh, I'll pray us out, but go Knights, baby. We won last year. Yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_01Overtime.
SPEAKER_00A little overtime win for the Las Vegas Knights. Four to two. We're gonna win the series. Can't lose the ducks. Yeah, come on. So if you're not from Las Vegas, you just need to become a Knights fan. So let's go. All right, let's pray for the night. I mean, let's pray for this. So thank you, Father, for your word, the example of Paul, the ministry of the apostle, the preservation of scripture, the way you have just providentially preserved it for us today, that we might learn. This is what a gospel ministry looks like. It's not flash, it doesn't say anything about social media or even podcasts or friends and viewers and likes and shares and popularity and book sales. It's not ministry. Those things are cool, they're fine, but ministry is this authentic, genuine, serving, loving, welcoming, planning, discipleship for the purpose of uh honoring you with our lives. And so in the midst of all of the things that are trying to redefine ministry, but are just counterfeits, I pray that we as a church and we as individuals would be authentic in our ministry and that it would be this that you've modeled for us. Thank you for showing us what it's like through the life of Christ and modeling this for us in such a perfect way. And thank you that these are possible elements and characteristics of our lives because of regeneration through Jesus Christ. I pray that that would be true of everybody listening, that they would come to faith in Christ before they try to put a set of lists to do in their life, that they would come to faith in Christ and be saved so that they might genuinely serve you. And that would be uh that would be the place to start. Thank you. Love you in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for listening to the podcast. You can check out our latest sermon at lifebaptistchurch.com. We can't wait to see you this Sunday.