Sunday Recap: Revelation 21-22:5

This episode is a recap of this past Sunday's morning gathering where we discuss the sermon text, our singing, and the sermon as a whole. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to this week's episode of Field's Notes, where we take a deeper dive into sermon text, discuss matters of life and faith, and enjoy conversations around the table with fellow friends from the Fields. Fields and Notes listeners, welcome back to a fresh episode of Fields Notes. I'm here with Jeff and Braden. And if you're looking at the title of this, we are somewhat gonna recap our last Sunday, but actually, we're gonna also recap all of Revelation because we are nearing the end of the last book of the Bible in our sermon series. Maybe people are excited about that. Maybe they're sad about that. Who knows? Hopefully a little bit of both. That's right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Hopefully, not too excited to be done.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

But it's a whole excitement, encouragement about revelation in that. And so thanks for tuning in today. We're uh we're gonna talk a little bit about um this past Sunday. It's a Tuesday that we record on. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that or not, but we're recording it on Tuesday. Uh this past Sunday was May 31st. It was a sweet Sunday. We had a lot of people gathered with us, and um it was sweet. We had baptisms, we sang some great songs, a new song, maybe two new songs, just one new song. Well, a few songs we don't normally sing.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Yeah, that's that's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

I don't know that I'll fly away is new to anybody, but we haven't sang it. This is true. And or when we all get to heaven, we did a little medley.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

That was so fun. This is true. So uh we just want to talk about that a little bit, and then we're also gonna talk about kind of all things revelation, maybe to uh I don't not necessarily to put a nice bow on Revelation for us, but uh for us to continue to think about it, clarify um some things, and uh an opportunity for I think Jeff and Braden really to share all sorts of things going on in their minds and hearts as they're preaching it and uh things will be helpful for us. So, first let's talk a little bit about this past Sunday. Anything especially noteworthy that we should continue to reflect on a little bit, Jeff and Braden. I can have things to share too from this past Sunday of um, yeah, from regard our I'm gonna let you guys talk. But we talked the sermon was all about heaven. Um, and so such a sweet reminder. Um, yeah, thoughts guys on on the gathering.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

I do think like singing a bunch of songs about heaven. I mean, every song we sang was maybe not the whole song fully about heaven, but at least had a line or a verse about heaven. That was really um helpful for me, powerful. It was cool to be able to sing a couple songs that maybe we haven't sung in a long time. It is interesting that when you start talking about songs about heaven, you do have to go back. Um, you know, I mentioned that in the very end of the sermon that people You mean back historically, yeah. Like you have to uh go back in time. Um, that people in previous generations of Christians thought a lot more about heaven and they wrote songs about heaven. And we don't do that as much. Um, and so even that was sweet to consider and think through. And then every baptism Sunday for me, you know, and I I know I get to uh in some ways have a front row seat, but it's just so sweet. And then uh You're in the splash zone actually on baptism. I get wet. Um and big hugs afterwards. These were two very close friends, uh, people we love that we got to see baptized on Sunday. I mean, that's always true, but this was especially sweet for us.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yeah, it's always I I would say one of my favorite parts of the gathering, aside from hearing the sermon, being so encouraged, thinking about heaven, which you know I I think is true. We just don't do enough, um, was baptism and just encouraging to hear their testimonies of uh just just times in life of of thinking they believed in God or thinking like kind of like yeah, kind of I know God is out there, um, but then to a real personal relationship with Christ that's transforming them. Yeah. And so cool to hear the the differences there and and even see those things, you know, just just that was super encouraging because I think that's a lot of people around our area. So to see people who are not just, you know, like, oh yeah, I kind of vaguely generally believe that God is out there, but now that I believe that he is my God and that I I belong to him through Christ. And and so that those testimonies were just super encouraging.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Yeah, I feel like whenever you hear testimonies that are like, I realize I couldn't be good enough and I couldn't do anything like enough. Um, and that actually that's the point that it's Jesus who has done what I could not do. Like to hear that, like I'm convicted, like as I'm listening uh to these testimonies, which and I think many in our congregation were too. It's just such a sweet reminder. Like, yes, that's so true. Um, praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

So it was great. I agree with with those. And um, in some ways, all of our testimonies are in some ways the same and in some ways different. Um, but um I really my testimony is much more similar to the Grice's than I think maybe a lot of people in our church, and just so encouraged of how the Lord really does save and um and encouraged of how our church has been uh um uh had the Lord has used our church in that, and um we are hoping and praying to see more of that as time goes on. Um, but really sweet gathering. And um, yeah, we I thought we sang well the I know my redeemer lives. Yeah. First time we put that out there. I don't I think it was it was posted that maybe we would sing it in this podcast. Uh we don't have the data of if how I don't think we reached enough listens.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

That's we sang it well.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

The word got out there, we sing it well, but I feel like we sing it so well that probably we don't need to sing it. That's the three of us. That's definitely true.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

But if we if if you leave listeners push hard enough, maybe we might. I'm not afraid to. Maybe we're a little afraid to Braden's a little afraid.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

A little afraid. Braden's face is a little afraid. It feels like this microphone is really close. It's you're gonna hear a lot of me.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

I would back up at that point in time. Uh that song is so great, though. It is like a great sort of like, let's go. Um, this is what God has done. Our Redeemer lives like I loved it. Kind of chant-like it is. Is it an older song? I don't know if it's much more sort of. Yeah, I think it has been redone. Um, but it's and Grace kind of maybe did some gracifying to it. She and Wes Reed uh massaged that thing really well to make it singable and helpful for us. They yeah, they couldn't. I like the new term gracify. Gracify. Grace gets her name used all the time because it was amazing. Yeah, it was well done. Amazing Grace. I just want to help other listeners if you don't know Joe's humor. That's what he was getting at. Connect the dots for us, please. And Joe, you also did a uh like young adult, but also invited everybody to a little picnic afterwards. Was that sweet on Sunday?

SPEAKER_01 6:43

It was super sweet. Yeah, a group of us went to uh Quaker Park after church, and people just got food and came over kind of a more or less a we're uh so it was a young adult event lunch, but we also don't want young adults to only hang out with young adults. So we kind of opened it up to hey, anyone who wants to come, which then is like whoever, but um, so we had yeah, our younger adults and then older saints with us as well. And um, it was sweet. We had kids playing in the playground and people connecting, talking and um eating food. And so uh yeah, just encouraged by um yeah, community that's being formed at our at our church in that. Um yeah, I was even thinking about other things. I was like, uh don't uh no one pinned me down on this, but like, man, maybe we could do a young adult, old adult clash of a um uh some sort of event at some point. I don't know. Everyone's partnered up with someone who's 30 years older than them or younger than them. I don't know. Well I love that. I think it'd be great. That's good, that's brewing in my head. What that might look like, I'm not sure of.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

We also had a Fields 101 class that I had the privilege of teaching, and that was super sweet. And then I left straight from there to our growth group cookout that night um at the Grice's house, which was super sweet too. So it was just a really like full day with the church, celebrating in some ways. You know, we talked about that morning, but I mean it really did. There were tastes of heaven uh often uh as we gather as God's people. And I'm sure that picnic felt a little bit like that. And I think there were just a lot of times there too. So it's just a really uh encouraging thing to think that yes, this heaven is to come, the new heavens, the new earth. We await heaven, and yet the Lord is so kind uh to just give us glimpses and uh tastes of it now. And that was really uh encouraging from Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

So sweet, I think, especially Jeff, we can talk a little about your sermon too. It was um um such an encouraging sermon because we do so much. I think you're uh you opened up talking about uh walking backwards on your tours, and that's kind of what our Christian life is like when we aren't focusing on heaven. We are in a sense not seeing the whole picture of what's going on. It's disorientating, if that's a word. I think that's the word. Disorienting. Yeah, it's it's bad. It's yeah, it's uh we we aren't seeing the whole picture when we do that. And I think I relate well to that, that we get our heads stuck down in the day-to-day tasks of this world. I'm not looking up, thinking about heaven and uh even the the hope of heaven, how that actually gives us hope today in that. And um, a lot of your parts of Sharma I thought were so helpful, but just as you drew out, I think it was in your second point, all the things that aren't going to be in heaven. And I in some sense we we look, I look around the room and I can just name all of these the aches and pains of life that our church has, and there will be a day that we won't have those anymore. Um, such an encouragement. And so um it gave me hope today, even as we're the the small wrestlings of life that I'm I'm ached by. The why don't things line up well? Why, why doesn't our son sleep? All of this there will be a day when that will not be the case. And um, because of Christ, we have that. And so uh what a reminder, very helpful. Any other thoughts on the sermon before we talk more about all of Revelation?

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Yeah, one of the things I think you did really well, and I think is is helpful to even maybe orient our minds to heaven in in everyday life, are all of those maybe I I think different authors, writers have talked about it as like the the the sunbeams that that connect to the sun and all the different things like that that you you drew out, especially in your last point, thinking about home. And that was particularly helpful for me, just thinking about those those times where it feels like you just have this warmth and almost maybe this nostalgia sometimes, and this like this it's like you're coming home, and you almost can't describe all that it feels like or or what it's like to finally be waiting for something and then it finally to arrive and be there. But we know that it always ends, yeah, and it never lasts, and there's always this oh man, I wish I could be in that place and never leave that thing, and never have to go away from this whatever view or person or time or moment, and and all of those things, if we if we do take those and remind ourselves that that that those are just a small snippet of a percentile of what heaven is gonna be like really does help us then to think, oh wow, this is this is what we truly long for. Yeah, this is this is what this is what we are awaiting. This is where our hope really should be, because there are so many sweet tastes of of heaven that we do get in this life, and yet they're not the real thing, even they're they're just a foretaste, they're not quite reaching at all uh what's gonna be because Christ is there. We're gonna be with him, we're gonna see him face to face, as you talked about. He'll he'll wipe all of our tears away. Um, I think I think that that was just so helpful in even thinking about the experiences that we have in life uh that are especially even just particularly sweet, and then helping uh think about those things and think about how that should orient us to heaven in everyday life and even remember like, okay, it's okay that I don't get to enjoy those things all the time because one day we will. Yeah. Like what it's okay right now if there's there's some grind in between those moments of man, this is really great and this is really awesome, or this is really hard right now, but maybe there's there's something changing in the future. Like, but that hope of not just okay, there's another vacation or something like that, but the hope of our final future uh with God. And and I think that that's um yeah, it's really was has been helpful to me to think about even in sweet moments over the last couple of days, just to be like, man, Lord, thank you, and help me think about this with eyes towards heaven. Yeah. Uh and and in some ways, those things I think I think C.S. Lewis has a quote along the lines of like, you know, he God refreshes us with restful, peaceful ends along the way, but we he will not have us mistake them for home. Yeah. Uh and so they kind of point us to home. And and that's such an encouraging thing, and then also helps us when things are not encouraging and things are hard and things are mundane and things are tiring and difficult as well.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think that hope of heaven in part two, and just looking at the passage and thinking this way, and I think sometimes in my heart and mine a lot is just like the longing's a good thing. Like, I think sometimes we just want everything to be good and we want everything to be easy and we want everything to be happy, and the the the discontent is actually right. Like we there should be this longing because we aren't home, you know. Um, it'd be really weird to like just camp out on the road a mile or two from home, you know, like or to and to think that that's like to to put home in the wrong place is a a terrible, dangerous sort of thing. And um, and so I that was helpful for me too. I mean, I do think as you go through struggles and hardships and obviously certain struggles and hardships are are are deeper than others and and are just you you're just man, you're just trusting that God is good. Um, but there's a lot of struggles that you can, you know, sort of very easily go, okay, this is okay. This isn't supposed to be home. Home is still coming. There will be a day when everything will be made new and everything will be made right. And and there's just something really helpful in an everyday perspective uh about that. And so yeah, it was just super sweet to think through those things um in in a sermon. And and I don't know that I've ever really like deep done a deep dive in that text, and it is so good. Like afterwards, I was like, I think I could preach like four sermons uh from this. And some people might be like, Well, I think you did. Um, but uh like it's just so good uh in that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

And I think it it does point us to um why we need to have our hope set on the right things, which is kind of how you started a little bit too, but just that why we can feel so hopeless when things are not good, when there is all a lot of suffering, a lot of difficulty, a lot of hardship in life, a lot of things that we would not pick. Um but if we're our hope is anchored in the right place, then then we can have a foundation, even in those times when it seems like the waves are crashing over us when it feels overwhelming. Uh but if we we if we don't, if we have all sorts of uh our anchors in other things, then that is where it feels too much and we we can't make it through. But that, you know, yeah, even just how you thought about that. And I I think obviously ending this book, I'll try to transition us a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Can I make one more point and then transition? Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. We'll allow it. Just uh C.S. Lewis's chapter in Mere Christianity on Hope is so good. And one of the things he talks about is that just makes me think of what you were saying, Braden, is that there really are kind of three types of people in this life. You have usually those who are young who still are hoping in things in this world and they're like, I just haven't got it yet. But but it's out there, I can get it. Like there's if I get the right job, the right spouse, the right family, the the the right location, these sorts of things, then I'll be like satisfied. And he just calls that that's foolishness. Like it's just naive. And then there are as typically as we get older in age, there's this sort of disillusioned. It's the it's the person that says, actually, hope just isn't out there. You know, you're curmudgeon, sort of like, I've looked under every rainbow and it's never come up with a treasure. And so they just don't exist. And Lewis says, then there's the Christian who says, Well, if there is something, there's this this desire in us that nothing in this world satisfies, then maybe we're made for something greater than this world. And that if we have this hope uh in God rightly, um, that that's deep in all of us, this this angst, well, then it must be, it can only be fulfilled in heaven. And like that's the longing. And I think that's so helpful because I think there are a lot of older people, myself, I'm moving into this, that you can get easily sort of disillusioned. Uh, you can just get frustrated, you can uh, you know, think ah, there's just nothing. Um, and and really be joyless, or you can be kind of young and naive. Um, and so I just think, man, there is this real hope of heaven that actually guides the young to the oldest everywhere in between, um, that's true and real and certain. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Now I think and then I think that that in some ways is like even that the capstone, the end here of Revelation in Revelation 21, especially for these people, like people who would have had much reason to be hopeless, yeah, uh, but needed the gospel, needed the hope of heaven uh to remind them why they ought not to be hopeless, even amidst all of the circumstances. So even like much of the the themes of this book have been so helpful, uh, especially even then getting us to this point, even though we're not experiencing all the things that they were experiencing uh in Rome, but but much the same, we need that that's that sure hope of heaven.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Yeah. Yeah, I think you you can even probably see in them uh these Christians in Rome, probably they're thinking, Well, maybe Rome is where my hope needs to be. Like maybe I need to put my hope in Rome. And clearly Revelation is saying, no. There's a better city, yeah. There's a better city, and that city is going to be destroyed. Um, like that is a that is the dragon, Babylon, these sorts of things, do not put your hope there. So then maybe they would go, Well, maybe there's just no hope. And I think that's what you're hearing again and again. Oh no, even now in heaven, uh, the the intermediate heaven, the current heaven, the first heaven, um, the saints are rejoicing in Christ and they are reigning. And you too will reign with Christ, stay faithful. And even now, all of these worship scenes and revelation are helping these Christians understand your worship, your life now is part of that, is is moving towards that. It's culminating uh in that and ultimately in this new heaven and new earth. I just think it's so encouraging uh to be reminded. This is not, this world is not everything. It's not all there is. There is something far greater. Um, and I think it's really important for those early Christians to know it, and I think it's really important for us to know it.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

That's great. You guys are users are answering questions that I have on on my little doc here, but hey, that's great. But some of these you just talked about a little bit, but well, hey, we've been we've been going through Revelation, I think since January. At some point in January started, it's June now, and we're gonna finish this coming Sunday here. So we've been in it for a while. Uh, I think maybe we've thought about some of these things early on uh when we started Revelation, but maybe some things to help us out as we think about even these last chapters of Revelation, really the it as a whole, you guys were talking about some, but what are some helpful, maybe background context things that we should have in mind that are helpful to understand what's going on in Revelation, and then even some just helpful uh thoughts on how we should read Revelation, if that makes sense. Which you guys just shared some of, but maybe if you guys should share a little bit more.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Yeah, I definitely think, and I mentioned, I mean, especially in Revelation 21, it was really clear too, but throughout, I mean, I really do think we have to understand what genre of literature we're reading. It's so important to understand. If you were to open up uh, you know, a fairy tale and you read it like a history book, you'd be you'd be misguided very quickly uh and confused. And so I think if you read Revelation like you read the gospel of Mark, it's weird. Um, but if you start to think in pictures and you start to think in symbols, um, and and it ever I mean, so much of Revelation is trying to help us get the the feel, the sense, the weight uh of these things. A lot of which is being described is indescribable, which is part of it, both judgment and glory. Um, I I think that's really helpful. And then to understand, I think secondly, that I think is so important, is that every single image, symbol, pointer um is biblical. Like you just you it revelation is taking the whole Bible and and all of its pictures and images and all that, and it's all culminating in Revelation. And so I think a lot of people are reading Revelation and thinking it has very little to do with the rest of their Bible. And it actually has everything to do with the rest of their Bible. And so hopefully that's what we've been trying to show. I mean, every single week to go, no, no, look, this points back, this points back, this points back. Um, and this is this is why it says this. And these are pictures, images, um, you know, symbols uh that say uh that give us a a greater sense uh of what's being communicated. You shouldn't read it uh literally. Um and it you should ring it read it literarily, like as literature the way that it is. I think is really helpful.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

And I think what's been helpful to me, even just thinking as we think through maybe just an overarching, if you were to just think what is kind of John want for his readers a little bit, is kind of these two things. Don't give in and don't give up. Yeah, uh those two things. It's just really helpful, even just overarching, like okay, he doesn't want them to give in to the worldly systems, the ways that that Babylon, Rome is trying to call us them to give in and be like the world because it's just easier and more comfortable and not as difficult and not as much resistance. But also don't give up. Don't think it's not worth it to keep following Jesus. I'm just gonna coast or I'm just gonna blend in, or I'm just gonna be like, I'm still gonna, you know, be a Christian, but I'm gonna kind of like uh not keep fighting, not keep pursuing, not keep working at uh uh walking with Christ and uh being on mission for him. All those things. I think those two things are really helpful in almost application. Why why is this here? Well I want to not give up and I want to not give in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Yeah, I if you I Rome is so helpful to have in the background of your mind when you read Revelation. I don't think Revelation is all about Rome. Some people read it that way. I don't think that's the case, but I do think Rome is the first of many uh Babylons, or not even the first, but the current of many that will come Babylons, these um, and dragon and beasts and these sorts of things. And so I think just understanding a people that would have been in an empire that hated Christ and persecuted Christians and had all the wealth and might and power and glory that you can imagine from an earthly sense, and even a lot of spiritual aspects, a a worship of the emperor, a worship of the empire, these sorts of things. And to think here are these Christians um who are trying to be faithful and want to conquer. And I think Revelation's uh telling them do not give in and do not give up. Um, and in Christ, you are conquerors, like you are. So live in Christ, trust Christ, walk this way, be faithful. I think it's just so helpful uh to be reminded. And then that means it's really, really helpful for us. So I think my final, like sort of, and maybe I have some more thoughts to say later, but I think a lot of people read Revelation as only future. And I just think I hope that our church over the last four months have gone, oh, this book is for me right now. Um, it is every single Christian who lives in this world should read, know, and um think deeply on Revelation because it is really, really helpful for our lives right now. And I hope that has come across.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

I think it really has. And then so you guys have been leading us well in that. Maybe you guys have talked about a lot of uh of uh them, I think. Any other major themes you'd want to draw to our attention or even some ways that uh the book of Revelation kind of puts itself together um as we read that you'd want people to know, or you kind of I think you guys talked about some of those already, but I think chapters two and three, the churches, is really, really important.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Um, I didn't have time to mention it yesterday, but every single blessing that's listed in the new heavens and new earth is exactly what Jesus promises to the churches if they conquer. Um and so, and every judgment that is in there is exactly what we see in the judgments uh in the midst of Revelation. And so reading chapters two and three and understanding who this is being written to, the situations there being uh that are there and the promises and judgments and warnings, man, they just open up the rest of the book. I think that is a really helpful thing. And then I've said it, but I just I'll keep saying it. All of the scenes of worship, there's just so much worship of God, singing, praising, those sorts of things. I think ought to have in our like put in our hearts, oh we are gatherings in which we praise the Lord and hear his word and sing his word and pray his word and see his word, those were those are not just like, I mean, we're supposed to do that, those are life, and they're life because Christ is life. Um, and I just think that's any Christian in Rome that would have been like, no, I can live the Christian life and I'll just read my Bible in the morning and you know, I'll uh you know, maybe listen to a podcast or that sort of thing. I that's ridiculous. I know there weren't podcasts in Rome, but it's it's crazy. No, they're like, no, I need people and I need a gathered people and I need the gospel proclaimed and I need to sing, I need to be, I need the worship of heaven now. Um, and we participate that. I think that's why Revelation has so many pictures of worship that I think is really important too.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Really helpful. Maybe uh general question: why did we pick to preach through Revelation? We're in our not even four years yet as a church. It's a big uh uh uh intimidating book to preach, I'm sure. I like a lot of churches have been around for 20 plus years and have not touched Revelation preaching through. Why tackling it so early on in our uh in our church? Braden?

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Because Jeff said Jeff told me to we're gonna do this. Braden was like, I really want to preach through Revelation. No, she can't. That's what happened. I was like, hey Jeff, you know what? As soon as I get here, one of the first things I'd love to do, Isaiah. And then number two, Revelation. Those are that's my list. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Yeah, I you know, part of me sometimes wants to be like, I'm sorry, church. Over the we've been buckled up these like this last year. We've been hunkered down, buckled up. Unbuckled. I just want you to know, church. I feel it as much as you do. Um, I think there was in my mind, uh, right or wrong, I I wanted to demystify uh some some books of the Bible for us. I think there's some books of the Bible, and I feel like I hear it all the time in Revelation. Just so many people that are like, oh, it's just so weird. Honestly, even in as we've been in this series, I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and said, I've never really read Revelation. Like, I just I can't I couldn't do it. I couldn't get through it. It was weird, that sort of thing. And I think as a pastor, like I just want to go, oh man, no, it's so good. Like, let let's let for lack of a better way, like let me help you. Like, let us, like, let's do this together. Let's dig in together as a church. Let us help each other. Like, let's dig in. I every book of the Bible is so good and profitable and needed. And Revelation, especially so. Like, to think that the book that would be most scary to us to read, and like, oh, I don't know if I should read that, is the last book, like the conclusion. That, oh man. So I think that was a huge part of it for me, was just I think there's a lot of craziness out there about revelation. I also think we live in a world right now where rev, like a lot of those craziness, people are like, oh, it's happening. Like, it's it, we're in revelation, here we go. And I just wanted to be like, actually, that's true, and we've always been. Like we we've always been there, and we always will be until Christ returns. And and so let's read it and let's talk about it for real. So I think there was there were some outside factors, some inside factors, probably some personal factors.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

But yeah. Well, I'm glad we have gone Isaiah and Revelation. It's been it's been very helpful, I think, for for us. And uh, but yeah, tougher passages and um, but passages that people like me need help to understand that you guys have done well in that. So thank you. Maybe uh just briefly, the kind of an inside of your guys' hearts and minds. What maybe what are some joys and hardships of preaching Revelation uh that might be different than other books, or is it just the normal joys and hardships of preaching that have been for you guys? Any thoughts for you, Braden?

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Yeah, I mean, I I I certainly did not do uh as much of this as Jeff did. So uh, but the few times that I preached in Revelation, uh, it was it was helpful for me. I mean, even just preparing ahead of time, thinking about the book as a whole, uh reading through kind of whole commentary personally, just thinking through it and reading the book a few times and just some of those things, trying to maybe understand it more deeply than I had before, especially knowing, okay, we'll probably be even if I'm not preaching it, we'll be talking about this with people who might have questions or might be like, what is it? They're gonna be looking to you, Braden. Uh and so I was just trying to, you know, that was just helpful for me to uh be able to have a an opportunity to maybe go deeper in thinking about something that I was like, yes, I think I believe this. I think I know these things about this book. I had read it multiple times uh before, but at the same time to be like, oh, let me think about yeah, some of these things that I'm like, oh, I'm not sure about that passage. Especially there's there, there are a number of passages in Revelation, unlike probably certain, especially a number of other New Testament books, where it's like, I can read the passage and I'm like, I don't have a first thought. I need to think a lot more before I have a first thought. Yeah. So that's probably it, maybe just a little bit of the hardship is you don't have obviously you're always don't want to just go with your first instinct of what you think it is on surface level, which is why even studying some other passages that you think you know well and then preaching them is helpful. But you know, just to be like, oh man, I don't even know. If someone was just throw this in front of me, I don't know where I'd go. And so understanding some of those things, even yeah, Jeff, you're doing a great job just preaching us through. And I think being clear about, yeah, here is what this means, here is what the symbol is, like is was really was really helpful. Uh, and I think gives me a lot more ability to turn to this book and be like, oh yeah, I remember talking about this. This is how this should affect my heart and my life uh is really helpful.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Yeah, I I think the joy I I think for me is is just seeing how practical, helpful, true, and even understandable revelation, which I do think is one of the more difficult books in scripture, but even God is so clear there, um, especially in the really big themes, ideas, things like that. So I think that's what's been so most encouraging. Honestly, when I have gone in on Sunday morning, it has been very rare that I'm like, I don't know what this says, or I don't know if I understand this. I'm like, no, I think it's clear. Like, I I'm now how to communicate it, how to teach it, how to do it justice, those sorts of things are hard for sure. But but it was just such an encouraging thing, I think, for my own soul. And I do think for me, the joy is, and and I hope this is true, like I am so eager to just stand up and stand out for Christ in some ways. Like right now, I'm like, yeah, come what may. Like, like let's let's be a church that's just faithful. And uh, you know, there's so much in our culture, things like that. I'm like, no, let's be Christians and unapologetic. And so that's been really cool to work through. The hardship is just the grind. Like, it's, I mean, every like I'm so many different passages, but even this past week. I mean, like, every verse is like here are five different views, here are so much writing. Here's you know, so when you're studying it, I I read a decent amount, like there's just a lot of pages that have been given to Revelation. And so I think that's the hard part. It's like it was just a I bet you my reading in preparation for Revelation and my study time was almost doubled. Maybe not quite, just the study time, not the writing, but the study time was almost doubled uh in Isaiah and Revelation. And and that's tough week in and week out, but it was so good.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

And we're thankful for that. I think sometimes we we look at you guys, we're like, oh man, Jeff and Braden, they can just get up and preach, like they don't even have to think about work. And uh, I see a little bit like oh behind the scenes, they're working really hard. Like, yes, they are gifted brothers, but they work really hard. So thank you guys for your work and effort in that.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Um I try to tell people all the time, like they I like Tuesday, I'm opening up the passages and I'm like, I don't know what this is. I like I I don't know what I like. I've got some ideas, I've got a little bit of a framework because like Braden, I've read it, I've studied it a little bit, but yeah, I mean it's felt like every week you're like, oh, here we go. Um and uh but the Lord is so kind and gracious.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

He is closing question for us what's coming next? What are we what are we preaching through next as a church? People can get um can be anticipating to come.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Yeah, we're gonna look at the stories of Jesus this summer. So we're gonna walk through parables in uh Luke, which I think will be really cool. Still a lot of imagery and some symbolism and some things like that, but uh a really cool genre to think through. And then Colossians uh in the fall. So I I'm really excited to begin to start preaching through you know, some Sundays where it's like we're looking at three verses this morning instead of three chapters. So I think that'll be really encouraging.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

We're excited for that. Thanks for listening. We're signing off Fields Notes.