Kids and a Calling
Kid's and a Calling is a group of young adults who still have child-like faith to share. Each episode, they have real conversations about Scripture and meaningful topics, breaking down what God's Word actually looks like in everyday life.
The group consists of our host, Audrey, co-host, Hudson, along with Lincoln, Andria, and Ramsey. Honest, practical, and easy to follow, they invite you join their journey to grow in God's calling.
Produced by: Jonathan Walton and Brian Blanchard
Kids and a Calling
Break it Down!
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Faith is easy to admire when it is dramatic. The harder question is whether it still works in ordinary life, when you have been waiting longer than you expected, when nothing seems to be changing, and when your words are tested under pressure. Functional faith is not just about believing for a breakthrough; it is about becoming the kind of person whose trust, endurance, and speech still reflect God when there is no spotlight and no immediate answer. This conversation is about building a faith that actually functions when real life puts it to the test.
Welcome And The Big Question
SPEAKER_02What's up everyone? Welcome back to Kids in the Calling Podcast, where none of us are kids, but we all have a calling. And that's appoint people to Jesus. I'm your host, Audrey L. Joe. With me at Hudson Walton.
SPEAKER_04Hey guys.
SPEAKER_02Ramsey Pavlou. Hey, and Luke Gibson.
SPEAKER_04Hey.
SPEAKER_02So question for you guys. If you could change. Wait, no, no, no. How about worth it? Um, okay, if you could know anything about the past or present or future, like what would you want to know?
SPEAKER_04Oh my god. Puts a lot on my plate. That's a lot. Um if I had to choose one thing, I've already talked about uh before on the podcast wanting to know what happens to the dinosaurs. That's a cop-out answer, so I'm not gonna choose that.
SPEAKER_02I want to know technically chose it by saying. Well, no, I'm bringing up two things. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Um that would be my number one, but I've already said that. Uh I would want to know if King's Khan really said his famous speech. That's not really heavily debated or anything, but there's no way I prove you said it. Right.
SPEAKER_02I must not know anything about King's Khan.
SPEAKER_04You don't, but we're not getting into that, so that's my answer.
SPEAKER_01Um wait, past or future?
SPEAKER_02Or present.
SPEAKER_01Anything. Or press what?
SPEAKER_02You could just know anything about anything from any time in this entire world's existence or the future.
SPEAKER_05That's it's a lot to take.
SPEAKER_04I want to know the winning lottery ticket for next month.
SPEAKER_00Ooh.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But how will you guarantee you get it?
SPEAKER_04Because I know it.
SPEAKER_02So you're gonna like drive states to find it?
SPEAKER_04I know where it's at. Yep, I'm going to get it. You said I can know anything.
SPEAKER_01No, no, you're right. Wow.
SPEAKER_04That's my answer now. Never mind.
SPEAKER_01I really don't know skip. I'll come back.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Mine is in the future. I want to know if there's gonna be like a physical type of AI. Like, let's say your sewer system. No, no, no. Wait, kind of, yeah, kinda. It's like you have a robot and it's built into your sewer system. Or like your yeah, you know, like why is it a sewer system? Or like whatever you know how things that break down? You know how like certain things in your household or whatever break down? Yeah. Like if it had an AI piece in it or a machine piece of machinery, and it would fix it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, like self-sufficient machinery? Right. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_05Why is it living in my uh sewer? It's built, it's built into it's built into whatever device.
SPEAKER_02That's cool. That's cool. I like it. Like your printer, but like it's out of paper, but it fills itself.
SPEAKER_05And it's like a company like goes and installs it, and you pay them whenever it repairs something.
SPEAKER_01Oh. Oh, so like you want to make big banks, basically. Like you would be the one to create that and you would be the one making money.
SPEAKER_05It could work.
SPEAKER_01Okay. No, that's actually cool. Um, I think mom would probably be just something in the future of like man, I don't know, bro.
SPEAKER_04This is too much shit like completely content. She doesn't want to know anything.
SPEAKER_01I don't even have my own answer.
SPEAKER_04There has to be something between the two of you.
SPEAKER_01Okay, wait, I get it. Okay, will I ever make it to Greece? Greece. Greece. Yeah. That's it. How's it going? Okay.
SPEAKER_04She's pretty content with her life. She just wants to know if she gets to go on vacation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So on Sunday,
Functional Faith From Second Kings
SPEAKER_02today's what? Tuesday? Yep. Yeah. On Sunday, Brother Duran did his message instead of um Pastor Jared. And it was on functional faith. So somebody break it down. Start it off. Let's hear it. That jump.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's actually how he opened his message.
SPEAKER_00That jumpy thought. That was what he said. I was gonna break it down. Yeah, except I didn't have enough like in me to do it, and so I just started laughing. I get it now. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna keep going. So basically, he started off with a story.
SPEAKER_02Or was it the verse? It's a verse that is a story. Yeah. It's okay. Second Kings 4, 8 through 17.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_05It's about the woman said that. Yeah. It's about the woman at Shunum. Of Shunum. And he he started reading the scripture and he said the first two words of it, he said one day. And he had a great little kind of mini message inside of the whole like beginning that really kind of hyped up our faith and brought it to the same level that we've brought it to, you know, in the God Can series.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So um, as long as I was I mean, as far as the story goes, the whole thing's about Elisha coming to the town of Shunam, and a woman there offered him a meal and told her husband that Elisha was a holy man and that they should prepare a room for him. And they did that. And so Elisha wanted to repay them, and he was like, Hey, what can I do for you? What can I give you? What do you need? And she was like, Nothing. My family takes care of me. I have everything I need. Well then he went to her servant and he was like, Hey, what is she like, what should I do for her? What should I give her? And the servant was like, She doesn't have a son, so she wants a son. And you know, he gets the woman and he tells her, This time next year you're gonna have a son. And she was like, No way, like I don't believe it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And she did. And so the whole story is kind of, you know, a reference of faith, which is what his whole message was based on.
SPEAKER_05She kept faith for years. His point was that you know, she had everything in life and she was content. She was strong in her faith, strong in providing for her family, but also for him and whoever you know needed. She was probably a charitable, charitable person. But she had everything she could ever want. But Gehazi's servant said, Oh, she doesn't have a child. That's the one thing that would fulfill her life. Yeah. You know, because it was a shame to not to be barren in that time and to not have children. Yeah. So having that and knowing that, he he went and he prayed for her, and he said, By the this time next year, like he said, you will have a son. And she she believed, but she she was really more like there's no way.
SPEAKER_02Like shocked. Right. Like disbelief, but not that she didn't have faith. Like it was just like, there's no way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because she never let go of that dream. That must have been really, really hard. I mean, right. Think about every single uh for that's a community. They they're a lot close-knit back then. Think of all of the like parties they would throw for newborn babies. She would have to go to those for her friends, for other family members, see the family grow and expand. And she just never had a child of her own. And she never let that go.
SPEAKER_05And then for the next generation, too. She had to watch them all have children after she she didn't in the time that all of her people did. Yeah. Didn't you say how many years? It was like 25 years she she waited and just didn't have a child. Yeah. Something like that.
SPEAKER_02No, I didn't hear that part. But I mean, yeah, and it kind of goes back to what you were saying about the one day part of it and how it was just, it was a random day when she got her miracle. And like who knows how many years she had been praying for that. She had been waiting for that for a son. But um, you know, I think something that I thought was when Elisha asked her, What can I do? And she didn't give him an answer. She didn't say, Hey, I want a son. I think it kind of signifies not that she lost faith, but that she's been asking or wanting something for so long that it's almost like it was out of mind. Yeah, it was out of mind. She's like, I wouldn't even think to ask for that because I know it's just not gonna happen. And it's not to say that she was faithless, but it does go to show that, you know, after all that time, she still could have lost a little bit of the faith that she had the first day when she started asking for a son or for a child.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and the uh the words that you're highlighting, Luke, that uh that Duran said one day, it's um it's really inspiring and faith-building when you think about that. It wasn't a special, super special moment. Elijah didn't go there specifically to meet her and tell her she's gonna have a son. There was no huge miracle happening in this town, there was no huge conference, no, nothing crazy going on. It was just one day. And that's the mind we need to see that and internalize that. That we us today, we don't have to go to N A Y C to get a miracle. That's right. We don't have to have a super awesome, incredible church service just to have a miracle. We don't need to go to a revival and pray in the spirit for four hours and have the best speakers come just to be delivered. It can happen just one day. Yeah, and that's really faith building. Just the start of that. He you were right, he stayed on that for like five minutes at the beginning because it's I feel like that that can happen to us. It's happened immediately. Absolutely. Um, I felt that I had to get to the next church service or I had to get to the next big spiritual high to get what I need or what I think I need, and it can just happen any day. God doesn't work only on Sundays.
SPEAKER_05It's like you put your your your faith on hold until you whenever you think it's gonna happen instead of like just holding on to that faith for the whole time.
SPEAKER_02I know. It's like okay, my faith will come back next N A Y C like next bit.
SPEAKER_05Right, that's whenever I need to build my faith.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's yeah, I didn't think of it that way. That story just has so many aspects to it. Like there was just so much to you know, break down from what, four verses? Okay, it might have been more than that. I think it was like eight. But anyway, but yeah, yeah, I mean, we were talking about how she wanted, you know, a child for so long, but kind of the longer she waited, the less faith she might have had. And like y'all were saying, we tend to do this. Like the longer we wait for our miracle or breakthrough, we start to give up on it. And he explained how, like the God can series that we just went through. I mean, it's finished now because it was the month of August, but he was explaining that it could happen years later. Like it's not only in August will prayers be answered. Will God hear you? Will God deliver? Like, no, prayers might not be answered when you expect them to be or right away, it might be years, but it's important that we don't lose our faith in the years and in the waiting. It's not like that. He um addressed it that way.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, then he he took that concept of faith that he spent the first few minutes building and he kind of transitioned into the idea that his message is centered around functional faith. Because to have the type of faith to believe in something for that long and to actually live that out, you have to have functional faith. It can't be, it can't be wishy-washy, it can't be weak, it it can't be manufactured, you have to have real stable functional faith. And he kind of uh he started
One Day Miracles And Waiting
SPEAKER_04off this idea by comparing it to physical fitness. Um I won't go through the entire story he gave, but basically he he laid out that in a person, um to be considered physically fit, uh scientifically, medically, um you have to have endurance, you have to have flexibility, and you have to have strength. And he's he gave a story from his personal life where um for a time he was hitting all the avenues, and as he got busier and he got a little older, he started only going to the gym. And that's good on its own. He was getting stronger, yes, but he wasn't functionally fit. Yeah, and that uh came to culmination in a funny story where he couldn't carry a two by four piece of plywood. A piece of plywood, and a guy from our church was carrying him like they were nothing, like they were. He didn't go to the gym. Yeah, long story. But he used that to show that in my physical life, if all I do is go to the gym, um, I'll be good at lifting weights in the gym. I can excel at lifting weights in the gym. I can I can be like in the top 99% in the gym. I can excel at that. That doesn't necessarily mean I have it all together physically. Yeah, my cardio could be horrible. I could be the least flexible person ever and still be insanely strong in the gym. And that same principle applies in our spiritual life. I could go to church on Sunday, Sunday after Sunday, and I could be the best server on the serve team. Like they don't stand a chance when I serve. And that doesn't mean that I have it all together in my walk with God.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's right. It's very true. Yeah, and in this in that same story, he was showing how you know somebody that was taller than him, but yeah, he outweighed, and he was like, Man, I guess it's because I'm stronger than him. Yeah. Well, it turns out he had what he he called country boy, you know, strength, where it was actually functional for the moment for the time. Whereas with the Duran, he had the strength for a certain task.
SPEAKER_02He had city boy strength.
SPEAKER_05Right, right. He had the strength for a certain task, but that was it. It was just for being on the machines. And you know, his friend, he could do it all, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So if if like that in your spiritual life, your faith looks good on the outside because if you spend years and years in the gym, if you're doing it right and putting effort, you're gonna start looking noticeably better. You can do that in the spiritual, you can start polishing your spiritual exterior, and so to the outside to anyone looking in, you look great. You dress the part, you speak the part. I mean, you could it can from the outside appearance, it can look like you have it all together. But when you get tested, when anything comes up, that faith isn't functional. Yeah, and you're gonna start to see that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he made the point that he even kind of convinced himself that he still had that functional, that functional trait that he used to have. And just like how he convinced himself that he's like he thought he could still do everything he used to be able to do. But when you stop stretching and you stop doing cardio, you won't be able to run that mile, like yeah, with breath, you know, and have a conversation and hold a conversation. You won't be able to like touch your toes, like you know, that functionality isn't there in those movements. And just like that, we could kind of how Hudson was saying earlier, you may be the greatest server in your church, but what does that like if you're putting all your priority on your serving, what does that really say about your your your functional faith? You know, like are you worshiping through one service? Are you being kind to those people around you? You know, are you showing all those aspects of faith and having functional faith? Are you putting all your effort towards that one thing so you could look like you have it? Because he stopped, he started doing what pleased him. Like he he wanted to look strong, so he kept working out, but he lost all those like small details, a part of the functional strength. Yeah. So we could do the same thing.
SPEAKER_05Like, are we too focused on performing? You know, is that us that we're too focused on performing instead of you know being ready for whatever task we're called to do, yeah, whatever thing we need to operate in.
SPEAKER_00That's a good question, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because that's um that happens. If we're real, we're we've probably all done it. Us four in this room. I I know I've done it. I've gotten to a point where I've put an external image ahead of what was really going on inside, thinking that as long as everyone else sees that I have it together, then I'm alright. Right. I I'll be able to make it, I just gotta hold on. Um, as long as everyone else sees that I'm fine. And that's not the way we're supposed to be. He brought up endurance, composition, and flexibility. And those are all very key things in the physical. And as you'll see, they definitely are in the spiritual too. Um what really stuck out to me was endurance. Um, partly because I believe it was Pastor Jared that brought up a very similar um topic during the God Can series. Um, just the idea that I got from it is that endurance isn't passive. Um when you're going through trials or you're waiting on something, you're not just sitting there twiddling your thumbs. That isn't functional faith. Um, you don't just sit there and wait for the bad times to pass. That's not real endurance. Endurance is praying, fasting, and believing, even when it doesn't look like it's it's going well, even if you don't see change immediately, endurance is still holding on and being faithful through that. That's what real endurance is. And that's um, that's what Duran hits at. To have real functional faith, you have to have endurance.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I like that. Kind of reminds me of something else um he had said. He said, like somewhere over time, people let go of um, what was it? It was like something like people let go of a prayer and they stop believing, but God is not done writing our story and like our prayers didn't fall in deaf ears. And I think that's so good because it's like we've been saying all this stuff about, oh,
Faith That Does Not Fade
SPEAKER_02make sure you're practicing your faith, make sure your faith is always strong so that you don't lose it one day. But we don't really say how you can do that. And I think like a good way to do that is you hear a lot, like praise him in the waiting. Like don't don't just have the faith alone, but have the faith and bring it with praise. Praise him for the things that he has done, things that he's doing right now, even if it's not the thing that you think you need. Praise him because he woke you up this morning. Praise him because you have a roof over your head and you might not have a child yet, if that's you, whatever you're like like the woman. Yeah, she didn't have a child yet, but you know what? She was taken care of and she was glad for that, and she was making it work for the time being, but she still had the faith, and that's what got her her blessing and her miracle in the end.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and you continue that, um, not just during the good moments, because it's very easy to be hyped up and to have high faith for a while after a big spiritual high. Um if you've been to NYC, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You go there, you are fired up. You've been prepping, yeah. Yeah, and then after you go there, it's insane. You get back and two weeks go by, sometimes shorter. Yeah, that that hype starts to wear off and you get back to normal life. Yeah. And that shouldn't be um that shouldn't be the peak of our faith, right? It shouldn't reach a high and then mellow out and we go back to whatever we were doing. It should be a consistent um when nothing's going on, when we're not going through something, when we don't need a particular blessing or miracle. We're not in a particular spiritual high when we're just kind of living normal life, like you said, Audrey. We should be waking up and thanking them that we even woke up.
SPEAKER_02It's like who are you and what are you doing when no one's watching? Like, how are you practicing your faith and your spirituality when you're not in a crowd of people who are also, you know, filled and like really feeling this service and everything's going great? Like, what do you do in your in your room alone? Like whenever it's time for your prayer and your Bible time? Like, are you still praying? Are you still fasting and reading and you know, doing all the things that keep your spiritual life strong?
SPEAKER_05And do you keep that faith alive, that that thing that you've been praying for, you know, it it's gonna come to pass? Or I'm gonna keep praying for it even if I I don't see it right now. Because he said one thing that that challenged my thinking about that. He said, I like on his one day uh when he was going on on that, he said, I believe people in here that have God can uh you know needs on their cards from 10 years ago will be healed today. You know, it made me wonder how many times do I let my faith go away just because I don't have somebody else, like somebody that's speaking on on the platform or preaching or talking to me about that, hype it back up for me. You know, how many times do I let it die whenever I should have kept on and held on to that? Yeah. And then what would my life look like now if I held on to those things and whoa, maybe one of those things came to pass, even if it was just one.
SPEAKER_02Like I was thinking that too, kind of like what is something that you know, like I was thinking, what is something that I've given up hope on, even on accident? Like just something that you just forgot about. Yeah, like maybe 10-year-old me really wanted this or really needed this, and like it didn't happen for a few years, and now I forgot about it and I don't ask about it anymore. Like it made me want to like dig deep and think about, you know, what is something that I've let go of over the years that I don't know why I stopped having the faith for it or I stopped asking for it, but I did. And like should I ask for it again? Should I bring it back up, you know?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_01That's um just something to think about. Yeah, and like that's good, holding on to that. It's like that that everyday faith isn't necessarily gonna be the easy thing because you had mentioned that the testing of your faith is how you build the spiritual endurance, you know, like that's how you build it to be that daily thing that you fall back on after the spiritual high. Your normal life is that daily walk with God, you know? Yeah, and it's kind of it reminds me slightly of that message that I don't know what it what the title of it was, but it was like the one where you the the trees in that like that science facility that never got any wind, and they kind of like the second they hit any pressure, they've they fell or something like that.
SPEAKER_04Uh Pastor Jerry preached. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I don't remember when but like the trees, like or I want to say I can't remember, but they were man-made.
SPEAKER_02And so like if they weren't in the environment, they didn't have the strength that they needed at their core and in their roots.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they they they built a uh I'll just say it briefly, they built a dome to um like to grow these trees. They built like a fake forest, I'll just use plain words, and they
Fitness Lessons For Spiritual Life
SPEAKER_04built a dome. They would they tried to get the conditions perfect for these trees to grow, and they wouldn't grow strong, they would they'd be pretty horrible. And long story short, they figured out it was because there was no wind in this man-made dome. Yeah, so the trees they never got tested, so they never got to grow stronger and grow the uh the structure to get as strong as they needed to be. Yeah, the roots necessary, yeah. So they didn't have that strength, so they would like fall over. Yeah, yeah. They they didn't have the things pushing them and forcing them to grow stronger, so they grew up weak, and that's just that wasn't enough. Yeah, right. And that's just how it is for us. We can be like, God, why do I go through trials? Um, why does stuff happen to me? Why does stuff happen to anyone who believes in you? Um, shouldn't it be easier for me?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Your faith and you as a person isn't gonna grow if you're never tested. That's just life.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's just that's what happens. Yeah, and you gotta recognize that those trials that you're coming up on, that's a chance for you to grow and to see your faith grow. And I mean, right, yeah, Paul Paul talks about this in Romans um five, starting at verse three. We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confidence. Confident hope of salvation. So I mean, Paul says it plainly that you're gonna go through trials and even if it doesn't seem like it in the moment, it's for your benefit. I mean, your faith's gonna grow and it seems hard to swallow in the moment, but that's powerful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's very true.
SPEAKER_02Um, another thing that I liked that Pastor Duran said was while you've been silently mourning what you once prayed for, he's preparing to answer your prayers. We've kind of been talking about that, like, you know, while you might have let it go, don't let it go, like find it again, because it's not like he's forgotten it. It didn't fall on deaf ears. Like you might be about to give up hope on this one thing. You've been praying for years and you feel like it's never gonna happen. But your blessing might be right around the corner. Right. Like a lot of times it's right when you think, like right when you get to your breaking point and you're about to give up, that's when it's right around the corner. That's when it's about to happen.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like whenever you need it the most, whenever it's absolutely necessary. So don't give up. Like go past your pushing point or your breaking point. Like push past it. Go past when you think you've you can't take anymore, you can't keep waiting anymore, you can't keep expecting and not getting it. Because usually that's right when your miracle's gonna come.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because you never know. It can just be one day. You never know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, definitely never give up, Audrey. Never give up. Never. Um, but yeah, so he also um he also brings up composition. And in the physical, that would just mean what you're intacting into your body, like your food, right, all that, whatever diet you're on, um, just you know, generally what you're taking in. And in the spiritual, it's that same principle, what you're taking in and what is going out of you. Um, he brought up uh Luke 6, verse 45. Um, not you, Luke. So then he looked at me. Um a good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. Yeah. And we've talked about that topic on the podcast, um, definitely in Proverbs and now going through James. And that's true. Your spiritual composition is gonna reflect um what you take in on a level, what you see, watch, hear day to day in the little moments, that's gonna start influencing you. Yeah, and then what goes out of you is gonna be it's not just a spur of the moment thing. There's no, oh, I'm just different when I'm angry. Yeah, that's coming from your heart.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so that's the the kind of core idea of spiritual composition. You have to watch what you're taking in and watch for the signs of what's coming out of you. Because if you don't like what comes out of you in angry moments or stuff of that nature, then check what you're in penalize.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you may have to cut things out of your life that you that may not be a problem for others, but is the problem for you, you know. Like that it may not be a big deal, but if that's what's causing you to stumble, you want to cancel out what you can.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like it could be like a violent video game, like it might not affect some people, but some people it might affect more than others or a certain show or a certain video, like and it goes for anything.
SPEAKER_04The thing itself may not be necessarily a sin or evil by any means, but if your entire day is filled with consuming that, it that's just how you're built, it's how you're wide. You're gonna start reflecting that. Yeah, so you have to watch your composition. It's a principle talked about all throughout the Bible. You have to be intentional with your time and with what goes in. Yeah. Um, I'm not remembering where exactly it's in the New Testament. Um, but it says you have to take every thought captive. You have to really watch what you're intaking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that ties in um the woman that he was preaching, the the woman in Shunum? The yeah of Shunam that she could have let her her inner thoughts, you know, take over that those negative ideas that I'll never have a son, you know. Yeah. Just like let that wave of negativity take over and flood her mind. And if that's what would have she would have been letting take in, that would have been what was coming out, you know. She wouldn't have had that slight hope, you know, that that would have dwindled down way sooner or and probably never been able to come back up because that negativity negativity can just be so strong. But she she had that spiritual composition to cut it off, you know, like she didn't let that stop her faith.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, because you can't um you can't expect your faith to rise and be where it's at if you're constantly uh filling that faith and filling your composition with negativity. It's not gonna work. You can't constantly weaken your faith by telling yourself how impossible the situation is, yeah, and then expect your faith to be strong when it's tested.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So it's just it's kind of a call to look and really analyze what am I feeding myself? Right. Yeah. Not physically. I mean, I'm not gonna tell you what you should eat, but spiritually, what am I taking in? Um, as Christians, that's we have to analyze that pretty much daily. It's it's that important. You can't just uh you can't just kind of flow through this. You have to really watch it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it could be conflicting in fact, you know. Yeah.
Endurance Is Not Passive
SPEAKER_04And then he brought up kind of the um the final core aspect of um of composition. He brought up the idea of flexibility. Um in the physical, obviously that's if you're flexible, if you can bend over and pick something when you drop it. If you can't, that's probably a pretty bad sign. You should start stretching. Um but in the spiritual, it's we we all go through seasons in life. We all no one is gonna be the same from like from now and then five years in the future. Yeah, you may be a new job. Um, if you're still in school, you may be going to high school, you may be going to college. You're we're all going through periods and seasons constantly. And flexibility is going to see how you can navigate yourself through that. Um and he brought up the danger of a negativity of flexibility can be you can try to mold yourself into if you want to envision it as containers in these seasons. Um, say you get a new job, you you go in that work environment and you try to instantly mold yourself to be the most likable person for the job. And maybe somewhere along the way you start letting go of some of your values because you're trying to fit this mold that you were given.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, so you have to be careful. We should be flexible enough that we're open to change in our spiritual life and we're open to correction. And when God's trying to bring us somewhere, we should be able to bend and mold a little to what God's trying to do. Um, but we also shouldn't be so flexible that when the world tries to conform us into a box or to be more like it, that we conform to it. Yeah. Right. And they will be flexible to God, not the world.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And then he actually added on to that with his little example. He had like some juice in a Texas Roadhouse like mug or whatever. Yeah, boom, yeah, food cup. He said, See how it conforms to it, and he poured it in. And then he said, Well, whenever I work with uh It's like anesthesia gas. Yes, anesthetic gas. Whenever he puts that into the container, it's not just that it forms in the container, it's that it gets transformed into gas and that you know the oxygen takes it down the stream into the you know they're for them to breathe in. So that was the another important part. He brought up Romans 12, too, and he compared, you know, conforming versus like only conforming versus being transformed. It's not wrong to conform, because we need to conform to the ways of God, you know. But we also with time must be transformed. Yeah, yeah. Takes two steps.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he made the point that if if you just poured the liquid into the um to the the container it's going in, it it'll conform to the container, but if it doesn't then make that chemical change, it's it's useful for nothing. It doesn't, it doesn't transform into its purpose. And so we kind of made the same correlation as like we could be put exactly where God wants us to be. But if we don't decide to make that change and be used by God and let him use us for his glory, then what is the use of us being there, you know? Yeah, we were just moved into a new spot, yay. But what does that yay, but what does that do for you in the long run? You know, that doesn't transform you into anything new, it just moves you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I like that.
unknownThat's good.
SPEAKER_02One more thing that I thought I forgot about this, but he said this and it was like a joke and it was funny, but then I thought about it, and I feel like they could have a deeper meaning. So he had said, um, he was talking about working out and all that. And he said, if you gotta tell people that you work out, you're doing it wrong. That's funny and it was funny, but then I also thought it's kind of a there's a deeper meaning to it if you really think about it. Like if you have to convince people that you're a Christian or that you live for God, then you're probably doing it wrong. If they can't tell by your fruits, if they can't tell you by how you act or what you say or the way that you speak to other people and treat other people, then maybe just kind of reflect and say, why can't people tell?
SPEAKER_04And I feel like maybe James has been saying that and maybe a little bit over that. Um yeah, that's good. Um, yeah, if you have to tell people you work out, you're not doing it right. Um But um I'm gonna wind up you Audrey because I also had one final thing that um that came to mind, just as a final thought that faith, just like fitness, it has to function in real life. Um just like only going to the gym, like you were saying, if you only do that and you're only strong in the gym on machines, doing specific movements, uh, but you get home and you throw your back out bending over to pick up something, you're not doing it right. Um and if I go to church and I can have an incredible Sunday, but if my faith is only active on Sunday and it's not the rest of the week, then that's not functional faith.
SPEAKER_05Nope.
SPEAKER_04Um, I'm basically just going to the gym. Like it it has to work in I'm saying real life in quotations because yes, church is real, but it has to your faith has to work in your day to day. It can't just be a stuff that's a good thing. It has to be taken out of church. Yeah, it has to be a part of your life.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, it's not just when you're out in the world, like I know what you're saying.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, just in your day to day, just when you're not at church, that faith has to be the same. It's not you get to church and you turn your faith on before you walk into church and have a good church service and you leave and just do the same old, same old. That faith has to work in real life.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04When you have a bad day, you have a bad day, but that bad day shouldn't completely crumble your faith. Yeah. If that's happening to you, then you may need to listen to this message.
SPEAKER_02And kind of mixing what we both said, like you need to do that for other people as well. Like in pu in in public or in life, wherever we were saying. Like, you having faith in a scenario that seems almost like faithless, like, imagine if your friends see that. What kind of mindset they'll have, or if your family sees that, like, like I don't know how Audrey has that faith, but I wanna I wanna have it too. Yeah. Like your faith can impact the people's faith around you. Yeah. The faith of people around you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because if you're trying to pour into people's lives and pour the gospel into people's lives, there's no better way to do that than by not talking to them about it at all. That's gonna sound crazy, but if they can see Jesus in you without you having to tell them anything about Jesus, they're gonna want that. Yeah, yeah. Like just like Audrey's talking about, if there's a scenario that to anyone else, it should be like they shouldn't have a smile on their face. And they see Audrey go to UL and have a bright smile on her face, and she's like, Thank you, Jesus. They're gonna be like, What is wrong with her? I want that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, just two cents from the podcast crew. Live what you talk.
SPEAKER_01Rule.
SPEAKER_04Well, I really just said
What You Take In Comes Out
SPEAKER_04I'd like Ramsey has another last thing.
SPEAKER_01Well, I just wanted to mention how I really loved how he ended his message. He kind of just tied it all well so to he he tied it all together so well. And it was, he said the definition of fitness. You need to be able to be ready for unseen circumstances. And so then he went into the end of the woman's story. Basically, her long story short, her son died, and she had to have the strength there to leave him there. And so she had the strength to leave her son there and realized that she needed more help than that she could give herself. So then she had the endurance to make the journey to go get help from people that was not of herself, had the endurance to come back after all of that. And then the spiritual composition to block out the negative thoughts that she that she didn't confirm. Sorry, block out the negative thoughts that like there's no more hope, you know. She didn't conform to what the world would have told her to do. She had it all trained so well that when the worst happened, she was able to have the functional faith needed to get to her miracle and not give up and not to lose hope. She had all of it was working like a well-to-machine, you know, like the one part wasn't just the only thing that got her through each individual step. She was that trained so well. And she practiced daily to where when the worst of the worst happened, she had that endurance and that strength and that flexibility to get through it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I just loved how that, like the whole the message just ended so well with that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05That's right.
SPEAKER_04We should be like the woman.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, that's good. That's good. Um, your faith should be functional enough that anything that happens, um, your faith shouldn't be thrown away because of a bad day. Oh show. Oh show, bro.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so um Pastor Duron actually had said, the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. And we see that theme in the new chapter that we're going in in James, James 3, 1 through 12. Um, it talks a lot about, you know, the tongue and how it's evil, but we're about to get into that, so somebody can start us off.
SPEAKER_05Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you James in the house.
SPEAKER_02That was funny.
SPEAKER_05Not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes, for if we control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.
SPEAKER_04That's a powerful way to start the chapter. Um yes, indeed. Yeah, yeah, definitely. It goes along really well. Uh it's almost like the Bible goes together in some ways. I'm starting to get the inkling that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01But it looks like it's not contradicting itself, it's actually supporting itself.
SPEAKER_04It's almost like it's all connected anyway. I don't know. I just get that vibe sometimes.
SPEAKER_02Um Yeah, so I mean, from verse one, we learn pastors and spiritual leaders are not only held to a different standard by, you know, obviously us as a congregation, you know, we sometimes expect too much of people. Like they're not human. And we can tend to forget that, you know, our pastor is just a human too. So um, but I mean Ramsay, you probably know more about that living under the same roof as a pastor.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's definitely a lot more um spotlight on you. Like you're definitely you definitely have to hold yourself to a higher standard personally and like in general, just because you are on that, not not in a bad way, but you are on that like higher position. You know, as like a teacher and leader, people do look up to you, and so you have to make sure that you almost not that you don't make mistakes, but that you do hold yourself to a higher like position for yourself because people are looking at you and people are gonna be judging you whether they know it or not. There are critics, you know, out there that are that are watching you, yeah. And it's kind of like a if you ever feel called into that ministry, it's a very good a very good thing to keep in mind that people will be looking at you more critically than what they used to, yeah. And I just like that it pointed it out.
SPEAKER_02I know, I agree, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And uh I like to imagine that he was very passive aggressive when he wrote this first part. Um because he says, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for you will be judged more strictly. And he's like, We all make mistakes. I feel like he's telling him, like, there's a lot of you in here that you can't control your tongue, and if you became a teacher in the church, God would smite you. You would be cooked. Like he has specific people in life. But um, but yeah, it's a good principle. The more influence you have, yeah, and the more influence you have into other people's lives, um the more that what you say to that and how you act matters. It's crazy how much you influence others, especially like like y'all are uh using the example of a pastor, a hundred percent like hundreds of people in your is gonna take it pretty seriously if a pastor gets up there and starts spitting blasphemy. Yeah, like that's serious stuff. Um yeah, it's uh it's showing the idea again that what comes from our our mouths, that's a sign of uh spiritual maturity. Right. Um because a teacher they should be spiritually mature to the point where nothing crazy is coming out of their mouth. Yeah, like they get cut off in traffic and they don't cuss the person out. Like um But yeah, it's showing that um I think he's kind of highlighting that spiritual maturity and you being able to obviously you can never fully control, but what's coming out of your mouth is guarded, that's a sign of spiritual maturity. I think that's the that's the point that I'm taking from it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, he brings it straight to tongues, you know? Yeah, and then he follows with James 3 and 3. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. So that kind of speaks for itself right there. You know, our mouth, it has so much power to to change somebody's day. You can speak life into somebody, or you can speak death, and like you're just trying to take them down. Yeah, you know, but just to see that you know God can control our our mouths and like how we influence people just through a small bit, the spirit.
SPEAKER_04And I like um that you say it goes both both ways because I love the symbolism of using like a rudder or a bit, because that's what you put in a horse's mouth to control it. And you could lead that horse the wrong way with that bit or the right way. So just like you're saying, the symbolism of that bit, you can build someone up and help them with your words, or one word could destroy them. Yeah, that's how much power is in your tongue.
SPEAKER_02I think another aspect, or are you okay? So I don't know if what you meant was in addition to what it means, or in another meaning. I
Flexibility Toward God Not Culture
SPEAKER_02I don't know if that makes sense. I'm just gonna explain what I think from that verse.
SPEAKER_03Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02Like, um, for the bit, it like you said, it's a very small, small thing that is controlling the entire horse. And it's kind of like a reminder that like you guys were saying, that the power of life and death is in the I mean, life and death is in the power of the tongue, and that something as small as our tongue can control us, can control us a lot. Because the tongue, going back to verse two, like you said, yeah, um, our tongues are the most uncontrollable part of our body. Yeah, and we tend to lose control of ourselves, you know, whenever we let our tongue take over, whenever it says things that it shouldn't say, or it hurts people whenever like we just get angry or upset. Because I mean it happens. We can't we've all said things that we shouldn't have said 100%, whether it's to a sibling, like I used to tell my siblings she was a mistake when we were younger, because I was like mad. But obviously, we shouldn't be saying that, you know.
SPEAKER_04Probably not. Um but you know, God's still working on all of us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're working we're working on it.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, I mean it's not like the super deep spiritual secret, even that the tongue is powerful. I mean, one sentence can destroy a friendship or relationship. That's right. Um a couple of sentences can destroy a marriage, like that's powerful. Yeah, and probably three could destroy the world. I mean, yep, you never know. I mean, it technically one sentence release the nukes. I mean, that's destroying the world right there. That's how powerful a sentence is.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah. And I think another part of that is like moving on. Um, another thing is that if we could easily get control of our tongue, yeah, which is, like I said, the most uncontrollable thing in your body, we would easily be able to control the rest of our bodies. But it's it's just not that easy. Yeah. Since the tongue is the most uncontrollable part, that's why when we speak in tongues, that is why it's so significant, because it's something that we can't do ourselves. Yeah. It's something that we had to fully surrender that part of our body. We have to say, like, God, you do you, because I can't control it. Like you don't control your tongue, you know? And it's like that's what's super significant about it, is that it's not us moving our tongue or making words or making it's it's the Holy Spirit working through us.
SPEAKER_01And I like where it says in verse two, where it says, for if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect. Yeah. And could also control ourselves in every other way. Which I think that it it adds up. I mean, it lines up with what you were saying completely, because we we really can't control anything by ourselves and we also aren't perfect, but it also shows that like if we can get a hold of our tongue, yeah, we we can pretty much we can find discipline in our lives everywhere else. We can rule the world, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's us. We're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_04Yep, this podcast.
SPEAKER_01But if you can discipline your tongue, you know, you can discipline your posture and attitude towards pretty much anything else, you know. Words that are words that you know that the words the discouragement and the sigh. Words. We know that words are what comes out from what we think, like brother Uncle uh from our brother Duron was preaching on Sunday, you know, like what our composition, you know, like when we are under pressure, what do we say? And words are what we what we say are what we truly are. And controlling your tongue is hard because you have to stop all those things that are almost so um natural because it's like more than just what we think, it's it's gossiping, it's being rude to people, it's getting angry, you know, lashing out an angry uh anger, and it's saying one thing, but then not living it, you know, like two-sidedness, you know. Yeah, are you lying? And the list can go on forever, but it like you were saying, the power the power in the tongue is such a crazy thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So we have to get a hold of, you know, we have to get a hold of that. That's not something that we can just easily let slide.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I think there's no more important time. Um, this is especially true for us for in this podcast. Um, with watching our tongue and its influence, because of social media and the internet today, I'd argue that words and influence and all of This is a lot more destructive now than it was back back in biblical times because you can post a clip on the internet and things can go crazy and within a week a million people have seen it. And you've lost it all credibility. Yeah, you can say something spur the moment or something you weren't watching. Um you weren't really watching your tongue. And before you know it, that's that's gone out to the world. Yeah. And so with social media, like this is definitely a call that you should be watching what you're posting and just watch what you say. Which you think about it or not, that's going out to people and that's influencing what they think about you. That um if you're posting spiritual stuff, you gotta watch that because people are gonna see that, and that may be the only thing that Jesus they get that day.
SPEAKER_02That might be the the only thing that they yeah, spiritually.
SPEAKER_04So if they see someone that uh that on the outside appearance looks like they're going to church and they open their story and it's gossip, they're gonna be like, What the heck? Why would I go to that church? Yeah, so I just feel like it's a call to like, especially with social media, we all have to watch what we're posting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, especially because we're on the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Like, tie back to verse everyone. That's tied back to verse one, you know. Like you we are all in the line of sight of people, so and then well, also verse five backs up what Hudson said very well. It says in the same way, the tongue is a small thing, but makes grand speeches, but a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. A
James 3 And The Tongue
SPEAKER_01great forest on fire. The tiniest spark can set that whole on fire with social media a hundred percent.
SPEAKER_04Like that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's just it it doesn't take much at all. It like at all for what your words to impact somebody like like life in a great way.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I actually want to include verse six also in that with with five. Five ends with, but a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. Verse six says, and among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. Yeah, it is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. Isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's James does not play, he does not come to play.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I like how he just throws in af after telling you that the your tongue is set on fire by hell itself. You felt like he had to keep on going by being like, people can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It's restless, evil, full of deadly poison. Like, bro, I get it. You just said it was like bro, you just said it was hellfire. I get it, bro. But it's just more and more that like you can't tame it. Yeah, it's it's going to reflect what's inside. Yeah. And you have to guard it and you know, it sounds simple, but work on what's inside. Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_05It said uh at the end of that verse you just read, full of deadly poison. That's scary. I thought I know I thought of it in a way of snakes, obviously, because you know, we think of poisonous snakes. Well, if you think about it, a snake is full of poison. It the it secretes it naturally or biologically. And we the same way, we produce fleshly thoughts and have fleshly desires naturally. That's just what you know we're created, and that's yeah, that's what we bring forth. And in sin did I my mother conceive me. You know, but the beautiful thing about God is that he knows exactly what we need to be tamed, and that is to bridle our mouth, our tongue. So it's crazy how you know we start off just like a snake. We we have an evil thing that can hurt others. Yeah, you know, it can hurt, but God gives us the opportunity to change that, to make the decision to heal and to reach out and let it do good.
SPEAKER_02No, I really like that. Yeah, and it kind of goes into like what you were saying with you know, it can either heal or it can um you know what yes, heal or kill, yeah. Verse seven says people can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and f Wait, we just said that. Hold on, verse nine. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_05Crazy comparison.
SPEAKER_02I know a big thing because you know, we can bless and curse, like it says, we can bless and curse people with the same tongue. Like we can be in church on Sunday morning praising God for all he's done. And on Monday we're in our office or our classroom and we're offending our coworker, or we're saying something rude to our friend, we're cursing our friends. Like the tongue that you're using to glorify God is also the tongue you're using to bring down people, and that's a big problem.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I like that. Um, spoiler alert, if you haven't read the Bible, people made an image of God that's all of us, it's not just like a spiritual figure. So he's really just being like, Yeah, you can worship God, and then what I just are saying, you can go insult your neighbor, and now you're insulting God's creation.
SPEAKER_05Like you lose so much perspective. Just in the moment.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like how he kind of almost sets it straight immediately. He continues in verse 10 and says, and so blessings and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right. Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? No, you cannot draw fresh water from a salty spring. And this just shows like you you can't do both. You know, that's that's part of the in world in one foot in the world and one foot out. You can't do both. Your your tongue cannot produce fruit, but then also produce bitterness. Like it's you're gonna have to choose one. What are you sorry? What are you feeding for it to come out? And what are you like how can we change that to be yeah, it's just in line with what God likes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's really like um it's culminating everything we've talked about so far in this chapter. Um, again and again. What is on the inside is going to reflect on the outside. Um, you cannot specifically talk about the tongue. You cannot separate what you say outside of church, what you say about people, what you just say in your day-to-day, how you talk. You can't separate that from your walk with God. Um that's what James is saying. You in that one verse, you can't go and praise God on Sunday with your tongue and worship him and then leave and talk however you want. Those aren't separate things. Um, it's all tied together because what comes from your tongue is coming from your heart.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_01If we were born again, we don't go fall back into the world, you know. Like we were called to be separate once born again. And uh as we if we call ourselves Christians, like kind of in verse one, it as Christians, even just that, you're already at a higher level against the world. And higher, I don't like saying higher level, but you know, you people are looking at you as Christians, you know. When you when you say you are a Christian, people look at you and then they immediately start judging. What do they do as a Christian? You know, that immediately starts judging. Are you doing like what God's called you to do? Are you shining light or are you walking in the world? You know, like are you walking with the world? What do they see when they look at you and you as you when you call yourself a Christian? Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's definitely a a a call to analyze yourself. Um because I like what you just said. Yeah, it's not that we're better than anyone else by any means, but it's that as someone that's following God, you should be being careful that you are living that. Um someone in the world is not gonna look at a Christian that's living just like them, saying the things that they're saying, doing the things that they're doing, and being like what they have is different. Um, that must be real.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Right. You gotta check your outputs, you know. Yeah. Like in the message, you was talking about, you know, you can't have two different inputs because then you your output's either gonna be one or the other, and it's most likely going to be the bad. Well, it talks about that right here. You can't look like something, like a spring of water, like you expect fresh water to be coming out of it, and then like want salt water to be coming out of a fresh spring, you know. Yeah, you can't expect to get something that you want out of something you're not willing to, you know, put in and grow. Yeah, that's again, there's there's no separation.
SPEAKER_04Um a good spring um spiritually, that'd be that that's us. We should be that good, healthy, clear spring. Um, a good spring in real life that you're not gonna find salty, contaminated water um coming out of that spring. Nope. All the spring's gonna be fresh. So again, there's no separation. We can't be going to church and praising God with our mouths and with our actions and then leaving and doing whatever we want. We're a contaminated spring, no matter what we try to convey. Um, yeah, there's no separation between the two.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But um one thing that I really like about the verse as a whole that we just read is that James never says anything along the lines of controlling the tongue. Um, how you do that is be quieter. Like he you never find him say to control your tongue, you must just be quiet. Yeah. He never says to stop talking. Um I think that's that's pretty powerful because
Words Online And Words In Private
SPEAKER_04it kind of shows again, it ties in with the with the only dealing with the symptoms part of it. Um think about it with his spring analogy. Um if that if the spring in the scenario is filtering out into a river and you go downstream and you take out some of that water, and that water is contaminated, but you take it out and you try to cleanse it before you give it to someone, that's that's not how it should be. You're dealing with a symptom. Even if you took it out and made that water look nice and look pretty and not smell like poop or something, uh the spring is still contaminated. Yeah. Um so again, you shouldn't just be dealing with a symptom. You shouldn't just be focusing on I want to speak better or not say or not swear. That's an easy one. I I want to not swear. Um, you shouldn't be focusing on just that. That's a symptom. The uh the core issue at the heart of it is well, your heart. That's the core issue. You need to deal with that. That's what everything else is stemming from. Um the well itself, the spring itself has to be clean for what's downstream to be clean.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. We're all in agreement.
SPEAKER_04Everyone agrees. I did good. I mean, I'm speaking from the Bible, so of course it's gonna be good.
SPEAKER_01But this whole entire chapter, this whole entire chapter, James, leaves me with like almost like questioning like, am I glorifying God with like words all the time or just around the people that you know, like just around church people, you know? Like, cause and then you ask how, you know, like what what does glorifying God even mean with your words? Because it doesn't necessarily mean that you're you're you're like giving glory to him like the whole 24-7, that you have to you you still go on with daily life. You worship him through like just following his commandments in general, but you know, bringing people up instead of dragging them down, um, speaking to people around us with kindness and mercy and grace, you know, instead of hatred and anger. And it's, you know, not lying, you know, just like all the normal things, you know, or even just not speaking proudly or boastfully of yourself, you know, not not hyping yourself up or getting cocky, you know. There's so many different ways where you can just glorify God in in simple things. It doesn't always have to be this big grand thing.
SPEAKER_02Like you're praying out loud in a public spot. Like it doesn't have to be literal, I praise you, Lord, at school in the library. Like it could be praising him in your actions. Yeah, it's a good point.
SPEAKER_05And then even on a bad day, you know, still maintaining that, even though it may be really difficult, you know, to put a smile on your face or to say the right thing to the right, you know, to that person beside you, doing that, I think God sees that in the moments that you really could or you know, you let your emotions yeah, it's easy for you. You let your emotions just take over. Well, I see, I think he sees that whenever you control yourself or you you let a spirit truly, you know, do what you wouldn't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the last thing it brought to my mind, like along right along with what Luke said is, is am I taking control of my tongue or is I'm already or am I letting my tongue control me?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, like and not necessarily like my tongue's controlling me. That kind of sounds weird, but um, you know, just in general, the flesh, what you're what you want to say, are you letting that control your attitude and how you're looked at and viewed at by the people around you, or are you taking hold of that and not letting your flesh win?
SPEAKER_05One final thing I saw in James 3 and 12 that talks about producing olives or you know, figs from the fig tree. We can't live and speak the way that is natural to our flesh innately, and expect to see good and beautiful things be produced in a place that is easy for us to maintain. Yeah. You know, most times growth is uncomfortable, and the thing we so desire requires a level of dedication that is uncomfortable because it's an unusual state of operation for us. Yeah. You know, we can't we can't stay there because that's not where our heart is, or
Final Self Check And Goodbye
SPEAKER_05that's not we just try to act it out. We and that's that's an issue. We can't simply try to act out whenever we think it's the right time. It's gotta be who we are. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Again, yeah, that's good. I mean, that's like the core theme of this uh this entire chapter. It's been and really a bunch of James that we've read so far is that what's coming out of you is coming from within you. Yeah, so yeah, that's good. I like that. But right, um, we've we've talked about a lot today. Um, message was really good. Um, Pastor Duran did a very good job. As someone that goes to the gym myself, I really liked his um the way that he built the core of this this message. Um, but I won't get into that. It was a good message. Um, core from that is just keep the faith. It can happen any day, one day, um, whatever you need. Um if you're like the the woman and you need a child, that can happen. But I'm I'm gonna go off on a limb and say it's not that, but whatever you need, um it can happen again any day. So keep the faith. Have build your endurance, look, see am I lacking in endurance? Because I definitely have at some points in my life. So um just just really analyze yourself. Um, if you haven't listened to the message, I'd say go listen to it. It was a good message, it's worth listening to, not just as a member of Point Church. It's it really helps you look at your faith in kind of a different light. Um yeah, all I can say from that is just keep the faith, keep it up, don't give up, like I think it was Audrey said, don't give up. Um and then for James, um, there's kind of one thing that came to my mind that kind of culminates everything we talked about today, that's kind of been on my heart for a bit. Um it's really, really ask yourself, because I've asked myself this before in the past, and it's kind of uh it's kind of shocked me um at times. It's if someone only heard my words, um, they didn't know my intentions, they didn't know what I did in church on Sunday, um if they only if the only thing they knew about me, the only impression they got was from the things I say, what would they where would they think my heart's at? And that's kind of a good um mind uh frame to keep to like do some self-reflection because think about it, if words are this important, if James literally just told us that our tongue is equivalent to flames from hell, then words are pretty important. Yeah, so if someone out there, their only impression of you was the things that you say, would would they think that your spring, your well inside was pure? So that's just um that's just some reflection. I've used that in the past and it's um it really helped you bring things into perspective. Um it's good. But yeah, don't give up like I'll just say, don't give up. Don't give up.
SPEAKER_02Well, um, we thank you guys so much for listening. We hope that um you got something out of it, even if it was just one thing that you could, you know, put in your heart and think about. And we hope that you tune in next Thursday for the next episode. Bye. Bye.