Christ's Object Lessons - Chapter 25: Talents, Part 2

Pastor David Asscherick is joined by Nathan Renner to discuss the second half of Chapter 25 of Ellen White's Christ's Object Lessons, examining the parable of the talents from Matthew 25. David and Nathan explore Ellen White's teaching on ten distinct areas of capacity that believers can employ for God's kingdom: mental faculties, speech, influence, time, health, strength, money, and kindly impulses and affections. They emphasize how God gives us more when we faithfully use what we have, working on the principle of addition while He multiplies our efforts. The discussion highlights how these gifts are not our own merit but gracious deposits from the Master, meant to be invested for His glory rather than buried in the ground.

Guest: Nathan Renner
Scripture References: Matthew 25:14-30
Covers: Chapter 25, Talents, Part 2
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EIlHzfb47s
Light Bearers

Transcript

Greeting and Announcements

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Greetings, everybody, and welcome to With DA and once again NTR as in Nathan T. Renner in the house. It's good to be in the house. Yet again. We've had an excellent day today, a very relaxing day. We sat in the sun for literally hours talking. Yeah, it's so weird to be in Colorado in February sitting outside in the sun. Getting like sun, proper sun. It's like 70 degrees today. Yeah, yeah. And you'll all be happy to know that uh there is no need to tune in to the State of the Union address tonight because Nathan and I today solved all the problems of the world and the church. Solved. They're solved. They're done. So it's all fixed. And uh we will be rolling out our uh plan, our 1,377-step plan um over the next week. We didn't solve anything. We just we caught up, we had fun together, we chatted, and we did say, and I know that everybody on here would believe this, we are living in a crazy world. We do live in a crazy world. I mean, this world that we're living in is so crazy in so many ways that we ourselves probably wouldn't have believed this world if you would have told it to us 20 years ago. Yes, that's correct. Right? It's like that's correct, much less like what would Ellen White in 1900 have thought of this world, or what would the Apostle Paul in the first century? I mean, it's impossible. No, it's inconceivable. It's in like the world that we live in is so strange in so many ways. And if ever there was a time where we needed to be laser focused on Jesus and his word, that time is now.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

What were you gonna say? I was just gonna say, like, just imagine a world where you have dancing robots. Like I know exactly. Like, like Ellen White would be like, what is a robot? What is the internet? Yeah, what is a computer? What do you mean you can listen to music whenever you want, how you want, what you want? What? Yeah, the whole thing is just monk. And yet it's it's our it's normal to us. I remember when I used to try and help my grandparents like record programs from the television onto their VHS. Yeah. And and it was just the most impossible thing for them to comprehend. Like, because the the the technology increase that we've seen from the time that we were in our teens and twenties till now is just unfathomable. But we live in the kind of technological world. Like we get kind of a shape. So it happens. It happens. But for my grandparents, they just could not all of it. My my grandmother was a homesteader in Nebraska. My grandmother was a homesteader in Nebraska. And here we are, and you know, Elon Musk is talking about putting a colony on Mars. Probably a little unrealistic and ambitious, but still the point is, and then there's a lot of smart people that say, oh, we're actually just living in a simulation from some other super advanced civilization, and um, we're all just existing in robots or whatever. I mean, yeah, these are just ideas that would have been the stuff of science fiction. Yeah, it would have been the stuff of institutionalism. You then just put you away. Just get in the bat and cell, sorry. Just step into the bat and cell. Okay, so fortunately for us, we have scripture, we have Jesus, we have the truth to keep us grounded. And we want to welcome you all to with DA. We are in part two of the talents chapter, Matthew chapter 25, also Christ's object lessons chapter 25. And uh, we started last night, Nathan. I'm gonna quickly reread the parable of in the NIV, the bags of gold, okay, just to remind us, and then we're gonna get we're gonna pick up right where we left off. All right. Okay, so we've got a lot to cover tonight. I'm gonna have you have our opening prayer. Welcome, everybody. We are super glad that you are here. Those of you that are tuning in on Instagram, those of you that are joining us on YouTube. We've got a lot to talk about tonight. So, Nathan, you have our prayer, and we're off to the races. All righty,

Prayer

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Father, we are so grateful for life and for all of your good gifts, and we open our hearts and our minds to you today, asking that your spirit would uh give us flashes of inspiration, give us the joy of your presence, and uh bless your people, and we thank you in Jesus' name.

Discussion

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Amen. Okay, Matthew chapter 25, the parable of the bags of gold. I'm in verse 14. Again, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. Master he said, You entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more. His master replied, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master's happiness. Then the man with two bags of gold also came. Master, he said, You entrusted me with two bags of gold. See, I have gained two more. His master replied, Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master's happiness. Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. Master he said, I know that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown, gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid, and I went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you. His master replied, You wicked lazy servant, you knew that I harvest where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. Well then you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has for whoever has will be given more, and they will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have, will be taken away from them. And throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness for where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I just had a thought when we were reading that. Yeah. Let's hear it. Um it at first it strikes us as a little unfair that he would take from the guy that has one, or you know, that only had the one and hadn't gotten anything more for it, but had hit it in the ground, and gives it to the guy that has ten, or had five, and then made the other five for a total of ten. But it makes sense because that's the guy that gets you the biggest return on your investment. Yeah. I guess you probably already know that. And the one and the one wasn't his anyway. Yeah, it wasn't his anyway. It's not like it, and she makes a great point in here about that, doesn't she? About how even if we even if we get things and accomplish things and achieve things, it's only because we were given the one or the two or the five to start with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As an act of sheer grace. Right? So anything that we add on top of that is just something that Jesus has given. Yeah, there's no merit. She actually uses the term merit, uh, the term merit. But I just love that idea that it hadn't occurred to me, well, of course, that's where you would give the one. Right. I mean, like if you had uh if you had investments and one wasn't making any return. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally get it. I I never thought of that until right now. Yeah. Okay, so on page 401, we are going to pick up here um just a reminder that in this lengthy chapter of 50 pages, which I went back and reread today, um, LMY breaks down 10 areas, Nathan, 10 areas of capacity or capability or talent, we might even say, uh, that we can then employ, like those bags of gold, things that have been given to us, entrusted to us, and they are number one, gifts of the Holy Spirit, which we talked about yesterday, other talents or what we might call natural ability, two, and then three mental faculties, four speech, five influence, six time, seven health, eight strength, nine money, and ten kindly impulses and attentions. Affections, excuse me. Which we're gonna have fun with. Yeah. And we have been through the first two only. So gifts of the Holy Spirit and other talents, and we're gonna start right with mental faculties, and we're gonna kind of hustle through these seven, Nathan, because we've got things we need to say at the end as well. Sure. And I'm gonna start by saying this right there on page 401, page 333. Actually, in the section just before mental faculties, there's a paragraph that begins, a character formed according to the divine likeness. Okay, I'm gonna just start there. A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next, right? Those who are under the instruction of Christ in this world will take every divine attainment with them to the heavenly mansions. And in heaven, we are to continually improve. And then this important line: how important then is the development of character in this life? Okay, now here's the thought. If something is developing, then that, you know, yesterday we spent time talking about perfection, then a very static view of perfection is not consistent with the idea of development. Right? Because she says how important then is the development of Christian or of character in this life. And so in all of these areas, whether speech, influence, time, health, strength, money, et cetera, we're to develop. Well, by definition, if we're developing, we're getting better and better, we're getting more and more mature, we're getting uh more and more reliable, we're returning a better and better investment, just like uh the maturation of a child or anybody that's learning. And so it's really important that we not, and we mentioned this yesterday, but I just want to start here. We not lead with this kind of flawless, static uh idea of perfection, but perfection as something, uh maturity, the sign of at each stage of our development, we are doing right for that stage. And then that great line that we ended on yesterday, which is the paragraph just before, if we fail, if we make mistakes, then we can use those failures and mistakes as beacons of warning, and we can turn defeat into victory. So we always have a safety net under us, faith. And when we don't measure up to the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ, the safety net of God's grace and righteousness there is to catch us, dust us off, put us back on the path, learn the lessons, and then continue the work of Christian character development or what we call sanctification. Yeah. You like that? I do, I do. Okay. Um, any thoughts about yesterday or just overall before we get into mental faculties? Any sort of preliminary remarks? Dive in. You ready to go? Yeah. Okay. So mental faculties, page 401. Looks like this is about two pages. And uh, I've got a couple thoughts on this, and uh, I want to know what you've got. So why don't we lead with anything you've got in that section? And then I'll share with you something I've got, and then we'll motor right along. The second paragraph. Okay. Uh last couple of sentences, if placed under the control of his spirit. Okay. But those who, with the same spirit of consecration, have had the benefit of a thorough education can do a much more extensive work for Christ. They stand on vantage ground. Okay. It's kind of what I was talking about yesterday. I don't remember if it was with the group here online or if it was just the two of us. No, it was the group online. Yeah, yeah. So you put like an investment in early, correct, and you set you up. You're building a pyramid. Yeah. The wider the base, the higher the peak. I love it. And uh, I just think that's such an important lesson, especially for young people. It's it's like don't waste your time as a young person. Yeah. You have the privilege. Think about what a privilege it is to go to school for 12 years. Right. And then if you're gonna go to college, right, what a privilege that is. Don't waste your time there. Like maximize it to build the highest possible peak. I love the idea. That this is such a great point that Nathan has just made. The wider the base, the taller the peak. So in those formative years of our lives, let's say until about the because life happens quick, right? You get into most people will get into their mid to late 20s, and statistically, in the United States, many people will be married by then and already having kids. Life comes at you fast. I mean, how old were you when Levi was born? I mean, he was born in 2000, 2000. So I would have been 24. So you're 24. So, so at that point, you are now not that you can't still build the base of the pyramid, but you're a husband now. You're a father. Like you are totally focused on providing for your family, taking care of your family, and you can still build the pyramid wide, but the time where you have focused opportunity prior to marriage, prior to children, prior to a lot of the major work-life responsibilities that come at you fast, fast and furious in your 20s and 30s. Take the time to build that pyramid wide in terms of the base, yeah. The base, and just in terms of like educational opportunities, exposure, surrounding yourself with good people, finding good mentors, being connected to Jesus. So then that peak can be all the more taller. I love that illustration. Yeah, it's so important. Okay, let me add to that then. On the next page, page 403, there's a paragraph that begins far more might be accomplished in the work of self-education if we were to awake to our own opportunities and privileges. And then I love this line. True education means more than the colleges can give. Right. So you can get an education from a college. That's great. I mean, that's literally what they're there for, but that's a certain kind of education, and it's not the only kind of education. And in some ways, it's not even the best kind of education.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

It's important, it's great, especially for certain lines. Like my youngest son right now is studying mechanical engineering, and it's really important that he goes and learns about structures and and differential integrations, differential equations, differential equations. Like it's it, these things have to be learned. Okay, so in the in is it the next section on time, uh, a couple sections away on time, she she really dives into maximizing the use of your time so that you're reading during what would otherwise be wasted moments. Yes, yes, yes. And that really connects to the sort of self-education. Correct. Right? So uh, you know, I I I this is a great point about true education means more than what colleges can get. Yeah. Right? Like there's such an important role that your own curiosity and your own willingness to learn plays in your life. Yeah. It's one of my favorite things about you, Nathan, is that you are a perennially curious person. A fun fact about Nathan, he knows a lot about a lot. I mean, not like a lot in terms of the total amount of knowledge that there is to know in the universe, but it's just amazing to me how we can be talking about something and you'll be like, you know, I was just reading about that. And I'm like, you were just reading about that? And you are often saying that. Yeah. You're a reader, you're curious, you're a continual learner. And that's what we want to do. We want to cultivate a spirit of being lifelong learners, lifelong students, but you really build the bricks for those kinds of habits and thinking of life as improv being curious, improving your mental faculties early on. Yeah. I also think it's interesting. She's she says right after that, while the study of sciences is not to be neglected, and then she goes on to talk about the important uh importance of a vital connection with God. But I think that one of the things that I've learned as I've grown older too is this that different domains of knowledge that you just happen to acquire over the course of your life, you'll find as you age, you develop something more like what they call uh crystallized intelligence. There's this there's this uh great commentator named Arthur Brooks, and he talks about how when you're young, you know, you like memorization tends to come easier. You tend to sort of have this algorithmic intelligence. Yeah. And then that kind of slows down when you hit your forties, but then you begin to develop this crystallized intelligence where you're synthesizing vast quantities of knowledge from a variety of domains. Yes. And that really then makes you a person of wisdom. I was just gonna say that's wisdom. Yeah. Yeah. It's the it's the difference between like quick and immediate intellectual recall and having had four or five or six decades of life experience and then bringing all of that experience to bear on what she actually calls uh when she says to wrestle with hard problems. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Like bringing your mind to bear on these big questions. And you know, there's the saying we can't expect old heads on young shoulders, right? That's just it's not realistic, but we can't expect old heads on old shoulders. And I love this idea that we become more and more sort of concretized or crystallized in our intelligence, and then we can start to see, hopefully, the world more clearly, more biblically, more graciously, more mercifully, and more accurately. Just to see the world the way that God wants us to see the world. And I think that comes with having children, having children that get older, then having grandchildren, which you haven't had that experience yet, neither have I. But there's just a kind of maturity and a wisdom that comes with having been on the planet longer than 20 years. Yeah, yeah. I know we're gonna move to the next section, but uh the way she lands this chapter or this section is incredible. On the self-discipline, yeah. So glad you went there, I was gonna suggest that. An ordinary mind well disciplined. You've heard this saying, people say it all the time. They're like, people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year. In a year. Yeah. And it's just that consistency. Yes. If you just read a little bit of the Bible every day, you will find that you know a lot of the Bible in a year or two. Right. And it's the same in any domain. It's kind of what we're doing in the with DA. We read a chapter a day, and then after 30 days, we've not just read this book, we have digested this one.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Right. But if you were like, I love your point there, you know, if you how how what's the language there? You can you overestimate what you can do in one day. Correct. And then underestimate what you can do in a year. Correct. And if we can do this in a month, imagine what could be done in a year. Yeah. Right. Cumulatively, if you just, if you stay at it, you know, they talk about this a lot in sports, where you'll have the super talented guy, but the super talented guy or girl has always been the best on their team, the best in their city, the best in their county. They're always the best. And they don't really have to try very hard because their 50% is better than most people's 90%. Yeah, and sometimes those people run up against like a hard stop because they haven't developed the discipline. Correct. Right. Exactly right. So they have this like uh like hard work and a sort of above-average ability will often beat a poor work ethic and excellent natural ability or talent. Exactly. And that's what she's talking about, that closing paragraph. Agreed. Okay, now let's talk about speech. Speech is on page 404. Uh I just got one thing to say here. I gotta I guess I have a couple. Let me launch it off. I'll say this, Nathan. She has a lot to say about the importance of speech, the value of speech, and it's actually kind of obvious because most colleges will require at least one, and in some cases more than one, public speaking or speech class.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Colleges recognize that the ability to formulate ideas in your mind and then communicate them clearly in a public setting with your mouth is an important, yay, a vital skill in the world in which we live. And that's basically what she's saying in this chapter. We have to be able to formulate ideas and then communicate them effectively and clearly and persuasively with our mouth. And if that's true just in a secular university or a college, how much more true for disciples? And we're literally announcing to the world the resurrected Christ, the enthroned Christ, the ascended Christ, the soon returning Christ. That's how I read what she's saying about speech. We should be able to, in the words of Nehemiah 8.8, give the sense of the text. Yeah. Yeah. The sense of the text. And so that's what I really like about this chapter. It's like, man, if a secular university can make that requirement, why would we think the kingdom of God would have anything less than that? Yeah. What do you got? Uh I I really like her emphasis on speaking in full, clear, round tone in a distinct and impressive manner. You know, the other day I I just I don't really listen to a lot of preaching, which is kind of embarrassing, but I was listening to I listened to a sermon by Randy Roberts, and then I listened to a sermon by Doug Matchler. I was kind of I was kind of curious about what makes them so influential. Yeah, okay. And something I noticed about both of them is that they have such a warmth in their voice. Oh. Right? They really approach, you know, they're they're really kind of, I mean, they're both Adventists, but they have a very different approach to their Adventism from one another. Yeah. But they both have a massive influence, and there is such a a calmness in the way that they present and a warmth in their voices that um that's impressive. Yeah. And I think a lot of young preachers, I know I did this, you know, you almost are a little um frenetic and excited. Yeah. Of course, everybody I mean, I enjoy listening to somebody with enthusiasm. Yeah. Um, but I I I don't know. I I really I I took a big lesson from that little exercise. Well, as somebody that's had the privilege of spending uh time both this year and two years ago with Randy Roberts in his world at Loma Linda University Church and seeing the way he runs his staff. You know, he has the most incredible office. Like his library is out of this world. I mean, it's amazing. And he has a real passion for ordering hardcover. Copies of every single book that he buys, if at all possible, even if like the paper copy is 20 bucks and the hardcover is a hundred, he'll buy the hardcover. Like he his library is a thing of beauty. I go in there, I'm like, Randy, it's not good for me to be in your office because your library is causing me to covet. And he just has such a warmth about him, such a sweetness about him. His staff adores him. Uh the church loves him. And he is uh I actually had uh one of his church members say to me uh about Randy, they said, Look, he he will preach, you know, uh many sermons in a in a calendar year, and he said, Look, Randy never preaches a bad sermon. Yeah. Never. He says, Now listen, not every sermon is a 10, but he almost never has a sermon under an eight. Yeah. He's just consistent and and the gospel and a warmth. And he has this kind of grandfatherly, avuncular sweetness about him that when you're with him, even in a non-preaching context, it it's really it's really attractive. Yeah. He's a beautiful person. I haven't spent much time with Doug. I'm sure he's similarly lovely, but I just have spent a lot of firsthand time with Randy and with his team, and your assessment is is exactly correct. That's a warmth to him. And I I sometimes notice in in preachers when they haven't developed the warmth of their voice, or they haven't developed the tonal quality of their voice, that it's actually can be harder to listen to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I I I won't name any names here, but there are some people, both in the church and just uh communicators, podcasters or whatever, and the voice is just not easy to listen to. For me. Yeah. Now they have audiences, so there's obviously people that do like them and listen to them. But I would put you in that category, Nathan, not to flatter you, but I think you've uh for the last 15 years or more, maybe, you have had uh just you have a wonderful pastoral way about you, and you're preaching. I've listened to much of your preaching over the years, and you preach with a warmth and with a with a with an affability, you're self-depreciating, but you also have this beautiful pastoral uh uh kindness in your voice and an empathy. I've seen you get choked up in sermons, and it's all very it ex what it does is it's it communicates that the Lord that you're preaching and the gospel that you're advocating is not just an abstract idea, but you believe it and you're living it and you've experienced it, and therefore you're a good pastor. Your church members trust you, they love you, they see the way you are with Becky and the kids, and so what you saw in them, I have seen in you. No, that's generous. What's true? I mean, you're a you have a beautiful pastoral heart. And especially one of the fun things about growing older. You get us to watch your friends grow. Yeah, yeah. You know, and I've yeah, go I've seen the same in you. You know, you've seen that great quotation from Lewis where he talks about as you see your friends grow and then as they interact with your other friends, that friends bring out things that that wouldn't be brought out in the absence of those friends. Yeah, yeah. This really beautiful like web that emerges as you see your friends over the years. We've known each other now. We've known each other for far longer than we haven't.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Right? Because you're almost 50. We met when you were 16. So that's 34 years we've known one another. And, you know, we are very different people than we were when we were freshly converted. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Um, okay, so speech, she has a lot to say about it. I do want to go to page 408, 338 of the original, and there's a really great paragraph here that begins, as followers of Christ, as followers of Christ. Uh, why don't you read that for us, Haven? Did you find it? I think it's really good. As followers of Christ, we should make our words such as to be a help and an encouragement to one another in the Christian life. I feel like that's so practical. Like we should be helping and encouraging. Okay, so this is an interesting thing. Often before I preach, I I imagine that I am like pulling down all the blessings of heaven and just wanting to pour them out. Beautiful. And I think that's kind of what she's saying here. It's like, how do we imagine our lives? Yeah. What are we thinking about as far as what are we doing with this existence God has given us? And it's like to be an encouragement to one another. Okay, keep reading. Well, read just and read the next one. Far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our experience. Now, for those of you that have been with us on this journey, you will recognize that from an earlier chapter. In fact, it is right here in the Lord's Vineyard chapter. We have this just a few days ago. This is chapter, I think this is one we did with Sarah, was it? The Lord's Vineyard, or was this one I did by myself? I did this one by myself. And uh, this is on page 362. Listen to this, Nathan. To praise God, uh page 362, 300 of the original. To praise God in fullness and sincerity of heart is as much a duty as his prayer. We are to show to the world and to all the heavenly intelligences that we appreciate the wonderful love of God for fallen humanity, and that we are expecting larger and larger blessings from his infinite fullness. Now listen, far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our experience. After a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, our joy in the Lord and our efficiency in his service would be greatly increased by recounting his goodness and his wonderful works on behalf of his children. These exercises drive back the power of Satan. Hmm. I love it. Yeah, that's a very powerful enterprise. I love it. These exercises drive back the power of Satan, and we need to just talk more and more often about the way that God has blessed us in the past. Like Moses said to the children of Israel get your kids together, tell them these stories, tell them over and over and over again until they become like frontlets between their eyes. Okay, if you don't mind, read the rest of that. Um we should speak of the mercy and loving kindness of God, of the matchless depths of the Savior's love. Our words should be words of praise and thanksgiving. If the mind and the heart are full of the love of God, this will be revealed in the conversation. It will not be a difficult matter to impart that which enters into our spiritual life. Yes. Great thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, unselfish purposes, yearnings for piety and holiness will bear fruit in words that reveal the character of the heart treasure. When Christ is thus revealed in our speech, it will have power in winning souls to him. I love it. And you know what I love about it? It's so wholesome. Yeah. I feel like that's one of my least favorite things about the modern world. It is so unclean. It's crass, it's it's abrasive. It's it's it confronts our fighter sensibilities. I mean, you can see anything and everything the most horrific, the most sensual, the most pornographic, the most disgusting, the most repulsive, the most insane by just looking at it on your computer or on your phone. I mean, it's just all there, and wholesomeness is gone. I mean, I grew up in a world where, like, I watched Little House on the Prairie, and my parents used to watch, like, what was that show with Michael Landon? Like, it was like there was like an angel or something, and it was bad theology, but it was all so mostly wholesome. Yeah. And that was in the 70s. Like, that's after the sexual revolution of the 60s. It just feels like we have lost a basic wholesomeness and sweetness and modesty in the world, and we are so immersed in this crass, violent, sensual world of heaven. Exactly. My mom loved that show. And we've just lost that innocence. And so when you listen to Ellen White talking here, this language of unselfish purposes and yearnings for piety and holiness, and words that bear fruit and reveal the character of the heart treasure, it it's just all so inviting. Yeah. The world is so totally broken, so totally pornographic, so totally violent, so totally scandalous. It's like when we read things like this, it's so good for our brain and for the moral fabric of our being, because for that moment at least, we're not exposed to the chaos of the world. Okay, so it's interesting. She has such a practical counsel in two paragraphs before that. Yeah. Um upon every family, upon every individual Christian is laid the duty of bearing the way against corrupt speech. When in the company of those who indulge in foolish talk, it is our duty to change the subject of conversation if possible. Yeah, yeah. And read an excent. Um by the help of the grace of God, we should quietly drop words or introduce a subject that will turn the conversation into a profitable channel. I mean, I was thinking of So wholesome. Yeah. When I read this, though, I I immediately thought of how easy it is when people say things to laugh, even at things that are not funny, as like a social thing. And I was I was thinking actually about like a few people who are tangled up in this Epstein thing who were very decent people. Maybe, maybe not good people. I don't know. But I don't know them. But they had like, you know, I'm thinking of one particular individual who like had this incredible podcast and helping people live healthy lives and and then and then you know, kind of got he he you know, who knows what he talks like when he's not on his podcast. But you can I can imagine circumstances where that I've been in where you're kind of around somebody, they say things that are kind of weird or and you just you just kind of like, uh I don't really know what to say here. And and I just like the way Ellen White gives basic counsel on how to extract yourself out of that. And and be a force for good. Like just drop a few quiet words that can turn the positive con the conversation in a positive direction. And if that's not possible, quietly excuse yourself. Yeah, yeah. Have you ever you remember the great line Ellen White says, I can't remember where, but she's like, if people start to gossip around you, just sing the doxology. Praise God from multiple blessings, flow. Uh okay, so I think we've got speech. Let's keep moving along. Influence, Nathan. We live in an age in a time where everybody is an influencer. You just take your shirt off, you stand in the mirror, you take a few selfies, you flex your muscles, or you put on your bikini, and you're an influencer. There you are. You now you're an influencer. And the truth is, is God calls all of us to be influencers, but not just influencers for ourselves or our brand or our channel, but influencers for the kingdom. And what jumped out to you in these uh pages? Individually we are connected with our fellow man, a part of God's great whole, and we stand under mutual obligations. No man can be independent of his fellow man, for the well-being of each affects others. Yes, thank you. It's God's purpose that each shall feel himself the necessit uh feel himself necessary to others' welfare. Welfare and seek to promote their happiness. Top that's wholesome is so yeah, wholesome is brilliant. It's it's really beautiful and it's it's self-effacing and it's self-serving, and it's the call of the Christian life.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

And you know what I thought? I read the next paragraph and I got the word vibe. You know, yeah, I literally thought the exact same thing. Yeah. The chapter I literally wrote, look what I wrote here. Vibe. Yeah. Let's read this paragraph. It's so good, and it's got all the vibes. Um, every soul is surrounded by an atmosphere of its own. An atmosphere, it may be charged with the life-giving power of faith, courage, and hope, and sweet with the fragrance of love. Or it may be heavy and chill with the gloom of discontent and selfishness, or poisonous with the deadly taint of cherished sin. By the atmosphere surrounding us, every person with whom we come into contact is consciously or unconsciously affected. It's the vibe. Yeah, yeah. And then the next sentence, this is a responsibility from which we cannot free ourselves. In other words, nobody is atmosphere less. Correct. Your vibe is your vibe. Right. And I mean, Paul talks about a vibe check. Paul talks about how we have a fragrance of some, we're a fragrance of life unto life, and of others of what does he say death until life? So the idea here is, and I've already used him before, Nathan, but I want to just throw this out. I in an earlier session we talked about uh prayer, and I mentioned uh that years ago, before you went up to Minot, North Dakota, when you were young, like 22 or something, uh I ended up getting caught in a snowstorm and staying the night in eastern South Dakota with Dan Gabbard. Oh. I'd never met him before. Yeah. And I just knew that he was an Adventist pastor, and a friend of mine called and said, Hey, we're you know, we're in this snowstorm, we can't go anywhere. He knew Dan. Can we stay at your house? And Dan and what's his wife's name? Patty. Dan and Patty. Or Patsy? Patsy, I don't remember you know them, but the the way that he prayed, and just his atmosphere was so and this was when I was a new Christian, like a year deep, maybe a year and a half deep. The Spirit of God was all over that man. I just, I just was like, I I don't know if I've ever had ever met anybody like that in my life. And then we actually had a young man, or actually Brent came on here, uh, one of uh the the persons that sat right in this this table with me, he's with the air, and he said that when he was a MAGA booker, like selling uh books uh door to door, they worked with Dan in his church, and Dan would go door to door and like impart little lessons. Dan would have been a much younger man at the time, probably in his 30s. When I saw him, he's probably in his 40s. I guess he's probably 70-ish now. He's gotta be around that. But anyway, I just he is a person that I don't, it's just implanted in my mind, he exuded a sweetness and a wholesomeness about him that was you could just tell that that guy had been with Jesus. Did you have that experience at work?

SPEAKER_01 36:45

For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Yeah. And then another one, did you ever meet Brett Brussett that married me? I did meet him, but just briefly. So I worked with a guy named Brett Brissett. He was an evangelist and a pastor in the uh Northern California Conference. He was the one that really kind of got me into ministry in no small degree. And that guy just exuded the love of Jesus. I mean, he you could tell he had spent time in prayer. He'd spent time in the word, the way he loved people. He's a great big tall guy, six foot seven, one of the most beautiful people I've ever had the privilege of knowing. And both of these guys and many others, but I just quickly grabbed them, an atmosphere of wholesomeness, piety, sweetness, helpfulness. That's the atmosphere I want around me. For sure. For sure. That's our influence. You got anything else in that? Yeah, uh in that section, she she makes a simple statement. Uh 340, uh, paragraph two, character is power. Yeah. The silent witness of a true, unselfish, godly life carries an almost irresistible influence. Exactly. Exactly right. And that's the kind of influence we want. We want the influence for the kingdom. We want the influence of being filled with the Holy Spirit, not just the influence of doing whatever need be done in order to build our brand or build our, you know, little personal empire on earth, such as influencers do today. We want to be influencing people for Jesus. Yeah. Okay, excellent. Let's go to our next one here. We we have some more we could say, but we're gonna keep motoring along. Time. Time in the second paragraph, she says the value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation, by which she means life on this earth, in which to prepare for eternity. We have no time to waste, no time to devote to selfish pleasure, no time for the indulgence of sin. Notice she doesn't say pleasure. Fine, life is filled with pleasure, highly enjoyable things, sitting in the sun today, watching the birds come to the birdbath and chatting with you and taking a walk around the loop and drinking some, you know, cold, sparkling waters from our fridge. This is all highly pleasurable. But it's not the kind of selfish pleasure, you know, the indulging of sin that she's describing here. And then the next paragraph just jumped out at me, Nathan. Yeah. Where she says, the human family have scarcely begun to live when they begin to die. That's how I feel. I'm like 53 years old, and I know that everybody says the same basic thing, but it's like, how did I get to be 53? I I feel like I was just 20 a few years ago. And you know, she's sort of talking here, she's commenting on the uh ephemeral nature of time. Like, we're born before you know it, you have kids and you're middle aged and you're 50 years old. You know, no sooner do we begin to live than we're on the path to dying. A mutual friend of ours, Jennifer Schwarzer, who I think is on here tonight. I just saw her, she's always like joking with me, like, David, we have to finish writing these books because I'm gonna die soon. We've got every open, I've got stuff to do. I want to finish this stuff before I die. And I love the comment here on life is just too short. Yeah. And before you know it, it's over. And God has put eternity in the hearts of human beings, right? God has put eternity in our hearts. Is that Ecclesiastes 3 or Ecclesiastes 7? Where we long to live, we long to have experiences, to connect, to pray, to worship, but it's all done so quick. And we should use the time that we do have, not fiddling around.

unknown 40:25

Right?

SPEAKER_00 40:26

You feel me? For sure, for sure. You know, uh this is the chapter where she talks about, you know, when you've just got a few moments, dog whittle them away. Upon the right improvement of our time depends our success in acquiring knowledge and mental culture. Yeah, love it. Yeah. I think one of the s best things that I ever that ever happened to me, this'll sound crazy, one of the very best things that ever happened to me, and it was just totally happenstance. It was just absolutely serendipitous. I joined the debate team as a freshman in high school. Joining the debate team was probably one of the very best things that ever happened to me because I was immediately in, as she says here, you know, mental culture. I found myself in an intellectual culture with the sophomores, the juniors, and the seniors. And we were doing extemporaneous speech, and we were doing Lincoln Douglas debate and policy debate. And I was, for the first time, kind of exposed to really smart people that could communicate very clearly and ideas and debate and cross-examination and logic and induction and deduction. And it was like, uh, and it was literally, it changed my life. I became a reader from that, I became a thinker from that. My lifelong passion for learning, I literally think started in the ninth grade when I joined the debate team. And it just set me on a path. And now I have my whole life now, I've loved to read and to learn, the curiosity that you talked about. And I'm just so thankful because it was just like a somebody's like, Oh, you should join the debate team. I was like, the debate team. They're like, Yeah, you like to argue, you should join the debate team. I joined the debate team, and it was literally, it changed my life. Yeah. Kim Moss was my teacher. I mean, this is if you lined up the people, the top 10 people that have had the most influence on my life, she would probably make the top 10 list. She was my debate teacher for four years. She was an amazing teacher. She was single, she was crazy, she was awesome. I I have so much, such a fondness for for Miss Moss, Miss Miss Moss, that um she literally shaped me into kind of the person I am today. That happened when I was like 14. Isn't that wild? It's just wild. Yeah. Okay, do you want to keep reading that uh paragraph there? Oh, just at the end, the maybe yeah, the last sentence a resolute purpose, persistent industry, and careful economy of time will enable men to acquire knowledge and mental discipline, which will qualify them for almost any position of influence and usefulness. Yeah. You know what's interesting, you know, everybody needs rest. Right. So I think one of the things when you're thinking about the use of your time, right? Is the idea uh, you know, these are important principles, but she also talks about how like if a if a person who labors in the home has a target of what they want to accomplish, they can accomplish it without working the entire day. So being efficient. Correct. So there's not this um, you know, there's not this uh pressure to always work. Yeah. Rest is an important part. In fact, uh one of the things I love about the creation narrative in Genesis 1 is there is evening and there is morning the first day. So we work from rest, not for rest. Right? So the day begins with rest. Yeah, the evening and the morning were the first day. Because you start every day with rest. Correct. I love that. And so That is great, you guys. That's worth the price of admission right there. We worked for From rest, not poured rest. Exactly. Wow, that's good stuff, Nathan. And then if you sort of lay that over the top of the fact that the first full day of life was the Sabbath experienced was the Sabbath, they worked from that rest into the following week, which was the first post-creation week. Correct. That's beautiful. So you have rest embedded in every day, and then you have rest embedded in every week. Yes. And then you're working from the rest, not for the rest. And so the efficiency is not to say that you can't have enjoyment. Right. It's not to say that, you know, you have to be praying and studying and working every moment of every day and collapse into bed with this like maximum level of productivity. Yeah. Right? Because that's that's sometimes how people read this sort of stuff. Yeah. Have you have are you familiar with that meme? And if you're not, you need to find it. And if if any of you are familiar with this, it's hilarious. You can look it up. But there's a guy, like a bearded guy, looks like he's in his maybe 50s, mid-50s, and he's talking about how he divides up the day. Oh yeah. He's like, he's like, he's like, I'm gonna kick your butt from from zero to six. That's that's one day, or you know, six. I've already had one day. By the time I get to noon, I've had two days. But and he's just like, he's it, you stacked it up over weeks, I'm kicking your butt. You stacked it up over months, I'm ahead by years. You stacked it up over years, you're never gonna catch me. It's just like, what? And then all these people have like made fun of it, like all these meetings. I love those. Well, for me, every second is a day. You know, I'm kicking your butt because by the first minute, I've already had 60 days. It's also funny. But the idea here is that he's driving at this kind of very modern notion of radical productivity. Yeah. And who needs time for rest? Work-life balance, we work, we work, we're work, work, work. And that's not what she's saying. Correct, correct. You're familiar with this meme. Oh, I love it. It's hilarious. So many people have made fun of it. Yeah. You know, if we had like a if we had like a staff that was doing this, they could pull that meme up and we could put that. I know, wouldn't that be good? I know. I could just like shout over to somebody, say, hey, pull that meme up. But but that's not what she's advocating. No. Efficiency is like today. Well, like our day today, Nathan, we we I would say had a productive day in the sense that sometimes you just need to down-regulate, talk to your friends, sit in the sun, process the world around you with other like-minded believers, check in. It's one of my favorite things about hanging out with you and Jennifer and so many of my friends. It's like, how are you managing this crazy world?

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

And we check in, and it's like, oh, you're oh, okay, great. And you've got points of consonants and then points where you might not see eye to eye, but then you talk it out. And it's just so, you just it's just so good for you in this world in particular. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, it's literally the next paragraph. She says, when one is always at work and the work is never done, it is because the mind and the heart are not put into labor. Right. And then a few sentences down, by tact and method, some will accomplish as much in five hours as others do in ten. Right. And then she talks about domestic labor and the requirement to have a definite aim. And I think that's maybe a critical thing. And we talked yesterday about aim high.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

You know, our good friend Pastor Torres used to say, Pastor Louis Torres, if you aim for something, you might hit it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:26

If you aim for nothing, you will hit nothing. Um, okay, so now let's talk about health. We talked about time. We could have said a lot more, but let's talk about health. And Nathan, you gave a beautiful testimony yesterday about this injury that you've suffered uh in October and how this has been you preached that four-part sermon series kind of based on your experience with the injury, but also the Christmas season. And it was what? Love, vulnerability, vulnerability, humility, empathy. Yeah. And as somebody who has recently, you know, you you're a strong person, you're a fit person. I mean, this is what you do, and then all of a sudden that's just taken from you.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

Uh why don't what speak to us about the health thing? What are your thoughts? You're also really passionate about eating well, exercising well, stretching. Like you take very good care of yourself. You're a good example to me in this regard. Talk to us about health. Yeah, well, I mean, I it's it's I mean, it's when you lose it, it's a pretty shocking experience, right? Like it's like I've never felt physically vulnerable throughout my entire life. I mean, I've just Until that happened. Yeah, yeah, I've been very life literally changed in a second. Yeah. Like in you're just having fun, you're rock climbing, and then all of a sudden, I literally said the day of the injury, I have not been this fit since I was 20 years old. Which I probably, you know, if I were superstitious, I would say I shouldn't have said that. You but you were extremely fit last year in climbing. As climbers, we're always trying to get as fit as possible to climb, also just for general life fitness, but it's not easy to do, especially as we age, because climbing is very taxing on the body. And as climbers, we're always trying to find that secret sauce of just the right amount of work, the right kind of work. We have power, we have endurance, we have strength, we have power endurance, but then rest and you're you're trying to find the secret sauce. And Nathan, what have you been doing? You know, for climbing training. David, what have you been doing? We've got a good friend Luke and my son Landon. And then when you get an injury, the wheels come. You press rewind. You just press rewind, and you didn't just have like a small, you know, finger pulley injury or a strain in your shoulder or your elbow or something. Like you pulled the muscle off your bone. Yeah. You know, I you know what I thought was what a privilege I have to be a Seventh day Antist pastor. Because like my conference president and the conference administration were just like, hey, take the time you need to get better and really supported. Yeah. I was, I mean, but I thought, man, if you had some other kind of job, you'd be sunk. And then imagine having to worry about your financial world. Yeah, trying to recover. You were and your church rallied around you, plus you've got a staff there at Madison. Yeah. Nathan pastors the Madison campus, Seventh Avenue Church in Madison, Tennessee. That's right. Um, now, on that, not just injuries like acute injuries to your hamstring, but I have a dear friend, a very close friend, who was recently out running with his wife, and he's my age, and he was couldn't keep up with his wife. He's like, Man, I just can't keep up. No, no, sweetheart, you go on ahead and you know, I'm just feeling a little tired. But then he started sweating at night. Sweating at night. And then they went on a run a few days later, and he just just could barely keep up with his wife. And normally his wife can barely keep up with him. And he's like, No, no, I'm fine, I'm just getting older. But she was wise, and she was like, I don't like this. And this is the you know, kind of a typical guy, hasn't been to the doctor unless he absolutely had to, hardly at all, over the last, you know, several decades. So she's like, We're gonna get you some blood tests. And um they go in, they get some blood tests, they're like, eh, we don't like the way this looks. They got some additional blood tests, and he has stage four cancer. And he's I hate that IH. I mean, you know it. And it's like that's so different than pulling your hamstring, as bad as that is. It's like, we have some bad news for you. You're in your early to mid-50s, and you do not have long to live, barring an absolute miracle. So you have your whole life. You have your retirement, you're thinking about your kids, you're thinking about your grandkids, you're probably thinking about a thousand things, and then all of a sudden you're thinking about one thing.

SPEAKER_01 51:44

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

You're just thinking about one thing, your health and your relationship with Jesus. And it just happens like that. You know, you you you think you're healthy until you get the diagnosis, until you can't keep up with your life, until you're having massive night sweats, and then your health This is why every day of life is a gift. Yeah. That's why they call it the present.

unknown 52:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 52:07

I like that. Um you know, and the thing is by the way, please pray for our friend. He he is fighting the good fight, and please pray for him. Yeah. You know, it's it's it's so uh uh frustrating too because like in in our community, you know, we really emphasize healthy living and and that's very important and it can make a difference in a lot of ways. But you know, the majority of cancer is just a gene mutation and you just kind of you know, depending on the cancer you're exposed to. Pesticides in the environment. I saw a map of pesticide exposure and cancer, right? It's pretty terrifying. Yeah, you know. Uh I mean it's it's uh we live in a broken world. The truth is that we're all one blown tire, one car accident, one you know, uh blood test away from suddenly realizing that we do not have all the years and decades in front of us that we thought we did. And that's why every moment that we are alive and are healthy and do have our capacities and wits about us, we need to use those things for a larger good than merely building up our own personal empire. Yeah. There's something bigger going on in the world. Now, the paragraph that begins the misuse of our physical power shortens the period of time in which our lives can be used for the glory of God, and it unfits us to accomplish the work God has given us by allowing ourselves to form wrong habits, by keeping late hours, by gratifying the appetite at the expense of health, we lay the foundation for feebleness, and then this one by neglecting physical exercise, by overworking mind or body, we unbalance the nervous system. So I really was impressed by that unbalanced the nervous system. I've actually seen that happen several times in people's lives where they've overworked, they've under-exercised, and they really enter into some very serious mental health problems. And I think um for me, it's always been well I it's just I've seen that and I've always it's been very important to me to give myself the rest to live at a sustainable pace, to um be balanced. Amen. And I I just I don't know, that unbalanced. Your inclination, Nathan, is to work too hard. Yeah, I kind of get that from my mom. My mom was a very driven person. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, uh your your inclination is to go, go, go. So if if you don't, if you're not careful about not doing this, your temptation, because you're such a lover of people, you find it easy to say yes to people, you want to try to help it. I mean, just today you're on the I can tell you're on a very serious phone call. Like this is very important for you. But it's important for everybody, but I can see why this would really speak to you because your inclination is just to pour yourself into the church. But Ellen White's own husband overextended himself, overworked, taxed himself, and died prematurely. Yeah. Prematurely. Okay, now the next one's very similar. Uh strength. So we're on uh number eight, moving right along. We've done gifts of the Holy Spirit, other talents, mental faculty, faculties, speech, influence, time, health, and strength, which is very similar to really mental faculties and health. Is there anything in this that jumped out to you? I actually really love the last. Uh well, no, it's not the last. Right? I guess it's um 349 paragraph three in the OG. How does it work? Religion and business are not two separate things. Yeah, I like this. They are one. Bible religion is to be interwoven with all we do or say. I really like that. I I think that's one of the things that I think about when I think about what my calling is as a pastor, is I want to understand the whole world through a Christian perspective, through a biblical worldview. Yeah, amen. Yeah, no, that's really good. And and it's also important, this is one of the things that I love about Seventh-day Adventism, is that Adventism is a holistic way of thinking about scripture. It's not just we do our lives over here and then we're also Christians. So Christianity is just one of the things that we are, and this is your point about holistic with everything that we are. Remember, Jesus said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. And I love that Adventism has something to say about how we spend our money, about where we're going in our future, how we the rhythm of our week and our lives, the how we eat. To me, if there is a God, and I of course I do believe there is, but I'm just speaking here like from before, it's like it just feels like that would be something so important. He couldn't just be an addendum to an otherwise complete life. Like he would have to be the sun around which the whole life orbits. And that's what I get from this whole chapter.

SPEAKER_01 57:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:17

It's it's that God is not just an addendum to your otherwise perfectly well-adjusted, happy life. God is the thing that makes your life holy, happy, perfectly well adjusted. And if we don't get that balance right, if we don't seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then really what are we doing? Yeah, and and and you know, this is it's interesting because the fact that it's our whole life is the thing that makes it beautiful and that makes it matter. It's also the thing that makes people who maybe have some sort of toxicity in their religious experience, maybe from their childhood or maybe from the kind of Christianity that they were exposed to. Yeah. It's what actually makes it hard too. So so there's like like, you know, uh every moment of every day was fraught with so much um significance. Significance, right? Like it's like, well, yeah, you can't live like that all the time. Right. Right? So like if you're if you have this super heavy religion, but what if you have a super joyful religion? Exactly. That's the point. If you do have a joyful religion, then you can say, like, like, it does matter what I do with my body for my health, not because I'm worried that God is going to torture me for having a taco, but uh you know, yeah, uh, but because I want to honor him and I want to be able to be a blessing to the most amount of people. So having health is is vital. Absolutely. You know, and it's so important. And especially in the particular work that you and I do, so much of the work that we do, and a lot of the people that are tuning in here is cerebral. It's a lot of thinking, it's a lot of talking, it's a lot of listening, it's a lot of reading. Yeah. So this is why it's for me at least, it's so important that I get outside and move my body. Movement is medicine. Yeah, 100%. Movement is medicine. You want to be moving. You want to be I mean, my wife and I, Violeta, we walk the loop most days, sometimes two times or more. I get outside. I like to hike, you know, by the grace of God, tomorrow we'll go to the climbing gym and climb. And just taking those, you know, uh a day off a week or to climb, or several hours off in a morning to go climb, my experience has been that it energizes me to be even more effective when I'm sitting down to read, to think. No, it frees the mind. It frees the mind. It literally, it just it's like uh you have you heard this term slow maxing? No. Yeah, it's like kind of a new thing where they're talking about like purposely do things that take time. Instead of sending a text, write a snail mail letter. Just sit and watch the birds, or take a long, slow walk and leave your phone at home. Do things that take time. Grow a garden, prune a bonsai tree, make bread that you know, because everything is so fast, like it's like this, the world that we live in right now, the modern world. And this idea of slow maxing is like slow down and try to get in a rhythm with the world and with the God who made the world. And this has gotta be why Sabbath is just so crucially important, not just theologically, but for our health. Yeah, yeah. Thank God for the rhythm of Sabbath, dude, right? For sure. For sure. Okay. Uh so that is um strength. Okay, then next money. Money. Okay. Um, let me see. Did I have anything in here that I I mean, we've actually talked a lot about money in up to this point. She's made the point repeatedly that wealth in and of itself is not a sin. Wealth that is acquired by oppression and unscrupulous or unjust means is a sin. Um, I mean, I think it I think it doesn't require a lot of exposition unless you want to say something here. I found the second paragraph. Uh there's a in the yep, in the middle of that, we have uh when they have set apart a portion for religious and charitable purposes, they regard the remainder as their own to be used as they see fit. But in this they mistake. All we possess is the Lord's. I mean, I I just thought that's really important. It's like, okay, I've paid my tithe, I've paid my offering, and now the rest is mine to do as I please. And it's like, uh no. Correct. And this is back to the point you were just making again a moment ago, which is like when this kind of holistic religion, when everything, it's not just the 10% or the 20%, it's the 100%. For some, this can be like oppressive, like, oh no, now God's got his hand in all my money to it. Well, he is the giver of every good and perfect gift. And God is not saying you have to give 100% of your income to charitable causes. I mean, that wouldn't even work. But what he is saying is that the means that we have should be used for blessing others, including but not limited to our family and those around us. And everybody's financial situation is a little different. And we should not judge somebody else. I mean, I remember early on in my Christian experience, I was kind of foolish and young and idealistic. And I was like, look at these people driving these really nice, fancy cars. And then it occurred to me at some point later that when I bought like a Honda Odyssey with my family when our two boys were born, that the percentage of money that Violetta and I spent on that Honda Odyssey, it was a $16,000 used car, relative to the nice fancy cars that some other members of our church were driving, like to them, it was a fraction of a fraction of their income. And my Honda Odyssey was like a much larger percentage of my income. So it's all kind of relative.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:52

And it's important that we don't begrudge people who have been successful, who have been wise, because we don't know how they're spending their money. They have resources. We should assume the best about people. Yeah. Yeah. We should assume, oh man, and as you know, uh, many of the most wealthy people that I know, and I'm sure you have the same experience, also tend to be some of the most generous and most kind and pouring money into all kinds of things, whether it's orphanages or evangelistic meetings or Bibles or printing or a rise. It's like there is no incompatibility with wealth and Christianity, but there is an incompatibility with, as she says, the hoarding of wealth, like the rich man who said, What am I going to do with my money? I'll make bigger barns. Yeah, you know, it's very interesting. It's very interesting because if you think about like a bigger barn, yeah. Right? Like you think about the way capital is deployed in the modern world, right? Like, even if you have a lot of money and you invested in stocks, you're not really building a bigger barn in the sense that you're actually creating jobs and it's not just hoarding. Correct. Correct. Yeah. So it's it's the world is the financial world is so complex. Like maybe twelve years ago or something, I just started reading like a book or two a year on finance. This is back to my point about him being curious more and nerdy about things. Not on finance so much, but more on like economic theory. And I remember I remember you went through that period. You're like, oh, I just read this book on economics. But I still do. And and after having done that, in fact, I'm reading a book right now called Markets, Not Capital. And it's fascinating. But the point is that after having spent a decade, a decade reading books on economics, I don't know anything. Seriously. I don't know anything. And and I'm So that time is all wasted. I don't think so. Not entirely wasted. It's built a bigger base. Okay, there we go. Bigger base, dollar pyramids. But the point is, I don't feel like I have solutions to the problems of the world. Right. And I feel like I don't know uh much more about what to tell other people to do with their money. Right. Except for to love God and love people and be generous. Exactly right. Exactly right. And Lord Jesus help us to be faithful. Okay, then we've got this is my favorite one, right? Because you've got all this money, strength, health, and then kindly impulses and affections. It's beautiful. It's really, really beautiful, and it's short. And what do you got here, Nathan, in this? There's a great a hymn. I can't remember which it which it is, but it has this line, something ye men of tender heart. Oh, okay. Well, maybe it's all creatures of our God and king. Okay. All creatures of our God. I'll look it up, right? Yeah. Anyway, I I've always I just love a tender-hearted person. Yeah. And um it's all creatures of our God and king. All ye saints of tender heart, forgiving others, take your part. Oh sing hallelujah. Ye who long, pain and sorrow bear, praise our God and cast on him all your kids. I love that tension. Tenderheartedness, kindly affection, generous impulses. I I I appreciate that. I I I like that. I when I see that in people, that's one of the great things about just being a Christian and living in community, right? Like you see people express kindly affection, generous impulse. I mean, you know, sometimes you see things less than that, and that's unpleasant. But it's it's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. And we want to be the kinds of people that are known as being kind and generous and um helpful, magnanimous. God help us.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:43

Okay. Social advantages are talents and are to be used for the benefit of all within the reach of our influence. Yeah. Amen. That's kind of back to the influencers thing. Okay, then we're almost kind of toward the end here. She then goes back into the parable and she talks about how our talents are multiplied by use. And this is the five that brings in five, the two that brings in two. And I do want to read a little bit of this. Uh, the paragraph on page 428, right under the section talents multiplied by use, it's 353 of the original. Talents used are talents multiplied. And she ends up using that word multiplied quite a little bit, actually, several times. Success is not the result of chance or of destiny, it is the outworking of God's own providence, the reward of faith and discretion, of virtue and persevering effort. The Lord desires us to use every gift we have, and if we do this, we shall have greater gifts to use. Ah, he does not supernaturally endow us with the qualifications we lack, but while we use that which we have, he will work with us to increase and strengthen every faculty. I like that. There's the cooperation. Uh, by every wholehearted, earnest sacrifice for the Master's service, our powers will increase. While we yield ourselves as instruments for the Holy Spirit's working, the grace of God works in us to deny old inclinations, to overcome powerful propensities, and to form new habits. As we cherish and obey the promptings of the Spirit, our hearts are enlarged to receive more and more of his power and to do more and better work. Dormant energies are aroused, and palsied faculties receive new life. Now go to the next paragraph, the humble worker, and jump down about halfway through that paragraph. He who begins with a little knowledge in a humble way and tells what he knows while seeking diligently for further knowledge will find the whole heavenly treasure awaiting his demand. The more he seeks to impart light, the more light he will receive. The more one tries to explain the word of God to others with a love for souls, the plainer it becomes to himself. I know I've had that experience. The more we use our knowledge and exercise our powers, the more knowledge and power we shall have. Next paragraph. Every effort made for Christ will react in blessing upon ourselves. If we use our means for his glory, he will give us more. As we seek to win others to Christ, bearing the burdens of souls in our prayers, our own hearts will throb with the quickening influence of God's grace, and our affections will glow more with divine fervor. Our whole Christian life will be more of a reality, more earnest, more prayerful. I I love this whole idea that it's not a zero-sum game. We don't have ten of something, and then we use ten of something, and now we have we use some of that, and now we have three of something. Or we have two of something. No, we start to use the ten of something, before you know it, we turn around, we have twenty of something. Right. It's like, whoa, how did that happen? Because because we are getting into the current of God's intent for the flourishing of the world. And when God sees that, he leverages us as agents in building, edifying, growing. And so we've got five, and suddenly we've got 10. And we've got 10 and suddenly we've got 20. You've heard, I know we've all heard the stories about people trying to outgive God. We've heard many stories of, you know, like think about the construction of the tabernacle, like the the current of resources for the building of the tabernacle, and finally there was just such an outpouring that people they had to say, stop, okay, we've got enough. We've got enough. We we've got enough. And I I want that to be my experience, where you know, and frankly, that has been my experience. As I have used the little bit that I've had, and same with you too, Nathan. I mean, we kind of came into the ministry through the side door a little bit, and we just got a larger opportunity, and then a still larger opportunity, and then a still larger opportunity, and then a still larger opportunity. And at every step in my life and in yours, and we've been overlapped in a lot of that because our ministries have been together, but God just keeps growing our capacities and our influence. And I think it's just because we're using the little that we do have, like the five loaves of fishes, and then God grows it. More and more, she uses the words increase, enlarge, multiply. I love it. Yeah, she says by faithfulness in little duties, we are to work on the plan of addition, and God will work for us on the plan of multiplication. Exactly. I love that. It's so good. That's the business that God is in. Yeah. Yeah, it's so good. Um, then she talks about the guy with one talent, and uh the one talent person um basically had a misunderstanding. Well, in the parable, you might well have understood who the master was, but if we took that same perspective to who God is, we're gonna be all upside down. Yeah. Because God is beautiful and kind and gracious and forgiving and large-hearted, and we should not think that it's gonna be in our best interest or the kingdom's best interest to go and bury the one talent that we have. We should get that talent in the current so that we can multiply it. Yeah. The thing that struck me most about this is that you should not be discouraged because you have a one talent, you're a one-talent person. I thought the same thing. It's like, yeah. There's that classic stir what you got. Yeah, line. I love men preached that before. Um, remember this line yesterday, how we were talking about how the math didn't really work, how God is equally honored. Here it is, for he who has apportioned to every man, for he who has a portion to every man is equally honored by the improvement of each trust. So somehow the one that brings one, and the two that brings two, and the five that brings five, and even the ten that brings ten, all of that is somehow equally honoring to God because everyone's living into their capacity. But as we talked about yesterday, God can even help us to exceed our potential.

unknown 1:12:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:49

Now, I do want to say on page 433, 357, there's a paragraph that begins, Christ in his life. And I just thought this was so beautiful. It's such a beautiful picture of Jesus. Page 433, 357 of the original, Christ in his life. If you can read that for us, it paints such a beautiful picture of our Lord. Christ in his life on earth taught the lessons of careful attention to the little things. The great work of redemption weighed continually upon his soul. As he was teaching and healing, all the energies of mind and body were taxed to the utmost. Yet he noticed the most simple things in life and in nature. His most instructive lessons were those in which, by the simple things of nature, he illustrated the great truths of the kingdom of God. He did not overlook the necessities of the humblest of his servants. His ear heard every cry of need. He was awake to the touch of the afflicted woman in the crowd. The very slightest touch of faith brought a response. When he raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus, he remembered her parents. He reminded her parents that she must have something to eat. When by his own mighty power he rose from the tomb, he did not disdain to fold and put carefully in the proper place the grave clothes in which he had been laid away. I think that is so good. She's like his mind was continually thinking about the great plan of salvation. And this little This little girl needs some food. Oh, somebody touched the hem of my garment. Oh, I need to fold my grave clothes before I go out and announce that Messiah has conquered sin and death. I just think it's such a and this is great writing too. One of my favorite things about Ellen White is she she can move from the macro to the micro. Like she's very good at sort of giving us the big, great controversy picture, and then zooming in on the way that Jesus interacted with the one soul audience and right back out to the cosmic perspective, then right into Jesus' interaction in some scenario or some conversation. It's very beautiful. She's a very capable writer. And I just love it. I think it paints such a delightful picture of our Lord um being attentive to even the smallest duties, and we can do the same. Yeah. You know, even if we just have one little talent, well, let's use that one little talent for the glory of God. Love it. Okay, so then um there's a lot more that could be said here. Do you have anything more under that? I don't think so. Okay, so let's go over to the talents returned then. Let's go over to the talents returned. And Okay, this is where we mentioned that line. Those second paragraph, okay. Those who have received the five and the two talents return to the Lord the entrusted gifts with their increase. In doing this, they claim no merit for their for themselves. Their talents are those that have been delivered to them. Yes. They have gained other talents, but there could have been no gain without the deposit. I love it. Perfect. Yeah. It's perfect. So nobody, there's no boasting. Right. There's no boasting. There's no merit. Jesus makes the original. I mean, literally it says that the master gave them, right? It says here, um, again, it would be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:20

This is my money that I'm entrusting to you. So that's completely generous, completely gracious. It's not like they earned it. It wasn't a wage, they didn't deserve it. But God gave it to them. He entrusted them with it. And then when they bring back the five, he's thrilled. Yeah. He's thrilled. And I love the way the NT Right translation says enter into the celebration of your master, the joy of your Lord. Uh yeah, it's such a great line. Yeah. Okay. Anything else you got there? Um, a few paragraphs down, uh our let's see, our Heavenly Father requires no more, no less. This is uh page uh three sixty-two. Okay. Okay, actually three sixty two, paragraph six. Okay. Even she she talks about um whoever much is given of him, much will be required. And then she says this kind of sober line even if we do not lose our souls, we shall realize in eternity the result of our unused talents. Yeah, I thought the same thing. Paul talks about that, right? When isn't that what Paul's sort of alluding to when he talks about how that he doesn't want his whole he he him to be a what does he say, castaway? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, his whole life and then preach to others and I myself myself be a castaway. Just this idea that you look back reflectively on your life and and you have not done what you could have done. And I think that often, I I often feel the woe of trying to do more. I I want to do more, and I wish we had the resources to do more. And, you know, I'm continually saying to tie into the team, like, you know, we're not single-handedly responsible for announcing everything to the world because God has millions of believers and lots of ministries and tons of churches, but but let's do more. Let's do even more. And fortunately for me, they share that passion, and then we put our heads together and we figure out let's do more. Let's let's do as much as we can with the resources that we have. I mean, I saw saw that Jennifer was on the chat earlier, and hopefully she's still there. It's like Jennifer is somebody that's a real inspiration to me because she is squeezing everything out. Yeah, I don't know how she does what she's doing. She's amazing, actually. I I she's she's incredible. When she was here one night, she couldn't sleep. One of the nights that she was here for the with DA and she couldn't sleep, and she wrote like an eight-page paper single spaced in the middle of the night on um deliverance ministries because she'd been doing like research on you, what? I don't write eight pages all the time. It's like Jennifer, she's just so driven. Do you ever have a problem not sleeping? Never, me neither. No, I there's not I'd never do any work in the middle of the night. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm like, oh, okay, well, there's maybe a thought. And then you just go right exactly length. Oh man. It's so beautiful. Um this is a really encouraging chapter. I really liked this last little section here uh where she's talking about the multiplication. You know, we return back to God even more. I do love the line here. We should not think of failure, we should not talk of our own weaknesses or inabilities, we should not be cowardly in our lives. All of this really spoke to me. All of this really spoke to me and at a particular sort of juncture in my life right now. It was very good for me to hear these things and just to go forward. Yeah. You know, don't go forward. Don't be deficient in aspiration. Yeah. As long as it's not aspiration for oneself or one's empire or one's own brand. But for the kingdom, aim high. Dream big. Right? Yeah. And and you know, it the ambition, even like for me, one of the beautiful things as a Christian, it's like, well, what do I do? Like it, like, okay, let's say I am a builder. Yeah. Then there's nothing wrong with saying, hey, I'm gonna provide housing for humans. Right, exactly right. She actually talks about that. That's a great thing. And and I'm gonna provide nourishing food for people. That's a great thing. And if you're you know, in law, I'm seeking just outcomes. Yeah. Even if you're defending bad people, you're still seeking just outcomes. That are according to the rule of law. Correct. So it's like I need to see our whole life as saturated with opportunities to uh communicate the gospel either expressly with our words or in the manner in which we work. Yeah. Everything is consequential, everything is spiritual, everything is religious, if properly understood. Yeah. Okay, then the final little section, Nathan, is the talent removed, and you know, she basically makes the point that the the guy was absolutely surprised. He couldn't believe it. Which is surprising. Right? Why is anybody would be surprised? Why why would anybody be surprised if you if somebody gives you money and they ask you to invest it and you dig a hole in the ground? Which effectively is losing money because of inflation, right? I mean, really what this one thing a lot of the parables do is they lean into the absurd. Oh isn't it absurd to think that you would give somebody money expecting a return and they dig a hole in the ground? It's absurd. This is a really great point. I I I would love to go back and reflect on many of the parables and just ask the question are there absurd elements or are we invited to think about things in an absurd way? Because it's true. Like even we were talking about the rich man and Lazarus earlier today. Like there's a lot of absurdities. Completely absurd. Like there's a lot of like on the face absurdities in the way that Jesus told that parable. The the the the older brother's behavior in the parable of the prodigal son is absurd. Yes. And and his posture toward his father, like, you wouldn't even give me one goat. It's like all that I have is yours. You dork. This is a this is a really great lens, you guys. It would have been fun to have had you the whole time here, Nathan, where we could have put every parable through the absurd test. Yeah. Because it's exactly correct. Even now, as I'm going through some other parables, like the two sons, the one's like, I will definitely go. And then he does it. And the other one's like, I definitely will not go. And then he does. Jesus is like speaking to the religious leaders. He's like, Don't be absurd. Don't just say that you're going to do a thing, do a thing. Or the how about the how about the the the two worshippers, right? Where the one, you know, beats his breast and can't even look up to heaven and says, God have mercy on me, a sinner. And the other one's like, I'm glad I'm not like this guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:05

You know, I mean, the people are laughing. You know, you know that the people know that Jesus is having them on. Like this And I mean, we're gonna get to the parable of the Good Samaritan. Talk about an absurd parable. Right. The religious people go skirting by on the opposite. This is a great point. I love this point. Well, I'm glad. That's a really good point. That the parables sort of invite us to consider the inbuilt absurdities either in the parable itself or in the implications of the parable. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:39

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:40

And this is totally absurd. Yeah, and no that especially removed somebody who was this harsh taskmaster. Yeah, it reminds me of this one time my grandmother had some money in the bank and my mom went and she was like, What's the interest rate? And and it was ridiculous. She's like, we're taking the money someplace else. And they were like, Why? What we could give you more. And and they're like, Well, if you could give us more, why didn't you give us more? Like, no, I'm not doing business with you. Right? I mean, it's you're being an absurd person. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Leaning into the absurd. That's really

Rubric

SPEAKER_00 1:24:14

good language. Okay, let's do our rubric. This has been a long, hard in some ways, chapter, but also really rewarding. And it's a chapter that I just by way of sort of wrapping it all up, I found this chapter, I was back and forth between two kinds of sensations. I was often highly encouraged and really motivated. And then at other times I was re sharply rebuked and challenged to do and be better. And I I just found it it really, I felt like I was between those two. I'd read one section and be like, wow, this is so encouraging. This is so beautiful. And then in the next moment I'd be like, wow, wait, this is I need to hear this. This is good for me. I need to work on this. Isn't that what good coaching is like? Yeah, I thought that's exactly what I was gonna say. It's like it's not one or the other. Because if it was only one. I get this is kind of parenting too. It's kind of a pathology thing that I talked about with so much modern Christianity. That's how we begin. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's it it really is a pathology. Yeah. Like this sort of sanctification discipleship piece of Christianity is so often neglected. And like you said yesterday, it's like people have an allergy to it. Yeah. And then you made another really great point that that imitating Christ is what we're called to do. Right. So we should not want a low bar. Sometimes it's gonna cut us, it's gonna challenge us, it's gonna rebuke us, but Jesus is who Jesus was. And we're invited to be disciples of Jesus, root word discipline, to live into the life of Christ. And to try and do that and be that in the world is no small thing. Right. And so I love this kind of coaching where it's like encouragement, chastening, encouragement, rebuke, encouragement, challenging. And that's what we need. Yeah. That's good parenting. Yeah, good coaching. Okay, let's do the rubric, everybody. We're gonna do the point, the person, the prayer, the practice, and the promise. This is such a wide-ranging chapter. I'm expecting a lot of different oh, Bob Big Sky says, Your word was absurd. No, my word is not absurd, but I do like that word. Um, let's go here. Uh, Nathan, for you, what was the point of this chapter? Growth is our privilege. Growth is our privilege. I love it. Mine's longer. The capacities, resources, gifts, and blessings God has graciously conferred upon us are to be put to effective use and thus increased for his glory in the expansion of his kingdom. Which is basically what you said. Yeah. Basically what you said, but you used an economy of words. Um The person, what do we learn about God or Jesus in this chapter that we might not otherwise know? I mean, I just again, economy of words. Jesus is generous and gives yes. Jesus is generous. Ah, beautiful. He makes the initial deposit. Yeah.

unknown 1:27:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:11

Whether it's the one, the two, or the five, he makes the initial deposit. Nobody got zero by the way, nobody got zero attendance. Right. Nobody got zero bags of gold. Um, person, I put, um, unlike the master of Matthew 25, God is kind, fair, gracious, and loving. He can be trusted and loved. This is a parable of contrast, not of comparison. What God is not like. Okay, what about the prayer? How do we pray this chapter, Nathan Lenner? I I put a just a simple prayer, Lord make me diligent. Hmm. Lord make me diligent. Yeah, that's a great one. That's really good. I said, Father, forgive me where I have not used my resources and capacities for you and your people and your kingdom to teach. Me to do better and please increase my influence for good in the world. Which you can summarize by saying, Lord, make me diligent. You work on that economy of words. Okay, the practice. How do we practice this chapter, Nathan? Your yours is going to be do well. No, mine is uh actually my the practice and the promise go together for me. Oh, good. So the practice is work on the principle of addition, and then the promise is trust the God who works on the principle of multiplication. Oh, that's good. That's so good. Uh my practice is um do not talk of failure. That was really that really spoke to me. Do not talk of failure, instead speak of faith and of God's faithfulness. And then your promise was the multiplication. I can't give my promise because it'll give away my word. So we're gonna hold off on my promise. Uh let's go here and see what everybody's word for. Uh KB Fotalk says, I love Nathan's brevity. Sandy Patifer says, I love that. God knows exactly who we are and what we need. This was a big chapter. Big chapter. Okay, let's see. KB Fotalk says, awesome. Used my word in that one. Sandy Patifer says yes. Another one that stood out to me. Okay, Reiner and Alice say choice or growth. Multiplication, says Rebecca. Multiply says Tanya. Uh Debbie says growing. James says return. Uh walking with Jesus, PNW says more, more, more, more. That's my word too. My word is more. Counterpart, mission, service. Brent, great to see you, brother, says enablings. Oh, excellent. All of his biddings are enablings. Exponential, dual meaning. We are exponents of the kingdom. And there is the that math doing with exponents. I love it. Oh, that's fun. Multiplication, spend, growth, and use. More, says Game Ain 44. We have the same word. Cult or cultivate, excuse me. Trust, trustee. Oh, that's good. Oh, yeah. That is that's really good. Capacity, flourish. God gives me gifts so I can flourish. Influence, multiplication, all. More, says Maria King 186, and diligent. Um, fortify, interest. That one's kind of fun. When we take interest in others, we increase with interest for God. Very good, Deb. I love it. Coral RN says generous. Very good. We've got co-laborers. The point of the parable was to highlight what God has given us to serve and seek others. Excellent. She also uses the word cooperate quite a lot. More yield. When we yield our hearts to Jesus, we will yield in growth. Yeah, very good, aka Shaggy 99, but I already used the word yield back in like the first three or four chapters. That one wasn't available to me. Uh, training, equal opportunity, compounding. Genie, always bring in the good words. Excellent, says Stu Paul. Love it. Obligation, wholeheartedly. Kendra Lau, look at that. Yeah. Investment. Michelle says, great words, peeps. I agree, Michelle. These are great. Duty. Should. When your should is surrendered to Jesus, it becomes becomes worship instead of wait. Ooh, that's high. That is nice. That'll preach. Uh cooperation, invest, accountability, effort. You haven't seen your word yet, Nathan? No. Okay. Increase. Bounteous. Character would have been a good word, but I already used that, says Maria. Multiply. Compounding is good. Growing says good. We haven't seen your word. Nathan, is your word absurd? No. My word is progress. Oh, progress? I like it. 303 Syzygy says math is my word. Oh, that's good. That's really good. Math is mathing. Snowball says out to chat, rolling downhill. The bigger it gets, the bigger it gets, the more it rolls, just like our talents. Oh, that's good. The snowball effect. Service, says Reiner or Alice, aka Shaggy 99, says Andrew's word is influencer. I like it. Yeah. Like a true influencer. David, check out House of David on Prime Video. There you will see David slay the giant in true mesoretic fashion. Okay, I'll have to check that out. Because I was not very happy with the uh animated version of David. There was not even any head chopping. I want to see Goliath's head paraded around. That's what the Bible says. I'm a biblical Christian. Uh dash E-707. Second word is tools and aim and growth and growth and following and use, says Arlene. Willing, says Todd. Tara says growth. Marco says improve. Bob Big Sky says almost use progress. It looks like you were the only one with progress. And I love it. Yeah. Why did progress jump out to you? Well, it's because you just kind of start with what you got and you just kind of little by little make progress. Yeah. You know, I mean it's love it. I I like the financial ones that that people used, like investment, trustee, founding. Yeah, those were good. Woo, so good. Um, by the way, Nathan, uh, tomorrow we're going to be dealing with one of Jesus' hardest parables. Luke 16, the unjust steward. I love that parable. Dude, I love that parable. You know what I love about it? What? Is that it's right next to the rich man and Lazarus. Which is the other very difficult parable. But what I love about the Luke 16, uh the unjust servant is that it's like, all right, if we want to take the rich man and Lazarus literally, then what about this? Keep your powder dry. Keep your powder dry. We're talking about that tomorrow. Tomorrow night we're in Luke 16, everybody. This has been uh a great session, double session with Nathan. Really glad to do it with you here. Uh if you wouldn't have been here, Nathan, it probably would have probably would have taken me five sessions to get through the talents chair. Because I just I go slow and I just drag it out. So having you here helped me to keep moving along. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My word was more. I just loved that section, and my promise was built around that. Uh I actually read it. Somebody might have guessed that that was my section, but where she just says, more and more, more. This is on pages 429 to 431 or 430 of the original 354, 355. She's like, more, more and more, more, more, more and more, more and more, more, more divine fervor, more of reality, more earnest, more prayerful. God will give us more. I just love the more. Which is very much like progress. And very much like compounding, and a lot of really great words here. We love you guys so much. We will see you tomorrow night. We're gonna go rock climbing tomorrow, God willing. How are you how's your leg feeling? Feels pretty good. Yeah. Did you overdo it yesterday? No, not too much. You just did it. Yeah. You didn't overdid it. I did it. You did it. Um, we love you all so much. We are going to enjoy some more of Violetta's delicious cooking. We're gonna go rock climbing tomorrow uh at the gym, and we're gonna study this chapter. And Nathan's probably got pastoral work to do, and I've got to get to these YouTube comments, which I'm way behind on now. I was I was all caught up, and I've not answered one comment in like six days. So I'm gonna have hundreds of comments to respond to. All right. Uh Nathan, can you have our closing verse? Sure. Father, thank you for the high calling that you've placed upon us. Father, we are delighted and honored to be your trustees. We are hope hopeful and working to add to our gifts and watch you multiply. Yes. To see uh more good things happen as we progress in this life. Use us, God, to be forces for good in the world. Please. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We love you all so much. Night