10 More Minutes
Welcome to Ten More Minutes, a podcast original from CrossPointe Church where we take a little extra time each week to sit with Sunday’s message. Hosted by Ryan Ritchie and Pastor David Rogers. Hardly a week goes by where we don’t wish we had more time. The dreaded clock moves fast! So, if something from this past Sunday stayed with you — stirred you, challenged you, or left you wanting a little more — this is that space.
10 More Minutes
Ten More Minutes on Elijah & Faith
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He poured water on the altar on purpose. Not a little. Enough to make success impossible unless God showed up. That one choice turns Elijah’s Mount Carmel showdown (1 Kings 18) into a piercing question for our lives: do we actually trust the one true God, or do we keep a hidden escape route that protects our pride?
We sit down with Pastor David for our season one finale of 10 More Minutes and slow-walk the story behind the fire. We talk about Elijah’s “hidden place” before the big moment, when God tells him to depart and hide and then provides in a way Elijah can’t control. That quiet season becomes a blueprint for spiritual formation, prayer, and dependence on God when no one is watching. If you’ve ever felt sidelined or stuck, we explore how God can teach and shape you there.
From the soaked altar, we pivot into a common Christian cliché: “God helps those who help themselves.” Where does it come from, what’s true in it, and what does it get dangerously wrong? We dig into the balance between responsibility and reliance, then confront idolatry as it actually shows up in modern life: money, success, people-pleasing, relationships, and even a made-up version of God who exists to endorse our wants. We also highlight 2 Peter 1 and what we’re meant to “supplement” faith with so it becomes effective and fruitful.
If this conversation helps you, subscribe for season two, share it with a friend or your group, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one “backup plan” you need to put down so trust in God can be real?
Welcome And Season One Finale
SPEAKER_00Well, welcome back to 10 More Minutes. This is an original podcast from Cross Point Church, and we're diving in to episode 13. We're excited today because not only is it another episode where we've got Pastor David back in with us and we get to reflect on Sunday's message, but this is going to be our last one for season one. We've kind of explored this podcast avenue and it's been really neat to slow down, to take a break, and to sit with these messages a little more. We're going to take a break for the summer and come back with even better at the beginning of next semester. And so honestly, when we started this, we kind of thought we were just maybe taking a simple sermon follow-up podcast, but I think we've enjoyed it maybe more than what we originally thought we would. And uh and so I think we've loved it and looking forward to doing it again today. So Sunday's message, it's a fitting place, I think, for us to close off. But man, what a great one from Elijah on Mount Carmel and learning this incredible picture of faith and seeing what God can do with that. And and so let's come back to it and let's take for the last time in season one, 10 more minutes.
Memorial Day And Star Wars Chat
SPEAKER_00All right, we're back.
SPEAKER_01All right.
SPEAKER_00Hey, Pastor David. Thanks for being back with us, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm excited to be here.
SPEAKER_00How was your memorial day?
SPEAKER_01Uh Memorial Day was great. Yeah, I'd like to be able to spend some time working in the yard. I even got on the roof and blew off some pine straw.
SPEAKER_00We did the classic grilled burgers and dogs and had the families over and had a real good time. Went and saw the Star Wars movie. Oh, did you? I like Star Wars. Yeah. It was good.
SPEAKER_01I'd heard there was one out. I hadn't seen it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean a lot of creepy monsters and aliens and things, but it was fun. So we enjoyed it. Cool. Hey,
Elijah’s Hidden Place Preparation
SPEAKER_00we start here every week. Um, you went to uh 1 Kings 18 and we were on Mount Carmel with Elijah seeing this battle between false gods and the real God, the one true God.
SPEAKER_01One of my favorite stories.
SPEAKER_00It was an awesome story. It's a neat story to read, but you did a great job depicting it for us and and giving us lessons on faith. And so uh as you look back on that, maybe there's something that uh didn't quite make it in on Sunday, or you want to add to your message. What would you do if you had 10 more minutes?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, first of all, let me just say, you know, uh, I know in the intro here we talked a little bit about just this being our final episode uh for season one. That feels weird to me. I don't know about to you, but it it seems a little bit uh weird that we would be wrapping up a season because I have enjoyed it so much, really. It's it's interesting uh to think that anybody's interested at all in 10 more minutes of a message, you know. But I I'm thankful for that. And we've gotten a lot of good good feedback, and so uh I'm glad that people are interested in hearing more, you know. And I can't wait till after the summer and we kind of come back and see what we want to do here. So uh, but getting back to your question, you know, um I think uh one of the areas um of Elijah's story that I would have really liked to have dug into more, and I touched on it, but you know, one of the problems with uh uh preaching through the Old Testament, not that it's a problem, but you you you know, you're not there as much uh, you know, normally in the life of the church. And so you have to offer so much background.
SPEAKER_00Man, you did. You went through a lot of background in a short period of time on Sunday. I thought you did a great job covering it, but there's a lot sometimes in the gaps of going, okay, here's a character, but let me tell you where this all comes from and kind of where some of this uh attention comes from.
SPEAKER_01And if you don't do that, then you just feel like the people don't understand the message, right? And so uh because you have to do that, you don't have the time that you would really like to dig into some of the the issues. But one of the things I love about Elijah is first of all, and I uh is the fact that he just comes on the scene so quickly. Yeah. You know, uh, first Kings 17, Elijah was told to go to Ahab.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, and and you're like, who's this Elijah guy? Right? Where did he come from? Yeah, you know, and uh and so Well, it's almost like the readers would have known who he was. Oh right, right. It would have been like they they knew, but they're like, they're they've been waiting for Elijah to come on the scene for a long time.
SPEAKER_00That's true. I was just commenting about the Star Wars thing with some friends of mine that when you watch some of these Mandalorian episodes or these new Star Wars shows that they have out, there's a big buildup to this real cool character that comes on, and it's like, okay, they're obviously pointing to the idea that I should know who that character is, but I don't. And it's some character that was from the cartoon series I've never watched before. Exactly. But they're like they everyone watching is supposed to know who that is, and there's a big buildup to it. It kind of feels like what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. But we we have Elijah, he comes on the on the scene here, and we are literally introduced to him uh where he is telling Ahab, there will be no rain until the Lord says it'll be rain, right? And so such a bold sort of prediction that there's going to be drought, you know, and there's gonna be drought for a while. And uh and then immediately in verse three, it says this says, Depart from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself. I think what I would have loved to had more time to do is speak into the hidden places that we often find ourselves in. And uh I had so much to say that I had to cut out this week, uh, talking about the hidden places. And as as I think about that, I think typically when we think of hiding, we think of sort of being cowardly. Yeah, we don't see cowardness in in Elijah. You know, I mean he's pretty bold, right? Um, but we uh but but yet God instructs him to go into hiding. And uh what I love about that as you study it is the fact that he is being taught in the hiding place. God has this way of teaching him what he needs to know, preparation for ministry. Yeah, and I love that. Uh I know for me before God called me into ministry, uh, I'd been through a very difficult time in my life personally. And um uh I would have never seen it as God placing me there really. I in fact, in a lot of ways, I kind of see uh that time as being something that I was responsible for because of maybe some sin in my life, you know. Yeah, but I found myself in this place and and it I certainly as I look back at that, it was a place of hiding. But I couldn't have been taught the lessons that God taught me anywhere but there. And so when I look at this and I see Elijah being brought on, the lesson here obviously for I think Elijah is one of reliance, reliance on God. And in fact, we see here at the beginning of this this uh chapter here where God says, You're gonna go there and you're gonna hide, and you're not even gonna be able to provide for yourself. I'm gonna have to send food for you uh through the ravens. Right. You know, the ravens are gonna bring you food and uh and and God provided for him. And so uh this time of God preparing him for what's ahead, uh, man, I I really wish I could have dug into that.
SPEAKER_00I mean You sort of touched on it a little bit. I did. And I what I took away from what you had shared on Sunday was um you know, it wasn't like Mount Carmel was the first time that Elijah had seen the faithfulness of God or had seen the hand of God. No, you know, so there's a confidence that he was resting in, not of his own ability. Before he ever got to not of his, you know, faithfulness, but of understanding, okay, I I know that there's a God that I can trust in and rely on. And and it's from seasons like this, right? That's right. Um, so we can't just show up at big moments in our life and think that all of a sudden we're gonna have some remarkable thing take place through us if we're not really diligent in the hiding places. That's right. You know, in the secret places. I feel like the the author of Psalms kind of calls it in the secret place. In the secret place. You know, and sometimes we don't really understand. I think I've glossed over in the secret place so many times when I read Psalm 90 and not understand exactly what the psalmist is saying, but I think it's referring to the same kind of thing you're talking about, right? Of getting away with God. And while we're alone with him in the secret place, he's forming us, he's growing us, he's molding us, he's shaping us. Um, I said to my kids this past week, and I can't even remember now what we were talking about, but I just said, hey guys, who you are when no one's watching is who you are.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Who you are when no one's watching is who you are, and and that's really because that's when God is with us, you know. That that's when we can get with Him, or that's when we can be tempted away by other spiritual realms, you know. And so, man, what a great, what a great point of emphasis there. Um
Dousing The Altar With Water
SPEAKER_00the one thing that I wanted to go back to for a minute and and and maybe change the narrative of I want to ask you a question. I just hit the microphone. My bad. That should be a dollar in the jar. Um is uh you talked about this idea that that that uh I Elijah almost said Isaiah puts God more on the test even than maybe what we would have done. Like he fills the whole thing with water, right? Douses it in water. And now it's not just that God has to bring fire down from heaven and to burn up this altar, it's that you know, we've got to do it in a way that doesn't seem physically possible. Right. We've now made the challenge greater than something we could accomplish. And um, you know, you you brought this up on Sunday of just uh, you know, we're we're we're gonna bring glory to God and to to God alone. You know, it kind of breaks the conventional molds. It made me think of if there was any time in my life, I don't know about you, where like someone has oversold your uh ability. Oh yeah. You know what I mean? Like David, oh man, this guy can really cut some wood. You know, like he can build some stuff. You you should see what David could build. You're over there going, nope, that's not that good. Like, you know, sort of oversold. And so Elijah's over there overselling what God can do. You know, you should see this guy burn an altar up. We could douse this thing in water and he will still do it phenomenally. And of course, there's no way you could oversell God, right? And so it was just pointing to how much faith that uh that Elijah had. Um, but but sometimes it leads us to this place of thinking too. Um if if Elijah really was trying to prove that he could manufacture God doing this thing, he wouldn't have done that.
SPEAKER_01No. Because he'd had to have a way to light that fire. Yeah, right. Like he it if he if it was gonna be magic, so to speak. Right, right.
SPEAKER_00Like he yeah, he would not have done that, right? And so it's it's a it's a breaking of conventional molds altogether, and there's something where he doesn't leave himself in escape route, right? That is is really marvelous to me. Like what happens, he is setting himself up for an all or nothing thing here. That's right. You know, God's gonna do it, or these people are gonna kill me. Or you know, I'm I'm gonna be totally on the spot for this thing because I've now just made a complete fool of myself if God doesn't show up. And what a terrifying and remarkable place for us to try and put ourselves in.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00So much faith that we're putting ourselves on the line if God doesn't come through.
SPEAKER_03That's right.
SPEAKER_00That that's what I took away from this.
God Helps Those Who Help Themselves?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But then the reverse question also came to my mind because I've heard this before in my life. I'm curious what your thoughts are on it. Is the whole um, you know, old adage, God helps those that helps themselves. Like in this scenario, Elijah really wasn't helping himself.
SPEAKER_01No, he wasn't.
SPEAKER_00He wasn't getting any closer to the goal he had in mind by doing what he did. No, but he was going so far out on a faith limb, you know, that God had to follow through or he was going to collapse, you know, or he was gonna fall. Um, and so it doesn't seem to go down this same train of thought as God helps those that helps themselves. No, I wonder what you think about this. So I I I saw this sketch on Jay Leno one time, long time ago, because Jay Leno's like not on TV anymore. Right. Or he just does cars. I don't know. Is he still around?
SPEAKER_01Uh I don't think he still does a lot with the cars, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So he did a sketch and it was one of those like man on the street sketches where Jay Leno goes out with a microphone. Yeah, I saw several of those. Yeah, and he interviews people randomly on the street kind of thing. And the one question that this sketch that he asked was, Can you name one of the Ten Commandments out on the street? This is Jay Leno, this is the tonight show. Really weird that he would ask that question, right? But that was the question. Can you name one of the Ten Commandments? And by far, the one thing that people said was one of the Ten Commandments was God helps those that help themselves. Really? That was the number one. Like over and over again, people kept saying that. Oh, wow. Which of course is not in the Ten Commandments. You know, and I have a funny thing that I feel like you could probably try and survey the church today and ask people to name like the number, like name commandment number five, and like no one would know what it is. I feel like we could probably get to five or six of knowing them. We wouldn't know how they were ordered or what I don't know. I just it's one of those things kind of like Ross was saying a couple weeks ago, like we don't we don't know scripture as well as we think we do. Right. And I wish we did, because I wish we took it a little bit more like to heart sort of thing. Um, but anyway, this was a weird man on the street. He says that was the thing that people thought was like nowhere in scripture is that even found. Right, that's right. And then I got to thinking, where is it from? Where do we get it from? It's kind of like a Greek uh philosophy thing, okay, but it was coined in English from Benjamin Franklin in his poor man's almanac, is kind of where it kind of is is stems from in culture today. And so we sort of quote it almost like it's something that we've heard so many times before. Michael was talking about one from the pulpit a couple weeks ago of how uh God will never give you more than you can handle. That that's another kind of phrase that is like half scripture, but we sort of have made up a phrase that is not really in scripture. This is one of them, and I'm really curious what you think of it. Like is this something that you subscribe to, don't subscribe to? Where do you find it? How do you think of it? But I I was thinking of it almost as you were you were speaking on Sunday. Um, you know, of like, all right, this seems to fly in the face of that, what Elijah's doing here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, uh I haven't really put a lot of thought to that saying. Uh I haven't heard it in a long time, but um, but I um uh I agree with you that that we don't see that in scripture, but but then again, there's a lot of things like this that we hear all the time uh that seem to have enough truth in it that it seems sort of believable. Yeah um, you know, uh we we hear those uh things uh one of that I've heard before is uh we've got to put feet to those prayers. Yeah. You know, uh sort of talking about like we can pray and we can ask God to do this or that, but really we've got to be proactive and do it. And so it kind of puts it on us to carry out what we're actually praying to God to do. Yeah right. And so, but there's enough truth in it then that if God's calling you to do something and you're praying about it, maybe you need to now accept the calling and go do it. So so I think it a lot of times we find those kind of sayings so confusing. Yeah, you know, and certainly people in the church they hear it and they they think, oh, it must be coming straight out of scripture.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, but I think it's probably not a one-size-fits-all. Like it's right, it it there's some truth, but then some balance that we need to have in the way that we think about all that. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01But you know, I I think um, you know, the Bible talks a lot about us uh taking responsibility for the things that God has called us to or to uh to even work hard. I love what 1 Thessalonians 3 10 says. It says, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, so God calls us to work, for sure, calls us to do things. And there's no doubt that uh in this challenge that Elijah presented to Ahab and all the people of Israel and all the prophet, false prophets that had gathered there that day, um, you know, he he was the one who built the altar. He was the one who uh, you know, called for the dousing of water, he put the the sacrifice on the altar, you know. So there were things that he was doing. Um, but ultimately, I think when it comes to the story of Elijah, uh he he is so reliant upon God to do the work that he he doesn't go a step further to remove what you're talking about here. Um, you know, um uh to God helps those who help themselves. Yeah. Uh it's like you said, Elijah was doing nothing to help himself. Yeah. He he was getting back to the heart of this being about the God revealing himself as the God of the uh of of Israel, yeah, you know, and the one true God and the only true God, right? And uh and so um No, I I don't know, it's it's it's interesting to think about, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think it can be like if we get down to the minute of for sure, God calls us to work and to be um you know people of on task, you know, and and on mission. And I think that that has a a definite role in it. Um as in uh we we can't just uh get saved and then go to sleep.
SPEAKER_01Right. Just leave it to God. Yeah, just I mean God has called us to do particular things, you know, and uh and he's certainly gonna uh if we're faithful in the things that God's called us to, then he's gonna I think he's gonna reward those things that we do for his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00It does let me think of the order of those things.
SPEAKER_01But it's it's the order. That's right.
SPEAKER_00It's not like I'm helping myself and then God comes alongside and says, okay, fine. Because you're helping yourself, do what's the things in your life. It's like, no, God is the one who's the source of all things. That's right. And through God's strength, through the strength and the blood of Jesus Christ, now we have the ability, you know, to actually do this on mission and on task for his purposes, right? And there's many scriptures I I wrote down. Oh yeah. John 15, 5, apart from me, you can do nothing. Right. Abide in me, if I abide in you, apart from me, you can do nothing. Matthew 9, 12, he says, those who are well have no need of a physician. That's right. Right. And so if we've just decided that we're all good by ourselves and we're just going to take care of as much as we can take care of before we need God, that's not how God works. He comes to heal the sick. And so there's times where we have to realize we need him before all things, right? Luke 19, 10 came to seek and save the lost, not the found. Uh Proverbs 16, 9, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Right. And so even though we've done the work of creating some plans and having some effectiveness, we need the Lord to actually see those plans through, to actually establish our way and our steps. So there's a balance of responsibility and still remaining fully dependent on God in all of that. So that's kind of where I went. Um let's go to segment two here.
Idols And The Habit Of Substituting
SPEAKER_00We'll sit with the text a little bit longer. You did a great job on Sunday. It was really a passionate message, but a real entertaining one too. Awesome story in scripture. Scripture's fun to read. There's some really cool stories in scripture. And so you you kind of talked about this should be a movie. Somebody's got to make one somewhere. It'd be a really neat one.
SPEAKER_01It's a great one. It would be a good one.
SPEAKER_00So look back on the message for a minute. Tell me somewhere you'd want to go back and spend 10 more minutes on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, and I've touched a little bit about this, but looking looking at the message and thinking through it, uh, the first point that I made was faith calls us to trust in God alone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, and uh I brought in this idea of how idolatry creeps into our life. Yeah. And um, and boy, we could have spent the whole time. I mean, I could have had one point and just dealt with that one. Um I believe as looking at the text here, that the people of Israel, I I don't I believe they wanted a relationship with God. You know, they they they they believed in Yahweh. You know, I I don't think they were denying who he was or anything.
SPEAKER_00I think that uh that, you know, um, I mean honestly, I'm gonna stop for a second because that right there, I've read this before several times. I kind of forgot some of that. Uh-huh. There were two things that I forgot. We'll get to the other one in a minute, but I sort of forgot this was the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right. He that was the part of who he called, all the people of Israel. Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_00You know, part of the world. This often gets framed as like false gods against God. Right. False prophets against Elijah. And I was like, I kind of forgot this is this is Ahab. This is the king of Israel. Right. You know, the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01In fact, and in fact, it's it's a duel for those people. Yeah. If you think about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, in some ways, I mean, uh, I think that's why Elijah said, bring all the people of Israel. Yeah. Because I want them to see that you guys are misleading them and and that the the one true God of Israel wants to save them. I think that's why, you know, we when we see that, he says, Bring all the people of Israel. Let's let's don't leave anybody out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01They need to all be here to see all this go down.
SPEAKER_00But it's really neat how you're framing that. Of like they they they wanted to be called people of God.
SPEAKER_01That's right. That's right. And so I think I think in in some ways, and I think it happens today, you know, uh in so many ways. You know, we uh we worship so many other things besides God. Yeah, you know, and uh it's uh uh those we allow those idols to creep into our life, you know, the pursuit of money, you know, which I use the scripture where Jesus says you cannot serve two masters, right? And but the pursuit of money and how you know we have a problem arise in our life and uh you know we think we can buy our way out, or if we just had enough money, we could get through this problem.
SPEAKER_00Or even in ways we don't quite understand that we're going that far. Right. Our whole life is just ordered from wake to sleep toward the pursuit of the wealth and accumulation of that's right, or success.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, uh, you know, just fame, glory for ourselves, you know. Uh relationships can stand in the way of us and God. Yeah, you know. Um, you know, we we can have uh a relationship with someone who's who's fallen apart and we just feel as though that is our entire life. Our identity is tied up in this relationship, and we forget, no, our identity's uh in Christ, yeah, you know, and uh and And so there's so many things that can creep into our life um that we uh we there was there was a book I read in seminary and it was called When When People Are Big and God is Small. And it's talking about it was the most convicting book I think I've ever read. And it was uh because I began to see how many times I place people uh above God. You know, it's the fear of man. I mean, we're we're more scared of the people that we have relationships here on this earth than we are of God sometimes, you know. What will some so-and-so think of me? Huh?
SPEAKER_00I'm writing that down.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and so it's uh it's a it's a powerful book, and uh, and it was it was it was just so convicting to me because I think you know, in my life, uh there were so many times, especially uh in my early Christian days, and even in early in those uh early times of of being in ministry, coming into ministry, and you know, I feared what people would think of me. I feared what people might say if I if I if I presented a particular thought that I felt God was calling us to, and I was more concerned, you know, and and you we've always heard this uh, you know, that when we preach, we are preaching to an audience of one. Well, are we really?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01Or are we worried about how people are gonna respond to the message?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, are we are we taking the response to a message that we are preaching and placing that ahead of what God actually thinks of our study time, our preparation time? Yeah, right. You know what I mean? And so uh I think in a lot of ways, I mean, I can't I look at the people of Israel here and I'm like, well, I'm just like you in so many ways.
SPEAKER_00And you you made this phrase, uh I'm not gonna do a great job quoting it, but you said uh faith begins when we stop substituting. Oh yes. And we start trusting.
SPEAKER_01Right. And when you said substituting substituting those things we trust in.
SPEAKER_00Right. Um that's was that the quote? Right. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. I on I thought of also the word just as you were preaching, the word supplementing. Because I feel like that's a lot of what we try to do too. I want you said, I want my cake and I want to eat it too, which by the way, I was thinking about that phrase. That phrase does not make sense at all. I want to have my cake and eat it too. I know. Everyone has their cake and eats it too. The phrase should be, I want to eat my cake and have it too.
SPEAKER_01Right, that's right. That's what it should be. I want to eat it, but I want it to still be there when I'm done.
SPEAKER_00But I want it to still be there when I'm done. That's I think what it's supposed to mean. Anyway, that's my little sidetrack on that.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, I th I think you're right on when you say supplement. Yeah. Because that's exactly what was happening with them. Yeah. You know, they they were still uh doing the things that a good Israelite should do. They were still worshiping Yahweh, they were still worshiping the God of Israel. But then, but then when there was no rain or their crops were not doing well, they were turning to Baal, and they're saying, Hey, uh, you know, I don't want to bother my God with this, so I'm coming to you, you know, and and and they were supplementing their worship, yeah. Uh which is spiritual compromise, right?
SPEAKER_00And I think too, when when we look at the second commandment, if I give my order right here, um, which talks about idol worship, a lot of times we'll look at the second commandment and we'll think of it as idols we're putting on the throne of God or putting in place of God. In place of God. Right. When I think in reality, if you go back and read it, the the commandment actually reads like, you should not make an image of God. Right. Of Yahweh. Right. Right. And so a lot of times the way I think we most easily break the second commandment is by thinking of God different than who he is. Right. And now we have a relationship with a God that we've created. That we've created, yeah. That isn't really who he is. And some of the ways we do that, this I think is maybe the most popular. We'll use a phrase like this, and we use this in relationships a lot, which is not healthy either. We'll say, Well, if God loves me, then he wants me to have this. Oh yeah. Or he wants me to do this. If God loves me, then he'll give me this, you know, and we'll cry out in our thinking of the love of God as if happiness is equivalent to holiness, right? And we'll begin to pursue things and create for ourselves an image of God that isn't true in our lives, and then call on that God for the things that we want and not to the one true God. And I think we're more guilty of that maybe than we would like to admit at times, you know, of supplementing other things. We want to be believers in God. We want to go to church, we want people in our community to know that we're Christians, but we also would like to live, you know, this way. You know, we also would like uh everybody else to think that we're cool or that we fit in or that we're a part of these other groups as well, and we can't really go both directions at the same time. And you might think, well, well, if God loves me, he kind of wants me to have all of this stuff, but that's now us sort of creating for ourselves an image of God that isn't really true. And I don't know if that's exactly where the nation of Israel was at this time, but it sounds very familiar to us and is something we could definitely take a um, you know, a moment to pause and reflect on, you know, just how much are we following the one true God, just how much do we know him? Right, you know, are we pursuing greater knowledge of him? I wanted to read uh a passage from 2 Peter, and and if you'd forgive me for reading a longer passage here, okay. Um, but this I thought fit really well with where you were at on Sunday, but it says in 2 Peter chapter 1, for this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith. And there's that word supplement. And so rather than supplementing your faith with other things that you could come up with for happiness's sake or for you to fit in, or for whatever other God you might think is taking the place of God, it says, supplement your faith with virtue. Right. With supplement virtue with knowledge, supplement knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right. And I thought, man, that's real poignant for what we should be supplementing our faith with. We should be supplementing our faith with the fruits that only the Spirit can bring to us, right? And we should be seeking to live and to grow in these traits and in these qualities so that our faith is not ineffective. And that's what I kind of feel like maybe this nation of Israel is an ineffective bunch. Here's Elijah displays faith, and it's a very effective faith. That's right. And here's 850 other prophets and a nation following these prophets, completely ineffective. Right. You know, makes me think of uh of James 2 a little bit as well. And and faith without works is dead, is useless, is worthless, right? And so, man, uh we need to be able to follow through on the qualities that God calls us to in order to have a useful and an effective faith. Absolutely, you know. So really, really neat.
Summer Break And What’s Next
SPEAKER_00Um, hey, let's close up today and and just sort of maybe talk about the future for a second. So um before we close this one out, we we do want to say thank you, David. You mentioned it earlier. We've had so many people that have stopped us on a Sunday morning and have just mentioned how much they've enjoyed listening to this and following along with it. Um we've had a a handful of life group leaders that have stopped us and said this has been a useful tool in their leadership. And they've liked watching these during life group time or sitting with their life group members and listening to it. And so thank you for following along and for taking hold of it and and uh you know for for playing along with us. Absolutely. This kind of started as a fun little pet project, you know. Uh God spoke to each of us individually over the Christmas break. And then we came and I remember sitting in your office going, like, hey, I think I want to start a podcast. What do you think about that? And you were like, actually, I think God was telling me the same thing, you know. And so we really were excited about seeing what God could do with it. This this was a really neat little follow-up idea, and uh maybe the easy on-ramp to being able to get a podcast off the ground, right, test all of our equipment. True's been doing a phenomenal job producing the whole thing, and uh, and so very, very grateful for that. But maybe we've got some bigger ideas for things we could do in the future, more topics we could cover, you know, different discussions we could have, maybe adding some more of the guests to the group and adding some more microphones in here. What what are your some thoughts on where you want to see this go in the future?
SPEAKER_01Well, no, you're hitting me with something I hadn't thought a lot of, but I know we're going to be talking about it over the summer. Uh no, I think bringing in some people uh to uh some some guests would be really cool. Yeah, you know, uh bringing some people in that uh, you know, it's somebody somebody said to me uh while I was gone, uh Linnell and I were away for a couple of weeks, and and they said, you know, we've we've got a lot of great uh pastors uh that can fill the pulpit, right? But uh and we do. I mean, all of you guys can just, you know, fill in. And I know you guys are chomping it a bit to also preach sometimes, but but there's a lot of other friends that we have in ministry that uh I would love to bring in as well. And so it could be that uh not just on you know to bring them in on a Sunday morning to preach, but bring them in for a podcast. You know, I I I I know several people that I think would be really interested in joining us here. And so I I think as we uh take a little break over the summer and uh and think about some things we could do, I think we come up with some really good creative ideas to uh we want it to be a help to you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's right. We want it to be something that it's a resource for you, something you can continue to share. Thank you for sharing it. Yep, and uh something that maybe can uh supplement your faith journey and uh and help you continue to grow and to learn. Um and so, David, I appreciate you bringing some vision and some heart to it and joining me on a fun little side hustle for a little bit. So it's been a lot of fun. Yep. Uh, you know, thank you for for joining us even today, and we pray that you would just take this message with you as you go, that it wouldn't just stay on Sunday morning, but it's something we can continue to slow down with and reach out to God of how we can apply all of this to our lives. It's useless to us unless we put it to action.
SPEAKER_03That's right.
SPEAKER_00Right. And so let's continue to do that. And so all summer long, y'all continue to take 10 more minutes with your family, with your small groups, with your friends, and we'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Take care.