SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_04: Well, this will be a little bit different kind of service, um, as Neil's already said.
SPEAKER_04: Um, and I hope that it's uh it's uh sweet and good time for you and for your soul.
SPEAKER_04: I've been here for two services already today, and it's been so good for me just to be with people who are so kind and gracious and and receiving me and so don't mess that up, I g I guess is what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04: Just kidding.
SPEAKER_04: I um I I really feel honored, you know.
SPEAKER_04: You guys have a fantastic preacher in Neil, and for me to have this spot for a few minutes is a real honor.
SPEAKER_04: I um so so a a big part of my story at this this point in my my life, you know, is this thing that happened with my dad and and and my family, and it's just kind of taken over, you know, when you when you when you lose someone close to you, um it just sort of takes over.
SPEAKER_04: And and I don't know how how many of you have been through those kinds of things and how you responded, but it's it's funny how how much um I thought I I understood those kinds of things when I was uh outside looking in.
SPEAKER_04: I would see people uh hurting uh from something and and I I don't think I consciously thought this all the time, but I occasionally thought things like, hey, that happened a while ago, it's so it should be you should be fine now.
SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04: And it's just weird how it's not necessarily like that.
SPEAKER_04: And everyone handles these things differently.
SPEAKER_04: And it isn't about how strong you are or any of that.
SPEAKER_04: But I just I just haven't been able to shake it, you know, uh as quickly as I would like, that that that my dad uh died in this accident.
SPEAKER_04: He he went uh fishing with my brother and some friends and he was out at the coast and he drowned, and it was this really sort of sudden thing where uh you know we get this call late at night, you know, and the calls the calls that happen l late at night are always kind of scary, and this one ended up being just as scary as you thought, you know.
SPEAKER_04: So anyway, it just sort of set our family on this path, you know, and and uh taking care of my mom now.
SPEAKER_04: I live in the same town where she lives, so that wasn't what I was planning on doing with these years of my life, you know.
SPEAKER_04: Um I had other plans.
SPEAKER_04: I got my four kids, I wanted to take care of them and do chase career dreams and those kinds of things, and so it it just kind of, you know, in addition to losing my dad, there was a bunch of selfish little things I don't even want you to know about that that got me a bit upset, you know.
SPEAKER_04: Life as I knew it, life as I wanted it ended.
SPEAKER_04: And and I I've told people it's like someone had a plan to ruin my sort of weak, shaky faith in the Lord, and they did everything right.
SPEAKER_04: And then somehow, uh I don't know, it's like that shake weaky faith actually did get ruined, and it was like it was like resurrected as something more.
SPEAKER_04: And I just believe in God more than than I did.
SPEAKER_04: And that's not to say that that's that's that's how you all should feel.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_04: I hope you do, and I hope I continue to believe in God more.
SPEAKER_04: But as of as of now, it's like all these efforts were taken to ruin me, and somehow they didn't work.
SPEAKER_04: Um praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: So anyway, I want to play a song for you that kind of came out of that stuff.
SPEAKER_04: It's called More Now.
SPEAKER_04: I remember when I was young, so carefree and una free.
SPEAKER_04: Every doubt could be overcome with a childlike fate.
SPEAKER_04: But the day of my trial would come like an earthquake in my belief, and the doubts I could not outrun brought me to my knees, and I thought I was done, and I almost gave up, but you kept me from going down.
SPEAKER_04: Now I can't streak this truth after all.
SPEAKER_04: I've been through somehow.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I believe in you more now.
SPEAKER_04: So I don't need to understand if you pushed me or let me fall.
SPEAKER_04: The illusion of my control is chattered and been replaced with a hunger deep in my soul and a childlike place.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, cause I thought I was done, and I almost gave up, but you kept me from going down.
SPEAKER_04: Now I can't check this truth after all.
SPEAKER_04: I've been through somehow.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I believe in you more now.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I believe in you.
SPEAKER_04: Oh I believe there are questions and may not get answers, no matter the prayers that we pray.
SPEAKER_04: I believe when it feels like the whole world is breaking, and somehow your hope still remains.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I believe though we're dying, still you are healing and raising us up from the grave.
SPEAKER_04: No even death cannot steal us away.
SPEAKER_04: Cause I thought I was done, and I almost gave up, but you kept me from going down, and now I can't shake this truth after all I've been through some.
SPEAKER_04: Oh I believe in you, I thought I was done, and I almost gave up, but you kept me from going down now.
SPEAKER_04: After all I've been through some.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I believe in you, Mo.
SPEAKER_04: Thanks.
SPEAKER_04: Um well I noticed there weren't a lot of Christian songs about depression.
SPEAKER_04: And uh Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_04: Um it's not uh safe for the whole family, as they say.
SPEAKER_04: Um that's a little that's a little jab, sorry, I was like a little jab at the Christian station.
SPEAKER_04: I I'm not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_04: Um no, it just it's not something we talk about in church all that much, and not certainly not on on Christian radio radio stations.
SPEAKER_04: And I had gone I was going through some stuff that I had never gone through, you know, and I found out that that was they were calling it depression.
SPEAKER_04: And my whole life people would say this person's depressed, and I'd say, Oh, okay, I guess they're sad, you know, and I'm sorry they're sad, and I'll pray for them to not be sad.
SPEAKER_04: And there's sadness associated with with depression.
SPEAKER_04: I and I'm no psychologist, so I won't try to get into all the specifics, but there's something different happening.
SPEAKER_04: At least at least at least for me, I just kind of had a lack of feeling, really.
SPEAKER_04: You know, it wasn't like I felt sad, I just didn't feel anything, and I didn't want anyone talking to me, and I would avoid your phone calls, you know, and and uh I felt pressure all the time to be someone.
SPEAKER_04: It was like a weird thing, you know, it was like a cloud or or a heavy, heavy blanket over me.
SPEAKER_04: And I just didn't know what to do with it.
SPEAKER_04: And then I felt shame because I couldn't quit feeling it, you know, and I had this job of I'm a big elder and a part-time pastor at my church, so I had this job I'm supposed to be available to people, and I didn't really want to be available, and and uh I d when they had a problem, I just thought somewhere in my darkness of my heart, I thought, ah, they have a problem.
SPEAKER_04: Now I have to not think about my problem, you know.
SPEAKER_04: That's how I felt.
SPEAKER_04: And so it was just a weird, hardened time.
SPEAKER_04: And and and I and I was too ashamed to even really talk about it, really, you know, all that much.
SPEAKER_04: And when I did talk about it, I felt like people were getting sick of me talking about it, you know.
SPEAKER_04: Just get better, Ross, is what I figured they were all saying.
SPEAKER_04: Still, you're still feeling this way?
SPEAKER_04: That's how I felt.
SPEAKER_04: So I just started, I don't know, thinking about that a lot and writing about it, and I was thinking about my music and how I sometimes I'm I feel ashamed of my music for some reason, you know, like I feel ashamed that my songs aren't good enough, or that these over here were really good and I'll never be that good again, or something.
SPEAKER_04: So anyway, I was reading reading reading in the Bible and and uh it's just a fantastic story uh in in Mark where this um Jairus is this guy who is uh who's a religious leader and he goes to Jesus and he basically says, My daughter's uh sick and not doing well, will you come heal her?
SPEAKER_04: And so Jesus rushes with him over to the to their house.
SPEAKER_04: But on the way there, this woman who apparently been sick her for her whole life, she sneaks through the crowd and touches Jesus' clothes.
SPEAKER_04: And and Jesus notices something's different, you know.
SPEAKER_04: Because he's I mean, come on, you know, someone touches clothes and he says things like power left me, you know?
SPEAKER_04: It's like it's like Hogwarts except cooler, you know, and just so cool.
SPEAKER_04: And so anyway, he um he he goes and and he and he realizes the woman's been healed by touching him, you know.
SPEAKER_04: She didn't even she didn't even get to talk to him, but she just or she did later.
SPEAKER_04: I'm saying, like in the moment she touched him and just touching him got I got got some power and she and I saw this uh uh Zacchaeus is this little guy, you know, who was ashamed because of what he'd done with the taxes and all that, and he was cheating people, and so he hides up in his tree and just hopes Jesus will walk by that he can see him, and he's like, you know, and the last thing he wanted probably wasn't Jesus to say, Hey, I'm gonna come over.
SPEAKER_04: You know, he didn't he just wanted to be up there hidden in this woman, she just wanted to touch his clothes and then sneak away.
SPEAKER_04: That's how I realize that's how I was feeling.
SPEAKER_04: You know, I just want a little bit of interaction with Jesus, but I don't want to look him in the eye, I don't want to get into some big conversation, I just want some healing and let's let's both go about our business.
SPEAKER_04: I felt so much shame.
SPEAKER_04: And uh anyway, some of you have been there or are there, so I want to sing this for you.
SPEAKER_04: This is called Love is is a hammer.
SPEAKER_04: There's something in me.
SPEAKER_04: I've been dragging it around behind me.
SPEAKER_04: Step in a movement, it reminds me that I cannot escape, and I wanna give up giving pretend this till I'm in this freedom.
SPEAKER_04: Or keep my head down, don't give you reason to look my way.
SPEAKER_04: Cause I'm too ashamed to meet your eyes to speak your name.
SPEAKER_04: Scared that I'll be held in chains, bound in lies forever, and I long to hear a sound like something metal being shattered.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, shame is a chain, love is a hammer.
SPEAKER_04: Some days I want to find you in a crowd and sneak up a ride behind you.
SPEAKER_04: Maybe touch your clothes and steal some power from you and sneak away again.
SPEAKER_04: Some days I'd rather hide out in a tree that you were walking under.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I'm praying you don't say you're coming over.
SPEAKER_04: You're kicking down my door with violent mercy, and completely taking over, and I swear I hear a sound like something metal being shattered.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, shame is a chain, love is a hammer.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, please be careful.
SPEAKER_04: The man beneath these chains is frail and fragile, and I've worn them for so long that they feel natural.
SPEAKER_04: The truth is I'm afraid, but if anyone can understand, it's you it's on your feet and hands the proof of what you did and how you suffer when the nails went in, the sound of sin forever being shattered.
SPEAKER_04: Oh shame, here's a chain, love is a hammer, oh shame, is a chain, love is a hammer.
SPEAKER_04: Thanks.
SPEAKER_04: Uh I'm trying to do something a little different at every one of the service services and then I'll play you guys something.
SPEAKER_04: I didn't play for either of the uh other ones.
SPEAKER_04: Um you know, if you read a lot of news, man, it's hard to be hopeful.
SPEAKER_04: And I won't get into all that, but I mean, if I'm honest, I there's not a lot about politics that gets me happy or or hopeful.
SPEAKER_04: And that isn't to say that some of that can't, you know, some some of our solutions can't can't come there, but man, it's hard to get hopeful looking at all that's happening with all the just, you know, all the clamoring for power that's that's going on, you know.
SPEAKER_04: And and um anyway, I I um was thinking about how just hope it's hard to find it in looking around, you know, and hearing people talk and all that, and social media is a terrible place to to try to find hope.
SPEAKER_04: Um probably the terrible place to find anything, to be honest.
SPEAKER_04: Um except maybe videos about animals doing funny stuff or something.
SPEAKER_04: Um But I I just I I wanted to write something that that said, hope will survive, hope's going to last, it's gonna outlast all this stuff, you know?
SPEAKER_04: And then I then I started thinking, yes, and there'll be a time when there's no more hope.
SPEAKER_04: See, in the end, see see hope is is when you're wanting something that hasn't come yet.
SPEAKER_04: There'll be a time in the end when all that we've wanted is has come.
SPEAKER_04: So hope will actually die at some point on this glorious day when all the things that we have desired and longed for are uh are alive and real, you know.
SPEAKER_04: So this song's about all that.
SPEAKER_04: It's called Hope Dies Last.
SPEAKER_03: I have heard some people say Hope has died, we have lost our way.
SPEAKER_03: And I admit things look bad.
SPEAKER_04: We're all broken, can't do nothing about that.
SPEAKER_04: But I've seen some in a dance that goes against our common sense.
SPEAKER_04: I know that hope is still alive and well.
SPEAKER_04: I've seen rainbows that come at the end of the storm and the numbers lay down their weapons.
SPEAKER_04: Whoa! So I know that's more than some fight in the forever home.
SPEAKER_04: Richman I'm giving up all the So I know All these broken things come past last.
SPEAKER_04: So I refuse to believe this is all I'm ever gonna be.
SPEAKER_04: And I deny the lie that's in my mind, whisperin', claiming I've already seen the best days of my life.
SPEAKER_04: I hear those points that's running through my head that telling me there's nothing left, no reason for my ho I've seen rainbows that come at the end of the storm and the numbers lay down their weapons.
SPEAKER_04: Whoa! So I'm known as one in the for.
SPEAKER_04: Richman Summon All these broken things come past Yeah And in the end when we get home, there will be no need for hope, cause every longing will be satisfied in you, and every sad and broken thing will come untrue.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I have seen the proof in rainbows that come at the end of the storm when enemies lay down their weapons and whoa.
SPEAKER_03: All these broken things shall pass.
SPEAKER_04: Oh does last Yeah Oh does last Thanks Um So I um I mean I love the Bible and I'm not a scholar or any of that, but I love reading it and and rediscovering things that I've been seeing, you know, off and on for a lot a lot of my life.
SPEAKER_04: I was raised in the church, so a lot of times the Bible stories are so familiar that I kind of forget to care or kind of forget to look and see what's there.
SPEAKER_04: And I don't know, a couple years ago I was just looking at some different stories over the course of some time and realized, man, we just kept messing up.
SPEAKER_04: We just keep messing up and God still comes after us.
SPEAKER_04: We just keep blowing it so bad and he still comes after us.
SPEAKER_04: And that that's not to like heap shame on us at all, but just to say, man, what a great news that as we continue to like sort this out and try to get better at it, God's still just patient and he's for us, and what a what a miracle.
SPEAKER_04: So I just wanted to write a write a song uh as if I was kind of the soul of man, you know, f from the beginning, and just sort of going through all the ways that we've blown it, or a lot of the ways, and saying thanks, Lord, thank you, that even though I'm just terrible at this, you still you're still for me.
SPEAKER_04: So this is called what kind of person?
SPEAKER_04: I gave my heart away for a single bite of fruit.
SPEAKER_04: I was only trying to prove I knew better.
SPEAKER_04: Then there was the day that I saw Uriah's wife.
SPEAKER_04: I had to take Uriah's life so I could get her.
SPEAKER_04: This is the story of the one you loved enough to rescue.
SPEAKER_04: So I have to ask you what kind of person would die and rise again to save the kind of person that I have always been.
SPEAKER_04: You told me I would live if I gave it all away, but it was more than I could take, cause I loved money.
SPEAKER_04: So I took thirty silver coins and gave you a kiss upon your cheek.
SPEAKER_04: Cause you weren't who I thought you'd be, and I was angry.
SPEAKER_04: This is the sordid tale of how I tried and Fail to follow, and I still don't know what kind of person would die and rise again to save the kind of person that I have always been.
SPEAKER_04: It's crazy, it's scandalous, and maybe I will never understand it.
SPEAKER_04: I'll just open up my hands and let it in.
SPEAKER_04: You freed me, though we both know I'm guilty, like for rabbit's on its technicality.
SPEAKER_03: You took the blame that should have been on me, and what kind of person would die and rise again to be my friend to be my friend, oh what kind of person would die and rise again to see the kind of person that I have always been, only God in person could be that kind of man.
SPEAKER_04: We we've been fairly serious, and I just want to give you a little give you a little break.
SPEAKER_04: And also just sort of uh remind you that I'm not a super serious, uh depressing guy, and also remind you that uh imagination and belief, uh outlandish kind of b belief is is a part of who who we are, and we lose that, right?
SPEAKER_04: So I want to play you uh a song I wrote for my kids, um just about imagination and about believing stuff that's uh that's nuts and just it's just sort of a b uh a fantasy, you know, but it but it um but but I wrote this particular song just wanting to to remind my kids to always believe, you know, and always just sort of uh be silly, you know, and to have an imagination and and uh and to laugh.
SPEAKER_04: Um the the the longer story, uh brief brief is that um briefly is that uh my kids I have four kids and they're all fairly young and they they um you know kids' music uh is really uh mostly really terrible.
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you if you listen to kids' music, but it's it's uh it's and the thing about kids is you know they they are for something um and they're for it like all the way.
SPEAKER_04: You know?
SPEAKER_04: So like if they if they love a song, they love it to death.
SPEAKER_04: You know, sort of.
SPEAKER_04: Uh you know, I was laughing, you know, just the they they'll they'll watch a movie for the first time and they'll be like, Can we watch it again?
SPEAKER_04: Right then, you know, the next day.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm thinking, I if I watch the movie, I'm like, that's really good.
SPEAKER_04: We'll see that in a year, or never, you know.
SPEAKER_04: I mean that right, but they just watch it again, you know.
SPEAKER_04: So so so if you if your kids find music that they love that you hate, you will have to hate it a lot for a long time.
SPEAKER_04: So my kids were listening to a lot of music uh a couple years ago, a few years ago, and I just was like, oh, this is terrible, you know, and and because I'm so like overconfident, which is you know an issue I have occasionally, I was like, Oh, I can write better songs than that, you know, which is terrible, terribly arrogant of me, but but I mean I did write some pretty good songs.
SPEAKER_04: Anyway, no.
SPEAKER_04: See, this is the problem.
SPEAKER_04: You you you you you you're you're already in here in the room and it's almost done, but this is the kind of person I am.
SPEAKER_04: Uh I'm I'm so I I wrote these songs, you know, um and one of them was this one, and it's just a song about you know uh believing and being silly.
SPEAKER_04: It's called it's called Lion, Monkey, Bacon Donkey.
SPEAKER_04: They'll just think they messed up.
SPEAKER_04: So here here we go.
SPEAKER_04: Oh how I wish I had a lion that was nice enough to ride on.
SPEAKER_04: He'd only roar at people who were mean to me.
SPEAKER_04: And if I had a lion that was nice enough to ride on, no one would be mean to me.
SPEAKER_04: If I had a lion someone just walked in.
SPEAKER_04: How you doing?
SPEAKER_04: Hey, this is a song about kids.
SPEAKER_04: Sorry, so just everyone say hi to her.
SPEAKER_04: Mm-mm.
SPEAKER_04: Neil does that right?
SPEAKER_04: He does that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_04: If I had a lion, I'd ride on, I would ride him all the time to make sure he got lots of exercise.
SPEAKER_04: If I had a lion, I could ride on, I would ride him every Thursday to the grocery store.
SPEAKER_04: And there I'd buy five pounds of bacon, feed it to the lion, cause everyone likes bacon, and besides, I've heard lions aren't that picky, so he'd probably eat whatever food I gave him.
SPEAKER_04: Lion won't you be my friend.
SPEAKER_04: I wish I had a lion, I could ride on.
SPEAKER_04: Oh how I wish I had a monkey that knew how to ride a donkey.
SPEAKER_04: I teach them both karate, cause you never know.
SPEAKER_04: If my monkey and my donkey both had black belts in karate, no one would be mean to me.
SPEAKER_04: If I had a monkey that knew how to ride a donkey, I'd warn him not to round the house, kick my lion friend.
SPEAKER_04: If I had a monkey on a donkey, they'd go with me and my lion to the grocery store.
SPEAKER_04: And there I'd buy twenty-two bananas, and the monkey would eat fifteen, and the donkey would eat seven, and the lion he would not get any, but don't worry, cause he'd still be pulled all that way, and we had earlier And sing mommy, monkey want to be my friend.
SPEAKER_04: I wish I had a monkey on the monkey lion want to be my friend.
SPEAKER_04: I wish I had a lion I could ride on.
SPEAKER_04: I wish I had a monkey on a donkey, that new karate.
SPEAKER_04: Then no one would be mean to me.
SPEAKER_04: If you're just joining us, this is the Captain Cuckoo show.
SPEAKER_04: We're taping uh children's no longer doing no longer no longer doing church here.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, well I'll do a couple more and then and then I'll um I will be done.
SPEAKER_04: Uh really appreciate you guys lett letting me um join you.
SPEAKER_04: See, here's here's here's the thing.
SPEAKER_04: Um I I'm not a Jesus follower because I'm good at it or because um it always makes sense to me.
SPEAKER_04: I feel like Peter who uh when Jesus you know said these hard hard, hard things.
SPEAKER_04: He he fed all these people with a sacchilage, and it had to be like the shining moment where the disciples had to think finally everyone is seeing that we're not crazy to follow this guy, right?
SPEAKER_04: That's what had to be happening in that moment.
SPEAKER_04: And then he starts talking about cannibalism.
SPEAKER_04: That's what they hear with the people.
SPEAKER_04: He says, You people are coming and getting food that's gonna spoil.
SPEAKER_04: You uh you should eat my flesh and drink my blood.
SPEAKER_04: That's what he said next after he'd gotten them all in there, right?
SPEAKER_04: No one wants to talk about this to you, but that was a terrible move for evangelism.
SPEAKER_04: I don't mean that insulting, I'm saying to you on our modern scale, of let's make sure everyone gets in here comfortably and has a comfortable seat for their rear and make sure they don't leave.
SPEAKER_04: You know, there's a really popular multi-site church where where uh and I'm not picking on these people, I don't know them, okay, but there's a there's they they where that where the the main guy who's like a bodybuilder, uh, you know, he's all over everyone's TVs, okay?
SPEAKER_04: He's all over they put them all over the country, and on their wall says something like, Don't give anyone a reason to ever leave.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: And I don't I think that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_04: But Jesus said to a guy, Oh, you've done a bunch of good stuff?
SPEAKER_04: Well, have you sold all you have and given money to the poor?
SPEAKER_04: All right.
SPEAKER_04: And he said to an uh another person, let the dead uh bury the dead.
SPEAKER_04: I don't think he was mean.
SPEAKER_04: I just think something else was going on higher than what we understand.
SPEAKER_04: And we're so concerned that we're gonna hurt someone or we should love people like crazy and not try to offend them or or be odd for God or any of those things.
SPEAKER_04: Alright?
SPEAKER_04: But we're but I don't follow Jesus because I'm good at it or because it makes sense all the time.
SPEAKER_04: I've got to follow it because after those folks left, when he said the thing about cannibalism, a bunch of people left.
SPEAKER_04: Thanks for the lunch.
SPEAKER_04: And he turned to his disciples and said, You guys going too?
SPEAKER_04: And Peter, oh, my hero, says, Where else am I gonna go?
SPEAKER_04: Don't you ever feel like that?
SPEAKER_04: I mean, isn't that you know?
SPEAKER_04: Isn't that beautiful?
SPEAKER_04: Where else am I gonna go, Lord?
SPEAKER_04: And he said something really cool after that, something some good doctrine.
SPEAKER_04: He said, You have the words of life.
SPEAKER_04: You know?
SPEAKER_04: And man, I come to you today hoping that we can share in the words of life, and not that we're all great at this, but we can say, Lord, where else am I gonna go?
SPEAKER_04: Right?
SPEAKER_04: I'll play a couple more and then I'm gonna be done.
SPEAKER_04: Y y years ago I was um realizing that I was kind of becoming a person who was kind of preaching cannibalism probably a little bit too much and kind of liking it, right?
SPEAKER_04: I kind of liked being in that finger-poking guy.
SPEAKER_04: And I had lost some of the just the simple, where else am I gonna go, Lord?
SPEAKER_04: Um and so I I just said, Lord, I want to write something like I used to write, you know, just because I love you and just because you're great.
SPEAKER_04: Not because, you know, I want to be clever or impress people with my big words.
SPEAKER_04: So I wrote this, and this is just something about um how great God is, and he's how how how wonderful it is to follow him and live for him and die for him.
SPEAKER_04: It's called You Can You Can speak the private language of my soul, you can hear the whispers of my heart, you can navigate the deepest, darkest holes of my inner part.
SPEAKER_04: You can take the selfish things we pray to you, and somehow let your tender heart be stirred.
SPEAKER_04: You can hear the things our songs would say to you if we could find the words.
SPEAKER_04: You are the finest thing that I could live for, and I pray you are the thing for which I die.
SPEAKER_03: You're hard to know, but so easy to approach, and after all, what else is it ali?
SPEAKER_04: Cause you can ride the clouds or ride a donkey's cold, and you can walk on waves or walk on sod, balancing the great irreconcilable, fully man and fully God, and you can squeeze a rich man through a needle's eye, but squeezing is a painful thing for sure, and we rich folks don't like pain, so maybe that is why you say, Blessed are the poor.
SPEAKER_04: You are the finest thing that I could live for, and I pray you are the thing for which I die.
SPEAKER_03: You're hard to know, it's so easy to approach, and after all.
SPEAKER_03: What else is there to lie?
SPEAKER_04: You are the finest thing that I can live for, and I pray you are the thing for which I die.
SPEAKER_03: You're hard to know, it's so easy to approach, and after all, what else is it alive?
SPEAKER_04: Cause you can spin the earth and hold the sun in place, and you nudge every autumn leaf to fall, and you can swim in every tear on every face, cause you create it all.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you create it all.
SPEAKER_04: Sing together and just kinda in our time we we stand with me.
SPEAKER_04: There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge be need, yes, amen.
SPEAKER_04: Lose all their guilty stinks, lose all their guilty stinks, lose all their guilty states, and sinners plunge beneath that food, lose all their guilty state The dying thief rejoice to see that fountain in yes, I'm just as vile as him, and there may I though vile as he was all my sins away, yes, thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Wash all my sins of away wash all my sins away and may I over my sins away ever since by faith I saw this dream that I flowing redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die, and shall be till I die, and shall be till I die.
SPEAKER_04: Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be I just encourage you to take a moment, just kind of think about what you walk away with.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times Marcy and I oh will go to a restaurant.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's a nice restaurant, sometimes it's just ordinary, and sometimes something's so good, I'm hungry enough to eat the whole thing, but I make a deliberate choice not to eat it all so I can enjoy it later.
SPEAKER_01: And uh that doesn't make sense as a man because we're like, oh, I'm supposed to eat a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I eat plenty.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but sometimes some things are so good that I just want to savor it a couple days later.
SPEAKER_01: So I get a to-go box and I put it in there and I take it home, and I'll be reading or studying or get just get done with the counseling session, and I think, I have some of that Perry's pork chop in my refrigerator at home.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to just take a moment and just ask yourself, what do you put in the little take to-go box and take with you?
SPEAKER_01: And you say, I want to think about that on Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01: Because not a lot of people in Christian music write songs about depression.
SPEAKER_01: And Ross's Ross's craft, and that's the word, his craft that he works hard at songwriting, is very provocative and it invites you to think about things, and but it also reminds you, hey, you're not crazy.
SPEAKER_01: You're not you're not crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so just what do you walk away with this morning?
SPEAKER_01: You may be thinking, well, there wasn't a sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there was.
SPEAKER_01: There was about 17 little sermons.
SPEAKER_01: And some of them were set to music, and some of them happened between the songs.
SPEAKER_01: It's more than anything Jesus said and repeated, he said and repeated this phrase.
SPEAKER_01: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I love about Ross is he has a really unique ear.
SPEAKER_01: He hears things in a funny way.
SPEAKER_01: Like lion, monkey, bacon, donkey.
SPEAKER_01: But those kind of people invite us to hear and see God in a different way.
SPEAKER_01: So just what do you walk away with?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say a prayer of thanks.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you that you made Ross and you wired him up uniquely to look at the world through his gifts and his personality and through his circumstance.
SPEAKER_01: Whether that's meeting Stacey, whether that's losing his dad, whether that's doing what they're fixing to do as a family, uh, that you've just wired him up to do these things and say these things and write things and hear things in a way that the rest of us are listening for.