Back on the Main Quest: Living for What Actually Counts

Cyle, Cody, Ryan, and Mark wrap up the Side Quest sermon series by tackling the ultimate Main Quest — knowing Christ and making Him known. After a fun detour into video games, card games, and the future of nursing homes, the crew gets into the real stuff: what it means to pursue Jesus with intention, why so many Christians get lost chasing shiny distractions, and how to bring your side quests back into alignment with the main quest. Cody challenges listeners to not just proclaim Jesus, but to proclaim the right Jesus — one whose character actually matches scripture. Plus, thoughts on discipleship, building real relationships with people outside your comfort zone, and why people should be envious of how Christians live.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Hobblecast. I'm Kyle. I'm Cody. I'm Ryan. And Mark's over there.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Mark. I'm over here. My mic was muted. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

So we are back. Uh Cody's back. He's been gone. I am. He's been gone. So you're back. I am. Where have you been?

SPEAKER_02 0:18

I have been busy. Very busy.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

So well, you're back. So um welcome back. So yeah. Good to be here. We just finished a series and uh we're talking about it. So we side quest. Can I say this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

My favorite series, I think, that we've ever done. I actually think it's my number one favorite series that we've done.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Is it because there's video games in it?

SPEAKER_02 0:38

It was because it was video games, it was adventure, it was like NPC. Like we talked about all the things. Like I get to nerd out so hardcore for this series, and I really liked the artwork. I really liked how it looked, like it was cool, like it made it look like you were in front of a castle, and you know, it was it was awesome. So that's that's I I loved it. Yeah, but I'm a super nerd, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

I mean, it definitely was kind of nerdy. We found out we have a lot of nerdy people, we have a ton of nerdy people, it's great. Probably a lot of people have sat there are thinking I can't wait for this to be over. Uh so but especially when we got to NBCs.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Even even my dad, my dad was like, This is really cool. This is and my dad's like not super nerdy. So like I think I think people it was cool because even if you're not a nerd, like even if you don't understand all the video game stuff, I thought you made it really palatable for people who don't have video game knowledge to understand why the concepts exist and why the characters are important, and basically how you know it was a good good tie-ins. And B C's is really really a smart way to talk about you know that. And then I liked how you talked about main quest too.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

So yeah, yeah. No, I think that's it's been a it's been uh interesting time planning something for people who definitely don't play games or not even the some of our people are not even from the generation of video games, so like I'm a video game person because I grew up my whole life with video games, but like I'm I'm in the uh zenial age, which I knew life before computers and after computers, so yeah, so special, special group people.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

It's funny, I gotta say this. You said this like uh probably five years ago, so in a throwaway conversation, but it stuck with me because it changed my whole perception. But it was just like nursing homes in 20 to 30 years are gonna have Xboxes and PlayStations and like video games. I mean, like those exist. Yes, but but I mean, like, but think about it, like you're gonna go back and like people are gonna want to go play the games they played in their youth, and like so you think about it like you're gonna have to have dementia patients, yeah. But I mean yeah, but like, but I mean, really, like it's it it is unique to think about like how the generations are affected by the cultural like phenomena that exist, yeah. And like when you talk about video games, like it's it's cool because like yeah, there are some people who don't understand video games, but there's a whole bunch of people who do have been presupposing this.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

I I if I end up in a nursing home, I want to be playing video games.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

I want to be playing card games, not not like not like Euchre. I want to be playing like you know, Riftbound and Orcana and Magic of the Gathering, like those are gonna be in, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

Yeah, if we can still read the cards with them.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

I mean, at this point, our economy, I'm not gonna be able to retire, so it doesn't really matter. I won't be one of those homes, but it's true. Those homes are gonna go to the wayside. You can't afford to be here of the dinosaur.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Look, just look around town and see which one has the lowest star reviews. That's the one you'll be able to afford. That's where you're going.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Yeah, my son told me he wants to be a pastor, so that's he's not gonna retire.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

Yeah, yeah. We're joking because it's just it's pastor, so anyways, don't really have retirement. So the retirement is eternity. So yep. But speaking of uh retirement eternity, that's the main quest. So um we've been talking about the side quest life and being stuck in side quests. It's not not all side quests are bad. Side quests can be good, but the problem is when the side quest becomes the main quest, it's a problem or takes away from the main quest, it's a problem. And that's the reality, is typically that's what happens. So um, and so we talked this week about the main quest, which is to know Christ and to make him known in the world. I mean, that's that is the quest of scripture. That's essentially Jesus' charge to his disciples go into the world, tell people about me, teach them everything I commanded to you so they know me and they can worship me and they got a relationship with me. I mean, that is that is the job. So that that's our goal. Uh it's not to enjoy life more fully, it's not to make more money, it's not to travel more. It is literally we exist to know Christ and to make him known. That is the purpose of life. That's the main quest.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

I love that phrase. I love that phrase, but I want to add a line at the end that I think is really important because I've heard I hear this all the time. We hear pastors say this all the time. To know him and to make him known. Okay. I'd like to just amend it a little bit. To know him and to make him known for the right reasons. I I think I think there's a lot of people who claim Christ who are making Jesus known for the wrong reasons or attributing things to Jesus that Jesus did not do and were not part of Jesus' character. And so I think it's important, like it's not just about you proclaiming Jesus, it's about you making sure that you're proclaiming Jesus for the right reasons that align with scripture, that align with what God has already identified as Jesus' character. Because when we attribute things, you know, when we talk about using the Lord's name in vain, it really is about attributing things to God's character that are not God. And and it really is about, hey, like I'm not going to put God's name where it doesn't belong and where it's not supposed to be, and that would be a vain use of it. And so when we talk about that, it's yes, we need to make Jesus known, there's no question, but for the character that Jesus actually is and what Jesus represents and what he did, not the things he didn't. And I think a lot of times I think there's this trend in Christianity right now where people are putting words into Jesus' mouth and they're attributing things to Jesus that are not godly, right? And so I I think that's important that especially as we're talking to people like if you're gonna be part of this, there's not just a responsibility to just go, okay, I love Jesus, and then live your life how you used to. Life change is a requirement of personal interaction, personal relationship with Jesus. Right. And you have to begin to be more like Christ in that in that pursuit.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, I mean it it's it's interesting, you know. I mean, because I was talking with Tara and she's like, Oh, did you listen to Kyle's um did you listen to Kyle's sermon? I was like, No, I didn't listen to Kyle's sermons yet. She's like, You guys talked a lot about the same thing. Um, and and what's funny is like it's interesting we're talking about that because the the sermon, the sermon I gave on Sunday was uh Who Needs Discipleship is what we talked about. And like I I do a lot of stuff with discipleship, and and so I I I started off with like this definition, which was really like four paragraphs, because talking about discipleship is like talking about prayer. Um it's it's hard to nail it down, but it's interesting. My definition that I came up with was it uh something along the line like the intentional process of learning to to love and and be Christ-like um through nurturing non-transactional relationships. Yeah, and and um it kind of that's that's what we're talking about, right? Um and what's what I what I kind of to connect that to with you, Kyle, is is this uh the everything exists in language, right? And and at HODL in our little like micro society that is HODL, we have our own like cultural vernacular, right? We we have our own language that we own we we all understand that maybe the world might look and go, well, that's kind of silly, that's kind of chilly, that's that's kind of cheesy, that's kind of weird, right? But as a HODL family, we're like, no, no, that makes total sense. Like we get that. Yeah, and and I and I think that to just kind of go back to this whole side quest, main quest, it it it is cool how we see that in our culture because I talk to I talk to middle schoolers all the time, I talk to you know, people in their 60s and 70s, and over the past three weeks I've had that whole uh range of people talk about their side quest and their main quest and and and kind of digging into that that that vernacular. So I I it it's it's reaching people on a on a on a day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_03 8:42

I mean, I think it needs to reach all of us. I mean, I think we're all guilty of sometimes having too much of a side quest focus in life, and we need to make sure we're focused on the main quest, and I think the main quest gets pushed aside way too much. I mean, the Bible talks in the Old Testament about swerving to and fro off the main path, and we we're still doing that. 2,000 plus years of recorded history, all this knowledge that we've gotten from Bible and pastors and preachers and prophets and you know, uh evangelists all over all the generations, and we still can't stay on the main quest. I mean, we just can't. Even we just get attracted to the side quest. Oh, that looks shiny, that looks pretty, that looks wonderful. Let me go over there. And we miss out on Christ. And the problem is we're missing out on Christ. That really is the problem, and we're missing out potentially on an eternity with Christ because we're so focused on ourselves. And I think the goal of the main quests in the side quest sermon series is just get back on the main quest. Like the moment you recognize you're off, swerve back, get on the main quest and go forward with Christ as fast and and you know, as hard as you can, and until something, you know, detours you off and then get back on. I mean, I think that's the reality. We're not we're gonna be in a world of detours from the main quest. That's just the reality of life. So, how do we recognize it? How fast do we get back, and how do we keep ourselves on that main path as much as we can?

SPEAKER_00 10:04

The thing that fascinates me is like everyone says like Kyle's always on side quests because there's always these random things that you end up doing that's like super entertaining, super wild, super random. But it's always with the intention of bringing it back to the main quest. That's the thing I really admire and respect is you guys are very purposeful about making sure that the things you do offline, the things you do outside are also geared towards making Christ known. Like the reason why we do all the stuff we do, the reason why we play the card games we do is code so that we can be in relationship with people and love them like Jesus does. So while it's like a side quest of sorts, it's still getting the main goal accomplished.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

Yeah. For me, all those things, video games, card games, board games, it's all about spending time with people and especially lost people, and lost people need Jesus. And so you can make the side quest the main quest by making the focus of it to introduce lost people to Christ. I mean, know him, make him known. You could do the same thing with your child's cheerleading squad or football team. You could go out in that community and share Christ in a powerful, real way, not only about how you respond to the coach or playtime, but ultimately how you respond to people, how you invite them to church and Bible studies, whatever. You can make the side quest life part of the main quest. You can pull that back in. And I think people don't do that because we get so self-absorbed with our own stuff and what the world tells us is important. But like we've all been playing different card games and different games, and we've been playing with different people, but the goal is always Christ. Like, how do we show these people love? How do we get them into a community? And then how do we model what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus in this community? And I think it's it's pretty impressive what can be done. I mean, we now we have people attending church because from that community because I think we've done it the right way, and I think that's the that's the difference. And I think the problem is we don't necessarily live that way. We don't we don't choose to make the side quest part of the main quest because the world says just go have fun.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

But I think it's I think it's deeper than that too. I think sometimes as Christians we get scared we get scared of sin. Like and I let me let me clarify not scared of sin because we're going, oh, I don't want to sin. We get scared of the messiness of relationships with people who have sin, right? And like I don't want to be with them because like they do all this stuff. But like Jesus, I mean, and and this is it's just really it's very complex waters to navigate because what we're not telling, like what we we're never advocating for people to go and be in sinful situations and engage. What we're what I think is really important is being around people who don't think, act, talk, behave like us, and showing them how Jesus did life. Like that's not our well, that's not our source, but like we have to be involved in that. We can't just recruit like we can't retreat from everything that's difficult and then scratch our heads and while the world burns and goes, Well, I don't know, because we have the bucket of water. Right, you know what I mean? Like, and we could have put out the fire. Like, that's the whole point. When Jesus says go and make disciples, that's an active thing. It's not just a hey, sit in your house and wait for disciples to come to you. That's not how it works. That's how the Pharisees had been doing it for for centuries. They had been they wait, and that's the whole thing. They would, it's a a pupil would come and say, Can I follow you? So like Jesus actively went out and said, Come follow me, which was such a unique juxtaposition from the current cultural movement, that like we have to do the same. We can't be Christians that just sit back and go, Well, that's scary, and I don't want to be a part of it. Like, and I mean that doesn't I hear this all the time, you know, like about you know the school, the you know, the the sports and you know everything. It's like it's like we're not we're not saying send your kids to be sacrificed on the altar altar of culture, but like or or or go and be a part of something that is a is a already a vice for you, but maybe just maybe you need to step outside of your comfort zone and build relationships with people that don't think like you, that don't talk like you, that don't act like you, and and and live a life in that space that is worthy of the calling of the gospel that's been put on your life in such a way that people notice it. I I think I think Annie Stanley said this. I this one quote I really like from Annie Stanley. He said, People our our faith is weird, right? Like we should we should as Christians acknowledge what we believe is for on that on its head for how people perceive it is weird. And he said, People can be skeptical of our faith, but they should be envious of our lifestyles, like they should be envious of the way we live. And when I think about that, I think about it's not about having all the stuff, it's about how do you care about people, how do you love people, how do you host, you know, like how how much love are you showing people when you're around them, and how do you go above and beyond to do that in a way that leaves a lasting impression of Jesus, not of you. Like when I'm at the schools, my thought is not how will they remember Cody? My thought is how are they gonna think about Jesus when they encounter Cody? Because I think that's a really important way to go into your interactions, like so whether I'm meeting with coaches, whether I'm going to meets with with people, whether I'm going to the school, I mean, I just did senior exit interviews with a bunch of different people from our church. And my thought is how are these students gonna walk away from these interactions? Right? How are these staff gonna walk away from these interactions? And are they gonna think about man, Jesus is awesome? Or are they gonna think, man, that Cody guy's a jerk, right? Like that that's I think is really important.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yeah, you don't want to shun the unbeliever, you want to like love them, be with them, care for them. Yeah, like be careful about who's in your circle. We talk about that, but you also don't want to shut anybody out just because you like like it's uncomfortable. Like be willing to wade through the water with people and love them where they're at so they can see what God's love looks like.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Yeah, yeah. And if you're not on the main quest, then you're not gonna do that. You're gonna be lost in a side quest along with them. And so many Christians, I think, detour people from the walk with the Lord because they're living a hypocritical, pharisaical life. Like they say one thing, they would say they believe one thing, but then people watch them live a certain way. Like, oh, this do they really believe this? And I think the sacrifice that we make for the main quest is part of knowing him and making him known. People need to see that we're living for the Lord, and that looks different, but there's a joy, there's a peace, that there's there's a compassion that comes along with that. And so if you're if you're struggling, if you've been listening to series, you're like, I know I've been off the main quest, just get back on it. I mean, it's it's a decision you make. Like, I I know I've got to make different time priorities in my life, different treasure priorities, different talent priorities in my life. I need to do better with my time, my talent, my treasure, that that of my kids, my grandkids, the people I'm in circle with, the people I've influence over. I need to get back to the main quest and make that a choice and then live it. If you need help, that's what the church is for, that's what the community is for, that's what people in your life are for, to help keep you accountable to the main living the main quest life, not live in the side quest life. I mean, it's okay to have side quests, but they are supposed to always pour back into the main quest and keep you focused on that. So thanks for listening. Uh, we've hope you enjoy this series, and we'll catch you on the next episode of the Hoddlecast.