UDSKRIFT 🔗
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Encore, where hope gets the spotlight.
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Around here, nothing's off limits.
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We talk about scripture and culture and world events and the everyday mess and beauty of our lives.
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And we look at all these topics, hopefully, through uh a scriptural kind of worldview in the lens of truth, and we explore it with one conviction.
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God always has more, whether it's grace or clarity or purpose, more life.
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And we again look at it through the lens of truth.
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So lean in with us because because with God, the encore is always better, right, guys, than the opening act.
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Encore.
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The best is still to come.
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Hey, David Churchill.
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Hello, Donagene Breckenridge.
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How are you guys?
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We are good.
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Super.
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It's spring.
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How can we not?
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You're super.
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Ooh, cool.
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I am super.
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I'm flying.
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It's groovy.
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Super day.
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Came out of the phone booth with a cape on.
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Super jail.
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Yeah.
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You just found your wallet, which you lost, so that could have gone poorly.
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Yes.
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That's your day could have been really miserable.
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It's a good thing.
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45-minute round trip.
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45 minutes.
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Oh, you weren't playing down the block?
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No, uh I was at other courts and I uh had to drive all the way back and assumed it would be right where I left it, and it was.
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And it was good, good, good.
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That's good.
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Because you lose your wallet, I would that's it's panic time.
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That is that is full-fledged panic time.
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Well, no, well, no, I didn't use my lose my phone, Tim.
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I lost my wallet.
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That's true.
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That's true.
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That's true.
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Well, it's like the question of the day.
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You know, I think that's right.
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Which is worse to lose your wallet or your phone?
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I don't know.
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Load full transcript
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Yeah, I think wallet phone, car keys.
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Oh it's phone.
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The answer's phone.
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The answer's phone.
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It could be.
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Surveys.
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I'd have to think about that.
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I always assume that it was wallet.
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Survey says.
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Phone, wallet, keys, or a toddler child.
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Oh, well, okay.
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Human.
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Human.
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I thought you were going to say like passport or something.
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You know what?
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I think it's still the phone.
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Oh my gosh.
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It's still my name.
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Oh Lord.
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Oh my gosh, it's true.
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They all have phones.
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Your child has an air tag or whatever you call those.
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It's sewn into the clothes.
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That's it.
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It's true.
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Oh my word.
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I'm looking.
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I'm sitting, uh, I'm actually sitting in my uh kitchen dining room area, and I'm looking outside, and it is it's really so nice out.
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I see my bird feeder, it's little birds coming in and out, and I see little greenery starting to pop through.
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Uh-huh.
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And it's uh it it is spring has officially sprung.
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It has sprung.
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Has it?
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Sprung.
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So where are you?
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Uh somewhere south of the Arctic Circle.
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This no, because they're you want me to look up my window, Tim?
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Yeah, we don't want to know your window.
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We don't want to know.
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But this is our first.
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I'd say that yeah, it's about 75 feet.
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Yeah, you're Florida.
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We hit you.
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Go ahead.
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This is this is this is our first non-winter Encore episode.
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All our episodes, all our many, many episodes.
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Wait a minute.
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Okay.
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Hang on a second.
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I gotta take my sweatshirt off.
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Yeah, you're funny.
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You're so funny.
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Okay.
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You're funny.
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Nonetheless.
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We had a terrible winter.
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Nonetheless.
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Well, nonetheless.
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So and this is uh Dom Jean, this is your favorite, this is your favorite time of year, isn't it?
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No, summer.
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I I'm solar powered.
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Summer totally.
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Oh my word.
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Okay.
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I thought it was spring because you're always talking about flowers, you're always talking about buds, you're always talking about into summer, deep into August, which is the month that requires nothing of us.
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There's no holiday.
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You can just be well, that's my birthday.
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So I have so when are the when are the three of us going up to that lake house?
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I know.
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We had that's that's gotta happen.
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That's gotta happen.
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This is our first podcast episode since the vernal equinox, which I had to learn what it means.
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I know, I know.
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This is not a girl thing.
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This is science.
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Vern.
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We're talking with Vern.
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It means, let's see if I can say this right.
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In the Latin, it loosely means equal night.
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So it's one of two times a year when the daylight and the night are almost equal, and this and the earth is not tilting on its axis either away or towards the sun.
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The others are called the solstice, you know, the summer and winter.
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But this is all northern hemisphere, and for our many listeners, I know there are a few, actually, I don't know how many.
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There are a few in the southern hemisphere.
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I know I'm going off on the spring, and by you it's autumn, which is so bizarre.
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But to me, this is newborn spring, is amazing.
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This is an amazing thing.
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And the t the toilets, the toilets circulate the wrong way too.
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These are these rumors.
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The other rumor is that on the first day of spring, and as a homeschool mom, I did this every year.
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Supposedly, eggs of raw egg will stand, you know, like vertically.
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So I did that with my kids every year, like, oh, that's a big deal.
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Until I read that it can happen on other days too.
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So I stopped doing that.
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It was not a big deal anymore.
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It was like a rumor, probably before the internet.
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And I believed it.
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So, what does spring mean to you guys?
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I know what it means to me.
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Does does it mean anything?
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What does spring mean?
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Tonight.
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Are they playing tonight?
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No, tomorrow when it's on Netflix.
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Oh, it's tomorrow night.
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Yankees opening game.
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Opening game.
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Spring.
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That is true.
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So down here in Florida, we're the only community that we have four major league baseball teams in spring training.
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Four.
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Wow.
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The only community that has four teams.
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In your town?
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Yeah, so um in in West Palm Beach, it's uh the Washington National.
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Astros, right?
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Astros.
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Astros, right?
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Then up the street in Palm Beach Gardens, it's the Miami, Marlins, and the St.
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Louis Cardinals.
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Nice.
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All four of them.
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So I saw Yankees in Mets a couple weeks ago exhibition.
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Did you?
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Yeah, I hope.
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Ready.
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We're undefeated, buddy.
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Hopefully, it should be a good year.
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I don't know.
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You know, I'm I'm starting to get nervous because uh Aaron Judge has been in one World Series, but he's I just I'm starting to worry that he's gonna be like uh like a Don Mattingley character.
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He's never gonna uh he's never gonna win he's never gonna win the big one.
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I hop I hope that's that because that that would be a a major uh missing element to his unbelievable you know resume.
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But anyway, so is that enough, Donji?
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So the crack of the bat spring, I love it.
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I expected that.
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And you expect me to talk about to talk about flowers, which is true, because wildflowers, I know something girly.
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This is where they're they're rolling their eyes.
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This is my thing.
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I know as I'm about to say that wildflowers, seeing them for real.
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I'm actually gonna say it because I don't really care what you think.
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I know they're like seeing old friends.
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I know when I'm gonna see each one, I know where.
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I know not I know it's a thing.
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Oh spring is what holds.
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I will.
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I you know I would.
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You know I would.
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Please tonight.
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My daughter actually my daughter took a cassette of me reading out loud with her to college so she could listen to it and fall asleep.
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So there you go.
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Well, I do have two books on Audible, so because people want to hear my voice and fall asleep.
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I do in Vital Harmony.
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What do you consider this?
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And I have a couple more I'm supposed to be working on that I need to do.
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Yep.
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There you go.
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The secret life.
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Secret life of my voice.
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So spring to me is the earth waking up.
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It is resurrection, it is hope, and you know what?
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It's not a girly thing, it's in the Bible because we are supposed to spend more time outside looking at God's creation than our pathetic culture does.
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We spend less time outside than prisoners.
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Children in America spend less time outside in unstructured play and certainly more time on screens.
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And it is a tragedy, honestly, because there are a lot of things that heal in the outdoors.
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There's a lot of things.
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Uh neuroscience is catching up.
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Dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, the endorphins, these things happen from happen from walking outside, from having morning light.
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You go outside and you see morning light within a half hour of waking up.
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That does more to adjust and create your circadian rhythms.
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Going outside is going to help you more with sleep patterns.
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Our stress reduction comes from taking a walk, from watching a sunset, listening to birds, petting an animal.
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God intended for us to be outside.
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And as proof, think about Jesus.
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What did he say?
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Consider
the lilies.
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The Bible talks about the heavens, declare the glory of God.
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We're to go to the ant.
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We are to see all of creation.
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It all praises his name.
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And I think we miss out on a lot of what God has for us by not noticing what's outside and by not spending time and learning the names of the things around us, watching their patterns.
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For me personally, I'll tell you a little story.
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I have two babies in heaven.
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Um my story as a mother, I sort of I'm like the poster child for every aspect of motherhood you could imagine.
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And uh I have two in heaven, and I remember after one of those losses of a miscarriage, you know, it's one of those things that you're you've lost your future.
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You you've lost what you hung your entire future on.
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And it's not a thing that, you know, there's no liturgy, there's no funeral, it's a quiet grief.
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And it was a summer when I was actually at that cottage you're just mentioning, up on Lake Ontario, which is another place where I know where everything grows, I know what animals to look for, the reptiles, the fish, the birds, the stars.
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And I was taking a walk with my nephew, who was a little boy at the time, and trying to keep inside what I was feeling.
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And I saw a new wildflower down among the rocks.
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Uh, Lake Ontario on the American side is a lot of rocks.
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And I he was all excited, and you know, because his aunt was excited, and we looked up in my field guide to see what it was, and it was called an Asiatic day flower, which looks like a tiny orchid.
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It was blue.
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And what I he was all excited said, Oh, you know, Aunt Anna Jean, should we call the museum?
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I said, No, I don't think they care that we found it.
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But but I remember looking up this flower and this wildflower apparently blooms for one day.
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That made the biggest impression upon me that there were things in God's creation that glorify him one day in a whole year?
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One day.
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That bloom one day the individual flower, another one, another bud will open, you know, day flowers.
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You see what we call tiger lilies, they do the same thing.
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The individual ones will bloom for one day.
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And for me, having lost this very early baby, that I thought, what was the purpose?
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Why did I have to go through this?
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And it didn't heal everything, but the thought that God showed me through general revelation that's founded in his word, that there's value and purpose in something that glorifies God for just a short number of days, that was the Holy Spirit speaking to me through something in his magnificent creation.
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And so every day when I go outside, which I do and I look at things and I look for things, I believe that there's healing in God's magnificent creation.
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It's not perfect, you know.
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Uh uh nature study is part of the curriculum that I'm that I helped to create Ambleside Online, not a commercial, it's free, but nature study is huge.
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And taking children outside, Charlotte Mason said, and her writing is what we founded our education upon.
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Never be outdoor, never be indoors when you can rightly be without.
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And so nature study is a big thing.
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But I remember with my oldest, she was a little girl, and we're studying, I don't know if it was a little mouse or a little bird.
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And it's like, oh, look at this.
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You had she had to tell me what she was seeing, describing it.
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This hawk comes out of the sky, swoops down in front of us, and takes that little, I forget if it was a little mouse, and off it goes.
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We had trauma with a small T as we're watching this, and a lesson in front of us about yeah, it's cursed, there's sin in the world, it's fallen, but it still praises him.
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The scriptures tell us all creation praises God.
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So to me, this is an incredible time of the earth waking up.
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I'm dangerous when I'm driving.
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I can I see snow drops or Dutchman's britches, which are not a man's pants, but I did want to scream and go almost off the road when I saw it.
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Um learning the names of things at night, you know, here in the spring peepers, which are frogs, but not birds.
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Um but learning the names of things and realizing that the God of creation knows my name, loves me, and made this for me to enjoy.
00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:20.080
So that and the Yankees are both that's spring.
00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:21.200
It's both to me.
00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:22.879
So let me ask you this.
00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:26.480
Uh so so now you look at our culture, I guess.
00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:34.320
You've just said that kids which we all see, you know, they don't spend the time out like you Dave, this is probably true of you.
00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:41.919
When when we're when I was when we were young, and so we we went out and we said, you
know, be home by be home by supper.
00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:43.600
It's like and we're off.
00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:45.039
I mean we're just outside all day.
00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:45.200
Okay.
00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:49.039
I don't I don't see I don't see any kids in my neighborhood outside.
00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:49.600
No.
00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:50.879
I don't see any kids.
00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:53.360
And it is to their detriment.
00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:54.639
They have lost.
00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:59.919
Our children have more stress, they do not understand boredom.
00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:01.120
There is no boredom.
00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:02.080
Boredom's a crime.
00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:09.360
They don't have unstructured play, they have a loss of creativity, they have a loss of what it it means to take risks.
00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:12.639
Um, they don't have I mentioned the circadian rhythm.
00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:18.559
I can remember when my kids were little thinking if on a rainy day, I thought, well, no one's sleeping tonight because I took them outside.
00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:22.639
I had one in particular who will go unnamed.
00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:25.519
And the expression bouncing off the walls always applied.
00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:28.879
So my solution was we will go where there are no walls.
00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:29.919
We went outside.
00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:32.799
You can't bounce off the walls when there are no walls.
00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:37.519
And there are children now who are so tied to screens.
00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:39.600
This is another episode for another day.
00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:47.440
The harm this has done to the shape, the actual shape of their brains is calculable.
00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:54.559
It is seen with the loss of so many avenues of their learning, of our attention, and it's adults too.
00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:57.679
And the remedy is we go outside.
00:15:58.080 --> 00:15:58.639
It's free.
00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:08.000
We take a walk, we go to a park, we look at a bird, listen, find out the name of a star, we look at a tree, touch something, feel the grass.
00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:11.440
This is what God has for us, and we've lost it.
00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:22.960
And uh all the knowledge and all the things we can't compare with us having the lessons and the creation that He's made for us, and our children need to see it too.
00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:25.440
We need to model it, we need to take them out there.
00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:27.840
That's my story.
00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:28.639
That's it.
00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:29.519
Uh you know what?
00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:30.799
I I'm I'm leaving now.
00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:32.720
I'm gonna roll down the hill in my backyard right now.
00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:34.559
Yeah, I'm rolling down the hill.
00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:37.039
I got my convertible.
00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:38.000
I'm gonna put the top down.
00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:38.960
Yes, do that.
00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:39.840
Just go for a try.
00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:40.399
Do that.
00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:41.759
No, really, that's that's amazing.
00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:43.519
We are tactile creatures.
00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:47.919
We are meant to know this creation and not stay inside these boxes.
00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:57.919
He's got something for us out there, and and seeing the sunrise or a sunset reminds me, you know, when I consider thy heavens, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.
00:16:58.000 --> 00:16:59.440
What is what is man?
00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:07.759
You know, uh I've got a conference coming in in Tennessee, about 500 and some people, and it's gonna end with singing Great is Thy Faithfulness.
00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:09.359
And what is what are the lines?
00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:18.400
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars and their courses above join with all nature in manifold witness.
00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:28.160
That's right to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:57.920
Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness morning by morning to mercy all thy head provided greatest thy faithfulness.
00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:05.200
Did we just do that?
00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:09.759
You guys just did this is now the this is our greatest episode.
00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:11.200
We can we can end to know.
00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:16.559
I almost broke into harmony, but I was afraid I was gonna hit the wrong uh I was gonna hit the wrong note.
00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:19.200
But uh so Tim, um I got a phone call yesterday.
00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:21.599
They need us to do Super Bowl next February.
00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:22.960
Halftime show.
00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:25.119
Hey I'm not thinking what's going on.
00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:26.160
I know we already did.
00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:27.279
We already did.
00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:35.200
I heard what he really said in Spanish.
00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:36.079
Yeah, oops.
00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:37.119
Oops.
00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:37.839
Whoops.
00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:38.640
Whoops.
00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:39.119
Oops.
00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:40.720
Bunny, you won't be one buddy.
00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:42.240
Yeah, oh man, oh man.
00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:42.799
Anyway.
00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:44.880
Anyway, but it is, it's uh, you know what?
00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:46.799
It it it is spring, which means you know what?
00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:48.880
We're we're going into Holy Week really soon.
00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:49.519
We are.
00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:55.599
And uh it's uh the greatest uh it's the great week of the Christian calendar, no question about it.
00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:11.039
And I remember uh a couple years ago, uh Dave and I were sitting for the first time we we got together again after a 40-year-plus absence, and Dave started talking to me about uh this idea he had for a book, and he started talking and I'm listening to him, I'm
listening to him.
00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:22.799
I go, you gotta come, you gotta come to my church and like teach, teach that, and then use your teaching notes as as notes for your your book, you know.
00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:29.039
But it all had to do about things that Good Friday and the resurrection are, you know, and the Christian life is all about.
00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:31.440
And uh so Dave, we're heading into Good Friday.
00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:37.680
What you know when we think about Good Friday, what is what is it uh not not what does it mean to you, I guess, so much.
00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:43.359
Yes, what it means to you, but also what are some things we should be thinking about when we come into you come into the Holy Week?
00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:44.799
Yeah, thanks for that.
00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:50.000
You know, it you both of us have been preachers, all three of us are Christian educators, communicators.
00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:58.720
So I I I never quite understood the guy that comes to this week and is like, I've done 30 Good Friday sermons before, I don't know what to talk about.
00:19:59.200 --> 00:19:59.839
It's endless.
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:00.480
It's endless.
00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:01.119
Yeah.
00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:04.960
So this particular year, it's the vocabulary that means a lot to me.
00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:16.960
Um so what Tim's referring to is I um a while back just had a moment where I just said, Hey, you know, the Gospels are about the historicity of Jesus' life and his death and his resurrection.
00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:24.160
But then uh the epistles then come come around behind that after it, and they pick up the interpretation of that event.
00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:42.960
So what I found is I said, I'm gonna read Acts chapter, I've already read the Gospels, I'm gonna read Acts chapter one to Revelation 22, and I'm just gonna, you know, take some colored pencils out, and I'm gonna underline or score or mark what I was what I was looking for is just the benefits of Christ's death in my life.
00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:51.279
You know, I would and so I thought, you know, maybe like once a page there'd be a nice word or a phrase about the benefits of not having Jesus in your life.
00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:55.359
Uh there's actually the volume of it is incredible.
00:20:55.519 --> 00:21:00.000
You actually almost end up clearly um underlining half of the whole New Testament.
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:00.400
Wow.
00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:01.680
It was just shocking to me.
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:12.799
So and certain words jump out, and sometimes it sometimes the church we're afraid of big words because they have a theological tone to them, but they didn't when Paul used them.
00:21:13.359 --> 00:21:16.240
Uh when Paul used them, these were marketplace terms.
00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:33.440
And and like so, for instance, some of the words are propitiation, which means God's wrath has to be averted, because we've committed cosmic treason, and that's the that's the the full-bodied picture view of sin, is that we've offended the God who we should have been dependent upon.
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:40.960
So in that in that word propitiation, so Jesus Christ is propitiating our sins, he's taking on himself the wrath of God.
00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:44.880
So God's wrath is averted so that we can be one with God.
00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:47.039
That's not a very popular concept.
00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:47.759
No, is it?
00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:50.480
No, and and that's why I wanted to move right along here.
00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:51.920
We're not stalling.
00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:53.599
No.
00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:59.759
No, I mean uh you know uh that God is is is is a wrathful God.
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:04.960
Against you know, and what it you know, people hear that and they go, Oh, it's one of those churches.
00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:07.440
No, it's maybe it's a biblical church.
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:08.079
It's true.
00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:08.480
It's true.
00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:24.240
Well, yeah, i if we remember what we were created for and we're created in his image, how it must be disturbing to God to look what he made so beautifully and wonderfully, and then to see how we've altered it and adulterated it.
00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:26.319
And and really it's it's treasonous.
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:37.599
Like, you know, no, we're not the we're not terribly evil people, but sin is treasonous to God because if we're dependent upon him, then you know we wouldn't rebel against him.
00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:42.240
And of course, it not only not only that, but he it allies us with his enemy.
00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:43.839
Yes, and but so interesting.
00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:49.119
Uh just last night I was out with my best, I call my best friend family in Florida.
00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:55.359
I was out with my best friend family last night, and as we often do, uh, you know, brought Jesus into the conversation.
00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:59.680
And so I reminded them of the first announcement of the gospel.
00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:07.440
Well, you know, we have gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but the first gospel, the first good news is Genesis 3:15.
00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:09.599
We even call it the Proto-Uangelian.
00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:14.640
Proto first, you know, you make a prototype before you put it on the conveyor belt.
00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:20.160
The proto, and then eu is an adjective for good, and then proto-uangeli.
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:23.039
You hear it ongeli, you hear it's angel.
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:23.519
Yes.
00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:28.400
So it's the first good message or the first good news.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:28.720
Yeah.
00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:41.359
And so what we did last night at dinner is we talked about um about Christ's cross, and we said, I said, look when man sins, that who gets damned or cursed is not mankind.
00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:43.200
It's the serpent gets cursed.
00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:46.319
Yes, it's the serpent that gets cursed.
00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:53.279
And so that when God says, because he's going to curse the serpent, he wants to separate us from that curse.
00:23:53.839 --> 00:24:04.799
So that's good news because what he says is, I will put enemy, God, God says, God, I, I, God, will put enmity or make enemies out of the serpent and Eve who ate of the fruit.
00:24:05.039 --> 00:24:08.799
See, what he what he does is he separates us from the wrath.
00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:11.200
He gets us away from the lightning bolt.
00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:12.480
It's the first thing he does.
00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:14.400
But yeah, is he a wrathful God?
00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:19.200
You better believe he's going to condemn Satan, and that's our only hope of heaven.
00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:25.119
Is that you know hell will be a complete disconnect from our our fate and destiny.
00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:28.000
So that first that first gospel that's all we're talking about.
00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:37.200
That first gospel is him sort of I know we don't say this about God, but it's like intervening right there to protect us, separate us from the Christ.
00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:38.000
Already.
00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:38.640
Yeah.
00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:39.119
Yeah.
00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:40.720
No, so think it think about that.
00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:45.599
They've already been told that the day you eat of that fruit, you will surely die.
00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:50.000
And then and then Eve does eat and shares with Adam.
00:24:50.240 --> 00:25:00.960
You can imagine their impending doom when God comes to speak in the garden, but yet what he says is, I will I will separate you from the serpent, so you will not be able to be friends with him.
00:25:01.119 --> 00:25:05.039
And then he says, You, your children, did you hear what I just said?
00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:06.880
On the day you shall surely die.
00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:11.039
But what he first references Adam and Eve, he goes, Your offspring.
00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:11.599
Wow.
00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:15.680
So he just told them he's gonna save their life so that they could procreate.
00:25:15.839 --> 00:25:24.160
So so what we last last night were talking about dinner was um, it's interesting to me as I as I focus on the cross this season.
00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:29.200
I'm looking at Genesis 3.15 and I'm saying that's where God gave his strategy away.
00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:37.279
In announcing to us a promise of the first good news, he actually told Satan what he was going to do to rescue us.
00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:46.799
And so, so, and of course, the strategy of God is it was always his strategical intent to send his son into the world to die for our sins and take our place.
00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:51.359
But he he just said that to Satan particularly.
00:25:51.599 --> 00:26:02.480
So what I said to my friends last night is if that's if God's strategy is the cross, what is Satan's tactics to avoid his destruction?
00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:06.480
Because you know, the Bible does say that Jesus came into the world to destroy the works of the devil.
00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:07.039
Right.
00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:09.680
So I asked them last night at the table eating Italian food.
00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:11.039
I go, what are Satan's tactics?
00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:27.119
And what we've settled on was if God says to Satan, I will put enmity between the serpent, Satan, and the woman, then Satan's tra Satan's tactics to avert the strategy is to remain in league with the woman.
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:34.240
To not let there be an eneminess, but to be in fellowship or to be, you know, aligned with the woman.
00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:42.160
So the first attack, if we take, if we imagine Satan's tactics, his first tactic is going to be to destroy the Christian family.
00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:42.880
Yes.
00:26:43.359 --> 00:26:48.400
You know, and then the next one, your offspring will be at enmity with Adam and Eve's offsprings.
00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:54.240
Do you know what's the very next narrative in the Bible after this after the fall of man and the exile from the garden?
00:26:54.559 --> 00:26:59.359
The very next thing you read is, and there's a Cain, and there's an Abel.
00:26:59.599 --> 00:26:59.759
Yeah.
00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:07.119
So Cain murders Abel because Satan's tactics are my offspring isn't a snake, it's a human.
00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:07.359
Yeah.
00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:13.279
And I'm gonna have my offspring destroy the only other possible promised hero they could be.
00:27:13.519 --> 00:27:25.119
And again, so he he attacks the family, but he's a per per maybe um especially gonna attack Christian boys, possibly.
00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:28.880
Because he doesn't want a Christian hero to develop in a family.
00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:29.200
Right.
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:36.319
And so then, of course, um then lastly, you know, uh, so so he's gonna have Cain killing Abel.
00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:39.759
So that really, see, Adam and Eve's line is dead then.
00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:41.839
He there is no offspring.
00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:52.319
So that's why it's so encouraging that the very next thing after Cain kills Abel, it says, and then the man went in to know the woman, and Seth was born.
00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:53.599
So, you know, understand?
00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:56.960
So now there's Christian or you know, godly offspring again.
00:27:57.119 --> 00:27:58.559
But that's that's Satan's tactics.
00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:06.559
He's gonna go after the family, maybe, maybe particularly boys at times, because he doesn't want the he to be born.
00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:13.599
Because then he says, and he will crush your head while you are breaking or you know, biting his heel.
00:28:13.920 --> 00:28:31.839
Note what I said to my friends last night is the book of Genesis is really a
patriarchal father-son generational story of no hero being developed, no hero being felt found to be sufficient, because it's Jesus has to be born, it's Jesus Christ who's our hero.
00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:45.279
And then we also even got into that the first uh the first gospel was so um, as soon as Jesus has his ministry about to begin because John the Baptist has baptized him, like pretty much publicly declared, you know, let's start this mission.
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:49.759
You have the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted.
00:28:50.079 --> 00:28:52.240
Now, turn stones into bread.
00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:53.759
Don't starve to death, Jesus.
00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:56.480
Jump off the temple, the angels will help you, right?
00:28:56.640 --> 00:28:58.960
And then bow down, and I'll give you the kingdoms.
00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:05.599
That's Satan using his tactics to strategize so that Jesus doesn't step on his head.
00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:12.480
Because, you know, being baptized, the clouds parted, and and God says, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:14.720
So Satan's got an identifier there.
00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:28.079
And so then, yeah, we just continue to talk about um in and then some of these other words like expiation means that God Jesus died on the cross, unclean people to make us holy, to restore us to temple use.
00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:36.400
And and redemption means that we're slaves to sin, but he dies on the cross to liberate us so that we can serve a better master.
00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:42.720
And then justification is we're guilty, we've offended God, we've committed crimes that are that are punishable.
00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:48.000
But Jesus comes and takes our place and takes our punishment and actually stands as an advocate in the court for us.
00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:55.599
Yes, a lot of rescue, a lot of rescue verbiage and uh uh you know, coming to the rescue of people who are helpless.
00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:56.880
And there's there's no question.
00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:02.559
And uh and yet even with uh the wrath of God, um, you know, there is I'm sure you're gonna get to it.
00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:04.559
It's uh you you talk about the cross.
00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:17.200
Uh uh not everybody not everybody avails themselves to uh uh to the merits of Christ that he won on the cross that that averts that wrath.
00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:26.640
And um uh but uh so that's it's it's the it's the it's the greatest Good Friday is a good Friday, even though it was a horrible Friday.
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:36.559
Um if you look at it on a in a in a human plane, a human level, there's nothing worse that could happen, but it it ended up to be a uh a great a great Friday, Dave.
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:39.119
Uh so so think of it this way.
00:30:39.279 --> 00:30:48.319
When when you're saying the cross, and think, you know, I don't know for sure, but I can extrapolate, and I, you
know, from going with I said about get God's strategy.
00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:56.640
The only thing God didn't reveal about his strategy, because he says, he says there's gonna be this guy comes and he's gonna crush the devil, but he didn't identify the he.
00:30:56.880 --> 00:30:59.279
He uses a pronoun instead of Jesus' name.
00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:06.720
So we know it's Jesus, but Adam would have thought it was Adam, or Adam would have thought it was Cain, or well, now it can't be Abel, then Adam would have thought it was Seth.
00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:07.599
Of course, they thought he was.
00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:10.960
So the story of the Old Testament is about you're not qualified to be a hero.
00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:11.359
Right.
00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:14.079
So, but then then we have Jesus as our hero.
00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:15.200
So it's interesting.
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:19.119
The only thing that God didn't reveal in Genesis 3 was the name of the hero.
00:31:19.359 --> 00:31:23.119
But so certainly when he John the Baptist baptizes him, it's an identifier.
00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:31.599
So then what you have is Satan's gonna go, I've gotta beat this guy man to man, mano to mano, before he crushes my head.
00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:43.759
So think about it this way: if if if Jesus is brutally mutilated and then he's put down on the ground, and they nail his wrists and they nail his feet and they bind him, bind him.
00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:44.960
Remember that word.
00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:51.920
Satan's tactics had to think, how can he crush my head if I've bound him?
00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:53.519
So do you understand?
00:31:53.680 --> 00:32:00.240
God's strategy, you the three of us know that God's strategy was always to have Jesus come and die on the cross.
00:32:00.559 --> 00:32:06.720
But Satan actually thought that was the right tactic for him to retain the possession of the planet.
00:32:07.039 --> 00:32:09.920
So it it it's not, do you understand the strategy?
00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:20.240
That's why God wasn't afraid to reveal his strategy too quickly to Satan, because he knew he had that the tactics of Satan aligned with the strategy of God.
00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:21.119
Does that make sense?
00:32:21.279 --> 00:32:22.160
Yeah, it does.
00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:22.720
It does.
00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:30.480
See, see, God's plan was that Jesus was to be crucified, and Satan's Satan had to have thought he won with the crucifixion for a moment.
00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:31.119
Yes, he did.
00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:32.319
Yes, he did.
00:32:32.559 --> 00:32:38.640
I think the the tip-off was when the uh when the curtain was rent from top to bottom in the holy of holies.
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:40.319
That's that was probably the tip-off that you know.
00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:41.359
That was a giveaway.
00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:44.079
This didn't work out exactly like I thought it was going to work.
00:32:44.960 --> 00:32:45.680
Can you eat that?
00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:47.440
Something's rumbling underneath there.
00:32:48.720 --> 00:32:49.039
Yeah.
00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:59.440
So um so the cross then, Dave, um uh to sum up uh what is the greatness of the cross, in your estimation.
00:32:59.920 --> 00:33:09.680
Well, you know, and just to complete the word picture, when I said propitiation, expiation, redemption, justification, those are all we need a substitute.
00:33:09.920 --> 00:33:13.200
See, sin is so severe, we need a substitute.
00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:20.400
Something about God's wrath and his holiness and his justice needs to be um placated or satisfied.
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:22.799
But then there's a few more words, Tim.
00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:29.119
So so sin has to be taken clearly, but thankfully that's not the whole kaleidoscopic good news.
00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:35.359
Because the next words that I tracked all the way from Acts 1 to Revelation 22 were words like reconciliation.
00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:38.880
So see, now before they were we needed to substitute.
00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:41.759
Now we hit for the first time with reconciliation.
00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:49.279
The justified sinner doesn't just go home free with no penal record, he goes home with his friend.
00:33:49.519 --> 00:34:00.799
So we're reconciled to a friend, then we're adopted as a male heir to a father, then we're regenerated or born again into God's family, sons and daughters of God.
00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:07.200
And then the Bible actually says you're you're in union with Christ, which means to be a spoused or spousal.
00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:09.840
We're his we're his intimate marriage partner.
00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:16.960
So before, when we saw sin severity, now we see that grace hardly even mentions or references sin.
00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:24.800
But what we have instead is instead of a substitute, is we have a shared life with this Jesus whose benefits come from the cross.
00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:29.039
Yeah, amen.
00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:31.119
None of that possible without the cross.
00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:33.760
Yeah, none of it possible without the cross.
00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:36.239
I mean, the whole Old Testament was looking forward.
00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:51.360
I always tell people in our baptism class, you know, the the whole Old Testament was looking uh was looking forward, the new testament is looking back to that, you know, to the singular week in history, you know, the the uh the death and resurrection of Jesus uh Jesus Christ.
00:34:51.440 --> 00:34:54.880
It's why we have hope, it's why we have life, it's why we can have hope in heaven.
00:34:55.039 --> 00:35:02.480
Um and uh when we when we trust in him, uh we trust in his work, not our work, his work, we can be saved.
00:35:02.639 --> 00:35:04.400
And I think that's the message, obviously.
00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:09.840
And uh you had you you brought some other words in.
00:35:09.920 --> 00:35:17.440
I think you uh you know you
you talked about glorification and uh and so yeah, so some other things in yeah, just a couple others.
00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:19.039
Susan we written a book.
00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:27.920
Yeah, and and and see what what um what captivates me about uh what I'm talking about personally right now is I've sequenced these words.
00:35:28.079 --> 00:35:33.679
You know, in the New Testament, you're gonna find you're gonna find many more references to all these words and the benefits of Christ.
00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:34.719
You'll it'll surprise you.
00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:43.280
I'd ask anybody to read Acts 1 to Revelation 22 with a pen, and you'll be going to be amazed if you just underline the benefits of knowing Christ, what it's gonna do to your Bible.
00:35:43.599 --> 00:35:55.440
But yeah, so there there are the we have to have a picture of the salvation that takes our sin seriously and has it satisfied and substituted for, but then we see these relationships develop that even get intimate.
00:35:55.519 --> 00:36:03.440
And the last words are how he involves us in his mission as a part of salvation, and they are the Bible says we are more than conquerors.
00:36:03.840 --> 00:36:05.360
Like, what does that mean?
00:36:05.440 --> 00:36:12.719
We're not conquerors, we're what's more than a conqueror, but that's like what like wouldn't conquer be enough?
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:16.480
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:18.079
So I'm a lieutenant colonel.
00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:20.079
No, you're more than more than that.
00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:24.400
And then he also says, uh, Peter says, Yeah, oh thanks.
00:36:24.480 --> 00:36:25.920
I got put the ribbon on me.
00:36:26.320 --> 00:36:31.599
But then Peter says, Um, I write these things so you might know what it means to participate in the divine nature.
00:36:31.679 --> 00:36:34.719
That's God sharing his very own glory with us.
00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:37.199
And then lastly, be transformed.
00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:39.519
We're transformative people.
00:36:40.159 --> 00:36:44.960
When we see him, we will be like him, for we see him as he really is.
00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:47.679
And we'll and we'll reflect that image perfectly.
00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:49.119
Yeah, we'll be the image of God.
00:36:49.360 --> 00:36:52.880
That's which is hard hard to understand and and hard to believe.
00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:56.239
And uh uh will be a glorious day.
00:36:56.480 --> 00:37:00.480
And those who have gone before us have already tasted tasted that, right?
00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:10.000
And um and you know, Paul says that you know the last step is that we will be we will be glorified in him.
00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:14.159
And that's uh you know, I think that's what what you're alluding to there.
00:37:14.400 --> 00:37:17.280
You know, we will be like we will be just like him.
00:37:17.760 --> 00:37:20.559
And uh hard to uh hard to understand, hard to believe that.
00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:25.519
Uh because we look at ourselves now and we say, oi, they know.
00:37:25.599 --> 00:37:33.119
I mean, sometimes you look in the mirror and you go, uh, you know, I just preached on this and I I just went against what I preached.
00:37:33.280 --> 00:37:35.119
I mean, how many times has that happened?
00:37:35.440 --> 00:38:03.599
And um uh but you know, one day we will not have that struggle, that titanic struggle that the New Testament talks about between you know uh the spirit and the flesh, and uh but even now God is working towards eliminating slowly, you know, three years ago uh wasn't quite as you know, or along a path as I am now in certain aspects of uh uh my uh my holiness and my sanctification, and that's the way it's gonna be until one day that old nature will fall off, and we look forward to that day.
00:38:03.760 --> 00:38:04.559
Man, oh man.
00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:06.159
Yeah, when when we see him.
00:38:06.480 --> 00:38:20.559
So so Dave, your your uh the exercise you said was get a yellow marker, start in Acts chapter one, Christian, and uh underline every phrase and every verse that tells you about my benefits.
00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:20.960
Wow.
00:38:21.199 --> 00:38:24.239
Yeah, what Christ has done for you, and how it accrues to your life.
00:38:24.480 --> 00:38:25.440
Yeah, how it accrues to my life.
00:38:25.519 --> 00:38:26.400
Yeah, you're gonna be surprised.
00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:30.239
You're gonna you're gonna it's gonna be like a paint by number Bible you're left with.
00:38:30.639 --> 00:38:45.760
And it all it all came about because uh Jesus, for the joyset before him, endured the vitalities, the the indignities, the tortures of the cross, and and he stayed pinned to that cross for us.
00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:48.559
And that's that's the first part of Holy Week.
00:38:48.719 --> 00:38:51.199
Well, the first part, I guess, actually is Pop Sunday, right?
00:38:51.519 --> 00:38:56.079
It's uh coming in uh triumphant Hosanna, you know, save us now.
00:38:56.400 --> 00:39:03.280
And uh the same people uh you know, hours later we're gonna be saying, crucify him amongst that crowd.
00:39:03.599 --> 00:39:09.119
Um and and then you know, Jesus, they put him in the tomb, and uh uh but he didn't stay there.
00:39:09.280 --> 00:39:14.079
And you know, it's been it's been said that uh you've heard the expression, haven't you?
00:39:14.239 --> 00:39:15.920
Uh picture's worth a thousand words.
00:39:16.559 --> 00:39:17.679
We all know what it means, right?
00:39:17.760 --> 00:39:18.320
What does it mean?
00:39:18.480 --> 00:39:19.119
What does it mean?
00:39:19.440 --> 00:39:21.599
It means Helen of Troy was really beautiful.
00:39:24.320 --> 00:39:26.320
I wouldn't mind seeing her in the future, too.
00:39:26.639 --> 00:39:28.559
The face that launched a thousand ships.
00:39:28.960 --> 00:39:31.119
I think Yeah, a thousand ships.
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:32.239
Oh, sorry, that's what it was.
00:39:32.480 --> 00:39:33.039
Yeah, yeah.
00:39:33.280
--> 00:39:33.679
That's right.
00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:45.679
I think it's sometimes an image can capture uh can capture uh joy and tragedy, shock, victory, or in in a single moment, right?
00:39:45.840 --> 00:39:46.960
In a single moment.
00:39:47.119 --> 00:39:55.760
Um and it can a lot of times it can I think uh uh I think a picture can uh explain something uh just so perfectly.
00:39:56.239 --> 00:39:58.639
Remember uh I'm just thinking of it now as I'm speaking.
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:03.039
Remember uh after 9-11, remember the fireman raising raising the flag?
00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:08.159
On the ashes, on the ashes, on the ashes, raising the flag.
00:40:08.480 --> 00:40:09.440
Like like an evo Jima.
00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:10.400
Like Iwo Jima.
00:40:10.639 --> 00:40:11.199
Like Ivo Chima.
00:40:11.440 --> 00:40:13.519
So that was it was it was an Evo Chima.
00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:14.719
On our own sand.
00:40:14.960 --> 00:40:15.199
Yeah.
00:40:15.360 --> 00:40:15.840
Yeah, yeah.
00:40:16.079 --> 00:40:22.400
I mean every look, every religion has uh uh every ideology, every thought.
00:40:22.559 --> 00:40:33.920
Uh I think they all have pictures that tell a story, like Buddhism has the lotus flower, uh depicting the emergence of uh beauty, harmony out of muddy waters, out of chaos.
00:40:34.079 --> 00:40:36.639
Judaism has the uh has the shield, right?
00:40:36.719 --> 00:40:37.679
The star of David.
00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:39.840
Uh it's a hexagram.
00:40:40.079 --> 00:40:50.239
Uh two uh equilar uh equilateral lateral triangles uh speak of God's protection from six directions, north, south, east, west, as well as up and down.
00:40:50.800 --> 00:40:53.840
And then uh Islam is symbolized by the crescent and the star.
00:40:53.920 --> 00:40:57.440
Uh talks about the early history, I think, of Islam and the five pillars.
00:40:57.519 --> 00:41:04.000
And uh you know, the three of us are old enough to remember the Marxist hammer and sickle.
00:41:04.559 --> 00:41:10.159
Uh supposedly symbolize the union of workers and peasants' factory uh field.
00:41:10.320 --> 00:41:17.360
Uh uh, pictures tell us a lot about a group of religion, and Dave uh we you were just talking about one of them.
00:41:17.599 --> 00:41:20.960
Um uh you know, the cross.
00:41:21.360 --> 00:41:22.239
The cross.
00:41:22.559 --> 00:41:32.159
And uh there's no question uh that uh that that is one of the central pictures that tells us about our faith.
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:34.400
But I think there's another one too.
00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:41.760
Um as I was uh I was thinking about it, and we we're coming up on Easter here, not too uh not too far in the future.
00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:44.000
Um I think it's the empty tomb.
00:41:44.400 --> 00:41:47.360
I think the cross, we don't see many people wearing an empty tomb around their neck.
00:41:47.679 --> 00:41:48.639
It doesn't work with jewelry.
00:41:48.880 --> 00:41:54.960
There are actually people who try to come up with it,
it just doesn't render it doesn't work on a necklace.
00:41:56.880 --> 00:41:58.400
I have it between my ears.
00:41:58.719 --> 00:42:00.239
It's it's it's fashion.
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:02.880
You know, the the cross now, you know, I was thinking about this last night.
00:42:02.960 --> 00:42:14.480
I watched, I was listening to a woman speak, and she had a big gold cross on, and she was talking about stuff that was really kind of you know borderline perverse, you know, on uh uh uh on television.
00:42:14.639 --> 00:42:18.559
And I'm going, and she's got a she's got a cross, you know, between her neck.
00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:21.920
So it's it has it almost has nothing to do with her with her heart.
00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:22.960
It's it's more fashion.
00:42:23.039 --> 00:42:25.519
It's it's in it's in fashion and it's gonna go out of fashion.
00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:27.199
It'll one day it'll go out of fashion.
00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:29.039
I mean, uh we we know that.
00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:34.000
And um uh but uh you know, you think about the two images, the cross and the empty tomb.
00:42:34.400 --> 00:42:41.920
Uh we why why do you think we tend to be more comfortable with one than the other?
00:42:42.159 --> 00:42:44.079
Or which which one do you think we're more comfortable with?
00:42:44.239 --> 00:42:46.880
Let me ask you, let me ask you guys that question.
00:42:47.360 --> 00:42:49.199
Are we more comfortable with one than the other?
00:42:49.760 --> 00:42:55.519
Well, I mean, the Bible tells us that if Christ isn't raised, then our faith is in vain.
00:42:55.840 --> 00:42:58.239
So we have to point to the empty tomb.
00:42:58.559 --> 00:43:04.079
If we linger at the cross, then you know this is powerful and all that.
00:43:04.239 --> 00:43:07.760
But if he's still dead, everything's blown apart.
00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:21.599
You know, if someone finds, you know, if somehow they used to say, you know, and not not that anything would be left, but the idea of Jesus still being dead, it's not like, oh well, I'm still a Christian.
00:43:21.760 --> 00:43:23.280
No, it's everything.
00:43:23.440 --> 00:43:31.039
It's everything that he rose from the dead, you know, which is why we have church on Sundays is just like an ongoing Easter.
00:43:31.280 --> 00:43:32.639
We're an Easter people.
00:43:33.119 --> 00:43:35.039
This resurrection is everything.
00:43:36.639 --> 00:43:43.039
And Paul, you know, Paul said if if if the resurrection is like a fairy tale, then what what do you say about our faith?
00:43:43.440 --> 00:43:45.280
It's nothing without hope.
00:43:45.519 --> 00:43:46.400
It's it's useless.
00:43:46.719 --> 00:43:47.119
It's useless.
00:43:47.360 --> 00:43:47.840
It's useless.
00:43:47.920 --> 00:43:49.039
It was a fairy tale.
00:43:49.280 --> 00:43:55.760
Everything that you've believed, everything you've based your life upon, what you taught your kids, getting dressed and going to church.
00:43:56.079 --> 00:43:57.599
How many Sundays did we do that?
00:43:57.679 --> 00:43:59.840
The three of us it's all nonsense.
00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:00.559
sense.
00:44:00.639 --> 00:44:07.840
And and and you know if you look at our culture, look, let's be honest, the cross, uh people can process the cross.
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:15.840
They get sacrifice, Dave, you're talking about, you know, uh uh, you know, love and we we even get tragedy.
00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:18.719
Those categories make sense to us.
00:44:19.199 --> 00:44:20.480
Here's the problem though.
00:44:20.639 --> 00:44:23.840
Here's the problem and I this is what I have found 40 years of ministry.
00:44:24.639 --> 00:44:41.760
They really wanted to have a have a kind of a they look at me, he's a nice guy, respectful, a little funny, seems to be with it, dressed pretty nicely, has a decent family situation, does his job reasonably well, graduated from an accredited college like you two.
00:44:42.480 --> 00:44:43.840
I don't think he's on drugs.
00:44:43.920 --> 00:44:47.920
I don't think he's suffering from psychotic delusions.
00:44:48.239 --> 00:45:00.800
Now, yeah, but but how how does that person, how does that person believe in the and celebrate the resurrection of a man who died?
00:45:01.199 --> 00:45:13.920
And and and they wonder how you we possibly can believe that, you know, 2,000 years ago a man who had been dead for three days, wrapped up as tight as a mummy, put in a tomb, jumped up and went to town for lunch.
00:45:14.079 --> 00:45:17.920
I mean they they're like what you know are you kidding me?
00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:20.559
You know, the empty tomb?
00:45:20.800 --> 00:45:27.039
And and I think that's where really I think Christianity gets I I think that's where it gets complicated for a lot of people.
00:45:27.119 --> 00:45:49.440
But look unless and until we deal with this problem of the empty tomb, until we decide you know what happened, until we personally see uh you know what where our conclusions lead us and how it will impact our own lives, Easter is it is what it is for so many candy and egg huts and spiffy outfits to wear uh at church.
00:45:49.599 --> 00:45:53.760
Um well I'm not sure we even talk about the empty tomb that much.
00:45:53.920 --> 00:45:56.559
We talk about Jesus is our friend.
00:45:56.719 --> 00:46:07.039
I I don't know that we act the things that David has said and Tim that you're saying, I think sometimes in a lot of church circles and a lot of the songs we've kind of let that be.
00:46:07.199 --> 00:46:08.880
We don't want to sound too crazy.
00:46:09.039 --> 00:46:34.719
I think we need to talk more about what you're saying just how radical it is to believe that this tomb was empty and and so wh why do you think that an actual physical rising from the dead creates so much skepticism I that's putting it mildly you know e even even you know for for for people in our culture why do you what do you think?
00:46:34.800 --> 00:46:38.159
I don't think it's that complicated what
would you guys say?
00:46:39.280 --> 00:46:46.480
Well I just I think the the the crucifixion um is so narrative.
00:46:49.360 --> 00:46:58.719
You know there's there's interaction there's people there's characters there's s statements being made from the cross there's a trial there's I think there's just the narrative of it is compelling.
00:46:59.119 --> 00:47:05.199
Uh where the empty tomb you there's almost like some quiet to it.
00:47:05.679 --> 00:47:06.880
Like where did he go?
00:47:07.039 --> 00:47:07.840
What happened?
00:47:08.719 --> 00:47:17.360
Loneliness you know so I after the empty tomb I tell you I would have liked to have been around when he made those appearances and made sense out of the whole Old Testament for them.
00:47:17.519 --> 00:47:17.679
Yeah.
00:47:17.920 --> 00:47:24.559
I would have liked to have taken that class you got friends and and if you know they're not all not all believers.
00:47:24.639 --> 00:47:29.840
You you meet a woman at a park and you talk about you know a dead man rising why would she be skeptical?
00:47:30.159 --> 00:47:31.440
Well because it's insane.
00:47:31.679 --> 00:47:37.440
You know you you're we're not supposed to believe dead people can rise from the dead that's the whole point.
00:47:37.599 --> 00:47:39.840
I mean you know we've all suffered losses.
00:47:40.000 --> 00:48:04.000
I can remember I actually remember in the room where I am right now while my dad was dying and he was you know he was very very close to death and I remember thinking this would be and he wasn't dead yet but if we're all you know I'm talking about my dad but for all intents and purposes we were there and I thought imagine what it would be like if all of a sudden he just got up and everything's fine.
00:48:04.239 --> 00:48:05.599
I mean that's unfathomable.
00:48:06.239 --> 00:48:08.000
Dead people don't come back to life.
00:48:08.159 --> 00:48:18.639
Now I know he raised a few from the dead while he was on the earth but to do it to yourself that's a that's a whole other level of I mean it doesn't make any sense.
00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:24.000
Here's what I think I think I think we are so arrogant.
00:48:24.239 --> 00:48:35.840
We think look we think we're the smartest the smartest thing ever I mean and and look I I get it that people back then they didn't understand microbiology.
00:48:35.920 --> 00:49:01.440
They didn't understand there were certain things they they did not understand about the sciences and you know things changed but we we we tend to think that they were a bunch of idiots these people were a bunch of morons right that you know they received this story when the story came and the women went remember the women went to the tomb there was Mary Magdalene there was Mary there was Salome there was there was a few several of them and we tend to think in our day and age that you know what well they were just kind of stupid back then so they wouldn't believe anything like that.
00:49:01.519 --> 00:50:37.760
You know everything was superstition they weren't expecting to just find Jesus they weren't going with a bucket of Oldspice the perfume you know because he was he was going to get up and he needed to have a nice appearance that day they worried they worried how they would roll the stuff and bombing stuff yeah they didn't know how they could roll the stuff how they're gonna do that so they were not expecting to find a risen Lord and and uh you know so these people were were were no different in a sense than us so let me let me ask you if this amazing thing happened and the Bible is is is telling us you know fact and history what what is what do you think is is kind of a good uh way to that you would want you would want to get this word out how would you how what would be a good uh a good proof in in in your mind to get the fact out because we got to decide we have to decide about this resurrection thing if it's ever going to impact us if Easter's ever going to impact us we have to decide whether we believe in the resurrection or not and what what would impact you as as a person if you were back then or if you know that you know this thing really happened this amazing thing well you you for substantive substantive evidence um what would be compelling is two two things come to my mind one is um proper identification like and like hey that's Jesus I recognize him yeah but then but then something not quite recognizable which surprises me.
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See I know it's him so that's why like Tom doubting Thomas you know kind of like you look like Jesus but you couldn't possibly be because that can't happen and then touches his wounds and is like yep so what I love about the gospels is like even even in the time that they're they're involved in the scenario where they later write about it they didn't get it.
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So only after Jesus rises from the dead do they do they pull it all together as recognizable but then they get the surprise you know about the story.
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They put it all together.
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I think one thing that you said is like you know telling look if I think somebody who was there I think someone who was an eyewitness someone who was there if you talk to them it would be for me it would it it would go a long way to saying that something happened.
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I mean it it's look Luke all the gospels are writing about it but they're they're writing decades after Luke especially you know several decades afterwards but i if you can just imagine if like a book came out and it was reviewed in the New York Times and it says that in 1970 Abraham Lincoln appeared in Hoboken New Jersey your hometown and he walked down Washington Street and he went to the Clambroth house which is no longer there over on Newark Street and he and he talked to people and he taught them and and they wrote down some things that he said mostly in little
groups that at one time 500 people or more in the high school auditorium there in Hoboken.
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And and you know would you read this book and you say to yourself well it was published by Harper Collins it must be true what what would you do?
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I would get on the phone and I would my mother my older mother who still lives in Hoboken I would say to her mom did Abraham Lincoln appear at Hoboken in 1970 for like six weeks and talk to people I just read a book that he paired to hundreds and hundreds of people that saw him and she would tell you that is ridiculous.
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It never happened you know but let's say you know my mother I'm not sure if she's really with it maybe she she forgot or something you were unconvinced unconvinced I you know what I would do I would get in a car I'd go to Hoboken I'd start asking around people who were alive were you alive in 1970?
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Yeah I was alive in 1970 I was eight years old oh do you do you remember Abraham Lincoln walked and he put his head down he'd walk he'd you know walked the other way I I mean would people believe this story just because someone wrote it down in a book I don't think so I think they'd want to verify it.
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And and and what do you think would happen to a book that made a fantastic claim like that which could be verified very easily it would be in the dollar rock in the bookstore I think I think very very very quickly.
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So I think that's why the Bible in the New Testament makes a big deal of naming the women and and you know going saying that there are many many eyewitnesses and the dumbest thing you could ever say if you were going to try to uh you know make this lie kind of take hold in culture the dumbest thing would be to say you know what you should go talk to Susie because Susie saw you know why because the first thing you got to do is what you've got to go talk to Susie.
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Yeah I mean I I I think uh for me you know what uh that is uh it's uh there are many other things but I think that's that's like a game changer you know I I have to assume that people didn't have IQs of 60 I think that people saw him um the the disciples themselves thought it was nonsense but something changed their mind I remember Lee Strobler reading his book The Case for Christ and he was quoting Gary uh Habermas Habermas uh said the earliest Christians didn't just endorse Jesus' teachings they were convinced they had seen him alive after his crucifixion that's what changed their lives and started the church certainly since this was their centermost conviction they would have made absolutely sure that it was true and by the way all the disciples except one who died of natural causes John they all died terrible deaths claiming this very thing that he had been resurrected so you think they would have said people have to decide yeah
you would I think if it wasn't true or if they had some doubts at some point you wouldn't die for that you you would you'd be like yeah maybe I made it up you know but the fact that they hung on to that they knew it was true they couldn't escape that they had to stick with the truth but but also the deaths you're talking about weren't local deaths they forsook everything and traveled great distances in various directions to spread the gospel.
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Yeah they did yeah I I think um if I already asked the question you know do you think people today are open to letting evidence challenge their worldview or do we tend to you know dismiss things too quickly if we if it doesn't fit into our narrative what we already believe I think I think that's a lot of times that's true.
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We just dismiss things out of hand that's that's not true.
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But if you look at the evidence if people dig just a little bit uh I remember what when I was a 19 year old I had just come back to the Lord after a little time of wandering and I stood up in class I remember in public speaking class and we had to do a 15 minute talk which seemed like three hours and I talked about the reasons why I believe in the resurrection of Jesus this isn't a secular this is in the uh community college and you know everybody's you know no no there were no Christians and I stood up and it this this idiot that I was a 19 years old and I just gave some some you know large outline reasons why I believed it and people were coming up to me after the class and saying that was really that was really something and it it didn't even didn't even take that much.
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I mean people I think yeah I I don't I don't know if people today if they're if if it's different but if you if you challenge them a little bit I think some people are not going to go for it but some people will but if look if this thing really happened if it did then the one thing it says to me and Easter says to me is that there is grace for me.
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There is grace because what did he do?
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What did he tell the women Dave what did he tell the women um uh when when he met them you know uh he said go tell the disciples and who did he mention and Peter and that's the most beautiful name right there and make sure you tell Peter that is just that's so Jesus to single him out why but why okay Benogene why Peter because he had denied him he had he had gone out of his way to reject Jesus and Jesus names him specifically he goes to women who you know as we all know couldn't even stand up as a witness in in a court of law and on top of that he names the one who in that moment would feel the deepest shame utter shame and he named him that's so Jesus yes yes yes yes hey uh guys Jesus wants to see us Peter he mentioned you by name Peter must have had a minor stroke at that point you know he probably said
you know what he was saying that just to be nice he he doesn't want to see me you know what and Dave this goes with everything you were just saying um you know his first message after the resurrection after the empty tomb includes someone who had publicly excoriated him publicly failed him oh you know so to me that that the message of resurrection is that uh you know what he goes after the least he goes after the the hardened the broken uh the bruised uh but yet it's so hard for us to accept that grace guys because I think a lot of times um uh it's it's we just feel that it it takes it takes more it takes more but it the Bible says you know what if we trust in him if we trust in Christ uh we we could avoid you know Dave what you were talking about the wrath of God and we could begin living living a uh a different life um but so I you know I don't know so I think I think you know the resurrection is yeah the cross is is absolutely central but I think the empty tomb is likewise it's two heads two heads are the same coin uh I think the resurrection was God's stamp of approval and said you know what everything my son said is true everything he says um it and and you know if you believe in him if you trust in him uh it could it could change you right now uh and uh you could become uh you really can become a different person um so much we could say about this uh hard to hard to uh uh bring it out any any anything else any other thoughts that you guys have uh no I I just wondered i if you wanted me to sing again yeah no I think we're gonna skip that oh there's a painting I always think of this time of year it's Rembrandt's raising of the cross incredible painting it's it's got the cross on a diagonal with the light on it and Rembrandt in painting this he never put anybody in like Bible costumes they were in his time period and at the base of the cross you see the figure of a man with a blue beret and it's identifiable because he did it so many times before it's a self-portrait he put himself at the foot of the cross and in the background there's a man on a horse and he's looking actually at the viewer he breaks that wall and he's handing a sword only it's flipped so that the viewer can take that sword and participate.
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This is all for us I always try to imagine what it would have been like to have been there to have been one of the women watching or one of the women that went to the tomb I've thought about it I've tried to portray it I've tried to write about it but I remind myself it was for me.
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I was there because I was in his mind I was on his heart and that's to me everything.
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That's everything I've always said at the you know they uh at the cross but they had the uh the little sign above his head was they used to put the reason why this person's being executed I've always I've always said everybody should should look at that picture whenever they see it and you know just put their name on it put their name on that little placard you know Paul said you know when when Jesus died at the cross I died and you you wonder you go what are you talking about?
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Yes he was dying for me and then he rose again and uh look the whole holy week uh his death is resurrection it reframes suffering it gives me courage and it gives me hope because and I realize too that you know this is death isn't the end death isn't the end those who I love who have gone before who've trusted in Christ death isn't death is not gonna get the final word over their life over my life or over our life and so uh it's a very special week and uh before we close Don Jane do you have uh you have a people want to get in contact with us I just want to quickly say first of all thank you for listening thank you what what episode is this I shouldn't know what number we're on are we on episode eight I think we're at and thank you for listening.
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Are we up to eight?
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Uh you can find us at the on the Encore podcast dot com.
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You can find us on Apple Podcasts Spotify Amazon Music I think a couple of others and uh we hope you'll follow us but especially we hope you'll share this share it with someone else and if you want write us give us a review but mainly thank you thank you for listening uh it means the world to us and honestly I think this is probably our most important episode so maybe this especially is a good one to share thank you thank you david thank you Donna Jean and uh thank you listening audience for uh spending a few minutes with us we'll see you in two weeks with another episode of Encore see you later