Josh: hello. Hello. Hello. We’re just two normal dudes trying to live this jesus’ life. My name’s Josh.

Andrew: Hey, Hey, I’m Andrew. And we are this jesus’ life. Podcast Josh we’re on episode 18. How are you doing my man

Josh: sewed 18. Doing well. Yeah, I am on the other side of the

Andrew: right now.

Josh: Yeah. Let me send you right now. I am up here in the beautiful state.

And quickly misstate, if you blink as you drive through of Rhode Island. Yes. But never mentioned here for work. Yeah. And all these States too. So I think we’re going to play in. So I went up to Boston already. I’ve met in Boston. I went up this weekend. Um, check those sites out. And then we’re going to try to hit as much as we can during the week, but we’re both working, so that’d be limited.

And then, uh, I think we’re going to do a big swing on our way to New York city, but go North first, hit Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, and then come back down really just long enough to be able to say that we’ve been in those States. Yeah, my brother, we were talking about this when I got here. Um, he has. I think it’s like 48 States done

Andrew: something like that.

Josh: Crazy. Maybe it’s 46. Yeah. But like that’s, I’m like, dang dude. I go, I’m not even anywhere near

Andrew: that. Well, I don’t think I’m anywhere near. That’s awesome. Nice.

Josh: I haven’t spent any time in the Southeast. Well, yeah. I guess more like the East coast and South in the South, like I’ve done Florida and Georgia.

Right? Right. So you have all those States, but not like I haven’t been in the Virginias dude. That’s not sure I’ve been in Virginia, but not Westford. I’ve been to DC. Um, it’s funny.

Andrew: Dude, did you find it was like full on mobile? Like you are your full, this, you work from home and you’re like, yeah, but I’m going everywhere.

You’ve been on the road, man. Yeah, that’s awesome.

Josh: I know. I need to find somebody else that, uh, uh, is spending a week somewhere that I could just bump a place to stay off of them.

Andrew: Um, that’d be pretty good for like

Josh: Fargo. And go see my brother and his family.

Andrew: You should absolutely should. Yeah.

Josh: Look into that then.

Promise my dog’s at home all by himself. I don’t think I’d take Jack to my brothers. No, he’s not a dog person and I don’t really want. To piss them off.

Andrew: I thought you were going to say, I don’t really want to take Jack. I don’t really like

Josh: Jack. I was in Idaho last week. I missed Jack. So I was like texting him, mom, like, Hey, can you send me some pictures of jacket that she sent me crappy pictures, but that’s fine.

There are pretty much endless.

Andrew: He’s still alive, still alive. It’s true.

Josh: It’s forgotten that I’m his owner, but.

Andrew: That’s fair. Whoever feeds a dog quickly becomes their owner in their mind. I think so. Yeah, that’s true. We, uh, dude, we have five chickens laying eggs officially. Um, two are laying Brown eggs and at least three are Lang green eggs, which are Easter eggs, grizzly lay green eggs.

Um, but it’s pretty cool. Like more and more coming in all the time. That’s pretty sweet. So

Josh: how many, how many exits that a day?

Andrew: It’s really only been like two or three a day, uh, since like last Sunday. Um, and they’re small, they’re still small. So as the chickens get full pole size, they’ll get to be like full size X.

Josh: Do they typical eggs every day? Like at some point where they get to that point where they’re laying eggs

Andrew: every day. Yeah. Yeah. Probably like mid fall. They’ll hit like every day laying. Um, and then they’ll like slow down quite a lot over the winter. And then like spring and summer and fall, they’ll go nuts,

Josh: you know?

So are they just one egg up chicken a day or like multiple exit chicken a day?

Andrew: No, no. Like the most, I think we could ever expect would be one a day. Per chicken. And that’s like, that’s just for a little while,

Josh: like, yeah. You’re still over a dozen eggs a day.

Andrew: Yeah. It’s no joke. I mean, yeah. So we’re we, we,

Josh: yeah, weed, you’re going to have to learn.

Andrew: We like eggs a lot. And, uh, you know, if everything goes to pot, at least we’ll have tons of eggs to eat and a big garden G from, um, speaking of our, our topic, you know, planning basically prepper style on the chickens. But our goal is to be able to like give a ton of way. Like, it’d be fun that if like every time somebody came and visited at our place, we could just be like, here’s those next, you know, or to our neighbors, like here’s some fresh eggs enjoy.

Um,

Josh: it’d be pretty sweet. All the weed that you’re growing. Are you planning and giving that away as well? Or is that just for sale?

Andrew: That’s for sale? Yeah. How do you think we’re affording 16 chickens, bro?

Josh: That’s I was wondering watching Shanna’s Instagram feeds are just like, Oh wow. They have a lot of weed.

Andrew: We have

Josh: a lot of weed.

Andrew: We have a lot of weeds that we, we give to our chickens. Um, But yeah, man, that’s, that’s what’s going on over here for sure. Yeah.

Josh: Thanks dude. Yeah, man. That’s exciting times to finally get those chickens to do what they’re supposed to do.

Andrew: I know, man, I’m like you, you suckers have been a lot of effort and uh, finally getting his megs out of them.

So it’s cool. And there’s some that are really nice, dude. Some really like to be petted and always come up to me and just hang out until I pet him. Like that’s kind of fun. And then others are just totally terrified of me still. I’m like, I’ve known you since the day you were born,

Josh: you know, it’s probably the night tears.

Like when you sleep walk and you go out there and just scream at them. And I think it prophets scarring, Nate tares, not nice. Don’t let him, don’t let them trick you. He’s not that

Andrew: nice. He wakes up.

Josh: I always wonder if I have like nightmares or like if I snore really loud, um, Just because like I live alone, wife lived a lot up until this recent season.

Right. So, like, you never know, like no one’s ever around when I’m sleeping. So you’re like, I wonder if I’m gonna get married and then she’s gonna be like, uh, I don’t know what the hell you do with extremes, but probably sounds like you’re killing somebody.

Andrew: Probably. I talk a lot in my sleep, which I did not know until I got that’s terrifying

Josh: for me.

Andrew: Yeah.

Josh: But I like what I dream it at night, so yeah. I don’t want to say those things out loud. Terrifying.

Andrew: Well, you never know, man. You never know. Um, but yeah, the talkers do something weird.

Josh: No idea. Never heard that name before.

Andrew: Yeah. It’s like, and then wait, one day you’ll have a kid. And Catherine literally said this to me last week.

He went, uh, or she went, dad, dad. No other woman,

Josh: Jen was like, gosh,

Andrew: like I don’t have another woman. I don’t have time, money or mental capacity for another woman. Like you’re already so much, so much of all this

Josh: stick your daughter down or Blake, you’re not gonna start these games now. I know what you’re doing.

I’m trying to cause division here, this is not going to work.

Andrew: I’m like Catherine, you’re disunified this family right now, but yeah. So then there’s crap like that where you’re like, okay, what am I saying in my dreams? What does my kids saying? Like, and why do I have 11 chickens that haven’t even laid an egg yet?

You know, there’s like, there’s a lot to worry about. That’s true.

Josh: Well, not only that, like, let’s be honest if you’re living right right now, we’re recording this it’s August 31st of 2021. I was the 20th one. I hope I wish it was 20, 21. It’s not it’s 2020. So we’ve seen murder Hornets. We’ve turned a corner.

We’ve seen massive fires. Now we’re seeing that so far as in the United States, before all this started beginning of 2020, we saw those huge fires in Australia. We had the black plague in a squirrel,

Andrew: a double hurricane hit, Texas and Louisiana.

Josh: Yeah. And there’s another one I think, behind it, um, headed towards Florida ish, uh,

Andrew: massive racial unrest, pandemic global

Josh: forgot.

Andrew: There’s an election coming in like two months, month and a half. I don’t know, November, whatever that is. So it’s like, Oh,

Josh: I think it’s like the 2nd of November. Um, yeah. So if you’re worrying right now, You’re not alone. Right? You get it right. There’s plenty of things to find a worry. And maybe that’s the point of our conversation today is there’s plenty things to worry about.

I’m totally. Why do we want to spend so much time? Focused on worrying about them, especially if we don’t have any control over them. But, uh, yeah, I guess where do we start with this? Um,

Andrew: I mean, to me, man, there is plenty to worry about all the time and it’s like, I feel like when you go on. A lot of social media or on news, like if you open the Apple news app and Josh and I both have iPhones, sorry.

If you’re all about Android, I don’t know how to use.

Josh: Yeah. I’ll be honest with you. When my bubbles turn green, it kills me so much that I give away my old phones to people that have green bubbles to convert them to the good side.

Andrew: You’re like, please come over. It’s better for all of us. And we can face time, phone.

That’s FaceTime. Get an egg, get a like Mac book and you can send texts from your computer. It’s pretty nice.

Josh: We have a mutual friend that we served in ministry together, and she has an Android phone and there was times that we create. I messaged messages with out her involved in them. She probably should have been because she would change our bubble screen.

Andrew: That’s so funny, Eileen, you’re the best. Anyway.

Josh: It’s all true. She knows. She knows, but let’s be honest. Our friends don’t listen to our podcast anyways. No, we don’t know who does the amount of listens that we get. It’s kind of surprising at times. And the fact that none of our friends are like, Oh yeah, I listen to every week we get more like, Oh yeah, you did that.

I forgot. Or, Oh yeah. Yeah. I was going to listen. I just haven’t got around to it yet. I got plenty of those responses. Yeah. It’s true.

Andrew: No, but with, with worry and anxiety, like all I was going for in like the news thing is that like, they just, there’s this incentive within all of news to like, keep you glued and keep you watching or listening or clicking or whatever you’re you’re doing to read that news.

Um, There’s like a drama drive almost of like, we want you to be scared and freaked out. Cause we know you’ll look for an update on the story or like we know you’ll come back here again tomorrow or you’ll visit our site 10 times then on top of that, dude, We have like a massive of pharmaceutical industry in, in our country that is all about like India, anxiety, pills, and all of that, because there’s such a massive market

Josh: for it.

Andrew: Um, I don’t, I don’t know that much about them. I’m not trying to take any weird stance on anti-anxiety stuff, but I know. From the amount of companies, the amount of commercials. I know the market must be huge. Like there must be just tens of millions of people prescribed all this stuff, uh, for better or worse.

It’s like anxiety. Definitely, uh, rules the day, uh, as one of the major, one of the major things that is normal in our culture is to have extreme anxiety, whether it be about money or about politics or about hurricanes or whatever it is like anxiety is a normal thing, but in our relationship with Jesus, it’s not a thing that is supposed to be normal.

So I think that’s kind of the conundrum we find ourselves in is like, our culture is one way. But our kingdom culture is supposed to be a very, very different way.

Josh: Yeah, that’s true. And, and it’s hard to, to have this conversation. It’s kind of, I think we’ve talked about this a couple episodes ago. There’s, there’s God’s truth that sometimes are hard to believe to be true because you don’t understand how they’re true.

And I think this is one of them of not worrying, you know, um, Philippians four, six was a, I had a plaque on my desk. Yeah. Yeah. I guess growing up, cause I was freaking weird. It was an L shaped desk. It it’s like my bottom money tells me that such a strange job. Uh, but on my executive, his desk, I have this plaque that said, uh, had Philippians four, six on it.

Uh, and I don’t know where it came from. It was like, this would plaque. It wasn’t even that nice flat, but I still have it. It’s in my memory’s box now. Yes. I have a memories box.

Andrew: I do too.

Josh: But it’s Philippians four six, which is, don’t worry about anything instead pray about everything. And don’t forget to thank God for answers.

So you get truce like that and you’re like, wait a second. God, you, you really believe that that I shouldn’t worry about anything. I genuinely believe that I’m like, that’s crazy. And a lot of people are just there. They’re completely gripped by their anxiety. Um, when those, when those moments come on, like there’s nothing else that they can think about.

There’s nothing else that, uh, they’re just completely consumed by them. Yeah. And they’re looking at this moment saying, wait, this isn’t supposed to be this way. And Jesus said other, like, how is that even possible? And oftentimes with, with lots of different things, not just necessarily worry when we get so consumed by something and we don’t see another alternative or another option that it could be because we’re so ingrained in them.

This is what it is. And. Um, uh, that makes it difficult, but it doesn’t mean that the truth isn’t still true. Um, it doesn’t mean that that, that, uh, Jesus has still he’s and he’s more than capable of intervening. And I think this is where I’m having the right coming out of this, you know, these last couple of episodes that we’ve been doing about the character of God, this is where it comes into play.

When we have the proper view of God and his who he is and his character, um, like that’s the piece that’s, I’m going to give us the ability to. To focus in on, on Jesus and to, um, focus in on not worrying it and focusing in on that. No, no, no. My God is all powerful. He can intervene now. My God is everywhere.

He’s around. I don’t have to, I don’t have to feel isolated. Uh, I know that my God is all knowing. He knows the situation that’s in front of me. He can provide wisdom as, as, as he sees fit. Um, You don’t want to ask, oftentimes he doesn’t give wisdom cause we just don’t ask. But, um, yeah, I think that’s a big piece of this of you could be sitting in that moment and, and, and thinking to yourself like this is crazy.

I’m like, I’m completely a gripped by my anxiety about my fears, about my worry and we get it. We’ve been there. We understand what we’re trying to tell you is it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s going to take some work. It’s going to take some rewiring. Um, and we’ll try to get into some of those conversations today, but, um, it doesn’t like, there’s hope on the other side know, like you, don’t gotta, you don’t have to sit in this forever.

Yeah. Jesus can provide healing.

Andrew: And I’d add to that. That, it’s a, just like what we’ve been talking about in the weeks past with all these things, it’s like, what’s a good view of God. Um, this is, I just think another one of those things where. God could take you from being super anxious and worrying about a lot of things.

Um, and then make you never have worry again. He could do I, in my, I experienced, he has not done that for me. Um, there’s still things I worry about, even though I know all the verses that we’re going to talk about, uh, read them, thought about them. I’ve journaled them. Um, I’ve prayed them sometimes and then, you know, still find myself worrying about different things.

And so it’s like, it’s like a muscle you build up. And I think it’s really about trust, you know, of like, do I trust God? Yes, of course I do. Well, what about with this scenario? That one I don’t trust them with. I don’t trust them with that. You know, it’s like you, you learn it more and more over time. So I was.

I had something cool happened yesterday and, uh, kinda mental shift. That, that was pretty neat. Um, I interviewed for this job that you know about Josh, but I don’t know if I’ve mentioned anything about it interviewed for this job. And it’s one I would love, love to have. Um, and I got through through final interviews and, uh, and basically the HR team and the hiring manager was like, okay, we know who we’re going to offer it to.

There were six candidates. I’m not sure if it was going to be me or somebody else, but, um, But we know that HR basically said, okay, but there’s this restructure coming? Oh, we’ve all been waiting on. So we have to wait, wait until that’s more clear until you can make an offer or not. Cause we don’t know how this team is impacted by all of that.

So it was like this huge thing that I’m like so pumped about. And then boom, it’s kind of just ripped off the table for. Could be another day could be another three months. I don’t know. Like, and I, I can’t do anything to, to shift that. So that’s something that I’ve thought about a lot. And if I’m being honest, I’ve worried about some, because I’d love to have that.

And I just. There’s. Yeah, I’ve worried about it a little bit because yeah, I can’t control it and it’s kind of unresolved, you know? Um, but I had this perspective shift yesterday where I was kind of praying about it and just talking to God, like, man, I’m, I’m worried about this. Like I shouldn’t be, um, and I started to reflect a little bit, like what we’ve talked about of like, God, if God exists outside of time, which I believe he does.

Um, then. In a way, all of the provision that God has ever done in my life up to this point and through the point of me physically being dead has already been done. If that makes sense, like, like God has already provided all these things in this track record of my life that I’ve experienced, but all the stuff that’s to come, God already experienced it.

God already met those needs before I ever knew that they, they arose. So in a weird way, that just allowed me to like step back and just say, okay, I’m just going to thank God for providing for me and my family and, um, in all the ways we need. Um, I’m just going to thank him for that and thank him for whatever the outcome of this job is, whatever the outcome of the next thing is that isn’t even on my radar yet, you know, but it allowed me to like step back and say, okay, my perspective’s a little bit different because I believe this thing that.

You. And I had just been talking about a few weeks ago and, uh, so if nothing else, our podcast has helped me reflect on that. And it helped me grow my, my trust muscle just a little bit and kind of shift my perspective on something that I’m, I’ve actually been thinking about a lot, you know,

Josh: like I just had this thought and I haven’t fleshed this out enough.

I just thought of it. But I’m, I’m wonder how much of our worry is connected to how much we control. Um, Or try to control is probably better about a word. Um, like I think of similar experience. So I, this job, um, or this promotion at work that was kind of sitting in front of me sitting in front of me, it’s been weeks or, sorry, it’s been months since we first talked about it.

Um, and, and there was a shift in how my supervisor was talking about the role with me. So for the longest time it was, Hey, this is yours, you’ve got this. Um, and then. W there was some shifts that happened in the process and it was, it wasn’t as definite and how he talked to me. Yeah. So my personality is I’m going to push and I’m a prod, but, um, Before all that.

When, when that all changed of here, I thought was a sure thing. Um, and it it’s now questionable and whether or not it’s a sure thing. Like, there’s definitely a part of you that creates fear and worry. And, um, you, you start to, to get scared of what if this doesn’t play out. And then here’s all these other plans that already have going on in my head that now aren’t gonna be able to come true.

And yeah. Before you even start to spiral down those, those rabbit trails, which is, you know, what our brain does. And for me it was, and this is, this is newer to me than, than I’ve practiced in the past, but it’s my, my prayer life with Jesus and how much that’s changed. And, and I hate using the word prayer because prayer is.

It’s been so twisted and changed and how we define it and know someone says, Oh, I want to pray more in this case. And you’re like, okay, what does that mean? And usually it means I want to make sure I get to my list of prayer requests more often than I want to make sure that I pray before and after every meal.

And we’ve talked about this before. I don’t pray before meals. I think it’s counterintuitive. I think. Counterproductive to our relationship with Jesus, but um, many people do it if that’s what you do. That’s great. I just don’t. Um, and I intentionally don’t, um, But a big piece of it is like there’s a level of communication level of relationship that we want to have with Jesus.

So when we hit those moments or when I hit that a moment a couple of weeks ago, or a few weeks ago, whenever it was like my conversation, wasn’t God. I want you to take care of, um, God, I need you to intervene and do this. Was that part of my prayer. Sure. But my prayer really started with Jesus. This is how I’m feeling right now.

Um, here’s, here’s everything that was laid out. And now this is where it’s at now and here’s all the. The worries and the fears that are just running through my head. I’m, I’m worried about even these other things that are loosely connected. Um, I’m just laying it all out before Jesus and then getting to the point where we’re saying, well, that’s everything.

Um, Yeah. Now I just need you to do what you do. You don’t need to fix this. You don’t need to change this. Um, God, if you have a different plan in the midst of it, I’m going to trust that that plan is better. Yeah. And then for me, I was on my back porch and it was, it was physically just saying, okay, God, I’m going to let go of it.

I want it really bad, but I’m gonna let go of it. Um, Hmm, I’m going to hold this extremely loosely, um, in my hands and I just need you to intervene. Yeah. Intervene. And when I say intervene, I don’t mean intervene of do what I want. I mean, my heart and this isn’t a worry anymore. Yeah. Interview in my priority.

So this isn’t a focus anymore because if I let it keep being a focus and I keep coming back to it over and over and over again throughout a day, and it just creates this ball that keeps moving and kids getting bigger. I mean, that’s not what I’m looking for. God. I just want to get rid of it. Yeah, as your word said, um, that I don’t worry about anything instead I give it all to you and I’m not going to worry about, uh, how it’s gonna play out and then I’m going to make sure I circle back around and thank you and how it plays out.

Andrew: That’s a good point.

Josh: Yeah. Right. And so it was, it was that physical moment. It was a physical action for me to essentially put my hands out. I just realized I’m showing Andrew this, I’m putting my hands up on the screen. Yeah, you was thinking through that, but I physically sit on my back porch is having this conversation with Jesus about what was going on and, and really how I was feeling about it.

Cause I was just trying to get it all out. Yeah. Here’s everything. This is all that I’m thinking about. And does God know all those things? 100%. Yeah, but that’s not the point. The point is relationship and there’s. Yeah. A level of trust that builds inside of you. And when you let those things out, right?

Like when I’m what I’m more open, I ended up trusting that person I’m more vulnerable and open with. Um, so I’m going to practice the same techniques with God and that I would with a human being. Um, and I’m laying it all out. And then it was a physical position of taking my hands and, and essentially putting that in front of me and lifting him towards the sky just to represent to my own brain.

Do I have to do that? No, absolutely not. But to my own brain, I have to do that in the sense of, I need to physically do something. So Jesus, um, So I know that I’m giving this, so Jesus, not that Jesus knows you’re here. You’re giving it to him. Um, he knows. Um, so it’s yeah, little things like that. And then in all honesty, the rest of the weekend, I didn’t think about it at all.

Just wasn’t in the curtain to me then think back to it. Um, kind of surprised by it on Monday when I’m talking about Boston and you’re like, Oh yeah, that’s right. I did have to pray about that. But I agree weekend. So it’s little things like that. Like I think this is what Jesus was talking about. This is what the epistles were talking about.

Um, when, when they get into this whole thing of worry is there’s a level of relationship that we can sit inside of, um, with Jesus where worry doesn’t have to be a part of the equation.

Andrew: Yeah. There is, there is you’re right. And it’s like, we. I just think I need reminders of it often. Like I need to know scripture about it and then I need to actually do it.

Like when I say do it, I mean, have the conversation like you just did, like you just talked about and then. Remember that step. You said something about when w whatever unfolds, whatever happens. I need to circle back and thank God for it. Um, remember to thank him for it and kind of acknowledge. I think that in our minds, in my mind, if I’m thinking them for it, then I’m like, you were a part of this, you know, and it’s that I’m going to reflect on what happened and help.

My self learn these lessons more of like, yeah, he was a part of it. God was a part of it. He was steering the ship the whole time. I just didn’t see it. And it wasn’t on the time I wanted. But, um, all off your chest, I think helps a lot. Um, There’s a verse that maybe in our very first podcast, I talked about Psalm 46, a bunch.

I think it was in her first podcast here. It was right around that time. Um, don’t go back and listen to it. Listen to episode three and beyond just keep staying with us. But, um, but Psalm 46. One through four, one through three says, God is our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though.

The earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea though its waters, roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging. I love that, man. God is our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble. Um, and there’s a lot of other verses about not worrying in the Bible. I have a bunch in our like script notes here.

Um, but to me, that, that mental space of saying. A mountain just fell into the ocean. Um, uh, hurricanes on the way our house just flooded. Something’s on fire. I don’t know, having that image of like these huge things can go wrong. Um, yet we can sit there. I say, no, God is our, our refuge and our strength. An Everett or present help in trouble ever present, help all the time ever present, always there always present.

Um, like just knowing that to be true helps me when I’m walking into worry about a job decision or a financial situation or a, my calendar is way too busy. How am I going to accomplish everything this week? Or. Whatever, you know, or if I’m just being real a sleepless night or, uh, uh, nearly sleepless night cause of a toddler not feeling great.

Like I had last night and the night before, it’s like, how am I going to accomplish all the things I need to in my day? Um, just small worries, but it’s like, I have a lot, I’ve got to get done. How am I going to do that? Cause I’m more now, you know, God is my ever present help in times of trouble. Um, whether big or small, that just, that helps me a lot.

Um, and then from there, I think the next piece is not just knowing some of this that God has ever present, but I really think worry goes to trust, like you were saying, what can I control? What can’t I control to me that talks all about trust. Like, do I actually trust God the way I want to or the way I think I do.

Um, I find for myself that I do. In moments and I do in situations. And then I find other moments in situations where I don’t trust him as well as I want to. Um, I don’t trust him as fully as I want to. And then out of that worry starts to manifest itself, you know? And there’s. There is a, an enemy, you know, like Satan is, is in control of a lot of things that happen in our lives, or maybe not in control, but is allowed to influence a lot of things in our lives.

He’s allowed to try to influence us. Um, and, and he wants us living in fear. If you’re living in fear and worrying anxiety, man, you’re focused on just that. Like you were talking about, that’s the thing, you’re just, you’re myopic. You’re just looking at that. Just thinking about that. You’re not digging into relationship.

You could be, you’re not doing ministry the way you could be. You’re not, you’re not just not living the way God wants you to be able to live. You’re not living the full life if he has for you. If you’re constantly stuck in worry, in my opinion.

Josh: Yeah, well, and just right along with it, you’re saying like, that’s the reason the enemy gets us to these places is to keep us from experiencing this fullness that we could have in a life with Jesus and what it looks like.

And, um, I won’t read this whole thing, but this is jesus’ words and the great, the great commission in the sermon on the mound also. Great. He has the great commission, the great commandments and the great sermon. But this is in the middle of chapter six, middle to the end of chapter six of Matthew.

Therefore I tell you, and this is the whole thing it’s therefore I tell you do not worry about your life. Um, and then he goes on to explain it, um, what you eat or drink or what you, uh, about your body or what you will wear is life not more than food, the body, more than clothes. Look at the birds of the air.

I think we quoted this few weeks ago and they do not sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they. Hm. And are, can any of you by worry, add one single hour to your life? Essentially, all Jesus is saying is what’s the point? Like, what is your worrying doing?

It’s not going to do anything for your life. It’s not going to give you any more time. If anything, it’s going to suck time. Why? And like, how can any of you, you buy worry at a single hour to your life? No. And why. And why do you worry about clothes? See the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin yet.

I tell you that not even Solomon, all his splendor was dressed. Like one of these, he was dressed in greater glory. Uh, verse 30 is if that is how God clothes, the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow will be thrown into the fire. Will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith now, clothing.

We think of clothing like Walmart’s right down the street. You go buy clothes, right? Walmart, if you need to, right. Like. It would have been difficult to come by. It’s not like they would have had these types of resources readily available. It would have cost them something to get them. Um, but do not worry saying what shall we eat?

What shall we drink or what shall we wear for the pagans run to these things? And your heavenly father already knows that you need them, but seek first, his kingdom seek his righteousness. So here’s another way to see this seek first Jesus in his waist. And all these things will be given to you. Yeah.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow. Worry about it. So each day has its. Uh, enough troubles of its own. Um, and yeah, when we’re in the midst of it, it’s hard to digest the verses, but we’ll go back to exactly what Jesus said to open this, this part of the conversation. Therefore, I tell you, meaning this is important.

That’s why he says, yeah, pay attention here. You can fill it with all those different words. He says, do not worry about your life. Yeah. Now the emotion is, what do you mean? Don’t worry about my life. What do you mean? I shouldn’t do this. This is all Jesus say, I’ve got this stop worrying about it, right. For the heavenly father knows that you need them already.

Yeah. I’m like, worries. Not going to help you with anything. It’s only gonna cause more destruction. So we now have to go combat against worry. And how do we combat against worry? We. Do what Jesus said, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness seek first Jesus and Jesus ways. Um, and this is going to be a thing that is going to combat the worries of this life.

I’m going to pour back into my relationship with Jesus and relationship like that’s key. I don’t know how many times we can say it on this podcast, but relationships, the key, like we went through all the spiritual gifts or the spiritual disciplines for no other reason than to help you build a relationship.

Yeah, we just went through all the characters of God to help you build a relationship, to have a good view of who God is. This isn’t about doing tasks. It’s not about doing a list of things. It’s not, Hey, you need to read your Bible more. I’ll tell you this. You don’t have to read your Bible war, but what you need to do is you need to spend time with Jesus.

However that’s going to play out for you. I think it’s important to read your Bible to understand what Jesus is saying. Sure. I’m not saying like that’s not the requirement here. Yeah. The requirements relationship. So how do you foster and grow relationship with Jesus, which means grow like you were saying, grow in trust of Jesus to grow in understanding of who Jesus is to grow in.

I’m your communication with Jesus to grow in your vulnerability with Jesus, to grow in all these different, the same thing you would do with a human being. It’s the same practice that you got to do with Jesus. This is the, this is why he went to the cross to restore this relationship. Um, and when we seek after those things, you’ll be blown away by how often or how few times, or how.

Less you worry, because you’re going to trust that God, Jesus has got, this might not turn out the way I thought, but it’s going to be for my good and for my betterment. And because I love him and he loves me.

Andrew: Yeah. That’s solid, man. And yeah, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

That’s such a good key. And if you, if you just remember one thing out of this podcast, remember Matthew six 34, therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about it. Each day has enough trouble of its own. That’ll preach men each day. There’s enough trouble, but trouble of its own. But to just sit back and say, tomorrow’s going to be tomorrow.

God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He’s going to be there he’s he already knows what happens and he’s already going to equip me for whatever I need in that moment. Um, yeah. There’s, that’s beautiful. Like you can just pull the other pieces, you can live in that, you

Josh: know? Yeah. And the other piece of this conversation is you’re not going to grow in confidence.

You’re not going to grow in trust of Jesus. If you don’t practice it. Yeah. Right. And I think this is one of the reasons we worry so much. We have so much anxiety in our world today is everything. There’s probably not been a better time in humanity’s existence that we don’t have to work hard for what we have.

Hmm. Like things are given to us. We don’t have to struggle. Um, especially like, you know, you look at, um, upper-middle-class, um, death rates, suicide rates, and it’s through the roof right now, especially yeah. In teenagers of that, of that demographic, because they’ve been literally given everything in their life.

They’ve never learn this coping skills, um, to not get what you want. Right. So it’s the same thing that’s at play here. Like. If I always get what I want, I don’t learn anything. Right? Like if, if Jesus has always giving exactly what I want, the way that I want it, um, we’re never going to grow as human beings because we don’t know what’s best for us.

We’re never going to grow in our trust because we don’t know what’s best for us. Um, like it’s, it’s Jesus and letting him and trusting him in those ways. Um, that is going to give us greater confidence in who he is, but we don’t get there unless we. Trust him. Right? So like egg before the chicken thing. Um, and so I know that’s hard, but it’s jump off the edge.

You got it. You got to push past the lead. Um, if, if you’re going to see Jesus do what Jesus does, but if you always play it safe and you always control it, um, you control everything about, you know, your life and your aspects and you provide for yourself and all the ways you need. Be provided for when things get difficult, you don’t know what to do because you’ve never trusted Jesus.

And that’s what he’s asking you to do in those difficult times. Right? Like, um, James said it in the. Uh, in the opening chapter of his book title after himself, James mean he’s fine. He exact words. Uh, this is James chapter one, verse four. You can read the other verses too. They’re good, but I’m going to skip them for the sake of time.

He says, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Now he goes on to kind of. Expand on this thought even more. And this is the famous verse that ends with such a person is double-minded unstable and all that they do. And essentially we could define worry is double-minded right.

Like you’re split between two different things. Yeah. Worried about how things are gonna turn out either. It’s gonna turn out this way or this way. And that double-minded piece creates such a level of being unstable in terms of, uh, um, Being swayed by the wind using other scripture to describe it. Right.

You’re being thrown back and forth in the waves. Um, you know, you’re not able to focus in on, I think it was actually James later in the book, but for, I think about it, but, well, I guess it’s that piece. Like I don’t grow it perseverance. I don’t grow in my maturity. I don’t grow in my trust of Jesus if I don’t practice it.

Andrew: Yeah.

Josh: Like, I just stay as an infant or as a child. It never changes.

Andrew: And to get insanely practical with this and give you a homestead analogy. Uh that’s, that’s something interesting. I learned not long ago. Um, tomato plants, like every time you are around your tomato plants, you’re supposed to grab the plant by a kind of, um, thick part of it, a part that, you know, you can actually hold on to and shake it a little bit.

Like you’re supposed to jiggle it, make the plant physically uncomfortable a little bit, because then it roots deeper into the soil because it’s like, like stuff’s going on? I need thicker. I need it better base. And then it gets more water. It does better produces more tomatoes, but it’s through physical stress.

And that’s the same thing with trees and wind like a tree. If it never lives in wind, if there’s no wind going on. The nutria never actually develops deep roots. The second a big Gus comes, it just falls right over. And it’s like, there’s these things that are like, God gave us the physical reality he gave us so that we can understand him better.

I think, I think all these things are meant to point back to him so that we can understand, Oh, if I want more tomatoes, I gotta make sure my tomato plants have thick roots and don’t just fall over. Well, if I want to actually have faith in God, I better have thick roots, you know, and, and a little different way, but I better go through the storms and trials in my life.

The things that make me worry and turn back to him and, and read the scripture. And like you said, take the leap a little bit blindly of like, I know. Yeah. I’m supposed to trust God, it freaks me out to trust them with this decision. But while it keeps saying that I should, and that I shouldn’t worry in the Bible, all of these things say that.

So at some point she’s got to take a leap and say, God, do what you’re going to do. I trust you, even though I don’t trust you, Lord, like, what’s that verse? Um, give me faith or give me. Belief because I have so much unbelief, something like that, where it’s like, give me the thing that I don’t have, because I trust you can give it to me, you know, give me faith.

Cause I don’t have faith, but I trust you can give it to me. Is the idea basically. So gotta take a leap sometime.

Josh: Yeah, well, it is, you’re a parent, especially if you’re a parent of a late teenager, early 20 something, and they’re still living in your home. Um, like there’s a part of that, of like, they’re just not mature enough to pull it off yet, because probably not to step on your parenting toes.

You gave it too easy for them. They never learned disappointment and they never learned struggle. Um, they didn’t learn the thing. You got to learn to find maturity. And it says now just flip flop those relationships, at least for you and put yourself as a teenager, there’s a good chance that you’re in this faith.

You’re trying to follow Jesus, but your faith from a maturity standpoint is still that of a child. Hm, or that of, of an early teen, um, that you don’t have the skill sets because you haven’t trusted Jesus enough in those skillsets, um, to grow those stronger muscles of like, and here’s the downside of it all grow those muscles, they get great.

Um, what happens next? He gives you more. It just gets bigger from there. You want to see God do miraculous in your life. You want to see God do the big things in your life. You often think to yourself, like use the old Testament characters as an example. Well, God just shows up on the scene. No, like all the things that Moses had to go through to get to the point where he believed that when he put that staff in the water, that God was about to split that sea.

Yeah, it was go back and read it yourself. Like throughout it it’s, it’s one thing after another, that was testing and developing his faith that he’s having greater level of trust in God you’ve been saw. Just not that long before that. Um, God bringing all the plugs and, and God telling Moses to go to Pharaoh.

And he’s like, I don’t want to go to Pharaoh. I

Andrew: can’t do that.

Josh: So he gives, so he gives him, he gives him his brother, um, to go in his place, to go with them and be as voicebox, but these small little steps, but he still wins. He still wanted to stop against Pharaoh. You still took those steps, these small things that grew and grew and grew to the point where he’s now standing with probably half a million to a million people standing behind him.

I’m making that number up on top of my head. A lot of people in a scene, the only way between the sea and their mini immediate death. Uh, is our, sorry, the only thing there is them and his faith to say, God told me to put this staff in the sea and he will split it and we will walk on dry ground right now in this moment.

That’s what I’m going to do because I’ve got faith is all connected and all this. And this is the thing that we, when we grow in our faith, we get to see more miraculous things in our life. Yeah. When we grow in our trust of Jesus, we have less worry that it’s not going to turn out the way that we thought it’s you, but it is going to turn out the way that Jesus wants it to.

And that’s enough for me, right? Like that’s the part we’re trying to get to. And it’s not easy. We get that. Like, what were, what were. Proposing to you. It’s not as simple process. Yeah, we get that, but you’ve got to start somewhere and if you’re struggling, you have the conversation with Jesus to be open and vulnerable with him and have the conversation with someone around.

Yeah. Find a, uh, A spouse, a loved one, a friend, um, and share the fears that just overwhelm you. You’ve got to get them out because the longer it goes back to sin, and I’m not saying it’s sin, it could be, but I’m not saying that it is, um, where the source of your, your worry and your fear. Um, but the more we bring to light.

The less, the, those things in darkness have power. So the more we bring up, this is what I’m worrying about. These are my fears. This is what’s coming out of me. The less power that those things have. We can start to find victory over them, but you’ve got to start having those conversations. You’ve got to take those leaps of faith and they’ll feel like a leap of faith now.

Okay, 10 years from now, when you’ve taken this journey with Jesus and you keep taking these steps in these leaps and you trust even more, you’ll look back and be like, Oh my gosh, I was terrified of that. Like, Oh, that’s so crazy. God has done like this, this, this, that blows that out of the water. Right.

Like, but we don’t get to see those things if we’re not, if we’re living in fear, we’re living in worry because we never make the decision that Jesus is urging us to make. Um, that causes us fully trust him, um, to see that, that, that he’s going to move in the end and that’s terrifying to us. I get it. Um, but we’re pleading with you.

Yes, there is a better way. It doesn’t have to be this way, but it’s going to take you getting really uncomfortable and probably gripped with fear to some extent and making the decision anyways, because Jesus, in the midst of this. So I don’t know what this reading God has in front of you. I don’t know what worries are grabbing your heart right now.

Um, but I recommend start with a conversation or extremely honest and real conversation. Dig deep into who you are and share those things with Jesus, and then let these things go and see what he does with them. See where he goes with these things.

Andrew: Okay. Final thoughts. I know you gotta bounce. Uh, Two final things.

It’s Lord, I believe help me in my unbelief. Um, think about that, Lord. I believe help me in my unbelief. Think that when you don’t believe, choose to believe I’ve already chosen, I’m going to believe these things to be true about God. I’ve already chosen that the Bible is God’s word for my life. That’s kind of my playbook, right.

Emmanuel to go to. Um, so. When you come up against something this week, that, that makes you worry about this week. Next week, whenever you’re listening to this podcast, um, just remember this, therefore I tell you do not worry about your life stop. Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life.

Josh: Okay?

Andrew: God, I’m not going to worry.

I’m not going to worry. I’m going to tell you all about it. I’m going to be real honest with you. Like Josh just talked about. And I’m not going to worry. It’s done. You’re going to be in it. And I believe that. And I don’t know. I hope man, that this has been encouraging to you, Josh. I hope that you and I don’t have a week filled with worry, uh, where we have to prove this

Josh: story.

Right.

Andrew: But we probably will have some things to worry about. And maybe we’ll talk about it more next time we talk. But dude, um, thanks so much for this, this great conversation. And uh, I’m going to choose not to worry about my life. As much as I can.

Josh: That’s good. Yeah. Yeah. I’m going to do the same in, we share all of this, not from a perspective of an expert or a perspective of we’ve got this all figured out.

We share it from a perspective of we’re figuring this out. We think we’ve come to summit secrets. We think we’ve found some secret sauce, and we’re just trying to share that secret sauce as we try to live it as well. But Hey, thank you so much for listening. Uh, if you haven’t subscribed to us yet, you stumble upon us.

We’d really appreciate it. If you went to any of those major podcasting platforms, whether it’s Spotify or Apple podcasts or wherever else, you may listen and subscribe to us that it gives you an opportunity on that platform to rate us. We’d really appreciate a great rating. If you think we suck and we’re like the worst podcast you’ve ever listened to.

Don’t listen, please don’t rate us and just unsubscribe. Unfollow us and never think about us again. That’s okay. We’re not offended, but we’d be really hurt and crushed if you gave us a bad rating. But yeah. Thank you so much for listening. We do love you guys. We are praying for you guys and we’re hoping God is a great work in your life.

If he is, please let us know. You can always reach us on our website, but Andrew, as always. It’s good to

Andrew: see my friend. It’s good to see you. Thanks for this conversation.