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Silly Games, Silly Prizes
Episode No. 50

“When you play silly games, you win silly prizes.” We continue our conversation about how our relationship with Jesus has an impact on everything. You are valued, should be noticed, and pursued. You have a purpose and potential.

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Resources

Verses – Galatians 3.
Verses – Ephesians 2:11-22.
Verses – Romans 8:14-16, 23.

Transcript

Josh: Hello. Hello. We’re just two normal dudes trying to live this Jesus’ life. My name is Josh. Hey, 

Andrew: I’m Andrew. And we are this Jesus life podcast. Welcome to episode 50 Josh episode 55, 

Josh: zero five. Made it this far. Let’s be honest. That is land dude with 

Andrew: two days of listening time. That is intense. We did it.

Josh: We’re here. Was it March that we started? Yeah. Yeah, it had March. Yeah. I was thinking like, even in the same month, police get more weeks than that. We’re six 

Andrew: months off. 

Josh: It’s funny, dude. We almost have a year’s worth of listening. At least if you listen to just one episode a week, that’s right. That’s pretty crazy.

That’s a lot of listening to Andrew and I talk sometimes about really important, helpful things. And other times. About useless information, never cared or no. 

Andrew: And if you’ve with us long enough, you’re going to know a lot about Josh’s dog and a lot about my chickens and, uh, you know, a lot of other things, but those were aside from Jesus and things in the Bible, uh, those are probably our two most talked about topics, which is kind of ridiculous.

So 

Josh: you’re welcome. You’re welcome. Yeah, you’re welcome for that. And if you want a wire hair, Jack Russell terrier mix, um, he’s up for sale and by sale. I mean, you just gotta pick them up, um, because he’s a turd and just living these days to make my life difficult. Is that 

Andrew: what you’re going camping this weekend?

Are you just releasing Jack into the wild. 

Josh: Is that what you’re really doing. I’m going to leave him up as Midland. I’m going to go camping. I’m going to accidentally forget him. And then as I’m driving back down the mountain, like, oh no, I forgot my dog. I’m so broken hearted. That’s terrible. Yeah. I wouldn’t do that.

So I love them too much, but I also hate them at the same time. It’s like the video going around on social media right now. That’s like, show me someone that you, what is it like? Someone show me someone that you’re supposed to love a lot, but you actually are annoyed by, I would show my dog. He’s he’s he’s pretty new these days.

Yeah. Um, yeah, he woke me up at night, three o’clock in the morning, two nights ago to pay, which I guess is better than peeing in my house. So if there was one of the other, right. But when you like to wake me up is like, he was just shaking. So like you slept there, not like shaking, looking scared though. He does that on a regular basis as well.

He’s terrified of everything. Uh, but shaking like his entire body violently. Um, I don’t remember wake up. I don’t know what he’s doing, but woke me up. It worked right. Take him out. And then he’s like, honestly, by my side, I don’t know. The Thunderbirds are in town. They’d been flying over my house doing their training or whatever.

We’re getting ready for the graduation. Yeah, uh, at the air force academy. And I think, I think that those Thunderbirds are terrifying him. So I might call the air force and just complain logic complaint that they’re terrifying my dog. I need them to stop it. 

Andrew: Yeah. And I’m sure as soon as they heard you call, they’d be like, you know what?

We’re shutting this whole operation down. This was 

Josh: the final. I was speaking there. Give me a plane. We’re scaring one. Oh, sorry. We’ll give you a plane. Yeah, that’s 

Andrew: cool. We’re actually going to give you Angelica free ride in one of the jets next year during the official celebration. And that would be so awesome.

Be so awesome. 

Josh: I’d probably put myself pee myself and throw up, but I think it’d be worth it. I didn’t experience. Can you 

Andrew: imagine being the fighter pilot, who’s just like, all right. I’m like, I’ll volunteer, I’ll take Josh and his dog. And you literally, you Josh literally poop, pee and throw up in his jet at the same time.

And, uh, you just have to live with that. You’re like, well, the show’s going to last another 30 minutes. That all happened during takeoff. 

Josh: And I want to just pilot, like, yeah, we’re done. We’re we’re landing. I’m going to crash this jet. Did it happen or was it like, was it one than the other? No, it’d be like,

it’s like people that, like, is it bourbon part or sneezing fart at the same time? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s one of those things. 

Andrew: Any, anytime you have any combination of those happening at the same time, it’s a bad moment. Uh, when you’re fully clothed 

Josh: planning. Yeah. Well, even what’d you just say, so if you’re fully clothed and unflattering that, so is there times that you’re not clothed and you’re planning to do it?

I’m just curious to get like these reviews. No, 

Andrew: no, no, no. I’m just saying 

Josh: Thursday at 6:00 PM. There’s a difference 

Andrew: between like, you know, pooping, like where you should, uh, and pooping in your pants is what I’m trying to say. And there’s also a difference in like, oh, I’m about to throw up and like, you go to like a bowl or the toilet or something and you deal with it because you’re sick versus just 

like 

Josh: the whole.

Have you ever done the whole diarrhea throw up at the same time?

Ah, 

Andrew: this is such a great start to our actually 

Josh: yeah. I plan ahead for those kinds of stuff. I’m a planner by nature. So, um, I’m thinking like, well, if it ever happened, You’re throwing up in the you’re throwing up the bathtub like this. You got to remember that you just got to, got to make the decision for you to get there.

So when it happens, you just, you just go to the plan, uh, and not have to like wonder in the moment. Cause you want to be like mid poo and you’re like, oh, I gotta throw up. And he only do that in the toilet. And then nobody now that’s a bad day. Yeah, nobody was that always throw up in the bathroom, the shower whatever’s nearby.

And if it’s neither of those, she got like a half bath. That’s where he ended up sink sink as always. I would recommend the sync II. Yeah, you always want that to be the top end and not the bottom end. Those are 

Andrew: words to live by seek is for the top and not the 

Josh: oh yeah. Always, always. 

Andrew: Yeah, always the top, man.

Um, I had a, would you rather, but it pales in comparison to this. Like just compared to our discussion. It seems so tame now, uh, that I’m just like, do I even, do I even ask it? I was here’s here’s my very lame. Would you rather, I was going to ask you, but seriously, you don’t even need to answer it. I don’t feel like it’s even worthy of, of where we just were.

Um, I was just gonna ask, like, would you rather conduct a very serious meeting something in like the interview level for a job you want? Um, from a port-a-potty. Uh, and like, they don’t know it’s a port-a-potty, but you know, and it’s August and it smells bad. And then like full heat in that plastic wall.

Port-a-potty, that’s pretty full. So would you rather do that a video call or have like drink only really weak coffee for. I dunno a month. Like just all, every bit of coffee you make, it’s always weaker than you want it to be in. Tastes like water. 

Josh: Just like water. Yeah. 

Andrew: Like coffee flavored water, you know?

Josh: Yeah, I’d probably go, I’d probably go for the meeting in the, in the, as long as it didn’t. No. Yeah. If you could do the whole, take the background out and put a different background there and I’m like, oh, I’m on the beach. I could, I could muster it up of like smelling the poop. Well, I’m probably pooping. I would assume, I would assume if I’m in a port-a-potty and pooping.

So I’m going to meet. 

Andrew: It’s just like for whatever reason, circumstances, dictate that you have to be in the port-a-potty, you know, like it’s quiet outside, like 

Josh: it’s sturdy. I’m not sitting on it. I’m not sitting on a toilet. If I’m not with my pants down, that’s just weird. 

Andrew: No you’re sitting. Cause you’re you, this is with your life.

You’re going full bore. You’re like, I’m going to maximize this thing 

Josh: where you’re like, can I get through this meeting and take a poop? Cause that’s a pretty crazy story. Like to be able to share it later and get away with it. That’s like, oh man, with this, let’s go for it. Yeah, that’s funny. 

Andrew: Yeah, I 

Josh: appreciate it.

I have respect for that and they would never know who wants to drink weak coffee. Like that’s a miserable surgery for a month. Did it for a month. I know it’s serious. Sometimes addicted to coffee. Um, coffee doesn’t really like get me all hyped up and energize. There’s just something I really like to drink.

And I wonder like, could I give up coffee for a week or a month? And I probably could, but I also have no intention on trying. Yeah. Yeah. People would completely change my routine. We, we cut fees. It’s just an insult. 

Andrew: Every time it’s bad for you. You know, it’s like I had a cup of coffee the other day and I do think I’m addicted.

It doesn’t necessarily get me fired up, but you know, I need it. Um, But yeah, man, we coffees is an insult to coffee and where the dirt is. 

Josh: Like, if you’re stuck, if you’re stuck in the weak coffee game for a month and like you have friends over and they’re like, oh, I’d love some coffee. You have to serve them.

We coffee. So now they think you’re a weak coffee person. Yeah, they think they think poorly. I know it’s bad. Um, I have a coffee story when pour overs were all the rage. I still do pour overs. I got the whole setup, but when they’re all the rage, we’re at a, an office for a meeting early morning and we needed to grind some beans.

And I was going to pour the beans in the grinder and. Well, either the grinder is really clean or I was still half asleep waking up, but I didn’t realize the lid was still in the grinder. And of course, like half a bag of beans all over the floor at eight o’clock in the morning. So that was always, that was always a nice one.

That’s brutal. Brutal. I’m just getting an Amazon package right now that I ordered this morning, 

Andrew: but that’s wild, man. That’s Amazon solid delivery. Solid turnaround time, right there. 

Josh: Nice. Yeah. I need that to use a power adapter for my laptop. 

Andrew: Hey, you should, you should keep talking for a sec. I gotta mute for just a moment here.

Josh: Okay. What do we want to talk about while Andrew’s gone taking care of screaming babies or. That might be a screaming wife. I’m not really sure. And we don’t want to make any assumptions here and be an ageist. It could be a grown woman or a child. Um, we’ll talk about Amazon for a second. Like no joke ordered that this morning and it literally just showed up.

I just got the email same way paradigm. I’m not a huge fan of Amazon for a lot of different reasons. Um, but. Same day delivery. That’s uh, that’s pretty hard. You can do the same thing, give you some freedom. Now that we’re just killing time while Andrew takes care of his, his child, um, Walmart does the same thing and they got like the whole similar plan of like two days shipping for a hundred bucks a year, whatever it is, that’s what we’re checking out because they also do same day delivery.

If it’s something that’s in one of their stores near you and they just, I don’t know, one of the delivery companies, grub hub or. Door dash or one of those actually does a delivery to your house. Um, so if you haven’t checked them out, it’s worth checking out as well. And they have a lot of things on their website, just not, not everything.

It’s definitely not an Amazon. Welcome back. That was, 

Andrew: that was such helpful advice. Thank you for the recommendations to me, I’m like free trial, you know, I’m, I’m considering 

Josh: to get away from Amazon altogether. Yeah. Yeah. One more time. Yeah. You just have to like, get over the whole, like. It’s Walmart. Right, right, right, right, right.

Who’s the person that shops at Walmart. Like what, how do you come back from that buddy? You’re sitting here. Like, 

Andrew: we don’t want to be ageist, but you definitely don’t want to be the person who shops at Walmart. 

Josh: You’re funny. You can shop Walmart. That’s fine. Whatever, but you just don’t want to be the guy that shops at Walmart at like two o’clock in the morning on a Friday.

This is true. I don’t know if you’ve been in Walmart around that time, but I have that’s. That’s where the people at Walmart website came from is that that’s the group of people. No offense to them. Great. Um, they probably realize something’s up. That’s why they’re shopping at two o’clock in the morning, right in the middle of the week.

So. Like they get it, but yeah. So interesting crew people. 

Andrew: Interesting. For sure. Hey, speaking of interesting, Josh, so I know we don’t always read the scripture that we’re going through, but today, and, and last week to be fair. And probably next week we are going to read the scripture, um, because these aren’t super famous parables or super famous stories that everybody kind of knows.

But with that being said, uh, I’d invite you, uh, whoever you are listening. Uh, take a minute, pause this and go read Galatians three. Um, I’m going to be reading Galatians three 23 through 29. But, um, we want you to have chances to get in the word yourself and just see what the Lord says to you through it.

So, um, yeah, this is Galatians three 23 through 29, which I think is going to be probably the meat of what we’re talking about today. So it says this. Before the coming of the faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

Now this, now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus, you all are children of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ, have closed clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female for you all are one in Christ.

Jesus. If you belong to Christ. Then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs, according to the promise, Josh, how does that strike you? My friend. What are your kind of first take reactions to that? 

Josh: I don’t have any, I got nothing there now. Again, 

Andrew: it’s nothing new. It’s all poop talk. That’s 

Josh: uh, that’s all we got. Cool.

That’s pretty good. What you don’t know? And we were going to tell you, but I’ll tell you anyways, because there’s probably a drop in energy that comes today, but Andrew had a blackout because the Russians hack their internet or something like that. Assume that was the case. Um, so we can the court, 

Andrew: after that, a massive thunderstorm knocked out power for five hours at our house.

So it was the Russians first and then a huge 

Josh: thunderstorm, which was the Russians as well. Probably China, actually Chinese. I hadn’t thought of that comment in the United States. Yeah, it’s a good point. That’s a good point. 

Andrew: That’s funny. 

Josh: Yeah, yeah. This faith or this, this relationship with Jesus thing is all about faith.

Um, and you’re now a child of God, you know, filling the seat, you know, filling the promise that was made to Abraham through Christ. And, uh, yeah, I, I think we should just live in that and that’s a good life. 

Andrew: All right. Well, and thanks for listening. Today’s episode of this Jesus life podcast. I’m just kidding,

dude. I. As I read this, um, I was thinking back to our like that, so that, that ends with like, you’re, you’re now part of Abraham’s line, essentially, um, like born as a, as a Jew into the tribe, uh, into one of the tribes of, of being a Jew and. I was thinking about the good Samaritan episode we did on the parable of the good Samaritan.

If you haven’t listened to it, take a minute after this and go check it out. It’s really good. Um, and if you remember, like Samaritans were the basically like viewed as half-breeds, they were, they weren’t full blown, um, Jewish by bloodline. So they were really seen as like second class, third class citizens, like.

Basically Gentiles and kind of despised by other Jews who were like I’m full-blood Jew, you know? So today we might call that a incredibly racist, uh, then it was just looked at differently and it’s just like, Nope, you’re low cast or lower rank of society. Maybe it’s the same. I don’t know. That’s neither here nor there, but the point I’m trying to get at is that.

In Galatians three, it’s being explained very, very explicitly that. Under Christ. We are through the work of the gospel done by Christ, through his sacrifice, his death and resurrection. Um, we all now are, are part of the promise. And I don’t mean necessarily like all of humanity. I mean, everyone who claims light Christ as their Lord and savior and, and lives like it.

Uh, you are now in the kingdom, uh, through faith. You are. In the Royal family. So to say or so to speak, you know, your heirs heirs to the kingdom of heaven that is here right now. Uh, and we’ll be there in a different form after our physical death here. So, um, I just, I don’t know, man. I love that. I I’m a big fan of that, you know, it’s, we don’t serve a God who looks at us and says, um, well, Josh prayed twice as much as Andrew today.

So. Josh is worth a lot more to me or, or some other guy was a, a Jew by blood before becoming a Christian, uh, by faith. And so that guy’s like levels higher than, than Josh and Andrew who are, are, you know, mirror Gentiles. Um, it’s like, no under Christ you are equal. Under Christ. You are, uh, the same. You’re Christians first you’re Christ followers first, and you are air to the promises and, um, You know, you’re, you’re in the Royal priesthood essentially.

Um, there’s a concept in theology. I was really liked. Maybe this is why I’m not Catholic. Uh, is I resonate really strongly with this idea of, of the priesthood of all believers, that like, you know, we don’t need a mediary between us and. The Lord anymore because of Christ’s work. The holy spirit is our mediary between us and the Lord and my understanding.

And, um, we don’t need a priest necessarily to intercede for us. We can go directly to the Lord. Um, You know, EG priesthood of all believers. So anyway, man, those are my, my first thoughts is like just, we are equal in this relationship with the Lord. We are equals in Christ. Um, And, and he blew the doors off the barriers that were previously, you know, old covenant, uh, barriers of, if you sin, you can only pay for that by literal blood.

And you can do that through these animals at this type of sacrifice, um, with this method and through these priests, it’s like, Nope. Now through faith, um, you can go direct to the, to the, the Lord. You can repent when you’ve sent and, and you can speak directly with amenity time. So, um, I don’t know, Josh, maybe, maybe something in there sparked a, I have a part, two thought.

Uh, if not, I can just keep, you know, keep trudging on, I 

Josh: suppose. Yeah, one, one thing that kind of triggered me is as you’re talking, um, and in a lot of ways, this was revolutionary to the culture. Um, so looking at 26 and 27, even into. Where’s 20, 20, 28. And then even it’s 29. Um, like there’s this idea. And Paul repeats this a couple of times in his letters, um, that there’s neither, no Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free.

There is no female, the male or female. I mean, you were all a one, all one in Christ. Um, and this idea like, excuse me, there’s. That we’re all equals like there’s no, there’s no hierarchy to this, this faith, like, as you were saying, like, there’s not, they’re loved more than others. We’re all equally loved. And that love is great for all of us.

Um, you know, men are not better than a women. Women aren’t men are better than men. Now we play our roles, but, um, you know, there. The value perspective of it is we’re we’re equal, um, slave nor free Gentile or Jew, like into a Jewish audience. That’s a big deal. Um, so there’s that piece of it too, of like, here’s this revolutionary idea that through the.

The sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, um, that inequality showed up in, in at least the Christian faith. Now, outside of that faith where males more important than females, 100%, you know, we’re free people more important than slaves. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, in the Jewish, out of the culture, it was Jews more important than genitals.

100%. Uh, but when it came to the faith in this new established church, would we call it the church Jesus’ church? Um, like we all function as equals like one, doesn’t get to have more value than another. We all function that same place. And I think that’s important to remember, um, because I think oftentimes we got off track of that or in the sake of, um, bringing equality, we res uh, you know, what we feel is a.

Uh, a group that has injustice to a higher level than, you know, the rest of us. Um, and I think you can cause a lot of disunity in that environment. Um, so I think that’s a beautiful thing that, that Christ brought into play of one. He raised up all these, um, lower class for lack of better term in that society.

Um, demographics up equal and said, no, I deeply love you. I deeply value. I pursued you as much as I pursued, you know, some other person. Um, and my sacrifice for you is just as great as any other person. I think that’s a big, that’s a big deal. It’s something new that get on, got introduced, um, through Christ and through his church.

And it’s like, that’s a beautiful, beautiful, um, picture to hold onto and to remind ourselves of, um, and then we all live in equal value that, you know, my, and it goes back to the same humility conversation of like my wants, my desires. What I think is right is not any more important than anyone else’s around me.

Like we all get to function as equals and that’s okay. Um, yeah, you know, we all get to sit in the, in the midst of that. I think the other big piece too, is the verse before that. Um, and I think this speaks just to where, excuse me. Um, I just had breakfast, not that long ago. Thank you, GrubHub. And it’s coming back up.

It was good if you’re wondering, um,

it’s early in the morning here. Um, If you can hear it in my voice, that’s why I haven’t even had a meeting yet. Um, but this idea of, uh, 26 27, I’ll just read it again. So we’re all on the same page. So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith for all of you were baptized into Christ, have clothe yourself with Christ, there’s other translations.

Um, They’re translated a little bit differently. I think give it greater contents, but that’s the essence of the words. There is this idea of, uh, of, because we, you know, found faith in Jesus, uh, we believed who he was in, you know, he did what he said he was going to do, um, conquering death as well. Um, And now we were baptized into that process.

It was just a public proclamation of an internal change. Um, and now we’re immersed into Christ himself or immersed into Jesus. And I think there’s, that’s like, that’s the piece. I think oftentimes we miss, um, for this Christian faith, like it’s this immersion into our relationship with Jesus, as it deepens and grows.

As we continue to foster relationship, we talked about numerous times how we foster that relationship, but. Um, as we foster this, I don’t know the piece of immersion, like the imagery that comes to your mind of like, if you’re like standing on the edge of a pool with your, you know, heels on the edge. So you’re facing the opposite direction of the pool and you just like fall back freely kind of like one of those like cinematic movie Mullins.

And it’s like all like, you know, whatever. Like I was going to say that to the frame rate, but I don’t actually know anything about frame rates, so that’s not gonna help anybody, but he’s really, really, really slow motion. Right. Right. And it’s like falling into, so Jesus is like the water and it’s like just enabling up ambling, ambling around you and bill, whatever the word is to go around you.

It’s early books. This is what you get from me. Not that you get better language or vocabulary when I’m not, but you’re going to get it today. That’s right. So it’s like that picture of like, maybe it’s like a really soft hug, but it’s really like, you just it’s appearing in you just seeing Jesus, right?

It’s like, you’re going deeper into the water. Eventually the water just completely over covers you. And now you’re, it’s Christ living and no longer you living, um, which is the goal of all of us, right? That’s the sanctification process. Um, and a much better life. Um, You can chose to live it. Um, so I think there’s that piece too.

That’s that’s just great imagery to remind ourselves of, of like, no, this is what I’m chasing. Like I want to be completely immersed in Jesus and all Jesus ways. And I’m careful to say Jesus ways. Cause I don’t want you to get to this legalism piece of like Christianity, this list of do’s and don’ts and I just don’t do all these things and do all these things and like there’s definitely a part of.

Fostering relationship Jesus of obedience. But I think oftentimes obedience has manipulated and changed, um, to just. More to be con like the word be conformed, like just conform to our ways. And that’s not the Jesus way, like this immersion process of, as I, you know, as I deepen a relationship with Jesus and Jesus becomes more and more of who I am and, um, you know, less and less of me in my sin, my, um, um, Uh, what else?

Like hurtful personality elements that, that cause harm to other people. All those things start to float away because Jesus is doing the work in me. And I’m just being obedient to what Jesus is saying in the midst of my immersion with Jesus rather than, um, Trying to create this facade of change on the outside, but, and with Jesus never happened on my heart or on my inside.

And it’s just all self-effort at this point. Um, now I’m just like, well, I’m a great Christian because I wake up every morning and I read my Bible and I pray throughout the day. And I have this prayer list that I go through. I was sitting at a, um, a coffee shop yesterday and I love the zeal of young Christians.

Well, when I say young Christians, I mean, by age, I’m not necessary, not necessarily maturity in their relationship with Jesus, but, um, and there, I dunno, one guy was, I don’t think he was working for missions organization. I think he just liked to pretend he was I’ve pretty high level of discernment. So when red flags started going off, I’m entertained some of those, but there’s like four or five people having this conversation and talking through all these different things.

Um, and just this level of like, This facade that they’ve created of who they are when all reality, like insecurity is running rampant. Um, you can hear it in, in, in there. In their choice of words and how they react to certain things. Uh, which for me, insecurity is a huge red flag for lack of depth and relationship with Jesus.

Um, not because we don’t have insecurities, but if they’re under dealt with insecurities and they’re losing out of you, I would argue the sanctification process isn’t working. Um, so there’s a lack of depth and relationship with Jesus. But that’s normal. Like you see, I see, you know, in that example, like I saw it on great display because you know, they’re one, when they’re young, like that just comes with the territory, they haven’t learned all the tricks of the trade to hide it all yet.

So there’s that piece of it. And they’re highly, you know, full of zeal. So they’re, you know, they’re chasing after things, they think, you know, Jesus is in the midst of, and what’s really important. Yeah. I think one of the girls was raising like $40,000 or something like that for, um, um, campus mission work with, with one of the organizations that do that.

Um, and you’re just like, yeah, that’s, that’s a, that’s a lot of money. I have a lot of questions on why custom that for you to do camp and the shirt, but neither here nor there. Um, But there’s that piece in Christianity that we often find ourselves, sorry, that we’ve created this environment where it’s not up to my relationship with Jesus anymore.

It’s up to self effort. And then this is where hope and joy and life-giving spirits start to get sucked out of you because you’re just trying to do it all on your own. Like, and you don’t have to, and maybe it’s because you don’t feel like you’re valuable enough. Going back to universe 28. Um, and you, you know, you’re not, you don’t feel like you’re as important as, as other people or you’re as valuable is probably a better way to say it than other people.

And, you know, does it mean you don’t deserve to be pursued or, um, God doesn’t love you as much as he loves other people because they do so much more, um, for Tim and for the kingdom. Great. Um, so you feel this need to, I just have to keep doing, keep doing, keep doing, um, and the point of, of Galatians and the point of a lot of our conversations over the last few weeks is stop doing like, unless it’s fostering relationship with Jesus stopped doing.

Um, and that’s okay. It’s okay to stop doing and just walk in relationship with Jesus practice, those Jesus habits, uh, episodes somewhere in the, in the single digits and go back and listen to them. Actually, if you go to our website now, which is now up and running brand new, uh, much easier to follow along with things I’ll put into series.

So if you’re like, I just want to listen to the Jesus habits series and click on that specific series and just listen to those episodes again, trying to help you to find the things that you’re looking for. Totally rather than just a barrage of 50 episodes, baby, because that’s where we’re at, because it can be hard to find things.

Um, totally. So we’re trying to help you out, but there’s that piece of like, if, if that’s, if you’re doing anything other than that, you’re missing the point. And when you get into that conversation of like, and Jesus says, like, if you love me, you’ll be my commands. Um, so obedience is important to us. Um, Yep, but we make it the most important thing rather than the love for Christ or the relationship with Jesus.

Um, so yes, in your relationship with Jesus, 100%, Jesus is going to tell you to do things and tell you not to do things that’s going to happen, but it’s on his timeline on, at, at, at his pace. And that’s important because when we take on all of those things like library you through scripture and it says like, I have to avoid all of these different things.

I have to do all these different things. Sure. That’s true. Uh, and at some point Jesus will get you to those places. But if you’re doing it on your own self effort, um, you’re going to fail. This is going to feel like a burden, this Christianity thing. And I’ll be honest with you. Eventually your faith, maybe you won’t give it up completely, but man, you’re not going to practice it.

And you’re going to be pretty angry at it. Um, especially that anger starts to turn towards God and we see it all the time in, in. In Christianity and with Christians that we know, and they get to these bitter angry places, because they’ve been self efforting for so long and it’s not working. So Christianity just must not work when all reality is going back.

It’s no, you’re just doing it wrong. Like immerse yourself in relationship with Jesus. The NIV says, clothe yourself with Christ. That’s what this looks like, foster relationship with Jesus, focus on these things and then get to the root of like what, what may be going on. Um, maybe it is a lack of value that you feel, so you think.

You know, I have to do more for God rather than just foster relationship with Jesus. Um, there’s my rant for Andrew. I know that 

Andrew: that’s a lot and there’s like eight directions. I want to go out of that, but let me just start where you ended, uh, with something that, that struck me as you were talking, um, I’ve heard this, I’ve heard this phrase play silly games when silly prizes, but.

Goodness. Yeah. Like in this, you know, like play the wrong game when the wrong price might fit, you know, I need a sticker for that. No, I, yeah. Play the wrong game when the wrong prize. Um, or so I like the other way, you know, play silly games when silly prizes. Um, because like, man, I was thinking, as you were talking about like, You know, going in the wrong directions.

And let me just be clear, like, man, I understand I have a pretty decent handle on just how divided we are even here in the United States where Josh and I live like. We are incredibly divided as a people, um, on the whole. And then you go into the church world. We’re incredibly divided there too. And just in the evangelical Christian Church world.

And, uh, I think we’re playing silly games and that we are winning silly prizes. Um, a lot, I think we’re pushing in the wrong direction, maybe for the right. Reasons in our mind. Um, but I don’t know, man, we, we forget that Jesus went to fishermen, uh, and, and plucked them out of their obscure low class life and elevated them to, um, his disciples.

Ultimately the apostles of the church. We forget that Jesus liked to hang out with prostitutes and tax collectors. We forget that when the religious people of the day went to Jesus and confronted him on this stuff, he said, yeah, doctors don’t exist for the, for the healthy they’re here for the sick, like a physician isn’t trying to cure somebody who’s fully well already.

He comes to those who have need and helps them. That’s when I lose paraphrase of what Jesus said, and he probably said it with a lot of, uh, immunity towards them, uh, in a good way. But he hung out with the people that, that everybody around him, all the religious authorities that, that were frankly envious of his ability to communicate envious of his discernment and his wisdom and his.

Integrity of doing all of these things. And the dude, you know, was a carpenter by trade and was a better teacher of the law than any of them and could confound them anytime you wanted and make them look like idiots in front of all the people who looked up to them as being better than themselves. Um, basically.

Like the most powerful preachers of the day in the Jewish world, um, didn’t hold a candle to, to Jesus and, and you know, that it burned them to no end when they’re like, oh wait, you’re a carpenter by trade. That’s what you do. You’re one of those low class people. Um, and you’re here making me feel like I have no idea what, what, who God actually is because.

I don’t, I know the way to be religious. I know the way to get praise of men. I know the way to get people, to follow me and give me their money. Um, I know the way to make people feel guilty and like, they always need me as an intermediary between them and God. I know how to create dependence. Um, I don’t know how to create disciples.

Um, you know, and, and Jesus was the dude who, who straight up took people that other people would have just looked over people that they, they wouldn’t have even seen. Maybe the, maybe the priest of the day bought their fish at the market, but they didn’t see the fishermen. You know, they’re just like, this is some great fresh fish.

Jesus is like, no, no, I’m going to take these people who are worthless as in the eyes of the world. And I’m going to. Build my kingdom upon them. Um, I’m going to start, I’m going to spread the word. I’m going to teach them my way. And, um, and when I’m dead, when I’m raised again and then gone, um, they’re going to be the ones that, that unleashed the kingdom of heaven on this earth, you know?

Um, and man, we just get it so wrong, Josh, like we play silly games a lot. We, we do the same thing, the fairs these we’re doing, we forget so often as Christians where. You know, still concerned with taking our stands and, and making sure everybody knows that we have this moral authority and that we look good and that, you know, we, we put shame on the way they live, um, that we forget to, to reach into their lives and say, Hey, Jesus is here for you too.

Um, Jesus came and lived to break the bonds of your addiction. Jesus came and lived to have personal relationship with you. Um, we know you’re addicted to porn. We know you’re addicted to, to money. We know you’re addicted to success, to, to cocaine, to gambling, to drugs and alcohol, to all these things we know like.

These aren’t new problems. You know, maybe they have new forms, but, but they’re the exact same problems. They’re the exact same state of humanity that Jesus came to save. And there we look at those people and say like, no, you’re a homeless bum. I don’t know if I want you in the front row of my church. I don’t know if I want you even near my church.

Like, can we work with the police and get them out of our parking lot? Like, but the reality is, is like, Where’s the grace, where’s the, where we need to be the people who are inviting. And I’m not saying do this all in an unwise way and I’m not bashing people. Like I’m better than them. I’m not trying to do that.

I’m just trying to, like, I dunno, I’m just feeling fired up about the fact that Jesus lived this out so fully. And so clearly in every piece of his ministry that. It’s such an obvious thing for Paul to call out in this letter to the Galatians. It’s like, you’re not the slave nor free. There’s not even male or female.

You’re all one in Christ. Jesus, you know, um, you’re in the promise if you’re in Christ and I don’t know, man, that’s, those are my thoughts. It’s just like, we got to live like it. We got to figure out how to live like it, and we’re never going to be perfect at it, but. We should be constantly striving for unity.

And in my view, like we should be looking out for, for those who are so overlooked so easily, you know, the, the fishermen behind the fish market, the, the, whatever, the nightclub owner, the you name it, the people that, that maybe we don’t think should darken the doors of our church and should really. Be co heirs to the kingdom alongside of us.

Those are probably the exact people that we should be trying to reach and trying to intentionally reach. So that’s my rant to answer your rant. 

Josh: I think too, like, I think it’s important if you find yourself there, like, um, you look at the sin of this one person and you think to yourself, like, you know, I don’t want to engage them.

I don’t want to be around them. Um, they shouldn’t be in my church. They shouldn’t be in my community, whatever. However, that manifests itself, I think that’s worth digging into yourself and having those conversations with Jesus about it as well. Um, figuring out why, because oftentimes those are, those are stuck in jealousy, right?

Like, you know, that person has, you know, maybe it’s the one that’s, you know, wealthy and you want to be wealthy. Um, and you know, you see the sin of their life and that’s all you see. Um, so you look at those things, you’re like, well, God would never save them. Like they’re just evil people. And let me re tell you all the reasons why they’re evil.

Um, and the reality is, is like, sure, we’re all evil. Like if you really look at it, That’s true of all of us. It’s the, it’s the by-product of a, of a, of a fallen world. But, um, that’s why Jesus went to the cross. Yeah. Evil people. Um, he’s not any more evil than you are and that’s, there’s the reality of it. Um, but dig into why, so it could be, it could be jealousy and jealousy comes in a lot of different forms and it’s gels for a lot of different reasons, right?

Like maybe it’s a jealousy of like, they get to live the life that you want to live and participate in the sins that you wish you could participate in. Hmm, maybe that’s where the jealousy comes from. You don’t want to do weird twisted things. It wouldn’t be abnormal for us to have the, of other comes in pride of like I’m better than those people.

And if we let them in, that makes my betterness a little bit less, you know, a little bit weaker because I’m no longer because my saw it. The community of Christ, however that plays out, I think it’s worth digging into, because I think it’s gonna reveal a lot about your heart. And I think Jesus is going to use that to reveal a lot about your heart.

Um, so dig into it, if that, where that’s, where you find yourself, I think that line, and maybe that’s what we call this thing. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the verses themselves. I don’t think. Um, but that’s a really great quote play silly game when silly prizes. Yeah. So then you start looking at your own life of like, what silly games am I playing and what are the prizes up?

So maybe it’s, you know, um, uh, people’s appraisal. Appraisal approval approval, maybe paraphrasing you as well. Appraisal time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You’re looking for the, you know, the approval of man and, and you’re, you’re doing everything to win those, those silly prizes. Cause you’re playing silly games and play silly games and waste a lot of time.

A lot of time, they can be a lot more effective, a lot more time that you could be, um, in deeper relationship with Jesus. Um, I think often too, like, and this is where we kind of get in those weird silly games is, you know, we want to be seen as a great Christian. I’m looking for the approval of man to be seen as aggression.

It’s here’s the great Christian. Here’s what great Christians do. Right. They got their sweet. They’ve got their sweet, you know, a new journal that they’ve done, all their cool journaly things too, um, that you see all over Instagram these days. Uh, and this is what you know, or they got the Bible, that’s all highlighted and underlined and like 17 different colors and they all mean something, but you forgot what they all meant.

And it was one afternoon and you just went through your Bible and just hit out a bunch of books, but you can actually read it or foster relationship in the midst of a man. When you post those things to Instagram, you look like a really, really good Christian getting those flakes, or you can go. Yeah, or even go the other way, like, you know, this false humility version of it, of like, uh, man, I’m such a bad mom.

I did this, this and this not to pick on moms. Um, but like, there’s that piece of that plays out too. Um, like what silly games are you playing that you’re winning silly prizes for, but in all reality, Um, other people’s opinions of you shouldn’t matter. Um, even in the sense of like, well, I’m looking to these people that are more spiritually mature than I am.

Um, and I want their approval in the sense that, you know, I’m moving on the same path that they’re moving on. So I know I’m moving in the right path. Those are. Yeah, that’s a genuine hope. Like that’s a genuine goal. Like that’s not like you want to be moving towards Jesus and you think this is the way to do it, but we we’ve said on this podcast and we’ll hit these verses eventually.

But, um, you know, the fruits of the spirit are the signs that the spirit is at work in your life. That Jesus is at work in your life. So are you more patient today? Are you more kind today? Are you more self-controlled today? Um, and if you’re not those things, then you’re not whatever you’re doing is not fostering relationship with Jesus or.

And maybe foster a relationship. Jesus. We just don’t listen to what Jesus has to say, which is going to hurt your fostering relationship with Jesus. Um, so there’s that piece too, like that should be your guide, um, how you’re perceived by others on whether or not you’re a good Christian, shouldn’t matter.

Um, that’s a silly game. That’s gonna win you silly prizes. It’s not going to win you depth and maturity in Jesus that, you know, it’s going to have the ability to handle anything that life throws at you. Um, but when you start using, you know, what, what Paul describes as here’s the fruits of the spirit, um, use those as your guide.

So if you’re walking today and. And we’ve talked about this before to have more patients. Isn’t the focus on patients to be more self-controlled isn’t about focusing, focusing on being self controlled, and it’s about fostering relationship with Jesus and following Jesus lead in your sanctification process.

Um, so focused on the focus on the Jesus part, uh, immerse yourself with Christ, clothe yourself with Christ as Paul tells the Galatians here. Um, and, and let that be your focus. And then the by-product of those things is that list of, of. Uh, fruits of the spirit, um, that isn’t the goal. That is a by-product of the goal.

The goal is to foster relationship with Jesus. Now, you know, you’re fostering relationship with Jesus. If you’re seeing more fruit in those fruits, there you go. That’s in those fruits, fruits in those fruits, that piece. Yeah. I think it’s worth keeping. Keeping going. Cause I think, I think Paul finishes the thought in the next chapter.

Yeah. So I’m going to read Galatians four, one through seven. It’s the same ideality ended with in Galatians three. Uh, we can kind of keep going in this conversation and that’ll leave sidetrack like seven times, but it’s all good. That’s why we’re here. That’s why you come back every week to this Jesus life podcast is because Rhianna, we random.

And do we run down all the different tangents to make sure all the tangents have felt equally loved. Yeah. That’s really all we’re trying to do out here. That’s right.  Galatians four oh one. Uh, what I am saying. So this is Paul writing again to the Galatians. Uh, what I am saying is that as long as. Uh, an heir is under age.

He is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. Um, the air is subject to the guardians and the trustee is until the time is set by his father. So also when you are, you were, when you were under age, we were in slavery under an elemental spiritual forces of the world. Um, Sorry to go back and make sure I read elemental correctly.

But when you set, when the set time had fully come, God sent his son Jesus, born of a woman born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship or daughtership. Um, Because you were sons. God sent the spirit of his son to our hearts, the spirit who calls out Abba father.

So you are no longer slave, but God’s child. And since you are his child, God has also made you an air. Boom. I think oftentimes playing those silly games, winning those silly prizes. Um, we let too much of others and even others that are important to us. It’s our parents growing up. It’s people we trust in love.

Um, but. We let those individuals define our identity rather than Christ himself. And that’s where he ended up winning silly prizes. That can actually cause you a lot of harm rather than saying no, I’m an heir to God’s throne. I’m not because you’re going to sit on his throne. Um, but you are near to the kingdom.

Yeah. Um, God’s not going anywhere, so you’re never going to take over. Um, but you are, you are a son or you and you are a daughter and I don’t know about you, but like. There’s there’s a lot of value in that, right? Like even if we take it down a couple notches, not to take a couple notches away from my father, but my father is not, God, they’re not the same level.

He probably knows that I would assume. Um, but I take pride in the fact that I’m his son. I take pride in the fact that I look like him. I take pride in the fact that we have similar mannerisms. Like I take that there’s, there’s, there’s security in the midst of that. Um, and it’s the same is true. Now, now that.

You know, Christ has gone to the cross, uh, under the law and, and conquered death, redeeming the law. Um, we’re now, you know, found to be God’s child. Um, and, and you’ve got to hold on to that because that’s a big deal. Like, you know, you gotta get into like all the different pieces and maybe I’ll handle a few of what those pieces may be Andrew, but like all the different pieces that, that becomes true of you because you’re a son or a daughter of the king, um, As an heir to the throne, what privileges do you now have?

Um, that others may not have? I think one off the bat is you have freedom, right? As a, as an heir to the, to the, to the kingdom, a child of the king, like you have a high level of freedom that others don’t experience. Um, so, you know, others are subject to the king. Um, And, and to, uh, societal norms to, um, certain controls, or if we go back to, you know, what Paul’s describing, um, under certain laws of, of, of the old law, um, that you now, because of Christ sacrifice function outside of the system.

And it’s similar to being an air, right? You function outside of the system can really go anywhere. You want to go and do whatever you want to do now. Not all of that. All those things are beneficial to you or helpful to use. Some can be harmful to you, but you do have freedom to do those things because you’re a narrative, you’re the heir to the king.

Um, you know, you’re a child of, of the one sitting on the throne. Um, so I think there’s a big piece of that, of like, where’s your identity being defined. Uh, if it’s being defined in anything other than who Jesus says you are, who God says you are, um, You know, it’s worth digging into with, with Christ and having those, those difficult conversations, um, with Jesus to start digging into why are you chasing these certain things?

If you can’t figure it out, find a trusted friend, um, that loves you and loves you in that order. Uh, if that, you know, isn’t helping you and you need to go a step further, find a Christian counselor that loves you and loves Jesus in the opposite order. Love Scott Love Scott. That’s set it weird and let the Christian counselor help you walk through it as well.

Um, I think that’s a big piece of it too. I think too often, we, we play silly games, man, and we get silly prizes for things we shouldn’t be chasing. 

Andrew: Yeah, man, you chase applause and you might get it. You know it, you might get it and realize you were chasing the wrong thing. You chase being an influencer on Instagram.

You might get it. Or Tik TOK or wherever is cool. Now I don’t know. You might get it, but then you realize like, oh, like I got a million likes, but this other person got like 10 million. Like, I don’t know. It’s not that it’s, it’s kinda empty praise, like. I’m not saying those are all bad, you know, it’s just like, if you, if you chase something that is of the world.

You might get it, then you’re going to realize that thing was hollow, you know? So, so chase real relationship with the Lord, and it’s never going to be hollow. It’s always, always going to return a hundred times more than you put into it. Um, and I don’t know, man, I I’m feeling fired up about this. Oh, that’s my daughter knocking on my door.

Um, 

Josh: Ooh. 

Andrew: Okay. I’ll be out for ice cream and hamburgers really soon. So yeah, everybody ice cream and hamburgers. This is a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. So I should probably roll pretty quick here, but I don’t know, man. I’m feeling, I’m feeling fired up about this and it might even be worth revisiting, uh, when we launch our next episode, that four one through seven again, because.

Being an heir to the throne, heir to the kingdom is a big deal. It’s not a small thing to be considered part of the family. And just like you were saying, so I don’t know, man. I, I just want to final thought for me. Uh, if you’re listening to this, Josh and I are in no way. Condemning chasing silly games.

We’ve been there. We’ve, we’re probably there in some way right now that we’ll later, uh, that the Lord will later reveal to us. Um, but you know, put your focus on, on relationship with the Lord and it’s never going to be wrong. Chase Jesus. Um, spend time with them, uh, lean on people who love Jesus and love you.

Um, and, and. Play the right game, you know, or try your best because silly prizes are, are like dollar store items. You know, you can get a lot for 10 bucks, but, uh, but they’re going to break quick and they’re not really worth that much. So, um, I don’t know. I’m feeling fired up about it. You got any final thoughts, man?

Josh: Yeah, I think right along the same lines you’re at, um, you know what, when you said, um, you could chase these things and they’re going to end up being hollow. I think so many people chase these things that feel like godly things that feel like this is what you’re supposed to do as a follower of Jesus. Um, but it’s not about foster a relationship with Jesus and you get to the end of it and they feel hollow.

So their faith is now shaking because they think. This is what was the, the end of, of this journey? It wasn’t Christ. It was, it was this hollow promise or this silly game. I played my response, you know, my dollar store prize that I got into being, you know, something that broke or got lost within the next year.

Um, so I think it going back to 26 or 27, I think this is a big deal for all of you that have been baptized into Christ, have clothed yourself with Christ. We can’t say it enough. Um, I know we say it every podcast. I know you may be sick of hearing it, but I’m telling you, it’s the secret sauce of this Christian faith foster relationship with Jesus, clothe yourself with Christ.

Um, do it often do it regularly, um, find the things in your life that foster those things, you know, go back, listen to the Jesus habits, series a this Jesus life podcast.com. Um, and you can, you can find those things all listed perfectly for you. Uh, one right after another, um, You can even get transcripts.

If you just want to read them, I don’t know how to get the current transcripts are, so we might not wanna read them. Um, but there’s that piece of, of, you know, a foster relationship, Jesus find the things that help you do that and then practice those things regularly. Um, because you’re going to be amazed at how God speaks to those things.

You’re going to be amazed at, um, the work that God starts to do in your heart and your life, as he points out things he wants you to work on. Um, so chase after those things, they matter. They’re important. Um, and that’s the secret sauce to all this stop playing silly games. They’re going to get you silly prizes.

And when I say that, I say that to Andrew. I said that to you. And I say that to myself, stop playing silly games and get a silly prizes. Yup. But yeah, that’s all I got Andrew, those listening. Thanks for listening. We appreciate you. We love you. I would say we pursue you. Um, but we really don’t because we don’t know all who you are, but if you reach out to us, we, 100% respond to you.

Uh, hello, this Jesus life podcast.com is our email address. It’ll go to both Andrew and I and one of us or both of us. We’ll definitely respond to you. We want to hear your stories. Want to hear? Yeah. What Jesus is doing in your life. We want to hear, um, how Jesus used elements of this podcast and the things that have been shared, um, to help you and your walk with Jesus and finding freedom and finding hope and finding joy and finding a life-giving spirit.

We want to get you back to those places because man, that’s where that’s where the fruit and the excitement of, of this Jesus life is all, uh, exists and is all about, um, so chase after those things, foster relationships, Jesus, because all those who are baptized in Christ, meaning you identify. With Jesus, our Lord and savior had been closed or now have clothed themselves with Christ, go foster relationship with Jesus.

That’s all I got for 

Andrew: you. Thanks for listening to our show. It really means a lot to us, and we hope that it helps bring you closer in your relationship with Jesus and with other people. And 

Josh: it also helps us out. If you rate our podcast or leave us a review on whatever platform you’re listening and also follow us on Instagram and the Facebook.

Now sharing this with your friends, isn’t just to get the word out of the podcast. We believe that we have the message of hope that’s found in the gospel of Jesus Christ and you sharing. This has the ability to transform the lives of the people 

Andrew: around you. We want to hear from you. You can email us@helloatthisjesuslifepodcast.com.

You can message us on Facebook and Instagram, or you can just visit us@thisjesuslifepodcast.com. But seriously, thanks for this. .

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