Encounter and Live
A Bridger Church Podcast
Encounter and Live
More Boldness. More Life.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode our friends Jake and Sammy Tisevich join us. We share about the move of God happening among us as we continue to move through the Book of Acts and seek to be a Light for the World to Encounter Jesus and Live Life in Him.
We pray this episode encourages you in your walk with Christ.
Welcome to Encounter and Live, a Bridget Church podcast. Bridget Church is a light for the world to encounter Jesus and live life in him. We pray that this podcast becomes an additional resource for you as you live life in Christ. Thanks for taking the time to listen today. Let's lock in.
SPEAKER_04Welcome back to another episode of Encounter and Live. Now we've had a bunch. I feel like we've had a bunch that's gone on since we've jumped into Acts. It's been a minute. I think we probably last time we were in Acts was somewhere in the end of Acts 2. But man, we've had a bonus episode about Lent. We've had a get in the truck episode. We've introduced Jonathan. Jonathan is now on our team. We're going to have some time to introduce some other folks, but um man, I'm here with some pretty awesome people that I want to introduce. If you could see their faces, it would be so much better for everybody. But to I I am Todd. I've been told, by the way, that people are really in, like I've got guys that are like they're like, dude, the podcast is good, the content's good. I don't have a clue who I'm listening to because nobody's been introduced. Let me just introduce myself. My name is Todd Hickox, lead pastor at Bridger Church. We're a light for the world to encounter Jesus and live life in him. To my, let's just go counterclockwise. To my right, your whatever as a listener, I'll let you introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_00My name's Jake Tizovich. Tizovich. Not Tizovich. Not Tizovich.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Not yeah, there's a lot of different pronunciations. We won't go there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. How long have you lived in Bozeman?
SPEAKER_00Uh six weeks. Six weeks. Six weeks. That's awesome. Came out here for work, family, and to help plant this church. And uh every day that we're here, a little bit more, we think we're here more for the church than anything else.
SPEAKER_04I love hearing that, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Why don't you introduce your beautiful wife to your right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, we keep going. Is my beautiful wife, my beautiful pregnant wife, and one week out from introducing Jackson to the world.
SPEAKER_02Three days.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, three days. Um, this is if he doesn't come sooner time. Yeah, if he doesn't come sooner. Um, but uh Sammy Tizimich. Tizimitch.
SPEAKER_04Sammy, it's good to have you here. How do you feel right now in this very present moment?
SPEAKER_02Excited. Uh, I'm glad we don't do this live or on video as my family wanted to, and I said I just wouldn't be up for it.
SPEAKER_04Gotcha.
SPEAKER_02Um so I'm excited that we haven't gotten that far yet in the podcast and that I can join before that happens.
SPEAKER_04Oh, it's coming eventually. We just don't have all the stuff. So, Jake and Sammy, thank you. Uh it was just a cool story. A bunch of people don't probably know who you are, but a bunch of people, if they're in Bridger, they do because you make yourself very present, very known, like you're the most friendly people ever. But the what's cool is you found us before you moved here. I'm just like spitballing the story a little bit on Instagram, shot a DM. This brother calls me. We got on, we get on the phone, and he starts like drilling me about doctrine, basically, about what it is we believe, where we're headed. And I'm like, dude, I like this. This dude's in my tribe, right? This dude might be in my camp, like neighbor tents. And so, um, and then we met you guys at the the truck thing, the truck village when you guys were out here, uh, because you moved out here to be PA, and that's going well, you know. But man, you guys have been faithful. Like, you guys not only just like know the word, you're applying it, you're living life here, you're helping. Uh, and also we celebrate your obedience to be fruitful and multiply. And little Jackson is on the way, and we can't wait to meet him.
SPEAKER_02Countdowns on, countdowns on, it's gonna be legit. Bridger's newest member. There we go.
SPEAKER_04Youngest, the newest baby boy. We're pumped, man. I love it. I love I love when people have babies. So congrats. Congrats. I don't know if that's weird, but it's what it is. So uh we want to take a point like we always do to celebrate, because it's been a minute. What can we celebrate around values? Like our values have to do with we're people of the word. We're people on mission, we're people that respond, we show up like family. What are some things that we could say, dude? Praise God for what he is doing that we can celebrate together.
SPEAKER_02I think it was last Sunday night after service we had a 12-year-old uh commit her life to Christ, Aurora.
SPEAKER_04So tell us about tell us about that, because you were very much involved in that process.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, just the coolest story of um she grew up and her neighbors were Christian, um, and that's where she started to learn Jesus. And she uh so thankfully met Keelan's daughter, Callie, years ago, who has talked uh Christ and Jesus and all the good things um to her over the years, and she's asked her parents many times to go to church, and the answer was always no. And Keelan and Callie got the opportunity to bring her to church on Sunday. Um, and just to hear her say, like, I believe Christ is my savior at 12 was awesome. And just the way she's so passionate um about it and the way she's gonna get to be a light to our family is just exciting.
SPEAKER_04It is exciting, and then a couple weeks ago, tell them about Cooper, Sammy's brother, who was here was that two weeks ago, three weeks ago? How long ago was that?
SPEAKER_00I think it was two weeks. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Like listening to him talk about his surrender to Christ, how like you know how Romans 8 comes alive, Romans 8 28 comes alive in somebody's life. For we know that uh God works all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. He had been through a lot, like in college, the last however handful of years of his life, just listening to that trail that led him to a point of I just need to look to God. And then like how the gospel changed his life and how he's like, I've I just want to be baptized, I want to proclaim it. And then we uh cold plunged him, you know, like yeah, we get he got in that cold water. Uh but man, just watching, I don't know how to explain. Like, you can't deny the move of God when people get saved, when people say, I want to be baptized, I want to take a step. To see it happen in front of you is like the best. It's not something that we should ever get used to because churches can go through long periods of time, even years of time. There are missionaries on the field in certain places of the world. They don't see somebody come to Christ for, I don't know, the whole time that they're there and they're just slinging the gospel, they're being faithful. I talked to a church planner in Billings who was like, for almost two years, we didn't see anybody during the like first part of our existence come to Christ. And I was like, well, bro, praise God for your faithfulness because now it's like a harvest that's happening over there. Um, but man, praise God for what he's doing among us. Like, I I always wanted to feel like we're just trying to keep up with what God is doing rather than like we're just out striking out and just trying to do stuff and attach God's name to it, you know. God, keep up with us. No, I'd rather just keep up with the Lord. So man, it's happening. People are in groups, in family, joining, joining the family. Um, people are on mission, like hearing about how people are sharing the gospel and then how people are coming to coming to faith is just sweet, man. It's really, really cool.
SPEAKER_02And who'll be another new member of Bridget here soon? He's moving.
SPEAKER_04Who's that? Oh, Cooper.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I hope I hope he gets here soon. I wish he was here now. Because it's it's when you can catch somebody on fire like that and then just like let them loose, the fire spreads, right? But I that's not to say he's not being faithful where he is. He probably is for sure. Um he's in Minnesota. Minnesota Minnesota. Got it. Well, hopefully he gets here soon. So we've been in Acts, it's been a minute, and again, this discipleship behind a microphone, and one of the things we talked about before we hit play is authenticity. And so let's just talk about where we've been in the scriptures, some things we can celebrate. Why is let's just start here. Why is reading what happened in the early church so inspiring? What's grabbed your attention in the last few weeks? What are some things that we can just begin to talk about? Not only is this word inspired, because it is. Luke was inspired by the Spirit of God to write this, but how does it inspire us? Like, how does it grab us as we're setting out to plant this church?
SPEAKER_00I think it shows just the authenticity of Christianity right now, right? You have this moment that's happening where you're seeing the the power of God, you're seeing it through the healings, the signs, the wonders, the multiplication of the early church. You're seeing the gospel being shared, and you're seeing the opposition that's happening as well, which is a huge part of it. You know, they're not jumping into this because it's a cool social club. They're not doing it because it's a comfortable life that's promised. They're doing it because they're seeing a living movement of God, and they just want to be attached to it in some essence. I think that's such a cool thing, and it fires me up and you know, encouraged me to spread like wildfire here in the valley, too.
SPEAKER_04That's good.
SPEAKER_02I think the obedience is just next level and something it's just like we're all caught to like called to in God's word, like just opposition after opposition, and they just are like, No, I'm doing what God's saying to do. Like this is the truth, this is it. Um, and just that boldness about it. Um and the reaction of the early community of like thankfulness and opposition, and to react in prayer is just I think something we can really take away from it being a new being a new church here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, what do they say at the end of Acts 4? They they rejoiced maybe it was the end of Acts 5 last weekend. They rejoiced because they It's 541. Yeah, what's it say?
SPEAKER_02Uh the apostles left the high council rejoicing that God has counted them worthy to suffer disgrace in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04That's different, you know, because we ain't been carried off yet. Nobody's come into the church building, drug us out. It's like, hey, you can't do this, and you can't preach this way, you can't, but I don't know if my first response would be, I'm gonna, you know, I'm just let's take a moment to rejoice because people are either prosecuting us or persecuting us. Or, you know, after I get told what not to say and you know, reprimanded, to gather all of us together and say, hey, let's pray for more boldness so we could do more of this. You know, I've yet to get there, but I love, I don't know, man. We're doing, we're doing this thing, man. We're planting, we're planting a church, and we just celebrated wins. And I think the way that Acts ends, it just like allows us to keep going and we're doing it. Like in this 29th quote unquote chapter that we are currently living in, uh, we just want to be as faithful. We just want to be as faithful to the gospel ministry. And I from what I can tell, man, I think that we are. I'm not up there trying to make stuff up. I mean, y'all know how I preach, man. I just go like word for word, and then the spirit has a spell, you know, and then I'll keep going. Um, I'm just doing, we sing and talk like every church does, and people are coming to Christ. What I love though is seeing like, all right, so Acts chapter three, this is where we'll pick up. My brother Matt Kirby did a really, really good job uh walking through this chapter. There's a healing that takes place. How do you how do we when you're reading the scripture, if you're reading something that's not prescriptive, you know, like uh like in Ephesians or Corinthians or anything like that, but it's descriptive as to what is happening. Brother gets healed outside the temple. There's a miracle that begins to happen. How do you apply that? How do you take something like that and go, we can live this out when it's just you it's telling you what happened in the church?
SPEAKER_02I think something I go to is just the faith and belief that we can gain from the word um and that it's still happening today, and that it's all because of our belief and our faith and just knowing that Christ is the ultimate healer no matter what the situation is in life.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02I feel like that's what I take from it.
SPEAKER_04That's good.
SPEAKER_02And I think we talk about this every week. I think I bring it up in our life group about pointing out the goodness in God and other people's lives. And I think it's so important to do that because when you're in it yourself, it's hard to see God's plan and provision or maybe the goodness that's happening. But I think pointing it out in other people's lives, and then they get to look back and be like, wow, you were right. Look at this God's plan. And just what comes from that is so important.
SPEAKER_00But I also think it's easy to get caught up in the busyness of life where people start to not see it, right? And that's again, like you were kind of pointing to, you know, when it's ourselves and we're we're in the midst of it, stuff to kind of analyze it and say, like, oh no, I'm I'm way further than I I was, you know, a week or or two years ago, even. Um, but yeah, when you have friends that are speaking life into you, say like, man, I love the way the Lord's working in your life right now, man. I can see it. I can see it in your eyes, I can see it in your actions. Like, might not seem like much to you right now, but man, it's such a difference.
SPEAKER_04Hmm. That night, you just you just said it a minute ago. That night, I don't know if you guys were here yet. Were y'all here when Matt Kirby preached Acts three? Okay. He asked a question, a really good question. And it is are our eyes open to the supernatural move of God around us. Are we expectant? Like, are we are we showing up to church? And do we wake up every day knowing that the Spirit of God is in us and are we expectant to see a move of God around us, like prayerfully expectant? What I what I think about is Peter and John were going to the temple that day to worship, and as they were going, they saw a need to be met. And that what you just said about like life as usual, busyness, that type of thing, is where so many of us like do we do life just in our own lane. And we've got blinders on, you know, it's like we're going to our next meeting, we're going to our next, we've got our schedule. And dude, I schedule out my stuff pretty regimently. Like I consider myself to be a fairly disciplined person with most of how I handle my life. But what are you going to do with divine interruptions? You know what I mean? And this brother at the door, seemingly you could talk, you could justify how laying at the temple, this is what he did for a majority of his life. He couldn't walk in. And so people were used to him being there. Peter and John were probably used to him being there. But for some reason, man, Peter fixed his gaze on him, and what he what he thought was just a normal ask for alms turned into be a just get up and walk in there with me. You know, and Peter reached his hand out, got him up, and then he walked, he leapt rejoicing into the temple for the first time. That's pretty amazing. That event, by the way, sets in course like an event, a course of events that happened for the next like probably three weeks in the life of our church, three to four weeks in the life of our church as we make our way through the book of Acts. But the question for every listener, going back to like how do you take this event because it's like a healing that takes place? How do you apply it to your life? Because who knows, man? You may read through Acts in a Bible study and just be like, oh, this is great. And it inspires you to live an obedient life. But to also realize that the power of the resurrection as a Christian is in you. How many, how many miracles are still sitting on the sidewalk that you have yet to engage it with? As Pastor Joby, my pastor says all the time, it's like, how many miracles are still sitting there because you've got your blinders on? You're you're going your way. I think a beautiful part of the Great Commission and Acts, or excuse me, Matthew 28, is the as you are going, you make disciples. You know? We're we're not like as you go to church to make converts, he's like, no, as you're going, make make disciples. This is why I love Cooper got in the truck with you and he just went to work with you. You know, as a result of that, he got baptized. That's the as you were going, make the make disciples. So this is why I also think Lent matters. So how's Lent going for you guys? This is what we're doing in the life of our church. Why is it great?
SPEAKER_00Points me back to Christ more throughout the day when I feel hunger. I know to pray.
SPEAKER_04So you fast every day?
SPEAKER_00Just Wednesdays.
SPEAKER_04Just Wednesdays? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Not currently fasting.
SPEAKER_04Well, that's probably good because you're like feeding for two right now.
SPEAKER_02Um, but I think a big part of it is just spending more intentional time in prayer throughout the day of like every little thing that's going on or your reaction to every little thing. Um, take a second and pray about it. And it doesn't have to be some formal thing, but I think making sure you're talking to God all day is so important, whether it's work emails or how you're reacting to something when you receive something you didn't like, or you know, or even just the sunrises and sunsets here or just something to be so thankful for.
SPEAKER_00That is right. I think it brings it back to what you're just talking about, like the attention to things around us, you know, how long or how often do we have our blinders on, right? When you take those little moments to have attention to what's around us and what we can be praying for, you know, things start to shift. Um and just talking about like you know, John and Peter in this moment of of raising this guy up, like how many times did Jesus pass through by this guy? He didn't stop and say, like, hey man, don't worry, John and Peter got you in a few weeks. He just kept going. And you probably saw him and he knew. Um, and again, it's like it's that moment of God knew that you know, Peter and John needed to do this to, like you said, like early church, make a boom, set off this chain of reactions that is just gonna grow like wildfire. You know, and again, it answers that question of like, well, God still heals today, right? But it's not in our timing, it's not what we're doing, right? Like personally, it's not about us. We don't control the miracles, but we give God the space to act. And we do that through a few things prayer, faith, and our obedience. Um and I again like that that moment there on the square where he's pulling him up, it didn't start with power. It started with attention, it started with compassion, it started with faith of Peter to point back to Christ and say, you know, you know, rise up. That's good.
SPEAKER_04You know when you said that, you know where my mind went? Because Jesus did heal at the temple. Like the uh the guy that was, he asked him, Do you want to be healed? And then the guy was like, I don't have anybody to take me to the I don't have anybody to take me to the pool. Because they thought like, I gotta get to the pool, dropped in the pool, the angels stir it up. There was this crazy belief, right? And Jesus healed him. Like he said, get up off your mat, roll it up, get let's let's let's get up. And he does it, you know. Maybe this brother who's laying there asking for remembers like I remember when Jesus did that and he he didn't come to me, right? That's just where my mind went. Maybe this brother saw healing that takes place right there outside the temple. A couple episodes ago, we did a bonus episode about Lent to where I sat with Dr. Josh Schindel and we talked about Lent and why in church history it matters and why we're why we're doing it, leading the 40 days that lead up to Easter. We're fasting from food sunup to sundown. There's also uh uh like midday prayer on Wednesdays during the lunch hour, 12 to 1 at the Gallatin Valley campus, where we can just come in and sit with the Lord. There's not any content, nobody's singing, nobody's talking, it's just we're we're in. There praying, and it's been awesome. It's been it's been good, man. Prayer and fasting just awaken your spiritual senses, unlike anything else could. You'd say it's uh we talk about blinders, it's almost like you're removing the blinders a little bit just to begin to pray for people. So when you roll from Acts 3 to Acts 4, Acts 4 is like a boldness. It's like it's like a picture of the boldness of Peter as he shared the truth every time he shares the gospel. This brother uses scripture. He did it at Pentecost, he did it in Acts chapter 4, just revealing who the cornerstone is in Christ. Um man, as you, as you begin to share the gospel, can you feel, can you sense a lack of boldness in that? Like when you're sharing the gospel, when you got your one more's, what's the thing that what's the where's the gap in where you are now versus sharing sharing or living the gospel with your neighbors or your people you work with, your one more's? What is the gap and what do you fill it with?
SPEAKER_02Prayer.
SPEAKER_04That's where it should begin, right? I think in verse 12 in chapter 4, he says, and there's salvation and no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And he's talking about Jesus. Uh as he continued to talk, like these men that were listening to him recognized a couple of things. They were common men, fishermen, and they recognized something else that's very important. They recognized that they had been with Jesus. They recognize, and that just crushed me.
SPEAKER_02We talked about like the ultimate compliment like those men are with Jesus.
SPEAKER_04When people look at you, they recognize that you've been with Jesus. And if so, or if not, what is it that makes people recognize that we've been with Jesus? I've been with Jesus. You know? So what are the markers that would stand out to us as believers now? Let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_02Reading through Colossians this morning, actually, and I was talking to Cooper about it, and I was like, this is such a great just like glimpse of like you get baptized, and like it's not like you come out of the water a different person, right? Like it's an obedience, it's a it's a submission to God and it's a declaration of like your faith, right? You're not a different person when you come out of the water. The water itself didn't do anything, right? But in Colossians, it talks about the way Christians carry themselves after baptism, how we can look different to point everything back to God, how we can live a different life. Um, and it makes it such an easy way to then share with non-believers of like why we don't do the things other people do. And how we can we talk about this, invite I'll let you give the oaks quote.
SPEAKER_00The oakes folks quote. Um it's uh adding people to our things, not just things to our schedule.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And so inviting people into your life even though we're busy, even though we're whatever.
SPEAKER_00Even though it might look chaotic with a newborn, like we're still gonna invite people in and share in that.
SPEAKER_02Right. And just see that like we're normal people, but we might look a little different or live life a little differently.
SPEAKER_00And like And we still struggle with sin. And you know, we have that's why we need a savior.
SPEAKER_02Right. And just um I think that like openness and um the ability to just like share your normal life with other people um is something we've really strived for here. Like that was our goal moving here was to be an open door and open house. Keelan is a great example of this. Talk about someone who just lets people into his life. Um, I think that's that's a good way you can just show the difference in the way you live life in the light of God that has in your life.
SPEAKER_00Do we lead with love? Do we lead with patience? Do we lead with grace, compassion? All of those things. I mean, how many times before my Christian walk in, even now a little bit, you know, I'm still in her struggling. But like, am I quick to respond with anger? Right? I led with anger for a good amount of my life, you know. Um, but now, like having those moments to be able to set back, be patient about it, pray about it, and respond in love, respond in compassion, respond in grace, respond by letting people in. You know, it it's it's what we lead with as Christians that I think really opens the door to have them ask more questions of, you know, something's different about this guy. You know, and is that how we handle suffering, right? Are we joyous in the middle of our battles because we know that the outcome has good behind it at some undisclosed amount of time, you know?
SPEAKER_02Um we're fighting a battle of a war God has already won. And just remembering that too.
SPEAKER_04Did we sing that this past Sunday? But that the battle belongs. Jonathan's in the room, but he doesn't have a microphone. It's okay, it's okay. Um, you're absolutely right. And there's another song is like we're fighting a battle you've already won. Just as a declaration of the the war we're in. I think to answer your question, that's a good question. I think that uh Jesus would say the love, like they will know. Um, what's what's the actual quote? I'm I'm having a brain fart. They will know you by not just your fruit, but they're gonna know you by the love that you have for one another. Um, I think the way that we love one another. I think the thing that we talked about uh with your brother this morning, uh in James chapter three, the tongue. I think over time, like the the way that you talk from the boat, because Jesus would say, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. We talked about with your brother this morning, uh, Nathan, about how um it's James says in James 3 that you cannot, no human can tame the tongue. And when we read that, we're like, well, crap, we're kind of we're screwed if we can't tame the tongue. But what does change is your heart because your tongue comes from somewhere. What you say comes from somewhere. And out of the overflow of your heart, your mouth speaks. And when you love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength, heart being one of those things, then eventually it's going to come out of your mouth. And people, and I don't want to walk away contextually from what we're reading. I think one of the signs of the spirit in your life is evangelism. So, in answer to your question about how do people, well, however you ask it, how do people what are the marks of a Christian in in your life? I think evangelism is one of those things. I think sharing Christ. Sharing Christ is one of those things. This is what they did in the book of Acts very, very clearly.
SPEAKER_00It's a gift too good to keep to yourself.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, what does John say in 1 John? It's like a we love because he first loved us. You can't leave out the he first loved us. Because because he first loved us, we can love other people rightly. But you can't, like you can't get over the fact that he first loved you. Like love and grace is the motivating factor of all of this here. When we talk about sanctification, it's a grace-driven effort. All of these, all of these things that we're talking about, we're not trying to like nail fruit to a two by four and say, look at up all the fruit we have. Fruit grows because of the root. Fruit grows because of the gospel, like the gospel that has taken root in your life, and it eventually over time begins to you begin to bear fruit, right?
SPEAKER_00Being attached to the vine. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I think that points back to Lint too, of like what can you do to fill yourself more with God, whether it's the word, whether it's prayer, because that's what's gonna ultimately flow out. And I think that points back to a big part of Lint that I think is often miss with, you know, it's about giving something up. Well, what are you taking in?
SPEAKER_04That's good.
SPEAKER_02Um, and I think that's where a lot of the focus should be.
SPEAKER_04No, that's absolutely right. I just want people to fall deeper in love with Jesus, man. Because that changes everything. He he changes everything. I don't want to try to manufacture things. One of the illustrations that my Pastor Joby uses is like when you go get fruit from the store, you go into the produce section because it's produced. You don't go into the manufactured section because it hasn't been manufactured, it's been produced. And as you grow fruit in your life, it is produced from the Spirit of God in you, not manufactured. And that's not what we're trying to what we're trying to do. Do you guys feel confident in sharing your faith? Do you feel equipped in sharing your faith? Like when when you start when we start saying the words, just average church attender, when we start talking about sharing your faith, do you think that that stirs some kind of anxiety in people?
SPEAKER_02It was something I prayed about for a long time of how much I hated sharing my testimony. And then I started I shared it in um what we called MCs back home, would be like our life groups here. And just a prayer that, like, you know, maybe I could help somebody else with my testimony. And that way, um I could see the good of it, you know, I could see that there's a point to sharing this and and not have anxiety over it. And I got to meet some great high school girls that were going through hard times that I had been through in life and talk about how God brought them through me and see that. And so I think a a prayer to be able to that your testimony can help someone else and see where that takes you is a really good place to start.
SPEAKER_04100%. It's good stuff. We did a share your faith class one of these weeks, you know, once we passed, I guess it was the end of chapter four, we did a share your faith class. And one of the wins that came out of that class is our girl Bailey surrendered to Christ. And when I say share your faith class, it was a straight up workshop that that weekend, 93 people came to that share your faith workshop. And just to like elaborate on the win of that, whenever you're doing a share your faith workshop, what we did, uh Witt Jones, who's an FCA director, just kind of helped me walk through that with our folks. And what we did is like we wanted to be sure people could share their testimony. And we broke it down into like three sections your life before Christ, how it is that you met Christ and surrendered to him, and how it's been since. And then we gave time, we gave time for folks to write it out. Well, Bailey, during that time, like after a little bit of teaching, we said, Hey, take a few minutes and write out your testimony. It her her card just said, I never have nothing to say, which is an indicator she likes to talk, which I think God's gonna use that in a powerful way. And then she said, I I'm in the before meeting Christ section of my life, and I've never surrendered to him. So she brings up her card and she shares that. And I was just like, Do you want to follow Jesus? She said, Yeah. So then being able to share the gospel and then have her say, like, I want to surrender to Christ, like right there in the front of the room while everybody's talking, sharing their because we also did like a practice. We also did a, hey, now take time to actually practice sharing your find a partner around the room. And and then she she just surrendered to Christ. And she is one of the folks that are gonna get baptized on Easter.
unknownAmen.
SPEAKER_04Dude, how awesome is that? Like, that's what I mean when it says we're just trying to put into practice these things in the word, to share our faith with boldness, to teach people to share their faith. And now she's got one of those crazy stories of well, yeah, like my life before Christ was what it was. But during a share your faith workshop, as I was trying to learn to share my story, that's when I surrendered to Christ. And now I get to tell everybody about it, you know? That's crazy awesome. Um, that's like one of those. I went to church and got saved moments that we are reading about. But man, praise God. There are more share your faith workshops to come. We're gonna do two more this year. And as we do them, we'll start to share some of those like methods, if you will, of how to how to share your faith. Because some people just don't know how to do it. As we keep rolling through Acts, the end of chapter four is this like picture of prayer boldness, how scripture, this is what I'm learning is these brothers, when they shared the gospel as they preached and as they prayed, they were all all of their prayers were always formed by scripture. So the question around that is why why do you think that that's important? Number one, but how does scripture form your prayers, our prayers?
SPEAKER_00We had a really good workshop back in Cincinnati that they had a seminary teacher come in that talked about praying the scriptures. And one of the things that he did with all of his students would he had he had a 24-hour period that he would have them go through the entire Psalms and pray verse by verse the Psalms back. Like, read a verse, all right, how can I pray this? Pray. Next verse. And keep going through. And that was something that stuck with me of like, all right, like when we read the Bible or when we are faced with a circumstance, like what scripture relates to this? How can I pray this back? Like, I think a lot of the the prayers for healing recently have been like, Lord, I've know you you've healed the blind man, I know you've healed the cripple, like, and I know you're still working miracles today. And like, if it is in your will, like, you know, let this guy be healed, you know. And if it's not, like, may there just be a ton of people that know you from the way he suffers. You know, may you suffer well, may you suffer with a a a you know, joyous heart, um, and may it just push people to know you. Um, and I think that's that workshop that we had back there was something huge to just point me in that direction.
SPEAKER_02It was a big focus on our mission trip in Spain too. We did a lot of classes and we did a whole like um English speaking retreat in Spain with a lot of foreign students from like all over the world that came and we really focused on like praying scripture. And it was really helpful to me to be like, how can this be a prayer? But then also, how do you then apply that um in your life and look back at that when you know you have those times of doubt or faith or whatever um is going on and just be like, remember that prayer. That's the word of God. Like that is written, it is true. And it's just there's something about it that's just so powerful.
SPEAKER_00No, it's good. I think we need to know the scriptures too. It changes the boldness of our prayers. Like you're seeing here is like the boldness of our prayers is a direct kind of correspondence to who we believe God is and what we know about him. You know, when we have seen that he's all loving, all kind, all powerful, like we're gonna pay pray for the small things, you know, because we know he cares. We're gonna pray for the big things that feel impossible to us because we know he's powerful and he's capable.
SPEAKER_04That's good, man. How many years did you go to school to be a PA?
SPEAKER_00Uh four years undergrad, two years of PA school.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um, there's somewhere I'm going with this. So now you're you're working, you're doing, you're doing surgeries, you're assisting in all the things with the the medical team. I'm assuming that before you dive into whatever it is, as you're let's just say somebody's on the operating table, you're not pulling out a textbook to make sure you maybe you are. Hopefully not. Yeah, yeah, hopefully not. But maybe, maybe it's like uh we need to discuss some of this procedure before we dive in. Okay. The reason that like I'm just trying to put flesh on the bones a little bit, because some people hear praying the scriptures and they may think that seems like varsity Christian. We just I don't know. Because there are just infants learning to walk that are among us, right? Um the way that you just walk in and do your job is because you spend a lot of time like preparing. You gained a ton of head knowledge. When it comes to the life of a Christian, there are two things that I think God gave us that feel like this is like breathing in and out for the Christian life, and that is scripture and prayer, is like steps that we take. It's like the breath that we take. The steps that we take are confession and repentance, according to Martin Luther. But like when it comes to just breathing in and out as a believer, it's like scripture and prayer. Well, when it comes to praying scripture, it's almost like the thing with your job. When you're familiar with scripture, it's almost like you know how to converse with the Lord. Because this is how the scripture is how he converses with us. JD Greer's got a great quote. Um, something along the lines of the words that originated in heaven, this is God's inspired word. The words that started in heaven will always be heard from heaven. So if you're wondering, if you're sitting here wondering, like, how do I pray scripture? Just start with the Psalms. Start in your much like at the end of Acts chapter 4, their scripture, or excuse me, their prayer started with sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, our servant, said, and then they start talking through the Psalms. Psalm 2. Psalm 2. Yeah. Why do the Gentiles rage and the pro people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers is gathered together against the Lord, his anointed. Like they use scripture to frame and they went to the Psalms. Psalms is packed full of adoration. It's also packed full of like the messianic stuff that point to Christ, which is why Peter used a ton of it to preach the gospel. But if you're wondering, like, how do I adore Christ in my prayers, then I would encourage you, all of the 90s psalms, the psalms of the 90s, uh are full of these like Christ-exalting, majestic God is this majestic, uh sovereign God. And just pray those to Him, you know? Just like read them. Say, God, I want to tell you this.
SPEAKER_00And it was something I posed the question in our men's group yesterday was like, if you have a new believer, like, how would you tell them to read the Bible if they asked you? Like, would you just tell them, like, hey, start in John?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, but like, am I just like skimming and going and just reading? Or like, hey, I'm gonna give you 10 verses, read through it, highlight what you think is the most important, and then pray about whatever it is. Like, whatever's speaking to you about that, whatever you it's an attribute of God where you're like, man, God, thank you for just your gracefulness. Or like in this moment in Acts, like, Lord, I I pray that I would have the a strength to stay faithful and stay bold, you know, in in the face of opposition. Like those type of things. Because when you're diving into that depth of knowledge of scripture in that moment, like even as a new believer, right? That's gonna saturate your heart and your mind more when you take those 10 verses or whatever it is, right? And say, like, all right, I want to know what's the most important that's gonna be you know pushed out in this this text. I'm gonna pray about it and I'm gonna try to find an attribute of God here, right? All those things are pointing back to what you need out of that moment, right? Um, and that was something that I I posed yesterday for for our team is just to think about, right? Like, is how do we best instruct a new believer, right?
SPEAKER_04And what's beautiful about what's happening in and among us is new believers are showing up. Or new believers are being born again, you know, as a result of, you know, uh gospel ministry happening among us. You just pointed out something. When I was in student ministry, I was at a thing called Student Leadership University with some high school students, and we were in Washington, D.C. And the chaplain for the U.S. Senate was teaching a thing, his name was Harry Black, and he was like, This is how I do my quiet time. He said, I'll open the Bible, and this also points to what we're talking about, how you allow the scripture to frame your prayer. He's like, wherever I'm at in my reading plan, say, you know, right now I'm in wrapping up Deuteronomy, about to um start uh Joshua. Wherever I am in scripture, this is how God speaks to us. Uh he's like, I'm reading, and if something catches me, if I spill if I know the Spirit of God is catching me through his word, then I will stop and I will talk back to the Lord. And it was almost like his quiet times were conversational every time because the Lord was talking to him and he was just conversing back to the Lord. And that's how he allowed the scripture to form his prayer time. And if you're listening, you're wondering like what steps to take. Just do that. Kind of like what you were talking about. If there's an attribute of the Lord that stands out, then thank him for that. Right? Some of what we're talking about flows into where we've been last week. But like if as you're listening to this, we'll have finished Acts chapter six. But Acts chapter five is a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Uh two people die because they lie to the Spirit of God. Uh before I even ask any questions, the one question I'll ask is what stood out to you guys from Acts chapter five and the Ananias and Sapphira and the result of what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. And then I'll I'll give some kind of closing thoughts as to where my mind is going with some of this.
SPEAKER_02I think what follows directly after, yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so much fear fell on the church, and it wasn't something that drove people away. It was actually like what brought them in. Right?
SPEAKER_00When you say fear, do you think that's like them shaking in their boots saying, like, we gotta follow this guy or else?
SPEAKER_04I think for some probably, but for most it's more of an awe mixed with intimacy.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Um, but yeah, dude, I think for sure it freaks some people out, and they're like, What in the heck? You know, you don't have nothing to do with this. But more and more people came. Came to faith. What else? Because last week, man, I I I went through all 42 verses.
SPEAKER_00So I mean, this is a pivotal moment in the early church. And you got these guys and girl, married couple, you know, falseing their spiritual maturity. And you think about you know, again, the church and revival that's happening right now, right? The the things that we hide, the sin that we hide is gonna block revival. Right? You gotta have accountability, you gotta have things in the light. That's where the growth and atonement happen. Um that's kind of where my my head goes with with reading through this.
SPEAKER_04Because seemingly Ananias and Sapphira are doing the same thing that Barnabas did at the end of Acts chapter four. He sold a field, brought all the proceeds to the apostles, they took care of what needed to be taken care of. Ananias and Sapphire looks like they're doing the same thing. That's the thing about the church is from the outside everybody looks good, you know. But the Lord know there are no secret closets when it comes to the Spirit of God, you know. And uh that was what was revealed.
SPEAKER_00These guys are watching miracles happen, the power of God, and they're in all of it, just like you said a second ago. And I think like the fear of God is being absent from that power, from that grace, from those miracles, right? I don't think it's a fear as much of like, man, I I'm worried about the punishment. I think it's a fear of being away from the goodness and being separated from that.
SPEAKER_04That's a good point. I do think there is some wow, God can do whatever he wants with whoever he wants, however he wants. I fear him. I think that the people standing at Mount Sinai when they saw the flames and they heard the voice, they feared God because God could take God, did man. He wiped out a bunch of people for worshiping a golden calf. And so I do think that there was great fear, uh, but I think it was all reverence, like this is a holy God, and I am not, you know. Um, like I do, I like I said, I think it's an awe mixed with intimacy. You have to remember God demonstrated his love to you while you were still a sinner. According to sin the Bible, sin deserves a wage of death. While you were still a sinner, Christ died for you.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we should all be ananiasis, right? Yeah, yeah. Like it's my sin that held him up on that cross as much as it was yours and and you know, everyone else here, you know.
SPEAKER_04A lot of people would ask the question, why did they die? A better question is, why do we still live?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know?
SPEAKER_00You said that on Sunday, and it was it was one of those moments where I was like, that's good.
SPEAKER_04Just give me the holy mo. Yeah, it was. Preach it, preacher. Preach it. Um, I think to to wrap this up, and then we'll we'll throw some some cool announcements your way, is as we continue to see from this point on as the church grows, there's a great move of God that's obviously happening. It is it is not like a completely and totally pure movement. We'll see as God continues to save and God continues to move, there's gonna be people that complain, there's gonna be people that die, there's gonna be magicians that show up and they're like, we want some of that Jesus. There's gonna be the seven sons of Skeva who try to like cast out demons in Jesus' name, but they don't know Jesus, and they get their butts kicked by these demons. So, like, there's this whole move of God, and yet John Piper says, as the move of God is happening, debris is picked up along the way. What do you do with the debris? I think that church is always and should always, I said this Sunday night, it should feel a little grimy because we're not just trying to create a movement and a group of people that are just like healthy and wealthy all the time. There should be like jacked up people. It says the Bible says at the end of Acts chapter 5 that they were bringing their lame and their crippled and that needed healing. They were bringing them to Jerusalem. God, I pray that like people just continue to show up at Bridger Church through the invitation, through the like word of mouth. I've heard that these people, they love Jesus. And I've heard that maybe there's healing that's found there. Bro, can you imagine? Can you imagine? All these people show up, but this is also why the importance of the ministry of prayer and the word happen, because you want to make, you want to create in these people not just a new life in Christ, but you want to make them complete and mature for every good work because their new life in Christ. So this is what I'm thinking about is all the stuff of like discipleship. Yes, God is bringing, praise God, He's bringing just new life into our church of new believers, baptisms. We're gonna celebrate the fire out of that, that out of that stuff. And we ain't backing off a minute. We're not letting off the gas when it comes to evangelism, but we are putting it into fourth gear when it comes to deepening in these relationships that people have with the Lord. So this is why Acts is exciting, man. This is why it's inspiring, is because this is who we are in Christ. This is the stuff we're living out, and we will continue to live out, and I'm pumped about it. Some new things that I want to share with all of you wonderful listeners, and with you guys. There is, did you know that there is live right now a Bridger Church app downloaded it? That you can download from the app store. Right now it is very simple, but if you're like, hey, there's a Bridger Church app, you go to your app store, you type in Bridger Church, use it because all we want to do is sharpen it as a tool so that not only can you, you know, you make check-ins for kids easier, and not only can you like there's a Bible on there with a Bible reading plan. If you're like, where do I start? Go there, there's a Bible reading plan. Uh, you can take next steps, you can give and be generous, you can do all of these things. We want to make it just an accessible, very easy tool for people to use uh to take next steps. So check that out. Easter Sunday is right around the corner.
unknownLet's go.
SPEAKER_04I'm so pumped.
SPEAKER_02That would be Jackson's first service.
SPEAKER_04That might be Jackson Lee's first service, man. I'm excited about that. Bring that baby on Resurrection Sunday. Um, man, everything's gonna be happening at 10 a.m. at the Gallatin Valley Church, 3:15, South 19th. If that's where you're wondering where to go uh to church, bring your family, bring your one more. We're gonna be baptizing. It's gonna be legit. Uh you're wondering, you may be wondering, what are we doing anything for Good Friday? Well, the Good Family at Gallatin Valley Church has invited us to come and worship with them. The reason this is significant is because on Easter Sunday, they move into their brand new building that God has given them. That same day, we move into their old building that God has given us. And so what we want to do on Good Friday to celebrate the resurrection, or excuse me, the crucifixion as we talk about the crucifixion. And you may think, how do you celebrate it? It should feel a little bit like a funeral. Well, that's because it does. Because the death of Jesus also changes everything, right? The death of Jesus on our behalf and the resurrection to give us new life are things that we are gonna celebrate. So on Good Friday, if Easter is April the 5th, then that would mean that Good Friday is on the 3rd. That evening, we're gonna be celebrating Good Friday with the folks at Gallatin Valley. I hope that that place is packed. Like, as in, there are people standing in the lobby because there are not enough seats in the room to come together to do that. Um, check the website for times uh because we are still working like on nailing the time. I think it's six o'clock, but don't hold me to that on that. Uh, but the evening of Good Friday. And then lastly, for all of you wonderful people, we've got a kids' ministry that is awesome that Sammy loves, that Sammy helps run um your heart, by the way, just for like curriculum, what's being taught to our kids, because our kids' ministry is not auxiliary, it's not childcare. Like we're not putting on movies while the adults go do church, like we're opening the word of God with them, we're making disciples, all the things, and playing all the games and just environments conducive for discipleship. If you would say, man, not only am I looking forward for my kids to be a part of that, but I want to help serve in that, you can on the on the website or on the app, you in your next steps tab, you can go in there, you can be like, I want to volunteer to serve, and you can make a note. I want to serve in kids, and somebody from our team is going to be reaching out, but we're going to be doing some trainings that are coming up. Do you know anything, slash, want to share anything out loud with the folks right now about that?
SPEAKER_02Just the importance of the next generation in disciplehood and how great it is that families uh trust us to lead their kids. Um it's just an exciting thing to be a part of, see the faith in little ones grow and how they respond to things. Um, and it's just really great. And if you want to come be a part of it, talk to me. Um, we'd love to have you. And um, we'd love to just get to see the joy of the kids.
SPEAKER_04Right on. Well, that concludes another episode. A wonderful. I thought this was awesome. So thank you guys for being here. Thank you guys for being willing to be here. Jake, you want to pray for us before we roll out? I'd love to. Yeah, go for it.
SPEAKER_00Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the ability to gather here and share your word and share your gospel and and just to try to make more disciples and make more believers. Um, Lord, I think about the men um here in this moment in the early church, and and I think about the way that they were described, right? That they were in proximity to Jesus. They could be, you know, everybody could tell. What a prayer of my heart, Lord. Um, and I prayed for those men and women sitting here with me that it would be a prayer on their heart as well, that we would be known to be close to Jesus in the way that we act, in the way that we lead, in the way that we share your good news, Lord. Um just empty us of ourselves, keep us on your path, and just let us be the light to this valley, um, and just bring people to know you, Lord. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for joining us for this episode of Encounter and Live. If you have any questions, need care, or would like to reach out to us, please visit BridgerChurch.com. We can't wait to meet you at our next gathering. Till then, Jesus peace, big love, and go live life in Him.