Encounter and Live
A Bridger Church Podcast
Encounter and Live
Stories of Faith with Pastor Jonathan Vinke
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In this episode of Encounter and Live we have Pastor Jonathan Vinke from The Church of Eleven22 in Jacksonville, FL join us.
As a church we have started a series entitled, “Stories of Faith.” This series is meant to look into the events of the people mentioned in Hebrews 11. Pastor Todd and Pastor Vinke dive alittle deeper into the life of Abel and the life of Noah. Both men serve to remind us that we respond to God in faith and that the greatest story we can tell is the story of faith.
We pray this episode encourages you as you live life in 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_01Well, hey, people. Welcome to another episode of Encounter and Live. I'm pumped to be here, man. We've got familiar voices, especially, we'll say familiar as in the last episode was her first episode. And that is the one and only Katie Tuttle. How are you doing today?
SPEAKER_05I'm doing good. Happy to be here.
SPEAKER_01For those of you that are listening across your radio dial, she is sitting across the table from me. And then also across the table from me is the one and only Keelan James. How are you, sir?
SPEAKER_02Good, good, good. Gotta spend some time on a tractor today and round out the day with meeting some friends. It's good to do it.
SPEAKER_01So you you get to spend time on a tractor, you plant food plots. What are you doing?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was food plot day.
SPEAKER_01Is food plot day?
SPEAKER_02That ain't a bad thing. It's a good way to spend your morning.
SPEAKER_01What are you planting? Or are you just tilling right now?
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, planting.
SPEAKER_01What is it you're planting?
SPEAKER_02Am I allowed to know where Sanfoin and Alfalfa and Deer candy? Elk candy.
SPEAKER_01Deer and elk candy. Are we allowed to know where this special plot would be?
SPEAKER_02No, that part's classified as classified.
SPEAKER_01And then also here, we're pumped to have the one and only Pastor Jonathan Vinke from 1122. If you are a uh regular listener to the Deep In podcast, then this voice is going to sound very familiar to you because he uh hosts and facilitates the conversations that happen. And he is, we're we're honored to have him here. He's gonna be preaching the gospel at Bridger Church this weekend. Pastor Vinky, how are you, bro?
SPEAKER_04Doing great, man. I'm stoked to be here.
SPEAKER_01How have you enjoyed me? How have you and your family enjoyed your time in Bozeman? We love Montana.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And um, we brought we must have brought the sunshine with us. It did rain a little bit, but it was a beautiful day yesterday. I mean, picturesque.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, it was awesome. Tuesday, it'll be like 90 degrees. Have you seen this? Tuesday it'll be like 90 degrees here. And it's like 55 right now, in the middle of the day. But man, we're pumped that you're here, and it was cool to be able to like go to highlight and hike and hang with your family. And we're grateful that you are here and you've got you got some cool cool stuff ahead of you going to Yellowstone and seeing some good stuff. Um, but man, I'm I'm grateful you are week number two of a series that we have entitled Stories of Faith. And I'm glad we've looked at one character we've started in Hebrews chapter 12. We've looked at one of our uh from the hall of faith, and that was Abel. And next this tomorrow, uh, for those of you that are listening, you'll you'll listen to it. I don't know. It could be the next Monday, as a matter of fact. Uh, we're gonna be talking about Noah. And so I'm pumped to be in this series. Are you guys pumped to be in this series?
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm really excited to be in this series. Why are you excited to be in it? I'm excited to see the steps that people are gonna continue to take. I think we've got a lot of people in our church right now that are just jazzed up and ready to roll. And this is gonna be a great teaching series for them to run with our mission statement, to run with that live life in him section of of the mission statement for the of the church. And I'm very excited to see where that goes.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, with that, I'm I'm curious. We started in Acts when we, you know, first started Bridger Church. We started in Acts, then we just got out of the the art of neighboring. And so I'm curious why this series now.
SPEAKER_01That's a great question. Um so I took a play from Pastor Joby, and that is, you know, like spend time with the Lord and pray about like the direction that you were headed with these people that you're you know, pastoring and and shepherding. And when I like just kind of planned out, I think originally this series was called like Testimonies of Faith. Uh, but when I began to look at it, I was just like, these are all stories of faith, but we also want to intertwine our testimonies as well. So like last week, you're Keelan, you're in Brianna's story, like you just shared this week. Like we're hearing the battle worn story when we talk about uh Noah from Trenton Faith. So it's it's it's our stories of faith, like as we continue to talk about these stories of faith. But our our vision statement would be that we are a life for the world to encounter Jesus and live life in him. The year 2026 is an encounter year. We want our people, we I want to lead the way in evangelism on what it means for people to encounter Jesus. And so when I look at what it what it looks like for people to live these lives in him, we've also we've always been from day one that you don't bifurcate or separate uh evangelism from discipleship as if they're two separate, like totally different, you either got to pick one philosophy or the other when it comes to ministry. Well, in my mind, and just according to the Old Testament, one of the ways that you disciple your people is for to teach them how to evangelize, to teach them how to live lives of faith, to share their faith. And so these folks who were like living these lives of faith, who believed and acted as if they believed in a God who they had never seen, but they heard, like they heard from and they believed in. It's the same thing for us. It's like steps of faith as we continue to follow Jesus. One of those steps of faith is sharing it. And so I wanted to just like through the summer look at these things, share the testimonies of our people. And that is why we're in Hebrews, and that's why we're doing the stories of faith.
SPEAKER_03That's good.
SPEAKER_04I also think that that faith is a word that does not really uh people don't understand it really for what it means biblically, most of the time, similar to the word hope. Like if you said hope to your average person, it means um uh a wish for a positive but uncertain outcome. And faith is a very close cousin in their mind, probably in the in the you know, non-believing person, they're just like, well, it just means like good wishes or good thinking, which is why the I'm praying we send our prayers to you has been replaced by we're sending our thoughts to you. And so faith uh can have a very mysterious, you know, kind of undertone to it. And so when the writer of Hebrews gives all of these examples, these real tangible examples, it tells us what is the life of faith actually like? What does it actually look like? Just like Jesus came and put flesh and skin and bones to the image of God, you know, and he's the image of the invisible God. We see in the life of these people who trusted God, we see what faith actually looks like. And so it it makes it less ethereal, and there's a lot of um mystery that's uh unveiled as we see this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think last week I said something like when we walk through because if anybody asks you, how do you define faith? My first thought is Hebrews 11:1. It is faith is the assurance of what is hoped for and it's evidence of what is not seen. So I said, if if people want to see like a visible image of what faith looks like, I would say, go look at Katie and watch her live her life. Go look at Keelan, watch him live his life, as if he actually believes what God, who God is, what he says, and he's living it out. Does that make sense? It's like uh if Jesus is the image of the invisible God, we are the image of invisible faith, although faith is not invisible when we live it out, right? So that's kind of the answer to that question um as to why we are where we are right now. So we kind of bypassed, I don't want to do, I don't want to like go back and do this at the end. I would it feels very natural to do it right now because we are living lives of faith. When we sell when we get to celebrate wins, it's like the these people are doing something. We're celebrating the things that we value. I don't want to miss that because it's we always need to celebrate the win. So what can we celebrate before we like dive in a a little bit deeper about what God's doing in our church? What God's doing in your life.
SPEAKER_05Well, we just had our summer kickoff, and I think we would all say that that was a huge win. I had to come.
SPEAKER_01You know what happened on the summer kickoff? Well, it happened. I met flight attendant Taylor.
SPEAKER_05You sure did.
SPEAKER_01I met her.
SPEAKER_05It was a glorious moment. Yeah. Yeah, man. It was so great. It felt like you know, a movie star moment. Yeah, she was so pumped.
SPEAKER_01For for context, I had heard of this Taylor who's a Delta flight attendant. She lived in Atlanta, somewhere outside of Atlanta, and she'd been like she works for Delta, so but she loved Bozeman, and then I can't I can't remember the exact connection to Bridger. She found Bridger on social media, on social media, decided to move from where she was to Bozeman to like join us. And it's a cool story about like we shared it on the last podcast, but essentially she she started hanging out with the people, and she was just like, Y'all all seem like you've known each other for years. And Katie was she was with Katie and she was actually for the first time hanging out with somebody from our church, and she was like, Y'all just act like y'all know each other, and and it's like she she instantly felt the family, yeah. She instantly felt the community, which is like that's a that's a win. So shout out once again for the second consecutive podcast, flight attendant Taylor.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so good. Yeah, and I had several other friends um that we've been wanting to have come and check us out. They attended and had such a great time. I got a text afterwards and just said everyone was so welcoming and you out, you're surrounded by a lot of good people. And I was like, Well, you can be surrounded by them too if you come back. So they uh they're talking about coming to church um soon with their son. So that was awesome to hear. Big win.
SPEAKER_02Without trying to sound like a broken record, the irr the steps watching the the people come with the art of neighboring in mind and inviting their neighbors, bringing those people in and getting to see the backside of that again too. Not only were their neighbors there, but then you got to see the backside of the the people there experiencing their neighbor showing up. They were experiencing the the results of that invitation. Yeah, that's cool. And that was fun to watch as well last night. The the excitement in them growing and the the faith building in them that's growing from acting out and doing the steps, doing the things that you've been talking about and seeing the results was fun to watch last night.
SPEAKER_01My like my favorite part honestly, because I met a lot of I just made it a goal to if I if I've never seen this person or don't recognize this person, like let's go chat. And my favorite thing hearing over and over again was, yeah, we were invited by our neighbors. And I'm like, Yes, people are listening, it feels like they're listening. Uh I met my HOA president last night, and I was like, Oh no, like if everything and he knew exactly where I lived. They're like, Aren't you the lead pastor? Don't you live on North Astor?
SPEAKER_04And I'm like, You didn't give him your neighbor's address. I live uh no, that's my neighbor.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's like, make sure you pull your weeds, you know. Like, but it was so cool. He was he said we were invited by our neighbors, so and neighbors met other neighbors there too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's people that were like, Wait a minute, you live in the same building that I do. Yeah, it was just there's lots of connections that were made last night.
SPEAKER_01Which is just like a I don't know, man. Whenever you start out, this is a full circle thing for me because like I the Lord laid on my heart this minute, this hospitality, like hardcore to come out here. And so to see it happening, to see like a just a neighboring in the terms of like the verb that it is to be a good neighbor, to love your neighbor, like the physical one next to you, is like a man, thank you, Lord. Like, we're just you you set out to communicate it, and like I said last time, we'll probably do some version of it from some portion of the year to where it's like we're gonna focus on this. Um, but that was awesome. We're baptizing. I think this is a huge win. My brother Joe, and he may listen to this. Like, it is amazing the steps that that brother has taken. When I saw him raise his hand to surrender to Christ in the gospel invitation, so Matt Ballard is standing behind him, like almost doing cartwheels. Like he's just in the back of the room, like helping just identify. And I look at him and I'm just like, he did it, you know. And then he comes up last week and he's just like, hey man, I'm ready to take the plunge. I'm ready to get baptized. And I'm going, dude, let's go. So Joe, um, we've got a few, we've got a few people getting baptized. Cassidy, Aurora, all of those things tomorrow are just gonna be a I love like when people take that step and we get to celebrate it as a church. So you got anyone? What's God doing at 1122, man? Speaking of baptisms, you guys baptize like a million and a half people at the Atlantic Ocean or something. No doubt.
SPEAKER_04It's crazy, man. Um, we're very blessed. There's nothing special about us, as you know, we're just a bunch of normal people, uh, but for some reason God's got his hand on us, and um, I think it's happening all over the place. If you if you pay attention, there is there's something happening at this time, and so it's exciting to be a part of. But uh, yeah, man, God's faithful and it's exciting to be a part of. I'm just trying to keep up, to be honest with you. But two two things that I noticed being a part of the kickoff. One, you know, got to meet a lot of people that I recognize or you know, knew back in Jacksonville. So pretty cool that there's so many people who joined you guys and decided to come up here. And um, everybody's excited, you know, for what God's doing here. And then the other thing is I I just could feel a culture, that familiarity, that family. I think that's what draws people. We talk, you know, at 1122 we talk about culture all the time. And you know, we I was talking to uh Jack, I think, about outdoor brands, which we could talk about that for a while, probably, you know. And he's into it. The thing that brings people together around Sitka or whatever is because they're like, I'm that kind of person, I'm a sitka person, or you know, I'm a first side person. And they identify with something about that brand. And so then if if I'm a sitka person and you're a sitka person, all of a sudden we're a lot closer to being friends. And uh I think that's what great culture is like. It's like it brings people together. And when you I think when I was there and the burgers were being flipped and and everything was people were talking, it was like you you felt this sense of everybody was like, these are my kind of people, you know. It's like that tribalism in the in a good way that people are drawn to. So I thought that was a huge win.
SPEAKER_01That's really encouraging to hear.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01Because it's something we value. Like you can put values on a poster board and put it on your building or whatever. But if these are things you truly value and that you're after, that you're digging for and working for, you continue to celebrate, it it comes to the surface.
SPEAKER_04And here's the thing people don't want to be part of lame stuff, right? You know what I mean? Like just brass text. Yeah, we all know that Jesus is the answer and the Bible is real and true. But if it like if it's lame and it sucks, it's like people don't want to be a part of that. It's true, you know. If you're happy to know it, tell your face, you know. So uh we were looking up on on the drive yesterday that Bozeman, I think, is has one of the lowest median ages in Montana. You know, the median age here is like 26 or 28, something like that. Oh, it was higher than that. Um but that is low. So it's all a high population of young people, and it was just cool to see a ton of young families, you know, and everybody was just just together. So Well, I appreciate you saying that, man.
SPEAKER_02Encourages me to hear you say that too, just because of the fact that we I think, you know, the ones that have we haven't been here very long, right? But we've been here long enough that we we all feel this, we all know it, but hearing somebody else that has walked in on day one that says it and can see it as well is is very encouraging to me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. Me too. Well, you just said something that uh, you know, by way of transition, that I think is pretty important. You when you were referring to 1122, uh, which is our sending church, that you're just like, there's nothing special about us, you know, we're just ordinary people. When we look at this great cloud of witnesses, when we look at Hebrews chapter 11, uh, this hall of faith, it is not so much about these like heroes as much as it is just ordinary people that believe in an extraordinary God. And they're they're acting as if he can do what he says he can do. And so we're we're gonna talk about, you know, for the next few podcast episodes, but all through the summer about how faith, how it acts, how it waits, how it suffers, how it perseveres. And it's um it's confidence. It's confidence in God's promises before we actually come to some kind of result. It's confidence in the one. I said last week it's all about uh it's not about some amount of faith that you can muster up to do something as much as it is anchoring yourself in the one who is promised. Anchoring yourself in the the one who is, the one who gave you the faith in the first place.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So I mean, I grew up in church, and I mean, even if you didn't, you probably can resonate with this approach. A lot of, and not trying to throw shade on anybody, but a lot of times when you read a a section like this, uh the fancy word for it is anthropomorphic reading of the scripture, which is anthropology is the history of man. So it's like you put your focus on the people, you know, and it's a sort of a man-centered way to read it. But the heroes of the faith is the way that I remember hearing all of these stories. It was just like, hey, you know, Noah believed God, you should be more like Noah. I'm just like, yeah, okay, I'm gonna try that, you know, and you leave and you just feel the pressure and the weight on your shoulders. Um, but I love what you said that it's the the attention is not supposed to be on these people, it's supposed to be on the consistent thread of the faith that they had and the results that it produced, which by the way, we're not all good. You know, you're gonna get to the end of this chapter and see that many, many people experience tragedy and unanswered questions and with the same faith as the conquerors, you know, at the other places in the chapter. So it's pretty wild.
SPEAKER_01Also, man, there's a prostitute's name in here. And like David's very true, you know, like David's name is in here. Like, we know David's all of his conquests and his victories. We also sing a psalm about how he was caught for murder and adultery and lying about it, you know, and they kept it in there. So, like, there's so much, there's so much. David is actually one of the one of the guys we're gonna look at this summer. But I'll say this I started with the end in mind. Uh, and I would encourage our church, like if you're listening, anybody that's listening, I think that a good thing to do is to memorize the scripture. David said he would memorize it to hide it in his heart so that he wouldn't sin. But one of these things, uh, dagger that you can put just in the armory of your heart that the Spirit of God can use is Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. So if there is somewhere we are headed, like I said last week, I want to start with the end in mind. We're gonna finish here, and that is Hebrews 12, verse 1 and 2. It says this, therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which cling so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. We have these people that we're gonna look at for a reason, right? We get to look at these people for a reason because he's saying, Let us also lay these things that are like cling to us to keep us from running. The purpose is we want to run. We want to run with endurance. And so if you're gonna memorize something, memorize that right there. That right there. I love that verse. I love those verses. Um, and I think it's a good place to start. But we looked at uh Abel. Abel's a fun one. What we did is we just kind of like started and and then we went back to Genesis chapter four. But when we talk about Abel bringing the firstborn of his flock and the fat portions versus Cain, who over the course of time the Bible says brings uh an offering from the fruit of the ground. Can we explain, like for those that may not have been sitting there, like why this is significant? Why is Abel out of the gate? It says in Hebrews 11, he offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. God loves meat more than vegetables. A hundred percent. I was hoping somebody would at least point that out. Because I didn't. But God does love him some meat. But let's just unpack the firstborn and the fat portions versus just like over the course of time came brought. Because one of the things I tried to point out is seemingly it looks like they're doing the same thing. It looks like they're just bringing an offering. But the Bible uses very specific words about some of those things that I just tried to point out from Genesis 4. So, what were some of y'all's takeaways on that?
SPEAKER_02Heart posture and position. You know, we look at the the heart posture of Cain versus Abel's offering there. And I think Cain's walking into this thing with I don't know if I want to say fear, but fear maybe expectation, you know, of his offering versus Abel's trust and love. You know, he's Abel's bringing this to God from a knowing position of who he's bringing it to and why he's bringing it. He he knows that he's bringing this to a faithful God who he loves versus I think Cain's coming to it from a point of this is what I'm expected to do, or maybe I'm expecting God to do something for me here, and fear.
SPEAKER_01So this is this is interesting, and I would love to like maybe just unpack a little bit about what you're saying. How did you get to that conclusion? How did you get to that? Like, I think this is what Abel is doing and what versus what Cain is doing.
SPEAKER_02Timing of the offering, bringing the the first. I mean, we don't he doesn't know what his flock is gonna look like tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01So a modern day comparison is almost like commission. Yeah. Like if you're working, if you have a commission job and you don't quite know, you know, but you've just predecided whatever's first. This is what Abel did. Whatever's first is what I'm going to give. And then when you say timing or in the course of time, in the course of time.
SPEAKER_02Cain brought. Cain knew what he had. He knew what the harvest was gonna look like, versus I don't know. Um, and like you said, to bring that to a modern day thing, I would I would bring that to my wife and I as well. You know, when you're when you're running a business or you're operating something that you don't know what the year is gonna look like, that's not gonna determine what we bring every year. We're gonna we're gonna set that number in the beginning, not at the end. We're gonna set that before we know what things are gonna look like. Because we know we serve a faithful God.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think Cain is thinking, I got this. Whereas Abel is knowing that God says, I got you. So Abel's coming with with his best because he trusts God ultimately, whereas I think Cain is more so trying to take care of himself first. And yeah, I loved the idea of the well, the the truth of it that it appears that they are doing the same thing. But you said in the sermon to allow the word and the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to you about what the scripture is saying and what God is trying to say, the differences are. And it is a response to the Lord, and they're very different responses. That's the truth of it.
SPEAKER_01It's also interesting, too. This is like pre-law. This is pre prescribed, like they are responding to God alone when they bring this offering in worship. It's a worshipful response. And when we say first and best, it's honestly, you know, from our sending church. I think Pastor Joby really, really helped me develop a language, a theology, even, of what it means to bring to God your first and best. Um, first and best is the comes from the firstborn and the fat portions, is what the scripture says. The fat portion is the choicest portion of the flock. So firstborn and the best, bringing them to the Lord. And then I just quickly I just gave the God is first, Genesis 1.1, uh, went to Colossians and just uh like if Jesus being the image of the invisible God talked about the preeminence of Christ, how he is first, and he loved first and he went first, therefore we bring our we respond in that. Um and then I tried my best, and it was a struggle. Like I'm not gonna lie, anytime that I would talk or preach about money, there's always an internal when I say money, you know what I'm talking about because it's stewarding all that God has given us time, talent, treasure, specifically in treasure. Like this is exactly where we were, and we're talking about an offering here. And anytime I go that route, like there's this internal thing in me, man. Days before Saturday, you should have seen me just like talking it out, you know, just trying to make sure. And the Lord just kept reminding me over and over again, Todd, what you're not doing is going in there and just giving top 10 reasons as to why people don't give, and the other reasons as to why you should. All you're doing is opening the scripture. A majority of the script, it felt like a sword drill a little bit on some. It was like we were everywhere. It's like I want to show you the progression of what it means to respond to the Lord in this way, just from the Bible. And if the the Spirit of God is gonna do the through the work in people and through people, and it's to remind people at the end of every service when we say the same thing, this is where it comes from, the way that we respond. The way that we respond in generosity is by bringing our first and best. Well, this is why. We want to tell the story of faith. To be honest, like the big part of my prayer last week and this week, you know, following that sermon, is that the story of our faith right now as Bridger Church will be told by the future generation that the church continues because of the generosity, our generosity right now. It's not what we're just trying to do, it's not the money we're trying to save, the buildings we're trying to build, as much as it is the story of faith that's gonna continue. And when our kids are telling their kids, like the reason that God's done this thing is because these people believed in God, you know. My dad, my mom believed in God and they responded to continue the move, right? So I don't know, man. It was challenging, it was good, you know, just having having that time. Even for me, man, I just told the Lord, I remember being convicted, like, even if this is for me, you know, to develop my own language, my own conviction about how I'm gonna disciple people moving forward, then this, but then praise God, you know. Like I'm I'm thankful.
SPEAKER_02It is a hard topic to to talk about and to to portray correctly, but it's also one of my favorites because you get to see what the other side of it is for people. Like once, once they get into this, and they start experiencing the other side of the of the conversation, what happens as they're growing with it, it it just one of the moments that excites me the most. And I think it's one of the areas that growth happens so faithfully in. When you when you buy into this, when you get into that and you start experiencing what that growth is, it just it invigorates you and it it it helps people grow so much. And it's why it's one of my favorite topics to talk about, is because I've experienced it. I am a point-and-case example of it. Um and that's what excites me about this topic. And I I I do appreciate you and how you delivered it.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. It's good, man. It's good. I I would say, I think I said at the beginning of the message, like there's there's very little, there are very, very few things in my life as I follow Jesus that really shape, mold who I am into the image of Christ like like this, the area of like generosity. Uh it's one of the things when Jesus talks about the treasure principle, it's like your your heart is following something. It's actually where your treasure is. And so if I am going, if my heart is going to be formed into the image of Christ, then that principle has to be true. And I want it to be true, not only in my life, but in our church's life as well. And so it's a good place to start. It was a very fun place to start when we entered into the story of faith. And then there's Noah. And Pastor Vinke is here. And man, I I've already said it once, but I'm super thankful that you are here and that you are willing, able, ready, and I'm excited to listen to you preach, man. And so so as you keep going down, you may think, like, we're skipping Enoch. Yes, because I I chose who we were going to look at. And so, verse number seven, by faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen. Would you say that that's the that's like the rain and the flood? That's events unseen, yeah. And reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. So I remember talking to you and going, hey bro, I just want you to preach the gospel according to Noah. So does that like make sense to you? And how does that make sense to you?
SPEAKER_04It does make sense to me. Um, what's what what I'm not gonna have time to really get into is kind of the strange part about that verse is that by his obedience he condemned the world and became an instrument of salvation for himself and for his family. And uh it reminds me, I think it's Psalm 14 uh nine, maybe, and uh it says that that the righteous have like a song on their lips and a sword in their hands, you know, and it's like the justice of God uh we get to be joyful participants in. And part of the hope that we have for him making all things right is that we we participate as as his sub-judges. But but yeah, I mean, like you see you see the story of Noah, and I mean, he was warned that something was gonna happen. He he believed God, so this this should echo Abraham's faith. Yep. You know, Abraham believed God, he believed what God said. You're gonna get to Abraham later, but he just said, Go to a land I'll show you. And he said, All right, I'll do it. And so there really is this into the unknown kind of, you know, Elsa and frozen, like into the unknown uh nature of faith. And so he he does this thing, and it's easy for us to just skip right over. He built he constructed an arc and all this kind of dude. Listen, he was not near an ocean. This was a cruise ship size structure, uh, and probably took a it I looked it up, it potentially took him 100 years to build. That's a long time.
SPEAKER_05That's what blows my mind about it.
SPEAKER_04And like I I don't know if he was a lumber guy. I mean, so he's gotta figure out he's gonna basically start a whole building operation that goes on for a long period of his life based on a thing that God said. And that is wild.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, his neighbors must have thought he was cuckoo. I mean, can you imagine someone building something that size in their backyard?
SPEAKER_01Have you got have you been to the Ark encounter in uh Louisville or outside of Louisville?
SPEAKER_04Uh my wife just went not too long ago. I've not been, but she told me all about it and said we gotta go. So I've I've heard it's amazing.
SPEAKER_01It I I went when it was like brand new. And since then they've like added to not necessarily the structure, but all the stuff around it, like near the creation museum. And it is uh massive. You know, they tried their best to uh I think it's Kim Ham, Ken Ham and the Answers in Genesis like organization that did it. And I they tried their best to what like do the replica, do it, do it as if you're reading the text and you're like trying to figure out what a cubit is, and we're gonna build it to spec to size, you know. It's huge, like way bigger than you think it is in your mind. It is like this is what he did, you know. And it makes you think, did he ask for help? Did he like, hey, this is a lot, guys, so I'm gonna need some help. You're building a what? Like, what is this? Why does this make sense? It's gonna rain, God's gonna flood the earth, and we gotta do this. And when we're done, you can get in because that's the only thing that's gonna save you. And guys were like, no way, bro. I'm not following your logic here, you know. If he had a crew, or if it was just him, man, cutting down the trees, doing all the stuff. I can see why it would take a hundred years to complete something like that. But, anyways, shout out No Noah's Ark Encounter outside of Louisville. If you can, you should go see it. It's cool.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and and rain, those scientists would say that rain was not a normal experience. Like it, like something about the atmosphere of the earth had a continual cycle of mist that kept everything watered. So it wasn't like droughts, dry dry periods, and then rain. Um, I think many of them think that that event changed it to more of what it is now, where it's like the seasonal rain. And so that's another another element of it. But you also see like it's a pattern, there's a pattern. As I was, as I was studying, the kingdom of God has recognizable and repeatable patterns. And so when you're looking for the gospel on every page of the scripture, when you're looking for what does this tell me about Jesus, you're looking a lot of times for those patterns. And so the the main meat of the gospel according to Noah is that Noah realizes that we have a big problem, which is that the earth had been corrupted by sin, you know, that violence was everywhere, but it wasn't just outward violence, it was inward corruption. Like the thoughts of man's heart was only evil all the time. And in the midst of this huge problem, God gives a gracious provision. He says, I am going to judge this evil, but my provision for you is that you can escape it. And so he he not he gives him, I'm gonna I'm gonna make a promise based on my characters. This is called a covenant. Yeah, he gives him actual rescue. So I'm gonna tell you how to build a boat, which you've never heard of, but do it my way and you'll thank me. And then he gives a promise at the end, I'm not gonna do this again. And um, and then so he there's a problem, there's a provision, and then you see that this is what the author of Hebrews wants us to know the right response to God is that reverent fear and obedience, you know, even when we don't understand what God is asking us to do. And so I see the gospel all over that. So I'm glad you asked me to preach gospel according to Noah, because to me it's right there.
SPEAKER_01And one of the things that I like just thinking through when I was writing some of this stuff down and kind of mapping out the summer, I remember thinking, and again, like this is a it's not speculation as much as it is like divine revelation or divine imagination, but also just pretty pretty close to the pages of scripture. There's there's a way to be saved, and it is like through the ark that was constructed. Uh when I think about the world that we live in right now, you know, we're we're pretty dang close to whatever you just said about like how they're thinking evil thoughts all the time, whatever it is that like it's just like the you can see it, you can see it everywhere. Yet through God's provision, it is the cross, like it is the cross that will raise above the condemnation. But it's also like by way of the church, by way of the local church. And I remember thinking, like, Lord, if we want to make much of the church, we want to make much of the gospel, yes, but we're gospel people, and we are the know-s. We are the like, hey, you know, we love you, and there is a cross, and that will rise above the condemnation. And it's not like we preach that way as much as it is some of the stuff that we just celebrated, just by like being good neighbors. Let's start there, you know. Um, but one day, like he will return and there will be judgment, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And what that means is the old one is not gonna be anymore, which means something's gonna happen to it. Well, that's the judgment of God and the cross of Jesus Christ and belief, like Noah, you know, like belief in that, his belief is condemning the world. I wish we did. Like, I know you're not probably gonna spend a bunch of time on it, but we can spend a little bit of time on it here. In his belief, there's a condemnation of the world as well. Well, in our belief, it's like we're rising above that because of the grace of God that has been given to us that's appeared to all men. That's Jesus. So I love the fact that we're gonna do this. We say this all the time, which I'm glad like we're pinpointing it right now. We don't just want Christ-included teaching and sermons, we want Christ-centered teaching and sermons. Like, if anything, the thing that I'm like after all the time is like, Jesus be magnified. If I'm preaching through Leviticus, which I don't have any plans to do in the near future, but maybe. Leviticus gets a lot of shade.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it's it's a great, it's part of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01Hey, listen, for for guys like you and me, I agree for a lot. They're like, what in the heck does this mean?
SPEAKER_04You know, but it's the punchline of every Bible joke. You know, it's like you made it to Leviticus and then you quit.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02The lowest attendance in our Bible study group the last two months has been when we were going through that. Oh, nice, nice, nice.
SPEAKER_01That and numbers. Although numbers is epic too. But it is the Jesus, may your may your redeeming sacrifice like be seen in it all, may your glory be seen in it all.
SPEAKER_04I also grew up listening to a lot of radio drama. And uh, I don't remember what it was, but there was something about Noah. And uh there was, you know, so Noah's doing the he's building, he's constructing, and then finally the day comes when the rain starts. And in this particular program, the people who were mocking him are pounding on the side of the ark after God closes the door and saying, Let us in, let us in, let us in, please let us in. But it's too late. And you talk about the judgment, the coming judgment of God. It's as ridiculous to the unbelieving person that God is gonna judge the earth. Like God's God's coming, he's gonna judge you. He's gonna judge you based on what you thought, what you did, and what you did with Jesus, most importantly. That is as ridiculous, maybe more than your than the people in Noah's time saying, yeah, right, like a flood's gonna come. I'm gonna drown in the water. Yeah, right. But by the grace of God, by the Spirit of God, we want people to hear the warning and heed the warning because it there's gonna be a time when it's too late. Yeah. You know, God is a God of love, and because of his love, he must be just. He must, he must exercise wrath. That's it. You know, wrath is the exercise of love to protect and redeem what he loves. You know, and so he has to do it. And he, but but he's given a provision. Today is the day to receive that provision because there's gonna be a time when it's too late. We're gonna, you don't want to be outside knocking on that door, you know. Uh, and also love that we're talking about baptism because I think it's Peter. He says baptism corresponds to Noah because it is through water that salvation salvation comes for Noah and his family. And so uh the early church saw you know, confession, repentance of Jesus, and surrender to him, and baptism so close together. I mean, that's a debate among some denominating denominations. You know, it's baptism required, you know. Um, ultimately it's not, but it's so close. It's that first step of obedience. It is that symbol of entrance into the church. And so you're participating in that salvation just like Noah did. You know, he he was carried, which you know, gopher wood could could have been the same wood that the cross was made out of. Sure. You know. Um, and so you think about through an instrument of wood, carried over the flood, saved, and like you said, brought into a new a new creation. Powerful.
SPEAKER_01No, that's good. That's good. I um I don't think there's any reason why you shouldn't, if you haven't already planned to like point to because baptism Sunday, for those of you listening, this is in the past, but tomorrow, it will happen before you preach. So if you if there's a reference there, dude, all the more, you know. Fire, fire, fire, you know. Um man, I love and and what is the most weighty and powerful conversation that we could have is the one we just had, to where the the implication, the application is a gospel response to when you read Noah. Also, the testimony of like Trent and Faith have everything to do with yes, they believed in God, but it was um hard, we'll say. And more probably, like, we'll we may have them on here one day just to share the full like battle warm story. But uh, there was for sure steps that didn't make sense, like for them, and for anybody that is listening. You may think, like, yeah, man, I believe in Jesus and this whole stories of faith thing, like Noah, praise God for the gospel. I believe the cross counts for me. Yet I am in the middle of doing what I believe that God has asked me to do, and I cannot see the outcome. It's hard for me to see the outcome. I want to quit building this ark. You know what I mean? Like, this has been too long, you know. Like, how would we encourage that person?
SPEAKER_05Well, that was what I was gonna say is we live in such an instant gratification world. I mean, you don't even have to leave your house to buy whatever you want, and you expect to get your coffee in. I think Starbucks has it down to like less than 90 seconds. You're supposed to have a coffee out the door in the drive-thru. And so we're all so used to like getting what we want when we want it. And it's only getting faster and faster and more convenient, efficient. And faith is not that most of the time. And a really tall sign that you are hearing from the Lord is if it doesn't make sense, you know, this doesn't make sense. That's why these people are so confused and they're just like, dude, what? Like you're crazy, it's not gonna flood. And I just think that that that right there is a testament of faith. When things don't make sense and it's going to require God through your obedience, that is putting Him on display, not yourself.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And we so quickly want to have all the answers and we wanna one plus one equals two, you know? I mean, thing when things are definitive, it's easier. It makes sense. Um, and so for me, that's just what I see all over this is that obedience doesn't always make sense. And that's typically the very thing that's going to be able to platform God and give him all the glory is the fact that there's no way you could have done it without him.
SPEAKER_04I also think that something related to that is that we expect to do things once and move on.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know, it's like the we have kind of an addiction to a once and done type of thing. It's like, all right, I did this, let's move on. What's next? What's next? What's next? Maybe it's just a a product of our uh obsession with productivity and effectiveness or whatever. Um, but what you're seeing is a long obedience in the same direction, which requires abiding and going not just like not not not like a pastor I used to know said, it's not new learning, it's just a new level. It's like I'm not trying to find some sort of new step. It's like the same step again today. Uh, you know, we're we're studying Matthew at 1122, and uh one of the things that we read about is that John the Baptist heralds Jesus before his ministry begins. He's he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world. He he doesn't want even to baptize him. He's like, You should baptize me. And his whole ministry was to prepare the way he's Elijah, he was uh the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. So then he gets arrested for continuing to speak the truth. You know, the role of the prophet is to tell the truth and to fear God above man, and he gets arrested, he gets put in prison and eventually sends, at some point, sends some of his followers to Jesus, and they say, Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? And what you can assume from that is that John was struggling.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean, here's here's a man who was bold and believed and this is the Messiah, and then all of a sudden his circumstances get really, really tough. And he's like, uh, did we have it right? You know, and so he sends his disciples to Jesus, and Jesus uh says, just tell them what you see. He quotes the scripture from Isaiah, but leaves off the part where the prisoners are set free.
SPEAKER_01Because John wants to be set free.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And so they go back and tell him. And uh so I just think that when you when you're in a huge step for me when I'm in a situation that I'm struggling and I I want to quit building the ark, I want to step out, you know, is I don't have to beat myself up for having to go back to Jesus and ask him again. You know what I mean? I because that that would be my own baggage of perfectionism or productivity or efficiency. I but I can I can keep going back to him and say, this is still, am I still on the right track here? You know, he's not gonna he's not gonna scold me for doing that, you know. And even if I asked him, please give me reassurance, I need reassurance today, you know, that I'm still on the right, on the right track. I don't think he despises that request. You know, he's a good father, he loves to give us good things.
SPEAKER_01Which is why we start with Hebrews 12. You're running a race with endurance, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. I often think of the whole like, he has the pen. He's the one that's right, the author of your story. So if he's asked of you, and I I would imagine I've been in that situation where it's like, I don't, I believe these things, I just don't want to do them. I.e. like for a minute here, the whole planting a church thing was not, it's like I know and believe God's plan A to accomplish a great commission is like more churches. Let's plant more churches. Let's I just didn't want to be that the one to do it. I'd be a part of it, I'd help it, but I so I still go before the author of my faith and saying, I I know I can't like foresee the next 40 pages that you're writing, but like it's you know, I have assurance in you more than I do some outcome.
SPEAKER_04So be encouraged. Here's what's wild is that I mean, yes, God's comfort gonna comfort you and he's a good father, but what he says right after that in Hebrews 12 is kind of like, oh, you think it's hard? It's a little bit of that tough love conversation. He says, You've not yet resisted to shedding your blood. Yeah. You know, consider Jesus, he endured such opposition and he kept on going. And then he talks about the discipline of the father, you know, that your that your earthly father disciplined you in a way uh with limited understanding. And God desp disciplines us for our good that we would share in his holiness. And so he is, he is calling us to endure. And uh it's crazy that it's a simultaneous, I will meet you, I will walk with you through the valley of shadow of death, I'm gonna with be with you always to the end of the age. And you got you can keep going. You can keep going. Consider Jesus who endured more opposition than this. That's it.
SPEAKER_02I think it's important also to remember when we're encouraging people that we're looking at the author and perfecter of our faith. He also knows us, he knows what we value. Do you value the things in your life that were easy? Or do you value the things in your life that were hard? When you look back at getting through college or that that thing that you look back to as an achievement, was it easy or was it hard? I think there's a lot of encouragement in that too, to just know that you're you're right. You're you're gonna get through this, and this really isn't that hard. I mean, well let's point to what Jesus did here. But you might perceive it as very difficult, you might perceive it as very hard, and that's awesome because once you come out the back side of that, that's gonna be something that you value.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. We we also love comfort, and sometimes when waiting is uncomfortable, we can slip into believing that because it's uncomfortable, it must not be right. And that this idea of discipline, you know, Hebrews 12, 11, for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained by it. And so think about if you're into working out or something like that, like you you push yourself through tough resistance, and that is actually how you achieve the results. And so if we if we start reframing our circumstances as like, oh, God's putting me in time out, or he's taking away my convenience and comfort, or I'm waiting, I'm in I'm waiting too long. So if I was my spiritual personal trainer and I was in charge of my own spiritual growth, what might I be up to in this season right now? You know, and it's hard to see because we can't see the future, but he can.
SPEAKER_01And we do, we do have a spiritual personal trainer.
SPEAKER_04That's true.
SPEAKER_01It is Jesus, and he does care many, much more than we would care, especially about our timing and our development to become more like him.
SPEAKER_05Another way, whenever you're experiencing doubt, most of the time you start to be concerned with yourself. And it says in Hebrews 12, looking to Jesus. So you have to remember is the direction I'm going in to glorify God, or is it to glorify me? Is it to glorify my bank account? What is the intention? And making sure your posture is always looking to Jesus. One of the questions that stuck with me that Pastor Joby said is, what would you do for the glory of God if you could not fail? And it's easy to think, what could I do if I could not fail? But are you forgetting the glory of God part? Because that's the ultimate point, you know? And so I think that's a really good heart check is just am I forgetting, am I forgetting to look to Jesus? Am I am I getting caught up in myself and my gains in this? So that's something that always gets me.
SPEAKER_01That is good. It's a good reminder. And I one of the things I try to do as you're saying that, I'm reminded of recently sitting in the men's life group. You know, our our guys are really good to point out some of the things that they're walking through that they don't like. And I don't like them either. Like, I don't like listening to like some of the things that they're walking through and some of the things that they're struggling. But one thing that I don't do is like, hey man, you need to listen to this podcast, like go, you can call this counselor. Those are some things, some steps that can be taken. But ultimately, what I try to look at is the rest of us in the in the group, and I just say, from God's word, one, how can you encourage our brother? Like from the word of God. And two, I want to listen to responses that they give. And I want to hear over and over the name and person and work of Jesus Christ. There's a reason he points to Jesus. There's a reason that I think like we're so focused on Christ-centered ministry, preaching, all of it, is because we have a relationship with a real person. A real person. Like Christ in us is the hope of glory. Christ in us, and the relationship that we have with Christ who's torn the veil and given us access to the Father in the throne room of God is really like wooing us and putting us through maybe what we are going through so that our image would be conformed to His.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_01You know? So the points that you're making about like you have a spiritual personal trainer, and he what is good for your body and the breaking down of muscles so that they could be built stronger is good for the body and the breaking down of things that don't need to be there to make you stronger, to run the race with endurance. Is that making sense? That is who Jesus is. This is why we will always look to him. Is there a uh man, just closing remarks on hey man, if there's a point that I want to make, I want to make this point about what you're gonna share with us from Noah. And it, you know, thinking from you guys too, is there a final encouragement to our listeners?
SPEAKER_04I just say, do what God's asking you to do. You know, uh because there's gonna be some people who hear, hey, God's warning me about what's coming, and I need to say yes to him, you know. But there's probably a bunch of people who are in more in that that later camp that we were talking about. I'm just discouraged. Like I just don't want to keep going, or I don't um I don't want to do the thing because it's so hard, you know. Uh but the right response to God is to obey him, and obedience is joy.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_04And there's there's it's not like oh, I can have joy just me and God having warm fuzzies, separate from my obedience, because my obedience to God is his path for me to have joy, to have the abundant life, to have him. And so there is no separation between that. And so um not not not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and oh, just try harder to be like Noah, no, no. Walk by faith, and you could do the same thing. You do the same thing Noah did, you know.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I would say there's a little sticker I'm looking at, and I was just thinking that when you are walking by faith, you get to work in freedom. And my sticker says, I will work in freedom. And going back to like the money conversation and Keelan, you sharing how when you just surrender that and you allow God to do a thing in it, there's so much freedom because that's no, I mean, it goes back to idols, you know, that's no longer got a stronghold on you. And I think that it's going to take like anything, it's gonna be uncomfortable the first time you do operate out of faith, like bold faith. But the more that you do it, the more that freedom just starts to expand. And God uses that. He he provides so much peace and joy. And I just think that's that's the ultimate goal is to continue to operate out of such bold faith that you're you're witnessing, you're a witness to to his glory and just his blessings, the fact that he always provides, he always comes through, he always has a master plan and it goes beyond you and your comfort. And when you start to experience that, oh, the freedom is just, it's cool. It, it, it makes you understand the kindness and and just yeah, how cool God is for letting us be a part of that journey and getting to partner alongside him and what he's doing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I think the final thing I'm thinking about here is if you want to experience a growth in your faith, find that hard thing. You know, find the thing that you are afraid of. Find the thing that you think is the impossible moment. And I think Jonathan, you just nailed it where you said that it's it's not gonna be you that you know has to pull yourself up and draw on your own strength to do this. You already know the one that is going to strengthen you. You walk out in that, you put yourself forward in it, and you walk into that with the courage knowing that he is there with you, that faith will be strengthened, that faith will grow. And I that's the stuff that I love watching people do and experience.
SPEAKER_04I was just gonna say, like I I think Pastor Joe we said recently, talking about the miracle that Jesus did, that it was almost always in response to somebody stepping towards him in faith. And we know, you know, we know faith is a gift, we know God is sovereign, and we we can't somehow trick God to put him in our debt. Okay, we know that. But we can be bold and step towards him because we just have no idea what he might do. And I think that's a pretty cool thing to recognize that every time he says, Never have I seen faith like this, or because of your faith, go and you you'll be healed. You know, it's powerful.
SPEAKER_01That's good, man. Thank you guys. I think uh one of the things that just kind of popped in my head, and I want to remind kind of myself of, is say you're sitting here, you're listening, you're like, all right, you know, I I've I've been, I feel like I've been called to whether it be start the business or um be radically generous in this area to send a missionary or to be that missionary that is sent, whatever it is. And you're just like, I'm I I believe that God's given me the gift of faith to do it. Well, then I would encourage you with this. The Bible also says that there's a wisdom in multitude of counsel. So you may think like, all right, this is it. And then you start to say some of these things out loud to people that you trust, and they're going, hold on, time out. You know, um, it may not be the right time. Or it may be the right time. It may, it may be a, I hey, buddy, I don't think that's a good idea, you know, at all. Based on what I know of you. I'm not saying they're all gonna do that, but I am saying that you should uh strongly consider what others, people that you trust, people that have wisdom. Uh, if you know, if God's if you believe that like just be real careful with the, you know, God told me. God told me this. Uh, you're not Noah. Okay. That's why we're saying don't don't just be like, I'm gonna be like Noah as much as it is I'm gonna trust God. One of the things that God has given us in that way that we can trust Him is through the the voices of other godly people that we trust. And so I hope that makes sense. Um, just listening and thinking through this as we're talking. Uh, you know, talk to your church. Talk to I'd be more than will willing to listen, you know, talk to some folks.
SPEAKER_04It doesn't mean do the stupidest thing you can think of and then put a spiritual language to it. That's not what we should take away from that from the It's like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01I believe God doesn't want me to die today, so I'm gonna attempt to jump off this ledge. And I think based on what they're saying, you know, he's gonna. That's not that's not the way this works.
SPEAKER_02It kind of goes back to the Cain's hot posture, hot posture of expectation. You want to go do this, you feel like you're offering this up, and you're expecting him to respond to you in the way that you want. You're not gonna put God in your debt. Doesn't work that way. Let's be very clear about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you just uh you're expecting him to respond to you.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah. That is not how that is going to play out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Well, and I'm a firm believer, if it's God's will, it can't be stopped. So even if you are doing something and you're praying through it and you're trying to discern whether or not it's what he has for you, he'll spit you out uh somewhere else if it's not what he has for you. I love that because he's ultimately in control.
SPEAKER_01So Jonah reference.
SPEAKER_05Maybe so. Um, but you know, it's just you can trust him. Even if even if you get a little off path, he'll he'll find you wherever you're at, meet you wherever you're at. You just have to continue to seek him um and keep the point on him.
SPEAKER_01Man, that's good. Well, I'm excited to continue in this stories of faith series. We've got a lot going on this summer. My encouragement to you is uh whether it be through announcements or through the app, just stay tuned with there's parkops that the kids are doing. Uh all the things that are that are happening this summer, just stay tuned, either on our website or uh those things will be very clear to you. But Pastor Vinke, thanks for being with us. Would you mind uh praying for us and closing us, closing us out?
SPEAKER_04I'd be happy to. Father, we're so grateful that um you've given us the testimony of your word. And um just like Paul writes in Romans, that it is given to us, uh carried along by the Holy Spirit for our encouragement that we might have hope. And so uh we thank you that we have all of these testimonies of real people uh putting their trust, trusting their life, acting like they believed that you were real, and that you were calling them to something bigger and greater, and um events as yet unseen, and they took steps towards you and you met them, Lord. And so I pray that as we hear this and as we continue to study all these stories, uh that our hearts would be encouraged because you're calling us to do things, or you're calling us to believe you, you're calling us to follow you, calling us to live our lives in a certain way that sometimes we can't see that it's making a difference, we can't see that it's the better path, and um, we can get discouraged. So we pray that you would encourage anyone who would be there uh who's discouraged, that you would increase our faith, that you would lift our eyes and help us to see you for who you are, see you, that you are the covenant-keeping, promise-keeping God, and uh that you uh draw near to us in your grace and love and give us all that we need. So we just trust you that you're gonna be honored, that you're gonna be glorified uh by our response to you. And so we just give you praise and thanks in uh Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Thanks 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. Until then, Jesus peace, big love, and give a live life in him.