Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Tell Me More is a weekly podcast hosted by Katy Reed Hodges and Luke Stehr, where they unpack the Sunday sermon with Dr. Dennis Wiles. This podcast is designed on the premise that Dr. Wiles always has more to say than can fit in a 35 minute sermon - so we have fun discussing it here each week. We hope that in listening you are educated, encouraged and more connected to the pastor and his teaching!
Welcome to this week's episode of Tell Me More. We're in the studio with Kurt Rice, and he preached yesterday and also shared the stage with a powerful testimony. We're we're enjoying a conversation with him. We're encouraged by the power of testimony, and we hope it's all for the glory of God. So we enjoy this conversation, and we hope you do too.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, welcome back to Tell Me More or maybe you're listening for the very first time. Let's go. Maybe.
Speaker 1:That is the first
Speaker 3:great if we had a first timer.
Speaker 1:If you're a first timer, we gotta know. We have to know.
Speaker 2:Find one of us on Sunday.
Speaker 1:KateKatie.Hodges@FBCA.org.
Speaker 2:Send her an email.
Speaker 1:Inquiring mind wants to know.
Speaker 2:We'll go I would like to
Speaker 1:know. All three of us wanna know.
Speaker 3:It's unanimous.
Speaker 2:If it's your first time, let us know. But if you are watching, obviously, you've already figured it out and probably if you're listening as
Speaker 3:well.
Speaker 1:To every episode.
Speaker 2:Kurt Grace is in the studio. There are people who have listened to every studio.
Speaker 3:Kurt. Bless
Speaker 2:you. Gary Steele, God bless you.
Speaker 1:Jalen.
Speaker 2:Jalen Harris, God bless you. Special bless
Speaker 1:you. I come out of the woodwork and I'm
Speaker 2:sure there's someone I've forgotten who's listened to every episode.
Speaker 1:Colin Terrell talked to me about it the other day. I don't know Colin was a listener.
Speaker 3:Colin.
Speaker 1:And I love it. We love you.
Speaker 3:Sure. As as he is rehabbing people, he's gotta add something. Being a
Speaker 1:dad, being a great dad, just doing the thing so
Speaker 2:Whoever you are, we can't name all of the listeners.
Speaker 1:We can't. But we're we're thrilled to have you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. We're so thrilled.
Speaker 1:Colin said something like, and I listen to a lot of podcasts and I like your I mean I like yours and I listen to a lot of podcasts.
Speaker 2:Colin. That's high That's Dang man.
Speaker 1:I can't believe it. Anyway, enough about that. Okay. It's not about the quantity.
Speaker 2:Thank you for patting my ego today. It's about the quality. It is. And we have the quality Kurt Grice today.
Speaker 1:Ain't that the truth?
Speaker 3:Y'all are kind. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Kurt, I I don't know the last time you've been on the podcast.
Speaker 3:It's been a while.
Speaker 2:I think you know, throwing it out there. What is the highlight of your daily routine at this point in life?
Speaker 1:I have a guess.
Speaker 3:Well no, I enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Is it your ziplock bag of peanuts?
Speaker 3:Well I only do the ziplock bag on Sundays because I have the whole jar in my office desk.
Speaker 1:Cliff bar banana
Speaker 3:peanuts has been my go to breakfast.
Speaker 1:Peanut butter flavored cliff bar.
Speaker 3:Well I alternate between chocolate chip and
Speaker 2:peanut Yes I was gonna say there's chocolate in there somewhere.
Speaker 3:So I try to alternate each day. It's like
Speaker 2:a variety of body. Kurt you are a nature of habit.
Speaker 1:Your wife gets the Costco pack that has both and so you're like I'll eat them. When you have a segmented plate of food, do you eat a bite of everything so that you're all done at the same time? Maybe similar, this is a similar approach?
Speaker 3:Would say that because I did that at lunch. We had lunch together. I Yes. Even did it on Katie any
Speaker 2:Curran had lunch together.
Speaker 1:Kirk had the Caesar. We with a
Speaker 3:church member talking about ministry. Yes. I had a chicken, blackened chicken Caesar and so the lettuce, the chick blackened chicken and the croutons
Speaker 1:Were eaten.
Speaker 3:Were all eaten in such a way that they would be
Speaker 2:Caesar one bite salad is one of my all time favorite Mexican It was
Speaker 1:Mexican foods?
Speaker 2:Wasn't invented in Mexico.
Speaker 1:I didn't know.
Speaker 3:But yeah, so The
Speaker 2:more you know.
Speaker 3:So I am a creature of habit. Let's go back there real quick and not get too specific. I, over sixty eight years, have discovered what I enjoy. Uh-huh. So it's Yes.
Speaker 3:I I know what I like and I like what I know and so that's my go
Speaker 1:to Are you Yeah. Go ahead. I have one question. Leaving from this topic.
Speaker 2:All that. Bag your peanuts. What is just the highlight of daily routine for Kurt Grice these days? Because you are a creature of habit in a great way.
Speaker 3:I'm such a old guy. I enjoy waking up next to my wife of forty six years and we take turns being the one who gets up first and whoever's up first makes the other one's coffee.
Speaker 1:Don't we And love
Speaker 3:so we typically try to get up early enough that we can enjoy a cup of coffee together and then go through the news and and devotionals and whatever we do first thing. And then depending on who has the earliest meeting or if I'm gonna work out before I go to work, I gotta make time for that so then something triggers us having to cease that portion of our day and move on to the rest. But, I love coming to work. Been doing this for thirty two years. I love coming to First Baptist Church Arlington and my role has evolved.
Speaker 3:All of them have been very satisfying and rewarding. So the one I'm in now is radically different than what I've done before but it is I would say equally satisfying to what I've done before and so I'm not in as many meetings maybe. I don't plan nearly the activities. I don't have one single person that reports to me now. After having supervised probably two thirds to three quarters of the staff at
Speaker 2:one time. At some point
Speaker 3:in time. Don't one single person that I supervise. And yet I spend hours and hours every day reading and reflecting and writing about God's word. I find that wonderfully. It's exhausting but it's exhilarating.
Speaker 2:One of my all time favorite gets to know you questions and we kinda like got in there a little bit and this is top 10 recommended if you're ever needing to ask a get to know you question is what does an average Tuesday look like for you? When do you get up? What do you do? Mhmm. You learn so much about people.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You're at home it is currently Monday afternoon.
Speaker 2:It is Monday afternoon.
Speaker 1:That'll be
Speaker 3:tomorrow. Yeah. We try to get to bed. Kim goes to bed before me. Trivia.
Speaker 3:She goes to bed usually 08:39 and I spend about an hour playing video games. That's my wind down.
Speaker 1:08:30 nine's pretty early.
Speaker 3:That's for her.
Speaker 2:What's your video game of choice these It
Speaker 3:just it depends. I like RPGs and there aren't many really good ones out there. I like the ones that take a really long time. Sandbox wide open, you can explore.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh. What's your favorite? Mean what's your favorite of all time.
Speaker 3:All time. Skate three
Speaker 2:is just
Speaker 3:hard to beat. Okay. I like
Speaker 2:the Luke Stear and Connor Torialba agree.
Speaker 3:Yeah I like to go wherever do what I want. I like different builds, build outs, characters and I'm a completionist. I wanna find everything, complete every quest, kill every bad guy.
Speaker 1:Wow. Kurt
Speaker 2:Grice is an RPG video gamer.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So that's usually how I wind down
Speaker 1:For those at home RPG means?
Speaker 3:Role play game. Okay. So that's kinda how I wind down at night and then usually we're up around six.
Speaker 1:What's your medium? Do you have a Playstation, an Xbox? A PS5.
Speaker 3:PS5. I've been a Playstation. I've never owned an Xbox but I've owned all the Playstations. But I'm not marketing or promoting or you know.
Speaker 2:No, it's just your quiet hobby. This is your hobby.
Speaker 1:Know when So come to choose us tonight, night honey, see you in morning and you just go into your
Speaker 3:game room. Usually kinda get ready for bed together but she goes to bed and I go
Speaker 1:to play a weekend. Good time, quality time together.
Speaker 2:Then you wake up around six, someone makes coffee
Speaker 3:and Can I say say this part of the reason and this we're given way more information than we should and I hope I'm not divulging anything personal or confidential about my wife?
Speaker 2:Kim Grice, if you're listening.
Speaker 1:Will she listen, will she You
Speaker 3:never know, she may now.
Speaker 2:She likes
Speaker 3:to have the TV on when she goes to bed.
Speaker 1:Oh okay.
Speaker 3:And I can't have the TV on because my brain is still processing everything I'm hearing. So she goes to sleep with the Great British Baking show on.
Speaker 1:Oh, a lovely place sleep.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So she
Speaker 1:has She's watched a way to follow you, but
Speaker 2:the rice wind down hobbies are just peak.
Speaker 1:So I'm loving it.
Speaker 3:She goes to sleep with Great British Baking Show on Yeah. And I go
Speaker 1:And in the room next door, you're Yeah. We're lining up.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well And
Speaker 3:then we wake up together, we start the day and it's wonderful.
Speaker 1:I love that. Ryan Hodges and I have a similar routine where I'm often in bed before him and he he alternates between watching like a drama TV show. I mean, he's got a couple that he likes or tries new ones and playing his PS five.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And it's strange because I say I never turn on the TV and I don't but I'm saying I never turn on
Speaker 1:TV.
Speaker 3:Television. Yeah. But I have my TV on every night to play video games.
Speaker 1:As I've watched Ryan Hodges age, I mean we've been together since he was 24 and now he's 36, married somewhere halfway through that, whatever. But he has become more of a creature of habit. I've noticed as we've rhythms in kids, that he has a certain routine at night, and it involves kind of the same snacks, the same chair, the same outfit after he takes a shower. I mean it's just very That
Speaker 3:sounds very familiar.
Speaker 1:I am more chaotic. I like the routine but I'm I like a little more variety.
Speaker 3:You find what works for you and even unconsciously you go back to what you think works for you. Even if you've not critically appraised it or done any analysis of it. And so if you want to get good sleep then you figure out what are those things that help you get good sleep. And so having dedicated time, having a routine helps your brain know what's coming and I believe it helps prepare you for
Speaker 1:I love it, there you go. Ryan Hodges has it in spades. Got it.
Speaker 2:Ryan Hodges, we're proud of you.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Way to go, buddy.
Speaker 1:Yeah. He either has hot tea or seltzer water.
Speaker 3:And I wanna throw Kelsey Stair in there since we've done shout outs to Kim Grice and Ryan Hodges.
Speaker 1:Let's go. Kelsey Stair.
Speaker 2:She's great.
Speaker 1:We love Kelsey.
Speaker 3:So this seems so mundane and trivial. Let's let's move on to more significant
Speaker 1:for life.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But my life is not all that interesting.
Speaker 2:You know, I've heard that god shows up to you in your daily life.
Speaker 1:That's all we've got. He does.
Speaker 3:It's all we've got. In wonderful ways. Love Exciting ways.
Speaker 1:Well we never got to what your Tuesday is. We never got past the nighttime routine.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well okay, so you got the wake up thing. Every other day I try to get on the treadmill and that's wonderful time with God. Then I do the rower, that's really good, intense all over body workout. And then it's on to the day and by then I've usually read my own daily devotional which I've forgotten what I wrote because it was a week Wow, or ten days appreciate your help.
Speaker 3:And so I get to experience it fresh and then usually I'm looking at a few other things of a devotional nature and scan the news. There's just, I do try, in all fairness, I do try to scan different perspectives on the news so I don't have one news source. I think we are all responsible to synthesize a variety of content and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit sort of sort out the wheat and the chaff from that.
Speaker 1:A great word from Kirk Rice. Say it again for those
Speaker 3:in the back. Would read and I won't even name because that's
Speaker 1:Yeah, it
Speaker 3:can get triggers I read and peruse what I know is gonna be sort of left and right and center and see how they approach different things. Just to know what's going on world events and then I feel like I'm responsible for gleaning truth out of that based on my understanding of God's word.
Speaker 1:I love it. Love it.
Speaker 2:And then lunch is peanut butter No. That's breakfast. Oh, that's breakfast.
Speaker 3:That's breakfast. Lunch today was going to be a Cajun turkey sandwich and an apple.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:And some sort of sparkling water.
Speaker 1:Also in rotation.
Speaker 3:Which now is gonna be dinner because we went in
Speaker 1:We went to lunch.
Speaker 3:I had a blackened chicken salad.
Speaker 2:There you
Speaker 3:salad for lunch. Again, so boring but just very satisfying. Think reasonably healthy and sustainable. It's good stewardship of both money and body and life and so I try to just live responsibly.
Speaker 1:Love it.
Speaker 3:Even if not as exciting as perhaps know would be available. But it's it's very And when you live in accountability to another person, there's always that consideration of them. Everybody who's married understands when you live with someone, there's that constant awareness of accountability too and concern for what the other person's doing.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:That's ringing a bell.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Think anyone who's married. Yes. That bell rings.
Speaker 1:I love it. I wanna ask more but there's also a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 2:We it. Got through half of Tuesday and we're just gonna call that good. If you wanna know the rest,
Speaker 3:we'll talk to curtains. You guys know their meetings. It depends on which of the month Yep, it that's true. Each Tuesday of which week of the month it is because we have regular meetings in the evening and we have regular meetings during the day and so that is obligatory for some of us and we build our lives around it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Our Tuesdays have more meetings than free time.
Speaker 3:Yes. So my Typically, my Tuesday afternoon from one to five is a ministry lead team meeting.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Yep. So as Katie is my witness, almost every Tuesday afternoon we spend the entire afternoon together.
Speaker 1:You might think to yourself as you're driving down the road right now listening to this, how does that team spend four hours together?
Speaker 3:And still not get everything covered.
Speaker 1:And I would say, I I We ask ourselves the same question.
Speaker 3:But when you're trying When you feel responsible for stewarding the resources of the church, there's always something that needs attention.
Speaker 1:And and to make decisions well, it is hard to rush those things. So
Speaker 3:So I intentionally was trying to avoid that part but you forced No.
Speaker 2:I was actually trying to move on. Miscommunication is also a very real part of life.
Speaker 3:My bad.
Speaker 1:So real people real people But It's a live production.
Speaker 2:It is a live production. We never go back and rerecord so you can trust that this is 100% authentic interaction.
Speaker 3:First take every time.
Speaker 2:First take every time.
Speaker 1:Every time.
Speaker 2:Every single.
Speaker 3:So from the mundane to the majestic.
Speaker 1:Let's do it. Our pastor was out. By the way, he's back. He's back. He made it back.
Speaker 1:Yeah. We just booted him from the podcast. No, he booted himself but we wanted Kurt in here.
Speaker 3:There's not a fourth mic and not a fourth chair. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you yeah. He was out doing a wedding which by all counts went well. He's back.
Speaker 3:He well.
Speaker 1:But Kurt, he asked you to fill in for him. Mhmm. Romans 12.
Speaker 3:One and two. One and two
Speaker 1:which I
Speaker 2:don't know that I've ever heard those verses before. I don't think they're well known at all.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah. Talk about go to. I know everybody has their favorites. Mhmm. And I don't know how many favorites you're allotted.
Speaker 1:How many do you have, Greg?
Speaker 3:I don't know. There's just you know, part of what you know is favorite is have you memorized it and does it come to mind as you're going about your day. And, if you find yourself in a certain situation and the spirit of God calls the word of God to mind because you've hidden it in your heart, then I think it might qualify as one of your favorites. That's a good chance.
Speaker 1:Would you say Romans twelve one and two has qualified?
Speaker 3:Yeah. And that's why it was so easy. I was grateful that he assigned this passage which as I said yesterday is our core text for the whole year 2026. Because here's the challenge though, not just do you know it but as you have both done and we do from time to time, not just preaching but teaching. Can you go back to a familiar text and see it with fresh eyes and that's the spirit.
Speaker 1:Could you?
Speaker 3:Yes. Yes. I was able to do that. And so that's taking something very familiar and seeing just the freshness of it, the power of it.
Speaker 1:I love it. Have the gift of a bad memory. We know this. We talked about this. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's a great gift when you're preparing for sermons. I could
Speaker 3:Like oh my gosh, look
Speaker 1:at this. This is amazing. Discover new things every time. Underlined this in my commentary? I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's really Oh it was
Speaker 1:probably me last time I looked at it. But it is. Particularly in the encounter with scripture, it's a gift. Mhmm. Everything's new to me.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:You know, within reason.
Speaker 3:So you
Speaker 1:were given that. You started preparing. Take us on that journey a Yeah,
Speaker 2:he was a special sermon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were there yesterday or you watched or you caught up, it was different.
Speaker 3:Well he's known about this. Again, Dennis and Cindy Wiles have been friends with the Morgans for their whole lives. I mean they Literally. Have known each other forever and so this was something they had known about and were committed to a long time ago. So it's probably I don't know five or six weeks ago maybe that that Dennis asked me to do this.
Speaker 3:So I knew it was coming and because he's so good at planning out his sermon series, in fact, you guys know yesterday afternoon he basically laid out the rest of the year for us. So he is very diligent about not just having large thematic themes for seasons but he begins to break it down. And so I knew the week, the text, the title and a brief synopsis of what his take on it was. But then he also lays out the daily bible reading text which historically, I mean that's always what I focus in on.
Speaker 1:Right. That's your role.
Speaker 3:Was supposed to preach the text and so not only did I get to write daily devotionals which started today and will go through Saturday but I got to preach the text. So I'd been thinking about it for a while and I think you guys had mentioned kind of how I chose to inject a testimony as a significant portion of it. So knowing what was coming and already thinking about it when I went
Speaker 1:to So you're starting to noodle on Romans 12.
Speaker 3:I'm learning about it. So I went to Frank's commencement, his graduation if you will from his recovery program on a Monday night at a nearby church. And it was just very profound. I listened to some guys stand up and share their testimony in a fairly large group, probably a 100, a 150 people and very haltingly, very unsteadily share very raw and real stories. It was so profound and then after that was dismissed, I went upstairs with Frank's specific group and mentors were there along with some family and the individuals and just felt impressed by the Holy Spirit that I needed to invite them to share their testimony with our church.
Speaker 3:And Frank and Karen have been coming for a year or so anyway. But I I don't know how many people know them but I've gotten to know them very very well. Obviously, serving as Frank's mentor and meeting with him. So I I thought, okay, I need to do this. And so sensing the spirit's prompting and wanting to be obedient, I went ahead even that evening and said, I'd like for y'all to think about sharing your testimony with our church.
Speaker 3:And I would just
Speaker 1:How did they react in that moment? Okay, good. I mean not too hesitant.
Speaker 3:They weren't eager but they weren't put off because these are very humbled spiritual people. Uh-huh. And so when I asked them, they took it as what I would want it to be, perhaps an invitation from God and so they said, okay, we'll think about that. So I didn't wanna push. I wanted them to to pray about it and think about it.
Speaker 3:They did. So when I followed up maybe a week or so later, they said, we're we're willing to do it. Mhmm. And I said, I want you to write it out and and I want you to give it to me so I can look at it just to make sure we're going in the direction we need to.
Speaker 1:You're doing your due diligence. It's gonna be And in front of lot of
Speaker 3:I realize that may sound constrictive to some people but we take our role very seriously.
Speaker 1:And, you don't wanna embarrass people either. You don't wanna give them the mic and not have walked with them in the preparation of that Because
Speaker 3:I had gotten to know them, knew their story and what a profound story it is, I felt very comfortable and getting to know them is a thing. Just their character and who they are as people and as a couple. I felt comfortable and then of course the spirit's prompting. They said yes, asked them to send it to me. Frank got his to me last week and I read through it and thought okay, that's good.
Speaker 3:It's really good. I didn't get Karen's until maybe Friday or Saturday and it just took her a long time.
Speaker 1:But Well she mentioned to me the three minute thing was like how do you summarize what God's done.
Speaker 3:I told them I'd like each of you to take about three minutes. Well if you were there
Speaker 1:Maybe a little more.
Speaker 3:Twice that long but you know what, it was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2:Oh, was what it needed to
Speaker 3:be. The rest when I got her testimony and read through it, I thought I'm not gonna change a way. This is so profound. And I was moved just sitting at my desk reading it and thought oh. The risk came perhaps number one, we don't do this sort of thing very often.
Speaker 3:For whatever reason, we just don't
Speaker 1:do this And that's sort the live testimony.
Speaker 3:Secondly, their story's messy. Their story's very messy. And there's some things there that I just said, Lord, I hope if this is challenging, it's challenging in the right ways for some of our people. Mhmm. I think we need to be stretched.
Speaker 3:And so checking my own spirit, my own motives, I felt like no, this is this is of the Lord and and we're gonna do it. And continually through the week gave it to God and then certainly on Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday morning, Lord, let this be whatever you want it to be. Mhmm. And I felt like they did just a beautiful job in their their posture, the humility, their deep abiding faith and hope in God and just the the rawness, the realness, the authenticity which is such a blessing. And so as I you know I said, Romans twelve eleven.
Speaker 3:We overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. And I believe that's intentional. And we need to hear it. And and it If we're being honest, you can't be very prideful when you tell your story. If you're telling it real.
Speaker 3:If you're telling it true.
Speaker 1:Yeah. What's there to
Speaker 3:Yeah. There is no hubris.
Speaker 1:No. I didn't see any yesterday.
Speaker 2:No I didn't either.
Speaker 3:And so God is always so gracious and he's so affirming. He gives us just what we need to not get too full of ourselves but to keep fighting the good fight. And so yesterday, for whatever reason, I thought it might be a little more challenging for eight thirty crowd just because of how I perceived that group and they were so gracious and encouraging. And so you know when Frank said he had been clean for four years, they applauded him. They said he'd had a steady job for three years
Speaker 1:And got a promotion, yeah.
Speaker 3:And then at the end but at eleven, as you alluded to Luke, they said thank you all for letting us share and we're heading down and the place erupted. I mean, was a sincere, genuine, spontaneous, sustained applause. So Yeah. And I just felt in my spirit And I
Speaker 2:think with
Speaker 3:that you Jesus. Thank you.
Speaker 2:And what that points to is the gospel is just so good and we love to see how good it is.
Speaker 3:And and because of their honesty and vulnerability and and they wanted to make sure over and over. This isn't me. And as sweet Karen said, there's nothing good in me. There's
Speaker 1:nothing Yeah, she made that pretty clear.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And so with that spirit and that posture and that humility, God receives all the praise. And so that standing ovation to me was the goodness of God. Thank you that you are a loving God. And when she said, me, I've done I've broken all 10 commandments.
Speaker 3:Not just in my mind, in reality. You know? How could you love me God? How could you care for me? You know?
Speaker 3:And then when I realized he did anyway, how could I say no to that love? How could I rebel against that kind of love? And so I decided, okay. If you want me, you can have me.
Speaker 1:Wow. So Kurt, what were you hoping to accomplish in doing that?
Speaker 3:Just what happened? That God would be glorified through the testimony of people who are experiencing transformation and life change. And I wanted, I said this, I don't know. You guys know it is when you're preaching. I don't always know what comes out of my mouth.
Speaker 3:In fact as I left the house Sunday morning, sweet Kim said, try to stick to the script. Know? Because she knows I can That's forty
Speaker 2:six years of marriage right there.
Speaker 3:She knows I can freelance and go off on a tangent and so I just say I'll try. But so I don't know necessarily what all I said but I know after their testimony in the 11:00 service, if we wanna be real, somebody has to go first. And so what did I want? I want our church to be a place where people can be real because I often thought and this goes back to youth ministry days. If we can't talk about x blank whatever that is at church then then where do we talk about it?
Speaker 3:And I so wanted for teenagers as a youth minister but for our whole congregation as an associate pastor for this church to be a safe place to talk about anything. Now, in the right spirit, right context with the right people, this ought to be a safe place to talk about anything. So
Speaker 2:Yeah. Not every conversation is for the priests No.
Speaker 3:You gotta some discernment and some wisdom. But I mean church ought to provide the opportunity for us to be as real with each other as we are anywhere. And yet I fear too often that's not the case. But we're trying.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 1:So you yesterday, their standing ovation, you felt like in that small mission accomplished.
Speaker 3:Oh absolutely. For our people because what it showed me is it resonated with them. But you know, even though I felt like we were risking a little bit introducing some topics that can be very uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 3:But it's real life. And yet the risk was worth it. And then when our people responded like they did, it just, it did my heart good for so many reasons. God, you're amazing. Thank you for trusting Finbrez's and being willing to share.
Speaker 3:And then thank you church family for responding so affirmingly to this little couple. You know their daughter was there on the front row with them and when it was over people were standing in line to talk to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were.
Speaker 3:And I just hugged her, looked her in the eye and said, isn't this beautiful?
Speaker 1:Did you meet her a month ago?
Speaker 3:Went to our church too and her husband, her third kid. So, but I said this is your story too And God is still writing this story. And so, know, breaking the chains of bondage but breaking dysfunctional, generational dysfunction.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:You know, that that both Frank and and Karen were were victims of. Them giving giving themselves themselves completely completely to to Jesus Jesus is is breaking breaking the the cycle cycle of of dysfunction. Dysfunction. But she's got their daughter has to come along and choose that life too so that Frank and Karen's granddaughter, you know, the opportunity. It's is.
Speaker 3:It's the gospel.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:Turns out, it's good news.
Speaker 3:It's pretty good.
Speaker 2:It's really good.
Speaker 1:So, okay, Kurt. Romans 12. Mhmm. It's a favorite of yours? Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Tell me about that.
Speaker 3:Well, it's just so basic. And as I tried to say Well, here's the deal. I didn't get a chance to say everything maybe I was gonna say so rather than tell me more.
Speaker 1:Is This is
Speaker 3:telling me more. Saturday's daily bible reading is Romans twelve one and two. So I think probably I was able to say more in Saturday's upcoming devotional than I was in the sermon because I wanted to keep it so basic.
Speaker 1:This week you have three venues.
Speaker 3:Ah, don't I?
Speaker 1:Bible readings. Yeah. And this very microphone Well, really you enforce.
Speaker 3:You Lord. But I wanted to hammer home something that they could take away so I started with the whole think about what you think about. Yeah. And just let that be something that I hope penetrates into their psyche that you know what, if I'm gonna be serious about following Jesus, I gotta think about what I think about. What do I put before my eyes?
Speaker 3:What do I listen through my ears? What do I what do I daydream about? What do I fantasize about? No. I I I've got to yield that and submit that to God.
Speaker 3:Think about what you think But then those five basic steps to being transformed, you gotta know God's love. You've got to experience God's mercy. And and I don't know where that statement came but it came to me that think too many people are trying to do Christianity without falling in love with Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a good line.
Speaker 3:You can't do it. And I thought, do I really believe that? And I thought, yeah I do
Speaker 1:really And don't you sense that there are probably people sitting there thinking uh-oh, that might be me.
Speaker 3:Well, but I think that's the futility of trying to do the Christian life without ever experiencing God's love or responding to him in love because that's the basis of all of it. Because if you haven't known God's love like that, then there's no way you're gonna submit yourself to him. You don't trust him. You don't know him. You don't know that he's a good good God.
Speaker 3:He's a good loving father.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But when you know that, then you're willing to say, well then hey, like Karen, take all of me then. Yeah. You know, take all of me and so we can present our bodies daily as living sacrifices because we know how good he is and then we've gotta choose not to be like the world. It's like what Eugene Peter says, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. And that's why I said I think so many people they're fighting that battle on social media.
Speaker 3:And I again, I don't watch TV, I'm not on social media so I don't know but I read enough Just
Speaker 1:you and your RPGs.
Speaker 3:Yeah but I I learned that today.
Speaker 1:Just using it. You
Speaker 3:know I learned. Stuff just to know that I think that is a battleground for a lot of people and so we gotta be thoughtful about that. But refusing to be like the world to conform to the world, choosing instead to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And then I believe at that point, we can know and do God's will. But I don't know until that point that's even realistic or feasible.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. You know? Mhmm. So people that, well I just wanna know and do God's will. Well, I think there are four steps ensure that you will know and are more likely to do God's good, pleasing and perfect will.
Speaker 2:Love that. Well
Speaker 3:I have no
Speaker 1:For Christ.
Speaker 3:I'm following y'all's lead. I have no idea where any of this goes.
Speaker 1:Well, you've been very succinct in your of some pretty
Speaker 2:Just big stuff.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I The thing that came to mind to me when you were talking about the doing Christianity without knowing the love of God is the parable of the prodigal son. And that that story ends, famously, another famous well known bible passage in Luke 15. But the story ends with the younger son who's run away. He's come home. The father embraces him.
Speaker 2:Takes him into the house. The twist in the story comes in that it's the elder son who's always done what the father asked. He's outside the house while the party's going on and he's gotta decide, do I wanna go into the party now too? And I think if you are someone who maybe just trying to performatively do religion, you're trying to maybe make God happy instead of just accepting the embrace, The question for you is you've done all the right things, maybe you resent the people who just get the party thrown for them and get to go inside. But the invitation's there for you too.
Speaker 2:And the story ends before we know what the older brother chooses. We don't know if he chooses to go into the party or not. But I would say if you're one of those people and maybe you're worried that you're doing Christianity without knowing the love of God, let yourself go into the party.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You know and I I There are a lot of reasons why we might miss God's love in all of this but I don't think we're good. Everything starts with God but the Christian life starts with God's love. I mean, it's because we know we're sinful and and most people unless you're you know mentally challenged or something know that they are sinners. What they're not sure about is their salvation and if so what is that?
Speaker 3:A lot of times in my devotionals I have said religious activity is no substitute for personal relationship. And so I really do believe that's the key concept there that
Speaker 1:That's a good way to rephrase what you said yesterday.
Speaker 3:And your whole statement there about performative religion I think is a stumbling block, is a roadblock for a lot of people. And if you think that's what church is, then you're gonna try to play along because you know the need that you have. And so feigned piety or self righteousness or whatever is your attempt to do that. And it's so unfulfilling and exhausting and unrewarding and a complete waste of time. But, a lot of people had to go through an extended season of failure with that performative religion before they ever discover what it's really all about.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh but when you do, oh.
Speaker 2:There's no going back.
Speaker 3:Oh, this is this is what it's all about. Yeah. And I would say talking to Lauren Palagi, Liz, his wife is a retired English teacher that I send my devotionals to and ask her just to read through it and make sure I haven't done anything terrible grammatically or punctuation wise. She's so gracious but Liz's husband Lauren works in our communication ministry. So yesterday morning, I was getting mic'd up and just had such an enjoyable conversation with him.
Speaker 3:But he was very affirming. I'm assuming that because Liz is having to read every single You talk about people watching every podcast, Liz reads every devotional.
Speaker 1:Every single It's so
Speaker 3:poor Lauren, I guess, gets sucked into that breast. But, he was just very encouraging and said, isn't it something when you submit yourself to the spirit of God as you engage the word of God and sense him working through you to help you understand and articulate and I said yes, it's addictive. It is addictive. It's exhaust but I said before, it's exhausting but it's exhilarating and when you are trying to take seriously the deep things of God and steward responsibly that sacred trust to engage the sacred text under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God. I mean, it's such a powerful thing.
Speaker 3:And so, how do What's the best part of most of my days? It's that right there.
Speaker 2:Love it. I think that's as good a place as any to
Speaker 3:end. Okay.
Speaker 1:I hope everybody gets to say that the best part of their day is feeling like you're in the center of God's will, vocation. I mean, obviously, want people to love being at home. We're not anti that. But to
Speaker 3:experience the deep deep love of God.
Speaker 1:Yes. While you're working. Whether that's being at home with kids or whatever that is. That's the that's lovely. It's not it's not just Mary at the feet of Jesus in a devotional sense.
Speaker 1:It's part of vocation.
Speaker 3:No. But it's trying to put yourself sort of in that posture regardless of what doing. That's good. Brother Lawrence washing dishes. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Okay. Well, that's Kurt Grice everybody. Thank you. There's a lot there and we love it.
Speaker 2:We do.
Speaker 1:Alright. See you
Speaker 3:next week.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Tell Me More podcast today. You can subscribe to this podcast on your app of choice, or you can visit us at fbca.org to find out more information about podcast and our church. Thanks for listening. Have a good day.