The Bible Guys LIVE: The Importance of Our Habits

Show Notes

Episode 415: 
Join Jeff and Chris as they dive into a lively discussion about the most overrated national chain restaurants, complete with a fun draft and audience interaction. But it's not all laughs and debates; the episode takes a spiritual turn as they explore Ephesians Chapter 4, discussing the importance of community, spiritual gifts, and personal growth within the church.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Jeff and I would like to welcome you to another episode of The Bible Guys. Man. We have a great episode for you. A while back, we did a Bible Guys Live event in front of a live crowd, and it was all about the life that we're living is built around the habits that were prioritizing. Yeah, and because we ended our series sort of in the middle of the week, we have a couple bonus episodes this week. We hope you enjoyed them. I think you're going to enjoy today as well. So Jeff, Yes, they asked us to do a segment here tonight because this is sort of like a podcast taping, right, even though we're really not taping it, but it's supposed to be like one. So we normally do a segment, and today's segment is this. We're going to do a draft. Yes, we're rock Paper scissors, shoot at love first, and we're going to do what we think are the most over rated restaurants. They have to be national chain restaurants. Most of oh, I got plenty of those Okay, okay, okay, I've been to all of them. Ready, rock paper, Sis, there's one. I went, okay, always does that. So I want to apologize if you own this restaurant or if you work at this restaurant. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. So we're picking, we're picking the top three, we're drafting. We're drafting, okay, and what you're gonna find is most people agree with my drafts. I just want you to know that right off the toctually I agree with your drafts after we do the draft. But here's my first one. Okay, it's it's the restaurant across the street. I've seen him in other cities, Black Rock. Let me tell you why, because I think it's overrated. It's way overpriced, and I and I don't think the steak it's it's, oh look it's cooking on a rock. Whatever, Well, if you knew how to cook, if you knew how to cook, you could get a good steak out of it. Never right, it's overpriced. He's like, it's on a rock. I'm like, okay, yeah, this feels I feel bad about this one this draft because overrated. This is probably borderline heresy. But I'm gonna say Red Lobster. Oh yeah, yeah, well you see what I'm saying. Everybody almost bowed you for yours, but the crowd was like, yes. The best thing at Red Lobster, though, is those biscuits? Right yet? See there you go? Why do iways feel inferior next to you? All right? Well, I grew up Italian, so I'm gonna say I think it's incredibly overrated. Don't say it. Don't say it is the Olive Garden. Oh sorry, heyes, Wipe to marry at the Olive Garden. That's where I proposed. I proposed at the Olive Garden. It's just it's overrated. It's not overrated if you knew it like I know it. I mean, you know, is that really the place to go for Italian food? I don't know. No, Hey, Luciano's is the place to go for Italian too. Okay, see that I can get people to cheer too. Okay, Okay, here's here's my next one. Overrated Chili's really, Yes, Chelis, I like Chili's. Okay, I'm just saying, yeah, you heard the crowd though, Yeah, well, the crowd agreed about to turn against you, all right, I didn't think is this your last one? Yeah? Last one making good? I hadn't think them through. Hang on, give me two seconds here. Uh yeah, that's probably okay. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. It's TGI Fridays. Oh yeah Friday. Let me tell you why. Okay. I went to sag it Off okay, and actually I ordered some fajitas and I got sick, didn't I with you? Guys? I got food poisoning. Do you go see John Christ? John Christ Excellent food poisoning, tjffod TJ Friday's. All right, so I was gonna say TGI Friday, so that yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so we were no no, no, oh man, I should have traded you for the second pick or the last pick. That's what I should have done. Okay, so, uh let me see my my least favorite or my number three, number three. I'm gonna say, don't be afraid I can't think of one. Yeah, well, I'm gonna go ahead and say Applebee's. Then, since I already picked Chili's, IM gonna say apple Bee's. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, okay, I think that's pretty good. That was good Hey, I don't know what your overrated restaurant might be, but I would love to hear one shout out. Somebody shout a lot of restaurants overrated. What chick for? Nobody have her taken out ushers. You can't talk bad about Jesus, enemy of Jesus chicken. Oh my goodness, that is Jesus chicken. Don't say that too loud. I'm like, you're gonna be able to get into heaven the lightning rod up. Oh my goodness, what is happening. We don't need that kind of negativity in this church. Hey, you know what's so funny. But so funny is like there were forty people that yelled and I only that's all. I heard the blasphemy for the second over here. It was like horrifying the audacity of that woman. Oh my goodness. Okay, So where we are going to actually read from Ephesians chapter four, that's probably a good idea we should bring. What's interesting about this reading is that actually, if you're following us live or you know, daily on our podcast, it's called the Bible Guys. The Bible guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was looking for the word daily, which is also in the titles. By the way, we are actually going to be doing Ephesians four in just a few days. Yeah. Yeah, it's coming up in just a couple of days. Yeah, So this is sort of like a preview. Yeah, this is bonus material that's behind the scenes. Yeah, this is extra. Yeah, this is you guys, get the bonus materials today. So we're going to read from Ephesians chapter four. We're going to go one through sixteen, so it's not the whole chapter. But I love the Book of Ephesians. I think if I could only pick two books, Romans and Ephesians be my two favorite books. Yeah, love it. And let me just give it a little context, just like we talked about yesterday actually on our taping. A lot of Paul's writings are the first half of the book is theology, and then the second half of the book is sort of behavior, right, Yeah, and he's telling us what to do, and so Ephesians gives us some good advice here in chapter four. Yeah. So the first three chapters are all about what you should believe about Jesus, and then the last three chapters are all about how you should live as a follower of Jesus. So that's why he starts it off with, Therefore, he just spent three chapters telling us what we should believe about Jesus, and now he's saying, because of this, therefore I a prisoner for serving the Lord. Beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you've been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there's one body and one spirit, just as you've been called the one glorious hope for the future. There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who's overall and in all and living through all. However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That's why the scriptures say when he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people, not says he ascended. This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world, and the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. Now, these are the gifts of Christ gave to the Church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and to build up the Church, the body of Christ. And this will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. And then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed or blown about by every wind or new teaching, or think that Chick fil a is bad. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth and love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the Church, and he makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Well, there you go. It's a great passage. And I hope that somebody over here heard that one spot, that one special spot in the Yes. But because we're speaking the truth in this that's true, that's true. It does you know, it does say it not to add a jot or to So this is this is a great passage. And by the way, a couple of hours those bad passages as that you said, this is a good one. Je that's gonna make a Bible forget it. So before we jump into sort of the main bones of the day, I just want to say I think it's really cool that Paul quotes Psalm chapter sixty eight. Here is what he was quoting, and then he actually sort of broke down Psalm sixty eight and he says, notice that he said ascended, which means he descended. And then he also connected it to Christ, which means like even back in the Book of Psalms, you know, you know, probably that song was written by David, most of them were. And he's actually connecting it to Christ. And it's the Bible breaking down the Yeah, which is really cool. It's actually it's a tangential statement, right, it's not what he's talking about. But Paul does all kinds of tangents. Man. He chases rabbits all the time, and this is one of them. What's what he's referring to here is you got to remember that the Book of Ephesians was written partly in the same way that he wrote the Book of Colausians, pushing against gnoscissism, which was really questioning who Jesus was right, whether or not he was human, or whether or not he was only a spiritual god that looked like a human or whatever. And so there was this false doctrine that was popping up that Jesus wasn't actually human. And so he's trying to really highlight that that he did this descend and that's why he was able to send back. That's the purpose behind him throwing in that little tangent theories. This is another opportunity for to reinforce that. Yeah, and narcissism is the collection of knowledge which they which they viewed it so important. And we have to remember too that back in the first century, you know, most people who weren't Jews and they were gentiles. Those who were non Jewish, they had multiple gods. So the emphasis saying there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father of all, who is over all in all and living through all he you're sort of saying like, hey, this is it, right, Yeah, Jesus isn't a god among gods, he isn't the god among gods. He's the only God. And he's really kind of he's lays out at the beginning of the chapter, he's laying out theologically, this is what every Christian needs to believe, right, So he's kind of laying that out, and then at the back of the chapter the end of the chapter, after that kind of that tangential statement, the second half of the chapter, he's unpacking the idea of here's how you grow. This is why we go. You need the apostles and the evangelists and the pastors and the teachers, right, you need them, but it's for growing you up to do the work of the ministry. Right. We tend to think more in a clergy laity kind of mindset, where the laity has ministry done to them from the clergy. But that's not the way that God really the church that was supposed to be the church was supposed to be that the pastors and teachers prepared and developed the people to do the work of ministry. You do the work of the ministry. We are the ones that are supposed to be preparing. Yeah, And I read a book one time that talked about how those gifts were given to number one to describe the people in the church, not like you said, not like clergy, but the people. And then number two he gave them in order for a reason. Now I don't know whether it's in order for a reason or not, but the order is very cool in this book. I still remember the points. It says, the apostle is the one who goes, the prophet is the one who knows, The evangelist is the one who recruits, the teacher is the one who explains, and the pastor is the one who cares. And those describe the gifts. So, in other words, if an apostle were to say, hey, God's telling us to take that city for Christ, that's the one who goes. The prophet is the one who knows. He has discernment or she has discernment. That would say, I think God wants us start, wants us to start in that coffee shop. And then once you have a mission, and then you have discernment, then you need an evangelist to recruit some people. And then once you a bunch of people, Then what do you need once you have a bunch of people, Because the apostle, profit and evangelist, or the outward gifts look outside the wall. They're the mission gifts. Right. Once you have a bunch of people, then you need a teacher and a pastor, one who explains and cares. And I've always thought that was really cool the way that it sort of is. And by the way, let me say one other thing too, and that is I believe one of the reasons why a church is inward focused. And let's just say a church has trouble growing, a church has you know, And there's nothing wrong with different styles of churches. I believe that God has all different kinds of churches for all different kinds of people. But when a church is small and it's not growing, and chances are it's inward focused. They care about like, teach us new things, feed us, take care of us, and meet our needs. It's the inward focused gifts. There's nothing wrong with that, But pastors and teachers, if you only focus on that without the mission, then you're not going to grow. So then he says that the purpose then behind all of those gifts are so that we will do collectively, the people of the church will do the work of God's ministry. Ministry just means serving right and taking the gospel. And then he says, then we will no longer be immature like children. That's what verse fourteen says, coming right out of thirteen. Will live will start to when we begin to serve Christ, when we begin to serve each other in the ministry of the church, when we begin to bond together, then we will be living up to the full measure or standard of Christ. And then will no longer be immature. Right, So his goal is that we would grow up to become like Jesus. And then this is the point because we're going to talk about all that stuff in the next podcast that we do. But he says, so he makes the whole body fit together perfectly as each part does its own special work, and it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. So each of you are a part of this body, right. It's one of God's favorite descriptions of the church was the Church is a body, and each of you are a part of the body, and one of your jobs. This isn't optional. This isn't like, wouldn't it be nice if one of our jobs as part of the body of crisis to help all the other parts grow, right, And the only way we can do that is by being connected. When you take a body part away from the body, what happens to it? Cut your little finger off, just leave it on the table, come back a week from now. What's going to happen to it? It's gonna get rotten and stinky, right, just oozing all over the place, making a mess. Right. That's what happens is when we when we take a part away from the body, it doesn't thrive, it begins to die. And that's natural spiritually for us. But we need to be together and together as the body we grow. That's why I connect night matters so much. And Jesus would say in John he talks about the vine and the branch, and the branches being disconnected to the vine spiritually in some of the same ways. So this is a probably good time to lay up the truth for today. And the truth is this is that the life we're experiencing is often a reflection of the habits that we're prioritizing. Right, Because one of the things that we're supposed to do is help each other grow. And one of the things we need. We used to call them spiritual disciplines, right, but I don't think anybody likes the word discipline, so we call them habits now. But it's the same. There are a few things that we need to be doing in order for us to develop the habits that will help us grow. And the best way to do that is in the context of other friendships being connected to the body it goes. You know, there's an African proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go along. If you want to go far, go together, and that's true. How many of you do better? And if you have to work out, how many of you do better in a workout class than you do just working out in your basement. How many of you do better in a class most people? The research on that is approven research. Most people do way better if they have a workout buddy than if they're just trying to work out on their own, right, And that's true in so many areas. We need one another. If you want to go far, you got to go together. So here's habit number one. Habit number one is this is that we believe, and of course the Bible supports and teachers that a daily time with God would be the first in you know, the biggest habit that you could develop. So daily time with God in his word and also in prayer. It's the importance of prayer in Bible reading. And you could do that in a lot of different ways. One way is a very small way is to watch the podcast or podcasts like ours, because there are there are so many resources available to people you know that they could do it. Another way would be to join the two on one class. Yeah, and you've taught the two on I've never taught it. Yes, So the two one class we really unpack not just what you should know about reading your Bible and praying in the various habits. We really unpack all the main habits of how to grow spiritually, but not just what you should know about it, but how, how should how can you read your Bible in an effective way? What is a model maybe to use to pray effectively? And how to put together maybe a prayer to or something. How to grow in your faith not just the what's but the house and I think that's really important. So the twol one class I think is really powerful. We've got another one coming up here. When is it? I think I hit somebody knows? Oh, this this Sunday? I think it is? Is it March twelfth? Kyle? Is it this Sunday? Is it this Sunday? Yes? Yes, he said, yes, it's the Sunday. Yeah. We weren't paying attention in our previous meetings, so we don't know. We have a hard time paying attention. Anytime we do anything, we get the cutting up, don't we Yeah, we do so. Anyways, that's coming up March second. And you guys are here. You can get signed up online March twelve. What I say? Second? Whatever? I just work here, man, I don't know what's going on. You want to take number two? Sure? Are you trying to move me along? I am so These habits, these habits that we're prioritizing. One is this idea of a daily time with God. The second one is learning to give back regularly, giving back a tithe to God. Right, and so our second point is giving back to God through tithing. And this is incredibly important when we begin to prioritize our resources for Christ, because we don't give. Because God is saying you must give we give because Jesus said, where your heart is or where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. Jesus isn't after your money. Jesus is after your heart. But why do we fight so hard to hang on to that part of God? We'll give you everything else, make all of our wildest dreams come true, answer all our prayers. But we're not going to obey you in this tithing thing, right, But we still want him to bless us. And God says, listen, I'll pour open the windows of heaven, pour out a blessing on you when you tithe. And so this isn't about what we can get from you. This is about what God's offering to you. But it really is a heart issue and maybe one of the hardest things. So when we're talking about this, it's always easier when we are growing in this together with other believers, right, and then collectively we're able to accomplish a lot more with our resources for the Kingdom of God together than we can any one of us individually. Yeah, for certain and then problems, we have two tools. They have two tools. I'm supposed to tell the tools we already said to it. One. Yeah, there's there's more tools. You see that says tool. On the next one there one yes, right underneath that, it says, I said, Jeff, check out our Rich Living series that we did in November. Also use the push pay is a great tool we have. It says it right there on this sheet. So you just wasted the twenty seconds I tried to say. I'm just trying to do what Kyle told us to do. That's so linly. So what want't you go on with number three real quick? If you can finish that, well, if you're gonna do it, hey, since forgive me each other hard time? Push pay I did, says pay. You weren't listening. Have you ever seen Guardians of the Galaxy? Who's wasting time? Now? Hey, but he says what he says, He goes, I'm too fast. It would just fly over my head. That's what it was, Okay. And then finally number three, which is probably the most important part of the night in terms of it's why we're here here tonight. That's why we're here, which is connecting with others. Right, So there's a story that actually, in fact, you want to tell us, Yeah, let me tell you a story. So Nevey is a guy that got baptized here just a while ago. He's a fairly new attendee, began at attending in January. And the reason he's here is that Jason Wallace, he's one of our security team guys. And thank God for our security team. And so Jason Wallace a part of that. And he saw Nevy walking or riding his bike down the road and he was carrying some furniture on his bicycle, which you don't see that every day, right, And so Jason pulled over and said, dude, I don't see this all the time. Let me help you and hooked him up with a ride and got this furniture delivered and all this stuff struck up a friendship and then invited him to come to Heritage Church. He winds up given his life to Jesus. They wind up developing this amazing friendship. And it was all because Jason felt like God said, hey, you should help, and he just followed that nudge, right, He followed that leading from God and it opened up. This began this relationship that form Nevy's life. They actually had him over for Christmas, Right, isn't that so great? And this is what it's all about. Right. Nevey was recently baptized and then joined our security team, so began volunteering on the security team. And this happened because one person decided to connect with another person in a meaningful way. We need each other and we grow. We grow when we're helping other people grow. Do you know who grows the most the host? The host grows the most in a group, the people who are working to help other people grow grow the most. So I'm not trying to tell you guys to be selfish, but I'm telling you, if you want to grow spiritually, get it and be the one that's engaging with the others, helping the others grow, and you grow more. It just happens. And so Jason grows even while he's helping Nevee take these steps. So iron sharpens iron. We need these friendships. That's what happens. Yeah, and you referenced that verse. It's one of my favorite verses. You know, you think about especially in the context in which it's written. You know where swords were number one weapon and everything like this, and it says iron sharpens iron. So one person sharpens another, or the countenance of a friend I make you so much more sharp you there's a joke in there somewhere, but I'm gonna go out with my spiritual point. So so the yes, I know you do, and hopefully the other way around. But the bottom line is is that the Bible, the Bible talks about how we need one another. And listen, you know, it's it's very appropriate that we're having connected night because you know, for me, I always think about these things. I know you do too when the church grows. I don't know if you know this or not, but if you've attended on a weekend here at Heritage, I think just in twenty twenty three, we have broken a non holiday weekend record and all time Heritage weekend record I think four or five, five times. Five times. Since since January, we've broken five records, right, So and that's that's with only three services. I mean, had we gone to four services, you know, we would have probably done more about you know, we're just having all these you know, problems with space and chairs and things. We just had one hundred and fifty new chairs delivered, we did. Yeah, we're setting them up for Sunday. Yeah, yeah, that's really really cool. So we're we're gonna be squeezing chairs in here. But here's the point. As the church grows bigger, there's a need for it to be smaller. And you can only survive coming to a church and not being known. You can only survive for so long. So what's the average, what's the statistic if somebody doesn't get connected. Yeah, so a new person coming in the door. The research says that a person needs to know or be known by seven people in six months or they have If they don't, they have an eighty percent chance of disappearing, never connecting. But if they know or are known by seven people in the first six months, they have eighty five percent chance of staying for five years or longer. So, believe it or not, it's not how amazing Chris's messages are. They're amazing, it's not incredible, you know. It's not about how high the note that Trey hits, you know, on Sunday. Those things capture people's attention for a little while. But the reality is, real life transformation doesn't happen from what we do on the stage. Real life transformation happens in the context of friendships. That's what happens, right, You're the ones who help set the hook. You're the ones who help everybody else grow. That's why he says the body needs to be together, and we help each other grow together, because it's silly to think that clergy or staff can do all the work of the church, right right, And that's the reason why we all know a church where the speaker is a wonderful speaker, but he's terrible one on one, or maybe he's a really great counselor one on one, but it's like he can't lead out of himself out of a paper back. Right. We all know people, we know, we know people like that. We know churches where the congregation members put that expectation on the clergy to be all things to all people. And that's why churches are run poorly. And that's why preachers get burnt out, right, because that's why Ephesians tells us, no, no, no, it's us. We're the priesthood of the believer. He has gifted something to be apostles, something to be some to be evangelists, them to be pastors, some to be teachers, for the working of together, for the sharpening, for the building up of the congregation, for each other. So all that to say, as the church gets bigger, we get to know one another smaller. And then it's very appropriate that our group study with the Andy Stanley group study that we're doing starts, and this is the last week to sign up. So I would just say, if you're coming here to connect it and you've not yet signed up for a group, it's the absolute perfect opportunity, and just jump in and just say, you know, I'm gonna give it a run, because I believe at the end of that experience you're gonna say I'm glad I did it. I also think one other benefit as we wrap up, one other benefit to this. A lot of Christians feel like they you know, if you just come and you consume, you consume what Jeff and Chris are producing, you consume what Trey and his team are producing. You come and consume what the youth group is producing, or the children's mystery. After a while, your faith starts to feel empty because you don't know it, but subconsciously you're aware that you have a consumer oriented faith. And after a while, we all get bored with the things we consume. That's why you know, the new car smell is gone and you're already thinking about your next lease, right, is because consuming doesn't satisfy. So many of us have this sense that there's got to be more to this faith thing. And where it really happens is when you are fulfilling the purpose God has for you. And a big part of that purpose is in connection with other believers. Very quickly, I'll tell the story and then we will finish up, because we want you guys to spend some time talking. I had a pastor as part of a very very large church at one point a number of years ago, and about twenty thousand people, and a woman came in to meet with a senior pastor, and he had just come from a meeting where they had several hundred shut in seniors who couldn't get out they had different sicknesses or whatever, and so he had the whole stack of cards of names of shut ins and he was trying to figure out how can we minister to them. This lady came in and she sat down. Her husband had passed away and they had one of those relationships where he did all of the business of the family and he wasn't really aware of the banking and all that. Next thing, you know, she's trying to figure out how to navigate through this life became too heavy, and so she felt like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. And he said, listen, we have some people that can help you, help counsel you on the financial side, but this nervous breakdown thing. He said, I'd like to come back and talk to you in just a few days, but would you do me a favor. And he just took the top five cards and he said, here's some shut ins in our church. You make amazing pies. Would you go bake a pie for each one of these people, Just drop one off each day for them and just tell them that we love them and pray with them real quick. And she went, yeah, sure, that's kind of weird. She stakes those five. Then he came back in about two weeks later and all the cards on his desk were gone, and then he didn't see her for months. Then he runs into her like three months later, and he says, hey, how's that nervous breakdown going, And she said, oh, I don't have time for a nervous breakdown. We have so many shut in people. I'm busy baking pies. So when it was all about her and she was just consuming from the church. The weight of life was heavy, and her faith wasn't very strong. But when she began to realize it wasn't just about her, and she began to serve other people and begin to help others grow in their faith, she grew stronger and stronger. Right, So I'm not saying that's the only solution for a nervous breakdown. But what I am saying is the importance of living outside of our lives instead of only just for ourselves. So this idea of being connected is incredibly important groups as the first step. So let me write this down. The solution for breakdown pies pies, yes, pis yes yes. And by the way, in reference to what you said about like not being a consumer, just like taking what the pestor gives you, you could say that our job then is not to feed you. Our job is to make you hungry. Yes, So it's to make you hungry and prepare you. Yeah yeah, yeah. So Father, we thank you for today. We thank you Lord for this time together, for your word and your truths. Thank you for a time of laughter and fun and connectivity. And I pray Lord that these following discussions that happened just right now, that you would just be with us and help us connect and praise you in Jesus name, we pray Amen Amen m hm m