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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 another episode of Tell Me More. Today, we're all back in the studio, miraculously, maybe, And we are talking about all the wonderful things that happened on Fresh Start Sunday as well as what it looks like to live a life of prayer and praying for your fellow believers. We hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the podcast. We're here. We're all three here, which is We did it. Becoming a rarity. My gosh.
Speaker 2:But we we solemnly we don't. I'm not gonna commit to anything. No. But we are here to I think We're excited
Luke Stehr:to be here. We can have a solid rest of August. I think we could safely say that.
Speaker 3:I feel good about it.
Speaker 2:I don't. Okay. I know. Know. I know I don't.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at my and d dub. No. Because when do you start that demon?
Luke Stehr:Well, okay. I'm I'm going well, that's a doctorate of ministry.
Speaker 3:Teaching it not I'm teaching it, it will be in September, and I will miss the first Monday of September.
Luke Stehr:Okay. So I think we can solidly
Speaker 3:We might can get through August.
Luke Stehr:Get through a good rest of August. I'm not sure. August what? A
Speaker 3:great day.
Speaker 2:Today's the eighteenth. Yeah. I'm gonna do my very best to be in here.
Speaker 3:This is my mom and dad's anniversary.
Speaker 2:Today, August 18.
Luke Stehr:Happy anniversary. 1939. That's so fun. I
Speaker 3:don't have no idea.
Luke Stehr:Yesterday was Kelsey and I's anniversary.
Speaker 3:Really? How
Luke Stehr:long? Thirteen years. Our marriage as a teenager. August 17. Okay.
Luke Stehr:Thirteen, that's awesome. It was fun. Actually we it was a very full day. We didn't really do anniversary things.
Speaker 2:No. I saw you attend a funeral.
Luke Stehr:Yeah. Was gonna say We did that.
Speaker 2:That's the one time
Luke Stehr:I saw y'all. We took kids to school and sports practice and a PTA event and There you go. And we went to bed.
Speaker 2:Get to celebrate?
Luke Stehr:We're gonna go on a date Friday night. There it is. Good. Something on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Need more at the moment. Very good. Yeah. Well, congrats.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I don't know what. Mother of 39 to now would be what? I have no idea. It'd be a lot.
Luke Stehr:You don't have an English degree, I'm not gonna do that math publicly.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, it's not that far from a 100 years.
Luke Stehr:Yeah. It's a long It's really not.
Speaker 2:If wanna do some common core Yeah.
Speaker 3:Then subtract 13 to that.
Speaker 2:And then seven eighty seven. Eighty seven years. It's a long time.
Luke Stehr:Eighty seven years. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow. Yeah. Anyway. Happy anniversary. We're glad they got married.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We are too. They're celebrating heaven. Assuming hope so. So look at us.
Speaker 2:We're doing it.
Speaker 3:Speaking of celebration. There's
Luke Stehr:lot to talk Fresh start Sunday.
Speaker 3:Last Sunday.
Speaker 2:Full discretion. It's it's Tuesday morning. Cheers. We had said funeral yesterday honored the Lacriese yesterday. Yep.
Speaker 2:The day before that, Fresh Start Sunday at First Rebels Arlington.
Luke Stehr:Was bumping. Wow.
Speaker 2:A lot going on. Of course, Fresh Start for the for those that are not as affected by it, it's when all our age graded ministries age up. Promote. Mhmm. So promote into the next.
Speaker 3:But also We've got a devotion Sunday.
Luke Stehr:Bible studies do a really good job of calling everyone on their roles, inviting them back to church. And so we had a
Speaker 2:That's really intentional.
Luke Stehr:Really great Sunday morning for adult bible study. We had, you know, it's a first Sunday for so many college students because UTA started back yesterday.
Speaker 2:Were busting at seams over here.
Luke Stehr:Were busting
Speaker 2:at the
Luke Stehr:seams. You're
Speaker 3:right. One over in town.
Speaker 2:Any parent that's bringing their kids back to bible study, they're finding bible studies. So it just it kinda all the boats rise in the heart.
Speaker 3:New rooms. Your kids went to new rooms.
Luke Stehr:Our kid My We are no longer in the preschool ministry.
Speaker 2:Woah. Woah. That's kind of a big deal.
Luke Stehr:It is a big deal.
Speaker 2:So y'all are upstairs.
Luke Stehr:We're upstairs.
Speaker 2:Well, we left Andy Gardner's class Yeah. Which was for our boys like Yeah. The highlight of the week.
Speaker 3:So your your kids are what grade? First and fourth. K. So Evelyn, I go into the fourth grade Sunday school Sunday morning. I just kinda made rounds.
Speaker 3:I was checking my grandkids because they all they promoted. Right. And, so I saw all three of them. But, anyway, I've so I thought, well, I'll just kinda go down the hall. So I went into the fourth grade class, opened the door, I kinda stepped in, and I don't know.
Speaker 3:Was Sharon Friend. I can't remember who else was in there. And Evelyn turned around, and she looked me. She said, doctor Wilde. And just broke and ran and just jumped into a full body hug.
Speaker 3:And I was like, well, hey.
Luke Stehr:You know, it's sweet.
Speaker 3:So sweet. Anyway. She's a lot
Speaker 2:of life. Lot of life over there. Yep. It's good.
Luke Stehr:It is good. And then we have 26 new not new, all new but twenty six Twenty eight. 28 students.
Speaker 3:From the church in Korea.
Luke Stehr:From our sister church
Speaker 3:in Korea.
Speaker 2:Yeah. They all come from the same church family in Korea and they kinda come together and have some rhythms of life together and they're, yeah, we have a record number. It's 26 or 28. They eight. And I think we've talked about this ad nauseam in here but just in case we haven't, they send us like the 28 best college students in Korea.
Speaker 3:They're unbelievable.
Speaker 2:They're unbelievable. They're good at everything. Everything.
Speaker 3:They came and they brought me gifts from the church.
Speaker 2:Gift as well.
Speaker 3:Uh-huh. They gave me this That's sweet. They said they gave me this little box, and they said this is a very traditional thing in Korea, and we want you to have it. Our church wants you to have it. I don't know.
Speaker 3:Can I open it? Well, it has a little a little tag or card, placard, whatever. And they said, this is doctor Dennis r Wilds. This is you're not in Korean. And I thought, okay.
Speaker 3:That's cool. And there's this really decorative, beautiful it looks like a tube of a really fancy tube of lipstick is kinda what it looks like. And it's about this big, but it's my stamp for my signature. Uh-huh. And they said this is something that we do in our culture.
Speaker 3:We we have our stamp signature. So they gave me little ink pad, and they said, so you can now sign your name in Korean. So I'm gonna start doing that and just see what people think about it.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Luke Stehr:That's so sweet, though.
Speaker 2:They're excited to be back. They come bearing
Luke Stehr:the I
Speaker 2:even know what I mean, one was carrying a, like, a Costco size box of something. I mean, it was all Korean on it. Looked like a drink of some sort. It's just fun. It's a fun It It breathes a lot of life into wherever they are.
Luke Stehr:Yep. Met all.
Speaker 2:We're pumped for that.
Luke Stehr:We are met so many new UTA students.
Speaker 2:There's so much potential there.
Luke Stehr:Yeah. Our college ministry has been handing out breakfast burritos for the past two days.
Speaker 2:And iced coffee. And iced ice part. Yes. Because it's just so hot.
Luke Stehr:And today I saw right before we were recording, they ran out of burritos at 10:30.
Speaker 3:Get it. Oh, really?
Luke Stehr:So they've been inviting students to college ministry, striking up conversations, passing out breakfast burritos Just interesting. And they ran out today.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. I love it. They're doing a great job. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:They really are.
Luke Stehr:Yeah. Yes.
Speaker 2:There's just a lot of fun energy.
Speaker 3:Yes. It was really good. And, I mean, I went I stood in the preschool what do you call it? Four year? What do we call that?
Speaker 3:Welcome area? Yeah. Whatever it is. My goodness. There are so many preschoolers in this church.
Speaker 3:Young families, they're everywhere.
Speaker 2:And they make themselves known. Very few just slip in quietly, at least in my little org. Yes. Jackman and Sam Hodges will let you know when they are
Speaker 3:I walked with your husband towards preschool. And I won't say we were chasing the boys. That's not really true. But we were behind them.
Speaker 2:They were leading the
Luke Stehr:They were leading
Speaker 3:the way. Where they are going. And very excitedly, and they were they were loudly making animal sounds.
Speaker 2:So we have not outrun that phase.
Speaker 3:So Uh-huh.
Speaker 2:Pretty fun.
Speaker 3:There were at least three of them.
Speaker 2:At least
Speaker 3:three. It felt like more, but I'm I'm pretty sure I counted three. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You should come to our house in the evenings. The I know the CDC here, the the day care, does a great job. They have good rhythms. They're playing on the playground. I mean, they're not just putting them in front of like an iPad all day.
Speaker 2:No. Yet, when I pick them up, it is as if they have done nothing all day in terms of energy. Yeah. And they just wanna
Speaker 3:It's awesome, man.
Speaker 2:I mean, they just bounce off the walls.
Speaker 3:Yeah. They're so cute.
Speaker 2:Until we make them go to bed. They are so cute. Bounce off their bed walls and then they eventually come over. Yeah. It's fun.
Luke Stehr:But yeah. Oh, man.
Speaker 3:I went to the youth. Man, the youth were just so many young high school kids and junior high kids. Of course, my granddaughter was promoted to the youth, so I went to check great job. Making sure she was okay and that everything was fine.
Speaker 2:Turns out
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah. That Sunday school class, when I walked in there, they're like, oh, okay. So this is how it's gonna be. I said, pretty much until I feel good about what y'all are doing over here. So I'll just check-in real quick.
Luke Stehr:Who are her Sunday school teachers?
Speaker 3:Well, the McDaniels. Aw.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We got to
Luke Stehr:check on him. So worried. On
Speaker 3:him. Yeah. Trust me. I'm over there checking on him. We do.
Speaker 2:We I
Speaker 3:think they may need
Luke Stehr:to check on you.
Speaker 3:Joel and Rebecca Martin. We have
Speaker 2:so Oh, seriously. That's that's a group. We have so many. We were talking about this yesterday that it sometimes it can feel at our church like we don't have a lot of young adults because, like, their bible study isn't busting at the seams. It's because they're all serving
Luke Stehr:They are.
Speaker 2:They're all over the church. Mhmm. You just have to kinda know where to look to find them.
Speaker 3:Yeah. They're everywhere.
Speaker 2:But there we have so many so many people, volunteers. Volunteers isn't the right word, but just participants
Speaker 3:They've been sent.
Speaker 2:Leaders in ministry.
Speaker 3:They've been sent into ministry. That's what they're They're living sent.
Speaker 2:And they've been trained. They've been equipped. They're
Luke Stehr:going for it.
Speaker 2:It's really fun.
Luke Stehr:Love it. I do
Speaker 3:too, man. So, yeah, it was a great day.
Speaker 2:And it's just August I mean, was just August 16.
Speaker 3:There's a there's a,
Luke Stehr:like starting.
Speaker 2:If I can point can we go ahead and point forward?
Luke Stehr:Let's do it.
Speaker 2:It's on my mind, but this Friday, so just in a few days, we have doctor Dennis Tucker
Speaker 3:Come on.
Speaker 2:From Truett Seminary. Come on. He's He a lot of time this summer. He wrote our Jonah curriculum, and he's gonna come teach the teachers just kind of an overview of the book of Jonah. So he's already spent a lot of time prepping for it.
Speaker 2:I don't know if y'all we all have copies
Speaker 3:of Yes. Yes. Of course.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be really good.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:And that's just kind of teeing up what we'll start in September.
Speaker 3:He is just brilliant. I mean, Dennis is a legitimate biblical scholar.
Speaker 2:And this is the rare thing that Truett has found. He also knows how to, like, talk to people.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:Like, the churchmen. He has both, and I think we'll really
Luke Stehr:He's so good.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. I'm very hopeful that that's gonna be
Speaker 3:He's the bow tie champion, normally. You know?
Luke Stehr:He does rock a good bow I'm
Speaker 3:sure if he'll be wearing
Speaker 2:a bow I've never seen him in a tie. Yeah. Only bow tie.
Luke Stehr:Only bow ties? Yeah. Never No.
Speaker 2:But he's not pretentious.
Speaker 3:He's just kind a It's who he
Speaker 2:is.
Speaker 3:Know? Yeah. No. I've never seen him wear a regular tie.
Luke Stehr:I haven't even
Speaker 3:known him for twenty years.
Speaker 2:No, I haven't either. I really like Doctor. Tucker. And I never had him. Did you have him?
Speaker 2:Did. He was one of
Luke Stehr:my last professors I had.
Speaker 2:I just know him from his administration. I'm Truett and I respect him greatly.
Luke Stehr:I had Jonah with him in seminary so I I can vouch. This will be good. Okay. Good.
Speaker 2:We think so. But anyway, that's this weekend and then We
Luke Stehr:have alpha leader training Sunday night.
Speaker 2:Wanna talk about alpha?
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean, we talked about it
Luke Stehr:on Sunday morning. We're gonna launch alpha here at our church this fall, after Labor Day on Sunday nights in the student Building. And we talked about it a little bit on Sunday morning, but Alpha is a globally recognized program starting in The UK. And basically it's a tool for churches, for people, ministries, to help people who are curious or skeptical or unsure about faith explore what Christianity is all about, what Jesus is all about and to do it in a kind of no pressure environment. So each week, we'll share a meal together and then we'll watch a video.
Luke Stehr:So Alpha runs on a video curriculum and then you have facilitators who sit around tables and just facilitate conversation. And kind of one of the unique things about Alpha that's different is someone at the table could say like, oh, well I don't really believe Jesus is God. And as a facilitator, you just go like, thank you so much for sharing that. Mhmm. I appreciate that.
Luke Stehr:Mhmm. So and so what do you think?
Speaker 2:I'm very open to
Luke Stehr:And so you keep it very open and the idea is that as people So
Speaker 3:you don't immediately say you're going to die and go
Luke Stehr:You don't immediately correct.
Speaker 3:You don't immediately
Luke Stehr:You don't debate and so that's kind of
Speaker 3:one of
Luke Stehr:the tendencies. You don't disagree. You're not trying to move this into the realm of argument because what you want it to stay is this kind of conversational. Yeah. What do you think?
Luke Stehr:And then hopefully by the time people have walked through the whole series, they've actually kind of let their guard down, absorbed it. And Alpha globally, I mean, has seen so so many people come to know Jesus.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. It's it's crazy.
Luke Stehr:So Our
Speaker 3:youth did some version of Our youth used
Luke Stehr:the youth curriculum and used it, and they had a really great year of inviting people. We saw a lot of students
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Luke Stehr:Come into our youth ministry that year.
Speaker 3:So And consequently, took the largest group of kids to camp this past summer after all of that that we have since COVID. Yeah. So, yeah, it it had a it had a legitimate practical impact
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:In our youth ministry. Yep. Would say.
Luke Stehr:I say it's had
Speaker 2:a lot of success. I'm excited that we're
Speaker 3:given a chance to experience
Luke Stehr:I'm too. So you're training. We're doing a training for our leaders. If you are interested in being involved, please let me know. Me know.
Luke Stehr:Pray about it and we'd love to have you. So there are multiple ways to serve. This Sunday night. This Sunday night. Next
Speaker 2:Sunday week. August 30. August. Yep. Dub, cover your ears.
Speaker 3:K. Sorry.
Speaker 2:We're celebrating our senior pastor you don't have to worry. We're celebrating our senior pastor's twenty fifth anniversary. Wow. Yep. And we
Speaker 3:want Has it been twenty five years?
Speaker 2:It's already been twenty five years. What do you think about that?
Speaker 3:You know it's pretty humbling I
Speaker 2:would Where were you twenty five years ago?
Luke Stehr:Was in Hartsville Alabama. Look at you. Just north of Huntsville. Right where I know
Speaker 3:right where that is.
Luke Stehr:Actually, no. Yeah. No. I was in Missouri. My bad.
Speaker 2:Okay. And you were in what? Like eighth grade? Yeah. Something like that.
Luke Stehr:I got my timeline wrong. Okay. Did the math wrong? Yeah. 2000 I'm older than I thought.
Speaker 3:2000 yeah. Yeah. Look at you. And where were you, Katie? Twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2:I was entering my sophomore year at Franklin High School.
Speaker 3:K. The Franklin Yellow Jackets?
Speaker 2:Lions.
Speaker 3:Franklin Lions.
Speaker 2:Lady lions.
Luke Stehr:Preparing to be prom queen.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yep. That would come years later.
Speaker 3:Where?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Little did we know
Speaker 3:So in o one. When I go to Katie's mama's funeral the other day in Franklin, which was very sweet, by the way, I'm standing at the back, the foyer, and the pastor there had asked me to help with the service. And so we were just I just finished talking with her. So one of the men in the church kinda knew who I was because he saw me talking with y'all's pastor.
Speaker 2:I don't know if we said it on here. Doctor Wallace came to attend and support, which I appreciate. And my parents' pastor has been very sick with the the lettuce virus. Yeah. Doctor Wells had to step up and officiate the service Yeah.
Speaker 2:With no lead time at And
Speaker 3:I was honored to do that.
Speaker 2:We were all grateful.
Speaker 3:Okay. Anyway. But so one of the men
Speaker 2:You'll never know.
Speaker 3:When he realized I was Katie's pastor and that I was helping with the service, he came over to visit with me. And he just very sweet man and just said, have you been to Franklin before? I said, no, sir. This is my first time. I said, I've heard about Franklin because we love Katie so much, and we we know a little bit about it.
Speaker 3:First thing he said was he said, we have 11 football coaches here. That's the very first thing. I think he was doing it kind of as a joke to let me know
Speaker 2:what you need to know about.
Speaker 3:Who we are. And I told him, I said, I kinda like that, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:Right. The Friday night lights thing could not be more true than in Franklin, Texas. Like, there is nowhere else to be.
Speaker 3:So so you were in Franklin, Texas twenty five years ago. Turns out I was right here at this place. I came, I came July July twenty second. It's when I preached in view of a call, after a long journey. And and so, we had a Sunday evening question and answer, for, early Sunday evening at late afternoon, whatever, after I'd met with a whole lot of people.
Speaker 3:And, just people got to ask whatever they wanted to ask. And we met for probably, I don't know, forty five minutes or so and tried to answer questions. And and and we we just saw the video of the the vote. You know, we they brought us up on the platform to announce the vote. WL McCullough was in our church at the time.
Speaker 3:He was chair of the personnel committee, and, it was 08/1981 to zero. So
Luke Stehr:Wow.
Speaker 3:Have big deal. I still remember. The ballots were in my office upstairs. They gave me the ballots in a in a bag that they collected them in.
Luke Stehr:No one even voted no to make sure they were counting.
Speaker 3:It's funny that much.
Speaker 2:Yeah. When did that get introduced in front of us? It's here now. Yeah. Somebody somewhere.
Speaker 3:One of our students, one of our high school kids voted Mark to no, and then he knew that his dad, it was his stepdad, actually, who was on the search committee. So not that you had to put your name on it, but he crossed it out and put yes. And he told his dad or stepdad afterwards. He said, you know, I'm the one that did that. And he said, you better be glad you marked and you did it right.
Speaker 3:He's great.
Speaker 2:Now that do it. I think the youth. I think they think somehow we'll know it's a joke. Yeah. And I'm like, it's as real as any other ballot pass.
Speaker 3:But, yeah. Twenty five years ago. A lot can happen in
Speaker 2:twenty five years.
Speaker 3:And and we're bringing our good friend, Todd Steele.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. So, Nick, really, here's a little just reminder for y'all. Can't I think it's one of those where we tell you what we're gonna tell you, tell you, and then remind you what we told you so that we can all get here at the right time and
Speaker 3:celebrate It be. When we get
Speaker 2:But it's one service at ten and Doctor. Still is gonna preach for us
Luke Stehr:that day.
Speaker 2:You'll obviously be there, you'll obviously, you know, we'll recognize you on stage but Doctor. Still is gonna preach that day and we thought that he might be the ideal person, that you can, not that you don't love preaching
Speaker 3:Of course.
Speaker 2:But that you can enjoy the day, and just be kind of a recipient of all the love. And Doctor Still knows us, we know Doctor Still, all partnered with a million things, Really excited to have him and Carolyn here with us.
Speaker 3:And they're former members of our church.
Speaker 2:That's the thing. Yeah. They know us. I mean, I still have people that say, oh, yeah, Carolyn taught them in kids bible study. Were involved.
Speaker 3:Todd taught her to school. He was teaching at WU.
Speaker 2:Yeah. They're just wonderful people. So they'll be here, as well as just all the fanfare you would hope. There is a reception that starts at 08:30. One thing that we're trying to emphasize is, lot a of people are gonna wanna see you.
Speaker 2:We're doing a lot of things to try to make that line keep moving, but if you really wanna make sure you shake the pastor's hand that morning, I'd lean more on the 08:30 side than the slip in at 09:40 thinking you're gonna get, you know, everything. Because we've got to get the pastor in the service. Mhmm. It's one of those Sundays when you need to be there at, like, when the bell rings. You know?
Speaker 3:Know we're honored. Mhmm. It's hard to believe. It's been twenty five years, but, you know, hey. I'm but as I told y'all as a staff yesterday, I'm grateful for it, humbled by it, but I'm incredibly excited about the future.
Speaker 3:That's that's what I'm leaning into. It's where we're headed. And, since fresh start Sunday to me was a great reminder of, man, there's there's so much potential, and there's so many people to still be one into Christ and ministered to, cared for, prayed for. You know? So
Speaker 2:Good transition.
Luke Stehr:That is a great transition. I was I was working in my mind, how do we segue into this? But you just did
Speaker 2:it Let's for do it. Praying for believers.
Luke Stehr:You did preach a sermon on Fresh
Speaker 3:Start Sunday? Yes. Yes. John 17 which is, just an awesome prayer. Thank you, John.
Speaker 3:Once again, thank you, Yesterday or day before yesterday evening, was just praying through the message I wanted to share at the funeral, for Susan Lacrier. And, I just kept going back reading John 11, which, of course, I've used many times, you know, at a funeral. Mhmm. But I found myself just thanking the Lord and for John writing this story about Lazarus. Because just think if we didn't have John's gospel, we wouldn't have the story of Lazarus.
Speaker 2:And think
Speaker 3:about how meaningful that story is to us and how theologically rich. And I tried to capture a little bit of that. It's hard to do in a funeral to do too much theology, but I wanna do a little bit of theology, you know, just to just to set this page in context. And, and John seventeen's the same way. Thank you, John.
Speaker 2:That we wouldn't have.
Speaker 3:My goodness. We've got the Gethsemane prayer, which is powerful, obviously. But this one
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Just reveals so much to me about how we should be praying. So I was just I was just kinda moved by it, kind of afresh and a new, and hence, I had an 18 sermon, which is kinda hard to pull off on a Sunday morning.
Luke Stehr:We were joking that it wasn't a three point sermon, but at least it was a multiple of
Speaker 3:three. Know, Six now sermons.
Speaker 2:Right now with the with changes in our staff, which Well, I guess we haven't really talked about it in here, but we'll talk about it at some point. You know, pastoral ministry. But Well, I didn't mean to tease that. We're we're involving Cheryl Murray in a little more pastoral side. Without saying it, it sounds really ominous.
Speaker 2:That's all I'm trying to say.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:But, in this gap where we're trying to figure things out, Zach has been doing all the slides for us. Yeah. So I'm like, sorry, Zach. You know, because it's all like on Your nine points are all like on the click, you know, on the slide, which I don't really know how you do that, but it's it's the opposite of like when I preach and it's like, here's one picture and one quote. You know?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I, I
Speaker 2:don't know. I think there were, like, 38 slides yesterday.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It was a lot. I it's funny.
Speaker 2:But we're here to serve you. If that's what you wanna communicate to your people,
Speaker 3:we're all gonna do. We were talking about beforehand. I'm I mean, I'm teaching this seminar at Baylor, this seminar on preaching. And one of the questions that they typically ask me in there, so what kind of preacher are you? Are you topical?
Speaker 3:Are you expositional, exegetical? And and I always have to be honest to tell them, I'm not I'm not really sure. I'm one of these days, I'm gonna figure out what it actually is because I don't know what it is, to be honest with you. Because sometimes it's like that. I just felt led I just wanted to give our people a guide to pray, and I thought, okay.
Speaker 3:It's not necessarily one, two, three, but it's sometimes you just to me, you need a little guide to help you think through things.
Speaker 2:It would not be the easiest thing to, like, put a predictable outline on your sermon style.
Speaker 3:I know. It's weird. But, but, know, it's just it's I I always tell them my preaching style is indigenous to who I am. That's probably what I'd say.
Speaker 2:And they need to find their way.
Speaker 3:And I'm a thematic I'm a series like you said, look, I'm a I think in chunks.
Speaker 2:You are the series
Speaker 3:preacher. So to me, the series is really just one sermon.
Speaker 2:Never been able
Speaker 3:do I view it.
Speaker 2:And I think that's one of the reasons it's hard for you to give away the pulpit. Yeah. I say that respectfully, but to have a guest, it's like, no, I'm trying to accomplish this one thing in that Sunday.
Speaker 3:Because when I plan it out, that's what I think. I think, okay, I need there are actually 10 points this sermon.
Speaker 2:So there are 10 sermons. And
Speaker 3:that's usually how I think. But, anyway, but it's it it works in my brain. You know? So As long
Luke Stehr:as it works in your brain
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Luke Stehr:But the And it works in everyone else's brain.
Speaker 2:But Yeah. Turns You've been here forty five years, so I think it's landing.
Speaker 3:But, you know, this this particular prayer, though, to me reminds us of so many things, which we were talking about right before this podcast, just how Jesus acknowledges the the the supernatural realm that God is actually involved in all this. I mean, he is God the son. But still, the fact that he wasn't just going to leave these disciples and just let them meander Right. And figure it out. That's not what's going on.
Speaker 3:These are genuine prayer requests over these people to intersect God's spirit and God's wisdom and God's leadership and God's presence with everything that they're getting ready to face. And if Jesus had to do that Yeah. Then I just feel like we should we should take that pretty seriously.
Speaker 2:Not be above it.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. You don't just live your life.
Luke Stehr:We don't. And I am so glad
Speaker 3:You can.
Luke Stehr:You can. And I'm so glad that you brought that up and you know, you talked about Charles Taylor, if you're not a western culture philosophy nerd.
Speaker 3:He's he's a little beyond
Luke Stehr:some people. If you can see the screen, his book is this thick. If you are listening, it's like four inches Yeah. But it's really good. It's a magnificent book.
Luke Stehr:Probably one of the more important philosophy books of the last couple decades.
Speaker 2:But for those that won't read it.
Luke Stehr:Yeah. The way that I would kind of sum it up and this is not Charles Taylor, this is different philosopher, but it kinda runs on the same tracks is if you think about, you know, we would say modernity or secularism, these kinda ideas really are not like new. They didn't just pop up in the 2000 or 2015 or They go back all the way to the seventeen hundreds. And so the seeds of it really start in sixteen hundreds kinda come to flower in the seventeen hundreds. We're just living in kind of the aftermath of what people would call modernity or secularism.
Luke Stehr:And really the idea, the core of it is this kind of gamble that life can be lived well without God. Mhmm. So whether or not we're aware of it, even as Christians, you know, we're we're living in the heritage of four hundred years of culture Mhmm. Kind of moving us towards, you can live life well without God. And truthfully,
Speaker 2:I think most of us, when we
Luke Stehr:sat down and really thought about it, we can go day to day and not really think about God, God's presence, God's activity Mhmm. At all. Mhmm. And life will be, for the most part, pretty good. Mhmm.
Luke Stehr:But that's the gamble we take. Mhmm. And I think sometimes now in culture we're seeing like, maybe maybe it doesn't work as well as we thought it did. And so this call to prayer is really this recognition that, no, that that gamble is wrong. Mhmm.
Luke Stehr:Like, when you make that bet, you lose. Mhmm. And life is so much better under God's activity.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Because there's something else is afoot. Yeah. You know, just the the rumors of another world, you know, there's something else going on that's mysterious that is beyond the natural. And I think that's why Jesus will say things like, for those of you that have ears to hear this or eyes to see it Mhmm. That's who this is for.
Speaker 3:And prayer connects us to that world.
Luke Stehr:It does. You know? It just does.
Speaker 3:And it also reminds us that we're not as in control as we think we are because I think that's a part of that mindset you just described, that you can kind of control your own destiny. You can you can manage, pull the right levers, you know, do the right things, and then your life is gonna be like this when that's just not really the case. Life is beyond all of us. It just is. And the fact that God is to be woven into it all, to me, that's where prayer becomes so important.
Speaker 3:It's funny, the older I've gotten, just the more more I find myself drawn to it, in a very I don't know that mysterious is not the right word. It's just spiritual. I just sense the presence of God more, and I'm more in tune with him. Doesn't mean that I'm perfect because y'all y'all live with me. You know I'm not.
Speaker 3:I'm not perfect. That's not the point. But I will say that I'm much quicker the older I've gotten to acknowledge God's hand in things and to pause and go, I wonder wonder if that's God trying to teach me something rather than me just assuming I can manipulate it or I can fix it or I can step into it myself with the full weight of who I am. Well, that that's not enough weight. You know?
Speaker 3:Turns out life is heavier than me if you're trying to balance it. And so I actually love that, really. And so it helps me to reorient things. And what I love about it is it's kind of like, it's almost like the fact that God gives us these clues that it's supposed to be done this way. So our bodies have a daily rhythm.
Speaker 3:We get tired, we have to sleep, and we get up with fresh energy for a new day. Well, to me is that way. It's every day. It's not like you go, okay. I prayed about that ten years ago.
Speaker 3:I'm glad I got that settled. Well, no. That's not how it works. Yeah. You know?
Speaker 3:When when Dorothy Sayers said life is so everlastingly daily, well, that's just how it is. We live every single day and there are new realities and new challenges and we need a fresh sense of God's presence. And so, there's something about that daily rhythm of prayer and launching your day that way, ending your day that way, finding throughout throughout the the day, day. And then having some specific another thing that's happened to me lately is I've gotten to where I feel like I need a little more specificity. Is that how you say that word?
Speaker 2:Mhmm. I think you
Speaker 3:got In some things. And, so I have been making notes to myself about how I want to pray, not just that I'm going to pray. In other words, I don't just have a note that just says, Luke's There's actually why I would be praying for Luke's Dare. Where in times past, it'd be very common for me just to put Luke, and and I would remind myself, you ought to be praying for Luke. Well, now I know it's Luke's graduate studies, his future in terms of understanding the missiological commitments in his life, Ashley.
Speaker 3:Understanding, I mean, what God's called her to and some of the challenges that you're facing as parents at this season in your life. In other words, the same for all of y'all. Katie, I'm not leaving you out. I just mean this now. More You also have a It's just different than
Speaker 2:I'll let you know. There have
Speaker 3:been many times when I would just put I make a note. Man, I need to pray for Katie. I need to do the Well, now it's kind of like, well, yeah, but I'm I'm reminding myself this right here is what I'm actually praying. Does that make sense?
Luke Stehr:Mhmm. Does.
Speaker 3:And so when I did this list of things from high priestly prayer of Jesus or whatever you want to call it, Kurt calls it the Lord's Prayer, which is fine by me, because I think the Lord's Prayer is a model prayer.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:This is the Lord's prayer. It's also a model prayer. I think they both I guess they're
Speaker 2:all the Lord's prayers.
Speaker 3:Yeah. They they lose the Lord and he prayed.
Speaker 2:That's So we don't have to get too in the weeds on that.
Speaker 3:So when I was I was going through mean, I've preached on John 17 before, but for some reason, right now, it just it just really spoke powerfully to me. And I found myself in my study just kinda walking through the prayer, well, Jesus prayed for that. That's interesting. Well, then he he prayed for that. Well, you know, I think I need to be more targeted in that kind of prayer.
Speaker 3:And so the next thing you know, I've got nine, what I would consider just kind of theological takes on the prayer of Jesus and then application. And so yesterday morning, I was in my prayer time early yesterday morning and found myself drawn to just praying those things over my church. Well, then the next thing you know, I just decided to type them out in a certain way. In my printer at home, if if you don't if you touch it sometimes on the paper, it it So, so early yesterday morning, I was sitting at my kitchen counter with Scotch tape. So I've made my I've got all nine of here, and I've I've personally laminated this.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You pulled out your home laminator.
Speaker 3:Yay. Scotch tape.
Speaker 2:It's stuck
Speaker 3:in my bible.
Speaker 2:And I love it.
Speaker 3:This morning, this is what I prayed over all of our people. You know?
Speaker 2:So if you're listening and you want your own copy
Speaker 3:I can make you one of these.
Speaker 2:Oh, I I was gonna tell them they can do it at home.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah. You can make yourself.
Speaker 2:They likely have the supplies needed.
Speaker 3:But what I learned was I have I have another roll of tape now that's, like, really wide, and that works better than just a little bitty piece.
Speaker 2:Like, packing tape?
Speaker 3:Yes. Yes. Kind of big. That way
Speaker 2:really gets you there. Well, it looks lovely from here.
Speaker 3:It does. Yes. But it's just a reminder to me that, okay, these are the things that I want my people to experience in their life every day. Mhmm. You know, I really do want them to to know God and not just know about God.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. And and I think that that's just something you have to do on your own. You I can help you as a pastor. We all can as shepherds know about God. I think that's part of our job.
Speaker 3:We can do that, but I can't help you know God. That's that's between you and God and sense God's presence. That's what I'm praying for for our people that Mhmm. They're entering. You think about the our younger families.
Speaker 3:We all are experiencing it. You are, for sure. New school year, there's all kind of new things going on. Your kids are facing new things. There are new new classes and making maybe not new friends.
Speaker 3:Maybe their their friends moved with them, but it's new teachers. Mhmm. And so I'm just praying for everybody to to to just see God's hand and experience it, you know, where they are and and and believe that that they can do it. You know, our little our youngest granddaughter transitioned to kindergarten this year, and she's in the dual language academy. And she has not done as much Spanish as Ada did, our older granddaughter.
Speaker 3:Ada was much more proficient in Spanish. And not only that, Ada's kindergarten year was COVID year. Year. And so she had a group of parents that were working with them with the teachers in more of a home setting. And so the Spanish was much more casual in some ways, it was fun because they were kinda all learning it together and whatever.
Speaker 3:Well, now our youngest granddaughter, Adler, is actually in the classroom fully immersed in Spanish for the first time in her life. It is
Speaker 2:How's that going?
Speaker 3:It's it's it's,
Speaker 2:you know
Luke Stehr:That baby's brain has gotta be tired
Speaker 2:by the of the
Speaker 3:day. Something. So but I'm praying for her every morning that even she, as young as she is, will sense that that that God is with her and that you can do this. You know? It may be hard, but you can do it.
Speaker 3:But I'm praying that over all our people, you know, to just experience God. And it's not that I'm doing to me, you don't have to do all these all at one time, that maybe God leads you to just one thing to pray over people that just right now, that just seems to be what's going on in their life. So that to me answers the spirit of the high priestly prayer of Jesus when he's praying for, for for his believers, you know, followers. So but I just want our people praying for each other. That's really the that was a if you only have one thing to take away from Sunday, it's that.
Speaker 3:Let's pray for each Just pray for each other.
Luke Stehr:Well, that's You know? As Baptist, we believe in the priesthood of the believer. And it's not just that you have access to God for yourself. You you play this priestly we all play this priestly role for each
Speaker 3:other Mhmm.
Luke Stehr:And interceding for one another. And it matters. I mean,
Speaker 3:when when when, you know, when when you tell somebody, okay, man, that is I hear you. What's going on with you? I tell you what, I'm I'm gonna pray for you. Well, we need to mean that.
Luke Stehr:Yeah. Can I issue a practical challenge? Yeah. When you encounter that, when you encounter someone who you know you need to pray for them, Pray for them long term but in the moment. I would actually, you know, encourage you to ask if you can put your hand on their shoulder especially if you don't know them very well.
Luke Stehr:And pray for them there in that moment Mhmm. Out loud. And it's probably gonna feel awkward if you've never done this before. But it's so powerful. No doubt.
Luke Stehr:There's something about it. It's it's a really tangible expression of Christ's love and the spirit's presence in someone's life.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Luke Stehr:And so open yourself up to that possibility. And then I would also add, it becomes a really great evangelism tool. It does. So when you're out in the world you just meet people who don't know Jesus, one of the best things you can do to share the good news of Jesus is just pray out loud for people
Speaker 3:I love that.
Luke Stehr:In there.
Speaker 3:Because it it plus, you're actually acknowledging the supernatural reality in the moment. And that's when you need to do it. It's it's it's to encounter it and to ask God for it. And, I think it it models something, but it's also meaningful. You're calling on the Lord's the Lord's help.
Speaker 3:You know?
Speaker 2:And it's it's pretty disarming when not many people are Yeah. It's not as confrontational as some
Speaker 3:other forms of evangelism. Just to
Speaker 2:just to learn
Speaker 3:for you. You know? And and I think people receive it well. You know? We're in we're we're driving home.
Speaker 3:We we I've never been a big Uber. I don't know why. I'm just I just never have been a Uber guy. Cindy is the Uber champion. Okay?
Speaker 3:She does not mind. She just hear it in Arlington sometimes, she'll say, well, I don't wanna have to drive over there. I think I'll just take Uber. I think I'll never take an Uber in anyway, we're just different. So, so we're getting home the other night from Colorado from vacation, with Mike and Kay Steiger.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Thank you, Mike and Kay. And, and I'm thinking, who's gonna pick us up at the airport? You know, Cindy said, let's get an Uber. And I'm thinking, why don't we get an Uber in Texas?
Speaker 3:But nevertheless, we'd taken one to the airport so we'd get one to ride home. So we're in the car in the Uber, and a young man is from Islamic country. Sweet. Sweet. So Cindy's just in her and you know, she is in her element.
Speaker 3:So how's your family? Well, how did you get this job? Well, how do you enjoy it? Did you do this in your no. I've never done this before then.
Speaker 3:Well, do you enjoy driving this this car? Is that is have you met a lot of interesting people? Yes. Do you have family? Yes.
Speaker 3:So are you a follower of of, Islam? Is that what yes. You are. Okay. Are you?
Speaker 3:Good. That's awesome. Well then, obviously, you believe in God. Well, yes, I believe in God. Yes.
Speaker 3:And you believe in prayer? Yes, I believe in prayer. And and, well, what could we pray for for you? And he said, well, my wife is still back in our home country. Well, would you mind what's her name?
Speaker 3:Told us, would you mind if I pray for your wife? I would and we're driving. And he said, I would love it if you'd pray for my wife. And she said, well, I'm gonna pray for your wife right now. And I said to him, I need you to keep your eyes open while we're driving.
Speaker 3:You know? And he started laughing. And the next thing you know, my wife is just praying this passionate prayer. And and we get out of the car and he says, may God answer your prayer. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:And he's shaking her hand and shaking my hand. And I just thought, that's Cindy. Mean, it was so natural. It wasn't weird. He received it incredibly well.
Luke Stehr:Yeah. And if you're looking for like tips on how you do this across religions, I have prayed for Muslim mover drivers before too. Yeah. I just tell them, you know, I'm a follower of Jesus. I don't Especially when I'm working with Muslim people, I don't tell them I'm a Christian because Mhmm.
Luke Stehr:They have a view of us like we do of them Mhmm. You know, overseas thanks to media. So I say I'm a follower of Jesus Is that okay? I'm gonna pray in Jesus' name. And they She did the same thing.
Luke Stehr:They Mhmm. That no one has ever told me no.
Speaker 3:Yeah. He did the same.
Luke Stehr:And they are more
Speaker 3:than We willing to accept get to the end of the prayer, and Cindy and I both said, amen. And so he, you know, everything was finished and he said, So you say amen when you pray at the end of your prayer. And we said, Well, yeah. He said, We do too. He said, I say amen.
Speaker 3:And I said, Well, amen kinda means so be it. May it be so or whatever. And he said, so that's why we say it. I said, yes. That's why that's that's why we say it.
Speaker 3:And he said, well, I'm glad that you say it, and we say it. I said, awesome. So, anyway, that's tough. But it felt so natural. Cindy was just like I said, she was in her element, you know?
Speaker 3:And, but I thought but but it meant something to him because, you know and and we told him, we're going to continue to pray for you, which we have. Can you imagine? He's been here five years and he can't get his wife here. He's young. It's not like he's an old man.
Speaker 3:He's a young guy. He just said, This biggest is concern, is to be with my wife. Anyway, prayer.
Luke Stehr:Do
Speaker 3:it. Next week, we're gonna pray for more believers. Yes. That's the latter part of this prayer.
Speaker 2:Well, y'all kinda went there just now.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Did it, you know? So, yeah, that's what we'll do.
Speaker 2:A little teaser.
Luke Stehr:Yeah. Okay. I'm looking forward
Speaker 3:to it. Yeah. Looks good.
Speaker 2:Clifford. It's there's a lot going on. It's a great time to be engaged at First Baptist. So we hope you all are finding your place, finding your way. We we would like you to do life with us.
Luke Stehr:We would love that. Please.
Speaker 3:And so this is Close
Speaker 2:us in our prayer, d dub.
Speaker 3:So let me let me lead us in our prayer for this.
Luke Stehr:Please do. Let's do it.
Speaker 3:Okay. So we'll pray it over everybody. Lord, I come before you on behalf of my fellow believers here at our church. Make yourself known to them and draw them to yourself. Amen.
Speaker 3:Maybe so.
Speaker 2: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 the podcast and our church. Thanks for listening. Have a good day.