Chapter 10 Jesus Entered In

Summary

In this conversation, Troy Kennedy discusses the importance of imitating Jesus and becoming more like Him. He emphasizes the need to create intimacy and have everyday conversations with Jesus. The conversation explores various topics related to imitating Jesus, including loving difficult people, rejoicing and mourning with others, celebrating others' successes, and associating with people of low position. The overall message is to develop a heart that is compassionate, loving, and willing to enter into the lives of others.

You can find the book "Hero Worship" on Amazon or christianbook.com to purchase.
Amazon Link
Christianbook.com

Takeaways

Imitating Jesus involves creating intimacy and having everyday conversations with Him.
We should strive to love difficult people and extend grace to them, just as Jesus did.
We should learn to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.
Celebrating others' successes and associating with people of low position are important aspects of imitating Jesus.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
03:19 Chapter 1: Jesus Loved Difficult People
05:25 Chapter 2: Rejoice with Those Who Rejoice and Mourn with Those Who Mourn
09:31 Chapter 3: Celebrating Others' Successes
13:09 Chapter 4: Associating with People of Low Position
17:22 Conclusion

Creators & Guests

Host

Troy Kennedy

Husband, Dad, Pastor. A disciple of Jesus. Author of new book "Hero Worship: A 12 Week Journey to Become More Like Jesus." https://t.co/Zgr4SrEOab

What is Troy Marshall Kennedy Podcast?

Jesus always has more life for you than you have known. How do we follow him and discover what it is to flourish and thrive in today's complex, challenging world? How do we have the intimate relationship with God our hearts long for? Troy Marshall Kennedy responds to these all-important questions as a veteran pastor, teacher, and author. Join us as we explore rhythms of life and practice to help us love Jesus, become like Jesus, and share Jesus in our everyday lives. Season one episodes will accompany Troy's new book, "Hero Worship: A 12 Week Journey to Become More Like Jesus."

You can find the book "Hero Worship" on Amazon or christianbook.com to purchase.

Troy Kennedy (00:00.834)
Welcome back everybody. This is hero worship. My name is Troy Kennedy and we have been on a 12 week journey together learning to become more like the Savior learning to Inhabit his commandments inhabit his character to let his spirit work in and through and beyond us in ways We never imagined to become the kind of people who do what love requires

And so we've been intentionally putting ourselves in the position to get close to Jesus, to create intimacy, to create relational coming and going everyday conversation with Him because we love Him.

and we admire him and we are intentionally trying to walk in imitation of the things that he did and the regular comings and goings of his life here on earth. So I hope this has been a really wonderful, rich time for you. We've been doing this with a group of people here at my local church and it's been a really great journey with them as well. And these companion episodes for each chapter of the book, Hero Worship, a 12-week Journey to Become More Like Jesus, these companion episodes have been really inspired

conversations that have been happening on Sunday mornings in our little group of about 15 or so people. So hopefully this has been something that's augmenting the experience for you and that you'll be able to recommend it to other people. You can find the book on Amazon, christianbook.com, all the places where you typically maybe find your books. It's also available in the Kindle edition, so you can get it digitally if you prefer your books like that. And you can find me on all your typical social media platforms. I'm on.

I'm on Twitter. I'm on Facebook. I'm on

Troy Kennedy (01:42.706)
Instagram and Another thing you should know about in case this was a new to you or this is your first episode with it Is I have a newsletter that comes out every Friday called the one small thing newsletter and it's really just meant to be a very Simple maybe five minute read to encourage you on your journey with the Savior to give you something small that you can do Incrementally in the course of your life that will be transformative

know that we are our character is the output or the outcome of our habits the kind of habits the rhythms the regular things that we do every day deeply shape our character in our automatic responses to the situations that we run into most of us if we have enough time we can think about the what would Jesus do example what would Jesus do where he confronted with this

But when we're blindsided by life, and we don't have a lot of time to think about it...

What are our automatic responses? What are those things that pour out of us when we don't have the time or the resources or the presence of mind to think about how would Jesus handle the situation? And that was the journey that I have been on and am on is I'm wanting to become more and more like him. So I'm trying to create the kind of relational intimacy. I'm trying to put myself in the position to say, I don't want to try so hard anymore. I just want to be more like you.

I need you to change me. I need to abide in you and rest in you and let your spirit work in me and shape my character so that I respond in the crisis in the way that you would respond.

Troy Kennedy (03:37.33)
So last week we talked about how Jesus loved difficult people. And you know, I really wish I had named the chapter Jesus loved difficult people. It just says Jesus loved people and that is obvious to all of us. Jesus, of course, He loved people. He loves all the children of the world. But does He love that guy that lives across the street from me? Does He love that person who voted a different way than I vote? Does He love that person who's got some sort of lifestyle that I find kind of repugnant?

I really love them the way I love my own children, if you're a parent.

And of course the answer is yes. And then he knows their story and he knows their hurts just like he knows yours. And he is working in them and drawing them to himself just as he has with you. Um, so can we who have been forgiven so much, can we, who have been extended such extravagant grace from the savior, extend just a little bit more of that to those people. So that's what that was about last week. And, um, some of you will found out that you are that sandpaper

for somebody else much to your chagrin. You didn't realize that you could be that kind of a person for somebody else. Well, we often are shocked when we discover these things, but the truth is, yeah, you know, there are people who are aggravated by me, probably living in my own household. Maybe it's that way for you, or at least it's somebody in your workplace, somebody in your neighborhood who just, you just kind of get on their nerves.

And it's hard to see yourself in that light. How wonderful is it that the Savior is so kind and patient and gracious with you and I as He works on us and He works in us to become the kind of people that He would love us to be.

Troy Kennedy (05:25.118)
And that we look into the Savior as the optimal model of what it is to flourish as a human being, the optimized human, the perfect human that we see in Jesus and in the way he responds to the world around him. So this week we're talking about something a little bit different. It's related to the one last week, but it's, um, maybe in some ways it's equally as challenging. Jesus entered in, right? In the book of Romans chapter 12, the apostle Paul, he says this,

Troy Kennedy (05:59.574)
Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.

And we look at the life of Jesus and see, well then, how did Jesus live out this value? And he clearly did. We see over and over again, Jesus celebrates with people. The first miracle he performs in his public ministry is at a wedding. He's at a celebration. And the celebration is starting to go a little bit south and Jesus saves the day and he keeps the party going. We see Jesus going to people's houses like he goes and has meals with Pharisees, right?

tax collectors and sinners, people who would have been considered the outsiders, the repugnant people in that culture, Jesus goes and he celebrates and spends time with them. And then we see Jesus spending time with those who are mourning, those who are grieving, those who are hurting. The story of...

Zacchaeus comes to mind, like, Zacchaeus was a wee little man. He was a tax collector. He was somebody that nobody liked. He was somebody who would have been, he would have been wealthy. He would have been doing well, but he would have been considered to be an outsider. He would have been considered a traitor to his people. Same thing with Jesus' own disciple, Matthew, who...

was one of his twelve. And Jesus got so close to these kinds of people that he was accusing, or he was accused of being one of them, of being a sinner and a glutton and a drunkard, because why? He was spending time with sinners and gluttons and drunkards, kind of like you and I. And then you see Jesus go to the grave site of his dear friend who is dead.

Troy Kennedy (07:46.306)
Jesus weeps And Jesus comes alongside the hurting he comes alongside those who were disillusioned with him and his delay in getting there and Then he in his pain in his hurt in his sadness He has a righteous anger that wells up in him and he cries out Lazarus come out And the dead man comes out of the tomb

Jesus comes close to those who are grieving as much as it comes close to those who are celebrating. How is that an example to you and I?

How do we, we do what the savior seemed to do so easily. And for some people it's, it's much more intuitive than others. My wife is really, really good at this. She's really good at showing up at the party and she's really good at showing up at the funeral. She loves people. She loves to be near them and she's willing to process their pain and process their joys with them. For me.

It's not as intuitive and I hate to say it, but you know, even being a pastor, I'm not off the hook for being compassionate, even if that's not one of my primary spiritual gifts and in some ways it's a decision, it's a discipline for me to enter into the pain of other people.

Maybe it's that way for you too. You know, we spend so much of our lives in pain avoidance. We really try to stay out of other people's hurts. We don't even wanna deal with our own hurts, with our own grieving, with our own pain, and we can live in denial of those things, let alone somebody else's mess. And yet we see this example of the Savior so willing to come close in people's hurts. So.

Troy Kennedy (09:31.23)
And at the same time, maybe it's hard for you to celebrate somebody else's joy, somebody else's successes. And we ask ourselves, why is it hard for me to.

celebrate this person's success. When I was in college, I had a friend who was a musician, I was primarily a singer, and in a university setting, and you've got a bunch of other people, they're all vocalists, they're all musicians, they're all learning, they're all singing in the same groups, and it can be kind of a competitive environment. And I pretty much spent my entire college career as a singer in the shadow of this other guy. And it was really aggravating. He was

And I just wasn't as good as he was. And you can either allow yourself to hate him, you know, I hate that guy. What's you know, or you can love him and perhaps even learn from him. And the Lord really use that situation to say, Hey, you know what, when he gets the great audition, when he gets the gig, when he gets the commercial, when he gets the opportunity that I wish I had.

I had to learn the hard way how to just to celebrate and how to enjoy his successes. And maybe have that same issue looking on social media, the other person whose life appears to be so perfect, so successful, and we ask ourselves, well, what about me?

It's the what about me factor, which is typically not the right response, but it's the natural response for us to have. Well, what about me? Why that guy? Why not me? And Jesus, once again, has an example to us. He enters in to someone else's success, someone else's celebration, someone else's life in the spectrum of the ups and downs that we all experience. Can we learn to love someone?

Troy Kennedy (11:26.59)
not just when they're aggravating to us, but can we love them when they are in pain in meaningful ways? And can we love them when they are celebrating in meaningful ways, even when it means celebrating something we wish we had? My wife and I, when we first got married, we were both a bit older, and...

We knew we wanted to have children, but I made her promise me that we would get to just be a couple for two years before we started trying to have children. And she was like, sure, no problem. So we did that and it was wonderful. What we did not know was we were gonna have a hard time getting pregnant. We didn't know it was gonna take five years and all of the ups and downs and the month after month after month of disappointment and all the doctor's visits and all of the expenditures and all of that.

And to see your friends around you, you know, just a woman will say, well, I'm like, my husband just looks at me sideways and I ended up pregnant, you know, and learning to enjoy and celebrate the gift.

of a child that they have and maybe you're a young single person and your friends around you appear to be doing well. Maybe they're successful in their jobs. Maybe they're having the relationships that you wish you had. Maybe they're getting married and you're starting to get older and you're wondering why not me? What about me? And let this lesson sink into us. Let this lesson sink in.

that we can love and celebrate somebody in their success, even when it maybe magnifies our sense of loss.

Troy Kennedy (13:09.814)
Very difficult to do, easy to say, right? Sometimes, you know, we have self-regarding reasons for doing these things. We want to enter into somebody who's hurt. We want to show up at the funeral or show up at the hospital for reasons that are kind of selfish. Maybe it's the way other people perceive us. Maybe there's a certain sense of status that comes along with that as being seen as a compassionate person. I suppose you could have worse motives, but ultimately, the motive is always

For god and love for other people in the book of romans the apostle paul says this live in harmony with one another Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position Do not be conceited Here's something I find in myself that is really difficult to swallow um

Even on a weekend in the lobby of my own church as we're walking around and greeting people and enjoying the body of Christ that is gathered in this place for the sake of coming together in the name of Jesus to worship him, to love one another. And I find myself gravitating to the people who maybe make me look good.

make me look better anyway, that I'm gravitating to people who might elevate other people's perceptions of me. And

You know, you're attracted to attractive people. You're attracted to people who are more joyful, people who are more confident, people who seem to be more self-sufficient, people who might be able to teach you something, you could learn something from them. I mean, there could be a lot of reasons why we gravitate to certain people and we avoid others. And I find myself overlooking the people who aren't as confident, aren't as good looking, aren't dressed as well.

Troy Kennedy (15:11.281)
I mean, you know, consciously or subconsciously, you ask yourself, then, you know, if Jesus were in the lobby, if Jesus were at the show, if Jesus were at the dinner party, if Jesus were in the situation, how would he handle it? Where would his heart turn? And I got to ask yourself, do you share that same heart?

Or is the people that we gravitate towards and bless with our attention are ones that we get something from as opposed to someone who we can give them the gift of our attention, we give them the gift of a kind word, of a smile, of a meaningful question about their lives. So I'm learning how to be better at that. Um, Jesus says in Luke chapter 14, um, he's at a

Pharisee's house and he says this when you give a lunch and or dinner do not invite your friends your brothers and sisters your relatives Or your rich neighbors if you do they may invite you back and so you will be repaid but when you give a banquet invite the poor the crippled the lame the blind and You will be blessed Jesus is saying

Um, of course, you know, we all love our friends and invite our friends to things, but people who really have needs, people who are strangers, people who are alone, people who have been ostracized, people who are not as good looking, who don't have the status in our circles. Can we love them and not just enter into their lives, but they invite them into our own lives. These are.

challenging questions for me. I don't know about you, but in my pursuit to become more like Jesus, these are meaningful real Circumstances that you and I find ourselves in all the time Who has our attention Who has a kind word who gets the smile from us who?

Troy Kennedy (17:14.445)
Who are we willing to enter into their world regardless of what we get from the situation? So.

That is just one more episode here on our journey of hero worship, there's just, it's just a couple more. And I'm praying that this has been a rich, meaningful, wonderful, challenging, and encouraging experience for you. And I would love to hear from you. If you have the inclination, you can email me Troy at TroyMKennedy.com with any thoughts or questions or encouragement. Please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com. That apparently really matters to lots of people and how a book like this would show up.

And just full disclosure, you know, in putting this together and writing and putting it out there, it wasn't because I thought I was going to be a great author and it's not because I think that it's a great book. I think there are lots of books that have similar content that are a lot better than my book. But

Here's what I know, if you will follow this journey, if you will follow this process, if you will, despite however well written it is or is not, if you will walk in this process with the heart to get close to the Savior, to prayerfully come to Him and say, hey, change me from the inside out, I wanna become more like you and I wanna know you and I wanna walk with you every day. If you use this flawed book,

With that heart, I guarantee you, you're gonna get some revelation from the Savior. I guarantee you that you're gonna see change. There's no way you're not gonna honestly and authentically come before the Savior, asking for a greater relationship with Him for 12 weeks and not move the needle. I know this is true. So God bless you. Have an amazing week as you pursue this Savior, and I'll talk to you next time.