Episode 042 || Trusting God When Life Is Hard

Well, hey, Pando family. Welcome back to our Pando exclusive podcast as part of Southeast Christian Church. If it's your first time with us, welcome. We're glad that you're here. My name is Derek. This is Brandon. We're an online team here at Southeast, and we have our Blankenbaker campus pastor, Lucas DeVries. And so if you guys had an opportunity to watch our service from this last Sunday, then you would have seen this guy preaching and wrapping up our four-week series on the life of Moses called The Unexpected Leader. And so Lucas, we're at the end of the series, man. Yeah. We're wrapping it up. It's been a fun journey. I was grateful when we got the opportunity to dive in, especially coming after us going through Genesis. It just felt like it was a timely opportunity. So it's good. Right, right. Yeah, one of the things that I wanted to kick off today with is something that you had talked about at the end of your message, and so I don't want to spill the beans a little bit on that, although I know people would have seen it already, or they would have watched it already. But if you haven't, I would recommend you go back and do that and watch Lucas's message. I heard it was good. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But talking about this idea, what did you call it, SOAP, Scripture Observation Application

Prayer? Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the things I thought might be helpful to just kick off conversation today, for you guys, what does it look like for you to daily engage in Scripture? Not from a spiritual perspective, but a very practical of, okay, when I'm in a good rhythm, this is what it looks like in my life. Well, I definitely want to hear from one of you, but I think that it'll be helpful even for people to hear, because if you didn't know my family's reality right now, we have twin four-year-old boys, and we are getting ready to have our third child come in in September. And so with a full ministry schedule, I think that sometimes you can have this ideal world where you wake up at 5.30 AM, and you have an hour and a half soaking in Scripture, and you're interceding deep into the morning, and then you work out, and then you have... It's like all your spiritual disciplines, your physical disciplines are all happening before your children arise, and sit nicely next to you as they wait for their breakfast. It's just... It's not real. And I think all of us with kids can say that. And even if you don't have kids, life gets busy. Sickness enters into families, and jobs that you thought you were gonna have in the nine to five window turn into swing shift. And so somehow, daily bread has to be accessible to everyone. And so I personally have found that... I do think that there's a general wisdom as it relates to your time with the Lord, and I think it's interesting that even in our story, and we'll get to probably more of that later, there is that instruction of rising in the morning and gathering. But I do think that ultimately, the key here is dependence. It's not a equation or a formula. And so, yeah, I would say, generally speaking, for me, it is early in the morning, it's evicting myself from my bed, and it is being able to have...

I would say for me, it's a great morning when I can have about 30 minutes with the Lord. Sometimes it's 15. Yeah, for sure. Sometimes it is this beautiful soap journey where I'm journaling. Sometimes it is me on my ride to work where I could have the opportunity to throw on a podcast or where I could have the opportunity to throw on some worship music, and I just sit silent and I meditate on a passage of Scripture. And so I think, again, the key here is dependence on Christ. And I would say I try to, as much as possible, do that in a traditional sense of getting into the Word and prayer. So hopefully that... That helps answer. Yeah, love to hear from you guys. Brandon, what do you think? What's it look like for you? Yeah, you know, I think one of the things I've tried to do in recent years is build in multiple things that like throughout the day, so that I at least catch something if the day is hectic, right? Like you try to, okay, well, ideally I want to have this time set apart in the morning, but then there's also like a, I'm either I'm reading a Christian book or I'm listening to a sermon podcast on the way to work or something just so there are like fail safes in the day, you know, to be like, okay, hey, my day got off to a later start than I wanted to. So, but you know, I have the drive to work. So I need to listen, you know,

I can listen to normally Keller, but somebody on the way into work. Tim Keller. Yeah, Tim Keller. Who that is? Tim Keller. The Tim Keller. It's like the Ohio State. The Tim Keller. So, you know, I think that's part of it. It's just, you know, I think so often we try to kind of hinge everything on our day, working out perfectly, you know, and like Lucas said, it doesn't, it doesn't very often do that. So, you know, there's, there's this, I try to have multiple things that I have built into the rhythms of my life where it's like, okay, at least I'm getting something along the way at some point in my day where I'm stopping and I'm really kind of contemplating this. For me, you know, it's interesting that, you know, when I, when I was in Bible college, I got the worst advice that I ever got, which was, that's actually, that's the definition of Bible college. But, you know, I had a professor who was like, you know, never let your devotional life be guided by your preaching or teaching. And that's terrible advice because I found for me, like it took me years to unlearn that because I got

to the point where when I was preaching, it was, hey, I'm gonna start studying the passage that I'm gonna be preaching on. I'm gonna start studying that six months ahead of time. And then I'm gonna study that personally so that I can allow God to speak to me through that. And then I can be like, okay, this is what I think this is saying. And this is what it said to me. And this is what I think it's saying to us as the church. And so, you know, for me, that was, it's always easier for me to think of in terms of, what am I learning? What am I going through? When I have something that's on my mind, right? Like right now we're getting ready for our fall Bible study, this Ecclesiastes. So I have a lot of Ecclesiastes on the brain right now. And that explains my mood. Which be on the lookout for that Bible study coming in the next few months. Yeah, it's coming up in October. Love that plug. Yeah, it's great. But you know, like that helped me immensely when I kind of learned that rhythm, was that, hey, you know, I want to be able to speak to my congregation. I wanna be able to speak to my people out of a place of integrity and vulnerability,

whereas like, hey, I've spent six months now in the Sermon on the Mount. So let's talk about what Jesus is talking about here. And I think that's key. Any more, a lot for me is, what book of the Bible do I just, am I more interested in? Like what haven't I studied in a while? You know, for me, we've talked about this, I think on here a couple of times. I realized a while back, like I don't feel like I know how to pray. Like I've just kind of been praying the way I think I should for two decades. And it was like, man, I really, I should study the Psalms more. And so that's kind of been what I've been doing. That's helped guide you. Yes, yeah. I'm gonna, I look at a Psalm a day and it's like, we're just gonna dive in this. That's a great thought. Try to understand this. What is David talking about and praying for? And so I think you can, you know, either if you're studying along with us on the Sunday, on Sundays, you can go through and study those passages more deeply. If there's something that you have on your mind that you're like, man, I really wanna,

I wanna know more about this. Like, you know, dive in, find a book of the Bible that speaks into it and dive into it. Yeah, yeah, I love that. Yeah, and I think everything that you guys have said is so true because there's no perfect way to do this, right? There are gonna be ways that work for other people. Like for me, like I struggle early in the morning, like to even have like a coherent thought of like... Coffee. Like what is it that I'm supposed to be reading? You know, I have tried so many different things before where it's like, man, like I'm trying to read one chapter a day or no, like I'm trying to read three or four or hey, maybe I just do a paragraph or maybe I just do a couple of lines or maybe I'll do this Bible study and I'll do what that is. And I think the encouragement is that whatever it is, like let's just do our best to be in the Word, right? Because it's that idea of dependence. Yeah, yeah. You know, what's interesting though is, while yes, there's so much grace for us, I also think that there's a healthy consideration of modeling. So for example, like I remember, you know, and I'm so thankful for this

because I know, you know, I've got plenty of friends who can't say this. I remember almost every single morning waking up and looking over and I knew exactly where my mom or my dad was. Like I would come downstairs, mom would... be in her chair with the lamp on and dad would be over at the kitchen table. And it was like, I never once wondered what was I supposed to be doing? Like it was just, they were modeling the way. And I'm certain, like there were days where it didn't work out or maybe it wasn't as rich as it could have been. But you know, I think that that's something to consider because if your children don't ever see you doing that, it's possible that they might imagine that that's not something that's worth their time or they, you know. Oh, totally. So it's, again, I certainly don't wanna drift out into legalism, but sometimes it's not for you. Like sometimes you doing it is because you want the next generation or those who are following you, those that you're discipling to walk as you're walking as you imitate Christ, so. Have you guys ever heard of a guy named Paul Washer? Yeah.

You ever heard of him? He's really intense with his preaching, really intense. But I even heard him talk. Passionate. Yeah, passionate. I even heard him talking about one time, so he's been interviewed by somebody and he was saying something along the lines of like, he was like, guys, like even for me, like there are times where I read through a passage of scripture and I'm like, what in the world, like what did I just read? And he was like, it's not that I'm confused, it's that like, I literally cannot remember what I just read. And he said, I will have to reread it and reread it and reread it over and over and over again until it sinks in. He's like, because there is this like, fight to every single day to push ourselves towards being in the word, being with God, because so many things want to pull us in an opposite direction. And that made an impact on me, because I was like, man, maybe I'm the only idiot that like can read something. And then I'm like, what did I just read today? I do not remember. And have to go back and reread it and reread it.

But it comes back to that idea of dependence on being faithful, right, to commit to something, like being faithful to commit to something. And I think that's the journey in our Christian walk in so many different avenues in how we specifically walk with Jesus and engage in those things. But it comes back to this idea, Lucas, that you talked about in the sermon of depending on God, of trusting in Him and Him alone. And the part of the story that we're getting into with Moses is they're gonna have to learn to depend on God, right, and to depend on Him alone and trust that not only He will protect them, but He will guide them and He's gonna take care of them. And so Brandon, maybe you pick us up a little bit of where we are in the story and we'll hop into some deeper discussion from there. Professor Brawn. Professor Brawn. So last week we ended with the 10th and final plague, right, against the Egyptian gods where God has kind of set up this contest between Him and the gods of Egypt and the final god of Egypt being Pharaoh himself. And he takes on Pharaoh's household and in the death of the firstborn son, the firstborn son of Pharaoh dies, who himself would have been considered a god. So it's at this point that Pharaoh's will kind of breaks

and he decides he's going to let the Israelite people go. Now, God had prepared them for all of this through the feast of Passover, right? In Exodus chapter 12, we have them celebrate the very first Passover. You talk about dependence on God, right? And that's exactly what Passover was supposed to show them, is as part of the angel of death or whatever you wanna call it, passing over the homes of the Israelites, they were told to sacrifice a lamb to cover its doorposts in the lamb's blood. And whenever the angel of death or angel of the Lord or whatever it was, it would pass over the house of any house that had the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. So again, there's a picture perfect- Yeah, can't see how that would relate to the gospel. Yeah, this picture perfect image of the gospel in Passover. And so they're to celebrate this every year. They still celebrate it every year as part of God's deliverance. He saved us as a people out of Egypt. So they've already packed up. They prepared to go. God told them to get ready. So they leave Egypt with unleavened bread, which is part of the Passover feast. Their bread didn't even have time to rise. Unleavened, so is that a brand?

What is that? What is that for anybody? Unleavened bread is- Great value. Great value. Some days. It was very valuable. It is the, it's bread without yeast in it. So it hasn't had time to rise. It's kind of flat bread. So they take all this out with them. They leave, they head out of Egypt. We're told at this point in time, like even some Egyptian. go with them because they've seen like how God works they've given them- He was undefeated. 10-0 right? Yeah I think we got to get out of here it's there's been frogs and gnats and it's crazy in here so they when they give them some like treasures of Egypt and stuff and just just ask them to leave well they get out of Egypt and they're kind of on the banks of the Red Sea and it's at this point they realize oh Pharaoh's not gonna let us go that easy right Pharaoh kind of I guess wisened up or you know he got over his initial wave of grief and realized that he just let his workforce go so he he gets all of his his army together his men and chariots and they begin writing after the Israelites and they meet them on the banks of the Red Sea and so what Moses has at this moment and and the I think the estimates are like two to three million Israelites who have left Egypt at this point in time they they're stuck between Pharaoh's army and the Red Sea and it's at that juncture that Moses is you know okay well what are we gonna do here and there's that that you know act of dependence on God where God tells them exactly what to do to go into the Red Sea to part the waters and the Israelites walk through on dry ground

one of the defining miracles of the Old Testament. And so we believe that that actually happened right that it is actually God parting the waters it's not this like metaphorical thing that the Bible is sharing like this is a real event. Yes yeah yeah and it's interesting there's there's been some like research done into it and like a few it's been more than a few years ago like somebody kind of investigated the the parting of the Red Sea and and they discovered you on the banks of the Red Sea on opposite sides of it there's the there's these two pillars they're on the Red Sea and nobody in the area knows what they're for like what what does this mark what does this celebrate and nobody knows and it's one of those well could that have been like this this place where it happened so anyway yeah they they part through the Red Sea parts they walk through on dry ground and then when Pharaoh and his army come to chase after them God stops the parting of the Red Sea brings the waves crashing down on Pharaoh and his army delivers the people of Israel and on the other side of the Red Sea they stop in Exodus 16 I think I think you pointed this out the very first worship song we see in scripture that the song of Moses and Miriam they sing this song of deliverance because what God has done for them and Lucas so a significant passage in scripture right here where I mean yet again I mean I think we talked about this maybe with Bryson there's this idea there's this phrase that that God uses all throughout throughout scripture but especially the Old Testament of and then they will know that I am the Lord right and then they will know that I am the Lord that's what came to mind for me when you're talking about even the Egyptians even some Egyptians went with them it's like okay God has a way of reminding us right that he is undefeated he is the Lord and we are not but Lucas for you like as you were studying this part of scripture and putting this message together what were some of the things that just stood out yeah yeah yeah well I mean I could stay in Exodus a very long time yeah and and there's so much like every single chunk that you look at you can see themes and imagery you know I would say for this piece like I just love the picture of the Red Sea and the wilderness and and I just see this great

contrast of how our Christian life is made up like the Red Sea in my mind is such a beautiful picture of baptism like yeah I mean quite literally yeah they are walking through and there's other parts of scripture that that call back to this moment when I'm talking about baptism but right they are walking through the waters of baptism and they're being delivered from the enemy and what happens the waters come crashing down and and you know their oppressors are are completely vanquished and so it's just you know I think that like this shows such a beautiful picture of justification right like all of our all of our you know hurts habit habits and hang-ups like everything is covered and done away with and and so but then as you get into the wilderness you know we kind of pointed out but like literally three days in mm-hmm like you would think yeah this would be the surge like the moment yeah that would send them to the promised land yeah but let's go like and and how often do we live our lives that way right like if I can only have this happen and God would only pull through at this like that would be my moment my wave to ride you know exactly but but you know what we see happen in three days is that that their flesh rises up again. And so I think all of us can agree. We can think back to that day where we were baptized. Here in Southeast, camps just rolled. And we mentioned this in the sermon, but there's gonna be hundreds of students who give their lives to Christ. There's many of you who have given your life to Christ. And I remember the day I got baptized, I was like, all right, this is my commitment to never sin again. And it didn't last long, you know? And so we are confronted with this reality that Christianity is not one singular mountaintop moment

that leads you to eternity. But there is certainly a powerful deliverance that we experience when we come to Christ. But I would say that the majority of our Christianity is walking through the everyday aspects of discipleship. And it is overcoming temptation. It is everyday realizing how much we need. And so again, there's justification, just as if I had never done it, right? But then there is sanctification, which is the everyday mundane process of following Jesus. And I don't mean that in a negative sense. I mean that in a consistent process of following Christ. Yeah, because there is this maybe wrong assumption that, okay, we're gonna go to church on Sunday. We're gonna wear our best clothes. We're gonna get cleaned up. We're gonna go. We're gonna act the way we should act. We're gonna be happy and respectful. We're in the house of the Lord today. We're gonna sing some songs. We're gonna listen to the professional, share some words, and then we're gonna leave, probably go watch some football, probably have lunch, and then wake up and it's Saturday night again. We gotta do it again tomorrow. And so that could be the wrong assumption, but it's an assumption that I had

for a lot of my upbringing of like, okay, well, I'll go and listen and try to put some of these things into practice in my life. But in terms of doing these things throughout the rest of the week, well, there's probably some other ways I wanna spend my time. And I think that ultimately, and we mentioned this a little bit in the sermon, ultimately that is the flawed understanding that you are not, it's this idea that, yes, I am saved, but you're also coming underneath the Lordship of Christ. And I see a lot of people who want the ticket to heaven, but they don't recognize it. Well, that's great, right? Yeah, yeah. Like we want eternity, but the question is, it's like, you're actually stepping underneath a new kingdom ruler. And so I hit on this in the text, but they were realizing that, yes, they had been delivered from Pharaoh, but the reality is, is that they were delivered into God's rule. And so they now have a new master. I was looking this up, we were talking about this even before the podcast started, but I love Bob Dylan's lyrics,

where he says, you're either, you may serve the devil or you may serve the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody. Right. Yeah, for sure. I think that for so many people, if they are struggling to walk out their faith, one of the first things that I ask them is like, who's leading you? Because if you're trying to walk in a new kingdom without the realization that you have a new kingdom leader, your Christian walk is gonna really struggle. It's gonna be this continual wrestling, rather than this wholehearted devotion of following God's ways. Yeah, because it's gonna be anyway. You know what I mean? Like, even if we've made that decision of like, okay, I'm gonna wholeheartedly follow Christ. It is still a battle. Yeah. It is still a battle. Oh, for sure. And I think the spirit of God helps us with that along the way in that sanctification process of kind of keeping us on the right way. But our flesh pulls us one way, our world pulls us one way. If we have bad influences in our life, they pull us a different way.

And that can be difficult, especially when we've made that decision, much less if we don't even realize that we should be living under his lordship and figuring out what that means. Yeah. And I think, I mean, the most difficult thing. we face in our culture today, I think, is that we've been discipled by the lie that serving ourselves isn't really serving anybody else. Okay, yeah. Like, you know, well, you're not serving, you know, you're not serving this other kingdom or you're not serving, you're not, to use Bob Dylan's lyric, you're not serving the devil, you're serving yourself, you're being who you want to be. And like, I'm the worst master of all. Sure. Right? And I've been around by myself and, you know, kind of be a slave to my own desires and my own wants. Like, that's a terrible way to live because it's going to lead me into things that I have no idea their consequences, or I have no idea what it's going to do long-term. But we have just bought this lie, I mean, it's been part of our culture for decades now. Like, well, as long as you're serving yourself, then it's fine. And this is what you want. You want to be on your own. You don't want to be dependent on anybody. You don't want to live, you know, according to anybody else's rules, live to your own rules. And again, I'm a terrible ruler. I'm terrible at it.

And, you know, I think part of coming under the kingdom is recognizing, like, all these other, all these other kings don't have my best interests in heart. And that even includes myself. Like, they don't care about me, but he does. This king does care about me. And so I should depend on him. Yeah. And I don't even know what's best for myself. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I think about the times when, you know, like if I've been praying through something and or times where I haven't been, probably to be even more honest, and I just decide like, oh no, this is what I'm going to do. And then God will step in and close the door. And it's like, well, praise God I didn't do that or go that way. Because that would have been a complete and utter disaster, much less on a daily basis. Oh yeah. Like, how many times, like, do I do things that I'm like, oh, like, man, why'd you say that? Why'd you do that? And I thought that it was going to, like, scratch the itch, you know? And it's like, oh, well, I'm going to... I should choose to forgive, but actually I'm going to say this thing that feels really good because I know it's going to hurt them, you know? And it's like, well, what's the fruit of that? Well, guess what? It's a broken relationship now that's going to take time to fix. And I think just exactly how you're describing it, like, that is the picture of the children of Israel in the wilderness. Is that God is a good master, right?

Key difference. He's a good master who is able to lead them and is able to help them discover their need for Him. Which leads us to kind of the whole conversation around manna and His teaching them to trust and obey Him. But again, like, every moment, like, it's... He could have just simply snapped His fingers and then be all the way across the wilderness, but this was His way of teaching full dependence on Him. Yeah. And so even to look ahead in the story a little bit, like you guys said, these Israelites, they're going to become a nation in the wilderness. God is going to give them a lot more than 10, but this is where we get the Ten Commandments from, right? And Moses is going to get these from the Lord in the mountain or on top of the mountain. And even when He comes down, right, He sees that they've made this golden calf and then He slams these tablets down, He has to get new ones made. But they end up spending 40 years in the wilderness before they even get to this promised land. And not even that, we don't even get this, like, super, like, I don't know if redemption arc's the right word to use or phrase to use, probably not, but, like, we don't even get this picture of Moses, like, leading this people. We're here, right? No, because of His disobedience, He has to die in the wilderness. And God has to call a guy named Joshua to pick up the mantle to go forward, you know? And you see one of those moments where Moses slipped. He slipped in dependence, right? He slipped in that. But Lucas, one of the things that you said that I thought was great, you said God didn't rescue Israel so they could become independent. He rescued them so they would be dependent upon Him. Yeah.

Yeah. And what you had mentioned earlier, and I want to dig into it a little bit more, is, well, it's a question. Is that the same? Is that the same truth for us? Like, is that the same truth for us? So what did you mean about that? Dive into that a little bit more. Yeah, you know, I have always loved the scripture at the very end of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter eight, where I'll just read it for us. It says, And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Yeah. And it's just this... It is this picture of He quite literally taught them to depend. And so I think that, yeah, there are the moments where we are on a large scale delivered from our sin and justified in Christ, but the rest of our lives is Him teaching us to trust Him. And so every single moment of our lives... Obviously, these tests and these trials come in very unique forms. I don't know that we're gonna be looking for how to solve bitter water. I don't know that we're gonna see snakes invade our camps. But I think every single one of us are gonna have moments that are going to seem like something went wrong or, gosh, my cards were dealt poorly. And I think what this passage helps us understand is that God is sovereignly working in creation to allow you to learn dependence upon Him. And so when everything at the house ends up needing the repairman to come or when an issue arises in your family or your children or sickness comes, I think what we can say is that every single test is an opportunity for us to depend on the Lord. And it could be self-inflicted, and He is still that good. He's still that good to redeem something that we poorly led through, but then also things that are out of our control. And so, yeah, man, I hope I'm answering your question, but I think ultimately every bit of what God is doing is He is this master teacher,

and He is... And I think that that's why, in James, we can take joy in the testing of our faith, because we know that when these tests come... I don't know if you'll ever get to the point where you go, yes, I can't wait for this. But I have started to have eyes of faith and say, okay, Lord, I legitimately have no idea what's gonna happen here, but I just know how good you've been in the past. And I know, Lord, that you are going to work all things together for the good. Now, I don't get to determine what good is. Yeah, that's hard. That's the hard part. We don't get to... That idea of control is... Gosh. Yeah. But the last thing I'll say about this passage, Jeremiah 8 verse 3, it says, He says that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. And of course, He's referring to manna in the wilderness, this daily dependence. It would come down, and they would be able to retrieve it in the morning. It wouldn't last all through the night. And if they tried to store it up, it would go bad, right? So it was like, He literally set up their everyday sustenance in a way where they couldn't monopolize it, they couldn't manufacture it. And I think that our world is so good at just figuring out how to control something. Yeah, for sure, no doubt. Literally, God Himself is making sure that that is absolutely impossible in this scenario. And so at the very end, He's saying, I wanted to teach you that man doesn't live by bread alone, which should make you scratch your head, like, what? Why is... So the bread wasn't... Yeah, like, I need that. I need that to survive. But that every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God... And so in the moment, it's speaking to God's instruction, but I think for those of us who know the New Testament, when Jesus declares, I am the bread of life immediately, and then when Jesus, when He's in the wilderness being tempted by the devil, when He quotes this, I mean, everything is pulling this passage into it. And I would just say, ultimately, what we every single day... need to realize is that Jesus is our sustenance. He is what gives us life, and so thus, the Word, Christ himself, but I would say the Scriptures, going all the way back to our first conversation, why do we have quiet times? Why do we try to carve out opportunities to get into the Scriptures? It's because, you know, we live off of every word from the mouth of God, and so we see that as the Scriptures.

You know, you made me think, Lucas, as you were talking, I was just looking on my phone because I have a picture of it. There's a book I was reading by Jared Wilson years ago where he had a quote that just kind of talked about how we trust Jesus and our dependence on him, and I'll just read this because I underlined it, took a picture of it. It said, I tend to believe that most of us do not truly treasure Jesus until we've run out of alternatives to him, until every last option has turned up dry. And think about this, what if Jesus actually brings us to the very moment of those no more rope situations in order that we might actually finally trust him? And I think about that just as you were talking about them going through the wilderness and the desert is like, some of that wilderness is like, I need you guys to finally get this. I need you to finally understand that you can trust me and I'm good and it's okay. And you would think, you know, 40 years of man a daily would be enough to do that. And he taught them to hunger. He taught them to hunger. What? And they don't, you know, they don't get it. And then, you know, I sit there and shake my head at them, but then I think, ah, I do the same thing. Yeah, I do the same thing. Like, I do the same thing. Like, how many at the end of my rope situations have I been in? And then I'm still kind of like, well, can I trust him with this though? I mean, and you think about this, like I was thinking about this as you were talking earlier about the bitter water at Mara. And it's just so interesting that, you know, it's three days later and like God led them through the water and now they're complaining about water. Like this symbol, they ought to look at it and remember like, hey, like, no, he's led us through water. He can take care of this water. And they still, they just don't get it. Yeah. It's like, I'm, you know, reading a story about my four-year-old twin boys and I'm like, oh, that's actually me as well. I have this fickle nature about me that in one minute I can be satisfied by God, but the very next I am, you know, hungering and thirsting for the things of this world. And, you know, so quickly do I allow fear or scarcity to motivate how I approach and come to the Lord?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, one of the things you had just mentioned, Lucas, is that, you know, if we want to learn, right, why we should and can trust the Lord, we need to be in Scripture, right? We need to read our Bibles. If we want to know more, we need to pray. We need to read our Scripture. We need to read our Bibles. And that's why like, again, all of these things, whether it's having a community of believers in your life to encourage you and challenge you, or if it's to have normal rhythms of being in the Bible, or it's having normal rhythms of prayer, right? Like if we're just doing these things because it's helping us feel more Christian, right, then it's not probably going to produce the fruit that we want it to, you know, to produce. And that's where, like I... Gosh, this whole journey, and like y'all have mentioned, this whole journey of following Jesus, of following God, following His ways, is for us to learn how to trust Him. Yeah. Right? There's a guy named Forrest Frank. I think his song is named Your Way's Better. That song popped in my head as you guys were talking. Sing it. Sing it. Can you sing it for us? Yeah. Yeah, never mind. Kind of. And... We won't do that. Yeah. And it's the truth, though. It's that reminder in that song of God, like, your way is better than mine. Yeah. Lucas, like you had mentioned earlier, when we talk about, okay, I have made Jesus my Lord and Savior. Well, let's break that down. What does that mean? Savior part's great. Real easy. Like, you're going to pay my debt, no doubt. You're going to set me free, absolutely. That's easy. You want me to step out of the front driver's seat of my car and allow you to drive? Yeah.

I don't know about that. I will do this sometimes, but I'll clarify it very quickly so that we don't fall into tradition. But I love how when you read about the early church, oftentimes, like Saul to Paul, they would change their names at baptism. Like, they believed that... that this wasn't just something that they attached to their lives. Like it wasn't just another venture, another hobby. Like they believed that the gospel was so all-consuming that they would change their names at baptism. And so when they would go into the water and come back out, they would go by a different name because they couldn't even associate themselves with their old lives. And so I just think our Western understanding of faith is just so compartmentalized, and we bring Jesus along with us, but He is everything now. And so as you, yes, am I saved, but I'm also following a new way. And everything that I existed for beforehand now submits fully to a new master and a new Lord. And so I just think if everyone in our church, if everyone at every church decided that upon baptism, upon their Red Sea experience, like if they would wholeheartedly follow Jesus, it would be absolutely incredible to see the repercussions of someone who's following Christ like that. And so I indict myself in saying that, so I'm not, certainly haven't figured it out, but. Yeah, I think like you're saying,

we love the idea of life with Jesus, when really it's like life in Jesus. This is the complete difference is we like the idea of like, I'm gonna take Jesus with me. It's like, no, no, like Jesus isn't somebody who just tags along, right? Jesus is what we depend on, the bread of life, the water of life, like you said, like this is what we're putting everything in Him, not just asking Him to come along with us. And when we trust Him, like we've mentioned before, He ultimately decides what's good. One of the things my wife and I love doing every year is on New Year's Eve, we will sit down and kind of talk through all of the things that we felt like, all of the prayers we felt like God answered the past year, all of the good things that we saw Him bring into our life. And then we'll look ahead. Again, not that God is a genie, because He is not, but we will specifically pray for certain things in our life ahead of time, like for the year. So like for 2026, that's what we did. And just praying through like, God, we hope that you do this in this relationship. We hope that this person meets you here. We hope that, even things as simple as, we're praying for our kids' teachers, right? Or our kids' coaches, or whatever those things are. And then that's what we'll look at,

December 31st, the next year. Well, a few years ago, we put one on there to have an improved relationship with a couple of people in our family. And I kid you not, two months later, that relationship blew up. Is that in a good way? In the worst way. In the worst way. And it got worse. There was a conflict that happened that I think under normal circumstances, you would be able to work things through and get to the other side. And for whatever reason, it made things worse than it had ever been. That if things were superficial before, that things are definitely contentious now. And I kid you not, literally this last weekend, so probably two and a half years later, is probably the first step forward in that relationship in probably two and a half years. This literally this last weekend. And why was that? I think it was literally God's timing in the midst of everything going on. And what we, so what my wife and I had to challenge ourself was, because we were heartbroken over this, of like, we're not the ones that are like,

we wish we could reconcile, but it's those relationship, it was one of those situations where it just wasn't possible for a variety of reasons. And we wanna reconcile this, and we wanna figure these things out. But from the other side, it just wasn't possible. And in the midst of that, my wife and I had to decide, okay, like we prayed specifically for this thing, and legit the opposite happened. Like God, like if you're hearing our prayers, like why did the opposite happen? And the only choice we were left with was, well, are we gonna trust Him? Yeah. Do we trust that God heard our prayer? And we're gonna have to trust that through this conflict, even if it takes time, that maybe we'll have a better relationship in the future than we will just kind of now. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I think something that has helped me in my expectations when it comes to my relationship. with crisis, I from time to time have to ask myself, what's the purpose of all of this? Because if the purpose of me following Christ is so that I'm happy, safe, and comfortable, I am constantly going to be interrupted, frustrated, sad, mad. Be disappointed. Yeah. And so I think that if we have the correct starting point, which is the whole reason

why I exist, and thus the whole purpose of me following Christ is to glorify Him, every step of the way is Him going to be making me holy so that I can reflect a better picture of who He is in the earth and bring honor and glory to Him. And so when I do bump up against those trials, and those tests, and those difficult situations, I can reframe that and say, OK, Lord, thank you. Thank you that you're testing my perseverance. Thank you that you're testing my character here. I have the opportunity to be selfish, to gain something in this circumstance, but you're testing my character to honor you even when no one's looking. And so I see that, not all the time, but I'm starting to see that as a daily opportunity to lean on Him and to trust Him. And here's what I found, and I know you guys have found this to be true. Every single time, there is grace for the day. And I don't even know how to... It's such a... It's something that I can't always put a physical factor on. It's not always that money shows up. It's not always that some physical miracle shows up, but it's just the ability to persevere, or the ability to honor God in the midst of it. And so it is... Every single time I bump into a new situation, I think it's my first time, but it's been a beautiful journey, and I'm grateful that He knows better than we do. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, there are so many moments every day to ask ourselves that question of, okay, are we gonna trust God with what I'm facing? Because there's this illusion of control that we all have, that, hey, if I move this chess piece to this part on the board, then this should happen. And when that doesn't happen, or doesn't happen at all, we can get remarkably frustrated, and remarkably discontent. And that's what we see.

We're gonna see it throughout the story of Israel, as they're in the wilderness, as... Even you fast-forward hundreds of years where they're tired of God leading them. They want an actual king, right? They want a king, and God gives them a king, and it doesn't go so well, and He teaches them through it, and there's... But there's grace for that. There's grace for us every day to ask ourselves that question of, okay, with what we're facing, are we going to trust that God is gonna use this? Do we trust that, God, Your way is better? And how do we learn what His ways are? Again, by being in His Word, by being around other people that know Him. And what I would say is that even as... Guys, as you're listening to stuff on the Pando app, as you're listening to us, if you have a Bible, test what people are saying by what you see in Scripture. We have incredible faith that this is exactly what God intended for us to read, exactly. And so if there are people in your life, or even on this podcast with us, if you're like, man, I'm not sure that's what Scripture says, test it, test it. But as we wrap up, Lucas, why don't you give a last word to our Pando family? Wrap up the series, wrap up this podcast in just an encouraging word. I feel like I have Jesus's words, the Lord's Prayer in my heart, where there's that one specific part where He instructs the disciples to pray, give us this day our daily bread. And I know it's something that we've literally spent almost an hour talking through, but I think that that would be in my encouragement and my prayer for you is that you would... Yes, the mountaintop moments are great. I believe that God has radically delivered us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. But I think if you want to be the greatest leader that God has called you to be, I think some of the greatest things that you could do is just the daily, seemingly mundane, simple aspects of our faith. And leaning into spiritual disciplines, I think that...

Reading Scripture is great. I think confession, I think repentance, fasting, prayer, all of those things that graft you and connect you to Christ so that you can receive His daily provision. And so I just, I would encourage you with that. Do not despise the small, mundane ways of following Jesus. I think that anyone, anyone that you would say that I look up to as it relates to, and I look up to these guys a lot, as it relates to following Jesus, I think what you will find to be true about them is that they were convinced enough by faith that those small, seemingly insignificant disciplines are truly what formed their faith. And over time, there is a great harvest of righteousness that's produced in your lives. And so I'm still on that path. These two are still on that path. And I just would encourage you to take one more step, take your next step of your faith, and to continue to follow Him in that way. Amen. Amen. Yeah. One thing that our Pastor Kyle had said from stage one is this idea of committing to the long game. Committing to the long game. And what he meant was faithfulness. We're in this to be faithful over decades. Consistency, not flashiness. That man, we're in this for the long game, to be faithful over decades. And y'all, we are glad that so many of you are so faithful to be on here with us every single week. We know you're watching. We're grateful for you. We're grateful that you especially engaged with us over these past four weeks as we've had Lucas and Bryson jump in with us. So Lucas, thank you for your messages specifically for our online audience, specifically for our Pando family, and to be on this podcast, to be with us. We know that that takes extra time, and when you say yes to something, you're having to say no to something else. And so thank you... Yeah, honored to be here. ...for being on here with us. Professor Braun, as Lucas likes to call you, thank you again for... I'm not actually licensed, so don't... ...for your thoughts. But y'all, we love you. We're grateful for you. Remember, trust God in the everyday things, and I think you'll see His faithfulness to you. Y'all, have a great week, and we'll see you next time.