Episode 050 || Strength Under Control

- Well, what's up, Pando family? We are excited and ready to be back with you this week for week two, talking about our Flippet Sermon series that our senior pastor Kyle Adelman preached through this last weekend. But this is the Pando exclusive podcast. We're excited to be with you. Today, we have a returning guest with us, Jody from our recovery ministry. We have Brandon from our online team and myself. My name is Derek, part of our online team as well. And we're grateful to be able to have this conversation today about the sermon, about the beatitudes. Again, I'm just talking about Jesus and the sermon on the mount. But like we were talking about before we hopped on, it is golly, it's like the middle of October. And as you guys will be watching this, it's definitely be the middle of October then, but it is now. And in the middle of all the things fall, all the things autumn. And so Jody, what is one of your favorite things about fall this time of the year? - I honestly love the weather change when it's still warm, but it's not sweltering. You know, the colors on the trees are different. I love being outside. It just makes it more enjoyable, I think. I love that Brandon outside. Okay, so I'm gonna make you say out other than football.

- Other than football. - Well, I mean football hasn't been great so far this year. So, you know. - But we don't give the reins to sports. We try not to. - In theory, yes, in theory we don't do that. That's how, you know, I mean Halloween is coming up. And I do love Halloween. So I don't know, can I say that on a Christian podcast? I wanna say it anyway. Like I love Halloween. It's a fun time. I like taking my kids around the neighborhood. I have a good time. I like teaching my kids about taxes when we get back and being like 15% of what you've earned comes to the government. In this case it is me. And we're taking the 15% we want. So none of that crummy candy, right? It's like I want the Snickers and the Kit Kats. So, you know, like we love doing that and we have a great neighborhood for that. So I'm looking forward to it. - Like that, like that. So what would you're all like if you could get a bag full of Halloween candy, but it could only be one thing. What would your choice be? - I mean, fun sized Snickers. That's 100%. - Fun sized Snickers.

That's 100% what I would. Wouldn't you have to think about it? - All right. - Fill it up. - I probably would have to say fun sized almond joy. - Okay. - There you go. - I love coconut. - Okay. - Some almond joy. Love that. - I know. - Love that. For me, I think it would be probably peanut M&Ms. - Okay. - I love peanut M&Ms. Those are. - See, but if it's too cold on Halloween night though, you take those and start eating them and they break your teeth off. - Well. - It's like, ah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - That is true. Funny enough, I think first month or two, I was working with Brandon here at Southeast. He lost a cap, right? - Yeah, I lost a cap. Yeah, let's cap off my tooth for a minute. - They're the day. - Yeah, I was eating some milk duds and like all of a sudden like Ben and Tim realized I have lost one of my teeth basically in this and he thought it was, I think he thought it was hilarious and scary and weird. - I have never, I've never been a part of someone else's dental emergency until that moment. - Yeah. - And so.

It was, it was a memorable, and that would probably been what, six years ago now? - Yeah, six years ago. Yeah, so it's probably about time for that to be replaced. - Same cap? - Sorry. - Same cap since? Do you have a new one that day? - No, oh no, they just put, 'cause it was a partial, they put it back on, but I did, that is right, the next year I had to have it replaced because, yeah, it was almost that, yeah. - Goodness, well, be careful with the milk duds. - Yeah, no milk duds. - Yeah, no laughing taffy too. - Laughing taffy, laughy taffy, you'll getcha. But Jody, like I mentioned, you're part of our recovery ministry, you've had several of your teammates in here too, on the Pando podcast. Tell us about what's one thing right now that you're just excited about that's happening in our recovery ministry here. - I am so grateful, we get to be a part of 29 different recovery facilities. - Okay. - Whether, and that's in a variety of capacities, but in addition to that, we get to work with seven trafficking, emergency stabilization shelters. And what I love about that is just the interpersonal connection with people, getting to hear their stories, and also just getting to be another person in their corner that's like, we all have questions,

we're all growing, let's do it together, and what does that look like? And I think just any opportunity we get to point to Jesus of the Bible and not maybe someone who is misrepresented who Jesus is or what the Bible says, that we get to write that ship a little bit and have a really good conversation about how much Jesus loves. there's nothing that we have done that can make him love us any less, and there's nothing we could ever do to make him love us anymore, that, you know, his love is the same yesterday, today and forever, so. - That's good, do you see a big difference in the work that you guys are doing when, 'cause I know like some of the like 12 steps, like May point to like a higher power, but then being able to speak to it being Jesus specifically, do you see kind of a big difference between people that really start to understand, what you just said? - Yes, because I think, sure, yes, is a short answer, but to answer your question, concisely, it's when people start to see things happen, that they could have never done themselves, or that no one could have ever known about, like when God, you know, meets them in the deepest places of their hearts, or, you know, helps them put together the pieces

of a very broken path, that they realize, this is something bigger than us, you know, this is something bigger than just my higher power in, you know, nature. It's not accidental, and it's not haphazard, it's like this is some power that is, you know, caring with intention that, you know, we know as the Lord, but I love it too, that the big book, like when you look back at it, it was never copyrighted when the gentleman who wrote that, wrote higher power to keep the conversation open, you know, they were believers themselves, but to keep the conversation open with people who weren't there yet, and how over what it's been like 90 years, I guess, that it has continued to work, and opened the doors for conversation with people who don't know Jesus, so it's a great conversation piece. - That's incredible. And also, you know, if you all on Pando don't know yet, we have, it's called Spiritual Pathways, right, that we've had on the app for the past several months, would encourage you guys to go through those videos and the content and Jodi and the team that she's a part of have put all of that together so intentionally, and I was just looking the other day at the amount of views and clicks and stuff like that, that have been taken part with it, and it's just so cool to see people going through that,

and I'm sure just the stories that you guys are seeing from people going through that, just within the Recovery Centers, 'cause what did you say were part of what, 27, 29? - 29, yeah. - 29, that's incredible. - Well, and I will put a plug in for anybody that is using the Spiritual Pathway Through Pando, you know, when the day comes that you're located somewhere else, we will send you materials. If you wanna take a group through it, just let us know and we'll send it to you. Like, we've created it so that you can use it to encourage others and continue to carry the message, they would say. - Love that, that is so, so good. And so, Jodie, we're so excited. You're back on here with us today. And Brandon, we are going to be talking about the Beatitudes, talked about the Sermon on the Mount. Give us, if we have somebody watching, maybe for the very first time today, didn't catch up with us last week, what in the world is the Sermon on the Mount? What does that mean? - Oh, okay, wow, not a broad question at all. - You know, let's-- - Let's toss it out there. - So, the Sermon on the Mount is the longest continuous body of Jesus' teaching in the gospels. It's three chapters, Matthew five, six, and seven. And it records what I think is probably

a very common message that Jesus would go around and deliver. I think we talked about this last week, that I think what Matthew describes here happened, but I think it happened pretty regularly. I think this was the Sermon that if you would hear Jesus speak as he went across the towns and villages, villages of the Middle East, these are the things that he was talking about. And so, I think the theme of the Sermon on the Mount begins in Matthew 4, 17, right, where it says, Jesus' first words, that drove our last sermon series, "The Kingdom is Real." Jesus said, "Repent of your sins and turn to God for the kingdom of heaven is near." And so, thematically in Matthew's gospel, I think he's picking that up and putting the sermon here 'cause he wants us to know, like, hey, this is what Jesus was saying about the kingdom. This is why the kingdom matters. This is what it's about. This is what it means to live as though God were your king. You're living with God as the ultimate authority, the ultimate ruler of your life. And he begins the sermon with that first beatitude, right? God blesses the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is there. So from the very beginning, we get this set up. Like, okay, this is about the kingdom. And this is about what it means to live and move

and work in the kingdom of God. And so, if you walk through the Sermon on the Mount, you begin with the Beatitudes. Then you move on to some of Jesus's broader teaching and deepening the law, right? You've heard it said, do not commit adultery. I tell you that if you lust after someone, you've committed adultery. You've heard it said, you know, do not, mile with him, you walk another mile with him, like you don't take revenge. He goes into then, like what it means to live righteously with giving to the needy and prayer and fasting and things like that. And then finally kind of wraps up the Sermon on the Mount by calling us to watch how we view our money and possessions and how we view other people. So again, there's a lot going on in the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes are really just the beginning of that. In many ways, a lot of the themes and a lot of the words that Jesus will use in the Beatitudes drive the rest of the Sermon forward. How to talk about like, hey, this is what righteousness looks like. This is what the Kingdom of God is all about. And so when we talk about the Sermon series, right, it's called Flip It. How, you know, tends to be that what Jesus and his Kingdom values tends to be flipped from what we tend to value. Our world tends to value. And so last week, we had talked about this idea of being poor in spirit. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. And blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. And so we talked a little bit last week about how to be encouraged by that, right? Because even when we're reading that, it can seem like, Oh, man, all right, but there is a blessing in it. But this week, Kyle talked about blessed are those that are gentle for they shall inherit the earth and blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. And there were several ways that Kyle brought both of those points home that were both funny and applicable and definitely was stick with me. But for you guys, what was something from the sermon that stuck with you that connected with you? I think when Kyle, I can't remember exactly the definition he gave. But when he said, meekness is strength or power under control under the control God's control to be used for the benefit of somebody else. It really made me look at that, you know, I started thinking about the

fruits of the spirit and how all of that kind of plays into, you know, the ability to do that or to to submit in that way. And when you think of it, especially as the benefit for someone else that really helps us take our eyes off of ourselves and maybe momentary discomfort or maybe an injustice that's just really burning in our chest. And it helps us take a beat, take a minute to, you know, let the Lord be the one that steps out in front of us. If there is something for us to do, he'll lead us to it. If this is a time for us to be quiet and just wait prayerfully, he'll lead us to that as well. And that takes the pressure off of us thinking we've got to figure it out when we let him lead us in that. Yeah, that's good. Right now, what about you? You know, I was thinking about this today because I knew we were going to be talking about these beatitudes again. And I think to me, these are two interesting beatitudes for us because they're two that we both very much misunderstand. Okay. Right. Like we hear gentle or meekness and like we do not like those words, right? Like meekness is weakness. I think Kyle referenced and I think we view it that way. Like meekness just means, well, I'm going to be a doormat or whatever. And I do love that Greek, that Greek image of, you know, it's, it's strength under control. And you know, one of the ways that word was used was that the horse that won a race would be called the meekus horse. And it would be called the meekus horse, not because he was like the most bashful or whatever, but because he was the one who was most under control of his rider and listened to his rider. And you know, I we misunderstand that be attitude because because we think of meekness in the wrong way. We think of it not as strength. It's almost the opposite of strength. But the other be attitude, I think we misunderstand because we just don't have really a category for it in our culture. I think we talked about this a couple weeks ago or maybe about a month ago. We were talking about the fact that it's hard for us to understand dependence because we've taken away so much of that out of our culture. Like we've done away with it. You know, we have medicines and we have pantries and we have homes and you know, so, so we don't feel desperate as much as some of maybe some of these people did. But when Jesus talks about, you know, like, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, like these people knew what it was to hunger and thirst and they knew what it was to hunger and thirst and not know where you're going to eat next, right? Like, oh, I got to, I got to go get a day laborer job tomorrow. I got to make money today so I can eat today. Whereas by and large, you know, when we say we're hungry or even if my kids are like, oh, I'm starving, it's like, you're not. Come on. You're not starving. You're going to be fine. Like, so we just misunderstand

that we think of hunger and thirst for righteousness is like, oh, I'm minorly inconvenient. And Jesus is like, no, like blessed are those who are desperately hungry and desperately thirsty for righteousness. And that is what they want more than anything else because it's what they survive on. Those people are gonna be filled and satisfied by God. So to me, these be attitudes... I don't wanna say of all the eight 'cause there are a lot of things that are completely counter-culture to how we live. But I think these two in particular being side by side just really shows how we misunderstand some of these things and how we just don't always get what Jesus is saying to us here. - Right, yeah, and I think you're right. I think it's like we like the word meekness, right? Because it's like, okay, we can see how that's like an admirable quality, we can see that. But at a certain point, it's like, man, but when I've given the reins over to something, it's like in that moment, we don't want to be that. I don't know about you guys. Maybe that's how I feel. It's like, man, I don't wanna be that. That's the last thing. I wanna make sure that my voice is heard or I wanna make sure that my way is the way that this happens. And yet, at the same time, on the opposite side of the spectrum,

when I think of meekness, sometimes I can confuse it like for passiveness. And so what maybe is the difference between meekness and passiveness versus like just being nice versus kind and honest? So like, what are some of the differences between some of those? - Part of me wonders if like the posture of your heart behind it is different. But then I think also whatever emotions you're experiencing play into that as well. So, you know, if I think about the word passive, I think about I don't really care or, you know, it's not worth the effort or, you know, I'm just gonna take the easy route where I feel like maybe meekness or that gentleness is, you know, if you're really passionate about something or really invested in something, you know, our emotions are called feelings because we feel them in our body. So we're feeling that, you know, excitement or we're feeling that fear or we're feeling that anger and that, you know, when a Kyle's old how you feeling sermon series he talks about, you know, God gave us our emotions to move us. And so we're, it's kind of like that inner battle of like, okay, my emotions are pushing me in this direction. But what I know that God has asked of me is like prayerful submission. And so it's kind of like we're at war with ourself

a little bit, but just, you know, learning how to again, just pause and invite the Lord into that will never fail us. - Yeah. - I don't know. - Yeah, that's a good word. - Yeah. Well, you know, Jordy, you said something earlier that I think kind of hits at the core of it too is the idea of just letting that strength be under the control of God, you know, and letting him guide and sing like, oh, this opportunity is from him. This is where he's leading. This is what he's doing. You know, and I think that whole definition that Kyle gave, the strength under control for the benefit of others. Like I think that helps guide us. Like if I am, if I am living a meek or gentle, I think is the way your translation translated it. Well, whatever, however you look at that word, if I'm living this way that Jesus asked me to live, then the strength that I have isn't used for my own benefit, right? It's used for the benefit of other people. And it got its guiding me to- - To get perspective. - To use my giftedness, my resources, my abilities to bless the life of other people

and not just bless the life of myself. And I think that's, you know, especially in our culture, one of the harder things to do is to look at, okay, how can I leverage who I am for other people? Because we're so quick to be like, well, I know how to leverage who I am for myself. Like I can figure that out. But am I pouring into other people? Am I allowing God to guide me to those opportunities that he has for me rather than what I want for myself? Like I think that's the mark of the meekness Jesus calls us to. I think that's a great point. And I think where we see this ultimately, you know, personified is in the person of Jesus, like through the New Testament. And I think if we were to challenge ourselves to just read through the gospels at face value, right? And not bring, you know, this whole like maybe misconception. Like, oh, well, Jesus, like he was never confrontational, like always super nice and loved it. Like, you know, never called out things. Like take all that off the table and just read it. I think that we see this is that we see Jesus in moments where like, whether it's the scribes or the Sadducees or the Pharisees, these Jewish leaders that, I mean, were maybe intentionally and unintentionally leading God's people astray. Like he was specific. but for the betterment of his people, right? But then there are other times where it's like,

you know, he's healing someone when another person may not believe that that's the moment to do it or to be with the woman at the well or with the child or whoever it would be. And so I think we see this personified in Jesus so well and it challenges me because my personality is to not be confrontational, right? It's to not bring the thing up. It's to not ever talk about it. But there is a way to be able to just bring things up without it coming from this place of like an explosion, right? Coming from this place of an explosion. And because a lot of times I think that it comes from a place of fear in confrontation where it's like, it's almost like the strong, it's like I tend to believe that the stronger the reaction, the more that I'm going to protect myself in that moment, you know, but to have a softer reaction almost invites more of a conversation. What do you guys think? - I agree. I will say for myself personally, in that scenario you just described 99% of the time, I'm already telling myself a story about what I think the other person is thinking about what the other person is gonna say. And that is mostly what drives any sort of like apprehension or even maybe a more aggressive approach to a conversation. And so for me learning how to back up and like,

okay, I'm already telling myself a story which is making me feel a certain way, but I need to rewind and like, what is the actual facts of this scenario? And I love what you said about leaders to either intentionally or even unintentionally lead others astray. You know, we have a responsibility to ourselves to be connected with Jesus. And he will, you know, anything, the Holy Spirit, anything that we're led to will never contradict what's in scripture. And I think that's just a great checkpoint for each of us personally is, you know, check myself. What story am I telling myself? And then check scripture like, okay, I feel like God's leading me to this and I see this in, that's like confirmation for me because if something doesn't match, then I know I need to take a step or take a minute to get clear on that. - Yeah. - You know, I mean, I think you bring up a really interesting point about, you know, Jesus was not afraid to confront people. But it's interesting when you, I'm just singing this sort of top of my head so I could be completely wrong here. (laughs) - Go for it.

- But it seems like like in those times when people were criticizing Jesus, like I can't think of a single instance where he defends himself strongly, right? Like even you think about, before Pilate, like Pilate's desperately trying to get like, say something to defend yourself. And Jesus is like, my kingdom's not out of this world. I don't know what else to tell you. But you do get those occasions like with the money changers in the temple where he like, he goes in, I mean, hot. I mean, like he doesn't just pick up a whip. Like he's sitting in the corner making a whip. And then he's like, all right, here we go. So I think there's an element where sometimes we have to step back and be like, you know, what are those things that I get passionately defensive about? Like am I, I mean, if I think about my own life, I'm more passionately defensive about things people say personally about me than I would be some other causes, right? But Jesus is completely the opposite. Like he sees those people who, you know, the vulnerable who are being hurt, he sees the name of God being, you know, tarnished in the actions of the religious leaders. And that's what leads him to that confrontation, not a desire to defend himself or not a desire

to make sure people necessarily see who he, see him for who he is. It's this, like I want, I'm going to defend the name of God. I'm going to defend the lives of these people who are in this vulnerable position. And that's what I'm going to rush out to defend. And I think there is, there's an element of meekness and gentleness that comes back to that, is I don't have to vindicate myself. I can protect others, I can step into their shoes, I can step into their place because I know that ultimately God's going to vindicate me. And he's going to be the one who lifts me up or what, he's going to be the one who puts me in the position I need to be in. And so I don't have to fight for myself. I can fight for other people. - I love that. - Well, I mean, have you even heard the saying, you can be right and still be wrong? I think just back to the posture of your heart, like, how are you communicating what it is you're communicating? 'Cause you could say all the right things in the total wrong way and lose completely. - Yeah, yeah, I was listening to a guy on the internet the other day. And one of the things that he was arguing about. One of the things he was arguing was that, you know, if our main goal in an argument for a confrontation is to just win,

then we've already lost, you know? Like when we think about, like when we take a step back and we think about what's actually important, like, yeah, like there are times when, like we need the other person to understand where we're coming from on something. You know, but if our goal in any confrontation is to just win, well, then oftentimes we end up losing the relationship. Oftentimes, not every time, oftentimes. And that really challenged me because I don't often think that way, right? I'm more thinking like you, Jody, where you're like, man, I've already rehearsed in my head what this person probably should say is going to say how they're going to react and why I already feel a certain way about it. You know, but I think we understand, you know, from the sermon, from the scripture and even our conversation that like, like meekness is a good thing. Like it's a good thing. But what would be like for someone watching on panda right now, guys, like what would be your advice from like a, okay, like we wrestle with this, we chew on this scripture and we want to take this and implement it in our life? Like what's like one easy way that someone could do this? - I don't know that any of the ways to do it are easy. - Oof, oof, but--

- That's not good news. - I mean, this is just on my mind 'cause I think we talked about it in our Ecclesiastes study. It's like, I think part of it comes down to recognizing the difference between responding to something and reacting to something, right? Like so often, I am in it like a reaction mode with things like, oh, and that is really quickly get your strength out of control. Is just to be able to react to something in the moment to feel like, oh, I've got a dunk on this person in this argument or like, I gotta make sure, I can do this all the time with my kids, like I gotta make sure they know that was wrong. And like that reaction almost always goes sideways, right? You react in the wrong way because you're just letting that strength go out and attack the, well, not even attack the problem, attack the person. Whereas I think if we can step back and recognize the difference between reacting and responding, we can realize that that response, I can take time there and I can see God's counsel there. I can seek His Spirit in that moment. It'd be like, I don't have to react in the moment. I can stop and I can breathe. I can let the Holy Spirit speak into my heart and mind and allow me to respond in a much more constructive way than I'd probably do on my own. - Yeah, I like that. So thinking about reactiveness and responsiveness.

- Yes. - Yeah. - I like that. - Well, I'm gonna nerd out for a minute just with like how the brain works because for me, when I understand how something works, it helps me better kind of pinpoint what I need to do. But if you think about your brain, like a two-story house, our emotions live on the first floor and our thinking and reasoning live on the second floor. And so as we're going through the day and we're taking in information from our five senses all day long, we're making 35,000 plus choices a day. Like we got a lot of stuff going on, right? Everything goes through the emotion floor before it goes upstairs to that thinking and reasoning floor. So in order to be able to respond, I've got to give a little bit of time. And I read an article once it said, a perfectly healthy brain would take 90 seconds to go from floor one of your brain to floor two. And let's be honest, none of us have perfectly healthy brains. We've all had trauma. We've all had, you know, unhealthy thought patterns. We've all had, you know, just an influx of things. There's some of us struggle with depression and anxiety, other mental health challenges that interfere with healthy thinking. So if you think on a perfect, you know, not possible level, it would take 90 seconds to move from reacting

to like truly responding. So I think for me, what that has taught me is I have to figure out how to pause. Like whatever that looks like, if it means, you know, I need to go take two laps around the office or if that means I need to listen to, I have a certain playlist I listen to, like if I need to listen to one of the songs or maybe I just need to do some sort of like breathing to get my heart rate down. That's what I've got to do is figure out, okay, what does that look like in real time? What do I need to do so that I can truly set myself up to hopefully respond from a more rational state of mind than like an emotionally reactive place? - That makes a lot of sense because there are, there are times when, whether it's anxiety or fear, I think for me, it's probably just unhealthy thought patterns where it can take a long time, right? For me to start thinking clearly, right? Being in that, is it the second level? - Yeah. - It can be hard for me. something happening right in that moment, right? And then it never fails. I react in a certain way and 15, 20, 30 minutes later, the more time that passes, I realize like, oh man, like I reacted in a way that I should not have reacted. And then I have to go back and apologize and figure that out.

But you're so right. But I do think that even along with some of the conversation that Kyle talked through towards the end of his sermon was this idea of what we're allowing as inputs into our life, you know, what we're allowing, like what we're allowing ourselves to consume rather like these two sides or the things of the world, which, you know, may not necessarily be bad. Some probably are bad and are bad. And then the things of God. And so, Jody, how have you seen just in your life? Like can you tell a difference in that thinking and how you're feeling whenever like you're consuming more things that you're like, ah, like they're not bad, but they're just maybe not things that are super helpful. - Yes, I'll tell you, I love documentaries or like mini series about based on true stories. - Speaking my language. - But listen, if I get too into that story, I mean, it changes my mood. - Sure. - I mean, I can kind of be like skeptical or, do you know what I'm saying? - Oh, no doubt. - And I have no doubt it's like that's spilling over from whatever the storyline was or maybe there was a character that I thought, how dare you, you know what I mean? And so for me, I have to just be mindful of that. I even one time listened to an audiobook

'cause I drive a lot to these different facilities. And my husband was like, what is wrong with you? I came home, it was three hours, one way, three hours back. And I was like, I don't know. And then I said, do you know what? I think it's that book. And so I quit listening to it because it was like, I was, did not like the way one of the people was treating the other and I just, there was nobody to advocate for them. And I'm like, this is fake, what am I doing, you know? And so for me, it's just like intentionally choosing things that are gonna help support the cause of- - Sure. - Of being mindful, you know, on the things of Christ and taking every thought captive instead of feeding that fire that can grow. - Yeah, but you bring it. - Sorry, I got so many thoughts. Now it's like, I'm just suspicious of everybody now. No, but I see that in so many areas, some like funny areas and some like very serious. Like I've been recently, I guess this is a safe place. I've been recently playing Tetris a lot on my Switch at home. And, but I'll find myself, like if I played for a little bit, like I'll just be sitting there like reading a book or whatever and I'll suddenly like, there'll be shapes in the room and I'll be like, oh, that's how those would fit together. - Oh, okay.

- It's not good. - Okay. - It's not a good thing. - You had to give me 10 guesses. - No. - And I did not think you were gonna say Tetris. - Yeah, it's just so, anyway. So that's a silly observation, but Jody, one of the things that I've had to stay away from, kind of the same thing you're saying, is like I hardly read anything. I try to hardly read anything like political anymore because I find the more of that stuff I read, like the more agitated I am about stuff. And maybe that's just being a grumpy old man. Like, I don't know what it is. But it is like, you gotta watch those things that you consume because your brain starts to think in those patterns and your brain starts to think in those methods. I mean, Kyle talked about that. Like, we think of strength and we think of appetite in terms of how the world presents it to us because that's what we've been discipled by the world to think. We expect strength to look like this. We expect our appetites to be met like this, and the more we allow those things into our mind, the more our minds come to be defined by them. - Yeah, and I think maybe even like an applicable example for me of like even the type of music that I listen to, like specifically when like I'm working out,

like that's been a battle for me over the course of the past few years because I'd say probably 10 years ago, I think that 10, 12, 15 years ago, I listened to anything when I'm working out. Like whatever it was just to kind of like, get the juices going, get the blood flowing. And as I've gotten into my 30s over the past handful of years, and I think that naturally the closer that I've become with Jesus, the more that I find myself listening to stuff as I'm sitting there and I'm like, man, why am I listening? Like I almost feel embarrassed like sitting there. It's like no one else knows what I'm listening to except for me in this moment. And it's like, this isn't helpful. Like this isn't helpful. So I've had to transition to like podcasts or books or other conversations or different type of music There are just certain things with stuff in them that's just like, "Man, it's just not helpful to me, nor is it healthy for me." And it may be different for another person, and that's where this conversation, like there's probably not a one-size-fits-all for everyone. But even for me, it's like I find myself needing to check before my wife and I start a movie of like, "This is probably just not helpful for me." Well, you know, and I think that's one of the tragedies of the age we live in, right? It's like there's an infinite number of things to like gorge yourself on mentally and spiritually. Like, you can just consume and consume and consume, like, I mean, how many thousands of hours of video are put on YouTube every day, and it never, never, never ends, right? You can watch whatever you want, listen to whatever you want, read whatever you want,

and it's not until we actually stop for a second that we start to realize, like, "Oh, all those things that I have just consumed in my mind, they haven't filled me up at all." Like, they haven't helped me spiritually, they haven't helped me, certainly not helped me emotionally, that they have just been, I mean, the equivalent of empty calories, right? It's just things that aren't really nourishing me or giving me the nutrients that I need spiritually to grow and to become who I want to become. It's all junk food. Well, and not only that, I think that, for me personally, it's hard to be hungry for things of God, whether it's music, scripture, most importantly, it's hard for me to be hungry for those things when I'm filling myself with just all kinds of stuff throughout the day. Whether I'm scrolling through social media or Twitter or I'm reading something else, listening to something else, and what I've learned for me is that much like when I'm eating, like, I only have an appetite for something, like, I only have a stomach for so much. And during a day, like, I can get to a point where it's like, man, I've consumed so many different things that I don't have, like, I don't have mental margin to sit down and read my Bible, and I hate to admit that. I hate to admit that because it's true, like, it's true in my life. But like, what are some things for you guys? Like, I know we've talked a little bit about, like, music and some other examples, but, like, when you find yourself maybe at a point listening to this conversation where, you know, you may be right now as a panda viewer, like, what are some things that you guys turn to when you find yourself in a moment where you're like, man, like, I've been listening to a book that's just not helpful, you know, or I've been, you know, playing Tetris or whatever. Hey, hey, hey, hey. I don't mean to bring that back up. You know what? Getting too personal. Yeah. What are things that you guys turn to? It's like, hey, this would be helpful for just the general audience listening to this right now. I mean, you know, I have a couple of podcasts that I typically, like, try to listen to, and you and I have talked before just about, like, being aware of, like, how am I setting up my day by what I'm listening to and things like that? So I try to listen to, like, the Bible project. I think we've talked about that several times. It's on panda. You watch the video system that they shout out. Yeah. So, uh, or like, uh, Timothy Keller sermons or some various other pastors that, that I, you'll really respect and listen to and appreciate their messages.

They're like, I try to, I try to go back to those things to be like, okay, like this is, this is going to set me up for the rest of the day to not be, you know, and, and to not be in a bad mood or to be at least in a place where I'm feeling like, okay, like I, I got something, I got a word of this morning as I was coming in. Mm hmm. Love that. For me, it's, it's music. You know, I have this intentional playlist. If I need a reset or if I'm just, um, I don't know if you ever have those times where you feel like, man, I want to pray, but I don't even know what to say and scripture tells us, you know, the Holy Spirit's our advocate and interseeds, like interprets those groanings of our spirit and like really music does that for me. And I feel like it puts the words what I can't. Um, and what I've, I read an article a long time ago before I even had kids. And it said, when you hear your kids singing, you'll know they're light hearted because you can't sing if you're burdened. And I've thought about that in present day, like when I turn on my playlist, there are times I can't sing because I'm just out of sorts or I'm burdened or I'm like off the filter. Yeah. And then I celebrate though, when I notice I'm starting to hum along or maybe even jump in on the chorus, it's like, okay, the Lord is lifting that burden and music is just like bomb for my soul. And I know that's not for everybody, you know, but for me, it, it very much is. And, um, yeah. Yeah. And I, and I think that's the, that's the encouragement, you know, from Kyle Sermon this week, you know, just let me pull up, you know, some of the, the notes here, you know, at the end, he talked about three things, you know, number one, resetting your appetite. Um, you know, maybe you can find opportunities in the week to fast, right? Whether thing was to feed what you want to crave, right? So pick up the word of God before you do anything else. Listen to worship music, you know, feed ourselves with things that will cause us to want to be hungry for those things again, right? You know, but the third one I think definitely resonates with me is pray for that hunger, right? Pray for God to make you hungry for the things that really matter. And you know, I would definitely say that there are things in my life where it's like, man, like, there's a lot of things that, you know, I consume that I wouldn't necessarily label them as bad, but I probably just over consume them, right? And I curb the appetite that I should have for good and holy and godly things. And it's a reminder for me to set those things aside and to pray that God would continually draw me to the things that are actually going to nourish me and nourish my relationship with Christ. You know, but as we as we conclude, Jody, we'll toss it over to you. What would be just an encouragement maybe that you have on your heart

right now for our Pando family that's watching this as they're trying to take in this idea of meekness, this idea of consuming godly things, the right things, what would your encouragement be for them as they as we all try to navigate through that this week? You know, having grace for yourself, sometimes I think we can be our own worst critic, but have grace for yourself because we're not, you know, God's not asking us to be perfect, just obedient one step at a time. And just know that like even when we were talking about the brain, those old habits are kind of like a worn path through the grass. They're still going to be there. And it's so much easier to slip back into old patterns than it is to create new ones. But think about whatever it is you're pursuing. Think of it like exercising a new muscle. It's going to take time and you're going to build on that foundation and it's going to grow stronger and stronger. And that other pathway is still going to be there, but also so will this new healthy one. So have grace and then make space, you know, anticipate. It's not like when we meal plan, right? It's not if I'm going to be hungry. It's like, well, a meal is, you know, I'm going to need eat at some point. And you know, whether that's create a playlist ahead of time, if music's your thing, or, you know, if the morning is best for you, lay whatever it is you want to do right there on your bedside table. So when you wake up, it's the first thing you grab or you know, getting outside is where you connect best with God. Put that on your calendar and expect to meet him there and just make that space a priority. Yeah. Yeah, a panda family. It's that also goes back to what Brandon was saying about that not just being reactive to life, but being responsive, right? To have an intentionality with what Jodi's just saying that, you know, a lot of us when left all of us when left our own devices, we can kind of make a mess of the things in our life and the things we should prioritize. We don't advice versa. And so this week, what would that look like to prioritize spending time with the Lord before, right? You start to get going in your day, right? Before you run into one of those hard situations that life is so faithful to give us over and over and over again. But Jodi, thanks so much for being on here with us again this week. Brandon, great as always. And y'all we're grateful for you. We're grateful that you watched this. We wouldn't do this if you weren't watching wherever you're at in the country today. Y'all, but we love you. We're grateful for you and we will see you next time. [BLANK_AUDIO]