Stay Soft | Crossroads Daily

Welcome, we are talking about Hebrews 3 today. My name is Josh. I'm Kirsten. I'm Jordan. And I'm Miko. What we know about God's people throughout history, us included, is no matter how many times God shows up for us and does what he says he's going to do, we always choose dumb things. No matter how faithful Jesus is, we just go, I'd rather do it my way. I'd rather, whatever the thing is, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I've yet to meet. Is that true? Yeah. I don't think I've ever met a person who's like, who doesn't have moments of going, I'm going to go my own way. There's old Instagram page like that. What's the girl say? I'm going to find out for myself. I'm going to find out for myself. That's going to be my memoir. Josh Sirkamp. I'm going to find out for myself. Teach us all, man. I'm going to find out for myself. You make it back. Okay. Being Christ followers, we often hear, what's your relationship with Jesus like? Which is, relationship. That's such an American idea.

It's such a modern Christian church. Your relationship with Jesus. So I'll just say, so much so. Okay. I didn't know that. The Bible never says anything about your relationship with Jesus. It says things about being connected to him and things like that. But like, we have put the idea of relationship with Jesus on a pedestal. Is that a hot take? That is a hot take. Yeah, because I love my relationship with Jesus. I don't want it to be fake. No, no, no. You're misunderstanding. Take that out of your Instagram bio, bro. It's more like, I don't know if you're John Mark Comer fans or whatever, but he says it's your apprenticeship to Jesus. Yeah. Not your relationship to. Okay. I like that. You have a relationship with your girlfriend or your wife or your boyfriend or whatever. It's apprenticeship. We're the bride of Christ. Yes. Yeah. That's right. That's right. What I was getting at was like, we have over sentimentalized the idea of this relationship. I would agree.

Which means when things go south, we go, well, I'm just, I guess Jesus really wasn't who I thought he was. Jesus is always who he says he is. And our hearts become hardened. I think my hot take is we overemphasize this relationship to as if Jesus is my homeboy or my homegirl. Yeah. I remember the popular line for a while was like, it's not a religion. It's a relationship. And I think that, right. That's like a. There's truth in that though. Yeah, for sure. It's like, again, shifting our idea around like rules, rules, rules, rules, rules towards something that's more personable and all of that. But I think what you are kind of alluding to here is like the danger in going too far to that is whenever it's kind of like I can kind of do whatever I want a little bit. And then when this doesn't feel beneficial for me, it's just like another relationship. I can just kind of get out. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. I can. I'm saying like how there's truth and grace, then there's like relationship and love, but there's, there's supposed to be or relationship and religion. They're supposed to be together. No, I don't think there's ever a place for religion. I mean, religion is a very like loaded word.

Like what do we say? Like a negative connotation. But even in what is that where it talks about pure religion is this serving the orphans and the widows. So it's like if this is the language the scripture uses, then who am I to say, you know, I mean, that's. Yeah. I just think even with that scripture, it's going like you're about religion. Well, I'm about you going and serving people. This is what that should look like. Yeah, that's right. It's never, it's never about just following the rules. If it's just about following the rules and not your apprenticeship to Jesus, you are missing the point. Exactly. You're missing the point. So I think we're all saying the same thing. Absolutely. Absolutely. So with Hebrews 3, there's this warning to us is don't let your hearts get hardened. Don't let your hearts get hardened. So in your day to day, where are you just for us, where are you just sort of going through the motions with Jesus? Where is it just religion? Where is it just, you know, this is just what I do and it's no longer about a relationship or this apprenticeship. It's just sort of like, I'm just sort of doing this thing. and Jesus becomes distant or routine. Yeah, I think I'm really guilty of the whole time you guys were talking, I was just thinking of

how it's so funny having this conversation when like the disciples literally had both the apprenticeship, the relationship, and all of the rules that they just had like all of it and they still were like, Jesus, who's the greatest? Like who, which one is like your favorite? Like tell me, like homeboy. Pick me. But I think that's where my heart is hardened is like I so desperately, I have like a performance issue, whatever you wanna call it, where I always want to like level up in my performance in all the different ways and I think it definitely has hardened my heart towards Jesus because Jesus isn't after my position. He's not after like how much good work I'm doing. I'm like, oh Jesus, did you see me pray with like that homeless girl this week? Like did you catch that? Like how gross, like how gross? But it does make me feel a little bit like I could see the disciples doing something like that so there's like, I know I will receive grace in it. However, I have to recognize like Jesus also saw that and was like, no, no, no, you're not seeing it the right way. Like I have to not only relate to the disciples but also receive the same teaching that they've received and so I think that's where I see my heart hardened just like I saw when Jesus was walking around. Well, okay, so what do you do to keep a soft heart?

How do you keep a soft heart? I think one thing she said that was just like, I think like as we all wrestle with, you know, I don't know, our hearts to some degree but you called out how gross it was, right? I think that is necessary in this walk to be able to identify the thing that is hidden in your heart, the thing that is coming to the surface and when I do that, to me, it's like in my mind, in my heart, it's like me and Jesus against that thing in my heart, like I'm not gonna pretend like it's not there, I'm not going to downplay it, like no, it's gross, I hate it and this is me and Jesus, this is me and the Holy Spirit, I'm on your side against this thing and like, God, get this out of me. Yeah, I ask Jesus in my prayer time to like purify my heart all the time because I don't know if we were just talking about this but like, I think about myself a lot and I see it, I'm like, God, please help me get this right and I feel like that softens my heart because I kind of am surrendering that responsibility because I don't think I can do it by myself, I don't think I can soften my own heart. You disagree? No, no, no, no, I totally agree. You just giggling at me? No, no, what came to my mind was the worst Christian bumper sticker ever

but it's truth, it's like being humble is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. Yeah. It's terrible. I want that bumper sticker. But it's totally true, it's totally true, like our focus and attention and passions and love, it's like, it can't be like, it has to be all, Jesus, our attention is on Jesus. As you say that, I'm reminded how in Numbers, Moses is described as the most humble person in the earth, right, but then also- And he wrote that, by the way. He wrote Numbers, right? And he wrote that. Yeah, yeah. But then it's like, in this story, right, Jesus coming in and Jesus being the greatest thing now, you know what I mean? Like even in humility, he represents an even greater humility than Moses, and what that, for me, it begins to shape my prayer life, like that's something to pursue, that's something to desire. We're like, Lord, if there's an aspect of you that I can reflect, may it be your humility. I want to, like, help me to grow in humility, and that's a dangerous prayer, I would say, because it's like, okay, it's your job. You know what I thought while you were saying that?

Like, would Jesus have been so, so Jesus could have healed everyone with the snap of his fingers, but he chose not to. He chose to still have humble acts and meals with sinners, and the things that, like, any of us can do, you know, at any point, but like, would he still have been as famous and considered, like, we know now that he would still be considered the greatest of all time, but. Like without the miracles, would he still be? Like I don't know I feel like he almost wanted to highlight that he would do miracle and then have these moments of Humanity with each other we can do both. I don't know when you were talking I was like, huh, I wonder if Jesus like was so specific with curating like, okay The miracles are gonna get your attention, but this is this is where your heart is. Yeah Mm-hmm as far as the time that he was spending with like this is where your heart is What do you mean by that piece right there? Like I feel like hardened hearts Even I don't know people want to believe in healing so so badly and I've seen healing happen But when it doesn't I've seen hardened hearts through that too. Yeah, I mean like oh, well God really loves me He would have right healed. He really was real. Yeah He wouldn't that's that's legitimate. Yeah. Yeah, that's legitimate. Yeah hurt, especially when Jesus sets himself up as Anyone who believes in me if you ask? like What yeah, and so why didn't you heal my child that was dying? That's legit. Yeah, I think I get a hardened heart when I've experienced disappointment and also Completely honestly when I pray and things don't happen And that happens a lot, right and it you know, really

Has me thinking and questioning and honestly, sometimes I don't even like to go down that road of like Why don't I pray more and talk to God more about things and if I'm like really honest sometimes it's because I don't know if It works Or like I asked for this thing and it didn't happen and I'm scared of getting my hopes up again And then being let down again. And so my heart just slowly becomes more closed off and hardened and That's dangerous. And even as I'm talking about this, I'm like, oh, I don't want that you know, like I'm really trying to fight against that but that's just real is like My hopes are like how do you have faith that God can do? anything and at the same time Keep going and have a soft heart when he doesn't do it. Yeah. How do you fight that Jordan? I Fight it by eventually coming back around to Not quitting hmm, I feel like at some point in time I and sometimes it's a week It's a month or it's a year. I come back to this space of you know deep down I really believe God can do anything and I'm gonna try one more time. So is that fake it till you make it? No, I think it's just desperation like I think it's just yeah, I'm not seeing anything But I've never told in the Bible like well if you just don't see it then just stop Right. Yeah, I Think what I think I've heard stories of people that I've prayed for things for a month or something I've heard stories people. It's like no I prayed for that thing for five years You know years and then it like broke so there's moments where I'm like, oh maybe I could keep I could go one more yeah, yeah, that makes me that makes me think because Like as I'm as I'm actually like considering like wow like situations and you know Family members or personal lives of people praying for things over a period of time and it not coming to the end that they hoped what I've what the way that I've seen that People come on the other side of that closer to Jesus is because during that time they were abiding with Jesus in their prayer and It's like when that thing didn't happen Yes

There's a shock there But you've been abiding with him in a sense right now like your faith has grown strong right your trust You're more familiar with his voice and it's more like okay Lord I must have missed something somewhere along the way in this and As you're continuing to have those conversations with him Like that what he gives you to sustain you to to the joy the faith Whatever that thing is that that he pours in you the thing That's that the way that you're strengthened through those seasons of abiding I don't know. It's like I've seen on the other end of that. Whatever that disappointment may be It's not as devastating for the one who was actually truly abiding with him throughout that whole entire process Mm-hmm. That's I don't know that's and that may not speak to everyone or whatever But like that's that's one of the things that I've seen play out. That's the way I've seen it play For anything for us the challenge for us is I feel like this is a beat this horse constantly, but it's gratitude. It's remembering the goodness of God that I have seen in my life and bringing myself back to that. And like in the scriptures, the reason the nation of Israel's hearts were hardened was because they were afraid, they became afraid, and in their fear they forgot God's faith. So I think we keep a soft heart by trying to, you know, we have Gratitudes Days at work where we just focus on what are we grateful for today. Yeah. So maybe we should all have Gratitudes Days. Yeah. I trademarked that word, Gratitudes Days mine. See you next time.