Transcription

Connor
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Jeff
Here we are. We are here. Yes, here we are. And I’m glad. I’m glad to be here. Yeah. So he’s Jeff, I’m Chris, we’re the Bible guys. And we have an exciting podcast for you today. Absolutely. Yeah.

Jeff
And we’re going to do the very best we can.

Chris
Yeah. I don’t know if it’s going to be good, but we’re going to give you we’re going to give it a, we’re going to give it a, give.

Jeff
It our best shot.

Chris
Well as usual, we’re going to start off with the first few minutes doing a segment of fondness and fondness. Yeah. And so just like taboo we’re going to give we need.

Jeff
Like a rolling with a, with a theme song now segment of fun. Yes.

Chris
Yes. Same same tune. There’s that same same note you hit. So just like taboo, I’m going to do it this time with you, because last time you did it with me, I’m going to give you some clues, okay? And you have to guess the word. The audience is going to try to beat you. Okay. And the hardest part about this is I can’t say certain words.

Jeff
Specific words? What words can’t you say?

Chris
Well, I’ll tell you later. So if you’re watching instead of listening okay, so for the for the 40% that watch okay, we’re going to actually put the words that I cannot say on the screen okay okay. So here we go. Ready. All right. All right. Um, when you put logs in a pit and light it on fire, what is that called? Fire. That’s it. There you go. I couldn’t say burn camp beech wood because I said logs and fall.

Jeff
But you could say fire. Yeah, that was weird.

Chris
Yeah. Oh, I guess I guess maybe in bonfire. I shouldn’t have said that. I should say I should have said. Light it up. Light it up. All right, well, I lose that one, okay? Because I said fire. Okay, okay. How about this one? Ready?

Jeff
Yes.

Chris
All right, so in your office, there’s big, long, puffy black things that three people can sit on couches. That’s it. There you.

Jeff
Go.

Chris
I wasn’t allowed to say leather furniture. Sit sofa or potato. You said sit.

Jeff
On.

Chris
I didn’t say. Said.

Jeff
Yes you did. Three people can sit on.

Chris
I have blown it. I have proven myself. Not very good. Okay. I can’t believe it. Oh, man. This is. This is unusual.

Jeff
I know, I know, usually you dominate in games.

Chris
Hey, didn’t you say last time?

Jeff
Dominator?

Chris
You said last time. Listen to me. You said last time. I’d like it to be known that we’ve done this 4 or 5 times and we’ve never said a word. That’s right, that’s right. And I’ve done it twice.

Jeff
In a row. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.

Chris
I will promise you. Okay. I’m not going to.

Jeff
Do it again. Okay? Okay. You ready? Okay.

Chris
Yes. All right. I got three more. Okay. I’m going to nail them. Okay? Okay. Wow. I’m so embarrassed.

Jeff
Only zero days since our last accident. Right. Ready? Yes.

Chris
A popular flavor of beef jerky is what? Teriyaki. There you go. There you.

Jeff
Go.

Chris
I wasn’t allowed to say sweet Japanese chicken sauce or rice. Okay.

Jeff
There you go.

Chris
Hey. Huh?

Jeff
Teriyaki.

Chris
How about that? Okay, how about this one? Oh, I got it. Trump says that CNN is blank news. Fake news. There you go. I was not allowed to say fraud. Con real phony or counterfeit. Okay.

Jeff
Fake.

Chris
Okay. And then, um. Okay, I got it ready. Babe Ruth was known to be not a famous catcher, but a famous hitter. Another word for that batter. Yes.

Jeff
There you go.

Chris
Yeah. There you go. I wasn’t allowed to say baseball. I wasn’t, obviously, I wasn’t allowed to say hitter. Cricket cake or mix.

Jeff
Oh, wow.

Chris
Yeah. Hey, those last three.

Jeff
Nailed it.

Chris
You nailed them. I couldn’t believe I said sit, and I said.

Jeff
So we had we had a run of, like, a thousand of those in a row without messing up. And now we hit reset and we’re back.

Chris
We’ve only done that segment like five times.

Jeff
I know, but it felt like a thousand.

Chris
Yeah. So I’m -1000 points okay.

Jeff
Really?

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
You’re going to deduct a thousand points from your point total.

Chris
My point total.

Jeff
Yeah. Wow. It’s a sad day. It’s brutal. Yeah okay. Well good job man. That was amazing. And thank you Desiree, for such a challenging segment. Yeah.

Chris
I’m embarrassed. I’ve embarrassed us.

Jeff
Oh I’m ashamed. I feel like we should just. I feel like we should just erase this one and go back and restart. No, that’s what.

Chris
It feels like. Cheating.

Jeff
Oh, no. No, I mean, with a different list. Jeff.

Chris
Don’t cheat.

Jeff
You don’t cheat. No.

Chris
Okay, actually, I don’t I do not cheat.

Jeff
Okay, good. Good, neither do I. Well, then, boy, we are good Christians.

Chris
Yes.

Jeff
So here we go. Jesus is going to teach about the cost of following him in Matthew chapter eight, and then again in Luke chapter nine. And these are some pretty big comments, right? That he really, really, really challenges his followers. So that’s we’re going to read Matthew chapter eight verse 18 is where we’re going to start. When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake. And then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. But Jesus replied, foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head. Another of his disciples said, Lord, first let me return home and bury my father. But Jesus told him, follow me. Now let the spiritually dead bury their own dead. And in Luke chapter nine he says, as they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go. But Jesus replied, foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head. He said to another person, come follow me. The man agreed, but he said, Lord, first let me return home and bury my father. But Jesus told him, let the spiritually dead bury their own dead. Your duty is to go and preach about the kingdom of God. Another said, yes, Lord, I will follow you. But first let me say goodbye to my family. But Jesus told him, anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.

Jeff
Wow.

Chris
He’s just laying it down. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
So these are just a little bit out of order because Jesus has already crossed the Jordan River, went into went into Jordan. And this says it mentions that he crosses the lake. But anyways, the idea is that this is a theme that happens multiple times. People come and say, I’ll follow you, or Jesus invites them to follow, and then he. But then they always have an excuse.

Jeff
Yeah.

Chris
Yeah, it does say that he crosses the lake, doesn’t it? Yes it does.

Jeff
Again, it’s another thing to protest at Tindale.

Chris
Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Wow. I can’t believe they missed that. They should have consulted the Bible guys. Yeah, I.

Jeff
Know that’s the.

Chris
Problem. So. So here it is. Jesus is laying down the the commitment level. And by the way, I think it’s very interesting. How so here’s a teacher of the religious law. So typically when they describe a teacher of the religious law it’s usually what a Pharisee.

Jeff
Usually a Pharisee. Yeah. Yeah. Pharisee or a sadducee but usually Pharisee. Yeah.

Chris
And so think about that. That’s really interesting because there aren’t too many references. I mean, we have Nicodemus, right, being referenced as a Pharisee who who, you know, proves his worth at the end, right? Goes and gets the body of Jesus at the end. And then really there’s sort of Gamaliel. Right?

Jeff
He was open. He was open to Paul. Right. It doesn’t say that he was a follower of Jesus. Yeah, you’re.

Chris
Right, you’re right. But the message of.

Jeff
Jesus, right? In the book of acts it says many priests and teachers of the law followed Jesus after the resurrection.

Chris
Yeah, but there’s not too many. You know, the point is, is that I think it’s very interesting, rare. And he says, I will follow you wherever you go. Yeah. In other words, like what he’s really saying is, you know, you and I, we’re thinking like, okay, let’s pack the car and be back, you know, follow you wherever you go. But that’s not what this meant, right? This meant I will leave my father and mother and brothers. And I will say, I’m not sure when I’ll be back, because they didn’t know he was going to die, right? They just thought it was a movement and they just thought, you know, I’m with you to the end. They didn’t know how long it was going to be. So this was a commitment for potentially years. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so and then Jesus replies with the strangest reply, he’s basically saying like, I don’t think you know what you’re saying, right? Because it’s not like I’m going back to my headquarters. It’s not like I have a camp or a base to set up shop, you know, you understand that like day to day, I don’t even know where I’m sleeping. Right, right. And that’s what he’s saying. Foxes have dens to live in. Birds have nests, but I don’t have any place to lay my head.

Jeff
And these guys, Pharisees and Sadducees, both tended to be pretty wealthy. The Pharisees start off way more blue collar than the Sadducees. The Sadducees were elites, a matter of fact, oftentimes by the time Jesus day the Sadducees were, they were the minority among the religious teachers and leaders, but they were the majority in the leadership of the temple. And they would by oftentimes by their positions, pay the government in order to be able to get assigned as into key roles. So they had a lot of resources. And whether you were a Pharisee or a Sadducee Pharisees, like I said, start off more blue collar, but over time they build wealth. And on top of that, everybody treated them so well. There’s a lot of perks. You don’t have to be rich to feel comfortable. You know what I mean? When you get lots of perks, there’s all these privileges, all these perks. You get to sit at the head of the table. They give you the finest food, the finest wine. Whenever you’re in a in a village, you get the finest hotel room. Right? All that stuff, it just comes to you because you’re a Pharisee. And so it’s interesting that it’s that guy who says, I’ll follow you wherever you go. And Jesus goes, yeah, I don’t have any place to sleep. And the guy goes, yeah, never mind.

Jeff
Right, right.

Jeff
You’re going to have to.

Chris
Yeah. It doesn’t say his reaction, but he probably thought it.

Jeff
Well, the assumption here is that none of them, none of them actually followed Jesus. Right. They all. And so he he Jesus goes right at the motivation. So the guy’s motivation may have been. I want the prestige of traveling with the new superstar in the country.

Chris
Yeah, maybe that’s why Jesus might have been calling it out.

Jeff
And Jesus went right after. Yeah, we don’t have any luxury suites, and we don’t even have a limo, right? That’s kind of what he’s doing. And because as you look at it, the other one, the guy goes, you know, let me go and return and bury my father. And there’s no indication that his father was dead, had just just died. Really. That’s not what happens. Because the guy, the guy was like, you know, I will follow you. I just got to go bury my dad first. And so. And then there’s no indication maybe his dad was terminally ill. Or it might have just been, I will. After dad.

Jeff
Dies. Yeah, it could be that.

Jeff
I’ll follow you in a few years. Right. Let me, let me let me just be with family. And I don’t want to miss my dad. All these things. And and so there’s this immediacy to Jesus call to, to follow. And it seems like he goes. Jesus goes right after the intent or what’s really going on in their heart. The idea that his dad hadn’t died yet. Is not the issue with Jesus. That’s not the issue. He’s going after the heart of this guy, where the guy is using his father as an excuse. And I think, I think we do that a lot. We use our jobs as an excuse. I can’t speak up because I might lose my job, right? Or we use our kids as an excuse. Oh, well, you know, I can’t make it to church again for the 32nd week in a row because kids sports, you know, whatever. And we use people, we use kids, we use family members, we use relationships as excuses as to why we can’t do the most important things. And with regard to faith. And so it seems like that’s what Jesus is doing, is he’s going right at the cause of their heart issues.

Jeff
Yeah.

Chris
That’s great. Well, let me read a note from the New Living Translation Life Application Bible. It says following Jesus is not always easy or comfortable. Often it means great cost and sacrifice with no earthly rewards or security. You may find that following Christ costs you popularity, friends, leisure time, or treasured habits. But while the cost of following Christ is high, the value of being Christ disciple is even higher. Discipleship is an investment that lasts for eternity and yields incredible rewards. So I heard a statement one time, and I’ve used it so many times in a sermon, and the statement is no matter the cost, Jesus is worth the price. Yeah, right. So and I also remember a message that I did a long time ago as well, where I sort of tried to build it. I did it on a Wednesday night, and I talked about the tension of how much is enough when giving to God. Yeah, right. So I sort of started off that way because I always like to build tension at the beginning of the messages and, and, you know, and it’s a question worthy of asking. It’s like, how much is enough? It’s like, okay, God have given you enough. So here’s the question how much is enough? Like, God doesn’t ask for much. This is the way I sort of presented it. I said he doesn’t ask for much. He just wants my money, my time, my choices. Right? He wants my, you know, my my my agenda, his agenda over mine. You know, just nothing much, right? He just.

Jeff
Just everything.

Chris
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, pretty much everything. Right. And then the conclusion after you sort of dive into it, you know, and you read all the scriptures and you read all the requirements that Jesus says, you know, and then the answer is you’ve given God enough when you’ve given him everything. Yeah. And that’s it. That’s the answer. Yeah. Because God doesn’t want some of you. He doesn’t want most of you. He wants all of you. Right. And you know what? There are just things in our lives that we refuse to give God. And we don’t mean to be that way. We just. We try hard, a lot of us, but we just we just we just hang on to certain areas of our lives. Like, for instance, I know a guy. He is just a wonderful acting Christian. He’s got a ton of money. He’s very successful, got a great business and attends our church every week. But when it comes to the area of like giving financially, it’s just it’s just not there. And so and by the way, that does not mean that person isn’t generous.

Jeff
Sure.

Chris
Right. It doesn’t mean that this person is not a very good person. In fact, this person may donate to save the penguins at the zoo, right? Or do all sorts of things. Right.

Jeff
But the kingdom of God is not the most important thing in his life.

Chris
Well, not when it comes. Not when it comes to with his resources, with the resources.

Jeff
Well, Jesus said.

Jeff
Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is.

Jeff
Right?

Jeff
Right. So yeah, that’s a fair statement just to say then if if I’m not putting God’s kingdom first with my resources, then that’s just not where my heart is.

Jeff
Right?

Chris
And so big fan.

Jeff
Fond of it.

Jeff
All right, big fan glad.

Jeff
I have glad you know glad I have fire insurance going to make it to heaven someday, right? But it’s just not my.

Chris
Priority and I’m interested in doing good. Like I’ll do good as as as as I see fit, right? Right. So like when I see an opportunity and I move by it, yeah, I’ll give to it. Sure. I’ll be a part of it. I’ll serve. Right. And so all these things are great things. But when it comes to giving financially, it’s just not there. And I often wonder, I’m thinking myself like, this is a classic example of and and it’s not that way for everybody. For some people they have no problem at all giving financially, right? But then there’s another area of their life and they’re like, I’m just going to do what I want with this relationship sexually, or I’m going to do what I want when it comes to how I run my business and of pick and choose. Yeah, sure. You sort of customize the Bible. It’s the Bible buffet. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff
Right. Yeah, yeah.

Chris
You walk through a buffet and you’re like.

Jeff
Jesus a la.

Jeff
Carte.

Chris
Yeah, yeah, give me more meatballs. But don’t want the green beans.

Jeff
Right.

Chris
It’s like it’s like it’s like it’s the it’s the Bible buffet. Yeah, yeah. It’s like I like I like certain verses. I don’t like certain verses. And here and here, you know, here we have a, you know, I mean, it’s a Pharisee for goodness sake, or maybe a sadducee. Right, right. And by the way, you know, the. She’s. You know, they were notoriously known for being miserable.

Jeff
Yeah. Yeah, right.

Chris
Do you know why?

Jeff
Because they didn’t believe in the resurrection.

Jeff
No, no.

Chris
No, they were sad, you see.

Jeff
Yeah, I know that’s why, though, because they didn’t believe in the resurrection.

Jeff
Oh, come on, man.

Jeff
That’s why they were sad.

Jeff
You see, you.

Chris
Can’t you can’t just.

Jeff
Say, oh, that was a joke.

Chris
My joke. It is a joke.

Jeff
I know, but the joke is. Do you know why they were sad, right? Because they didn’t believe in the resurrection.

Jeff
Because you.

Chris
Heard the joke a different.

Jeff
Way. Why? They were sad, you see?

Jeff
Okay. See? Yeah, yeah. See?

Chris
So you just. You just couldn’t hear the joke another way. No.

Jeff
Okay. I was.

Jeff
I thought I was setting you.

Jeff
Up. Okay. All right.

Jeff
Well, I thought it was like a layup. It was an alley oop. And you just hit your head on the rim.

Chris
Oh, by the way, by the way, I would venture to say that joke is so old that the majority of our listeners had never heard it.

Jeff
I would say it’s so old. The Sadducees were telling it. So the Pharisees were probably telling them.

Jeff
They were sad, you see. Yeah.

Jeff
So so this this passage reminds me of Jesus. Remember when Jesus tells the story of the rich man or the king, and he wants to have a party and he sends his servants out?

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff
And go find people and bring them to the thing. And the one guy goes, oh, I bought some a new pair of ox and I got to try them out. Another guy says, I bought a field. I got to check that out. Jesus is kind of saying none. None of these excuses are legit. The one that I think is somewhat legit is a guy said, I’ve married a wife and I cannot come.

Jeff
Right? Right.

Chris
There you go.

Jeff
She won’t let me come. Right. But but the rest of them are. Which is so funny. But Jesus. Kind of. There’s this theme in Jesus life where people, he’s challenging us, saying, hey, people have so many different reasons. And so then what does the king do? The king gets angry, says, fine, forget those people. Go out into the highways and hedges. Just random strangers. Anybody who will can come.

Jeff
Just just fill this place.

Jeff
Whosoever will may come and and fill that. My house would be full. And you know, that’s that’s good news for us because there are a lot of people who are distracted by all kinds of superficial things, things that seem important until you begin to think about eternity. But then that makes room for everybody who goes, you know what? I’ll just lean in. There’s a certain amount of character involved. He goes, anyone who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. You have to have a sense of just get it done, finish, finish what you started. Don’t get distracted right? And laser focus on what’s most important in your life. And don’t don’t get started and then quit. Don’t don’t say, oh Jesus, I’m going to follow you every day the rest of my life. Oh, you don’t have a bed to sleep in? Never mind. Right. Kind of thing. He’s like, if you put your hand to the plow, you got to finish. Finish plowing. What he’s talking about there is it’s incredibly difficult. If you’re doing a furrow, you’re doing a row with the plow. You want them to be as straight as you can make these, these, these rows. And if you start and then stop, it’s hard to get back to that exact same spot at that exact same depth and to keep going straight. It’s going to wind up veering off. It’s going to be it’s going to be a mess. And so it’s really hard to get back to where you were or what you intended to do after you’ve stopped. And so the best thing for you to do is to just keep your hand on the plow and keep going right. Jeff
And man alive, it gets hot, the sun starts beating down. It might be raining out. It’s difficult. Maybe the, you know, there’s all kinds of struggles and Jesus is just challenging us that, hey, there is a certain amount of character not to get to heaven. It’s not a character thing to get to heaven. There’s a character thing with regard to how you’re going to live your life and what kind of effectiveness you’re going to have for the kingdom. Yeah.

Chris
Well, that’s it’s a pretty amazing passage and it’s so short. And yet Jesus is really taking away people’s excuses. And I think that I think it’s a great application for our listeners because as I mentioned before, you know, you may be like the gentleman that I sort of referenced, but it could be really, literally anything. And so the question is, what part of our lives do we most commonly hold back from God? You know what? You know.

Jeff
What.

Jeff
And let our listeners pause for a second.

Jeff
Yep.

Jeff
Yeah, it’s that thing.

Jeff
Right.

Jeff
Because, you know, you already know. You already know what it is you’ve been holding back from.

Jeff
God, right?

Chris
Yeah. And I think I think it’s a fair I think it’s a fair statement to say that, you know, whenever we come across the scriptures and whenever we, you know, whether we whether we choose to read this or whether we choose to listen to a podcast, right, or whether the Scripture just assaults us, you know, because because somebody put it on a poster somewhere, right? Right. You know, but every time we are confronted with God’s Word and it jumps out at us, you know that I believe that it’s there for a reason. It’s not unlike, um, so if you live in Michigan and you live in the Detroit area, like where we live and a lot of our listeners do, right? Sure. So for the for for the many, many, many who don’t, I got to tell you, when you get on I-75 and you go north pretty famously, there’s this sign of Jesus from the 1970s. Right. And it’s it’s that famous, you know, it doesn’t look probably anything like how Jesus looked. Right? But it’s that famous painting from the 70s where he’s sort of looking up in the sky real gently, you know, and then it says, are you on the right road? Right, right. Yeah. And it’s and it’s sort of convicting because because you read it and then you can’t help but to think about, am I on the right road?

Jeff
I’ve had multiple people tell me that.

Jeff
Me too, that.

Jeff
That was the thing that made them think, I need to get right with God.

Jeff
Yes. Yeah.

Chris
And it’s so funny because and one sense, it is pretty christianese cheesy, right? It’s just it’s just it’s just it’s it’s just about as cheesy as you can possibly get. Are you on the right road? It’s just because you’re driving on a road, right? Yeah. And so it’s sort of cheesy.

Jeff
I was talking to.

Jeff
A trucker and he said literally there’s a rest stop just past there, maybe another five miles.

Jeff
And he pulled.

Jeff
Over and got on his knees and trusted Christ.

Jeff
Yeah. Well right there. Yeah, I’ve heard this. I’ve heard that story too.

Chris
I heard a woman’s entire testimony of I came to Christ like ten years ago when I was driving up I-75 north. You know.

Jeff
God will use. So Paul says that God delights in, in using the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Yeah, right. And so, so he said, I knew I knew the pastor who built that. Oh. Do you? Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff
Okay.

Jeff
So he’s in heaven now, but yeah.

Chris
Okay. So all of that to say, you know, whenever we’re confronted with God’s word and whenever it jumps out and whenever we feel like the Holy Spirit is nudging us or encouraging us or convicting us, I believe that it’s our response to or it’s our, you know, it’s our duty to respond. Because, again, remember, the goal of the Christian life is not about knowledge, it’s about application. Right. So I think that’s a great place to end. And it’s a good thought for today. So we’ll see you next time on The Bible Guys.