290: Pastor Plek is joined by Adrienne and Machine Gun Nick on this Easter sunday recap episode. Together they reflect on the emotional resonance of Easter, and share tales of community, catharsis, and the unexpected connections that faith can forge. The conversation turned deeply personal as they traced the contours of anger, forgiveness, and transformation. From the rawness of confronting past trauma to the complexities of extending grace, their stories revealed the often-painful journey towards peace. Tune in to hear more!
Got questions? Text us at 737-231-0605!
Like, share, and subscribe! We love seeing and responding to your reviews and comments.
Support the show: https://wbcc.churchcenter.com/giving
290: Pastor Plek is joined by Adrienne and Machine Gun Nick on this Easter sunday recap episode. Together they reflect on the emotional resonance of Easter, and share tales of community, catharsis, and the unexpected connections that faith can forge. The conversation turned deeply personal as they traced the contours of anger, forgiveness, and transformation. From the rawness of confronting past trauma to the complexities of extending grace, their stories revealed the often-painful journey towards peace. Tune in to hear more!
Got questions? Text us at 737-231-0605!
Like, share, and subscribe! We love seeing and responding to your reviews and comments.
Support the show: https://wbcc.churchcenter.com/giving
and welcome back to pastor plex podcast. Thanks for that awesome god bless you. God bless you adrian, that was a way to jump on the mic. Uh well, welcome back to pastor plex podcast. So glad all of you are joining us live as we're recording here in austin Texas, with none other than Adrienne Pleganpole with us.
Speaker 3:Yep hey.
Speaker 1:How are those allergies going?
Speaker 3:You know my eyes are on fire all the time, but it's fine.
Speaker 1:Is that mold grass? What do you got?
Speaker 3:I don't know, probably all of it, oak mold.
Speaker 1:Oak mold, awesome Pollen and Machine Gun Nick, welcome back. Hey, hi, good to have you All right. We're talking Easter because we're like three days post-resurrection right now and we're pretty excited about that, three days in roughly 2,000 years, so excited for that entire experience. So, guys, tell me what was your experience at Easter, like at Wells Branch Church for you, machine Gun Nick.
Speaker 2:So are we talking like the whole easter?
Speaker 1:like yeah, good friday and everything oh yeah, good friday was a good thing to review.
Speaker 2:Yeah so good friday. I wasn't sure I was gonna like the stations. Oh yeah, I would be completely honest. I was like, why don't we just do a service? Um, although the stations did catch some emotion, I was like, oh, maybe this is why we do that.
Speaker 1:What emotion did you catch? When did how did that happen?
Speaker 2:So, uh, we were nailing things on the cross and I was like, oh boy, huh, but the eyes weren't completely dry.
Speaker 1:Let's just say that yeah, okay, fair enough, fair enough. How about you, adrian? What was your experience for good friday?
Speaker 3:I liked. I liked the good friday I I like just the. In my life I've always connected through music, like significantly I don't want to say primarily, although it might be primarily and so the fact that we just had constant singing up here and you could just sit at once. Once we went through it as a family, which was not very fun lots of parenting, lots of people freaking out because they couldn't spell the word bread, because there was a fill in the blank worksheet that their mom had made, thinking it was dumbed down sufficiently but wasn't, and so that was a little bit challenging. But then, once the kids were gone and I got to just be in here while the service was happening and other families were coming, that was cool. And then just sitting and listening to the music and thinking and having just kind of empty space to just think and sit and listen was awesome. That's something I don't feel like I get ever. So I was like man, this is a really cool opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh. How about that Easter egg hunt, though, on Saturday?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Nick you missed the Easter egg hunt.
Speaker 2:I did, um, I was trying to do something with the kids that failed. I think that was another oh, and then I ended up running up to to temple with John Tippett's so he could sell some of his stuff to somebody. So I mean I wasn't completely out of the Easter being mood, I just wasn't at the Easter egg hunt.
Speaker 1:All right, fair enough. Fair enough, adrian. Talk to us about what you guys did at the Easter egg hunt, which I really feel like. Easter egg hunt is not a good description of what it was it's probably more like an Easter extravaganza. That's what an Easter, because there was bunny tail dodge balls for adults, so it was like it was like Royal rumble. I felt like all of our neighbors were pretty excited about being there and they're like they've got dodge ball. It was kind of a fun moment.
Speaker 3:That was. It was fun we had, it was just our, our regular. I didn't actually have enough eggs for the hunting because you know what's interesting is, saturday before the hunt I had 45 people registered and I was like, shoot, we must have done really bad last year because no one's coming. And then by saturday morning of the hunt, so like five days later, monday, tuesday, was it yes, we had 130 people registered and then more came that weren't registered there was about 200 people there yeah, and so I.
Speaker 3:I just didn't foresee that entirely, so, but it was still fun, the kids still got how many?
Speaker 1:So next year, how many eggs are you going to get?
Speaker 3:I had a thousand. This time we need 2000.
Speaker 1:Okay, we need a double. Maybe you need to think that you need 3000 because that's the number that popped into my head too. Yeah, that's a lot, that's a lot.
Speaker 3:I'll put you guys on the egg stuffing team.
Speaker 1:No, no, you got, it is. Uh, who's your bunny? Oh, you know, I don't know if we want to disclose that information, okay, yeah well, that person could do a great job at egg stuffing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we had some great egg stuffers. My whole community group egg stuffed and we did it and, like you know, it usually takes about one hour to stuff a thousand, so I guess three hours, why not? Anyway, it was, it was good. So we did the hunt and the hunt last, you know, maybe four and a half minutes, and then you have the. We had face painting and little tattoos and balloon animals and then we had some relay races and dodgeball. But then the cool part of that venue at the school is there's a bunch of blue bonnets, so we got to have oh pictures.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was fun. So it was fun. It's a fun event I I enjoy. It's fun to have something to invite people to in the middle of the Easter weekend. That's less intimidating for those who don't go to church and I feel kind of like if I was someone who didn't go to church and I got invited to something like that and I went, I and I got to kind of meet, like okay, these are the people that go to their church. Like that's a big hump to like get over, because after that now all the intimidation is just coming to a service that you're unfamiliar with and not necessarily just an entire people, group and service and demographic that you're unaware of. So I feel I felt really good about that. We had several families from our neighborhood who we overlap with with sports and school and just we live close and so it's almost like the people that overlap with us like three or four times already got to overlap with us at a church thing and that felt really special to me.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed that. I totally agree with it. It did feel good, all right. So then let's jump right into Easter, and so 7am service was. Service was our first experience, which actually I was. It was well attended. We definitely did not put out enough chairs. I think we put out 50 chairs. We needed about 10, 15 more. But that their own Easter egg hunt and their baskets and stuff like that, okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you were texting me Are you here yet? At nine and I was like nope, I'm sitting next to my kid right now. So I didn't get. I didn't get in until the last service.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's talk about this, let's do a little sermon recap and really the the essence of the message is will you receive Easter as the gospel truth or an idle tale? Really, picking back off of Luke 24 verse uh, I think it's 11, where the ladies come back and they start explaining the gospel to all the disciples who are, you know, in some locked room somewhere and they didn't make any sense and they thought it and some, and most of them, dismissed it as an idle tale. And that's where, uh, we, we left off, and then we, we have three responses. You know, idle tale is obviously one of the responses. They said, oh, whatever, but peter ran to verify, uh, that the tomb was empty. Uh, and I really love that, because his response wasn't that it was an idle tale.
Speaker 1:It says but Peter, like of all the disciples that you think would be like yep, knew it, he's dead.
Speaker 1:It would be Peter, the guy that um denied him, but perhaps, maybe Peter knew more than anyone else that or maybe that shame, or maybe there was a shot that he had at getting it right, jesus Cause I don't think he fully wrapped his head around, uh, the scriptures being fulfilled, the Bible being fulfilled, but he runs to see Jesus, even when he's the denier, even when he just felt the humiliation of looking at Jesus as he's denied him, to a middle school girl. Um, and I compared that to you, uh, machine gun Nick, in sort of your lifestyle I don't know if lifestyle is the best way to put that, uh, but you're in your life, you. You've had moments where you've run to Jesus and you've sinned badly, horribly, and then you run to Jesus and I guess you could say all of our sin is horrible, so it doesn't really matter. But let's talk about that a little bit of like your experience of the trampoline, of going up and down and then running to Jesus.
Speaker 2:You know it's kind of crazy about that is I don't think you've had it in the sermon, but the week before that happened the thing with letting the person in my home and then discovering they were using drugs. Still, I was told by a friend at the veterans ministry that I go to that, I attend like we work on PTSD and you know the drinking and to handle it and all that stuff right. But he looked at me and he's like I have to tell you, if you don't get the bitterness out of your heart that your life's going to be, you know the way it is right now a little, a little rough yeah and I'm like what is he talking about?
Speaker 2:because I was like I'm not bitter. Yeah, you know, as long as I keep distance from the ex-wife, as long as I don't run into taliban, as long as you know you don't bring drugs in my house, I'm not bitter at all. Right, once those things happen, that's when it comes out and I was like whoa, you know, and so this this is the week before, and then you know, I'm trying to help out with the church. Um, and the individual in question, like who, who came to, to the men's group, who came out door knocking with us yep, was a guy trying to get his, his life on track right what had transpired since he fell out from us.
Speaker 2:He, he slipped and he fell, fell way far. And you know I can't have that. In my home, in my truck I have children. You know an ex-wife that could possibly be like, look, you're hanging out with these kind of people, you can't see your kids. In fact, you're trying to help that person, but my response to it wasn't one of love, it was one of anger.
Speaker 1:I ran right smack dab into not as bad as the taliban experience like, but like you were there, we were there yeah, I was there the taliban experience if you had access to your gun and you had been shooting it would have been pulled on him yeah yeah, like I would have actually uh leveled the gun on the Taliban guy. Yeah 100%. At Walmart, by the way, if you're wondering At.
Speaker 2:Walmart, where we are, I'm running the tires and the oil section. I'm the manager crying out loud. So that means I only answer to the store manager. And I was doing exceptional there, like you know, we were up 40 percent in sales and profits. And here this guy comes in and he's like I don't have to pay for this service. I'm like what and I look over at my I had this cuban guy because he spoke spanish and I'm like hey, what's he saying? He's like it's not spanish, and so, and then it just clicked and it was it. If you could imagine, I don't know, it's like it was instantaneous. I was like posh tune or dari, and the guy's like posh tune, and then I just I think I I saw red automatically and I started saying he's going to pay.
Speaker 3:What does that mean Pashtun?
Speaker 2:So they speak. So in Afghanistan they speak two different dialects Dari, and they spoke Pashtun. Now, taliban, the guys that we were trading lead with right, I mean shooting at they, were shooting at us they speak Pashtun. Okay, and I say not every posh tune speaker was a taliban, but every taliban spoke posh right, like, and you could tell, like the difference and, um, yeah, once he said that I was I, it was almost like I was transported back there Every like I don't know how to say it, like it's just this angst, like I wasn't nice to them. I wasn't like I've pulled one off a soldier because he was trying to, you know, grab him and do homosexual acts with him and that was supposed to be our friend, right, and I pulled him off and the only reason that guy didn't get bloodied is because I didn't want an international incident on my name.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But in all respects I believed I would have been justified to bloody that man. You know the population I treated like dirt. I mean I ran over three donkeys in one patrol, you know so we're talking about. I wasn't a good person. There are soldiers that are like, hey, I'm just here for the mission and I'll kill the bad guy. I wanted to burn the population out. If they would have let me, if the officer would have died and it was just Sergeant Drummond running the platoon, stuff would have gotten done. So would ABC News have probably talked about me. But you know, I am here to find it, find the insurgents and take them out, and that's. That was all I wanted to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's interesting. So okay, so you're comparing this guy that comes to your house with drugs that you're trying to help out. It's like it wasn't that same level of anger, but it was close.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was very much close, because you just endangered me, trying me seeing my family, my children.
Speaker 3:Right the most important thing really.
Speaker 2:I think the other side of that that I'm not putting into this story is my father was was a drug user.
Speaker 1:Ok, oh, trafficker that, that, there you go.
Speaker 2:Who went away for like four and a half years because he got caught, you know, with X amount of cocaine in the back of his car. All right, so like there's a lot going on there, Like so that trick that trigger you like oh, this is this is just what I?
Speaker 3:Well, it's almost like you could have been put away for the same thing your father was, and that's not even your.
Speaker 2:That's not who you are. Yeah, exactly, and I kind of have, and I definitely have a distaste for people that do that. Now, I mean, if you're smoking weed, that's one thing, but if you're like shooting up, right, I'm like no.
Speaker 1:Okay, right, I'm like no, okay, so how did that? How'd you handle that?
Speaker 2:with with him. Uh, well, I threw his stuff on the curb. Um, I came out of my truck with my gun in my hand, uh, which was more to like show his his handlers, because if you could imagine there was one car, there was two cars to pick him up. I wanted to make sure that they knew I'm a hard target, like it was. That was kind of like the Afghanistan thing, second Airborne in Afghanistan. Like we're a hard target, you don't want to. They call it, what do they call?
Speaker 1:it Porcupine.
Speaker 2:A square circle patch client or something.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, yeah, fine.
Speaker 2:That's what they called us, and I wanted to make sure that they knew. If you come by my place, you might not leave.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And that was where I took that, which the gun eventually very quickly went back into the truck. It wasn't waved around, it wasn't pointed at anybody, which was kind of weird because it was kind of like got this gun in my hand and I'm not used to this because it's either getting pointed at somebody and we're doing damage or it's in a holster. What do I do with it now? So that was a different experience.
Speaker 3:Good, that's a little, that's good. So then, how did you?
Speaker 1:recover from this, because there you are Anger and rage. You got the gun out.
Speaker 2:So John Tibbetts was like he drives by and is like, do I need to get out? I already have Cody and Jordan standing there with me and I'm telling you, jordan probably couldn't have stopped me and probably neither could John Tibbetts, because he's hurt. Cody's probably the only person that, if I would have went at him, could have stopped me, and probably neither could john tippets, because he's hurt. Cody's probably the only person that, if I would have went at him, could have stopped me. But I had three people there so that I wouldn't attack. That's good, because I wanted to. I just kicked the living crap out of them so.
Speaker 1:so how did so this gets into? How does the gospel and I think that what's so good about this is like? Here you are trying to do a gospel thing. It sort of backfires on you and now this person is trying to help. Now you're thinking you want to kill him. So how does Jesus meet you in that and how do you feel conviction? Where are you at with all that?
Speaker 2:eviction where you out with all that, um.
Speaker 2:So for one, I feel like I, I, I see the bitterness that's inside me, yeah, what is like? Because, again, I was questioning, I was like I'm not, I'm not, you know, right, I'm not mad at the world, I'm pretty, I'm pretty. Actually, you know, right now, I'm pretty peaceful person. At that moment in time I was like, which is great for me, right, right.
Speaker 2:So he showed that, yeah, man, I, I still have a lot of it in in me, this bitterness, this hatred, this anger, and, and it will, it will creep out when it like, I guess, when I hit one of those things, right, those tears, um, but on the flip side of that, like I know, I begrudgingly, uh, apologized to the person, um, which I know is the right thing, but I didn't want to, and yeah, it was, it was probably best done and the outcome was great, um, but it really, like, the whole time I was like you should be apologizing to me. You know, like I was wronged, right, so severely that he should be the one extending a hand right. And you know, I'm thinking, you know, uh, 19th century america, we could have dueled over this, I could have my vengeance, um, and that would be perfect in my mind.
Speaker 1:You and Andrew Jackson would have done well together. You and Andrew Jackson would have done well together.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think so. Me and Davy Crockett might not have gotten along. I love the guy, but me and Andrew Jackson were probably right there.
Speaker 1:We could do some dueling.
Speaker 2:They did say that they all got wasted when he took office that inaugural speech and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They went through like Washington DC ran out of whiskey.
Speaker 3:There's layers of connection here.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, okay, keep going so, but at the end of the day, I apologize to him, which opened up the the door for him to apologize to me and and the lord, showing me that I have to be the bigger person in life, which has been a common theme in my entire life, like everyone, and I mean everyone has said that to me over and over and over again. But my question throughout my life, as a young man even sometimes, as you know, where are we at in our 40s?
Speaker 1:Middle-aged man, middle-aged man, middle-aged man. Where are we at?
Speaker 2:in our 40s. Middle-aged man, middle-aged man, middle-aged man. I'm like you know, everybody that wanted me to be the bigger person was never the bigger person. So it was always kind of like, well, you don't do that, and then they get mad at you. You'd be like I told you. But being the bigger person, I guess, is just what has to happen, because I'm the one that's going to get rid of those generational curses, because no one else is going to do it, and it took me till middle age to figure that out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think let's just be honest I think we grow up. If we have any sort of we've been wronged. It kind of creates a victim mentality. And you could be as conservative as you know, you know as far right as possible, but still have a victim mentality and have this burning anger which makes you hard to be around, because conflict is inevitable and your ability to handle conflict is going to be what determines how far you're going to really go in life, because all of life is managing conflict.
Speaker 1:You rise to the level of leadership of which you can handle conflict, and usually people who are able I don't want to say peacemakers in the sense that they just get run over, but people that are able to address conflict, um, in a really positive, healthy way, are successful people.
Speaker 1:And you can only do that. Usually, this shows that you're raised right or you just adapted really well. If you're raised right, where you understood that conflict's a part of life, people get mad at each other. That doesn't mean they're going to leave forever, but if you've gotten hurt by someone who left you early or, uh, let you down, really bad. There's always this self-protective, that there's an anger that you've done me wrong when actually they've done it wrong but you've elevated to such high levels because it was such a triggering event of how you've now had to handle the rest of your life to protect yourself. And I think what I've said over and over is like, I think, our emotional response when we're younger if it's not trained out of us, we don't become older, or we become older in age but not wiser at all.
Speaker 3:So that's interesting, I agree. I think that I was just thinking when you were talking like being the bigger person in the choice to do that, you're becoming a leader of everyone else and so when you're the bigger person, in whatever context, you become the strongest leader in that same context. And I mean, if you think about it with, like our, our kids, we could. I mean you see parents not be the bigger person a lot and lose it.
Speaker 3:And it's like, and when, when someone's offended by their two-year-old, or um bossed around by their two-year-old, or whatever, it's like okay, they're not able to like rise above, the like, literally everything that the child whines about is like wrong, right, and so it's like, if you can't rise above and then still love them enough to parent them and correct them right, you're never, you're not being the bigger person and and in that case you end up the toddler. And I think there are a lot of adults going through life as the kicking and screaming toddler and those people are in low levels professionally, not because they didn't have money to go to college. That's not why they're. They can't ever, they can't ever get past of a level of managed. They can't get to a level of management, they can't get to a level of leadership, because they're constantly reacting and responding as the, as the victim, as a smaller person.
Speaker 3:And I think you can't like going back to what it sounds like, nick, with what you're sharing. You are a level-headed, consistent person, until something that connects back to one of your deepest hurts or fears, or and injustices. And then now I hate the word triggered because it's so freaking trendy, but I hate it. So it's like but you're set off. We can say we're set off. You get set off by something that is like rooted in something very real that was, that was foundational to who you were and how, how you became the person you are today. And so you've got to go back and heal that thing and address that thing, because it's unrealistic to think you'll ever be able to engage a situation that kind of push pushes one of those buttons. You're not going to be able to engage it and rise above without healing the pain that's there and the confusion that's there.
Speaker 3:And I think that you often I think this is why, personally, like you have people who are, who are addicts that just can't get out of the cycle. I think it's like, until you can go figure out those roots and be the quote unquote bigger person and lead yourself through you, there isn't really like and I think ultimately, going back to the sermon, it's like Jesus is the solution for giving us the strength to be that person because ultimately he was the ultimate bigger person, right he took, and so it's like we can't do it outside of his strength. But also there's some practical healing steps that need to be taken that I think God leads and assists, but there is some initiative, I think, on our part to like engage those things too.
Speaker 1:So the thing I do love is that, nick, every one of those circumstances with that you've experienced as a Christian, I've always seen you run back to Jesus. You've run to the church, not away from the church. What? What's the reason for that? Cause most people, whenever they face a moment of weakness or sadness or sorrow, they shut down. But for you that's not the case. What they shut down, but for you that's not the case. What?
Speaker 2:how do you, how do you reconcile that? What? What's the reason for that? I just I, I really think that I'm a better person since coming to christ okay um, like I said, like there's, there's a I know peace now, at least an extent of it. And and if you've been to combat and you've done that and seen that or lived that life like there is, there's not much peace there.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You are always internally struggling with kind of like the devil and and the angel on your shoulder. Okay, like um and so to to have snippets of peace makes me want to come closer to God than than to run away, because I already know what it's like without it. I experienced that hell. And so to to be to not come back at to him when I've made my mistakes or when I've been set off. We'll go with seven off is just ridiculous to me yeah.
Speaker 2:I can't fathom. I cannot fathom at this moment in time, a life without Christ in me.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, that's awesome. I think you shared that last night at the men's group of just kind of running back to Christ over and over again. I think that's the beauty of your life, and I think that's the beauty of your life, uh, and I think that's it was encouraging for other people, because I think what happens for a lot of people is they feel blackballed, they, they, they screw up so bad I I can't get back to church, I can't get back to God until I do a lot of right things to make up for all the stuff I've done bad. And that wasn't true for Peter and it's not true for you, it's not true for anybody, and I think that's what's exciting for me. Um, I love that part. All right, let's, let's move on to. Well, actually, adrienne, did you say you related also to Peter in the story?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think for me the the relation was the less, less on the emphasis of just constantly running back to Jesus, but more in the in the news of the resurrection, like that was kind of where the sermon started was. You had these three people like you, you hear the news that Jesus has risen and you have Cleopas who like doesn't really care and just is like, oh, bummer, or it's the fact that he was dead Right.
Speaker 1:Well, so they all so remember Jesus died, so, and they all get the message on Sunday from the women that he's alive and Cleopas is like. Well, you guys figured that out, I got, I got an errand to run, that's right.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:He's kind of like maybe it's true, maybe it's not true.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to waste my time. Yeah, that's right. So then you had Peter, who went back to the tomb to look, and I resonated with that because I think to me what that reveals is like the death of Jesus would have been the most earth shattering thing for these people. I mean, nothing could have been more hopeless and more discouraging and defeating. But you've also have to consider that they've had all these seeds planted by Jesus of like I'm coming back, I'm going to leave you, I will be back, like he said. All these things, I don't think I don't think anybody is putting those things together, but you've got to figure that there's a little bit of like people are considering is there hope left? Could something possibly happen? But after the devastation of what they saw on Friday, probably not. And so the suggestion from these women that he's not there, it should lead to a curiosity and a hope, because Jesus had led them to expect that there would be something. And so I I like that he doesn't trust the women. I kind of like that.
Speaker 1:Why At that?
Speaker 3:point. It's like I'm not trusting anyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like the guy that I just followed that could do miracles, that could heal people, that raised from the dead, was just mocked and beaten and crucified and died. And so I'm not going to believe literally anybody, but I am going to believe for myself because I think it kind of to me it speaks to the personal connection that he felt with Jesus. He knew he had access to Jesus and so he himself could go to the tomb and investigate and leave with a conclusion and I like that, I like that, I don't. To me it's not a disrespect of the women, but more of a like. It signifies the gravity of the situation and how it's. Like I'm not going if it didn't really matter. Okay, yeah, let's believe these chicks and move on. This is life and death, this is everything. Like I'm going to go for myself and I'm going to go see, but then this is where I kind of felt like in a catch 22,.
Speaker 3:If it was, if I'm Peter, then I'm going to come back and I'm sure as heck going to expect everybody to trust me that what I saw is real and that when I tell you Jesus is probably risen, you better believe me, and I'll be super annoyed if you have to go check for yourself, Cause I'm like and that's what did happen, right?
Speaker 1:So Peter did go. Jesus does reveal himself. I think Peter is rewarded for him going to the tomb and I think he saw something so euphoric, um, on his way home, cause after he stoops in, looks at the tomb, he heads home and I think somewhere along the way on his heading home, he, jesus, reveals himself to Peter. And then that's when they have some sort of discussion for a while and then he runs back to the disciples and lets them know he's alive and he revealed himself to Peter. And then Cleopas and his buddy are out there heading to Emmaus and some reason Jesus goes and grabs him and I partly wonders why, why did he grab him? And I think, and it partly wonders why, why did he grab him? And I think it's because he was heading to Emmaus. Um, it reminds and I know I'm about to get archaic thoughts on you everybody but, um, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Do you remember when in first Kings 19, uh, elijah calls down fire, uh, on the mountain at Mount Carmel, fire on the mountain at Mount Carmel. And then Elijah says hey, ahab, get your chariot ready. You better get going, because it's about to rain, you don't want to get your wheels stuck and then God supernaturally empowers him to race ahead to the town, which I think was to give the city the understanding. The first one with the knowledge wins. So whenever Elijah said, like we have defeated the Baal and all the prophets on Mount Carmel, everyone's like hooray. And then when the chariot comes in with Ahab, he would just already concur with what already happened, because it's really hard to reverse the news.
Speaker 1:I think by them going to Emmaus, jesus is like I got to get out ahead of them and tell them reveal themselves to me, because if they get to Emmaus and they share that, they heard some story that was made up and the initial thing that's going out from the disciples the primary disciples that he is risen. Not that it's some made up story. I think he got ahead of that. So again, is god sovereign? All that absolutely. But I think there was a part of like, because these guys are no, I don't want to say like well, they are, they're nobodies compared to what about the other 11? Why not go peter? Okay, he needs a special one. The other 11, then cleopas I think there was something having to get to cleopas prevent him from sharing a false tale, uh, that he wasn't alive or that it was a fake story was important.
Speaker 3:For over sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk about Cleopas. I think for me, cleopas really resonated with me, because the big thing for them, what's so funny, is the primary thing. They tell Jesus who, at that time, as they're walking to Emmaus and he's a stranger, the primary thing they're saying isn't hey, he's risen from the dead. The primary thing is, like you know, I thought he'd redeem Israel, in other words, make my life better. I thought my life would get better because Jesus was in charge. And that's their prime. Like that's the primary thing that they're worried about. And then they get to hey, we had some ladies talk about Jesus being raised in the dead. Now, it could have been. They just want to give a general, full picture to a stranger, to kind of give them the whole story. But I think that that was probably the thing that was most on their mind.
Speaker 1:Israel is not going to be great again. Israel is. You know. The taxes aren't going to be alleviated. Our lives are still going to be hard. I'll be working for the guy that I'm working here in Emmaus again, and I was thinking I was going to be some presidential cabinet member and now I'm just another nobody again.
Speaker 1:And I wonder if that was, they didn't run to the tomb because he wasn't their only hope. They definitely had a fallback plan. When you follow Jesus, there is no fallback plan. He is plan A, is plan ABC, through F, through D, through Z. He is your plan. And when they were kind of like, well, let's head to Emmaus, I think what that said was like well, we got to work this thing out on our own, which I think is how a lot of Christians are. They render the resurrection an idle tale when it doesn't impact their life and when life does not get better, they don't just run to Jesus and cry out help me, jesus. They go. Well, I got to get back to work, I got to do my thing, I got to grind it out myself and I think that's how a lot of people end up going. Maybe you've seen that in. You see it all the time in community groups, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, no, I like to talking about Jesus. They were talking the whole time about him but it wasn't impacting the life. I think you can say a community group could get like this when you just talk a lot about Jesus but there is no life impact.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and I kind of I guess part of me is like I don't even think I'm critical of it, because I look at the disciples and Jesus was confusing. I mean, all of his. His parables were confusing. I mean, all of his, his parables were confusing. He was constantly talking about this return and this death and, like he, he was intentionally not super clear as to exactly how things were going to go down.
Speaker 3:And so the whole time you're following him, he's giving you a sense of hope, but honestly, I don't really fault them for not recognizing where that hope should have been placed, because he said enough things that would make them think the hope should have been placed in the government changing or in their circumstance changing, and the fact that he was talking about an eternal kingdom, like that's a far out idea. And so to me, the whole time he's alive, they're holding onto a hope that they don't really know for what. It's just hope. They have hope because Jesus is around and he's promising things and he's, he's more powerful, he's supernatural, and so so the minute that he's dead, it's like there is now. Whatever vague kingdom he was talking about, it was eternal. We're not even really giving. We might've just been misreading that one.
Speaker 1:And the thing you gotta remember is like why would they and I know that everyone hates it when I do this, especially you but why would they follow him if he's so unclear?
Speaker 3:Okay, I don't hate when you do that. You didn't say anything about making something up, so why would the disciples follow him? So why would they follow him.
Speaker 1:He was so unclear.
Speaker 3:I think he was attractive, right, and not physically, but I think that it was. It was a draw to follow somebody that was empathetic, that was understanding that he was. But he has nothing, yeah, but he does have everything. So when he speaks to you, you will follow. I mean, every liberal media leader has hit people on an emotional feeling, an emotional need, and when you connect with someone that way, man, you're kind of in. I think that Jesus knew how to do that.
Speaker 1:I think it does. No, I think what makes you leave being a fisherman is miracles, and I don't really care what you have to say If you can feed me, if you can raise the dead dead, if you can do all these crazy things he's doing both.
Speaker 1:He's connecting emotionally and he's doing those things it's a leader can't go very far, and we all know this just from shoot. You probably thought this in our marriage, but if a leader isn't clear that that organization, no matter how small, can't go very far, it can if there's an emotional component.
Speaker 3:I mean our, our political culture right now is evidence of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but every so. Tony Robbins, if you ever watched him, he like will swear at you and say you're an absolute beat, a beat, a beat, a beat. You know, get off your rear end and start working. Jesus doesn't do that. He's compassionate and loving and he's like the complete opposite of like a typical get off your rear end and start living life person.
Speaker 3:He who's Tony? Why is Tony Robbins being?
Speaker 1:because he doesn't do miracles, he just yells at people.
Speaker 3:Wait, do people follow him? Yes, oh, okay.
Speaker 1:But, but yeah, but I like.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's a group of individuals that if you tell, get off your blankety blank and go get it done, they need that.
Speaker 1:They need that, right Right. But there's a whole bunch of others that need love, that need love, but they're not going to follow you unless you show them something. I don't think that's true, so I don't think that Jesus was that dynamic of a preacher, because everyone's walked away confused.
Speaker 2:Well, isn't that kind of expert power? Yes, yes well, isn't that kind of expert power?
Speaker 1:yes, yes, when you have expert power, right, the expert power is is predicated upon miracles, is all I'm saying okay, I'm saying okay, miracles and an emotional connection. You cannot invalidate this emotional connection I'm not saying he didn't have it, but without the miracles the emotional connection doesn't matter, just like every other totally.
Speaker 2:I'm totally thinking that this vagueness has to brings it all back to faith.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have to have faith gotta have faith, faith, yes and and even though it's not crystal clear, like if I take over, if I build my own company tomorrow, right and take over, yeah, so you're gonna have crystal clear path of how I want it done and where it's going to go and exactly what it's because I'm going to do that. But in this sense, with miracles which I cannot perform, I can pray for them but I can't perform them. With miracles, you have that kind of expert power and that vagueness kind of is like building up to the faith that we all have to have. We have to have that faith without seeing the miracle.
Speaker 3:And again, here's my hang on. Let me finish this whole emotional thing because, talk about this or listen to this, though. So, he gets them to leave their fisherman job, but he provides for them. They don't. They're not going hungry, they're not going thirsty. He's providing for them constantly, he's taking care of them. He's like he led them.
Speaker 1:Really well, I was how care of them, cause he's like he led them really well, I was super.
Speaker 3:How does he take care of them? So he's there, they're never without, so they might not understand why it's the miracles is all I'm saying. Okay, fine, chris, I have no problem with the miracles.
Speaker 1:Great miracles, miracles are how he's doing it, but I'm saying that that's why it's so powerful and the reason why it's so unique is a lot. A lot of people say we should love each other. Liberals all over the place are saying we just need to love each other, and their lives get worse.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:All right, but but Jesus saying, like, with the power of the miracle, that now, because of this unbelievable understanding that you have from the power of God, now I can love you with something, because I'm given power, that's different. I think that's why it's it's different.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, I would never. Just I've never disagreed with that. So I think it's his love, his connection, and then his ability.
Speaker 3:That's why I said supernatural ability that was referring to parables, and so I think that he, his supernatural ability, was why they were following him. But but still, he's confusing and it's still weird and it's still. I was thinking one of the things I was most moved by on Good Friday this year is, um I, it hit me for the first time the leadership of Jesus leading up to the cross. So and I and this kind of was what brought it was. This was kind of the one place where I felt emotion. This Good Friday was in the thought of like Jesus took care of his disciples and he led them in preparation for his death by. He took them at a table and he led them in preparation for his death. He took them at a table, he fed them, he connected with them, he explained what was going to happen, even though they did not understand.
Speaker 3:He completely took care of them, completely led them. He then doesn't abandon them. He leads them to the garden where he's desperately needing connection and relationship. And he's done everything. He sacrificed everything of himself, his whole life, up until the point that he's prepared his own people. Instead of being caught up and feeling sorry for himself or fearful he's about to endure, he's just loving. It kind of reminds me of like a mom, if you were going to like, like when I felt this like a little, this is a, this is a pitiful example comparing to Jesus. But when you're in labor like we had a weird labor experience and like the whole family's like hanging out and I was like trying to withdraw. I was trying to withdraw, I was trying to withhold on the epidural for a little bit and I'm like really struggling and my kids are in the room and the last thing I'm going to do is let my kids see I didn't really care for them to see the agony, see the pain, see the fear.
Speaker 1:They should have seen it that way. Then you could say like do you know what I went with to have to bear you as my child? That would have been good.
Speaker 3:That would be your leadership style. And so this is where I was like I didn't care for that. This is where I was like I didn't care for that and so I was like working so hard to sacrifice my feelings in the moment for the comfort of my children, and I feel like this is sort of what's happening to Jesus. And then he gets to a place where they're in the garden and he's now needing a little. Just stay awake while I'm trying to pray and they can't do it and they fail, and he forget he's not mad at them, he's not.
Speaker 3:He could have just been so defeated by that and he continues to just love them and then continues to like heal the guy's ear after Peter cuts it off Cause he's so mad. And it's like his disciples just continue to to be nothing except needing direction, needing leadership, and he's there for them emotionally, he's there for them physically, he's there for them in provision, and so I love, I love that and I think it speaks to the fact. I think he led them well his whole life, in addition to performing miracles. The miracles were part of his leadership of them.
Speaker 3:And so anyway, I think all of that significant. I don't know how that tied into the sermon, but yeah, I think it's significant.
Speaker 2:Are we overlooking the fact that he's also fulfilling scripture?
Speaker 3:in his life.
Speaker 2:Like I mean, not only is he performing these miracles, but these miracles were preordained, like they've been talked about for over a millennia right Roughly.
Speaker 1:If you're looking at Isaiah specifically, you're looking at roughly 600 years, 400, 500 years before. I think what you're looking at with, or or maybe 800 years before uh, yeah or no, 600. So what I was looking at with with um, jesus and Cleopas specifically, is, I feel like when, once Jesus didn't, you, you can tell that Jesus is just a something to talk about and not your life, when you can go about your business and not run to him on a, when you're when he's revealed to you, and so I think that that sort of and I don't know if you guys have ever experienced that in with Christians or people who claim themselves or call themselves Christians, who talk about Jesus but there isn't a part of which they end up running to him, dropping everything, running to him, and I think that's where I feel like, when you talk about nominal Christianity in our culture, that's problematic and that's the thing that I think. I think that that's where a struggle is.
Speaker 3:I would agree, but hang on. I would also say this. I would say the Cleopas is that I know in my life. It's not that they they actually, it's not that they they actually, it's not that they don't believe and it's not that they're not willing to drop everything. They don't have the boldness and the courage to have hope in what God provides.
Speaker 1:What do you mean?
Speaker 3:So, cleopas, specifically, I look at him and I'm like you didn't have the courage and the strength to have any hope left that there could be more to this story, and when you heard news it was much easier to just be like, yeah, I'm not going to really inconvenience myself with that, because the pain, the pain what if Peter ran to that tomb and Jesus' body's sitting there? I mean the pain of that is excruciating, I mean it's insult to injury at that point. And so the the risk involved in trusting and in hoping in something is so high that I think to me those are scared, anxious people that are like, ah, I kind of rather a mediocre life where I don't have to like put all my eggs in one basket, I don't have to really hope that God's going to come through for me.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people settle for a mediocre, half-baked Christianity. What they could have is the resurrection power, and I think that's the struggle, that and I think it's because we don't put all our eggs in the one basket we don't run to Jesus, we're not praying like he answers. What we do is we live our life.
Speaker 3:Add a little, sprinkle, a little Jesus on and we put some sentiment on a life that sucks. I would call that self-protection.
Speaker 1:I think they live self-protected as though, as though maybe not sucks, might be too extreme, because it might be. You might have a fine life, but you sprinkle on Jesus to kind of make as a good luck charm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think you, I think to me that's a life of self-protection where, ultimately, your comfort and your pride is your own God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, that's good. Um yeah, and I think that's where a lot of Christians are, when they just want three steps to be a better me, as opposed to completely die to self and follow Christ.
Speaker 3:I agree and I and I think this is going back to like it takes God, it takes God's intervention to break you out of that cycle. It's not like those of us that have crossed that line or like superior like God has done. God has given us that strength, he's given us that ability. But I vividly remember back when I was a child and I prayed to receive Christ. I vividly remember, um, I had dealt with a whole lot of shame and a whole lot of like feelings of guilt and and they were, they were dominating me Like I would.
Speaker 3:Anytime we would be in the my mom's minivan listening to Christian music. I would just feel so dark and angry and anytime I would go to church, I would feel guilty, I would feel shame. It didn't make a lot of sense, but it was. It was overwhelming me. And I remember when presented with the gospel, and it was so easy, it was like pray this and receive Jesus as your savior. And I'm like okay, and I remember the thing holding me back was like I'm mortified to do this and this. What if this feeling doesn't, what if this darkness and this feeling I have doesn't leave?
Speaker 1:What if he doesn't answer? What if he is not there? At least if I sort of say I'm too good for it, there's still the hope I could go back Exactly.
Speaker 3:If I don't, if I don't engage it fully now it's in my back pocket I'll manage this guilt that I feel, knowing that there's something that might work. I'd rather have the potential hope of something, maybe, and settle on a lesson.
Speaker 1:There's something that might work. I'd rather have the potential hope of something, maybe, and settle on a lesson. Do you think that people kind of fall in and out of that? Like they trust Jesus with all their heart and then they go through a little, they're like Peter, and then they go through a Cleopas period where, like you, start white knuckling and gripping and sort of what. Do you think, what's your, what's your experience with people?
Speaker 3:Um do you kind of go back forth between peter being peter and cleopas. I was right in my train of thought of what if I, what if I go all in and it's not there. And so in doing so, in going all in and then experiencing the relief, it was like no greater relief could have been found. So then, why do I think people go back and forth in that, yes, I think we hold certain areas of our life Like. I think I do this. Still, there are certain areas of my life where I'm like, ah, what area is that?
Speaker 3:Um, I think, oh, I don't really. I have to think for a minute, I guess. What was the what's the exact question? Again, what am I answering?
Speaker 1:what area of your life do you go back to Cleopas where you're like that's a good story?
Speaker 3:I don't want to be all in for that yeah, because it's too scary well.
Speaker 3:I think that that's, I think, for a while at the church I felt for me. I became very clear to me a few months ago that friendships are something I tend to like. I look to friendships to satisfy and fulfill me, sometimes like alongside of God, like I'm looking to friendships every bit as much as I'm looking to Christ, maybe more and so friendships can be something that I hold with a closed fist and I won't allow, I don't, I'm afraid to let God fully have those things. And so the church became this really threatening environment, because the church is a lot of pieces that I don't control and it's your, it's the church, is under your leadership and the decision-making of you and the elders.
Speaker 3:And what if these people that I tend to like hold more valuable than God himself at times? What if they leave, or they? Or what if we may? What if you or the elders make a decision that I don't even think is a good decision? I'm stuck, I'm here and they all might run, and I'm left with like out my friends, and with the very thing that I didn't even like in the first place or agree with in the first place.
Speaker 3:Like that fear was like dominating me and I was like, how do I like live halfway in? Because what if the ball is going to, if the ball drops with this church? I want to be able to feel safe that these friendships can all be lost and I won't care. And so it kept me half in, half out all the time and I finally, and then, in doing that, what do I do? I just find something wrong with everybody. Right, I can just find something wrong with every friend. I mean, who cares if I lost them? Who cares if I lost them? And in reality, like I love them and I need them and like they're, they're, like they're huge in my life, and so it was causing this like bipolar interaction with the people that I loved the most. And I had to, I had to risk it, so like I feel like I kind of went all in and I'm just like risking it that they might get pissed one day and leave.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's hard.
Speaker 3:Get mad. I don't know if pissed is considered inappropriate. Yeah, it was scary. That was scary to feel all in in that way, and it's not that I need people to hedge your bets.
Speaker 1:You got to hedge your bets with different people.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. So I was like so then I'm like, okay, I need to make sure I have some relationships outside the church that aren't affected. But then in doing that, ultimately I'm wanting those people to come experience what we have at our church. And so it was like I was constantly in this, like tension that was kind of sucking the life out of me and I finally realized, okay, I have to let go of my friendships being like they've become an idol in my life and they're. I value them. I don't trust God with them. I'm not willing to trust God with them, not willing to let go and hold them with open hands. So I think that's an area where I tend do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, that's deep, okay, uh, I got one of those. Okay, what do you got?
Speaker 2:So I would definitely say protection of myself and those that I care most about. I can't just let it up to God, like I mean, when you think about combat right, we try to control things and that was one of those things. Like security, you're constantly on. If you don't have security. Your patrol is done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's fried.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the first major thing, and I think my big problem is letting that up to God. I have friends that are like Nick, just put your guns away, put them up. And I'm like, are you serious? I mean I'm not trying to white knuckle this, like, hey, god, give me the strength and try not to put me in that situation. But who am I? If I have the ability to intercept in someone's maybe darkest moment, because you can still step in if someone's getting abused or raped or something on the street, sure so, but who am I if I don't? If I, if I have the ability but I don't use it?
Speaker 2:right and I think that's my struggle is just with that and the fact that, like I need to control the security of of my surroundings still.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I can see that. So I guess then the last one was shifting onto the last one. So we got you have the Peter runs to it. You've got Cleopas, who walks away slow of heart to believe. Eventually Jesus comes and grabs him. And then Thomas there's doubting Thomas and we have one of the guys at our church which I really appreciate.
Speaker 1:It's Matty Keniston and he sets up every Sunday faithfully. He works the camera Grateful for that, and he does not believe in Jesus. He has been at our church for close to 11 years and has been faithful every single Sunday. He comes to just about everything that our church does, been faithful every single Sunday. He comes to just about everything that our church does. He lives with. I think he keeps.
Speaker 1:Whenever he moves, he, he you know cause you move over a period of 11 years. He, when he moves to a different apartment, he always lives in an apartment which is walking distance from the church and he runs to our church every Sunday. I mean literally runs here, sets up, comes to service, runs home and it's really special. And whenever we've had lunch, he's just like, yeah, I think you guys are crazy, but I'm like, why have you been with us for 11 years and he's like because of the community, and I think that's sort of a wild thought, isn't it? I mean, wouldn't you think that's sort of crazy that someone would be a stick around for 11 years because of the community?
Speaker 2:But wouldn't you want to? If the community is so, wouldn't you want to have what we have Right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll have to bring Matty on here at some point and be like you know what the Not if you don't think you're missing something, not if the community is filling for you, all that you feel like you need, and I think at that point you're like it's going to require God to reveal himself to Maddie, in a way that Maddie wants that and, to be fair, that's what happened with Thomas, right?
Speaker 1:So for eight days Thomas is with the disciples it's not eight years but it is eight days and he's probably like now whatever. Eight years but it is eight days and he's probably like now whatever. But he's probably not voicing it the whole time and maybe secretly he's hoping it's true and he likes listening to all these people who really believe it's true and he's encouraged by their encouragement and the way they love each other and serve each other and he wants to be involved with that. But to take that risk that, that intellectual risk of putting all my eggs in that basket without absolute, a hundred percent proof, is a dangerous thing to do, cause what if you look like a fool?
Speaker 3:or what if you're sad? What if you're left sad, Like to me, it goes right back to that fear and that like Thomas. To me, Thomas is probably a super emotional dude who's like I'm not believing that until I put my fingers there because I'm the last thing I'm going to do is have an emotional dude. No, like I'm not believing that until I put my fingers there because I'm the last thing I'm gonna do is mean unemotional dude no, super emotional super emotional, okay.
Speaker 2:So if you have a bunch of emotion, what she's saying is is that you're not going to go down that road oh, I see you're saying unless it's real. Yeah, because I don't want to have those feelings, because they're too intense right, because he's an intense dude.
Speaker 1:Back in in John 11, he's, he's the one that speaks up. Let's go and die with Jesus when he wants to go.
Speaker 3:There you go, that would, that would fit, say that would fit with the person. So I, it could have been that he didn't want to look down, but my assessment is like, no, he's so emotional and he and he, you're dead to him, like he won't look at me when I go to his school and it's like I have to grab him, I have to kiss him, I have to tickle him and I have to do it like four times and then finally he'll maybe consider smiling and then every now and then he'll let you know he loves you. But maybe consider smiling and then every now and then he'll let you know he loves you. But it's like that isn't someone that's afraid to look like a fool. That's somebody that's like I'm so afraid of of being hurt by you not caring, and I've seen some evidence that I've interpreted as you not caring and so, man, you're going to have to like really, show me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, yeah, speaking to him, I think I probably my greatest moments with him is when he he does that thing where he just shows up at your bed and you just like like have a bell around your neck or something. Anyway, I wake up and he's there and he's like I love you, daddy, and I was like I love you too. I think it was really a powerful moment for me, because it showed that he was able to be vulnerable, to initiate that, which I think was really, really cool for me and I think that's for a lot of people. Initiating a I love you statement is a vulnerability which is really difficult, and so until I have absolute proof that you love me too, I'm not going to risk it.
Speaker 3:Right, absolutely, yeah, absolutely so. To me he's like a scared emotional guy.
Speaker 1:That's what that's Thomas, okay, yeah, yeah, and that's that's. That's good. I think it's good to kind of recognize. If that's where you are out there, listen, if you are watching, uh, this podcast. You'd like to, you know, pose a question. You can text us in at 737-231-0605 or just go to pastorplekcom. We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1:Um, as we're talking about peter, cleopas and Thomas and their responses to the gospel of the message that Jesus was risen from the dead. Peter ran to Jesus, cleopas walked away from Jerusalem and talked about it, but it had no impact on his life, and Thomas refused to believe, but he did hang with the other disciples until Jesus chose to reveal himself to him. Next week, though, we're going to be talking about, in fact, this Sunday, we're going to be talking about why does God allow pain and suffering? So I want to talk about that real quick. Have you guys ever endured suffering in your life? Yes, and have you ever questioned why? Of course, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think what we're going to be doing on this Sunday isn't really getting to why, because if the answer was why, we'd already have it posted and everyone would know it by heart. God doesn't, even with Job. He never tells him why, and even in Romans 9, god, through Paul, writes does the clay have the right to say to the potter why did you make me like this? No, you just do what you're told. So there's a part of it where you're not going to get, maybe, the answer of like I want to know why, but you are going to get an answer of how to respond and ultimately, some of the reasons. Why are that aren't always revealed, but you can kind of glean from what we learn from God that he reveals.
Speaker 1:And we're going to be going through the book of Job and if anyone has ever experienced suffering, job is a great book to read through. It's a long book and it feels like Job's repeating himself a bunch, his buddies are repeating themselves a bunch, and they are Because, isn't it when life's hard, you start becoming redundant and you start saying the same thing over and over again and then you go. What am I supposed to do? I think that's sort of the reality that everybody faces in that setting. So that's where we're going this Sunday and I'm really excited about sharing that. Any other thing you want to add to that, adrian?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:Machine gun Nick.
Speaker 2:Well, I can't wait to look at it. In fact, I think I'm going to go home and start reading Job just to get some insight. And I do believe that most of the suffering you go through at this point in my life is to teach you a lesson.
Speaker 1:Alright, that's good. In fact, I'll be talking about that exact response that is usually the Stoics response that we endure. Ultimately, something better is going to come of this, but what if it doesn't? Alright, so from our we're, thank you for watching. We're here to talk faith, culture, everything in between, and from our house to yours, have an awesome week of worship, thank you.