Transcript:

Welcome to binge mode’ everybody this is a special podcast where we dive deep into past messages from Grace Community Church we will talk to guests explore spiritual living and talk about what it looks like to live out our faith in very practical ways now we aren’t trying to reap reach these great messages instead we are going to be diving deep into the truths that are found there so welcome to binge mode my name is Jake I could be the lead pastor of our Port Jervis location and I get to be your host here today and I’m just so glad that you decided to join us now if you haven’t listened back to the throwback Thursday message from Thursday night you don’t have to have heard it to follow us along today so we’re just glad that you’re listening in that’s right I’m Tyler Collins I’m the marketing director here at Grace and every Thursday at Graceoc.com/online you can experience past messages live along with others so right now we’re going through the series anxious for nothing that’s right so right now anxious for nothing as the series were in and it’s a five-week series with Pastor Jarrod and he had done this back in January of 2018 so for the next five weeks so using the next four weeks we’ll be diving deep into Philippians 4 where Paul says do not be anxious about anything so we’ll be talking about how that is even possible and how we can have the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. This week we’ve got Branden Brown with us joining us on the show welcome brainy we’re so glad that you’re here what’s up guys thanks for having me hey Branden thanks for joining us on the podcast this week so this is exciting and I know you have your hands deep into the throwback Thursday so thanks for all you’re doing with that and thanks for joining us here today absolutely this is great um yeah I love you know this is an idea that the team came up with the kind of dig into these messages do a little bit of a deep dive and I’m super excited especially for this series it’s ancient when anxious for nothing I’m definitely timely with everything that’s going on you know in the world today and also even in my own personal life.

So I’m excited for sure very cool number one anxiety in my life and I want to ask you about it is how much toilet paper do you have left at this point oh dude and I don’t know if you want that public information now that I think about it kind of like asking like a millionaire how many gold bars are hidden in their backyard or something gold yeah but um I thankfully my wife is a scavenging genius and we have we should be good I’ll say that okay should be good it was a very vague yeah sure if that was a compliment or not but I was good we won’t share this okay so we’ll just jump into the throwback Thursday material the very first place that Pastor Jarrod had started was he framed everything around this question of where do you go for peace and he gave a bunch of different examples he talked about kind of self-medicating in turn and you know he gave alcohol as an example and he also talked about money maybe people go to money to get to find peace and he used this example of retail therapy which I’ve literally deleted the Amazon app on my phone during this time of quarantine because it’s dangerous for me because I feel a little bit more it’s a little cathartic just to scroll through and add stuff to the cart you know window-shop yeah and it’s also like you’re not driving a lot so you’re like hey I have some gas money I could yeah [Laughter] yeah so there’s these places we go and he even talked about how we over spiritualize our relationship with the Bible how we go to the Bible in times of maybe only in times of emergency when you need to feel better so to add to this a little bit just to show my hand a little bit of where I go for peace it’s kind of stuff is where I go to give myself some peace but specifically and this is goes down deep into my blood it’s generational at this point I come from a bloodline of Doomsday Preppers so my family is loving this season of everything that’s what I’m they feel very connected to it so preparedness that’s always it I don’t know how many cans of beans that my dad had in the basement walls go the amount of times that I’ve packed a bug-out bag or made a tinfoil hat just so I can feel a little bit okay.

And that’s so that’s where I go to I want to feel prepared I want stuff around me I end up hoarding a little bit that’s definitely in my nature I can’t and even I don’t even feel like I can help it it’s just kind of my default mode it’s up to me to be you know controlling it but where do you go what do you guys go to find peace I mean for me I definitely it’s funny cuz you mentioned like doomsday prepping I kind of wish I was more like that I always feel like there’s I could be more prepared for disasters that happen but for me personally on the physical activity is like huge for my for finding peace some type of whether it’s like mental peace or like emotional peace like good whether it’s going to the gym or going for a run or I recently started doing jujitsu so like going and you know getting strangled it’s just literally it’s quite embarrassing when you that would be distracting I imagine that being that being very distracting to everything that’s going on it’s exactly okay yeah exactly I don’t think there’s necessarily things wrong with you know the things that we’re saying here like I think for me it’s definitely video games like I’m like oh what’s the video game but I haven’t played it in a while I’m gonna go dump like four hours of my life into that so I don’t I don’t think we’re saying like oh these are bad things that we shouldn’t do those things right like exercise is a good thing being prepared not a bad thing I think video games are a good thing as some people may debate that but can I just ask what is the one that you’re what is the where the video game that you’re dumping your time into right now I’m just curious?

Uh it’s a game called satisfactory though build massive factories okay stuff that’s all you do that does not sound fun to me okay I take it sounds sad I’m sorry I guess all I’m trying to say though is it’s easy for us to say maligned maybe these things didn’t go too but that’s not necessarily I don’t think the point even Pastor Jarrod was making it’s more of the problem when that is your foundation yeah that is the thing that’s able to bring you peace you know it’s not that those things are bad yes I go all in on that preparedness and yeah like that’s going to be that’s gonna be everything that makes me okay that makes it okay on the other side of whatever it is that’s going on yeah like I don’t think anybody would say that financial you know having a nest egg financially or saving money like those are good things then these are biblical principles even so I don’t think that is the point it’s more as well said yeah that the foundation of those things as a foundation of our hope has to be God and then we do those things maybe on top of that yeah because you sound like if the foundation is not that the piece.

It doesn’t last you know it’s absolutely yeah because you know it’s times I’ll go to the gym or whatever and I feel great and then I’m on my way home and I’m immediately thinking about all the things that stressed me out or gave me anxiety where did that peace just go so yeah my beans do have a shelf life in my basement whether I like it or not so you know I think that’s a great point Jake I think all of our all of this stuff that we try to do has a shelf life like it’s kind of just evaporate so quick like you were saying Branden like on the way home you’re like oh there goes the piece that I just had for like five seconds fill in the blank I guess that’s that would be one way that you would know hey my pieces are coming from God is coming from stuff when it’s got a shelf life yeah oh that’s so good that’s real good and what Pastor Jarrod had gotten into he brought up four main points of how God offers a guard for our peace and I was hoping to unpack that with you guys a little bit maybe we can even just march through the four points if you guys are up for that sound good yeah all right so these four points that Pastor Jarrod had brought up just to recap about how God offers a guard for our peace is number one be humble even when and then we’re gonna fill in the blanks together so each point has a fill in the blank be humble even when life goes wrong be prayerful even while fill-in-the-blank the one that pastor Jarrod says is be prayerful even while you see no way out be grateful even though all seems lost s– be intentional even if circumstances don’t change so we got four points that we’re gonna run through and the first one is a little bit shot to the ego of a be humble even win and again the example pastor Jarrod gives is be humble even when life goes wrong so Branden you know I really wanted to let you speak into this first mostly because I want to protect my sense of myself so maybe you can say yeah.

So the thing that really stuck out to me excuse me the thing that really stuck out to me with this point was um when he mentioned that when we’re not humble in these times when life goes wrong right what does that look like and he talks about entitled how we feel entitled right yeah we can start to feel like God owes us this he owes us that in all the damage that can do to our mental and spiritual and emotional health um when we have that attitude um then I think like I’ve seen that so evident like in in my own life I mean you know my wife and I Danielle we’ve been kind of walking through a really challenging time for the past several years not like marital health or anything like that like that’s great but just kind of an outside circumstance and it’s do you mind getting into it or is it something a little too private for you oh I get it so I’m gonna not get into it just because I didn’t really ask her first and I can’t value this safety of fishing my life this and you can go ask her if you want I mean I can you already Aiki I can go do that cuz I don’t really mind sharing I think it would be good but I just didn’t ask her first so what we can pause it yeah we can you can literally do that okay.

[Music] okay so I just checked in with my wife and yes she’s comfortable with me sharing and I felt like she would be I just wanted just to double-check just to be safe yeah um but yeah so we’ve um really ever since we got married we’ve kind of just been struggling with not kinda we have been struggling with infertility um you know really wanting to be parents wanting to have children she’s wanted to be a mom ever since she was a little girl I wanted to be a dad ever since I can remember so um walking through that this journey has been extremely difficult and it’s so easy to have the attitude of entitlement especially when we see people around us having kids all of our friends having kids of their own like family members having kids all that stuff.

It’s so easy to be like God what the heck like you owe me we love you we serve you we’re in the ministry together like why haven’t you yeah on this for us you owe us yeah so that part really spoke to me because it’s very easy for me to be kind of stuck in that and especially I remember thinking about you know about Paul all right but the Apostle Paul like he shouldn’t share it man this blew my mind when Jarrod mentioned this like Paul was in prison for two years and then he writes this letter to the Philippians and tells them to rejoice like he’s in the midst of like total turmoil right he’s in it’s a total turmoil and his direction to his people is hey rejoice in the Lord all this and I’m like man how do you get that that’s so good and you said it well when you’re saying Lord we’re serving you and even looking around you’re saying you see parents other your friends have having kids and maybe even I don’t know if you’re if you’re like me I would end up looking at parents that are not doing things well that are that didn’t even want kids in the first place and they have kids and Lord what is what is what this doesn’t even make any sense and yet the call is to rejoice man so thank you for even going there Thank You Danielle for that’s is really powerful.

Yeah you know I think like a lot of times what happens is our goals and God’s goals kind of get at odds right so like we think yeah I want a safe life I want a happy life I want money in the bank like those are my goals and it’s not that necessarily those are bad goals but you know we look at Scripture and God’s goals are like totally different from that you know like you said Paul says hey this is where my life is at but I’m still gonna be content you know he talks about that earlier in the passage and then I was thinking of James chapter one where he says considerate joy when you go through trials and you’re kind of like um how like that’s not my normal mode right my normal mode is like I’m gonna be frustrated I’m gonna be angry and yet he says consider a joy because it’s just a different perspective than we normally have and I think it’s especially in our culture like we want to have almost like our Idol is like a safe easy life which i think is interesting going through this time that we’re going through right now right where everyone is facing such a hard time all together yeah and God is really putting our idols to the test right yes yeah I get so frustrated when I’m inconvenienced yes absolutely and now you’ve just inconvenienced me but like actually people are dying from this you know careful our face no healthy people are facing sickness for the first time it’s it’s just incredible to think about.

And if we base our view of God on you know God is this sort of like magic genie in the sky who gives me what I want when I pray to him and I’m exaggerating I’m sure people don’t really think of that way but maybe sometimes we do kind of look at it that way then when bad stuff comes up when hard times trials I like the word trial because that’s not necessarily like that could be something that God is bringing in our life on purpose but you know God says like the goal is to make you strong the goal is to make you more mature the goal is to bring you closer to myself and I’m kind of like yeah but God I was like doing so good and if I could take it even like maybe even a little deeper I know man it’s hard because I’ve seen a lot of my friends over the years like I think of a guy that that I was pretty close with in college and another guy that I knew from high school and so many of these people that have been good friends of mine who have walked with Christ it was the hard times that came up in their life that eventually drove them from God they just you know I the guy from college like his mom got cancer and passed away and I remember him saying like I didn’t deserve this you know I’m just angry at God and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being angry with God but just coming back to the fact of remembering like what’s God’s purpose and when we face those things I think it’s just easy to forget that and yeah like I said I’ve just seen so many people in my life that was the hard time I was the hard times that drove them from God because they you know they had a different sort of purpose maybe in mind and what God had for them that makes sense yeah it makes me just kind of show up that thought it makes me almost think and I think pastor Jarrod’s used this analogy other times where he talks about as if we think God is like a vending machine and I put I put in my time I put in my whatever I paid for whatever I wanted to come out but that’s not even like that that’s not the way it works number one.

And then number two then it’s not about us or excuse me it is about us and it’s not about worship to him it’s about worship to ourselves our own convenience like I was saying or comfort or whatever that might be for you wherever it is I paid I want my peace when right like I think I put in the coin I put in the time and when really it’s Jesus put in the payment and therefore he gets the SOT to decide what comes out for each of us what comes out what the payment is or excuse me what the result is what is it that we get yeah and there’s such a popular maybe where belaboring this point of it but I feel like there’s a lot here you know there’s such a popular theology going around the health and wealth prosperity type of gospel and it is so tempting right to get caught up in that because God does promise blessing in a lot of ways but I but I think like Scripture is really clear that is spiritual blessing first and foremost which is not health wealth any of those things it’s relationship with God type of blessing you know that’s God’s focus not those other things but you know as humans like well I just speak for myself as a human it’s easy to get caught up with the stuff that’s right in front of me right like going through a virus right now so I’m thinking about health like god I need my health to be strong you know and because that’s what’s right in front of my face and yet God like again and again calls us to spiritual thinking spiritual realities no that’s so good and even just so I don’t know if you guys do this I write in my Bible a lot and in different places so on the front where it’s like you know you open up in the very first page is like the Holy Bible you know and then it gives you translation and I kind of put different things under there when I find something that kind of captures the idea of the continuity of Scripture or really just the overlying the overarching theme and one of the notes I have under there is the scriptures are written by a hurting people – a hurting people so yes there are promises of goodness and mercy that will follow us all our days but there it’s written by men in prison.

I’ve been there for years right but Paul talking about Paul here and calling his people to rejoice a man who is hurting writing to a hurting people calling them to her choice and that first call like we said is to be humble even when life goes wrong like we’re talking about so if you don’t if you guys are good we can keep marching on to the next point you guys good yeah let’s do it all right so first one is be humble even when and fill in the blank for yourself you know take the time to do that and then the second point is be prayerful even while and again fill in the blank and we’ll talk through a few things first but the way pastor Jarrod says is be prayerful even while you see no way out and for me that last piece there excuse me the last place that I want to go is prayer so if the call is to be prayerful even while there’s still work to do that’s usually where my mangoes is if there’s still work to be done if there’s something I personally can do to be prepared to get ready to check whatever boxes are left before my head hit the pillow up my head it’s the pillow then I want to do that being prayerful and slowing down and speaking to God it’s not where my mind goes until those things get done then I feel like I’m able to go there and worship but I will feel that unchecked box on my chest at night if I don’t try to attack it with everything that I have so but I feel the exact same way like prayer always feels like the last place that I want to turn to I think of all these other places I want to go first but I was thinking brain why do you think that is the case like why do you think that prayer always feels like the last place that that we go to it’s fine you just ask me that because while you were talking I feel like I had one of those like aha moments but yeah I think that’s because it’s similar like how Jake just you know Jake was just talking about feeling like you know there’s a box up and check how you always have to be the one to go and check it and all that I think a lot of people feel though I know I feel that way myself and I I’m sure a lot of that has to do with like being a man and feeling like oh we need to fix everything and we need to you know just all that and I think the reason why I’m the same way like prayer for me as a lot of times this is sad to admit I’m specially being in ministry Allah but a lot of times prayer is like the last place that I want to go and I think that part of that is because in prayer were basically we’re admitting that we can’t do it.

You know we’re admitting that we don’t have the power to do it and that we need someone else that’s someone being God to come in and do it for us and we’re saying hey I’m gonna fight that urge to go check the box I’m gonna fight that urge to go be the hero and do everything myself and I’m going to trust the father to do it so and that’s hard yeah and I don’t even think there’s anything wrong with doing all of your preparedness so to speak like doing everything you can do I don’t think anybody would say that’s a bad thing but then like you’re saying what is the final word on it you know God’s gonna have the final word not hmm not my preparation or my plans you know which is definitely what I default yeah and there’s nowhere else you can go talking through these things there’s nowhere else you can go to get an eternal perspective and sort of the where the reason we’re even talking about these things is there’s a tension to live inside and that’s kind of the point is there is peace even in the mix of the tension in the crisis when there’s still work to be done there’s a way to have peace for God I forgot to guard your peace as pastor Jarrod said it but there’s the only way you can have that peace and to live in that tension well and not let it consume you what did I start this part saying oh my gosh I just totally lost my train of thought you can still have the peace yeah I just totally lost my train Oh eternal perspective that’s it right it’s because so we do really well and I’m trying to think about what is going on around us and then but God offers us a way to live in the tension by offering a eternal perspective being able to look past whatever it is the the plow I’m trying to push in the field right now only he is able to give us an eternal perspective beyond the field were tilling up so share the women pastor Jarrod said it is share with God what is keeping up a keeping you up in there share with God what is keeping you up at night you know when you were just saying that I was thinking about you know that’s one of those things that I think can be a light to people around us like when we are really in the midst of it.

And especially I know for me especially when I’m in the midst of situations that I can’t I have no power to change that’s completely out of my control if I can live with peace in those moments that’s something that like people around us who don’t have God they cannot have cannot have that so if I can have that in the midst of hard tough situations that I can’t change I think that’s one of the like most incredible testimonies and witnesses that we can that we can have right hmm Wow yeah I was just thinking that when you were saying that so no that’s a great point uh and so the way pastor Jarrod had talked about it he quoted Isaiah he said in Isaiah 26 says you keep him in perfect peace in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you and I’ve now I’ve in in my Bible like I said it right in it a lot I have just a little quick explanation that pastor Jarrod threw in there he talks about a figure skater brown Branden do you remember this part what he’s talking about here he’s talking about the figures yeah talking about how they will spin and spin and spin it’s but you know it’s it kind of yeah so how they’ll keep spinning and spinning and they look insane and then they’re able to just stop on a dime and it’s like how in the world do they do that but he talked about how it’s because they fix their eyes right they fix their eyes on a certain point and so no matter how chaotic literally everything around them is yeah going by like a blur they’re able to keep their balance and stay strong because they have their eyes fixed on that certain point yeah no that’s exactly so where are your eyes drawn to in this season where do you end up finding yourself kind of just I hate say this way but kind of your eyes wandering to a specific place where is it for you.

So this has been definitely hard and challenging because as I mentioned kind of at the beginning like a lot of times I’ll try to get for peace I try to do you know physical activity and all that but right now the time to recording we’re in the middle of a pandemic so gyms are shut down the gist of school is shut down so I’m not able to do that so I’ve been having to kind of deal with actually deal with things now you know I’m trying to like sweat them away so I’ve found that when a lot of times I’m resorting to I’m kind of just turning my eyes I this is what I’m trying to say is that I think I kind of just said it in that point um anything that can distract right so I found myself I’m doing a lot of work right a lot of like work like for you know in my role at the church so legging I’ll come and I’ll just work a lot like in the basement barrier so I’m exactly just like I work a lot no one I’m done with all work I’m also in school full-time so I’ll be doing homework and then when I’m done with that I’ll go and I’ll do next or a video game yeah or whatever and next thing you know I’m in bed and I’m like wait I just a whole day went by and I never once fixed my eyes on Christ and now I wonder why I don’t feel that peace that surpasses all that yeah you know what I mean this is like well I never sought it out and isn’t that like our default mode I feel like our that we made it so easy for ourselves to like in this I hate to say this cuz it’s gonna make me sound old but in this day and age right like we have so many things that we’ve created just to distract us like the entire app tick-tok.

I’m not trying to malign all these things yeah for real I’m not trying to malign all these things but so many of them are really created with the only purpose and intent is to distract so we can like make it through our day right like how many things a little slice of peace right I’m just trying to get like 15 seconds I don’t even know tick-tock I’m sorry now I send old I don’t even know how long tick tocks are I’m so like thinking back to vine days but that’s another story I mean we just taught you at venmo was like three days I still don’t have it and I’m not gonna get it my along with the doomsday prepper mind comes with a lot of paranoia so I’m not willing to know maybe we edit this part out we are not letting you off the hook okay so we’ll move on to the next point now just kidding okay but I kind of on what the whole piece about distracting getting yourself distracted I my mind goes sort of the other direction I end up feeling like if I just know enough information if I am as current with the news of what is going on as I can be then I’ll have peace I end up spending I’ve never spent this much time on the podcast scooting on the news I’ve never spent this much time looking at news and reading through it and listening to hours of interviews and conferences talks and all that I end up going there that’s where my mind goes anyways and I don’t find peace in that I want to be informed but I don’t need to hear about every fringe story or every comment somebody makes about the newest news article or about whoever is saying what.

There is not peace there do you guys end up going there too yeah absolutely I mean I love the stats so I love looking at all the new graphs and what are the trend lines and you know explain all the math scientifically to me because then I feel like okay I’ve wrapped my head around this thing so I understand it and I don’t you know it feels like it’s giving me some kind of piece but it’s not really yeah that peace of mind it does not reach to my heart that’s kind of what I’m getting here so there’s that’s a great way so yeah so yeah and again the only option to get an eternal perspective is to be prayerful so again welcome through these points we have be humble even when fill in the blank be prayerful even when or excuse me even while fill in the blank be grateful even though all seems lost and I believe pastor Jarrod even like talked about the number one command in Scripture is to sing to sing for our gratefulness to God and I was even thinking the very first the very first words spoken in Scripture in in Genesis when Adam is talking is a song and it’s a song about his gratefulness for the gift of his wife of Eve the very first word spoken it’s almost like I imagine like a Disney scene where people just start breaking into song I know I imagine the like animals on different instruments but I have a very active imagination so anyways be grateful even though all seems lost it takes my eyes off of myself it and it makes me feel a little vulnerable but I just wanted to get your guys take on this before I even say anything myself yeah.

So for me I mean again I think it back to like what how can I apply this to myself right and so I think of my good situation that I mentioned earlier right how my wife and I we’ve been struggling with um you know infertility and all that and I think okay how can I be grateful during this time how can I be grateful for that and I think of I know this might sound this might sound you know silly or whatever but I think of like there’s a lot of people I know that um I see that you know people that I specifically let me try to say that word again specifically um back home I grew up in the state of Florida so like back home in Florida I have a lot of friends that like have kids and granted these are friends that like I knew kind of like before I started going to church before I gave my life to the Lord and all that and they have kids and they’re talking about like burden I’m like yeah and I’m like man I’d never want to have that attitude at first I don’t know how you could ever have that attitude about a child but I also think like I grew up without my dad like being in my life really at all so I think my number one thing has always been I want to make sure that I am the dad to my kids that I never had and so I can be grateful in this time I’m by thinking okay wow I have so much more time now to be sure that I’m the man of God that I’m supposed to be the man of God that I’m called to be that I’m growing in these areas so that when we do have children because I do believe with all my heart it’s not an if it’s a win when we do have children um I can be that person right I can be the dad that I’m the reflection of my heavenly father not my earthly father um and that comes that comes from our my personal that comes from my relationship with Jesus that comes from my spiritual maturity all those things that don’t just happen overnight you can’t just like decide I’m gonna be more spiritually mature and then BOOM there you go it’s a process it’s a series of decisions and actions that you have to make and the life that you have to live and I just can be grateful knowing that I have time to do that right.

I have more time to do that that can be like a whole another topic but yeah you know when you when I was going through the message again this quote kind of like I don’t know stung me I guess is how I’ll say it but he said when your gratitude doesn’t depend on how well your life is going that’s how you label and that’s one of those ones where you’re like oh dude did you just like follow me around for the last week and then come up with that line could you say it again just for the sake of yeah gratefulness is when your gratitude doesn’t depend on how well your life is go yeah that one’s got a hit deep down in there that’s good that that’s those are the statements you know that that come from the spirit because they get you know past your brain to get into your heart and I thought about I thought about my prayer life actually in a my giving thanks in my prayer life and I kind of talked about this earlier but just how often we treat God is like this genie and we’re just always praying and asking for things and God absolutely wants us to do that so I’m not saying like we shouldn’t but I thought you know when we use our prayer life to give thanks you know to be grateful it automatically turns my eyes off of my circumstances and it puts my eyes on God and it also like it helps me helps remind me of instead of thinking about like all the problems that I have it it makes me think back to all the times that God’s been faithful it makes me think about all the times that God came through for me all the times that he’s been with me right and those are like the things I feel like I forget so easily in my life when I’m going through really hard times.

Like the first thing I do is like forget all the times that God’s been faithful right yeah and so making that list almost is kind of what I was thinking of like all the times all the things I’m thankful for all the times that God has been with me and that will just in my life especially I know when I’m praying through that it just totally changes my perspective from zooming way on this like circumstance that I’m going through and it helps me to zoom out over the course of my entire life and even like thinking about Scripture the thousands of years that scripture covers and all the times God’s been faithful to everyone else going through hard times you know and that change in perspectives is really what I need and to not you know cuz we get so focused on our like little thing and it is little like it feels so big but we get so focused on it that that we forget you know this larger context that that we’re in God in our life and with God you know throughout all of history and how faithful he’s been ya know that’s oh man the way you’re saying it when you’re saying it’s such a small thing at least in comparison to God it is a very small thing the way that like a child how their whatever their Legos are kicked over and it’s at the end of their you know for them it’s the end of days but to a father that’s looking at this situation it’s not that big a deal and they’re able to the father is able to see past it and I think that’s why it’s like why God calls himself a father and calls us his children there’s this perspective difference he has such a different perspective higher perspective than us and even the I think this is why I even said that it’s like a Disney moment in the very beginning of creation there with Adam singing is when we sing to God when we sing our gratefulness to him when we sing thanks for me I internally I feel very small then it feels very childlike to me to sing unto the Lord and that’s so that’s almost the act of doing that of singing our thanks to God it almost stirs up the childlikeness in us that he calls us to so being grateful and it stirs up our emotions to write that’s what I that’s what I love about music like it’s hard to sing some of these great songs without like crying because you start to actually think about what the truth of this song means and you’re feeling the force of that music and your emotions and yeah make I’m not gonna be too big to admit like I’m driving down the road crying from some of the songs you know singing personally singing out loud and I like doing it alone because then I don’t feel self-conscious about you know what other people might be thinking.

I really don’t have to worry about like I used to be in choir so like part of me has my choir director like note that note was off in my head so when I’m alone like I can forget a lot of that as well and just focus on oh god sing out those trio though I totally feel that might be one of my most favorite parts of not being a worship director anymore is I don’t got to worry about singing hunky I just bailed it out with all the joy that I have to offer I just rejoice to my heart’s content and I just can’t hear myself so that’s good but the call here was to be grateful even though everything seems lost calling us to sing it out so the four points we got one more be humble even when be prayerful even while be grateful even though and then number four is be intentional even if and the way Pastor Jarrod said his fill in the blank was be intentional even if the circumstances don’t change and what blows my mind about this one in particular is that he wrote this to over two years ago right this was spoken in January of 2018 and right now this just speaks to us so much being intentional with our time and some of us have a lot of extra time on our hands some of us are strapped for time more than we’ve ever been ever been but the challenge is to be intentional even if it doesn’t change even if it’s still everyday even sometimes it feels like every hour every hours there’s an update there’s a change things are different now what if that doesn’t stop for a little while right be intentional even if yeah.

Branden I’d love to hear if you have some thoughts on like ways that you think we can be intentional specifically during this time that we’re going through yeah or maybe generally speaking yeah I mean I hate to keep bringing this up but I mean the first class of January 2018 when Jarrod preached this message um I was still going through what Danielle and I are still going through what we’re going through today right so the circumstances have not changed um and it’s been almost two years and I think again that kind of just lies it’s really what I was saying before right I think for me personally I’m sorry I wish I could get more general to see how this could apply to you know what wider eyes maybe one of you two could jump in with that but like for me personally that intentionality has come with the gratefulness those two are tied together right those two are tied together kind of keeping that internal perspective keeping that okay there’s a lesson here you don’t I mean there’s an opportunity for growth here how can I actually live that out right how can I please seek it out and live it out you know that’s how it worked for me personally I was thinking when you said maybe more generally you know my thought when I think intentionality I think of building like pauses into my life because Branden like you were saying earlier it is so easy to go through a whole day and be completely distracted the entire day like until your head hits the pillow so just I know for me the intentionality comes when I say no for this block of time I’m going to get into God’s Word I’m going to get into prayer and I’m gonna shut out all the distractions.

Which like often means shutting like my entire computer down muting my phone you know telling my wife and kids like hey I’m gonna just be alone for a little while so you know so I’m not they’re not coming in and talking to me and I have like if I don’t do that like I know I’m not gonna get time to focus on God time and prayer and so that’s my intentionality in planning like ahead of time to do that you know cuz if I do it the day of I’m like oh like maybe I’ll work it in here or like after lunch I’ll do it and it never happens it has to be like the day before I make the decision I commit to that like block of time or like it’s not gonna happen yeah that’s good one like really quick Tyler I know you and I both previously served Word of Life Ministries yeah I believe it was Jack Wertzen who’s the founder of word of life I believe that it was him who used to say he would who would always say no Bible no breakfast and that was kind of like his yeah it was like his little saying and um that’s always stuck with me because it’s such a simple like mmm you know a simple funny goofy little saying but there’s so much intentionality and that those things like okay my relation my relationship with Jesus is going to come first primary to everything yeah so I love that that’s so good that’s so good guys yeah so being intentional and you know it do you mind if I wrap this up with some like top five takeaways from our time here yeah just do it okay go so number one is I think it’s really great for any of us to pose the question to ourselves of where do you go for peace just go through where it is that you go kind of find that route find that Idol for yourselves what kind of a 1.2 point I have is if you want peace in your home make sure you ask your wife before you put any personal information on a podcast that goes out to reach their rate that was a great move I just want to say that was a power move on you man that was a real man move good for you.

So number one where do you go for peace number two is be humble even when fill in the blank number three be prayerful even while number four be grateful even though and finally number five be intentional even if so go through that stuff for yourself but fill in those blanks for yourself I think this would be helpful for absolutely anybody so thank you so much for joining us and our time here today Branden really does mean a lot absolutely thanks so much for having me guys this was a lot of fun yeah we hope that’s something you know for us everybody listening we hope that’s something we discussed here this week and in some way encourage you and move you closer to Jesus and there’s a couple of really important things that we want to share with you here at the end of our podcast first it is to let you know about church online we are doing Church online every weekend and you can join us by going to gray so see comm slash online and even in the midst of what we’re going through now or maybe in the future when you’re listening to this we have a really special Facebook group for you that is all about community it’s about encouragement and about connecting with others from grace family online yeah and anybody can join you just go to grace OC comm slash Facebook and it’s a special Facebook group there that that we have so next week right here on binge mode will be covering week three of anxious for nothing and of course you can join us per throwback Thursdays yeah and we hope you do if you want to experience the sermon with us before listening the show join us for throwback Thursdays with Church online at 7:00 p.m. you can watch the sermon live chat with the greats family and even get live prayer you might even see Tyler and myself there so thanks for joining us this week on big mode thanks for listening.