Episode 1297: Living Inside Out

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,297 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:08] Aaron Walker: Hi, my name is Aaron Walker. I'm president and founder of the Mastermind Playbook. Masterminds are a great way to intentionally grow yourself and invest in others, and one way to be inspired to serve others well is to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my good friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:38] Scott Maderer: Now at first glance, you may hear Psalm 51 and go, this is about sinfulness. It's about the need for confession. It's about the separation from God and the need to be cleansed. And yes, that's true. It, it's about guilt. It's about that heavy feeling. Of guilt that we can have and the need for restoration to joy.

[00:00:57] And yes it's that too. [00:01:00] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you'll learn to invest in.

[00:01:19] Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:30] In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Psalm 51 versus one through 17. I share a little bit about Ash Wednesday and lint, and I also talk about how lint isn't about being alone, but rather about connecting to others. Psalm 51. Have mercy on me. Oh God. According to your steadfast love.

[00:01:52] According to your abundant mercy. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly for my inequity, and cleanse me from my [00:02:00] sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you. You alone. Have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.

[00:02:14] Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being. Therefore, teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hiss up and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

[00:02:34] Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my inequities. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and put a new and right spirit within. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.

[00:02:59] Deliver me from [00:03:00] blood shadow God. Oh God, of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. Oh Lord. Open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you Have no delight in sacrifice. If I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.

[00:03:21] Oh God, you will not despise.

[00:03:27] we find ourselves in a time right now that in the church year we call it lint, and lint is often treated as a time of inwardness, a time to look in and challenge ourselves to give up things that are keeping us from relationship with God. And it is indeed true that lint is a time to look within, but not in a self-centered or exclusive sort of way in.

[00:03:56] Instead, we're directed to look inward so that we can [00:04:00] move outward. We call it living inside out there. There's work for us to do as individuals. There's our own primary relationship with Christ that constantly needs attention. There are acts of confession and repentance and transformation that can take place through this season of lint through contemplation and the examination, but it's not meant to stop.

[00:04:27] It's not just focusing on getting right with God and then ignore how we live into community, how we live into the world, our relationships with others. From our most intimate relationships with family and friends to the most public of relationships or most general and community filled of relationships, all of those relationships should be shaped by our primary relationship with God.

[00:04:53] In Christ, we look inward so that we can live outward. [00:05:00] We looked at the state of our souls that we can understand and enhance the state of our relationships. often, that's how we figure out that something maybe is wrong in our life, that there's something that we're neglecting. Something that's blocking us from relationship with God is because it shows up in our human relationships.

[00:05:21] We begin to struggle in our human relationships. We begin to have that feeling that something. Something's not quite clicking. Something's not it falling into place. There's something outta sync or broken. It. It's like a stone in your shoe or that high-pitched wine that's just beyond your hearing, and yet, you know it's there and we can limp along and just say, yeah, everything's okay.

[00:05:50] We're fine. And yet deep down we know we're not really fine. Something's wrong. , nothing's [00:06:00] major wrong. Nothing that I can really point my finger to. Nothing that I can touch or feel, but something there is wrong. Sometimes it's actually even more clear. Sometimes we're dwelling on that word that we wish we would've said or wish that we wouldn't have said that action.

[00:06:18] That maybe we should have taken that last phone call that we meant to make, but it never actually happened and now we regret. , maybe there's a piece of brokenness in your heart that you can put your finger on that lies heavy on your heart. But whether it's just that simple feeling that things aren't right, or whether it's a true event that you can put your finger on, we don't really need an explanation.

[00:06:47] We need a solution, and that's part of what this psalm is about. It's calling us back to worship. . Now, at first glance, you may hear Psalm 51 and go, this is [00:07:00] about sinfulness. It's about the need for confession. It's about the separation from God and the need to be cleansed. And yes, that's true. It's about guilt.

[00:07:09] It's about that heavy feeling of guilt that we can have and the need for restoration to joy. And yes it's that too. It's also about more. It's about where do we go to find that restoration to joy? Where do we go to be purged in Maine? Clean? Where do you go to find a new heart? And the answer is, worship In community, you go to worship to glorify God, and therefore to reconcile ourselves with that presence, we have to be clean.

[00:07:46] For that reconciliation to happen, we have to have a feeling of need to offer our heart. We have to have a hunger that needs to be acknowledged. And when we come to worship with that hungry feeling, [00:08:00] something can happen that helps us become clean and restores relationships with ourselves, with God, and with others.

[00:08:09] That's part of the reason that we're called to worship in community, so that we can feel this connection both between us, within us to God and to each other. That's what's missing whenever you're missing from worship. That's that feeling. That the feeling that something's just not right. Something's missing.

[00:08:31] There's a feeling of lack. There's a feeling that. Presence is not there and presence here means engagement. It. It doesn't just mean showing up, it means showing up hungry, showing up engaged, showing up active, not being distracted by the busyness of life, not being distracted by all the other things that are going on.

[00:08:58] Looking at our email and [00:09:00] paying attention to all of the things that can interrupt us and drag our attention. Instead, it's about showing up and recognizing that we can't make it right, but we know the one who can. And if we come with that hunger to worship in community, we can live together and make it happen.

[00:09:27] Thanks for listening.

[00:09:34] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired steward.

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