Episode 1327: Experience, not Understand God

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,327 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:08] Karen Lealand: I'm Karen Taber Leland, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to recognize when you are not managing your energy well is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:40] Scott Maderer: Go spend time with people. Go value them. Go learn from them. Go know them. Meet them where they are, help them. And then share what makes you a fully alive person and invite them in as well. Invite them into the journey and the relationship. Cuz the truth is [00:01:00] you never really understand God. You simply experience it.

[00:01:05] 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 will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others.

[00:01:25] And develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:37] In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk with you about Matthew chapter 28, verse 16 through 20. I share how we all struggle to understand God instead of experiencing God, and I also share how we were invited to join in the message in action. Matthew 28, verse 16 through 20 says, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the [00:02:00] mountain, to which Jesus had directed them.

[00:02:02] When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you.

[00:02:22] And remember, I am with you always till the end of the age. This last Sunday is called in Many Denominations, Trinity Sunday, and this is a Sunday that it's very tempting to try to explain what God is, explain what the Trinity is, explain what the Holy Spirit is. And really, no matter how you try to explain it, they all fall short because there's really no metaphor or experience that can explain God without experiencing God.

[00:02:59] [00:03:00] God is experienced in a relationship, not really. Understood. I picture sometimes even just my human relationships the relationship that I have with my wife or my son, I don't really understand my wife or my son fully, but I can, through the relationship I have with them, experience them in a way that lets me connect to them.

[00:03:25] That's what this Sunday is about. It's about being filled with the spirit. And then being sent out or going the first scripture that's actually used as part of the revised common lectionary on this Sunday is from Genesis. And it may seem a little strange to be talking about a Hebrew scripture for Trinity Sunday, but that Genesis story is the very first Genesis story, the one that when time began it, it starts at Genesis chapter one verse.[00:04:00]

[00:04:00] One all the way through chapter two, verse four, and it talks about when creation came to be and God was the cause, that there was water that was the birthplace of creation, and then the wind swept over the face of the waters and the spirit of God was hovering there. It talks about God calling forth and giving birth to creation.

[00:04:29] It talks about the spirit being the creative force of God, but it also talks about the word the spirit is there and the word was spoken. And then there was things, the word is also in John referenced as all things came into being through him and without him, not one thing came into being. It was the word that brought forth light.

[00:04:53] It was the word that said that it was good. We wrestle over this idea of [00:05:00] creation sometimes, but part of this is recognizing the goodness of God's creation, but it wasn't yet finished. They, God continued to create the moon and stars and other things, and all of this is born order out of chaos, light in the midst of darkness.

[00:05:21] They separate the land from the water, with the water representing chaos and the land representing structure and order. But by separating them out, God is pointing out that there is order that is being created out of this chaos. And throughout this story is similar to other stories in many ways. It talks about it in.

[00:05:47] In interesting things that you can find in other creation stories, and yet it's also different because the story continues then into the rest of [00:06:00] those 46 books and thousands of years of time, and often even other books that were added in or taken out. But the story and the relationship to that story is what is important.

[00:06:15] That we are participating alongside God in the act of creation by stewarding that gift that God has given us, by helping take care of it and make sure that it continues on. We are called to participate in this act. We're privileged, we're Bo burdened with responsibility because we are made in the image of God.

[00:06:37] So we're part of that story, and that is all of us made in the image of God. All of the human creation is made in that image. We know that our existence, our attitude, needs to be one of gratitude. We need to be thankful for being invited into this [00:07:00] relationship. We're called to go and join in that act of creation.

[00:07:05] That's why we're creative beings. We often say that, go. Let's go. Can we go? Are you ready to go? We talk about we need to go do something. We need to go take action. Go can be the end of a story or go can be the beginning, but go could mean that you're leaving. And sometimes what you're leaving is actually comfortable.

[00:07:31] Sometimes what you're going away from is something that's familiar and comfortable, and sometimes even if it's a bad thing or an uncomfortable thing, it's still because it's familiar, it's hard to leave it behind. Which brings us to the passage in Matthew when we're standing on the mountain with the remaining disciples looking for what's coming next.

[00:07:52] Still feeling some doubt, still feeling some worry. But worshiping because we're there in the presence of [00:08:00] God and they had heard the moment and the call to go go is the great commission that you hear in this passage. Go and make disciples for the transformation of the world. It. It's this moment of going out and making sure that we're spreading the good news, not making disciples through furs or through anger or through telling people that they're wrong, but through baptizing them, through joining with them, walking beside them, because that often.

[00:08:42] We've had this idea of we have to convert people through force as opposed to inviting them to join in the story with us to join in the creative message with us. There's the 11 there on the mountain, [00:09:00] and that means that they were broken, they were incomplete because there weren't 12. Judas was no longer with them.

[00:09:09] He'd been turned aside. But these 11 disciples gathered their carrying their wounds, their failures, their disappointments and their fears, doubting some even They doubted him. They doubted themselves. They doubted the mission. They doubted that it was going to work. I know I've had those doubts as well. It.

[00:09:34] It was doubt that this was going to happen, and yet Jesus says, don't live in that doubt. Live outward. Live intentionally. Go spend time with people. Go value them. Go learn from them. Go know them. Meet them where they are, help them, and then share what makes you a fully alive person and invite them in as [00:10:00] well.

[00:10:00] Invite them into the journey and the relationship because the truth is you never really understand God. You never really understand what it means. You simply experience it. Thanks for listening.

[00:10:23] 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 stewardship.

[00:10:48] And like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving [00:11:00] you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.