Episode 1430: We Abide in Christ

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1430 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Donna Renay Patrick: I am Donna Renay Patrick. 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 use your temple and thoughts, it's vital to live out your purpose.

[00:00:28] And one way to be inspired to do that is listen to this. The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:45] Scott Maderer: Christ doesn't just want our thoughts and prayers. He doesn't just want our head or our heart or our gut or even just our hands and our feet. No, Christ wants all of us. And Christ wants all of us individually [00:01:00] and in community walking together, showing the grace of Christ to all. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:12] 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, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:41] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about John chapter 10, verses 11 through 18. I share how we have to have a gut check for our heart check, and I also share how grace means we don't condemn ourselves.

[00:01:57] John chapter 10 verses 11 through 18 [00:02:00] says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.

[00:02:20] I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Just as the father knows me, and I know the father. I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

[00:02:44] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I received this command from my father. Of course I'm a [00:03:00] coach, and I've been coaching since 2011 formally, and I've now worked with clients from all over the world. I'm up to 16 different countries now.

[00:03:11] And because of that, I've had to become very aware of slang and idiom and how different terms of the phrase and how that can often lead to confusion or misinterpretation. For example, in Britain, my British clients will say, get stuck in. You may or may not know what that means, but basically that's a phrase that means get to work or put your back into it or maybe put your heart into it.

[00:03:41] And of course, that's how you often hear it said in the Christian community. Put your heart into it. Where your heart is, there you are. That kind of thing. Leading with the heart. Leading with the heart, putting your heart into it, means being committed. It means being involved. It means being [00:04:00] really into it.

[00:04:02] When we really mean it, our hearts are in it. We aren't half hearted, or maybe even cold hearted. So there's passages from the lectionary today, but the one I just read about the shepherd and another passage as well from 1st John chapter 3 verses 16. through 24, that talks about knowing our love, having, recognizing that, and how Jesus laid his life down for us, and we lay our life down for each other.

[00:04:39] And then it goes on and talks about, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. It will reassure our hearts when our hearts condemn us. and that we will have boldness in living into God. These things, these [00:05:00] passages are about having a heart check, a chance to ask yourself, is your heart really in it?

[00:05:07] Are you really committed to it? Of course, there's another way or another phrase that we use for saying, is somebody really committed to it? And that's a gut check. We often talk about having a gut check to our commitment. And that really is an old term. In fact, the passage from 1 John that I just referenced has the heart in it all over the place, but it has the gut in it too, even though we don't say it in the modern translation.

[00:05:37] It talks about giving our heart to something. And that's about more than just giving our thoughts and prayers. It's about more than just saying, I'll pray for you in some sort of future time that isn't clear. Instead, it's about being in a total commitment thing. It's about being all in. It's about doing [00:06:00] as well as being.

[00:06:03] Verse 17 from that 1st John passage says, How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? And that phrase, yet refuses help, may sound a little bit strange to modern ears, but if you go back to the Greek, it can be translated as, But turn a cold shoulder and do nothing.

[00:06:29] Even more literally, the words actually translate is close your gut to them. In the modern parlance, when we talk about emotions, we talk about the heart, right? The heart is the seat of emotions. And you think with your head, you love with your heart. But in ancient world, the seat of thought was actually the heart, and the seat of emotions wasn't the heart.

[00:06:56] Instead the seat [00:07:00] of emotions was your gut. They didn't really think about the brain much. And sometimes when I watch the news today, I think they were right that we don't really use our brain that much, but the gut was the seat of emotions. So the heart was doing things And the gut was where you feel it.

[00:07:22] The gut was where your emotions behind the decision came about. It makes sense, right? We all say things like, I got gut clenching news. Or someone tells you bad news and you feel like you got punched in the gut. Our expressions often still show that root for the feelings in the gut. We often put up shields and guard our guts.

[00:07:51] We see images of starving people and we close our gut to them. After all, they must have done [00:08:00] something to deserve it, or they didn't do enough, they didn't work enough, they didn't get stuck in. And now they're stuck. So in reality, when John is asking us to be the flock, when we were asked to lay down our life for each other, to be all in, to put our hearts into it, we are being asked to, to reassess our thoughts.

[00:08:25] and prayers, and actually do something. To not just love each other in word or in speech, but do it in truth and in action. There's a call to not just be in Christ, but to be Christ in the world. Loving our neighbor isn't just something we talk about, it's something we should do. That's what mission and service really is.

[00:08:53] The doing comes from the loving rather than the loving. Coming from the doing. [00:09:00] John is asking us to care, to really care for each other not to condemn each other, and not to condemn ourselves, but rather to get our heart in the right place because. We know we are not deserving of Christ's love, but we get it anyway.

[00:09:19] We get it by grace, and we're called to show that grace to others, not just in our words, but in our actions. The key to living this way and the key to peace of mind or easing our heart and releasing our gut comes from obedience. But obedience it has a reputation of being the opposite of freedom.

[00:09:41] It's always presented as Restrictions and rules and fear, but the obedience that we're talking about here comes from a different place. It comes from Christ It comes from the love of Christ. It comes from having Christ living in our hearts our minds our guts And [00:10:00] yes, our hands and our feet. It comes from answering the command to love as Christ loves, to abide with each other, and to abide with ourselves as Christ abides with us.

[00:10:13] And if Christ will not condemn us, then should we not condemn ourselves or each other? John is calling for us to put our hearts into it, to have a gut check, to live out of obedience, not from fear, or frustration, or from following the rules, but instead because Christ lives in us and gives us grace.

[00:10:37] Christ doesn't just want our thoughts and prayers. He doesn't just want our head, or our heart, or our gut, or even just our hands and our feet. No, Christ wants all of us. And Christ wants all of us individually and in community walking together, showing the grace of Christ to all. [00:11:00] Thanks for listening.

[00:11:06] 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 slash inspired stewardship 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 you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

[00:11:49] Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the [00:12:00] world.