Beyond Sunday
Beyond Sunday is a podcast where we dive into what our Church is up to, what's happening in society, go deeper into topics from Sunday mornings, and hear leadership talks from Pastor Greg Griffith. This is a podcast of King of Kings Church in Omaha, NE. Learn more at kingofkings.org.
Beyond Sunday
Game On - Get Back In It
Dina, Pastor Seth, and Chad close out the Game On series with a powerful look at David’s greatest failure and what it teaches us about temptation, grace, and restoration. Using Fortnite as a lens, they explore how daily spiritual habits position us against sin—and how God’s unlimited grace offers us a fresh start every time we fall.
Stay up to date by following us on your favorite social networks.
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
Have questions or comments? Email us at contact@kingofkings.org.
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings podcast, where we dive a little bit deeper into our message series and see what we're taking beyond Sunday. My name is Dena Newsom and I am blessed to have some great guests that I get to work with often around here. Now Go ahead and introduce yourselves.
Speaker 2:I'm Chad Kelly, the student ministry intern here at King of Kings. Been here about two and a half months, something like that.
Speaker 3:And I am Seth. I thought you were going to say two and a half years. No, not two and a half years. I also have been here.
Speaker 1:Does it feel like that?
Speaker 2:I mean some days it feels like I've been here for two days and some days it feels like I've been here for two and a half years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, as ministry can feel. I half years, yeah, as ministry can be. I'm Seth, I get to be the campus director here at the Miller campus for King of Kings and I also again have been here since July 1st was both of our step dates. So you know old pros, exactly, been here forever, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yep, just like it.
Speaker 3:Yep, I've been here two years, so I do have you in a little, almost two and a half years yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, did you introduce yourself? Though I did introduce myself. It's part of my normal routine.
Speaker 3:But did you get to tell everybody that's listening, like what you get to do as you serve here? Well, no, not really.
Speaker 1:They just know me as the podcast host.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but you're amazing. They need to know that I am the.
Speaker 2:Miller.
Speaker 1:Associate Campus Director here at this campus, and then I also get to be the central director of events for our large scale community outreach events, and that's what I really, really love.
Speaker 3:Not this podcast.
Speaker 2:No, I love the podcast yeah.
Speaker 1:I wear a lot of hats.
Speaker 3:Like, I have a lot of little hats and I like them all in some way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a very complete wardrobe.
Speaker 2:Complete wardrobe. I've never I've heard the hat analogy.
Speaker 3:I've never heard a wardrobe analogy for a job, we need to get her a cape and a hat, and just like a wardrobe.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, all labeled with all of her different job descriptions. There you go. Yeah, one for each.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you guys for being here today. We this week finished up our Game On series, which we've been working through the last month and Pastor Zach Zender has been leading us through this. Look at the story of David in light of, or in the view of, popular video games. And this week it was talking about Fortnite. And so first, have you guys played Fortnite? Are you Fortnite players?
Speaker 3:I have played Fortnite. I'm very bad like, maybe worse than Zach, so I hopped on once. In the last church that I was at, we also had a school and some of the other kids were actually playing the game and it was hilarious because my son told them like my dad's playing on my account, and so they rallied around me to protect me and they were like a hundred players in this from all over the world, protect the pastor, protect the pastor Thou shalt not kill my pastor and they're just like, oh, shoot.
Speaker 3:And I'm like no, turn the other cheek. But I'm really bad Like the whole idea of like um, moving with one directional pad in one direction and then having the other directional pad on the controller to do like the head up and down. It actually makes me emotion sick to watch it for too long and to do it because my eyes just lock in and it makes me want to barf.
Speaker 2:So I'm not a fortnight guy or call of duty or anything like that I played in high school um, like when the big rush was happening and all the first, before any of the big updates and I played when it was actually impressive to get a victory royale, because now you get them left and right. I remember when I first got my victory royale was with a buddy in high school and it was the most electric and amazing moment of my life ever. And then you got married, or, and then I, and then I am.
Speaker 2:It's definitely not in the top 10 anymore, okay, but but yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome. Yeah, a rite of passage, I would say.
Speaker 1:I have played Fortnite Not often, but my son was in the thick of the craze when it came out and I can remember him coming and telling me hey, mom, I want to download this free game on Xbox, and I'm always about free, sure, great. What is it? Well, it's you and a hundred other people and you all just kill each other, and I was like oh, what an explanation Um let's talk about this a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Can I get some more details? But once he got into it then he was constantly like mom, you come come play with me, come play with me. So one time, the very first time I played I've played more than once, but not often the very first time I played I got on. I knew nothing of what I was doing. I am not familiar with Xbox controllers, so the whole two joystick movement and view was very confusing to me and I panicked, like someone came up on me. I panicked, I just hit a bunch of buttons and I killed someone with my pickaxe.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's impressive, and my son called me savage, and I think that is the best compliment he has ever given me To this day?
Speaker 2:Yes, to this day. That's awesome, that is good.
Speaker 1:So the premise of Fortnite is all these people are dropped on an island and you want to be the last man standing and the storm is shrinking. So in relating to a storm, my question to open us up today is what's your favorite storm memory or maybe your worst storm memory from your childhood or growing up, or with your kids?
Speaker 3:So I can start it.
Speaker 1:Hopefully that gives you a second to figure it out.
Speaker 3:I've got two stories, but they're very brief. One when I was really young, I was probably like nine or 10. I was asleep in my bed and I had just fallen asleep and I had this Dodgers nightlight plugged into the wall. Not, I hate the Dodgers, I love the Brewers, but for some reason somebody gave me that night. It was in my wall. I hate the Dodgers, I love the Brewers, but for some reason somebody gave me that and it was in my wall. The house gets struck by lightning.
Speaker 2:Your house.
Speaker 3:The house gets struck by lightning and the thing pops out of the wall and hits my bed. So you hear this wham With the lightning bolt and then it just hits the bed. I've always hated the Dodgers, ever since then.
Speaker 1:Go Padres, that's fielding.
Speaker 3:Go Brewers. We may have the best record of baseball, or something I'm not going to brag about the Brewers.
Speaker 2:Padres are doing good, you got to admit they are doing well, better than usual.
Speaker 3:Yes, better than the White Sox or the Cubs. Anyway, the other story was, like three Junes ago we had this terrible hailstorm at our house in Oconomowoc and it actually, like in June, accumulated what looked like our whole front yard, looked like it was snow covered, but it damaged everything. So on the one hand, you're just sitting under your porch like watching this amazing storm Cause, for some reason, people in the Midwest, that's what they do. Hey, there's a tornado outside. I just said go to the basement, that's what they do. Yep, hey, there's a tornado outside.
Speaker 3:Let's go, I just said go to the basement but let's go outside. So that was going on and that was like a core memory, because a bunch of the kids came out and we watched it and we're like, wow, man, this is terrible and terrific all at the same time. It kind of gives you this view of like the power and majesty of the one who has created all of that and it makes you take a step back and oftentimes we kind of like coat over with the compassion of Jesus, we coat over the majesty of God and you see like unbridled power in moments like that and it's just a core thing that you have to talk about them. So those are our two stories. One has to do with the lightning strike and the Dodgers and the other one has to do with core memories of the walk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mine were always like. The bad memories, I'd say were just when we'd had to go to the basement in the middle of the night. My parents would wake me up in Indiana and it'd be pouring lightning, thunder, all that, and we'd wait for a couple hours, then go back upstairs. It was scary, but um, my favorite part of storms is when there's dry lightning, where you can see lightning off in the distance. Whenever I see dry lightning, I'll just park and watch, because it's the same thing. It's like the beauty, the majesty, the glory of just watching electricity go through the air, and it's just a beautiful beautiful moment.
Speaker 2:Terrible beauty, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I grew up in Grand Island, not far from here, and June 3rd 1980 was the site of huge tornadoes in.
Speaker 2:Grand Island.
Speaker 1:And anyone from around here knows that date and that story. There were 13 tornadoes in the city limits. That day. Like it was a crazy night. There was a TV movie made about it. Later there was a book written about it, like all this stuff. But I was six years old at the time Was that tornadoes? It was tornadoes Night of the Twisters was actually the book in the movie John Schneider. Bo Duke was in the movie.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you another story about him if we have time, but anyway. So I was six years old at the time and I remember that day I had red knickers on and they were my favorite red knickers. And when I say knickers, I don't mean like knickers, like bloomers, like knickers, they just came down to my knees.
Speaker 2:That was a fashion. What are knickers?
Speaker 1:Knickers. They just come down to your knees like the pants that only go to your knees, or at least that's what they were called when I was six.
Speaker 3:They were my red knickers. It's short for knickerbockers right.
Speaker 1:But like in knickers, like in England, means your underwear or something like that.
Speaker 3:It's like bloomers or I don't know Anyway, no, but the New York Knicks are actually named after that. The actual name is the New York Knickerbockers and they're named after that article of clothing.
Speaker 1:So I had red knickers and they were my favorite and so we, the sirens, went off that evening. We were in the basement. My parents knew it was bad. I was a little bit clueless at the age of six, so I'm sitting in my mom's lap crisscross applesauce and the storm is really bad and I can remember I got scared when I asked to go to the bathroom and the room where we would go in our basement was right next to the bathroom and normally during a tornado we'd go downstairs and we'd hang out. But you could run up and get a cup of water, you could go to the bathroom and my mom was like nope, pee your pants. So I peed in my red knickers and that's what my core memory about the night of the tornadoes.
Speaker 1:I don't know how to respond to that. I was going to make a joke, but it would probably be inappropriate, so I'm not going to but that's at that point I was like, oh, this is serious, Like we can't even get out to go to the bathroom. But my dad was busy running up and down to look outside because you know that is what Midwestern deserves.
Speaker 3:So here's what I want to see. I want to see how Dina transitions from that story to the scripture teaching today.
Speaker 2:For those of you who aren't watching well, you can't watch my video. She's wearing a red shirt.
Speaker 1:But not red knickers.
Speaker 2:Not red knickers.
Speaker 1:But no, the funny thing about that book and the movie later there was a TV movie done way later in the mid-90s and at the time that the TV movie came out I was living in San Antonio, texas, and that was also where actor John Schneider who played Bo Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard for those of you who lived and I was working in a Hollywood video store.
Speaker 1:And John Schneider came into our Hollywood video store and everyone was like oh ha ha, you know, everybody knew who he was and he went and he looked around the store and then he came up to the counter this was back when we had VHS tapes and he said hey, I'm looking for some videos on hurricanes. Do you have any videos about hurricanes? And I said, well, no, we don't have a real big documentary section, but let me look. And so I looked in the computer, didn't find anything. I walked with him back to the section where we had some storm videos. We didn't have any hurricane ones. We had one on bigger storms like tropical storms, but it was checked out at the time.
Speaker 3:So then you just couldn't get it. It's a high commodity.
Speaker 1:And so I apologized to him and he was very kind, and then he left the store and like nine months later this TV movie comes out about Night of the Twisters, which was I experienced growing up, and I'm guessing he was researching it at the time and had I known that, or had he said anything about tornadoes I may have commented, or you know what I mean, like I could have connected him with a ton of people to give him firsthand accounts of this, but I missed my chance to be buds with John Schneider.
Speaker 3:Dang yeah. So if I watch that movie and it's terrible, it is terrible. It really is, I'll know why he had no reference material.
Speaker 2:He was looking for hurricanes. Sorry, john, it's not a tornado.
Speaker 1:Sorry, John, it is a really poorly done you know it really was straight to TV like a CBS movie or something like that. But yeah, it was just interesting. It meant a lot to me because you know I lived it but yeah, and he wore a Nebraska Cornhuskers jersey in one part of the movie. Yeah, it was so fancy, okay so you know.
Speaker 2:Here's the transition, yep.
Speaker 1:Yep, so I? I got nothing, so let's just talk about game on.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think of something clever, but, um, so the game of Fortnite. Like I said, the idea is to be the last man standing, um, but it really points out you feel really vulnerable in this, and that was one thing that Zach really talked about in this message, and so he's had his four themes that he's been going on in Game On. The first one was know your mission, and two was choose your weapon. Three was stay in the fight, and four, for this week, it was get the victory. What are you guys? What really stuck out to you? What are you taking beyond Sunday from this message?
Speaker 3:So I think I can speak a little bit on the vulnerability aspect and the last man standing aspect, and that is when you look at the old Testament, you see that, like after sin is introduced into the world, um, you see everyone being given this chance to do what they were expected to do, so like the law is written on their hearts. So it's not like anybody can say, well, I don't know what the expectations are, no, like, don't kill people, don't sleep with someone else's wife, which actually works into this specific story. But in any event, everyone is documented in the Old Testament and everyone ends up having that like circle storm of the law kicking them out. You know, to the point where the wages of sin is death. That even happens in the old Testament. They all know what the expectations are. And then you have this funneled all down to the person of Jesus, which is why he's like the hinge between the old Testament and the new Testament, because Jesus in his person is Israel down into one person, all of humanity down to one person.
Speaker 3:He's the last man standing, and if he was just the last man standing, that'd be a great story of victory for him. But instead of being the last man standing and that only benefiting him. He decided to step out of the circle and give everybody else the victory royale that he was his like. That was naturally his because of what he did.
Speaker 3:And I would just love for anybody who's listening to this to go back into the Old Testament, see some of the biggest programmatic events that happened, like the Exodus, like the wandering in the wilderness, like just any large moment in the Old Testament. You see it actually personified in the life of Jesus. So like why, do you think, at the beginning of his ministry, right after his baptism, what is it that he does? He goes out into the wilderness. Why? Because he wants to illustrate to everyone that he's humanity, he's Israel boiled down to one. So it even starts at the beginning and carries throughout the entirety of his ministry until he has the last man standing and then switches the whole script to benefit us. So I think that's what I'll be taking beyond. Sunday is just this further emphasis that all of this story of the scriptures is pointing to Jesus and that should be everybody's look at the scriptures too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think when I think of, like, get the victory and we think in the world of getting the victory, whatever it looks like, whether it's a medal, a first place trophy, whatever it could be there's a lot of work that has to be put in to get the victory. There's a lot of work before the, before the competition, during the competition and even after to to get the win, that, that that you deserve from all the work you've put in. But but I think what Zach did a beautiful job of talking about this week is, in the Christian terms of getting the victory. It's nothing that you've done. It's nothing that that could have anything to do with what, what has happened, what has happened to you or what, what you've done or anything. It's everything that Jesus has done for you.
Speaker 2:It's it's that he's the personification of Israel, the personification of you, that he did what you could not do on yourself and gave you the victory straight into your hands. You didn't deserve this gift of grace. If it was up to all of us, we would all be in the pits of hell. That's the harsh reality that we have to swallow as Christians, knowing that we can't do it on our own, and that's the beauty of I mean, bring it back to the hailstorm like sin and the law is terrifying and because it's so terrifying, that makes what Jesus did so much more beautiful. And it's just a beautiful act to witness, to think about, to process and realizing that the victory is not on our own actions, but it's everything that Jesus did for us. So that's what I'm taking beyond Sunday.
Speaker 1:I really like the. I have really enjoyed following the story of David here. But I really like this story about David and Bathsheba because I think sometimes we tend to put people that are in the Bible up on a pedestal, that they did all the right things and know they sinned just as much as we do, and this is a prime example of that, where David had been king for a while and was very successful and very well-loved and very renowned and he still messed up big time, not like a little mess up like this was. You know, he was tempted, acted on it, went through with steps to actually murder, have someone murdered through it and you know all the pieces. So it's not like just a tiny slip up, it's something big and I really I think what really stuck out to me with that was something that Zach said is your character is most revealed in adversity and in success, and so I liked that because we've got to see both in David.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So Zach had three really key points in this message for us, about not only success in Fortnite, but also like getting the victory, and the first one was to be in the proper position. What jumped out at you guys about when he was talking about being in the proper position? Yeah, is there something that stuck with you, or is there a time when this is kind of where he talked about character in adversity and success? Is there a story that you can relate to from your personal life with that, or what stuck with you?
Speaker 3:Um, what I think is really interesting about character being revealed is that when David defaulted to the leadership style that Saul had, that's when he was in the most trouble. So, um, the idea that he was, as King, supposed to go out with his people I mean, that was the very thing that the army of Saul had against Saul is that David won all those victories over Saul because David was actually the most most honored and decorated soldier that would go out and do all those things. And it was the moment where David was like I think I'll just spend some time on the top of my, my palace and just kind of look around when my men are out. But there's also a really good character like referral in that story too, because after David finds out that Bathsheba is pregnant, he has Uriah come to the palace. And you know, a lot of times we'll just jump straight to the and David had Uriah killed.
Speaker 3:But actually what happens in between? That is, david says, well, maybe I'll just cover it up and, um, I'll have Uriah come off of the battlefield, go against his vows to his other men that were serving with him and have him come home and sleep with his wife. So then at least it'll look like Uriah is the father, but Uriah is so high in character that he refuses to do that. David tries to send him home. Uriah's like I can't do that. Well, you should go home anyways.
Speaker 3:And instead Uriah sleeps like, I think, in a door sill by the soldiers.
Speaker 3:Or something like that, by their quarters. And so you know what character is being revealed there. Uriah's character is definitely on display in like contrast to David's character, which is also in contrast or in line with Saul's character, and it kind of just shows what our default is. And so I guess I probably have a hundred more stories of my character falling to the lowest common denominator and default, rather than you know some story of epic like victory royale or something like that um, I really liked another thing that zach talked about there, which was um the sin spiral, and I don't know if you guys like took a look at that.
Speaker 1:Um, there's a qr code if you go back and watch the message. Um, there's a qr code there where you can see, um that zach uh kind of had dive dove div and div dived into what's the proper past term Dun-dip-dicated Dodge, duck, dip dive and dodge.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't know what you're referring to.
Speaker 1:Anyway, if you go back and watch it, there's a QR code in the thing where you can take a look at the sin spiral and it's something that you can learn a little bit more about what that means. But I liked that in that he talked about we have to be in the proper position, we have to have spiritual disciplines in place. So what are some routines that you guys have of spiritual disciplines that you think helps you be in that proper position to defend against temptations or opportunities to fail or not be of the highest character?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, for me it's every morning. One of my rules for myself is I have to wake up early and I have to pray out loud. Those are kind of my two rules of life at the moment, and I'm actually working on the confirmation curriculum and to teach in a couple of weeks on prayer and one of the questions I'm gonna ask is why do we pray? What's the importance of prayer? And for me, a big importance of prayer is God will listen to me, right, and it's. It's an opportunity for me to take the pressure off of myself. It's an opportunity for me to say say God, this is what's happening today. This is how I've failed you today and this is what what I have planned for today in that prayer giving him, yielding the opportunity of of my the pressure to go off of me to say God, this is my plan for today and I accept what you have planned. That's not of that plan. It's for me to, in every morning, every night, to in the morning, say God, what I have planned for today, you have full control of it, you can take it. If it's your will for me to do exactly what I've planned, your will be done. If it's not, your will be done.
Speaker 2:And I think that that's where David fell right, because he chose his own will over what God had planned for him.
Speaker 2:He chose his own way to stand up on the rooftop to look at Bathsheba instead of going out with his army. And I imagine if David that morning would have taken time to rest, to be silent, to listen, maybe he would have been able to say oh no, maybe it's best that I go with my men right now, and he could have avoided that. No, of course we're all broken, we're going to do broken things. And that's when, in that moment, when I mess up, when I do something wrong, when I sin in the evening, to say God, this is what happened today, this is how I hurt you, this is how I hurt myself, how I hurt the people around me, and in a moment, to take it back to God. So for me, the processes, whatever. So for me, the processes, whatever habits there we go, start with God and end with God. And to release the pressure of myself to say it's not all up to me, because if it is, I'm going to mess it up royally.
Speaker 3:Not a victory royale, not a victory royale, no, yeah, yeah. So one of the disciplines that I have going on right now I generally try to be in the Word every single day, but I actually I also know that I thrive off a challenge and habit, and so my challenge to myself and accountability with another really faithful follower of Jesus was to finish the Bible in six months, and so just there's a reading plan for it, and to just check in with that. But even further than that, it's what did it mean then? So then, what does it mean now? And what helps for that for me is, you know, sometimes you just open the scriptures and if you just say, what does this mean for me now, well then the Bible's all about you. But if you say, what did it mean at this time, then I can actually apply it faithfully to like how it corresponds with my life.
Speaker 3:So that kind of approach just always helps me realize that I, you know, wherever we are at in our own minds, wherever I'm at in my own head, with brokenness, with sin, we tend to, particularly with people that, like struggle, with anxiety, think that everything is up to you, and I don't know if this is kind of what you were alluding to as well, chad, when you were talking about it. But it's not all about you and so if you can have something that roots you in, it's about him every single day. It's going to like reverberate through the rest of your day that it's not all on me, like I am responsible to fulfill what the Lord has called me to do. But I've read enough stories now in the scriptures where people really stink at that, and so it's not like I have a comfort in, in, in. We all stink together, but it's more of a okay, well, the world didn't end.
Speaker 3:Then, uh, sin happened. There were consequences for that, but the world didn't end, and so I don't have to carry that on my shoulders. And what's really freeing is that, like, even when things go really really well, that can actually set you up for more anxiety, because it's like, oh, my goodness, I did this, like epic thing. Whatever it is, now the expectation is I'm going to do this again every time I walk into doing that same thing, and that creates more anxiety and more focus on yourself and less focus on where life really should be directed, and that's at him. And I think, same thing if David, in that moment, would have had just a Nathan to redirect his thoughts before the issue like this would not be the same kind of story that down and getting ready for bed is. I have just my praise.
Speaker 1:Time with God is what I call it, and I go through my day and I praise him for all the things that happened or all the choices that I make, and my accountability piece of that is sometimes there's things that I did that maybe I'm not so proud of or maybe I didn't handle as best as I could, but I will turn them into a way. How can I praise him for the opportunity to grow or praise Him for the opportunity to show that I've learned from it? And if he's going to put that before me again, then I'm going to make a better choice the next time. But I really focus on that whole praising Him for what he puts in front of me and then for helping me get through it, and I try to just hold myself accountable to. Okay, here's this choice that I'm making or here's this tough situation that I'm in. Am I going to feel good about the praise that I'm going to have tonight?
Speaker 1:or am I going to be praising for a learning experience with the choices that I'm making and that helps in the way my brain functions. I guess that helps me seek some clarity and seek more of him in my choices and decisions.
Speaker 3:That's so cool, cause it's like you owe your future self that level of obedience to Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 1:And it like, and there's times I feel miserably, but those are the times that I learn. Okay, lord, this is.
Speaker 1:I'm thanking you for the opportunity that I learned this and that I can hopefully be a better child of yours tomorrow, or that I can make a better choice to reflect you tomorrow, you know, or the next day, or whenever it is. So, speaking of failing, zach's number two point was when you fail respawn. In Fortnite you have the opportunity to respawn, and this is my after my savage axe killing experience in Fortnite. The one job that I was given in Fortnite when I would play with my children is that I was the respawn card person. My job was to hide, not get killed, and when they died Hide in a bush right.
Speaker 2:Yes, Hide in a bush.
Speaker 1:When they died I would run and get their card to take to the respawn spot so that they could hey, every person needs someone on the team.
Speaker 3:There is a super popular channel called bushcraft dad where this guy learns and he's given like tips from all sorts of people around the world the best places to hide and he just like gets more XP and more points and stuff and he accumulates that. So it doesn't matter if he dies in the top 10% every time like his ranking goes up because he just hides long enough. So this is a legit like way to go.
Speaker 1:Dina, yeah, I was key to the respawn. That was it. But what did you guys take from Zach talking about that? When you fail, respawn or that piece of things in the message?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think it's where where the, the Lutheran faith thrives, right Grace upon grace. It's not any of your works that you've done, but it's the grace of Jesus Christ, of your life, that when you mess up, there's a clean slate that has been given to you again and you're going to mess up again later and then again there's a clean slate, and it's over and over and over again. And I still don't understand it fully. I don't think anybody fully understands grace, because it really is just a free gift. And I don't know about you guys, but my dad always told me nothing's free.
Speaker 2:Free doesn't make sense. Who gets something out of this equation, out of this situation? But that's why I love the Lutheran faith, because it just emphasizes grace. So so much. It's not of your works, but it is a free gift from the Lord. And we're going to mess up and we're going to do it over and over and over again. And Jesus is there over and over and over again and again. I don't understand it and I know he's going to be there over and over and over again for me.
Speaker 3:I would agree, and I think one of the reasons why our church body is so rich in that understanding of grace, of course, is because the scriptures are so. You know, gospel of John says that Jesus is full of grace on top of grace. So it's not just like initial grace that saves you, but then you've got to do a bunch of work to keep it there, or you got to do a bunch of work to finish the process that he started. No, it's his grace. He started it, he completes it, that's all on him.
Speaker 3:But then, like, there's actual examples of multiple failures by key leaders in the church after the resurrection that allow us the opportunity to see how key grace is to God's character and how gracious he is. Because, yeah, we can say he's terrifyingly beautiful in a storm and we can look at the law and that's terrifying as well. But then we look at Peter and do you know that guy? No, I don't know that man that's on trial in there. Well, you kind of sound like you're a Galilean. No, I don't know who that is. Like. Three times he denies Jesus, and it's not just the rooster crowing that connects with the times three, but it's also the restoration after the resurrection where Jesus sees him. And like the way that we deal with failures is, we would see the person that failed and at best, we would be like oh, we're fine.
Speaker 3:But I don't really want to do anything with you anymore because you failed Like you didn't do your responsibility, but instead Jesus sees him after the resurrection and makes sure that for as many times as Peter failed, jesus restores him. So he denies him three times. Jesus restores him after the resurrection three times, and I think that's what's key to learn from this fortnight kind of like a respawn thing is that it's not like well, I sinned, was it 70 times seven? I sinned 491 times, and so that's more than what mathematically Jesus had in the formula no. Instead it's like 491, still forgiven, 492, still forgiven, 492, still forgiven. The strength, the love, the depth of Christ's sacrifice and grace is so much more powerful than our failures and our sin, and so man that hasn't saved my life so many times, I don't know what has yeah, I really liked.
Speaker 1:Zach kind of summed it up and he said the admission price to freedom begins with an admission of your sin. Yeah, just opening that door to grace that Jesus provided. So yeah, point three that Pastor Zach talked about was wear the right skin. In Fortnite there's all kinds of skins that you can get to look like Star Wars characters, superheroes, punk rockers, anything in the galaxy. What stuck out to you guys about wearing the right skin in that point of things?
Speaker 2:Lexi, what stuck out to you guys about wearing the right skin in that point of things? I mean, it's the consistency of our conversation here today that we're broken, we're messed up and Jesus closed us with his grace, with his righteousness, with his truth. And over and over and over again, we're going to mess up time and time again. And he said use Galatians 3, verse 27, in his message For all who are baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. That's a very interesting metaphor and analogy to use. And even we take it back.
Speaker 2:And we're the old Adam is within us, that we're broken, that the man who started this whole issue of sin, we're the ones that continue it, that we have Adam in our hearts and our souls and Jesus clothes us with his righteousness. We're baptized, we're immersed into his grace and that has significant impact in all of our lives. From that moment on, knowing that we're not defined by our brokenness, we're not defined by how many times we've sinned, whether it's 495 or 2000,. But that we're defined by the grace of Jesus Christ, that his identity of a dearly loved and forgiven child of God is upon us. It's not how broken we are, but it, but it's. It's who Jesus and who Jesus is and what he did for us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I don't always, I can't always bring things full circle, but I think we're going to go back to the soiled knickers and here's where I'm going to go with that.
Speaker 3:I think all of us have done something to stain ourselves and, uh, there's a scripture in Malachi that talks about cleansing us as a fuller's soap and it's like a launderer's soap and that soap was like back in that day. We're talking some seriously stringent stuff and that's what's necessary to clean. We might ingest, talk about red knickers and such, but to think about how powerful the cleansing power of the grace and love of Jesus can be, it's like you're wearing new clothes, a complete set of new clothes, and it kind of gives you this view of what we see in Jesus, in the transfiguration story, with him and Moses and Elijah, is that he is so dazzlingly white in terms of his appearance and clothing, and I just mean that as in just purity and that's all that you're experiencing. To think that, like when we think of ourselves, we kind of think of ourselves as soil and broken, and rightfully we are.
Speaker 3:When we look at ourselves through the light of the law, we are. But if that's all you see, then you're not getting the full story, because there is this purity that we have, that's like put upon us us, that cleanses us like a fuller soap, that illustrates that we are not just the broken darkness that you know like hides in the heart of every single person, but there is this terrifying beauty of the purity of God and his holiness that also indwells in us too. And so you know it put being or having new clothes put onto you in baptism and forgiveness and that that's a powerful thing that I hope that people like when they just get ready in the morning and they put on, you know like, well, I hope you all put on new clothes I put on. I did.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, jack, you, you're good, all right, good.
Speaker 3:But when we do, you know there's just some like daily things that you do that you can actually like read some gracious, important to them. So, like Luther talked about, when you daily take a bath, like taking a bath to me is gross but a shower.
Speaker 3:I mean that's not as gross. You remember your baptism. When you put on new clothes for the day, you can remember grace and forgiveness and being clothed in Christ. Put on new clothes for the day, you can remember grace and forgiveness and being clothed in Christ. So there's just some things that you can do in your day that kind of go back to our other conversation about reading the word being in prayer. You know, talking to your expectations of your future self that connect to that view of grace for you too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really liked. Zach said the fortnight is. You know? You want to be the one that's left other than the 99. And Zach said that Jesus is not trying to outlast the 99. He came to give his life for the 99.
Speaker 2:Like he wants to be the one to sacrifice for everyone else, not even for his benefit, but for the benefit of the 99. Right.
Speaker 1:And I think when we mess up or when we fail, or when you know we're in the wrong position, we feel very isolated and we feel like this is just me. Everyone else is doing great and it's just me. But we see, even through the story, somebody as great as David still messes up, and so we can take heart that Jesus came for all of us, not just the winner, but for everyone.
Speaker 2:And if you hear David's story, he's a monster right, like what the kid said in Kids Men, he's quite literally a monster in this story.
Speaker 2:He's the horrible guy who sleeps with somebody else's wife, who has a child out of wedlock and then kills the husband. And you could see David as this awful man and when he is, and in the New Testament he's labeled as a man after God's own heart. And I think that transformation, that shift, can only be done through the grace of Jesus. That that again it's. It's nothing that you've done wrong, it's nothing that you've done right or wrong, but it's everything that Jesus has done for you and that it's that's able to let me live my life without the pressure of doing the right things all the time or not seeking to not do the wrong things.
Speaker 2:I've heard the gospel of sin. Management is what we can often get in the depths of, where, oh, if I just stop sinning, then I'll be righteous, if I stop doing these bad things, then Jesus will love me. Well, it's not. The true gospel is in your sin, in your transgressions. Jesus is with you and he's in the depths of your hurt with you. And that's the true gospel not being perfect, but understanding that Jesus was perfect for you, so now you don't have to be.
Speaker 1:Amen, all right, so this was the end of our Game On series. What are you guys' final takeaways from this series this year?
Speaker 3:I always thought that the game was over when my kids were playing, so they would just be watching the screen and I'd be like why are you still, like, plugged into this? Can you please go do your homework now, or can you do a chore? And they're like dad, I can respawn, but I think what I'm going to be taking is the value of taking something that people know, whether they like it or not, in terms of video games. But just seeing that as a filter through which the scriptures are magnified is incredibly important. Uh, it's uh.
Speaker 3:I can imagine that there's probably people that are like ah, it's a series on video games. No, it's a series on David. It just happens to be that people know more about video games, sadly, right now, than they know about David, and this is a doorway through which they can see David more clearly. And as they see David, they can see themselves or they'll see Jesus engaging with your culture, as long as you don't become your culture Cause, like, my takeaway is not that I'm going to go around and find, like a bunch of people, that I'm going to take a what was it?
Speaker 1:A pickaxe to whatever you did. Like that's not my takeaway, yeah.
Speaker 3:Thou shalt not, so I shan't shan't, I shan't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I should, should, shall not.
Speaker 3:It's going off the rails real fast. But that there's a value, a very high value, to knowing what happens in everyday people's lives, because that will give you an opportunity to preach Christ crucified and resurrected in a way that they weren't anticipating, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just love looking at David's story from start to finish and seeing a lot of great things, a lot of succession, succession, succeeding successes successes, a lot of successes and a lot of failures, and for me I can relate to that a hundred percent. I've failed a lot. I've succeeded a lot and I bet you guys have to, whatever's going on in your life. I haven't seen Dean.
Speaker 3:Ophelia, it's just me.
Speaker 2:Well, you heard the story earlier.
Speaker 3:That's just an accident.
Speaker 2:Just an accident there we go Um, whatever you've been through, whatever you've gone through good, bad, whatever God can flip that around and continue to grow that into something beautiful that he has for you. So follow, follow his lead and know that it's not all on you.
Speaker 1:I really like what you said there about David being relatable. That's. What really sticks out to me is, whether you look at the video game aspect of this or the David aspect of this, I think this series really reminded me how we're all connected and we all make really great choices and really horrible choices and whether that's in a video game or in real life, we can all be proud of and learn from those experiences, and that's really kind of what continued to come out to me each week. So thank you guys so much for being here. We start a new message series next week.
Speaker 3:Pardon this Interruption and Pastor Seth, we get to hear you preach now. Yeah, well, gospel and Mark is going to preach itself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3:That's what I love about this perspective on this is like Mark had this very specific style where he'll start a story, he'll interrupt that story and then he'll bring it back into resolution so that they all actually resolve themselves with the same major point that Jesus is trying to teach. And so that's what we're going to learn as he interrupts our life, and that's the way it should be every single day.
Speaker 1:I'm looking forward to it. So until then, let's keep living our faith beyond Sunday you.
