0:00:00 - 0:00:23 Called Rise Up O Men of God. And uh I came across this, of course, I've, I've heard the hymn before. I've sung to him before. Um And I'm not gonna sing it for you today, which is for your benefit. Um But I want to use this as a framework to share a whole bunch of thoughts and this is a little trick I 0:00:23 - 0:00:46 can do to leverage some ideas that I have that aren't really ready for prime time yet, but we can use this as a framework and I think it'll be beneficial. Um I have a file of videos to make just notes that I take and then I move on so I can stay focused on my main tasks uh without losing ideas for things 0:00:45 - 0:01:15 that come to me. And um lately I've, I've had some opportunities to make a few extra videos in part because of the faith of other people in reacting as they have to the things that I've already presented. And uh for the rest of you, you get to um hang on those coattails and receive the benefit that flows 0:01:15 - 0:01:38 from the f the fact that we have free access to information today through the internet. Um So I hope this is helpful and um I'm making this video as, as quickly as I can to get back to writing. That's part of the permission slip I have for this today. So I hope this is valuable to you. Uh I did not prepare 0:01:37 - 0:01:57 a presentation for this. The only thing I did was paste the hymn onto a slide. And so I'm actually gonna look up scriptures and we're just going to um to do this as it comes today. So, slightly new format. So we'll see how that goes. So, what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna read through each of these 0:01:57 - 0:02:20 lines and then I will query. Um This is gonna sound weird. I will query the spirit, spirit of God and I will share with you the thoughts that come to my heart and mind about it. And again, I'm, I'm gonna use this as a framework to pull in to the faith of this William Merrill. Uh I'm going to intersect 0:02:19 - 0:02:43 that with how I imagine your lives to be. And uh you know, of course, that's a, that's a broad brush. So we'll hope to hit on some things that apply to you in particular. So, uh forgive my typing. I'm gonna be looking up scriptures as we go here and we'll take it away from there. All right. Rise up Omen 0:02:42 - 0:03:15 of God. So, uh I'm I'm recording and the, the program I'm using it, dims out the other parts of my screens here. So this is gonna be not fun for my eyes. Um Rise up. So the word for rise up one word, uh that means rise up is exalt. And it's interesting because a lot of times when we talk about um exalting 0:03:14 - 0:03:40 or exaltation, we slip into, um uh there's a certain mindset when we use words that aren't part of our common language. And it's like it's an artificial at arm's length kind of attitude. Um And then there's another mindset when we use explicitly religious words. It, it's like we turn into robots that 0:03:40 - 0:04:02 aren't really thinking or feeling anymore. We're just, uh going into a rut. And if you don't know the source of that, that phrase, uh, of being in a rut, you should look up when the, when the pioneers, primarily Mormon pioneers headed West on the organ trail and, and other ways that they got out there 0:04:02 - 0:04:23 , um, they went in wagons and some of the places they traveled over, uh, were rock, they were, they were rock and you can actually see the ruts of the, the wheels carved into the rock that are still there. Of course, there were ruts in mud. If you drive in mud, you're going to put ruts into the road 0:04:23 - 0:04:46 . And, um, but those, those don't stand the test of time, they erode away, but, uh, the rock is still there. So our thoughts can very easily slip into these ruts and it's, it doesn't help. It's, it's a harmful thing. Uh, sometimes, sometimes it's, it's good because it's kind of like bumpers when you're 0:04:46 - 0:05:05 bowling and you put those inflatable bumpers in the gutter and then you don't really have to worry about aiming. You just throw the ball as hard as you can roll it, I guess. Don't throw it. You get kicked out at the bowling alley. But uh it's good to try to avoid that rut when you're, when you're looking 0:05:04 - 0:05:28 for a fresh perspective on something you need to have beginners eyes. So rising up, that's exalting. And if you look up that word in the scriptures, you'll get a whole lot of results. And the reason is that uh progress, progress in God's path, it's not a path through a field, it's a ladder up. You're 0:05:28 - 0:05:54 , you're climbing up a mountain and that's very important to understand for a whole lot of reasons. If you want to rise up towards God, you don't do that in a specific way, just like you don't um repent of a specific sin, you repent by orienting your life towards God and you rise up by orienting your 0:05:54 - 0:06:18 life towards God and lo and behold, these are similar things. In fact, they're very tightly coupled because to repent is to improve and to improve is to exalt. And so when we say something hyper religious like exaltation, that's, you know, you don't use that word in, in normal life, you, you probably 0:06:18 - 0:06:51 don't even hear it at church. Um But when, when we say things like uh let him therefore a base himself that he may be exalted or um remain separately and singly without exaltation. These are scripture, scripture, scripture kind of phrases. They're very um unnatural. So um straight as a gate narrow the 0:06:51 - 0:07:19 way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives. These, these are funny, funny ways of putting things for uh compared to our, our common expressions today. But rise up o men of God, it just means, hey, start climbing, start climbing, right? And not in a way. But in the way, Jesus didn't 0:07:19 - 0:07:51 say I am a way, the truth and the life or a way, a truth and a life. He said he was the way, the truth, the life as in the only one. And um you know, we, we, we commonly, we have this uh this expression, I shouldn't say we, there is an expression always lead to God. Um Someone once told me, well, I know 0:07:51 - 0:08:12 someone well, who believes, quote all boats float to God. And um that's not true at all. That's, that's definitely not true. If you put your boat in the river and let it float, you're gonna end up at the same place as everyone else, which is hell. And that is, that is not rising up, that is falling down 0:08:11 - 0:08:42 . It's um it's entropy. Everything flows to entropy. It's not good. Uh All things are upheld and sustained in Christ. He is the way and the way is up. So how do you rise up? You rise up by looking up. This is, I mean, this could be on Sesame Street. It's so simple. You find the mountain of the Lord and 0:08:42 - 0:09:08 you don't have to go anywhere to find that the Kingdom of God is within you. So you start by paying attention to your conscience and, and your surroundings, your immediate surroundings. Um And then it's a, it's a full time job and that's a little disruptive at first. It's a little jarring at first. But 0:09:08 - 0:00:00 what you'll find is that if you seek his kingdom first or if you adopt his purposes above all else, what you'll find is all things will be added unto you. In other words, you will find that everything that is important will go better. It's an amazing, amazing thing God knows exactly what he's doing. 0:00:00 - 0:10:00 He really does and the more you trust him, the more evidence you will find for that. But the good news is you already have all the evidence you need to get started. He is he is an abundant, abundant being of pure light, John 1010, he came to give life and more abundantly, everything less than God is 0:10:00 - 0:10:24 a thief. It will disappoint you, it will fail you, it will fail to deliver what you seek. But the fullness is found in the father and as you orient yourself to him, the most amazing thing happens that fullness cascades down and you will find what you're looking for and you'll find that he's giving it 0:10:24 - 0:10:54 to you abundantly in and through all the things that he's precisely oriented your life to contain. So there's a, there's a funny scripture in Deuteronomy, I believe and uh of all things, it's talking about Manna and like so many scriptures in the Old Testament. If you're just, if you're just plowing 0:10:54 - 0:11:17 through the text, you're gonna miss it. But this scripture has such deep meaning to me. It's etched into my soul. Like so many of God's words have become like they will become for you if you treasure them up. It's, it's interesting. If you, if you try to lock a husky into a room, I know a thing or two 0:11:17 - 0:11:40 about Huskies. If you try to lock a husky into a room, you, you are in for some trouble because when you come home, that room will be trashed in ways that you didn't know, not know were possible. Like uh there's this trope of what happens with uh you know, rock bands when they stay in hotel rooms and 0:11:40 - 0:12:02 they trash them and that's, that they're sort of infamous for this, I guess because it's kind of a meme. Um Maybe that's a bygone era. I have no idea what the pop stars of today do. Um But Huskies are way worse than rock stars and they're not even on drugs. So, but you, you come back and that, that place 0:12:02 - 0:12:26 will be trashed. It, it's just unbelievable how much destruction they can, they can uh render to a room. So you gotta put them in a cage if you're gonna leave. Um So the spirit of God is the opposite of that. If you treasure up the word, it's amazing because just as Jesus said, with his parable of the 0:12:26 - 0:12:50 , I forget what the technical term of this parable is. Maybe the householder or something or the scribe where um put into modern terms. He compared um someone who treasures up the word to a hoarder and they have, you know, a house full of stuff and no matter what you need, they're gonna have it. And 0:12:50 - 0:13:12 so if you, if you uh had a neighbor like this and back in a, in a house we lived in before and uh I was re remodeling my house, I didn't have all the tools I needed. I was just slowly building that out and we were on a really tight budget and I had this, this wonderful neighbor. Um I wish I could tell 0:13:11 - 0:13:33 you some stories about this guy. Um a real, a real gem of a guy, but he would, he would always come over and just watch me work and uh he was older and he was, he was a hustler in his younger years. He really, really, um, knocked out life. Um, but so he's sort of vicariously enjoying that, but he had 0:13:33 - 0:13:52 an overflowing garage of just, he had hoarded every tool known to man. And it didn't matter how weird the thing was, he had at least two of them. Um, it wasn't always easy to find them, but he was, he was always very happy to lend me whatever I needed. But, um, the word of God, if you treasure it up 0:13:52 - 0:14:20 , like that guy treasured up tools. It's, it's um not only will you give God so many more paths and greater bandwidth to flow information into and through you. But it's also like a husky. You can't treasure up the word without it engraving itself into you. It's amazing. And uh if all you can do is read 0:14:20 - 0:14:43 the scriptures. If you don't really understand what you're reading, just read them anyway, just keep pumping that into your heart and your mind. And as it says in the book of Joshua, um chapter one, if you, if you meditate on those things, if you feast on God's word multiple times a day, it's, it's going 0:14:42 - 0:15:14 to change you. It has to, there's, there's no other alternative and there, there are more and, and less efficient ways of receiving those changes, but that's what's going to happen. OK. So let's pop the stack back to where we were rise up o men of God. So um you have to find the mountain, but you don't 0:15:13 - 0:15:44 have to look very hard because as you look all around you, you're gonna find things that are out of order. Now, this is interesting. Um The gospel can be described variously but one of these ways to describe it is as a mechanism for generating order out of chaos. And uh maybe we won't get too far into 0:15:44 - 0:16:04 that. But the, the reason I bring it up is human beings. We have this safety mechanism where we get used to things and it's, it's a superpower in many instances. If you've ever been through something really hard, you know, especially as a man because we have uh the gift of testosterone and it is a gift 0:16:04 - 0:16:35 uh as a man, our natural reaction to stress is to work harder, to focus more to sleep less. And we, we have the more, the more pressure you put a man into, the more of a man he is the harder he's gonna work, the more he's gonna sacrifice to get to whatever the success state is. But humans in general 0:16:34 - 0:16:55 , we have this ability to adapt. That's amazing. You can put a human into any situation. And basically, if their heads not getting cut off, they'll find a way. Uh if, if they can maintain the mentality, which survival experts will tell you is the hardest thing and the most important thing. But if, if 0:16:54 - 0:17:28 you can, if you can maintain your mental state, you can get used to anything that doesn't kill you, which is amazing. And if you've been through hard things, you know, this. So, um one of the things we get used to is the disorder in our lives. Like so many things, disorder is it, it, it's got long tentacles 0:17:27 - 0:17:54 . It affects you in ways that you do not realize there's so many things in life that affect you in ways beyond how you see it. So I'll give you an example when I still was going to church, I thought that I had an independent mind that my mind was focused on God and that I was using um church to extract 0:17:53 - 0:18:19 out all the value I could uh for God that the purpose of me being there was to learn more about God, right? And um I thought that I had a pretty good filter on that. I didn't realize uh coming out of that, how much it impacted me. Uh So, so I got excommunicated from the church that I was going to because 0:18:18 - 0:18:43 of my religious beliefs specifically because I read the scriptures and decided to, to write a book while I was told to write a book. But I decided to write a book that basically organized my notes on what I had found about differences in what God had said versus what I was being uh told through the traditions 0:18:42 - 0:19:04 of the people in the church. And I wrote the book to help people because as, as at that time, the internet was just starting to be to the church today, what, what the printing press was to the Catholic church back in the day and there the, the people who were starting to hit the internet with their questions 0:19:04 - 0:19:24 were getting hit with things that they, that were facts that they were not prepared to hear because it didn't jive with what they had been told and they were throwing out the baby with the bathwater. So I wrote a book in an attempt to serve up these facts in a faith promoting way. In other words, in 0:19:24 - 0:19:49 a way where they could be exposed to it and uh and not lose their faith in God, not lose the valuable things that they had received. That was the intent, uh how effective that was, I'm not sure, but um some people didn't like that. And so I was excommunicated and so I stopped going to church. Um And 0:19:49 - 0:20:18 I was told that, well, I was shown just to what extent my thoughts were still being influenced while I was there. And I, I couldn't realize that until I was out of it. There's so many things in life whose, whose value for good or evil you will not realize while you're in it. And um you, you need a change 0:20:17 - 0:20:44 to contrast is required to perceive value in, in many cases. In fact, I'd say in all cases, though sometimes you can encounter contrast through faith, not experience alone, not, well, I should say not temporal experience, but you can, you can encounter contrast spiritually for sure. I know that for a 0:20:44 - 0:21:13 fact deeply. Um So a lot of times uh our environment, the lives we live on a daily basis. They're kind of like picking up pigs. If you've ever gone to purchase pigs, you'll, or if you've ever had pigs or b been around pigs, you know, they're very stinky creatures. They're, they're very stinky, they eat 0:21:12 - 0:21:38 and defecate to a shocking extent. Um If you, if you think babies are shocking in, in how much they poop you need to go around pigs. There, there's, they're really something they poop all the time. And um, I went to go pick up these pigs not knowing any better. I didn't have a trailer. So I took, I took 0:21:38 - 0:22:05 my wife's car, she had a, a, a, a long bed enclosed um truck suv. It is a GMC Yukon XL. We had this really old GMC Yukon XL. And so I took the seats out of the back and I put a tarp down and I was like, yeah, this is good. I get some baby pigs. So I went to go to the pig farmer to pick up these baby 0:22:05 - 0:22:24 pigs and it's the kind of place where you drive up and you, you just instantly start hearing the banjos in your head and wondering if you're gonna come out of there alive. And, uh, if they'll ever find your body and the guy who very much looked like he belonged there came up. And, uh, he said, he said 0:22:24 - 0:22:49 , where's your trailer? I said, no, I'll put him in the back of this and he's like, you're gonna regret that. So, anyway, sure enough, I did because the stink in that car never went away. And, um, my wife, she puts up with so much and that's, I thank her for it. So a lot of our choices in life, the not 0:22:49 - 0:23:11 just our choices but the way we live our lives, they can be like this pig stink that never goes away. And we, you don't realize that like that guy probably didn't know that he stunk to high heaven. But um if you're in it, you can't smell it yourself and you have to get out of it. Th this is actually 0:23:10 - 0:23:37 an unfortunate property of people too. I, I have a um I have an uh an unusually strong sense of smell and so I've noticed that uh people who stink don't realize that they stink. Maybe this is another uh of the many examples of the Dunning Kruger effect. I don't know, but people who stink don't know it 0:23:37 - 0:24:01 most of the time they don't know it. And um and, and they, they won't listen to you if you tell them either. And uh you don't wanna be a stinky person, the application for life here. I promise it's related. So when we talk about rising up, you have to look around your surroundings, but you're going to 0:24:01 - 0:24:27 be used to what you're in and it might not be obvious what's all around you. So you have to apply to the spirit of God because God's spirit is optimized for the best. Jesus said that when he sends his spirit, it will take of his and give it to you. And what he's describing, if you're programming exposed 0:24:26 - 0:24:51 , that's not a great phrase. If you've, if you've, if you know anything about programming or, or computer technology, you've heard this term API, it's an acronym, but the idea is that it's something that bridges two separate systems. And so, um if you've got a, a program running and it's got to talk 0:24:51 - 0:25:22 to another program that API is the switchboard and it, it has defined exchanges of information. And um that, that um that paradigm is all over the place. So if you have, I think people have like remote systems for this and that they've got, you know, cameras on their baby or um their thermostat, they 0:25:22 - 0:25:41 can control from their phone or whatever the case may be. Well, you can think of that control panel, remote control panel as an API of sorts because you don't have access to the low level workings of the details of how that system works. You just have a little control panel, it's really easy to, to work 0:25:41 - 0:26:11 just a normal remote control is, is sort of an example of this uh or an ATM machine, right? Um There are many, many examples of this. So the spirit is like an API for God and we, we throw around phrases like the mind of God. Um But just think of it like an API and so maybe you don't see what God would 0:26:10 - 0:26:36 do in your place, but God sees that and He promises that we have access to His spirit if we keep all of his commandments and we pay attention to him. So we think about Him um in every thought and orient our desire to what we believe his desire is and we actively query that and we say, you know, how can 0:26:35 - 0:26:58 I make this better? And what you'll find is you get used to the piles in your life. Um Maybe you get used to this mess. That's right in front of you. And uh Jordan Peterson, he's famous for saying things like clean your room. And he uh criticizes mostly younger people who are of the mindset that they're 0:26:58 - 0:27:18 going to fix problems in the world that no one has ever figured out. Um including the many, many, many people who are much smarter than them, who have worked at it, much harder than them. And somehow they're just gonna roll out of bed one day. Uh go up the steps from their mom's basement and solve world 0:27:18 - 0:27:39 hunger. Actually, that's not one of the problems they care about. But, you know, climate this or invasive species that whatever the flavor of the week is. And, um, he says, well, maybe you should adjust your expectations of what you can do for the world based on what you've already done for yourself 0:27:38 - 0:28:04 . So, if your room is a mess, maybe you're capable of solving existential crises, but probably not. And maybe you should fix the stuff right in front of you first. And either way that's gonna go a lot better for you. And I agree with that wholeheartedly. Um All things come together in Christ, they're 0:28:04 - 0:28:25 upheld together, they become one in him. They're all woven together. It's all one tapestry and the most intense part of that tapestry for you and to you is the stuff right around you. I mentioned Manna, I never got back to it. Sorry, let me integrate that now. So there's this wonderful scripture in uh 0:28:25 - 0:28:46 the Old Testament. That's, that's how we got off to treasure the word. There's a wonderful scripture in the Old Testament that talks about uh where, where the Lord's speaking. And he says um that he was going to test and prove the Children of Israel uh as to whether they will abide by his statutes based 0:28:45 - 0:29:08 on they're going out to gather Manna six days a week. It's such an interesting verse. It's short and it's poignant. I have it printed out and stuck to my corkboard where I work because um it, it, it, it's a wonderful example of this idea that God will provide for you and each day exactly what you need 0:29:08 - 0:29:32 to draw nearer to Him, to the greatest extent you're capable, given your capacity and your present state. It's a wonderful principle. And so think about this, he's, he's, he's literally saying, look, I'm gonna put everything you need to sustain your life right in front of your face every day, six days 0:29:32 - 0:29:58 a week in the seventh day, you will have had on the sixth day enough to get you through that one too. So no matter what, it'll be right in front of you. And if you use the stuff right in front of you, uh it will lead you along to wherever you need to be to get the most of everything he offers. And this 0:29:57 - 0:30:19 has strong ties to this idea of him being the good shepherd. Uh sheep don't jump, sheep, don't jump. They, they walk along very slowly, their heads down eating grass. And so all they're ever looking at is what's right in front of their face. And that, that's actually how most of the time how sheep get 0:30:19 - 0:30:40 lost. So you've, you've read about lost sheep, how they get lost is they're following the better grass that they see right in front of them. They don't, they don't look up and say like, oh, that distant mountain over there looks lush and green, gonna sacrifice a star for five days walking through marshes 0:30:40 - 0:31:02 to get there. That's not something sheep do. They just eat what's right in front of their face and, uh, they'll follow the good stuff right in front of their face and that can lead them out. I won't say astray. Um, well, I was gonna explain to you more about that parable, but I'll try to rein it in a 0:31:02 - 0:31:29 little bit. This is good stuff. But I have to, I have to do other things this morning. So um what's right in front of your face? The the equivalent to that is look around your house like from when you get up to when you go to sleep, wherever you go and whatever you do think about what you could do to 0:31:29 - 0:31:59 align it better with how God would make it if he were standing in your shoes. And so maybe this means pulling over and helping somebody on the side of the road. But um it definitely means speaking with people that you interact with um in the same way that God would and it definitely means doing things 0:31:58 - 0:32:22 for others, whether they see it or not, just as God would with a mind fully focused on global benefit, meaning you don't count the cost to yourself except in your ability to do good for all people. Cause you, so for example, you can only give your life once, right? So make it count and, and that extends 0:32:21 - 0:32:49 through the cascade of different prices that can be paid. But when you look at this in detail, what you find is, and this is one of the points I wanted to make here rise up doesn't just mean the big stuff, you will find that more often than not. It means the little things and it's also not just the little 0:32:48 - 0:33:08 things that are habitual. It means when you walk through your house and you see a p piece of trash on the ground because the kids didn't put it in the trash can. If one kid is around, you bring that to their attention. So you don't miss an opportunity to help them correct their behavior but, or improve 0:33:07 - 0:33:23 , I should say their behavior. But if no one else is around you, you pick it up and you put it in the trash. If you're walking through a parking lot and you see a nail on the ground, it doesn't matter if you're gonna drive your car on that parking lot, you know, that's gonna end up in someone's tire 0:33:22 - 0:00:00 . So you pick it up and maybe there's not a trash can around. You put it in your pocket and you make every place you've been in better for your having been there. So rising up is recognizing the opportunities all around you to improve yourself others, the world, it can be something as little as, um, 0:00:00 - 0:34:05 you walk through your yard and there's a branch and it's a little low and you're gonna hit your head on it. So you make a mental note that when it fits in your priority structure, you're gonna cut that branch off and you, you recognize the opportunity to just meld all of this together in a smooth flow 0:34:04 - 0:34:26 . So, um that particular example is, so I noticed that there were um there's a tree that I'm going to cut down eventually out in my yard and uh over the winter it's kind of a slower time because there's lots of snow where I live. And, uh, I try to take advantage and spend more time with my kids over 0:34:26 - 0:34:50 the winter. Um, doing explicitly fun things because in the summer, a lot of the time we spend together is, is doing chores, which, um, I think is valuable but, um, try to balance it out because they're kids, they're still getting used to the demands of life. And, um, we, we made a fun day of it. I knew 0:34:49 - 0:35:11 eventually I was gonna have to cut down that tree and that included cutting off a bunch of the branches. So I got a bow saw out and I knew that they hadn't had a lot of experience with hand saws. And, uh, we all climbed up the tree and we cut some branches off and, um, we use them, they like doing bushcraft 0:35:10 - 0:35:34 type stuff. And so we used it to make a little shelter real quick, the branches. Now, eventually they're gonna get burned, but we just joined together all those things and uh boosted the priority of that activity and everything just flowed together. And so rising up, it's a holistic thing. Ok. So that's 0:35:34 - 0:36:06 line one. All right. Um Have done with lesser things. That's line two of the hymn have done with lesser things. This is so important. There are two facets of improvement. One is finding something better and two is letting go of something worse. Um, when I was in airborne school, I was, I was so hungry 0:36:05 - 0:36:25 . Uh, I wasn't trying to lose weight because when I went to basic training, I was, I was overweight and I'd used it to try to lose some weight. So I ate less than I could have, um, to help facilitate that. And I was successful. But when I went to airborne school, I was already at a good weight and I 0:36:25 - 0:36:47 didn't want to lose weight because it would have included a lot of muscle. So, uh, it's hard because you run all, I don't know how it is now, but at that time back in 2003 or so, uh, you just, you ran everywhere you went and we were running like at least 10 miles a day and then the rest of the day you're 0:36:47 - 0:37:08 just jumping off of stuff all the time and it's a very physical thing and it's really hot when I went. And, um, when you, when you go to eat lunch. You have to run there, you have to run back and there's not a lot of time to eat. But they had these rules to save the army money, which you were allowed 0:37:08 - 0:37:27 to get seconds on. They had like, it wasn't a salad bar but they had like a, a bar with yogurt and milk and peanut butter and stuff and it's just extra calories. You could get, you couldn't get seconds on the main, but you could get seconds on anything in that little thing, that little bar. But the rule 0:37:27 - 0:37:45 was, you could only have one thing in each hand and they had sergeants posted there that would yell at you and, and, uh, say funny things. They, you know, it's funny, drill sergeants and everything. This is a good metaphor for life. They try to be tough. But if you've got the right mindset, they just 0:37:44 - 0:38:17 seem like caricatures and, uh, Satan is no joke. He's no joke and those that know about him will tell you that. But, um, he is just a, just a pawn of God. And once you see that it's a, it is a bit clownish sometimes. But these, these sergeants, they thought they were hot stuff. But to me, they always 0:38:17 - 0:38:37 just seem like professional wrestlers with their gimmicks and you, you could see through them to just see that they were normal people trying to put on the show. But this one guy was so funny and they even talk with funny voices half the time. But if you weren't going through the line in the right direction 0:38:36 - 0:38:56 because you had to start on one side and go through the other. He, he would always say, uh, are you a salmon? Do you swim upstream? So that, I mean, they were watching you like Hawks is my point. So you couldn't get away with much. But it took me about two seconds to figure out that they had bowls in 0:38:56 - 0:39:16 this thing because they had like jello or cottage cheese. And, um, so what I did was I put a bowl in each hand and, and that counted as one thing and then I filled it up with peanut butter or whatever other packets of things. They had milk. So I only had to go one pass through the line to get seconds 0:39:16 - 0:39:41 and I was able to get a bunch more calories. So, um, I can't remember why I brought that up. Sheesh. Um, have done with lesser things. Um, you have to find better things and let go of worse things. That, that was probably it. So you could only have one thing in each hand and the best thing to have was 0:39:41 - 0:40:08 a bowl, right? Because this is like tricking the genie if you only get one wish you wish for, for infinite wishes. And, uh, that, you know, the, you might think that the things I say are nonsense. I don't know. Um, I, I think they're pretty valuable. I'm, I'm biased but I, I think they have implications 0:40:07 - 0:40:38 that extend far beyond what people that think their nonsense can see. Um If you only have one thing that you can pick, what's the wisest thing to pick the answer. Of course, is God in whom all things of value are fully expressed and from whom all things of value flow. Of course, that's if you choose 0:40:38 - 0:41:09 God. So what are lesser things that we should be done with anything that doesn't fit in that paradigm? So there's a scripture that says, don't do anything until you've prayed. And uh how literal you wanna get with that is up to you. But the point is actively consider whether what you're doing and why 0:41:08 - 0:41:34 you're doing, it fully fits into your idea of God. And if it doesn't, maybe that's not something you ought to be doing or feeling or wanting. Isn't that an interesting thought? So, so often when we think about God, we, we characterize him as some sort of a menu that uh we look at and we say, I'll take 0:41:33 - 0:42:04 the, the general ses chicken extra spicy. But if you really knew God and he came to you in a restaurant and said, what would you like? You'd say, I'll take whatever you would have and you would transcend the whole idea of looking at the menu. And um if he said, well, it's really important that you make 0:42:03 - 0:42:32 the choice, you say, ok, and you look at the menu and you'd, you'd actively think, well, what would he want? And if it's the first time you thought about that, you're probably not gonna pick the right thing. But in this restaurant you get as many tries as you can fit into your time in the building. And 0:42:32 - 0:43:00 if you pick the wrong thing and you taste it and it's not as good as you expected, you can send it back and there are only uh, a few, although they're important limitations to that analogy. But if you're really smart when he hands you the menu, even if it's the first time you've looked at it, what you 0:43:00 - 0:43:25 do is you go through every item on the menu and you, you ask your waiter who's God, you say tell me about this dish. He tells you and you, you then you formulate questions to try to figure out the value that he appraises in that thing. Mm. And you need to know, excuse me, you need to know what's on the 0:43:24 - 0:43:53 menu. You need to know what he thinks it's worth and you need to know why he thinks that and you need to know what it's worth compared to everything else on the menu. And if you go through your life that way, you will find yourself walking in the path that he would walk if you were in your shoes. So 0:43:52 - 0:44:17 to know lesser things in order to to be done with them. You need to know what things are lesser, but the natural man doesn't know the value of things. It's known spiritually. And that's a, a big bucket that I'm actually not gonna get into right this second. Believe it or not. So let's move on cause that's 0:44:17 - 0:44:44 enough of that. The point is if, if you find things in your life that aren't the best, just let them go and, uh get yourself what is the best? And how will, you know, that's, that's its own long topic. But it's a process. It's a process where you're going to learn to better praise the value of things 0:44:43 - 0:45:12 . But if it's not doing what it's supposed to do, it's not performing as advertised. Odds are it, it needs to go or you need to shift your understanding of what its purpose is. Line three, excuse me, give heart and soul and mind and strength. We actually is two lines together to serve the king of kings 0:45:12 - 0:45:41 . So there's a, there's a verse where uh Jesus says, seek ye first, the Kingdom of God. And people read that and they see first and they're like, OK, we'll seek ye first, the Kingdom of God. And then the next line is all things will be added unto you. And they say, OK, so if I seek Jesus first, then 0:45:40 - 0:46:06 second, I can seek my Corvette. Second, I can seek my sports on, on uh the weekends or second I can have this uh I don't know whatever your thing is that you do. It doesn't work like that. There are so many scriptures that talk about what it means to be a servant to God. One of my favorite ones, Jesus 0:46:05 - 0:46:32 says what servant is there? Who when his master comes into the house, his master basically says to the servant, what can I do for you? And he kicks up his feet and he eats and he drinks and rests. It doesn't happen. He says the servant does uh tends to the master's needs. And um that's how it is with 0:46:32 - 0:47:11 the kingdom of God to seek first. Doesn't mean in order, in terms of, there's a second to seek. First means above all things all the time. It means that your eye or what you desire and how you see the world is single or absolutely focused on God. So the mystery of this ceases to be how it fits in with 0:47:10 - 0:47:43 normal life and it becomes what God would do in normal life. So I'm not sure if the ordering there is is clear that if we had a Venn diagram, it's not that you have these two circles. Oh, I have a computer. Maybe I should use it. Look. Uh All right. So let's check. Well, that is not. And if we draw a 0:47:43 - 0:48:21 circle here and we'll keep what is going on with this. Apparently, I forgot how to use this program. One of these buttons. Keep there we go have this circle and we're going to make it look like that. And we have another circle and here we have our Venn diagram and if we put, and you may ask yourself 0:48:20 - 0:48:55 , um you know, a lot of people say will, God's will and I don't like that word because I think a lot of folks will naturally slip into this rut of thinking God's will is somehow separate from who and how he is. So I, I prefer saying God's purpose these days because I think that's a bit clearer because 0:48:54 - 0:49:20 God's purpose can't be separated from his nature. It's not something that's external to how he is. So you could tell your kid, hey, go do the laundry even though you don't do laundry, let's say, or you could say go clean up the dog poop in the yard because I don't feel like doing that. But God would 0:49:20 - 0:49:43 never do that if he said go clean up the dog poop in the yard. It's either because that's what he would do in your place or that's exactly what you need to do to better learn what he would do in your place. And sometimes it's because he's done things that are worse than that, that prevent him from being 0:49:43 - 0:50:07 able to do that, which is a, a mystery that I'll just throw at you and move on for now. So we have this Venn diagram. We have God's purpose and your purpose. And I think this is how people think about it. And they say, seek first, the kingdom of God means you do this and then you get to do this and that's 0:50:07 - 0:50:40 not the way it works. What it means is this. They're one and the same, they're one. So if you want to know how Jesus said in John 17, he said, I have glorified thee on the earth. He's praying to the Father. Jesus is praying to the Father in John 17. He says, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have 0:50:40 - 0:51:08 finished the work which thou gave us me to do. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gave ust me. Now, they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee, I've given unto them the words which thou gives me. I'm scanning here because I'm just filtering this for the 0:51:08 - 0:51:52 point. We could talk about this chapter all day. Um But he says, whoa what? Sorry, I skipped the ah, here we go. Um So he says, I'm praying for them that they all may be one as thou father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us, I in them and thou and me and that they may be made perfect 0:51:52 - 0:52:28 in one. So this is what it means to seek the kingdom of God first. It's first and only. Now, the funny thing is that as you do this, like the the passage about being the servant, the dedicated servant, as you do this, what you'll find is all things will be added unto you. And the weird foot uh fine print 0:52:27 - 0:53:05 of that contract is that there is no way of faking this if you are doing this because your heart is still set on the things of the world. You are going to find that. Let's see if we have. You are gonna find that all this burns up. We cannot endure. What is reality will hit you again and again and it 0:53:04 - 0:53:38 will burn up what you thought you had. But if you do this, you'll find that every desire that you have is fulfilled eternally in God. And because He has overcome the world, this can't come in there. God has his own fire and it keeps out the fires of chaos can't come in there. He's overcome all of that 0:53:37 - 0:54:03 . And so what you have in this cannot be taken away because He has overcome the world and anyone that lives in this state, you're going to find that you lose everything that's in this. It doesn't matter how much you think you have it, it will be taken away and not by God. God's trying to help you keep 0:54:03 - 0:54:33 it. That's why He says be one with me, come seek my purpose. He knows that His purpose is better, but it's also the only place that you can abide that's an important word. What does it mean to give your heart and soul and mind and strength. This is fun. We get to make more diagrams. I haven't publicly 0:54:32 - 0:55:21 talked about what I'm about to teach you. If I want to put a price tag on it, I'd probably say everything Elon Musk is worth and then some and I'm gonna give it to you for free cause I was given it for free. So if we do this, thank you. Spell check. Mm This is fun. I've been waiting to, to go over this 0:55:21 - 0:55:49 hymn for probably six months or something. So heart might find in strength, serve the king of kings. OK. So this isn't just out of a hymn. This guy wasn't pulling things out of thin air uh tempo. Temporarily lost the ability to type. I was out in my car making a phone call yesterday that it suddenly 0:55:49 - 0:56:07 struck me that I needed to make that phone call. And so I was on my way to the mailbox and I just stopped at the end of our driveway in my kid came out after I was on the phone for about a half hour. One of my kids and I'm like, can I help you? And he's like mom wanted me to come see what you were doing 0:56:07 - 0:56:42 . And I started laughing. So when I came in, I said to my wife, I said thanks for checking up on me. I didn't have a stroke and she's like, oh, I just didn't know where you were and I was like, yeah, fair enough. But it's funny. Um OK, so, so you'll find this verse all over the place. You'll find it 0:56:42 - 0:57:08 in Deuteronomy, for example. But here's one from DNC I can orient this. Well, this isn't gonna display. Well, I'm sorry, but you can get the point. I give unto them a commandment saying thus, thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind and strength. And in the name 0:57:07 - 0:57:42 of Jesus Christ, thou shalt serve him. Here's the one from Deuteronomy. Again, it's so easy to, oh jeez, sorry. I clicked the wrong button. It's so easy to breeze over these things without really getting what they say. But this one is pretty powerful. I'll leave that up on the screen. Now, what does 0:57:41 - 0:58:06 this mean? Then you remember when Jesus was saying the house divided against itself cannot stand. And he also said many times that we have to be one with him. Um Well, I showed you what it meant to be one with him. But now we're talking about different aspects inside of you. This is in you. It's not 0:58:06 - 0:58:29 between you and God per se. Um That, that's not on the diagram at least yet. So in the previous one, we had the two purposes and they were overlapped. So now we're zooming in to just your purpose. OK. So we could draw your purpose here and then have like an expansion of that. And most people are segmented 0:58:28 - 0:59:08 , they are disjoint because their heart might mind and strength points in all sorts of different directions. What do I mean by that? So what do you think and how you feel and what you do? It's all used at best inconsistently. Um There's this idea of a coherent light, I'm gonna write that out. So coherent 0:59:08 - 0:59:49 light maybe we should do another slide for this coherent light is now light doesn't move in straight lines but waves are really hard to draw in this program. So pretend that these are, well, we're gonna miss a gonna miss dang it. OK? I'm sorry, I have to draw these as curves and that's gonna be a little 0:59:48 - 1:00:42 ugly. Ah That's not that bad. Cool. That actually looks half professional, good enough for government work. OK? So we join these up group just so no one bothers me with the question. I'm just using keynote sponsor. Today's video. There's nobody. All right. Um So it turns out that do do do normal light 1:00:42 - 1:01:15 . Sorry. We're gonna get into some physics. Oh That didn't work normal light. He's in waves and they have a phase. OK? The phase, we're just gonna, we're just gonna make this a simple idea phase like let's say that the way we're gonna do this is we're gonna put it on the midpoint of the wave. OK? And 1:01:15 - 1:01:44 that, that's basically, this is recurring. We didn't draw it. It's gonna get really fluttered. Oh, my gosh. Just back that up, back it up. Is this gonna be worth it? The world will never know. All right. So this will go on forever. And so this thing repeats right here and this is called a period. It's 1:01:43 - 1:02:11 , it's, uh, the procession through one cycle and there's a periodic wave because it repeats. OK. So this is one and then I've chopped them up just to make it a little easier to see. And um a phase is some physicists are gonna say that's not actually right. But just think of phase as a word that helps 1:02:11 - 1:02:34 us put a handle around the idea of where these things are offset to. OK. So normal light is like this, it's going off in all sorts of directions and the, the phase doesn't line up and I haven't shown all the directions I maybe I should. So we can, we can just rotate this. This is gorilla visualization 1:02:33 - 1:03:03 if it cooperates. So we can turn this every which, whoa, let's stay away from that one. All right. Do, do, do OK. We can turn this every which way. And if we wanted to, we could just flat this all over the place. Oops. Oh, come on. Well, you get the point. OK. We could just, we could just mash this and 1:03:03 - 1:03:27 mangle this all over the place. It's just a mess. Well, coherent life. It's interesting because there's two special properties. One everything goes in the same direction. But then the other thing is that all of these things, their phases are aligned and this is just what you see all the time coherent 1:03:26 - 0:00:00 light is a laser. OK. So think about what that means. Let me think of this. It's for Matthew 622. Mm. So single is focused on the same thing fully in sync with God. And what happens is your whole body becomes full of light, right? What does that mean for this? Well, it means that you'd go like this, 0:00:00 - 1:05:45 your whole body becomes full of light. Why? Because you actually have aligned your purpose with God. Now there's another dimension of this which is steal these. Uh We need a new canvas, you know those. Um huh Yeah, let's do it. Why not? Please hold. All right. This wasn't what I was looking for but it'll 1:05:45 - 1:06:47 work. Uh Google images is failing me. All right. This, this isn't what I want, but this will work. All right. Have you seen a meme something like this? OK. So you've got, you know the Hulk here and then this is what this guy actually looks like, which, you know, depending on his age and life circumstances 1:06:46 - 1:07:21 that it could be worse. Um So I was looking for something a little funnier but I guess, well, oh here's, here's a better one coming up, let me grab that one. Uh slow resolution and the screens dimmed. Sorry. But you, you got this guy benching all these plates and then this, this guy looks like he's off 1:07:20 - 1:08:06 the goonies. Um All right. So this is the point the other dimension of alignment is with how you think you are versus what, what God sees. And um I think like before, you know, God is pretty far off. Um Although there, there, you know, there are honest people of all walks of life, there are few. But 1:08:06 - 1:08:31 what happens is, is as you approach Him, you gain light and you see more accurately how you actually are and uh what, what God sees actually doesn't move, sorry, I should have been moving this one. Um And what happens is it goes like this as you, as you repent, you're getting better, but you're also 1:08:30 - 1:09:30 increasing the accuracy of your model of yourself until this happens. They see as they are seen and they know as they are known. So give your heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the king of kings. Um I was gonna do this whole thing, but I think I'm out of time for this, so I'll save this for 1:09:29 - 1:09:45 another time. Um I like this format and I'll probably keep going with the other two um stanzas of this. So I hope that this was useful and uh we'll see you later.