Rush Hour

Who's Who in the Bible - Part 1: Failures, Grace, And Second Chances

• RushChurch • Season 1 • Episode 6

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We open the door to a raw, hope-filled conversation about failure, purpose, and grace—anchored in everyday church life and the stories of Adam and Eve, King David, Peter, and Judas.

This is part one of our“Who’s Who in the Bible” mini-series, using a simple but piercing question to guide us: Do your failures outweigh your purpose?


www.rushchurch.com


SPEAKER_03:

Welcome everyone back to Rush Hour, another episode of the Rush Church podcast. I'm your host, Cody, and I'm here with Britt and Ashley once again. Say hi, guys. Hello. Perfect. Way to go. So we're back with Rush Hour. Uh, we have some things to talk about, some upcoming events at Rush Church, as always. Recap our weekend, see what's new, and then we're gonna start a little mini-series for our podcast. And I'll tell you about that a little bit later.

SPEAKER_00:

But what do we have coming up, guys? Anything? Well, you have an event coming up.

SPEAKER_03:

I do.

SPEAKER_00:

Friendsgiving.

SPEAKER_03:

Friendsgiving. Friendsgiving for all the youth groups of Logan County. So we did this last year. It's on November 16th from 4 to 7. We're inviting all kinds of youth groups to come and join us. We're for food and games and hangout time. And then we're gonna have a time of worship and devotional. So it should be fun. If you know anybody that would like to come, just spread the word. Tell them about Friendsgiving. Yeah, what else do we have?

SPEAKER_01:

And it and to note that if any of your teenagers don't have a youth group, they can come too. Check out some of the youth groups around Long County.

SPEAKER_03:

This is true.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

We want kids to be in some kind of youth group.

SPEAKER_00:

Um last year this was my favorite event.

SPEAKER_03:

This was your favorite event?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It was a really good one.

SPEAKER_00:

I just liked seeing all the teenagers together and the worship was awesome. I don't remember how many we had. It seemed like a lot. I feel like we had 80. Yeah. And your games were really fun. Oh, thank you. They were fun. Uh we played uh guessing the bag, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, we played just like we got corn, cornhole in Nine Square in Canyon, but then I had a game during dinner. Um when everybody kind of finished eating, we had an upfront game where you'd come up and it would be all right, whatever's in this box in front of you, you have one minute to eat as much of it as you can.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It was called chow down.

SPEAKER_00:

It was really fun.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think we had like one was like you opened it up, and it was like a whole loaf of French bread from Walmart. And how much can you eat in a minute? Yeah. And that was kind of dangerous. People um we had sour straws, and these kids would just like shove shower straws in their mouth and stuff. But it was a fun game.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It was messy, but it was good. We might play that again because pretty cool. Put a whole pie in there and see what happens. Anyway, that's Friendsgiving youth ministry stuff. We had a uh youth ministry volunteer training this past weekend at Rush Church. Brittany, you were there. Yes, I was. Served us breakfast and breakfast was great.

SPEAKER_00:

No.

SPEAKER_03:

Thanks to John Watkins.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, he actually cooked breakfast burritos, didn't he? Yeah, he did a really good job.

SPEAKER_03:

He uh made it happen.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we don't have to say that I told him what to do.

SPEAKER_03:

He made it all up.

SPEAKER_00:

He knew exactly what to do.

SPEAKER_03:

But this is the second year we've done training, so it was beneficial for those who were there. We had some people show up that aren't involved in youth ministry, but they um teach teenagers or they work with teenagers in some capacity, and they uh they thought it was pretty pretty beneficial.

SPEAKER_00:

So I like how relaxed it is. I like that there's like time for conversation and discussion.

SPEAKER_03:

That's what it's based on. It's just a couple, it's like videos. Yeah. But you watch them and then you talk about stuff together and you just kind of work through different ideas and strategies, and it's pretty beneficial, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

I liked that.

SPEAKER_03:

So those are some youth ministry things that have been going at Rush Church. What else is coming up?

SPEAKER_00:

Thanksgiving is coming up.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and we have a what? A dinner.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanksgiving dinner. I thought that was a trick question at first. I'm like, Thanksgiving. Duh. But what comes along with Thanksgiving part?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, eating the dinner part. The dinner. I like how you're just like, Thanksgiving's coming up.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's Thanksgiving. What do you want me to say about it? What do you want me to say? No. I know we have two dinners that we serve at the church or two times. One dinner, two times, five and seven. Five and seven. Which the five o'clock is filling up pretty quick. But it's a good time.

SPEAKER_03:

It's relaxing. Lots of leftovers. All you have to do is show up and you just sit around and we hang out, we eat it. But you can't show up.

SPEAKER_01:

You gotta call in for a ticket.

SPEAKER_03:

If you have a ticket, all you have to do is show up and enjoy the evening with rushers.

SPEAKER_00:

And really the ticket is just you telling us that you're coming. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So we get food and prep and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

I like that we do it family style.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that's fun.

SPEAKER_01:

And we can only seat like 200 per time slot. Yeah. I guess in the building that can they all get filled. So that's on the 23rd. It's a good event. Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_01:

So and the next my favorite of the year, I know I say I have a lot of favorites, but I'm pretty sure this is my real favorite, is the women's Christmas tea. Oh, I like that too. Yeah. So that's coming up on December 4th.

SPEAKER_03:

I wouldn't know anything about it.

SPEAKER_01:

6:30. You're not invited. Ladies only, you get to come. But yeah, it's just a great time of and the like the atmosphere is so nice with all the Christmas decorations are up and jazz music is going, and the tables are all decorated by hosts. So everything's a little different on the tables. It's really cool to see people just be creative and just love on the women at their table. And then we have a full display of I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03:

You're trying to talk about your event, and all I can think about is a promo video that I want to make for this event.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh.

SPEAKER_03:

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Well, we can't wait to see it.

SPEAKER_01:

No, so we just have, yeah, it's just a good time. And then our the spread that we usually put out is like a very charcuterie board style. Yeah. Um, last year we added a chocolate fountain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Which a lot of ladies love that. It's really nice because there's no kids to be in the chocolate fountain. So it's like correct. Yeah, so it's like a nice chocolate fountain.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. But speaking of kids, the kids actually we do provide child care for this event and they have their own tea party in the background, in the backyard. So Miss Kelly does that with them, has a craft for them, and then you know, they have their own little tea party. So it's really cute back there too. So if you have need for childcare, don't let that stop you. We can provide that for free. And this is all free event. So yes, we're not trying to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

I like that we get to choose whether we are a host for a table, you know, to you like to decorate, you like to bring a dessert, you know, and or you can just come and add to a table that's already there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I like that we give them that option. And I do like, I think we've talked about it before, like how busy us moms get during the holiday.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And this is a time that we can just actually enjoy it. Yes. Yeah. Like actually just sit and enjoy it. I'm sure Cody works hard at the holidays.

SPEAKER_03:

What about holidays? I love Christmas cookies.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you make the cookies or does somebody make you cookies?

SPEAKER_03:

Normally people just make cookies and they appear at the church and it's just the glory.

SPEAKER_01:

It is women. See, the the people who are busiest from the Christmas season, they're the ones providing that joy for you.

SPEAKER_03:

Why are you so busy?

SPEAKER_00:

Holiday cheer, Cody. Holiday cheer.

SPEAKER_03:

Keep it up. I love holiday cheers.

SPEAKER_01:

So whatever you're doing, just I even think last year's theme was silent night. Just how we needed us when we needed to step back and just remember that it is okay for us to be silent in that time, to not have to always worry about everybody else and making sure that everybody else's Christmas is great, but to just enjoy, you know, why it is we even celebrate Christmas at all.

SPEAKER_00:

So are we telling what the theme is this year? Or are we not?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I will tell you that we have music entertainment by Wes Ramsey. Awesome. So he will be our music entertainer this year. And I don't know if I'm going to reveal the theme yet. He knows and I know. Yeah. There's the only two people who know right now.

SPEAKER_03:

So I'll go ask him and see if he does. Oh, Becky, Becky Ramsey knows too, because I was feeding off of the idea of a themed, you know, something around the Christmas. I don't know. I just like the idea of the Christmas tea and uh a theme and just having a place to come and it sounds nice. Kind of wish that I had a tea. Maybe I'll make my own tea.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. The men could be. If you wanted to be the musical entertainment, Cody, then you could join West.

SPEAKER_03:

Nobody wants that.

SPEAKER_00:

I do have a cowbell. A Christmas cowbell. Less cowbell, please.

SPEAKER_01:

You could wear it. Don't you have a Christmas suit?

SPEAKER_03:

I have a light up Christmas suit.

SPEAKER_01:

So maybe you could just walk around and circle on this little platform.

SPEAKER_03:

I would enjoy that a lot. If I could just like wander around and offer hors d'oeuvres.

SPEAKER_01:

Offer hors d'oeuvres or fill up their cup of tea or water.

SPEAKER_03:

Can I use an accent?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. You now have to use an accent. Now you have to.

SPEAKER_03:

I think if you're coming to the Christmas tea, you have to practice your British accent. Anyone in the channel is cleanies up. Alright, this will be fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Cody's like, yes, I'm in at the women's tea. I get into the tea. Three years now, I've been trying to get to this tea for You're gonna show up and you're gonna see how elaborate and like extravagant like these desserts and food. You're gonna be like, What the heck? Why haven't I been able to go to the tea this whole time?

SPEAKER_03:

Like, no, no, you are serving me.

SPEAKER_00:

Your food's in the kitchen. Dang it.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I'll still have fun. It'll be a good time. So maybe that'll happen.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's why they'll they'll share.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Thanksgiving stuff. Good dinner. We have Christmas tea coming up. I think that's gonna be good. Yeah. I'm excited about John's Christmas series he's gonna do on Sunday mornings for Christmas time.

SPEAKER_01:

Has he revealed that yet?

SPEAKER_03:

I don't think I think he has, but I won't talk about it, but I'm excited about it.

SPEAKER_00:

It should be fun. He's starting at the beginning of December.

SPEAKER_03:

I believe so.

SPEAKER_00:

So take a pause from Romans.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. He's going through that, it's so much. He's going through Romans at a blistering pace. Hard to keep up. What are we in? Verse 5?

SPEAKER_00:

No. I think we made it to chapter 3. Oh, wow. Alright. I think. Barely. I don't remember how many weeks we've been doing it to know.

SPEAKER_03:

Romans is good and he's doing a good job. So.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but it is a lot of information. It's a lot of information. Like pen and pencil or pen and paper ready.

SPEAKER_03:

Take notes and then you have to do a little bit on your own. You have to kind of dig in a little bit deeper.

SPEAKER_01:

And this past Sunday, he quoted the very same thing that changed my life like several months ago. Talking about how we are saved who struggle with sin. Yes. So we are no longer sinners, which is what was in my mind forever. But we actually saved. Yeah. You know, we are saved people once we accept Christ and who struggle with sin. Yeah. Total mind blow. And when I heard it again, I'm like, yes, there it is.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you all hear that?

SPEAKER_02:

I love it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I know. That's pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_03:

Certain things you just hear and they just stick it with you. You're like, changes it. There's a few times it happens in life where you hear something and it changes everything. You know, it just changes your whole perspective on something. My youth bench professor used to call it aha moments. Like, aha. The light bulb clicks and it all just falls into place, and you're like, that makes sense. I love when that happens. You can see that when I do teach students sometimes where the light bulb comes on, finally, like, oh that's what you've been saying for six years.

unknown:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

Why did it take you this long?

SPEAKER_03:

My favorites when I take kids to conferences or take them to camp, and a guy gets up and talks about some of the same things I've been talking about for months, and they're like, Wow, this is great.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, it is it is great. Yes. I'm so happy that you heard it.

SPEAKER_01:

Teenagers, we tell them our teenagers, we do it forever. And then they go to you and you tell them, like, oh well, Cody said this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. See, you're living our life.

SPEAKER_03:

That's it's all it's it's always somebody else. Yeah. Just move it on. It's a cycle of but so that's a lot of stuff that's going on at Rush. Hope you can join us for some of it, be involved. There's always something going on. So so yeah, I wanted to start a well, we thought about what to talk about in this episode, and Ashley mentioned something about maybe your favorite Bible character, talk about that, and that sparked a kind of a mini idea in my head of we could just do like a three or four-part series on the podcast, and we can call it Who's Who in the Bible, and we can talk about different characters, we can talk about different people in the Bible, and just kind of dive into some of their stories and pull out different aspects of people from the Bible and how it applies to us today. So we have a few of them that I want to do, talk about like dynamic duos, maybe some unsung heroes in the Bible, lesser-known characters, and kind of talk about those. So, but this first one we're gonna do today, we decided to go with kind of where it all started. We're gonna talk about Adam and Eve in the garden a little bit, and then we're gonna move on to a couple other characters in the Bible about failure, about how does God see our failures? What was the question we wanted to ask, Brittany?

SPEAKER_00:

Do you ever feel like a f like your failures outweigh your purpose? Or that your failures are too much to overcome.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So as being humans, like sinful in nature, we all have a tendency to want to rebel against what God wants for us. So in some way we always end up failing, or we have failed in the past. And so I think everybody can relate to that about making a mistake, maybe not living up to we what we know God's standard to be. So I just kind of wanted to I address the idea of what do we do when we do fail? What do we do when we do what do we do when we make mistakes, when we mess up? Because we live in a broken world, we live in a messy world, and so you guys ever can you relate to that? Messing up, making mistakes? Nope. Ashley's answer is wide open right now. She's like, yep.

SPEAKER_00:

There's a majority of I I actually think I know of more failures than successes. So I've all the time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we tend to focus on our failures a lot too, sometimes. Yeah. Of like, well, this is what I did or what I've done, and it's not ever left, and it kind of drives where my life is going. And we're gonna look at I just want to go back to the very first failure in human history of in the garden, Adam and Eve. Well, how would you describe that story? Brittany, you want to retell the story of Adam and Eve?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, Brittany, please do.

SPEAKER_03:

One of my favorite things about Britney is when she tells stories, especially Bible stories.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, okay, okay. So here we we're here. We're in the garden. There you go. God's made some people, God's made Adam. Yeah. Adam's bored.

unknown:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

He's lonely. He's like, I could really use a friend. He's like, how about a woman? He's like, that's a great friend. It's wonderful. Eve gets a little distracted by a serpent in a tree. And she thinks it's a good idea to gain some knowledge. Okay. And this fruit, which is most definitely an apple. No, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm just saying 100% was an apple.

SPEAKER_00:

That is biblical fact.

SPEAKER_03:

What do you think the fruit was? Not really.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

Do you have any ideas about the like when you picture it? Do you just picture an apple?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, that's what cartoon books have told me my entire life. Right. So but it's hard to picture something else. I like to think that it's like some exotic fruit that we don't even have anymore. Dragon fruit. Oh, yeah. I mean, I've never picked up a dragon fruit and opened it and ate it. So it could be. But something that's like was special, specially created for the garden. I always think of a kiwi. But what? I'm only laughing because like she didn't take a bite of a kiwi. Right. Isn't it like fuzzy? Yeah. Don't eat the eye. Oh my god. I said, don't eat that. It's fuzzy on the house. Don't eat that. You need to peel it, obviously.

unknown:

All right.

SPEAKER_03:

That was a little bit of a joke and a sidetrack. I always like to see what people picture when they think of the fruit in the garden. But most definitely a kiwi.

SPEAKER_00:

Most definitely an apple. No.

SPEAKER_03:

A dragon fruit. So we have Adam and Eve. They're in the garden. God's this is your place. I made this for you. I want I he put them in charge of this place. He said I want you to, you know, take care of it, work the garden, protect it, be here, take care of it. And you can do anything. You can you can eat whatever you want, do whatever you want, but don't go to this tree. Don't eat that fruit. Probably because it's furry, like a key wing. But he says, Don't do that. We don't have any peelers. I don't need peelers. And so, but one day, Eve's in the garden, and she's tempted, she's deceived a little bit, and the whole thing starts to fall apart right there. She takes it, she eats it, she gives some to Adam, and Adam should have probably told her, No, we can't do that. But he didn't.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, he's supposed to be in charge. He's supposed to be in charge.

SPEAKER_03:

But instead of the case, God gave him the command of don't eat from this tree. And so apparently he did do a good job of passing it down to Eve to tell her not to eat from this tree. But she did get there's a serpent, and he she was deceived. And so they take, they eat, and then immediately they realize this was a terrible plan. They run, they hide, they realize they're naked, they're full of shame, they're full of guilt, they're full of this realization that we have to hide from God now because we've done something that we weren't supposed to do. And so there's the first failure, which leads to the rest of the failures, in my opinion. And it all comes down to this root of Adam and Eve wanted to be their own rulers. They wanted to be God themselves. They wanted to make their own rules, they wanted to do whatever they wanted to do, and so they took and ate, and God shows up and he's like, What have you done?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, what have you guys done doing?

SPEAKER_03:

I I had a I had a plan, and but you guys wanted to do it your way, and so he had to kick them out of the garden. They were exiled, and so I just wanted to start there to get the picture of human failure, how we've rebelled against God from the very beginning, wanting to be our own rulers, wanting to be our own. And I think all sin comes from pride and selfishness eventually. Um that's where I see sin as us wanting to rule our own lives, wanting to do what we want to do, and that comes from pride and selfishness. And so we're gonna talk about a few characters in scripture that I wanted to just mention. When I think of failures in the Bible, I think one of my favorite characters from the Old Testament, I think of King David. And it's like a he did really good things. He's probably Israel's greatest king ever, and he defeated Goliath. He was king of Israel, he did good things, and then we see his biggest failure right there in the Bible for us to read and talk about, where he, you know, commits adultery with somebody else's wife, and then has her husband killed eventually. I'm talking about Bathsheba and Uriah, that story. And so for him, he did a lot of good things, but he also made a huge mistake and a huge failed in a huge way. And the thing about David was he was the story starts with him on the rooftops, and everybody had gone to war, Israel had gone out to fight battles and stuff. And it says it's the springtime when kings normally go out and fight their battles and fight the war or fight in a battle somewhere, and we see David as king not out doing what he's supposed to be doing, or what he typically should have been doing. Instead, he's relaxing on his roof and he gets distracted by Bathsheba, and he abuses his power as king, and he makes a huge failure. And so I see that. I'm like, how did this man after God's own heart get to this point? And so any thoughts on David, you guys, that story? What comes to your mind thinking of David's failure?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean he also like as good as he was, didn't it take him a while to repent? I mean, it's not like he instantly was like, I just did something wrong.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

At first he at first he didn't think that he had even done anything wrong. And then his sir everyone that listens to this podcast was gonna be like, Brittany's learning scripture Because I'm like, okay, hold on, this is a story. Like his servant comes to him, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, Nathan comes to him. Okay, and he tells them a story. You know, David, there's this let me tell you a story real quick. You know, and he tells them a story about a farmer, a guy that comes and well, let me pull it up real quick so we can just look at it.

SPEAKER_00:

That would probably be but yeah, I remember thinking like that he didn't he didn't know even right away. Like a lot of times when I have failures in my life, like if I were to get frustrated at somebody in traffic or something, instantly I'm going, Oh, I shouldn't have done that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And this is like kind of a big deal. And he didn't even realize that he was doing something wrong right about right away.

SPEAKER_03:

And I think that's part of the story where David's just going about what he wants to do and he comes overtaken with this selfish desires. And he realizes when Bathsheba is pregnant, he tries to trick your ride into coming back and being with his wife, and Uriah's like, no, no, I can't. I gotta my people are out there fighting. I gotta I'll sleep outside before I go enjoy the comforts of home while my fellow soldiers are out at battle. And David's like, dang it. So he gets him drunk and tries to like, okay, now he's like, no, he still didn't do it. And then David realizes he does something bad. Realize that David knows this is not right, so he's trying to cover it up and with more stuff and with more bad things. Send Uriah to the front lines, he tells his general, and Uriah goes to battle, and the general sends him to the front lines to make sure that he dies in battle. And that's what happens. And Uriah dies in battle, and then David takes Bathsheba as his wife. They have, you know, and it's like, well, that's pretty bad. That's not the right thing to do. So he tries to cover it up. But it in 2 Samuel chapter 12, let me just tell you the story that Nathan says. The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, There are two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ew lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children, shared his food, it drank from his cup, even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveller who had come to him. Instead, he took the ew lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the traveler that had come to him. In verse five, David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die. He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity. And Nathan's like, You were that guy, David. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. I anointed you king of Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul, I gave you all these different things. And he goes on and tells him like this, and he says, Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite, you killed him, and now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you despise me and took the wife of Uriah Hittite to be your own. So God sends this message through Nathan, and Nathan tells him a story, and David gets really mad. He's like, How dare that guy take that guy's lamb? Didn't even belong to him. That guy deserves to die. And then God's like, That's you, David. You did that same thing by taking Bathsheba as your wife did not belong to you, it was not yours. And so now there's gonna be consequences to that. And there's gonna be consequences sometimes in our failures, we have consequences. But that doesn't mean God's unforgiving or God doesn't love us anymore in our failures. It just means we have to deal with the things that come up. Jesus forgives us, God loves us, and he says that same thing to David. And David in verse 13 says, I have sinned against the Lord, and he recognizes his sin, he sees it. And then in Psalm 51, David writes about this incident, a song or a poem, and he talks about how he regrets and he repents of his sin and he he recognizes the weight of this, and he's like, Please have mercy on me, and God, and so that's one way to respond when we fail. David responded when he actually understood what was happening, then the sin is prevent presented in front of him of like you messed up, you made this huge failure. But how he responded was in what repentance of yeah, I made a mistake and I am asking God to forgive me, basically in Psalm 51, if you go read that. But any other thoughts on that whole thing with David? Would you have written down, Ashley, anything about David?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I just I hit the redemption part mainly was that he the main thing that stuck out was that he repented and God still called him.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. A man after his own heart. Yeah. So I just kind of was like focusing on But it didn't take away his purpose. Right. He first repented, you know. When I do wrong, the first thing I need to do is I need to repent. And I think that God values repentance and humility over perfection. Like we're never gonna Oh, definitely.

SPEAKER_03:

But sometimes we put a lot of weight on our actions, we put a lot of weight on our deeds and thinking that we're gonna impress God with our things. And and God's much more concerned about our honesty and our humility and and being willing to say, I was wrong, I need to do better, and then working to do better. And so the redemption part of David is that he still is called a man after God's own heart, right? Even with this story in his in his story, you know, even with this failure, even with this broken, messy thing that he made. And the thing is with David is that this never goes away. His family is there's consequences for his actions, and bad things happen in his family as the story continues. But it doesn't take away. God still uses him and God still calls him to be better as he moves forward. And so in our failures, we can't just can't let your failure define who you are the rest of your life. David could have been like, I am awful person. I did this thing, and now I'm and he could have gave up, I guess. He could have you know let that lead him down a different path or whatever.

SPEAKER_01:

But that that phrase that we hear often that God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the calls. Yeah. That's that makes me think of David a lot.

SPEAKER_03:

I like that too. Anything else on David? It's a story of failure, yeah, huge mistake, and then redemption when he calls out to God and says, you know, I did do this. I repent, I I, you know, deserve to be I deserve what's coming, I guess you could say. So that's the first example I think of when I think of people that failed in the Bible. And David's like the guy in the Old Testament. He's like the man after God's own heart, he's the greatest king Israel ever had. He he did all these awesome things, but then you have this story of, you know, his selfish desires got in the way and he messed up, and then his family pays the price as you go forward, and he has consequences to deal with, but God still uses him, and God still is on his side. God still says, I'm here. The idea of grace and mercy is found in the old testament in those kind of stories too. The next person, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I was gonna say you want to switch to New Testament.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I was gonna say we'll move to the New Testament and find a guy or a girl in the New Testament who's a failure. Anybody?

SPEAKER_00:

I think Peter.

SPEAKER_03:

Peter?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, he's a good guy.

SPEAKER_00:

He is a good guy.

SPEAKER_03:

How did he fail?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh he failed in a couple different ways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Everybody three times.

SPEAKER_00:

Well that was the big fail. That was the big fail. Before that, he fails a couple times, but definitely denying Christ.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And Peter, his story is really cool. He's always trying to defend Jesus the whole time, even when it's wrong. Even when he cuts the soldier's ear off, trying to keep Jesus from getting arrested. And Jesus likes, hey, what are you doing? He heals the guy's ear. He's like, Peter.

SPEAKER_00:

I know. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Like, you're gonna I mean, think of how passionately how that moment had to be so intense and to get so mad that you cut somebody's ear off. And the look that Jesus had to give him, like, dude, come on, pick up the ear, heal it.

SPEAKER_03:

Like Peter loves Jesus, and he's like, I'm gonna, I'm here to protect you. I'm here to I believe you are who you say you are, and I am not gonna let anything happen to you. I don't know. Like, and so he he is passionately he loves Jesus and he he wants to be where he is, and so. So even when Jesus says, I gotta go to Jerusalem and I gotta die, Peter's like, Yeah no, I'm not gonna let that happen. That will not happen. Hey, get behind me, he says. Yeah. He's like, this has to happen. And so Peter is passionate about this. And Peter, you know, we see Peter standing up for Jesus throughout the Gospels, and he's always there, and he's he's one of the inner disciples, and he goes up and sees them transfiguration on the mountain, and he goes with Jesus up on the mountain there. And then we get to the point where Jesus finally gets arrested and and people start scattering. And it records that Peter is out in the town and the marketplaces, and people start recognizing him. Aren't you aren't you one of Jesus' disciples? Aren't you that guy that follows Jesus around? He's like, Nope, not me. I don't know what you're talking about. And that happens again, and then happens a third time, and Peter gets really mad, and he's like, It's not me. Leave me alone. I don't even know that guy.

SPEAKER_02:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03:

And to get to that point, after we see Peter so passionate about who Jesus is, walk on the water with Jesus, followed him around, saw the transfiguration. And you get this point, and Peter realizes it when, you know, the rooster crows the third time, like Jesus told him this was gonna happen, he finally realized, like, oh my gosh, what have I done? To feel that regret, to feel that kind of failure of I just denied this guy that I've I I do believe in, I do trust, and I've followed for a little over three years to the feelings he had to feel must have been crushing. You ever feel like you let somebody down?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Never you guys. Oh no, um, I can't imagine what he was feeling in that moment. I mean he's human. You know, it probably was really scary. And just this traumatic event and not knowing what was gonna happen, and then to make such a mistake and the instant heartache.

SPEAKER_02:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

And then never being able like from that point, how long until you could actually speak to Jesus?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, yeah, he doesn't this is it. That's he does that, and then the next, you know, the next day Jesus is crucified.

SPEAKER_00:

Like then imagine, oh my I haven't even apologized to him. I haven't even I haven't said anything to him, I can't take it back. That would be overwhelming.

SPEAKER_03:

Do we ever feel like we let Jesus down in our lives as Christians? You ever feel like, you know, I mean, it's a hard question, but Peter did in that moment and what he was feeling, and so I've kind of felt that in my life where I've like, you know, feel like I've not doing the best that I can for Christ and his kingdom. And so, and not to this extent of like Peter in this moment, but like a little bit, and like you feel like, am I doing well, what am I doing here? You know? Yeah. And so uh I think we've all experienced that as Christians of feeling like we're failing in the moment where we just we had an opportunity to tell somebody about Jesus and we missed it. You ever had one of those moments? Oh where like all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, not all the time every day. No. No, but there are there are moments where that that happens. And the funniest thing you just brought that, I had that moment yesterday, but I grabbed it. Oh, yes, and so uh okay, quick quick side note. Sorry, story. Sorry. Okay, so I was gonna order Subway for dinner last night. Okay, I was gonna order on the app, okay, because it's easier to order on the app and then just Subway has an app? Yeah, everybody has an app, I guess. I guess that's fine. Anyways, there was a long night, Darren's out of town, so I just had to get dinner. So for everybody. And anyway, so I'm like, I'm just gonna go in. I'm just gonna run in and get and get it. And I had my shirt on that said, but first let me thank God, you know, because we're in the thankful season now, so I wanted to wear that. And I walk in, and the kid behind the counter, I mean, he's gotta be 18 or 19 years old. He's like, you know, a lot of people don't wear stuff like that, you know, boldly. And I was like thinking, a lot of people don't say that to me. So I I was thinking, I was thinking, okay, this is sparking something. And then he goes, Can I ask you, how often do you go to church? And I said, Well, every Sunday, because I'm a kids minister. And we just got to talking, and he's like, I just feel like I don't ever get to go because I'm always working, and you know, so I kind of gave him some pointers on, you know, how to be able to get to church at some point, you know, but also explaining church is the building, you know, what you your belief is what's gonna ultimately get you to heaven. I said, But we would love to have you at Rush Church, and it just kept sparking like question after question after question. Yeah, and it was like, and the coworkers just staring at him wide-eyed the whole time. And I'm just I mean, it's it's free, it's it's you know, I'm like, come to Rush Church. I mean, God loves you. Like it's it was I was just so I loved it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

But sometimes those moments come and you don't respond, or they say something, you're like, Oh, thanks, it's my shirt. And then you could have just left. I could have just been like, thanks for the compliment. Yeah, but you didn't, and you got to have that cool conversation. You get to you get to or use the app so or use it.

SPEAKER_01:

Or use the app me. I couldn't use the app, but I didn't. I went inside, so I'm like, man, but no, I have failed to be able to do that. Moral story at don't use apps. I have failed at those, you know, those things, yeah, especially like checkout lines. Those people seem grumpy, and I just want to tell them God loves them, and I don't, you know.

SPEAKER_03:

Grumpy people in the line. I know.

SPEAKER_00:

But like I'm just thinking of somebody being like really angry in the line, and you're like, Jesus loves you, and they're like, I mean, they'll probably be like, Thanks. No, they're not grumpy.

SPEAKER_03:

But yeah, that's a whole nother conversation, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

But the idea of sometimes we do fail, sometimes we do miss opportunities to talk about Jesus to people when we really could, or we could have cool conversations like that, and we for whatever there's millions millions of reasons that we do. We're busy or we just didn't but the idea of somebody else will do it. Yeah. These little failures that we have. And Peter has this was the this was huge. He could have had an opportunity to have a conversation like that, but he chose three times in a row to be like, no, and that's his maybe it's understandable because it's really scary. Jesus was just arrested, there's a lot of things happening, and so I don't want to put like, geez, Peter, what are you doing? Because I probably could have done the same thing, who knows? But we do fail sometimes, we do mess up, and then Peter gets the opportunity to talk to Jesus when he comes out of the tomb, and he's here for 40 days before he ascends. And one of my favorite scenes in the New Testament is John 20, I think. I just said it's one of the I'm like, it has to be remembered.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I know which one you're talking about.

SPEAKER_03:

It's either John 20 or 21, but it's where Jesus has he's on the beach, and then disciples are in their boat and they're pulling up and they're like, What's going on over there on the beach? And it's Jesus, and he's got a fire going, he's making breakfast, and he gets to have this it's John 21, actually. That's what it is. But anyway, Jesus is on the beach, he's having breakfast. Nope, it's 20. Where is it?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm like, and they run to him, right? Or they're they get to him as fast as possible. Is that what happens?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Jesus and Peter, here we go. It's in John 21. And they'd finished, they had breakfast and stuff like that, and they they it's just a really cool story. They find Jesus, and then Peter gets to have this conversation finally. Jesus shows up, and imagine you're Peter, and Jesus is cooking breakfast by this fire on the beach, and you have this this is the you know, you get to have a conversation with him finally. You sit down, he's across from you in the fire, and the last thing you did when he was alive was deny him three times and say that you didn't even know him who he was. He says when they had finished breakfast, Jesus says to Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And then he said to him, Feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And Jesus said, Feed my sheep. Truly, truly I say to you, Peter, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted to go, but when you're old, you'll stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you don't want to go. Then he said, This was this was said to show him what kind of death he was going to have to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, Follow me. And so they have this conversation, and Jesus could have chose anything to say to Peter. And he goes three times. He asks him if he loves him. And it's not a coincidence, they asked him three times. And another cool part about the story is when Peter, in one of the gospels, Peter's when he denies Jesus three times, it talks about how he was standing around this these coals of fire, and the people were around, and he was standing around these coals, and the same phrase is used here in John 21 of the coals of the fire for the breakfast that they were using. So he's around the same place, and Jesus is here with him and had had to send him back to that moment in his brain. He's like, Oh no, he knows. And Jesus is like, I don't care about that. You want to keep moving forward. You go feed my feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed the church, take care of my people. I'm gonna need you. And Peter was crucial in the start of the church, the early church, and the movement. And so even though Peter failed, even though Peter didn't live up to what he could have been in that moment when he denied Christ, Jesus comes back to him and kind of re-establishes him and says, You're you're fine. It's gonna be okay. I'm here. You just gotta keep moving forward and don't worry about that. And so, yeah, our sins are a big deal, our f failures are big deals in the moment, but we can't let them trap us and keep us from doing the things that God still wants us to do. God's not ignorant of what we do. He knows that we're gonna fail, he knows that we're gonna mess up, and he's like, I know you're gonna do that. I still have things for you to do. And this is the story of Peter and and and David. They both kind of take hold of that idea of failing but moving forward and repenting and being redeemed and stuff like that. What do you think about anything else about Peter?

SPEAKER_00:

Redeemed that you have well, maybe about Peter, but also like it I'm not exactly sure how to word it, but I think you know, Peter being really scared at the time, but Peter didn't have or hadn't met the resurrected Christ. He hadn't met the resurrected Jesus that we know and have experienced. So I just feel like yes, he's a human, but there had to be more I I mean, I think it had to happen the way that it happened, you know, so then that way we have that, but I don't know, I just think that had to be a lot harder. It was hard to not know and then to know. And I just kind of put myself in that situation and just think, how would I would I be any different? Oh no, well, you know what I mean? Like it's easy now to say, Oh my gosh, I can't believe that he just stood there. And he said, No.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. We read the gospels and we're like, those disciples, they're so silly. Why can't they just have faith and believe? It's it's right, he's right there.

SPEAKER_00:

Jesus is like, I'm going to die. They're like, You're not gonna die. No, we got you. Yeah, it's okay.

SPEAKER_03:

He's like, No, seriously. In their heads, they're still like, He's gonna be the king. He's gonna get rid of the Romans, and we're gonna that's why they ask him, when you come into your kingdom, which one is this gonna be on your right hand side and your left side? And Jesus is like, that's not what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00:

Reading the gospels definitely is like, and the correction that the disciples have to go through makes me feel a little better about my failures. It does I mean, this you think about before you've I don't know if you guys can remember before you read the Bible, but before you read the Bible, you think, oh, this is like this nice fluffy book, and yeah, you know, it's Jesus' story. Yes, and then you start reading and you're like, wow, that guy screwed up. Oh, that guy really screwed up. And then you realize that they're humans, yeah, just like us, and it's all on whether they've repented or not, like what you said.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It's you're gonna fail, you're gonna mess up, you're gonna make mistakes. It's how we respond. And there was a big failure. We'll mention real quick at the end of this episode. His name was Judas and Judas, and he was one of the disciples, right? Then what did he do?

SPEAKER_01:

He betrayed.

SPEAKER_03:

He betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, he turned to men, got him arrested, and like, see, it that's a failure.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a failure, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um the ironic thing about Judas is if he would have been like David or he'd have been like Peter and repented and waited for Jesus to show up, Judas's story could have been uh huge. Could you imagine if Judas was in acts and he got to be like, I turned him in. I got money for his death, and he still loves me. Right. And he still died for me, and he still that could have been uh it could have been huge, but he didn't. He chose to not hang in there and wait for Christ. He chose a path that led to his destruction, and he didn't see you know, see what he could have been. He let failure consume him, he let his mistakes become his identity of who he was, and he he didn't go to Jesus, he didn't go to God with that.

SPEAKER_00:

He didn't No, he went to himself.

SPEAKER_03:

He went to himself, and so you you look at that, and it's just I was thinking about that this morning as we were getting ready to this episode. I was like, Judas's story could have been huge, it could have been amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

I I know, I always feel bad for Judas. I really I know that it sounds like but I do feel bad for him because I'm just thinking, like, yeah, you messed up, but you were so close. Right. I mean God's grace is so much bigger than your label. Right. And it wasn't that much longer. I mean, days, an hour? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

You see Peter hanging there. He could have left, he could have abandoned disciples, he could have not come back, he could have been like, oh, this is I've denied Jesus. I kind of did this. So we get uh story after story of people in the Bible, but you see people that do repent, they do come to Jesus, they do they hang in there, and and there's grace and there's love and there's stuff waiting, and then yeah, people just turn to themselves, like Judas, and he's like, He even tried to make amends for yourself, he took it back, and it says he was remorsed, but it didn't say he repented. Yeah. He felt bad for what he did, but it never clicked of you know, about going back to God. It was always about him, it was always about and so I just think that's the story of failures and redemption in the Bible. You either hang in there through your failures and realize that there's grace and there's love that Christ offers us, or you try to do it yourself and doesn't work that way.

SPEAKER_01:

And don't aim for perfection. Like we're not, you know, we're gonna fail, but we're never gonna reach that perfection. Like we're we're never gonna be oh, how does John word it? We're in the process of or we are sanctified, correct? We're in the process. Cody, give us John's words.

SPEAKER_03:

We're becoming sanctified.

SPEAKER_01:

Or we're justified. So we're currently justified, we are going through sanctification. Justified because of it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03:

Because of Jesus, the only reason we're justified is because of Jesus. We don't do anything on our own. Right. And we're becoming sanctified as we go. That's what this whole life is for, is to, you know, prepare us to make us more like Christ, to prepare us for the new heaven, new earth world to live in, which is yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And if you are currently in that stage of feeling like a failure, I I I want to encourage you. Failure is a setup for growth. You take your failures and you wipe them off and get up and come the other way.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I think about how many things that I failed at. And my mom was always so good. She's like, I can see you're failing. Have you prayed? And you know, at myself, I'd be like, I'm screwing this up, fine. You know, prayer, okay, fine, you know, and then I'd pray about it and it would change so many things in my life. And I think about how many things that I was truly upset about that I failed at. You know, I felt like so much like a failure that I didn't accomplish this goal. And all of them that I failed at slowly left my life, and then now my life is what it is now. And I'm like, man, if I would have actually succeeded, I would have turned right back there or turned left back there and never been on the path that I was supposed to be on. So that's kind of cool to sit back and look at.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, sometimes I think my like a specific failure, I may have thought was, man, that was a failure, but really that was God taking me out of a situation that he put me in.

SPEAKER_00:

And the only way I'd know that is through prayer or you know, waiting.

SPEAKER_03:

So the point of this was to say the Bible is full of people that were failures and and screw-ups and they make mistakes and they mess up. And it's about how you respond to those. You either respond with those of going looking to yourself to fix them, or you go outside of yourself and you say, I can't fix these things, only Jesus can. And so I'd say when you struggle with the idea of maybe you failed or you have made mistakes, you get messed up, don't try to fix them on your own. There's no fixing it. It's just Jesus, the one that heals and fixes and washes away our failures. And so it's how we respond to them, it's how we deal with them that determines what's next. And so I think we see that a lot. And there's we just picked a few people, but you can go look at anybody in the Bible, really. That's not Jesus.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, anybody but Jesus.

SPEAKER_03:

But yeah, and that's why he came. He came and he lived the life that nobody could. No human before him or after him was ever gonna live, and he showed us, you know, this is what it can be like if you follow and trust me, even in your wilderness and your mistakes and your failures. So I think that was good. Next time we'll do some like unsung heroes of the Bible, I think, some lesser-known characters, maybe ones you haven't even heard of before, but ones that we don't talk about a lot, and see how we can apply that to our lives today, or just just for our knowledge, or just to get to know the Bible better. So any plans this weekend?

SPEAKER_01:

Ooh, I'm going to family weekend at Grace College.

SPEAKER_03:

Family weekend at Grace. Is that in Indiana?

SPEAKER_01:

It is, yeah. It's I get to see Hannah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you should be.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh other than that, Indiana's the worst. It's my least favorite state. He probably could have ended this episode before I started bashing on Indiana.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Grace College is in Indiana, so I'll give him that.

SPEAKER_03:

Gotcha. Brittany, what are you doing? Not going to Indiana?

SPEAKER_00:

No.

SPEAKER_03:

Good.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know that I'm doing anything. We got some basketball games. French toast for breakfast on Sunday.

SPEAKER_03:

French toast for breakfast.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, wait, this will go before.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So Friday. Oh, yeah, it will be. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01:

You're in charge. French. French toast. French toast. That was not French.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know what that was, but it wasn't French.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyways, it's pretty good. Ashley loves it. Oh, I love French toast.

SPEAKER_03:

Schmalsen and Frostel.

SPEAKER_00:

You better click that button.

SPEAKER_03:

Thanks for listening to Rush Hour once again. And hope you join us next time, even despite all the stuff we just ended with. But have a good week, and we'll see you next time.