Rush Hour
RushHour helps RushChurch members stay connected to each other, informs them about current RushChurch happenings, and also includes bible study/theology talk. We will speak about RushChurch specifics but also on current events, tough questions on faith, church and the Bible
Rush Hour
God's Character- Part 5: Loyal Love And Faithfulness
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We wrap our Exodus 34:6–7 series by digging into God’s loyal love and faithfulness, showing how these traits mean more than emotion or optimism. We trace how God keeps showing up through Israel’s failure and through Jesus’ restoration of Peter, then ask what it looks like to return to God when we’ve blown it.
• Rush Church updates on Color War, TCTC signups and Rush Run support
• Tailgates, homecoming events and a call for volunteers
• Jokes, coffee tour plans and the “craziest coffee” debate
• Loyal love as covenant commitment that keeps showing up
• Faithfulness as stability you can lean your weight on
• Israel’s repeated rebellion contrasted with God’s enduring promise
• Jesus restoring Peter after denial as loyal love in action
• God’s love stronger than our worst moment, with a challenge to seek him back out
• Recommendation to go deeper with BibleProject resources
www.rushchurch.com
Welcome And Series Setup
SPEAKER_00Welcome everybody to another episode of Rush Hour Podcast. We're back. It's me and it's Brittany and it's Ashley. And we're here to. What are we here to do?
SPEAKER_04Bring a lot to the table.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're bringing it all. Okay.
Student Ministry Events And Signups
SPEAKER_00So we we have some quick announcements to get to from Rush Church, things that are going on, things we're looking forward to. And then we'll get into our episode. This will be the last episode on the characteristics of God from the Bible project. We've been focusing on Exodus 34, 6 through 7 the last few weeks. We're going to finish that up today with the last two characteristics combined, put them together, and wrap this series up. But before we get to that, talk about what's going on at Rush Church. A lot of things. This is a busy time for student ministry. Fall's always kind of a busy time. We have Color War coming up on the 20th. We got all the paint and everything ready for that. Usually we have about 30 to 35 students show up for paint wars. It's fun. It's 5 to 7:30, 7th through 12th grade. That'll be the Sunday, the 20th. So I'm going to put that on your calendars. You guys want to come? Throw color at each other?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I invited the boys' soccer team. Like, hey, you should be able to do that. You should come throw paint at each other.
SPEAKER_00It's always a good time. We did paint two years ago. We did powder last year and they decided they like the paint better. So we're going back to the paint. Doesn't bother me. I don't care. But we have TCTC signups out right now for 7th through 12th graders. It's our Tennessee Christian teen convention conference in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, January 8th through the 10th. We start signing up now. It's $2.50 per person. That covers your two meals, the bus and the hotel, and the ticket for TCTC. So really that's pretty good. It's as cheap as I can get it these days because everything is expensive. But sign up for that at the welcome desk. If you'd like more information, I can get that to you. Cody C at rushchurch.com. That's my email. But and then we have there's one more thing I wanted to talk about, but I don't remember what it was. Sorry about that.
SPEAKER_04Rush Run.
SPEAKER_00Rush Run. That's it. The race. Nice. Yeah. You want to run in the 5K? You don't have to run, but we support you can support us, support the students through that. Uh if you want to donate anything, or if you have a business you'd like to have, we can make you a sponsor of the race, but that's on October 24th in the morning. We've been doing that for years. I don't know how long. I don't know when they started doing the restaurant 5K before I got here. But I've we've done it every year since then. So it's a good one. And that'll support, help us pay for our trip. And if we get a lot of money from the race, then we can lower the cost of TCTC. So that'd be nice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Those are some upcoming things in the student ministry world. What about what about the children's anything going on for the
Tailgates Homecoming And Volunteers
SPEAKER_00kids?
SPEAKER_04No, not too much. We had everybody move up to their new classes.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So we did it also just have Fifth Sunday. The next one will be in November. But yeah, kids' ministry is going great, going strong. We had when I had Fifth Sunday, I had uh 46 kids on my own.
SPEAKER_00How were they?
SPEAKER_04Wow. They were good. They're very well behaved. You love kids. That's good. John was like, Do you think you need help? I'm like, no, I got this.
SPEAKER_00Well, one of the ideas of Fifth Sunday is to give your teachers a break and volunteers in the backyard, kind of a Sunday off. So Fifth Sunday, need you guys to come back in. Actually, I need to crazy back here. You know how crazy? They're like, we know, and we're not here. Sorry.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, it's it's a blast.
SPEAKER_00I love we have Ben Logan football. We do tailgates for that. We just did root beer floats last week. Went over pretty well. We used a lot of ice cream in root beer.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we did.
SPEAKER_00Give about 120 root beer floats, probably, so pretty good. Good. And we're gonna do some more. This Friday is away game, but the 18th is the next home game. So if you're around and want to come see us before the game, we'll be out and we're going to give out ice coffee, right?
SPEAKER_04Yes. We're gonna try to redeem ourselves.
SPEAKER_00Last time we tried to do ice coffee, last year did not go well. But we talked about that on the podcast a long time ago. It's been a year.
SPEAKER_04It has been a year. Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Huh. Look at us.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Anyway.
SPEAKER_04So we will not put a sour taste in your mouth this time with the iced coffee. Literally. Literally. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It was it was a good plan.
SPEAKER_04It was really good the day before. We know when we ate it.
SPEAKER_00It wasn't good when we gave it out, though. So we're gonna redeem ourselves.
SPEAKER_04We know what we did wrong. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Well, hopefully, because we're gonna do it again. We better get it right. Yeah, yeah. People in the world.
SPEAKER_04We're gonna go back to our original way, which was very good. All right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So get some iced coffee. They'll still be warm next Friday night before the game. Come see us. Let's see.
SPEAKER_04Oh, we have homecoming coming up too, which we have yes, we have a homecoming tailgate. But what's really cool is this year Ben Logan chose Russellvania to be in the town. Um that'll be Wednesday right before homecoming. I think that's 23rd.
SPEAKER_0023rd. It'll have a big parade.
SPEAKER_04Yep. So they're gonna have a parade down in downtown Russellvania. They'll end at the park with a huge bonfire.
SPEAKER_00So Rush 18. You'll have to have a bonfire at the park.
SPEAKER_04Well, the mayor okayed it. Dang. So, and they're gonna have the fire truck there. But yeah, Rush 18 will be out there. This is huge. This is in front of the entire Ben Logan district. Um, yeah, more than just the football game. Like we try. I mean, this is something that is awesome that we have wanted to do, and so we are calling on our volunteers for this to be present. Come hang out with us.
SPEAKER_00It's a Wednesday night, the 23rd, right?
SPEAKER_04Yes, yeah, yeah. It'll be at six o'clock at the park. And I'm gonna guess it's probably gonna go to like 8:30 or 9, maybe. Probably.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we could always be even midnight.
SPEAKER_04No, it's still a school night.
SPEAKER_00But that'll be fun though. And we'll get our trailer out, right?
SPEAKER_04Yes, yeah. So we'll take the trailer out there, the obstacle course out there, games. So it'll be a lot of fun. Yeah, a lot of fun. But yes, help would be great.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yep. So that's what we've been doing. That's what we're been doing, that's what we have been doing.
SPEAKER_03I like it.
SPEAKER_00How about that? That's what we're been doing.
SPEAKER_03That's what we've been doing. I like it.
SPEAKER_00All right.
SPEAKER_03It goes great way.
SPEAKER_00Good thing I talk for a living. All right. Downtown WrestleMania.
SPEAKER_03Downtown WrestleMania.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. The metropolis. So that's some stuff. I don't know if any other no if you know, you know the drill. If you want to know all the things that are going on, check out the website. Check out our Facebook page, all that good stuff. We post all these things. So there you go. Yeah. That's all I got for announcements. What are we going to next?
Jokes And Coffee Tour Chaos
SPEAKER_00Let me guess Ashley's jokes.
SPEAKER_03You want jokes or icebergs? Hold on, I'll take a drink of coffee real quick.
SPEAKER_00I I was just I re-listened to the last episode we did and the cat joke.
SPEAKER_03And I was like, Oh, my family. Wait, I've had two cat jokes so far. Wait, what was the answer to last week?
SPEAKER_00History.
SPEAKER_03History. When I told my family the joke, they were like, math. I was like, oh, that would have been a good guess.
SPEAKER_00That's so much better than what I said. I said per physics.
SPEAKER_02What does that do to make any sense?
SPEAKER_04Yes. All right. Okay.
SPEAKER_00These will be good though. Here we go.
SPEAKER_04All right. Joke number one. Why don't they play poker in the jungle?
SPEAKER_00Because there's too many cheetahs. Oh you got it. I want to redeem myself from per physics.
SPEAKER_04Oh shoot. Too many cheetahs.
SPEAKER_00Too many cheetahs in the jungle.
SPEAKER_04All right. Last joke is what kind of pants does Mario and Luigi prefer?
SPEAKER_00Mario and Luigi are the plumbers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The Nintendo characters. Who else would that be?
SPEAKER_03Just to be clear. Who are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00I just want to make sure I'm clear on who we're talking about.
SPEAKER_03I'm like, no, that's actually my uncle.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm not going to talk about my uncle. It's Mario and Luigi.
unknownSomething.
SPEAKER_00What kind of what was the question?
SPEAKER_02Well, they're plumbers, so how's that doing? What kind of crack do they prefer?
SPEAKER_00Crack pants? Like they're butt cracks. No, we're not talking about butt cracks, Brittany. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_03Am I allowed to say that?
SPEAKER_00Yes, you can say it, but all right. All right. We have to guess. Actually, we shouldn't guess anymore. Tell us the answer before Britney guesses again. Oh, you can't even get the answer. Okay. What kind of pants do Marian Luigi prefer?
SPEAKER_04Denim, denim, denim. Oh.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yes. That's the best joke I've heard on here so far. Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_03Oh. I'm really glad you didn't tell that earlier and spoil it.
SPEAKER_00I like that. That was a good one. Much better than what Brittany thought it was gonna be.
SPEAKER_03The way she was pausing, I was like, she's gonna actually say it.
SPEAKER_00No, that was a good joke. No, you were not right. Where'd you get that one from? That was a good one.
SPEAKER_04It just randomly filmed.
SPEAKER_00It just randomly came to my head. I was just driving to work this morning. Did him, did him, did him. Sounds like pants. Oh, Mario Luigi, pants.
SPEAKER_04No, I mean, I saw a video and it some guy said the joke, so it randomly came to me. I wasn't even thinking about having a joke ready. Okay. Moving on.
SPEAKER_03I'm not breathing over here, so I need to put down my coffee.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Speaking of coffee, okay. So we are, as a staff, going on a coffee tour. Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_03I can't talk about this.
SPEAKER_04So we have decided, or I have decided for us that it is smart for us to do some team bonding things. Okay. And so I was gonna prefer I was going to put together a coffee tour. Well, then I also just gave you guys a homemade creamer, which was like a pumpkin spice homemade stuff. And then I started thinking, I wonder what the craziest coffee drink that we've ever had or ordered. Because I was trying to think of what kind of menu do we want to have for this coffee tour? Because we want to have them pre-picked where we're gonna go. So what is the most craziest coffee that you have had to date?
SPEAKER_03I don't really get too crazy with my coffee. Nor do I order anything crazy. Boring.
SPEAKER_04I know.
SPEAKER_03Cody are so much more exciting than I am.
SPEAKER_04It's okay. We're gonna open up your eyes then on this coffee tour.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I'm aware.
SPEAKER_00That's Britney being awakened to new coffee.
SPEAKER_04Oh, shoot. Cody, I know you've had some crazy things. Like I've seen them.
SPEAKER_00I don't know if anything like crazy. Like, I just try all the different kinds of flavors that coffee shops have during their seasonal things and stuff like that. Like, what do you mean by crazy? Like weird, wacky?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like didn't one time you had like a whole like like little Debbie sitting on top of your coffee or something?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's but I didn't do that myself. I ordered it and it came like that.
SPEAKER_04That's what I'm saying. Like, what coffee have you ordered that that's been like exotic or something like that? Exotic? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, well, I I don't know. The one I got at Always Brewing, they gave me a piece of cake on top of it that one time. And then like I ordered one with the pecan pie, and they put a little pecan pie on top of it, but like I don't know.
SPEAKER_04The coffee itself just was just regular coffee.
SPEAKER_00No, the topping matches the flavor of the coffee.
SPEAKER_03Well, talk about it.
SPEAKER_00I it was good.
SPEAKER_03I saw Cody drinking a coffee one time that said that was called Chubby Bunny. That's it. That's what I was gonna go to next. Thank you. Yes, go ahead. What? Talk about it.
SPEAKER_00I got a drink one time called the Chubby Bunny.
SPEAKER_03Okay. I had a whole Cadbury egg. I don't actually know what those are.
SPEAKER_00I had a half of a Cadbury egg on Cadbury. I don't remember where Erica got it for me at, where she got it for me. Always brewing. Was it always brewing? Yes. We have some very interesting flavors there. It was good, but it was huge. And Brittany made fun of me.
SPEAKER_03Okay, you could have left that part out.
SPEAKER_00Well, I people will be like, they're listening, they're like, oh, that makes sense. Brittany made fun of me. You know. That's how it goes. But it was really good. It was like Cadbury, creamy drink.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Exotic. There's native coffee has a pistachio pandan. That's really good. It's actually like bright green and caramely.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_00It's really good. That kind of sounds good. Oh, it's their probably their best drink that they have.
SPEAKER_04So maybe that'll be on our list for the coffee tour.
SPEAKER_00That's their number, that's like what their number is. They're not tour. Okay. Let me go there. I can't wait for the coffee tour. You just came to you. You're just like coffee tour. It just coffee. Or did you just see like a video? Some guy was like, we went on a coffee tour.
SPEAKER_04Also, coffee. I'm just getting downloaded all the time. Yeah, it's a very creative day.
SPEAKER_00Literally took one like two weeks ago, I took a day off and I wasn't here. And I came back and they're like, we're going on a staff coffee tour.
SPEAKER_03We are bonding.
SPEAKER_00Didn't even know about this. I'm excited about it though. It'll be fun.
SPEAKER_04It's gonna be great. And we're all gonna ride, we're gonna fulfill my dream of riding in a car together.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna drive laps around the parking lot as fast as I can to fulfill Ashley's NASCAR dream.
SPEAKER_00That's probably one of my favorite episodes we've ever done when Ashley told us we were all gonna get in NASCARs and race around a track together. That was the iceberg question of if you had a thousand dollars to do something as a office party. Office party. Gonna fulfill your dream of riding around in the car together. Now we're adding coffee to it.
unknownOh shoot.
SPEAKER_00I love this show. This is a great podcast. All right, Cody.
SPEAKER_02You you take over now.
SPEAKER_00Oh, like what's your favorite like fall flavor though? Like of coffee?
SPEAKER_03Pumpkin spice, for sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Overrated.
SPEAKER_03I like caramel all the time, so I also like it in the fall.
SPEAKER_00Caramel apple?
SPEAKER_03Just caramel. Just caramel.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00That's not a fall. Is caramel a fall flavor?
SPEAKER_03Yes. No. Caramel's a year-round flavor. Yeah, but also fall.
SPEAKER_00She literally just said it's a year-round flavor, but I like it in the fall too.
SPEAKER_04Also fall. But it's not I wouldn't categorize. No, if it was like, if it was like just a this is my answer. So it's not wrong. That's true. Thank you. I do validate your answer. I hear you, Brittany. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00What's your favorite fall flavor? Well, I love peppermint, so I'm gonna pick peppermint. All right. So I'm sorry. It's your I actually love Christmas cookie flavor.
SPEAKER_03But what do you like in October? Christmas cookie flavor.
SPEAKER_00Christmas, I just said. Alright, I shouldn't have asked that.
SPEAKER_04But like if there was like a brown sugar caramel, that would be like a fall. Okay, I'll do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I pick that.
SPEAKER_00That's fine. I'll take that one. It's good. I like fall weather though. You guys like fall weather? I love fall weather. Fall is one of the best seasons.
SPEAKER_03Now until like mid-January. I'm really happy. Yeah. I get real bitter from January.
SPEAKER_00Most of the world calls the season autumn.
SPEAKER_02I I heard that.
SPEAKER_04It's weird.
SPEAKER_00Actually, we're the weird ones because we call it fall. Everybody else calls it autumn.
SPEAKER_04Wait, why? Like just people up north?
SPEAKER_00Well, autumn came to English from old French word atomne. Sixteenth century English speakers commonly referred to the season as fall of the leaf. Over time, England favored autumn and American English preserved the old phrase and eventually got shortened to fall. So that's why we have fall, and a lot of the world calls it autumn. But I guess you were confused because you lived in Florida.
SPEAKER_04Yes, yeah. We just didn't call things autumn or even fall in Florida. It was hot or oh, there's a little chill in the air.
SPEAKER_00It was either hot or not so hot. So I guess I never thought of that. I've never lived in a place without seasons before.
SPEAKER_04Florida's not a season.
SPEAKER_00Have you? No, you haven't either.
SPEAKER_04I've lived in Russia. I know. Oh, wait. You did live in Bill Center for a little bit. Yes.
SPEAKER_00They still have seasons there too. All right. Sorry. Five miles the other way. I had more fall facts, but I decided that that's enough for today. We'll do another one next week because it'll still be fall then. Actually, it's not even fall yet here. Not until summer.
SPEAKER_04Technically, yeah. But we're we're having positive thoughts that it's gonna start soon. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03If that's even it I could get sunburnt one more time.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So we're gonna go into the last part of the series that we've been in.
Loyal Love And Faithfulness Defined
SPEAKER_00We've been looking at the one part of Exodus 34, 6 through 7, the moment God gives Moses his own kind of description of himself. We've seen that God is full of compassion, full of grace, giving unearned favor. And last we talked about slow to anger. And so a couple more that we have to talk about are words that mean loyal love or faithfulness. And so God is full of this loyal type of love, and he's also full of faithfulness. It's just who he is. And so those are the last two we're gonna combine those two because I think they go really well together. And so these words in the original language they form a kind of an idea. We think of loyal love and faithfulness certain ways. How how do we use the word love in our culture?
SPEAKER_04Like describing to somebody, like describing to some somebody like how we love them.
SPEAKER_00Okay, and what else?
SPEAKER_04Actions, showing them.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_03That we like things?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that we like things.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I love cheeseburgers. And I also love this person, and I also love this over here. And we use the same word, but we don't mean it in the same way. Would you agree?
SPEAKER_01Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like I don't love cheeseburgers the same way I love wife.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, my wife. That's a good one.
SPEAKER_00So but we throw the word around, like, you know, we just we enjoy something, we say love, and so I think that's a good way to start. Loyal love, this idea of love that God has for us. I mean it's more like dependable. It's more rooted. So, what's the most dependable thing in your life? Would you say? Like probably a friend or a family member, probably a husband or a spouse or a friend. And so the most dependable thing you have in your life. I would say some kind of friendship or a spouse or a family member, and they're dependable because they're always there, they always answer your calls, you've gone through life with them for a while. You know, we long for things that don't shift, break, or dissolve when pressure gets applied. So we really want stuff that when things get hard, we have something to lean on that's not going to crumble or fall. And so we get into these words today, and we get these words loyal love and faithfulness in English, but in Hebrew, they form a powerful, like, personal anchor, and it's almost like a legal term almost. They mean God's love is stubborn and his word is as solid as a rock. So think of it as like stubborn love, but in a good way. It's like you can't sh nothing you could do to make God stop loving you. It's so stubborn and just won't go away, no matter what.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So kind of think about that when we think of this terms that's used in this in this verse. This is to understand these two words, they belong together. We need to look at kind of where they come from. The word that often translated as loving kindness, loyal love, or covenant loyalty. It's not an emotion or romantic setting. It's not those anything. Sometimes you think of love, you think of romance automatically, or you think of love in these different ways. When we think of loyal love that God has, it's not just this emotion that he can fall in and out of love, or it's not a romantic type. It's a fierce, stubborn, relational commitment to show up and help someone, even when they give you every reason to walk away. Think of it like that. Think of like loyal love that God has for us. He keeps showing up again and again. And he's not going away no matter what. And even when we give him reasons that he could, he still stays, he still loves, he still cares. And then faithfulness this word is usually transferred trans translated as faithfulness or truth, actually. In English, truth usually means like well, truth usually means something's correct, like that's true, a true statement. Like two plus two is four, and that's a true statement. But in the original language, this word it means stability, reliability, firmness, solidness. And so it means you can lean your entire weight against it and it won't collapse. So when we think of God as faithful, it means that he can handle a lot and he's never going to crumble under the weight of it. He's never going to collapse. It's never going to be too much for him. He's always faithful. He's always going to be standing. I'm at the end of things. So when you put these things together, loyal love and faithfulness, it kind of goes like this God's motivation, his stubborn choice to love us, and his faithfulness is consistency. You know, his stubborn choice to love us, the guarantee that his love won't change tomorrow. That's what these two things combined together, I think, mean in how we look at it. So loyal love and faithful is all these things that we know God is, and then we kind of add a little bit of extra to it. Because like all things we talked about, we can say we know God's full of grace, He's full of compassion, He's you know patient with us. But the goal of the series was to dig a little bit deeper and see what that means, like actually as we live our lives. So, what does it mean that God is loyal, loyal love? He that's what he is, it's what he has for us. What does it mean that he's faithful in our lives? And so I think the next part I want to go into are some examples in the Old Testament of how God shows off these characteristics, and then we'll go into Jesus, and then we'll talk about our lives, how we've done the last couple
Israel’s Failure And God’s Commitment
SPEAKER_00episodes. But all through the Old Testament, Israel tests this combination of God's loyalness and his love and his faithfulness to the absolute limit over and over. I don't know how familiar people are with the Old Testament, but we talked a little bit about the Israelites and we talked about that. But story after story, God's people, the Israelites complain, they grumble, they rebel, they finally get to the promised land, and you think, well, they finally got to the promised land. Now they're gonna trust God all the time because He He got them there. How's that go? Not great, not great. I feel like that's the that's the whole thing. Like, and now we're good, right? No, we're not because, well, you know, that's just how humans are and how Israel was and how everybody is, and so they get the promised land and they get kings, and you know, they ruin that. People go against God, and then they eventually forget who God is, and then they come back to him. And so this back and forth all the time. In the book of Hosea, God compares his covenant with Israel to a marriage where the spouse keeps running away. So God compares his relationship with his people to like getting married, and then your spouse keeps leaving you over and over again and coming back and then leaving. And so he says that's what Israel has done to him. Israel worships idols, relies on oppressive foreign enemies, and breaks every promise that they have with God. By human standards, any other partner would just walk away and say, Well, this is over, because you obviously don't know how to behave yourself. And so this is this covenant or this thing that we had is now going to be because you didn't keep your end of the bargain. But that's not how God's covenant works because God's always faithful, even when we're not. He compares it to that. And so in Psalm 100, it says this for the Lord is good and his love, his loyal love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. So these two things we see again of his characteristics that we're talking about, his loyal love and his faithfulness, they endure forever through all generations. Israel's history isn't a story of human goodness, it's a story of human badness, weakness. It's it's the story of human weakness colliding with God's stubborn, loyal love and his unshakable faithfulness to it towards his people. Even when Israel ends up in exile, because they self-destructed themselves, and God allows them to be carried off into exile, away from Jerusalem, away from the promised land, God promises through Jeremiah and Isaiah that his loyal love will bring them home. And why? Because he gave his word to Abraham, and God is faithful. He cannot lie, he cannot break a promise. Because God is faithful, even when Israel goes so far away from him, they get kicked out of the promised land, they get taken away. God does not abandon them because he can't. He made a promise to his people, and he cannot go back on it because it's just not who God is. So he has to find a way to love them through it, I guess you would say. So when you think like, well, why does God keep putting up with these people? Why does God keep allowing them to do these things back and forth all the time? It's because that's who he is. He is faithful, he is loyal in his love, and so that causes him to never give up on his people. I think that's what you find at the end of this characteristics that we've been talking about. All these kind of go together: compassion, grace, patience, slow to anger, loyal love, and then faithfulness. This is who God is at his core, and you see it in the big picture story of the Bible. You see it in all these stories. You can see every characteristic playing out over the big picture story again and again, especially in the Old Testament, because people kept getting it wrong, and you're reading through and you're like, Man, these people are dumb. Like, just do what you're supposed to do. And God keeps showing up and keeps bringing them back to himself, and that's what he does for us. And then he finally goes all the way and sends Jesus
Jesus Restores Peter After Denial
SPEAKER_00and once and for all. When you get to Christ, we get to this when the gospel John describes Jesus stepping into human history. We talked about this on one of the episodes, John 1 14, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, full of grace and full of faithfulness or truth. The same word is used there. So loyal love is a relational commitment and action, showing up for people in need, sticking by them through failure, and offering love that isn't earned. So you see these themes throughout all this stuff. And so one of the main examples that I can think of of Jesus showing loyal love to somebody is Peter. What did Peter what what what do you think I'm gonna say about Peter? I guess you could say what story about Peter would Jesus show his loyal love and faithfulness so much. Peter did a lot of things.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And he messed up a lot. What was his main mess up towards the end?
SPEAKER_03Denying that he knew Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Peter famously denying Christ three times on the night that he was arrested. And then you see God's loyal love on display instead of when Jesus comes back from the dead and he sits with Peter and has breakfast with him. He doesn't really tear him down or make him feel really bad about denying him three times like that. Instead, Jesus meets Peter on the shore, makes him breakfast, and asks him three times, Do you love me? He restores Peter to leadership, proving that his love is stronger than Peter's worst failure. You have to remember that God's love is always greater than your worst moment in life, no matter what it is. You might think that was my think about the worst moment in your life, or where, like, where you were, how it happened, like all the worst thing, the worst moment part of your life, and God's love is still stronger than that moment. God's love outshines the darkest parts of our lives, and we see that right here because I bet Peter was like, I just denied Jesus, the Son of God, three times and said I didn't even know him. I can't come back from this. This is this would be devastating. And then Jesus comes back from the grave and he's there, and you're like, Well, this is awkward. Yeah. But Peter's probably thinking, There's no way he's gonna let me let me go off the hook without saying anything, but Jesus just asked him if he loves him and he restores him and brings him back up. And so the the the darkest moments of our lives, God's loyal love is stronger than all of that stuff. Jesus sits with outcasts, uh, he eats with sinners, he hangs out with the people, uh the you know, the people that he people said he shouldn't be with. He also washes the feet of the disciples who also deny him later on. And he washes Judas's feet, he washes Peter's feet, he washes all their feet, and he's faithful to them, and he prays for the soldiers that are crucifying him. Says, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Talks about this stuff, and so he fulfills every single covenant promise God ever made to Israel and humanity in general, in these on the cross. On the cross, Jesus absorbs the full weight of human failure. When he dies and rises again, he proves that God's commitment to humanity is stronger than death itself. Second Timothy 2 13, if we are faithful faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. God will always be faithful, because that's who he is. The writer of 2 Timothy here, Paul writing in Timothy, if we are faithless and we have no faith, even if we have no faith, God says, I'm remaining faithful, for he cannot deny himself. It's who he is. Romans 5 8, one of my this is my favorite Bible verse, by the way. God demonstrates his own love, his loyal love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's the that's the ultimate thing. The whole Old Testament and the whole story of redemption is complete on the cross when God demonstrates how much he does love us, how much he does have compassion, how much he has grace, how patient he was with us, and how faithful he is towards us. While we were still sinners, we were enemies, we were rebelling against him, he died for us. And so the cross is the ultimate moment in history where God says, I gave you my word, and I will suffer the worst of human failure before I let you go. God's not gonna let us go. He went all the lengths as far as he could to get us back. And so that's who God is. That's his character. He loves you, he wants to be with you, and he wants to be part of your life, and and Jesus came to show us how to live all these things out to be like him. We talked about being the image of God a several episodes ago, how we're representatives of God, how we're supposed to show off who God is, and Jesus is the way that we can do that. And then these characteristics are who God is and who Christ is, lived out.
What These Traits Change For Us
SPEAKER_00So this whole series was pretty good. Which one do you guys think was the most impactful for you? Compassion, grace, slow to anger, loyal love, or faithfulness? Do you have a favorite one? We I asked you that when we started the podcast series, I believe. But after going through, do you have one that stood out or that you remember the most?
SPEAKER_03I don't think that I have a favorite.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, you don't have to pick a favorite, but like Yeah.
SPEAKER_03No, I don't think that I I think they're all just underrated.
SPEAKER_00Underrated.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean, like you think about how I think that's what I mean. Okay. Like the way that I thought about it before, before we went through this, was my mind can only go so far. But then when I hear it and I we listen and compare it to the scripture, then I hear, I'm like, oh wow, that's way more actually than what I'm even thinking in my mind. I was underrating them before that's what I mean.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I got it.
SPEAKER_03I was underrating them before we went and deep dived into them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because I think if you're a Christian, you know like all these terms, like grace and yeah, you know, compassion.
SPEAKER_04Also slow to anger. Like I think that was the one that I kind of hit hit me the hardest. Yeah. And as a parent, I mean, that's definitely we have to work on being slow to anger. But I've just been noticing that more in my life that I've been trying to work on that, you know, ever since that episode.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I found myself after we recorded that episode, just kind of like the next couple of days, like ah, getting angry at this thing and like catching myself be angry at things that I shouldn't really be so angry about. Right. So it doesn't even matter. It's okay to be annoyed or frustrated, but we can't be angry at certain things all the time because we're trying to be like Jesus thinks a little bit of anger.
SPEAKER_04So yeah. But this loyal one that I mean, I know it's right fresh in our minds, but yeah, this this also really hit home. Like I was just thinking how, you know, even though I fail every day, God is still loyal to forgive me. And he's like, No, I don't he stands before his father and says, She's mine, no matter what I do. And he's constantly just going to bat for us.
SPEAKER_00I just think that's for no other reason than because he wants to. That's because that's who he is. Right. And I think it's the idea of his loyal love towards us, how that how I put it in like how the how I found somebody said that he is stubbornly committed to loving you. Like, usually we think of stubborn as like a negative thing, like and but it's kind of interesting to see like God so stubborn with his love for us that it's like, no, I'm gonna love you no matter what, and nothing you can do about it. Right. Like you can't do anything to make me love you less, and he's just he's stubborn with his love and and the faithfulness too. Like, you can depend on God, it's not gonna crumble, he's never gonna go away, even when we're not faithful, even when we do whatever we do to like turn our back on him, or we say, forget that, I'm gonna do it my way. Often he's like, I'm still faithful, right? I'm still here, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's us who put up that wall between us and God.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, that's why I think these two go good together, faithfulness and loyal love. It's because you know they kind of can't have one without the other. Right. He's so stubborn in his love that makes him so faithful that he's not going to uh abandon us.
SPEAKER_03So yeah. Well, I had that thought actually when we were just talking about Peter because yes, Peter denied Christ, and yes, Jesus not let him off the hook, but talked to him and told, you know, had him confess his love to him. But Peter had to go back. Peter had to show up and go back to Jesus and to get that. Right. I mean, imagine if he wouldn't have done that, if he would have messed up and took off running.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's true. Because the scene in the Bible, like Jesus' on the beach and they're out on the boat, Peter sees him, and somebody's like, Is that Jesus? Is that the Lord? And Peter does what he jumps off the boat and swims ashore. He's coming back to Jesus.
SPEAKER_03He's eagerly, regularly seeking Jesus.
SPEAKER_00I like that. You gotta, and that's our part of it. Yeah, you have to want to seek him back out.
SPEAKER_03If we didn't do it, then we won't know his faithfulness. We won't know all these characteristics if we're not actively going back, right? No matter what we've done. Right.
SPEAKER_00That was really good. Oh, you got a lot of read to but that's that's yeah, good stuff.
Wrap Up And BibleProject Recommendation
SPEAKER_03Thanks. I have really good teachers.
SPEAKER_00So hopefully, you guys got a lot out of this series. We're gonna wrap up this series today with that. So that's who God is. He is full of compassion and grace, he's slow to anger, loyal with his love, and he's also faithful beyond anything that we can possibly imagine. So God's not distant, he is not an angry God all the time, he is not looking for ways to yell at us or get us in trouble, but he's a God of life and mercy and love, and that's who he is, and he can never stop being those things no matter what. So if you enjoyed that, I recommend you go listen to the Bible Project podcast or their video series on the characteristics of God. That's where I got all this stuff from, and then go a little bit more deeper than we could on this podcast. But hopefully you enjoyed, and we'll see you next time here on Rush Hour. Have a good week.