0:00

Live from Nashville, Tennessee. It's

0:02

dawn and Steve in the morning.

0:03

Monday has arrived and we're so

0:05

glad you're here. How's your weekend

0:07

go? Lots going on, lots of moving parts.

0:10

Quiet. Something

0:12

huge. I'm

0:14

going to pray. It's not those life changing moments,

0:17

right? Unless it's the good, life changing

0:19

moments. We were at a worship service

0:21

last night. Church had, and pastor

0:23

asked us to think of a really, really difficult

0:26

time, really hard time in your

0:28

life. And and then to thank

0:30

the Lord if you knew him and you realize

0:32

he carried you through to thank

0:34

him for his presence. And I started

0:36

thinking through, because, you know, you look back and

0:39

there are some of those times

0:41

it doesn't take a weekend for sure, but when

0:43

we've been apart for a couple of days, there's a lot to get

0:45

caught up on. And I guess this time it

0:47

was three days, wasn't it?

0:48

It was because somebody played hooky

0:50

on Friday and,

0:52

uh, that's somebody was the one on the other side

0:54

of the studio all the way over there.

0:56

Hilarious that you say that,

0:58

because I was trying to think of the weekend and

1:00

what all we did it.

1:03

I kept thinking, well, what did we do Friday?

1:05

What did I do Friday? I could not come

1:07

up with it. And then you came in and said, how's your mom? And

1:09

I said, oh, that's

1:11

what I did. That's what? Yes. Oh.

1:14

Um, so, so bad. You tried

1:16

to block it out? Yeah.

1:17

I was just gonna say put that little

1:19

memory in a box, didn't I? Pretty quickly

1:21

too. Yeah. Had to pack that one away. It.

1:24

My mom has Alzheimer's, and it's

1:26

just not a good situation,

1:29

but. And my step daddy,

1:31

who is precious,

1:33

almost 90, taking

1:35

care of her. It's heart wrenching

1:38

to watch. Very hard. It's sweet.

1:40

Like, I just kept thinking the whole time

1:42

I was there. You are my hero.

1:45

You have done way

1:48

far above what most family members will

1:50

do, and he is resolute about

1:52

it even though it's wearing him out. He said,

1:54

I wouldn't do it any other way. Wow.

1:56

Um hum. And you still feeling that

1:58

way at almost 90? Yes. He's

2:00

giving it all he has. All the time.

2:02

All all the time. I sometimes

2:04

wish I could just take a little camera. As sad as

2:06

it is, just for the

2:09

sake of seeing what tenacity

2:11

and perseverance looks like, and

2:14

he's clearly on autopilot.

2:16

He knows what he knows. There's muscle memory. Like

2:18

there's a whole lot going on to keep

2:21

that going. Up, down, up, down. It

2:23

just, though, is something else to think

2:25

about. Just his

2:28

dedication to my mom. I

2:30

am just very grateful. Yeah. And

2:32

yet it's very difficult to watch. Yeah.

2:34

And so yeah, I put that little memory away.

2:37

But I was glad to get there and

2:39

I couldn't come up with a weekend. It's graduation

2:41

season, could not find

2:43

a weekend to go see mom. And I tried to get up there once

2:45

a month, so that's why I played hooky on Friday.

2:48

I get it sometimes life is so busy

2:50

and it's like this month

2:52

and May are so busy

2:55

with wrapping up school year, activities,

2:57

graduation season, all

2:59

the things that are going on. It's

3:02

like, all right, I guess we're going to have to take a day or two

3:04

off of work and get some of those personal

3:06

things handled because of all the other stuff

3:09

that kind of invades the calendar. Mhm. Yeah.

3:11

You kind of have to, although I will say

3:13

we had the Moody radio booth out at

3:15

an event Saturday night and

3:17

a gentleman walks up and he goes Where's Steve?

3:20

I said well he

3:22

and his wife were away this weekend. They,

3:24

they had some things they needed to do. And he goes

3:26

does he ever work? And

3:31

that's exactly what I did. I said, I cannot

3:33

wait to say that to him. I

3:35

am holding on to this one. I wanted to text

3:38

you and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, save that

3:40

one. Oh that's Monday. Yeah. Yes

3:42

I, I died laughing

3:44

just but then I thought, oh dude,

3:46

if you only knew how much

3:48

Steve Hiller works. It's just

3:50

where is he when you need him. Yeah. He's

3:53

usually sitting in a chair behind a microphone

3:55

somewhere.

3:55

So it usually. So. Yes.

3:57

Yeah. This studio, that studio, that office.

4:00

That's it. Yeah. But, uh, I

4:02

get it.

4:02

That was priceless.

4:03

I get it. Well, we'll

4:06

get into I'll tell you where we disappeared

4:08

to over the weekend. Coming up in just

4:10

a few moments. But first we're going to take

4:12

a look at this big

4:14

concept that I think we

4:16

wrestled through the entirety of our Christian

4:19

lives. And that is what does real Christian

4:21

discipleship look like?

4:22

Um, him. We preach

4:24

warning every man and teaching every man

4:26

in all wisdom that we may present

4:29

every man perfect in Jesus Christ.

4:31

That's what Colossians 128

4:33

directs us to do the

4:36

Lord Jesus. It is him who we

4:38

preach. Discipleship.

4:40

It is so personal,

4:42

isn't it? It's personally transferring

4:45

the full dimensions of your relationship with

4:47

Christ to the person that you're walking it out

4:49

with. It's not just the

4:51

imparting of spiritual disciplines as

4:54

much as it is acquainting another

4:56

with the person that you love.

4:59

We're back to. The Lord. Where are our

5:01

eyes, our hearts, our

5:03

minds? Paul said

5:05

he would teach and urge with all

5:07

his strength, and every person God placed in

5:09

his life would come to a complete experience

5:11

of the person of Christ. Colossians 129.

5:15

He was not satisfied with people

5:17

becoming partially like Christ.

5:19

He wouldn't rest until those around

5:22

him were perfect, complete

5:25

in Christ, that

5:27

is, that the fruits of the spirit were being

5:29

fully expressed through each life, and the

5:31

character of Christ was reflected in each

5:33

person. Galatians 522.

5:35

So we can mistake this Christian activity

5:38

with becoming like Christ, can't we? Checking

5:40

the box, doing the devotional, going

5:42

to conferences, going to church,

5:44

Christian activity, all good stuff.

5:47

But what about the Christ likeness?

5:50

What about those things? Because that's

5:52

not the same. We

5:55

can't just assume that because our friends

5:57

attend church, reads the

5:59

Bible, that that person

6:01

is growing as a Christ follower.

6:04

Those activities, they're important and

6:06

they express our relationship with Christ.

6:09

But they can lead. They cannot

6:11

lead you into a relationship.

6:13

The danger is assuming that your religious

6:16

activity is the relationship. We

6:18

have to stop and ask the Lord, am I yours?

6:20

Why do I think I'm yours? If

6:23

you're only encouraging those around you to go

6:25

to all the Christian activities, then you're

6:27

not discipling them, not the way

6:29

Paul did. You do

6:31

your fellow Christians an injustice

6:33

by teaching them that Christian activity

6:35

is equal to Christian maturity?

6:38

So don't rest until those around you have become

6:40

perfect in Christ.

6:42

If God has put new Christians under

6:45

your care, then you have an obligation.

6:47

Stay with them. Stay with

6:49

them until they are reaching that

6:51

Christian maturity. Colossians

6:54

128. That's where we started

6:56

today. There's some other verses in there, and

6:58

if you want this devotional devo

7:00

devo, that's what

7:03

you text to (800) 555-7898.

7:07

Or you can find it on our Facebook page.

7:09

That's easy. Don and Steve

7:11

in the morning. Your weekend.

7:13

Sabrina, thanks for your text. You went to see

7:15

Unsung Hero. That's

7:18

the movie that came out for King and

7:20

Country and kind of the adventure

7:22

of their family. I would

7:24

really be curious how many friends went and

7:26

saw that.

7:27

Oh, I feel

7:29

like I saw Luke and Joel everywhere. That's

7:31

the last little while.

7:32

I kept thinking, are you tired yet,

7:34

fellas?

7:34

They have got to be. Because if that

7:36

movie does not do well over the

7:38

weekend, it's not because of them.

7:41

They were promoting that everywhere you could

7:43

imagine. It seemed like they certainly have.

7:45

They certainly did. And Sabrina, you liked it. I'm

7:47

so glad you said. Everybody needs to see

7:49

this one. We've seen it. We

7:51

agree it was a good one. Such a good,

7:53

good movie. And but now you

7:55

said you and Susie got away for a little

7:57

bit. Do tell.

7:58

We did. So, um,

8:01

family life today is one of the radio

8:03

programs that airs on Moody Radio.

8:05

And, uh, I don't know how many months

8:07

ago it was, but she was listening to the radio

8:09

program and heard about this Family Life Weekend

8:11

and remember conference, marriage conference. And she's

8:14

like, do you want to go? I'm like, well, I've heard

8:16

about him for years. Never been

8:18

thought, well, I take that back. I have

8:20

only been as a

8:22

radio station representative, where we set up a little

8:24

booth in the hotel lobby and as people would walk

8:26

by, hey, would you like a pen? Like, that's

8:28

the extent of my experience there. I've seen the

8:30

people and like, heard really good things

8:33

about it, but never have gone as an attendee.

8:35

And so we went this weekend down

8:37

to Atlanta and it was

8:39

fantastic. Yay. Yeah.

8:41

Really good. And I'm not sure

8:43

that we learned anything new.

8:46

You know, like there was any great revelation

8:48

or huge aha moment of like,

8:50

oh, that would be revolutionary

8:52

in our marriage. But

8:54

what it did, and maybe the aha

8:57

moment was we

8:59

need sometimes to

9:01

get away in a structured environment

9:04

like that so that those conversations,

9:07

deep conversations will

9:09

be happening and facilitated,

9:12

giving the time and the space and the

9:14

place to have

9:16

those deep conversations with intentionality

9:18

so good. So that it

9:21

was it. It's not like a speaker

9:23

said something that was like, oh,

9:25

that's going to change our life. It

9:27

was we took the time

9:30

and there was that space and place

9:32

and time to actually

9:34

be intentional about all that, even.

9:36

Expectation that you have

9:39

that time set aside, you know,

9:41

you're going to have these conversations. Everybody kind

9:43

of comes to the table with open hearts and minds and

9:45

ready to go. Yeah. Because

9:47

in the busyness of life, man, it's

9:49

like you start to get a deep conversation.

9:51

A kid needs something or work

9:53

needs something. So to set that aside,

9:55

yay! That time aside, that's

9:58

really, really good.

9:59

Yeah. And we were even talking a little bit about,

10:02

well, what we have

10:04

for years tried to get away at

10:06

least one time a year, just the two of

10:08

us. Yep. Leave the kids with grandma and grandpa

10:10

or something, and just have a few

10:12

days where it's just the two of us and we

10:14

have really good conversations and things

10:17

when that does happen. But

10:19

there's also even an extra

10:22

little layer on that

10:24

when the intent of

10:26

the trip is not necessarily vacation

10:29

or the intent of the trip is not,

10:31

we're going to go for

10:33

somebody's graduation or a wedding

10:35

or this or that, and that was the focus

10:37

of the trip. And by the way, we happen to have some really good

10:39

conversations, too. The whole

10:42

purpose intent of this trip

10:44

was to look at your marriage, look at

10:46

your relationship, look at your family

10:48

and the way that you do things. And so

10:51

that was even just a little extra

10:54

that I think made a difference.

10:55

Bravo for y'all for making that happen,

10:58

because I think a lot of times we'll say, yeah,

11:00

that sounds good and never

11:02

take the next step to what we know.

11:04

Is good, but don't actually act.

11:05

Yeah, way to go.

11:07

Guilty of that too many times.

11:09

Yeah.

11:09

I think we could all relate to that. More

11:12

than the doing and going

11:14

and being very present

11:16

with the with almost

11:18

an agenda in some ways, don't you. You kind of

11:20

have this. Yeah.

11:22

Yeah. I mean it's all laid out. We show

11:24

up Friday afternoon, evening

11:26

things kick off Friday night, a couple

11:28

of sessions and then you're

11:30

back in there in Saturday. A couple of

11:32

sessions, break for lunch, a couple of afternoon

11:34

sessions, then Saturday nights, date

11:36

night back Sunday morning for a couple

11:39

of sessions. And so they're walking

11:41

you through like, okay,

11:43

so here's probably the dream that you

11:45

had, right? This is

11:47

what you think your marriage is going to look like. And

11:49

you walk in with a rose colored glasses and the

11:51

whole thing. Right. And if you've been married,

11:53

you probably remember Labour.

11:56

And then life

11:58

in this fallen world slaps you in the face

12:01

and you go through the experience.

12:03

And for some people that dream, you realize,

12:06

um, is just not as bright and vibrant,

12:08

and for others it turned into a nightmare.

12:11

And so now where's

12:13

the hope? And what is hope look like?

12:15

And, you know, one of the things that I really, really

12:17

appreciated about that is

12:19

there was not an expectation that everybody in that room

12:21

knew Jesus. And so there

12:24

was a lot of clear presentation

12:26

of what is the gospel and who is Jesus

12:28

and why is that important? And gave people an opportunity

12:31

to respond to Christ

12:33

and to make him Savior

12:35

and Lord, which was great. Uh, no

12:37

idea how many people in that room, but there are 800 people.

12:39

400 couples. Certainly there's

12:42

some who probably

12:45

had the right eternity changed. Not

12:47

just their relationship with their spouse changed,

12:49

but their eternity changed because

12:51

of this conference. And like, really appreciated

12:53

that. And then, okay, so

12:55

now that we know where hope is

12:57

coming from in Christ and how

13:00

we can do things differently and biblically,

13:02

what what are the takeaways? What are the things we're going

13:04

to do?

13:04

That's fantastic. What a beautiful

13:07

weekend. Family lives today and

13:09

it's a weekend to remember. Yes,

13:11

yes. I'm curious, did

13:13

you when you arrived on Friday though, did you kind

13:15

of read the crowd a little bit? Did you watch body

13:17

language? Oh, totally. I think

13:20

that's almost humorous. If you

13:22

do like to kind of observe people,

13:24

because a lot of times people will come in

13:26

and they are not having it. They don't want to be there,

13:29

that they realize that they're going to have

13:31

to deal with some stuff. And then by Sunday,

13:34

completely different hands.

13:36

Yeah.

13:36

Arms around the waist. Yeah.

13:38

Completely different body language.

13:40

And that's such a beautiful thing it is to

13:42

see the Lord at work, certainly with

13:44

salvation and then restoring marriages.

13:47

I'm so glad y'all got to do that.

13:49

Yeah, that you made it happen.

13:50

We made it happen. It was good. If,

13:53

uh. Your marriage is in a rough spot

13:55

or you just feel like, man, we could use a little

13:57

encouragement, a little intentionality,

13:59

a little kind of tune up or pick me up.

14:01

Certainly encourage that family life. Today's

14:03

weekend to remember it is a great

14:06

weekend experience. This

14:08

is Ben Fuller. If I got

14:10

Jesus, it's Don Steve in the morning.

14:13

Love to know how your weekend was. Text in

14:15

(800) 555-7898.

14:18

Well, we certainly do appreciate your text this

14:20

morning. Good or bad. And

14:23

sometimes it is some of the bad news

14:25

that we share in life. And, Jason,

14:27

uh, brother, appreciate your text this morning.

14:30

So sorry for the loss of a job this past

14:32

week. And we absolutely

14:35

will be praying that you see

14:37

God provide and provide in

14:39

a way that you know it's him and

14:41

that he actually brings something even

14:43

better. Uh, across your path

14:46

also happened to go check out, uh, the movie

14:48

Unsung Hero over the weekend.

14:51

Another person who said it's worth seeing, um.

14:53

Oh, and Jay said, I know as you watch

14:55

the beginning of that movie with the latest

14:57

circumstance in your life, that's really tough.

15:00

This is the adventure, by the way, if you

15:02

don't know anything about Unsung Hero The

15:04

adventure of the Smallbone

15:06

family, they came from Australia.

15:08

You know, some of the family members.

15:10

Rebecca Saint James is one of the daughters.

15:12

And for King and Country, the

15:14

guys Luke and Joel Smallbone, they're

15:17

a couple of the brothers. But it's it's their life

15:19

story a little bit. It's kind of the highlights. I

15:21

know there's so much more. You can only tell so much

15:23

in a movie, but well done.

15:25

So well done. And Joel plays

15:28

his dad in the movie, right?

15:29

And I thought he did a fantastic job playing

15:31

that role.

15:32

Did? Sure did. I remember meeting

15:34

them. I was telling the guys when they were in the studio,

15:36

when they were just little kids running

15:39

around the radio station. Rebecca

15:41

was starting her career and

15:43

they had come up to West Michigan, and

15:45

I remember meeting David and he was,

15:48

uh. And David was the dad. Yeah. David

15:50

is the dad and David Smallbone,

15:52

and he was the manager of Rebecca Saint James.

15:54

And I just remember these two little boys

15:56

running around, and it was Luke and Joel.

15:59

Yeah, kind of crazy.

16:00

And those two little boys running around who

16:02

now tower over

16:05

you. One of them towers over

16:07

me.

16:07

Uh huh. They are some tall

16:10

fellas. Yeah, we did have a great conversation

16:12

with them, and we shared that last

16:14

week. Tuesday.

16:16

Yep. Last week Tuesday. And

16:18

so if you wanted to go back and hear that

16:20

it was really a deep conversation

16:22

about some of the struggles and how

16:25

difficult for some of us to watch them

16:27

on the screen. Um, and Jason,

16:29

just like you and going through

16:31

the experience of losing a job. And that's what happened

16:33

in David's smallbones life, um, to

16:35

get the whole adventure started.

16:37

Yeah, it really did. And

16:39

one of the things that I so appreciated

16:41

them pointing out and talking about

16:43

is the fact that had their,

16:46

their dad not lost his job,

16:48

had he not moved his family to America, had

16:50

certain things not happened in their life,

16:52

he said there probably would be no Rebecca Saint James.

16:54

There probably would be no for King and Country.

16:56

It's often through

16:59

both the ups and the downs and

17:01

some of the challenges and losses and struggles

17:03

that we see God do his redeeming

17:05

work, and something

17:07

come out of that challenge that

17:10

would not have come otherwise.

17:12

That is a beautiful reminder

17:14

for all of us walking through the valley

17:16

right now. If you have difficulty going

17:18

on that God is not done. We

17:20

were singing this song. I was telling you, we went

17:22

to a worship service last night. Our church had one.

17:24

Yeah, and there's two things about it. One,

17:27

there's a gal who's older than I

17:29

am that I totally love to stand

17:31

behind. She has such a heart

17:33

for worship and, you know, raising

17:35

her hands when she wants to unto the

17:38

Lord. I found out last night she's

17:40

a friend of mine's mama. Oh, really? I

17:42

did not know this. I don't know how I

17:44

missed this, but I was talking to my friend

17:46

Rosemary, and I. I said, I

17:48

love standing behind her. She goes, you know,

17:50

that's my mom. No,

17:53

didn't know the other thing.

17:55

We were singing a song and the lyric

17:58

was, God's not done with me yet. And

18:00

this precious saint has

18:02

her hands up and I'm thinking, that's so true.

18:04

It doesn't matter. And, you know, this whole

18:06

age thing gets to me sometimes and

18:08

I'm like, Lord, thank you for the perspective

18:11

of every day you give me

18:13

is something that you want to accomplish

18:16

in me or through me. So let

18:18

me keep my eyes on you. And not

18:20

just man, I'm getting old

18:22

or whatever the case may be.

18:24

Your focus may be different, and yet the struggle

18:27

is like my eyes are are on

18:29

the horizon, on the linear

18:31

and not vertical. And

18:33

that was such a good reminder, her testimony

18:35

of faithfulness to the Lord.

18:37

Yeah. And you know, sometimes

18:39

that whole reminder that God's not done with us yet

18:41

sometimes we may hit the stage of life where

18:43

we feel like, I don't know that I've got anything more to give.

18:45

I don't know that, you know, God is going

18:47

to do anything more in my life. And what

18:50

always pops into mind for me is the story of Jacob.

18:53

And, you know, Jacob had these boys.

18:56

And Joseph, you know, the story of Joseph getting sold

18:58

off into slavery and whatever. And so

19:00

finally, when the family

19:02

is reunited and Joseph

19:05

brings his family, including dad Jacob,

19:07

down to Egypt. Um, Jacob shows

19:09

up and he meets the Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh is like, so like,

19:11

tell me about yourself. And he's like, I'm

19:13

old and I want to die. I'm

19:15

super paraphrasing, but that's basically what

19:17

he's telling Pharaoh here. Like my my life

19:20

has been miserable. It's been hard.

19:22

You know, I am unhappy

19:24

and all these things. And now

19:26

number of years pass. They're living

19:28

in Egypt. And Jacob,

19:30

uh, is going to die

19:33

at this point. And he's coming to the very

19:35

end of his life. And the same question

19:37

is asked of him,

19:39

tell me about your life. And

19:42

it is completely, completely

19:44

different answer. I see the hand of

19:46

God in my life in this way and that, and he's done

19:48

this and whatever. It was just that reminder

19:50

that even when we're near or

19:52

we think we're near the end, God's

19:55

not done with us, right? It's amazing

19:57

what he may choose to do in a latter

19:59

stage of life in our lives.

20:01

Truly amazing. That is

20:03

who God is. And even as we

20:05

look back over our weekend and sharing

20:07

what happened with one another,

20:09

if we're keeping our eyes on the Lord, we

20:11

may be seeing things through a different lens

20:14

this morning, knowing that even in the brokenness

20:16

like Unsung Hero tells us, the movie

20:18

or our own life, the scriptures

20:20

will remind us, like the life of Jacob.

20:23

Oh, he's not done. He's

20:25

just not done. But looking to

20:27

him and allowing him

20:30

to use our

20:32

lives for his glory. Well,

20:34

as we talk about your weekend, we

20:36

see that Oklahomans had

20:38

just a nasty weekend

20:41

when it comes to weather. Oh,

20:43

a couple of days of bad weather, followed

20:45

by a huge tornado

20:47

that went through the area. Over

20:50

45,000 people were still without power

20:52

last night. Fatalities

20:54

in this storm are.

20:56

Four people, including a four

20:58

month old. Which is just heartbreaking.

21:00

That you took the words right

21:02

out of my mouth. It is heartbreaking to

21:04

see the devastation is one thing and

21:07

then to know that lives were lost.

21:09

I mean, you talk about those pivotal moments where it's

21:11

like that marker

21:13

that it was before the.

21:15

Storm and.

21:16

After after the storm. This is one of those

21:18

things.

21:18

Yeah, it absolutely is. And

21:20

you know that now they're

21:23

saying weather is going to be impacting as

21:25

into last night and into today.

21:28

Uh, that the Gulf Coast is expecting

21:30

some pretty serious storms. So some

21:32

of the uh, areas like Jackson, Mississippi,

21:35

New Orleans, mobile, Alabama, um,

21:37

may have some pretty severe weather headed their way.

21:40

Wow. It's just huge

21:42

to see these storms. And if you live in an area

21:44

like we do, where this is very

21:46

possible at any given

21:49

time. Yeah, we used to have

21:51

like tornado season kind

21:53

of April through October.

21:56

That's not the case anymore. We've had

21:58

tornadoes ripped through here in December.

22:00

You just never know. And

22:02

when you see that devastation, it

22:05

is just it takes your breath away.

22:07

I know that first responders were

22:09

busy. Busy. And, um, Franklin

22:11

Graham and his crew will be on the ground.

22:14

Rapid response team from the Billy Graham

22:16

Evangelistic Association. So

22:18

as you see, opportunity to

22:20

pray and lift up because this this

22:23

is life changing stuff happening.

22:24

Sure. It really is. And

22:26

even some of the more northern states and

22:29

up in the plains, the Midwest,

22:31

expecting a little bit more severe weather,

22:33

not necessarily tornadoes, but,

22:35

uh, very strong winds and hail.

22:37

And there's going to be lives that are impacted

22:40

certainly through that. And so

22:42

depending on where you are, um,

22:45

you could be heading

22:47

into some pretty serious weather over the next

22:49

few days. And if we're not, I

22:51

think we can be grateful for that,

22:53

that that is not happening in our lives

22:55

right now. But yeah, certainly reason

22:57

to pray and to remember that even in the

23:00

midst of a lot of these hard

23:02

things that we may be facing, whether it's

23:04

the loss of a job or, you know,

23:06

a physical storm in life or

23:08

some other storm that God

23:10

has allowed to kind of rage up

23:13

in your life right now, even

23:15

in the midst of those hard times.

23:17

We do have a good, good

23:19

father because that is who he

23:21

is.