Sunday Service: On being judged | Sunday Service 2

0:00 Do you mind if I just press them on?

0:01 So, they're just rolling.

0:02 Yeah.

0:03 Okay.

0:03 [clears throat]

0:05 Recording.

0:06 That one's recording.

0:08 I hope that's good enough.

0:11 It has to be good enough.

0:13 That one.

0:14 There we go.

0:15 I mustn't pick my nose now.

0:16 I'm just going to have to let that sensation go.

0:18 Don't pick your nose.

0:19 Get your picking and scratching done.

0:21 It's all done.

0:22 You do the introduction.

0:25 What do I say?

0:26 [laughter]

0:26 Hello and welcome to Sunday service with the brand.

0:30 Hello and welcome to Sunday service with the brands.

0:34 Then a nice bit of music.

0:42 Hello.

0:42 Thanks for joining us again for Sunday service with the brands.

0:48 And um we like doing this last time.

0:51 Thanks for your lovely comments.

0:52 Do let us know in the comments what you'd like

0:54 to see us discuss and uh please keep up the encouragement.

0:57 It really helps.

0:59 It really helps I suppose for me I'm working out the way

1:06 that um my spiritual life and public

1:09 life intersect the very concept of vocation.

1:13 what it is to be a public person and a follower

1:18 of Jesus and in a way how to manage the idea

1:22 of authenticity and legitimacy particularly after as we mentioned last week some

1:26 of the um press and media stuff I did in New York

1:31 and just so for anyone who didn't see

1:33 it last week what's your motivation for doing it

1:35 well my motivation it's probably coming from uh wanting a well originally it

1:41 came from wanting to listen to something like this and trying to find something.

1:45 That's where it came from originally.

1:46 Like

1:47 because I listen to Sha Bean's Bird podcast.

1:49 It's the only podcast I listen to is Sha Bean's Bird podcast.

1:54 Um yeah, I wanted to listen to something on a Sunday morning.

1:57 I wanted it to be reflective and uh not too intellectual.

2:02 I wanted question I wanted and then I personally

2:04 wanted a space to be able to ask questions and feel like uh if you don't know

2:09 the Bible maybe as well for example as you do.

2:12 I know very well as anyone who watched

2:14 Pierce Morgan knows any any passage like that.

2:17 We just get a timer out and time you as to how quick

2:19 you watch test me

2:22 right [laughter]

2:25 that's the one I know um okay so what I felt was that it would be

2:29 something that we can um utilize the skill set we both have which is

2:34 mine to maybe ask questions and not be afraid to ask inquis in inquiries

2:40 as to passages in the Bible um but also for you to be able

2:44 to um for us to have a a shared space um for prayer

2:48 and contemplation and like you said yes it's um I don't you know it's difficult

2:53 because uh you can go between wanting to look at positive things that come

2:58 about something and then you don't want

3:00 to see negative things you mean positive feedback

3:02 feedback yeah comments you mentioned about comments sorry

3:04 I didn't say that but when you say

3:05 about comments I've really tried to practice all

3:08 week almost trying to be not influenced either

3:11 way so even when you get nice comments it's good to take it on board

3:14 and be responsive But not to let it all fall on that we're doing this, you know,

3:19 for external reasons.

3:20 It has to be just for

3:22 Yeah, we do have to get there.

3:24 One [clears throat] of my friends and teachers,

3:25 Jamie Winship, writer of the book Living Fearless,

3:28 he has a new book out now as well,

3:29 who I was talking to about my feelings after going on those podcasts,

3:33 and he said, "All of those comments, all that stuff," he goes,

3:36 "The people that do that kind of thing,

3:38 they'll be doing it anyway, at least for for 72 hours or however long it was.

3:43 They weren't doing it about the Muslims or the Jews

3:45 or gays or Trump supporters or Camala Harris support or whatever.

3:50 They were doing it about you for 72 hours and they'll

3:52 still be doing it now after it's not about you.

3:55 Now, what was your um you found something in Samuel you said.

3:59 What was that?

4:00 I did because um and maybe actually we'll also pray like we did last time.

4:05 Let's start with a prayer.

4:06 Let's start with a prayer.

4:08 [sighs] [gasps] Be with us, Lord.

4:12 What I mean by that is sometimes I I

4:16 rattle around between um the Christ that's discovered in scripture,

4:20 the Christ that I know in my heart

4:23 and the understanding that no matter how high I know,

4:27 no matter how deep, no matter how wide you go, Christ is there with you.

4:30 There's that psalm that says that.

4:32 Huh.

4:34 And I I've been thinking this week about a deep time Christ.

4:37 The Christ that's there before the creation of the earth.

4:41 Christ that can handle intellectualism, rationalism,

4:47 that you can come back to you, Jesus, that I can come back to you.

4:53 Help us to be useful to the people that need it.

4:57 So that people feel that participating in a spiritual life is a real option now.

5:02 Now that the world increasingly shows itself,

5:06 worldliness is showing itself for what it really is.

5:10 Thank you Lord for our marriage.

5:12 Bless the marriages of those watching this and bless

5:15 the people that are not married watching this.

5:18 Show us who we can help and how we can serve.

5:21 We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ.

5:23 Amen.

5:25 Amen.

5:27 I got this from a very famous devotional streams in the desert.

5:31 The reading that I had today God that cannot lie promised.

5:38 Faith is not working up by willpower a sort

5:41 of certainty that something is coming to pass,

5:44 but it is seeing as an actual fact that God

5:47 has said that this thing shall come to pass

5:51 and that it is true and then rejoicing to know

5:54 that it is true and just resting because God has said it.

5:59 Faith turns the promise into a prophecy.

6:02 While it's merely a promise, it is contingent upon our cooperation.

6:06 But when faith claims it, excuse me,

6:10 it becomes a prophecy and we go from feeling that it

6:13 is something that must be done because God cannot lie.

6:17 I hear men praying everywhere for more faith.

6:19 But when I listen to them carefully and get the real heart of their prayer,

6:22 very often it is not more faith at all that they are wanting,

6:26 but a change from faith to sight.

6:28 Faith says not, "I see that it is good for me,

6:32 so God must have sent it." But God sent it, so it must be good for me.

6:38 Faith, walking in the dark with God,

6:41 only prays him to clasp its hand more closely.

6:46 And I feel like that reading reminded me a little

6:47 bit of the book of Samuel that you found something in.

6:52 What was that one?

6:53 Well, I in the week was feeling uh probably like inevitably when there's

7:00 a lot of attention on something whether you're looking at it or not,

7:04 it it can disturb your energy and

7:07 well like you feel it like Yeah, like you can feel it.

7:09 The moon pulling or something.

7:11 Yeah, I do think that I think you can feel um I

7:16 think about this a lot actually that saying when they say like,

7:18 "Oh, you've got a hot ear." Must mean someone's talking about you.

7:20 What's that thing again?

7:21 My ears got hot my ear.

7:24 Your ears will have been burning.

7:25 Not you've got a hot ear.

7:26 [laughter] That's not a saying.

7:28 Okay.

7:28 I didn't actually couldn't remember it.

7:30 As the old saying goes, you've got a hot ear.

7:34 I've got a hot ear.

7:36 No, you know, your ears would have been burning.

7:38 My my ears were burning.

7:39 But actually, but you aren't the person that says that.

7:42 It's like you're like this is it.

7:43 Your mom.

7:43 All right.

7:44 I'll be my mom.

7:46 All right.

7:47 Hello.

7:48 [laughter] Hello.

7:50 Why you picking up Russell's phone?

7:53 Get your hands up.

7:54 She'll she'll go like, "Your ears would have been burning.

7:57 Your ears would have been burning, Russell.

7:59 We was talking about you, me and an okay, [laughter]

8:04 that's that's that's right." And I think that that obviously

8:07 we could look into why where does that come from?

8:10 I'm sure there's something,

8:11 but I genuinely do feel and I think of that saying

8:14 a lot except for I've been thinking about it as a hot air.

8:17 Um, okay.

8:19 That's it.

8:20 When the ears are burning, presumably that comes from somewhere.

8:23 I know that I can feel I feel like a a sense

8:27 not just because you've told me there's something on X,

8:30 [laughter] not just because just because I feel like it

8:33 changes uh the sort of ecosystem of the energy around you.

8:37 And obviously that's like there's been a lot of eyes on us at times,

8:41 you know, specifically in the three, you know, last three years.

8:44 And I could say that like you have to you have to fight that with your own

8:50 you have to you have to fight that with a spiritual it's a spiritual fight.

8:54 It's not like you have to go and read all the comments

8:57 and start combating and texting and messaging

8:59 people and doing it's not like that.

9:01 It's literally like you have to almost put your armor on.

9:04 You have to build a resilience.

9:06 You have to uh So this is where this came from.

9:08 In the week I was really trying to find

9:11 comfort in feeling like honestly that pe the judgment

9:17 people's judgment should not affect me as a person

9:21 like you're in an ambiencece of hot ear judgment blazing away at the loss.

9:26 It is were blazing and I just felt like what I'm really looking for is

9:30 to not feel that if you get a good text you're in a good mood.

9:33 If you get a bad text you're in a bad mood.

9:35 I wanted comfort against all like and a midstall cuz cuz

9:40 really um otherwise it's just you're obviously it is a roller coaster.

9:44 Yeah.

9:44 [clears throat] Oh yeah.

9:45 Oh my goodness.

9:46 So I was looking for comfort.

9:49 I wanted So I'm going to read 1 Samuel 16:7.

9:52 [laughter] Stop talking about hot ears and read the quote.

9:56 I was quicker finding Isaiah 43:18 on Piers Morgan.

10:00 I actually didn't.

10:00 He wouldn't like how long I take to get to something.

10:02 He wouldn't for that.

10:03 No.

10:03 Uh, so here we here we go.

10:05 This is what this is what I was looking for.

10:06 Trust trust that God sees the truth.

10:09 1 Samuel 16:7.

10:11 The Lord does not look at the things people look at.

10:14 People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

10:19 That is what I read to myself over and over

10:21 this week and it genuinely genuinely brought me great comfort.

10:25 Go on.

10:26 How come?

10:26 Uh because because ultimately when you know that if you're if

10:30 you're knowing that your heart is being seen and that your heart

10:33 is is the the the the truth uh the loving

10:37 kindness the uh you know the the flaws as well

10:41 the the whole nature of one's heart being seen

10:45 by the Lord means that nothing is being missed but also nothing

10:49 is being judged by what we say in a moment

10:52 or that we don't find something quick enough on on on command.

10:56 or that we may have um been impatient with our our children

11:00 or that we may have got cross in a traffic jam or whatever.

11:03 I'm just saying it it really does make it makes me feel comforted

11:08 that then you can go to prayer and speak directly to God with that.

11:12 I really like the idea that God can see beyond all of it.

11:17 Yeah.

11:18 The idea is that um one of the words someone taught

11:20 me this I went on that Thomas uh no not Thomas

11:23 Aquinus pints for Aquinus podcast the other day and funny enough

11:27 um Preston who's my friend who I know through Dave had

11:30 said it there's a word for Christ it's like paraclete I

11:33 think is the word and it's a Greek I guess word

11:35 for advocate or defense council like Christ is your defense council

11:40 to counter the fallen one the devil that is the accuser

11:45 now what's really weird about being Christian or believing

11:47 God at all is you're believing in some something

11:49 supernatural like I reckon for a long time me

11:51 and you lived in a kind of new age environment.

11:53 Hey, where you'd sort of believe in I

11:55 don't know like some sort of amorphous idea

11:57 of a profound and universal intelligence that's but you're

12:01 not committing to ideas like good and evil

12:04 and a lion the witch in the wardrobe

12:06 style Lord of the Rings battles against dark

12:08 forces but the Christian scripture is very clear

12:11 there is evil organized evil principle in this world.

12:17 Yeah.

12:17 The idea that you can be defended by Christ,

12:20 the idea that you don't have to start off thinking that you

12:23 got bad luck or you're being punished for something that you deserve,

12:26 that there is in fact an evil principle prevailing in this world.

12:30 There is evil in the world.

12:31 We see it everywhere.

12:32 We recognize it.

12:33 We know that our systems have fallen.

12:34 We know that there is darkness.

12:36 Anyway, um Laura, my darling,

12:39 this idea of an accuser and a paraclete and the idea

12:42 too that God can judge you and God knows your heart.

12:47 That's a sort of relief because actually

12:48 I don't have anything to fear from that.

12:50 I mean, I know I'm broken.

12:51 I know what I've done and what I've not done and all those kind of things.

12:53 It's like a real relief particularly when

12:55 the outward stimulation can be like whoever you are

12:58 in your life even if your problem if your problems are financial I know a lot

13:01 of people that that's their problem or heartbreak

13:04 or loneliness or betrayal or whatever it is having

13:08 faith in God that this is going to be used to improve your life to be trusting

13:15 I don't find that at all easy no neither do I

13:18 feel like I want to grab control and then I know

13:20 that I'm ultimately pretty weak so I can't produce positive results.

13:25 And you've got to somehow align that with a more say,

13:27 you know, I'm friends by God's grace with Tony Robbins,

13:29 someone that's really masterful at um leading

13:32 you to a point of personal excellence,

13:37 but I'm a Christian and I love the CS Lewis quote, the Stoics,

13:41 you know, stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, um and like that sort of stoic school,

13:46 which as the word stoics, if you know the word at all,

13:48 it mean people generally mean you can hold yourself together under pressure.

13:54 Stoic, a stoic person.

13:55 Well, CS Lewis said, "The Stoic's error is to assume that what

14:00 a man can do sometimes, he can do always."

14:05 Yeah.

14:04 Sometimes I can hold it together, but I can't always.

14:09 Yeah.

14:08 And now I'm really embracing weakness and vulnerability

14:12 and the kind of faith that you described there,

14:13 Laura, of a a God that knows your heart.

14:17 Now, can you tell me again where that was?

14:18 You said, I think it said 1 Samuel 16,

14:20 but then what was the actual [clears throat] verse?

14:23 One second.

14:24 I'll just take 30 sec 40 seconds to find

14:27 people are not going to put up with that.

14:28 1 Samuel 16:7.

14:32 I'm just trying to look at the context.

14:33 But the Lord said to Samuel,

14:34 "Do not consider his appearance or height." For I have rejected him.

14:41 The Lord does not look at things people look at.

14:44 People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

14:47 This is when Samuel is anointing King David.

14:51 Saul is currently king, who's a big shot king with broad

14:54 shoulders and head and shoulders above the rest,

14:57 but seems a little bit to use an American slang, douchy.

15:01 [laughter] And I like that.

15:05 And David, the shepherd, musician, warrior, king, is anointed.

15:13 He's about to be anointed, but uh Jesse, David's dad,

15:16 has got six older brothers and each of them,

15:20 one by one, almost Samuel the prophet is going through going, "Is it this one?

15:23 No.

15:23 Is it this one?

15:24 No." And I think Samuel, but like what was he said?

15:27 What's the verse before?

15:28 When they arrived at Jesse's house, Samuel saw Elab and thought,

15:32 "Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before

15:35 the Lord." But the Lord said to Samuel,

15:36 "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I've rejected him.

15:40 The Lord does not look at the things people look at.

15:43 People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

15:47 Oh man, that isn't it beautiful when you encounter

15:50 something in scripture that gives you a real boost.

15:53 A [laughter] real Yeah.

15:54 I mean, but also you do have to, you know,

15:57 it was still there was still times just in the week where, you know,

15:59 you just sort of one might just slump and go like, "Oh gosh, like,

16:04 you know, just feel like a the heaviness of a situation or just tired,

16:09 exhausted, drained from having to overthink

16:11 things and analyze things and you know,

16:14 like just actually probably what has to happen is in those moments I had one

16:19 of those days yesterday where I was just

16:20 finding it difficult to really to do anything.

16:22 you know, everything seemed a bit um difficult

16:24 and and and I just really probably what needs to happen

16:27 in those moments is you need to actually go

16:30 into a state of almost total you need to stop, go into place of restfulness,

16:37 embrace it and be okay with it and then think of connect

16:42 with God and actually something like that passage of of him knowing your heart.

16:47 That's exactly what in that moment

16:49 that needs to be your comfort and reassurance.

16:51 It is a summon of faith much like the reading from streams in a desert where

16:56 you have to be careful when you're praying

16:59 for faith and in faith are you really saying God it's not faith

17:03 I want I want measurable outward results I'd like some money to land

17:08 in my bank account I'd like people to start saying nice things about me

17:12 you know like you like and actually what I think and what scripture says

17:17 is that those of us that are on a spiritual path you are

17:19 being prepared you have been chosen isn't you are walking a spiritual path.

17:22 Now the world is not going to necessarily give you all

17:26 of the worldly things and in a way if the worldly things have

17:29 if you've encountered them and experienced them

17:31 and enjoyed them and to and ultimately

17:33 rejected them or at least found them wanting as I've done.

17:35 I'm talking about very superficial things like you know superficial pleasures

17:39 then um you're in a better position to start

17:43 maybe accepting what some people consider to be molding.

17:46 Do you think that when that that just the word humble just came to mind

17:50 and I'm imagining you know where what what you don't want is to be like riding

17:56 the waves of the highs and lows of all the positives and then all the because

18:00 the the higher you go the harder the long the higher the fall but really what

18:05 it is is do you think that feeling

18:07 of like when you're receiving some goodness rather

18:10 than thinking oh I can't receive this because if I receive if I receive this too

18:15 much and get too excited I'm going to be [laughter] I'm going to be not punished

18:18 but I'm going to think oh something bad will happen to sort of weigh it out.

18:21 Sometimes I think that like I don't want to look too much

18:24 at that praise because the next thing that comes will not be praise.

18:28 Do you think that just staying in a place of sort

18:30 of humbleness is where we need to be to receive?

18:33 Do you know what I mean by that?

18:34 We're in this world Lord and like it's not very easy if

18:37 something good happens to sort of go I'm not going to enjoy it.

18:39 But I think the I think the point one of the things

18:41 I've learned is or heard [snorts] if I've not learned it yet.

18:45 We'll see.

18:46 But like in the book of James which um like starts

18:48 with we consider it a great joy when we face trials

18:51 of any kind or pure joy when we face trials of any

18:54 kind because it creates um endurance and strength and patience in us.

18:57 Later on I think in that same book James who some

18:59 people thinks God Jesus brother and some people think he's Jesus cousin.

19:03 He says something about you don't want to be tossed around

19:05 in every wind and every breeze and moved around all the time.

19:08 And what I feel like is, you know,

19:10 when you see the comfort you get of God seeing your heart,

19:13 you I think we have to reciprocate that with seeing God's heart

19:17 and being a kind of I know that even though I would prefer,

19:20 you know, that we're not going to these hospital appointments

19:22 for our kid or that we're facing this challenge or the other,

19:27 that God loves me and that God will use this for to his end.

19:31 And we know that's possible because otherwise there wouldn't

19:32 be something called the Parolympics where people that have

19:35 endured incredible suffering and what you might regard as disability

19:40 are incredible and and live fulfilling and rich lives.

19:44 Indeed, you know, there's a sort of a maybe um I think this is true that there's

19:50 a there was a study of lottery winners

19:52 versus paraplegics and um it wasn't a fight.

19:56 [laughter] The lottery winners have

19:58 been brilliantly trained using their winnings.

20:00 lottery winners versus paraple.

20:01 They found out that lottery winners that prior

20:03 to winning the lottery had been somewhat depressed

20:06 and uh you I don't know manic or troubled

20:10 ultimately after an initial boost return to that state.

20:14 And the same with paraplegics that some people that had

20:17 encountered a life-changing and disabling one might say accident

20:22 uh ultimately found their way to the sort of space that they'd been in before.

20:28 Yeah.

20:28 I mean to say that the vicissitudes and everchanging conditions

20:32 of our life cannot determine us can't determine who we are because

20:36 if God is not looking at outward things but at our heart

20:39 what that's telling us is it is who you are

20:43 within and who you are to him that's important now if people if

20:48 you believe in a kind of a new age thing I reckon you

20:49 end up with that kind of superstitious oh something good might happen

20:52 and as Alan Partridge British beloved comedy

20:56 character says I've had a negative Lyn,

20:58 now I need two positives.

21:00 One positive to cancel out the negative

21:02 and now another positive just another positive.

21:05 Yeah, it's good.

21:05 I think about it all the time.

21:07 Um like we [snorts] when you believe in him

21:10 and when you know him and when you're with him,

21:14 I still feel the same things I always used to feel.

21:16 Why can't everyone be nice to me?

21:18 I want glory.

21:19 I want But I recognize it as fleeting and pointless and empty.

21:25 Yeah.

21:26 I I was just thinking when you said that I

21:27 read in the week um and I sent it to some

21:30 friends of mine um if if thank if thankfulness if

21:35 thank you was the only prayer it would be enough.

21:38 Thankfulness and thank you was the only prayer it would be enough.

21:41 And actually that's that's what you're saying

21:43 when we're saying we look at God's heart.

21:45 Really all we need to do is be thankful.

21:48 Yeah.

21:48 This is the day that the Lord has made.

21:51 Be glad and rejoice in it.

21:52 Today you're going to deal with these things.

21:54 Wow.

21:54 Thank you God.

21:55 Okay.

21:56 Thank you Lord.

21:57 What do you want us to become?

21:58 But I did hear this thing like you know instead of praying

22:00 for a miracle pray for the strength to endure your circumstances.

22:04 Then you are the miracle.

22:05 And that's what we want to be.

22:06 We want to be participants in his great glory.

22:09 Not down here in the world hoping oh maybe

22:12 I can ek out a living here by acquiring stuff.

22:15 And I know when you're living in poverty and peny it's hard to see

22:18 the world that way because it's

22:19 just basically trying to fulfill rudimentary needs.

22:22 But there is nothing to be gained down here.

22:25 Should I read my thing?

22:26 That was Yeah, I'd like to hear that.

22:27 You got anything else you wanted to say?

22:29 I I actually for now I've said it all.

22:32 Do you think it's significant that both of us are in like 12step recovery?

22:35 Me for a long time with drinking drugs,

22:36 you more laterally with sort of codependency and relationships

22:39 and it gives us a sort of a good foundation.

22:41 12step recovery is a sort of a method

22:42 and a technique for overcoming addiction and recognizing

22:45 that you can within yourself create a foundation

22:48 of change and the conditions for spiritual growth.

22:50 Obviously, you're not going to be dependent

22:51 on drugs or relationships or pornography or whatever.

22:54 Do you think it's important?

22:55 I do.

22:55 I mean, I think it helps with self-centeredness.

22:58 That's where I think it helps because also

23:00 sometimes you can be totally dominated by your own

23:03 problems and things like that.

23:04 And then when you sit in a room with other people, you realize actually

23:08 people's lives are complicated and it's not just you in the world.

23:12 And and also because you can't cross talk,

23:16 you can't sort of cross over and sort of make it about you.

23:18 You have to really listen.

23:20 What does that mean?

23:21 Cross talk.

23:22 You can't speak over somebody and offer advice

23:24 in the middle of somebody sharing something intimate about themselves.

23:27 You have to just listen.

23:29 And you can maybe in your mind you're thinking, how does this apply to me?

23:32 But you really have to think this is for this is this bit that's for them.

23:38 I mean, you know, they say it was you're in you're in it for your own recovery,

23:42 but you're you know, you have to I know.

23:46 I suppose it helps me it helps with self-centeredness.

23:50 It's interesting how self-centerness can be masked.

23:53 My self-centeredness is so um lurid and vivid that it's difficult to miss.

23:58 Um [laughter] but it didn't need to like um but I

24:02 like the idea that we recover the person we're intended to be.

24:05 Someone taught me and this idea of having an identity in God rather than

24:09 an identity in the world relates back to what you said from 1 Samuel 16 there.

24:13 He sees your heart.

24:14 He sees you who you really are.

24:16 The world might not see you as that.

24:18 But like that will expose to you.

24:20 Oh, actually I don't care about God.

24:22 I care about Instagram.

24:25 Instagram's my God.

24:26 Now you know.

24:27 Now you know.

24:28 The thing that I wanted to read and I don't

24:29 know how I got to this for two reasons I guess.

24:31 Um I was I I read Course in Miracles.

24:34 I'm doing Course in Miracles.

24:35 Let me know in the comments and chat if you've heard of that.

24:37 If you know what that is.

24:38 Um, and I the reason I like it is cuz I never sense

24:41 in it anything that's um at odds

24:43 with scripture since becoming a follower of Jesus.

24:48 I'm uh thinking a lot about where there are either so social or cultural

24:54 contradictions or at least things

24:55 from the society or culture that contradict Christianity.

24:58 You've always got to yield to what it says in the word.

25:01 And then I've been wondering about what it says in other

25:03 I've looked at to a degree superficially as an autodidact other religions.

25:07 Vades and Maharabata and Buddhism,

25:10 just stuff you read when you're going through life.

25:13 Anyway, um I was thinking about how well

25:18 if it aligns with scripture, there's no problem.

25:21 Like the point of scripture is to give you something absolute,

25:24 something you can rely on more than a fluctuating

25:27 ever changing world will one day tell you this behavior

25:29 or this pose is fantastic and then another day tell

25:33 you this is the worst thing you could ever do.

25:36 it the world is unreliable.

25:38 It is according to this book actually fallen

25:41 and controlled by the most evil forces imaginable.

25:44 And in a post Epstein files world,

25:46 those kind of ideas seem a little there's a little more tissue

25:50 to appreciate how something so supernatural could actually apply to, you know,

25:55 ordinary governance and power, shall we say?

25:58 But that's not my point.

25:59 My point here is uh a famous parable of Christ's the uh parable

26:06 of the lost son often mostly referred

26:08 to as the prodical son that's been written about

26:10 pretty extensively um by for example Henry

26:13 Nan I think is his name Catholic priest

26:16 someone gave me that beautiful book

26:18 of his that that uses that parable to illustrate

26:22 a few things and the po I suppose the parable

26:24 and you tell me Lord cuz I know you're not

26:25 so familiar with it and I'll read it out now

26:28 or you can read it actually do you want read it.

26:30 I'll read some of it.

26:30 You

26:31 swap it over.

26:32 All right.

26:32 Then you read a bit.

26:33 But the point I want to make and the point that's important I do make,

26:36 I reckon, is that Christ is in this instance talking in front of the Pharisees.

26:40 And the Pharisees are the the strongest cultural voice of that time.

26:43 The the Pharisees and the Sadducees and of course

26:45 the sort of powers of the Roman Empire.

26:47 They were occupying Jerusalem at that time.

26:50 The point of the Pharisees is is

26:51 they're the guardians of what's right and wrong.

26:53 Who are the Pharisees of these days?

26:55 And are the Pharisees a forceful good or evil?

26:57 Certainly in the Bible, Christ's reckoning is they're a brood of vipers.

27:00 They're the worst possible people.

27:02 In fact, he condemns them more than Satan.

27:04 And one wonders if from a Christian perspective,

27:06 are the Pharisees controlled by Satan?

27:08 I'd love people I'd love to know what people think about something like that.

27:10 It's certainly something I've discussed around.

27:12 Anyway, the point here is is when Jesus tells the story of the prodigal

27:15 son of a son who asks for his inheritance while his son,

27:18 excuse me, while his father's still alive, goes off,

27:20 spends his inheritance on wild living while the older brother,

27:24 the older son, diligently stays at home and works

27:26 with his father only to bloat a lot, the younger son does,

27:30 on I think it literally says sort of whoring and the whatever

27:34 the uh the the ancient world's equivalent of drug use was.

27:39 Yeah, he was up to no good this lad and he finds himself down but a pig's

27:42 eating the pig food and then thinking I should just go back to my dad's.

27:45 What was I thinking?

27:47 That's the part of the story everyone knows

27:49 and the fact that the father runs toward him.

27:52 Obviously Christ is using this parable as he always does to illustrate

27:56 some significant metaphysical profound spiritual point

28:00 in this instance that if we if we repent of our old life turn away from the old

28:05 life of worshiping the world pleasure self whatever God will run to you.

28:10 God will not just be like yeah all right and God won't

28:12 go you've got some punishments first and you've got to prove yourself.

28:15 God's like get here you've loved you.

28:18 [laughter] I've been waiting for this.

28:20 But he tell our Lord, he tells this story in front of the Pharisees.

28:23 The h they're always trying to catch Jesus out the whole time,

28:28 [laughter] telling him he's a demon and whatnot.

28:31 And it's not Jesus really.

28:32 They don't even believe in the possibility of good.

28:34 They don't believe in the possibility of good.

28:36 Anyway, the older brother our Lord uses

28:39 to illustrate their position because the older brother is he's miffed.

28:43 He's peeved.

28:44 He's well vexed that that the brother's just been accepted back.

28:48 And the the parable ends on a cliffhanger.

28:51 And some have argued I think I probably got

28:53 this from Henry Nylan or um Tim uh what's the other dude?

28:57 The the pasta the famous sort of sort of post CS Lewis style.

29:02 You've got books in that marriage one.

29:03 Tim Kent Tim Ke Tim Tim Tim Tim um yeah I do.

29:07 Um see if you can think of it.

29:09 I'll go through my alphabet.

29:10 Put it in the comments.

29:11 Don't do your alphabet thing.

29:12 Don't do you think where you see the world

29:14 like the m the the calendar as a circle

29:16 calendars actually is what that is

29:18 actually a condition you've got I have

29:19 we've got enough play about you getting calendar [laughter] synthesia

29:23 I'm going around in circles okay yeah go um I'll remember it in a minute

29:29 can't remember kelp kim [snorts] all right so it's in front

29:33 of the tax collector sorry excuse me it's in front

29:35 of the Pharisees just to establish that Jesus continued there was

29:39 a man who had two sons the younger one said to his father.

29:42 This, by the way, is from Luke, uh, Luke 15:11.

29:46 There was a man who had two two sons.

29:48 The younger one said to his father, "Father,

29:52 give me a share of the estate." So, he divided his property between them.

29:56 Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had,

29:59 set off for a for a distant country,

30:04 and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

30:07 After he'd spent everything,

30:09 there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need.

30:13 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen

30:16 of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

30:21 Slow life work.

30:22 And it no offense to any pig farmers like for example Jim

30:27 aka Vic Greavves who was on on your Sha Bean podcast.

30:30 I'm imagining we're not talking about the farmers of now.

30:33 These are the farmers of yesterday year.

30:35 These are the farmers of yesterday.

30:37 I'm talking about the pig farmers of yesterday

30:38 year and I imagine it it was probably not

30:42 plus this is a par it's not an plus it's

30:44 a parable so he's saying he's in a foreign land he's not

30:46 in his native land our native land is to be with the father

30:49 is to be with God when we if we sort of say

30:52 do you take your inheritance that's the power god has given

30:55 you uniquely you Laura Brand uniquely me Russell Brand uniquely you watching

30:59 or listening if you go oh thank you for giving me

31:02 that the body that works a brain a language that I can speak nature,

31:07 lungs, air, whatever it is, you didn't make it.

31:10 It's an inheritance.

31:11 You were granted it.

31:12 And people sort of think, I did this.

31:13 I pulled myself up.

31:14 I used to think that actually.

31:15 I pulled myself up by my bootstraps is what I done.

31:17 I created my life.

31:18 Well, who gave you the ability to talk fast, for example,

31:22 if that's part of it or to make jokes or who

31:25 gave you lucky breaks here and there along the way?

31:28 There's such a minuscule pipsqueak amount of your personal

31:31 achievements that you can really claim ownership of.

31:34 It's an inheritance.

31:35 Anyway, so you but we go and live in the foreign world,

31:37 the fallen world, a pig farming world, the world of the fallen one.

31:42 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods the pigs were eating,

31:45 but no one gave him anything.

31:46 What are them pods going to be, L?

31:48 Oh, I I can't even imagine a pod.

31:51 A pig pod?

31:53 I mean, I don't know.

31:54 Is it like a a seed off a tree or is it something more?

31:59 When I've seen drawings like in a children's Bible,

32:01 it looks to me like a big runner bean.

32:04 Oh, yeah.

32:04 Yeah, that's what I was imagining.

32:05 But but very I imagine it's probably dry.

32:08 It is dry.

32:09 Those poor poor pigs.

32:10 This poor poor lad.

32:11 But he did it to himself in true radio head fashion.

32:15 Um he longed to eat him, but no one gave him anything.

32:17 He couldn't even get the pig's food, by the way.

32:19 When he came to his senses, Oh, that's good.

32:21 He He was in a kind of delirium.

32:23 He was in a delirium.

32:24 He was living in the illusion.

32:27 Yeah.

32:26 He was living in the matrix.

32:27 A pig matrix.

32:28 A pig pod matrix.

32:30 He said, "How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare?

32:34 And here I am starving to death.

32:36 I will sit out set out and go back to my father and say,

32:39 "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

32:42 I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

32:45 Make me like one of your hired servants." So he got up and went to his father.

32:50 But while he was still a long way off,

32:52 his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.

32:55 He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.

33:00 Like, I mean, if you've got kids, you know,

33:02 like they can be very, very, very annoying,

33:05 but like if they're cute for just one second.

33:07 Oh, yeah.

33:08 Yeah.

33:09 Yeah.

33:09 And and also how quickly you go back to just

33:13 loving and devotion even if they've been extremely naughty.

33:17 [laughter] I mean, you know, one child,

33:23 one sibling knocks the other sibling over the heads

33:26 with a dog's bone and, you know, it's like, "Oh, no.

33:30 Don't do that." And then the next minute, "Oh, weren't you?

33:33 You're perfect.

33:34 You're very, very special, aren't you?"

33:37 You can't cut that kid off just cuz they hit another

33:40 one of your kids on the head with a dog bone.

33:43 No.

33:43 No.

33:44 You just It's an unconditional love.

33:46 And if we that are fallen love our children so much,

33:49 imagine how our father in heaven loves us.

33:52 Well, so in this case, what what because

33:54 he's really embracing his his son's come back.

33:58 What I like Yeah.

34:00 What I like L is while he was still a long way off.

34:02 His father saw him and was filled for compassion for him.

34:05 He ran to his son.

34:06 He threw his arms around him and kissed him.

34:09 To be that loved, to know that you are that loved.

34:12 Like if you've just been down with a pig trying

34:13 to eat them what we consider to be quite dry pig pods.

34:17 [laughter] Yeah.

34:19 Look into this actually.

34:20 Yeah.

34:20 We got to find out the agriculture like what the porcene diet.

34:25 Yeah.

34:25 I can't even imagine a pod that would be big enough to fill a pig.

34:28 These are fat pigs and they're muddy.

34:30 Oh no.

34:30 Okay.

34:31 Right.

34:32 The son said to him, "Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you.

34:37 I'm no longer worthy to be called

34:38 your son." But the father said to his servants,

34:39 "Quick, bring the best robe, put it on him.

34:42 Bring put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

34:46 Bring the fatten calf and kill it.

34:48 Let's have a feast and celebrate." Absolutely everything.

34:50 Totally restored.

34:51 He's getting robes.

34:52 He's getting rings.

34:52 He's getting sand.

34:53 I heard Father Mike Schmidt say that might have even been the family robe.

34:56 The only one they had in the whole family.

35:00 Okay.

34:59 Slapping it straight on him.

35:02 And then listen to this.

35:03 For this, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

35:06 He was lost and is found.

35:08 So they began to celebrate here I suppose

35:09 is a bit of an undergirling for the Christian

35:11 position that when you're living a life in sin and I hate the word sin

35:15 by the way but one of the things I liked about it is sin is not

35:18 the act but the state that precedes an act

35:21 like you're in a one might say a frequency

35:24 or system of fallenness when you could be in the flow of your native

35:29 kingdom in your inheritance rather than down in the pig pod matrix.

35:34 Yeah.

35:36 Now, this is where it gets sort of interesting.

35:38 The second son is a part of the prodigal is, you know, it's the climax.

35:41 Well, not necessarily the climax of the story,

35:43 but it's the inquiry left at the end of the story.

35:45 I suppose the climax is God's embrace of the returning son,

35:48 but it the coder and the conclusion of the story is this.

35:53 Meanwhile, the elder son was in the field.

35:56 When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.

35:59 So, he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.

36:03 Your brother's come, he replied.

36:05 And your father's killed the fat and calf cuz he has him back safe and sound.

36:10 The elder brother became angry and refused to go in.

36:14 So his father went out and pleaded with him.

36:17 But he answered his father, "Look,

36:20 all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

36:25 Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

36:29 But when this son of yours who

36:31 has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home,

36:35 you filled a fattened you killed a fattened calf for him.

36:40 My son, the father said, you are always with me and everything I have is yours.

36:46 But we had to celebrate and be glad because

36:48 this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.

36:52 He was lost and is found.

36:55 In the first analysis of the story that I read,

36:57 what I really liked, you think I'm nearly crying at my own beard.

37:00 [laughter] Is that what you going to say?

37:01 You were gulping back the tears.

37:04 I can see it.

37:06 Partly I sort of was captivated by your Well,

37:09 you you were clo That was a Sha Bean performance if I may say.

37:12 Do you think it was a good Very very good.

37:14 It was captivating, but I also did catch a glint of your eye towards the end.

37:20 Um, so much so that you forgot that I was meant to read part of that.

37:24 Oh my god, [laughter] that's so typical of me.

37:28 I've I let it happen.

37:30 I thought halfway through I thought, is he going to pass me this?

37:32 Because actually I'm also he's going you

37:34 you were moving in so many different characters.

37:37 I thought I'm going to have to find where it is.

37:39 And I was thinking for a moment about where I'm going to find the passage,

37:42 but I was enjoying it.

37:43 I was I don't think you could have captured the bitterness

37:47 of the older son of the older brother.

37:49 I would definitely not have captured that.

37:50 That was that was a performance.

37:52 It occurred to me this would be a good time to show grace, compassion,

37:57 and I'm a a husband that honors and rever

38:00 his wife as the number one person in my world.

38:03 But then I thought, no,

38:06 it's more important that the people receive a good rendering,

38:10 a fantastic performance.

38:12 Sorry about that.

38:13 Now, what did you which character before we

38:15 get into the meaning of this important story,

38:17 which character do you think I did best?

38:19 Um, I would say it was the father that nearly

38:22 caught you by caught caught you gumping back the teeth.

38:27 Yeah, that's not that I did it best.

38:28 That's what I was That's I sentimentally turned myself on.

38:32 Well, the the one where I thought the brother, the resentful brother,

38:37 I thought that that was there was some fire in his loins.

38:41 I'd say he was he was really getting his gander up there for his sort of [gasps]

38:46 o [sighs] he was feeling I could feel the resentment and the sort of the feeling

38:50 of like what like how can you allow this to happen like why are you doing

38:55 this so much have you not seen me

38:57 have you not noticed me unseen he feels unseen.

39:00 Yeah that's what it is.

39:01 He feels unseen.

39:02 Imagine the feeling of the of the toil

39:05 and the exhaustion and you know it just Yeah.

39:09 No, he he's the one we obviously feel sympathy

39:12 for, but he's also was the one I was most captivated by.

39:16 Thanks.

39:16 I'm not taking I mean, I can't take all the credit.

39:18 I didn't write the Bible, but I did write this fine book,

39:22 How to Become Christian in Seven Days.

39:23 There's a link in description if you want it.

39:25 It's good.

39:26 Um, a lot of people focus, Laura,

39:28 on the attitude problem of the older brother of like him saying,

39:31 "I've been slaving this son of yours.

39:34 You ain't even give me a young goat." like it's like

39:37 as if I think what I take to be the point

39:39 what they don't like that he's like that the older brother people say

39:43 what people focusing on

39:45 people are focusing on that the older brother is revealed not to have

39:48 been staying at the house with the father cuz he wanted to or because

39:52 he loves the father but cuz he wants to get something out

39:54 of it and he's always had one eye on the prize the lad

39:57 well maybe for for sorry but for what it's worth I'd say he's a committed guy I

40:03 mean like if it's sort of like if

40:05 it's commitment and loyalty and sort of like obviously,

40:10 you know, I would say he's working for a long-term goal,

40:14 but of course it's inevitable his father's going to die.

40:17 So why shouldn't he I suppose why shouldn't he

40:19 be there working the land and doing that stuff?

40:22 I I don't know.

40:23 It's just a thought.

40:24 I look what I want to say is at some point we have

40:27 to make the jump from parable to what the function of the parable is.

40:30 The father is God.

40:32 The many people argue that the older brother are the Pharisees,

40:36 the people to say, "Hey, we've been doing everything right.

40:38 We're wearing the the proper hat." Okay.

40:40 But they're not really, but it's not like true spirit.

40:43 Precisely.

40:43 Slaving.

40:44 They've been doing it for the wrong reasons.

40:46 Right.

40:46 Right.

40:47 Whereas a prodigal son, yeah, he's got out there.

40:50 Well, I think what it is is you're quite right.

40:53 And you know, of course, forgiveness, but like here's the thing.

40:56 Actually what it is is we aren't even in hearing the story we're so set up

41:02 to feel like when I even hear the story we're so set up to feel like poor

41:07 oh prodical yeah no elder brother you feel sorry for the older brother

41:11 I don't feel sorry for him as such but when you hear it and you think like

41:14 yeah he's being celebrated that he's thinking he's

41:16 looking through the window like that at the party he could come back anytime

41:21 yes you're right he could and now I've

41:23 got the different uh perspective which is you're Right.

41:25 I hadn't even thought almost I think maybe I

41:27 was too captivated by your performance to realize that when

41:31 Excellent manipulation when he said um I could celebrate with my friends but was

41:35 uh whatever it was saying that he was working to this end

41:38 of of almost like he was man manipulating the father as you

41:42 will if you will uh to get something or to gain something.

41:46 No, I hadn't really thought about that.

41:48 He says look look all these years I've been slaving for you.

41:52 Remember when the prodigal son's out in the pig's land,

41:56 pig pod, world of wonder, pepper pigs, fe parker pods.

41:59 He says, "I'll go back to my dad and just be like a servant." Right.

42:03 Right.

42:03 To not be in a position of co-airship as it's described in the book of Romans,

42:07 one Paul's letters later,

42:08 which I'm trying to cut God rest his soul when I met him said

42:11 that's the Christian constitution.

42:13 That's how you should live as a Christian and how

42:15 we should do politics as a Christian and living.

42:17 He he we're not meant to be slaves to God.

42:21 We're meant to love God.

42:22 We're meant to be.

42:23 Not doing this.

42:24 It's not meant to be.

42:26 You act all right, wear these hats, say these things,

42:29 dress up nice, and then you're going to get a fatted calf.

42:33 It's meant to be, I love you, God, you love me, I trust you, God.

42:37 In fact,

42:38 one thing I've noticed is there's a kind of a collapse of many words like faith,

42:42 love, trust, obedience, all start to mean the same thing in relation to God.

42:46 You love God, so you trust God, so you obey God.

42:50 So you have faith in God and it goes around in a kind of a circle rather than

42:56 see if the only thing stopping you going out doing the having sex

43:00 with prostitutes and wild living as it's

43:02 described here in Luke's gospel in the parable

43:06 is well actually that doesn't seem like a strategically wise move

43:09 if I want to inherit this farm go do it man like

43:13 that's the thing of why you know obviously this has followed

43:16 the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost sheep

43:19 and and that I suppose I don't know and this I

43:22 guess I'd like your comment on this is it's like it seems

43:25 to be saying that we're meant to be and along with at least

43:28 the proclamation of faith that Christ is here for broken people.

43:32 He's not here for people that are acting like actually I'm okay.

43:34 I've got it together cuz actually also I've got me realtor license.

43:38 I've got a nice car and I'm pretending to be a good person

43:41 cuz actually what the older brother now I'm seeing I'm seeing it as it is.

43:45 the older brother was slaving and you could say perhaps he's

43:50 the person that's living more consistently in a sort of materialistic

43:54 state like a state of if we think about like if

43:57 you think about in the world out there and you think about

44:00 people you know slave to the machine slave to the corporation

44:05 slave to whatever who are you working for so if he he

44:08 he's through the slaving that he's put on himself for the the riches

44:16 or whatever it is he wants the end of it,

44:18 the inheritance, the robe, the he has become resentful.

44:24 He has become um unkind to his own family member.

44:28 He has become disrespectful to his father.

44:31 So all of the things that have come out of it in terms

44:34 of the older brother have not been good qualities in the end.

44:37 So, like in a way, what I've heard,

44:40 this is my analysis to what I've heard other people say,

44:43 is that the the reason Jesus ends the story

44:45 there and doesn't have the older son going, "Oh, no, you're right, Dad.

44:50 I'll come in and have a laugh with my little brother.

44:52 It'll be nice to see him." Yeah.

44:55 We don't know because our Lord is presenting the Pharisees,

45:00 the the judgmental types that in the end organize the execution of Jesus Christ.

45:06 He's asking them, "What are you going to do?

45:09 I'm going for the broken, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the drug addicts,

45:13 the junkies, the people that don't even want to believe in church.

45:15 I think that all of this dressing up is BS.

45:18 I'm here for them.

45:19 I'm here for them.

45:20 I rejoice when they are saved.

45:22 I'm running towards them." Yeah.

45:26 And he leaves it there because he's posing that question to them.

45:29 being that he's God, he knows that what they're actually going to do is go, "No,

45:33 it'll be the equivalent of the younger son,

45:35 the older son, excuse me, saying, "No, he can't come back.

45:37 I'm going to kill him.

45:39 I'm going to kill him.

45:40 He's not coming back on this farm, and when you're dead,

45:42 I'm going to run things how I want to run things." Yeah.

45:45 Materially, rationally, logically,

45:47 and like you said at the beginning from 1 Samuel 16, God looks at your heart.

45:52 He's not looking at He's looking god is looking at some guy sleeping

45:56 with prostitutes eating the old pepper pig pods and he's like that's my boy

46:03 right that's my boy.

46:05 Yeah.

46:04 And like that is sometimes to receive that level of love Laura

46:08 you know I mean I only know it because

46:10 of my love of Bear our dear dog and how I'm

46:12 actually more Bear's love of me like oh my god

46:14 he loves me so much he would die for me.

46:16 Herby, our son, like the love you feel for him is because

46:20 of his vulnerability and his youth and his health challenges.

46:23 Like it's like the the feeling of wanting to protect him is so real.

46:27 When am I the older brother?

46:28 I guess I'm the older brother when I feel like I want to be acknowledged.

46:31 When I want to be recognized, when I want people to celebrate me,

46:34 when I do the read all of the reading and forget to give it to you cuz

46:38 I I forgotten I'd even said that.

46:40 That's all right.

46:40 I do.

46:41 You want to read it?

46:42 I don't actually.

46:43 You read next week.

46:44 I'll read next week.

46:44 What do you think with what are you

46:46 taking away from our Sunday service today, Laura?

46:49 Well, that actually I would have to look at that whole I

46:52 don't think I knew that that's what the prodical son was about.

46:55 I mean, I think I've just heard it and always thought the prodical

46:58 son I thought the lesson in it was a totally different lesson.

47:01 It's only in reading it again and talking about it am I understanding

47:06 the many qualities of the elder brother that I didn't even think about.

47:11 I thought we were Yeah.

47:12 So that I've actually learned something there.

47:15 Although I may stand alone in that cuz I know a lot of Christians and a lot

47:18 of followers of Christ watched this uh last

47:21 week and um they'll know it better than me.

47:24 But that's the point in this as well.

47:26 Um, I'm learning and that's something I've really learned.

47:30 And really I'm going to return to that thing of uh

47:35 the comfort the comfort in knowing him uh the Lord

47:41 seeing the our heart because um because that's that's important

47:47 for all uh for for everybody to remember in whatever

47:52 it means it means that also maybe we can take

47:54 those small things that we may feel offended by or if

47:57 someone says something or you know and you I

48:00 think like maybe you say maybe you speak without thinking,

48:04 you act without thinking, you know.

48:05 Of course.

48:07 Um in those cases I I suppose one wants to just return

48:11 to that place of just who we are, who we are in God and like to trust that.

48:20 Mhm.

48:19 Like that when as soon as you get frightened or agitated, that's it.

48:25 Like hold on, I just let go of his hand now.

48:29 Yeah.

48:28 I've let go of his hand now.

48:29 I'm questioning him.

48:31 I'm questioning him.

48:33 I'm playing I'm sort of being obedient to him

48:35 as in I'm sort of stab like working at the farm.

48:37 I'm calling myself a Christian,

48:40 but like I don't want to see other people forgiven and redeemed or lifted up.

48:43 I'm sort of it's about myself.

48:47 Yeah.

48:46 Like the selflessness.

48:48 Elsewhere in scripture it says I think in Hebrews Christ being

48:53 in nature God didn't see equality with God as something to be pursued.

48:57 like he in a way what the Catholics and of course your background

49:01 is Catholic and you are a confirmed Catholic believe like that Mary's

49:05 canonization her saintliness is that she is fully transparent and fully like

49:11 God you do what you got to do even like some 16-year-old girl

49:14 pregnant out of nowhere by the Holy Spirit do what you got

49:17 to do God and then lives her whole life on that principle maybe

49:20 when they left her at that temple that was a bit of an error

49:23 but other than that she's like you know Mother Mary praise her.

49:27 Praise Mother Mary.

49:28 Yes, she's uh fully given herself to God, but as did our Lord.

49:32 Uh I suppose Adam and Eve, what did they do?

49:35 I mean, Eve followed the fallen one into doubt and into this mistrust

49:41 of God and trust of other ideas.

49:44 The themes and pirouetses and rhymes of scripture are are glorious

49:50 and it's like it's it's like a deepening spiral and an expanding fractal.

49:56 M endless endless wisdom to be encountered there if

50:01 you can find the right page quick enough.

50:03 Yeah, made it up.

50:05 Thank you.

50:05 Better wrap up.

50:06 Okay, darling.

50:06 I love you.

50:07 Got a tortoise outside and it started to rain.

50:09 So, I've got to go.

50:10 Don't provide any context for that.

50:13 All right.

50:13 Um should we Did we pray at the end of Sunday?

50:16 What do we um Yeah, let's pray.

50:18 Pray to close if you did.

50:21 I don't remember if we did or didn't,

50:22 but it feels like right to cuz um I think it closes the container for this.

50:29 Keeps it.

50:30 All right.

50:30 Then will you do the prayer cuz I did all that talking.

50:33 Yeah.

50:33 Um and uh if you have any comments,

50:35 let there wherever you're watching this on Facebook

50:37 or Rumble or YouTube or X or Instagram.

50:40 Um please follow us and uh support us.

50:43 And if you want that book, you can get it.

50:45 There's a link in the description.

50:46 Let's go out in prayer.

50:47 My beloved, [sighs and gasps]

50:51 dear God, thank you for being with us today in this space.

50:55 Please may we go into the week ahead with uh

50:58 the feeling of comfort in our hearts that you

51:01 see us and that you love us [sighs]

51:05 and may we also act like that with other people.

51:08 So may we show kindness may we not judge as well.

51:14 May us individually be filled with the good Holy Spirit of love and respect

51:25 for each other and watch that in our speech

51:28 and our actions over this coming week.

51:32 Uh thank you and thank you for everybody

51:37 included in this, listening to this, watching

51:39 this and may this reach the people that it must reach and need it.

51:47 Amen.

51:49 Amen.

51:51 I was left lingering in there because I was actually quite enjoying that piece.

51:55 It's nice to have a bit of peace but it is raining tortoise.

51:59 Oh yeah, the tortoise.

52:08 [music]