Chasing Elephants Podcast

Key Questions Asked:

What does the Bible say about sexual sin and immortality? 

• See the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19.  They had become their identity in sin. They crossed a point of no return. The sexual immortality took over their life. They refused to accept freedom. 
• Abraham is pleading with God asking to save the good, but he couldn’t find any. God is a God who protects. The city would have hurt other cities and began to take over. This city was a danger against the world. The people who come into the city are in danger. Look at the story and do not see Gods wrath instead see God’s patience. 
• Additional scripture: 
  • Leviticus 18:22 (do not have same sex relations)
  • Leviticus 20 shows how sin in leads to death Sexual sin is a very dangerous and deadly serious sin. 
  • Old Testament and New Testament both say the same thing. See 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 
  • Romans 1:18-32 it paints a picture of a downward spiral

If you are living in your sin, do you really believe in Jesus? Is Jesus really changing your life? Those in Christ can find freedom from their sin. There is a visual and inward transformation that happens when you decide to be follower of Christ. If nothing changes in your life, you need to question what decision you actually made. 

Chasing Elephants

1. The unrighteous becomes obvious to the obvious truth. 
2. The man falls in love with his own vanity. Though they knew God, but their hearts darkened. 
3. The heart that is empty, becomes full of darkness.
4. There is a new wisdom they claim. They said they were wise, but they are fools. The culture is saying they have a new wisdom
5. Exchange the Gods truth for a lie
6. They worship creation, including their own bodies
7. God gives them over to their sinful desires
8. They engage in the activity
9. They receive consequences (the appropriate penalty) 
10. Homosexually is approved and celebrated in their cultural. They applaud others who practice them. 

God does not condemn inclination but condemns practice. Your inclination is not your identity. God does not judge inclination but will judge practice in the hands or mind. 

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Key Questions: What are some ways we can live out the DNA of a dream? How do you take the dream and create action steps?

Practical Principles to Live Out Your Dreams: 

• Be Faithful and Be Obedient
   
• Have Vision and Communicate your Dream
  • Vision for your dream: what’s our vision? The vision needs to be simple yet compelling.
  • Every dream wants to change something … when you communicate the dream. It must be inspirational.
     
• It is all about Execution
  • Taking the concept of the dream and move it to a place where you have action steps that leads to execution.
  • Dreams that sit in the pit of your thoughts vs dreams that are played out.
  • Concept to execution
  • It’s one thing to go to bed and sleep and have a dream, it’s another to wake up and go get it. 
     
• Law of Compounding Interest. Let one victory lead to another. Surpassing the goal equals wanting to meet another goal.
  • Victory compounds momentum towards the big dream.
  • Set a goal, reach the goal, consistent momentum.
  • Be submitted to the process. Tendency to want it to happen now. The truth is change does not happen overnight. Change is a long process.
  • Don’t get bored with consistency. It is a well-worn process. 
     
• Have an Eclectic Group of Allies. 
  • Don’t surround yourself with all the same kind of people as you.
  • Don’t surround yourself with people you like, but with people you need. They all bring something different to the table.

The question to ask yourself as we close today is “do you want your dream to become a reality?"

Go, live your dream.

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Key Questions asked:

• What does God want? 
• What are the desires of God? 
• What is the will of God?
• How do we pursue it?

KEY POINTS OF THE DNA OF THE DREAM

• God has a hidden will and a revealed will. God knows the past, future, etc. God has given us the freedom. The Bible is truth. 
• Until we know the whowe won’t know the what or how or why?
• What would I do for the glory of God if I knew I would not fail?

Big Ideas:

• Key Areas: Family, church, vocation, citizenship
• How do you want to see the heart of God reflected in your life?
• Natural response should be to turn to the Lord in the midst of challenges and struggles.

Brent and Jeff share their personal dreams in the categories of family, church, vocation, citizenship. 

The question to ask yourself as we close today is How do you want to see the heart of God reflected in your life? What I do, should mirror what God would want.

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Looking into 2023 and a New Year.

As followers of Jesus. How do we get to the end of the year and recalibrate? How should we walk into 2023?

Brent and Jeff share topics they are challenging the process on personally as they start a new year and strive to live for God in 2023.

Jeff

1. Be a man and a leader with Godly character
2. Personal integrity
3. Moral courage. Stand up for righteousness. Moral challenge.

Brent

1. Personal holiness
2. Civic responsibility: we are the light we need to bring the light to the dark. Living as an ambassador of Christ. Be an influencer for Jesus.
3. To take inventory of my own leadership. How am I maximizing my influence for God’s glory? Am I growing or declining in leadership?
4. Gospel advancement: caring about people who need Jesus. Be present in the moment, how can I be a be a better leader to help further advance the gospel? Keep ourselves focused on those who need Jesus.
5. Sacred purpose. How do Christ followers live every day for the ultimate purpose.

Now it is your turn.   Challenge yourself to think through these areas as well. Happy New Years!

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Stay tuned because after this episode, they take a break for the holidays and will be back on December 30th for a little New Year’s kick off.

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The conclusion we should all have after reading the scripture is we are all the supporting cast. The wise men. They didn’t see baby Jesus. They saw toddler Jesus. The shepherds saw the baby Jesus. The magi followed the stars, and they would have been walking months to see Jesus.

Jesus came for all. Everyone. It was a cool thing they came from far away, and Jesus wanted them to meet Jesus. Jesus didn’t come for just one group, He came for all people, the whole world.

They were observing the glory of the Lord in the skies with the stars. They broke the law to go see Jesus. It was dangerous. They risked their lives and safety.

God wants to be found, if you are seeking, He will not hide.

Are we willing to do whatever it takes to get to the feet of Jesus?

God shared the greatest news of all time to the “nobodies”. The shepherds got to see Jesus on THAT DAY. The angel appears … they just were sitting in the field. They choose to go to Jesus.

Jesus came for ALL.

This group was the ones the angel revealed himself to.

There are no tiers in heaven; no one is above anyone in heaven. The first person to go to heaven was the thief on the cross. Wow.

There is not a more important supporting cast. Shepherds were willing to listen, the magi were willing to go and seek.

Our job is to wake up every day and point people to Jesus.

If you are enamored by yourself, you would miss the signs that would point to the Redeemer.

The messenger of peace and restoration. His name means - Man of God He reminds us of our role. Come and see then go and tell. don’t keep it to yourself.  We are all messengers.

Christians should be these kind of individuals because they have the most hope. The best is yet to come!

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KEY POINTS OF THE INCARNATION

1. The eternal son Jesus Christ – who Jesus is. Understanding God.  The subject matter is all around the person and work of Jesus Christ. See John 1:14
2. He was the full image of the God and Father.  Jesus was fully God and fully man. He equally shares in the divine nature of God while also fully God in the flesh.  See John 1:1 
3. The incarnation is an act of addition, not subtraction. He is one person with two natures. See Isaiah 9 prophecy. 
4. The human nature assumed by the divine Son is fully human and completely sinless. Jesus was tempted yet did not sin.
5. The virgin concept was the glorious means by which the incarnation took place. The pathway for which Jesus came to either was through this supernatural demonstration of the sovereignty of God.
6. Understanding the great sacrifice, he made on the cross, he felt it.
7. Jesus was the ultimate mediator for us.
8. God the Son Jesus, His incarnate nature is utterly unique and alone to both Lord and Savior of our lives. Jesus is in a category all by Himself. He is one in one.   As the divine Son, He satisfied God’s judgment against us.

The question to ask yourself as we close today is Why do you celebrate Christmas? The mystery of the incarnation feeds the magic and wonder of Christmas.

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Practical Benefits of Generosity:

1. Generosity increases our love for the kingdom of heaven. Where your treasure is where your heart will be also.
2. A spirit of generosity gives clarity to the purpose.
3. Our heart is more loving and open. Generosity is an attitude of the heart.

Thoughts on Generosity and the Work It Does in You:

• Generosity produces a spirit of contentment. You bless because you have been blessed, not because you will get blessed. That is selfishness … if you only want what’s in it for yourself.
• Do not be jealous of other people, what they have, who they are, what they look like, etc. Be content in who you are.
• You are forgiven, you are deeply rooted in God, praise God with thanksgiving.

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Self-Leadership is defined as helping yourself understand how to maintain motivation from things you want to do and things you don’t want to do.

Key aspect of Self-Leadership to understand is Emotional Intelligence.  Several traits to  understand this are

Social Awareness – understanding how others are feeling

Benefits of Emotional Intelligence

Consequences of not having Emotional Intelligence

In wrapping the episode, Emily and Brent shared more about the resource of School of Leadership.  SOL provides educators and student leaders with a comprehensive leadership training program that can be implemented into any environment. In-depth leadership training is provided through eight engaging semester-long courses that equip students to develop strong and lasting leadership skills that will allow them to lead with intentionality and purpose.

• Connect with Emily
• Learn More About School of Leadership

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About This Episode:

In this episode,  Jeff Wallace has a conversation with Ryan McDermott about an incredible new Resource Unbound and they make an exciting announcement about The LIFT Tour 2023!

Unbound is a resource based on John 11 and Lazarus that looks beyond the story that often ends with and “Lazarus comes out of the grave.”  A deeper look shows us that while Lazarus is alive, he is still bound up in his old life.

Questions To Ask After Looking at the Story of Lazarus through the Unbound Study:

• What if the greatest victory the Enemy can have in our life after we come to know Jesus is to keep us bound up in our grave clothes (old life)? 
• What are the things in your life that are holding you back from everything that God has for you?
• What does it mean to walk in the fullness and freedom of the Christian life?

Next Steps

• Pre-Order Unbound! Launching January 2023, author Ryan McDermott invites us to shed the old life that has held us back and fully embrace the newness of life that Christ has made possible In this new 6-session study. Jesus died, not just so that we could have life, but so that we might be unbound and step into a new identity: holy, loved, chosen, and free.  This study has an interactive discussion, three personal study days, and a video resource component.
• Connect with Ryan!
• Register for The LIFT Tour 2023 as we us the Unbound Resource as a foundation for the Awaken 2023 Tour!