Advent 2024: Day 11 with Ryan

[00:00:01] Speaker A: He is with us. Merry Christmas. God is with us. Merry Christmas. [00:00:16] Speaker B: Welcome Back to the NextGen Advent podcast. We are so excited that you are joining us today. And we're going to be talking about Right living. And so in the course of this Advent season, we just pray that you guys continue to see that God is with you and really just spend time, taking time to be intentional at preparing your hearts for the season. And so with me today, I have a very special guest. I'm so excited to introduce them to you. A special guest. A little drum roll for you here. What is your name? [00:00:46] Speaker C: Hi, everyone. My name is Ryan. [00:00:48] Speaker B: And Ryan, what grade are you in? [00:00:50] Speaker C: You know, I'm a little past the point of grades, but if I had to guess, let's see, we'll add 12th grade to however many years it's been, like 30th grade. [00:01:01] Speaker B: I feel like you're the only person who could probably do that math. Probably. [00:01:04] Speaker C: 30Th grade. Yeah. [00:01:05] Speaker B: 30Th grade. Yes. And so thank you for joining. You are actually our only 30th grade guest that's joining us, so I'm honored. [00:01:11] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:01:11] Speaker B: I appreciate that today. And so, Ryan, before we jump into the material for today, let's just get to know you a little bit more. What are you looking forward to most about Christmas? [00:01:21] Speaker C: I am most looking forward to the excitement to see in living through the experience of Christmas again with my children. [00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:29] Speaker C: Reliving Christmas through their eyes is a joy that's even better than actually living through it as a child. I think actually legit, probably. Yeah. I'm looking forward to just Christmas morning and seeing the excitement of their opening presents and everything. All the traditions that we do, seeing them experience it and being excited for it is the greatest thing for me for Christmas. [00:01:53] Speaker B: Elliot was like, maybe. I don't even know. Cause I can't do math. She was born in August and then, you know, Christmas was in December. And I was shocked at how she loved Christmas her first Christmas. Like watching tissue paper fly across the room would just make her laugh. And I was like, wow, this is so much more fun than living it the first time. [00:02:10] Speaker C: So. Yes. [00:02:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Are any of your kids more expressive about their excitement than the others? [00:02:15] Speaker C: The older two definitely are. Have an awareness now that they've been through it and they're like, really excited. They got the countdown going. [00:02:22] Speaker B: Anticipation. [00:02:23] Speaker C: Yes. [00:02:24] Speaker B: Oh, that's exciting. [00:02:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:02:26] Speaker B: Tell me. We're talking this year, right, about how things are just better, like, with people. Right. So what is something at Christmas time that you Think is better to do with people than to do by yourself? [00:02:36] Speaker C: Definitely. Watching Christmas movies. I still enjoy watching Christmas movies by myself, but when it's with my family, it's a lot better. Especially, like, Home Alone. I was gonna ask. That's the one. Like, all the pranks and all the injuries. I used to cackle laughing when I was a kid, and now I'm like, I could still enjoy it by myself, but it's definitely better to enjoy laughing with other people. [00:03:02] Speaker B: And that's leg. And have you been to the Home Alone house? [00:03:04] Speaker C: I have not. [00:03:04] Speaker B: Oh, that would be fun. Yes. And so. And as an adult, when you watch Home Alone, what is something you watch? And you're like, what in the world? How did. How did that happen? Like, you hear a lot of people say, how did he have that house and afford to take all those people to France. [00:03:20] Speaker C: Yeah. To Paris? [00:03:20] Speaker B: Like, what did he do for his job? Yeah. [00:03:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:22] Speaker B: As an adult, what's your like thoughts? [00:03:24] Speaker C: Well, the joke I saw recently was that there's no way that Kevin was the youngest child, because then the youngest child would never be left behind. That's definitely a middle child. [00:03:33] Speaker B: Pretty commit. So shout out to all of our middle children. We love you just as much. And you're right. I think the youngest child is always going to be someone who's accounted for. [00:03:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:45] Speaker B: All right. So the other question that I wanted to hear from you is when you imagine that God is with you. Right. Which is like, a truth, and we know that that's true, but how do you kind of, like, experience that? Or how do you kind of, like, imagine what that is like? [00:03:58] Speaker C: I've always kind of, I guess, imagined it as God is walking alongside me. The Holy Spirit is, like, inside of us, but I envision it as, like, he's walking alongside me down a path, and, like, we're walking together side by side. And there's times whenever I feel like I don't feel him closely anymore. I realize I used to think, like, it's God that's kind of walked away or like he's hidden or something. And I realize it's because I've kind of gone down a different path on my own or I've turned around or whatever it is. And when I look and see that I don't feel him as closely, even though he's still there, it's because I've moved away, not because of him. So I guess I view it as, yeah, like, walking down a narrow path together. [00:04:42] Speaker B: I kind of love that, too, because I've Never really thought, like, so he's, like, saying on the path that, like, he wants to, like, draw you back towards. Right. Like, oh, no, Ryan, we're not going down there. Yes, I'm back over here. Right. Oh, I like that a lot. That's beautiful. All right, so I've loved getting inside people's minds this season and just hearing and understanding what their understanding of that reality is, because I think a lot of times we think of it as a theological truth. Right. And not as something that is shaping and affecting our daily reality. And so, like you said, he's there to guide you. He's with you, and he's like, every one of those steps, he's with you. Right? And then calling you back towards. Right. Living and what that path looks like. And so if you kind of tell by my inflection in my voice, bright living is actually our theme for today. And so that's what we're going to be talking about. And so our whole passage that we're looking at today is Luke, chapter one, verses five through 17. But Ryan's going to go ahead and read for us the key verse, which is verse 17. [00:05:39] Speaker C: And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous to make ready for the Lord a prepared people. [00:05:52] Speaker B: All right, so let's kind of look at that. We talked a lot about Zechariah this year on the podcast, but here we are. We're going to talk more about him, and we know that he was a priest and he served in the temple for the Hebrew people. There were thousands of priests who served, and they all had specific jobs. Some priests could live an entire life and never be chosen to enter the temple of the Lord to burn the incense. So the fact that Zechariah was chosen to do this was an amazing honor, even greater than being chosen to do this special job. Zechariah was met by an angel of the Lord while he was doing his priestly duty. The message Zechariah received was shocking. Your prayer has been answered. And everyone cried. No, just kidding. There's just people crying in the hallway while we're recording this. What has Zechariah been praying? Priests would typically pray for the salvation of Israel. However, the angel's words brought double blessing. Zechariah and Elizabeth had not been able to have children. They were past the point of physically of being able to have a child and had more than likely stopped asking God for that. Blessing this miracle that God did with Zechariah and Elizabeth proved once again that nothing is impossible for God. Their child would be John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus. John would be full of the Holy Spirit, and he would be set aside to be the voice crying out in the wilderness, preparing people for the coming of the Lord. It had been 400 years of silence. We just talked about that in Forge. Since a prophet had spoken the words of God, John would go on to preach the message of repentance and preparation. And God kept the promise he had made through Isaiah. And if you want to check that out, you can see Isaiah 40. So, Ryan, as we process that, has there ever been a point when you were certain God would not answer your prayer, only for him to do it when you least expected it? And tell us a little bit about that prayer and what that process was like? [00:07:39] Speaker C: I would say, I'm not sure it ever was a time that I was certain he wouldn't answer the prayer. It was more a question of when and getting really impatient and frustrated. So for me, it was when I was going through a period of switching jobs and leaving a career that I'd been in for quite a while and not sure what was going to come next, and praying for direction and praying for purpose and feeling like it was just a lot of silence, radio silence. And so for me, whenever God did answer in a way that I was not expecting and kind of just came out of nowhere and then realized, as I thought about it, more like, yeah, this is exactly what I'm supposed to do, there was an incredible amount of peace and clarity of like, yep, this is the right thing. And I'm just moving forward with full confidence that he was going to. He was going to follow through and be with me. [00:08:34] Speaker B: So you were, like, praying for it, and at that point, you felt like you said radio science, which is like, I don't know if I should do this or that or what's going on. Right. But then I love it because you said once the Lord was showing you that answer and kind of like the next step or the next door that you could walk through, that's when you kind of felt that peace and you felt like you could see things more clearly and what that looks like. [00:08:54] Speaker C: Yes. [00:08:54] Speaker B: And I think for a lot of times, people. Because would you have loved to have had that clarity and that peace at the very beginning of that process? [00:09:00] Speaker C: That would have been nice. [00:09:01] Speaker B: Right? Right. And I think a lot of us, when we pray for something, sometimes the Lord gives it to us right away. And sometimes he's like, actually there's like a journey about what this looks like. And so unprompted on this. What do you think? Like, why do you think the Lord sometimes doesn't give it to you right at the beginning? [00:09:16] Speaker C: I think it would just be too easy for us to lack trust in God if whenever he told us to pray for something, it was just right away and immediate. The idea of waiting for that, it's not instant gratification and waiting for what's the best thing for you and not just like, what's okay or good, but what's actually better requires us to wait and to be patient and faithful in the waiting. [00:09:40] Speaker B: Right? And I think sometimes I remember, like, having this thought for the first time, maybe as a freshman in high school, that, like, that waiting, it forms me. Right? And so, like, if I'm sour or impatient or like, kind of like, like becoming a worse person in that waiting. Right. That formation is not what the Lord is doing, but that in that journey to get to the point where he's going to show me what's next or what the answer is or what's happening. Right. If I'm trusting in him and if I'm full of gratitude and I'm just, like, keeping my eyes on him, then that forming. Right. It really just is, like, sometimes even more powerful than getting the answer and, like, knowing what that next step is. [00:10:16] Speaker C: Yeah. It was a key period of growth for me for sure. And I had to develop that muscle that I didn't know needed to be developed and built. [00:10:24] Speaker B: And it was, like, sore at first, right? Just like. Yeah. And you're like, oh, wow, why does that hurt? Oh, because I haven't developed it. It's a legit thing. All right. So God set John aside for a special purpose and to prepare the way for Jesus. You may not be called to a task like that, but great or small, what do you feel like God has called you to do? [00:10:44] Speaker C: First and foremost is leading my family, leading my wife and my kids. There's an immense responsibility and privilege, but it's a calling for sure. And the second would be discipling teenagers and getting to work with junior high and high school students and help them to understand God's will for them. And also, like, what God's word says. And helping them to just develop a really biblical worldview, I feel like, is what I've been called to do. [00:11:13] Speaker B: So they can have right living. [00:11:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:15] Speaker B: In their life. Yeah. [00:11:16] Speaker C: So they can have right living. [00:11:17] Speaker B: Shout out to all of our forge friends listening to this podcast. And so, yeah, you begin to see, right? You're like, that's like, the Lord has called me. He's given me this, like, first year of this priority, right, of my family and my kiddos. And then after that, right, you have, like, another hundred kiddos who you get to, like, have that responsibility, right, to be able to be like, no, I want to see Jesus being formed in you. I want you to understand what this looks like and to know that this is not just some kind of, like, religion where you're just, like, listening to the rules, right? But that this is, like, forming you and it's affecting your right living, and it's a delight in that process. [00:11:51] Speaker C: Yep. [00:11:53] Speaker B: So Zachariah and Elizabeth, they were described as righteous. And this was partly because Zechariah had been faithful and obedient to God, even though his life didn't go exactly like he thought it should. He served faithfully in the temple, doing what he was supposed to do. And so, Ryan, what are some ways that we can be righteous and faithful to God every day in our life, in our actions? [00:12:13] Speaker C: One thing I thought about with this is choosing the hard or better thing, not just choosing what's easy, because to be faithful means that it's through the good and the bad dwelling. I think of Philippians 4, dwelling. Whatever. Dwelling on whatever is lovely, just pure of good report. For me, that's like, what it means to be righteous is to live like Jesus did. And those are all characteristics of who Jesus was. And then knowing the truth of God's word, like knowing the Bible and being able to walk in step with God's spirit, it comes down to how do we get rid of the lies that we've been believing, but then replace them with things that are true? And that's God's Word as our authoritative truth. [00:13:02] Speaker B: And if you bring that back to your path analogy at the beginning and how you mentioned how Jesus is with you, there's so many different paths that you can take. Whether it's a lie path, even if it's not a lie you're going to tell, but a lie you're believing about yourself, or whether it's just like an action that, like, kind of serves yourself or builds the kingdom of yourself rather than God, right? Like, and how. How that is. And so, but in that, right, you begin to see that when we're pursuing to be righteous and faithful to God, like, if you imagine how you said, you mentioned, Jesus is like, on that path that he wants you to walk, it's this opportunity to be able to, like, realign or, like, repent, which is like, oh, oh, Jesus, I'm so sorry for, like, trying to walk my own path. Right? And I don't want to be on the path that you want. And I want to be able to have. Right living. I want to be able to be known as someone who is in my heart righteous and faithful to God in each of these actions that I'm doing or thoughts that I'm thinking, like you said, right. In terms of, like, what that looks like. And so I love that so much, and I hope that our listeners today just have this opportunity to be able to think. Okay, so, yeah, maybe what is my living look like? What do my actions look like? What do my thoughts look like? Right? So if I really were to see what these are doing, are they kind of straying from the path that, like, God is with me on, or are they, like, right there? And when I, like you said, if Jesus is, like, right next to me, like, I look at him, I'm like, oh, what do you think about that action? Or what do you think about that thought? Right? And he's like, you go back to your Philippians verse, right? He's like, yeah, that's true, or, no, that's not what I created you for, to think that's not true. Right? And just kind of using him as an assessment to be able to see, yeah, is this right living, or is this not the way that you want me to be living? And so I'm just excited for our listeners. I hope you are able to process that today. And just kind of as you go through your day, you kind of just think about that path and what it looks like. And so, Ryan, would you just mind closing us in prayer? [00:14:49] Speaker C: Absolutely. Heavenly Father, thank you for today. Thank you for the season of Advent and the anticipation of your arrival. And as we look forward to celebrating with family and friends, may we also look forward to your second coming, when you will come again and you will restore all things. In the waiting. Help us to be grateful, to be thankful, to be joyful, and to be hopeful. And we thank you for Jesus. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:15:23] Speaker B: Amen. All right, Ryan, can you close our podcast by wishing our listeners a Merry Christmas? [00:15:27] Speaker C: Hey, everybody. Merry Christmas. [00:15:29] Speaker B: All right. Merry Christmas. We'll see you back here again tomorrow. [00:15:47] Speaker A: Star is shining angels sing Our Savior born the hope he brings in a manger the king has come God with us the Holy One through the silence light breaks through a tiny child A promise true in the stillness heaven's near God with us we shall not fear he is with us Merry Christmas. God is with us Merry Christmas. He is with us Merry Christmas. God is with us Merry Christmas. [00:16:53] Speaker B: Sa.