Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
To the Turn the Mic Back on podcast, our new weekly podcast here at Grace Community Church where we actually do turn the mic back on with two of our Grace Community Church pastors. We have five campuses in the East Texas area and we just want to continue the conversation from Sunday's sermon. And this week I'm very excited to be joined by two of our pastors.
First off, helping me host today is our Grace University Boulevard campus pastor, Michael Tropea. Michael, good to see you again. Excited to be back and we are going to be cross examining. Yes, Grace dover campus pastor, Mr. Kyle Smith.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Hey, Ryan.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Kyle, haven't seen you in a while. So good to see you. Yeah, man, you look good, man. You look great.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Right back at you.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: So, yeah, we will continue our talk today in Ephesians 2. But before we get there, I did want to point something out yesterday because, Kyle, you know, you. You try to drop in a couple of funny things in your sermon. Do I? Doug? Doug tried yesterday at the old Jacksonville campus. Tried to land a joke about a squirrel in the 11 o' clock service. There was a little chuckle, but he admitted he thanked everyone because he said it was the first time all morning that it had landed. So I want to ask you guys, how hard is it for you when something you think is funny doesn't land? Have you ever just eliminated it in the next service or, I mean, does that mess you up totally mentally when it's like, man, these people don't think I'm funny.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: This drives my wife a little bit crazy because if I don't get a response, she knows the next service, I'm all in, like, I'm gonna try.
And it usually is even worse, which is, is also fun.
[00:01:44] Speaker C: So, yeah, there are things that I'm like, oh, this is gonna hit and it's just nothing. And you're like, I don't know if this is from the Lord, you know, but you just keep on going. And then it's just so random. It's just so random. But I think it doesn't, it doesn't get me off. It just is like, okay, here we go. Just keep going. Just keep going.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:04] Speaker C: And so. But it's always fun to see and wonder.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I always at least have to give some sort of laugh if I feel like whoever's up there, because I need to be supportive because I, I would. I've been up there on stage and you say something that isn't funny, or at least everyone else doesn't think it's funny.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Pity's not.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it hurts.
So we are going to be focusing, Kyle, on your sermon on Ephesians 2, verses 11 to 22.
You painted a really great picture about all the things that, that we question and where is God?
I guess when you were making your sermon yesterday, what was the big thing that you wanted? Everyone that was there with you yesterday at our Dover campus, what did you want them to take from that message?
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean really, the, the main idea is that, that in our struggles, in our pain, we tend to ask God, where are you? I mean, I started by reading some news headlines talking about just some local tragedies in, in the Dover area that had happened.
And I think that's our natural response to say, God, where are you? And just to know that he is there. He is in and among his people, the church, and maybe ways that we even overlook sometimes. But to know that he's there, that there's no distance between us and him, that there's no division among his people, that he is there moving so that in whatever we're walking through, God is there.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: I think one of the things in watching you communicate yesterday, if we've been in church a long time, we know that truth, that there's no distance between us and God. But we still have a hard time living in that reality.
But how, how can we wrestle with that and like, and wrestle through that tension in understanding that we still struggle, we still walk through these things. Right. You know what, what were you getting at when you were, you were talking about that?
[00:03:54] Speaker B: I think part of it is we have to, it's preaching the gospel to ourselves every day.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: I mean it's, it's knowing that, that God's love is in what I'm walking through today, the mistakes I've made today.
You know, I was thinking about, I went to a training with care that's a Christ centered abortion recovery ministry here in Tyler and they were teaching about a Bible study that's for post abortion men and women and hosting that at churches. And a staff member is a former pastor. And he said, hey, can I, can I speak into this? So he stood up and he said, you know, if you go to your pastor and say, hey, I want us to host this, they're probably not going to be sure how to respond to you. That topic can be tricky. And he said, what you have to do is help them see. It's discipleship.
[00:04:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: At the heart of it, it's, it is for recovery from abortion, but it's discipleship. It's saying, hey, the gospel applies to your situation, your life. So we have to do that with everything we walk through, because we all.
We all have the thing that we think, oh, that makes God cross his arms, shake his head, and walk away from me, when really that's the reason Jesus came.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: Yeah. You made a statement in that portion yesterday, and I want to make sure I say it right. Is hope only comes into our lives through the blood of Jesus. And I think that comes back to continuing to preach that truth. Right, right.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Of.
[00:05:25] Speaker C: Of the reminder that even walking through those stories and walking through the struggle and walking through the sin and the brokenness, hope still exists. Because why. Because there's no distance between us and God anymore.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:38] Speaker C: And so I just loved that point of what you were bringing out there.
There was also another moment where you. This is why I love this moment of turning the mic back on, because you're talking about in your section about no division between believers. You're like, if I can have a little more time about seeing people very different than me, and like, you. You interact with them by seeing, like, having eyes and seeing beyond things that make us different. You said something along to the lines that I want to repeat rightly, that you're like, I wish I could build upon is, like, how you see them. And you were speaking to that. Can you speak to that a little bit more?
[00:06:19] Speaker B: I mean, the. The idea was a couple years ago, I just decided when I interact with somebody who's very different than me, maybe even makes me uncomfortable, the thing I want to do is look deep, deep, deep, deep into their eyes.
[00:06:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Because all of us put on something to appear one way or the other and just to try to look past all of that. And it really happened because I was with my kids and we were at a place in public, and there was a.
A person helping us who. I mean, I think at the heart of it, like, was hoping for attention because they want to feel like they have value and worth, like. Like, all of us do.
And they kind of made me uncomfortable, and I. I was polite.
I just kind of kept my head down and paid, and we did the thing, and I. We moved on. And in that night, I thought, man, I validated what. What they're wrestling with. Like, are they seeing?
Like, are they noticed? And I, like, didn't look at them, and it broke my heart. So I just committed that day to, like, man, when I'm around somebody just different than me, even if it makes me uncomfortable, like, I want to be all in. Like, I want to embrace them and, like, Just look past all of that stuff and see who God created.
[00:07:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
I didn't get a chance to teach yesterday. Actually, one of our elders, Richard Carey, did. And.
But he was talking about not only seeing people outside of knowing that, people that don't know Jesus, but also within the church and this aspect of, hey, even there's brothers and sisters that may hurt us within the church.
And because that's a real thing in our, in our time and space, this idea of church hurt that exists.
And this text kind of just like goes in the face of that, that we have that. But I think I thought your comment in light of that truth too is like, I need to see them for. As brothers and sisters in Christ. Not just their, their brokenness towards me, their, their, you know, the, the issue that they have with me. I just thought that was. It just helped me frame that aspect of there's no division anymore, there should be peace among us as brothers and sisters because of Christ.
And so I just thought that was another important point that you brought out.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Right. I think even in Re Engage, which is a marriage ministry we host at Grace, there's.
In one of the lessons, it talks about even seeing your spouse as a brother or sister in Christ and like, not forgetting that. So just even. Yeah. Among friends, fellow church members, the body.
Like, it's my favorite thing when some of our people are different.
[00:09:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: When they see things differently than I do, think differently than I do.
I. I love that because that's when we're all united in heaven. One day we're gonna be, we're gonna
[00:09:22] Speaker C: be surprised by Beauty of the body.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: Guys, we're in a. Look, it's. It's a election season.
I don't know about you. I'm about sick of every political ad.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: If I never see messages, please stop
[00:09:35] Speaker A: coming in, please stop texting.
But with that, I think there are a lot of people that have anxiety about what's going to happen. There are people divided. How could you vote for that person? How could you vote for that person?
Kyle, you had something, said something yesterday about, you know, intentionally praying to the Lord to change my heart so that we don't respond the way that, that the world does. And even honestly, I think we as Christians struggle with, well, if I show the love or see that person that disagrees with me, am I saying that it's okay?
Is it as simple as just praying to God to change your heart? I mean, what does that look like for us to follow like Jesus but still also uphold truth?
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
I think it's funny. It's, it's kind of. A lot of it is how we interact with other people and how we communicate with them. I mean, in this election cycle, I haven't seen a whole lot of ads saying, I'm Kyle Smith and here's what I believe and here's how I'll represent you. Here are my values. Most of what I've heard is the other person is horrible.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: Right. And it's so, it's, it's even how it's communicated. I think just knowing brothers and sisters can have different beliefs and that does not separate us. And as long as it's upholding truth and not going against God's word, we can have differing views.
[00:11:02] Speaker C: Yeah. And I mean, there's even differing views within our body. Right. And those sitting there and then. And I think this going back to the reminder of this text.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:13] Speaker C: Is at the end of the day, we do have, we are called to peace, and we have peace not only with God, but with one another. And that, that is what makes the new humanity different than the world at large.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:24] Speaker C: Is this peace we have now with one another?
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Something else that you pointed out yesterday that I thought was great. And Doug talked about it too.
The dwelling place, like we are the temple now.
And Doug had made a visualization of, as a cyclist, where his eyes go, that's where he's going to go. And so our eyes need to be on Christ. Our sight has to be on him and everything we do. Why is that so important in terms of what we're talking about here?
[00:11:56] Speaker B: That illustration is so accurate because where our, where our eyes are, where our hearts are, I mean, that's the direction of our lives. In Psalm 1, you know, blesses a man who doesn't sit, you know, and stay in the council of the wicked in negative places under dark influences, but who is meditating on God's word, on truth? I mean, we, we really shape our day to day life by what we consume.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: And you pointed it out yesterday. You said, what does your Internet history look like? What are you watching? All those things.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, that, that really shapes our reality. Right. I mean, when our kids were really little, my wife and I would talk often about the routines we have, the things we do every day, we're shaping what's reality for them. And if we, you know, every day at 7 o' clock had, you know, this crazy dance party and threw confetti all over the house every single day, if they were at a friend's house at Seven o'. Clock. They would be like, where's the party? Dance? Party time. No, like you're shaping reality. We do that as adults too. It's, it's. I think it becomes more subtle, the things we allow in. But yeah, we, we have to stay aimed at that truth or we will go somewhere else.
[00:13:09] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think we see that too, going back to your political landscape question that we're in. Right. Sometimes we allow the conservative mindset to Trump. To trump and lack of better terminology, the Christian idea. Why? Because we're viewing everything. We're being formed by this instead of the word of God.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:31] Speaker C: And that's why you are becoming what you consume and that's why discipleship matters of kids. That's why discipleship matters as it relates to, you know, how we are adulting in this time and space and what are we consuming. That's really framing. And if it's not the word of God, then I'm concerned for us. Right.
Because we are God's dwelling place and we represent and what we consume shows really will eke out of who we are representing.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: And look, this has been said many times, but I mean, and you reiterated this yesterday. You know, the church is not the building that we go to on Sunday. And I do think we just busyness and the things in our lives, we don't remember that. But we are the church together and everything that we're doing. And yeah, our focus and total focus needs to be on Christ.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: Right.
And the, the immediacy of being the church.
Right. Like to say we are the church. So I need to be the church and just even think practically. What does that mean? I mean, occasionally I'll see someone with a need and I'll say, oh, God, would you bless them? And I feel like the Spirit goes, yeah, let's do it. Go ahead. You've got permission. Be the church. That's so really, I think it like all the things we talked about, understanding it, but then also taking the step to live it, to do it.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: Yeah, that's good.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Even when you're tired.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. When it's. That seems most often when it. The need arises.
[00:15:08] Speaker C: That's good.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Well, guys, thank you so much. This is great, Great conversation. And Kyle. Yeah. Great job just taking that word and framing it the way that we need to be doing it. But yeah, I appreciate you guys as always.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Thanks, guys.
[00:15:22] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for joining us again this week as we concluded Ephesians 2. Join us next time when we talking about Ephesians 3. And again, we hope that you've enjoyed this podcast, and we hope to keep it coming over the next several weeks or months. Have a good one. Have a great week.
