EP: 25 "Just a Quarter of the Way”

0:00 Howdy, and welcome to episode 25 of Hello Fairview, your local podcast made right here in Fairview for people here in Fairview, Tennessee, and their surrounding areas. This is a weekly show released every Wednesday featuring stories that aim to inform and inspire local radio stations and newspapers don't exist in small towns like ours. So we will use Hello Fairview to fill that void with news related to Fairview. This is a value for value podcast, which means you contribute what you can based on the value received. This concept was founded by the podfather himself, Adam Curry, and his co-host, John C. Dvorak of the No Agenda Show over 18 years ago. Currently, this is just a one-man operation. So you have any ideas, events, business opportunities, job openings, please don't hesitate to let me know. Use the contact form on the website and we'll work to get those updates in the next episode. You are a producer of the show. You are not the product because your time and attention are not being sold to advertisers for their value. Some of these shows will be longer.

1:02 Some of these short shows will be shorter, but I always try to do my best to keep things relevant. Traffic time. Well, it is definitely construction busy to the max where you can wait anywhere from five to 25 minutes in the morning or afternoon to make a left and sometimes a right on highway 100 from Old Cox to the rec center. The sidewalk project has stretched down Cumberland to Walmart and then to the rec center. They have been installing drains through those driveways and actually doing some of the grading work this week at that Cumberland intersection and a little mini bridge with that culvert. There's also been lane closures that's caused serious, serious backups.

1:43 And this is still right now we're in the middle of spring break and it's still been massive. so we'll have to see how that goes when they actually open it up and there has already been a wreck in front of Fairview Elementary on Monday when one person who was driving down the turn lane to try to make a left towards Castleberry towards elementary school going west or going east on 100 turned and another car tried to turn out of the traffic line because both people were ready to get out of traffic. They collided, no major injuries, but a couple of messed up vehicles. It was two white vehicles, one white car, one white small SUV. And then I even personally waited 22 minutes from Walmart to the high school that very same day. It's luck of the draw. If there's lane closures, we'll have to see how this keeps going. And I hope that this main work with these major lane blocks where the whole road was shut down for a couple minutes at a time, and then they would only let a couple cars through it's done this week and then as we come back to school it'll be back to normal red light update we still got three old cox publics and walmart still you know getting one soon at city center entrance um and then the cumberland 100 entrance the red lights are hung on the city center side so they obviously haven't been turned on yet which is good because we don't know what in the world that's going to do yet uh city center they're still

3:14 working on that and digging it. If you notice now, you can actually see the grading work has been done. There's still just a pile of dirt, but you can see through Bowie Park now to the side of it on that east side now. So it's happening. We're growing. Well, you know, things are rolling kind of back to normal. You know, one thing we'll mention is the traffic update. There was a three-way stop sign installed at the intersection of Horn Tavern Road and Cleveland Lane. Make sure you're paying attention to that because it always takes a while for people to get used to that because people will just blow through there. We've talked about this before, but the state bid was awarded to pick up debris. Please place your debris before March 16th and make sure you keep it five feet away from fire hydrants, utilities, and road signage and keep the debris a maximum of three feet in height at intersections due to the visual sight. So you have all that. And the emergency declaration was extended again, uh, basically until that date to that March 16th. Uh, so, uh, I guess that's just some funding stuff. And like we talked about last time, we still have the Easter egg hunt. Um, and that is going to, has been moved to city hall because Boobie Park still closed on March 28th. Um, and so make sure that's at 10 AM to make sure and be there. Uh, I still think I've still put a note on here for the double hospital trouble. We talked about this last time. Um, Ascension Health ER was the first to announce and then TriStar Fairview ER was announced after that.

4:47 And we're trying to look at the state website to see what's going on. We can look at some of the pending certificate of needs in our area. And there is a website that is on the Tennessee website, but they don't have any pending or denied 2026 things. But one thing to know is in Williamson County, there's a Grassland Surgery Center that is wanting $3.5 million. Maximum Health Services, $2.3 million. Minimally Invasive Care Surgery Center, $148,000.

5:28 And they even misspelled surgery in their own description and certificate need. It's kind of interesting. And then TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center, this was 628-23 is when it was applied, and 8-126 is when it's supposed to be there. And this is $16 million. Now, this is interesting because this could be the certificate of need, where it's certificate of need 2304-10-010. establishment of a freestanding emergency department in Williamson County will consist of approximately 11,900 square feet with 12 exam rooms, including one trauma room, a lab and an imaging department, a nurse station and associated support spaces.

6:16 So this certificate of need was applied for in 2023 and is going to be, I guess, fulfilled in 2026, uh, by the end of this year. And that's to TriStar and not to Ascension. So I didn't find any ascension in here and there's none tagged for Williamson County. So maybe they're going to apply for that. We'll have to see. So houses. Well, there is 230 homes for sale instead of 233 from last week. We still have a $3.9 million house that has five acres, but an 8,000 square foot house instead of the previous world record, which was $3.495 million for 70 acres.

7:00 The lowest price is still that townhouse over there at $230,000. It's come all the way down from $250,000 over the past couple months. And this is a no acres, two bed, one bath going in from there. And so we've also got a link to some of the latest development code as this thing is starting to wrap up here. Town meeting updates. Well, no new meeting since last show is basically the summary of that. And our next town meetings are March 17th. There's a planning commission. March 19th is the board of commissioners. April 30th is the board of commissioners town hall. April 6th is the parks and landscape board. March 17th is the local parks and recreation fund grant.

7:44 And that should be talking about the farmer's market and the historical village project, which when we covered that originally a couple months ago, that was a couple million dollars for a fancy pole barn, a bathroom and an amphitheater and some sidewalks and stuff like that. So we'll have to see how that keeps going. Around Town Coffee is today on March 11th. And so you can go hang out with them in a little bit. The state of Tennessee. Well, the Tennessee's lawmakers have proposed a second bill this week that should ensure that the national city government has no oversight in the boring companies underground city.

8:27 The legislation is HB 1515 and SB 1673 would make subsurface passenger transit companies report their assets and subject to property taxes to the state comptroller instead of Metro City Council. so i've got a link of both of those if you look at one of them it's basically removing and adding a paragraph but it doesn't show what paragraph it's adding and another one talks about some other stuff related to funding which is i think how they're getting around all this if you're a hunter well if so there's a public comment period for the 2026 hunting and trapping seasons presented by the twra at the march 6-7 meeting where they released this and you have you have public comments till april 2nd we have all that listed on here and the email address if you want to have any other comments so if something in hunting is going good in the state of tennessee let them know and if something's going bad also let them know because this helps shape a lot of the hunting rules times tag limits all the things that make us hunters do our thing number and then a bill requiring public schools to gather data on student immigration status and report back to the Department of Education and the House Legislative Committee on Tuesday this week.

9:46 The bill is HB 73 and SB 836 was introduced last year as part of the Republican effort to challenge the Supreme Court precedent requiring public schools to enroll all children no matter of immigration status. A Tennessee House committee also rejected the anti-abortion bill that would have criminalized women for seeking abortion procedures. potentially allowing them to be charged with murder. This bill failed with lack of support in committee, so I mean in the population health subcommittee, which we even mentioned in the bills two weeks ago, two shows ago, leading supporters to, you know, seeing people and do all that good stuff.

10:29 Well, the bills, well, they're slowing down again. They don't have too many things on the agenda right now. One of the things is the state building commission is meeting tomorrow at 11 a.m. And one of the things we can see from here is all the change orders were one thing that we're kind of interested. You know, there's hundreds of millions of dollars being spent between all the things in our government. And just within this one, we can see like the Tennessee Tech University and Middle Tennessee State University that, you know, they had a 29 percent change order, a cumulative increase, 51 percent. And then some VA, Department of Military Veterans Affairs, they had 25%, 16%, and 48%.

11:11 So basically between all these, there was basically six, seven, eight, nine million. And so basically they've all asked for another two or three million. So when these budget requests come in, now we know that change orders happen if anyone's ever built a house. I know that what you start with and what you end with is usually all very different. But it's interesting to see this amount of money and the percentage of change orders and the number of change orders that are there and just how much money is being spent on some of these things. And I think it's good. A lot of these projects look good to me on paper. But, you know, we got to also be fiscally conservative and understand that the money has to go somewhere. The next fiscal review is on 3-19-26.

11:55 So next week, there's no agenda published. When we've seen those before, it's basically just each department talking. is what we've seen in the agenda. So no real detail. So if you're not there, and obviously the news doesn't really cover it, then you don't know what's going on. Well, how's the hill? Well, it's definitely passable. We're back to normal. There's still some roads with trees getting cleaned up. So basically all the stuff overhanging is done, but the stuff on the side of the road, the weather guessers are guessing they're predicting highs anywhere from 39 to 75. So a nice, very winter to summer range and lows from 21 to 53. There's no rain forecast of beyond 20% for this next week between now and the next show. So that's good.

12:41 New businesses, nothing new spotted. You know, Jingo Java has moved over to Uncle Lenny's and Vigilance Martial Arts has been moved to Publix. And I think they had their first night last night and jingo java had theirs this previous weekend um and so ace hardware is getting a lot closer they've made a lot of progress on the outside looks like it's getting dried in they've got a couple areas for the gardening section done so it looks good there's still just two properties commercial properties for sale officially uh and that's the one on drag strip road and loblolly Pine Boulevard. It looks like one thing we saw is there will be a new mini virtual golf course behind Food Saver. That old church, Liberty Hill Church that used to be up there is going to be there and it's called the 1890 Golf Club. And it's featuring in its picture, a couch with a couple of people and a golfer swinging into the screen. So if you are a golfer, this is probably something you're going to be very interested in and you might want to drive up the hill and we'll see how they renovate that place because it would really tore down I think the selling price of that when it was listed last time we were looking on the show it was right around So whoever has done this has put a lot of money into it.

14:03 So we need to definitely support our local businesses. And this sounds like a good one. Farmer's Market, make sure you go to the Farmer's Market every Saturday, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Messick Chiropractic and Fairview Fresh Deli Donuts located across from the road from Publix. There are always many places to get breads, treats, local beef and pork, fruits and vegetables in season, obviously, along with some hot sauce, fishing lures and other gifts and doodads from there. Brick and mortar highlight. Well, you know, we wanted to go ahead and cover Subway because, well, we've got three of them. So depending on what part of town you're at, you're closer to one and the other is one across from 90.

14:43 on 96 across from pilot on our i-40 exit there's one on the fairview boulevard aka highway 100 inside the shell station across from publix and hardy's and then our last one is in walmart you know it seems like uh you know each one has about the same amount of foot traffic into them and is busy but i think the one on highway 96 may be a little bit busier just because of it having the drive-through so it's pretty convenient if you're getting off work and you live in town in Nashville or Bellevue or whatnot, you can just swoop in and get some food. I know people have mentioned on Fairview Now and other places that they would like Quiznos or Firehouse Subs and all that, another competitor there. But each one of those require a lot bigger population to sustain them. And a lot of those are not really expanding their chain. So we've got links in there to all three of them. So you can also order online for those and pick them up. So definitely click it up.

15:39 job openings well we are at 44 from 41 and one of the ones that was added this from this last week let's see let me scroll down here was unity chiropractic looking for a chiropractic assistance and that address is the address of that new shopping center where papa john's is a cornerstone financial is so that that's kind of i guess they're coming to that one last slot and then other than that then we had turner's landscaping needing a landscape person star physical therapy needing a technician there and then usic needed a gas station location technician so there's just a couple jobs that were added but i mean these are all jobs that are based primarily in fairview directly with these businesses so definitely check them out if you need a job History nugget, well, 1750 Well, history tells us that the first person in the world to use the word Tennessee with the current spelling was the governor of South Carolina in 1750, James Glenn Also, it is believed that Andrew Jackson was the one who proposed the name Tennessee when Tennessee joined the union However, public records indicated that Daniel Smith, the secretary of the old Southwest Territory, proposed the first draft of the Constitution for the formation of the new state called the new state of Tennessee.

17:10 And so kind of the name of that. And there's a whole little history of just the naming of the state of Tennessee. Upcoming events. Well, you know, nothing recapped since last show. And basically what we've got is we've got the Easter egg hunt coming up. And, you know, there's still events that were scheduled at Bowie, which are all canceled until this thing opens back up. They did post another update about it, but they didn't really show any more details of progress. It was even some of the same pictures of before. So until that place is all the way done. March 21st is supposed to be a star party over there. This hasn't been.

17:50 I haven't seen the post for this being canceled yet, but I guess it has to if we've already moved the Easter egg hunt. April 28th is the Fairview Titans Junior Pro first annual four-man golf tournament. So if you're interested in that, definitely check that out. And then we've got some events in May at Bowie Park, the Arts and Crafts Fair, and a movie night. This is tis the election year right now. So in this zone right now, it's pretty much absentee ballot requesting. and then early voting will be for our county primary on April 15th through 30th and August 6th will be our state and primary and county general actual election and then obviously November 3rd being the main election for the federal government which will be you know the the governor and all that kind of stuff for the kids well there's still a ton of activities and sports in Fairview to keep your kids engaged there's some cheer programs recreation teams for baseball basketball softball football and others there's a thriving girl scouts and scouts bsa program or scouting america program and in fairview so if you have a homeschooler make sure you're always you're always looking at the buoy park schedule once it gets back on there for the clubs that meet there if you have kids interested in dance gymnastics or cheer please check out lala's dance studio or elevate gymnastics and cheer vigilance martial arts is our local taekwondo and jujitsu school that teaches way more than just moves and the fairview jacket youth wrestling program

19:21 has a has a great program with some summer care options too so it's a lot of cool stuff there school news well we are in the thick of spring break um and that will end this week everybody has to go back to school next week april 3rd is our next holiday which is good friday which they just call a spring holiday. May 21st is the last half day for school. And so we'll see that Hawk and Tiger news. Well, no new news since last week. And we don't have a newsletter and they don't really post that much that we can find publicly. Falcon news, no newsletter this week, but basically there's still Stephanie Sullivan is still doing a vaping and youth trends. What families need to know on april 22nd at 6 to 7 p.m so if you need uh if you want to know more about vaping then go to that the play auditions for charlotte webb are going to be april 9th through 11th so if you're interested make sure you fill out the schoology group code and get ready to roll and congratulations still to all the students that have their stuff at the frist art museum which will be march 7th through march 22nd so if you haven't had the opportunity you still got another week and some change to get over there and see some of the art that our students have made at the Fairview Middle School and other schools in Williamson County.

20:39 Jacket News. Well, no newsletter this week, but it's still in the 21 days of the ACT, so it's Tis the Season for Test. The 2026 prom is on April 18th, and tickets cost $90. You must be a junior or senior to purchase them, and it is a masquerade theme. Yearbooks need to be purchased on april 3rd 2026 march 6th is the end of this third quarter which we're already passed now basically it was right before spring break there will be a mandatory parent player meeting if or any girl wishing to try out for the fairview high school lady jacket soccer team on april 9th at 6 p.m at the performing arts center and then i still have the notes in there of the student who decided to shave their head in honor and to raise funds for cancer. So we've got that link in there. And so great job on that. Senior jackets and rings can be bought right now. And then obviously, if you're driving, your kids getting ready to drive, make sure they take the checkpoints driver training and get their parking pass and all that. Faith moment. Well, this week, I brought a sermon from Reagan Green, who's the son of Rick Green, who we have talked about before relating to the Patriot Academy and all the things they're doing with our young people and government and empowering them to know what's actually going on and how to make real changes.

22:02 This message was at the Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas, and this was on a struggle of anxiety, depression, and the great wrestling people have with those types of things going on. This is a great message from a young pastor, and it speaks to very relevant issues to many people. So here we go. I have the privilege now. Thank you for that. This is important and we need to address these things. I have the privilege of introducing to you Reagan Green. Now, we know Rick Green and Kara. Rick has been on this platform many times as well as Chris Dunham as well. And they're friends of ours from the Patriot Academy. Back when we had made these plans to go to Israel, I reached out to Reagan and said, Brother, would you fill the pulpit for me?

22:45 He spoke at one of our men's meetings, did a phenomenal job. And I'm telling you, I want to see us raise up the next generation of world changers, don't you? We want to throw fuel on the fire, not water, but fuel on the fire so that we can see the next generation light up our world with Jesus Christ and finish the job that many of us have started. So Reagan produced biblical citizenship, which we did here at our church, took a couple hundred people through that, and rebuilding liberty, which I had the privilege of playing a small part in. And he and his wife, Faith, are the directors of the Patriot Institute, working with young adults in ministry and personal development. Reagan is a Christian, a husband, and father of two beautiful girls and a new baby, Truly and Nora.

23:31 And can we welcome to the platform a warm bridge welcome, Reagan Green. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, church. Good morning. Well, Pastor Jimmy, I thought that after the first service, my nerves would go down. But at the same time, I have this feeling that I'm just like a well that is waiting to burst. And the Holy Spirit needs to just be let loose, you know. You probably know that feeling very well. Yes. All right, church. Well, I have the privilege today of sharing with you a message that has been burning on my heart for five, six weeks or so.

24:13 And I was working on this as a chapel for our scholars and hadn't gotten to it. And so this opportunity arose. I was like, man, this is perfect. Let's do this. When you first asked me to preach today, my first inclination was, you know, I've done a little bit of preaching. So maybe I'll just do one of those easier messages I've done before. Let's go with something basic and simple. But I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit could not let me back away from this message. This is just so relevant and this just needs to be said. So it's very timely that y'all are going through Colossians right now. We're going through Colossians and it being about rootedness and being rooted in Christ. And so we're going to unpack that and hopefully add on to what you've been going through so far.

24:54 So let's look real quick just at our opening verse in Colossians 2, verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Now, my wife and I, Faith, who is here sitting in the back, I believe. Is Faith back there? Oh, she moved somewhere over there. She's here. Oh, there's Faith. Yeah, everybody wave to Faith. She's holding our brand new baby girl, Eleonora. Her name means light. And we also have Alethea. Her name means truth. Blessed with two beautiful baby girls.

25:35 And so my wife and I, Faith, we work with our young adult scholars. And part of the blessing of getting to do this is that I hear a lot from these guys what they're wrestling with, what they're thinking through, and what they're coming to try to believe and figure out for themselves. And there's just a lot of working through stuff. And this has been very neat for me in faith because it gives us a bit of a pulse on our whole generation and what our generation is wrestling with and what we're trying to work through. And so I hear from these guys, and what I want to do this morning is bring you in on kind of the broader conversation that I've been having with them for months now, and that we've been working through stuff.

26:19 And so today we're going to do that. We're going to shed light on some wrestlings that not only my generation is feeling right now, I'm sure many of you are feeling as well, okay? So here's what we're going to look at today. We're going to look at a great deception. We're going to look at a great awakening, a great wrestling, and then we're going to talk about how we can help each other come to know truth. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this morning. Thank you for this opportunity to fellowship and gather in your house and lift up worship to you. Thank you for your word. Lord, I pray that the truth of your word would be made known this morning, that it would settle on our minds and hearts. And Lord, I just, I pray what John the Baptist said, that I would become less, that you would become more right now in this moment. Holy Spirit, I totally yield this moment to you. Just have your will and have your way. In Jesus' name, amen. I'm definitely having that moment where I don't even remember half of what I said the first service, and so I don't know what we're going to talk about really. I'm going to try to get through the main stuff, but there's just so much to unpack here, guys. So let's jump in with the first point. Deception, I believe, is on the move, and I want to highlight the importance of this for you because we're going through Colossians.

27:34 timeliness of this and why this has been burning on my heart. Some context to Colossians real quick. The city of Colossae as far as I aware remains unescavated And so there not a lot we know about the actual city itself But history tells us that what the church in Colossae was dealing with and what Paul so heavily addresses, part of it, was the early formation of what would later become known as Gnosticism. Kind of in its infancy stage, certain strains of thought were getting developed and certain things were getting taught that we would classify later as Gnosticism. Okay? And what is Gnosticism? When you say Gnosticism, you immediately reference and start talking about a vast library of things.

28:16 There's a wide variety of different thoughts and teachings within Gnosticism. But I want to highlight one core strain of thought within Gnosticism this morning, and this has to do with the spirit of deception. One of the core tenets of Gnosticism is that true salvation only comes through, quote-unquote, secret knowledge. that in order to truly attain and elevate your spirit to that which is true salvation, you have to be enlightened and have access to this secret knowledge that only the enlightened really have access to. Okay, this is at its core deceptive. And at its core, Gnosticism is actually Luciferian. And this goes back to the garden. When God put Adam and Eve in the garden, the one thing he told them not to touch and eat of was the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

29:08 And what does Lucifer, the great deceiver, tell Adam and Eve? He says, look, if you eat this, you will not surely die because God knows you will become like him, knowing good and evil. And so Gnosticism develops to say that Lucifer is actually on the side of humanity. And he's trying to enlighten us and elevate our knowledge to be like God. And God doesn't want that, So that's why he withheld it from you. This is deceptive at its core because Gnosticism at its core seeks for you to worship Lucifer and doubt Christ. That is what its goal is. In the questioning and the secrecy and the mystery of everything, Gnosticism seeks to pull you away from Christ and get you to worship Lucifer.

29:52 Okay? So just laying that foundational contextual note to Colossians, this is deception at its peak, seeking to pull you away from the truth, seeking to pull you away from Christ. And there is a generation of young people still being intoxicated with deceptive ideas. Transgenderism, socialism, communism, feminism, all these things, they're still pulling away the minds of young people. Okay, there's a move of deception happening, not just in America, but around the world. And we need to be aware of this as a church so that we can respond and we can speak truth in life in light of that deception and combat it, right?

30:39 So there's a spirit of deception on the move. Revelation 12, 9 calls Satan the deceiver of this world. He is the great deceiver. He exists to distract. He exists to pull you away. His whole goal is to pull you away from the truth. When I was praying about this yesterday, I just was walking and talking with the Lord, and I was like, God, I just feel this burning desire to address deception and the spirit of deception. God, what is the motivation of the great deception right now? What is the goal of deception? And I feel like the Lord gave me this to share with you. To deceive is to distort the truth. The devil's intent is to malign, fragment, and manipulate the truth just enough to get you not to believe in it. And the devil doesn't even need to get rid of truth. He just needs to change your perspective, alter your angle just enough to get you to question if you know the truth, and then eventually lead you into doubting that truth altogether.

31:38 His job, the devil's job, is honestly not even that hard when we are not firmly rooted in Christ. His job is not that hard when we're not firmly rooted in Christ because all he has to do then is just give you a slight little nudge amidst the winds of culture and lies and like a weak tree with shallow roots, you'll go toppling into disbelief. That's why this is so relevant because Colossians is about being rooted in the truth of Christ, in who Christ is, who he claimed to be, and who he proved himself to be. So being rooted in Christ. So now that I put a damper on the mood this morning, that's the bad news. Let's talk about the good news. While there is deception on the move, there's also a great awakening happening, all right? Do you guys believe there's a great awakening happening? It is so evident. And because I get to work with these young guys every day, I get to see the awakening happening as well. And I get to get a glimpse of what I see happening in our generation as a whole. So there's a great awakening happening, and it's awesome. God's spirit is just as much and more on the move as any kind of spirit of deception. I believe history is going to write about our time right now as the beginning stages of a third great awakening. I'm not just praying for that. I'm declaring that. I see it happening.

32:59 So I am super excited about that. The cool thing about a great awakening and why I think this is happening and the evidence of a great awakening is that people are starting to own their faith. It's becoming real to them. It's not just something that they grew up around in the atmosphere they're used to. They're actually owning their faith seriously. And you just baptized three guys last week, all middle-aged men. It's everybody. It's not just young people. Like everybody is coming to the point where they're starting to own their faith for real. Part of the fruits and the inevitability of owning your faith is because you're now taking it seriously, now you start asking serious questions about your faith. And you start to wonder, do I really know the truth?

33:42 What is the truth? And so you start asking serious questions about that truth. Because you're asking questions, part of what happens is a lot of people are then given shallow answers. answers that are just kind of the traditional thing that we say, but answers that lack real depth and history and logic. And they're answers that don't satisfy people's holy curiosity to know the truth. Dr. Gavin Ortlund puts it this way. He addresses the wrestling and the approach of that like this. There's currently an enormous amount of interest in church history. It's hard to convey how strong this hunger for historical rootedness is right now. People are aching for the ancient, the transcendent, the stable, the deep. Related to this, there is also an enormous amount of what I call ecclesial angst. So what does he mean by ecclesial angst? He basically just means because we're taking our faith so seriously, we start wondering, okay, am I in the right church?

34:47 Like there's so many different churches. Which church does it right? Which one has it most right? I want to make sure I'm in the right place. There's just this angst about being in the right place. And this angst that people feel doesn't just pertain about being in the right church. It also, they feel this angst about believing at all the right thing. And so, they're questioning what they believe. And there's just this wrestling that is taking place. There's this anxiousness about wanting to be confident that you have it right. Can anybody relate to this feeling, this angst to want to be in the right place? In the midst of a great awakening, this is what I feel like God just gave me yesterday to tell you. In the midst of a great awakening, there is an equal and opposite attempt at a great deception. And so while I celebrate the move of a great awakening right now, I'm hyper aware that at the same time, I'm seeing people also greatly deceived.

35:40 And I'm seeing the great deceiver trap consciences and minds and pull them away from truth, pull them away from addressing and believing in who Christ really is and questioning his authority in the world, questioning his reign. It's, that's reality. I mean, that's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing people awaken, but I'm also seeing people deceive. So we need to address this. So because there is that wrestling, there's this awakening and deception, and there's a wrestling in between. I want to give a physical illustration for what this looks like. I'm going to get two of our scholars to help me out real quick. We did this in the first service. It was kind of awkward. Hopefully it won't be this time, but they're going to help me give, I don't know about you. I'm a visual guy. I like to have visual representations for things. Was anybody a wrestler or did any kind of grappling or anything growing up?

36:32 A few of you guys. Okay. So I'm going to give you a visual representation of something that has to do with this wrestling that we're feeling right now. Go ahead, guys. They're going to illustrate for us in a grappling situation, Daniel is going to represent a Christian. And sorry, Tate, you're representing the devil, but Daniel is in the dominant position right now. What this means is think about Daniel. He's living in victory. He's in faith with Christ, and he's walking in the victory of Christ right now. So, he's dominating, right? The problem is once Daniel starts to engage in this wrestling with content of the world and questions and all these kind of things, there's a dance that happens. And the devil's intention is to look for windows of opportunity to start trapping you, trapping your mind with ideas, and then he can sweep you over into disbelief, into letting go of your faith altogether.

37:25 Thank you, guys. Yeah. So this is a visual representation of this dance that happens when you start to entertain ideas and thoughts that aren't rooted in biblical truth. what happens is you start to make windows in your mind where Satan can reach in there and he can trap you. He can get a hold of something. And then all he has to do is just give you a little nudge and he can sweep you over. And then all of a sudden, you've tossed out your faith altogether. Or your faith has become something that's not real, that's not true. You've been truly deceived into believing something false about the world.

38:06 It's a sad reality, but I see this happening too. I see people awakening to faith, but I also see people being deceived and leaving the faith altogether. So living by faith, living in the victory of Christ, that's you winning, that's you dominating. And we should be seeking to dominate in the victory of Christ. But there's that potential, there's that danger of being swept over into deceit. So somebody might say, or the temptation might be, okay, well, I just don't want to engage at all then. Like I'll just, I'll disengage, you know, I'm not be a hermit and just not care about what's happening in the world, I don't think this is the right response. I think God calls us to be students of the world and what's going on and seek to be engaged in culture and be aware so that we can speak life and truth into those situations.

38:58 You guys agree with that? Amen. Amen. So let's look at just real quick how to engage. How should we then engage with the world? Number one, I think we should pursue wisdom and knowledge more than we should, or pursue wisdom and understanding more than we should knowledge. The Proverbs says that God gives wisdom. He gives understanding. He is the source of those things. And when we analyze the world through the lens of wisdom and understanding that comes from God, you see truth for what it is. You're far less likely to be swept away into disbelief and be brought away by deceit. Proverbs 23, 23 says, buy truth and do not sell it. Buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. Seek to acquire those things. Seek to learn and grow, but seek to do it through wisdom, through God's eyes and how he understands things to be. First Corinthians 8, 1 tells us that it is love that builds up, not knowledge. And the context of that scripture, it's knowledge that is kind of nefarious and that it's putting a bunch of rules on people and systems. And that knowledge causes us to puff up, but it's love that builds us up. You will never build the kingdom through just knowledge and knowing things. That's not how the kingdom works. The kingdom is built and we are built up by love. It is good to pursue knowledge. Don't take this to mean that we just should be dumb. I don't think God wants us to be dumb. I think God wants us to be very informed about

40:30 what's going on. It is good to pursue knowledge. Proverbs 18, 15 says, an intelligent heart, acquires knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge. So God does not want you to be uninformed. He wants you to be informed. My caution to you is just to be careful what you allow into your mind. Because in doing so, just know there are a lot of ideas, there are a lot of concepts, there are a lot of conspiracies that are seeking to deceive your mind and ultimately lead you away from Christ. The second thing is with all humility. How do we engage all this information and content of the world? With all humility. You know, it's all too common that the person who ends up walking away from the faith altogether is somebody who at first thinks they know it all.

41:19 They're like, oh, I've got it figured out. I know everything. And then something comes along that makes them question what they know, and their pride can't handle that, and so they end up tossing out their faith altogether. That's all too common. You've probably known people like that. I've known people like that. That is an unfortunate reality because Proverbs 18 12 says before destruction a man heart is haughty but humility comes before honor Before honor. That kind of person is someone who at first doesn't start from the humble place of saying, Look, I can't understand everything. I'm incapable of understanding everything.

41:59 I have a little three-pound brain fitting in here with a skull that's as thick as six business cards. Try to understand it all. Try to fit God in there. Good luck. You can't. We can't understand everything. And so in our pursuit of knowledge, do it humbly. Be humble in your knowing. Proverbs tells us, or Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know in full, even as I have been fully known. Now catch this too. This is really cool. Paul just said, as I have been fully known. He's saying, at some point, we will know God as fully as God knows us.

42:47 Whoa, that's cool. I look forward to that day when I know God as fully as he knows me. That's just not today. So be humble because we know in part and we prophesy in part. There is coming a day when we will know in full, but that is not today. And so as you seek to learn and grow and figure things out, take a breath at knowing you can't figure it all out. There will be unanswerable questions, but there are things that you can absolutely build your life on fundamentally, which we'll get here in just a second. The third thing, humility, and then the third thing is the proper use of questions. I heard this from Dr. Jordan Peterson, and I loved it. He said one day, The root of the word question is quest.

43:41 And so the purpose of asking questions is to go on a journey, a quest to discover the truth. To find out what's the answer, what's real, what is true. That's why you're asking questions. But it's important that we don't just ask questions for question's sake. It's important that you don't ask a question just for the sake of pontificating some fancy idea or loving to discuss speculations. Questions should serve you to reach truth, to find truth. Recently just took our scholars through The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. And this is an analogous metaphorical book.

44:23 It's not exactly how Lewis pictures heaven and hell. But the theme of the book is people are moving from hell to heaven, and it's about the things that they won't let go that take them back to hell. And Lewis is the main character, and he overhears these conversations of different people happening on the journey. And one of the conversations he overhears is with the intellectual man, the sophisticated man, the philosophical skeptic is how he's termed. And he overhears this conversation with him, and the intellectual man is speaking with the other person from heaven who comes to talk to him. And there's a point in the conversation where he says this. The spirit from heaven says, do you not even believe that he exists, referring to God?

45:03 And the intellectual man says, exists? What does existence mean? You will keep on implying some sort of static reality, which is, so to speak, there, and to which our minds have simply to conform. If there was such a thing, quite frankly, I should not be interested in it. This guy perfectly embodies the skeptic who has fallen in love with just the practice of pontification and pondering. And asking questions because he just loves to ask questions. But what keeps this guy out of heaven is that he's never willing to come to conclusions. Because conclusions demand your surrender. And think about this.

45:44 deception seeks to get you to just keep asking questions and never submit to a conclusion. And so it'll just give you another little event that happens here or a questionable thing that was said here, and you just get caught up in this tornado of just questioning and questioning and questioning, and there's no place to land. I mean, think how deceptive that is. And I think about what Satan is doing with so many young people, and all he's doing is just giving them a little nudge and they get caught up in a tornado of deception. And there's just endless questions and endless pontification. That's not, look, land at Christ and be firmly rooted in Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is the truth.

46:33 The skeptic doesn't want to come to conclusions because they don't want to surrender. And unfortunately, there are a lot of people right now with current events and things going on that they just exist to promulgate and fuel the fire of questions, but not for the purpose of coming to a conclusion. You guys following me? Okay. When we do those three things, pursue wisdom and understanding and with all humility and we ask good questions, I believe we can come to what Paul references as full assurance. full assurance. He says here in Colossians chapter 2 verse 2, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding. Now read this carefully. He doesn't say full assurance and understanding.

47:18 He says full assurance of understanding. In other words, even though we can't understand everything, we can be fully assured of our understanding of who Jesus is, who he claimed to be, and who he proved Himself to be and who we are following, like who Christ is. We can be fully assured of our understanding of that, even though we don't have to understand everything about the world. I find that comforting. I find that I can breathe, that I'm not pressured with having to have it all figured out, but that I can have confidence in who I know as my Lord and Savior. Amen? I've termed this as holy curiosity.

48:02 Actually, it's not my term. It's Einstein's term. Einstein used this term, holy curiosity. I hope that you're curious about things. I hope that you ask good questions. I hope that you seek to know and to understand. But I hope that your motivation and your drive behind doing all that is a holy curiosity. my prayer is that you don't get wrapped up in in worldly information that is temporal and materialistic and ultimately seeks to pull you away from God my hope is that your motivation to learn and to grow is a holy curiosity like I want to learn about heavenly things I want to learn about eternal things and then what's my job right here and now to promote that right not to get caught up in the spiraling tornado of conspiracies. To do that, we have a certain way of building defenses. I'm going to get you guys to help me one more time. During the wrestling that takes place, part of keeping yourself from getting swept in wrestling and jiu-jitsu is what's called a post. A post is your defense to getting swept. It's what's keeping you in the dominant position. So as Daniel, as the Christian, starts to entertain ideas and read different content and question things, and the wrestling is happening.

49:23 The deceiver, Satan, tries to get him to question things like God's goodness. God's not good. Well, he puts out a post that says, no, no, no, I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and I know that to be true. That is a post in his life that keeps him from getting swept. That's a belief that does not waver. Oh, well, you know, how can God be a loving God with all this stuff going on? God can't love you, and he tries to sweep you over into that. You put a post up. It says, no, no, no. John tells me that God is love. God is love. And I know that because I've encountered and experienced that love. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us and God showed his love for us in that. You know, oh, you can't trust God's word. There's all these contradictions. It's not infallible. He tries to sweep you over that. I said, no, no, no, no. Hold on. The scripture has survived the filter of time. There's all this evidence. There's all these reasons to believe. That's a post in my life that I can trust God's word. So, you guys, are you guys getting this, like you have to have posts in your life, things that you are relying on, truths that you have given yourself to that keep you from getting swept up into deceit. Okay. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. I'll tell you my greatest post because I, I have these same wrestlings as everybody. Like I'll, I'll learn something new and it'll kind of shake my thought process and it'll make me wrestle.

50:43 But my greatest post against getting swept up into deceit is that I know God. I don't just know God, Gnosko in the Greek, intellectually. I know God, I get da him in the Hebrew. I know him relationally. I've experienced and encountered Jesus for real. I don't just know God here. I know God here. and no amount of nefarious and deceitful information that somebody tries to get me to believe and question can make me question what I've experienced. The relationship that I have with God. When I've encountered the love of my Abba, that is something no one will be able to pull me away from.

51:28 That is a rock solid foundation. That is my greatest post. And so I'll just be honest with you guys. I'll be straight up. There have been plenty of times when I really am wrestling with something. I'm like, holy cow, I don't know what I believe. But then I come back to this and I'm like, wait a minute. No, God, I've experienced you for real. And I can't question that. I can't question what you've done in my life. I can't question your faithfulness. It's so clearly evident. That is a post that is so firm. So I would encourage you today, think about what are your posts? What are the things that you've learned from God's word? What are the things that you have encountered with the Lord that are your posts that will safeguard your mind, safeguard your belief to not getting swept away into deceit?

52:15 Last thing, how can we help each other know the truth? I would encourage you, be a living example. Be a living example. Your hope and your joy in the Lord are contagious. And so I can speak to this for my generation. As we wrestle with things, it's very comforting. to see other people who are walking in hope and joy and confidence in the truth. For us to see that, we're like, oh man, I want that. I want to be as hopeful and joyful as you are. And so listen, if you've been walking with the Lord for however long and you're confident in that, be a living example of that. Do not let your faith just be an internal thing. Let the faith that you have overflow onto others.

52:59 and it is an encouragement to everyone around you. No matter how long you've been walking with the Lord, everybody has a role in this great awakening. And so be the family of God. Whether you need to be a Paul to someone's Timothy or whether you need to be a Timothy who finds a Paul or whether you just need to be a Barnabas to everybody and encouragement. Like you have a role to play in this great awakening that is happening. And so pray and ask and seek from the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to be doing? Who are the people around me that I can be speaking life and truth into, and I can help safeguard from deceit that is seeking to lure them away right now? We all have something to do. We all have a role to play. We are all God's hands and feet in this world. So be the family of God.

53:46 My final encouragement to you is that we walk by faith, not by sight. We walk by faith, not by sight. You will not know everything. We can't know everything. But our faith is an assurance of those things that we can't see. It's a confidence, even in the mystery of it all, that we know the one true God. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Paul continues to say later in Colossians, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Hebrews 12, 2, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

54:31 Family, if you aim at knowledge, you will miss a relationship with the living God. But if you aim at a relationship with the living God, you will gain everything. I promise you, you will gain it all. What does it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul? don't seek knowledge at the expense of a relationship with the Lord man don't do that don't do that be intentional to spend time with your father and let him reveal to you his heart what he wants you to do Paul says that we have the mind of Christ 1 Corinthians 2.16 he says you have the mind of Christ That is an awesome thing.

55:19 And I was thinking about this yesterday. What is the mind of Christ? The mind of Christ is one that is in resurrection and life and victory. And He offers us that mind. And it's not like, Christ pulls out his mind and puts it in ours, but we start thinking in line with him. We start co-laboring with him. We're walking with him, and he speaks to you, and he helps you think clearly. Jesus is the clarity to all of our thoughts. He's the calm in all of our chaos. Jesus is perfect peace. He's the Prince of Peace, and you have access to that mind. Family, embrace the mind of Christ.

56:00 with everything going on in the world, even with the recent events. You're going to start seeing wild theories come out about what's going on. It's going to start happening. The media cycle just inevitably starts spinning things. And as that happens, know that you have the mind of Christ. You have access to God. You have access to your maker. And he wants to bring you peace. He wants to bring you clarity. So listen, I want to pray over us a refreshment of the mind of Christ and just a renewal of the mind of Christ in that he would settle on us clarity and truth. Let's bow our heads. Let's pray for that. Lord Jesus, I thank you for your truth I thank you that we can know you Lord that you encountered us I thank you that just even this morning your spirit is so evidently and manifestly here Jesus thank you for giving us your mind Thank you for allowing us to think like you, to be aware of truth, to see truth in the world.

57:05 So Lord, I just pray that your mind would settle on all of us here. And that as we leave our fellowship this morning, that we would walk in a newness of peace, a newness of assurance that we can know the truth and have a belief that is not shaken because it's built on the rock that is you. Lord, you are the cornerstone. You are the truth. You are the foundation. Lord, thank you for making that our reality. Thank you that you've torn the veil and there's no longer a separation between us and God.

57:45 And you've made it possible to have a relationship with you. So Lord, help us to lean into that relationship. Help us to have a view and a thought process that is an extension first of that relationship with you. Lord, thank you. We love you, Lord. Help us to walk into holy curiosity with a filter that comes from you and you alone Protect us from deceit Protect us from ideas and concepts that come from the great deceiver. For we do not want to follow him.

58:26 We seek to follow you, Lord. So Lord, I just ask for this to be done in the power of your name. Amen. The mind of Christ is one that truly knows the Father and doesn't doubt the goodness of God. The mind of Christ is one who trusts and is first whole in the love of our Abba. The mind of Christ is peace. Family, know that you have the mind of Christ. So breathe and be at peace. Embrace holy curiosity and just enjoy the journey of learning. But you don't have to have it all figured out.

59:07 That's okay. You won't. I won't. None of us will. But that's freeing. Because we believe and we trust in the one that has it all under control. Amen. Welcome back. I hope you got a couple things. I tried to slice and dice but I kept the majority of the message in there You really have to see the video to understand the jiu reference of the great wrestling but it was a great visual representation of who has the advantage and how to get out of it when something has an advantage over you. There's a lot of good points, and I think this message will hopefully help people that struggle with anxiety and depression and hopefully make your day a little bit better. Donations. Well, on the donation front, nothing new, and we're just kind of rolling along and eventually I guess someone will click a thing and support us, but we'll see how it goes. Thank you. If you have found this podcast helpful, please support your show, the show with your times, talents, and treasure. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please share it with us. You're a producer of the show. You know how you can share your time. You know, you're spending your time listening to the show and learning some things about Fairview, Tennessee and our state. Talent, if you have any skills that can help the show, please let us know.

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