"Hey, You!"
EPISODE 177
Let God's Word Interrupt Your Thoughts
How can God’s word interrupt our internal dialogue and focus us on what matters? And what’s better than a “360 degree turnaround”? This week we complete the Talking to Yourself guided study. First we discuss what Jesus Said in his six “But I say to you” statements in Matthew 5. Then we dive into the parable of the Rich Fool in a Here’s the Story that leads us to reexamine our lives in light of eternity. From Swifties to monkeys, basketball blocks to the Emperor’s Groove, we cover a lot of ground but the focus is on the way Jesus’ teaching redirects our thinking. Go to biblegeeks.fm/talkingtoyourself for all the videos and guides for this study.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: The best thing that can happen to our inner dialogue is to bring God into the conversation.
This Week's Challenge: Write a helpful memory verse on a slip of paper and repeat it to yourself throughout the week.
Episode Transcription
I'll say to my soul, soul, I love that. I'll say to my soul, soul, hey you, hey you, you deserve a break. Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks Podcast. This is episode 177. I'm Bryan Schiele. I'm Ryan Joy. And thanks so much everyone for tuning in as we've been talking about here on the last few episodes, or at the end of a series here. This is the ultimate, not the penultimate episode in our conversation that we've called Talking to Yourself. And I don't know, it does feel a little strange to be talking to you about talking to myself. Hopefully these things have been helpful for everyone else. - Yeah, it might be weird to hear you talking to yourself about talking to yourself. So, you know, it's probably better for all of us that we just talk to each other about these thoughts that we're having in our ongoing inner dialogue, right? Is our subject matter. - Exactly, this ongoing inner dialogue, which by the way, if you have not stopped to think about your thinking in a while, we have all kinds of weird stuff going on in our brains and sometimes we just need to get blocked and that's actually what we talked about in our conversation starter that we're gonna kick this thing off with. And that episode was called, "Not in My House." (imitates music) This is talking to yourself. - Not in my house. It's never a good day when a seven-foot-tall, gangly-armed center ruins your team's playoff chances by intercepting a potential buzzer-beater shot with an epic "not in my house" block. Rather than scoring that game-winning goal, a team is left dejected as their ball goes sailing into the stands. But not all blocks are heartbreaking. Scientists call our ongoing inner dialogue self-referential thought. Since it's constant, these typically negative and anxious patterns become ingrained. We get stuck in a conversation we can't seem to escape. And that's where God comes in to knock our thoughts into a new direction, replacing them with his own. So here's the big idea. The best thing that can happen to our inner dialogue is to bring God into the conversation. Because what we tell ourselves isn't always reliable, but what God tells us can save our eternal lives. Jesus tells a parable about a man talking to himself. The man saw his farm's excellent yield and thought to himself, "What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops." (Luke 12 verse 17) He had a talk with himself, and together they planned their retirement. He wanted what he wanted, and when he spoke to himself it was about his favorite subject, himself. If you're bold enough to look under the hood and examine your self-talk, prepare to learn some hard truths about what you value. Eavesdropping on yourself is not for the faint of heart. But sometimes the best thing that can happen to our inner dialogue is for God to send the conversation in the opposite direction. In Luke 12 verse 20 we read, "But God said to him, 'Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you've prepared, whose will they be?'" God's voice wants to break into your thoughts too, reminding you of a hard truth. You are mortal. So whatever conversations you're having with yourself right now, let the Lord interrupt your thoughts with His precious Word. So here's the big question. Are you clutching your treasures or investing your life in the lasting words of God? So follow along with this guided study at BibleGeeks.fm/talkingtoyourself and may the Lord bless you and keep you today. Shalom. That was one of my favorite ones in the series. - Honestly, the thought of the big giant gangly arm center blocking our thoughts just is so visceral to me. And it leads us to this big idea here that the best thing that can happen to our inner dialogue is to bring God into the conversation. My daughter is a big Swifty, I think. She's big into Taylor Swift right now. She actually just bought like a whole bunch of Taylor Swift vinyl. Do you remember not too long ago, maybe some years ago that Kanye West got up on stage and interrupted Taylor Swift and basically said, "I'm gonna let you finish." But then he went on to talk about how Beyonce should have won. These are non-important, pretty trivial things in the grand scheme of things. But I was just thinking about how somebody like Kanye gets up on stage and totally interrupts what would have been a really powerful and important moment for Taylor Swift. Most of the times when we get interrupted, it's a pretty bad thing. And it's often pretty offensive to us. But we're not Tay-Tay and God is not Kanye. When he breaks into our thoughts, whatever he says totally deserves our attention. When God gets up on stage and tells us to sit down and he's gonna let us finish, we better take heed of what he actually has to say 'cause God is going to tell us something that really, like we talked about, can change our life. - Yeah, yeah, the interruption from God is exactly what we need. And the big question that we asked is, are you clutching your treasures or investing your life in the lasting words of God? And of course, in the background of that question is the rich fool story and how he focused on his treasures like we talked about in the conversation starter. And it makes me think of that old story of the monkey trap. Have you heard that story? - I don't know if I have. - Okay, okay, so according to the story, monkey hunters cut a small hole in a coconut and attach it to a chain and then they fill it with rice. And the hole is big enough for them to reach in an open hand but it's not big enough to pull out the fist. - Oh, right. - And so when the monkey gets a hold of the rice, it becomes trapped, not by anything physical, but by their desire not to lose what they're grasping. You know, monkeys aren't dumb, but they're stuck in a conflict. Logic says to let go and be free, but there's a kind of logic that usually works that says when you have something you want, you wanna hold on to it. - Exactly. (both laughing) - And to follow God and to gain our freedom, it takes a similar kind of decisive surrender, like breaking a certain kind of logic in our brain that makes us want to clutch on to the things that seem dear and seem important to us to, as Jesus says, lose our life that we might gain it. - Well, so many just visceral pictures here in our episode. We've talked about Taylor Swift, we've talked about monkey trapping. Where do we go next from here? Let's kick this thing off with an icebreaker, I suppose. - Yeah, so our icebreaker, This is kind of lightening things up with a question less important than some of these passages we'll be talking about, but what activity, Bryan, do you hate to be interrupted while doing? - As soon as I started formulating my answer to this question, all I could think about was one of my favorite scenes from Emperor's New Groove, when that old man who got booted out of the emperor's palace, he says, "Beware the groove." - I love that. - It's so good. - I think of that all the time, too. - So this is probably my biggest challenge. I have a really hard time focusing during the day. Believe it or not, I really am not super productive all day long. There are a couple of hours in the morning where I'm really, really on, and that's my groove. It's my flow state, it's where I'm getting stuff done. And if somebody comes in and blocks me in that moment, I hate that so much, drives me bonkers. And so I wanna put up a sign in my office some days that just says, beware the groove. - Beware the groove. (both laughing) - Love it. That's a good one. Can relate to those bursts of ultra productivity are just so precious. Yeah, for me, totally different direction. It's eating. I don't like to work and eat. I like to settle in and enjoy the meal. So I have this thing I do where I'll stand at the counter and make sure everybody is taken care of. Anybody need more grilled cheese? I got it right, I can make some more. Anybody need, because when I sit down, I want to be done and be able to sit down and just enjoy, not just take a bite and then somebody needs something and I've gotta get up and forget it all. - So it looks like a selfless act on your part that you're serving everyone else. But really you just want people to leave you alone. - That's right. - I like it. All right, so let's get into here, our Jesus Said segment. We're gonna go to somewhere where Jesus teaches us about, as we're talking about on this episode, allowing God to break into the conversation. hearing God and really when Jesus lays the gauntlet down in Matthew chapter 5 in the sermon on the mount, he has a whole lot of "but I say to you" kind of statements that kind of sound like that conversation starter blocking the conversation, sending it off into a new direction. And so, he says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 22, "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable of the judgment." And he goes on in verse 28 to say, "But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And he goes on over and over and over again here to explain to us how we have an idea of what is right and what is true, what God says or what the conventional wisdom of the day is, but I say to you. And over and over, Jesus is just blocking the thoughts of the people. And so what do you take from this about Jesus' words that helps you better understand how how to control your thoughts and really listen to God. - Yeah, I'm forever gonna be thinking of like a Dikembe Mutombo block shot whenever I read these from now on, yeah. Yeah, you thought this, but I say to you, you have heard, but I say to you, and it's a big palm just knocking it in another direction. And Jesus is redirecting us with force to a deeper truth in each of these statements. Like in the first one, he takes the listener from what they'd heard, don't murder, that's true, but he wants to take them to something more. God wants his people to control their anger, to reconcile with those they have problems with, as he goes on to say in that little statement there. And really in all six of these antitheses, the "but I say to you" statements, they help us understand what he meant in the verse at the beginning of this section, verse 20, where he says, "Our righteousness needs to exceed the scribes." The scribes were not like the awful people of their time. They were the people you would think, these are the ones that are giving to the poor. - They're doing it right, yeah. - Doing it right. They love God's word. They take it really seriously. But he's saying our righteousness needs to be a heart righteousness first. And there is something that really the scribes aren't emphasizing that's underneath all of these teachings and truths. And so Jesus redirects us to confront our lust, to deepen our view of the marriage commitment, to love people who hate us. All of these statements are really the ultimate redirect right to the work that we all need to do every day. - I love that, how you're talking about the redirection there. And that's actually what I was thinking about is sort of the extent of the redirection. How far off really are we or are the hearers here in Jesus' audience? One of Sherrilyn's biggest pet peeves is when people say on TV that I've made a 360 degree turnaround. (laughing) It's like, is that supposed to be a good thing? You basically spun all the way around and you're back where you started. - That's awesome. - And that happens from time to time. People will say that thinking that what they really mean is 180 degrees, right? It's interesting though how Jesus doesn't treat every one of these things like 180 degree turn. And I think that's powerful here because What it sounds to me like is like that redirection. It's just the slight course correction. Maybe a 10 degree turn, maybe a 90 degree turn even, but like a lot of these things aren't complete wholesale. Throw out what you already know, 'cause that's garbage. And here's something brand new. There are a few of those statements here. By and large, I think the majority of what he's talking about is yeah, you shouldn't be murdering people, but you also shouldn't be hating people. It's not enough just to stop doing the act of adultery, but you have to also not want to. So he's talking about taking it a step further. You're already doing a good job at not doing the act or committing the sin itself, but don't even want to do it. It's an interesting thought process to think, I might convince myself, well, at least I'm not doing that, right? And I'm sure that's what he's addressing here for a lot of people who say, well, at least I haven't committed this sin. Well, is that as far as I need to go though? Because maybe what I should be more focused on is what's going on in my heart. and the things I'm telling myself. And I love how it's not a 360 degree change, like a lot of people might think. It's not 180 degree change a lot of times. Sometimes it's just a little course correction. - Yeah, or like you said, it's just keep going further. It's like you're not even a change of direction. That is a helpful thought because so much of growing in the Lord is, well, what's my next step? Don't stop, don't plateau, don't settle there with, yeah, I'm not doing this thing, but what are you doing instead? Or yeah, I'm praying, I pray in the morning and before my meals, but okay, keep going. Anything that is right is something to keep pursuing and often there's another step we could take to keep growing in that same direction. - Yeah, all right, so let's move into our second segment here on the episode and that is Here's the Story. (upbeat music) ♪ Here's the story ♪ - So in our conversation starter, we were talking from Luke chapter 12 about this story of the rich fool. And this is a story that we're gonna tell about a story that Jesus told about this guy. I mean, this is a parable, but I think the story of the rich fool is incredibly powerful in demonstrating the lesson about how we talk to ourselves and really allowing God to become a part of that conversation. - Well, yeah, because God gives us this bigger perspective and this is an interruption story. This is a God interruption story in a way that only, really only death can do. You know, like this is like the thing that is ultimately going to interrupt the flow, the groove of everyone at some point is there is an end and then you're gonna face your God and meet the consequences of all the things we've done. So the story comes right after someone asks Jesus to arbitrate a family property dispute, as if that's what Jesus came from heaven to do. And so he's not here for that, but he does wanna take the opportunity to warn his hearers. He says, "Be on your guard against all covetousness. "Watch out for greed." And he gives a profound truth as I think the setup for this parable. It's like a t-shirt bumper sticker kind of a truth, which is basically that your life does not equal your stuff. Your possessions, the abundance of your possessions is not what your life is about. And so that leads into the story. - Yeah, and you'd think just from the setup that maybe he's gonna have, okay, there's this guy over here who has this situation and there's that guy over there who has that situation. He's done that from time to time. You think about like the story of the tax collector versus the Pharisee in the temple and the praying that's happening and all the stories comparing two people. But this is just a story about one dude and he's super rich. And what does he do? Like, of course, as you think about rich people today, what do rich people do today? They might be in the stock market or they might be in banking or a doctor or something like that. And you might miss the fact that this rich guy is a farmer. A farmer? Yeah, just a regular farmer. He's a guy who's got a bunch of land. And of course, back in the day that Jesus is teaching from, that was a pretty lucrative opportunity to make money. If you had land and that land was prosperous, you were gonna be raking in the dough. and this is pretty much the story of this guy here. It's not a time of famine, there's no pestilence going on, this rich guy has just been raking it in. A ton of produce, making a big profit. That sounds pretty nice to me. I mean, Jesus, you're not really painting a story about a guy who I don't wanna be like. I mean, this is a pretty cool guy. He's got a lot of stuff going on. And then he starts talking to himself. I think this is really where the situation turns grim. Although in this conversation, Nothing pops out right off the bat that just seems kind of offensive because he says what am I going to do with all this stuff? I mean that seems like a pretty normal question, right? Like I have so much stuff What am I going to do with all this stuff? Uh, it's the story of the modern world. I know right He's got all this stuff He's got all these crops and he's running out of room to rake it all into and so If anyone of our listeners has found themselves living in a house where suddenly all the closets were full and there's no more space to put anything. Like you said, this is a problem of our modern world. You know what he's dealing with here. And so it doesn't sound super bad of a situation going on right now, but he comes up with an idea and he starts formulating this idea. And he says, "I'm going to get rid of my current barns and I'm going to start over with bigger ones. We're moving on up." He says he's making bigger storage facilities for himself. And as somebody who has thought about moving or upsizing my current house, when mom moved in for us, it was like, "Maybe we should just get more space because that would be really nice." That is a super tempting and on paper, very logical answer to the problem that he's dealing with. Of course, though, during this entire conversation, we're seeing a lot of focus on I and me and my and really that's probably no different than most of us talk to ourselves. When we address ourselves, we're probably thinking about I and me and my. So what is the big problem here? It goes on really to address that in the next few verses, I suppose. Yeah. Well, he goes on to not only talk to himself, but talk to his future self. I'll say to my soul, soul. I love that. I'll say to my soul, soul, Hey you, you deserve a break. And so he says to, to relax and eat and drink and be merry. Take it easy. good that he's planning for the future, I think. - I think so too. - That seems like a good thing. We try to teach our kids delayed gratification, like the Stanford second marshmallow idea. The problem is he hasn't looked far enough into the future because the next words of the parable aren't about what he said to his soul. Instead, we read these three words, but God said, and there's the Dikembe Mutombo hand. There's the swat of his thoughts into a different direction. And God calls him a fool, because as he's planning a happy future, the soul of his that he was talking to is now required of him. And so God asks him, "Hey, now who's going to enjoy all the stuff "that you've prepared? "You've been saving up, "you've been getting ready to enjoy your retirement, "but somebody else is gonna eat that food now." And that leads us to Jesus' conclusion. - Yeah, and so Jesus' whole conclusion from this pretty short story is that don't focus so much on preparing for your future here on earth, so much so that you're not thinking about preparing for an eternity with God. And I think you hit the nail on the head right there because it's not that he addressed even all the conversation he was having with himself, he just almost said you didn't go far enough. Where are your treasures really is the question. Don't focus so much on this world's treasures that you miss the ones that you're laying up in heaven. It is hard not to think back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' powerful words, not to lay up treasures for ourselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I think these are so connected to each other because it's not that it was a problem that he was watching out for his future, his retirement, what he was gonna do with his stuff tomorrow, just that he wasn't thinking far enough ahead. All right, so as you think about this story, what do you take away from this? Obviously, there's so many important and powerful lessons that we could take away from this about materialism. What are you really walking away from this story, kind of learning for yourself? - Well, I think you hit the nail on the head with that word eternity, eternal life. And I recently had a conversation with one of our friends out there in Phoenix about the way thinking about eternity changes the way we live, the way we do like most of the stuff of life. And he compared it to running a race. Imagine you're watching a race and most of the people think it's a sprint, so they take off, but some of the people are running a marathon, so they run it differently and it looks strange. What are they doing? And this rich fool was thinking about the future, but he wasn't thinking, we just said, far into eternity. He wasn't thinking about that eternal perspective that changes how we think about our possessions, how we think about our pleasures and relaxation, accumulating possessions. Like I think a lot of people think that's the point of all of this. Like it kind of feels like that's a win when you've got ease, you've got a comfortable retired life, you've got lots of stuff. You have one life. But wait a minute, if this thing keeps going past 78, 85, you know, now where are we going to be when we would have been 110? Where are we going to be 200 years from now? 300? Where are we going to be forever? It's all different because the view is so much longer. The marathon ahead makes us run differently. And so our trials have different meaning. our goals in life have different focus and it just changes things. And I think this parable is a really good illustration that gets to the heart of the matter as Jesus so often does of the eternal perspective. - I was thinking recently about a lot of these kinds of things when I was reading back to Luke chapter three as John the Baptist is basically answering a lot of questions early on in his ministry and people are asking him like, what should we do? And he says, "Now, if you've got two coats, give it to somebody else who needs one." And every answer that he really gives there, when people ask him, "What should they do?" is all really focused on combating materialism and this whole idea of just looking at something beyond what you have now. Like, if you know that someday you're gonna inherit eternal life, then does your coat really benefit you a whole lot right now? Like the extra one you have? Or can you be content with your wages? Or can you be honest with people about not collecting more than you need to collect? I think it really changes the game for us. As soon as we really start thinking about what's on the horizon, and for me even, I think for the first time, I'm really thinking about retirement more than I probably ever have in my entire life. I'm not the kind of person who just is defined by his work. I would love someday to not have to work and to just enjoy things and spend time with my family and spend time doing things and focusing on other things, get in a different kind of groove. But I think it's like you were talking in one of the last episodes about how Asher was saying that a tree that was really close looked big and the mountain that was super far away looked really small. And that life lesson that you shared with him that we get things mixed up so often, like the thing that's close to us becomes the big giant mountain when really the mountain, the actual mountain is way out there And it's actually bigger than anything else that we could have right next to us, but we mix that up so easily sometimes. And I think it's so important that we just have that perspective. That's really, I think, what Jesus is trying to get his audience to see here, is just have a different perspective. Like James 4 verse 15, you know, as James is talking about, making sure that we are including God in our plans, that we have a perspective of eternity someday. And again, that really does change the game. - That passage in James 415 really belongs in this episode. - It kinda does, right? - I'm glad you brought it up, yeah. What is your life? - It's a vapor. - You're a mist, it's a vapor, yeah. - All right, so let's get into our third and final segment here on the episode, and that is our reach out question. ♪ Reach out, reach out and touch someone ♪ - So we're gonna get super deep and personal with each other, and we're gonna ask this question. Share a time that you've had a you are the man moment of conviction, a la 2 Samuel 12 versus 7 to 9, where obviously Nathan comes to David and says, "You are the man." You ever had one of those moments where you just realized that you had done something that was obviously not something that you should have done? - I wish I could say no, no, I haven't had any of those. What about you? Let's move the question on. We write these reach out questions for the study guide and I always think that is a good one. But I always forget that we have to answer them. (both laughing) So I was just sort of doing an inventory of all the times that I've had Nathan's finger in my face. And for me, not one of those is a fun memory. They're good and I'm glad that they happened, but not fun. So I'll share a time that I was both corrected and encouraged in the same gathering, a time that taught me the power of the conviction, but also of mercy. And this was a time when I was in high school, a friend was leading a men's retreat at this beautiful spot. It was back in Hawaii. We were on the beach at this house that we had rented. And I felt compelled to use that moment to straighten people out on a doctrinal matter, completely unrelated to the purpose of the gathering. And all the men that were there were much older than me. It was a very intimate group, seven guys, or something like that, were sitting around a table. And I knew they didn't wanna hear what I had to say, but I thought I was Jeremiah. I've got the fire in my bones. And I just dove in, you know? That's kind of how I was back then. I thought I was Jeremiah. I love it. It's like ready to fight for what I thought was right and true, whether it was the right time or it wasn't, and it wasn't the right time for it. And the brother leading the gathering told me so right there in front of everybody. And I had rained on everybody's parade. It was a retreat. So they all had to spend the whole evening and the next day with me after I had just like been that guy. and I had to be with them and I really didn't know what to do. So I went out to the beach and I just sat there and one of the brothers came out and spent the evening with me and connected with me. Not because he agreed with anything I was saying, just it was just an act of compassion and mercy and reconciliation and love. It was good because I had a lot to learn. I needed correction, but it was also helpful to learn that everyone hadn't thrown me out of the tribe for that I was still loved and there was still a place for me and that kind of thing. It's like we talk about parenting, the tearing down and building up. As a 16 year old, I thought I knew it all. I still think my point was important, but boy was I off on the way I had tackled it. So yeah, that was a thou art the man moment for me. What about you? Have you had some of those? - I have had moments quite like that. I don't know that many of mine had been like super in public like yours was. So I appreciate you sharing that one because I think for a lot of mine, I feel the same way. Like I'm glad they happened, but none of them are fun memories. And you know, while you can sort of even look back maybe on that moment in your history and kind of, we can laugh about it now. Like at the time, you can just see how mortified you know, you were. And I of course have had those times where like I was just mortified. There was a brother that I really loved dearly and we haven't always gotten along super well. We're sort of both like very, I guess type A personalities in some ways. And there was some tension that we had some years ago. And there was a time where I was rushing around, I think trying to get ready for something. Services were going on and things were going upside down. I had to fix something and I'm running around the building trying to get everything going so that we could start worship or something like that. I don't even remember the situation, but at the time when he came up to me and he was trying to get my attention and talk to me And I was frustrated and I guess I just blew him off. I really did not even pay attention to him. I moved on 'cause I was like running to go do something. And I didn't really think much of it at the time. That moment apparently really hurt him. He would go on to tell me later. And a while passes and he brings it up to me. And he says that he couldn't have been more just frustrated or hurt by the fact that I blew him off in that moment. And I was just, at that time, I was just completely devastated. How bad I had made him feel. And at that moment when he was telling me what I had done to him, I was really fighting back the knee jerk reaction to like justify myself, to give reasons why I did what I did, or I could have even thought about things that he had done to me in the past, and I could try to throw those back in his face. And at the time though, it was just such a hard thing to sit there and hear that I had really hurt somebody in that way. And I didn't have a reasonable defense, and I knew it. and that was the problem. You get to a situation like one of those you are the man moments, and you know exactly what you did. You know exactly what you said, you know how it would have felt if you were in their position. And even though at that moment, it took a lot for me to just be quiet and listen, looking back on it now, I am really glad that he brought it up to me, number one, and that number two, I was able to be a good listener in that moment, and not try to deflect or excuse because it wasn't a comfortable conversation to have. even if it wasn't intentional or whatever, it could have gone one of two ways and I'm glad it went a positive way that I can now look back on it and say, man, that was really good, even though that was a super hard conversation to have. - That is a good summary of those experiences that, man, you don't wanna think about it, but you're glad they happened. And like the only way it can go well is if you hear it. And if you receive it and it still doesn't feel good, It's like that treatment plan that's painful, but it's healing. So yeah, thanks for sharing that too. Those, man, these things, we got to take a week off on, um, a tough reach out question and just take it easy on ourselves. What's your favorite sandwich? Exactly. I mean, the bad thing is this was a three session conversation. And so you kind of just have to almost distill all the challenging parts just into one little tiny question to get it all out in the open. And speaking of challenging things, let's move on to our final segment here on the episode. And that is our challenge for the week. I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me. So our challenge for this week, we encourage you to do along with us is to write a helpful memory verse on a slip of paper and repeat it to yourself throughout the week. We're talking about deflecting our thoughts, sending them off into different directions. And really, the whole purpose of this is to make sure God's thoughts become our thoughts. And how better can we do that than to meditate on His Word? I think having a Bible verse in our mind and repeating it to ourselves throughout the week, I think is something that we can always do, even if we're not struggling with having challenging conversations with ourselves. Absolutely. If Psalm 119-11 is the verse that came to mind for me, "I have stored up your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you." How do we store up God's Word in our heart? do we internalize the Word and make it part of us? And this is one way to do it, to just take a meaningful passage and focus on it for a period of time. And I would encourage everybody to pray about it, to ask questions about it. We were just looking in a lesson that I taught yesterday at Acts 17 11 that says, "Examining the Scriptures daily." And word examining can literally be translated interrogating. Like they weren't interrogating Paul, they were interrogating the scriptures. So interrogate the passage, ask questions of the passage and let God answer through the word that He's already revealed. And I love doing memory work with Bible passages. I have a method that I use and I love to do it. But the point isn't just to have the words ready in your mind, but to let them do their work in our hearts and lives. And I've found that whenever I just do this kind of challenge where we're just reflecting on a verse or passage over and over again, the memory work takes care of itself, but the heart work is the more important work anyways. For sure. Yeah. I love interrogating the passage. Where were you on July 17th? So good. The spotlight is on the stool that's sitting there. I love it. Well, that leads us to the close of this conversation, which we like to close these with a word of prayer. And the suggested prayer in the study guide was help me to know the truth from John 8.32. The truth will set us free. And so let's go to God in prayer. Oh Lord, our God, our Father, we know that you know everything. You see everything so clearly. We don't always know where we're going, but we know that you know. And we don't know all the answers and we don't ask to know it all. But we ask that you would help us see our lives clearly, to see the path that we should take, to see the eternal race we're running. We pray that you would give us help and mercy and strength and direction. May our thoughts and our words and our actions please you. We ask that as we see the truth, we'd have the courage, we'd have the resolve and the love to believe the truth and to obey you. Please forgive us of our failings, guide us home. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. - Amen. All right, so here we are. We've concluded this Talking to Yourself series. And if you want to find all the episodes for this, all the study guides that we've put together, you can go to biblegeeks.fm/talkingtoyourself. We'd love it if you do that. On the next few episodes here, we're gonna mix things up just a little bit, and on the next episode, we're going to start up a brand new segment. We've done the Bible Geeks Book Club. Wouldn't it be cool to just watch some movies together or some TV shows together? There aren't a lot of TV shows, by the way, that would be worth our attention, but there is one that has caught the cultural zeitgeist, and if you have not seen The Chosen yet, we We are gonna start making our way ever so slowly through those episodes. And so if you haven't seen it, you can go on Amazon or you can go on, I think they may even be on Peacock now, but you can go watch the first episode of "The Chosen" and we're gonna talk through some of that on the next episode. And coming up not too long from now, we are gonna do an "Ask the Geeks" episode. So if you have any questions you want us to address on that episode, send us your feedback over at BibleGeeks.fm/contact get in touch with us or post something on social media, we'll see it there. Thanks everyone for tuning in on this episode. 177, you can find all the show notes for this conversation there on our website at BibleGeeks.fm/177. And please share the show with a friend, share this guided study with a friend, talking to yourself or any of the ones that we've done in the past. And until next week, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. [MUSIC PLAYING]