Balaam and the Talking Donkey

Balaam and the Talking Donkey

In today’s episode from our Strange Stories series, Charlie unpacks the fascinating story of Balaam and his talking donkey from the book of Numbers. As the Israelites face opposition on their journey to the Promised Land, a Moabite king hires the prophet Balaam to curse them. But God steps in, using unexpected messengers—Balaam’s own donkey and an angel—to protect His people and turn curses into blessings. We are challenged to trust in God’s guidance and embrace our spiritual journey, knowing that sincerity of heart matters more than rituals. Tune in for a mix of biblical insight and practical encouragement, with a reminder that God’s plans for us are always bigger than we can imagine!

Transcript

Charlie:
Hello, and welcome to The Grove Church Podcast. I’m Charlie Lofton, the lead pastor there, and we are so glad that you’re joining us. Whether you are a member and you’re just catching up on a sermon that you missed, or you’re someone who’s brand new, we are really glad that you are joining us. And if you are new in some way, and I know that a lot of people will do that, will listen to sermons first before they visit, I want you to know that we would love to meet you at any point. You can join us live in our services on Sunday, 9 and 10:30 or our streaming service at 10:30. Either way, we would love to be able to get to know you. And regardless of why you are here, listening to this sermon today, thank you so much for joining us. Hey.

Charlie:
Good morning. Hey. If you are new, I’m Charlie, the lead pastor here. I’m really glad you’re worshiping with us today. And if you are new, you’ve been around for a little bit. I mean, like, even still may be confused because you’re sitting there saying that dude is wearing red pants. And this is something you need to know. This is this is a long standing.

Charlie:
You’ve been around. You know this that if the Hogs do something really good on a Saturday, basketball, baseball, football, whatever. Right? Then I’ll wear a Hogs shirt. If something amazing happens, red pants all the way down to red shoes. And so it was a great game yesterday. I was there last night. Usually, I’m not gonna be there yelling. Just say, yelling outside for hours on a Saturday night is not conducive to my normal job.

Charlie:
But And I’m sitting here, I’m running on 5 hours sleep, and I am I’m ready I’m ready to do this. There’s a there’s a mythical idea out there that I do. I do, in fact, own a pair of red and white striped overalls that I will wear occasionally to games, and there is a mythical Sunday out there somewhere where something incredible super incredible, like like a national champion, something. So let’s just keep praying for the, you’ll you’ll remember that day, overall Sunday. I want to take a second here. I mentioned this when I hosted a couple of weeks ago, but I want to say this in a different way. Our ministry is coming in 3 weeks, and it is an incredible time. It’s about, you know, 24 hours that we spend together.

Charlie:
And I’m just becoming more and more convinced that men are struggling in part because we don’t really know who we’re supposed to be. Like, what does it really mean to be a good man, and and and how does that how does that work? We’ve got a lot of voices pulling us a lot of different directions and making us feel bad, making us feel uncertain. And the struggle, I think, is significant, and I think it is of incredible importance for us to be together and to spend some time together talking about what does it really mean to be a God honoring good man. And so I would just really encourage you, just do it today. Go to our website, thegrowthchurch.org/connect, and just go ahead and sign up. And I also know from experience that a lot of time guys may not feel like they have the emotional permission or freedom to do this. And so I just encourage the the women, the people in our men’s lives to encourage them to to take this. Like, you give us 24 hours, and and we we come back better men.

Charlie:
And so that’s in 3 weeks, and all the information, everything you need to know is on our website, and we usually schedule it either during, bi week or an away game. It’s an away game, and, apparently, it’s an early away game, but it looks like we’re going to culminate this in a watch party, which is going to just we’re just going to have a lot of fun together, but then just spend a lot of time talking about what does it mean to be a good man. And so I just encourage you, guys, to either sign up and encourage you to encourage the men in your life have the freedom to do it. Now I talked about this before, and I talk about it a lot, you know, growing up, going to church a lot, and hearing a lot of stories and hearing a lot of the same stories over and over again every year. And but then there comes a point, this is true for me, maybe it’s true for some of you too, where suddenly you start to read the Bible on your own. It’s like maybe these stories, maybe they just weren’t being completely honest with me about some of these stories. The story of Noah and the flood, I don’t know if most people are probably familiar with that, the Noah’s Ark story. Right? I found out reading the Bible for myself, you know, teenager, college, or whatever, that story actually ends with Noah making a vineyard, harvesting the grapes, making wine, and passing out naked drunk in his tent.

Charlie:
That is not the story they told me in 2nd grade Sunday school. I mean, they just they just skipped that part altogether, and then one of his sons comes in there and sees him and comes out, starts talking about it to his other brothers, and the brothers come in, they cover him up, and then Noah gets really mad and just kinda gets angry at his son, the first son, curses his, not the son, but the grandson. It’s so confusing. And then you start trying to figure out what’s going on and you read the theories about what’s happened here, and then it just gets wild. Jonah Jonah is another one, right? A story that we’re familiar with. Lots of us, you know, he’s supposed to go be a prophet at this town. He says no. He goes over here, ends up getting thrown overboard of a boat.

Charlie:
A whale swallows him up. And the story I was told is that somehow in here he gets really repentant, is sorry, and is willing to go, and he goes and talks to the people that God told him to talk to, and they repent, and Jonah’s happy. That’s not true. And it turns out you like maybe you’re a little bit older. Right? Maybe in high school, they’re willing to tell you, no, no. There’s actually an argument between God and Jonah afterwards, because Jonah was upset. These are bad people. You shouldn’t forgive them.

Charlie:
He’s like, of course I’m gonna forgive him. That’s who I am. And they argue a little bit, and then Jonah’s Jonah’s okay, and he and God are good. Turns out that’s not true either. The first time I read this story for myself, no lie, paper Bible, right? Paper Bible, And Jonah chapter 4, the last chapter, ended perfectly in the bottom right hand corner of the page. And I get down there to it, and God and Jonah are mad at each other. They’re arguing. And I was like, okay.

Charlie:
And I turned the page, and it wasn’t Jonah chapter 5. And I’m like, oh, where’s the rest of the story? And here’s what I did, I went and the thing where you do try to get pages must be stuck together. Jonah 5 is missing. Turns out it wasn’t. There is no Jonah 5. It just ends with Jonah upset with God. And beyond even that there are some wild stories in the Bible. Many of which are never gonna make it into the 52 rotation and any Sunday school class with kids anywhere, where just some wild things happen, where you’re just like, I don’t understand what God’s doing here.

Charlie:
I don’t understand what these people are doing here. I don’t understand what the point is. Why would you include this? What is its value? This is just, it’s shocking in some of its details. And you’re like, what even is this? But the thing that I love about it is the fact that the Bible does, it isn’t clean. It isn’t straightforward, everything isn’t straightforward. Sometimes it’s messy, sometimes it puts our heroes, the Bible heroes, in a very negative light. Sometimes it shows God doing something that we don’t understand, and it makes God kind of burst out of this overly simplistic portrait that so many of us have about who God is. And so what we’re gonna do over the next several weeks is we’re just gonna look at some of these just kind of more unusual stories.

Charlie:
Some of them are gonna have, kind of a gross component to them. There’s gonna be some there’s gonna be some there’s gonna be some war killings in here that, let’s just say, that are just kind of gross. There’s gonna be some things that are kind of funny. But I think with each one of them, we’re gonna kind of be like, what? Why? You didn’t have to you didn’t have to put this in here but there’s a reason why. There’s something that God is wanting to communicate to us about about who He is and about what it is He desires for us to be and become. And so today we’re gonna find ourselves in the book of Numbers and make sure we understand the story here. The Exodus, the Israelites are in Egypt and have been enslaved for about 400 years, and God, raises up this guy named Moses to come and convince the pharaoh to let them go, and there’s these plagues that happen, but finally God and Moses are able to convince pharaoh to let them go, to leave and head back to the land that God had promised them. And on their way, Pharaoh changes his mind, and God takes care of them again, and just kind of is protecting them.

Charlie:
And we see them on this kind of years long journey of kind of recapturing their identity, what it means to be God’s chosen people. And God is leading them to this land that He promised them, that Abraham, kind of their ancestor, for a few generations, they lived in this land that God had given them, and now they are headed back to this land, and God is protecting them. There’s, you know, there’s some struggles and some some arguments between them and God, but God is reintroducing Himself to them, and they are figuring out what it means to be God’s chosen people. And then they finally get there to the land, and at that point they get nervous, so there’s some scary people there. I don’t think we’re gonna be able to do this. And so after this years long journey of seeing God do all these incredible miracles, they get nervous, and they say, we we can’t do this. And so God is, like, well, okay. Well, now none of you adults will ever be able to go in there.

Charlie:
You guys are gonna have to wander around in the wilderness, and we’ll see if your kids can do any better. And where we’re starting our story today is they’re now in the beginnings of this. They are wandering around in the wilderness having just very recently disappointed God, rebelled against God, and kind of living under some of His judgment. And they are wandering around, but even though they are timid and they are felt like they were afraid, honestly what’s happening all around them and all the countries and different people around them, they’re terrified of the Israelites. They heard the story of what happened in Egypt and all these stories along the way. They knew that the Israelites had a powerful God with them and so they’re all trying to figure out what to do. And this one king decides, Well, I need, I need them to be cursed. And so this king, his name is Balak, he goes, he’s like, I know this guy.

Charlie:
This guy’s a prophet. His name is Balaam, and if you give him enough gold he will curse your enemies for you. It’s an interesting guy that we’re gonna get introduced to here, a guy named Balaam, prophet for hire, with enough gold I will curse your enemies. I don’t know if he had a business card that said that on there, but this is this is a wise, this is not a good dude, but apparently, he could curse your enemies and he must must have had some level of effectiveness because, you know, people keep coming back to him. And so we find this king has has gathered some gold and is going to this guy Balaam. And we’ll start here in Numbers chapter 2 verse 7, The elders of Moab and Midian left, taking with them the fee for divination, right? So the the the, I need I need this prophet guy to to stir up this curse for me. We’ve got to go, we’ve got it all set up. And when they came to Balaam, they told him what Balak, this king, told him what he, what he had said.

Charlie:
Spend the night here, Balaam said to them, and I will report back to you what the answer the Lord gives me. So the Moabite officials stayed with him. And God came to Balaam and asked, who are these men with you? And Balaam said to God, Balak son of Zipporah, king of Moab, sent me this message. Now I don’t know if you feel it, but there’s a bit of a record scratch moment here Because you’ve got this guy, he’s not a good guy, he is selling divination for gold, and will curse your enemies and for a fee. And we will discover more and stories after this that this guy ended up being very opposed to God and His people. But in this story we’ve got just kind of a weird picture, this kind of a snapshot of who he was because this guy, you would think, okay, he’s not a good dude. I mean, he he is he is corrupt in a lot of ways. He is not one of God’s chosen people.

Charlie:
He’s not an Israelite, and so why would the God of the Israelites be talking to him? And so as this story is kind of going through the ears of the people who are hearing it for the first time, you’re wondering, why would God be talking to this guy? And you may you may want to think several 1000 years later, well, God, you know, God is not limited to just talking to the Jewish people during that time. God could talk to everyone. Okay. But this guy, this guy who will curse people for money, this guy who is practicing arts that are forbidden all throughout Scripture and practicing the divination the way that he does, this is not some good guy, this is not someone who has some healthy relationship with God, but just happens to be with a different group of people. And so my guess is this was not something that that Balaam was expecting. He doesn’t seem to be shocked by it. Put that put a pin in that because we’re gonna come back to that. He’s gonna have another interaction here really soon that he should be even more shocked about, but God does talk to him.

Charlie:
There’s some people out there that are trying to curse His people and God is going out of His way to make sure that this does not happen. He is willing to kind of talk to this guy to get engaged with this guy. Again, he’s not a good dude, not someone who he has a relationship with, not someone who is on God’s side, but he is there for his people. And I want you to hear this and I want you to hear it deeply, God is a protector. He’s a protector. He is protecting his people. There are enemies that his people have and he is doing what he needs to do to protect them. Now, does God protect does God protect them from everything? From any discouragement, any obstacle, any problems, any challenges? No.

Charlie:
In fact, we’re just on the heels of 1. They they they were headed to the promised land, they make a terrible decision and and now they’re kind of a little bit, they’re under God’s judgment. But even still, even under God’s judgment God is protecting them, loving them, guarding them because they’re His people. This disappointment that they’re under, this problem that they’re having, this challenge that’s going on, it’s their fault. This isn’t just some random occurrence, they did something to isolate themselves from God. And having come out of years of slavery, and not just simply that we weren’t, we were not that way and we still think like this. If I do something to disappoint God, God is gonna be done with me. He’s gonna wash His hands of me, and God is stepping in here very specifically, I think in large part to say, it does not matter what you have done, does not matter what you are doing, I am still a protector and a lover of you.

Charlie:
Sure, you’re having to deal with some consequences of your bad decision, but do not think for 1 minute that I have abandoned you. And I think way too many of us, we live that way. We believe that because we’ve done something wrong, God had a plan for us, He had a path for us, a direction for us, and if I if I get off that plan He’s gonna be mad and it’s gonna be done, but that is not who God is. He is, He is still wanting them. He’s still wanting to protect them, to get them to where He wants to get, He wants them to go. And I believe everybody here on this room, God has a path for you. Maybe not a specific, a promised land like He has for them, but there’s a journey that God has you on, a path that He wants to lead you down, a path of healing, a path where you are getting to know Jesus better, where you are, we are growing in your knowledge and understanding of Him, where you are growing in your connection to His people. And I believe that everybody here has a call from God to bring the hope of Jesus to the world around them.

Charlie:
Everyone has that, and you think, well you don’t know what I did. You don’t know what I’m doing. You don’t know who I am. God does and he is a protector and He He wants to keep you and to get you back on this path to do incredible things for Him. So He’s protecting His people. And so these people they come to Balaam and God says, hey listen, these are my people. If you cannot curse them, if you do, you’re gonna be in real big trouble. And so they kinda he comes back, Balaam does to Balak, and say, hey, listen.

Charlie:
I talked to God last night, God says, can’t do it. And I’m sure, I mean, Balak is sitting here thinking, what do you, what do you mean? What do you mean money guy? I mean, is this are we negotiating now? We I we’re just negotiating price. Okay. Great. I’ve got more gold. We’ll we’ll make the fee. Why don’t you go talk to God again? And then we’ll we’ll you can come back and give us what we want. And, you know, I’m sure Balaam’s like, hey, man.

Charlie:
You know, they threw a little more gold my way. He’s like, I’m sorry. You’re worrying out. Listen. These are my people. You will not do this. And so he goes back. He says, God said no.

Charlie:
And I was like, oh, my goodness. So it’s feel like anybody is there anybody in here crazy enough to, like, you enjoy buying a car? I I hate it. Like, this is what it feels like. This is what this guy’s thinking. It’s like, oh, great. I got the I got the used prophecy salesman here, and and I gotta oh, you gotta negotiate. Just tell me the fee, bro. What do I have to do? What do I have to pay to get out of here? That’s that’s what I’m feeling.

Charlie:
We gotta we gotta play a game, playing a game. Okay. Here’s a little bit more. Go back and tell God so we can get this done. He goes back a third time and God says, no matter what happens do not do not curse them, but I will permit you to go with them. You can go with them, but you only say exactly what it is I tell you to say. You will not gonna curse them. So Balaam comes back and says, hey, I’ll go with you but I can only say what God tells me I can say.

Charlie:
Right? Boom, boom. Now we’re back. Verse 21, Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the Moabite officials. But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. This is very confusing because just in the verse before God had said, listen, it is okay for you to go with them, and now immediately we get here and saying, God was angry when He went. God told him he could go, and now God is angry when he went. So let’s just keep that in mind. And the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him.

Charlie:
Balaam was riding on his donkey and his 2 servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path through the vineyards with walls on both sides. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again. Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff.

Charlie:
Here we go, Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, what have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?’ Here’s the craziest verse in this story and top ten in all the Bible. Balaam answered the donkey, you have made a fool of me. If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now. It is one thing for the donkey to talk. I’m like, I’m fully aware that God can do stuff like that. God’s a miracle God. He could He answers the donkey. He just Like there’s really only one real response to this and it reminds me of my favorite joke.

Charlie:
One of my favorite jokes. 2 muffins are being put into an oven. Close the oven. One muffin looks at the other one and says, sure is getting hot in here. 2nd muffin says, talking muffin. Yes. All my favorite jokes are bad jokes. They’re not good jokes.

Charlie:
That really is the only appropriate response here. Talking donkey. But this dude is so angry, so frustrated, so full of himself, and again, apparently not, you know, we saw this when he was interacting with God, is accustomed to strange things happening around him. He gets into an argument with the donkey. Verse 30, the donkey said to Balaam, am I not your own donkey? Which you have always ridden to this day, have I been in the habit of doing this to you? No, he said. Not only is he arguing with the donkey, he is losing the argument to the donkey. Verse 31, then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell face down.

Charlie:
The angel of the Lord asked him, why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I’ve come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these 3 times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, But I would have spared it. Balaam said to the angel of the lord, I’ve sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back. The angel of the lord said to Balaam, go with the men but speak only what I tell you. So Balaam went with Balak’s officials.

Charlie:
Now there’s a lot going on here, not just the the absurdity of a man arguing with his donkey verbally. I mean, you’ve got this you’ve got this giant angel of the Lord with a sword ready to kill him, and the donkey is protecting him. Obviously, God is in control of that too. Opens the mouth of the donkey. They have this conversation, but really the question is, God told him to go. God told him to go, but he didn’t. But and he did, but then immediately it says that God was mad that he was going. What’s going on here? And I think it isn’t again one of these things that is enough to make you slow down and pause and say, what is happening here? Why would God say it’s okay to go and seemingly immediately say, I’m mad that you’re going and send the angel in this way.

Charlie:
And I think on the one hand it seems complex, and maybe it can seem like it is erratic of God, but really I think there’s a pretty straightforward illustration that would help us understand this. Now I’m not gonna I’m not gonna tell any specific stories because I don’t want any one of my particular kids to feel called out by this, but it is just true of kids in general, right? You’re having an argument with them. Hey, I want you to go clean your room, right? I need you to go to your room and do your homework. I need you to, I need you to go do this. And you argue with them, like, I don’t want to, I don’t want to, I don’t want to. And then finally he’s like, okay now, Susan, you have to go. You have to go right now. You need to clean your room, and you need to do your homework.

Charlie:
And they go, fine I’ll do it. And then they leave. And an inexperienced parent will feel like, great. I that that worked out perfectly. A smart parent will count to 10 and follow them to their room to discover that in fact, there is no room cleaning or homework going on. They said they were going to do it but they did not. There is instead music listening, book reading, any number of things you can prevent. You can ground them from any number of things that they cannot have in their room, and I promise you they will find something to do other than what it is you told them to do.

Charlie:
They said yes, they meant no. God says you can go but you can only say what I tell you, and Balaam is like, great I get to go and he’s gonna let me curse them and I’m finally gonna get my payday. We don’t know that but God knows it. Why does God know it? Because God sees the heart. God sees the heart and that is of incredible importance as the Israelites are walking this path, getting, rejecting God in the promised land and now wandering around in the wilderness and trying to figure out who and what they’re going to be. What does it really mean to be God’s people? And God is saying, I want more than lip service from you. And God is saying, I want more than lip service from you. I’m not looking for someone who is willing at any particular moment to say the right things to appease me.

Charlie:
I do not want ritualistic behaviors. I do not want your fake lip service. I want your heart. And this story is happening kind of off off book for them, right? This is happening over here. They’re over here, they hear about this story later. And so God is doing this completely different thing in the life of this dude Balaam, who they will discover at some point when this story becomes known to them. But when this story becomes known to them they’re like, man, God was, even at our worst God was protecting us. And also God can see through nonsense.

Charlie:
He is not just looking for us to capitulate and do rituals and say things. When God says, this is who he wants us to be, he wants more than just playing at it. He wants it to be what is going on in our heart, and you can’t trick Him. And they and and this guy, he he thought he could. He thought he was about to get this great payday and be able to do whatever he wanted, and God is like, I see you, I see your heart, and I’m not just looking for the right answers. I’m looking for your heart. And again, I do really do believe this, that in the hearts and minds of everyone here, God has a path, a journey that he’s wanting to take each and every one of you on. Where he’s wanting to do an incredible work in you and through you, in your knowledge of Jesus, in your connection to each other, in bringing the hope of Jesus to people.

Charlie:
This is what God is wanting to do, and I want you to know that no matter who you were, whatever you’ve done God is with you. He’s a protector, But God’s not just looking for you just to kind of show up and say you did it. He’s not looking for people to check boxes, to say I I did I I did the thing. I you said to do it and I did it. No. He he wants not just your actions but He wants your heart. But here’s the thing that I know, I say this and I say that God wants to use you in a powerful way. He wants to do something incredible in you and through you.

Charlie:
I’ve been around long enough to know that there are people that hear me say that and they don’t think I mean them. They think that I’m talking to the the elders, small group leaders, missionaries, people like that, but not to regular people. And I think once you kind of take in all of this story, I think one of the things that you have to realize is that God can use anyone. You got this guy Balaam, he’s not a good dude. He does at the end of this story. You know, they take him. The the the king takes him, says, look at these people. I need you to curse them.

Charlie:
And he blesses them. He’s like, maybe you didn’t quite see it. Takes him to another spot, says, look at them, I need you to curse them, they’re a danger to us. And Balaam blesses them again. Three different times Balaam blesses instead of curses, and you think it’s some sort of redemption arc, but then you fast forward and you see this dude’s heart was never in it, and ultimately figures out different ways to oppose God’s people. This is not a good dude, but God spoke blessings to His people through him. And then obviously, he is speaking truth to Balaam through a donkey. He can use a bad dude, he can use a donkey.

Charlie:
And I think when we think about this that really God can use anyone, I think it is meant to humble people like me. People who speak for a living, people who study the Bible and read Bible stories and try to figure out what they mean and and get up and try to explain it to you in such a way where you can kind of hopefully understand what it is God wants you to hear. It’s meant to keep me humble. Oh great, you said things God wanted you to say. I mean a donkey can do it. It’s meant to humble me but I don’t mean for it to humble you. I don’t want you to hear me say. I mean if he can use a donkey he could use you.

Charlie:
I want you to hear something very very different than that. I want you to hear that no matter who you are, where you’ve come from, no matter your past, no matter your present, God can use you. And it is desire to do that, to help you know him better, to overcome sin, to draw closer to Jesus, to to connect with each other, and to help, and encourage, and build each other up. And I believe that there are people in this world in your in in in your spheres, in your neighborhoods, your schools, in your homes, in your work, all these there’s people he’s wanting you to bring the hope of Jesus to them. And God can and will use you if we’ll listen and believe. You don’t have to be afraid because God is a protector. Even when you feel like you’ve disappointed Him, He is still there with you and He wants you. He wants your whole heart and He can and will use you if you let Him.

Charlie:
Because I know, I know, I know that each one of you here, when I say that voice that voice, we know what it is. It’s there. God’s always talking to you. Hey, it’s time for you to start serving in the kids ministry. It’s time for you to join a small group. It’s time for you to take that next step of faith. Every time we’ve mentioned a mission trip or we’re going to Cuba to to bring Jesus and and and clean water. There’s been, like, I think that’d be a really cool thing for you to do.

Charlie:
And you dismiss it in one way or another. No no no no no no no no. I’m I’m I’m not this enough. I’m not I’m not I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough. I don’t I don’t I I I I it’s it’s not for me. It’s it’s for other people. But I want you to know that no matter who you are, what you’ve done, where you’ve been, God wants your heart.

Charlie:
He wants to protect you. He wants to use you and you need to believe this at the deepest parts of who you are. God, God is with you. Let me pray. God, there are a lot of us here and we have a next step, we got, that we know that you have for us. For some of us, it’s as simple as signing up for a men’s retreat. Others, it’s as simple as working with the kids. For some, it’s bringing Jesus and hope to a hopeless situation in our family.

Charlie:
For some, it’s talking to our neighbor about how they can get involved in church. But, god, there are no such thing as small things that you call us to. And, god, I pray that we would not be afraid to take any step forward that you’re calling us to. That God that we believe that you are with us. And that God that you would do the work to get past all the the junk and get our hearts. And I hope you will help us believe that at our core that our core belief that god that you will use us, you can use us. God I pray that no fear, nothing in our past would keep us from believing that. And God as always we are so thankful for your son Jesus His death on the cross for us, the forgiveness that comes from that that makes all of this possible.

Charlie:
And it’s in His name that we pray. Thanks again for joining us on our sermon podcast, and you can learn more about us at the grovechurch.org. And if you go to the grovechurch.org/connect, there’s a form you could fill out. Just let us know that you’ve been listening. And if you wanna dig deeper on some of these topics that we cover in our sermon podcasts, or just another issues of dealing with culture or theology, those kinds of things, you can check out our Cultivate podcast. It’s on the same feed, however you found this particular podcast. So again, this is Charlie, the lead pastor at The Grove, and thank you so much for joining us.

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