BraveMen S4E132: JESUS in Reality with Brandon Cole

You're about to meet a man I deeply admire his name is Brandon Cole. He's my son and I'm Paul who's Cole. This is Brave Men and today we're going to hear and talk to Brandon about Jesus which is a good thing for a pastor to be able to talk about. He's a pastor with C3 Church 4th and a fantastic community of believers followers of Christ. Brandon is a brilliant communicator and he shares with us his walk with Christ who Jesus is in his life and this is a series that Chris put together that I thought was brilliant in putting together a series talking about Jesus. Sometimes we we have take for granted here's what we believe here's what we think here's what we think we think here's what we know or here's what we think we know and this series on Jesus with Dr. Sharon Bariger Robert Bariger and now Brandon has been a brilliant series this is going to be uplifting and encouraging to you. Thanks for being on Brave Men make sure you tell somebody about it click on the what's the thing Chris follow subscribe click on the subscribe share like share do all those because it helps us reach more people and it changes the metrics and all that kind of algorithms and all that kind of stuff. Anyway the one metric we want to not talk about we want to talk about is Jesus and here's Brandon Cole today on Brave Men. It's Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole wisdom and courage for the journey. Yeah it's probably yeah it says we're live now so Jesus yeah so yeah so it worked again this is three weeks in a row though I've actually done it right you know yeah we have March Rona on and then Robert Bariger got a Peru March Rona out of Orlando well done now Brandon Cole out of Fort Worth see three four worth yeah awesome church and and you've got boys two boys so in one solo home one's at school one's at school one just went to school with Gigi so that I could do this and then Grayson is here and may make an appearance we will see so Cason went to school Grayson's home and you guys did that on purpose because I'm his Papa their Papa and so I'm gonna get totally confused on the names as I get older is that why you did yeah oh as you get older how about now I don't want to wait till I get older we got a bunch of green children and Brandon Cole is my son proud of him and living in a legacy started with my dad Dr. Ed Cole and pastoring a church see three four worth was that the thing you kind of dreamed of when you were in high school one day I'm gonna be pastoring a church no no it wasn't the thing and there wasn't a roof ripped off the moment either where God said you shall no radio tv and film I watch my dad do it and always had a heart for it and and still dabble in it and you know I'm just gonna keep confessing I will someday make a movie but no but yeah but the pastoring thing has also been something now for two decades so yeah it's definitely not something I don't enjoy it's something that I enjoy watching people step into new life and yeah so definitely not expected but yeah but embraced yeah and you're married wife Meredith how long have you guys been married 15 years next month get out of here really yeah yeah I'm under the I gotta get something done and then so c34worth.com's website right yes c34worth.com everything at c34worth so yeah all pretty easy and you are a so you are a four worth fan mm-hmm yeah don't tell us don't tell us we're from Dallas we're not from Dallas yeah I'm a problem with Dallas but we ain't Dallas so we ain't Dallas yeah and you're you've been teaching you started I guess the end of last year at Advent you started teaching from the church library yeah the church calendar yeah that's right yeah and and and I think in the process we discovered a number of other people doing the same thing like marcherona and Leonard sweet and number of leading pastors and what prompted that oh gosh I think when you sit down to plan a year and you're trying to be all you know creative and plan every sermon and and listen I'm I'm I'm not really much of a notes preacher anyway so it's not terrible thing to walk into a Sunday but I I think just with some conversation with some friends hearing how they had done it I think my brother-in-law Niles had kind of worked or some of that and then just looking at it and seeing I'd always our vision as a church is to help people see Jesus so when we sit down and look at what we're preaching I want to be preaching Jesus and I know that's maybe cliche but I think there's a lot of people in our current culture who either have a bad version of them or actually have never truly never really heard about who Jesus is and so the lectionary gives us this opportunity to to preach the gospel every single week because it gives you selected scriptures the church calendar you know they always come up these festivals and these events that you end up preaching about and you have to explain them well they're throughout the year every year advent epiphany lent Easter pinnacost ordinary time it started honestly with everything that was going on last year it just felt like to try to come up with 12 months of great sermons which I never was good at doing 12 months I'd I'm not good at that um but yeah I can spell one month is that what you're saying? No I can give me a couple of months I'll get out I'll get it two months out I'm as as Robert Morris used to say I'm a burdened preacher I gotta be feeling it before I plan it and that's where I'm at and with everything that went on last year it just felt like take the quote unquote sermon planning off the table put what has been done for a long time by a lot of churches yeah put that in front of you and allow that to guide you and and it's been awesome to be preaching things that I've never maybe never preached to really dug into and it's been really cool yeah the holy Easter season that you preached was fantastic and see three four worth dot com we you've got your messages on it right yeah I believe so you at the very least you'd go to our YouTube but it should be on our podcast okay and it's it's really was some remarkable things but you know preaching Jesus worked really well for the apostle Paul yeah I you know well listen but even even that like think about you try to get clever no no Paul didn't preach the miracles of Jesus he didn't preach the parables of Jesus well he didn't preach he preached the he preached the death barrel and resurrection of Jesus well and how that should affect the way we live and so even we just celebrated Lent and walk through Lent and now we're in Easter time and here's my biggest thing about church calendar that that's in a revelation so far is that it's still Easter yeah hit that a little bit because it's not that really that nailed me so good I mean think about advent advent a month on journey towards the birth of Jesus we did an our gallery around that Christmas hits and you got 12 days of Christmas you you've got a couple weeks of Christmas it's not a day it's a season yeah and we as people aren't really good at seasons we're good at days and moments we're not always good at seasons yeah and so this church calendar makes you and so Easter one definitely isn't just a day there's holy week passion week which is one of three weeks we get of Jesus in the gospels you get get the full week of holy week and then you've got good Friday holy Saturday and then you've got Easter Sunday and so and then you enter Easter time yeah so up until Pentecost Jesus is is reappearing to his disciples and appearing to more and more people and telling them to wait on the Holy Spirit and he's doing these things and then he's ascending so there's all that that wrapped up like we don't leave Easter there's a there's a 40 days so for me Easter his resurrection 40 days and then his ascension and then there's a 10 day thing yeah so it's a 50 day yeah yeah you need enough to Pentecost so that 40 days in a sense it starts to pass over could parallel uh from the time he was baptized right after Passover by his cousin John the 40 days in the wilderness well and that's even that's even what lent is lent is 40 days to mirror the wilderness journey yeah so it's all those yeah it's been it's been good for me I think our church is enjoying it but I'm I'm really enjoying it well churches your church is growing and there's a lot of momentum and it's fantastic and you're part of a movement see three movement Phil Pringle yeah Phil and Chris and Phil and Chris Mughal started that in Sydney, Australia a number of years ago and about 800 churches around the world that you're part of so you mentioned something and I want to get into a couple of these things this is fascinating to me some of the stuff you taught was incredible when we get into Jesus on a stick um because that like that that's a mind-blower you hit a lot of things that were like urban myths that we just kind of have built up over time but you just mentioned something you said we have the three weeks or three and a half weeks of Christ's life in the gospels yeah what do you mean by that? well if you look at the gospels and this is something I would have taken from learn it sweet which is obviously you and I are big fans of and I'm reading his book called Jesus right now uh but you know you're doing a theology biography yep yeah I'm actually you know I'm actually listening to that book oh no I didn't I didn't that's an audio book so I was listening to it so when you mention that I went away well and it's it's a whole book about tying it's about it's basically the idea that Jesus is throughout all of the Bible and so uh yeah like we um talked about this idea that really when you piece all the moments and all the days and everything from the the gospel accounts into a time frame it's like when people say you know American football you get um you get it's a three-hour game with 11 minutes of action yeah and so you like it is that with the gospels you are getting yeah it might take you longer to read it than the amount of time it tells you about and so it's a three and a half weeks of its three-year ministry right that's really all we really see yeah but then that's why at the end of John when John says hey there's so much more we could tell you about but we tell and it's what he says at but we tell you this so that you will believe in Jesus the goal was not to chronicle everything Jesus did the goal was that you would believe in Jesus and live with him throughout your life and so it's not trying to give you an everyday journaling of that what we did today you know eight o'clock at this 12 o'clock at that it's this is Jesus live with him and the Holy Spirit will show you who he is yeah so it's about the incarnation of Christ into your life yeah that's very good yeah yeah okay so okay I just mentioned something John John 316 Jesus on a stick got well John 316 for God so love the world uh-huh and you're going soon how's it go yeah wait a minute so he's in here yeah yeah yeah don't put me on his fog when I'm trusting my notes I'll mess it up so so we quote John 316 and you did a message on it's all it's actually part of a larger piece yeah because the numbers were put in there until what a couple hundred years ago yeah right yeah no I this is another one of those that I've never really spent any time in and I think this is the beauty of what that what we're doing and I don't know if we'll do it forever but as a church we're doing it this year and uh John look John 316 we all know John 314 says this just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so the son of man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life and so there's this this John 316 we all know but two verses before Jesus is actually setting up John 316 and he's telling us what he's about to do and he references this story from Numbers 21 at Numbers 21 the people of Israel get bit by snakes right and this is where this is where as a you know I think my generation and definitely the generation following there's a level of skepticism there's a level of question and I I just think that's okay I think I think it can be unhealthy you can move into cynicism but I think that the reality is is that questions reveal Jesus and so being afraid of questions you know so I in other words there are weird things in the Bible and we should all just be okay with that so yeah there's a difficult action in the Bible you actually kind of live by a motto which is if there's not a little tension in every conversation it really wasn't your conversation well why is that coming up so much lately you know I guess so I guess that's true if if you're gonna tell me something so full-hearted all in on on something I'm gonna ask why I like because you know you know look especially with whatever everything had gone on last year and especially for those of you that not an American you but you obviously you know but like there's more than just COVID happening in America and there's a lot of things but even this week we're dealing with some things and like and dealing with pain and hurt and justice and all these things and so I just think you know that we should be people who are allowed to ask questions not as statements of faith but as legitimate questions to reveal more truth and I'm jumping away from John 14 but we talked about this past Sunday you know Thomas doubting Thomas doubting Thomas which is really not a great nickname and not and really not a fair one yeah when when he when he asked the question in John 14 and says Jesus goes I'm going away and John Thomas goes wait how are we supposed to know which way to go if we don't even really know where you're going right seems like it seems like a fair question yeah and Jesus says I am the way the truth in the life no one comes as a father except for me so the question that that Thomas asked and even the doubting Thomas moment right when he goes I am not going to believe until well first of all that's a desire to believe that's where doubt should be doubt should be a fight for belief not a fight for unbelief yeah and then and then he says um this is I'm not going to believe until I see these things well the only reason he says that is because the disciples who were telling him that Jesus was alive had already seen that they'd already touched the scars they'd already and they and they hadn't believed until then either until then either he's the same as they all the only reason we see the story is not to condemn doubt it is to show us that in the doubt and frustration Jesus actually pulls back his robe shows up in front of Thomas does he kind of moves he goes piece to you and moves straight to Thomas and says I'm going to show you my stars believe don't be an unbeliever believe it's a heart cry it's a desire and that's the the shepherd right that's the shepherd who would come back for the one a week later he comes back for Thomas because he wants his disciples to be unified to come back into the fold because he was one guy he was one guy he hadn't seen so a week later he shows up because he knows Thomas is there and Thomas's question Thomas what we called the doubting Thomas which wasn't his question actually led to greater revelation come on it's absolutely it and his question actually led to one of the most famous if you will truths from the mouth of Christ I'm the way the truth in life yeah Thomas this question that that gave us that well and this is the same guy that whenever Jesus says let's go back to Lazarus not Thomas knows that that means certain death and he says he says to his disciple buddies he says hey let's go back with him and die so this is not a guy who's a wimp he's not he's not scared he's he's a faith filled he just he's just going hey if I'm going to take my life on this I need to see something and then we've all been in that place right and Jesus is not when he says the state phrase of you know those who see and believe but blessed are those who do not see and still believe he's not he's he's not saying that Thomas seeing and believing wasn't blessed he's saying you're also blessed if in even in not being able to see it all the time you trust you believe you step into it and so at Jesus's heart for the disciples is that they would believe he's not even worried about the rest of the world yet he just wants his guys he wants the disciples the people he spent all his time with and not just his guys the ladies the people who were following him to believe to be confident you know yeah the whole crew I want to get back to John the second but I just want to mention again I'm talking with Pastor Brandon Cole who is my firstborn son second child Lindsay our daughter is a amazing mother for and her husband Niles my son by marriage is one of the pastors on staff with Robert and Debbie Morris at Gateway Church and then youngest son Bryce who came about exactly a year and two days after you yeah yeah maybe a popular man in our house um Bryce is the music pastor at a great church called cross timbers up and Denton our guy all Texas and so all of our kids in in the forms different levels of minister you're married to Meredith who you have actually met at church pastor by Jim Garlo or a great friend called Metropolitan people and you guys first met at a church we met at a church dance it was kind of an outreach thing and I found my wife man it was uh it was awesome I took the seven years to get married but yeah and there's actually a random photo of it of you guys mm-hmm it's pretty cool and so Brandon has two two two sons and and you pastor C3 church for worth yeah and and you um remarkable pastor you moved this church from grapevine to south fort worth uh how long ago all about three three and a half years ago I guess it's three years ago you moved it for 22 miles basically you re yeah we re rebirthed uh in existing church very brave move very courageous I think we didn't know how brave it was honestly you really didn't know but you have a heart for city of for worth and and you guys uh you have uh you're not wearing the the shirt man I think you know well look you know when you got two kids in the house your clothes going to wash as fast as there's the other one so but but um you have a motto telling about streets and hearts yeah see Jesus on every street and every heart being a youth pastor I always felt like we uh I would always have young people coming in saying they wanted to do ministry in that meant that they needed to request a time to preach on the pulpit yeah and so uh I just thought it was I thought it was a good urge and keen on a trip right yeah and I think all those things are good obviously now I think mission strips shaped my life I think uh you know obviously I'm a doing ministry from the pulpit but I know I just felt like there were far more things far more options and so streets and hearts for us is about owning your street and and seeing Jesus through you on that street and uh and so that's that's kind of the heartbeat of what what is the calling gods put in your life and how do we best equip and empower that because the greatest goal of of the church is not to get you to volunteer um it is not to get you to serve that is community serving within the body of crisis about community and it is about us learning character and doing life together so when Jesus calls the disciples I think intentionally the writer puts follow me he said to them I will make you fissures of men so the you is not personal what is corporate I will make you them follow uh fissures of men so we can't skip over community to pursue a calling and when we do that is when we end up in bitterness hurt uh all bent out of shape maybe stepping into some things we shouldn't is when we can't we don't know how to live our calling with a sense of community and and faithfulness to the body of Christ and so I think that's um Jesus first leads us into relationship first wow um and then into destiny and purpose so if you're looking for your calling you'll find your calling in community yeah I mean I think it will at the very least it'll be refined there so whether you it completely changes or whether you get a better sense of what it is you know it's like you think you're you singing that you sing well in the shower and then you get only American Idol stage and you know and it ain't happening even though mommy told you it did um you know you need some people around uh like we always say in our church or at least I always say if you've seen the commercial it works but you need friends who will hand you a snickers bar every once in a while and remind that you're not being the person you're supposed to be so yeah I think the only mom that was absolutely totally right well there were two of them Beethoven's mom and Justin Bieber's mom yeah so uh so uh don't 314 don't 314 yeah oh you want to okay so uh do you want to do the run of me 21 this is awesome we I think this is the part of the cross we did a good writing service where we emphasize the cross because everything about Jesus's kingdom is initiated at the cross not the resurrection wow Jesus Jesus tells us who he is as a savior by getting on a cross not rising from a grave of course the resurrection matters there is I'm not diminishing I'm telling it just it is that they go together it's why you see Paul talk about um I preach Christ and Christ crucified but then you see the apostles all through acts talk about Jesus resurrected they don't they don't live separately from each other and so Jesus in John 314 says this weird phrase right we kind of reference this a minute ago and then numbers 21 that Israelites are bit by snakes and uh god tells Moses to morays up a bronze serpent up on a stick up on a tree and and put it's the snake up there and then when the people look upon the snake they will be healed now there's a lot of things like even the the medical symbol the is still that it's still right on a stick yeah so when you begin to and when you think of the word salvation the word salvation actually means healing so it's or a similar or a can mean healing and so you could you could say that the whole purpose of Jesus on the cross is to bring salvation or to bring healing so John 314 Jesus's first ascension Jesus's first glorification is on the cross and then it's up to heaven the the way we lift up Jesus first is on the cross of Christ and and so yeah the snake on a stick was like wait what and and here's Jesus going remember that story like you guys probably thought it was weird too but how the people of Israel were healed whenever they looked upon the stick with the snake on it and then and then Jesus goes that's what I'm doing so he probably danced it up so he probably dipped into the snake too yeah right well no I mean the reality is that most of the time that kind of a statement or that kind of an action would have been looked at very differently that's not a salvation thing in the Old Testament that's that's you don't go down that road and so yeah God is always in the act of redeeming and always making new and so so it's a really crazy thing for me to be able to tell our church hey listen when you look at the cross you're not looking at judgment uh you're not looking condemnation you're looking at the love of Christ and when you look at the fullness of love even to the point of death you will be healed of shame and guilt and pain and hurt and sickness and that and and that is and we find healing wildly enough it's so just a position so different but we find healing in in defeating death and in going through death that we might live the life after life after death which is the empty bright phrase that we we live this life after death so that's why Paul lives so differently I'm man to live as Christ to die as gain because to die really isn't dying I'm I'm being fully healed at that point freedom you know and you read a lot right I do I watch fry I don't think I read as much as you or my big sister but I do I don't know if I'm reading a lot right now I'm reading a number of books yes that's that's my I definitely have a bit of ADD when it comes to books they just keep coming out with more um people come right so yeah people keep writing one right now so yeah working on it yeah so that's fantastic it's it's uh like Sam chance that it's giving blood you know what was that Leonard sweet talking about that was Leonard sweet now that was under sweet his book is called yeah giving blood and uh so okay so the the John 314 that's a fantastic and I thought that was incredible tell me about the donkey okay I was out of town I was preaching oh I was okay Drew Dave and uh Seattle Seattle yeah right uh Drew and him up building a great new c3 church up there and um what's uh what's the name of the it's part of his village yeah I hope village yeah I was kind of thinking of like the exact little area because it's on the other side of the lake well uh Kirkland that's where it is oh yeah yeah Kirkland and so I was up there with them and and then mom your mother my wife called me say hey how are you doing she goes oh first thing she didn't say hey how was your day she goes oh you should have heard Brandon today I'm like no you should have heard me yeah dad she's she's been you all been married for a minute so yeah well anyway he's heard you for a while yeah he was about the donkey it was about the donkey about yeah yeah in the King James I think it's an ass is that right yes yeah yeah there's an ass in everything and Jesus said the what there's what a donkey and every crowd is what I said there's an ass in every crowd yeah yeah I love that it's your podcast so you know yeah well it's and we're live on Facebook live that's right life that's never coming back yeah and this is coming this is this is going to be on a podcast coming up in a couple weeks on the brave men podcast and uh and then we're rebuilding the studio and right right ice stuff and then building it and uh wall landers and his church have been a great blessing in helping do that along with all of our partners at christian men's network have been an incredible blessing at uh I had a number of guys just jump in and help the ice that all that so once we get that finalized we'll have live cameras actually in that studio also yeah and let me say just add on to that because I know you you would but I would say the studio looks amazing and and I do think that's the next kind of generation of and next iteration of so much of what semen can do and the effectiveness of what semen can be so yeah continues to support it because it's it looks fantastic and it's it's going to be a great resource it's pretty amazing hey okay so Jesus and the donkey yeah yeah I mean look these are it's original thought to me but it's not original thought to a lot of people who preach this over the years and one of the things that you know again in our cultural climate the the crowds we get stuck in and the crowds we get surrounded by and um and so we we I would guess most of people watching us are listening have heard the story but it's Palm Sunday Jesus is initiating kind of his journey to the cross you heard it said before the same crowd that usher Jesus in with hails of hosanna you are the king um with the same crowd that said crucify him and that's possible it's also possible in a festival that brought 2.5 million people uh into the city that it was a different crowd that to get into the interports of yeah I'm a different crowd guy yeah and so here's here's my my thought and um I just had this real strong sense when I preach this that this is this matter and that is that um that he didn't please either crowd there's a crowd that's ushering him in from Bethany because he's done all these miracles they're excited about his ascension right ascension oh yeah he's gonna become he's gonna be the king the political leader he's and um exactly and we think ascension goes up Jesus says no ascension goes down I'm gonna do the lowliest of the low be humiliated be crucified ascension is going low and that god can lift you up right that's the whole thing and so so he shows up these guys they're gonna usher in the new king that's what they're doing the palm branches the the whole thing it's I'm ushering in and then you've got this other crowd the Pharisees saying we've got it in this now like this cannot go on if it continues that that he's really going to upset some things that their their power grab right it's we we've got a system here that works for us yeah and they were their stress was that Jesus was messing there with their power and money 100 percent 100 percent yeah and I think so much what we're doing that's always that's always the enemy always the enemy power greed lust and so make moments lies yes and so unless it's the snake on the stick and um just so no but I think so so Jesus comes in and here's the thing that we have to understand Jesus doesn't please either crowd he doesn't make either crowd happy he doesn't make the crowd that thought he was going to ascend to the kingship happy because he dies and he doesn't make the Pharisees happy because even in dying he wins wow and so we as people and believers can't be this doesn't mean we need to be rude or belligerent or arrogant or any of those things we need to do what Jesus did writing into two crowds both of which we're going to be to some degree disappointed right we need to be what Paul says that I'm not I'm not a people pleaser I cannot be a crowd pleaser it's not going to work because it doesn't it doesn't fit with the kingdom of God but Jesus doesn't do that arrogantly Jesus does it by getting a donkey now here's what I'd always heard about the donkey that the donkey represented humility lowliness of life right it was the lowest form of the you know and there is an absolute degree of that the the Bible talks about that but what also we find in the Bible is that on multiple occasions in the Old Testament men and women of status princes or money would ride into a place on a donkey hmm why because it was a better ride it was the Cadillac right this was it was smooth it was it may not maybe not as be as fast as the Lamborghini may not look as flashy but man it's going to be smooth and you're going to ride in comfortable and so they would doubt the donkey was not some like thrown out animal it was an animal that was used often and here was the distinguishing factor though if a king or a prince rode in on a donkey he was bent as William Barclay says was bent on peace not war so as my buddy Aaron Sino says across the city was a king who rode in on a horse who also on the coins of Rome said peace for all people but the way that king riding in on a horse was going to achieve peace was through domination was through violence was through I'm going to win by killing others so that they all have to do what I do and Jesus says I'm going to win peace for all people by dying and killing the one that everyone who comes to me in my death and resurrection would find life so he comes in on the donkey of peace right and and he doesn't agree with everyone in the crowd and he it's the first time Jesus kind of makes the statement that I have arrived it's the first time Jesus is like saying so him riding in on a donkey was symbolic not just of loneliness but also symbolic of he was showing up as a king but not the kind of king you thought wow I'm showing up as a king I'm a prince I'm showing up on this donkey I have status there's something happens the first time he's done this every other time he's like don't tell me yet it's not time yet it's not time yet he shows up on a donkey there's something happening there and he rides in palm branches a whole thing and he's the donkey of peace you know which is not always the person in the crowd that gets the most respect I mean right now we just draw lines to fight each other with we you know politicians pick a topic they don't want to solve it they just want to campaign on it they don't want to solve it they just want to use it they just want to use it to why they write bills at 700 pages long power position and money power position money lust they like they like the power in the system that hasn't where they are this year yeah that was the whole thing before you were born there was watergate which you know about because you're a reader and study your history but you know the thing that that came back to those who were pursuing the truth in that story particularly the reporter from Washington Post they they were told by a deep cover person they the guy said follow the money I don't think that's changed today and I think it was the same back then so what other things really hit you in this lead up to Easter now you're in Easter time yeah as you shared these things and you studied and you really dug into it what other things really sort of stood out to you yeah well I think yeah just a couple of things right up the top one is that Jesus is everywhere he's just throughout scripture and there's just as as Dallas Willard says there's the big problem we have is that there's just so much more to God than we want to allow and there's so much more to him and there's so much more mystery and that's not a bad thing that's a good word the mystery of loving relationship that what tomorrow holds right there's there's beauty and mystery and embrace it so there's it's been really cool and and expanding for me to kind of step into some of those things I think that one of the that maybe what really started this whole thing for me in a new way was when Jesus gets baptized and when Jesus gets baptized he is he is getting baptized in the Jordan river which was made this is the stuff I don't didn't know the Jordan river was considered dirty the the Pharisee said don't you can't go in that river it's too dirty you can get baptized in any other river except for the Jordan and he's getting baptized by a guy John the Baptist to eat locus right who eats locus wears wild animals yeah yeah and and there's one statement if I if I can I'm I'm gonna go what it's it's out of the story of Jesus being baptized and it's this thing for me was like this tells you everything you need to know about Jesus and it says in Mark chapter one verse and I says in those days Jesus came from Nazareth not not really a city of people wanted to come from go in Galilee not the buckle of the Bible belt and was baptized in the Jordan a river you're not allowed to use because it's too dirty you can't do anything clean in that by John the locus eater that's one verse if you want to know who Jesus is read that verse wow he is not so highly minded that he would not show up as a man to redeem his creation he is not so lofty he is not so far away he is so close so ready to identify with his people he starts with baptism he ends on the cross he identifies with every part of who we are and in that moment God looks at him and says I'm well pleased it's this is the initiation of the greatest ministry of all time is to be baptized in a dirty river by a weird looking dude in a city no one wanted to be in I mean that's that's the greatest statement about who Jesus is that he cares so deeply Jesus Jesus was willing to get in the murky waters yeah he was willing to get in to our stuff yeah those are those are amazing things and these are all on c34.com c34.com is where you were messages are great church you're in basically what's called near southside yeah yeah the TCU area of Fort Worth kind of region and is a great church you guys meet on Sunday mornings yeah fantastic venue you're also online on Sundays on Facebook and YouTube yeah Facebook live and YouTube live yeah yeah yeah so and then you're if you go to the website c34.com you can find some of these messages that you preach and they were they were they were incredible I mean they were just absolutely fantastic and it's a great church I'm really proud of you and Meredith what you guys have carved out and so give me a give me like a summating statement here as we kind of close our FaceTime Live and then also closing the the podcast Brave Men which is which is now on Amazon we're now on Amazon I don't know I guess I don't I don't have to be a supporter of Jeff Bezos if my podcast is on all come on hey we all like two day shipping so anyway so Brave Men podcast and thank you for doing all the artwork and stuff on it you are a digital artist and a lot of people don't know that that's how you made your living when you were first made for yeah for a minute yeah for you still love doing it yeah our friends Marcus and Joni Lamb at Daystar created a bunch of things for them and and you were a youth pastor you've cowled and spoken they love you in Calgary Canada I love Calgary yeah you're like a hit in Calgary you know Calgary's like a a can a Canadian version of Fort Worth just with snow it added it's yeah I mean mountains obviously too they have now I got the mountains yeah that's pretty cool great people also in the tablets and yeah really yeah and so you were okay yeah I think so summations some summary yeah give me like like something awesome that we would put on the front of a book or something right now just like like fill up the air with something that just goes so viral that we just go yeah bang oh that guy must have an awesome dad that I used all I used all my stuff I don't know I look I do have an awesome dad if we can make that a viral I love that my mom and dad or you have an awesome line but I would say look I think the other I don't know I I think I would say this to everyone especially those of you who are ministry please um pray seek into that you would see Jesus like never before that's another statement we use in our church and I say that to say um you know Jesus was a shock to the system for Pharisees and Gentiles and oh that's you know like that that's the one I would want to hit before we go too far and I think this is maybe probably the best way to end okay and that is when Jesus when Jesus flipped the tables told them now do it real fast temples thirty five that was cool because that happened that's part of passion week yeah yes it's the second yeah yeah yeah I think he did it so many times that maybe one week that's why he had to have an accountant travel with him yeah to pay back everything I think we're we're too desirous to to to flip tables these days I don't think Jesus did it too much I think he we only see it happen in one time so this idea that we should flip tables more tables is it's not really the pattern of Jesus Jesus sat at tables and he did sit with Pharisees let's not get too high and mighty on this Jesus sat with anyone and everyone who'd be willing to welcome to a table because he knew he knew I think you just get a glimpse who he was something he said he said it tables more than he spent time in the temple yeah and so oh yeah that was his ministry model right eat and drink with those around him so so here's it and he became the temple right he became that for us he became the bread broken became the wine poured out like those that he is now with us and so so the flipping tables thirty five acre temple the king was trying to make a political statement didn't want to choose to ever start an uprising he wanted to have the biggest temple so he built a massive temple Jesus didn't flip every table in the temple that's I know he's God but like you know he's also human there's no way he flipped all the tables there's different courts there's different levels that simple the Holy of Holies and it moved outward from there and the last layer the last kind of courtyard for the temple was the Gentile court and by all accounts Jesus was in the Gentile court what does that mean he's flipping Jewish tables in the Gentile court he's not mad that they're selling sacrifices because these people had journeyed for days and if they didn't approve the sacrifice they couldn't go home so the idea of selling a sacrifice was not a problem it was the fact that you walked into Dallas Cowboy Stadium had to pay eight dollars for a Pepsi instead of two dollars for a Pepsi they were extorting them right they were doing it an exorbitant rate but then what he so he is frustrated with that he is frustrated with the way it's an injustice in his eyes but the thing that really happens is he makes a prophetic declaration of what he's here to do he doesn't go into the women's court or the Jewish court he doesn't go further into flip tables he goes to the Gentile court the place that most Jews didn't think these people even like you don't get to come in here and Jesus begins to flip tables to make room for a new group of people to step into a place of what prayer this is a place of prayer and not just for you but for these Gentiles who are also coming and how many times as a church with all of its bells and whistles and all of its programs and systems charge more money than they should and know I don't mean tidying I just mean we we expect more than we should from people walking in right and they just came to pray they just came to find something that they needed in Christ and God and Jesus flipping tables to make room for those people and I think that is for us as believers right now we have to be willing to flip some tables not to prove a point but to make room for people to come in that have never been able to come in before and and that will require us to see Jesus differently that will require us to see Jesus in a way that we've never seen him and so it's important that we never get so arrogant or so hardy to think that we've arrived at the end of history like Mark sayer says that somehow we figured it all out we must be we've got to be humble in our pursuit of Jesus so Jesus always makes room for people in the margins absolutely and prioritizes them he didn't flip tables anywhere else that's awesome that is just such a great revelation I love that brand I I'm telling you man when I when I preach that the next time I'm I'm preaching somewhere they're going to think I'm a genius they're going to go like where'd you get that go I don't know just dropped in my spirit of some yeah like John yes like revelation first chapter I was there on the Lord's day mm-hmm no spirit absolutely a voice behind me you know what the flipping tables was about yeah oh man that's awesome hey well I love you lots I love you very much awesome pastor proud of you and Meredith it's proud of all my children and grandchildren who are amazing and you have two of them and so it's pretty cool anyway great stuff Brandon c34worth.com thank you for being on my Facebook live and thank you for reading all this stuff. I think it's Greg Gray who's somewhere old bro yeah I think Greg Gray have done a very good job. I expected him to do okay yeah great great come here man. Yeah come on say hi though he's the shy one so he is the shy one. There's my beautiful one. Here's my hair. I love you. Yeah Gray is not going to come to work. I only went only on his only on his terms on his terms and how many touchdowns that you have Saturday four four he ran through four touchdowns playing flag football and uh well four touchdowns on four runs I mean that's even a better way to say it uh he's just three weeks in he's got like eight nine touchdowns and he's the youngest kid out there smallest kid out there. He is and he juke some it's crazy and then your uh older son case in his seven is batting like nine fifty or something. Yeah he doesn't miss a thing. No no no no no reason he's not bat in the thousandest because one of his hits was a fielder's choice. Yeah yeah he's uh he's got it man it's unreal. His wife was or his mom sorry his mom was obviously athletic because uh they they got it. Yeah you were anyway. Hey love you. Love you. Love being a member of C-3-4 worth and part of this movement is fantastic and yeah it's going to be an awesome podcast and then when this book comes out what's the book on that you're writing right now? Uh charisma take courage get wisdom you got it you don't know. Yeah you can't go pick up a girl with just courage and you can't just figure out with wisdom one one's going to get you to her the other one's going to know what to say we can get there so okay. I couldn't use that so it's on that. No you I think you did all right yeah no it's just uh yeah Jesus shows up tell us the side of us to take courage on here um yeah but then the process of getting wisdom is a little bit longer during you but it's worth every second so yeah fantastic stuff thanks brand I love you. All right I love you too. Everybody for being on Facebook with us today yeah uh you know awesome stuff. Love you. You've just experienced Brave Man with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Christian Men's Network connect with Paul at cmn.man or write to him at Paul at cmn.man.