Mowing Uphill: The Struggle for Forgiveness and the Call to Discipleship - Jeff Ryan - 3TC Podcast - 5/26/2025

Jeff Ryan discusses the struggle of trying to earn forgiveness from God, likening it to the effort of mowing a steep hill. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's sinfulness and accepting God's forgiveness. Jeff highlights the significance of communication in relationships and the origins of common phrases. Pastor Ryan emphasizes that the heart of his message is the inclusive and exclusive nature of God’s family. It’s inclusive because God invites everyone in, but exclusive because belief and obedience are essential to being part of His family. 

Welcome to Three Timbers Church! We are so glad you found us online and encourage you to explore all there is to learn about our church located in beautiful Bennington, Nebraska. When you come to Three Timbers, you can come as you are to experience the love of Jesus through the people of God. ​

Whether young or old, single or married, new to church, or a lifelong attendee, there's a place for you here. We invite you to join us toward a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. Our goal is to share the passion, power, and presence of Jesus with others. We believe in supporting families through service, education, and loving one another as Jesus loves us, unconditionally.

Transcript

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Welcome to the three timbers podcast. We hope this will encourage and uplift you today. As I was driving to worship this morning, I was coming up 680 and there was a woman who was mowing, all I can tell you was it was a massive Hill, and it wasn't much taller than me the hill itself, but it was probably about 200 yards, and all she could do was push the mower up and then hopefully it would just kind of fall back down in line, because you didn't have to go over it. I just thought how hard that has to be to keep trying to push a mower up a hill that's that steep and that long, and it made me think of Gosh, isn't that what I do? And maybe you do this too. It is about what we do to sometimes try to get right with God because of our sin. I'm just going to keep trying to do something that seems impossible, it seems hard, it seems like it will never end like that woman is probably still going right now. That's sometimes what we think that we have to try to earn our way out of our sinfulness before God would be called. And so we carry that around and keep working. And it exhausts us, because we continually sin and we continually try to work our way out of it. And it's this thing that never will end until we read scripture, until we hear what God tells us in Scripture and and that's why we stop every service, because we don't want people to walk in there and say, Hey, we're going to church that our sin isn't that bad, or it's not that big a deal. Here's the thing, our sin is worse than we think, but God is bigger than God is worth gracious. God is worth loving than we think. So we want to take time pause, kind of take off a little happy, clappy church people that sometimes people perceive us, and come before God and be real. I say, Lord, I'm sinner. I'm not perfect. I don't say anything, and do the right things all the time, but not stay there, but then celebrate God's forgiveness. So let's take time to go to Lord, confess our sin, which he already knows, and then read the good words of Scripture that help us. Let's pray, Father, as we gather here, we are now perfect people. We are flawed, broken, messy people. Whether we want to admit that or not, doesn't change. That's the truth. And Lord, we can try to make ourselves feel better by pointing our finger at other people and their failure and their sin and their mess. But Lord, we know who we are before you, sinners in need of grace, Father, we pray that we are not defined by our worst moments. We are not defined by our struggles. We are defined by you. And as we just said, Your way is a better way. We've gotta stop trying to push that lower up the hill, Lord, because it will never end. We just need to balance in the love that you offer us and the grace that you give us in Christ. And so we read the words that you gave us in Scripture. Join me in reading Romans, 323, through 24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace, good redemption that came by Christ. Jesus, amen. Those are good words. And just to kind of echo what Christian said earlier, we are very grateful for all of our military families, past and present, for those who have been sacrificed. I hope that we take time this weekend to really reflect on those who have served. I hope that you're hearing me. Okay, we're trying a little bit different communication. So we are now through the house sound. So we're excited about that, because communication is so important. Every relationship that we have is based on communication, communication with your spouse, communication with your family, communication with your neighbors, communication, whether business or person, no matter what it may be, communication is the key to every relationship that we have in life. In fact, if you really look at social media, it's just about communication. It's communicating an idea, an action, an experience. It's all about communication. And as we have been people that communicate, we sometimes fall into the habit of using certain phrases all the time, and we use these phrases in communication, and we don't even know where they come from. We just sin. So when we say to somebody, look, you two need to bury the action. Well, we know what that means, that two people need to start arguing. But where did that phrase come from? It came from the Puritans and the Native Americans who they would get together and bury their tools so that nobody had access to them, so that they could have a conversation. Sometimes, when somebody doesn't want to do something, you're saying, Oh, do you have COVID? You. Have cold feet to do that. Well, where do we get the expression cold feet? It was back in times of war when soldiers had their boots off and their feet were too cold to run into the battle, they were said to have cold feet. Do you ever have somebody say, Oh, they think they're a real big week. They're a big wig. Where does that come from? It comes from the 18th century in England, when politicians would wear wigs, whoever wore the biggest wig, when they must be the most important person. One thing we probably all said to our kids and sometimes sleep tight. What does it mean to sleep like this? This was from Shakespeare's time. In man were made tight and taught by ropes. So we say things all the time, and we don't know where they come from. One of the ones that probably all of us have said and have heard is, if there's a will, we don't know where that comes from, but we know what it means, right? We know that it means that if you can make an effort, that you can find a way forward. It actually comes from George Herbert. George Herbert, a 17th century writer who came up with that which is carried forward. But I think that there's a different way for us to understand and apply that phrase. When there's a will, there's a way, and it's something that Jesus said in Matthew 12 verse 50. So I would encourage you for to get your Bibles out, pull up your Bible acts one verse. But there's so much to this verse, and we're going to unpack it here a little bit. Matthew 12, verse 50, and we're going to fill in the context around this verse. As we go again we continue to look at the whoever phrases of Jesus throughout the gospel. And before we read that, let me just pray for God's reading of His Word, father. We thank You for Your word. It is a lamp unto our feet. It is the road map for our life. It is the only way, Lord, that we can move forward in anything that we do. I pray, Lord that this wouldn't just be an exercise, that we sit here, we listen, we leave and we don't have lunch. I pray Lord that this word would deeply impact everyone of us here today, that it would bring comfort. It would bring conviction that, Lord, we would be locked in, that we would hear your Spirit speaking to us individually today, as we were an audience of one before you. Lord, I pray that that your word would come through my sinful, broken, ill equipped person, Lord, that it would be to your glory that you would just speak through me, Lord, Lord, we so desperately need your word in our life and in our world right now. I pray, Lord, that this would be that layup and that light and ask this in the name of Jesus. Matthew, 1215, says this For whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother. Let me read that again, for whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother. So let's unpack what what is around this person. What we see in this chapter here is that the Pharisees really don't like what Jesus is doing, and so they're going to put everything that he does under a microscope. And what they are really doing is they are playing a game of Gotcha. They think that they can play a game of gotcha and somehow show that Jesus is breaking the law of God, that Jesus isn't living the way that Scripture tells us so that. So they play this game of Gosh. And so the first time that we see this is when Jesus and his disciples are walking through the grape fields on the Sabbath, and they're picking grains of me, and the Pharisees say, gotcha, you can't do that that breaks the law. We got sir Jesus says, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. Tough to come back from that. Jesus and his disciples then leave walking in the great fields, and they go to a synagogue, and they bring EMEA to Jesus, who has a withered hand. And they say, What are you going to do? And if you heal on the Sabbath, we got you, of course, Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees got more and more frustrated, and they were starting to plot to destroy Jesus any way that they could. So Jesus withdraws with his disciples and those that were following, and he continues to heal people who have different type of maladies. Jesus heals this man who is a demon possessed. He was blind, he was mute, and that just sent the Pharisees over the edge, and they said, we're going to plot to kill Jesus for this moment only. But Jesus responds in verse 30. If you can go back just a little bit in verse 30, I want you to hear what Jesus said, Whoever is not with me is against me. And we can unpack that verse for weeks. Whoever is not with me is against me. If you are not with Jesus, if you are not believing in Jesus, if you are not walking with Jesus, if you are not following Jesus, if you are not glorifying Jesus, if you are not seeking Jesus, if you are not doing those things, Jesus says that you are against me. That's a powerful thing to think about for a minute. Because if we define being with Jesus as seeking Him and glorifying Him and spending time with him and learning him and serving Him, if that makes us with Jesus, and if we aren't doing those things, Jesus said you are against things, the Pharisees clearly were against Jesus. They were against Jesus that they wanted to take his life. But how are we, in some ways, against Jesus? So then the Pharisees continue this Fauci saying, show us the sign Jesus, you're the Messiah. Show us the sign Jesus is omnipotent. Jesus knows the game that they're playing, just like he knows the game that we can try to play. Show us the sign Jesus just looks at him and says, You're such a corrupt generation. The sign that you seek is right before you. It's me. I'm the sign from God. I am the sign that God wants you to know how much he loves you, how much he wants you to be a part of his family. And that's where we come to our first I want to read it again, verse 50, for whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother. And I don't want you to miss what Jesus just said, because it is one of the most powerful things that I think I can communicate to you. Jesus said that you part of his family. I want you to think about Jesus Christ just said, Whoever can be part of my family and to be part of the family of God is not based on biology. It is not based on blood. It is based on two things, belief and obedience, that you and I get to be a part of the family of God because we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah who came and died on the cross for our sin. When we believe that, and then we obey what Scripture says, you and I get to be a part of the family of God. Is there something greater to be a part of that when you believe what the Bible says, When you believe that this is the word of God, not just some sort of self help, but when you believe this is actually God speaking to you, when you believe that everything in this is true when you believe that God's story that he tells about who he is, when you believe that you're the family of God, but that initiative, you have to obey it. You have to do what it says. You have to actually love your neighbor. You actually have to forgive other people, you actually have to go and make disciples, that when you believe and you obey, you are now part of God's family. And what Jesus is saying at this moment, and this is a radical thought for many people to hear, but I think it's important that we understand it. Jesus is saying a spiritual family is more important than a biological one. It's not that a biological family is not important and to be celebrated, but a spiritual family based on belief and obedience is more important than biology and blood, and when you recognize that you are a part of God's family, it can bring healing and it can bring hope, because there are many people who have lost their earthly father, that's hard, but when you know that you have a spiritual family that can bring healing and hope, there are many people who don't know their earthly father, but when you are part of the family of God, you can have healing and hope. There are many people that have been hurt by their earthly father, but when you are part of the family of God, you could have healing. I read a report many years ago, and maybe you have read this report or heard this information before, but you know the number one reason why kids join gangs. We know how. Destructive gangs can be how they can ruin lives and and so many kids end up in prison, dead. But you know why kids would join a gang after we all kind of can say gangs are bad because they want to be part of community, they want to be welcomed, they want to be valued, they want to be loved. They want to be you. They want to be a part of something. And here God is saying, we get to be part of the family of God. Is there anything greater to be a part of than the family of God? And that's what we have been offered to us. I want you to think about how the creator of the creator of the heavens and the earth, wants you. He wants you to be a part of his family. And he knows who you are. He knows all the things that make you you, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, the stuff you didn't think anybody knew. He says, I want you to be a part of my family. That when you understand that you are a part of the family of God. Through belief in obedience, you can break the generational hurt and pain that sometimes replicates itself in your own family. Sometimes we believe that we can't break that cycle that our family, that we come from. But when you are part of the family of God, you are made new. You are made different and friends, don't forget. God wants you to be a part of His family. Listen to these words that he says in John one in all who did receive Him for those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children who are not of natural descent, nor a human decision or a husband's will, but Lord of God says in Ephesians, 218 through 19. For through him, we both have access to the Father by one Spirit, God said what you are, no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens of God's people and members of this household. Think about that, friends, you and I get to be a part of the household of God as a child of God. God wants you. God values you. God sent His Son to die so that you can be a part of His family. So we don't have to go out and be a part of other things, because we are a part of the family of God. And there's this incredible moment just a few verses before verse 50 that I think it's important to hear, when Jesus, mother and brothers came and someone, they asked him, your mother and brother. Here, he points to the disciples, and He says, This is my family. Think about that moment that Jesus is pointing to you, saying, You are my family. That's what Jesus was doing to the disciples. And they were a hot mess. They weren't perfect. They didn't have it together. Their faith was a roller coaster. Some were good, some were bad, man struggling. But Jesus said, This is my family. You and I get to be a part of the family of God. And to be a part of the family of God is both inclusive and exclusive at the same moment. The word inclusive comes from what Jesus says, whoever, whoever, anybody can be a part of the family of God, whoever there are, people out there right now in the world, people in your orbit, who don't believe they're good enough to be loved by God, who don't believe that they could ever be a part of the family of God because of their acts or their current struggles. But that word, I don't know about you, but I know that I used to be a whoever, and there are many people today who are still a whoever, who are waiting for you to let them know what it is to be a part of the family of God, because it is so inclusive now it is also exclusive. We know this from John 14 six, where Jesus says, I have the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So Jesus is saying it is inclusive whoever. But then he also says it's exclusive that whoever does the will of My Father is my family. So the logical question is, how do we define the will of the Father? What is the will of the Father? How can I do the will of the Father if I don't know the will of the Father, here's the will of the Father. REPENT of sin. REPENT of your sin. If you want to be a child of God and live the will. The first step is you have to say, I'm a sinner and repent of that. Secondly, accepting Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. Have you accepted Jesus, or just acknowledged Jesus? Have you accepted him? Have you said, Lord, come into my heart to be my savior, to be my Lord, to guide. You that's the Father's will. And thirdly, live a life of gratitude and obedience to God. I told this story yesterday to some friends when I was in my early 20s and going to a very big church on the pastor there, he really had the voice of God when he spoke. It was undeniable, and he always had this one prayer, and always made me think he said, Give me Jesus. You can have all the rest. Just give me Jesus. When you think about it, is there anything else that you need other than Jesus? A lot of things we want. But is there anything else we need? No. Jesus is the only thing. So we need to live a life of gratitude in Jesus and the Father they want you, and then live obedience to understand the concept that spiritual family is more important than a biological or family by blood. Is hard to do, but we need to understand. And so there's this wonderful teachable moment here in scripture where Jesus mother and brothers come and they're waiting outside. They want to come in. And what he uses this moment for is to teach people power for a personal relationship with Jesus is to be a member of the family. Joseph had passed away many years earlier, and so what we see is the family coming out of concern, because the rumors about the Pharisees plot against Jesus, and Jesus continually kind of going at it with the Pharisees, so they were incredibly concerned. And Jesus never renounced his family. Because if you remember on the cross, what is the last command that Jesus gives on the cross? He says to John, take care of my mom. But when Jesus was saying, I believe is there are no free passes to him, there are no free passes to being a part of God's family. You can't say, I grew up in the church. That's great. That doesn't mean you're part of the family of God and you go to heaven. My mom has great faith. My dad has great faith. There are no free passes. Hey, I was on this committee. I was on that committee. There are no free passes to heaven. There are just a family of God being welcomed home. That's to a personal relationship with Jesus, but it's open to whoever, whoever believes, whoever obeys, listen to what it says in first, Timothy, this is good and pleases God, our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge or second. Peter three nine says this, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. God wants you to be a part of his family. He wants you to be a part of that family reunion in heaven that will never end, a great banquet. We will be together, but it only comes through belief and obedience. It's a lot like a marriage. A marriage two people come together and they face each other and they say, I do. I love you. I do vow to be your wife or to be your husband, but then they have to live that up every day, every single day, that has to be let out. And that means you can't just say, well, I walk out that aisle ride to your camp that's a kid and gave my life to Jesus, so I'm saved, even though you aren't doing anything you can't say, Well, I gave my life to Jesus once in church, I walked down that aisle, I raised my hand, but I'm not doing it. Then do you really believe? And are you really obedient? Our relationship with the Father has to be that of a marriage that when we say, I do, we are actively believing, actively doing the things we are submitting to Jesus as Savior and Lord, not just as our Sunday friend. I want to read a text that we read last week because I think it makes a lot of sense. Matthew seven says, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father, who is in Him. Many will say to me on that last day, Lord, Lord, we did not. We did not. Did we not prophesy in your name and in your name, drive out demons and in your name, perform many miracles that I will tell them plainly I never knew you away from the union doers. It's about relationship to be a part of a family is about having relationships with the people in the family. And if we want to be a part of the family of God, we have to believe God is who God says He is, and we have to be obedient to the Word of God. When you're part of the family of God, the other thing it does is. Gives you identity. So often we struggle with who we are. We base who we are on our job, on our income, on our kids, on our past, on our struggles. Our identity is not what we do. Our identity is not our past, failures, mistakes or struggles. Our identity is that we are a child of God. That is who we are, that is who you are. And if you allow anything else to define you other than being a child of God, then you truly don't believe and you're not being obedient when we come together on Sundays, it's because we are children of God who believe that God is who He says, and are obedient to Scripture. So what we're saying when we come together is that Jesus is the cornerstone of our life, and that builds the church. It means that we are rooted in four things. We are rooted in belief. The Bible tells us if you confess with your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, then you are saved. So one of the cornerstones of the church has to be our own belief. Secondly, it has to be our love. Do you love God and love others, or just love God or just love others? Half a foundational element for the church has to be our obedient, that we are growing in the same kingdom direction, that we know that our goal is about discipleship, that our goal is about seeing other people, the whoever's become a part of the family of God. We gather here, not for us. We gather here so that we can be sent like who in your life right now are you actively praying for as a whore, who in your life does not know Jesus right now, if you really want to know Jesus, coworker, family member, who is it? Because if you are not actively praying and then sitting I'm trying to get together with this person to have coffee, to hear their story. And are you really obeying the Father? Jesus says that whoever believes and obeys, ask my family to be a part of the family of God. Means who's on your list? I hope that you have a list. Hope you write it down. These are three people in my life that are part of the whoever's that I just want to know Jesus and then say, How am I going to reach out to them? And that mission, what binds us together, is our mission. We don't have individual missions in here. We have one mission, one goal. How great is it? Many of you work for companies that have multiple missions and multiple divisions and multiple fronts, and I've worked for those companies, and it's hard. We got one mission, friends go make disciples. That's the mission. That's it. It's not about this. It's not about that. It's about making disciples because we want people to be a part of the family of God so that we can be together forever. And I hope that this text helps you reflect on what does it mean to be a part of the church. What does that mean? How do you interact with other people? Are they just people at a table? Or do you say, That's my brother, that's my sister, and if they rejoice, I rejoice, and if they mourn, I do. We celebrate the diversity of stories of God's children, how God has brought us each on a unique and different path to be a part of this family that we each have a daring, very different and unique story, but it's really his story. Whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my mother and my brother and my sister. Do we celebrate the diversity of the family of God? It means that we are welcoming and loving and supporting and holding each other accountable. It means that we reach out to the isolated and the marginalized, those who have been told or those who believe they cannot be a part of the family of God. It is our job. You say you are a whoever who can become a child of God. That is our mission. But Jesus says, whoever does the will of my Father that word does is active. It is ongoing. It is not one time. It is not occasional, it is not seasonal. It is not when it benefits you. It is not what it fits into your schedule. It is whoever is actively daily, doing what God's word calls us to do, to love our neighbors, to forgive other people, to reach out to those and let's just kind of get very personal for a moment, we have to be better about investing in one another, cuz sometimes All we say to each other is, Hi, how you doing good in that time? I'm. Conversation. We've gotta be real with each other and say, Hey, been a rough week. Here's my struggle. We need to be reaching out to one another. Say, Hey, let's get coffee. Hey, I just want to check in on you. I didn't see you last week. Is everything going okay? Hey, I mentioned in your your prayer request at church and business coming. How that worked out? We need to be better at investing in each other, checking on one another. That's what family does. If you've got family members that are in your house, you know where they are, you know what they're doing. If you've got a family that lives in different parts of the country, you call them, you check on them, you plan to visit them. We need to invest in one another. I think what this text does? It challenges me to say, I've gotta be better. Gotta be more intentional. And I think it causes us to reflect on two things, how engaged are you in the kingdom mission of God? Are you a passenger? Are you just kind of looking out the window? Are you engaged? Secondly, how are you using your gifts to strengthen the family, to strengthen the church? What are you doing to make the family stronger and more effective and have a greater opportunity to reach the being a part of the family of God is not about intellect, it's not about ability, it's not about wealth, it's about belief and obedience. To be a part of the family of God, there can be no greater thing to be a part of than the family of God, and He has given us this opportunity as a church to be your family and given us the responsibility to go out to the whoevers of the world to let them know they can be a part of the family of God. So where there's a will, God's will, there's a way be a part of God's family, your relationship with Jesus, Christ, amen. Let's pray together as our worship team back up, Father, we thank You that we can be a part of your family. Or is that because we deserve it? It's not because we've earned it. It's because you sent your only son, Father, I pray that we would be the family, not just in word Lord, but in deed, but in belief, in reaching out to one another, to serving and celebrating. I pray, Lord, that we would remember we, at one time were a whoever. There are so many people out there right now who are of whoever? Lord send us put it on our hearts, Lord that we would write down three days of people that we want to be a part of. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Thank you for joining us. For more information about three timbers, church ministries and services, visit three timbers.org. We would love for you to join us in person. You.