Wes McAdams: After a sermon is over, have you ever wanted to make a comment, ask a question, or listen to the preacher say more about a particular idea? If so, this podcast is for you. My name is Wes McAdams, and I'll be sitting down with one of my fellow McDermott Road ministers to discuss comments, questions, and thoughts that have come up after the sermon is over. Welcome to P.S., the Post-Sermon Podcast. Thanks so much for listening to P.S., the Post Sermon Podcast. To find out more about this podcast or about the Church of Christ on McDermott Road, you can visit our website at ccmcdermott.org slash P.S. If this has been an encouragement to you, we also hope you will rate and review the show wherever you're listening, as well as share it with a friend. Because we believe sermons are not just for Sunday, but for our whole week and our whole life.

Barrett: Welcome back to the PS Podcast. My name is Barrett Bingham, joined as always by the preaching minister here at the Church of Christ on McDermott Road, Wes McAdams. Wes, how are you today?

Wes McAdams: I'm doing great. I think we're both feeling a little frazzled just to be honest. This podcast is all about being honest and we've both been running around like chickens with our heads cut off this morning, but we're here and I'm glad to be picking up the podcast again.

Barrett: sure. I was gonna say weird morning for both of us, but also we've at least two weeks off, right? Yeah. I found a way to fill podcast time with other things. So now back to this. But thank you all for watching and for listening. Thank you for your comments and questions. We look forward to those.

Wes McAdams: Yeah. Right. Yeah. So we should be well rested, but unfortunately I'm not feeling exactly like that right now, but that's OK.

Barrett: each week moving forward. Sorry for the unannounced hiatus there, but excited to be back with Wes, excited about our conversation today. Yesterday was Mother's Day 2026, and I love what you do, Wes. Between Mother's Day and Father's Day, having a family-based series for our church family. I think that's a great idea. I've loved that for years now. But can you give us a kind of recap of yesterday's sermon? and where we're going with this series and just kind of an overview of Don't Freak Out, which is a great sermon series title, I think. And we went through the whole book yesterday. So kind of give us a recap of yesterday.

Wes McAdams: Yeah. So the, like you said, the series is don't freak out. We're talking about being fearless and faithful all year. We're talking about fearless and faithful. this month or the next two months, we're talking about fearless and faithful families. And so we talked about the idea that when we make plans and I love to make plans, I'm a planner, I'm a preparer. love checklists and calendars and all of those sort of productivity ⁓ hacks and different ways of being productive and watching my time. But things inevitably go awry. Plans fall apart. Things do not go the way we think that they should, the way that we think that they will. And so what do we do when plans fall apart? Do we have the faith to continue to trust in the Lord? And so we talked about Habakkuk and Habakkuk is a prophet who is crying out to God and saying, God, why are you allowing these bad things to happen? Why is all of this injustice happening around me? And when are you going to fix it? When are you going to do something? And then God gives him an answer, not only that he didn't expect, but that he didn't want. And the answer is things are going to get worse before they get better. And Habakkuk has to learn through these these conversations with God, he has to learn to be patient, to wait as he says, wait quietly for the Lord. And even if the worst possible thing does happen, he is going to rejoice in the Lord and trust in the Lord. And so we try to apply that to ourselves and say, when plans fall apart, that needs to be our perspective, that we need to have the posture and the outlook of saying, no matter what happens, I'm just gonna trust and I'm going to be faithful and I'm going to be patient. Those are the two applications is faithfulness and patience. Wait for the Lord because he will keep his promises even if his promises and his plans are not our plans.

Barrett: I'm also a big to-do list guy and a big goal setting guy. And so when things start to take me off the to-do list, ⁓ and that's been a big learning curve in this job. Yeah, there's a lot of things that I want to accomplish and a lot of things that I want to do in this connections ministry role and working for this church and there's big picture things, but there's always somebody walking through the door. There's always a situation that comes up. so realizing that, Hey, I need to be patient with my own plans because God is definitely working through our church family here and setting goals for us and changing our goals all the time. So very applicable for me and for our church family, I think. And yes, a great start to the series. And I got to catch you kind of between services and our pre-worship meeting for second service. And at some point in first service, I got the impression that you were like, is not going the direction I want. it to go and I really felt like maybe I was reading in between the lines too much but I asked you about it and you're like yeah it didn't feel great so and but you watched some of your sermon from first service here like it wasn't as bad as I thought so what was going on behind the scenes yesterday

Wes McAdams: I always hope that my internal dialogue is not explicit on my face. so when you told me that, was like, ⁓ no, I guess people could tell that I was really questioning whether or not this was the right Mother's Day sermon. And as I looked out at people's faces, they just seemed to be shocked and kind of, why are we talking about this? At least that was what I was projecting on them. And so I was thinking, what are... what are we doing? Like, is this the right Mother's Day sermon? And in fact, in second service, because you and I had that conversation, like, how were you feeling? And did it go all right? And I was thinking, no, it did not go well. I did not like how it felt. And so in second service, I just acknowledged that. And I said, you know, as I was reading this in first service, it just did not feel like the right text for Mother's Day. But, but I chose this and I do think it's right because it's reality, because we do feel this way. Yeah, I would much rather have a happy go lucky isn't everything wonderful. God, we're so thankful for our moms. But that doesn't acknowledge the reality that there's a lot of moms that feel like their plans aren't going the way that they want them to or the way that they should. There are a lot of women that would love to be moms and their plan to be a mom isn't going the way that they wanted it to. And a million other people and situations, I had a... A brother come up to me after first service and his wife is in the hospital and is really struggling just to hang on to life. And he's wondering about how long she'll continue to survive. And so he's thinking about caring for her and her life. And so there's just so much of that. That's just reality that whether we're a husband or wife or son or daughter, brother, sister, whatever our role in the family is, we're dealing with the fact that everything isn't always roses and rainbows. Our life is real and we do cry out to God and say, God, this is a mess. And what are you going to do and when are you going to do something to fix it?

Barrett: I that's great, and I loved it. To be fair, Habakkuk, one of my favorite books, and the last bit of chapter 3, verse 17 to the end of the chapter, probably my favorite couple of verses in all of scripture. because of what you talked about and we'll kind of build to that and eventually get there. But yeah, I think it's a beautiful passage because of exactly what you mentioned, the tension between our plans, God's plans, how that makes us feel and how God tells us to feel about it is a lot of beautiful tension. And so is motherhood and fatherhood and family and lots of things like that. So I thought it went really well. And I also did have to take my kids to the bathroom. three different times. what I thought exactly, yeah, it's a backache. Great. My favorite friend, Jenna, text me while I was in the bathroom for the third time and said, he's talking about your favorite verses. I'm sure he is. I'll go back and listen to it before I get on the podcast. ⁓

Wes McAdams: Speaking of things not going according to plan.

Barrett: Well, before we get into, we have a comment and a question, and then I've got a few more for you. But I wanted to ask you kind of a personal question. I think I skipped this part in our pre-show discussion, so we'll see how it goes. But where have you been most tempted to freak out recently? And I'll get you started and share that. ⁓ I have been more concerned recently about political things in the world stage. Apologies, I dropped my phone.

Wes McAdams: ⁓ man.

Barrett: But about the just world events, ⁓ I don't think I've ever let it bother me as much as recently. And so that has been tempting for me to freak out about gas prices and, because my commute's not a short one and like, ⁓ man, if that's changing my budget, then you know, what's going to have to give? And so ⁓ I've been a little more nervous, maybe even anxious about, ⁓ you know, the world stage and internet. events here recently that I have in the past and I've had to really check myself on that and ⁓ that's why I read Habakkuk again like probably a month ago and brought it up on a Wednesday night class. It's like hey I needed this reminder of whether I am rich or poor. ⁓ God is still in control but what about you Wes?

Wes McAdams: Well, I told people on Sunday, as I often do when I start a sermon, I often talk about me and my own struggles, my own questions, my own doubt, my own fear. And so I talked about the fact that I give this advice. Don't freak out because it's not only the advice that I think people need to hear. It's the advice I need to hear. It's the advice I need to receive. And so I have a tendency to freak out, to overreact, to panic, to catastrophize any given situation. And I'm just like you, I'm really having a hard time being calm and waiting for the Lord when it comes to financial stuff. Right now, I've got ⁓ a son who's a junior in high school. He's about to be a senior and we're not prepared for the next chapter of his life. And so I'm really thinking about everything that's coming up with him and then with the son that's a freshman and all of the things that will be coming up with him and just life and. And like you said, there's a lot going on in the world. Gas prices are astronomical. There's a war that's happening. There's injustice around the world. There's all kinds of things. And it does make me sort of panicky. And I do have to remind myself of all of these things, that this is nothing new and God is in charge and Jesus is King and I'm his brother. I'm the brother of the King. I am a son of God. I am filled with the Holy Spirit. All of these things are true. even when there's chaos in the world around us. So yeah, it's one of those things where I tell people constantly that I have to go home and preach the gospel to myself. So after I preach it to everybody else, I have to go home and preach it to myself because this advice of don't freak out, don't panic, it's advice that I need as much as anybody.

Barrett: Well, you mentioned ⁓ kind of part of this comment in your response there, and I'm gonna read this from one of our friends that goes to church here. She said, Her daughter was too shy to come up and share this today, but she was blown away by the love that she experienced from the living God we serve. A few days ago, she asked me why God allows such bad things to happen in this world. She turned to me during the sermon to say, it's like Wes was listening to our conversation. So she responded to her daughter. the Holy Spirit is alive in us, he heard your concerns, and he has a response for you. So thank you for allowing the Holy Spirit to work and speak through you, which I think is great and pointing to, just like you pointed to, we have a relational God. to him and the Spirit just working through your words even though you may have not felt great about it, at least one person felt directly responded to by God. So I think that was a really powerful ⁓ comment on that one.

Wes McAdams: I'm so glad that you read this comment. When I read it last night when I got this email, it brought me to tears because I think it speaks to a couple things. One, shout out to this mom who gave the credit to the Holy Spirit. This isn't about Wes. It's not about the preacher, whoever the preacher might be. It's about the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God is working and active in our lives and in the sermons we listen to in the Bible classes that we attend and that the Bible

Barrett: Amen.

Wes McAdams: readings that we do, the Spirit of God is working in all of those things to ease our fears and give us peace and help us to have a better understanding and to follow Jesus more closely. And so I'm so thankful to this mom who, when her daughter said, Wes must have been listening to our conversations. She gave credit to the Holy Spirit. And that's exactly right, because the Spirit of God is always listening and always aware and always working. And so we need to be as parents, as spouses, we need to be pointing each other towards the work of the Spirit. I think that's so important. But also, it's a reminder to me as a preacher, and I hope that any other preachers that might be listening or Bible class teachers, that when you feel like... didn't go well, I didn't do well, I didn't speak well, I stumbled over my words, or maybe I should have picked something different. Do not underestimate what God can do with that. God has a work that he's working sometimes in spite of us. And so just trust him that if you are being faithful to plant the seeds of the Word, the seeds of the Gospel, that God is going to give increase. And you don't know what questions people are asking. You may have all kinds of assumptions about what people are asking and what they're wondering about and struggling with, but you don't know. And so this sermon that you may feel like was a total dud, man, it might have been exactly what that person needed to hear. Not because of you as the speaker or teacher, but because of the work that God is doing in and through His Word. And His Word never comes back void or empty. I'm just, I'm thankful. that someone shared that with us because I think we all need that reminder.

Barrett: Yeah, that's great. And here's our question from an anonymous friend. She wrote in and said, what does it look like to balance trusting in God as a keeper of his promises while working in his kingdom and not just sitting idle? What is our responsibility while we patiently wait?

Wes McAdams: That's a good question. And it speaks to what you said earlier, especially about the things going on in the world, but also things going on in our own family. And it goes back to the question I asked at the beginning of the sermon. And I actually forgot to ask it initially. And then I thought, you know, it's too important. In first service, I skipped over the question for a minute. And then I kind of came back to it after I read the first couple of verses. The question was, are you better? at being a husband or a wife or a mother or father or son or daughter when you're panicking, when you're freaking out, does that help you do better? And the answer of course, people in first service laughed, people in second service didn't laugh, but we laugh because we know it doesn't. Of course not, I'm not a better family member or follower of Jesus because I'm panicking. I never am, I'm always worse. I'm short tempered, I'm bitter, I'm angry, I'm upset, I'm fearful, I'm distracted, I'm obsessed with this thing going on over here. It's like the news. If you and I are obsessed on what's happening on the other side of the world, we may be missing out on what's happening with our kids right here in front of us or our spouse right here in front of us. And so we are distracted by the things we're panicking over and we're not being the best. spouse that we can be or the best parent that we could be or the best sibling that we could be. And I think that speaks to this question that it's not about doing nothing or doing something. It's not about being idle. When we're patient, it doesn't mean that we're not doing anything. When we're waiting on the Lord, it doesn't mean that we're not doing anything. It does mean that we're not freaking out. We're not panicking and we're not trying to fix the world by ourselves. And we're not calling upon other means to try to fix the world. We're not saying, God, this thing is broken and I guess you're not going to answer me. So I guess I'm to have to turn to this power or to this structure, to this system or to myself and fix this situation because you're not doing it. What we do when we're being patient and faithful, again, those are the applications here is patience and faithfulness. We just keep doing the good that we're called to do. And we trust that God is changing the world. God is fixing the world. That our calling is to walk in the good works that we've been called to do. So we do justice even when injustice is happening all around us. We love kindness even when unkindness is happening all around us. We love mercy even when other people are being merciless. We walk humbly with our God, even when other people are being arrogant, even when other people are doing other things. And there's the temptation whenever we're doing that to think, but is this really changing anything? Is this really doing anything? And that's where the faith comes in. That's where the patient comes in. Patience comes in. That's where the contentment comes in, is we believe that through our simple, everyday, mundane acts of faithfulness and patience, that God is working behind the scenes in ways that we cannot even imagine and that God is going to fix everything ultimately. That sometimes God fixes things in a temporal way, like he fixes things in the here and now. And other times we just have to wait for the resurrection. So that's not gonna be fixed until then. But you never know how your simple act of kindness and love is going to change things even in the here and now because the Spirit of God dwells in you. And so don't think that you have to turn to the world or to worldly means in order to accomplish godly ends. I think this is exactly what Paul means in Romans 12 when he tells people love each other, love your enemies, feed your enemies when they're hungry, give them a drink when they're thirsty, overcome evil with good. don't overcome evil with evil or don't be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. Like that's what it means to be patient and faithful. Just keep doing good and trust that God is doing something much bigger than you can possibly imagine because we're going to think how can me just being a good mom today, how can me just being a good dad today, being a good spouse, being kind and faithful, what is that doing to fix the injustice? You have no idea what it's doing to fix the injustice. More than you can possibly imagine. More probably than if you freaked out and tried to fix the situation yourself. That's the irony here. That we tend to look at each other and say, well, if you really understood how bad the world was, if you really understood how bad the situation was, you would be as freaked out as I am, you would be as angry as I am, you would be as passionate as I am about trying to fix this. It's not about doing nothing. It's about believing that simple kindness and love and faithfulness actually contributes to the good that God is doing in the world and that we actually play into, I think, the devil's hand when we say, well, I guess God's not going to do anything, so we need to, you know, grab hold of this worldly power or these worldly ways. And that's what I see Christians doing in all kinds of ways. they are adopting the world's mechanisms, the world's powers, the world's means to try to accomplish what they see as good or just results. And I think sometimes, a lot of times that's a mistake. Like that's not to say that we don't participate in community, doesn't mean we don't participate in politics, but it does mean that we expect the ultimate healing and the ultimate justice and the ultimate fixing of what's wrong in the world. to come about through the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is about little seeds of goodness and kindness and spiritual work and planting the gospel and bringing people into loyalty and faithfulness to King Jesus. And through that, the world is transformed. These other means, especially when we're doing it out of fear and panic, we're actually causing more harm than we are good. A lot of

Barrett: That's great. Yeah, I feel like a lot of Christians, when we're not careful, when we do freak out, we are trying to take control, right? And that is just a sign of unfaithfulness, right? It's playing right into the devil's hands, like you said. ⁓ You said yesterday when we freak out, we empower the future that we fear. And I feel like you definitely touched on that just now, but what does that look like ⁓ for our families now when we are empowering the future that we fear?

Wes McAdams: Yeah, this is a phrase I came up with a few weeks ago, and I think I want to revisit it throughout this series. So it's probably one that I'm going to mention several times, but it just occurs to me how often when we're scared, when we're panicking about this future that we fear, we're sort of hedging against it. It's sort of a coping mechanism to say, well, I think Barrett doesn't like me, or I think my spouse is mad at me, or I think my kids hate me, or I think I'm a bad mom, or whatever it is. and we're afraid that that's reality. And then we're sort of trying to cope with that or deal with that or guard our heart against that. So if you think your spouse is mad at you, well then you're gonna do a bunch of stuff that's probably gonna push them further away from you rather than bringing them closer to you. And so we end up empowering the future that we fear by trying to guard against it or hedge against it or fix the situation rather than walking in peace. peace and patience and kindness and goodness. Instead of walking in the spirit, we are walking out of fear and panic and we're actually sometimes causing that event to happen, even the event that we don't want to happen. But even, like I said yesterday, even when we don't cause it to happen, we're still being enslaved by it. So like you and I were talking about about politics. Like if we watch the news or we're scrolling and we're seeing all of these headlines about things that are going on around the world and then we extrapolate and say, okay, well, if this happens, well, then what if that happens? And what if this other thing happens? Well, even that political fear and panic and freaking out is affecting the way that I love my kids. Like I'm distracted from my boys and what they're going through because I'm worried about what's going on in Iran. I'm worried about what's happening on the other side of the world. Not to say it's not important because it is important, but if I'm freaking out about that, I'm not being a good spouse. I'm not being a good husband and a good father. And so we need to understand that when we're freaking out that that fear is controlling us. It's enslaving us. Whereas a patience and a contentment and a peace is liberating so that I'm not enslaved. I can acknowledge that. I can say, yeah, this injustice is happening. or this war is happening, or this scary situation is happening, or I don't have enough money to pay this bill. I acknowledge it, but I'm not gonna be a slave to it. I'm not gonna let it control me. I'm not gonna allow it to keep me from being the husband, the father, the brother, the friend, the follower of Jesus that I'm called to be. I'm not gonna let it capture me.

Barrett: That's great. This is where I like to pause in the middle of the podcast and just remind everybody that this is a free podcast. You're getting all this for free. A bunch of gemstones for free. Unbelievable. First word. Yeah. You can hear the first pass of the sermon for free. Um, yeah. Well, and I'll ask you this one and then we might skip ahead a little bit, but you you emphasize that it's okay to complain to God that, you know, Habakkuk is not like,

Wes McAdams: They can also come to church for free too. Like we don't, we don't have a church for that.

Barrett: shunned because he's going to God like kind of whiny. He's upset. He's going through it. ⁓ Why do think so many Christians feel like they can't be honest with God? They can't really express what's on their heart. They can't really complain. And what's the difference between being faithful in that and kind of faithless complaining?

Wes McAdams: Yeah, well, I think a lot of it comes down to how we define faith. If we believe we're saved by grace through faith, which is true, we're saved by grace through faith, but we define faith as simply a mental exercise, as me believing all the right things are true, then we think, well, if I don't believe that all these things are true, or I struggle with, is this true? Or I have doubts about this, or I have questions about this. then we think, if I have questions or doubts, does that mean I'm not saved? If I'm saved because of this mental exercise, but yet I fall short in that mental exercise, well, then maybe I'm lost, maybe I'm not really saved. And so we don't allow ourselves to be honest about our doubts and our fears and our complaints and our questions because we're afraid that that means we're not really Christians, we're not really saved. When what if faith is more the way we defined it on Sunday, the way I think the Bible really defines it, as faithfulness, as loyalty, as allegiance. Well, you can be faithful even with questions. You can be faithful even with doubts. You can be faithful even with complaints to say, God, I'm committed. Like, I'm going to keep going. I'm going to do your will to the best of my ability. I'm going to serve you. I'm going to be devoted to you. I'm going to proclaim your name. But man, I don't understand this. And when is this going to get better? And God, this is not the way that I wanted things to happen. Faithfulness and complaints are not mutually exclusive. And we understand that in marriage, that we wouldn't think that a spouse is being unfaithful because they said, okay, yeah, but what about this? And how come this is this way? And why do you do things that way? Just because somebody has questions or even complaints doesn't mean that they're being unfaithful. I mean, again, faith is not just something that happens in our brain. Like even when we have doubts and fears and questions and complaints, we can still be faithful in our embodied allegiance to the Lord. And so that's the basis on which we're saved. We are saved by faithfulness. That's exactly what Habakkuk is told is that the righteous will live by their faithfulness. So keep being faithful even when you have doubts, even when you have questions, even when you have complaints and you say, God, I don't like this and I feel like you're not doing anything about this situation. That's okay, God can take it and you're not being disrespectful. I mean, you could say that in a disrespectful, dishonoring way and we need to avoid that, but there's so much of the Bible, including, I don't know, half the Psalms, so many of the Psalms that include these laments and these complaints to God to say, even Jesus on the cross. Why have you forsaken me? And the answer is, I haven't forsaken you, but I get it. It feels like you're forsaken and you're not. I promise, I'm not gonna give up on you. I'm with you, I love you, and I will deliver all of my people. That's the answer, but it's okay to be honest with God in the meantime.

Barrett: That's great. So you're telling me Jenna is not being unfaithful when she loads the dishwasher wrong? We'll see about that.

Wes McAdams: ⁓ We need to have a long conversation about right and wrong ways to... I'm very particular about the dishwasher as well.

Barrett: Yeah, me too. Bulls go on the bottom. Just makes sense. Okay, so we're running out of time for us today. And I had four more questions. So I'll be ⁓ quick and maybe throw out a few, but you had some great, I say great lines, but you had some great points that you were making about, you know, how back in situation doesn't improve. In fact, God tells them it's only going to get worse. And that's kind of his answer to his complaints is like, I hear you and it's going to get worse before it gets better, but there is an end in sight. There is a light at the end of this tunnel. And so maybe we could talk some about, you know, just how do we trust God when his answer is more difficulty? In particular, I think the answer is in one of the things that you said that God didn't plan for it, or sorry, didn't plan it, but he planned for it. So I'm kind of trying to tie those two questions together there that he tells the back, it's going to get worse before it gets better. And he doesn't plan the bad things in particular, but he has a plan for those things that show up in our lives. So maybe some of your recapping thoughts on those two things.

Wes McAdams: Yeah. So, yeah, you know, it's sometimes a real blessing that we don't have the same kind of profits that Habakkuk was. Like, I'm not a prophet. I don't know what the future holds. And I'm kind of grateful that I don't. God tells Habakkuk, hey, I know you're really upset with the way things are going right now, but the future, you wouldn't believe it. You would be shocked and amazed even though you're being forewarned. I'm not forewarned about the future. And I'm thankful for that because if God said to me when things are getting rough, if he said, actually, Wes, they're going to get a whole lot worse. I mean, that would be incredibly terrifying. I'm glad I don't know. don't want to know. And that's the thing. God doesn't explain all of those things to us. He just asks us to trust Him, to trust Him. And I think that's what it comes down to is focusing on the character of God. And I think that's how we get through these difficult times. is we focus on the character of God. And like you said, and I stole this from a different sermon that I heard, I love this line that God doesn't plan for these things to happen, but he has a plan for them. He didn't plan for us to sin, but he had a plan for our sin. He didn't plan for me to ⁓ have this situation or that situation, but he planned for them. He planned a plan for this situation to bring me through it, to bring me out of it, to bring good through this situation. so trusting that God has a plan, even if His plan is not my plan, and because we trust His character, because we know that God is loving and God is patient and God is steadfast and God is faithful. These are the things that God has always told us about himself. You know, unfortunately, in the Western world, we focused on God's power, that he's all powerful and he's all present and he's all knowing that omnipotence and omniscience and omnipotence, all of those phrases and words, that's what we focused on when we think, who is God? What does it mean to be God? Well, it means he's omnipotent. It means he's omniscient. It means he's omnipresent. Yeah, that's true, but what the Bible reveals when God first reveals himself, he says he's slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love. God is faithful. This steadfast love of God, this is what God reveals about himself. And it's ultimately what's revealed in the person of Jesus. If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus. That's who God is. And that's how faithful he is. Those are the links, the cross. is the links to which God is willing to go because He loves you and He's committed to you. That should change the way I feel about every situation. To say, I didn't know this was going to happen. I didn't know I was going to get cancer. I didn't know I was going to get this phone call. I didn't know this person was going to break my heart. I didn't know this person was going to let me down. But God is patient. God is merciful. God is abounding in steadfast love. God is gracious. God is kind. And those things haven't changed regardless of how my circumstances go up and down, the character of God does not change. And so I'm going to trust him. I'm going to choose to rejoice, not in my experience, but in my expectation of what God is doing and what God will do.

Barrett: getting real close to one of my soapbox topics of number six where God is revealing himself to his people and he's saying, tell Aaron, Aaron tell everybody, you know, I am a smiling God, I'm lifting my countenance upon you. It's part of that blessing that we see there as he's reminding them like I'm not a frustrated frowning father and so I think when we read Habakkuk we sometimes put that face on God where he's like, ⁓ no, I know and I'm gonna have to raise up the Babylonians and it's gonna get worse." It's like, no, I think he's smiling and he's happy with us and he's going, no, just like a patient father, like, I know you've put yourself in this situation and therefore my plans are changing because of your plans and I'm making plans on top of plans and because of these things there are consequences and I will raise up this people and it will get worse before it gets better, but it's all for the sake of bringing us back together. Like, there will be a time. of reunion. So plans on plans for God, a smiling God. ⁓ The last two things I wanted to talk about as we wrap up today. ⁓ You said, you know, Habakkuk is rejoicing not in the situation, but in the Savior. ⁓ And I think that is something that we definitely need to highlight of like, what does that actually look like when life's really hard? We've talked about it a lot today, but the situation versus the savior focus. And then very similarly, the focused on patience and not panic. ⁓ If somebody is listening today and they feel like their life is falling apart or things aren't going according to plan or any ⁓ level of ⁓ fear in between there, what does it look like choosing patience panic and choosing savior over the situation.

Wes McAdams: Yeah, I it comes down to Philippians 4. Habakkuk is expressing the same thing Paul is expressing in prison. When Paul is in prison, he says, I know I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And throughout Philippians, he's talking about rejoicing in the Lord. And Habakkuk says in chapter 3, he's rejoicing in God, in the Lord, in his Savior. We don't rejoice, we rejoice in every situation and every circumstance, but that doesn't mean we rejoice in that situation, not because it's happening, but in spite of the fact that it's happening. So I don't think God expects us when we get cancer, when we have a bad day, when someone that we love dies to say, ⁓ I'm so thankful this happened. Let me try to find the silver lining to this. I don't think God expects us to try to find the silver lining. mean, sometimes a silver lining might be obvious and that's fine, but I'm not rejoicing in that. I am rejoicing in who God is and that God is bigger than this. And so that's my encouragement to someone who is trying to choose patience over panic is trust in God and focus on the character of God. And when you cannot see past the storm, when you cannot see past the obstacle, when you cannot see past the barrier, when you cannot see past the pain, then bring God into closer view. God is so much bigger than that, but it's sometimes our perspective that's skewed that the pain seems so big. I often joke about like the size of the moon that I could hold up my thumb and be like, actually my thumb is bigger than the whole moon. I mean, look at that. I can cover the moon with my thumb. It's like, well, no, we know that my thumb is not actually bigger than the moon. My thumb is just in closer proximity to me than the moon. The moon is huge. It's bigger than my thumb. It's bigger than me. It's bigger than the state of Texas. It's bigger than all of this. But it only seems small because I'm focused on and I have the thumb or my problem right up in my face. And so this problem is right up in your face and it seems so big and so monumental. But God is so much bigger. He is so much bigger. And so focus on who God is and how strong God is and how faithful God is. And when you focus on the character of God, it changes your perspective because then you can lament the problem, but you can put the problem in its proper perspective. And instead of panicking or freaking out, you can choose patience because you go, okay. My God's got this. This is not the biggest thing my God has ever dealt with. My God dealt with Goliath. My God dealt with the Red Sea. My God dealt with Pharaoh. My God dealt with Caesar. My God dealt with Herod. This is not a big deal to my God. It's a big deal to me and it can be a big deal to me. But God is so much bigger than this. And that's why singing is so important because it's not just checking something off a list to say, yep, I did what I was supposed to do. We're supposed to sing on Sundays. I did that. I took the Lord's Supper.

Barrett: Sure.

Wes McAdams: All of these things are spiritually transformative. They're reminding us of who our God is and that no matter what we go through, even if there is no fig and there is no grape and there is no wheat and there is no sheep and there is no cattle, my God is bigger than famine, my God is bigger than drought, my God is bigger than starvation, my God is bigger than death, and He will rescue me, He will vindicate me, and we win. No matter what happens, we win, not because of who we are, but because of who he is. It doesn't matter how big the problem is, because God is bigger. And when we remember that, it helps us to be patient rather than to panic.

Barrett: that was awesome and that is exactly where I was wanting to end today's podcast in Habakkuk 3. ⁓ During a difficult season of my life, this is what I memorized and so that would be my practical takeaway for lots of people because it worked for me. So I would just share that with others that if you're wanting to focus on Savior and not the situation or choosing patience over panic, then memorize scripture because you've got to spend time thinking about it and rehearsing it and going over it in your head and reading it repetitively. But back 3, 17 through, you 18, though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, so the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, yet I will celebrate in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." Which is, I liked the way you rattled off the things. That was real cool. The sheep and the herds and the, yeah. But it's like, even if we are facing famine and destitution and just truly the worst-case scenario, right? Like, you know, if there's no fig on the tree, I'm like, oh good, I don't care for figs. When I read the scripture, you know, I'm like, ah, I prefer apples or bananas. But it's like when there's nothing, when nothing's going our way, when the economy has failed, when the systems have failed us, or whatever it is, are we still choosing to celebrate in the Lord and rejoicing in God in the middle? those things. That's the challenge. That's what it looks like practically. How are you celebrating God? How are you rejoicing in Him and choosing those things over the worst-case scenario? Thanks Wes. Where are we going next week with this series?

Wes McAdams: Yeah, next week we're going to talk about don't freak out when promises are broken. When people break their promises to you, we have people make promises to us, whether that be our family members or politicians or anyone else. In fact, the psalmist says that don't put your trust in princes, you know, that whether they are rulers in the ancient world or they're rulers and authorities today, people break their promises, sometimes on accident and sometimes on purpose. And so we're going to talk about how do we keep our relationships from breaking when people break their promises.

Barrett: Man, looking forward to that one for sure. Thank you and appreciate your time today and for all of those listening and or watching. We appreciate you guys. Thank you for tuning in and we hope that you will send us questions, comments and join us again next week. Thanks.