Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of When We're fail. I am so incredibly glad you stepped away from the noise. left the demands of your schedule at the door and chose to join me here today at the table.
Speaker: I want to address the elephant in the room right away. I know that our last episode was much longer than normal. It almost crossed that hour mark. And I know it completely broke away from the usual predictable format of this podcast.
Speaker: But honestly? personal testimonies, rarely ever follow a neat sanitized 30 -minute structured format When you sit down to unpack a raw history,
Speaker: straight through the hidden rooms of heavy trials and cold valleys of life. You simply cannot squeeze that kind of fire into a corporate timeline. It takes as long as it takes. to be thoroughly honest.
Speaker: Testimony is a landscape of jagged pieces coming into alignment. And I am so deeply grateful to those of you. sat with me. through the full depth of that journey last week.
Speaker: But today, We're moving into episode eight of our project. Only God could do this. And we are turning our focus toward a song that feels like a massive Collective style.
Speaker: of relief after a long grueling and completely exhausting season. Give your racing mind permission to settle. Let your shoulders drop and let's lean into this sacred moment.
Speaker: as we open our hearts in prayer. Lord Jesus. We look around our communities, our homes, and our hearts today. And we confess that the world feels so incredibly tough.
Speaker: We are tired of fighting the exact same battles. tired of hiding our bruises behind closed doors, and tired of pretending we have the strength to fix what is fundamentally broken inside of us.
Speaker: We bring you our worn out ground. our empty hands. and our stone cold hearts. we ask that you would step right into our defenses today. move directly in front of us in the spaces where we can barely see a step ahead.
Speaker: Bring your sudden light into our ordinary rooms. Break our heavy stones in two. and do with absolutely no human effort. cleverness or willpower could ever accomplish. message.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: The initial thoughts and feelings behind the songwriting for Only God. Don't start with a spectacular miracle. They don't open with a flashing light or dramatic mountaintop experience.
Speaker: They start in a place that only A lot of us are living in right now. A landscape that feels entirely gray. exhausted and shut down. The lyrics capture this feeling immediately.
Speaker: by describing the exhaustion of the mundane. It is the weight of caring and aid. so deep. that you convince yourself hope has worn too thin to survive. like a fragile thread that's been about to snap completely under the pressure
Speaker: Take a look at your own surroundings this week. Where has the color completely drained out of your daily routine? team. What is that specific door? that recently slammed shut in your face.
Speaker: leaving you carrying in an ape. that you don't know what to do with.
Speaker: I know exactly what that space feels like because I've lived there. many times over. There is a specific kind of tire that has absolutely nothing to do with sleep. It's the exhaustion you feel when your physical eyes are completely drained from watching doors close.
Speaker: and your spirit goes heavy. When you reach that baseline of exhaustion, You stop looking for massive answers because you don't. honestly believe. they exist anymore.
Speaker: You just get used to walking through a tired world with your head down. trying to survive the gray. See? The raw reality of the human condition is that we all love to rely on our own toolkits.
Speaker: We walk through life genuinely believing we are smart enough. intelligent enough and diligent enough to strategize our way out of any corner. We build these brilliant safety nets out of our education.
Speaker: our work ethic, our finances and our quick thinking. We convince ourselves that if we just white -knuckle our circumstances, tightly enough we can maintain absolute control.
Speaker: But sometimes, God allows us to be brought straight. into a season. where the furnace is turned all the way up. He permits us to walk into a trial so massive So heavy.
Speaker: and so completely out of our depth. that every single one of our clever strategies instantly turns to dust. He allows us to reach a coordinate. where we look to the left and look to the right And we suddenly realized that there is no emergency exit.
Speaker: No backup plan. and absolutely no earthly way out on our own strength
Speaker: And honestly? We need those seasons. We have to go through those crushing trials because without them, we would never drop our heavy armor of self -reliance.
Speaker: God brings us to the very end of ourselves. so that we are left with no other option. no other avenue, and no other choice but to fall to our knees. and turn completely to him.
Speaker: It is in that exact place of total helplessness. where our pride is finally silenced. And we realize that if we are going to survive the night, It will have to be by a supernatural move of the living God.
Speaker: And it's right there. when our human strength is completely spent and our eyes are fixed on the dirt. that scripture violently shifts our perspective. To understand the shift, we have to look closely at the context of Psalm 121.
Speaker: verses 1 and 2. This is the Psalm of Ascent.
Speaker: Historically, These were the ancient songs Hebrew pilgrims sang while traveling up the dangerous volatile terrain towards Jerusalem. for the sacred face. As they walked.
Speaker: They looked up at the mountains looming ahead of them. But those mountains weren't just beautiful scenery. They were terrifying. Those high hills were the exact places where thieves hid in caves.
Speaker: to ambush travelers. and they were the locations. where pagan altars were built to false gods. So when the pilgrim looks up and asks, I will raise my eyes to the mountains.
Speaker: From where will my hope come? It's not a statement of praise. It's a question born of absolute. vulnerability, and fear. They were asking.
Speaker: Is my help going to come from the dangers of these hills? Is it going to come from false altars of this world? But notice how the writer immediately answers their own panic in verse 2.
Speaker: My help comes from the Lord. who made heaven and earth
Speaker: Think about the depth. of that shift The pilgrim realizes that their protection doesn't come from the mountains. It doesn't come from their own capability, their intelligence, or their white -knuckled ability.
Speaker: to handle the stress of the journey The text forces your eyes past the physical horizon. and lends them squarely on the Creator. It reminds us that when hope ah feels thin,
Speaker: We aren't called to manufacture more willpower. from within our own exhausted frames. We are called to shift our gaze entirely to the one. who reigns over the storm.
Speaker: When we finally reach the absolute end of our self -reliance, We want to stop. trying to be our own savior. The song describes a beautiful sudden intrusion of grace.
Speaker: The lyrics build into this incredible moment where God moves right in front of us. bringing a sudden light to spaces where we could barely see an inch ahead of ourselves. The songwriting illustrates a wonder that leaves us completely undone.
Speaker: He makes dead things bloom. right in the middle of a plain old ordinary room.
Speaker: See? When you study the structural designs of Scripture, you find that the entire weight of salvation History. hinges on two of the most powerful words ever uttered.
Speaker: Bye. God. Think about the sheer exhausting gravity of those two words. They represent the ultimate cosmic pivot. On the left side of those words you have the human condition.
Speaker: helplessness, flatline spirits. That ends. and a total bankruptcy of strength. On the left side, The enemy is writing the final obituary of your life.
Speaker: shouting that you were permanently broken. Too far gone. and utterly stuck. in the mud of your past choices. if the sentence ended on the left side.
Speaker: the story would be a tragedy. But then, The text shifts. God refuses to let our limitations have the final say. He drops a divine conjunction into the middle of her wreckage.
Speaker: and completely overrules the dog. But God, means that your current crisis is not your final destination. It means human and possibility is nothing more than a wide open canvas.
Speaker: for a sovereign miracle. When your intelligence says there is no way out, and your eyes see nothing but a locked door? Those two words step into the room. and violently redirect the entire narrative.
Speaker: They serve notice to the darkness. that the author of life has just taken absolute control of the pen.
Speaker: This beautifully mirrors the profound theological reality mapped out by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians. 2 verses 4 and 5. To get the full weight of this scripture, you have to look at what Paul wrote before it.
Speaker: In the first three verses of that chapter, he lays out a devastating diagnosis of the human condition. He says we were completely dead in our trespasses. walking according to the course of this world.
Speaker: trapped in the futile passions of our flesh. and completely helpless. A corpse? cannot revive itself. A dead heart. cannot force itself to beat. but then the entire universe pivots on those two greatest words in the text.
Speaker: but God. being rich in mercy. because of his love and with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings. made us alive together with Christ.
Speaker: Notice the timing of that rescue. He didn't wait for you to take a breath. Clean up your app. or show signs of spiritual improvement. while you were still flat -lined in the dark room of your wrongdoings.
Speaker: His love made you alive. He doesn't just patch up our old lives. and he doesn't just edit our failures. He breathes supernatural life into it. entirely dead spaces.
Speaker: And when that realization finally hits your spirit. The chorus of this track opens up into a declaration. that refuses to share credit with anything or anyone else.
Speaker: Only my God could do this. This is the core theology of the track. There are certain chains, certain deep -seated addictions. certain heavy depths of grief that human therapy self -help books and white knuckle willpower simply cannot fix on their own strength.
Speaker: They require a direct sovereign act of God. This is exactly what Jesus declared to his disciples. in Mark 10 verse 27 With people, it is impossible.
Speaker: but not with God. for all things are possible with God. He isolates human capability. and labels it clearly. Impossible.
Speaker: Your recovery? your healing, your deliverance. On human strength alone, It is a dead end. But when the stone in your heart is far too heavy for your hands to roll away,
Speaker: Jesus steps directly into the cemetery. takes absolute ownership of the narrative. and breaks the stone in two. As the song moves on, It looks like the aftermath. of that breakthrough.
Speaker: The lyrics describe watching Mercy fall like rain on completely worn out ground. where things that look lost for good are suddenly turning. all the way around.
Speaker: What is the area of your life right now? that you have privately labeled as Lost for good. Is it a broken family dynamic that has been cold for decades?
Speaker: A secret habit you've relapsed into so many times you've stopped trying to count. A heart that has gone completely rigid and numb. What would it look like to step out of the shadows?
Speaker: and let mercy fall on the worn out ground today. The track describes a heart that you thought was gone forever. suddenly beating again inside your chest.
Speaker: It acknowledges a beautiful spiritual reality. where our physical eyes cannot hold. our soul can clearly see
Speaker: To anchor this, We stand on Ezekiel 36, 26. When God spoke these words through the prophet Ezekiel, The nation of Israel was living in Babylon as broken, traumatized captives.
Speaker: They were completely cut off from their homeland. Their temple was destroyed and their spirits were entirely crushed. They were crying out. Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished.
Speaker: They believe their stubbornness. had prominently disqualified them from God's presence. but God speaks directly into their captivity. not with an invoice of judgment.
Speaker: but with a sovereign, unconditional promise. Moreover, I will give you a new heart. and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone. from your flesh.
Speaker: and give you a heart of flesh. Look at that language. God doesn't ask the captive people to perform major surgery on themselves. He doesn't say,
Speaker: If you soften your own heart, I'll come back. He says, I will remove it. I will give it. I will put it. It is a unilateral covenant of grace.
Speaker: the song builds into a soulful focused declaration of worship. Lifting our eyes to the one who reigns. recognizing that every single broken place is still completely within his power to change.
Speaker: What was entirely possible to us becomes a living. Breathing reality right before our eyes. When we see the wonder of a restored life, we are ultimately seeing the true unaltered character of Jesus himself.
Speaker: The end of the song. brings us to a place of complete unhurried surrender realizing that we can finally stop trying to save ourselves because the Savior has already arrived on the scene.
Speaker: in Romans chapter 8 verses 31 and 32 Paul is writing to a deeply persecuted, suffering church in Rome. These believers were facing intense volatility.
Speaker: systematic hatred, and the constant threat of execution. They were well acquainted with fear. and Paul looks at their heavy landscape and acts. a very important question.
Speaker: What shall we say to these things? if God is for us. Who is against us? he who did not spare his own son. but delivered him over for us all.
Speaker: How will he not also with him freely give us all things?
Speaker: Now, I know there are some of you sitting at the table today who are not currently walking through a dark Happy Winter! Your health is good. your home is peaceful. and you aren't staring down at a slam door.
Speaker: but I need you to hear me clearly. just because you aren't in a storm today. doesn't mean you get to be passive. This is your cue to look backward and remember the ground you were standing on.
Speaker: Take a moment right now. to thank God for the fires he has already pulled you out of. The stones he has already broken too. and the dead things he previously brought back to life in your world.
Speaker: Never let your current comfort make you forget the absolute wonder of where he brought you from.
Speaker: And when we look at what it means to carry this kind of posture. We don't have to look very far to see it in action. we see document accounts out in the world that give us a literal masterclass on what it looks like to witness a move of grace.
Speaker: where there was absolutely no earthly way out. Think about the river rescue. in Junction, Texas. a youth group, bus returning from church camp was suddenly caught in a massive violent flash flood.
Speaker: The water was rising so fast it completely submerged the vehicle. A group of those teenagers ended up trapped. clinging to the branches of a single tree in the middle of a terrifying, roaring rapids.
Speaker: for hours. waiting for emergency rescue helicopters. In a moment where absolute panic should have paralyzed their lungs, Witnesses and officials reported that those kids didn't scream or give up.
Speaker: They lifted their voices together and loudly sang worship songs directly into the howling wind and the raging waters. That is what happens when your soul holds a conviction that is completely unbothered by your circumstances.
Speaker: you realize that God doesn't just deserve our worship. after the rescue happens. He deserves it down in the middle of the rising floodwaters. And if you think a tree and a Texas river is a miracle,
Speaker: Think about Harrison O 'Kinney. He was a cook on a tugboat that capsized and sank all the way to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. in pitch black freezing water. Every physical law of science says he should have been lost.
Speaker: yet against all earthly possibilities. he found himself trapped inside a tiny, freezing, four foot air pocket 60 feet beneath the surface.
Speaker: for nearly three days. He sat in total isolation. surrounded by water. with his physical strength completely running out of control. But when the divers finally made it down into the wreckage,
Speaker: expecting a recovery operation. They found... a living man. He wasn't screaming in despair. He was using his remaining breath to silently recite the Psalms.
Speaker: And thank God for keeping him breathing in the dark. Those aren't just coincidences, family. Those are modern monuments of an aggressive, intentional race.
Speaker: Those are moments where human capability completely ran out of road. forcing the world to look at the unit at the survival and say, There is no explanation for this except an act of God.
Speaker: You don't need to perform. perfect certainty to receive this wonder. You don't have to show up to this table with all your questions answered or your life. put together. Matthew 11 28 remains wide open to you.
Speaker: Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. and I will give you. rest. Notice who the invitation is for. It's not for the strong, the qualified, or the spiritually elite.
Speaker: It's explicitly for the weary. It is for the heavy lad and traveler who cannot carry the pack. for another single Stop. Whether you are resting on a smooth ground,
Speaker: lifting a praise from a tree branch in a flood. or praying in a dark valley. Just bring your heart to Him.
Speaker: Let's take a listen. at what it means. to trust and believe. Only God could do this.
Speaker: When you sit back and listen to the sonic architecture of this track. There is a profound, almost terrifying wonder in what we just heard. The music itself forces you to sit in the all of a space.
Speaker: where human hands had to completely let go. leaving a supernatural footprint behind. is the sound of a total structural collapse of human pride.
Speaker: opening up into a breathtaking landscape of pure divine capability. You can literally hear the shift. from the heavy suffocating weight of the gray. into an explosive uninhabited declaration of freedom.
Speaker: It leaves you standing in the room looking at a heart that is beating again. looking at a stone that has been shattered into you and realizing that you have just witness a work that defies every physical law.
Speaker: every logical calculation. and every cynical explanation of this world. It forces your soul into a posture of absolute stillness. We're the only logical response left.
Speaker: is to stand in fear and awe whispering. Only God could do this.
Speaker: before we close our time together today. Let's carry two very honest, intentional questions for the rest of our week. Where have you been white knuckling your own recovery?
Speaker: or trying to fix a deeply broken space. using your own cleverness and self -reliance instead of lifting your eyes to God.
Speaker: Are you genuinely willing to let Jesus step into your plain, ordinary room today? Mess. Dirt confusion. unknowing, unbelieving, and all. and turn your heavy fear into wonder.
Speaker: Let's gather our hearts together. as a family right now and step into this prayer. Jesus. We confess at this table that we are tired of trying to do what only you can accomplish. bless you.
Speaker: We lay down our self -reliance We drop our broken crushes and we silence our exhausting performance. Wash our worn out ground with your mercy today.
Speaker: Move right in front of us in the hidden spaces. or we are completely blind. and break our hearts of stone in two. Lord, we also just lift up a massive thank you.
Speaker: See you today. We thank you for your radical Grace. for your relentless mercy and for the beautiful reality that you simply refuse to give up on us even when we fall short.
Speaker: Thank you for chasing us down when we make mistakes. and for loving us through our absolute worst moments. Let us see your wonder breaking through our ordinary rooms this week.
Speaker: and remind us softly in the quiet hours that we are never left to carry the dark alone. In your beautiful, sovereign name we pray. Amen.
Speaker: Your broken places were never too far gone. for the one who speaks light into absolute darkness. Drop the weight of trying to heal yourself. Step completely out of the shadows.
Speaker: and allow the wonder of his presence to turn your grey winter until a season of brand new growth.
Speaker: Please remember to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast so we can keep walking this path together. Now before I sign off today, I need to share a quick personal update. Hmm.
Speaker: Next Friday is my birthday. to celebrate I'm heading completely out of town to rest and step away from the microphone and give. my soul and mind a bit of unhurried breathing room.
Speaker: Because of that, my upload schedule for next Thursday is kind of currently up in the air. I haven't officially decided if I'm going to pre -record our next session or... If I'm just going to press pause. on production for a week to fully rest and be disconnected.
Speaker: Ow. But keep your eyes on my YouTube community page over the next few days and I'll let you know exactly what the Holy Spirit leads me to do. but whenever the table opens back up,
Speaker: Our journey will continue as we open up track nine. from the album focusing on our next track because of who he is. We are going to talk about what it looks like to hold onto your convictions.
Speaker: when the world around you is completely shifting. about the standard of true discipleship and look closely and why we choose to follow Christ. not just for the signs and wonders,
Speaker: but simply because of who he is. I can't wait to unfold that landscape with you. Rest in his unfailing wonder this week. Open your hands. And remember that you belong to him.
Speaker: God bless you.
