Jesus Asked Questions

SPEAKER 01 : 0:09

Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:04

Ah, thank you, Jimmy Lakey. I miss you. I think I’m going to have to look him up one of these days. Oh, welcome to Calda Freedom. As we follow in God’s ways, we find joy on each path. So eat the fat, drink the sweet, share with others. Sharing with others, folks, is so beautiful, especially when you go together and you have a meal together. And it says, and do not grieve. The joy of the Lord is your strength. From Nehemiah 8, 10. I want to talk about the fellowship we have with friends around the table. And that’s why I love going to brunch during the month, the second Saturday of every month. I think it’s April 11th is the next second Saturday in April. And we will be having brunch, the Lord willing. But I love doing that because… We get together and there’s always some joy, especially if you have people like Ken around the table with us. And we’re always chuckling or laughing. He’s the guy that gave us the squirrel story, if any of you remember the squirrel story. And it’s just a joy to have friends around enjoying the food and enjoying each other more. I go as I go to restaurants and I watch people because I grew up on a farm. And so when we went to town and the folks left us in the car, we watched people. I was a people watcher and I noticed people just come to the restaurant to eat. There are some who just come to the restaurant to eat. There are others who are enjoying each other and talking and talking. And you love that all the talking that’s going on in the restaurant. Well, I love that. I love that kind of camaraderie. It’s so important that you have that kind of camaraderie with your friends. So I pray that you will have some, oh, let’s say, have some finances and resources in your life so you can invite a friend to a restaurant. I know I just had a friend invite me yesterday. We had so much fun. And just talking for a couple hours, I remember when Darren and I used to invite people to restaurants. Oh, my goodness. Two or three hours later, we discovered that we were still at that table. We’d finished eating. But we were just enjoying that fellowship. So do that, friend. Invite someone over or invite someone to a restaurant, even if it’s McDonald’s or if it’s Wendy’s. Oh, my goodness. Just do that. No pride. No pride. Just enjoy the generosity and the fellowship. You are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. And the memory verse for this week is John 6, 63. Kimberly’s going to talk about life. It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. And the living says the same thing. The very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. And Jesus went on to say, but some of you don’t believe me. And there are some around you folks who are listening that don’t believe you. You just give them over to the Lord. Say, Lord, you take care of them. Holy Spirit, you reach their hearts. You open their eyes and they’re going to see that you are life. There’s an old song by Keith Green. He’s with the Lord today. But how I love you. You are the one. You are the one. how I love you. You are the one for me. I was so lost, but you gave me life because you are the life. He is the way, the truth and the life. And I’m so grateful for that. And thank you, Kimberly, for joining me today. I love you being in this with me.

SPEAKER 04 : 4:38

Oh, I love I love being in this with you. Thank you. Yeah. Yesterday I was listening and the day before how you were Talking about John chapter 8, and yesterday you had that song from when we were little girls, when Dana and I were very small, Why Complain? And wow, that just brought back a lot of memories. And your memory verse, your memory verse, John 6, 61 says, I looked that up in the Passion Translation. I don’t know if you’ve read it from that translation yet, but I’m going to read it from there. It says, Mm-hmm. So we have for the past couple of weeks been talking about questions that Jesus asked when he was here, when he was living here. I have been really in my Bible time, my devotion time, I have been letting his questions stand out to me. I’ve been applying them very personally to my days. And I would encourage all of you to take this journey with me because this has brought so much peace and breakthrough and victory and joy, so much joy. And I want that for you, too. I want that for you listening. So that memory verse is really asking that question. Do your situations cause you to stumble and take offense? And when Jesus is teaching us to handle it a certain way, like turn the other cheek, like when someone sues you for your shirt, give him your coat too. Does this cause you to stumble and take offense?

SPEAKER 02 : 6:34

Are you offended by it? That’s a hard one, Kimberly. It really is, especially when they drag you through the social media or through the papers or through whatever, and you are there giving a lie about you. What do you do? Whoa, it’s really… You get offended.

SPEAKER 04 : 6:53

Yeah, absolutely. Touchy, yeah. You get offended, but… But this is Jesus asking, are you being caused to take offense? Because he’s really what he’s doing is he’s wanting to make it obvious to us that offense gets in there super easy, really quick. It’s a natural human response.

SPEAKER 03 : 7:14

Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 7:15

That does not accomplish anything. what God’s grace can accomplish. Offense will never accomplish peace. If we respond to offense, see, and that’s the thing, offense is going to come. We’re going to feel it because we’re human. But when we react to it in frustration, when we react to it in anger, when we react wanting to take control and manipulate that situation or people, then it doesn’t bring the true peace. Now, we might be able to actually control it and manipulate it and get a certain, I don’t know, a certain outcome. But it’s not a real lasting peace that’s right and we are here on call to freedom to tell you that there is freedom from the bondage of sin and depression and frustration there is freedom yes there is there is a peace and a joy that is so real and we want you to find it

SPEAKER 02 : 8:27

That’s what we want for you. That’s right. You know, Jesus could have gone to the cross, Kimberly, kicking and screaming. He was innocent, and it was put on him, but he’s the Prince of Peace. He was showing us how to go even to death, knowing that God was going to let you go to his throne room. Oh, it’s just… Yeah.

SPEAKER 04 : 8:50

And resurrect and restore and redeem. I mean, that’s the God we serve. We do not have to be rattled. OK, so I read it in the message translation, too. I’m still on John 661, which is your memory verse for the week. And I loved it in the message translation. I don’t. Did you print it out in that translation at all?

SPEAKER 02 : 9:14

Yes, and I did it yesterday, but what I have as the memory verse is 663. Oh, well, I just… I know. You introduced it with, does this cause you to stumble and take offense? Because he was talking to basically a mixed audience of scoffers and skeptics, and he just wanted to know their feelings. Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 9:37

Did I offend you by getting your memory verse wrong?

SPEAKER 1 : 9:40

Oh, no. No.

SPEAKER 02 : 9:43

I just didn’t want the listeners to say, okay, now Barbara said 663 and Kimberly, but you were starting, you had a preamble to 663. And I appreciate that because Jesus is talking to a mixed crowd here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER 04 : 10:00

Well, okay, so I’m just going to go on with John 6, 61. In the message, Jesus sensed that his disciples and other people were having a hard time with what he was teaching.

SPEAKER 03 : 10:12

Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 10:12

And Jesus asked, does this rattle you completely? Yeah. What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? Hmm. You know, what would happen right now today in your challenging situation that you are facing in your life? We’ve all got them. So everyone listening right now has a challenge. What would happen if you saw Jesus coming on the clouds right now? Would you hold on to your feelings about that challenging situation or could you let them go? I think that is what the I think that’s what our Lord is wanting us to see is that how important it is to let these things go because we are made in his image. He let those offenses go. He did not continue to he he didn’t walk in offense.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:11

No, he didn’t.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:12

And he’s trying to teach us how not to walk in offense.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:15

Mm hmm.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:16

Yes. He goes on in that verse in the message translation to say that sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. It’s the spirit. The spirit makes life. And every word I have spoken to you is a spirit word. And so it is life making. But some of you are resisting and refusing to have any part in this.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:42

I remember when I threw things. when I got so angry I was throwing things. I didn’t care. I’ve done that. Yeah. And then I think, what good did that do? I have to clean up the mess after throwing that.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:57

Oh, wow. Yeah. Those are not our proud moments, are they?

SPEAKER 02 : 12:01

No, they are not.

SPEAKER 04 : 12:02

Well, you know, Jesus asked these questions 2000 years ago, and they are still full of life and helpful hints for our lives today. If we will press into these questions and apply them to our everyday situations, we will find true life and true peace. And I am telling you that I am experiencing real breakthrough in my life daily by trusting that God can and does cover every one of my challenging situations with His grace and His love. And these are not intangible qualities that I’m talking about just to fill some airspace right now. His grace and his love are powerfully real. They are more real than our ideas for solutions in this realm, in this life. So today, the question is, are you offended by this? Now, you have to fill in the blank of this. Are you offended by your co-worker, by your son or daughter?

SPEAKER 02 : 13:13

Or husband or wife. Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 13:15

Or parent or brother or sister. Because relationships will offend. And you fill in the blank. Are you offended by… you can think of whatever that might be. If you want breakthrough in an area or with a person that keeps irritating you, this is when we ask our Lord to help. Help us not to react with offense. Jesus asked this question, are you offended by this? He asked it as an alert. He wants to alert us on how damaging offense is and how it does not lead us to a solution when we respond in anger or frustration or control or anger. Complaining. You were playing that little song yesterday. Why complain? And yeah, we don’t want complaining to take over. So I’m just going to give an example from my own life. And I want to be really careful how this unfolds and how I report this because Matthew’s involved in this. And Matthew, my husband, he is nothing less than a miracle blessing to me, to our children, to many, many others. And I honor him.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:37

Yes, to me, yes. Yes, to you, yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 14:40

And I just honor him and respect him. I love him. So I want to be super careful in how I report this. Yeah, because it has everything to do with our filing system. And he owns a business, and so we’ve got a business filing system, and then we’ve got the personal filing system. And I do not understand the way that he files files. And I’m a very, very logical person. I’m logical. I’m analytical. I’m organized. I organize by alphabetizing. I organize by color. I color code things. Yes, you do. So, you know, a drawer, a whole drawer might have a certain color and a certain theme like this drawer is medical or this drawer. You know what I’m saying? So I keep it real. I don’t understand his filing system. I just I’ve never been able to get it. And in the past, I’ve I’ve thought, oh, I’m helping. I’m going to overhaul this whole thing. You know, 20, 30 years ago, I thought I was helping. Yeah. And overhaul the whole thing, the whole system. And here, isn’t this better? Don’t you don’t you see where everything goes now?

SPEAKER 02 : 15:55

They don’t.

SPEAKER 04 : 15:56

They don’t. No, no, it doesn’t. And so that doesn’t make sense to him. No, that’s right.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:02

It doesn’t. I mean, it’s crazy. It’s all screwed up. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER 04 : 16:07

Yeah. So then one or the other of us has the opportunity to be offended. Right. Because if I’m overhauling his system, he could be really offended because now he can’t find anything. And if he, you know, if he gets into my system and doesn’t understand, starts just stuffing everything everywhere, then my system is not working either. It’s just not working.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:32

Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 16:33

That can cause offense.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:35

Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 16:36

And very often when we’re offended, we complain. Now, I am not telling this story to complain in any way. I’m telling this because I want to give a real life example of how the Lord is bringing breakthrough. By me choosing not to complain, I still have to go through these files. I still have to find what we need to report, you know, our tax, our tax information. And it gets very confusing. And sometimes I’m even in tears because I feel like I can’t find what I need to find. Yeah. often we’re triggered, you know, if, if somebody’s triggered to tears or triggered to anger, triggered to frustration, then it might go to wanting to control it. Okay. I’m taking over, I’m taking over this filing cabinet or I’m taking over, you know, whatever it is. But when we, when we react that way and respond that way, we shut the doors on Holy Spirit and And this is who we were made for. We were made for the Holy Spirit of God. We were made for the creator of the universe. We were made to lean into his ways and find his grace and his love that are very real. And so I’ve been asking for more grace. I’ve been asking for more love. I have not been choosing complaint or frustration or control. But I’ve been choosing to say, God, you’re bigger than this. This business is a gift from you. This home and our life, our marriage, our family, it’s all a gift from you. You know how it’s running and you know how to keep us going. in unity, in harmony, blessing one another, and acting like a true body of Christ.

SPEAKER 02 : 18:37

That’s right.

SPEAKER 04 : 18:37

Instead of acting like we’re just fighting and in chaos all the time.

SPEAKER 02 : 18:41

I remember when Darren had… He was… See what I would call unorganized. And papers all over his desk. And I would come in to… Like you said, organize them a little. Don’t you touch them. I know exactly where everything is. So I took the opportunity to get some bookends and pile big, huge books in front on the corner of the desk so that people wouldn’t see the pile. It was okay with him. I never asked why you’d put those there. And so I just stuck. Aren’t these good? Darren, I’ve got your mom’s book that she gave you about the birds of America. And I’ve got all these. Dictionary. Dictionary. Absolutely. Big, huge books. And so that was okay with him.

SPEAKER 04 : 19:29

Expository. That’s right.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:30

That’s right. And I know. And when you come into my home, you’ll see that desk and all the books are still there. And I told him that, OK, you do your thing. And then he’d pile he’d put his pants at the end of the day on the door of the bathroom hanging there. And I said, Darren, there are places for your pants. He says, I know exactly where they are. I’m going to keep them there. So don’t you touch them. So I learned over all the years not to touch Darren Carmack’s things. And so sometimes we do have to submit to the will and the way of another human being that we love, Kimberly. And I’m glad you said you love Matthew because that is the key. That’s a key. Yeah. And…

SPEAKER 04 : 20:17

Do you know why that’s the key? It’s the key because that is we’re made in the image of God. And that is what God does with us. He submits to the way that we want to do life. He stays with us all the time, even when we’re making really poor decisions in this life. He’s still with us. He submits all the time. I’m so ready for us as human beings to turn around and say, I’m done. I’m done holding the reins. I’m done trying to control it. I want to submit to you. I want to submit to you, Lord. And, you know, sometimes the best way to practice that is to practice submitting, surrendering and honoring someone else’s way of doing life.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:10

Mm hmm.

SPEAKER 04 : 21:12

It’s hard. And in some situations, maybe it’s not even the best decision to make because I know there are some real abusive situations too. But we need to more and more lean on the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us and help us with these decisions. Help us learn to go with the flow instead of against it all the time.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:36

Yes, that’s right.

SPEAKER 04 : 21:37

Someone said to me in this passing week that no one hears you when you complain. It’s true. It was just a statement that they were making regarding so many complaints that they hear and how those complaints are not accomplishing anything. When you get into a complaining with those offenses that you have, if you’re irritated and offended, and if you get into a pattern of complaining… Those complaints are not helping. I looked up a few of these quotes about complaining and Lou Holtz said something really great. He said, never tell your problems and complaints to anyone. 20% don’t care. And the other 80% are glad you have them.

SPEAKER 02 : 22:26

That’s so good. He was the coach of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. And I love that. I really do. I think that is so good. It’s like today I was listening to Wayne Mark Mullins. He’s the guy from Oklahoma, Kimberly, that is now ahead of the he will be confirmed to the head of the team. hhs and he was talking to rand paul and he says why don’t you agree a little bit or change parties but agree with us you never agree with us and it’s like some members of congress are just out and out to be complaining and coming against others and it’s so sad it’s got us into this partisan uh country that we live in the complaining oh It’s just not good.

SPEAKER 04 : 23:14

Well, and complaining never brings anyone to a place of joy or to a place of peace, ever. That’s right. This was Dennis Prager said that complaining not only ruins everybody else’s day, it ruins the complainer’s day, too. Yes. The more we complain, the more unhappy we get.

SPEAKER 02 : 23:37

Oh, that is so good. What a gem.

SPEAKER 04 : 23:40

Yeah, well, and that’s we want to remember this about complaining. It’s so easy to fall into complaining and want to share with people what your hardships are. But I’ve been finding that if I really only share those with the Lord, then. He lifts that. He lifts the feeling of a burden, of whatever you’re going through being a burden. He lifts that off of me. His grace and his love are so real. that He does a miracle in me, and I am believing that that’s going to be a domino effect in my circle of people and community, that more and more people will understand how to give over the offenses and choose not to complain. But to spread peace and joy by leaning into the Lord and saying, you know what? I want to do this your way, God. I want to surrender and submit to whatever this is. Find a way to go with the flow. I mean, you were just talking about. this partisan country. And really, we have been at each other’s throats for how many years now since the beginning? Left and right, right and left, left and right. But it’s just not going to accomplish anything until we start listening. To one another. And yeah, stop fighting it. Stop complaining. And come alongside and let’s find ways to agree. Let’s find some common ground. The word of God encourages us over and over to have thankful hearts. To be full of gratitude. Consider it joy when you are thankful. In the middle of trials and temptations, that’s from James 1. And Philippians 4 tells us to not get anxious and stressed out, but in everything with thankfulness, make your requests known to God. So if we take this literally and practice it in our everyday life, I believe we will start seeing breakthroughs left and right over and over every day. Breakthrough, breakthrough, breakthrough.

SPEAKER 02 : 26:00

Yes. Oh, it’s beautiful. Yes, Kimberly. And I find that people that complain they’re not getting their bills paid, they’re not getting things done in this life, that God wants them to be successful. He wants them to be a blessing and to be blessed in the procedure. So we’re going to talk more about that tomorrow. I hope you’ll be able to make it. You’re coming to Colorado, so we’re going to kind of be on the cusp of whether you can do it or not. But I’m praying that you’ll be on the radio tomorrow again with us.

SPEAKER 04 : 26:29

Thank you. Yes, I’ll be on the road, but I will let you know if I’m able to stop somewhere and get some good Wi-Fi and connect with you. I love connecting with you.

SPEAKER 02 : 26:38

Oh, thank you, sweetheart. I love being with you. God bless you and keep all of you listening. And take this to heart. Let’s be people of joy. And I want you to know, take joy. Music

SPEAKER 1 : 27:01

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SPEAKER 01 : 27:22

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SPEAKER 1 : 28:26

Thank you.