Matt Ragland got turned away from his church because it was full, so he went downtown instead. Pastor Randy Draughn preached about God's sovereignty versus our need to control everything. Ragland connects it to parenting his 20-month-old son, Kanan, and how fatherhood teaches you what you actually can't control.
Chapters
Hey, good morning everyone. For those of you that are watching this, I don't know how many are gonna watch it live, and that's totally okay because I do like that Facebook keeps this rolling and it's just gonna kind of live there. But wanted to tell you that for the first time today, I was talking with a couple of friends about this, but for the first time today I was turned away from a church service. This has never, never happened before. It's been close the last few times that we've been to Midtown 12 South, the church that we're a part of here in Nashville.. And we've been growing. There are 3 services, but it's not a huge church building. And what happens is they— if you're on time at 12 South right now, you're late. Like, it's already packed. Okay, so if you're on time, you're late. That's one thing that's, that's been really kind of interesting and cool to see. And this is where today was the first day that it really got us. Like, we've kind of scrunch in some places. We watched in the downstairs room, but the service was full, and I've never been to a church service that was full. Okay, so rather than sharing church right there, we went across the street and shared a Five Daughters donut, which was delicious. My cousin Toby Ragland was in town and stayed with us, so got to do that with Toby, and we had to run back to the house, get his stuff, because he was flying out right after church. So we ended up going to the downtown congregation instead. Hey Kristen, hope you're doing well. So we ended up going to the downtown congregation instead, which we hadn't been there in a really long time. It's a little further away. It's kind of in this awkward time for Kanan. What's up, Delk? It's in this awkward time for Kanan where he's kind of falling asleep, and we don't normally like doing that to people. We're like, here's our tired baby that may have just pooped himself. You can like watch him for a little while. So we were at church there and everything was, everything was great. Randy Draughn is the pastor there and he did a fantastic job. He's got a great sense of humor. Well, let me talk with you. We're going through John and I wanted to kind of recap the sermon a little bit because I found it really interesting. It challenged me in some ways that I've kind of been struggling with or thinking about a lot more. And so let me show you my notes real quick. And you can catch a full picture of these on Instagram. I shared it through to Facebook as well. But it's talking about this idea that God is God and I am not. Which, you know, of course if anyone tells you that, you're like, "Well, yes, of course God is God." But, you know, I know I try and act that way a lot. Like mainly in terms of control. A funny thing that happened during the service was Pastor Randy was up there and he's saying like, you know, you can't look to your right and, you know, look to your left and you realize you can't control the person to the right and to the left of you. And some guy was sitting next to his wife and he yells out a vigorous amen. And it was very awkward for a moment, but it was also very hilarious. I'm glad I wasn't sitting next to them. And, you know, Randy's kind of a guy to to poke when something's kind of funny or awkward, and so he did that. But it is, you know, I know I'm, you know, when I really think about it, I'm a person who does try to control my time mainly. I can get, you know, really kind of frustrated when my time isn't taken care of the way that I feel like it should be. Okay, and that's one of the things that I really have to try, especially, you know, when you're in relationships with people, and especially when you have kids. Like, Kanan's 20 months old today, and he has no care for what my time looks like because he's a baby. And so that's been one of the biggest lessons I've been learning in terms of control and time, money, energy. I don't always control all of those things. So, you know, we try and kind of build ourselves out, we try and, you know, get ourselves up there with God, even if we would never say that. Like, I'd never say that out loud. Talked about— we're going through the book of John, and so that was one of the big things that stood out to me. A couple other things. So Randy talked about camping with his son, and I've camped a ton in my life, and so any of you kind of talk about camping, outdoors, wilderness, you've got my attention with that. And he said that when he was camping with his son, they kept kind of feeling this presence kind of pushing against the tent. All right, and when that would happen, you know, they like for several moments they kind of realized, oh, you know, this is— there's something out there. And I think we— I feel that way, and it It was a really great analogy, kind of drawing a parallel with the spirit of like you feel like there's something out there, but you know, really not quite sure if it, you know, with the way that you want to live your life, if you feel like that's a good thing. What's up, Chris? Hope you're doing well. And so when you think of it that way and you have like this presence outside, hey Justin, and you have this presence outside that you're like, I don't know if I would agree with this, but feeling that there is this presence. So that was something that really resonated with me. And hey, buddy, how you doing, man? Another thing was, yeah, just this idea that it's a very common church thing, like planting something that you're going to cultivate over a long period of time is another thing that rang true to me. And the last thing, this idea of like, how do you— how How do you kind of feel like you can fix this? And an idea of where in your life are you living in ways of reluctance or compulsive kind of feeling. Hold on one quick sec. Abby! Come here, girl! Hey! My dog is in the front yard and the fence is not fully locked. So I was thinking about that a lot too, and that's what I'm gonna dwelling on today and throughout the week is where have I been living like out of reluctance, like, you know, just not committing, committing to it fully or removing myself from it fully, or, you know, or living out of compulsion just because this is the way it's always been done, this is the way that I've been told it's supposed to be done, and not thinking about, you know, where am I really supposed to be with, you know, the way that I'm living and the way that, you know, it had been, you know, called and guided into. So those are the things that I'm thinking about today. Gotta go get some pizza. We've got family and, you know, football and food for the rest of the day. But I hope all of you have a great, a great day, a great weekend wherever you are. Thanks for watching. You know, Michael and Ryan and Kristen and Justin and Buddy, I hope you all have a great time and appreciate each one of you watching and just being a part of my life in some way, and anyone else who watches this. But take care, everyone. Talk to you soon. Bye.
