S1 EP3. Why Does My Story With GOD Look Different?
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Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Christ with Coffee on Ice. I am your host, Allie Yost, and I am so stinking excited to be here with you guys. I do have to say though, I am getting used to the whole like, welcome to another episode of Christ with Coffee on Ice and not welcome to another episode of Girly Popcast because that's my other podcast that I host. And I'm so excited to be here with you guys.

And it's getting a little confusing in my brain. Sometimes I gotta be like, wait, what are we sitting down for today? Okay. But anyway, regardless, happy Friday, guys. I am just glowing. It's the Holy Spirit. I'm filled. I'm so happy and I'm just...

So grateful to be here with you guys. And this is officially going to be like our first episode of actually diving into the Bible and reading scripture, which I'm so excited about. And I just want to say, Proclaimer, as I mentioned in my testimony, I have only really started prioritizing reading the Bible like eight months ago, the beginning of this year. So

So be gracious towards me. Let's practice some grace in this episode. I've just never done anything like this before. I am just starting to, you know, familiarize myself with the Bible. So if you are also in that same boat, sister, brother, we are in this together. The only thing I ask is just be kind.

and patient with me. But I have written some notes down prior though. So I do have an idea of what I want to say. And I'm very excited about this particular piece of scripture because this parable is really cool. And it's out of Matthew, which, okay, first off, this is my notorious Bible that I was telling you guys about. I love her. This is the one, the one that I got from Barnes and Noble. She already looks like she's gotten some love. She's

Like I feel like it's already fading, but isn't it beautiful? I just love it. On the front it says, "God is within her, she will not fall," which is Psalm 46:5. And I have all these little fancy tabs all throughout my Bible. I know, I look like a hotshot. Like I literally look like I know exactly what I'm talking about. And I study it like four times a day. That's what it looks like, but that's not the truth. I have linked this on my Instagram. I get that question all the time. You guys ask me what version and what Bible I read.

I've linked it on my Instagram. It's under my links highlight. So you could absolutely match with me and get the same Bible because it's cute and it's girly and it keeps me motivated to want to open it. But also you could definitely go to your local Barnes and Noble and get it there. So whichever your heart pleases. And all the little tabs in her, I got from the Daily Grace Co.,

I will rave about that company. This won't be the first time, probably. I had never heard of them and they were so generous and they sent me some PR, including the tabs. But the other cool thing that they sent me, y'all got to check them out, okay? They have something called the Bible Handbook. And it is quite literally exactly what it sounds like.

They have broken down each part of the Bible so that if you ever feel like you're reading a part of the Bible and it is going right over your head and you don't understand it, y'all, the Bible is confusing. It's intimidating. And it's honestly sometimes hard to understand because it's been translated. It wasn't originally written in English, you know, so there's a lot of things that come into play of, you know, of the way it can just go over your head. I'm in that boat with you.

And I want you to know that not everything I even read in the Bible, I totally understand. And I think that's okay. But the Bible handbook has been so cool because like, just as an example, I was opening up Mark and I was like, okay, before I dive into Mark though, I want to open my handbook and I want to get the little gist overview background of the meaning of this, where it comes from, just like just so you have a better grasp of what you're reading. And it's been the coolest thing. So the Daily Grace Co.,

Give them love. This is not even sponsored. I just love them. I have also linked that on my Instagram under my links highlight, but I think you can even get that off of Amazon or of course their website. So there's also an option though where they have tabs that you can put on a tab.

and they're like these little hearts which is so cute and I put a heart on Matthew because I love Matthew and I do have to say I lit Matthew up with highlighter when I first opened the book of Matthew I was like oh my gosh I love this I was learning so much I'm gonna give you guys a second to grab your bibles too because you should and if you don't download an app download a bible app and

and go to Matthew 20. So this is the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Okay, so bear with me. We're going to go slow and then we're going to break it down. Okay. Now I'm going to stop there.

I don't know what a denarius is, but it had a little marker next to it in my Bible. And then at the bottom, it says a denarius was the usual daily wage for a day laborer. So I don't even know if I'm saying that word right. But basically what it sounds like is it's their daily allowance, their daily pay. So these people agreed to work in his vineyard for the day. And he said, OK, so this is what you're going to get for your day's work.

Okay.

He asked them,

beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first. The workers who were hired at about five in the afternoon came and each received their denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more, but each one of them also received a denarius.

when they received it they began to grumble against the landowner these who were hired last worked only an hour they said and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day but he answered one of them i am not being unfair to you friend didn't you agree to work for a denarius

Okay.

So that might have gone over the heads of some of y'all. And there is no shade with that because that's what I'm here for. And honestly, when I read this parable, I was sitting in my kitchen and I don't even really know how I understood it or I grabbed a POV. But this is my POV of this parable.

Okay. This is what I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me when I read this, because I also felt like I was going through kind of a season where I was like comparing myself to others. And this spoke to me in such a way that really helped me. We're going to go back to the beginning. Okay. First things first, it says, for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Now I want y'all to think of the landowner as God. Okay.

Okay, the people are us.

And the vineyard is our faith or living for him, honoring him, obeying him, right? So the landowner is looking for people to work for him. God is looking for people to serve him, love him, obey him. That's us. The denarius, so the pay for that hard work, staying obedient to him, loving him, spreading the gospel, talking about him, spreading his love. The denarius is his promise, is the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven promised.

His promises, his love, his faithfulness. Now, the way that I interpreted this parable is when the landowner went out to seek people, okay? And he hired people at 9 a.m. I thought of those as like people who have been following Christ since the very beginning of time. They claim Jesus at the age of 11, were baptized and have been living their life faithfully to him ever since, okay? Those are the 9 a.m.ers. Now, the 3 p.m.ers are kind of people like me, I guess, right?

I feel like I would fall in the 3 p.m. where, you know, maybe they went a portion of their life without...

truly dedicating their life to Jesus and now they've decided to okay and then the 5 p.m. errs are the people who maybe found Jesus at the age of 53 or 87 whatever okay now the beautiful thing about this parable is that the landowner regardless of when these people started working in his vineyard he gave them all the same denarius God has given us all the same promise

Right? Because the denarius is his promise, is the gates of heaven. He has promised every single one of us just that. There is no VIP section in heaven.

heaven there is no special treatment there is no such thing as God's favorite I know that people love to like joke about that online I've even gotten that comment on some of my stuff before people are like oh you're God's favorite God has no favorites we are all equal in his eyes and he also encourages us to treat each other that way we are all equal we are all on the same team we are all in the same boat we all make mistakes we all fall short of our faith we all need him just the same and I say that

Because I want to bring encouragement to anyone that could be listening to this that feels guilt for not prioritizing him or you feel like it's too late. It is truly...

Never too late to know God. It is truly never too late to ask God to just take over your life. It is not too late. The other really cool thing about God is that he does not require any type of resume. He will never say to you, oh, well, you don't have 15 years of experience in Jesus Christ University. I'm not accepting you into my kingdom. I'm sorry.

God will never deny you. He will never turn his back on you. He will never deny you. He just wants your heart. And the thing is, is he knows your heart. So if you go to him after going your entire life without ever acknowledging him and you say, God, I just want to know you. I want to feel you. I'm done living this life without you. He will

feel that genuineness in your heart and take you right into his arms because he is a loving father and he is faithful and he will never, ever deny his children. I just pray that that sheds light to anyone who could be feeling guilt for not prioritizing God in your life. Maybe you never have, maybe you used to, and then you kind of lost him and you don't know how to go back and you don't know how to face him because you're ashamed of

or you're embarrassed. You're like, how am I supposed to go to him after going all this time without ever acknowledging his goodness and his greatness? How am I supposed to go back to him? How are you supposed to go back to him? You know what? I want y'all to think of God as a literal father. Can we do that?

This is the biggest thing that shifted my mind is that God is not here to punish us. He only wants the best for us like a loving parent or father would. Okay. Imagine your child has run away and got lost. Didn't come back for however long you've been away from God. Okay. Months, years. And then that child shows up at their front door.

Crying saying father. I miss you. Can I please come inside? I need you I thought I could go do a life on my own I know I've been gone for a really long time But can I please have some water and like hugs and love you're telling me that a good loving parent is gonna look that child a good loving parent

is going to look that child in the eye and say you left you thought you knew what you were doing you can go figure it out on your own you've been gone long enough i'm not taking you back in they are going to wrap that child back in their arms tuck them into bed give them a nice shower clean them up and say we've missed you and we love you that's point number one i want to make from this parable point number two okay is that we should not be going into our faith

checking off all the boxes, doing all the right things in God's eyes, expecting any type of special treatment. We are not looking at other Christians who have just started their journey and judging them and saying, well, I'm way better Christian than them. They don't even know what the heck they're talking about. Oh, really? Yeah. Try being a Christian for 20 plus years.

There's none of that. There's no competition because I want to reel it back and say that we are on the same team. And I don't say that to discourage anybody. And I don't say that to say that your faith for all these years have been a waste of time. God will make sure that your faith is never a waste of time. I say that to keep us humble. We are here to encourage each other and love each other and encourage each other in our journeys of faith, okay?

The other POV I want to bring to light from this is that let's say that you have been a Christian all your life and you dedicated your life to Jesus at the age of 11 and then you see a newly Christian who has just dedicated their life to God and they're getting all these blessings in their life and

Maybe you're in a season right now of questions and you don't understand why God is putting you through what you're going through. And you don't understand why he's not air quote, answering your prayers right now. And you start to feel a little resentful or jealous of that person. And you go to God, you go,

First off, God, I have been doing this thing for so long and you are not answering my prayers. This person over here has proclaimed their faith in you and it's only been 60 days and they're getting all these blessings. What is that about? You need to remember that everybody's journey is so on purpose and God is never late.

He is always on time. His promises to others are his promises to you because the same God who is blessing them is also your God. So if you see him moving in another person's life, you need to rejoice for them and rejoice in that because their God is also your God, which means he will also perform those same miracles in your life just because he

You're not experiencing those miracles or those blessings when you believe you deserve them or need them. God believes that you deserve them. It's just a matter of his perfect timing. We think we know what we need when we need it and we think we know when we need blessings and miracles when we need them and sometimes God answers them on the spot just there and sometimes he tells us to wait. And in our waiting is when we need to stay faithful. That is when our faith is tested the most. When

When we are in our seasons of waiting, that is when our roots are going down deeper in the ground, our roots of faith in God. And there are growing pains. It is painful. He is moving a million pieces in the background that we can't even probably comprehend and definitely cannot see. And we may not even see those until years down the road and it blows our mind. And we said, how did he know? How did he know? I was sitting here thinking,

feeling so discouraged and upset by watching all of these other people get these blessings and answered prayers. And he knew that this was the perfect timing for me. No matter which side of the spectrum that you are on in your journey and in your faith with the Lord, do not compare yourself to others.

Do not compare your walk of faith to another person's. The only thing I encourage you to do, we should all do, is rejoice and celebrate in others. If God is blessing them, we are rejoicing because their God is our God. He's performing miracles in their life. He's gonna perform miracles in yours. The other thing that I want to say when I say that there is no extra credit, there is no VIP section,

in heaven for God. If we go about our lives doing all the things that we're supposed to do and we're expecting those things, our faithfulness is not coming from a place of genuineness. We are not humbling ourselves. We need to humble ourselves in front of God. We need to completely humble ourselves. To live life fully in God and in Christ means being so humble. There is no pride

We are incapable without him. And I don't say that in a way of saying that like we're worthless or we're just a bunch of frigging piles of garbage walking this earth. We don't need to be talking like that. But like we truly cannot do anything without him though.

there's us, but then there's him. I think that was probably one of the things that I didn't even realize I was struggling in with my faith was that the reason I wouldn't pray to God or I wouldn't prioritize him is because in the back of my mind, subconsciously, I think I was always telling myself, I got it. I got it. I don't need to pray to him about it. It's fine. I'll figure it out. I got it. I got it. And I almost feel like it's like,

are it's just a reflex like I don't know why we always feel as humans like we can just take on the world on our own but we literally cannot God tells us over and over again in the Bible that we are not meant to carry the burdens of the world on our shoulders that is for him to carry he was

wants to take care of us. He wants to take that burden. Doesn't that sound amazing? Wait, no. Actually, it sounds unfair. You're telling me that all we have to do is like give up our ego and just obey him and love him and rejoice in him and acknowledge him in our life and spread his love and his word? Wait a minute.

That's all we have to do for him to just take away our burdens of life? No, literally it blows my mind sometimes. So we need to humble ourselves, put our egos aside, and recognize that there is no special treatment in God's eyes. One of the things that Jesus did here on earth was he was so humble.

Everyone expected that the son of God, when he would come, would be like this guy on a big white horse and all the fancy clothing and just rich, just like diamonds and gold and just like coming in like royalty. OK, and that is not what Jesus did. And actually, with saying that, there is one more verse in Matthew. It's in Matthew 20. It's Matthew 20, 28.

And it says, Just as Jesus was a servant of God,

showed his love, his kindness, shared his word with others, was compassionate with others, we should also be the same. He's made us all the same promise and he's kind of like, don't be greedy. Like, I've given y'all the ultimate promise. So the thing that I want us to take away from this is...

Let's celebrate each other. Let's not compare our journeys to others. Do not feel guilt for however long it's taken you to find God. Just be glad that you're in his presence. And if you haven't gotten there yet, it's not too late. Let's encourage each other. Let's rejoice in each other. Let's celebrate God together.

Because we're all on the same team. I think that sometimes in Christianity that gets so twisted. People are so quick to judge others on their journeys or that was something that I was feeling when I was finally like just being vocal about my faith online. There were some Christians who were coming for me and like just critiquing me in such an unkind way. Now it is encouraged by God that we hold each other accountable but

and we kind of like keep each other in check in the sense of like being supportive friends to each other in our faith and reminding each other. But God does not want us to judge each other or be unkind to each other. Compassion, patience, kindness. That is what we are meant to put out into the world to other fellow Christians, but then everyone else. God has taught us to love everybody.

Love thy neighbor as you love thyself. God's love is so good. So let's go practice it today. I want you guys to go and show somebody just how awesome

God is. Like, go show somebody just how cool Jesus is. And when I say that, it doesn't even necessarily mean that you gotta run around and speak the gospel. Do it if that's what your heart desires and that's what you feel the Holy Spirit has put on your heart to do. Do it. But when people look at you and they go, why the heck is she glowing? Wait a minute, why is she so nice? Why is she like smiling at everybody? She's like...

really happy to be alive. What is her deal? And then your answer after you like tuck your hair behind your ear and you're like, it's called the Jesus glow y'all. But I love you guys. And I love this episode. I'm so grateful for the Holy Spirit right now. Oh my gosh, it was so good. I did pretty all right. Okay, we did good, right? I love y'all. I hope you have a blessed week and I will see you next time. Bye.

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