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An international student at the University of Minnesota has sued the Department of Homeland security. And St. Paul-based Ecolab says it's imposing a 5 percent trade surcharge on its products and services sold in the U.S. The company says it's making the move to mitigate rising raw material costs as a result of Trump administration tariffs. Those stories and more in today's evening update. Hosted by Emily Reese. Music by Gary Meister.

Storms. They come at all stages in life. Bills are stacking up, your wife is stressed, and your kids are lost in screens. Who holds it together? YOU. And St. Joseph, the Pillar of Families, shows you how. Today, we dig into his role as the rock of the Holy Family. He was the pillar of the Holy Family. Steady, faithful, and unbreakable. He wasn't just a carpenter fixing tables; he built a home where Jesus learned to pray and Mary thrived, facing chaos like Egypt's exile with a spine of steel. The Catechism (1655) calls the Holy Family the Christian model with Joseph being the cornerstone. Our world might be splashing around the boat, but you can be the anchor.Lead your family in prayer today. Start with grace before dinner or do a full rosary if you are up for it. Small, doable, foundational. Your family's not a side gig; it's your battleground for sainthood. Hit play, grab your work boots, and let's build a legacy that stands firm like Joseph's.Keywords: St. Joseph, Catholic men, Pillar of Families, Lent reflection, family, faith, strength, Manly Catholic podcast  Products/References:  Catechism: Paragraph 1655  Encyclical: Redemptoris Custos by St. Pope John Paul II  Prayer: Terror of Demons, Memorare to St. Joseph  Tradition: St. Bernardine of Siena  Social Media: Twitter, YouTube  Contact: themanlycatholic@gmail.comPowerful Quotes:  “You're not just a paycheck or a handyman... you're the foundation. You're the tone setter, the one who stands firm no matter what the world throws at you.”  “Your family is not a side gig, it is your battleground. It is your call to sainthood.”  “You were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness. And being great is hard.”Key Takeaway:Start now: lead your family in one small prayer today—grace, Angelus, anything. Be the steady pillar they can lean on, because that's where holiness begins.  Call to Action: Share with a friend, and drop us a comment on YouTube or X. Let's keep this Lenten fire going—email us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com!Send us a text Support the showPlease prayerfully consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page. to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Thank you for your prayers and support. Be sure to follow us on X for more great content. As always, please pray for us! We are men who strive daily to be holy, to become saints and we cannot do that without the help of the Holy Ghost! Subscribe to our YouTube page to see our manly and holy faces Check out our website Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com

Bible Reading: Luke 9:18-20"Ow!" yelped Avery. "Quit pinching me, Levi!" "It's St. Patrick's Day, and you're not wearing green," said Levi. "That means you get pinched!" "I am wearing green!" Avery insisted. "My shirt is green. You just can't see it because my sweater is covering it up." She turned to her mother. "Mom, why do people wear green on St. Patrick's Day?" "It's because he was from Ireland, the Emerald Isle," said Levi. "And St. Patrick found a four-leaf clover, which was green, and he drove all the snakes out of Ireland and--" "Hold on, Levi," said Mom. "Patrick actually grew up in England but was captured by Irish raiders as a teenager. He was a prisoner for several years and became a Christian during that time. When he finally escaped, he returned to England, but eventually went back to Ireland to tell people about Jesus." "But what about the stories of him finding four-leaf clovers and driving snakes out of Ireland?" asked Levi."Those are fables, though I've read that he used a three-leaf clover to help people understand the Trinity," said Mom. "Just because you hear people say things doesn't mean they're true. The truth often gets covered up by what people want to believe.""Like how Avery's sweater is hiding her green shirt?" asked Levi.Mom nodded. "It's not just St. Patrick's story that people get wrong. A lot of people believe wrong things about Jesus too. They think He was just a good man who was killed for standing up for what He believed, but that's not true at all. He was and is God, and He died to take the punishment for our sins and then rose again to give us eternal life. That's what the Bible tells us, and it's the truth." "And that's what Patrick went to tell the people in Ireland, right?" asked Levi. "Yes," said Mom. "He didn't go back to the land where he was held captive to tell people about a good man. He went back to tell them about the loving God who became human and died so they could be forgiven--and who helped Patrick forgive those who wronged him so they could know the truth. That's the true story of St. Patrick's day." –Jennifer Quakenbush How About You?What have you heard people say about Jesus? That He was just a good man? Or that He is God's Son who died on the cross for your sins? The Bible tells the true story. Jesus is God, and He loves you so much that He died and rose again to take away your sin and give you eternal life--and that's the truth! (To learn more, click the "Good News!" button in the right column of this page or go to www.keysforkids.org/goodnews.)Today's Key Verse:Here is a true statement that should be accepted without question: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them. (ERV) (1 Timothy 1:15 )Today's Key Thought:Jesus died for you

2025 Feb 16 SUN: SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 17: 5-8/ Ps 1: 1-2. 3. 4. 6 (40: 5a)/ 1 Cor 15: 12. 16-20/ Lk 6: 17. 20-26 We know that in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount gives us eight or maybe nine depending on how you count them, eight or nine beatitudes. They are promises that people are going to be happy in unexpected ways. We remember the first one, "Blest are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God."  Well, we turn to Luke's Gospel and this is called the Sermon on the Plain. It says there that they're on a level stretch of ground. And it's interesting that Luke has Jesus proclaiming four beatitudes and four woes. And you know I've been in the habit recently of referring to people to whom I believe the woes reply -- [rather,] to whom the woes refer. But to some extent every one of us has sold out to one of these things that Jesus warns are woeful. We trust in wealth and we trust in not missing very many meals. And instead of developing a genuine sorrow, we do try to treat life as a joke. And we rely on people speaking well of us. So we need to consider how we are to be among the people who enjoy the beatitudes, the people who are blessed. We have a hint from the first reading and the Psalm today. Jeremiah talks about the need for a tree or some other plant not to be just out in some salt and empty lava waste. Instead that plant must rely upon a steady source of water. And this is the same thing we just sang about in Psalm number one. We know that we cannot rely upon ourselves. We must be rooted in the God who has given us all things and who is calling us to fullness of life, to eternal life, to heavenly life. We know we can do this because, because Jesus is risen from the dead.  And we hear this truth proclaimed effectively by St. Paul. He is responding to people who they probably have gotten their Christianity mixed up with some other philosophy. And there are some who are saying there is no resurrection from the dead. And St. Paul says you have to get rid of that idea. The faith stands or falls on the fact of Jesus' resurrection, or not. We come together on the day of resurrection every Sunday to celebrate the fact that Jesus did die for us and he had to die before he could rise. He died for all of us. He is risen for all of us. We take this to heart and we are happy to reevaluate the things that bring us true happiness.

Happy Spooky Wednesday, everybody!Thank you very much to Kortenie for the listener request this week! Kala's going to tell you all about Devil's Island in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Some say that Casper Henneberry, a resident of Devils Island, saw the Devil in the form of a halibut. Yup. You read that right... Devil Fish. The next day, he was found drowned. There have also been reports of ghostly apparitions, strange fires, and other unexplained phenomena. It turns out this isn't the only location in Halifax Harbor with strange occurances. McNabs Island has a bunch of strange local legends associated with the land. And St. Paul's Church has an odd anomaly in one of its windows. Is this Canadian town cursed? Is it just so old that it can't help but have a few ghosts? Are we really buying the story about the Devil Fish? Guess you'll have to listen to find out! 

2025 Jan 19 SUN: SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Is 62: 1-5/ Ps 96: 1-2. 2-3. 7-8. 9-10 (3)/ 1 Cor 12: 4-11/ Jn 2: 1-11 We are getting started on a course we will pursue during this entire year, and that is we are getting started on Ordinary Time, which is actually a favorite time of mine because we hear the Scriptures in a continuous fashion. Now during this year of Ordinary Time, we will be reading primarily from the Gospel of Luke. But we haven't heard from Luke yet today because we have some business yet from the Christmas season. Two weeks ago we celebrated Epiphany, which means manifestation. And associated with Epiphany are three events by which Jesus manifested himself to all of the human family. First of all, the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. And then what we celebrated a week ago, Jesus' baptism by which he expressed solidarity with all human beings. And then finally, as John calls it, the first of his signs, the changing of water into wine at this wedding. So these are ways in which Jesus manifested himself to all peoples. And you hear the use of that word "sign," which is really a better word than the customary miracle that people will use to characterize certain actions of Jesus. To me, miracle sounds like a performance, but this is a sign. And it comes to us actually very quietly. It was just the servers who filled the water jars who knew about it. And the head waiter did not know. And we don't know exactly whether it is as a compliment or as a puzzle to him that there's still good wine. But this is the first of the ways in which Jesus was beginning to reveal his divine identity.  We also have, as always at this time of year, readings from St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. And this is a letter discussing many practical issues which arose in this early Christian community at Corinth, Greece. And we're reading from the last part of First Corinthians now. And St. Paul is bringing up a theme which will be developed further next week. And that is the theme of the gifts of the community. And we understand that this really is the proper way to think about the people in our life. That every one of us is a gift to the community. And we have to recognize those gifts.  Now you and I have been hearing about the possibility of a lot of deportations from our country. And yes, we can argue back and forth about what is to be done. But you and I have to recognize that our starting point is a principle of Catholic social teaching: which is that every human being has a fundamental right to migrate. It seems to me that this is not in keeping with the idea that everybody has gifts. It seems to be a process of judging that people are first of all problems. And we have to start from another point of view: that people wherever they're from or wherever they find themselves are a gift to the community. So we consider the gift of Jesus. And we do it in the context of a wedding. This is an image that we hear from the prophet Isaiah as well: that God has chosen his people and we are to discover that in our relationship with the bridegroom, our God, we discover the gifts that we are to share with one another, so as to build up the beloved community.

With days to go before president-elect Donald Trump returns to office with mass deportation plans, the Minneapolis Police Department has clarified its policy on questioning immigration status. Police Chief Brian O'Hara has said MPD has a longstanding policy of not enforcing immigration law.Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday rolled out his proposed 2025 budget. He says it would curb the growth of costs for transportation for special education and for waivers for in-home services for people with disabilities. And St. Paul on Thursday closed a homeless encampment where more than 40 people were living in tents near the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. City outreach teams and volunteers had been on site helping people move. City officials say some of the residents are moving into temporary or permanent housing. This is a MPR News morning update, hosted by Phil Picardi. Music by Gary Meister.Find these headlines and more at mprnews.org.Walz unveils slimmer Minnesota budget, pitches sales tax cutSt. Paul clears encampment near Mississippi RiverRead the latest edition of the Minnesota Today newsletter.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or RSS.

We forget how dangerous this situation was.  And St. Joseph was alone, humanly, to protect Jesus and Mary. How did he become more effective than even his great ancestor, King David?

Political control of the Minnesota House comes down to tight races in two counties. Our reporter spent the morning in Shakopee where a recount is happening and she is here with the latest on the close race in District 54A.Robbinsdale Public Schools made a twenty million dollar mistake in their budget. We hear about the fallout and plans for budget cuts.And St. Paul Public Schools is changing the way they teach reading — and they made a documentary about it. We talk to the district's literacy coordinator.Plus Minnesota United is inching closer to their first cup. They're in the semi finals this weekend against the LA Galaxy. We'll talk to a former Loons player about their journey to the top.Our Minnesota Music Minute was “Chopper” by Dessa.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says he'll sue if President-elect Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress try to circumvent Minnesota law. And St. Paul officials will erase the medical debt of 32,000 people. Those stories and more in today's evening update. Hosted by Jacob Aloi. Music by Gary Meister.

Associate Justice Theodora Gaïtas took the oath of office Monday, joining the Minnesota Supreme Court. Minnesota's highest court is now woman-led. And St. Paul police are investigating a shooting that left a man dead outside an apartment building on the city's west side overnight.  The victim was found by police on the 1200 block of University Avenue West, just north of Interstate 94.This is an MPR News morning update, hosted by Phil Picardi. Music by Gary Meister.Find these headlines and more at Mprnews.org.Associate Justice Theodora Gaïtas sworn in to Minnesota Supreme CourtRead the latest edition of the AM Update newsletter.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or RSS.

The A-Team is being assembled in Reno, Nevada. Matlock never loses, Big JC is the carnation man! I push Addy a bit too far. Mom's mad at the clouds. And St.Donna needs to stretch her dough, if ya know what I mean. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gen-x-talks1/support

Well, here we are, gathered together in one place. Someone once said that the church could be described as "Here comes everybody." Because we understand this assembly is for everyone. We think in territorial terms, and we say that the people in a particular territory who are Catholic Christians come to this particular assembly or church, because they are members of this particular parish. And we know that we are to find out who we really are when we come together for this assembly, for the Sunday Eucharist, on which we give thanks for the resurrection of Jesus on a Sunday. But there are many questions that could be raised about our coming together here. And we hear some questions in the letter of James. And it's good for us to remember that in the very early years of Christianity, people came together for the Eucharist, for the breaking of the bread, for the most part, in private homes. So we need to imagine this. And James suggests that you might pay a lot of attention to someone with gold rings and fine clothes, and give this person some kind of privilege. Whereas there might be someone that you judge to be less important. And you say, "Well, there's room to stand over here, or you can sit at my feet." And James is pointing out that this is how we carry out discrimination among people, when we are to understand that we enjoy a radical equality, because we are the children of God, we are the ones redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are equals. And we realize that as we come to this Eucharist, there is no one among us who has life figured out. And the one great riddle for all of us is our mortality, the fact that we are subject to death. And we come here because the Son of God has addressed this riddle of death, and he has done so definitively by laying down his life and then rising from the dead and bringing all of us with him into resurrection. Now we have to help one another. We think of the various liturgical ministers who volunteer to take on various roles in our celebration. We think of lecturers and servers and Eucharistic ministers. It is important for us to know that the people you see carrying out these functions are on a very short rotation. And we can easily have many, many more people assume these roles. And if we are not inclined to volunteer in this way, it is important for us to ask ourselves, "What are we afraid of?" Being seen? Well, you find out when you let yourself be seen, you can relax. Again, we are not here to impress one another or engage in some sort of one upmanship. We are all pilgrims on this great journey, and we learn to be at ease and at peace with one another.  In the Gospel, we have related social concerns. We take note of the fact that Jesus, in carrying out this healing of this man, takes him away from the crowd, gives him some privacy. And when you think about the various things that Jesus does, which seem very, very crude to us, putting his fingers into the man's ears, spitting, touching his tongue, and groaning. I think if we were receiving this service, we'd just as soon not have anyone see us. And we take special note of the groaning, because sometimes when it comes to prayer, yes, we have words for prayer. But there are times when all we can do is groan. And St. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit himself groans along with us. It's strange, of course, that although Jesus told the people to keep this quiet, they announce it to the world. Jesus' point is that he only does healings when there is an expression of faith. And people have faith in Jesus to do this. And when we have received some benefit, some great healing, it's not the first thing we do to tell everybody, we have to reflect on the meaning of this healing. And among other things, we realize that if we're given the power to speak, we don't have to speak all the time. We also must take time for listening and listening to our Lord and what he wants us to do with our various powers. So keep all this in mind as we give thanks for our various gifts. And remember that those gifts are for the sake of service.

Before the service. After attending the Divine Liturgy at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, emissaries of St. Volodymyr, the King of Kyivan-Rus' reported: “We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. One thing we understood, was that God was in our midst!”  This is the experience that is available to all of us when we come to Divine Liturgy; but as with all things, this experience will be greater the more we prepare for it and the more we understand and open ourselves up to it.  The time of preparation is over – now is the time to grow in our understanding of it and to open ourselves up to it. For the next hour or two you can relax, open yourself up, and be vulnerable; you can't really do that at school or work; you may not even be able to do it with your friends.  You certainly can't do it on social media.  But if you do it here, you open yourself up NOT to the risk of hurt or manipulation but to the love and transformational mercy of God.  The words, hymns, and actions of the Divine Liturgy are the way that God has chosen to work with us to accomplish His will that “all be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.”  Through these words, hymns, and actions, He will strengthen our hearts, heal our pain, and help us realize just how good it is to be alive. Today's Liturgy is a Teaching Liturgy; I will be taking time at various points in the service in order to explain what is going on. Right now, I encourage you to strap in and prepare yourself for the powerful way God has chosen to meet and help us, His children: the Divine Liturgy.  After the First Antiphon Right now, this may still look like a former medical center in downtown Anderson.  But it is not; it is now a place of power.  The barrier between earth and heaven has dissolved.  This is what is known in mythologies and fairy tales as a “thin place.”  But this is no mere story.  Our reality is being merged with the reality of the constant and eternal worship that surrounds God's throne.  The beauty of the icons and altar, the music, the chanting, the vestments, the incense, the cloud of confessors, and the angels who came here with us; all these are part of the majesty of heavenly worship into which we are being drawn; this experience merging with that of the tens of thousands of angels, the thousands of archangels and the cherubim and seraphim who do this at the throne of God 24/7.  We are like the Prophet Isaiah, the Prophet Daniel, the Apostle Paul, or St. John the Theologian, allowed to live through things that the eye cannot see nor the mind comprehend.  If we open our hearts to this reality, we will be transformed by this mystical journey. After the Second Antiphon.   Why do we repeat things?  Because they are important.  Because they make us part of something greater.  They pattern our souls according to the logic of love.  When we pray, we are part of something magical: God working through us and with us to transform this world.  Our every moment throughout the preceding days has been transformed by prayer; this is the continuance and crowning of that prayer. Before the EntranceThe Divine Liturgy did not always look exactly like it does now.  For one, there used to be a lot more movement.  Instead of singing the first antiphons in church, we would have sung them on the way to church.  The service would have begun as the Gospel was brought from the outside into the sanctuary.  Now the ritual of bringing the Gospel out of the altar to the people reminds us of something very important: that Christ God has come from heaven to be in our midst!  This is what we are celebrating and confirming when we kiss the Gospel and exchange the words; “Christ is in our midst – He is and shall be.”  God did not just take on flesh two thousand years ago, He lives in the Church and its voice is His voice. After the “Holy God”, Before the Epistle In conversations, especially in conversations with people wiser and more knowledgeable than us, we should spend more time listening than speaking.  Our liturgical dialogue with God is the same.  Up to this point, we have been doing most of the talking, sharing our litanies of concerns with Him and asking for His mercy.  Now it is time for us to stop talking and listen to His Word.  The Epistles and Gospel readings are like food for our hungry souls.  Before each reading, the deacon says; “Let us be attentive!”  This is not the time for us to let our minds wander or count the number of tiles in the ceiling but rather a time to ask what God is trying to say to us and think of how we can improve our lives by putting His words into practice. After the Gospel Reading For today's homily, I want to address a common question that many of us have but are afraid to ask out loud: “Why do we do this every week?”  We sometimes forget that the central action of the Divine Liturgy is a ritualized “meal”, when we all eat the “Mystical Supper” together.  Meals need to be repeated regularly.  This isn't just because our bodies need nourishment.  If this were the case we could just shove something into our mouths when our bodies started getting hungry.  That's important, but meals are more than that.  Every evening when families sit down together to eat, they are affirming some very important things.  They aren't just a collection of hungry people, satisfying their bodily needs – they are a family that gathers to share stories and remember who they are.  In fact, it is when they eat together that the family is most itself.  No matter how busy their schedules are, families have to set aside this time together to maintain their connection and shared identity.  I am convinced by observation and research that families that build their schedules around an evening meal are more resilient and that the children in such families are given a psychological boost that goes far beyond the nutrients they have been given.  It can be a real drag to eat dinner together: we all have to set down our phones and pause our video games, leave the discord servers, and stop bingeing TikTok, YouTube, and Netflix!  But the benefits are clear and this sacrifice is worth making.  Even if it is the same thing pretty much every evening. It's the same for the Divine Liturgy.  There are always other things that seem more fun to do on Sunday mornings:  video games, doom-scrolling, movies, sports, and how about just sleeping in and going to Waffle House for breakfast?  But there is no better way to build resilience and a healthy identity – I mean to know who we are at the deepest level, even below ideology and whatever other attribute the world is trying to get us to obsess over at the moment – than to set all that stuff aside for a couple of hours and enjoy the meal that the Lord has set aside for us. Just like it's okay for us to rather be doing something else at dinner time, it's okay that part of us would rather be doing something else on Sunday morning.  Part of growing up is learning to do what is good and right even when we'd rather be doing something fun and easy.  That's commitment.  And commitment is both a critical component and a consequence of love. Before the Great Entrance and the Cherubic Hymn We are about to sing about how this is the time when we need to “Set aside our earthly cares” so that we can open ourselves up to something greater.  The King of All Creation, the Ruler of the Heavenly Hosts, the One Who Is is with us now.  We all know how crazy it is to see two people out on a date spending the whole time on their phones.  But that is what we would be like if we used this time to worry about all the crazy things going on in our lives.  At least for now, we need to let them go.  Our problems will still be there when this is over … and if we do this thing well, we'll be able to meet them with newfound strength.  So let us lay aside all earthly cares as we ritualize the triumphant God in our midst. Before the Creed: The Kiss of Peace The Divine Liturgy would be a waste of time for us – an empty ritual – if we did not have love for one another and for God.  The priest reminds us of this right before we say the Creed when he says; “Let us love one another so that with one mind we may confess.”  In the early Church, this would be the point in the service when everyone would greet one another with the “kiss of peace.”  We symbolically offer this kiss of peace to one another as the priest says “Christ is in our midst” and everyone responds “He is and shall be.” After the Creed and before the Holy Anaphora Through our participation in this worship, the grace of God has allowed us to enter into a very special psychological, spiritual, and communal state. There is only love within us.  There is only love among us.  There is no remembrance of past wrongs, no prejudice, no expectations; there is only the reality of the God who lives in us and draws us as one towards His peace and perfection. This is not just some feeling that we cultivate – our salvation should never rely on something so unreliable as our feelings.  God is not with us like some kind of imaginary friend or even just as a spirit whose presence cannot be known with the senses.  He is actually with us.  We have heard His words and we have sung His praises.  Now we will do something that no mind can ever fully understand.  It is hard enough for us to accept that the uncontainable and all-powerful God became fully human to be with and save us; it is an even greater mystery to understand why and how He – the God-man – decided to continue His salvific ministry to us by giving us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink in the Eucharistic Communion.  This is how the God-man explained this to His followers back in the day; Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. (John 6: 53-55) And St. John, a witness to these events, then describes that “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” (John 6:66) Again, we cannot understand why or how the Lord has given us this method to accomplish our continuing transformation.  It alternately mystifies, frightens, and humbles us.  Without understanding, with the fear of God and with faith and love we join all of the saints from every place and age who have participated in this very same Communion – for there is only One Sacrifice.  It is a Sacrifice that exists at the center of all our time and of all our space, a singularity that draws us towards it and through it and then on into something greater. Further up and further in! During the upcoming prayers, the priest will ask for the Holy Spirit to come upon all of us and on the gifts being offered.  God reliably answers this prayer, changing the bread and wine into Christ-God's flesh and blood.  The miraculous transformation then continues as we follow His command – eating His flesh and drinking His blood.  For this is no ordinary meal but the medicine of immortality that transforms us into something better, something eternal, and something glorious. So as to preserve the dignity of the Eucharistic Meal, I will not pause the service again until the end.  Let us now enter into these, the most powerful prayers we know. Before the Dismissal This has been a miraculous time.  God has come into our midst and then into our bodies through the Holy Eucharist.  This is not just so that we can become better people, taking it “for the remission of sins” but so that we be the instruments that God uses to heal, transform, and bring joy to this fallen world.  Let me leave you with this final thought; How would you react if you found out your Army instructor was a Medal of Honor winner, your coach had won the Olympic gold, your medical school lecturer was a Nobel Prize winner, or your business school teacher was a member of the Fortune 500 who did it all from scratch?  You'd pay more attention to their words.  You'd have more respect for them and everything they said.  You would not want to miss a single lesson.  And the beauty is that you would become better by your extra attentiveness.  Christ the Great Rabbi is here.  Among us. Teaching us. Preparing us for paradise.  We become better by attending to Him and all He teaches through His Church.

Primary voting is underway in Minnesota today. Voters will determine which candidates will be on the ballot in the November general election. And St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter delivered his 2025 Budget Address today, announcing his proposed budget for next year.Those stories and more in today's evening update from MPR News. Hosted by Jacob Aloi. Music by Gary Meister.

This month's learning is sponsored by Rabbi Hayim Herring with pride and love, in honor of his spouse, Terri Krivosha, who received this year's Sidney Barrows Lifetime Commitment Award from the Mpls. And St. Paul Federations in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the Twin Cities Legal and Jewish Communities. The employer is trusted to deny a worker's claim that the worker was not yet paid, once the date for paying salary has passed. The assumption is that on the day one is supposed to be paid, the employer will remember to pay to avoid transgressing the prohibition of delaying a salary payment. Why is the worker's claim not accepted based on an assumption that the worker would not steal? The Gemara explains that the employer has two chazakas in their favor (would not transgress delaying salary payment and that the worker would demand the salary on the given day, and the worker only has one. The creditor can take a collateral if one does not pay a loan on time, however, the creditor may not enter the borrower's house to seize an item. Instead, an agent of the court collects the collateral on behalf of the creditor. Shmuel rules that an agent of the court is also not permitted to enter the borrower's house but can seize the borrower's item in the marketplace. Three sources are raised as difficulties against Shmuel's position. Eventually, they explain that whether or not the court can enter the borrower's house is a subject of a tannaitic debate. A braita rules that when taking an item for collateral, the court's agent must ensure that the borrower is left with basic needs for himself, but not for his wife and children. What are these basic needs? This is derived by a gezeira shava from laws of valuations to the Temple. Rav Nachman raises a difficulty against this from Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel's position in the Mishna that thirty days after the loan, the creditor can sell the item seized as collateral. If it can be sold, it is clear that one does not need to leave the borrower with basic needs.

This month's learning is sponsored by Rabbi Hayim Herring with pride and love, in honor of his spouse, Terri Krivosha, who received this year's Sidney Barrows Lifetime Commitment Award from the Mpls. And St. Paul Federations in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the Twin Cities Legal and Jewish Communities. The employer is trusted to deny a worker's claim that the worker was not yet paid, once the date for paying salary has passed. The assumption is that on the day one is supposed to be paid, the employer will remember to pay to avoid transgressing the prohibition of delaying a salary payment. Why is the worker's claim not accepted based on an assumption that the worker would not steal? The Gemara explains that the employer has two chazakas in their favor (would not transgress delaying salary payment and that the worker would demand the salary on the given day, and the worker only has one. The creditor can take a collateral if one does not pay a loan on time, however, the creditor may not enter the borrower's house to seize an item. Instead, an agent of the court collects the collateral on behalf of the creditor. Shmuel rules that an agent of the court is also not permitted to enter the borrower's house but can seize the borrower's item in the marketplace. Three sources are raised as difficulties against Shmuel's position. Eventually, they explain that whether or not the court can enter the borrower's house is a subject of a tannaitic debate. A braita rules that when taking an item for collateral, the court's agent must ensure that the borrower is left with basic needs for himself, but not for his wife and children. What are these basic needs? This is derived by a gezeira shava from laws of valuations to the Temple. Rav Nachman raises a difficulty against this from Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel's position in the Mishna that thirty days after the loan, the creditor can sell the item seized as collateral. If it can be sold, it is clear that one does not need to leave the borrower with basic needs.

Frank Starkey and his family are one of those rare breeds of Floridians that actually have deep roots in the Sunshine State. We talk about how they sought to owner their grand-dad's wishes as they ultimately developed the family cattle ranch in New Port Richey. A big part of their work was the Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) called Longleaf. And later, the Starkey Ranch project.Here's a funny real estate video about Longleaf: (funny to me, anyway)If you listen to Frank, you'll learn how an architect has a whole different perspective on the present and the future, and why he thinks he has a luxurious lifestyle now in downtown New Port Richey. You can see some of his current efforts at this link to his website.This is episode number 50 of The Messy City podcast - thanks so much for listening. If you're new to this, welcome! I look forward to the next 50, as we explore the issues and people who love traditional human settlements, and are trying to create them. I love talking to the do-ers, to the creators, and everyone who has skin in the game that's trying to build a more humane world.Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin's Substack page.Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you'd like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.Intro: “Why Be Friends”Outro: “Fairweather Friend”Transcript: Kevin K (00:01.18) Welcome back to the Messy City podcast. This is Kevin Klinkenberg. I'm happy today to be joined by my friend and fellow new urbanist, long time participant, Frank Starkey, joining us from Florida. Frank, how you doing today? Frank Starkey (00:20.337) Howdy, Kevin. Doing great. Happy to be with you. I've been... Kevin K (00:22.908) I didn't even check. I assume you're in Florida at home, but you could really be anywhere. Okay. Frank Starkey (00:25.617) Yeah, I am. Yeah. Yep, I'm in our we recently moved into a townhouse that Andy McCloskey, who used to work for me, built in town here and we just bought one and we're very happy here. It's really nice. Kevin K (00:40.348) Cool, cool. And you're in New Port Richey? Frank Starkey (00:45.169) Yes, Newport Richey is on the northwest side of the Tampa Bay region. It's part of the region. We're in that suburban sprawl miasma that characterizes all Florida cities. And we're about 25 miles as the crow flies from Tampa, basically from downtown Tampa, and probably 15 to 20 miles from Clearwater and 30 miles from St. Pete. So we're And we're right on the Gulf. We have a river that runs right through town that river miles from where we are out to the Gulf is maybe five river miles. So you could easily kayak and paddle board right out there or upstream pretty quickly you're into the Cypress freshwater wetlands. So we've got a lot of good nature around. Kevin K (01:39.516) Do you ever do that? Do you ever get out on a kayak or whatever and get out there on the river? Frank Starkey (01:43.089) Yeah, it's been a while. But if you go up to there's a preserve that the city owns that's up in the freshwater area. And if you're in there, you think you're in the Tarzan. A lot of the Tarzan movies and shows were filmed in Florida swamps and you feel like you're in a Tarzan movie. You can't see that you're in the middle of town. And if you go out to the coast, the barrier island and right where we are. They really start and go south from here. So from here on up through the big bend of the Panhandle in Florida, the coastline is all marshes and salt flats and grass wetlands. It's a much prettier coastline in my opinion than the more built -up barrier islands. But you can go out and kayak for days and days out in the coastal areas and see all kinds of wildlife and water life. So it's pretty cool. Kevin K (02:40.124) That's cool. That's really cool. Well, Frank and I have been talking about trying to do this for a while. We'd hoped to hook up in Cincinnati, but schedules just got in the way, as is typical for that event. But I really wanted to talk with you today, Frank, because you hit on a couple of my hot points, which is that you're an architect and a developer. Frank Starkey (02:51.313) you Kevin K (03:06.332) And I know as a designer that you also care a lot about the kind of issues that we talk about routinely within the world of new urbanism and urban design, which is, you know, creating beautiful walkable places. So I just think it'd be interesting. You know, I talked to a lot of people who come into the world of trying to be developers. You and I probably both talked to a lot of fellow architects who we try to encourage to be developers. Frank Starkey (03:06.481) Mm -hmm. Kevin K (03:33.948) And so it's fascinating to me how people come to that. So I wonder if we could start just a little bit by talking about like your path and where, you know, how you got to this point. You, did you grow up in Florida or were you in Texas? Is that right? Frank Starkey (03:51.761) Now I grew up in Florida. I went to college in Texas, but I grew up on a cattle ranch just east of here, in an area that's now called Odessa. It was a 16 ,000 acre, beef cattle ranch that our grandfather had bought in the 1930s. And we were about 20, 20 miles from downtown Tampa and Newport, Richie was our hometown because of the county we're in Pasco County. And so we came to, you know, church school. shopping was in Newport, Ritchie. But I also kind of had an orientation towards Tampa because we were sort of closer that direction. And then my extended family all lived in St. Petersburg. My parents had grown up there and then my dad grew up in Largo on a branch down there that his dad had before the one in Odessa. I... Kevin K (04:41.564) So it's like the rare species of old Florida people, right? So. Frank Starkey (04:45.361) Yeah. Yeah, but man, I have a weird, I've always come from a very mixed, I mean, just a very much kind of background, culturally, geographically, economically. My great grandparents were from, mostly from the upper Midwest. And so we kind of, and my great grandfather on my dad's side. was William Straub, who was the publisher of the St. Petersburg Times. But I later found out that he was instrumental in getting the city to hire John Nolan to do a plan for the remainder of St. Petersburg. He was instrumental in getting the city to buy up a mile of its waterfront to create a continuous waterfront park along the bay in downtown St. Petersburg, which is the crown jewel of the city in terms of civic space. So I kind of grew up and then that that kind of orientation towards parks. He also helped the County, Pinellas County establish a park system, which was one of the earliest ones in the country. And so I kind of this park orientation and public space and civic life and civic engagement was a strain through my whole childhood. You know, my whole is kind of a generational thing in our family. And so that's one thread and. Living in the country, we didn't have much in the way of neighbors. The area of Odessa in those days was pretty poor. So I rode the school bus with kids that had virtually nothing and went to school in the suburbs of Western Pasco, which was where the kids were mostly from the Midwest. Their grandparents had worked for Ford or GM or Chrysler and then they... moved to Florida and the grandkids, you know, the kids moved with them. And so those were the kids I grew up with. And so I, you know, I didn't feel like I grew up in the deep south. People, but I, but I was close enough to it that I understand it, but I don't consider myself a, you know, capital S southerner, my accent notwithstanding to the degree that a good friend of mine, Frank Starkey (07:07.793) I grew up in Plant City on the east side of Tampa, which is much more in the farming world part of Hillsborough County. And he was much more deep south than I was, even though we grew up, you know, 40 miles apart. So it's just a very different cultural setting. So I grew up with, you know, upper Midwest heritage who had been in St. Petersburg since 1899. And then, you know, poor kids, middle -class kids, and then eventually wealthier folks. So I just kind of had this really all over the place cultural background that's not nearly as simple as, I mean, all of Florida has a tapestry of, a patchwork of different kinds of cultural influences. South of I -10, north of I -10, you're in South Georgia or Alabama, but. the peninsula of Florida is very culturally mixed up. Kevin K (08:11.228) So the old canard, I guess, was that the west coast of Florida was populated by people who came from the Midwest and the east coast was from the Northeast. Does that hold true in your experience? Frank Starkey (08:22.129) Yeah, that does hold true, although there were a lot of New Yorkers in Boston, not so much New England, but still a lot of New Yorkers found their way across. So I grew up around a lot of New York Italian descent folks, as well as Midwesterners. So I, you know, it's a wonder I don't have a New York accent or a Michigan accent or a Southern accent, because those were the kind of the three, more about more, you know, Northern accents than. than Southern accents from immediately where I grew up. But yeah, I -75 goes to Detroit and that I -95 on the East Coast goes to New York. And so that means that has an impact. Kevin K (09:06.844) Did you ever know about the Kansas City connection to St. Pete then with J .C. Nichols down there in downtown St. Pete? Frank Starkey (09:17.329) And tell me about it. I mean, I, because Bruce Stevenson's book, I think touched on that because they, they had an APA convention down here back in the 1920s. Kevin K (09:20.54) Well, that's it. Kevin K (09:28.54) Yeah, J .C. Nichols who developed the Country Club Plaza here, starting really in the 19 -teens, later in his life, he was asked to, or he bought property in St. Petersburg, in or near the downtown area. And the whole concept was they were going to essentially build like another version of Country Club Plaza there in downtown St. Pete. Yeah. And so I think like a small portion of it got built down there. Frank Starkey (09:32.785) All right. Frank Starkey (09:51.665) Really? Kevin K (09:57.564) And then maybe the real estate deal fell apart or something like that. But there was, yeah, that was a big push at some point. Yeah. Yeah. Frank Starkey (10:03.633) or the Depression hit. Interesting. Now, I wasn't aware of that. I didn't know that he had bought and had plans to develop here. That's interesting. The other, St. Petersburg's, well, the Florida Land Bus was in 1926. So Florida real estate speculation really ended then, and then it didn't pick up again until after World War II. So that might have been the death of it. Kevin K (10:13.084) Yeah. Yeah. Kevin K (10:27.164) Yeah. Yeah. So you find yourself growing up on a ranch then, pretty much in Florida. What takes you to architecture? What takes you to architecture and then to Texas to go to architecture school? Frank Starkey (10:35.505) I'd have been becoming an architect. Frank Starkey (10:42.289) For whatever combination of reasons, one evening when I was in about fourth grade, I, dad recollected this years later. I asked dad at the dinner table, what do you call a person, what do you call a person who designs buildings? Not as a riddle, just, and he said, it's called an architect. And I said, well, that's what I want to be when I grow up. And I never had the sense to question that decision again. So. Kevin K (11:00.54) Yeah. Kevin K (11:09.276) That's how it sounds vaguely familiar. Frank Starkey (11:11.853) you So, you know, whether it was Legos and Lincoln Logs and the Brady Bunch. And when I was a kid, we had a cabin in North Carolina that dad had the shell built by this guy who had a lumber mill up there and he would build a shell for you for $5 ,000 or something. He built that out of green poplar wood. The whole thing was immediately warped and racked and sagged and did everything that. green wood will do, and we immediately put it in a building. But dad spent all of our vacation times up there finishing out the interior of that. So I was just around that construction. And dad was also being a counter rancher, and he knew welding. And he was always tinkering. And in addition to fixing things, he was also inventing implements to use on the ranch and things like that. So he just had a hand building. ethic that, you know, he just kind of had. So whatever made me decide I wanted to design buildings, as I grew up from that point on, I just was all about it. And so by the time I got to high school, I couldn't wait to get into working for an architect. And I was an intern for an architect in Newport, Ritchie, when I was in high school. And then I went to Rice University in Houston to go to architecture school. So after I, and I did my internship here, which is part of the program at Rice for the professional degree. I did that in New York City for Pay Cop, Read and Partners. And another ironic thing was I learned, I had a really great classical architecture history professor in college at Rice who in his summers led, he and his partner who was a art history professor also, a fine arts. Frank Starkey (13:10.289) They led an archaeological excavation outside Rome of a villa from the dated that basically dated a time period of about 600 years straddling the time of Christ. And I've spent the summer after my freshman year on that dig. So I had a had a really strong exposure to classical architecture and urbanism throughout my school. And when I worked for PAY, I worked on James Freed's projects. At that time, we were working on what became the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D .C. It's the last big building in the federal triangle. And so it's a neoclassical exterior with a very modern interior. It's kind of like a spaceship wrapped inside a federal building. And the other project I worked on a little bit that year was the San Francisco Main Library, which is in the Civic Center right down in the Civic Center of Francisco with the City Hall and the old library. The new library is a mirror of it that's a neoclassical facade on, well, two wings of a neoclassical facade that face the Civic Center side. And then on the backside, which faces Market Street, there's a much more modern interpretation of that commercial core district facing along Market Street. So I worked on these buildings with Sirius that took, you know, this was at the end of the Pomo era of the 80s when everybody was making fun of classical architecture in, the architects were having fun with it or making fun of it, however you look at it. And Fried was taking it more seriously. It was still a updated take on neoclassical architecture. in some of the details, but it was really a fascinating exposure to the actual practice of designing classical buildings, working for one of the most famously modernist firms in the world. So. Kevin K (15:21.628) Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Yeah. That's pretty wild. Was rice, I mean, we're about the same age, was rice kind of like most architecture schools, generally speaking, in their emphasis on looking at modernist design as the holy grail that you must pursue? Frank Starkey (15:28.433) Mm -hmm. Frank Starkey (15:38.769) Yeah, interestingly, like my childhood and the cultural mix that I described earlier, Rice was sort of in this period at that time where it was between deans. There was a series of, it's too long a story to explain here, but the previous dean who had been there for 15 years or something, O. Jack Mitchell, announced his retirement the day I started classes. And... So he was a lame duck. And then it was, you know, we basically went through a series of searches, deans, dean passed away, interim dean search, a new dean, and then he resigned. So the whole time I was in college, we really didn't have a dean. And the faculty that Mitchell had built was very, I'd say ecumenical. They kind of, we had some diehard theoretical postmodernists and we had. At the other end of the spectrum, we had a guy who did a lot of real estate development who was super practical and we always made fun of him for caring about mundane things like budgets. And I know he was, I made him a laughing stock, which I wish I'd taken more of his classes. But anyway, and then a really good core faculty who had a real sense of, and real care about urban design and. Kevin K (16:46.428) Well, yeah, exactly. Frank Starkey (17:04.401) My sophomore class field trip was to Paris and we did studies of, you know, in groups, each of us studied at Urban Plus. So I really had a strong urban design and contextual sensibility through my architecture class, all my architecture classes. In the background, there was this whole drum beat of postmodernist, post structuralism and deconstructivism. that was going on. I never caught into that. It always just seemed like anything that requires that much intellectual gymnastics is probably just kind of b******t. And it also, I was involved with campus ministries and fellowship of Christian athletes and church. And so I had a sense of mission and doing good in the world. And it also just, it just didn't work with that either. So I didn't really go in for that stuff, but the urban design stuff really did stick with me. And then the classical architecture and Vignoli, which I mentioned to you the other day, that really did kind of stick to me as a methodology. Kevin K (18:29.436) Man, I went for it hook line and sinker, man. It was, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I thought deconstructivism was like the coolest thing at that time period. And I bought the whole program for some period of time. And frankly, until I ran across some of Andreas's writings and then started learning about seaside. And that's really what kind of broke it open for me that I started to. Frank Starkey (18:32.433) Really? Frank Starkey (18:40.465) -huh. Frank Starkey (18:52.273) Mm -hmm. Kevin K (18:58.556) see things a little bit differently and all, but I, yeah, I was, I was in deconstructivism was funny because you could just kind of do anything and you know, you could call anything a building basically. Yeah. Frank Starkey (19:07.537) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, the author is dead long live the text was the, and so you could just, yeah. And to me, it was just pulling, it was just pulling stuff out of your butt and I just. Kevin K (19:22.636) totally. Yeah. Yeah. It was all b******t, but it was, I guess, fun for a 19 or 20 year old for a little while. So, all right. So fast forward then, did you come back to Florida then pretty much right after school or? Yeah. Frank Starkey (19:25.809) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Frank Starkey (19:38.929) Yeah, I did a gap year after college and then ended up in Austin for another year and then came back to work with my brother. So by that time, we had seen, because of where the ranch is situated, it's sort of in the crosshairs of growth patterns coming from Tampa to the south and Clearwater to the southwest. and Newport -Ritchie from the west. So it was, the growth was coming from, at us from two directions. Granddad and you know, this 16 ,000 acres that's 20 miles from downtown Tampa, as you can imagine in the 20th century is going up in value pretty dramatically from 1937 to 19, you know, to the late century. And in the early seventies, he started selling and donating land to the state for preservation. Kevin K (20:24.22) Mm -hmm. Frank Starkey (20:36.177) and so we had, you know, again, that whole park ethic, and the, so we were selling, kind of selling the Northern parts that were away from the development pattern, off. And it was partly for the state tax planning purposes and also just, but primarily to put the land into conservation. So there would be something left of native Florida for people to see in future generations. That was his. His goal. My brother had my brother six years older than me and had gone to University of Florida and gotten a finance degree. And he came back after college, which was when I was like my senior year in high school and started working for the granddad was still alive and he was working for the estate, helping with that planning. And granddad passed away while I was in college and we had the estate tax to deal with. And we ended up selling some more land to the state for conservation. And he also started learning the development. process. We knew that as much land as we could sell to the state as possible, we were not going to be able to sell at all and we were going to have to develop. Somebody was going to develop land on the ranch. And our family wanted to see that it was done in a way that was, you know, that we would be proud of that, that put together our, you know, our family goals for civic engagement, environmental preservation, and, you know, and also. It was the whole family's sole asset. So it's everybody's retirement fund and principally our parents and our cousins. So we have cousins who are half generation older than us. So we were accepting that development was inevitable and wanted to be more in control of it. So Trae had been talking to me for a while about coming back and working with him on the development stuff in the ranch. So that's what I decided to do in 1995. And the decision point for me, Kevin K (22:09.468) Yeah. Frank Starkey (22:34.449) was, you know, I had set up my career trajectory to become a consulting architect and design buildings for other people. And I realized that I had this opportunity to, you know, have a bigger imprint on developing a neighborhood that could perhaps set a pattern. By that time, I had become knowledgeable about new urbanism and what was going on at Seaside. And And at that point, I think some of the other projects were starting to come out of the ground. So this was 1995. So I was like, well, I, you know, I've got too much opportunity here. And, and with what, what I know and what I have to bring to the table, it just seems like the thing I'd need to do. So I came back and we started working on development on the southwestern corner of the ranch, which was sort of the direction that was the frontline for development. So in 1997, we held our charrette for what became Longleaf, which is a 568 acre traditional neighborhood development that we broke ground on in 1999. Our first residents moved in in 2000. And that was the first TND in Pasco County. And in my opinion, it was the last TND in Pasco County. Because the county loved it so much that they... Kevin K (24:00.38) You Frank Starkey (24:04.721) passed the TND standards ordinance, which it would never comply with and that no other developers ever wanted to do. And so nobody really has. They've kind of just, it's been compromised with, right? That's a whole other story. Kevin K (24:20.14) Yeah. Well, that sounds, I mean, we may need to get into that at some point, but, so you started this in 2000 and really in earnest 2001 or so. And obviously there was a little, little bump in the economy right then, but I guess kind of more of a bump compared to what came later. So talk about like those first, maybe that first decade then, like what all did you build and how much of this were you actively involved in the design of? Frank Starkey (24:24.529) Okay. Frank Starkey (24:39.377) Yeah. Frank Starkey (24:49.425) It's fascinating looking back on it how compressed that time frame was because we sold we we developed the first of four neighborhoods In the first neighborhood we did in As I said 99 2000 and then we built the second neighborhood in 2002 2003 we sold the third and fourth neighborhoods in 2004 which You know, six years later, we look like geniuses. If we would have been, if we'd been real geniuses, we would have waited until 2006 to sell them. But we got out before the crash, obviously. So we did well there. We were, I was, you know, Trey and I, because we had a view of building a career in real estate development, we thought we should do everything. We should touch every aspect of the process ourselves at least once. So we knew how everything worked. But then we never scaled up our operation big enough to hire people to fill in those specialties for us. So we really both kind of ended up doing a whole lot of the work ourselves. So our master, our designer was Jeffrey Farrell, who did the the overall plan for Longleaf. And he wrote the design code, but we collaborated on all that very closely, because I knew enough about what urbanism was and architecture. And so I administered that design code with our builders. He detailed out the first neighborhood. He and I detailed out the second neighborhood. collaboratively or sort of a 50 -50. And you know what I mean by detailed out, just, you know, you take a schematic plan and then you have to put it into CAD and get it, get to real dimensions and deal with wetland lines and drainage and all that stuff. You get, s**t gets real about, you know, curbs and things like that. So that kind of, those details. And the third neighborhood I detailed out, but we sold it, but the developer who bought it built it out according to what I had done. So I was... Frank Starkey (27:15.281) very involved with the planning side of it. And of course I had been involved with the entitlements and then I administered the design code with all of our builders. So I was dealing with there and we had, we didn't have sophisticated builders. We didn't have custom, we weren't a custom home builder project. We were small local production builders. So these were builders who built 300 houses a year. We weren't dealing with. David weekly, you know, a national home builder who was doing nice stuff. Nor were we dealing with the 12, you know, you know, a year custom builders. So we didn't have much sophistication on the design side coming from our builders. So I did a lot of hand holding on the design of that. I always tell if you're a architect who's going to be your. Kevin K (27:46.716) Mm -hmm. Frank Starkey (28:13.169) is going to develop a T and D. I will tell you under no circumstances do what I did. Always hire somebody else to be the bad guy because as the developer you just can't look the home builder in the eye and say let this customer go. And so even though they're asking you to do something you shouldn't. So you need somebody who can be your heavy for that and it's not going to be you as the developer. But anyway, so I did that and And then I designed some of the common buildings and then had them. I wasn't licensed yet. And so I had those CDs done by somebody with a stamp. So I always said that I, you know, between the larger planning of the ranch and the strategy there, and I also got involved in community, you know, regional and county wide planning efforts and committees and things like that and planning council. So I kind of worked at the scale from the region to the doorknob. Which, you know, is fabulous as an architect because I've found all of those levels, I still do, I find all of those levels of design and planning fascinating. Kevin K (29:17.084) hehe Kevin K (29:30.78) So let's talk about the mechanics of being a land developer for a minute and how you did it. So you obviously own the land, and then you came up with the master plan. So then how many steps did you take? You took on the burden of entitling probably the whole project in phase by phase. And then were you also financing and building infrastructure as well, and then basically selling off finished land? Frank Starkey (29:36.433) Mm -hmm. Kevin K (29:59.26) finished parcels or finished lots to other developers or builders. Frank Starkey (30:04.177) Yeah, what we, so dad on the land free and clear, he contracted the land to us under a purchase and sale agreement whereby we would pay a release price when we sold a lot. So, you know, it's favorable inside family deal. We paid him a fair price, but it was a very favorable structure that allowed it, and he subordinated it to. to lending for, we had to borrow, we don't have cash as a family, we didn't, none of us have cashflow from, you know, we don't have some other operating company that spits off cashflow. So we had asset value, but no cashflow. So we had to borrow money to pay for infrastructure, I mean, for planning and entitlement costs and engineering. And so that was our first loan. And then we had, We set up a community development district, which is a special purpose taxing district that a lot of states have different versions of them in Florida. It's called a CDD. It's basically like a quasi -municipality that a developer can establish with permission from the county and state government to establish a district, which is then able to sell tax -free government -style bonds to finance infrastructure. So it's an expensive entity to create and then to maintain. But if you're financing a big enough chunk, which in those days was like $10 million, it became efficient to have the care and feeding of the district in order to get the cheaper money. So you could get cheaper bond money for financing infrastructure. You could not finance marketing or... specific lot specific things you could for example, you could finance drainage, but you couldn't finance still so some of the Terminology was a little bit You kind of had to do some creative workarounds, but basically our so but we it also meant you had to still have a source of capital for those things that the district would not finance so we had an outside Frank Starkey (32:28.497) Loan structure in addition to the CDD financing and that was how we financed the construction of the development and then sold the lots to individual home builders We had three builders under contract in our first phase and each of them was committed to a certain number of lots and they had enough capital access on their own to finance their the construction of their houses a lot of them would use their buyers financing and use do construction permanent loans to finance the vertical construction of the houses. But the builders had the ability to take down the lots. So that was the deal. I don't know if that structure is still done very much or if there were many builders in that scale that still do that in Florida or in this area. It seems like most of those builders got just crushed. in a great recession and never came back. I'm not really aware of any builders that are in that scale, in that size range anymore. I mean, if there are, there's maybe a dozen where there used to be 100. Kevin K (33:40.86) Yeah, so they either got smaller or a lot bigger basically. Frank Starkey (33:45.681) No, they mostly just flat got killed and just went out of business. And they may have resurrected themselves. Yeah, they may have resurrected a smaller or gone to work for somebody else or retired because a lot of them were older. Of the builders that we had, yeah, I think they probably did get smaller in fairness, but they were gone. And we were out of, as I said earlier, we were long out of long leaps. And the... Kevin K (33:47.836) Yeah. Frank Starkey (34:13.969) Crosland was the developer that bought the third and fourth neighborhoods and they didn't they brought in all new builders. So they brought in David weekly and inland, which was a larger regional builder. And then Morrison, I think one of the other large, larger builders who did rear loaded T and D project product. Kevin K (34:38.108) So how much heartburn was that for you and your family to go from this position where you're like asset rich but cash poor to and then all of a sudden you're taking on pretty large debt to do this development piece? I mean, what was that like? Frank Starkey (34:54.801) Well, you know, you just you don't know what you don't know when you're young and ambitious. So it was it was there. I did. There were some real Rolade's cheering moments. I think, as I recall, the most stressful times for us were before we started construction. And it was it was frankly, it was harder on Trey because he was he was starting a family at that time. So he had. He had literally more mouths to feed than I did. I was still single and so, and I didn't have the stresses on me that he did. And once we got under development, we weren't so much, you know, the stress level shifted to different, you know, kind of a different complexion. And, you know, fortunately when the recession hit, We were done with long, we didn't have, you know, we weren't sitting with longleaf hanging on us. So that was good. but we were in the midst of entitlements for the Starkey Ranch project, which was the remainder of the land that the family still had that had not been sold to the state. And we were taking that, there was about 2 ,500 acres. We were taking that through entitlements starting in 90, in 2005. And I would say that we got our, our entitlements. not our zoning, but we got our entitlements package approved, in essence, the day before the recession hit. So, so we had borrowed again, borrowed a lot of money to relatively a lot more money to pay for that. And that also involved the whole family, because that was the rest of the ranch that that the part that long leaf is on dad had owned individually, free and clear. The remainder of it. had been in granddad's estate and that went down to children and grandchildren. And so there were seven different owners of that. And we had spent some time in the early 2000s putting that together into a partnership, into one joint venture where everybody owned a pro rata share of the whole, but we had other shareholders to answer to. And so that was a whole other level of stress. Frank Starkey (37:16.913) due to the recession because our bank went, you know, did what all banks do and they called the loan even though we hadn't gone, we hadn't defaulted. We would have defaulted if they'd waited six months, but they blanked first and they sued us and we spanked them in essence, but we, at the end of the day, but it was two years of grinding through a lawsuit that was hideous and that was really the most unpleasant. Kevin K (37:29.82) Hahaha! Frank Starkey (37:46.257) level of stress, not because we were going to lose our houses, but because we were, it was just was acrimonious and not what we wanted to be doing. Plus you had the background of the whole world having ground to a halt. So fighting that out through the dark days of the recession was, that was pretty lousy way to spend a couple of years. Kevin K (38:12.284) Yeah, so then how did you all come out of that situation then? Frank Starkey (38:17.009) We ended in a settlement. The settlement, the worst part of the settlement to me was that we had to, long story, but some of the, we had retained ownership of downtown Longleaf with the commercial core, mixed use core of Longleaf. And that wasn't completed development yet. And because we had that collateralized on another loan with the same bank, we ended up having to cut that off as part of the settlement. So. we, you know, we had to, we amputated a finger, not a hand, but still it was, it was, you know, it was our pointer finger. So that was, that was hard, but, but we lived to fight another day, which again, you know, fortunately it's better to be lucky than good, right? We were, that makes us look like, you know, we did pretty well coming out of the recession. So after the recession and after getting that settled out, and there was a couple of other small pieces of land that we had, Kevin K (38:52.124) hehe Frank Starkey (39:15.121) collateralized to the bank that we handed over, but basically got them to walk away from pursuing us further. We got that worked out and then we had to then figure out how to sell the land. Our joint venture partner, which was to have been Crosland on developing the ranch, they had gone to pieces during the recession, so they weren't there anymore. And the only buyers at those coming out of that were big hedge funds and equity funds. And they were only, their only buyers were national home builders and the national home builders, even the ones like Pulte who had tiptoed into traditional neighborhood development product before the recession. They were like, nope, nope, nope, backing up, never doing that again. They're. Kevin K (40:10.46) Yeah. Yeah. Frank Starkey (40:12.593) So everything that we had about TND and our entitlements, they're like, get that s**t out of there. TND is a four letter word. We will not do that. So we kind of de -entitled a lot of our entitlements and cut it back to just a rudimentary neighborhood structure and interconnected streets and some mix of uses and negotiated to sell it to one of these hedge funds or investment funds. who developed it with a merchant developer and sold it to national home builders. And they pretty quickly undid what was left of our neighborhood structure and developed it in a pretty conventional fashion. They did a really nice job on it and it soldered a premium to everything around it. They did a really great job with their common area landscaping, but they gutted the town center. They didn't even do a good strip center in lieu of it. They just did a freestanding public and a bunch of out parcel pieces. They squandered any opportunity to create a real there out of the commercial areas. They did beautiful parks and trails and amenities centers, but they just didn't get doing a commercial town center. Kevin K (41:36.444) What years was that when they developed that piece? Frank Starkey (41:40.337) We sold it to them in 2012 and I guess they started construction in 13 or so and it was really selling out through 2020. They still got some commercial that they're building on. I don't know if they've got any residential that they're still, I mean, it's kind of, its peak was in the 17, 18, 19 range and it was one of the top projects in the country and certainly in the Bay Area. and got a lot of awards. And yeah, so I don't, I can't complain too much about it because it sounds like sour grapes, but basically they didn't, I always just tell people I'll take neither blame nor credit for what they did because it's just not at all what we, there's very little of it that is what we laid out. So because that, so we, having sold that in 2012, that left me and Trey to go do what we wanted to do. All of the, you know, the rest of the family for that matter. And, Trey was ready to hang it up on development for a while. So he kept a piece out of the blue out of the ranch and settlements and started the blueberry farm. And I went and decided to do in town, small scale development. Ultimately ended up in Newport, Ritchie back in my own hometown. And then and that's that's what I've been doing since basically since 2015. Kevin K (43:06.844) Yeah. So I'm curious about a couple of things. So with the completion of the sale of all that and the development of both Longleaf and Starkey Ranch, I guess I'm curious how your family felt about the results of all those. Were people happy, not happy with the results? Was there... I'm just kind of curious about that dynamic because it's an interesting thing with a family property. And then... I guess secondly, with you being somebody who carried more a certain set of ideals for development, what did you take away from that whole process, especially with Starkey Ranch and anything, any useful lessons for the future for others relative to an experience like that? Frank Starkey (43:38.321) Mm -hmm. Frank Starkey (43:56.209) Couple of thoughts. As far as the whole family goes, we were, well, our cousins don't live here and they were less engaged in it intellectually and just personally. The four of us kids had grown up here and this was our backyard. They had grown up in St. Pete and one of them lived in North Georgia. And so it was, they just weren't as... emotionally invested in it. Not to say they didn't care, but it just didn't, it wasn't their backyard that had been developed. And you know, and we all are proud that three quarters of the ranch of the 16 ,000 acres, over 13, almost 13 ,000 of it is in conservation land that will always be the way it was when we were kids. Except there are no fences, which is very disorienting, but anyway. It's still, you know, that's the way granddad saw it when he was young and it will always be that way. So that's, we're all excited about that. And we pay attention to that more than we do to what happened on development. I think even long leave the, what, you know, the, the people in the surrounding area think we're sellouts and, people who have lived here. for five years or 10 years or 15 years are still just shocked and dismayed by the rapid pace of development. Well, it was a rapid pace of development, but we've been seeing it coming for 130 years now as a family. And I mean, it's why we put land into conservation going back to the early 70s when granddad started selling that. What people can see is the part along State Road 54, which is the visible stuff. which 10 years ago was a lot of pastors with long views and pleasant looking cattle who were money losing proposition as a agricultural business. But people don't see that. They just thought, it's a pretty pasture land. And how can you turn that into houses? It's so, you greedy b******s. So yeah, we get a lot of flak still to this day. I mean, and I've got a. Kevin K (46:12.092) Yeah. Frank Starkey (46:17.425) Trey's wife is a county commissioner and she gets all kinds of grief for being corrupt because people see our names on everything and they're like, well, they must be corrupt. No, you've never met any less corrupt people. And so there's kind of public blowback to it. I've said what I've said, what I just told you about how the development of the ranch did not comport with what we envisioned for it. And I don't, I don't shy away from saying that. I don't go around banging a drum about it. cause what's, what's the point of that? And a lot of people might think I just sound like sour grapes, but it, you know, it's, we, I think we all had our ugly cry about the ranch at some point. I mean, I remember when we were, we, the first closings of the ranch were in 2012 and it was a phased state down, but you know, they, they take a chunk at a time. So we stayed in our office, which was the house that we had grown up in at the ranch headquarters, right where the cattle pens and the horse barn, the truck barn and the shop and all of the ranch operations were. And the day that, eventually we had to move everything out and all that, almost all of that got torn, all of it got torn down. I remember having, I went out and stood by a tree and cried my face off for a while. Kevin K (47:46.044) Yeah. Frank Starkey (47:46.673) You know, it still chokes me up to think about it. And we all did that. I mean, but it wasn't an overnight thing to us. Whereas if you lived in a subdivision in the area that, by the way, had been a cattle ranch 20 years ago, you didn't, you know, you're not building, you're not living in a land that was settled by the other colonists. It seemed shockingly fast, just like overnight. my God, all of a sudden they're, they're. They're scraping the dirt the grass off of that and you know three weeks later. There's houses going up It's just shocking and and really disorienting we'd said we had seen it coming literally our whole lives We always knew that was going to be the case. So it was there was going to be something there our Feelings about the what what what it was compared to what we would like it to have been or another You know, that's what we have to wrestle with but the fact that it's developed We always saw that coming and people don't really understand that until because you just, you know, because it just it's perceived so differently. If you just drive by and see it developed one day when it wasn't, then if you grow up with an aerial photograph on the wall of dad's office and you know, we just know that that's not always going to be that way. Kevin K (49:05.82) Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's talk for a minute about what you're doing now then with the stuff in Newport Ritchie and the smaller scale infill stuff. What was like the first one, after shifting gears and doing that, what was like the first project you took on on your own? Frank Starkey (49:25.561) Much more much more fun topic. Thank you for shifting gears. I should have let you do that sooner Kevin K (49:30.204) Yeah. Frank Starkey (49:33.617) The, so Newport Richey is a pre -war town that was laid out in 1911 by Wayne Stiles, who I'm starting to learn more about was a pretty cool town, kind of B -list town planner who worked with people like John Nolan and the Olmsted brothers and was contemporary to them. Got a very competent little city plan for a small town and it has building stock in the downtown. the main street and Grand Boulevard downtown that dates to the 1920s and to the 1950s and 60s, kind of about half and half. And so it always had these good urban bones, some decent building stock, nothing great. It was never a wealthy town, so it doesn't have big grand Victorian houses down at Boulevard or anything, but it's got some good characteristics. But it had economically just cratered, just for years and really decades of disinvestment. moving out to the suburbs. It wasn't white flight in the traditional sense, but it was economically, it was the same just reallocation of wealth from the historic city into the suburbs and leaving the city behind. So in 2015, there was a, so downtown Newport, which he has a little lake, a about a five acre really lovely little. city park, a riverfront, and the central business district is right next to it. And then there's a pink Mediterranean revival hotel building from 1926 in that park. It kind of ties it all together. It's all the same ingredients that downtown St. Petersburg has, just in miniature and in bad shape. And St. Petersburg, believe it or not, which is now the best city in Florida, was really down in heels for most of my childhood. The Vanoi Hotel, which is their big pink hotel, was a hulking, you know, it looked like something out of Detroit when I was a kid, broken out windows and chain link fence around it and weeds and looked like a haunted hotel. So the Hacienda was kind of in that shape almost. And Downtown was doing, was, you know, just kind of sitting there with some honky tonk bars and a lot of, you know, just kind of moribund. Frank Starkey (51:54.705) commercial space. The city had bought out the First Baptist Church, which overlooked that lake right downtown when the church decamped out to the suburbs like all the other capitals in town. Even God's capital moved out to the suburbs. And the city bought it and tore down the church buildings and put a for sale sign on it, put it out for RFP a couple times, got crickets in response. Because no self -respecting developer would look at downtown New Port Richey as a place to develop. And I looked at it and as Robert Davis and Andres 20 will point out, we developers and architects and urbanists, we live in the future. You know, our brains are in what can be, not what is here now. And you've heard Andres say that the present is a distortion field. So I wasn't bothered by the fact that the neighborhoods around it weren't the greatest neighborhoods. They weren't terrible. Kevin K (52:39.8) Yeah. Yeah. Frank Starkey (52:48.177) And I looked at it and said, well, this is a pretty good gas piece of property. You got through overlooking this nice lake. There's a park. There's a downtown right there. We can work with this. So I asked the city to put it out for an RFQ, which they did. And Eric Brown, your buddy and mine, and one of your former guests on the podcast recently, was the architect for the buildings. And Mike Watkins, whom you also know, was the planner. I had them come in and do a Charette to develop a design for an apartment project on that former church property. And we negotiated a deal with the city to buy that property and we were off and running. So that was the first project. Just announcing that and showing, you know, as people were, some people were rightly skeptical that it would just end up being another low income housing thing because. This is Newport Richey. It's an economic shithole. Why would anybody put anything nice here? And surely, surely, even if you think it's going to be luxury, or if you're just saying it, it's obviously just going to, there's no way it can end up being anything but low income housing. And, but a lot of other people were excited to see that somebody was putting some investment in town. And it just kind of started to change people's thinking. Then we took on a commercial building downtown that when I was a kid had been a, IGA grocery store where we did our grocery shopping and it had, fallen into, you know, another moribund state as an antique mall that just needed to be fixed up and, and refreshing them live and up or something new. So we bought that and, did a severe gut job on it. divided it up into five tenant spaces, brought in a natural grocery store that was in town, but in a much terrible location. And a new microbrewery, the first microbrewery in town, and a taco place, and a kayak paddleboard outfitter, and a CrossFit gym. Kind of a dream lineup of revitalizing. Yeah. The kayak place didn't last very long. Kevin K (55:04.636) It's like the perfect mix. Frank Starkey (55:11.665) They were pretty much pretty ahead of the market and also just work. It wasn't their core business. They just didn't really know how to do it right. And then the taco place ended up getting replaced. The CrossFit gym outgrew the box and went to a much bigger location. And then we replaced them with an axe throwing business, which is killing it. So no joke, no pun intended. And then the microbrewery is still there. natural food store is still there. And then in the paddle boarding space, we now have a makers, a craft market that is multiple vendors that are, you know, like cottage industry makers selling under one roof. And we have a new bar and hamburger place and the former chocolate place. And they're also doing really well. And so between those two projects, it really, and then, you know, it's other, businesses started opening, new businesses opened downtown that just kind of had a new approach. They weren't honky tonks, they weren't just kind of appealing to a kind of a has -been demographic. And I just started changing the attitude. And the most remarkable occurrence was at one point, and this was around 2018, I just noticed that the online chatter in the general discussion among locals about Newport Richey kind of flipped from overwhelmingly negative people just running down the town, just saying this place is terrible. You know, get out while you can. There's nothing but crack heads and, and prostitutes and you know, it's just terrible. And to, Hey, this place is pretty cool. It's getting better. There's, it's got a lot of potential. And the naysayers started getting shattered down by the people who were more optimistic and positive about the town. And it just kind of hit that Malcolm Gladwell tipping point pretty quickly. And the attitude of the town and the self -image of people in town just has been significantly different ever since then. And then that's, of course, paid dividends and more investment coming to downtown. Now you can't find a place to rent for retail downtown. Frank Starkey (57:38.641) We actually have the problem now that there's too much food and beverage and the market isn't growing enough because we've got to bring in customers from outside of the immediate area because it's just not densely populated enough town yet. But that's so that's kind of where things started in New Port Richey. Kevin K (57:56.604) That's really, that's a great story. It's kind of, it's so indicative of also like what Marty Anderson has talked about. Let's sort of like finding your farm and a place that you care about and working there and making it better. And that's really cool. When it came to all this, were you self -financing? Were you working with investors? How was that process? Frank Starkey (58:13.169) Yeah. Frank Starkey (58:22.321) On the central, which is our apartment and on the 5800 main, which is the project that had been the IGA store, I have a financial partner on that. Who's another local who had made done well for himself in banking and lived away and moved back and was wanting to invest, but also to do some invest locally in a way that helps, you know, give something back to his own town. And that was my attitude as well. So our, our. Capital has been him and me on those two projects. And then I've got two other buildings that, one other building that I have a co -owner on and then another building I own solely by myself. So I've got a total of four projects. And all of the projects that I have are within one, two, three blocks, four blocks of each other. I was, you know, you mentioned the farm. I was very intentional about farm. I said, okay, my farm is New Port Richey. My farm yard is downtown and my barn is our office, which was right in the middle of all that. And the so that's, you know, and then now Mike and I live three blocks from all of that stuff. So we have we our new townhouse is three blocks east of downtown. Since 2018, we lived in a house that was four blocks south of downtown. So all of it was walkable. And even when downtown had just a couple of restaurants that were mostly just diners, one place that was pretty decent for lunch and salads and things, and a couple of pretty mediocre to crappy bars. I have a lot of friends here now and my office is here. And I immediately realized this is the most luxurious lifestyle I have had since college because the ability to walk everywhere and just live your life on foot is luxurious. It's just delightful. And my best friend now lives well in our old house, lives a block away. And we got to be friends living in town here and living a block from each other. And we would just ride bikes. And there was a whole other crew of Kevin K (01:00:24.284) You Frank Starkey (01:00:49.041) the people we'd ride bikes up the river in the evenings and maybe stop for a beer or maybe not and just enjoy the town. He really showed me just kind of, I smacked myself in the forehead one day when he talked about how nice it is to ride up the river during the sunset. I was like, wow, you mean you can just enjoy living in these walkable places? Because I'd always spent so much time trying to build them that I didn't spend much time just... f*****g enjoyment. Kevin K (01:01:19.676) I know, I know. It's a crazy thing. It's like it shouldn't be like a rarity or anything like that. We wish it was available to everybody, but it's wild. That was the thing about living in Savannah and that was like the hard part about leaving Savannah was, I think for a lot of us who have our ideals about walkability and everything, you kind of go back and forth about, do I want to spend my time? Frank Starkey (01:01:30.257) Yeah. Frank Starkey (01:01:37.489) Yeah, I bet. Kevin K (01:01:48.38) you know, working real hard and trying to create this as much as, as I can and, and live in a certain place where I, I guess have the economic opportunity to do that. Or do you also maybe just say, yeah, at a certain point, screw it. I just want to live somewhere where I can be, you know, do the things that I talk about all the time. So. Frank Starkey (01:02:06.513) Yeah, exactly. And it is hard to live in a place that's already kicking butt and do the things to make a place kick butt. So. Kevin K (01:02:20.124) Yeah, and in so many of these places, the places that we admire, and if you didn't get in early, you can't afford it at a certain point anymore anyway. So it's kind of a crazy deal. So as an architect, then would the infill projects, I mean, I know you worked with Eric and Mike and some others, but do you do any sketching or work on any of these sort of, is it a collaborative deal or do you at this point just be like, well, Frank Starkey (01:02:28.369) Right. Kevin K (01:02:46.268) I'm going to be a good client and be kind of hands off and just help direct my architects. Frank Starkey (01:02:50.865) I try to, I'm trying very hard to just be a good client and direct my architects. I'll let you ask Eric on whether I'm a good client or not, but that's probably been the project where I have been the most, I've left the most to the architects to on the design side. On the, the one of the commercial building that I owned by myself was a, building that didn't have any windows, two stories right on one of our main streets on a corner. So two full facades with essentially no windows. And it needed new windows storefront and upstairs. So it basically just needed a whole facade because there was just a big windowless bunker. But it had existing structural columns or structural considerations for where I could put windows. And it ended up being a interesting, challenging facade composition project. Anyway, I designed that building. And also it was a double high space where the second floor was just a mezzanine. And we closed in the second floor to make it into a mixed use building. So that because it had always been a nightclub or restaurant and it was too big as being a story and a half to for that, for this market to support because the upstairs are just kind of. You know, just sucked. So I was like, this needs to just be a regular size restaurant on the ground floor and then offices above. So I did the architecture on that, including the build out for the restaurant. I had some help on that on the layout, but I did the design, interior design stuff on that. I wish I had, I love the facade design process. And that was a really fun project. And the result was, you know, it's, it's unusual because of the constraints that it had. So, but it's, I think it's a fun, it's a good result. but if I were doing more projects, I mean, I really feel like I don't do architecture every day. So I'm not, yeah, certainly I'm not going to do construction drawings because I don't have that, capability just cause I don't, I mean, I have the technical ability to do it. Frank Starkey (01:05:15.249) and I am now licensed, I could sign and seal it, but I don't want to. And I haven't signed and sealed anything yet. So my goal is to be more of a client than I am an architect. Kevin K (01:05:27.868) So in all this stuff and going back to even your initial work with Longleaf and others, you've obviously tried to create well -designed places and beautiful places. I know you said you had some thoughts kind of based on one of the other podcasts I had where we were going back and forth and talking about beauty in buildings and the value of that versus sort of utilitarian values as well. How have you tried to balance all that and really create? beauty and do you find it at conflict with also making real estate work? Frank Starkey (01:06:04.753) I don't find beauty in conflict with making real estate work at all. I think it's critical. I don't think that things have to be built expensively in order to be beautiful. And my comment to you in my email was about y 'all had had a discussion on this, your podcast before last. about and you had said you can't legislate beauty no code in the no amount of code in the world is going to result in beauty and I've always thought about that because I agree with you that codes by their nature don't result in beauty that that human love results in beauty I mean that's you know because that's a it's a it's a spiritual outcome not a I mean, it's an outcome of the spirit. I don't mean that metaphysical terms, just, but it's something that comes from a level of care that's not, that doesn't happen from just conformance. Kevin K (01:07:10.94) Yeah, it's a value you bring to a project basically. It's something you really care to do. Yeah. Frank Starkey (01:07:16.529) Yes, that said, the American Vignoli and other handbooks that were used by builders, not by architects, but by people who were just building buildings and designing them, designing and building buildings by hand in the 1800s and early 1900s. resulted in scads of what we consider beautiful buildings with a capital B because it codified, maybe not in a sense of regulation, but in a sense of aspiration and guidance. It codified a way to arrive at competence with beautiful principles underlying it. And I wonder, it's... It's a hypothesis. I've not proved it or even set out to prove it. But if you could require that people follow the American Vignole as an example, or something else like that, where the principles of proportion are codified and they're followable, then I think you probably would still have to have some coaching. But I think you would get a whole lot closer than you can in the, because it's more like a playbook than it is a rule book for producing a competent design. Competent in the classical sense. Kevin K (01:08:54.556) Yeah. Yeah. Kevin K (01:09:02.236) Yeah, I think that's fair. It's more like coaching people about people who care. If you want to do good things, here are simple rules and patterns to follow that are not going to get you the Parthenon necessarily, but they're going to get you certainly at a minimum like a B building, like a B or a B minus building if you follow these rules. And if you do them really well and execute the details well, you could end up with an A plus building. Yeah. Frank Starkey (01:09:34.641) Yeah. Yeah, and it's something that McKim, Mead, and White can follow that and come up with something spectacular. But the same underlying principles are in every garden variety inline building on a street. Because individual urban buildings and places that we love are individually not spectacular. It's the accumulation of be buildings that are singing in the same key that makes a good chorus. Not everything can be a soloist anyway. Kevin K (01:10:11.996) And certainly, a lot of the people who produced the buildings in that era that you described, late 19th, early 20th century, I mean, there were a whole lot of just illiterate immigrants to the United States, ones who were building all that. And they didn't need 200 pages of construction drawings to follow it, but they did have patterns and illustrations and guides that they could follow. Frank Starkey (01:10:25.041) Yeah. Kevin K (01:10:42.46) and just some kind of basic standards. Yeah. Frank Starkey (01:10:43.217) And also a general cultural agreement on what looks good and what doesn't. And that's what I think you can't recreate from start, I mean, from scratch, because it's got to, that culture builds up and accumulates over decades and generations of practice. Kevin K (01:11:09.148) No doubt. Have you seen with the buildings that you have done in Newport, Richey, has there been other people who've looked at what you've done and tried to essentially say, kind of continue to raise the bar with good looking buildings? Frank Starkey (01:11:24.209) Unfortunately, I can't say that has happened yet. There hasn't been that much new construction in New Port Richey. And I don't, I can't think of any off the top of my head that have been done since we built the central, for example, which is really the only new ground up build. There's another apartment project and apartments and mixed use downtown, but it was designed in 2006 and then it was stalled and it finished about the same time we did, but it has nothing. you know, didn't follow others at all. We did have a lot of people. And this is something I would recommend, which I did accidentally. I didn't put really good drawings of the buildings into the public before they were built. I made a real now here's a blunder. There's a my blunder was I allowed the elevations of the buildings. to be the first thing that got into the public view because they were required as part of the permitting process. And an elevation drawing of a building is the architectural equivalent of a mugshot. It's representative and it's accurate, but it's accurate, but it's not representative. So it doesn't show you what a person looks like. It shows you just facts about their face. And so it shows you facts about a building, but not what it's gonna look like. So people saw the elevations. of what Eric could design, which were intentionally very simple rectangular boxes with regular, very competent, beautiful classical facades, but they looked really flat, they looked really boxy, and they looked terrible. They couldn't be at elevation, there's no depth on it. So people were like, holy s**t, of course he's building, I mean, they look like barracks. And so people lost their minds. I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So we quickly put together some 3D renderings. based on a quick sketchup model, we illustrated the hell out of them with landscaping and showed what a view down the street would look like. And it was a much better view. And that's really how you perceive the buildings. And so people were like, OK, well, if it looks like that, I guess I won't oppose it so much. But they were still rightfully skeptical. And so I s

  Jean describing her book of poetry “Sandprints At Ebbtide”   I hope the readers of “Sandprints at Ebbtide” will find these poems, songs and Scripture passages a source of faith and inspiration in confronting the painful life lessons of aging, loss, perceived failures and even death, both for themselves and those they love. Faith guides us to a place of comfort and peace as we reach for meaning and consolation. These poems explore my personal life challenges in the light of God's grace and redemption. Mother Julian of Norwich summarized all this for me in her still timely quote centuries later, “All shall be well, and every manner of things shall be well.” And St. Paul reminds us that “He whose power is at work in us, is powerful enough, and more than powerful enough, to carry out His purpose beyond all our hopes and dreams.” * The poems, Redemption I and Redemption II launch us into these themes which continue to unfold throughout. It is my wish that you discover joy, meaning and purpose in each and every one of your life lessons.   Link to buy Jean's 2 books: https://tinyurl.com/56zxts7e Last Thursday, April 19th, 2024 I lost my best friend of almost half a century, Barbara Price Negro.  In the midst of my grief and pain, I wrote a poem in her memory, which I would like to share here with my FB friends.    In Memory of Barbara Somewhere on the other side of the veil Beyond that mysterious Golden Gate A party is happening, a gala celebration A time of music and dancing, and the Merriment of reunited loved ones. There is the tinkling laughter of many angels And joyous bells chiming everywhere All because someone special has arrived Even as we mourn our loss. We need to have her back But far above they are chanting her name. Our view is not the same. Dearest Barbara, now safe in the arms of God, we say As we treasure your memory A floral bouquet of love in many blooms And many ways.  We will not forget you Memories of you in ever present contemplation Your life with  a loving commemoration. By best friend of almost half a century, Jean Petersen, 'Til we meet again.   Connect with Host Terry Lohrbeer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2658545911065461/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrylohrbeer/ Instagram: kickassboomers Twitter: @kickassboomers Website: kickassboomers.com   Connect to Premiere Podcast Pros for podcast editing: premierepodcastpros@gmail.com   LEAVE A REVIEW and join me on my journey to become and stay a Kickass Boomer! Visit http://kickassboomers.com/ to listen to the previous episodes. Also check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.   Email terry@kickassboomers.com and connect with me online and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.          SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST   RECENT EPISODES #177: Tom Paladino a Holistic Medical Expert Joins Terry Today to Explain the Benefits of Scalar Light in Enhancing our Energetic Energy. #176: How is Janine Bolon's passion project helping new and seasoned authors save seven years and $35,000?? #175: Neil Offen's book, “Building a Better Boomer”, offers laugh-out-loud advice for the generation caught between ChatGPT and Betamax VHS.     SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST   RECENT EPISODES #177: Tom Paladino a Holistic Medical Expert Joins Terry Today to Explain the Benefits of Scalar Light in Enhancing our Energetic Energy. #176: How is Janine Bolon's passion project helping new and seasoned authors save seven years and $35,000?? #175: Neil Offen's book, “Building a Better Boomer”, offers laugh-out-loud advice for the generation caught between ChatGPT and Betamax VHS.  

  Jean describing her book of poetry “Sandprints At Ebbtide”   I hope the readers of “Sandprints at Ebbtide” will find these poems, songs and Scripture passages a source of faith and inspiration in confronting the painful life lessons of aging, loss, perceived failures and even death, both for themselves and those they love. Faith guides us to a place of comfort and peace as we reach for meaning and consolation. These poems explore my personal life challenges in the light of God's grace and redemption. Mother Julian of Norwich summarized all this for me in her still timely quote centuries later, “All shall be well, and every manner of things shall be well.” And St. Paul reminds us that “He whose power is at work in us, is powerful enough, and more than powerful enough, to carry out His purpose beyond all our hopes and dreams.” * The poems, Redemption I and Redemption II launch us into these themes which continue to unfold throughout. It is my wish that you discover joy, meaning and purpose in each and every one of your life lessons.   Link to buy Jean's 2 books: https://tinyurl.com/56zxts7e Last Thursday, April 19th, 2024 I lost my best friend of almost half a century, Barbara Price Negro.  In the midst of my grief and pain, I wrote a poem in her memory, which I would like to share here with my FB friends.    In Memory of Barbara Somewhere on the other side of the veil Beyond that mysterious Golden Gate A party is happening, a gala celebration A time of music and dancing, and the Merriment of reunited loved ones. There is the tinkling laughter of many angels And joyous bells chiming everywhere All because someone special has arrived Even as we mourn our loss. We need to have her back But far above they are chanting her name. Our view is not the same. Dearest Barbara, now safe in the arms of God, we say As we treasure your memory A floral bouquet of love in many blooms And many ways.  We will not forget you Memories of you in ever present contemplation Your life with  a loving commemoration. By best friend of almost half a century, Jean Petersen, 'Til we meet again.   Connect with Host Terry Lohrbeer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2658545911065461/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrylohrbeer/ Instagram: kickassboomers Twitter: @kickassboomers Website: kickassboomers.com   Connect to Premiere Podcast Pros for podcast editing: premierepodcastpros@gmail.com   LEAVE A REVIEW and join me on my journey to become and stay a Kickass Boomer! Visit http://kickassboomers.com/ to listen to the previous episodes. Also check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.   Email terry@kickassboomers.com and connect with me online and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.          SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST   RECENT EPISODES #177: Tom Paladino a Holistic Medical Expert Joins Terry Today to Explain the Benefits of Scalar Light in Enhancing our Energetic Energy. #176: How is Janine Bolon's passion project helping new and seasoned authors save seven years and $35,000?? #175: Neil Offen's book, “Building a Better Boomer”, offers laugh-out-loud advice for the generation caught between ChatGPT and Betamax VHS.     SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST   RECENT EPISODES #177: Tom Paladino a Holistic Medical Expert Joins Terry Today to Explain the Benefits of Scalar Light in Enhancing our Energetic Energy. #176: How is Janine Bolon's passion project helping new and seasoned authors save seven years and $35,000?? #175: Neil Offen's book, “Building a Better Boomer”, offers laugh-out-loud advice for the generation caught between ChatGPT and Betamax VHS.  

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The SEC charges a second BP employee with insider trading. Former Outfox Hospitality workers demand severance pay. And St. Louis-based grocer Schnuck Markets is receives accolades for it's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

The United States is warning the rest of the world that the US is the canary in the coalmine when it comes to the global opioid crisis. Our presenter Will Bain will be hearing what the US plans on doing.We look at the challenges of exporting through the Red Sea during the holy month of Ramadan.And St. Patricks Day is happening this weekend but how much of a boost will it bring to the US and Irish economy?We will be joined throughout the programme by two guests on opposite side of the world: Takara Small technology journalist based in Toronto, Canada and Rachel Pupazzoni, national business reporter and presenter for ABC News in Perth, Australia.(Picture: Prescription bottle for Oxycodone tablets and pills on glass table with reflections. Credit: Getty Images)

All FOUR boys are back this week! Russell Wilson is coming to the Steelers. Pittsburgh Police will no longer respond to certain calls have only 20 police working the city between 3AM - 7AM. Mike Tyson will be fighting Jake Paul. And St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner.Some local garbage guys are going viral for being divas. People are saying John Cena had to do an embarrassment ritual after seeing his Oscar appearance. The first Saudi Arabian Robot grabs a woman's butt. Man steals 300k of Copper Piping. And based on AB's tweets, he's hilarious and maybe mentally capable to come back to the Steelers. All that and more on this week's episode of Greenfield's Finest Podcast. Check out our events, social media, and more at the link below:⁠⁠ https://linktr.ee/GFP Website: https://greenfieldsfinestpodcast.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7viuBywVXF4e52CHUgk1i5 Produced by Lane Media https://www.lanemediapgh.com/

Friends of the Rosary:In his first letter to the Corinthians, which we read yesterday (1 Cor 1:22-25), St. Paul explains how Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom. “But we proclaim Christ crucified.” For the Jews, Greeks, and Gentiles, Christ did not fit their preconceived ideas of the Messiah. They all looked to philosophy or human wisdom for the solution of man's problems. Our Lord's message of faithfulness and merciful love was too radical for them. The crucified and the resurrected Jesus was a stumbling block to their foolishness, as St. Paul described. And St. Paul concluded: "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." Ave Maria!Jesus, I Trust In You! To Jesus through Mary!Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will! • ⁠March 4, 2024, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

Gio thinks today will be a huge day in NFL coaching circles. Nick Sirianni or Mike McCarthy will be out today, maybe both of them. He also thinks Bill Belichick will make a decision by tomorrow. Boomer said teams need to be built more like Green Bay and San Francisco. Nick Sirianni is meeting with ownership today, so something could definitely happen there as they completely collapsed at the end of the season and lost in the playoffs to Todd Bowles. Mike Tomlin told his players that he'll be back, but Boomer said he needs a contract extension in the offseason. Boomer is looking forward to seeing Lamar Jackson on the field this weekend. He thinks he's matured and different this season. And he's here to break up the Mahomes/Allen party. Jerry is here for his first update of the day and starts with a reporter asking Todd Bowles how he's preparing his players for the cold weather they'll face in Detroit. Kyle Shanahan talked about prepping for the Packers during the second quarter of the Packers/Cowboys game. Mike Francesa wonders if Mike Tomlin might want to take a year off and ‘decompose'. Woops. Jerry went around the NHL and NBA last night. And St. Johns got blown out by Seton Hall. Jerry has audio from a minor league hockey game and we wonder if it's fake. In the final segment of the hour, C-Mac kept using the phrase ‘in the elk of' when comparing Daniel Jones to other quarterbacks. He meant ‘ilk'. The NFL ratings are in from Wild Card Weekend and the Monday afternoon game was huge. We talked about the ratings for the Peacock game, according to Peacock of course.

Hour 1 Gio thinks today will be a huge day in NFL coaching circles. Nick Sirianni or Mike McCarthy will be out today, maybe both of them. He also thinks Bill Belichick will make a decision by tomorrow. Boomer said teams need to be built more like Green Bay and San Francisco. Nick Sirianni is meeting with ownership today, so something could definitely happen there as they completely collapsed at the end of the season and lost in the playoffs to Todd Bowles. Mike Tomlin told his players that he'll be back, but Boomer said he needs a contract extension in the offseason. Boomer is looking forward to seeing Lamar Jackson on the field this weekend. He thinks he's matured and different this season. And he's here to break up the Mahomes/Allen party. Jerry is here for his first update of the day and starts with a reporter asking Todd Bowles how he's preparing his players for the cold weather they'll face in Detroit. Kyle Shanahan talked about prepping for the Packers during the second quarter of the Packers/Cowboys game. Mike Francesa wonders if Mike Tomlin might want to take a year off and ‘decompose'. Woops. Jerry went around the NHL and NBA last night. And St. Johns got blown out by Seton Hall. Jerry has audio from a minor league hockey game and we wonder if it's fake. In the final segment of the hour, C-Mac kept using the phrase ‘in the elk of' when comparing Daniel Jones to other quarterbacks. He meant ‘ilk'. The NFL ratings are in from Wild Card Weekend and the Monday afternoon game was huge. We talked about the ratings for the Peacock game, according to Peacock of course.  Hour 2 Both Bill Belichick ad Jim Harbaugh have interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons. Gio would take Harbaugh over Belichick. Gio said Belichick has had some bad years and hired ‘two buffoons' to run his offense. Justin Herbert needs a coach like either of these guys. Gio said he wouldn't hire Belichick unless he had a QB in place already. Belichick to the Falcons feels like it would fail. Jerry does not return for an update. He has fallen ill during the show. Filling in for Jerry is Billy Giacalone. He has a hard time timing the audio and the stories. Jerry calls in from his ride home to describe his illness. Boomer gets the norovirus every year. This would be a bad time to get it as Boomer is ramping up for Super Bowl coverage. He is shooting a commercial with the caveman. In the final segment of the hour, Gio is reading a story about a mutant Covid strain that China is working on that has a 100% kill rate.  Hour 3 We talked about Jerry going home with what seems like the Norovirus. We also talked about smelling salts that Baker Mayfield uses sometimes. Gio said he used to use them to help drive home when he's sleepy. We also talked about golfers using Viagra and Cialis to help their golf game. TMZ reported that back in December, Colts owner Jim Irsay OD'd and was taken to a hospital and given a dose of Narcan. Billy Giacalone returns to do a Jerry update since he went home sick. Todd Bowles was asked how he is going to get his team ready to play in the cold weather in Detroit. Bowles tells the reporter they play in a dome there. Billy is no longer on dating apps. Gio said he was really bad at ice breakers when he was in the dating scene. In the final segment of the hour, Boomer is obsessed with pangolins in China carrying some sort of Covid disease. Boomer said it's an election year, so anything is possible. A caller said to be careful with smelling salts because it kills brain cells. He also mentions a hockey trainer named Woodcock. There are 214 Woodcocks in the NYC white pages.  Hour 4 Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports is reporting that Jim Harbaugh wants language in his contract if he stays at Michigan that makes it so they can't fire him if more NCAA sanctions come down. The Chargers have to get either Harbaugh or Bill Belichick. Gio said Coach Cowher did it wrong by retiring from coaching but living in NYC instead of a place like Miami. A caller wonders if Harbaugh will draft JJ McCarthy. Billy Giacalone is back to fill in for Jerry who went home sick. We talked about Billy's hair tattoo. It looks great, but he said it did hurt when he did it. The Moment of The Day involves Mike Tomlin, Mike Francesa and ‘decomposing' coaches. In the final segment of the show, Boomer thinks Gio has some scuttlebutt but won't say anything yet. We also talked about bad last names to have, including ‘Grewcock' and ‘Growcock'. Why wouldn't those families change their names? Gio went to school with a ‘Champagne Smith'. That's a cool name.

Hour 3: Jason and Laura talked about the worst job listing ever. Then on the DeRush-Hour: will Mauer make the Hall? And St. Paul Fire Chief Butch Inks joined him to talk about some real heroes.

On today's Midday Report with host Terry Haines: Only two companies bid in the state's first royalty-free Cook Inlet natural gas lease sale. It was a very tuba Christmas at the Anchorage Performing Arts Center. And St. Paul plans to revitalize reindeer meat processing in the Pribilofs. Photo: Neal Haglund, a retired school band teacher, has conducted TubaChristmas for most of its 28 years in Anchorage. (Rhonda McBride/KNBA)

Hour 1: Jason talked about company holiday parties - are they really back? And St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter joined the show to talk about his budget being passed and some provisions he's excited about

Plus: A MNF encounter to forget between the Vikes and Bears. And St. Louis goes all in on experience to end some pitching woes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Protesters on Monday morning blocked two entrances into the parking lot of a St. Paul office complex that houses Forward Edge ASIC, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin. And St. Cloud State University receives conditional approval to launch some online undergraduate programs.Those stories and more in today's evening update from MPR News. Hosted by Jacob Aloi. Music by Gary Meister.

The Minnesota Hospital Association says many of the state's health systems are losing money at a growing clip. And St. Paul's history-making city council made of all women — and many of diverse backgrounds — is official.This is an MPR News morning update, hosted by Phil Picardi. Music by Gary Meister.

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston ordonate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you did not leave us in our darkness and rebellion, but because of your great love, your lavish love, the word tells us you sent your beloved Son, your one and only, the holy one of God, the Holy Lamb of God. Jesus, we thank you that you came to establish your kingdom and it's a kingdom that's ruled by your holy word from the inside out. You came preaching the word, and by doing so, you went to battle with Satan and the demonic, battling his lies and battling the confusion that comes with that. Jesus, we thank you that you taught God's word, God's pure, unadulterated, full throttle word. We pray that you make us a people, a church that loves your word, that searches out your word to find eternal life. And we thank you, Jesus, that you fulfilled all the Commandments of God. You fulfilled the will of God perfectly. And then we thank you that you offered yourself as a sacrifice on the cross. And Lord, on the cross, you cried out, "It is finished," because you came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And you did that in a perfect life and full of obedience and love. And we thank you Lord that you triumph over Satan's sin and death by your resurrection. And we thank you that through your ascension, you now have taken a seat at the right hand of God, the Father. You went to the cross for the joy that was set before you, the joy of saving souls, redeeming humanity, and for the crown that you were given, a crown to reign and rule over us. We thank you, Jesus, that you're sitting at the right hand of God and you're waiting until all of your enemies have made a footstool for your feet. And you call us into this battle to know your word and to fight the powers of the demonic by the power of your Holy name. Lord, I pray if there's anyone here today who's caught in the nets of sins and the net of the demonic, I pray to release them today. Release them by proclaiming the truth to their hearts and minds, and when they know the truth, the truth will set them free. Lord, make us a people who want to not just learn about you, not just learn about your teachings, but to learn and then to follow you on a daily basis empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, which is given to each one of us when we repent and believe. Lord, bless our time in the Holy Scriptures. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark. We've called the series Kingdom Come: The Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom. The title of the sermon today is the The King Came to Preach. What Mark is doing is he's revealing that Jesus is King. He's the King over everything because he's God incarnate, come to vanquish Satan's sin and death and to reclaim all that is his. One of the effects of the fall when Adam and Eve were created by God, they were placed in the Eden. Everything was beautiful and perfect, and they lived in perfect harmony with nature, with God, and with one another. They believed the lies of the enemy, and by doing so they rejected the word of God. Therefore, they lost dominion of this earth. Satan usurped dominion through his lies. When Jesus comes, he comes to dethroned Satan, and it's fascinating how Jesus comes to establish his kingdom. One would expect that he comes with a host of armies forcing people into submission. He could have done that, but he chooses to come and wage war a different way. Yes, he does fight Satan's temptations. Yes, he does cast out demons, but the focus of Jesus' earthly ministry was countering the lies of Satan, which veiled the minds of human beings. Jesus came to wage a spiritual war, which in many ways was an ideological war. It's a war for truth. It's a war for the truth of who is God? What does he want from us? What are his commands and how are we to follow him? What you believe to be true about God is the battleground. St. Paul comments on this in 2 Corinthians 4:3. "Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world," that's Satan, "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord with ourselves as your servants, for Jesus' sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." So it's a battle for truth and thus the phrase "blinded the minds" but it's not just a battle for truth. Satan knows the truth about God much better than any one of us knows. But Satan hates God. He hates the idea of God reigning over him. He knows he believes the truth, but that's not enough for us. As James says, "You believe that God is one. You do well." Even the demons believe and shudder. So it's not just a battle for the minds, it's a battle for the heart. We need God to speak to our hearts, to quicken them, to energize them, to regenerate them, cleanse them, illuminate them. This is why Jesus' kingdom is not an outside in kingdom. Every other kingdom is like that. Every other religion is like that. Here's the path. Here's the externalities that you do in order to be part of the religion of the kingdom, et cetera. No, Jesus' kingdom's inside out. He comes, he regenerates our hearts, he illuminates our minds and now we belong to Him. We are now his. Our life is now his double fold. It's his because he created us and it's his because he recreated us in ransom dust with his blood. Let's look at the text today. Today it's Mark 1:16-39. "Passing alongside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen." And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I'll make you become fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother who were in boat in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. And they went into Capernaum. And immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching and they were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God." But Jesus rebuked him saying, "Be silent and come out of him." And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him, and they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, "What is this, a new teaching with authority?" He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. At once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. Immediately, he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew and James and John with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her and he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and the fever left her and she began to serve them. That evening at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons and the whole city was gathered together at the door and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons, and he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place. There he prayed and Simon and those who were with him searched for him and they found him and said to him, "Everyone is looking for you." And he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also. For that is why I came out." And he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, King Jesus commands, "Follow me." Second King Jesus exercises lies and demons. And third King Jesus came to preach truth and grace. First King Jesus commands, "Follow me." In verse 16, it starts with the word passing. He's passing alongside, but it's not just a word of him walking by. It's an allusion to the Old Testament and the Old Testament, Elijah passes by Elijah before commissioning him. In the preceding passage, God, before he commissions Elijah, he passes by. And if you recall the theophany to Moses, this is when God appeared to Moses. It was the same idea that God passed by in order to share his presence and then also to commission. As he passes by, he saw these two young men. The verb for saw is a possessive gaze. That means Jesus Christ sees them and he sees that they are his, and what's fascinating is he doesn't see the externalities. He doesn't judge his people, judge people by the outside. God judges by what's in the heart. He doesn't see their entrepreneurial spirit. He doesn't see their hardworking ethic. It's not those things that drew him to them. No, it was his choice. It was his initiative. And salvation is always the initiative of God first. He pursues, he comes to us, he seeks us out. He subdues our hearts. He calls us to himself. If you remember John 15, Jesus said, "You did not choose me. I chose you. Why? And I appointed that you should bear much fruit." And this is what he's telling these young men. He says, "Follow me and you'll become fishers of men. Follow me, and I have a vision for your life. I have a vision for the best version of you, the best version of your life." And the best version of your life is to follow Jesus as closely as possible. How do you get as close as possible to Jesus? You do what Jesus does. You go where Jesus goes. Jesus is saying, "I'm in the business of fishing for people, fishing for men." What he's saying, it's an allusion to the Old Testament. Anytime the phrase or the metaphor "fishing for people" is used, it's a metaphor for warfare. So Jesus comes as a king, as the commander in chief of the world, so to speak, and he's saying, "I'm the king. Come bend the knee to me. Begin to live under my lordship and reign and I'll be your perfect redeemer, and I will take you where I go and I will make you do what I do, which is saving people." A lot of people think that if I'm not a follower of Jesus Christ and I'm free from Christ, I'm free from God, I'm free from the commandments. And that's the lie of the evil one. That was the lie from the very beginning. Satan told Adam and Eve, "Don't listen to God. You don't have to obey him. Have freedom. You'll be like gods if you obey me. But if you stop obeying God immediately, you are in submission to the enemy." Those are the only choices and therefore you're caught in lies and you're caught in sins and you are not free. And Jesus here, he says, "I'll make you fishers of men." It's warfare language. I am recruiting you as soldiers. So when he says, "Follow me," he's drafting them into the holy army for hearts and souls. What's fascinating is that the word follow me, this is a command. He shows up to them, he says, "This is what you're doing." They drop their nets, they follow him. You mustn't forget that when God speaks, he speaks with authority because he is God. Every evening, we have devotions with our daughters. We have four daughters, and recently we've been going through this little book of devotions where they make the Bible digestible. Sometimes a little too digestible. So I'm reading a story about Jericho where the people of God were told by God to walk around the city for six days and it doesn't make sense to them, but they do what God says. On the seventh day, the walls crumble, et cetera. And the punchline for the story was sometimes when God asks you to do something, it doesn't make sense on the front end, but then after you do what he asks you to do, then you see the point. And I was like, "What?" As I read it, I'm like, "Whoa, hold on, hold on. God never asks us to do anything." When God speaks, he speaks with authority and he commands and that's what we see here. This isn't an invitation. This is a draft notice. You are mine and you are going to do what I said. And obviously that's the best thing for us. We see the brothers are named Simon and Andrew. Simon is the first one. Simon is Simon Peter. Later on in this book, Jesus changes his name in chapter three. He said, "You were given the name. Your birth name is Simon, but since you followed me, now you are mine. I'm going to give you a new identity. I'm going to give you a new vision and a purpose for life and a new name, the name of Peter, which means rock." And he's called Peter the rest of the gospel from chapter three on until chapter four. In chapter four, he reverts back to his old ways in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus said, "Peter, I need you to stay up. I need you to pray for me. I'm about to enter the biggest battle of my life, of my existence." This was on the cross as he battles Satan's sin and death and absorbs the wrath of God. And Peter fell asleep. So Jesus comes to him, says, "Simon, Simon, could you not even stay awake for an hour?" And it shows us that there is a tendency even after we come to Jesus Christ, even after we have been redeemed to revert back to our old ways, Peter is given the pride of place here in this list. In this chapter, four men are called. Peter is first and he's also always first in the list of the 12. He was the first disciple chosen by Jesus, and therefore he was the first disciple to whom the resurrected Christ appeared. We see this in 1 Corinthians 15. Now, I would remind you, brothers of the gospel, I preach to you which you received and which you stand by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain, for I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins. And according with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas. That's Peter. Then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep. And Jesus tells them, "Follow me." In rabbinic literature, the pupil or the disciple goes after the rabbi, but the Rabbi never says, "Follow me." The Rabbi would always say, "Follow my teachings, follow the teachings or the school of thought that I prescribe to." Jesus doesn't say that. Jesus says, "Follow me." Not just my teaching, but my teaching lived out. And this is important because a lot of people when they come to faith, they start studying scripture, start studying theology, and they're so engrossed by it and you should be because it's fascinating. It's mind boggling. It's mind blowing. It's incredible. Study the scriptures, but also understand that the God that wrote the scriptures is also the God who's always with us. When you close the book, you're still called to follow Jesus Christ. And this is what Jesus told the disciples. He said, "It's better that I leave. It's better for you that I leave because when I'm here, I am physically in your presence. But when I'm physically not in your presence, I'm not in your presence. It's better that I leave because when I leave, I will send the Holy Spirit." And the Holy Spirit allows us to always be in the presence of God, to always walk with God, to always speak with God. When we're reading the scriptures, you have access to the author of the scriptures as you believe and obey. So immediately they left their nets and they followed him. And we see the power of Jesus' word, "Follow me." And all of a sudden, all of the human reticence and reluctance has been washed away instantly as God has arrived on the scene. He speaks, they obey, they get in line, they follow him. It's commanded. Delayed obedience is disobedience. I know when God is moving in our church, and I know he's moving in this season in particular way because people come to me, people I've never met, and they say, "Look, I've never met you, but for some reason something is compelling me to come here. I don't know what it is. I have no Christian background, but I'm being drawn." I say, "I know exactly what that is. That's God drawing you and wooing you in. That's the authority of his Holy Spirit saying that you belong to him." He continues in Mark 1:19 going on a little farther. He saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. Again, he saw. That's the seizure with his gaze. He sees because they are his. Zebedee here is mentioned to distinguish James and John from the other James and John in scripture. James the Lord's brother and John the Baptist. Peter with these two form the inner circle of Jesus Christ, and later they become the three pillars of the Jerusalem church. They were in the boat mending their nets. They're working. This was a small business and they had hired servants. In verse 20, it says, "Immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat and the hired servants and followed him." So they're living a nice middle class life. They have some employees and a business. They're doing fine. Then Jesus shows up and messes up their plans for their own life. And what we see is instantaneous obedience. He speaks. There's urgency. They immediately leave everything. There's an escalation from Simon and Andrew's calling because James and John don't just abandon their property as Peter and Andrew do, but they do leave their father behind. This shows us that Christ the king deserves commands, expects our uncompromising dedication. And no, we're not all called to be vocational Christians where we do this for full-time job, but we are all called to be full-time Christians, full-time followers of Jesus Christ. The point here is that nothing must stand in the way of our wholehearted devotion to Christ. Not finances, not family, not partnerships, not even parents. So Jesus Christ takes precedence. His authority is greater than even our parents. He must be first of everything in life. Mark 8:34, Christ says this explicitly in calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For what is a prophet, a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul, for what can a man give in return for his soul?" So friend, today, are you following Jesus Christ? This is what it means to be a Christian. Are you following Jesus Christ wholeheartedly with wholehearted devotion? Or is there something in the way? Or is there something pulling you back from following him? Is he commanding you some specific mission that you just keep putting off, keep putting off? When Jesus commands, we are to say, "Yes, sir." So here we see the first batch of recruits and they're given a taste of battle as Jesus Christ goes to battle. In the previous sermon, we saw Jesus went into the wilderness to fight Satan. Satan tempted Christ. Jesus did battle with Satan against his temptations with the word of God as he memorized Deuteronomy. Every response was from the Book of Deuteronomy. And here we see Jesus go into the battle of a synagogue. He goes into a synagogue where the people of God met on a weekly basis and he begins to preach the word of God. And you say, "What was the substance of his teaching?" I think the substance of his teaching, wherever he went into the synagogues, the Sermon on the Mount. If you read the Sermon on the Mount, what Jesus is doing there is he's saying, "I'm establishing a brand new kingdom." But it's not different than the kingdom of the Old Testament. The kingdom of the Old Testament, God gives the 10 Commandments. These are the moral laws by which we are to live in the kingdom of God and establish the kingdom of God. And then Jesus said, "I didn't come to abolish law but to fulfill it." And then every single one of the commandments he goes through and he says, "You have heard it was said. But I say unto you, you have heard that it was said. The externals are enough." And Jesus said, "No, they're not enough. You have to obey out of heartful of love toward God, and you have to obey from the heart." So here Jesus goes into a synagogue. This is 0.2. King Jesus exercises lies and demons and we see the opening battle. He and the four disciples walk into the synagogue, verse 21, and they went to Capernaum. And immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. A Capernaum small village at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. Even today there's a magnificent restored synagogue there on that site from about the fourth or fifth century. They say it's built on the remains of the first century synagogue, presumably the one from the story. He goes there on the Sabbath, on the Lord's day, he'sfulfilling the commandments by worshiping God on the Sabbath. It was aSaturday. We gather as the people of God on a Sunday because Christ rose fromthe dead on a Sunday.and he goes into a synagogue. Whenever I come across Jesusin the synagogue, I'm like, "We are very biblical." We are sobiblical as we are in a synagogue on the Lord's day. What the word synagoguejust means, it's a place of gathering for the saints of God, of Jewish peoplewho gathered for worship, scriptural study. The word for church, ecclesia, hasthe same idea. It's the gathering of the saints of those who are called out byGod. And the Lord tells us, "Do not forsake the gathering of thesaints." And this is why we gather. What does he do? He teaches. What does he do? He probably teaches from the word of God and he teaches the word in a way that the people have never heard. This is verse 22, and they were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. So Jesus as the word of God, as the Son of God, opens up the word of God and he teaches with the authority of God. He doesn't just say, "Some people said this about the ..." This is the word of the Lord, thus sayeth the Lord and the divine king is preaching and applying the word. It's fascinating that people have never heard sermons like this. They gather in the synagogue as the people of God and the scribes would get up. There's a difference in the content and the authority. And you say, "What were the scribes doing?" What the scribes were doing was they were teaching what the other scribes before them taught them. What happened through the years was people stopped preaching the word of God because the word of God is inherently offensive to sinners. It's inherently offensive to those who rebel against God. So they started placating the word, making it more palatable, softening it a little bit. What happened was they started teaching manmade rules instead of the law of God. And Jesus calls them out on this. He says, by quoting Isaiah, "These people, they honor me with their hearts, with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." They teach manmade rules as commands of God, therefore skillfully sidestepping the commandments. Jesus came in and he says, "Look, the commandments are still enforced, the 10 Commandments, and we've broken them." Every single one of us, we've broken the commandments. You can go through the 10 commandments. I'll just focus on the last one. The last one says, "Thou shall not envy. Thou should not envy anything that your neighbor has." We have all broken that commandment, especially in the day and age that we live. If you have social media, you've definitely broken that commandment. If you've driven around the house and seen some of the houses in Brookline, you've definitely broken that commandment. Inside our hearts, we've broken the 10th commandment and the word of God says that the penalty for breaking any commandment is death. Jesus comes in and he preaches the commandments and he says, "You have not kept them from the heart." So what do we need? We need someone to die instead of us, die in our place. And St. Paul talks about the law of God as a school master. It's supposed to teach us our need for grace. It's supposed to drive us to God, drive us to the cross and say, "Lord, I need grace." And this is what Jesus taught. In Mark 1:23 as soon as he's teaching the word, all of a sudden we see the Satan's not happy. Immediately, there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out. So immediately as Jesus starts proclaiming the word of God, the demon makes his appearance and he does the same thing that Satan loves to do. Jesus tells a parable, "The sower is like the preacher. The sower goes and sows the seed of God's word. There are four different soils. One of the soils, the word lands on top because of the hardness of the heart and doesn't penetrate." And then Jesus says, "Then Satan comes swooping and steals the word and the word doesn't bear any fruit." And that's what this demon is doing. It says it's an unclean spirit. It's the opposite of the Holy Spirit and the man is with an unclean spirit. It was in him. The literal interpretation was the man's personality has been usurped by the demon. The demon has swallowed up the person. This is how Satan works. If you do not belong to God, you leave yourself open to being influenced and possessed by Satan. Satan as he enters you, demons as they enter you, they want to make the absolute worst version of you. They want to oppress the personality of the person where ultimately it's just the demon. And demons do the opposite of what the Holy Spirit does. When you repent of sin and you turn to Christ, you enter the kingdom of God. You're filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants you to become the best version of yourself, the most powerful version of yourself. He says, "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men." That's the best version of you. In verse 24, the demon speaks, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God." The demon understands there's a conscious difference. There's a difference of consciousness between them and Jesus. What are they doing? What's the demon doing here? He's invoking the name of Christ. He says, "Jesus of Nazareth." In ancient magical text, the magician would invoke the name of the God or the demon and say, "I know you." So the demon here is battling Jesus. And he's saying, "I know you, therefore I have authority over you." But he understands that authority is non-existent because Jesus has come to destroy them. He says, "Have you come to destroy us?" And the demon here is speaking the first person plural on behalf of all the demons. Zechariah 13 gives us a passage that is associated with exorcism when the Messiah comes, when the King of Israel comes, Zechariah 13:1. "On that day, there will be a fountain open for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. And on that day declares the Lord of hosts. I will cut off the names of the idols from the land so that they shall be remembered no more. And also, I will remove from the land, the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness." He says, "I know who you are. You're the holy one of God. You're the one that's sent by God to silence the demons and to cast them out, to cleanse the land of the demons." In Mark 1:25, Jesus rebukes him saying, "Be silent and come out of him." By be silent, one translator says, "Be muzzled." Another says, "Shut your trap." It is rude language and he is rude to the demons because the demons have ruined absolutely everything. So we see Jesus' authority. He stands over the demons. Yes, they have a power, but his power is greater. In verse 26, "And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him." Convulsing him, the verb literally means to tear and rend. It's used especially of the action of dogs or carnivorous animals. And this is his last gasp. This is his last attempt to destroy his host. The demon submits, but he doesn't do it quietly, he does leave and he does depart. And Jesus miraculously saves this person from demonic influence. Are the demons alive today? Yes, they are. Are they operating today? Yes, they are. And we live in a day and age where they're becoming more and more explicit about it in music and Hollywood, et cetera. And there is a power. There is a power in the demonic. There is a power in the satanic. Satan does offer people things. "Follow me and I will give you..." This is the same temptation that he attempted Jesus with. "Submit to me, worship me and I will give you reign and rule over these cities." And this is happening and people are vocal about it. There's videos. I was watching a video of Bob Dylan when he was talking about when he was young, and he said, "I made a deal with Satan and he's the commander in chief of the world." And he said, "As soon as I did that, I would sit down and beautiful lyrics just started pouring out, but I can't do it anymore." It's true. People give room to Satan. Satan does possess. Satan does operate. And therefore, this is one of the commands of God is to repent of sin and turn to Christ. Leave that kingdom, leave Satan's power, accept a greater power. As soon as you repent and believe, God gives you the power of the Holy Spirit. Satan can no longer possess you, and God continues to use you and he continues to sanctify us. But demons do oppress. Even believers, they do attack, they do attempt to bring affliction. And we live in the city where demons are at work. Whenever I leave the city and I come back, I feel the oppression. I've even gotten to the point where I don't even want to leave the city because I don't even want to know that there's more tranquil places in the world. I just want to stay here, I'm rooted here, and battle Satan with prayers and the word of God. But we must know that the one who is in us is stronger than the one in the world. So if you are oppressed by a demonic, if demons do tempt, et cetera, et cetera, rebuke them. Rebuke them in the name of Jesus Christ. Say it out loud. "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ, by the blood of Jesus Christ. I rebuke you." And they flee at his name. Mark 1:27, they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, "What is this, a new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him." And there is an ironic contrast in this text. They understand his authority. They understand that teaching is different. They understand that he rebukes even demons. And how many of them say, "Can I follow you? We want to follow you. We want to submit to you." No, it's just Jesus and the four disciples. So what's ironic here is the demons know the identity of Jesus better than these people. The demons obey Jesus, and these people do not. The question before us is, do we obey? Do we obey the king of kings? When he speaks, when his word is absolutely clear, when his will is absolutely clear, do we obey Jesus Christ? Matthew 25:41, "Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Hell was prepared for Satan and demons, and Jesus came to save people from this place of torture, of eternal damnation. We do it by repenting of sin, turning to him and entering his kingdom. In verse 28, once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee, his fame spreads and people are beginning to realize the Messiah is here. The question is, will they obey? Point three is King Jesus came to preach truth and grace. Verse 29, "And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her." A few yards away from the site in Capernaum where they built a synagogue in the fifth century, there was a group of small one room houses over one of which is built an octagonal church in the fifth century, presumably because they thought that this was the place where Peter lived and it was the base camp for Jesus Christ and his ministry. I do want to point out that Peter had a house, and when Jesus Christ called Peter and said, "Follow me," one of the things that Jesus is doing is he's saying, "I have your heart. I have your time. I have your life." And everything that belongs to you now belongs to me. Jesus Christ here commandeers the house of Peter and Andrew. Later on, he commandeers their boat and he preaches off their boat. This is how King Jesus works. When your sins are forgiven, you enter the kingdom of God, you and everything you have, your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength, all of your talents, all of your opportunities, all the stuff you have is now in service to King Jesus. And here I do also want to point out that Peter was married. Simon's mother-in-law lay ill. He had a wife. So 1 Corinthians 9:5, Paul comments on this, "Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles?" And the brothers of the Lord and Cephas. I say that because Peter is considered the first Pope. A Catholic church considers Peter as the first pope and the first pope was married. This is important. That should have set the example for the rest of the church. So many implications there. Mark 1:31. "And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and the fever left her and she began to serve him." I love the tenderness of Christ's compassion. He sees Peter's mother-in-law sick. He takes her by the hand and he heals her, which is an incredible image of God. This is how God tenderly ministers to us in particular moments of darkness or pain or suffering. Isaiah 41:13, "For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand. It is I who say to you, fear not. I am the one who helps you." And he lifts her up. The word for lift her up is he raised her. It's the same verb that's used in his resurrection of the dead girl. And the fever leaves her immediately. As soon as she gets up, this is fascinating, she begins to serve them. They had just been in synagogue all morning and doing battle against lies and against demons. Something about the Sabbath when you come home, that lunch after Sabbath, you know what I'm saying? It's more delicious than any other lunch. And then the nap that comes after. It's just a glorious blessed sleep. That's what they were expecting, but she was sick. So Jesus heals her. And then it says she started to serve them. And this is the pattern of salvation. When Jesus saves us, the next response should be, "Jesus, what am I to do? How am I to serve you? How am I to serve your people?" Verse 32, "That evening at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons." So Peter's house is now the center of Jesus' ministry, and these people waited until the Sabbath ended. Because of their religious understanding of the Sabbath, you can't do any work and they assume that you can't even do good. And Jesus said in Mark 3:4, he said, "Is it lawful in the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. So on the Sabbath, we are to worship God. It's a day devoted to the Lord, and we are to do good to people. So these people wait until the end of the Sabbath, start bringing these people to Jesus in verse 33. The whole city was gathered together at the door, and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. Jesus puts a divine gagging order on the demons. He doesn't want them to preach the gospel. He doesn't want them to preach his identity. He wants the disciples to do that. And then he wants to protect himself from the charge that he is colluding with Satan, which was a charge that the scribes and the Pharisees brought against Jesus. And Jesus said, "If a kingdom rises against itself, it shall not stand. I come to you casting out demons with the finger of God." Verse 35, "After a very busy day of ministry, after preaching and teaching and casting out demons, you expect Jesus to take a couple days, rest up." No. Instead, he steals hours from his sleep in order to spend time with God. Verse 35, "And rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place where he prayed." Why did Jesus do this? Why did Jesus take time to pray? He had no sins to repent of. He didn't need human possessions. Why does he spend time with the Father? He wants the Father's presence, and he understands that after serving people and after casting out demons, he needs power. He spends time in the presence of God, and by spending time in the presence of God, he is powering up. That's what prayer is. Prayer is powering up. This is how we recharge our battery. Satan attacks me usually on Saturdays because he wants to throw me off from preaching the word of God. And yesterday, I drive to the gym, I go to the gym, I do the workout. I'm exhausted. I'm just drenched with sweat. And I get in my car, and this is supposed to be the moment where I'm like, "All right, I can relax. I can drive home." It doesn't start. There's no lights. Nothing's working. I'm like, "Oh man, I've never had issues with my battery." And there's a guy that pulls up on one of those minis and I'm like, "It's okay. It'll do it." And I've got the jumper cables, I hooked up the mini and the whole time I'm like, "Lord, what are you trying to do? You want me to fish for this guy? I'll fish for this guy." And then he's like, "What do you do?" And I tell him what I do. So we had that conversation. His car wasn't strong enough. Then I had to go into the gym. There was another gentleman that let me jumpstart from his car. Wouldn't work. And then finally bring in Coach John from the gym. Coach John, big guy. He drives a white Highlander. Pull up the Highlander 2020. I'm like, "This'll do it great." Nothing. Nothing's working. And then I realized I probably need a new battery. Call up my wife. She comes. I tried to jump from the car. It doesn't work. We go to Auto Zone, get the new battery, come back to the truck. So much work. I'm not mechanically inclined. I know how to use YouTube University. So I'm on YouTube because the guy at AutoZone, he told me, he's like, "You need professional help." And I was like, "I know." He's like, "I mean professional mechanic." And I was like, "I know." And then he let me borrow his tools. I take the stuff apart. It's such a pain. I put the new battery in and my wife's like, "Don't put the bar on top. There's a bar that covered the battery." She's like, "Don't do it because it probably won't work." And I was like, "Get away from me with this lack of faith. Stop it." And she's like, "It's just the way the Lord always works with you. He makes you suffer." So then I get into the truck, I get into the truck, and it's not starting nothing. Nothing. At that point, I just started praying. I got nothing else. In Jesus' name, I'm casting out demons from my vehicle. Lord Jesus, please, please. And I said, "Amen." I pressed the button and it starts. So it was a little miracle. Praise the Lord. But it's all to say, it doesn't matter how powerful your engine, it's a V8. It doesn't matter how powerful, robust the frame, the tire. If the battery is dead, nothing works. And this is why prayer is so important. Prayer is how we recharge. In the presence of the Lord, you power up and you say, "Lord, what would you have for me to do?" And we live in a day and age where a lot of people are more concerned with the battery on their phone, how much the phone's charged than you're worried about the battery of your soul. And here Jesus gives us not just an example, but it is a charge that we are to make time to spend with the Lord, to power up in order to continue to serve him effectively. So as he's praying, Simon says, verse 36, "And Simon and those who are with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, everyone is looking for you." And you say, "Well, that's good. Everyone's searching for him." But the word for search here is always used in the hostile sense as if they were hunting for him, desperate in their search. Why this word to describe their search? Because they wanted what God could do for them. They wanted what Jesus could do for them. They wanted to use Jesus. They view Jesus as a king with external authority that's going to help me in the externalities of life. They weren't looking for a king to rule their hearts, their minds, their souls. They wanted a king to submit to them rather than submitting to the king and his agenda. They were seeking to control Jesus rather than following and obeying him. I saw this... It was like a cartoon of a guy who's in prison and he's behind bars and he's reaching for outside the bars. There were two things. There were keys. It's like you can get out. And there was a loaf of bread, and his hand went to the loaf of bread. This is what these people are doing. They're like, "Jesus, we want you to fix our short-term problem." Instead of saying, "Jesus, please release us from the captivity of Satan and sin." So what does Jesus do? He sees they're not looking for God. They're not looking for transformation. They're not looking to enter his kingdom. He says in verse 38, he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." And he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. The phrase for why I came out is an important phrase. It's used elsewhere to come out for battle. When Jesus was being arrested by the scribes, the Pharisees, the Roman soldiers, Mark 14:48, he uses the same phrase. And Jesus said to them, "Have you come out, as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me." But let the scriptures be fulfilled and they all left him and fled. And Jesus says, "We could do miracles here." A short-term fix. Jesus didn't come just to heal the body primarily. He came to heal the soul. He came to regenerate heart. So he says, "Let us go on. This is why I came out, to battle Satan, sin and death." And he does that with his word. And then he says, "Let us go." He's including his disciples in that church. "Let us go. Let us preach the word. This is how we do battle against Satan, against the lies of the evil one. This is how the kingdom of God is built." In conclusion, there are ultimately only two kingdoms, the kingdom of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of Satan. And you today are currently in one or the other. You belong either to Jesus or to Satan. You are possessed either by Jesus or you are a possession of Satan and he can possess you at any time. King Jesus came to save you from Satan's dominion. And he did that by living a life of perfect submission to God, the Father, thereby fulfilling all the commandments from the heart. And then Jesus allows Satan to take his best shot at destroying the holy one of God. And Satan did his best, but he failed, praise be to God. And Jesus rose from the dead victoriously, proving once and for all who the real king is. The king today says, "Receive the good news. Repent, believe, submit, obey. Follow the king, and he will make you fishers of men." Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your incredible word. We thank you, Lord, that you have a power and authority that is greater than even Satan, than even the demonic. And Lord, you entrust us with that authority, and you tell us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that you taught us. And Lord, let us start with ourselves. Let us be a people who obey everything that you taught us, empowered by grace. Because we have been saved, we want to and we long to serve you. Praise your name, glorify your name. And Lord, do make us fishers of men. Make us people that follow you and recognize that we experience you more closely when we do what you called us to do, which is to tell people about the good news, to tell people that they have broken commandments, that they are in the nets of Satan and sin. And to call them to repent and believe and submit to the king. Continue to build up your church, continue to build up your kingdom. And Lord, we thank you that we get to be used by you in the process. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

In part one we hear three interviews. With: David McCulloch from Tilhill on the urgent need to increase productive UK forestry for wood Niamh Carr from The James Hutton Institute on proposals for a green hydrogen powered farm And Stéphanie Mielnik from the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute about the risk to investors if they buy bonds from companies with links to illegal deforestation. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/farmgate/message

On this episode the Bonneville County Sheriff's Department announced that the driver's license office is set to close... Plus a Gem County judge has issued a temporary restraining order on Ammon Bundy... And St. Anthony's Summerfest will begin on Thursday.

Herc Gomez discusses CONCACAF's Nations League. Starting with the battle to be "El Tri's" No. 9. Plus, the USMNT's team culture, and Pulisic's latest remarks on Gregg Berhalter. And St. Louis' impressive start in MLS.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Successful podcasting is not just about the message; it's about the messenger. By understanding how your audience thinks and what they need, you can create content that not only informs, but truly resonates and connects. The key to podcast success lies in understanding the psychology of your listeners. In this episode, ST Rappaport of LifePix University discusses the importance of understanding the psychology of our listeners. From their motivations and pain points to their communication styles and preferences, there is a lot to know about the audience. And ST provides tips on how to use this knowledge to craft compelling content that connects with your audience on a deep level. ST's expertise in the field of content creation is unparalleled, and she's here to share her secrets to success with our listeners. Tune in and don't miss out. LifePix: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!Here's How »Join the Binge Factor community today:FacebookInstagramLinkedInPinterestYoutubeTikTok

Jean describing her book of poetry "Sandprints At Ebbtide"   I hope the readers of “Sandprints at Ebbtide” will find these poems, songs and Scripture passages a source of faith and inspiration in confronting the painful life lessons of aging, loss, perceived failures and even death, both for themselves and those they love. Faith guides us to a place of comfort and peace as we reach for meaning and consolation. These poems explore my personal life challenges in the light of God's grace and redemption. Mother Julian of Norwich summarized all this for me in her still timely quote centuries later, “All shall be well, and every manner of things shall be well.” And St. Paul reminds us that “He whose power is at work in us, is powerful enough, and more than powerful enough, to carry out His purpose beyond all our hopes and dreams.” * The poems, Redemption I and Redemption II launch us into these themes which continue to unfold throughout. It is my wish that you discover joy, meaning and purpose in each and every one of your life lessons.   Link to buy Jean's 2 books: https://tinyurl.com/56zxts7e

Jean describing her book of poetry "Sandprints At Ebbtide"   I hope the readers of “Sandprints at Ebbtide” will find these poems, songs and Scripture passages a source of faith and inspiration in confronting the painful life lessons of aging, loss, perceived failures and even death, both for themselves and those they love. Faith guides us to a place of comfort and peace as we reach for meaning and consolation. These poems explore my personal life challenges in the light of God's grace and redemption. Mother Julian of Norwich summarized all this for me in her still timely quote centuries later, “All shall be well, and every manner of things shall be well.” And St. Paul reminds us that “He whose power is at work in us, is powerful enough, and more than powerful enough, to carry out His purpose beyond all our hopes and dreams.” * The poems, Redemption I and Redemption II launch us into these themes which continue to unfold throughout. It is my wish that you discover joy, meaning and purpose in each and every one of your life lessons.   Link to buy Jean's 2 books: https://tinyurl.com/56zxts7e

Pride was the first sin to enter the world through man. Adam and the woman desired to “be like God,” and consumed, without a blessing, the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. St. James tells us, God is neither tempted nor does He tempt, but “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown brings forth death.” James 1:14-15 The words of the serpent, according to St. Athanasius, averted man's attention from the contemplation of the Divine Word and lowered it to the contemplation of the self. Mankind considered what it could obtain for itself by ingesting then forbidden knowledge. Adam, with his earthen body enlivened by the breath of God, brought a curse upon the earth bringing death instead of life into the world. According to the Fathers, this was not by disobeying the commandment not to eat, but by refusing to repent when confronted. Fr. Spyridon Bailey says that “suffering, accepted in the right way, will lead us to humility. It will strip us of the false belief that we are in control or the idea that peace may come through comfort…" And St. Paul affirms, “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Hebrews 12:6-7 After pronouncing the curse in the garden, God said to Adam, “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:19. St. Ephrem The Syrian observes that God is intimating that “Since you originate from dust and you forgot yourself, "you shall return to "your "dust " and your true being shall be recognized through your low estate." Thus, St. John Chrysostom says that “Salvation begins and ends with humility.” We might ask, what is the nature of salvific humility? St. Mark the Ascetic teaches us that “humility consists, not in condemning our conscience, but in recognizing God's grace and compassion.” Adam, being chastised by God, did not despair of his plight, he did not “kick against the goads” (Acts 9:5), or fall into a state of despondency (Genesis 4:5). Instead, He humbled himself, and he remembered his proper place, and immediately resumed his initial vocation. “And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living.” - Genesis 3:20 St. Porphyrios instructs us that holy humility is “Complete trust in God.” Adam, having endured his chastening, and finding himself, although subject to corruption, yet not destroyed by sin, trusted that God would bring about the restoration of his life, not through him, but through his wife, whereby God would bring new life. Adam chose death. But God in His great love, chose to send the Son to show us true humility, by which death is transformed into life. St. Paul says in Hebrews 12:10 that God chastises us “that we may be partakers of His holiness.” Cyril of Alexandria says that “He became like us that we might become like him. The work of the Spirit seeks to transform us by grace into a perfect copy of his humbling.” True humility is transformative. It is, according to St. Paisios, “the only thing God is asking of us.” If we will humble ourselves, we can, by the grace of God, ascend far above the garden of Eden to “Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels.” Hebrews 12:22 St. John Climacus says that “humility is the chariot by which we ascend to God.” thepodvig@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, that you have not left us in the darkness of our sin. But you spoke a word to us, and your ultimate word, the final word, is that of your Son, Jesus Christ, the living Word of God. Jesus, we thank you that you came, that you lived a perfect life, that you fulfilled all of the requirements of God's holy law. You love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and you love neighbor as self. So much so that you gave yourself as a substitute in our place, in our stead you went to a cross to bear the penalty for our sin, bear the wrath of God.Your word tells us that the penalty for sin is death. Either our death, eternally speaking, or the death of your Son, Jesus Christ on the cross. So Jesus, I pray if there's anyone who's not yet a Christian today, make yourself alive to them, draw them to yourself, give them the gift of repentance. And Lord, for all of us who are yours, who have been predestined before the foundation of the world to be yours, you've written our name in the Book of Life before anything was even created.Lord, I pray in view of that great mercy, I pray, give us the grace to give our bodies as a living sacrifice holy, committed to you. Makers of people who on a daily basis seek the renewal of the mind, the cleansing, the washing of water with the holy scriptures, so that we may know you, so that we may think your thoughts along with you so that we may think like Christians, and live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.Lord, we thank you for this blessing and gather as your people. Holy Spirit, we love you, we welcome you. Today, speak to us, minister to us, compel us, move us, appeal to us, to make us a glorious people who reflect your glory and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.We're continuing our sermon series through Romans today when Romans 12:1-2. We've spent significant amount of time in Romans, nine through 11 in particular because we believe that Romans nine through 11 sets the context, the foundation for the practical living of life. Growing up, I did not hear many sermons on Romans one through 11. I've heard a lot of sermons on Romans 12 through 15 because Romans 12 through 15 is very easy to preach. It's just I'm telling you what to do. And with Christians, we love those kinds of sermons. "Just tell me what to do. Tell me how to live my life."And St. Paul says, "No, no, no. You do not have the power, the motivation to live the life that God has called you unless you understand His great mercy." So Paul spends 11 chapters elucidating the mercy of God so that we can then be propelled, motivated to live in light of that mercy. First doctrine, then practice. First theology, then ethics. First belief, then behavior. Paul wants us to know what God has done for us before He tells us what we are to do for God. And the title of this sermon today is one word, it's the word therefore.It's here in verse one, and the connection between, it is the hinge between the two sections of Romans one through 11, 12 through 15. It's a post positive in the Greek language, which means it's one of those small words that is never in the front of the sentence, but here in thought it is the primary word connecting the Romans one through 11 with 12. He's saying because of everything that I have explained, because of the fact that we with our debased mind have been rejected by God because we didn't thank Him, but thanks me to God that when we were still at enemies of God, that He's sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for us.So in light of this great salvation, because of the grace and mercy, God has lavished on you, because of the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ to secure our eternal life because of His sacrifice. In view of all that, this is how we ought to live. So God doesn't just give us truth in doctrine for its own sake. He doesn't want us just to be full of knowledge, and do nothing with it. No, He gives us this truth to produce a response. What should that response be? Well, it's very simple, love and gratitude to God that seeks to express itself out in obedience to Him, and service to His cause.This is what Jesus told His disciples in the upper room before He was betrayed by Judas. He said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." It's love for God that motivates us to be faithful to Him. And the reason why I explain all that is because it gives incredible freedom where you understand the proper perspective of our ethics. The Christian life is the daily working out of the righteousness that Jesus gave us. He who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.By grace through faith, His righteousness is given to us, it's counted to us, imputed to us, and then we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. How do we do that? Well, Romans 12, one through two is the first step. Would you look at the text with me? Romans 12:1. "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant and fallible, authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, the motivation for transformation. Second, true spiritual worship is self-sacrifice. And third, be not conformed, be transformed. First, the motivation for transformation. Romans 12:1, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers or brethren, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God."Whenever you see in scripture the word therefore you got to ask, "What's it there for?" Because it's always there for a reason and we find this technique, he gives us theology, and then gives us the therefore, and He tells us this is how to live. He uses that same technique in most of his epistles. First, the theological section, and then the ethical section. For example, Ephesians the epistle in Ephesians is one of the most glorious theological treatises of our salvation. Chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, gets the chapter four, and he says, "I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called."He just spent half the book talking about that great calling and he says, "Now, live the in manner worthy of it." Colossians, he does something very similar. Colossians 3:1-4, first two chapters, just doctrine, one of the most glorious doctrines about Christ. He gets to chapter three and he says, "If then you've been raised with Christ." His assumption is you have been raised with Christ. Therefore, "If then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."So he places the Christian life in a relationship with complete dependence upon the grace of God, and redemption of Jesus Christ. We find the same thought in other places, express in other ways. For example, Philippians 1:27, "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or I am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel."He says the whole sum of the Christian life should be lived in response to the fact that God saved me, He's forgiven me my sins. He's given me mercy, He's given me grace. Praise be to God. The apostle Peter does the same thing, exhorts Christians in the same exact way. 1 Peter 1-12, he explains our great salvation. And then verse 13 of chapter one, he continues and says, "Therefore, therefore preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy."Once again, theology, doctrine, belief first, then practice, ethics, and behavior. One of my favorite Catechisms, the Catechisms are just a way of teaching the doctrines of Christianity to young believers is the Heidelberg Catechism. You can find online in PDF form for free since it was published in 1563. Well, the catechism is divided and set up like this. After two questions of introduction, we see that the next nine sections are entitled The Misery of Man.He just explains the fact that we're all sinners, we're all depraved, we are degenerates, we are dead in our sins and trespasses, we need grace. The next section has 72 questions and it's entitled The Redemption of Man. And here we see teaching of God's salvation, and how He communicates His grace to His people. The last 43 questions, those concerning the Christian life, and how it is to be lived. You know what that section is called? It's just called Thankfulness. This is a God thank you. God thank you for saving me. And, of course, it makes sense that you call me to live righteous life because of your great grace on me.In other words, the Christian life is the grateful, and the loving response of those who have received the salvation of God. Once again, the order is really important. First, the indicative. This is what God has done, then the imperative, this is what we are to do for God. And this is important because especially in a place like Boston, it's a hard place to be a Christian. It's temptation everywhere. Most of the people you know probably aren't believers. Most of the people that we spend time with, their worldview is not shaped by scripture, not shaped by grace, not shaped by mercy.And when your own zeal, your own enthusiasm, excitement for God, when it begins to wane, where do you get the power to remain faithful? And I submit to you, you will never worship God with a zealous, sincere, passionate heart, seeking to obey Him and everything unless you understand just how indebted you are to Him. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. And in this, this is really important, Christianity stands alone, utterly unique. And I'm not saying that other religions, and other people don't teach similar things that we teach. We do believe that people should be honest, and kind, and faithful, and humble, et cetera.Lots of non-Christians believe all of this. Lots of ethical instruction in other religions is very similar that of Christian. There's a lot of overlap to that of Christianity, which shouldn't come as a surprise at all. Why? Because God has written His law upon our hearts even as unbelievers. But the Bible places the ethical teaching in a particular context, in particular order. And if you switch that order around, you don't have Christianity, you just have a works-based religion, and that's how most religions work, it's all works-based salvation. Order is crucial to understanding salvation.For example, when you read the Old Testament and you read about the sacrificial rituals in the tabernacle, and the temple, there's an order given, and that order conveys meaning. In Leviticus, it tells us that an animal was to be brought as a sacrifice to take away guilt of sin because when you sin, the penalty for sin is death. It's always been like that. And in the Old Testament, before the sacrificial animal was killed, the person, the worshiper would lay his hands on the animal's head as a sign that there is a transfer of guilt from the person to the animal. And then the animal is slaughtered with blood gushing out, and then the animal is torched, and then the incense goes to heaven. But it's always laying of hands on the animal, and then second is killing of the animal. And this is immensely important, and it does ultimately show, and point to the sacrifice of the Son of God.The punishment for the sacrificial worshiper sins is born by the animal. The animal pays the penalty for the person's sin, it's identified as a substitute by the laying of hands. Now, if the animal were killed before the hands are laid, well, we would have a completely different religion, one in which we appease and placate God by our presence as if we do this thing for God, and then He gives us grace. As if we do this thing to God and He gives us mercy. As if this is how we earn our relationship with God.Well, that's what pagans thought. Pagans thought, "Well, the god's out there, we need to appease them somehow, and we're going to give them a sacrifice." They had no understanding of the substitutionary part that the animal is dying on behalf of my sin. God dying in our place, bearing the punishment for our sins, that's the heart of the gospel. Same two acts, only different order, and it changes everything.Take another example about the importance of order. If a man sleeps with a woman and then later marries her, well, according to the Bible, that's the order of death. If however, the man marries the woman and then sleeps with her, that's the order of life. And the world will look at that and say, "What makes the difference? There's no difference." Well, it makes all the difference in the world from God's perspective. The order in which things are done makes a huge difference.Sex outside of the place God made it, becomes an act of rebellion. And as we've seen in life outside's proper place, sex corrupts, and destroys rather than joining two hearts and two lives. But placed in proper order after marriage, sex becomes life-giving and love-completing, the act that God made it to be. The order's important. If you preach Romans 12 through 15 apart from Romans one through 11, you get a workspace salvation. You can't cut the Christian off from the source, and the source is Jesus Christ, the source is grace.So Christian, do you keep the commandments? Do you obey God? Do you seek to obey God, and please Him in order to be saved, or because you're saved? And it makes all the difference in the world. It makes a difference in any relationship. Is it a grace-based relationship or is it works-based relationship? You can parent with a works-based understanding like an iron fist. "Child, if you don't obey me, there are consequences."Or you'll appeal to the child and you say, "Because I love you, because I have loved you all of your life, because I fund your whole operation, your lodging, and I pay for you to live in Boston, Massachusetts, and I feed you, and I love you, I love you so go clean your room. Not because I'm going to stop loving you. No, no, no, I love you and I want my love to motivate you to do the things that are best for you." That's what God wants for us.God's grace always comes first. Christ's sacrifice always comes first. The Holy Spirit's renewing ministry comes first. And only then can men and women, boys and girls live a truly good life, the life that God calls us to live. Empowered by what? By God's love. He first loved us, that's the one reason, one reason only that we serve Him. Our power to live a truly good life, our motive to do so no matter the sacrifice required, and our pleasure in doing it where you serve God not begrudgingly, but because you want to.Where do you get that? You get that from the gospels. Theology first, salvation first, then the Christian life, then obedience, then purity, then love, and then service. Why is this true? Because if you have truly understood the gospel that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, what does that mean? Well, just imagine yourself in Golgotha, Calvary, Jesus Christ that's just been carrying His cross in the Via Dolorosa He's going all the way to Golgotha, and then He's scourged, He's bleeding, He's got the crown of thorns, they put Him down on the cross, and they start nailing His hands and His feet to the cross, excruciating pain.And at that moment, He is the Lamb of God sent to take away the sin of the world. And at that moment, you approach the cross of Christ, and you put your hands on His head. And what happens? Like by faith, your guilt is transferred to Him. He is dying in our place. If it wasn't for Him, you would be dead for all of eternity separated from God in a place called hell. When you understand that Jesus did that for you, He's dying instead of me, substitutionary atonement, well, that changes you. It can't not change you.Once you know what God has done, what Christ suffered for you, what the Holy Spirit has done in you, love, gratitude and honor compel you to live in a way that pleases God. And what's that way? Well, God says this is how you live in a manner worthy of Him. This is how you live in a manner worthy of the gospel. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. So this is point two, true spiritual worship is self-sacrifice.Look at verse one. "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers." Now, this is the apostle Paul. He could have as an apostle said, "I'm an apostle. Just do what I said." That's not what He does because he understands that begrudging obedience does not honor God. Now he says, "I appeal to you. I appeal to your heart." By what does he appeal to them? By the mercies of God, he's been explaining the mercies of God for 11 chapters. By these great mercies, I appeal to you, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.The operating verb here is present your bodies, present your bodies as a sacrifice, as if you're putting your body on the altar before God and say, "God, my body is yours. All of me is yours." Paul has used the same language in Romans 6:12-14. He says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for unrighteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."So in chapter six, Paul in general says, "Do not present your body to sin, present your body to Christ. Live like the children of God should live. And here Paul begins to explain in chapter 12 what that looks like. What does it mean to present your body to Christ? He gives us the thought here. And then he explains it later. But what he's saying is same thing Christ taught. Jesus Christ on the Sermon of the Mount, He said, "Look, I haven't come to abolish the law I've come to fulfill it." And then he gives us the ethics, the law of Christ, if you will.Paul uses the same phrase to talk about the Christian life in Galatians 6:2, "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." Or 1 Corinthians 9:21, "To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ that I might win those outside the law." Present your body as he's saying, He's saying not just. Not only your bodies, he's saying your whole self. Present all of yourself to God as a living sacrifice.We will never be completely worthy of God, of course, but we are to strive to live in a manner worthy of God. Present your body as a living sacrifice. What does that mean? Well, it doesn't hit us, that language doesn't hit us as it did the original audience 2000 years ago. They understood what it meant to sacrifice, sacrifice an animal. 1st century people were familiar with the offering of sacrifices, perhaps we're not. And they stood by their altar. They watched their animal that they identified as their own. It was slain in the ritual manner, blood gushing out, the whole animal burned on the altar. And he's saying that striking imagery should somehow characterize our walk with the Lord sacrifice.And it's noteworthy. Paul uses the word body here. He doesn't just use sarx, which is flesh uses soma, which is the physical body. Other places, 1 Corinthians 6, he says that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are to take care of our bodies in order to live righteously in the physical world. This is important because some Christians find it very easy to love God with their mind, or love God with their heart, and bifurcate living and loving God in the physical body. And this, of course, this teaching flies in the face of what Paul is saying here.No, it's not gnostic, dualistic schemes. No. God wants you to worship Him with your soul, and with your body. It's an embodied spirituality. What we do with our bodies matters. 1 Corinthians 6:20, "For you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body." Other places he says, "Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it to the glory of God. As a living sacrifice he says. It's true that animals sacrifices were living when they were brought to the temple, but then they died. They were offered as a dead sacrifice.Now, Paul says, you are to be a living sacrifice. Your whole life, all of your life energy is to be lived out for God. This motivation is very different than what perhaps they teach in the Russian Orthodox Church or the Greek Orthodox Church or the Catholic Church. The motivation to live righteously is not just fear of punishment, and it's not just the reward that we get in heaven. And I agree with both of those. I believe in Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12 says that, "God, the good Father does discipline His loving children when they go wayward." He chastises us.So that should be a category that I don't want to disobey God because He will chastise me. And on the other hand, I want to be motivated by the rewards in heaven. I want as many rewards in heaven as possible. That's literally why I became a pastor and a church planter. I want the biggest mansion in heaven. I believe every single time I preach a sermon here, my spiritual Venmo is going cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. I am just racking up spiritual points.But even that can't be the ultimate motivation for why we obey God. Why? Because both of those if they're put in the primary part of our heart that motivates us, they become self-centered. Because I don't want punishment, I want to protect self, that's why I obey God. If that's the primary motivation, then you don't understand grace. And the same thing with rewards. If that's the primary motivation, then you're trying to earn something from God. No, he says the ultimate motivation has to be thanksgiving, that we are so thankful to God because Christ has sacrificed Him. I am going to be a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God.Friend, do you live for God? Do you live for God? If I looked at your calendar this week, if I looked at the way you spend your time, this the way you spend your best energy, the way you spend your finances, what you think about when you don't have to think about anything, about your affection, could a case be made that you live for God, that you love God? What can I do in my life today that shows I'm presenting myself as a sacrifice that is living for God? The Christian cannot live primarily for self.The Christian is defined by the fact that he or she lives for God, and that's what it means to be holy, a holy sacrifice, holy set apart for God. And he says that this is your spiritual worship. And it sums up the whole point of the verse that our lives are to be worshiped and serviced to God at all times in every way. The phrase spiritual worship, and if you are in the ESV there's a footnote, and at the bottom it says rational service. So is it spiritual worship or is it rational service? Well, what's fascinating is it could be both. And it is both because the word for spiritual here is [foreign language 00:26:08] in the Greek, logical, reasonable, rational. And the word for worship is the same word as for service.So spiritual worship is reasonable service. What do I mean? It's really important to understand that to be a Christian does not mean you turn your mind off because that's what a lot of people think that intellectuals are not Christians. And if you're a Christian, then you're not an intellectual. Or you have to turn off your brain in order to believe, but that's not how scripture talks about true faith. No, no, no. We don't need to turn our brains off. We need our minds renewed. And then when our minds are renewed, we begin to understand the world from God's perspective. We begin to understand that everything in God's Word is incredibly reasonable. And only things in God's Word make sense of God's world.So what are we calling you to? We're calling you to a reasonable life of service to God. The first step to becoming a Christian is to repent. If you're not a believer, you're not sure what it means to be a Christian, the first step to becoming Christians to repent. What is repentance? It's a change of mind. A change of mind about what? About the most important truths in the universe. Repentance is an acknowledgement that you have not been living a reasonable life.It's not reasonable to believe that everything came from nothing. It's not reasonable to believe that God doesn't care how you live. It's not reasonable to believe that God will not judge you for your sins. It's not reasonable to believe that the Bible is not God's Word in particular when you've never read it. And I met so many people that say, "No, no, no, I'm not a Christian. I don't need God's Word and I don't need the Bible." My question is, "Have you ever read it? Have you ever read it? You're very educated, you're very intellectual, you're very smart. Have you ever read the most influential book in the history of the universe, the book that has impacted humanity for the good and for the positive more than any other book?"Christianity is the most reasonable faith because it makes the most sense of reality. It makes the most sense of us. If you're honest, you know how wicked you are inside, you know how much of a sinner you are. We live in a world of sinners all around us, and we live in a world of brokenness, and pain, and injustice, and suffering. And the only thing that really makes sense of the whole world around us is the fact that God created everything. We rebelled against Him, bringing in evil, and sin into the world, and we need a salvation that comes from outside of us, and that's Jesus Christ, the incarnation. He breaks in and He lives that perfect life, goes to the cross for my sin. And in light of the fact that the Son of God died in my place for my sins.What's the most reasonable and spiritual thing I could do? Is to present my body today as a living sacrifice to God. And He continues the thought. This is point three. Do not be conformed but be transformed. Verse two, do not be conformed to what? "To this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern, what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." So offering ourselves as a living sacrifice stands in direct opposition to being conformed to the pattern of this world, to follow the human race into sin darkens our minds. And that darkening of the mind, it happens to everybody, and it takes God breaking in to transform us from that corruption.The pattern of the world he says is this age is an evil age, so we need a renewing of the mind, and this is a synonym for regeneration. The tense of the word of the verb renew your mind indicates that the renewal has to happen continually. It's a process of learning to think about the world from the perspective of God revealed in His word, seeing the world through the eyes of God. Do you look at the world through the eyes of holy scripture? It's like the lenses that you put on, and you see everything through it.And the scripture talks about the fact that Jesus is the Word of God and that scripture is the Word of God. And in Ephesians 5, it tells us, "Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for her." And later on it says, "With the washing of water with the word, He cleanses His bride." So this is why we love scripture at Mosaic, this is why our sermons are chock-full of scripture. This is why in community groups we focus on holy scripture because we need Jesus, and His blood to cleanse us from our guilt, but then we also need God's Word to cleanse us from the gunk of the world.And I'll give you an illustration, and you've been waiting for this I know, the illustration about my Suburban. So I recently purchased a Suburban family vehicle. My wife and I, we have four daughters, and as they're growing, we want them. We love family trips. So I bought a Suburban, but I bought a Suburban like immigrants do. My family are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. And for the longest time, I just wondered, "Why do immigrants, why do they all drive awesome vehicles?" Well, I'll tell you why. They buy their vehicles salvaged in an auction. Do you know how this works?So my friend sent me a link, he's like, "You like this Suburban?" I was like, "Yeah, it's great." All I saw was one picture, it looked nice, tremendous. And then he's like, "All right, you got a bid on it." And I was like, "What's wrong with it?" He said, "We'll find out when you win the bid." So you have no idea. And then I'm like, "You know what? I live by faith, not by sight. Let's do it. Let's do a Lord Jesus, please help me." I got the Suburban, I take it to the mechanic, and he looks at it and he's like, "This thing's been flooded."Oh no. I was like, "Where did it get flooded?" He said, "In New Jersey." And for some reason that just made it worse. I don't know. And so he was fixing it up, He fixed the seats. He had taken out the seats because the computer in the seats broken, and he fixed that bunch of stuff and he's like, "The vehicle's ready, come pick it up." So I go and pick it up, I drive it back home, and something's wrong with the transmission, and then I turn on the AC and it's kind of not working and kind of working. And then I turn on the music and one of the speakers goes off.So I go home, I take it a mechanic here when stuff is really just started ... Oh, I got the key and I bring it home. My wife's like, "Oh, tremendous. I got a wonderful key chain for you." I was like, "Oh, wonderful." She gives me the key with the key chain and it's a lemon. Like, "No, no, what did you do? You just jinxed the whole vehicle." She's like, "But we're not superstitious." I was like, "I'm a little stitious." No, no, no, no. So I got this lemon of a vehicle, a lemon on my key chain. So I take it to the mechanic, the mechanic's working on it and then he's like, "I think I fixed it, and I got it and the stuff's still break, the stuff's still break."And I finally take it, I was like, "Dude, keep it for as long as you need, just fix everything please." And then he calls me back, he's like, "You got to come." He dug deep into the engine, takes out the computer. The computer is what decides everything. This is like if the computer's not working, nothing's working. He takes out the computer and it's all covered in gunk, just New Jersey whatever, I don't know, just covered in gunk. He's like, "Do you see this is your vehicle? The computer doesn't work, obviously nothing else is going to work, you need a renewing of the computer mind."Yeah, he didn't say that, I said that. So he cleans out the whole thing. He's got before and after pictures and he gives me the vehicle. He's like, "I hope I won't see you for 48 hours. And praise be to God, I haven't been back since because my Suburban through the renewing of the computer, it was transformed. And he's like, "That's what we need to do.: I'm telling you, live in Boston and you don't even notice how the computer of your mind just get gunked up. And then after a while, Christianity doesn't seem as plausible. Your faith doesn't seem as strong. Your desire to follow the Lord wanes.And after a while you realize, "Ah, I have conformed to the world, the world that does not submit to the Lord." So he says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" and part of that is the washing of water with the word. So dear Saint, Are you committed to holy scripture, to love scripture, read scripture, meditate on scripture? Yes, there is an intellectual part of Christianity. The intellectual part must lead to the devotional part, but the devotional part doesn't exist apart from the intellectual part.He says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Learn to think as a Christian, learn to think God's thoughts after Him. Practically, how are we to do this? He says, "Do not be conformed, but be transformed." It's an imperative, but it's a passive imperative. It's just like an Ephesians where Paul says, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit," and you say, "How do I do that?" You can't do it yourself, it's passive, it has to be done to you. But there is a part that you have to do, there's an imperative. And what our part is, you have to place yourself in a position where the streams of God's grace can bless you.You place yourself in a position where you study God's Word, and as you study God's Word and you meditate upon God's Word, there is a transformation that happens by the renewal of your mind. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul says, "We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." So we study God's Word in order to meet with the Word of God, and that's Jesus Christ. And as we do, we behold His glory and His glory is what transforms us.We must teach ourselves to think like Christians. Parents, we must teach our children to think like Christians. We can't outsource the spiritual formation of your child or the intellectual formation of your child to the school system, or to the government. We have to do this at home to teach our children to view the world as God tells us to view it. And here I also want to mention the following. We need to be careful to define worldliness biblically.Do not be conformed to this world. A lot of fundamentalists coming in right here into this verse, and they tell us exactly where you shouldn't be conforming to the world. And most of the time it's always outward, like confirmation of the world it has to do with alcohol, or smoking, or dancing, et cetera, et cetera. No, that's not what he's talking about at all. What he's talking about is the world, the evil age. They don't want to submit to God or even if they think of God, they think that it's works that saves us, or that good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell. And we add man-made rules to keep us from sin and religious ceremony, external righteousness, et cetera, et cetera.Paul says, "Hold on, you don't get to define what worlds is, only God does. And anything outside of God's Word is just man-made." So we need to be careful there. So he exhorts us to renew our minds by learning God's will as it is revealed in God's Word.In conclusion, if you are not a Christian today, if you have not received the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I wonder what you're counting on. I wonder what you're hoping and what you're trusting in that when you die, and you will stand before the throne of God, and God will say, "Why should I let you in?" I wonder what your answer is. I wonder what your fallback plan is." Well, I was a good person, or I did a few good things. I went to church every once in a while."If your answer begins with I, then that's works-based salvation, and that's not going to save you. No, the only answer that we can give is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins as a substitute for my sins. So if you're not a Christian today, we appeal to you, we appeal to do the most reasonable, rational things to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as savior. And if you do today, and you'd like to talk about the next steps in your walk with the Lord, I'll be up here right after the service, and I'd love to chat with you.For the Christian, are there areas of your life that you have been reluctant to put on the altar before God? And saying, "God, I know you're calling me to sacrifice this part of my life for you, and I just can't do it. I just can't do it." Today, I pray that you accept the grace of God and do it, sacrifice completely all of your life to the Lord. Where do you get the motivation to do that? From God's grace. There are many reasons to do the right thing, but nothing in human life can begin to compel a man or a woman to do the right thing from the heart.Religion can force you to do the right thing outwardly, but it's only the gospel that can transform your mind, and your heart, and the affections of your heart so that your actions are actually motivated by the great love of God. Where do you get the power to resist the most powerful of temptations? Where do you get the power to sacrifice time and the energy to live as you know the Lord would have you live? Where do you get the energy to love people selflessly from the heart? Where do you get the power to be humble before others to forgive and ask for forgiveness? Where do you get the power to set your mind on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth?Well, you get it from God's love, and all of that is given to us in one word therefore. God has loved you. He's poured out His mercy on you. He's you grace. Therefore, I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice to Him. Amen.Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word, and we thank you for our time in it. We pray, Holy Spirit, that you take this word and you apply it to our hearts, that you transform, renew our minds, and that you transform us to be a glorious people, men and women reflecting the glory of our God. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, that you have not left us in the darkness of our sin. But you spoke a word to us, and your ultimate word, the final word, is that of your Son, Jesus Christ, the living Word of God. Jesus, we thank you that you came, that you lived a perfect life, that you fulfilled all of the requirements of God's holy law. You love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and you love neighbor as self. So much so that you gave yourself as a substitute in our place, in our stead you went to a cross to bear the penalty for our sin, bear the wrath of God. Your word tells us that the penalty for sin is death. Either our death, eternally speaking, or the death of your Son, Jesus Christ on the cross. So Jesus, I pray if there's anyone who's not yet a Christian today, make yourself alive to them, draw them to yourself, give them the gift of repentance. And Lord, for all of us who are yours, who have been predestined before the foundation of the world to be yours, you've written our name in the Book of Life before anything was even created. Lord, I pray in view of that great mercy, I pray, give us the grace to give our bodies as a living sacrifice holy, committed to you. Makers of people who on a daily basis seek the renewal of the mind, the cleansing, the washing of water with the holy scriptures, so that we may know you, so that we may think your thoughts along with you so that we may think like Christians, and live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for this blessing and gather as your people. Holy Spirit, we love you, we welcome you. Today, speak to us, minister to us, compel us, move us, appeal to us, to make us a glorious people who reflect your glory and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through Romans today when Romans 12:1-2. We've spent significant amount of time in Romans, nine through 11 in particular because we believe that Romans nine through 11 sets the context, the foundation for the practical living of life. Growing up, I did not hear many sermons on Romans one through 11. I've heard a lot of sermons on Romans 12 through 15 because Romans 12 through 15 is very easy to preach. It's just I'm telling you what to do. And with Christians, we love those kinds of sermons. "Just tell me what to do. Tell me how to live my life." And St. Paul says, "No, no, no. You do not have the power, the motivation to live the life that God has called you unless you understand His great mercy." So Paul spends 11 chapters elucidating the mercy of God so that we can then be propelled, motivated to live in light of that mercy. First doctrine, then practice. First theology, then ethics. First belief, then behavior. Paul wants us to know what God has done for us before He tells us what we are to do for God. And the title of this sermon today is one word, it's the word therefore. It's here in verse one, and the connection between, it is the hinge between the two sections of Romans one through 11, 12 through 15. It's a post positive in the Greek language, which means it's one of those small words that is never in the front of the sentence, but here in thought it is the primary word connecting the Romans one through 11 with 12. He's saying because of everything that I have explained, because of the fact that we with our debased mind have been rejected by God because we didn't thank Him, but thanks me to God that when we were still at enemies of God, that He's sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for us. So in light of this great salvation, because of the grace and mercy, God has lavished on you, because of the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ to secure our eternal life because of His sacrifice. In view of all that, this is how we ought to live. So God doesn't just give us truth in doctrine for its own sake. He doesn't want us just to be full of knowledge, and do nothing with it. No, He gives us this truth to produce a response. What should that response be? Well, it's very simple, love and gratitude to God that seeks to express itself out in obedience to Him, and service to His cause. This is what Jesus told His disciples in the upper room before He was betrayed by Judas. He said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." It's love for God that motivates us to be faithful to Him. And the reason why I explain all that is because it gives incredible freedom where you understand the proper perspective of our ethics. The Christian life is the daily working out of the righteousness that Jesus gave us. He who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. By grace through faith, His righteousness is given to us, it's counted to us, imputed to us, and then we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. How do we do that? Well, Romans 12, one through two is the first step. Would you look at the text with me? Romans 12:1. "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant and fallible, authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, the motivation for transformation. Second, true spiritual worship is self-sacrifice. And third, be not conformed, be transformed. First, the motivation for transformation. Romans 12:1, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers or brethren, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God." Whenever you see in scripture the word therefore you got to ask, "What's it there for?" Because it's always there for a reason and we find this technique, he gives us theology, and then gives us the therefore, and He tells us this is how to live. He uses that same technique in most of his epistles. First, the theological section, and then the ethical section. For example, Ephesians the epistle in Ephesians is one of the most glorious theological treatises of our salvation. Chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, gets the chapter four, and he says, "I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called." He just spent half the book talking about that great calling and he says, "Now, live the in manner worthy of it." Colossians, he does something very similar. Colossians 3:1-4, first two chapters, just doctrine, one of the most glorious doctrines about Christ. He gets to chapter three and he says, "If then you've been raised with Christ." His assumption is you have been raised with Christ. Therefore, "If then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." So he places the Christian life in a relationship with complete dependence upon the grace of God, and redemption of Jesus Christ. We find the same thought in other places, express in other ways. For example, Philippians 1:27, "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or I am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." He says the whole sum of the Christian life should be lived in response to the fact that God saved me, He's forgiven me my sins. He's given me mercy, He's given me grace. Praise be to God. The apostle Peter does the same thing, exhorts Christians in the same exact way. 1 Peter 1-12, he explains our great salvation. And then verse 13 of chapter one, he continues and says, "Therefore, therefore preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy." Once again, theology, doctrine, belief first, then practice, ethics, and behavior. One of my favorite Catechisms, the Catechisms are just a way of teaching the doctrines of Christianity to young believers is the Heidelberg Catechism. You can find online in PDF form for free since it was published in 1563. Well, the catechism is divided and set up like this. After two questions of introduction, we see that the next nine sections are entitled The Misery of Man. He just explains the fact that we're all sinners, we're all depraved, we are degenerates, we are dead in our sins and trespasses, we need grace. The next section has 72 questions and it's entitled The Redemption of Man. And here we see teaching of God's salvation, and how He communicates His grace to His people. The last 43 questions, those concerning the Christian life, and how it is to be lived. You know what that section is called? It's just called Thankfulness. This is a God thank you. God thank you for saving me. And, of course, it makes sense that you call me to live righteous life because of your great grace on me. In other words, the Christian life is the grateful, and the loving response of those who have received the salvation of God. Once again, the order is really important. First, the indicative. This is what God has done, then the imperative, this is what we are to do for God. And this is important because especially in a place like Boston, it's a hard place to be a Christian. It's temptation everywhere. Most of the people you know probably aren't believers. Most of the people that we spend time with, their worldview is not shaped by scripture, not shaped by grace, not shaped by mercy. And when your own zeal, your own enthusiasm, excitement for God, when it begins to wane, where do you get the power to remain faithful? And I submit to you, you will never worship God with a zealous, sincere, passionate heart, seeking to obey Him and everything unless you understand just how indebted you are to Him. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. And in this, this is really important, Christianity stands alone, utterly unique. And I'm not saying that other religions, and other people don't teach similar things that we teach. We do believe that people should be honest, and kind, and faithful, and humble, et cetera. Lots of non-Christians believe all of this. Lots of ethical instruction in other religions is very similar that of Christian. There's a lot of overlap to that of Christianity, which shouldn't come as a surprise at all. Why? Because God has written His law upon our hearts even as unbelievers. But the Bible places the ethical teaching in a particular context, in particular order. And if you switch that order around, you don't have Christianity, you just have a works-based religion, and that's how most religions work, it's all works-based salvation. Order is crucial to understanding salvation. For example, when you read the Old Testament and you read about the sacrificial rituals in the tabernacle, and the temple, there's an order given, and that order conveys meaning. In Leviticus, it tells us that an animal was to be brought as a sacrifice to take away guilt of sin because when you sin, the penalty for sin is death. It's always been like that. And in the Old Testament, before the sacrificial animal was killed, the person, the worshiper would lay his hands on the animal's head as a sign that there is a transfer of guilt from the person to the animal. And then the animal is slaughtered with blood gushing out, and then the animal is torched, and then the incense goes to heaven. But it's always laying of hands on the animal, and then second is killing of the animal. And this is immensely important, and it does ultimately show, and point to the sacrifice of the Son of God. The punishment for the sacrificial worshiper sins is born by the animal. The animal pays the penalty for the person's sin, it's identified as a substitute by the laying of hands. Now, if the animal were killed before the hands are laid, well, we would have a completely different religion, one in which we appease and placate God by our presence as if we do this thing for God, and then He gives us grace. As if we do this thing to God and He gives us mercy. As if this is how we earn our relationship with God. Well, that's what pagans thought. Pagans thought, "Well, the god's out there, we need to appease them somehow, and we're going to give them a sacrifice." They had no understanding of the substitutionary part that the animal is dying on behalf of my sin. God dying in our place, bearing the punishment for our sins, that's the heart of the gospel. Same two acts, only different order, and it changes everything. Take another example about the importance of order. If a man sleeps with a woman and then later marries her, well, according to the Bible, that's the order of death. If however, the man marries the woman and then sleeps with her, that's the order of life. And the world will look at that and say, "What makes the difference? There's no difference." Well, it makes all the difference in the world from God's perspective. The order in which things are done makes a huge difference. Sex outside of the place God made it, becomes an act of rebellion. And as we've seen in life outside's proper place, sex corrupts, and destroys rather than joining two hearts and two lives. But placed in proper order after marriage, sex becomes life-giving and love-completing, the act that God made it to be. The order's important. If you preach Romans 12 through 15 apart from Romans one through 11, you get a workspace salvation. You can't cut the Christian off from the source, and the source is Jesus Christ, the source is grace. So Christian, do you keep the commandments? Do you obey God? Do you seek to obey God, and please Him in order to be saved, or because you're saved? And it makes all the difference in the world. It makes a difference in any relationship. Is it a grace-based relationship or is it works-based relationship? You can parent with a works-based understanding like an iron fist. "Child, if you don't obey me, there are consequences." Or you'll appeal to the child and you say, "Because I love you, because I have loved you all of your life, because I fund your whole operation, your lodging, and I pay for you to live in Boston, Massachusetts, and I feed you, and I love you, I love you so go clean your room. Not because I'm going to stop loving you. No, no, no, I love you and I want my love to motivate you to do the things that are best for you." That's what God wants for us. God's grace always comes first. Christ's sacrifice always comes first. The Holy Spirit's renewing ministry comes first. And only then can men and women, boys and girls live a truly good life, the life that God calls us to live. Empowered by what? By God's love. He first loved us, that's the one reason, one reason only that we serve Him. Our power to live a truly good life, our motive to do so no matter the sacrifice required, and our pleasure in doing it where you serve God not begrudgingly, but because you want to. Where do you get that? You get that from the gospels. Theology first, salvation first, then the Christian life, then obedience, then purity, then love, and then service. Why is this true? Because if you have truly understood the gospel that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, what does that mean? Well, just imagine yourself in Golgotha, Calvary, Jesus Christ that's just been carrying His cross in the Via Dolorosa He's going all the way to Golgotha, and then He's scourged, He's bleeding, He's got the crown of thorns, they put Him down on the cross, and they start nailing His hands and His feet to the cross, excruciating pain. And at that moment, He is the Lamb of God sent to take away the sin of the world. And at that moment, you approach the cross of Christ, and you put your hands on His head. And what happens? Like by faith, your guilt is transferred to Him. He is dying in our place. If it wasn't for Him, you would be dead for all of eternity separated from God in a place called hell. When you understand that Jesus did that for you, He's dying instead of me, substitutionary atonement, well, that changes you. It can't not change you. Once you know what God has done, what Christ suffered for you, what the Holy Spirit has done in you, love, gratitude and honor compel you to live in a way that pleases God. And what's that way? Well, God says this is how you live in a manner worthy of Him. This is how you live in a manner worthy of the gospel. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. So this is point two, true spiritual worship is self-sacrifice. Look at verse one. "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers." Now, this is the apostle Paul. He could have as an apostle said, "I'm an apostle. Just do what I said." That's not what He does because he understands that begrudging obedience does not honor God. Now he says, "I appeal to you. I appeal to your heart." By what does he appeal to them? By the mercies of God, he's been explaining the mercies of God for 11 chapters. By these great mercies, I appeal to you, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. The operating verb here is present your bodies, present your bodies as a sacrifice, as if you're putting your body on the altar before God and say, "God, my body is yours. All of me is yours." Paul has used the same language in Romans 6:12-14. He says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for unrighteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." So in chapter six, Paul in general says, "Do not present your body to sin, present your body to Christ. Live like the children of God should live. And here Paul begins to explain in chapter 12 what that looks like. What does it mean to present your body to Christ? He gives us the thought here. And then he explains it later. But what he's saying is same thing Christ taught. Jesus Christ on the Sermon of the Mount, He said, "Look, I haven't come to abolish the law I've come to fulfill it." And then he gives us the ethics, the law of Christ, if you will. Paul uses the same phrase to talk about the Christian life in Galatians 6:2, "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." Or 1 Corinthians 9:21, "To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ that I might win those outside the law." Present your body as he's saying, He's saying not just. Not only your bodies, he's saying your whole self. Present all of yourself to God as a living sacrifice. We will never be completely worthy of God, of course, but we are to strive to live in a manner worthy of God. Present your body as a living sacrifice. What does that mean? Well, it doesn't hit us, that language doesn't hit us as it did the original audience 2000 years ago. They understood what it meant to sacrifice, sacrifice an animal. 1st century people were familiar with the offering of sacrifices, perhaps we're not. And they stood by their altar. They watched their animal that they identified as their own. It was slain in the ritual manner, blood gushing out, the whole animal burned on the altar. And he's saying that striking imagery should somehow characterize our walk with the Lord sacrifice. And it's noteworthy. Paul uses the word body here. He doesn't just use sarx, which is flesh uses soma, which is the physical body. Other places, 1 Corinthians 6, he says that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are to take care of our bodies in order to live righteously in the physical world. This is important because some Christians find it very easy to love God with their mind, or love God with their heart, and bifurcate living and loving God in the physical body. And this, of course, this teaching flies in the face of what Paul is saying here. No, it's not gnostic, dualistic schemes. No. God wants you to worship Him with your soul, and with your body. It's an embodied spirituality. What we do with our bodies matters. 1 Corinthians 6:20, "For you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body." Other places he says, "Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it to the glory of God. As a living sacrifice he says. It's true that animals sacrifices were living when they were brought to the temple, but then they died. They were offered as a dead sacrifice. Now, Paul says, you are to be a living sacrifice. Your whole life, all of your life energy is to be lived out for God. This motivation is very different than what perhaps they teach in the Russian Orthodox Church or the Greek Orthodox Church or the Catholic Church. The motivation to live righteously is not just fear of punishment, and it's not just the reward that we get in heaven. And I agree with both of those. I believe in Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12 says that, "God, the good Father does discipline His loving children when they go wayward." He chastises us. So that should be a category that I don't want to disobey God because He will chastise me. And on the other hand, I want to be motivated by the rewards in heaven. I want as many rewards in heaven as possible. That's literally why I became a pastor and a church planter. I want the biggest mansion in heaven. I believe every single time I preach a sermon here, my spiritual Venmo is going cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. I am just racking up spiritual points. But even that can't be the ultimate motivation for why we obey God. Why? Because both of those if they're put in the primary part of our heart that motivates us, they become self-centered. Because I don't want punishment, I want to protect self, that's why I obey God. If that's the primary motivation, then you don't understand grace. And the same thing with rewards. If that's the primary motivation, then you're trying to earn something from God. No, he says the ultimate motivation has to be thanksgiving, that we are so thankful to God because Christ has sacrificed Him. I am going to be a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God. Friend, do you live for God? Do you live for God? If I looked at your calendar this week, if I looked at the way you spend your time, this the way you spend your best energy, the way you spend your finances, what you think about when you don't have to think about anything, about your affection, could a case be made that you live for God, that you love God? What can I do in my life today that shows I'm presenting myself as a sacrifice that is living for God? The Christian cannot live primarily for self. The Christian is defined by the fact that he or she lives for God, and that's what it means to be holy, a holy sacrifice, holy set apart for God. And he says that this is your spiritual worship. And it sums up the whole point of the verse that our lives are to be worshiped and serviced to God at all times in every way. The phrase spiritual worship, and if you are in the ESV there's a footnote, and at the bottom it says rational service. So is it spiritual worship or is it rational service? Well, what's fascinating is it could be both. And it is both because the word for spiritual here is [foreign language 00:26:08] in the Greek, logical, reasonable, rational. And the word for worship is the same word as for service. So spiritual worship is reasonable service. What do I mean? It's really important to understand that to be a Christian does not mean you turn your mind off because that's what a lot of people think that intellectuals are not Christians. And if you're a Christian, then you're not an intellectual. Or you have to turn off your brain in order to believe, but that's not how scripture talks about true faith. No, no, no. We don't need to turn our brains off. We need our minds renewed. And then when our minds are renewed, we begin to understand the world from God's perspective. We begin to understand that everything in God's Word is incredibly reasonable. And only things in God's Word make sense of God's world. So what are we calling you to? We're calling you to a reasonable life of service to God. The first step to becoming a Christian is to repent. If you're not a believer, you're not sure what it means to be a Christian, the first step to becoming Christians to repent. What is repentance? It's a change of mind. A change of mind about what? About the most important truths in the universe. Repentance is an acknowledgement that you have not been living a reasonable life. It's not reasonable to believe that everything came from nothing. It's not reasonable to believe that God doesn't care how you live. It's not reasonable to believe that God will not judge you for your sins. It's not reasonable to believe that the Bible is not God's Word in particular when you've never read it. And I met so many people that say, "No, no, no, I'm not a Christian. I don't need God's Word and I don't need the Bible." My question is, "Have you ever read it? Have you ever read it? You're very educated, you're very intellectual, you're very smart. Have you ever read the most influential book in the history of the universe, the book that has impacted humanity for the good and for the positive more than any other book?" Christianity is the most reasonable faith because it makes the most sense of reality. It makes the most sense of us. If you're honest, you know how wicked you are inside, you know how much of a sinner you are. We live in a world of sinners all around us, and we live in a world of brokenness, and pain, and injustice, and suffering. And the only thing that really makes sense of the whole world around us is the fact that God created everything. We rebelled against Him, bringing in evil, and sin into the world, and we need a salvation that comes from outside of us, and that's Jesus Christ, the incarnation. He breaks in and He lives that perfect life, goes to the cross for my sin. And in light of the fact that the Son of God died in my place for my sins. What's the most reasonable and spiritual thing I could do? Is to present my body today as a living sacrifice to God. And He continues the thought. This is point three. Do not be conformed but be transformed. Verse two, do not be conformed to what? "To this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern, what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." So offering ourselves as a living sacrifice stands in direct opposition to being conformed to the pattern of this world, to follow the human race into sin darkens our minds. And that darkening of the mind, it happens to everybody, and it takes God breaking in to transform us from that corruption. The pattern of the world he says is this age is an evil age, so we need a renewing of the mind, and this is a synonym for regeneration. The tense of the word of the verb renew your mind indicates that the renewal has to happen continually. It's a process of learning to think about the world from the perspective of God revealed in His word, seeing the world through the eyes of God. Do you look at the world through the eyes of holy scripture? It's like the lenses that you put on, and you see everything through it. And the scripture talks about the fact that Jesus is the Word of God and that scripture is the Word of God. And in Ephesians 5, it tells us, "Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for her." And later on it says, "With the washing of water with the word, He cleanses His bride." So this is why we love scripture at Mosaic, this is why our sermons are chock-full of scripture. This is why in community groups we focus on holy scripture because we need Jesus, and His blood to cleanse us from our guilt, but then we also need God's Word to cleanse us from the gunk of the world. And I'll give you an illustration, and you've been waiting for this I know, the illustration about my Suburban. So I recently purchased a Suburban family vehicle. My wife and I, we have four daughters, and as they're growing, we want them. We love family trips. So I bought a Suburban, but I bought a Suburban like immigrants do. My family are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. And for the longest time, I just wondered, "Why do immigrants, why do they all drive awesome vehicles?" Well, I'll tell you why. They buy their vehicles salvaged in an auction. Do you know how this works? So my friend sent me a link, he's like, "You like this Suburban?" I was like, "Yeah, it's great." All I saw was one picture, it looked nice, tremendous. And then he's like, "All right, you got a bid on it." And I was like, "What's wrong with it?" He said, "We'll find out when you win the bid." So you have no idea. And then I'm like, "You know what? I live by faith, not by sight. Let's do it. Let's do a Lord Jesus, please help me." I got the Suburban, I take it to the mechanic, and he looks at it and he's like, "This thing's been flooded." Oh no. I was like, "Where did it get flooded?" He said, "In New Jersey." And for some reason that just made it worse. I don't know. And so he was fixing it up, He fixed the seats. He had taken out the seats because the computer in the seats broken, and he fixed that bunch of stuff and he's like, "The vehicle's ready, come pick it up." So I go and pick it up, I drive it back home, and something's wrong with the transmission, and then I turn on the AC and it's kind of not working and kind of working. And then I turn on the music and one of the speakers goes off. So I go home, I take it a mechanic here when stuff is really just started ... Oh, I got the key and I bring it home. My wife's like, "Oh, tremendous. I got a wonderful key chain for you." I was like, "Oh, wonderful." She gives me the key with the key chain and it's a lemon. Like, "No, no, what did you do? You just jinxed the whole vehicle." She's like, "But we're not superstitious." I was like, "I'm a little stitious." No, no, no, no. So I got this lemon of a vehicle, a lemon on my key chain. So I take it to the mechanic, the mechanic's working on it and then he's like, "I think I fixed it, and I got it and the stuff's still break, the stuff's still break." And I finally take it, I was like, "Dude, keep it for as long as you need, just fix everything please." And then he calls me back, he's like, "You got to come." He dug deep into the engine, takes out the computer. The computer is what decides everything. This is like if the computer's not working, nothing's working. He takes out the computer and it's all covered in gunk, just New Jersey whatever, I don't know, just covered in gunk. He's like, "Do you see this is your vehicle? The computer doesn't work, obviously nothing else is going to work, you need a renewing of the computer mind." Yeah, he didn't say that, I said that. So he cleans out the whole thing. He's got before and after pictures and he gives me the vehicle. He's like, "I hope I won't see you for 48 hours. And praise be to God, I haven't been back since because my Suburban through the renewing of the computer, it was transformed. And he's like, "That's what we need to do.: I'm telling you, live in Boston and you don't even notice how the computer of your mind just get gunked up. And then after a while, Christianity doesn't seem as plausible. Your faith doesn't seem as strong. Your desire to follow the Lord wanes. And after a while you realize, "Ah, I have conformed to the world, the world that does not submit to the Lord." So he says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" and part of that is the washing of water with the word. So dear Saint, Are you committed to holy scripture, to love scripture, read scripture, meditate on scripture? Yes, there is an intellectual part of Christianity. The intellectual part must lead to the devotional part, but the devotional part doesn't exist apart from the intellectual part. He says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Learn to think as a Christian, learn to think God's thoughts after Him. Practically, how are we to do this? He says, "Do not be conformed, but be transformed." It's an imperative, but it's a passive imperative. It's just like an Ephesians where Paul says, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit," and you say, "How do I do that?" You can't do it yourself, it's passive, it has to be done to you. But there is a part that you have to do, there's an imperative. And what our part is, you have to place yourself in a position where the streams of God's grace can bless you. You place yourself in a position where you study God's Word, and as you study God's Word and you meditate upon God's Word, there is a transformation that happens by the renewal of your mind. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul says, "We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." So we study God's Word in order to meet with the Word of God, and that's Jesus Christ. And as we do, we behold His glory and His glory is what transforms us. We must teach ourselves to think like Christians. Parents, we must teach our children to think like Christians. We can't outsource the spiritual formation of your child or the intellectual formation of your child to the school system, or to the government. We have to do this at home to teach our children to view the world as God tells us to view it. And here I also want to mention the following. We need to be careful to define worldliness biblically. Do not be conformed to this world. A lot of fundamentalists coming in right here into this verse, and they tell us exactly where you shouldn't be conforming to the world. And most of the time it's always outward, like confirmation of the world it has to do with alcohol, or smoking, or dancing, et cetera, et cetera. No, that's not what he's talking about at all. What he's talking about is the world, the evil age. They don't want to submit to God or even if they think of God, they think that it's works that saves us, or that good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell. And we add man-made rules to keep us from sin and religious ceremony, external righteousness, et cetera, et cetera. Paul says, "Hold on, you don't get to define what worlds is, only God does. And anything outside of God's Word is just man-made." So we need to be careful there. So he exhorts us to renew our minds by learning God's will as it is revealed in God's Word. In conclusion, if you are not a Christian today, if you have not received the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I wonder what you're counting on. I wonder what you're hoping and what you're trusting in that when you die, and you will stand before the throne of God, and God will say, "Why should I let you in?" I wonder what your answer is. I wonder what your fallback plan is." Well, I was a good person, or I did a few good things. I went to church every once in a while." If your answer begins with I, then that's works-based salvation, and that's not going to save you. No, the only answer that we can give is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins as a substitute for my sins. So if you're not a Christian today, we appeal to you, we appeal to do the most reasonable, rational things to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as savior. And if you do today, and you'd like to talk about the next steps in your walk with the Lord, I'll be up here right after the service, and I'd love to chat with you. For the Christian, are there areas of your life that you have been reluctant to put on the altar before God? And saying, "God, I know you're calling me to sacrifice this part of my life for you, and I just can't do it. I just can't do it." Today, I pray that you accept the grace of God and do it, sacrifice completely all of your life to the Lord. Where do you get the motivation to do that? From God's grace. There are many reasons to do the right thing, but nothing in human life can begin to compel a man or a woman to do the right thing from the heart. Religion can force you to do the right thing outwardly, but it's only the gospel that can transform your mind, and your heart, and the affections of your heart so that your actions are actually motivated by the great love of God. Where do you get the power to resist the most powerful of temptations? Where do you get the power to sacrifice time and the energy to live as you know the Lord would have you live? Where do you get the energy to love people selflessly from the heart? Where do you get the power to be humble before others to forgive and ask for forgiveness? Where do you get the power to set your mind on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth? Well, you get it from God's love, and all of that is given to us in one word therefore. God has loved you. He's poured out His mercy on you. He's you grace. Therefore, I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice to Him. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word, and we thank you for our time in it. We pray, Holy Spirit, that you take this word and you apply it to our hearts, that you transform, renew our minds, and that you transform us to be a glorious people, men and women reflecting the glory of our God. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Today on "Catholic Drive Time": Catholic Drive Time - 877-757-9424 Date – Friday, August 26, 2022 INTRO – Why are Salman Rushdie Book Sales Surging? Robert Spencer joins us! AND St. Padre Pio converts Shia LaBeouf??? ALSO –Dave Palmer – Back to the Father – Can we Merit anything from God? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan that Facebook limited distribution of the Hunter Biden laptop story based on a general request from the FBI. The Department of Homeland Security has officially terminated plans for the "disinformation board.” Consumer's Research accuses Uber of using “woke” abortion activism as cover for the transportation company's “horrifying” track record of sexual assaults. For the second time in two days, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has reported she was the target of a "SWATTING" attack. Join Email list! GRNonline.com/CDT GRN to 42828 What's Concerning Us – Shia LaBeouf converts to Catholicism after studying for 'Padre Pio' movie Shia LaBouf – near suicide, abuse accusations, 11:59 – (Audience Participation) Affects me deeply - explaining the TLM in a way I was unable to do 49:40 – Accent – just studying TLM – the way into Pio was the Mass... an emotional experience – felt that faking an accent would have taken him out of the moment and felt fake. 1:11:20 – Mel Gibson – DON'T GET IT WRONG! Guest Seg. Why are Salman Rushdie Book Sales Surging? Robert Spencer joins us! Who is Salman Rushdie? What is his book “Satanic Verses?” Why did it trigger a Fatwa? Young mother dies after husband set her on fire for refusing abortion 2nd Guest Seg. Dave Palmer – Back to the Father - Joe Social Media IG: @TheCatholicHack Twitter: @Catholic_Hack Facebook: Joe McClane YouTube: Joe McClane Adrian Social Media IG: @ffonze Twitter: @AdrianFonze Facebook: Adrian Fonseca YouTube: Adrian Fonseca YouTube: Catholic Conversations Rudy Social Media IG: @ydursolrac Youtube: Glad Trad Podcast Visit our website to learn more about us, find a local GRN radio station, a schedule of our programming and so much more. http://grnonline.com/

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosiacboston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of life. And we remember your holy scriptures that say that children are a blessing from you, they're a heritage from the Lord. And we thank you for baby Audrey. We thank you for her life. And we pray a special prayer of anointing and blessing upon her. And we pray that you strengthen Joyce and Pastor Andy in the season. We pray for Clara and Drew as well. Bless their family. We thank you for a beautiful, beautiful little girl. And we also pray Lord that you bless our time, the holy scriptures. We thank you for the scriptures. We thank you, Lord that despite our law breaking, our rebellion against you, you didn't leave us in our sins. And while we were still sinners, you sent your son, Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you lived a life that was wholly motivated by love toward God and people, love for God and people.And Lord, we thank you that you fulfilled the law perfectly. You never coveted once. We thank you for that. Not just example, but we thank you for your substitutionary atonement on the cross for us, bearing the penalty for our law breaking, the curse for our law breaking. And we thank you, Jesus, that you didn't stay dead, but you rose on the third day. You ascended and you're seated the right hand of God, interceding for us even now. And we pray, Jesus, send us the Holy Spirit. We pray, Holy Spirit, take these words from the holy scriptures and reveal them to us, illuminate them to us, enlighten them to us and use them to convict us of sin and draw us to righteousness.We pray for justification for those who are not yet Christians, we pray that you convert them, regenerate them, draw them to yourself, make them your children. And I pray for those of us who are Christians, convict us of sin as well and show us where we need to progress in sanctification, in pursuing obedience of faith. We pray that you bless our time, the holy scriptures, and we thank you for them. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.We're continuing our sermon series through Romans today. We're in chapter seven verses seven through 13. The title of the sermon is Sinful Beyond Measure. And what St. Paul said in the very beginning, he said, look, God entrusted me with the gospel. And the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, for whomever would believe. But we don't really understand our need for the gospel until we understand the law, until we understand our condemnation under the law, how much we've broken the law. And he's made clear that the law of God, the moral code, the 10 Commandments is neither the problem nor really the solution to the ultimate problem that plagues all of us. And that ultimate problem is the sin within our hearts.There are two tremendously naive perspectives on the world. These are two world views that are espoused all around. Every single one of us, we know there's something wrong with humanity. We know there's something wrong with us. And one of the views is, hey, let's just get rid of God's law because God's law isn't making us feel good. There's intuitive goodness, that people are basically good. And what's really in the way is the prohibitions of the Bible, the prohibitions of the church. We can figure out what's good and evil on our own. We can be good without God. We can figure out our own morality. Let's get rid of the law in scripture that makes us not feel so good about ourselves. Let's get rid of it completely.The second worldview is that we can recreate our own law. We don't need God's law. We can have our own law. We can figure out how to progress. We can figure out how to get rid of all the problems of humanity through education. But not one of these ultimately wrestles with the heinous power of sin. If we get rid of God's law, we still don't get rid of sin because God's law is written on our hearts. We have developed a reputation in the city that we are a church that talks about sin a lot. We talk about sin all the time. I basically preach the same sermon every Sunday. I get up and I tell you, you are all wicked sinners and so am I. We're all sinners. We are all under condemnation and we need to repent of our sin. And a lot of people say, let's not talk about sin. Let's just talk about love.But St. Paul talks about sin because understanding our sin, how sinful we are, gets us to still point where we beg for God's grace and mercy. And once we receive God's grace and mercy, then we experience love like we've never experienced. So if you get rid of talking about sin, you're actually getting rid of talking about love. St. Paul talks about sin all the time, seven chapters in sin, sin, sin, and grace, sin, sin, sin. Why? Because he views his job as a soul doctor. He diagnoses the problem. And he's honest about the problem of our condition, he's so honest about it because there is medicine available. He needs to convince us to understand how much we need the medicine. Then he says, yes, there is medicine. And that's called grace.St. Paul, he understood the dire condition because he himself was a sinner, so he talked about his own sin all the time. He actually called himself a chief of sinners. He's like number one, sinner. And the reason why he felt fine doing that, and wasn't downtrodden about it was because if you understand, you're the chief of sinners, you can also say, I am the chief of being loved by God. And when you're the chief of being loved by God, your heart erupts with love for God and love for people because scripture teaches the one who understands, he's forgiven much. The one who understands that she is forgiven much loves much. And that's to set up our time in Roman 7:7 through 13.Would you look at the text with me? What then shall we say that the law is sin? By no means. Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive, apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means it was sin producing death in me through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.We'll look at three devastating effects of the law in relation to sin from the text, three points to frame up our time. First, the law reveals sin. The law provokes sin, and the law condemns sin. First, the law reveals sin. Verse seven. He asked the question, what then shall we say that the law is sinful by no means? Why is he asking this question? Because in the earlier text, he did say that the law comes and the law arouses our sin. When something happens in human nature, we're so rebellious. When God says, don't do this or do this, we're like, who are you to tell me what to do or we're not to do. And we actually want to commit that sin even more in our unregenerated state. So he's like, but the problem's not in the law, he says. Certainly not, the law isn't sinful. If desires to sin are aroused by the law, and if the law actually fosters and promotes sin in a sense, then yes, the goodness of the law is called into question.The opponents of Paul were mostly Jewish opponents who grew up there nourished and nurtured in the law of God. And when Paul says, we're not under the law, but we're under grace. All of a sudden, there's red flags in their hearts. And they say, if you tell people we're not under law, we're actually telling them that they were free to sin and Saint Paul says, no. When you understand that you're under grace, you understand that you're free to obey God, not free to sin. There's no problem with the law. The problem is with our own sin. And just because the law stirs up our sin, it stirs up our sinful passions, it stirs up hostile feelings toward God, that doesn't mean there's a problem with the law. That means there's a problem with us. The law isn't evil or sinful. Our hearts are.The law isn't corrupt. Our sinful hearts are. The law is righteous, even if our response to it is sin. And he says, yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. He says, in a sense, God reveals his character through the law. And also, the law is a mirror that reveals our character. The law on the one hand flows from God's perfect radiance and perfection and his glory. On the other hand, Samira, that reveals just how sinful we are. The law isn't sinful, but it does reveal our sin. And it does take the Holy Spirit, when we hear how sinful we are. When we hear of the commandments that we've transgressed and when the Holy Spirit takes that message and applies it to our heart, that's what changes us. That's what regenerates our heart. That's the power of the gospel. This is why we have to talk about sin, because talking about sin gets people to a place where they can actually hear, okay, what's next.The Holy Spirit takes that convicted heart, melts it, pours the Holy Spirit and grace and transforms the person. The less you know about God, the less you're burdened about his law. The less you're aware of your sin and the more you know about God, the more you know about his law, the more acutely conscious you are of just how much you've sinned and the severity of your sin. Paul here brings in an illustration. We're talking about moral law. We're talking about commandments. Can you give us a specific one? And he says, okay, I'll tell you how the law reveals my sin. "If it wasn't for the law revealing my sin, I wouldn't know just how sinful I am." He says, "For I would not have known what it is to covet, if the law had not said, you shall not covet." Well, what's wrong with coveting? What's wrong with seeing something that someone else has and wanting the same thing? Is it okay to aspire to that? Is it okay to have ambition to have something similar?Yes, of course. But coveting is desiring that which is forbidden. It's someone else's and you want what belongs to someone else, what doesn't belong to you. Coveting. And scripture says that coveting is a sin. Did you know that? See, apart from the law, we do have a subjective understanding that, yeah, it probably isn't good to be covetous or envious of someone or jealous of some. We know that's not a positive thing, but no one in our culture says, that is sin. That is wickedness. The closest I think we get, there's no one in the media telling us this. There's no politicians telling us that covetousness is actually a root of many of your problems and dissatisfaction in life. No one in business tells you this. They tell you that you got to get the new iPhone. You got to get the new iPhone. You'll never be happy unless you get the new iPhone. That business is made on that.So we're not taught that. The closest we get to people saying don't covet it is teaching kids to share in school. That's the closest it gets. But St. Paul says it is, it's a commandment. Thou shall not covet. And the sin of covetousness, a particularly apt illustration, because it gets to the heart of the issue. It gets to the heart of sin, the inner root of sin, the inner root of man's rebellion and sinfulness because it addresses desire before behavior.A lot of people think that the commandments are just about don't do bad things. It's about conditioning our behavior, regulating our behavior. No, Jesus said, look, before you talk about behavior, you got to talk about heart because the heart of the matter is the heart. It was far easier in the first century for the Jews of Paul's time to say, I can imagine that I haven't broken most of the commands. I haven't committed adultery. I haven't stolen. But the honest man knows, the honest person knows that every single one of us has coveted. Exodus 20 verse 17. This is commandment number 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's, your neighbor's. That's what the emphasis is. You want someone else's life. There's a deep dissatisfaction with your own life and then you see someone else's life, and you're like, I want that. Envy is wanting someone else's life.In the movie, the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. So Robert Ford wants to kill Jesse James, because he is jealous of his fame. Finally, Robert Ford finds Jesse James, sneaks up on him, and then they have a conversation. And then Jesse James says, look, I can't figure out. He says, "Do you want to be like me or do you want to be me?" That's what he's talking about. This is covetousness, coveting that which does not belong to you. And the law is written on our hearts, so we know deep inside when we do something wrong, but then the preaching of the law comes or the reading of the law comes and you're like, oh, this is what God's law is. And then it takes the subjective experience in the heart and it codifies it, it makes it objective. And you say, oh, this is wrong. God says that this is evil.Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought that coveting someone else's lot in life is actually sin, transgressing God's law? And we do this all the time. Look at someone else's life. By the way, if you live in Brookline, if you live in this area and you know real estate, how expensive it is, coveting someone else's house. That's the thing. And you know why God knew. God knew that you would live in Brookline, Massachusetts, or in this area. And God knew the real estate markets. And they like do not hunt, do not covet your neighbor. And it comes before anything else. Don't covet your neighbors house. That's the first one that's mentioned. By the way, I've stopped watching HGTV. I can't do it anymore, too much sin. Look at all those parking spots, multiple parking spots. They just come with the, I can't do it.The phrase, must be nice. Anytime you use the phrase, must be nice. Must be nice to live in that neighborhood. Must be nice to have that house. Must be nice to have that much money, that vehicle. Must be nice to have that spouse. Must be nice to be single. Must be nice to have kids. Must be nice not to have kids. Must be nice to be a man. Must be nice to be a woman. Must be nice to have a fast metabolism. Must be nice to be beautiful, tall, short, athletic, smart. Must be nice to be someone else. We all feel that dissatisfaction. The great famous quote from Augustine, "Our hearts are restless until they find it rests you." Our hearts are restless. And this restless, this dissatisfaction with our lot in life, with what God has given us or what God has not given us. It's toxic. It stems from pride because you feel entitled. You should have something better than what God has given you.And ultimately it is idolatry because what you're saying is, God, you're not a good God. You're not doing your job well. I could do your job better than you. I'd rather worship a different God. And ultimately, it's not loving toward God or toward people, because if you're questioning God's doing of his job, you're not loving him. And then also you're not loving your neighbor when you can't rejoice for the blessings that they've been given. Scripture tells us, rejoice with those who rejoice. First Corinthians 13:4 says, love is patient and kind. Love does not envy.So this commandment is a commandment that every single one of us is broken. By the way, this is a tremendous way of sharing gospel with anybody. No matter what age, no matter where they come from, everyone knows this part of human experience. This is how I teach my daughters. I have four daughters. My youngest is four. And when they can't share their stuff and they're like, ah, she's got that dress. I want that dress. Or her room's bigger than mine. I'm like you are coveting. You're a little sinner. You're all sinners. You need to repent of your sin. We all covet. We all sin. And this is where St. Paul starts. Level playing field. He said, I coveted. The great apostle, the second most influential person that ever lived after Jesus Christ. He said, if it wasn't for the law, I wouldn't have even known how covetous my heart is. So the law, no, it's not sinful. It's the sin inside that actually takes the law and does sinful things with it.Like what? Well, this is point 2. The law provokes sin. He talked about this in the earlier paragraph that the law arouses our sins, sin within, hears the law thou shall not. And all our sinful heart wants to do is the exact opposite of what God tells us. So verse eight, but sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness for apart from the law, sin lies dead. He says, apart from the law coming, I didn't understand just how sinful my heart is, but when I heard thou shall not covet, all my sinful heart wants to do is covet even more. And he says, sin, seizing an opportunity, the Greek term is used of a military base.It's a starting point or a base of operation for an expedition. It's a springboard for advance, further advance. And he says, sin establishes within us this base camp. And St. Paul uses this picturesque term to depict this ongoing military conflict in our soul. And he says, it happens when the law is preached to us. When we hear it, sin springs to life, kindles in us a desire to do the opposite of what the law compels us to do. It exacerbates our sin. It provokes us.Ever since Adam and Eve, human beings have always been enticed by that which is forbidden. The forbidden fruit. God says, don't do this, and that's all they could think about. So instead of restraining my sin, the law arouses my sin. Our sin response to God's law is stirred up and the sin somehow exploits the law. First Corinthians 15:56 says, the sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. The power of sin is the law. The law comes and sin within us, wants to rebel against the law as hard as we possibly can. Indicates a dormant sinfulness that springs into life whenever we hear what God's will is. The serpent doesn't tempt Adam and Eve until after God gives the commandment in Genesis 2:17. Thou shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan comes in in chapter three. It was only once the commandment had been given that Satan had a specific objective to attack. It produced in me all kinds of covetousness, he says.The word covetousness just means desire for that which isn't yours, which is forbidden. Forbidden by whom? Forbidden by God. And it's an evil desire that gives birth to evil action. So in a sense, desires are as damnable before God as our deeds. Desires are as damnable as our deeds if the desires contradict God's will. So we're not just sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. And James 1:14 through 15, but each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when is fully grown, brings forth death. Where, apart from the law, sin lies dead. The law comes, sin is awakened in the presence of the law and the law exposes and magnifies this.What do I mean that sin, that the law provokes our sin? Well, I can give many examples, but because we're in Boston, Massachusetts in the month of June, I'll have a very specific example. So last week, I did mention that I'm not a fan of the pride flag being flown in my four-year old daughter's preschool room. I don't want them even knowing about sexuality for years to come. And then I come home and I get email that someone gave us a Google maps review, and it was a one-star review. And the person didn't like that comment. Like, oh, the church should be welcoming to absolutely everybody. Well, we are. We're welcoming to everybody. We welcome everybody and we're equal opportunity offenders of everybody. Doesn't matter what your sin, you're welcome here. Come with your sin. And we're going to tell you, you're all wicked sinners. You are all not wicked in the good sense, but you are all wicked, wicked sinners. You need to repent. Everybody's welcome to come hear that message.But the reason I bring that up is because the command, thou shall not commit adultery, that's where that commandment comes from. And what that commandment says, it regulates sexuality. That sex is only allowed between a man and a woman that are in a covenant relationship of marriage and that covenant relationship for all of life. So what our culture has done is taking that, oh, that shall not come in adultery. Oh, that's the only place that God allows for sexual relations. We're going to do everything else. And we're just going to keep adding. There's a new updated flag every year, every year there's an update and they add letters. And it's just every single way imaginable to do the opposite of what God says. That's what our rebellious culture does. And we are called as a people to celebrate the sin, which we do not. And because if we celebrate the sin, then you never get to a place where you actually get grace and where you actually experience the love of God.So the law reveals our sin. It provokes our sin and it does condemn our sin. Verse nine. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. So there was a sense where Paul was apart from the law. When was that? Most likely it was before he turned 13 because in Jewish culture, you become a man at 13. You become a woman at 12, which is actually tremendous. My oldest is 13, I've been telling her since she was 12. I was like, you're a woman. You are a woman. And she's like, what does that mean? I was like, you know that babysitting job you got, yeah, you made money. You're a woman, but you're going to have to pay rent. No, we didn't get there. But you are responsible under God's law, you are responsible as a 12-year old girl, as a 13-year old boy, you're under the law. You are responsible for your own soul.Is that what he's talking about? I think that's part of what he's talking about. But he says when the commandment came, so for Paul, yes, he was responsible under the law at 13, but he was also conditioned in this culture of the fair sect he was part of. He was conditioned to fulfill the law from the letter, not the spirit. So for example, in Philippians 3:5 through six, he's got a spiritual autobiography. And he says, "I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee, as the zeal persecutor of the church, as the righteousness, under the law, blameless.What's he saying? He's saying, I thought I had fulfilled the law. I thought I hadn't broken one commandment. I thought I was absolutely blameless. So did the commandment come to him yet? No, because he didn't understand the fullness of the commandment, that God demands a love from the heart toward God, toward people, that God doesn't want you to just fulfill the letter of law. But the intent of the law, the spirit of the law when the commandment came, when the law came home to me. When I finally realized what was required of me, I was made to face the fact that far from being a law keeper, I was inveterate law breaker.And this is what happens to every person that becomes a Christian. Like, yeah, you hear about the commandments. Yeah, you hear that you sinned against God. Yeah, you hear that. God is holy and that we're sinful and there's an eternal gulf between us, a chasm between us. Yeah, we're separated from it. We hear it. And then you hear it, and all of a sudden it comes home. The commandment comes home and you realize, I have transgressed against the holy God. At any moment that I die, I will spend eternity apart from God. It comes home. It wasn't just someone sinful out there, it's theoretical. When you realize I have sinned against the holy God, I am in need of grace. I am in need of mercy. And that's what brings you to repentance. That's what Paul is talking about. He tried to fulfill the law apart from faith, and obviously anything done apart from faith is sin.So in Galatians 3:23, he says, now before faith came. So there was a time when he was trying to fulfill the law, but he didn't have faith, so he wasn't pursuing obedience of faith. He wasn't pursuing loving God from the heart and obedience to the commandments. Now, before the faith came, we were held captive under law, in prison until the coming faith would be revealed. He says, when the commandment came, the subjective experiences, conscience was ratified by the objective law that was spoken. So he realized he was guilty before the law. Apart from the work of the holy spirit to convict us of sin. Using law, people think they're fine before God. And then the Holy Spirit comes when the law is proclaimed and quickens our conscious and makes us alive to the law. And we feel for the first time, the weight of our guilt. That's what he's saying.Verse 10, the very commandment that promised life, proved to be death to me, for sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through killed me. So commandment does promise life. God says, obey the commandments and you shall live. If you break the commandments, you shall die. He says it promised life, but proved to be death. Why? Because sin seizes this opportunity through the commandment, deceives me and through it killed me. Sin deceives. That's why we sin. In the moment of temptation, sin is promising us things. What does sin promise? Sin promises us the same thing that the serpent promised Eve. Sin promises us happiness apart from God. This deep soul satisfaction that we long for, sin says, you're going to find it when you follow me, when you act on the sin. That's why sin is so attractive.Why would we be inclined to steal what belongs to another? Why would we bear false witness against our neighbor? Why would we lust? Why would we covet? Because the temptation comes with this promise of bliss. I want things to change. Sin has promised me happiness now. If I follow sin, maybe I'll be happy. And we begin to believe that the path to happiness is to act against the law, to act in accordance with our passions. That's why sin is attractive. It does bring pleasure, even if temporary, but pleasure doesn't automatically or necessarily bring happiness. If pleasure, equated to happiness, then drug addicts would be the most happy people alive. We know pleasure does not equate to happiness, but sin promises the same thing every time. Sin and you'll feel better. The pleasure will make you feel a little happier than you do now.Genesis 3:4 through five. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Hey, not only is this going to make you happy, not only is this going to satisfy you at the deepest level, this is the satisfaction you're longing for, but sin also deceives by saying that God will not bring about the promised consequences for the breaking of the law. You're not going to surely die. Well, did they die? Yeah, they died spiritually the day they sinned. And then they also ultimately died physically. Of course, they died. If God promises that there will be consequences for sin, there always are consequences for sin. Unless you taste the forbidden fruit, he's saying you won't be happy. Meaning God is withholding happiness from you. Meaning God is not good. God is not loving. His law is created to keep you from happiness. That's what Satan says. That's how he lies. That's how sin lies.Verses six through seven of Genesis three. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired, to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. And then the eyes of both were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin clothes. It was a delight to the eyes. In the Hebrew, nehmad, which means beautiful or desirable. It's this desire that's internal, a drive, a lust that includes anything that is forbidden by God. And this is how sin deceives us. Have you been deceived by sin? Yeah. We all have been deceived by sin.St. Paul says he has been deceived by sin, but it wasn't the law's problem. Verse 12, he says the law is holy. So the law is holy. The commandment is holy and righteous and good. He says the law is holy and just and good. So meaning when the law forbids something or the law commands something and says that this is the way to holiness, what God is actually saying, this is the best thing for you because, and not many people say this, but this is true. The way to happiness is holiness. The way to happiness is holiness. As you study church history, and as you talk to saints who've been in the faith for a long time, they'll tell you that the most satisfying moments in life are when you experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit.Well, the Holy Spirit in the name, Holy Spirit is the word holy. You cannot experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit if you're not pursuing holiness. If you're pursuing sin, you are grieving the Holy Spirit and actually moving yourself away from where happiness is found. He says the law is holy. It's just, it's good. So Satan comes in and says, no, no, no, this law isn't good. It's not good to have your desires restrained. It's not good to deny yourself things that everyone else is doing. But he says, no, that's false. Those are lies. And you need to counter all those lies with the truth of God's word. The law was designed by God to bring life. And we in turn, turn that occasion for death. Verse 13. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means, it was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.You're saying that the law of God was given to us so that we understand just how sinful we are. We need to recognize sin for what it is, just how heinous it is. And God's will is no longer hidden from us or tucked away in the recesses of our hearts. His will has been published for all to see. And any violation of his commandment is sin. The law reveals our sin. The law provokes our sin. It does condemn. The law says that we're all guilty as charged. We are under condemnation. And in that state, if you die, you spend eternity apart from God in hell. So it gets us to this place where you say, well, what hope is there for us? What hope is there? We have coveted.Paul, you coveted. You are the chief of sinners. Paul, where did you find hope? Where did you find forgiveness, where do you find mercy? And he says, well, I'm glad you asked. That's the whole point. The whole point is to get us to a place where we realize just how sinful we are. And St. Paul would say, I thought I was fine apart from Jesus Christ. And then Jesus met me on the road to Damascus, and I saw his radiance and his glory and his holiness and his righteousness. And I realized just how far I am from him. And St. Paul, then for three days, didn't eat or drink. And all he did was repent. And he was repenting of a sin and his self-righteousness. Where can we find hope for forgiveness of our sins? Only in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came and he lived a perfect life. He never coveted once. He never lusted once. He never committed sin, not in deed or in heart or in desire.And Jesus Christ fights sin all of his life though he was tempted over and over. He was tempted by Satan, we read in Matthew four. And then Jesus Christ goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, and it hits him that he is about to absorb the wrath of God for every single sin that was ever committed though he had never committed a sin. So the shame and the guilt that we feel the very first time that we commit a sin, all of that, he was experiencing on the cross as he's going through excruciating physical pain. But the worst of which was the spiritual anguish where you realize is the wrath of God being poured out on him. Jesus dies on the cross. He's buried, raised on the third day. He's ascended. And the gospel is that if we repent of our sin, whatever our sins are, if we repent of all our sins, Jesus Christ forgives us. We're united with him, buried with in baptism, raised with him in newness of life and Jesus's perfect law keeping is reckoned to us and his death pays for the guilt of our sins.Now, what happens to the law for the Christian? So the law came to reveal our sin. Yes, we're sinners. It provokes our sin. We want to sin more. It condemns us. And then the grace comes in, covers all of that. Now we're no longer sinners, so what role does the commandments and the law of God play? Well now, the law is given to us as a rule for life, and we're filled with such gratitude for our forgiveness that we want to honor God in obedience of faith. And the more we realize that we've been forgiven, the more we're filled with love for God. And this is why I want to conclude with Luke 7:36 through 50, a wonderful story that communicates that the more you've been forgiven, the more you love.This is Luke 7:36 through 50.One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair on her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would've known who and what sort of woman this is who's touching him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he answered, "Say it, teacher." "A certain money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 denari and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more?"Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt." And he said to him, "You've judged rightly." Then turning toward the woman. He said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. But from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he was forgiven little, loves little." But he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Than those who are at table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?" And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."Friends, do you know how much you've been forgiving? Have you been forgiven a little or have you been forgiven much? If you are not yet a Christian, we today welcome you to repent of your sins and accept the forgiveness that God offers to each one of us, to be forgiven much so that we then in turn love God much. And Christians, meditate on this. Meditate on the fact that we have transgressed a great law, holy law, good and just law. There's been condemnation for us because of the law breaking, but because of Jesus Christ, there's no more condemnation for any of us. That's how much we've been forgiven an infinite debt. And in response, how are we to love? We're to love with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind.Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gospel. And we thank you for the gift of grace. Yes, Lord, we have coveted. And yes, Lord, we've lusted. Yes, Lord, there's been anger and hatred in our hearts, both toward people and toward you. And we ask you to forgive us of our rebellion. And I pray that you make us a people that don't try to change your law, and don't try to jettison your law, but make us a people who love your law, delight in your law. Not because through it, we can earn salvation, no, but because Jesus Christ fulfilled it completely. And Jesus, through this law, you tell us how we can live a life of holiness. And when we do so, you fill our hearts with a satisfaction that nothing else in this world can provide. Lord, if anyone is not yet a Christian, I pray today, save them, regenerate them. And I pray right now, tune our hearts to worship you and sing praises to your holy name. And we pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Audio Transcript: Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of life. And I pray, Lord, help us be a church that puts love of life into practice. Help us be a people that love babies, children, support families. Mothers are vital, not just valuable. And help us be a counterculture here in Boston, where we love children more than we love pets or plants. And Lord, we do thank you that we are having conversation about abortion now in our country. We thank you that Roe v. Wade might potentially be overturned. I never thought I'd see that in my lifetime, but, Lord, thank you for that. We pray it does get overturned. We pray that abortion just stops, just pray the need for it is removed. We pray for a great awakening in this nation where people do fear you, they submit to Christ and they accept his grace and they follow the moral law, which would prevent so much bloodshed. And we do pray now, Lord, that you bless our time the Holy Scriptures or at least, Spirit, we welcome you. We ask for your presence. That's what we need to keep going. Pray that you bless our souls today. We pray that you encourage ourselves with the gifts that come by justification through faith what a gift that is. But with that gift, we have many other gifts, we have access to the throne room of God, the Holy of Holies. And that's where our souls long to be now, Lord. We pray God the Father, that you, by the power of the Spirit, take us there, transcend us into your presence. Whatever our worries, anxieties, burdens, remove it all. Whatever sins are in the way of the Holy Spirit coursing through this room, I pray remove those sins, remove shame, guilt, all of it. Help us focus on you through the scriptures. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. We're in a sermon series through the book of Romans, where in 5:1 through 11 today, the title of the sermon is Peace with God. We've been talking about the fact that when you repent of your sin and trust yourself to Jesus Christ, believe God, that all of your sins are forgiven. You're justified by grace through faith as if you've never sinned. It happens in a moment. The very second you give yourself to Lord, you are forgiven, your debts, trespasses are forgiven. And when we talk about debts, we're not talking about monetary debts, we're talking about moral debt. Jesus Christ didn't pay finances to save us. He absorbed the wrath of God for our moral law breaking. I'll tell you the difference between a monetary debt and a moral debt. Monetary debt, I'll just give you an example from ice cream trucks because ice cream trucks, I have a love-hate relationship with them. Because I love the fact that there's ice cream, I hate the fact that they practice predatory tactics. They go to the park. They go to the soccer practices. They wait when kids come home from school. School is ending they're right outside. So imagine I am with one of my daughters buying ice cream, it's overpriced, always overpriced, inflation, and a little boy in front of me, the ice cream is $5, he only has $4. He wants the ice cream, he's missing $1. And every kind hearted human being is going to say, let me pay the debt, let me pay the difference between what he owes and what he has. It's a monetary debt. A moral debt is different. If the little boy has no money and he's like, you know what, forget this, I really want my ice cream, and breaks into the ice cream truck and steals an ice cream and runs. And then the Brookline police, they find him and they bring him back to the ice cream truck guy, and ice cream truck guy has to make a decision. What are you going to do? You're going to press charges against this little kid? And I'm there and I'm like, I'm going to buy this ice cream. Let me pay the debt. And the ice cream truck doesn't have to accept the payment. It's a moral debt now. It just gives you an example of the difference. Well, we've broken the moral law of God which flows from the character of God, so it's a personal offense against God. Therefore we need someone to not just pay the debt, but actually live a perfect moral life on our behalf. And that's what Jesus Christ did. And that's why when we repent of our sins, we're justified by grace through faith. Because not just of his death, but of his life and then also his intercession now for us. And the other thing I just want to mention about justification by grace through faith, it's a gift, but it's a gift that keeps on giving. My daughter Elizabeth, her 11th birthday recently, end of March, she was given a family gift. We do gift from our family, but then our extended family gets together. And one of my sister got her a massive bag, and in it was just gift after gift, after gift, after gift. And I was doing a video and it was a minute plus and I was like, all right, that's enough. I'm never going to watch this anyway. But because I'm in the moment, I'm present, and it's a gift that just keeps on giving. That's what justification by grace through faith is. And this is our text today, he pulls out gift after gift, after gift, from this text today, with Romans 5:1 through 11. Would you look at the texts with me? Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word, may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Five points to frame up our time, each one of them is a gift that flows from the ultimate gift of justification by faith. First, peace with God, access to God, hope in God, joy in suffering, and God's love poured out. First, peace with God, Romans 5:1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been justified by faith, eres tense, something has already taken place in the past, it doesn't need to happen again. And it's been accomplished, it is finished. That's what he's talking about. That when you repent of your sin, believe in Jesus Christ, that's it. You're justified by grace through faith, all of your sins. No matter what you've done, no matter what you will do, all of your sins are forgiven. Therefore communicates this tremendous truth that you can be justified right now. At this very second, if you're not a Christian, if you turn from your sin, repent before God, heartfelt, contrite, humble repentance, and trust yourself to Jesus Christ that he is my only hope. Immediately, there's no trial period, there's no 30 days try on Christianity, see if it works out for you. If you're good enough, God keeps it, the justification by faith. If you messed up within 30 days, that's it. No, no, no, no, no. The very second that you believe, you're either justified or not. Do you trust in Jesus Christ? If not, what are you waiting for? What's keeping you from today being justified by grace through faith? Repent of sin and turn to Christ. If yes, if you have been justified, you're declared just. It is finished. Therefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the agent of peace. He's the prince of peace. He's the peacemaker. He's the means by which we get that peace. He's the channel. He's the medium by which the peace is given. If you study world history, you remember, the jubilation in the world, global jubilation when World War II ended. There was peace. Paul isn't talking about the end of war between people, he's talking about the end of the worst of all wars possible, the war between us and God on a cosmic level, of cosmic proportions because there's an enmity between us and God. There's hostility. Because by nature, we regard God as an enemy. We don't really want God. Some people pretend they're religious. Some people pretend they're indifferent to God. They're not indifferent. Hearts are hard toward God, recalcitrant, stubborn. Hearts don't pulsate with love toward God. And our natural thinking, if we're honest, we don't want God to tell us what to do. Who is God to tell me what to do? We want to be independent, autonomous. We want to be gods of our own lives. We're at war with God. Okay, I get it. We're at war with God. But surely, God isn't at war with us, right? Surely, God is the God of patience and love and kindness and mercy and grace. Well, scripture is absolutely clear, God is at war with us. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven for all ungodliness and unrighteousness, against people who suppress the truth of God, that he's put in our hearts. We suppress it with our sin. God is soul, you can't bear to look at iniquity. So therefore we need to be reconciled with God because we're estranged from God. And this is why the work of Jesus Christ is so important. It is the work of mediation. That the God man, Jesus Christ stands in the chasm between God and man. He's the mediator. He brings these strange parties together. He comes into hostile world estranged from God, loves God, loves people does it perfectly, the only one to do it perfectly. And we killed him. That's the hostility. You want proof of the hostility, our hostility against God? We killed him. Hours before Jesus' crucifixion, he gathers his frightened disciples in the upper room, before the Lord's Supper. He knows he's about to die. He's got nothing to give to them, of worldly possessions. He's got nothing to bequeath to them. What does he give them? Gives them something infinitely better, he gives them peace. John 14:27, peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. What stands in the way of peace versus our hostility? It's our sin. That's what stands in the way of peace. We need a peace with God. That's what Jesus Christ offers, a peace with God. And once you get the peace with God, you can enjoy the peace of God. And it's a peace that counters our fear. Jesus says, don't let your hearts be afraid. It counters our troubled souls. Don't let your hearts be troubled. He says, I am leaving my peace with you. And the only way that we can access that peace experience, that peace, and peace that transcends all understanding, it's not on a physical level, it's on the spiritual. It's on soul level. The only way we can experience that peace, peace of God, is if we have peace with God. So many people don't understand, the world don't understand life because they think the body is all there is, the material is all there is. And when you're going through pain and when going through trouble, you think, oh, all I need is just ... I need a pill, I need to go to the doctor, I need something to make me feel better. The whole time, not realizing it a soul pain. It's pain at the level of the soul and only a soul doctor can help, and that's Jesus Christ. Only peace with God can settle the soul and Christ is our peace. The objective fact of peace with God makes it possible to have the subjective peace of God. Philippians 4:4 through 7, rejoice in the Lord when? Always. That's a commandment, always. Again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Do you know this peace? When everything around you feels like it's falling apart, it doesn't make sense to have peace. You need something that transcends understanding. It's a soul level peace. That's what Jesus Christ offers, by justification through faith. The second gift that we get that flows out of justification through faith is access to God. Verse 2, through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Access. If someone famous gives you their phone number and they're like, hey, text me anytime, call me anytime. All of a sudden, you have access to them. It's the same concept, but we have access to the God of the universe. The greatest blessing in the Garden of Eden was paradise. The greatest blessing about it, the thing that made it paradise was unlimited access to God. I mean, you could just go for a stroll with God. "Hey, God, you want to go for a prayer walk?" Just going to have a conversation. Anytime they can enter the unlimited access, the beautiful presence of God, immediate presence of God, but they sinned. They lost God's presence and they suffered a spiritual death, and they were expelled from the garden. They were expelled from the very presence of God. And God puts an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance. That's it, it's blocked. You can't enter the presence of God, you're banished. And God chooses Abraham and gives him the gift of faith, counts him as righteous through him, promises that I'm going to make you a great nation and through you, bless the nations of the world. And through him, the Messiah would come. And in this, God was creating people for himself, a remnant for himself. And then Israel comes from Abraham, and Israel is in captivity for 400 years and slaved in Egypt. God brings them out through his servant, Moses, and God brings his presence with them. And he gives them the plan of the tabernacle that manifested the presence of God, the God is in their midst. And at the core of the tabernacle in the center of the camp was the Holy of Holies. This is where the immediate presence of God was. And then the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant and a chest on which was the mercy seat. And in the chest was a copy of the Decalogue, the 10 Commandments, the manna from the wilderness, and Aaron's rod that had blossomed. And on top of the mercy seat was a blood of the offering that was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement. From the whole nation of Israel, all of them, only one person, the high priest only once a year was allowed into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God. Everyone else had to stand in the holy place or the outer core. You can't come close to God because he's holy, and he will have to kill you for your sin if you come that close. And even the high priest, before he went in, he had to prepare himself, prayer, fasting, repentance, consecration. And then he would go in with fear and trembling. They'll tie a rope to his ankle as he walks in, with bells, just in case he dies in the presence of a holy God. And they've learned this from experience. Oh, the high priest died, you hear the bells, and then they pull them out by his leg. Why? Because God is holy. And one of the most intricately designed parts of the tabernacle that was the curtain or the veil, later became the veil in the temple, that separate the holy place from the Holy of Holies. And the veil was thick. It was a thick drape, it couldn't be broken. And it was to communicate, but there's a barrier between us and God. And it wasn't until Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived that perfect life, and then goes to a cross on Golgotha. He's been crucified. He's bearing the penalty for our sins. Cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God's wrath is boring down on his soul going through literal hell. And then when his life was blotted out, the sun was blotted out in the middle of the day, became pitch black as night and earthquake and the veil was ripped like paper. Matthew 27:51 through 54, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!" Jesus Christ on that cross, you know what he took for us? Yes, he absorbed the wrath of God. Yes, he paid debt for us. He took the age of sword, the sword, the flaming sword that was there to ban us, to keep us from the presence of God. Jesus Christ took that sword himself through his heart, dies of a broken heart in order to give us access to God. The wall of separation was destroyed because of the mediator, Jesus Christ. And after Jesus rose, he ascended to heaven, he entered the heavenly Holy of Holies. And right now, Jesus Christ is making intercession. He's interceding for us before the Father for our current sin. The greatest human experiences, the overwhelming sense of being in the presence of God because you get a taste of heaven, you taste the presence of the divine glory that Christ has opened for us. Along with access to God, we have a hope in God, and this is second part of Verse 2. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Sometimes in the Christian walk, all you need to do is keep standing, just stand. Oftentimes, we think, all right, spiritual warfare, I got to charge the gates of hell, let's go. And then you read Ephesians 6, in Ephesians 6, he's talking about spiritual warfare. And he says, stand firm in the Lord and in the strength of his might. And over and over, stand, stand, stand, stand, stand. Meaning just stand. Before sin, get up, just keep standing, keep standing. It's like in a boxing match. And I think perhaps this is what St. Paul was alluding to, because he often uses sports metaphors. I don't know if he enjoyed sports. I think he did. And by the way, all the beatings he went through, he had to be in shape to do that. I think he liked boxing. And boxing in one round, you can get knocked down twice. But if you get up before the bell, you're good, you're good. So in life, you can get knocked down, just get up. Even if you get knocked out, if you get knocked out. All right. We'll give you 30 seconds on ... Ay. We'll give you a minute. We'll give you ... Just get up. Stand. Stand in the grace. And when we stand in that grace, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. What is this hope? It's a gift that God gives to every single justified person. With normal hope, we talked about this last week, there's no assurance that this thing that you hope for will happen. I hope the economy gets better. I hope someone else gets elected. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope. It's wishful thinking for the most part or desire. But God's gift of hope is different. The metaphor used for hope in Hebrews is that hope is an anchor for our soul. Meaning, our soul without hope does not have stability. We're tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. He says this hope is an assured hope, that when we hope in God, it's true. It will happen. God will come through. What's the difference between faith and hope? I don't know if you've ever thought about that. What's the difference between faith and hope? Faith looks to what has already taken place. The historic work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we look back, we believe in it. We trust ourselves to Christ and we're saved, and we believe God. We believe his word, but it's all things that happen in the past. Hope is merely faith looking forward. This is all happened. I believe that's true and I know that what God has promised will happen. I hope in God, in the glory of God. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. The word for rejoice here is different word than just usually rejoicing. And joy is the word for boasting. We boast in the glory of God. We glory in the glory of God. There's a celebration. There's an ecstasy beyond normal levels of joy. When you experience the glory of God and you focus on the glory of God, the Greek word for glory is doxa, we get the word doxology. We love seeing the doxology at the end of the services. We're glorifying God because he's worthy of the glory. The Hebrew word for glory is kabod, which means a heaviness, a weakness. Meaning there's nothing light or insignificant about God. There's a gravitas to God. When someone says something profound, what do we say? We say, oof. That's heavy. Everything God says is heavy, because God is heavy. And a lot of our problems in life is we take ourselves too seriously, and God not seriously enough. Everything God says is heavy and we're to take his word. The word says, this is the one to whom I will look, the one who was humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. God said it, I tremble at it. The purpose of worship is to describe glory to God, honor, revere him, fear him, adore him in the excellence of his being. Sometimes when you talk about glory, it's abstract. What does it mean glory with ... Because we don't really use that word. And glory, what are we talking about? Michael Jordan has glory, he's the greatest of all time, Tom Brady. We talk about in sports like, that's a glorious person, glory days, if you're a high school athlete or things like that. What's he talking? He's talking about a glory that is part of the Godhead. Jesus Christ once actually revealed his glory to the disciples. This is on the Mount of Transfiguration. Matthew 17, after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as snow. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." I always laugh at that part, because Peter's kind of a moron. In that, he doesn't really have filters. He just says whatever comes to mind. He sees God's glory. He sees the glory of Jesus Christ. He feels it. I'm in the presence of God, I never want to leave. How can we stay here forever? I got an idea, Jesus. I'll make some tents. I'll make some tents. Let's just live up here. This is awesome. By the way, the craziest part of this is the guy was married. It is three tents, all right. Moses and John, hey, you guys bunk. I made the tents. Jacob and Elijah and Jesus, come here, come here. Come here. He doesn't want to leave, because he's experiencing the glory of God. If you study church history, you study the saints. The saints will tell you there are times where God, he does reveal his immediate presence in a way that just satisfies the soul like nothing else. And I've experienced that several times in life. I have key moments and I'm like, yup, God is in the room. And I want to change a thing. And I just want this to keep going for all of eternity. But then you got work to do, responsibilities, and God's like, all right, enjoy. I encouraged you. Now do what I said, and then God speaks. Peter said to Jesus, he was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadow them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased, listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came up and touched them saying, rise and have no fear. When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one, but Jesus only. What I get from that is Peter felt tremendous in basking in the glory of God. But then God the Father speaks. He's like, hey, man, you also got to do the stuff I've said. I said it because a lot of people chase the presence of God, feelings about God, and it's awesome. And they don't really think about, am I doing what God said? We want more of the Holy Spirit, and then God's like, yeah, but I spoke and I gave you my will. Look at the Holy Scriptures. Rejoice in the glory of God. The fourth gift that we get from justification by faith is joy and suffering. Verse 3, not only that, that's the we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. The clear connection here is, if you want to rejoice in the glory of God, you need to understand that there will be suffering. That if you want to experience more of God, it comes by way of suffering. If you want to level up, spiritually speaking, and you're honest about it and you put the work in, there is suffering that comes. And we are called to ... As much as we rejoice in the glory of God, we are to rejoice in our sufferings. Now here, I need a little caveat. Sometimes when I master a text and I get up here and I present the text to you, it can come off as if I've mastered the concept. This concept, I have not mastered. I am a novice when it comes to rejoicing and suffering. Because when I suffer, I, well, the last thing in the world, want to do is rejoice. I want to fight people. I want to just sit and just be despondent, just ... Or I truncate it, meaning I pretend there's nothing wrong and I just keep going. We all suffer, says our suffering. Doesn't say your suffering. He's including himself in this, our suffering. We all suffer. We have, we do, we will. We all have seasons like this, valley of the shadow of death seasons, where discouragement lurks around every corner, emails, texts, a phone call, conversation. Seasons where prayer is no longer just a contemplative luxury, it's the only way you stay alive. Seasons like that, rejoice in suffering, enjoy affliction and tribulation. Is that what he's saying? Like a stoic grin and bear. What he's saying is justification by grace, it changes your perspective on everything in life because your eternity is guaranteed. Once you've been justified, you trust that God is good and God is loving and God is sovereign. And that there is a purpose in your pain, if God is allowing you to go through a season of pain. Whatever the suffering is, could be physical suffering, because of health ailments, it could be God's discipline because of consequences of our sin. It could be demonic oppression, it could be challenges in relationship. Whatever the suffering he say, once we are justified, even our pain can be occasion for joy. Suffering isn't inherently joyful. It's not inherently pleasant. It's not pleasurable. You don't get the joy from the suffering. You get the joy despite the suffering. Why? Because we found the greatest treasure that there is. The great pearl of great price, no matter how much pain we go through, all of this pain can be engulfed with the joy. You have God. You're at peace with God, we have this great treasure. Also, my wife is from Ukraine, and I say that as context for the following, whenever I go through suffering, honestly, it sounds savage, but this is super helpful. My wife just says, at least you are not in hell. And you know what? She's right. She's right. I'm not in hell. Actually, your worst suffering is the closest to hell, dear Christian, that you'll ever get. You'll get through it's just a day, it's just a week, it's just a month, it's just 100 year. Who cares? If in comparison to all of eternity, and I say that because hell is the worst kind of suffering. It's called torment. Revelation 14:9 through 11, and another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever, they have no rest, day or night, these worshippers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name." From the perspective of heaven, dear saint, if you look back at your darkest seasons, you will say it was nothing compared to what God saved me from. How do you suffer without your spirit breaking, without falling into despair, without abandoning hope? You do it by the power of the Holy Spirit with the eternal perspective, but also with focus on the fruit that suffering yields. This is where Paul focuses our attention. Suffering increases your pain tolerance. That's Verse 4, it produces endurance, and endurance produces character. So suffering produces endurance, meaning what is endurance? Endurance, you keep going when everything is painful. Every athlete knows this, every musician knows this. Anyone who's done anything of significance, which is really ... You know there are moments where you just want to quit and just keep going, endurance. Suffering increases your spiritual pain tolerance, physical pain tolerance, and it puts muscle on your soul. It teaches you to keep going when you just want to give up. Endurance then produces character. An easy life does nothing to produce character. One of my goals in life, one of my job as a father, is to make my daughter's life hard. That's one of my jobs. Just suck it up. Life is hard. We work out together. We lift weights, deadlifts. We're doing deadlifts. Millana does deadlifts. I want them strong. I want the ... Yes, adversity. This world is hard. You got to be strong. He says, the word character, the word character is the word for tested. It's the difference between a soldier who is in bootcamp, excited about the ... I'm in the military. You just started boot camp. And a hardened battle veteran, a combat veteran, they come back and they don't even talk. You just look at the person, you look at their face and you've seen some stuff. It's character. It's built when we have no choice but to keep going. Why can you keep going? Because of the hope that's produced by the character. Verse 5, and hope does not put us to shame. There's a hope that God gives us, and then that hope deepens with suffering, with endurance, with character, and there's more hope. Once you get through that season, your hope is built up. And it doesn't put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Hope doesn't put us to shame because hope in Christ is the only hope ultimately, that will not embarrass us, that will not disappoint us. Life disappoints us, people disappoints us, circumstances disappoint us, but God never will. If you put your ultimate trust than anything else, you're destined for shame and embarrassment. Hope in Christ is the only one that won't. And point five, the gift that he hear ends with and elaborates on is that God's love is poured into our hearts. That's Verse 5, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. He's not talking about our love for God. It's like when we meditate on God and then all of a sudden, in our hearts, there's a love that wells up. That's not what he's ... He's talking about a love that God pours into your heart lavishly. It's an outpouring of divine love, where God just takes himself in his fullness. God is love. God's Spirit is in your heart, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. The more Holy Spirit you have, the more of the love of God that you have. And if you have the love of God, you can get through any amount of suffering, even if the world hates you and Jesus loves you, you've got everything you need. Why can we have all these gifts? Who bought them for us, who purchased them for us was Jesus Christ. Verse 6, for while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. The Apostle Paul here grounds God's love in the atonement, that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. That's who we are. We are not godly in and of ourselves in a natural state. We have nothing to do with God. Because of the original sin, a lot of people think original sin is just the sin that Adam and Eve committed, that lead to the fall. Original Sin isn't just that. It includes all of the consequences of that sin, the corruption upon the entire human race. And because of that sin, all the progeny of Adam and Eve were born spiritually dead. That's a spiritual death, the moral corruption. We're not just spiritually ill, meaning we need a little medicine from God. No, we are spiritually dead if you didn't do and you were dead in your sins and trespass. We need a spiritual resurrection. There's nothing a dead person can do. Dead. Spiritually, scripture says that we are dead. There's a moral inability. We don't want God. We don't want to do his will. We don't think about God. There's a moral deadness. And he says, at the right time. Because of this moral deadness, it has to be a work of God that even initiates interest in God. John 6:44 says, no one can come to me, the words of Jesus. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. Just think through that. No one can come to God, unless God draws them first. God is the one that initiates salvation. You do not. Even if you have any interest in God, even if you have any desire of the things of God, to read scripture, to be with Christian, even any of that. And I said it because there are unbelievers that come to Mosaic. They just come and they ... You're welcome. I welcome all the unbelievers. Welcome. And then we just tell them, you can't save yourself, unless God the Father, by the power of spirit, draws you to Jesus Christ the cross of grace. We are dead in our sins. Christ died for us, the ungodly while we're still weak, we're lacking any kind of spiritual vitality. We have no strength in and of ourselves to affect our salvation. He says, at the right time, Christ died, in the fullness of time, according to God's plan. Jesus Christ really did come in history. Luke 2:1 through 2, in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Historic figures, all can be verified, this is true. Jesus was born at the exact date in the exact place the father decreed. When you read the gospels, the narratives of the death of Jesus Christ, you see political machinations. You see power grabs, you see Kaiafas, and you see Pilate, and you see Herod, all conspiring, the Sanhedrin gets involved. They bribe Judas to betray his rabbi. And you think everything's just out of control, where's God? God is orchestrating the whole thing. He's sovereign over the whole thing. Every detail is under his sovereign control. Christ's death and suffering all had the purpose to save the ungodly. Here, we got to pause and say, did God sent Jesus Christ? Did Jesus die for all of the ungodly people? Well, everyone that goes to heaven was, at one point, ungodly. Jesus died for the people that go to heaven. But Jesus didn't die for everyone's sin. Jesus doesn't pay for everyone's sin. If that were the case, then there would be no one in hell, which isn't true. Jesus died for the sheep of his fold, for the elect. Before the foundation of the world, God predestined those who are to be saved. John 6:39, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. If God determined to save everybody in the world, everybody would be saved. Everybody in the world is not saved. Everyone that has ever existed will not be saved, therefore God doesn't save everybody. God has not decreed from all eternity to save everybody. Therefore, dear Christian, rejoice in the unspeakable grace of God that he has poured out on you. Before the foundation of the world, he chose you. He chose to create you, he chose to recreate you, he chose to regenerate you, he chose to make you his own. That's what we mean when we talk about the grace of God. Verse 7, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. Here, there's a difference between a righteous person a good person. Apparently, Paul thinks the good person is better than a righteous person, because the righteous person does the right things according to the moral law. You just do the right things. But there's a difference between the righteous person and the good person. The good person does the right things, but also for the right reasons. You have a heart that's motivated by love, love for God and love for people, a good person. One will scarcely die even for a good person. Are there people in your life that you would die for? Trying to make a list the other day. People I'm like, all right, I'll take a bullet. It also depends what kind of death. Are there any people in your life that you would be crucified for? That you would take a crucifixion for? Well, Jesus didn't take the crucifixion for righteous people and he didn't take crucifixion for good people. By the way, Jesus could have just wiped everyone out and be like, you know what, I'm done with this. Before they nailed him to the cross, I'm like, all right, I did the scorching, I'm done. Just kill everybody, just pow! Everyone's dead. And then he starts over. He could have done that. It would have been faster and cheaper. It wouldn't have cost him his own blood. But, no, he died for the ungodly. He dies for us while we were still sinners. That's verse 8, for God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died on the cross knowing all of the sins that you would commit, all of them. Because he took all of them upon himself, all of them. And he was still willing to do it. That's how he proves his love. He moves from ungodly to us here in the text. But God shows his love for us. He's talking about Christians. God manifests his love for the elect through the death of his son, Verse 9, since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. The death of Jesus Christ, when Jesus died on the cross, he didn't just die to save us from sin or from Satan. Jesus Christ died on the cross to save us from God. Jesus died on the cross to save us from the wrath of God. Verse 10, for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. While we are enemies, hating God, and even if you say, I don't hate God, I don't hate God, I just never think about it. He's out there doing thing. I don't hate him, not an enemy of God. But if you're indifferent to the Lord God Almighty, your creator and your sustainer, the giver of common grace to all, what is that except hatred? It's like telling your mom, hey, Mom, I don't hate you. I just don't celebrate Mother's Day. It's a fake holiday. Hallmark made it up. But it's worse than that. It's like, mom, I don't hate you, I just never want to talk to you. Never want to talk to me? I gave you life. Indifferent are God. That is the hatred. And God offers us reconciliation through Christ's death. But here, the emphasis is on his life now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? What's he talking about his life? How so? How is Christ's life connected to our justification, our salvation? Well, Christ's life of perfect obedience to the law that was imputed to us, that's the righteousness, justification by grace through faith. God's righteousness is then impunity. But in a sense also, Jesus Christ's life changes us because he's sitting at the right hand of God the Father right now interceding for us. Because he lives, we live. This is John 14:19, yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. He currently lives. He's currently interceding for us because he's a great mediator, who not only died for us, but was also raised from the dead and continues to make intercession. And then in Verse 11, more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. The only way that you can rejoice in suffering is to rejoice in God. That's the only way, the only way, we just enjoy God, the presence of God, the person of God. And we do that through the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we rejoice in Christ through Christ, we meditate upon Christ's sufferings on the cross. And St. Paul actually said, he said, I wish to be a partaker of the sufferings of Christ. Because when we suffer, all of a sudden, we meditate on the sufferings of Christ like never before. And as we meditate on the sufferings of Christ like never before, all of a sudden, we realize, oh my, my suffering as bad and as hard as difficult as it is. Oh my, it's nothing compared to the suffering of Christ on my behalf. He did that for me. And the result is unspeakable joy. No matter what, unspeakable joy. By the way, one comment about joy for summary. And I think it's mostly American culture, Americans just expect everyone to wear all of their emotions on their face all the time. Which that doesn't work in other cultures, nor is it expected. If you go to a Slavic culture and walk around with a smile all the time, everyone would think you're an idiot. This is true. They're going to look at you like, why are you smiling? I say that to say, I have a resting face. That does not necessarily communicate joy. But the joy is deeper. It's on the soul level. It's not just the physical. It's not like you're going to put a mask on and pretend your joy. In your soul, you know you're at peace with God, you have access to the Holy of Holies. There's an iron clad hope that God gives, which allows you to experience joy and suffering. Job 13:15, though he slay me, I will hope in him. Though he slay me, I will hope in Him. And then he says, yet I will argue my ways to his face. That wasn't wise. Because then at the end of the vote, God shows up and he's like, all right, gird up your loins [inaudible 00:48:43]. He's like, Job's like, yeah, I'm going to shut my mouth. What is he thinking in the whole book? But all he needed was the presence of God. That's all he wanted. That's all he wanted and that's all he needed. And he got it, and he got God and everything changed. No affliction so dire, no sorrow so deep, no pain so excruciating is worthy to be compared to the glory of being reconciled with God. I'll close with a hymn. A mind at perfect peace with God; O what a word is this! A sinner reconciled through blood; this indeed peace. By nature and by practice far, how very far from God; Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him, through faith in Jesus' blood. So nigh, so very nigh to God, I cannot nearer be; for in the person of His Son I am as near as He. So dear, so very dear to God, more dear I cannot be; the love wherewith He loves the Son, such is His love to me. Why should I ever anxious be, since such a God is mine? He watches over night and day, and tells me "Mine is thine." Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. We thank you for the fact that you absorbed that sword, that fiery sword that kept us from the presence of God. A sword went through your heart as you lost the presence of God on the cross, the presence of the Father. And now you give us that presence by faith, we can be justified by grace through faith. Lord, I pray for anyone who is suffering now, I pray that you give a supernatural joy, a joy that transcends all understanding and a peace that supersedes all understanding. And continue, Lord, minister us by the power of the Holy Spirit as we now worship you. And I pray that you give us grace and move our hearts and stir us to worship from the depths of our soul. And we pray all this in the name of Father, and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

WTI gave back early gains today, as member-states of the International Energy Agency agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from storage in a follow-up move to President Joe Biden's plan to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for 180 million barrels. There are also questions about whether eurozone authorities will be able to keep Russian oil off the market. Chinese officials provided more rhetorical support for stepping up monetary stimulus for the economy to boost consumption at an “appropriate time,” acknowledging that domestic and global risks are now more significant than previously forecast. Minutes from the March meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee show the U.S. central bank plans to begin to run off its $9 trillion balance sheet at a $1 trillion per year annualized pace beginning in May. And St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said today he'd like to see a 3.5% fed funds rate by the second half of 2022 and favors a 50-basis-point hike at the FOMC's meeting next month. Darius Dale, founder and CEO of 42 Macro, joins Real Vision's Ash Bennington for today's Daily Briefing to discuss crude oil prices, Chinese monetary policy, and the Fed's new hawkishness. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3JkKDM6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Monday, “Inflation is much too high,” noting that the Fed would continue to raise interest rates until inflation is under control. And St. Louis Fed President James Bullard reiterated his view that U.S. monetary policy must be tightened quickly to put a stop to upward pressure on inflation that's already too high, repeating his call for a fed funds target rate above 3.0% this year. Meanwhile, a selloff in government bonds intensified on concerns that rising inflation will drag the nation's economy into recession. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note hit its highest level since 2019, as the Treasury market nears the end of what could be its worst quarter since 1973. Altogether, it looks like the hiking cycle could be more aggressive than previously forecast. But what if we have inflation all wrong? Could it be, suggests Vincent Deluard, director of Global Macro Strategy at StoneX Group, that in a service-oriented economy “inflation” is just another word for “growth”? Deluard joins Warren Pies to discuss inflation and growth, monetary policy, and the likelihood of an inverted yield curve in the very near future. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3qrBE5m Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden is set to speak with Chinese President Xi in a high-stakes call tomorrow to discuss Russia and other issues. Cal Perry reports from Lviv with the latest on the ground in Ukraine, and Clint Watts tracks the Russian military's movements. Plus, March Madness tipped off today, and CNBC's Contessa Brewer reports on the national effort to level the playing field for women's teams. Also, the NTSB says a 13-year-old driver was behind the wheel of the pickup truck that crashed into a van, killing six college golfers and a coach earlier this week. And St. Patrick's Day celebrations are back after two years of cancellations.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, reflects on an opinion piece in USA Today by Steven Petrow, titled, “Stop Gloating When Anti-vaxxers Die of COVID-19. It's Tragic” (December 20, 2021, 7A). The piece centers on Marcus Lamb, head of Daystar Television Network, who died of COVID-19 on November 30. We are not to practice the uncivilized, unchristian ethic of dancing on someone's grave. Unfortunately, Petrow also talks about “ineffective” means of combatting COVID-19, and one of those means that he cites is prayer. In reality, however, prayer is the most effective thing that we can do as Christians because there is no doubt that God exists—“the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1)—and that Christ, the eternal Son of God, “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). When we pray to Him, God responds. He answers prayer. As St. John wrote, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15 ESV). And St. James declared, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16 NIV). For further study, see Christianity in Crisis—21st Century by Hank Hanegraaff https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-christianity-in-crisis-21st-century/; and Truth Matters, Life Matters More by Hank Hanegraaff https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-truth-matters-life-matters-more/