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Mike Ferguson in the Morning -New reports show Gen Z men are ditching gyms... and it's Women's fault (according to producer Jerome)-We thought Chicago was greedy for trying to add $1.50 delivery fees to all purchases in Illinois... But St. Louis may have them beat. -The Battlehawks continue dominating the UFL; Mike and Gabe are ecstatic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

June 3, 2025 Today's Reading: Revelation 22:1-6 (7-11) 12-20Daily Lectionary: Numbers 16:1-22; Luke 19:11-28“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.” (Revelation 22:3)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. When you think about heaven, what are the things you look forward to the most? Is it having your resurrected body? Maybe it's being reunited with your believing family and friends for all eternity. I, for one, am looking forward to that feast of rich food that God promises to Isaiah (Isaiah 25:6)!  Or maybe you look forward to not having the things that will be missing. When St. John was given his vision of heaven, he saw that there was nothing “accursed” there. There won't be anybody in heaven who hates you. You won't have all those terrible thoughts or do or say wicked things because your sinful nature will be gone, along with all other temptations. There won't be any sickness or disease or danger. No sin of any kind!These are certainly all wonderful things to look forward to. But St. John reminds us today that there's one thing (or one Person, rather) in heaven that should be our main hope. “The throne of God and of the Lamb” will be there. God the Father will be there. The Holy Spirit will be there. And Jesus will be there. God isn't some kind of door prize that comes along with heaven; He is what it's all about.Besides, what could be better than basking forever in the presence of the God who made you and loved you so much that He took on your flesh, suffered and died for you, and then came to you in the Word and Sacrament to grant you saving faith? Remember the 1st Commandment? “You shall have no other gods.” Hidden in this commandment is a wonderful promise. When you have the Triune God as your Lord, you have everything you could ever need and more! You don't need any other gods. There is nothing better than being in the gracious presence of God.Thankfully, we don't have to wait until heaven to enjoy the blessings of God's presence! Even now, God comes to us through His Means Of Grace, the Word and Sacraments to bless us. He comes to us to give us everything that we need to join Him in heaven. That would include especially the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus. But God also comes to us to give us the fruits of the Spirit, like patience, strength, repentance, and every Gift that we might need as we wait for the day that God gathers us to heaven.There truly is nothing better than being in God's presence—now and forever!In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.O Christ, do Thou my soul prepare for that bright home of love. That I may see Thee and adore with all Thy saints above. (LSB 673:6 )- Rev. Aric Fenske, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church and Trinity Lutheran Church in Bear Creek, WI.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Andrew R. Jones identifies ten lies Satan uses in attempts to dismantle God's people and His kingdom. Find encouragement in God's Word of Truth and remember the final victory we have in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

St. Louis' reputation was rattled a year ago when the Wall Street Journal described the region's downtown as a ‘real estate nightmare.' A year later, the city has made strides, starting by tackling two prominent vacant properties. But St. Louis Public Radio's Eric Schmid reports a full rebound will take many more years of sustained effort by civic and business leaders across the region and state.

January 14, 2025 Today's Reading: Romans 6:1-11Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 36:33-37:14; Romans 5:1-21“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (John 6:4)In the Name of Jesus. Amen.It's easy to make snap judgments on what we see. We've heard the phrase “seeing is believing,” and to a degree, the eyes have played a role in the spread of Christianity. Think about the Resurrection. This isn't a myth but a real-time event recorded as history in Scripture. Many eyewitnesses attest to having seen the risen Christ. Therefore, every occurrence of a name in the New Testament is significant. On the other hand, seeing alone is no help in divine matters. The Israelites saw the miraculous parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian army. But it's no time before they're grumbling against God. People saw the crucifixion and mocked the dying Christ. The eyes saw blood, gore, and death—just another corpse and crucifixion for the books.  Romans 10:17 teaches faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. The senses aren't the cause of faith. That comes by the Holy Spirit through the Word. Snap judgments in divine matters can be devasting for how we think about God and His Gifts. Baptism, for example, doesn't look like much, only some water by a man in robes on a baby's head. The baby does nothing during the rite of Holy Baptism except maybe cry and fill a diaper. But St. Paul's inspired Words in Romans 6 teach us what Baptism does without human aid and cooperation. Something happens, something affected by God, when someone is baptized in that triune Name, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One is “buried with Him.” One dies with Christ. The Old Adam dies, and “just as Christ was raised…we too may walk in newness of life.” This is a reality for the baptized given by God in Jesus. It's not earned by human merits, decisions, emotional pleas, and movements in the heart. It's God's work that faith receives. Since faith is a Gift, it's not dependent on intellectual capacity. Baptism doesn't look like much, but according to Scripture, it means life in Christ, being dead to sin and alive to God. It means sins forgiven in the Name above all Names, the only Name under heaven and earth by which man is saved (Acts 4:12). These promises don't go away over time, something faith sees when the eyes don't.In the Name of Jesus. Amen.Heavenly Father, grant us faith to daily repent and turn to you. Preserve us from evil, and comfort us with Your promises in Holy Baptism to make us Your dear child robed in the righteousness of Jesus, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.-Rev. Ryan Ogrodowicz, associate pastor and headmaster at Grace Lutheran Church and School in Brenham, TX.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

It was not pretty. Frankly it was bad for a large portion of the game. From the missed free throws, to the missed three pointers, to the lack of made shots in the first half. But St. John's chipped away...thanks to Deivon Smith, RJ Luis Jr. and a buzzer beater game winner by Zuby Ejifor, St. John's beat Providence, 72-70. It was a character defining win, one that we'll likely look back on this season as a pivotal moment for St. John's as they improve to 10-2 and sit atop the Big East standings. I'm joined by Kevin Connelly of StormThePaint to break it all down.Follow the podcast on Twitter:@EyeonStormPod = Eye on the Storm Podcast#sjubb

Being holy is hard, and most of the people I look up to – the saints – lived extraordinary lives. But St. Therese taught us that sanctity is possible through her “little way”. Today, I want to introduce you to another “little way” – that of Servant of God Michelle Duppong. She lived what I like to call “the little way of evangelization” to the point that I almost didn't hire her as a FOCUS missionary. Michelle lived an ordinary life showing that small, intentional acts of love can have a profound impact. Even during her battle with cancer, she remained committed to her mission. Her life exemplified God's mercy and acceptance, welcoming everyone with open arms and a joyful spirit. In essence, Michelle's story reminds us that we can find strength and purpose in our everyday actions and inspire others through our faith and love. [01:25] Introduction to Our Guest, Mark Bartek [10:58] Spiritual Multiplication and Evangelization [16:53] The Global Impact of Personal Evangelization [22:55] The Little Way of Evangelization [25:17] Spiritual Multiplication and Vision [27:00] Evangelization Beyond College Campuses [29:54] Michelle Duppong's Personality and Impact [37:16] Lessons from Michelle's Life [45:14] Encouragement for Evangelization See the movie on Michelle's life Radiating Joy (https://www.fathomevents.com/events/radiating-joy-the-michelle-duppong-story/), or watch the trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsGUK0S571w). For more practical advice and experiences from real people sharing their mission with the world, go to https://equip.archomaha.org/podcast/. A Production of the Archdiocese of Omaha Editor: Taylor Schroll (ForteCatholic.com)

Murders get the headlines. But St. Paul is determined to solve more non-fatal shooting cases. How are they doing it? Jason talks to Commander Nikkole Peterson

We meet something at almost every turn that we think ought to be different. If we have high ideals, we may not feel satisfied to permit those conditions to remain as they are; we may even complain or antagonize. On the other hand, if our ideals be low, we may feel wholly indifferent, but then we find that those things go from bad to worse. What we seek, however, is our present comfort on the one hand and the betterment of everything about us on the other hand, and we wish to know how this may be brought about in the midst of the confusion, the ignorance and the ills that we find in the world. When we are indifferent to the wrong it becomes worse; therefore, even for our own good we must do something with those adverse conditions that exist in the home, in society, or in the state. We must meet all those things and meet them properly, but the problem is, how? To antagonize, criticise or condemn never helps matters in the least; besides, such states of mind are a detriment to one's own peace and health. The critical mind wears itself out while thinking about the wrong, but the wrong in the meantime goes on becoming worse. To feel disappointed because the universe does not move according to our fancy will not change the universe, but it will produce weakness in our own mind and body. That person who lives constantly in the world of despondency will soon lose all hold upon life; he consequently does nothing in the world but bring about the end of his own personal life. The usual way of dealing with the problems of life solves nothing. The ordinary way of meeting temptation gives the tempter greater power, while the person who tries to resist is usually entrapped in adversity and trouble. But St. Paul has told us what to do under all such circumstances. Count it all joy. That is the secret. Count it all joy no matter what may come, agreeing with all adversity at once, antagonizing nothing, condemning no one, leaving criticism alone. Never be disappointed or discouraged, and have nothing whatever to do with worry. Whatever comes, count it all joy. 

Marie Miller is a folk/pop singer-songwriter and multi-faceted artist and speaker who weaves together music, humor, and storytelling to convey God's love for us.  She stopped by the show to talk with Father Dave about her new EP, “The Way of Love.”   Marie began making music as a teenager, and has enjoyed an almost-20-year career of radio, recording, and performing success, including opening up for The Backstreet Boys and the Wallflowers. She's excited to be releasing her first Catholic album in a long time. “My heart just kept getting closer to Jesus,” Marie explains. “I want to talk about Jesus and who I love and what I love — the Lord, St. Thérèse of Lisieux — so the writing came very natural.” RELATED: St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Inspiring Us to Share Our Faith Stories Father Dave asks about the record being inspired by St. Thérèse of Lisieux.   “She's the patroness of this album; she's amazing“ Marie says. “The Way of Love,” which is the title track, is inspired by a quote of hers: ‘How sweet is the way of love.' St. Thérèse talks about how even in our brokenness, and even when we make mistakes, God uses even those mistakes to pave the way of love. So when I was considering creating a Catholic album, I thought I can't do this. Catholic artists and speakers — they're all super holy and perfect. How am I gonna do this? And reading that quote, to me was like, hey, even in your brokenness, God will use it; he will use everything he can on the way of love — and so she became the patroness and inspiration for this record.”  Father Dave and Marie look back at some of the highlights of her career, including sharing a stage with Andrea Boccelli and in front of Pope Francis. “That was so special. I've been blessed to get to do some really cool things, but you know, you hunger for more. So you compare yourself to other artists and think, ‘Wait, why did she get that tour?' Right? But St. Thérèse of Lisieux, she wasn't trying to be the star. She was trying to make Jesus the star. And I love that and that's why I'm trying to follow in her footsteps.”  LISTEN: Andrea Bocelli on the Faith Influence Behind His Music Father Dave asks if it is more challenging to have a humble connection with God when you get more accolades and fame. “I wonder. Jesus has not made me very famous,” Marie laughs.   Father Dave points out that although Marie is not “very famous,” there is an intentionality to that — that fame is not necessarily her life's desire or goal. Marie says that while she occasionally has thoughts about greater success, “God knows who needs to hear my music and there's kind of a freedom in that, because if you give your music to God and you work as hard as you can, he knows where it needs to go. It's not just about me all the time.”

Precision agriculture has promised to revolutionize farming since the mid-1990s. The idea is to give growers more granular data about their operations and new technology to put that information to use. Some of this has come to pass: farmers have more sophisticated equipment and hard data on how their operations perform. But St. Louis Public Radio's Eric Schmid reports, some of the loftiest promises of precision ag are still out of reach. This reporting is in conjunction with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains - including St. Louis Public Radio.

Fine dining might conjure up images of exotic foods, sourced from far-off lands. But St. Barts in London is on a mission to prove delicious food can be local—and it's won a coveted Michelin award for its efforts. St. Barts is the only Michelin-starred restaurant in London to also have a Green Michelin Star. While the traditional Michelin star indicates exceptional food, its green sister recognizes restaurants that use industry-leading sustainable practices. From furniture made from fallen trees by a local woodworker to ingredients that are grown in an environmentally responsible way, the ethos is to protect the land and support British suppliers. “Sustainability is for me about making sort of intelligent choices about the food that we use and the way in which we use it. So, a big thing for me is using UK produce. The fact that we can produce everything within the UK gives us a real opportunity to use all of that produce and therefore, help sustain the British farming industry,” says Johnnie Crowe, Executive Head Chef of Restaurant St. Barts. There is a strict policy to only use British ingredients—that means no olive oil, no lemons, no exotic spices. Other restaurants would just throw waste products away, but here they become garums, sauces that can be used in dishes months from now. The idea is that not a single morsel of an animal or fish is wasted. Industry experts say being sustainable is not just about helping the environment, it makes good business sense too. “[...] you can eliminate waste and cost from the business—and many of the green initiatives that people can take do just that, they reduce energy overheads and energy bills, which are a key headache at the moment,” says Kate Nicholls, CEO of the trade organization UK Hospitality. But do diners care? Crowe says he doesn't think there is any point in “lecturing to people.” “There's enough of that going on, without us doing it as well. But if 5 percent of diners pick up on it, appreciate it, then that's kind of enough for me.” It's a restaurant that wants to prove that fine dining doesn't have to cost the earth. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

When it comes to the origin cities of hip hop stars over the last 20 plus years - it's safe to say St. Louis, Missouri is not the first to come to mind. But St. Louis, Missouri is the home of at least one rap superstar that had the world of music following his every move for the better part of the 2000s; Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. Better known to you and I as Nelly. Nelly released his first single ‘Country Grammar (Hot Sh*t)' in early 2000, with album release plans on hold until he could prove to his label that he was worth the investment.  He soon proved to be worth the investment and more, spawning 4 hit singles from his first record, and featured on a number of turn-of-the-century classics as well.  While all pretty ubiquitous in their own right; none of these tracks went any higher than #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.   Perhaps Nelly really *was* too tied to St. Louis, much like the label feared back in ‘99.  Maybe what he needed to do to get that Chart topping single was to relocate… maybe he needed to move on from St. Louis and show the world what it was like in a place called Nellyville, because in Nellyville it was getting Hot. This is the story of Nelly's iconic single 'Hot in Herre' with newly unearthed clips from Nelly Himself, and Interviews conducted by Encore's Myles Galloway. Also includes audio from: The Fader, June 8th 2017. Nelly Reveals The Secret History Behind "Hot In Herre" Previous Encore episodes referenced:  I'm Looking Crazy Right Now: The True Story of Beyoncé and Jay Z's 'Crazy in Love' This Song is B-A-N-A-N-A-S: The True Story of Gwen Stefani's 'Hollaback Girl'

QUIDDITY English transliteration of the Latin quidditas, meaning "whatness"; in scholastic usage it designates a thing's essence taken precisely in its capacity to inform the intellect of the answer to the question "what is it?" Related Terms. At most a virtual minor distinction obtains between essence and quiddity: essence is the thing as capacity for existence, whereas quiddity is the thing as capacity to instruct the intellect. The quiddity of a thing, if definable, is analytically expressed in its real definition by its genus and specific difference. As such it is similar to, but more exact than, nature in boethius's first sense: "anything that can be grasped (by the intellect) in any way whatever" (De persona et duabus naturis 1; Patrologia Latina, 64:1341BC). Nature, in the more etymological and Aristotelian sense, is closer to essence than to quiddity inasmuch as nature signifies a thing's principle of operation—effective only through existence. Such are the comparisons between these terms suggested by St. thomas aquinas (De ente 1, 3). To these he adds form and Aristotle's phrase "the what was to be" (τò τί [symbol omitted]ν ε[symbol omitted]ναι, quod quid erat esse ). He defines the form that is convertible with essence and quiddity as "the complete essential determination" of a thing. This is the "form of the whole" (forma totius, ε[symbol omitted]δος) according to the Avicennian interpretation of book seven of the Metaphysics —an interpretation rejected by Averroës but accepted by St. Thomas (In 7 meta. 9. 1467–69). Form in this sense includes the matter as universalizable as well as the "form of the part" (forma partis, μορφή), the substantial form as distinct from matter (see matter and form). Form thus expresses the completeness of an essence's specification in itself with respect both to existence and to intellect, and in the latter respect is synonymous with quiddity. Some modern scholars concur independently in the Averroist interpretation that Aristotle excludes matter altogether from the notion of form or species and its equivalent, "the what was to be." But St. Thomas insists that Aristotle holds its inclusion necessary in the case of natural substances, since it must be included universally in their definition (In 7 meta. 9.1468; In I anim. 1.24–29). Aristotelian Meaning. The term quidditas, coined in the 12th century in translations of Avicenna into Latin and possibly also in paraphrasing the Topics, stems ultimately from Aristotle's own phrase "the what was to be." From its grammar and from the probable places of its earliest appearance (Topica101b 22, 132a 1), it originated in a context of dialectics and predication and was designed as a verbal sort of variable representing the full answer to any Socratic question as to what a thing is, for example, man, virtue, the Sophist, etc. The particular reference of the phrase can be specified in any context by adding a dative, for example, "the what was it for a man to be," or "the being characteristic of man." This full answer, Aristotle says, is expressed in the definition of the thing in question. As such the phrase must be distinguished from another Aristotelian one, "the what is it" (τò τί ἐστι, quod quid est ), of wider range, since it not only may refer to the complete formula or definition but may also be satisfied by any one of its parts taken separately—genus, matter, difference, or form. Grammatically, the past tense, "was" ([symbol omitted]ν, erat ), has a habitual or transtemporal sense, indicating the specifying, or formal, identity of the essence with respect to any individual of that essence at any time (Meta. 1031a 15–32a 11, esp. 32a 5; Aquinas, In 7 meta. 5) or, in the case of the separate substances, beyond time. Going Boldly Where The Last Man has Gone Before! Decrease time over target:  PayPal or Venmo @clastronaut Cash App $clastronaut

January 16, 2024 Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20Daily Lectionary:Ezekiel 38:1-23; Romans 7:1-20Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside of the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. What you do with your body matters. At a base level, this makes sense. If I eat well, sleep enough, bathe, brush my teeth, and so on, my body should continue to work well enough. Take care of your body and your body will take care of you. But St. Paul is getting at something a little deeper here. He has been warning the Corinthians (and all of us) about the dangers of misusing our bodies sexually. His comment about sinning against our own bodies means that while murder and theft directly hurt people outside of ourselves, sexual immorality defiles our body. The intimate gift of sexuality is corrupted, as is the body and mind of those who commit sexual immorality. But why does that matter? What I do with my body surely doesn't affect others that much, does it? St. Paul argues rightly that our actions towards and with our own bodies have drastic effects. He gives a few layers of proof here. Paul begins with this: your body, dear Christian, is a temple of the Holy Spirit. In Baptism, the Holy Spirit enters in and grants you faith then and sustains your faith going forward. Second, you have been made part of the Body of Christ, the Church. If one part of the body is hurt, sick, or broken, how well will the rest of the body fare? Not well. As part of the body of Christ, the church, we take care of ourselves in order to better care for others. Finally, Paul hints at the Incarnation. Bodies are so important that the Son of Man took on human flesh to enact the world's salvation. Jesus redeemed living in a human body. Jesus then suffered and died. The blood He shed, the death He died, was the price paid to buy us out from under the power of sin, death, and the devil. After His death, Jesus rose from the dead, in the same body He had before His death, with the nail marks and spear wound still in His flesh. Christ's resurrection is the precursor to our own resurrection. And like our Lord, we will be resurrected with the same bodies we have now. The gift of the body that God gives upon our conception will remain with us in eternity. So glorify God in your body, knowing that sins are forgiven in Christ and we are no longer bound to sin but to Christ Jesus! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.But all of that was washed away- immersed and drowned forever. The water of your Baptism day restored whatever old Adam and his sin destroyed and all our sinful selves employed according to our nature. (LSB 596:3)-Deaconess Emma Heinz is the Registrar for Higher Things.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.The Lutheran Reader's Bible helps you develop a habit of devotion and Bible reading so you can slowly but intentionally understand and grow in God's Word. Through introductions to the sixty-six books of the Bible, guided reading plans, and more, this Bible builds your confidence to study Scripture on your own.

Rev. Martin Dressler, pastor at Salem Lutheran Church in Black Jack, MO, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study 1 Corinthians 15:12-34. Having laid out the Gospel for the Corinthians, St. Paul turns to address their denial of the central part of that Gospel: the resurrection of the dead. He briefly imagines a false, scary scenario. If there is no resurrection, that would mean Jesus is still dead, we would have absolutely no hope, and Christianity would be absolutely worthless. But St. Paul quickly puts that fiction aside to reiterate that Christ has been raised from the dead. Because He is the firstfruits, all who belong to Him will follow in that resurrection, when death will finally be fully placed under Christ's feet. “Nothing But Christ Crucified” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the epistle of 1 Corinthians. In response to correspondence from the Christians in Corinth and reports about matters arising in the congregation, St. Paul writes to address various matters of Christian faith and life. Throughout it all, he directs our attention to the power and wisdom of God for our salvation: Christ crucified.

In this episode, we delve into the captivating life of the venerable mystic, St. Francis of Assisi. Join me on a journey through the opulent streets of medieval Assisi, where a young Francis, born to a wealthy merchant, defied societal norms by choosing a path less traveled. Unravel the mystery of his transformation from a life of privilege to one of profound simplicity and humility. Discover how, against the backdrop of his father's wealth, he forsook the material world to embrace poverty, becoming a living testament to the mystic ideals he held dear.But St. Francis was more than a mere historical figure or Catholic saint; he embodied a profound connection with the natural world. Tune in as we explore his extraordinary ability to communicate with animals, elevating him to the status of a spiritual bridge between humanity and the creatures of the Earth. In this episode, we strip away the conventional narrative and venture into the hidden facets of St. Francis' life, revealing a mystic whose influence transcends religious boundaries. Immerse yourself in tales of his mystical encounters, where the mundane became sacred, and the extraordinary became commonplace.So, dim the lights, settle into your favorite sanctuary, and let the tale of St. Francis of Assisi guide you into a realm where spirituality, mysticism, and the enchantment of a life well-lived converge. This is more than a story; it's a journey into the depths of a soul who truly walked the mystical path, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire seekers of all walks of life.Join me for another episode of Night Night Bitch, where bedtime stories become portals to the esoteric, and the wisdom of the ages whispers through the night.SELECTED READING: St. Francis of Assisi: The Transformation from Spoiled Rich Kid to Saint by Robbie Mitchell via Ancient OriginsYOUR FAVORITE MYSTICAL BEDTIME STORY PODCAST: Can't sleep? This adult bedtime story podcast invites you to escape the burdens of sleeplessness and immerse yourself in a mystical world of relaxation and enchantment. Sometimes our weary minds need a break from the endless scrolling that often accompanies insomnia. Each episode allows you to unwind and prepare to embrace deep sleep while awakening to arcane wisdom at the same time. Designed to alleviate nighttime anxiety, each audio journey will offer an oasis of serenity amidst the chaos of the waking world. Choose to embrace restful sleep or enjoy a conscious, meditative state—it's your choice. Prepare to be transported to a realm where dreams and relaxation intertwine. Bid farewell to restless nights and awaken to a newfound sense of peace and rejuvenation. FOLLOW AND SUPPORT THE PODCAST: Follow the podcast on Instagram at @nightnightb1tch. To make a one-time or recurring donation to support the continued production of NNB, visit https://ko-fi.com/nightnightbitch. Disclaimer: episodes of Night Night, Bitch are for the purpose of research, study, entertainment, meditation, sleep, and discussion. The views and opinions expressed in each episode belong to the original author(s)/creator(s)/speaker(s) and may not necessarily reflect those of Night Night, Bitch, its host, or its affiliates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture Tells Us: If You Wish to Follow Jesus, You Have an Obligation to Take Care of Others Scripture Tells Us: If You Wish to Follow Jesus, . . . Today's readings present a number of wonderful elements of Christian life. In the first reading (not included within this audio), St. Paul points out much of the law is a series of do nots . . . do not steal, do not … do this. Note the temptation when one hears this statement. Christians normally say . . . I did not steal, I did not bring false witness, etc. Since I am not doing these do nots, I must be doing OK! But St. Paul is not saying that. All of the do nots add up to do no harm. But St. Paul wants us to love our neighbor as ourselves. St. Paul says love does no harm, so it complies with all the old law says. But love doesn't stop at doing no harm. Love is concerned with doing good for another. That is a big difference. Hear more within the Homily. St. Paul says it's not enough to do no harm, if we do no good for those in need. St. Paul says if you take care of yourself, recognize that you have an equal obligation to help the poor and vulnerable . . . an equal obligation to take care of others. That does not come from a government requirement, or a specific philosophy. That fact comes from scripture. You have an equal obligation to take care of others. It is hard wired into what it means to follow Jesus Christ. Hear more within the Homily. . . . You Have an Obligation to Take Care of Others Today's gospel tells us more. St. Luke begins by saying great crowds were following Jesus. Jesus is not impressed by the number of people. He does not celebrate the great number within the crowd. Interesting enough, He gives everyone in the crowd a reason not to be there. Jesus tells the crowd what it actually means to follow Him. He says it's wonderful that you showed up but let's talk about what it means to follow Me! He lists the conditions in today's Gospel. The Lord insists if you are going to follow Me, I come first. Why? Jesus, through the scripture tells us something important. Love Me first, and then you'll love your family and others rightly and more fully. But do not focus on other things first! Why? Hear more within the Homily. Hear what it means to follow Jesus. Understand If You Wish to Follow Jesus, You Have an Obligation to Take Care of Others. Listen to this Meditation Media.

Grab your broomsticks, and join us on a tour unlike any other you've taken before. Get to know some of the famous fall celebrations amidst the eerie streets of St. Helens, OR - a town steeped in history, hauntings, and Halloween! Every year the town transforms into the Spirit of Halloweentown, a month-long celebration of all things spooky. St. Helens was a backdrop for Disney's Halloweentown and Twilight, but did you know that the serene St. Helens waterfront holds secrets darker than the depths of Columbia River itself? We're not just talking about the Witches on the Water weekend! Hold on to your pointy hats, because we have chilling stories from the courthouse, Columbia Theater, the high school auditorium, and even The Klondike Restaurant and Bar - a former brothel. But St. Helens doesn't just dwell on specters of the past, it embraces its macabre history with unique local customs and Halloween celebrations. Happy hauntings, ghosts & ghouls! Today we're sharing a promo for Enmeshed!If you're enjoying our podcast, please consider leaving a rating & review on Apple Podcasts. It helps get us seen by more creepy people just like you! Stay connected with us for more creepy content. Visit our website! Find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Patreon, & more! If you have any true crime, paranormal, or witchy stories you'd like to share with us & possibly have them read (out loud) on an episode, email us at pnwhauntsandhomicides@gmail.com or use this link. There are so many ways that you can support the show: BuyMeACoffee, Apple Podcasts or by leaving a rating & review on Apple Podcasts. Pastebin: for sources.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5955451/advertisement--------- EPISODE KEYWORDS ---------St Helens, Pacific Northwest, Mt St Helens, Henry Knighton, Portland, Witches on the Water, Columbia River, Hauntings, Ghost Children, Halloween, Columbia Theater, High School Auditorium, Klondike Restaurant, The Spirit of Halloween, Brothels, Haunted Hotel, Spirits, Witchcraft, Carving Pumpkins, Safe Celebrations, Things To Do, Oregon, Batsquatch, VolcanosThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5955451/advertisement

St. Paul clearly states what he did as he went about preaching the Word of God. He worked at his profession--which was to be a tent maker-to support himself, although he could have asked the Thessalonians to help him since as an apostle he deserved such treatment. But St. Paul did not make use of this privilege. He worked hard. This we need to imitate and examine our conscience about. We should not be a burden to the other. He live off their earnings. We should work and work hard with competence and care for the details. We do this in order to be able to offer our work to God and to serve the others well and properly.

Most of the post-pandemic "downtown recovery" attention gets directed at Minneapolis. But St. Paul also has it's own recovery story. Jason talked with Joe Spencer, president of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance

In an episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza tries to figure out a way where he can eat his favorite sandwich while he has sex. So he puts a “pastrami on rye with mustard” sandwich in the nightstand drawer, so that midway in the act with his girlfriend he can sneak a bite and thus enjoy his two favorite things simultaneously. The last seventy years of American history could be dubbed the Age of Costanza, because the sitcom character articulates the twin falls of our food abundance that led to the euphemism that we call today the “sexual revolution,” a term we use to describe our era of broken homes, drug abuse, sex toys, birth control, permanent adolescence, and endless soul searching. Really, what is the show Seinfeld about if not living a life of permanent adolescence? Jerry's apartment is stocked with children's cereal, they never cook anything, they eat at the diner, and the four main characters are childless, aging New Yorkers where lust and entertainment consume their lives. It's like a neverending sophomore year of high school. Jerry and the other three are all grains of wheat that never die, but let's set that parable aside for now.Here's what's interesting. George Costanza put food and sex together. Long ago, St. Benedict recognized the connection between food and sex as well, except St. Benedict realized that overstuffed bellies forget God and proceed directly to sin. His motto of Ora et labora (Pray and work) set the basic rule for life in the monastery, and when I read this a few years ago, something stood out to me because I had lived life in the Age of Costanza, in the age of “all-you-can-eat” buffets and ubiquitous porn. St. Benedict wrote:Above all things, however, over-indulgence must be avoided and a monk must never be overtaken by indigestion; for there is nothing so opposed to the Christian character as over-indulgence, according to Our Lord's words, “See to it that your hearts be not burdened with over-indulgence. (The Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 39)As I've gone on at length in prior series about the decline and fall of how we read and understand the Bible, we have had a parallel decline in how we see and understand our food, of which I will go on at length about now. But I'm not going all Michael Pollan. I'm not going to ramble on about organic farming or paleo diets or whole foods or macros. I'm going to talk about food and sex as part of a spiritual reality. George Costanza was so far gone that he doubled-down, thinking that more would be better and lift his spirits, but it's a spiral to the bottom. His character was so blind, that while eating he also wanted sexual pleasure, and while making a great joke of his character's entire selfish lifestyle, he sums up the entire post-World War II era of massive food production and sex as a “pleasure alone” obsession. But St. Benedict figured out the problem. He put things together in the correct order. Food and sex go together, sort of like many of us 1990s bar patrons considered “beer and cigarettes” as a form of dark-side “bread and butter.” Recognizing this connection between the belly and lust, fasting in the Church has far more to do with virtue than it does with attaining six-pack abs. The modern saying of, “Abs are made in the kitchen” has the opposite purpose of the clean eating that happens in a monastery. In the life of a fasting monk, he probably has six-pack abs, but ideally, no one will ever witness them. For the monk with low body fat and sweet muscle definition, the goal is not vanity, or pride, or sensuality - it is humility. A monk that is successful in this would not even be aware that such a six-pack has been obtained, and would care even less if informed of such a useless, fleeting possession in this space-time called creation.Most intermittent fasters today seek six-pack abs to have more sex, or be desired for sex, so like George Costanza, they are controlling their food, and really obsessing over food, in order to have more sex, or to be more desirable for sex. In other words, adultery of all varieties is the goal. I have never heard anyone proclaim, “I'm working on getting six-pack abs for God.” But a monk is doing exactly that without even knowing it. Removing the variable of sex from all equations allows for virtuous motives to flourish. Here's the dirty little secret about the obesity epidemic and the fitness-craze in America: they are the same thing. They are the same problem. They are both a kind of gluttony. Fitness goals dabble in lust and vanity and pride, whereas the simple overeater is just sitting in the hot-tub of sloth. Both of these problems can only occur in a time of excess food, where the overeater fails to stop eating, and the fitness crazed person has so much food that they can pick and choose to only eat what fits their “macros.” Recently at the gym, I heard a man say, “I have a hard time eating 200 grams of protein a day.” I wanted to tell him: “That's because no one in history has ever needed that much protein a day.” Ok, maybe Andre the Giant. But rather than start an awkward discussion, instead I just pondered my own motive for attending the gym, and wondered: was I truly there to preserve and sustain my body, or if I want to look good for other people, that I might be admired? Because even if sex isn't the aim of exercise, to be desirable can be just a lusty, and Jesus was quite clear about how easy adultery is to commit. “But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mt 5:28) This phrase I keep on echo in my head, because how many men today understand that adultery, a mortal sin, is always just a thought away. This is exactly where the spiritual combat must be fought, and fought, and it is a worthy fight to take up because once you can turn your eyes away from lust, real freedom begins, not to mention truly virtuous friendships.The fitness dilemma, I won't go too deep into it here, since I covered it in an earlier series. But I will leave it by echoing St. Augustine, who I feel suggested the best reason for exercise, which is to reasonably care for the body, for what God created is good, with the full awareness that we not only a body. As a member of the laptop class, in a sedentary age, we in the privileged information technology world are increasingly separated from manual labor: Thus heeding St. Augustine, I need to “care for the body as though I was going to live forever, and care for my soul as if I were going to die tomorrow.” Love God, love others, then love the self. JOY is spelled: Jesus, Others, You.Back to the monks: a fasting monk aims toward chastity without a second thought of six-pack abdominal muscles. The fasting weightlifter aims toward adulation and maybe sex fantasies, or at the least, being desirable. No gym selfie has ever been posted on social media without the motive of getting laid or being coveted somewhere behind it. The monk aims toward God, and the other toward the self, or more particularly, the ego. The monk aims to tame the passions, while the other wants to inflame them by lighting a match and throwing gas on the tinder (and often using an app called Tinder). Much of the marketing will tell you that exercise is about body and mind, but will never mention the soul, making it yet another situation where we live out of wholeness, spiritually out of sync, in the amputated state of a body peeled apart from its soul. We tend to admire the fit, just as we do the wealthy. But we look at thin, poor monks with a side-eye. Perhaps today we'd call those chasing virtue “try-hards” rather than “Jesus freaks.” But how you treat your food is really, really indicative of how you live your entire life. I say this as a sugar monster with the full realization that much of this post is about my own history of dating Sara Lee, Betty Crocker, and dear old Aunt Jemima (may she rest in peace). I really need to get started renouncing soul ties to these high-fructose ladies. As a food monster, this has been one of the more eye-opening discoveries of my adult life. All of that Kool-Aid, it couldn't have helped. When I think of the Kool-Aid man now, I can't help but think of Bluto from Animal House, because like Bluto, Kool-Aid man barges into rooms, crashing through walls, overstuffed and ready to party. I was probably drinking Kool-Aid and watching Animal House at one point. I think I first saw the movie around age ten, which is one of the hundreds of movies that encouraged us all to drink the cultural Kool-Aid, and as I chugged sugar, Bluto chugged Jack Daniels and it was certainly cool. We all drank the Kool-Aid one way or another, since every 80's and 90's movie preached the Gospel of the self. The Mountain Dew, the Lucky Charms, my beloved Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Jimmy John's, and so much Taco Smell…is it any wonder that the era of “party ‘til you puke” was followed by the era of Spanx and Tinder and Drag Queen Story Hour? It is a literal echo of the Garden of Eden story, where immorality follows a bounty of food availability. The book of Proverbs specifically calls out the excess consumption of sugar as a danger!If you have found honey, eat only enough for you,    lest you be sated with it and vomit it. (Proverbs 29:16)Oh, we have found honey. We have found sugar. A book called Sweetness and Power covers the history of how Europeans took sugar by the sword, turning a luxury into a staple, and how it radically changed culture, diet, and even work. In other words, the Garden of Eden story, so concise in its telling in Genesis, has played out over the past 500 years in America since the fruit of the sugar-cane became an obsession. Somehow moving to “a land flowing with milk and honey” causes a falling away from God, in every case. The Biblical stories tell this repeatedly, as food abundance in Egypt leads to slavery, and food abundance in Canaan leads to worshipping other Gods. Without even knowing much about the Bible, we can see that Jesus was a thin man, who denied himself luxurious food, who didn't workout for muscle mass, and didn't desire sex, and didn't sin. As always, he shows us how to live. Even when he feeds the masses bread, he doesn't continue to do it daily, because he came to bring the living water and Bread of Life, which is the true food and drink that we seek. St. Benedict knew this “sweetness and power” problem long before Columbus sailed. He has some outstanding insight about how the monks who could not maintain a fast were like fodder for the devil. And oh, it hurts to read that because I know it to be true. It all makes sense. Peeling the onion of sin from a life results in many “Ah-ha!” moments, where we see through a glass darkly and then suddenly we see Jesus face to face and understand how and why the errors were made, but more importantly, how to remedy them through his healing atonement. Reading the early Church Fathers is always eye-opening, because we think of them as hicks and backwards, and then they prove in their wisdom that they knew the human heart better than billions of us do today. So is it any wonder that the Fall in Genesis centers around food followed by sex? The fruit of the tree attracts, the rejection of God happens and the loss of innocence results. Taking the easy food, from the forbidden tree, leads to sin. When I think of the Green Revolution from the 1940s onward, which flooded cheap food to the wealthy West, and the undeniable moral decay of America that has followed, it's difficult not to see the connection. In fact, of all the things that brought the West to a place of debauchery, I would not say it is the birth-control pill or no-fault divorce. No, I would say it is the combine harvester and nitrogen fertilizer. Hear me out. I realize you've stopped reading after that last sentence, but hold on a moment. The immense amount of cheap food that American ingenuity and efficiency has produced, and the sexual depravity that followed, does it not seem to follow, that this was the same course of tale told in the Garden of Eden? An abundance of food led to the elevation of our pride, bringing about the rejection of God, and soon after, the detonation of sin erupted like a bomb in our world? You don't get to the sexual fall without going through a story of cheap, easy, and accessible food. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

July 25, 2023Today's Reading: Mark 10:35-45Daily Lectionary: Judges 2:6-23, Acts 13:13-41And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”  Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (St. Mark 10:36-38)In the Name + of Jesus.of Jesus. Amen. It's a pretty bold thing for James and John to ask, right? They think they know what they are asking for—Jesus is going to be made king of Israel, and they want to be at his side when He ascends his throne.This kind of ambition is good today; it shows that you are a go-getter and ready to take on more responsibility than people who don't want to jump into the action. Except, they didn't know what they were asking, did they?Which is why Jesus asks them flat out if they are able to “drink the cup” that He is soon to drink. To suffer as He is soon to suffer. To be baptized into death, not just for himself, but for all of humanity.Jesus says that they will indeed drink and be baptized as He is, which is a rather forbidding thing to say as it is, but then He goes farther and says that the places to his right and left have already been assigned.Even before Palm Sunday, Jesus knew who was to be crucified with him on Good Friday. Those places had been prepared from eternity, because even then, before the first “Let there be…” was spoken on the first day of creation, God knew that his Son would need to become man to save all people from their selfish ambition.Eventually, St. James does drink the same cup Jesus drinks, when Herod beheads him for proclaiming the gospel. But St. James goes to his earthly death in faith and trust, because he knows that when Jesus ascended his glorious throne of the cross, death, sin, and the devil were defeated, and he could rejoice that he would soon be at the Lord's side in eternity.May we always have this same faith and trust; that even when we lose sight of the Lord's work for us, we may always trust that he saves and keeps us, and he does it all without our help. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.O gracious God, Your servant and apostle James was the first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the name of Jesus Christ. Pour out upon the leaders of Your Church that spirit of self-denying service that they may forsake all false and passing allurements and follow Christ alone, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (Collect for St. James the Elder, Apostle)-Pastor Duane Bamsch is the Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Grass Valley, CA  and the President of Higher Things.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

TV crime shows make it seem like DNA can be analyzed during a commercial break. That's not reality. But St. Charles County police think they're getting closer to faster results. Lab director Bryan Hampton says the department is getting a new software program that will cut down the time it takes to analyze DNA.

We are so excited to be joined by Mikaella as our guest and our dear Julie as a cohost today! Mikaella's VBAC story is one of redemption, healing, and embracing the unexpected. By allowing herself to recognize that her Cesarean birth was traumatic, Mikaella was able to begin her healing journey and prepare for her VBAC. As her birth progressed, plans changed from a faraway hospital to her local hospital to a fast and furious birth at home! Julie, Mikaella, and Meagan share thoughts on the importance of acknowledging our traumas and how to avoid comparing them to others. Additional LinksMikaella's InstagramClark Film and PhotoHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode DetailsMeagan: Good morning and welcome to The VBAC Link or maybe it's the afternoon or evening or I don't even know. Whenever it is that you are listening, welcome to The VBAC Link. This is Meagan, your host, and guess what, you guys? We have Julie today as a cohost!Julie: Yay! Hi. Meagan: It's always so fun to have Julie on and today is actually one of her own clients which is super fun. I love when we have a doula client on the podcast because you can just connect with the story and people are bouncing back and forth, so it is so fun. She is here from Utah, so we are all Utahns today here on the podcast. Review of the WeekWe're going to jump into a review, and then I'm going to tell you more about our guest Mikaella. Julie: Yeah, I'm so excited to be here. I was a little nervous this morning. I'm not going to lie. It's so strange being on here as a guest instead of a regular host. I don't know. It's just this weird little thing, but also I wanted to clarify that Mikaella is actually a birth photography and video client of mine. She had a separate doula, Jenessa who is incredible. But she's going to go into that more in her story, I'm sure about it. I do have a review and I love this review. It's incredible. It was by springr and the title of the review is, “Wow, Just Wow.” I love that. She says, “I'm what I like to consider a still pretty new mama, but I'm also a C-section mom. For a while, I really thought that's what I would always be. I hit some pretty dark places, but this podcast has given me light. I listen to multiple episodes a day and have a long stream of notes on my phone.” Let me add, I'm not pregnant again, but that's how prepared I want to be when we do get there for our next baby. This podcast has given me my first tool to get there. Recently, as quarantine life has become the new normal, I've almost always got an episode buzzing in my ear. My husband says I've got a bit of an addiction. I snapped back really quick and said, ‘I've got hope. It helps me believe in myself.' He quickly got quiet.” Meagan: Oh my gosh, I love that. Julie: Yeah. “These ladies answer personal messages asking for help. I just can't say enough good things. They are that good. This podcast is just that good. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” This sounds familiar actually, this review. It might be somebody that has contacted me and wants to hire me as a doula when she gets pregnant. Now I'm just thinking because that review did sound a little bit familiar. Anyways, we've been talking for a bit of a year now and she's not even pregnant. Anyways, it might be. Who knows, it might be completely random and somebody else but when she said personal messages, I was like, “Oh, maybe.” Thank you so much to whoever left it. Meagan: Maybe. Well, I love that review. And you know what? That's okay if you are addicted to a podcast. I have podcasts that I'm addicted to and I always have an AirPod that I actually have lost now. There is one missing because apparently, I can't put it right back in the case. I just sit there and I listen to my podcast in one ear and then do life in the other while I'm doing things and that's okay. I love it though. I love that this podcast gives you hope. That is exactly why this podcast is the podcast. That is exactly why it is here. It's to give people hope, inspiration, and motivation, and to empower you to make choices that are best for you for your birthing day. So thank you so much for that review. Mikaella's StoriesMeagan: Okay, Mikaella. We are so excited to have Mikaella on. Mikaella: Hi. Meagan: Hi, yes. Thank you so much for taking the time today. You have a lot of things. You're a photographer, right as well? Mikaella: Yes, yep. Meagan: Okay, and then you have three kiddos and you have been a 911 dispatcher for five years. Love that. That's really cool. I love that you say trash reality TV is your guilty pleasure. That is so funny. I love that you also love Taco Bell because I have this weakness for Taco Bell too. In fact, we just went on a weekend trip for my daughter's gymnastics meet in St. George, Utah and we got a taco from St. George. You guys, it's the best Taco Bell taco I've ever had. Like seriously, St. George does it right. So when you are in St. George next time, you should go to Taco Bell. Julie: Meagan and Mikaella, you guys. I'm sorry but Taco Bell is not very good. Meagan: Do you know what? It depends on the Taco Bell because the Taco Bell by my house sucks. But St. George, holy cow. Even my husband was like, “That was the best Taco Bell ever.” I was like, “Right?” So I love that. I love that so much and I'm so excited to dive into this story because I love hearing the big baby stories. It sounds like you heard, “Big baby, big baby, big baby” for so long and so many people telling you that you're not a good candidate for VBAC, and then boom. Julie: Boom. Mikaella: Basically, that's the best way to put it. Meagan: So let's turn the time over to you to share your stories and how this big baby and a non-VBAC candidate mom rocked her VBAC. Mikaella: So I have three kids. I have a five-year-old Claire, a three-year-old Boston, and then Charlie is my VBAC baby. I feel like Charlie's VBAC story really starts with 21-year-old first-time mom Mikaella who knew nothing. I was along for the ride. I had no interest in pursuing any sort of birth education or anything like that especially with my mom's own traumatic birth history so I was like, “Whatever happens happens. It's fine.” For my first birth, that was okay. It wasn't that big of a deal. I do wish I had been equipped with more knowledge, but it was smooth sailing for the most part. She came on her own the morning of my scheduled induction so I was already in labor when I got there anyway. My body was doing what it was supposed to do. She ended up being vacuum assisted because she was posterior and then it ended up being a trend with all of my babies with them being posterior so that was a really big worry I had with Charlie. It just felt like a normal birth experience. And then Boston because Claire's was so normal, I went in feeling like, “Oh, nope. I've got it, no problem.” Then I was talked into an induction because I was along for the ride. I didn't know the ins and outs and the cascade of interventions and things like that. I was induced about a week early with him. Both he and Claire, my labors were about 12 hours long with lots and lots and lots of pushing. But with him, I felt completely out of control from being induced and having my dura nicked with the epidural. Then I had some major blood loss that was still unexplained there in the middle which was pretty traumatic. With him, I pushed for hours as well and he was just not coming out. He was so stuck. My provider was not pushy at all actually. He was very, “Here are your options. You can keep pushing. We can try a vacuum with him too, but if he gets stuck, it's going to be more complicated with him being farther down the birth canal.” So we opted for a C-section with him. I don't know. I think I reacted really strongly to the extra medication because I was numb from the chin down. It was a very unpleasant experience which just added the whole out-of-control feeling. I went in there and as I'm feeling them tugging, I didn't feel any pain which was great. I was feeling the tugging and then everybody starts laughing. I was like, “This is not the time to be laughing. What is going on?” They pulled him out and were like, “He's huge.” He was. He was a 12-pound baby. There was probably no way I was actually going to get him out on my own, but ever since having him, everyone was like, “Oh you just make big babies,” because my first baby was 8 pounds, 9 ounces. He was 12 pounds. Julie: And he's still such a big kid. Mikaella: He is a really big kid. Julie: He is so cute. Mikaella: He's bigger than all of the other kids in my preschooler's class and he's only three. He's just big like my whole mom's side of the family. So after his birth, it took a long time to be able to talk about it out loud. I posted a really watered-down and foggy version on Facebook as a birth announcement post, but I don't even remember writing half of it. I just remember feeling traumatized but not that the trauma was valid because I knew people with worse stories and that was something that I had to come to grips with. My trauma was still valid despite it not being maybe as bad as somebody else's. Meagan: Totally, yeah. Mikaella: I knew we wanted more kids, but there was so much anxiety surrounding the decision of when to have more kids so there was a little bit more of a gap between Boston and Charlie. I was still pretty afraid of birth until I had a life-changing experience attending a birth as a photographer. It was actually for Jenessa who ended up being my doula later down the road but it was this beautiful, intimate home birth. I found it so healing. She was singing through her contractions and the atmosphere was just so sweet and loving. She was definitely in charge and she knew what she wanted. She was a practical stranger at that point, but it was still such a positive experience to watch her have such a positive birth experience. It was life-changing. So then when I got pregnant again, I knew I did not want a C-section just based on how the last one had felt. I didn't even want an epidural based on the spinal headache I had gotten with my dura being nicked. I felt like having the epidural and not being able to move around during labor contributed a lot to both of my babies getting stuck, so I felt like being able to move in labor was going to be really important to me. My OB who delivered Boston was actually super supportive but I wasn't allowed to VBAC at the hospital. Where I live is a really rural area. He said he would send me north whenever I went into labor, but I really wanted to know my birth team. With that it option, it was just, “You get who you get and hopefully they're supportive of a VBAC too,” which I think we've all come to realize is hard to find VBAC-supportive providers. Meagan: Very, very, yeah.Mikaella: So when I was looking for a provider, I went through so many, but I began my research. I met with multiple providers and I just kept hearing, “You make big babies. You make big babies,” because Claire was 8 pounds, 9 ounces, and Boston was 12 pounds. “You just make big babies and it would just be easier for you to have a C-section. Here are all of the risks and complications of a VBAC,” but no one wants to talk about the complications of a repeat C-section, right? This one particular OB, I don't know if I can shout him out because he might be really upset. I want to make sure that no one else looking for a VBAC goes to him. He didn't even give me the decency of a conversation before completely shutting me down. I had gone in. I spoke with the nurse. She was like, “Whatever you want, you get. You are the birthing mom.” I was feeling on cloud 9. I was even texting my husband, “This is going so well,” as she was checking me in. I guess the casual conversation that I was having with her about my birth history, she relayed to him in the five-minute span before he came into the room and that was all it took for him to decide that I was not a good candidate for a VBAC at all. He didn't want to talk about the preparations I had made, that I had a doula, that I didn't feel as big as I was with Boston. None of that even mattered. Meagan: He just put a label on you and was done.Mikaella: Immediately. Immediately. There was no conversation about any of it. Not about my birth history. Even my original OB who delivered my last baby was like, “No, you can do that. That's fine,” but it just said that it made him and his staff uncomfortable. I ended up at Valley Women's Health, the Orem Midwives' Group at 35 weeks pregnant and I just stuck with them because they were the first ones to not tell me no right away. There were still some things that I was hesitant about. There was a lot of, “You'll have to do this and this and this. These are the requirements, but sure. We'll try,” kind of thing. I did, however, have to go through a VBAC consultation at Utah Valley where they all discuss the risks of a VBAC. Nothing about the risks of a repeat C-section of course. They had me sign all of those forms and then had me do a growth scan which showed Charlie being about three weeks ahead. She was going to be absolutely massive according to them. I did not feel big at all at least compared to my last two. I was more active in this labor. I was eating healthily. I was doing all of the stretches and sitting in the right positions to make sure that she wasn't posterior too. I just felt like I could do it. It really helped to feel like I was going to be in charge of this birth. My doula was very, very supportive all the way through. She was just like, “No. You've got this. You can do this. I know you and I know your willpower,” so she was a huge support that way and as well as my husband. He's never not backed me on anything. He's great. I should also add that the hospital where I was going to deliver is about an hour and a half away from me. Only like what, five minutes away from you, Julie? Julie: Yeah, it's about 20 minutes from me, but super far from you. Mikaella: Okay, you're a little bit further. I was thinking it was only about five minutes away. I was preparing to labor in the car. They had been like, “Are you sure you don't want to be induced?” I was like, “Nope. I don't want to intervene with this at all. My body is going to do its own process.” I was mentally preparing myself to labor for an hour and a half in our van. I had my husband get the puppy pads ready and line the bottom of the van with the puppy pads. I woke up to my strongest contraction at about 4:00 AM and that's when I began timing them. I got in the shower to see if they would get closer together and then they started getting closer together really fast. The timeline is kind of foggy, but the contractions were so strong. I texted my doula at 5:30 letting her know that my contractions were about 5-7 minutes apart and that I was going to try and leave soon. She was going to have plenty of time because she was right next to the hospital, but in reality, I had only maybe two more contractions that far apart. It was just happening and happening really fast. I called my mom. She was getting ready to come over and I woke up Preston and had him load up the car while I was getting dressed. I do actually wish I had had him with me during those moments, but at that point, I thought we were still going to make the hour-and-a-half drive to the hospital, so I was like, “No. Get this. Get my bag. Get my charger. Throw all of the things in there,” the last minute things and grab whatever. Just throw it in the van.So he was running around like crazy trying to make sure he's got everything. I couldn't even get my pants on in between the contractions. I was sitting in the same spot just powering through these contractions. I remember thinking, “There's no way that I can do this unmedicated. I'm going to get that epidural as soon as I get to the hospital,” because all that I've heard in all of my research is that when you think you can't do it anymore, that's when you're at the end. I was like, “Well, I just barely started. How am I supposed to make it any farther than this?” and not realizing that I was actually right there at the end with how quick it was all going. Meagan: Oh my goodness. Mikaella: Yeah. It was about 30 minutes later that I knew we were not going to make it up to Provo. I called my doula and I think that was all I said. “I think we're not going to make it to the hospital.” She's like, “Oh, okay. Well, get to Sanpete Valley,” the one that's only 20 minutes away. “They can't force you to do anything,” because that was my biggest worry. I was like, “I don't want them to just throw me on a table as soon as I get there.” That contraction that I had on the phone with her was actually the only one that I was able to have my husband doing counterpressure for. I was just bracing myself against the tub. He's doing his best because we really thought that I was going to have a doula there. She would be able to walk him through things. I wasn't the most prepared. I'm not going to lie as far as the actual coping mechanisms, I think, that I was going to use. I had a metal comb that is used for dog grooming that I was clutching in my hand as tight as possible. Meagan: Powerful. Mikaella: Yep. I loved having that thing. That was a godsend honestly.  My mom arrived at about 6:15 and I was just holding onto her. It's funny because the two births I attended were so peaceful and one like I said, Jenessa was singing through her contractions. It was a beautiful environment and then another friend of mine was low moaning. It was a quiet atmosphere still and I am just screaming. You could even hear it in the background of the 911 call that my husband had to make. I'm just losing it in the background. I'm like, “This is not the calm, cool atmosphere that I was expecting.”But my mom got there. I had a super strong contraction and I was just feeling the irresistible urge to push. When I sat back up after that contraction, I felt my water which was bulging and that's when I had to tell my husband to call 911. He was like, “Oh, okay. This is happening right now and right here. We are not making it to the hospital.” Because I am a 911 dispatcher, the operator that he called is my coworker, so I knew the instructions she was going to give me. I was not about to lay on my back even though she was about to tell me to. He kept telling me, “She says that you've got to get on my back.” “I am not getting on my back. That is not what I want to do right now. Just tell her to get the ambulance here. We'll make it work.”At that moment, I made it from my bedroom floor back to my bathroom which is the tiniest room in my house. I don't know why I felt like I needed to be in there. But the EMT that lives around the corner arrived as I was crowning. I'm holding onto my mom. I did finally end up laying down, but she arrived as I'm crowning. With one push, Charlie's head comes out and my EMT unwraps the cord that was wrapped around her neck. It was wrapped around twice so she was super nervous– the EMT was. Another push and she was out. She was super pink. She was a really healthy color. What was really cool was that this whole time, despite it not being my plan at all, there was no fear. There was never a sense of, “This is going wrong.” There was a little bit of panic and there were a lot of self-doubts there in that first hour, but there was no fear. I just was able to trust my body and know what I was doing despite none of it going to plan whatsoever which was a really cool experience. Then they load me up into the ambulance. They took me to the hospital which was where I delivered my placenta. We actually were only there for six hours because, for some reason when you don't deliver at the hospital, they're like, “Oh, you can actually go home,” which seemed backward to me but I wasn't about to fight it. Jenessa and Julie arrived around the same time. I didn't even call Julie myself. I just told Jenessa, I was like, “Please call Julie and let her know what's going on.” The rest is history. It was just the most amazing redemptive birth. I got basically everything I wanted. I had written out a list of birth goals that I had wanted and on that list was intermittent monitoring which, I didn't end up having any monitoring. Getting my VBAC was super important which I got. I didn't have to have an epidural. I didn't even have to get an IV. It was just completely and 100% me and that felt incredibly powerful. It's been a really, really cool story to share especially to other moms who are looking to do VBACs and stuff like that, especially after I was told, “You make big babies. You make big babies.” This was another big baby. She was a 9.5-pound baby who came out on my bathroom floor with no tearing whatsoever. I did that.  Meagan: And you did it. You did it very quickly. Very, very quickly. Mikaella: Very, very quickly. From the first contraction that woke me up to her being born was about 2.5 hours total compared to the 12 hours each for my first two kids. Meagan: Oh my gosh. That is amazing. That is so amazing. I'm sure on Julie's end, she was like, “Oh my gosh. I've got to make it. I've got to get there.” Julie: Well, let me tell you. Can I tell you my version really fast?Mikaella: Yes. Julie: So I met Mikaella. Oh, I don't even remember. It was a month or something like that before you had your baby or something like that? I was excited because I've had clients in the past drive up from 2.5 hours away up here to have their VBACs, so I love those stories. I love people that really want to fight for it. We connected and I got pulled onto the team. I was excited to do a birth with Jenessa as well. But that morning, I got a phone call from Jenessa. I want to say it was around 6:00 or 6:30, somewhere around there. It might be a little earlier. She told me that you were in labor, that you had to change plans and go to the local hospital instead, and that you were just going to wing it, push for your VBAC, and fight if you needed to. You were prepared to do that, but things were moving quickly and you weren't going to make it up to Orem. I was groggy and half awake. I'm like, “So does she still want me to come?”I think I asked that or whatever because you know when you're half awake, I'm like, “I have no idea what to say.” She said, “Yeah. Get dressed and start heading down.” She said she was on her way, so I got dressed and I grabbed my cameras and gear, and headed out. It was about an hour and twenty-minute drive for me or maybe just an hour. I'm not quite sure exactly. So I started heading down and then I was just like, “Please don't let me miss this birth. Please don't let me miss this birth.” I was so frustrated because I had missed two other births already this summer because of people having fast babies. I had one VBAC client that went from 3 centimeters to baby in an hour and they didn't call me in until she was pushing. I was like, “Why, why, why?” and then the other client that I missed had only a 41-minute labor and it was a 46-minute drive for me. I was on my way and I was like, “Please don't let me miss this birth. Please not another one. Please not another one.” But I was excited to be going and supporting Mikaella. As soon as I was getting ready to go through the canyon in Spanish Fork which is about halfway there, I got another call from Jenessa and she said, “She just delivered her baby on the bathroom floor.” I was like, “What?! She didn't even make it to the hospital?” I was so surprised. And yes, I was absolutely super sad to miss it, but I'm also super happy that Mikaella got everything she wanted. It's funny because we have pictures and video clips of you reading off your list of everything that you wanted and stuff. That was super fun to go. I still kept heading down and we did a nice golden hour session. I was there for a few hours with them and the kids came in to meet baby and everything. But it was wild. This summer was wild. There were so many crazy things happening with births and babies. I just actually had a 9.5-pound baby born about a week ago even, a 9-pound, 7-ounce birth center birth. I just love seeing these big babies come flying out into the world just as fierce as they want to be. I love it. I love your story. It's so wild. I'm excited that you get to tell it today. Mikaella: It's so fun. I love being able to tell it. I think it's really cool that Charlie's got that story that she can tell now too. Now even, she's got news articles that she can look back on. Meagan: Yes, I was going to say that you said earlier that the news had contacted you and you were on the news. How did that story get out? Were they just like, “Oh my gosh, this accidental home birth.” Did they talk about VBAC in there too? Mikaella: It was very interesting to see how they took my story and spun it. I won't say it wasn't factual, but they definitely put a certain light on it I guess you could say. Our local ambulance, two or three more of my coworkers work in the ambulance too so I'm really close with a lot of them. Meagan: I would really like to see this article. Julie: I'll send it to you or she can send it to you. One of us. Mikaella: I think that there's a video as well as an actual written one. So basically, our local hospital does an EMS highlight at the end of the year and they decided that they were going to highlight Ephraim's ambulance this year which is where I'm from and the story that they were going to highlight was Charlie's story. A big emphasis was put on the EMT which I totally appreciate her. I love her. She was a godsend in that moment that she was there and she knew what to do especially with the cord wrapped around Charlie's neck. There was not a lot about me in the article which I find interesting. It's not as much about the birthing mother despite it being a birth story. So when the interviewers actually came over to my house, we were just having a casual chitchat before the actual filming and the interview began. They were saying, “The hospital was worried that this was going to make people want to have a home birth. They were worried that we were advocating for a home birth.” She's like, “You weren't planning on having a home birth, right?” Julie: What? Mikaella: Yeah. I was like, “Not that there's anything wrong with having a home birth, but no. That wasn't the plan.” I was like, “It is now if I have another one. I'm probably just going to have it at home.” I found it interesting that the hospital was like, “Oh, we don't want to promote home birth because that's risky,” or whatever. Then in the article, it was very much about EMS which is fine because it was their highlight, but they kept saying, “The baby that came early, the baby that came early.” I was like, “She didn't come early.” She came maybe two days early before her due date, but she just came fast. Julie: Oh my gosh. What got me was like, “The cord was around her neck and it was so emergent.” They went and talked about how the cord wrapped around her neck was that they saved your baby's life. That's what people say. That's what people think, but we all know that the cord around the neck, 99% of the time is not a problem. Mikaella: Exactly. The EMT that delivered her is wonderful. I have fostered a relationship now with her after the fact and I know a lot of people that work on the crew, so I didn't mind them getting a little highlight, but it was very interesting to see how they spun it there at the end and how they spliced it together. I know they were trying to work with what they had because I was so nervous about sharing my story that I was kind of all over the place. Preston had to keep anchoring me and be like, “Don't forget about this part of the story. Don't forget about this part of the story.” I'm like, “Oh right. I know.” Meagan: Yeah. Mikaella: It's interesting, yeah. Meagan: It just goes to show just in general with news how things can be spun and taken a little bit more out of context to make it sound different or more desirable in one factor or another. When you have a perfectly safe, beautiful, vaginal birth after Cesarean with a larger-sized baby that was a fast, precipitous labor and then this amazing EMT comes in and they just help. How awesome it was that they were there. There was this nuchal cord and how nervewracking it was for them, but they knew what to do. They were trained and they helped. Instead of just talking like that, it's a little different so it's kind of funny to think about that but still so cool that Charlie can go back and see and be like, “Look. I even made it into the news because I came so fast.”Mikaella: Exactly, exactly. Yep. Not a lot of big things happen in our tiny town. Meagan: Yeah, yes. So oh my gosh, well thank you so much both Mikaella and Julie for being with us today. Julie: Yeah. Meagan: One of the things I just want to talk about really, really fast is something that you were talking about from your second birth. You say that you had trauma but you know other people have more intense trauma or whatever. Mikaella: Right. Meagan: I don't want you to discredit the trauma that you did have because, for you as an individual, the trauma that exists exists. It's okay and sometimes I feel like it's just natural for us to be like, “Well, I know I didn't have to have this, this, this, or this happens like that person which is more traumatic.” It seems more traumatic to the listening ear, but at the same time, you personally went through this traumatic situation. It's okay. You can own that and be like, “This was very traumatic for me and it sucked. I had to work through this.” I want everyone out there to know that it's okay. It's okay to accept your trauma and recognize that it is trauma because that's one of the hardest parts is recognizing that it's traumatic. I'm proud of you for recognizing that, “Yes. This is traumatic for me.” Even Julie I'm sure would have situations with her own births or her clients' births where sometimes we walk away as doulas and we're like, “It doesn't seem very traumatic to them,” but it was really traumatic for me and I wasn't even the one going through it. I was an observer and went through it that way, but it wasn't happening to me. Trauma just exists so differently for everyone. So for everyone listening out there, one recognizing your trauma like Mikaella did is so important. I know for me, I think I told the story of how I was in the driveway stomping around processing trauma that I didn't even realize that I still had. Trauma is one of the best things that you can do, so I want to just really quickly talk about Julie because Julie is on the podcast today too. She actually did a really cool YouTube video on our YouTube at The VBAC Link and it's a smokeless– Julie: Smokeless unless you have lots of people doing it. Meagan: Yes, we did it one time with a lot of people and we definitely had smoke. Julie: We set off the fire alarm. That was awesome. Meagan: Yes we did. But yeah, check it out because even the smallest traumas may resonate largely inside and impact the result. So definitely check that out on YouTube at The VBAC Link. It's smokeless fear release. Julie: Smokeless fire fear release. Can I add something really fast about trauma because you know how I am with trauma? Meagan: Yeah, you've learned a lot about trauma. Julie: I went through a big, massive trauma-processing PTSD thing in 2021 and it was super intense. It was a lot of therapy and a lot of sessions. There were group sessions and everything like that. One thing that is so interesting is how everybody perceives their trauma differently. I feel like everybody feels like, “Oh, my trauma is not as bad” or “This person's trauma is way worse.” Meagan: We compare. We compare. Julie: Yeah, we do. There are people that are like, “I never would have survived the things that you went through in your childhood,” and I was like, “Dude. Are you kidding me? You saw this and this and that and I can't even imagine going through that.” It's really interesting because we do. We tend to compare, but one thing that I've learned through that process and one thing that I tell people, one thing that I want people to remember and know and one thing that I want to remember myself whenever I am feeling like maybe my stuff is not as bad as somebody else's is that trauma is trauma. There's no capital trauma or small trauma. It's trauma. The thing about trauma is our bodies and minds respond the same no matter what that trauma is. There are physical and emotional symptoms that come when trauma happens and those symptoms are the same no matter if you feel like your trauma is more or less than another person's. All of the symptoms are the same. We all go through those same things. Our bodies feel it the same. It may manifest differently and things like that, but trauma responses are trauma responses. And processing through them, it doesn't matter what caused the trauma.The trauma is there and it lives there. That is something that we all have the same. You know what I mean? No matter what the trauma was. I think that I see it so much Mikaella. When you said that, I was like, “I want to talk about this.” But yeah. Don't discount it because it lives inside of you the same as everybody else's does no matter what the circumstances were. Mikaella: Definitely.Meagan: Yes. I love that. I love that and it is pretty crazy to think about all of the women that have experienced birth trauma. I mean, it's upward towards 1 in 9 of people who are actually diagnosed, and then think about all of the people that don't seek help. We've got a lot of trauma out there. It makes me sad that it happens, but I love that you said that. I love that so much. So thank you. Julie: Yeah. Mikaella: Something I've noticed too on the trauma side is that so many women don't recognize it as trauma because they have been conditioned to think that birth is just a big, scary, traumatic thing that happens. When you have that trauma, that's just what comes along with birth, but hey, at least you're still here. My mom has her own traumatic birth history and she would not say it's not traumatic. She would definitely be the first to tell you, “No. That was trauma.” But my mother-in-law and I have sisters-in-law and they have all had one thing or another, but it's like, “Well, but my baby and me are here so it's fine.” Meagan: Exactly. Mikaella: The trauma is still so valid and it took me a long time to realize that and push against what has been perceived as normal for so long to recognize that no, it was traumatic for me. Just because it wasn't as bad as somebody else's or just because the baby and I are here and healthy, that doesn't mean that it wasn't traumatic. Due to that trauma, it took me a long time to even see a doctor when I found out that I was pregnant because I was like, “Nope because that makes it real. That makes this pregnancy real.” So even after having some healing experiences, it was still like my body was postponing calling the doctor and making an appointment. My body was postponing and putting off all of the things that I needed to do to prepare. It had its own kind of trauma response. Meagan: Exactly. That's one of the reasons why I congratulate you for recognizing that because so often, I didn't even recognize it until I was in labor and I was like, “Oh my gosh. I have all of these trauma factors that I'm now letting out in labor.” It's so hard. It's natural, I feel like, for our minds to downplay it and be like, “Well, but I got this so I shouldn't be traumatized or I shouldn't have fear or I shouldn't have sadness because I do have my baby and I'm okay overall,” but that doesn't mean we have to write it off. We don't have to write it off. We don't have to push it down the tunnel and just forget it ever happened because we have a healthy mom and a healthy baby. There was one birth that I was at here in Murray and the mom ended up having a Cesarean. It was a, I would say, pushed Cesarean more than a needed Cesarean. She didn't want it and she was crying. Lots of things were happening and I ended up going into the OR on this. It was a traumatic Cesarean. It really was. And then after, the doctor said to me, he pulled me aside and he goes, “Well, isn't she just happy now that she has her baby? Can't she just let all of that stuff go?” Because I stepped out to give them a moment because they were really upset. I just wanted to let them be together. It was clear to me that they just wanted a moment just the two of them and their baby. I said, “I don't think it works that way.” He goes, “Well, that's how it should work.” Julie: Wow. Meagan: I will never, ever forget that. It was like, “You totally just pushed her trauma aside. You did your job. You got the baby here, but now what happened leading up to that, what happened during it, and what's happening after shouldn't matter because she has her baby here.”Julie: Well, that's totally gaslighting. I mean, come on. Meagan: It was bad. He didn't say that to her. I hope that he never did, not that I know of it, but he said that to me. I was like, “You totally just discredited everything that she just experienced.” I was very frustrated. Julie: I hate the system. Meagan: You know, it's hard.Julie: I really do. Meagan: It's hard because I'm sure overall in his head, he just doesn't understand. He doesn't understand. He didn't experience that. Julie: Yep. Meagan: But that doesn't mean she should just be okay. So if you're one of those moms, and I'm going to tell you that there are lots of us out there that are like, “Okay, well it's okay because it's fine. I'm fine. I'll heal. My baby's here fine and safe.” We all should be glad and happy about that, but it's okay to accept that. It's okay to say, “You know, that was really hard. I didn't like that” or “That was triggering for me.” Like Julie said, the mind and the body and everything, we've got to work through it and we've got to accept it and it's really hard too. Mikaella: I want to add even if it's not necessarily traumatic, you're also still allowed to mourn a birth experience that you didn't get to have. Even if there was zero trauma involved, if you had something in your mind that you were working towards and didn't get it, that's still so valid. I know with Boston, my C-section, at the end I feel like it was necessary. I didn't feel pushed toward it or anything. I don't know that it would have been necessary had I gone without all of the interventions leading up to the C-section. At that point, the C-section was necessary but I definitely mourned the experience of not having a second vaginal birth. I feel like a lot of women feel that way because it's like, “Well, your baby is here and you're fine. Your birth wasn't even traumatic, so what's the matter?” But you're more than allowed to mourn a birth experience that you didn't get to have. Meagan: Right. Julie and I have talked about that all of these years on the podcast. It's okay to be happy for your baby and everything but also mourn. You don't have to only be happy or only be mourning or grieving the experience. They can go together. You can grieve the experience that you didn't receive while also being happy for your newborn baby. Mikaella: Exactly. Julie: Yep. It's complicated. It feels complicated, but it's not morally right or morally wrong to mourn the loss of a birth experience you wanted while being incredibly excited about your new baby. It's not. It's not morally right or morally wrong. It just is. It's okay to feel these things. It's okay to sit with them and it's okay for it to feel complicated. Meagan: Absolutely. Okay, ladies well thank you so much again for being here with us today. I do. I love your story. Honestly, I long for that birth. We're done having kids. We definitely are not having anymore, but I kind of long for it. Those fast, precipitous births can be really, really crazy and very intense because your body is doing a lot but it kind of sounds really fun too. Mikaella: I honestly enjoyed it. Out of all three, that was my most enjoyable birth and the easiest recovery afterward. I got to experience spontaneous pushing or the pushing reflex. The ejection reflex was so incredible because, with my other two, I pushed for hours and hours. It started as, “Let's do practice pushing,” and then it was just pushing and pushing. It was exhausting. So getting to feel the ejection reflex was honestly awesome. Painful, but it was awesome. Getting to just check all of those things off of my list and knowing that I can do it and taking charge of my own birth there at the end was really incredible. Meagan: I love it. Well, thank you. On that note, we will just leave on the positive. It was incredible, that positive note. Thank you again, both of you. Mikaella: Thank you. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

The Colorado Avalanche lost another game to another bottom-of-the-standings team, the Anaheim Ducks, 5-3. Something that has happened far too often this season. But they did regroup and beat the St.Louis Blues. But St. Louis made a game of it in the 3rd. Earlier in the season the Avalanche seemed to be having a problem with starting games, now they seem to be having a problem in finishing them. A win heading into the All-Star break always makes you feel good. We break it all down! Tune in and subscribe! Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…

The Colorado Avalanche lost another game to another bottom-of-the-standings team, the Anaheim Ducks, 5-3. Something that has happened far too often this season. But they did regroup and beat the St.Louis Blues. But St. Louis made a game of it in the 3rd.Earlier in the season the Avalanche seemed to be having a problem with starting games, now they seem to be having a problem in finishing them.A win heading into the All-Star break always makes you feel good.We break it all down! Tune in and subscribe!Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…

It's been a few weeks since I posted an episode. Forgive me. There's been a lot going on over that time and now Orthodox Christmas is upon us. For about 12 days recently I was stricken with a debilitating health issue. I endured a lot of pain and required a cane just to walk for several of those days. One night last week I couldn't sleep because of the pain. I managed to get out of bed and I ended up lying on the floor before our family icon corner praying the Jesus prayer for a few hours. In the wee hours of that morning, I began to feel desperate. I felt like God was ignoring my pleas for His mercy. I cried from the depths of my soul, but tears of repentance escaped me, and nor did my soul find comfort. Then, despair began to set in. But St. Nikolai Velimirovich has said: “Don't ever succumb to the insane thought that God has abandoned you. God knows exactly how much one can endure and, according to that, measures the sufferings and pains of everyone.” “The powers of darkness are not fought with sweets and Turkish delight, but with conduits of tears, with pain of the soul, with extreme humility, great patience, and unceasing painful prayer until our last breath.” - St Joseph the Hesychast. “Let us understand that God is a physician and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.” - St. Agustine of Hippo. “Suffering is an indication of another Kingdom which we look to. If being Christian meant being “happy” in this life, we wouldn't need the Kingdom of Heaven. - Fr. Seraphim Rose We must all suffer in this life, especially those that would take up their cross to follow the Theanthropos (God-man) Jesus. Like Christ, we may ask that the cup of suffering pass from us, but we must neither be masochists nor hedonists. “Pleasure and happiness accustom one to satisfaction with the things given in this world, whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world.” - Fr. Seraphim Rose The question, then, is how do we approach pain and suffering? What disposition should we have towards them? “It is necessary to bear tribulations in peace; for if you accept them with resignation, you shall gain great merit; but if you submit to them with reluctance, you shall increase, instead of diminishing, your misery.” - St. John Chrysostom. We do not seek pain and or suffering, but we must embrace the cross we are called to bear in faith. “God has not forgotten the man whom He sends suffering and trials, but in this way is proving His closeness to him.” - St. John Chrysostom. What lies on the other side of pain and suffering endured for the sake of Christ? “If you succeed in rising above pain, in the sense that you no longer see it as something evil but rather as something good; if you consider every difficulty, burden, privation, and pain as a divine visitation, then you will live beyond temptations.” - Elder Aimilianos --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thepodvigpod/support

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Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”   Matt. 24:37-44   Stay Awake  “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” In today's Gospel, Jesus warns the disciples to stay attentive and to be prepared for the coming of the Son of Man. To communicate the importance of his warning, he references the famous Old Testament narrative concerning the Flood in “the days of Noah.” How much do you remember about the Flood? Have you ever wondered, “What precipitated the Flood?” In other words, what caused it to happen in the first place?  According to the biblical account, “When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose” (Genesis 6:1). It seems that “sons of God” is a reference to the righteous line of Seth (Genesis 5:3), and “daughters of men” is a reference to the wicked line of Cain, the murderer (Genesis 4:10). Then the narrative continues, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Genesis 6:5-6). God regretted making man because all the righteous men were choosing pretty girls over God and allowing them to pull their hearts away from God, thereby making women their gods and idols. So, the Lord God decided to flood the earth and all were wiped out except one man.  Only Noah and his family were saved from the Flood. But why him? What was so special about Noah? It's quite simple: Noah was not influenced by the godless culture of his time. Rather, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). No one but Noah and his family knew what God was planning to do. And that is because only Noah and his family were God-fearing people.  You can imagine what life was like leading up to the Flood. People were living by the motto, “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (Isaiah 22:13). Well, they were right. But St. Paul warns us, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.' Come to your right mind and sin no more” (1 Corinthians 15:33-34). You want to be prepared and ready to meet God since death can take you at any moment—just ask the men in the field and the women at the mill.  Do not give in to our current godless culture, but learn to fear God as Noah did and put Him first in your life. In your silent prayer today, ask for the grace to “stay awake”, to stay vigilant and to watch for the coming of Christ.

Summary -- It is so common for Catholics (and others) to reject the love of God, to not let that love in.  Join Dr. Peter for this episode where we explore in depth the eight natural, human formation reasons why we refuse God's love. We also look at what Hell really is and why it really exists.  Through examples, quotes, and an exploration of Dr. Peter's own parts, listen to how this critical, central topic comes alive.  And then Dr. Peter presents the an action plan for accepting and embracing God's love.   Lead-in “It's very hard for most of us to tolerate being loved.” ―Psychiatrist and Harvard Professor  George Vaillant (need description)  The Hardest Thing about love for many of us Catholics -- is to be loved.  To tolerate being loved first.  We can't love unless we take love in first.  We can't generate love out of nothing on our own, we don't have that power.     Many Catholics make sacrifices great and small in an attempt to love others.   Many Catholics go to great lengths to try to please God and to love their neighbor -- very busy people, most parishes have a few of these -- always volunteering, working, making things happen, St. Vincent de Paul, soup kitchens, corporal works of mercy -- working so hard to live out the Gospel as they understand it, but it's all external -- they are very out of touch with their internal lives.  Their prayer lives are shallow and sketchy and they are uncomfortable in their own skin and they will not tolerate silence.   The vast majority of us Catholics will not tolerate being loved deeply or fully.  We shy away from receiving love.  We get so uncomfortable, we skirt around the edges of being loved Or we allow love into us only so far.  Only so far.  We won't let real love permeate all of our being.  We let the quote acceptable unquote parts of us be loved, those parts we allow in our shop window.  Those parts we believe others will accept.   But to allow someone to love all of you -- your nasty parts, your shameful parts, your disgusting parts, your hidden leper parts, your sinful parts -- those tax collector parts, your inner prostitutes and blasphemers, your Pharisee parts, the parts of you that are so lost and so isolated and so angry and hateful?  Those parts?  Most of us will say -- No way -- no way does anyone get to see those parts if I can help it, let alone love those parts.  How about your terrified parts, your desperate parts, your wounded, traumatized parts, the ones no one wants, the parts of you that have been rejected by everybody, including yourself.  This podcast is for us Catholics who understand at least intellectually that we have those parts.  And that those parts need to be loved.  Those parts also need to be redeemed.   For anyone out there who is saying "Well, I don't think I have any parts like that, Dr. Peter. I don't have any problems being loved."  My response to that is one of two possibilities -- either you are: 1 -- A very special person, who has been freed from our fallen human condition and you've achieved an extraordinary degree of perfection in the natural and spiritual realms -- and if so, congratulations to you.  You don't need this podcast and you don't need this episode, you are so far above the rest of us.  I'm in awe of you.  You don't need what I have to offer.   Or 2 -- you don't know yourself very well.  You are out of touch with yourself and your parts, disconnected inside.   It's especially hard for us to tolerate being loved by God.  That's the primary reason we don't love God back and we don't love our neighbor and we don't love ourselves. We won't be loved first.  God loved us first.   It all starts with God's love -- not our love.  God loved us first.   Heisman Trophy Winner Tim Tebow in his Book Shaken  “We were created by Love, in love, and for love.”   Paul tells us in Romans 5:8  But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.    God loved us first.   1 John 3:1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. The world does not know God.  Christianity is the way to discover who God actually is.  To discover what Love actually is.   John tells us in 1 John 4:9-10 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.  This is what I want you to remember.  From St. John, 1 John 4:19:  St. John tells us:  We love because he first loved us  And it's up to us to take that love in, to let it reach to every corner of our being.  That doesn't sound easy.  And it's not as easy as it sounds.    Intro I am Dr. Peter Malinoski, a.k.a. Dr. Peter, clinical psychologist, trauma therapist, podcaster, blogger, cofounder and president of Souls and Hearts -- but most of all I am a beloved little son of God, a passionate Catholic who wants to help you to experience the height and depth and breadth and warmth and the light of the love of God, especially God the Father and our primary Mother Mary. What I want for you more than anything else is that you enter into a deep, intimate, personal, loving relationship with the three Persons of the Trinity and with our Lady. That is what this Interior Integration for Catholics podcast is all about, that is what Souls and Hearts is all about – all about shoring up the natural foundation for the spiritual life of intimacy with God, all about overcoming the natural human formation deficits and obstacles to contemplative union with God our Father and our Lady, our Mother  We are on an adventure of love together. Episode 94 of this podcast focused on the primacy of love in the Catholic life. Episode 95 focused on trauma's devastating impact on our capacity to love. Episode 96 discussed how trauma hardens us against being loved. Episode 97 discussed how trauma predisposes us to self-hatred and indifference, a refusal to love ourselves.  And episode 98, the last episode was all about ordered self-love, how we need to love ourselves in an ordered way in order to love God and neighbor, to carry out the two great Commandments. Today were to take a step back were to look at the most critical prerequisite for loving God and others. We are going to discuss being loved the first, accepting the love of God first. This is absolutely essential. The most critical mistake that most Catholics make is to refuse the love of God. Let me say that again.  The most critical mistake, the most devastating, catastrophic mistake that most Catholics make is to refuse to allow God's love to transform us entirely, to make us into new men and women.  Let us start out with The order of Loves God leads with love -- he goes first.  God makes the first move.  He moves toward us, we who He created, and who have fallen from grace because of original sin.  We don't make the first move.  God does.  He loved us first, and he continues to love us first  Sean Mitchell -- We Love Because He First Loved Us -- Those Catholic Men.   “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).  These words from the first letter of John beautifully and succinctly sum up the origin and end of the Christian life—which, in a word, is love.  “Being Christian,” said Benedict XVI, “is…the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 1).  That “encounter” is our experience of God “first loving us.”  The “new horizon” that it opens up, the “decisive direction” that it gives to our lives, is love—our love of God and our neighbor because of His prior love of us.  To participate in that endless exchange of love is what it means to be a Christian.  It is the center from which all other aspects of the Christian life emanate.  I fear that a significant number of Catholic men miss this point and regard something other than love as the central point of being a follower of Christ. What I did not include from Benedict's quote above is what he says being Christian is not.  It is not, he says, “the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est).  To state that more generally, being Christian isn't primarily about my will or my intellect and what I do with them (i.e., make “ethical choices” and assent to “lofty ideas”).  Rather, it is first and foremost about my heart, my whole person in all its mystery, and what has been done to it by God.  Is it not the case, though, that so many of us fail to understand this?  If we're honest with ourselves, I think we would have to admit that it is, that we ourselves are among those men who place something other than love at (or at least close to) the center of our “Christian” life…even if we don't realize it. Comment on this Edward Vacek:  Love, Human and Divine: The Heart of Christian Ethics.  The sequence in loving and being loved.    (1) God affirms us; (2) God receives us; (3) we accept God's love; (4) we affirm God; (5) God forms community with us; (6) we cooperate with God in loving God in the world; and finally (7) we grow in a limited co-responsibility with God. p. 177 Genesis 3.   The trauma of original sin.   God comes looking for them -- God seeks them out -- hiding, fleeing from him in their shame and confusion and bitterness, in the trauma of original sin.   God calls out to them -- example of His gentleness.   No cursing of Adam and Eve.  The serpent is cursed, the ground is cursed.  Not Adam and Eve Provides clothing for them to help them with their shame.   Protects them from the Tree of Life.  Banishing them from the garden was an act of love -- if they had eaten from the tree of life, the Genesis 3:22- 24 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—  therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.  God making sure that they won't be separated from Him forever. St. Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis, 122 explains, “God did this lest this life-giving gift that they would receive through the tree of life become misery, and thus bring worse evil upon them than what they had already obtained from the tree of knowledge.  From the latter tree they obtained temporal pains, whereas the former tree would have made those pains eternal.  From the latter they obtained death which would have cast off from them the bonds of their pains.  The former tree, however, would have caused them to live as if buried alive, leaving them to be tortured eternally by their pains.”   The basic problem with the sequence -- not tolerating enough contact with God  to be affirmed, for Him to receive us. to understand Him in a radically different way.   And what kind of love is God's love for us?  God Himself tells us:  I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Jeremiah 31:3.  God is faithful to us.  He loves with an everlasting love.  Isaiah 54.10  For the mountains may depart     and the hills be removed,but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,    and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,    says the Lord, who has compassion on you. How steadfast is God's love:  Deuteronomy 7:9 tells us.  Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations Psalm 86:5 For thou, O Lord, art good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on thee. God requires a response from us.  -- abounding in steadfast love to all who call on thee.  We have to call on him, we have to respond to the love.   That is what this episode is all about.  This is episode 99 of the Interior Integration for Catholic podcast, released on November 7, 2022 titled IIC 99 Why We Catholics Reject God's Love for Us and How to Embrace that Love  CCC 221 But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is love": [1 John 4:8, 16] God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.  We have to take him up on that.   How do we know we are loved by God? -- 2 ways.   Faith and lived experience Faith  Infused virtue  CCC 150   Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature. CCC 153  When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven".24 Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'"25  Lived experience of the relationship with God.   2 Timothy 1:12 But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Can feel it in consolations.   We don't want to engineer emotional experiences of closeness, manipulating emotions -- Concern about Catholic youth events, hyper emotional, noisy and using psychological techniques of influence to generated contrived emotional  experiences.  Hyping people up, getting them out of their window of tolerance.   We don't want to rely on our subjective experience of lived relationship Because the subjective experience of connection with God can vary way too much.   Von Hildebrand writes, “Our confidence in God must be independent of whether we experience His nearness, whether we sense the enlivening touch of grace, whether we feel ourselves being born on the wings of His love.” (p 210).  Mother Teresa 1957 confided to spiritual director:  In the darkness . . . Lord, my God, who am I that you should forsake me?  The child of your love — and now become as the most hated one. The one — you have thrown away as unwanted — unloved. I call, I cling, I want, and there is no one to answer . . . Where I try to raise my thoughts to heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.  Love — the word — it brings nothing.  I am told God lives in me — and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.  David Scott in chapter 17 of his book The Love That Made Mother Teresa wrote:  For more than fifty years following her initial visions and locutions, Mother Teresa was wrapped in a dark, pitiless silence. She only once more heard the voice of God, and she believed the doors of heaven had been closed and bolted against her. The more she longed for some sign of his presence, the more empty and desolate she became.   Needs Weekly Reflection:  from September 6, 2022:  The Top 10 Needs That Fuel Modern-Day Idol Worship  go to soulsandhearts.com/blog   Integrity Needs My need to exist and survive  My need to matter  My need to have agency  My need to be good  My need for mission and purpose in life   Attachment needs  --Brown and Elliott (2016) Felt sense of safety and protection -- have to go through the valley of shame, fear, anger, grief  Feeling seen, heard, known and understood -- have to tolerating being in relationship, being present.   Feeling comforted, soothed and reassured  Feeling cherished, treasured, delighted in  Feeling the other has your best interests at heart   Resistance to being loved Weaving in Integrity needs and attachment needs.   Main themes Limited vision and lack of imagination, leading to a refusal to be transformed by God  We don't understand God's love  The Costs of Being Loved by God  Poor God images  Poor Self images -- Shame  Refusal to be vulnerable, to be exposed, to be revealed to God.  Lack of courage.  Anger at God -- rebellion   Limited vision and lack of imagination, leading to a refusal to be transformed by God -- unhealthy satisfaction in far more limited spiritual goals -- a willingness to settle.  Von Hildebrand According to von Hildebrand, the vision of most Catholics is way too narrow – our sights are set way too low. We are satisfied with too little in the spiritual life – we are like chickens pecking at the ground when we are called to soar as eagles.  We may be content with merely avoiding sin, overcoming vices and developing virtues. Some of us may pursue the spiritual life as a self-improvement project, satisfied with incremental gains  Weekly reflection October 26, 2022 -- Why we resist change – and especially radical transformation.  Ransom Riggs Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children character Jacob Portman “One day my mother sat me down and explained that I couldn't become an explorer because everything in the world had already been discovered." Love, in some sense, is nothing other than an invitation to great joy and suffering, so they shy away from it.  Paul Catalanotto Refusal to love is also refusal to live  The Catholic Weekly John 6: 41-42 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven'?”  John 6: vs. 60 and 66  Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. We don't understand God's love Isaiah 55:8-9  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  Sharon Jaynes When Love Hurts April 17, 2018.  Proverbs31.org   “Mommy, Mommy,” Steven cried. “Don't let them hurt me!”My son, Steven, was about 3 years old when he contracted a severe case of the flu. His slumped body snuggled listlessly like an old, worn rag doll.When I carried him into the medical clinic, the doctor quickly diagnosed dehydration and immediately sent us to the hospital.My heart ripped apart as the nurses strapped my little boy onto a table and began placing IVs in his tiny arms.“Mommy, Mommy,” Steven cried. “Make them stop! They're hurting me.”“No, honey,” I tried to assure him. “They're going to make you all better.”“Mommy, help me!”Steven cried. I cried. The nurses cried.I could only imagine what was going through Steven's little mind. Why are these people hurting me? Why doesn't Mommy make them stop? She must not love me. She's not protecting me. If she loved me she wouldn't let them do this. She must not care about me.Standing in the corner watching my little boy cry, I wondered if that's how God feels when I'm going through a painful situation that's for my ultimate good. I cried out, “God, why are You letting this happen? Don't You love me? Don't You care about what's happening to me? Why don't You make it stop?” Can see the need to exist here being threatened.  I might be very injured, I might die.  Integrity need No felt sense of being protected -- attachment need.  In fact, just the opposite.  The little child was being protected, but didn't understand, didn't feel it.   No felt sense of being comforted or soothed, child not open to it.  Third primary condition of secure attachment No felt sense of support for his highest good.  Fifth condition of secure attachment.   Parts of us very young, like this 3-year-old.   Hebrews 12:11  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  Poor view of discipline Bad experiences of being disciplined -- not having been disciplined out of love  But rather out of anger or inconvenience or frustration.   Freud -- gratification and frustration to grow.   The Costs of Being Loved by God  Real love, agape or charity, is always given freely -- we understand that much But real love, agape, charity -- real love is never received freely in this fallen world.  There is a cost to allowing real love into our lives.   Very little discussion about the costs of being loved by God.  I find that so strange.  So many Catholics don't think this way. It is as though Catholics have parts that believe that being loved by God is one of two things Being loved by God should easy, delightful, peaceful --  like being the lead character a Hallmark movie  Romance novels.  Easy love that just come naturally.    Emotional Junk food that nourishes illusions.   and when it's not, they conclude that God isn't loving them, or that they are excluded from His love Being loved by God is terrible Echoes of Hebrews 10:31    It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.   Burning away Real love -- Agape -- burns away things that are sinful within us -- it doesn't coexist with the vice within us.  Real love also purifies us from anything that is not morally wrote, but that is disordered or dysfunctional or imperfect  Real love is the greatest good.  And because it's the greatest good, it requires us to give up lesser goods.  Perceived good and actual goods.   Coping strategies, crutches that helped us in the past Analogy of the safe -- limited room, silver and gold.  1 Peter 1:7 So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.   Zechariah 13:9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people'; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.'”  Proverbs 17:3  The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.  Job 23:10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.  Integrity needs I exist  I matter  I am good   Attachment needs Felt safety and protection  Felt comfort and reassurance  Felt sense of being cherished and delighted in.  No experience of that while being corrected, perfected.   xThe cost is up front -- the benefit in the future.   Poor God images We don't understand God.  We don't know who he is. -- reflected in the Sharon Jaynes' story of her son at the doctor's office.    Lack of confidence in God.  Lack of Faith   God Images =  My emotional and subjective experiences of God, who I feel God to be in the moment.  May or may not correspond to who God really is.  What I feel about God in my bones. This is my experiential sense how my feelings and how my heart interpret God. Each part, not in right relationship with the innermost self, has a distorted God image.   God images are often unconscious.     Initially God images are shaped by the relationship that I have with my parents.     My God images are heavily influenced by psychological factors  Different God images can be activated at different times, depending on my emotional states and what psychological mode I am in at a given time.   God images are always formed experientially; God images flow from our relational experiences and  Also how we construe and make sense of those images when we are very young.  My God images can be radically different than my God concept.  We all have heretical God images.   Differ from  God Concept  = What I profess about God.  It is my more intellectual understanding of God, based on what one has been taught, but also based on what I have explored through reading.  I decide to believe in my God concept.  Reflected in the Creed, expanded in the Catechism, formal teaching.   Can take a while to get to these God images -- not on the surface  We don't know God very well.   We refuse Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons And Everyday Spirituality :  Allow people to love you as they must love you, not as you want them to love you. Even God does not love us as we wish Him to. Learning to love is learning to accept love as it comes. I will lose the relationship with God that I have if I push the envelope And you will.  That is true.   Episodes 37-49 on God images.   Really hits on attachment needs.   Poor Self images -- Shame Self-images are much more emotionally driven, much more intuitive, subjective, and they vary a lot more from moment to moment.     Each part, not in right relationship with the innermost self, has a distorted self image.   Pastor Jonathan Edwards  Sinners in the Hand of an angry God, 1740s    “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire ... you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes, as the most hateful and venomous serpent is in ours.”  Hiding from God.  Genesis 3.   I don't want to find out I am unlovable.  I can't bear that.   Episode 24 of this podcast, God images and self images.  Really hits on integrity needs.  Especially the need to be good.   Refusal to be vulnerable, to be exposed, to be revealed to God.  Because for love to be real, for love to be agape means me allowing you to love all of me.  All my parts.  My entire being Not just the acceptable parts of me in the shop window, those that I allow others to see.   Fears of being hurt one more time -- Fears of betrayal  Fears of abandonment   We think we can hide.   Self protection -- need to survive.  Need to be good.  Lack of courage. Philophobia -- fear of love  All of us have parts that fear love.  Comfort in the familiarity of the dysfunction we know.   Predictability Change is scary  Maureen Brady, Beyond Survival: A Writing Journey for Healing Childhood Sexual Abuse “For change to occur in us, we must be willing to enter the wilderness of the unknown and to wander in unfamiliar territory, directionless and often in the darkness....We do not need to keep every little thing under control. In fact, we find ourselves only by allowing some falling apart to happen.” Erica Jong:  I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back. Nelson Mandela:  I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Anger at God, Rebellion against Him. secondary to poor God images.  Anger is the ordered emotion in response to injustice.   What is a part?  Separate, independently operating personalities within us, each with own unique prominent needs, roles in our lives, emotions, body sensations, guiding beliefs and assumptions, typical thoughts, intentions, desires, attitudes, impulses, interpersonal style, and world view.  Each part also has an image of God.   When parts are not integrated, under the leadership and guidance of my innermost self Self:  The core of the person, the center of the person.  This is who we sense ourselves to be in our best moments, and when our self is free, and unblended with any of our parts, it governs our whole being as an active, compassionate leader.   Parts in greater detail -- discussed my parts in Episode 71 A New and Better Way of Understanding Myself and Others.   Good Boy Evaluator (formerly "the Critic") Melancholio Adventurer (formerly my "part who holds fear") Feisty One (formerly my "angry part") Challenger (formerly "the Rebel") Lover Part Collaborator Parts (formerly my Competent Part) Guardian (formerly "the Intimidator") Creative Part Consequences -- Hell Nothing can separate us from God's love.   Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, not even demons -- angel and principalities.  Nothing can separate you from the love of God.  With one exception.  You.   Only you can separate you from the love of God.  Only you have the power to do that, by refusing to let that love come it. That's what sin is.  It's separating ourselves from God.  Sin is damaging our relationship with God.    Separation happens  Jesus weeping over Jerusalem Luke 19:41-44  And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side,  and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation. It's not that God won't protect Jerusalem.  It's that he could not protect the Israelites, not without violating their freedom, not without forcing Himself on them.   Matthew 7:13-14   “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Pope John Paul II  in a 1999 audience, God did not create Hell.  Hell  “… is not a punishment imposed externally by God but a development of premises already set by people in this life.” Catechism of the Catholic Church edited by Archbishop Rino Fisichella 2019 by Our Sunday Visitor Louis Ladaria:  To be precise, God did not make Hell.  His free creatures make it, inasmuch as they separate themselves from Him. Nor does God send anyone to Hell: it is the damned one who separates himself and does not want to enter into the Father's house. God, St. Irenaeus said, does not really look to punish the damned, but as they are deprived of all good things, it is the penalty that pursues them (Adversus Haereses, V. 27, 2; a similar idea in St. Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 5, 10: God abandons the sinner to his evil, he does not, properly speaking, give evil to anyone). Because of this, and despite what is said sometimes, we need to insist on the fact that Hell does not say anything against the infinite goodness of God. (p. 863).  Dean Koontz: The Book of Counted Sorrows:  “We make Hell real; we stoke its fires. // And in its flames our hope expires.   CCC 30 Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. CCC 1037  God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance. Not trying to catch us, not with a hand on the trap door to hell.   Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC  “Ask a Priest: If God loves us so much, why does hell exist?”  An analogy might help. Imagine you are on a ship that is searching for survivors from a sunken ocean liner. You see a passenger struggling in the waves behind you. You throw a lifeline to him, but he refuses to grab it. You beg him to take hold of the lifeline, but he ignores your plea. Eventually, he sinks below the waves and drowns. Does his drowning indicate that you were indifferent? When you begged him to grab the lifeline, were you displaying hate? Was his drowning your fault?  The answer to all these questions is: no. The person in the water, for whatever reason, refused your help. His drowning was the consequence. It doesn't matter why we flee from God and why we flee from His love.   Hell as isolation -- cut off from everyone.   Images of hell   Hell as isolation Tekla Babyak in 2018 article Dante, Liszt and the alienated agon of hell writes:  Dante Alighieri's Inferno portrays Hell as an alienated realm in which the doomed spirits must spend eternity in isolation and regret.  Deepest level of hell, the ninth circle:    "The treacheries of these souls were denials of love (which is God) and of all human warmth. Only the remorseless dead center of the ice will serve to express their natures. As they denied God's love, so are they furthest removed from the light and warmth of His Sun. As they denied all human ties, so are they bound only by the unyielding ice." John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XXXII, p. 248 Satan encased waist deep in ice.  Not fire.   Celeste Ng  Little Fires Everywhere character of Mia Warren “In all her years of itinerant living, Mia had developed one rule: Don't get attached to any place, to any apartment, to anything. To anyone.”   In Hell on earth Fragmentation of Dante's inferno -- lived now.   Dietrich Bonhoeffer  Life Together  “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he comes involved in it, the more disastrous his isolation.”  Sharon M. Draper  Out of My Mind  character Melody Brooks  “It's like I live in a cage with no door and no key. And I have no way to tell someone how to get me out.”  Sue Johnson Hold Me Tight   “Isolation and the potential loss of loving connection is coded by the human brain into a primal panic response.”  C.S. Lewis:  The Great Divorce:  “That is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, “we have never lived anywhere except in heaven,' and the Lost, “We were always in Hell.” And both will speak truly.”   Action Plan  Pray Set aside the time.  First thing  Personal Prayer: A Guide for Receiving the Fathers' Love Fr. Thomas Acklin and Fr. Boniface Hicks.  Benedictines, very wise, good grasp of psychology.   Prayer Primer or Fire Within Fr. Thomas Dubay   Read the first letter of John. Lectio Divina Dan Burke Spiritual Direction.com Lectio Divina, A Guide: What it is & How It helps Prayer Life  Appendix on Lectio Divina in Fr. Jacques Philippe's book Called to Life  Section on Lectio Divina titled "mediating on Scripture in Fr. Jacques Philippe's book Thirsting for Prayer   Nike Model -- just do it.  Set aside perfectionism, desire to do it well. You're not going to do it well.  You're going to do it badly.   The most important things in life we either do badly or we don't do at all.   St. Therese of Avila. says: “He who neglects mental prayer needs not a devil to carry him to hell, but he brings himself there with his own hands.”   St. John of the Cross says: “Without the aid of mental prayer, the soul cannot triumph over the forces of the demon.”  St. Teresa of Avila “Prayer is an exercise of love.” (Life 7:12)   Do your human formation work Relational spirituality -- about relationship  Any difficulties you have in relationships in the natural realm, here on earth -- you are going to bring into your spiritual relationships.   Interior integration  Why is interior integration crucial for union with God?  Weekly reflection October 12, 2022  soulsandhearts.com/blog.   Get to know your parts Reason for not praying   Jay Earley -- Self Therapy Vol. 1.  Now in the Third Edition.    Bonnie Weiss Self-Therapy Workbook.   Means Therapy or counseling -- especially Internal Family Systems therapy with a therapist who is Catholic or who at least respects your Catholic Faith and will not undermine it.   Experiential Exercise -- November 21.  Splitting those out.   Resilient Catholic Community -- you do not have to be alone.   Reopening December 1 -- new cohort Get to know your parts I've brought together the best Wait list -- email on November 10.  Sign up soulsandhearts.com/rcc If interested, contact me.   Crisis@soulsandhearts.com 317.567.9594 conversation hours 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern Time Every Tuesday and Thursday.  (not November 17 -- online conference).   Pray for me  Sent the word out.  Let people know about our offerings at Souls and Hearts, this podcast, the weekly reflections.  Sign up for those - email.  Can see the archive at soulsandhearts.com/blog   Patroness and Patron  

Today's Reading: Acts 15:12-22, Introit:Ps. 78:1–3, 4b; antiphon: Ps. 35:3b; 34:17a, 6b; 48:14aDaily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 24:10-25:10; Matthew 16:13-28Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. (Acts 15:19, 20)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. What wise words are spoken from the mouth of St. James in Acts 15:19,20. On this day each year, we remember the life of St. James of Jerusalem, Brother of Jesus and Martyr. He is not mentioned much in Scripture, but these words that he speaks are filled with wisdom and gentleness. Spoken at a time of an important meeting in the life of the early Church. Paul and Barnabas were working amongst the Gentiles in the land of Judah, when preachers came to the area from Jerusalem, teaching falsely with the claim, “unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). This was at odds with the Apostle's teaching of being saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.What were the people of Judah to believe, that of these false preachers or that of the Apostles? Unlike Jewish people who were familiar with what we know as the Old Testament, the Gentiles most likely would not have known of such teaching. Similar things happen in the world we live in today. We have the teaching of the Gospel whereby we are saved through baptism and believing Jesus Christ died and rose for you. Whereas other churches and religions teach of being saved through other means apart from Christ. Should we, or friends, or family, face such teaching that leads to questioning the Gospel in Jesus' death and resurrection, take the lead from Paul and Barnabas, and take it to the Church Leaders, seeking guidance as to how to respond.We may expect those who are teaching falsely should be reprimanded. But St. James of Jerusalem knows that he has no authority over such preachers as they were not part of the Jerusalem Church. He instead gives the guidance to encourage the Gentiles in Judah who had turned to God and basically practice spiritual circumcision, enacted by them not partaking in activities that are considered sinful according to God's Word. By not partaking of such activities, they would not be influenced nor at danger of being led astray to believe the false gospel as they heard the false teachers. Pray that God would give us leaders in our Congregations and wider Church, to deal gently with situations where people are affected by false preachers, and guide with wisdom us and our fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ to remain in the true Church where only Jesus is our true Lord and Savior.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Heavenly Father, shepherd of Your people, You raised up James the Just, brother of our Lord, to lead and guide Your Church. Grant that we may follow his example of prayer and reconciliation and be strengthened by the witness of his death; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect of the Day – LSB Altar Book)-Rev. Carl Thiele is the Parish Pastor in Rosewood, Queensland, AustraliaAudio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Duane BamschStudy Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

Bible Study Don't just take our word for it . . . take His! We would encourage you to spend time examining the following Scriptures that shaped this sermon: Romans 8:12–17; Matthew 7:15–21. Sermon Notes Personal holiness is often considered a mere ambition of the Christian life. But St. Paul speaks of holiness as a new life—one in which, to be sure, we continually grow, but not to which we listlessly aspire. The Christian life is a life to be lived. This sermon considers holiness as: A duty to be done A death to be died A gift to be received Sermon Application Why do you think Paul speaks only of the human responsibility in negative term ("putting to death")? Where elsewhere in the New Testament, or in this section of Romans, do we learn of a corresponding positive action? And who does it? What are some differences between "interior" and "outward" mortification? What challenges are unique to either kind? From what "Gethsemane" is God inviting you to call on Him? Questions? Do you have a question about today's sermon? Email Sam Fornecker (sfornecker@StAndrews.Church).

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.

It was right there. In their hands. And the Colorado Avalanche let the Western Conference Finals slip away, at least for a game. While still leading the series 3-2, one can't help but wonder if the hockey gods are playing jokes on the Avs to get past the second round.You could not have asked for a better start. For the first time in the series the Avalanche scored first and they kept the pressure on in scoring the the first three goals of the game. But St. Louis played like their season was on the line, because lets face it, it was. The Blues started to chip away at the Avs lead and eventually caught up to them to tie it at 3. But then Nathan MacKinnon went full beast mode to score with only a few minutes left. But with less than a minute to go and the goalie pulled, St. Louis found the net again to send it into OT where then would eventually get the game winner.No doubt this will stings. But the Avs will have to forget it as soon as possible and look at the positives. Like the two games you already played in St. Louis, you won.Chris and Kyle break it all down. Tune in and subscribe!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It was right there. In their hands. And the Colorado Avalanche let the Western Conference Finals slip away, at least for a game. While still leading the series 3-2, one can't help but wonder if the hockey gods are playing jokes on the Avs to get past the second round. You could not have asked for a better start. For the first time in the series the Avalanche scored first and they kept the pressure on in scoring the the first three goals of the game. But St. Louis played like their season was on the line, because lets face it, it was. The Blues started to chip away at the Avs lead and eventually caught up to them to tie it at 3. But then Nathan MacKinnon went full beast mode to score with only a few minutes left. But with less than a minute to go and the goalie pulled, St. Louis found the net again to send it into OT where then would eventually get the game winner. No doubt this will stings. But the Avs will have to forget it as soon as possible and look at the positives. Like the two games you already played in St. Louis, you won. Chris and Kyle break it all down. Tune in and subscribe! Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order. BetOnline BetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Introduction: Host Michael Rand takes note of the overwhelmingly positive 6-2 final result for the Wild on Wednesday as it evened its playoff series against St. Louis at 1-1. Kirill Kaprizov had a hat trick, Marc-Andre Fleury showed why he is a battle-tested future Hall of Famer and the team in general cashed in on chances. But St. Louis also had more shots, more hits and arguably the better of the play. And the Wild still gave up five power plays (and one goal on the man advantage). Minnesota will need to tighten up its game going forward even after this result. 9:00: Minnesota United goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair joins the show to talk about his early-season success, his Canada pride and his surprising skill outside of soccer. 22:00: Would you pay $20 a month for Bally Sports North? That will be an option soon for standalone customers. Plus the secret Vikings edge this season and another rough start from Twins pitcher Dylan Bundy.

Introduction: Host Michael Rand goes deep on the Wolves' Game 5 playoff loss, which again featured an alarming lack of execution on the part of Minnesota. After leading by double-digits in the fourth quarter, the Wolves allowed Memphis to rally thanks to a bevy of offensive rebounds and some poor shot selection of its own. But this one was more about what the Grizzlies did than what the Wolves didn't do, and it definitely wasn't about the officiating, Rand says. The bottom line: Ja Morant's game-winning layup put the Wolves in a 3-2 series hole, and they have to be feeling the sting of missed opportunities. 22:00: The Wild missed a chance to gain the upper hand in the battle for home ice with a 5-3 clunker of a loss to the lowly Coyotes. But St. Louis also lost, so the Wild still has a good chance to host a first-round series. 25:00: The Twins almost gave Tuesday's game away, but then Detroit one-upped them. A crazy final sequence on the bases led to a 5-4 walk-off win. Maybe that's how the first-place Twins are going to navigate the AL Central this season.

For humans, finding a balance between justice and mercy is always difficult. But St. Elizabeth Ann Seton understood that God's grace transcends earthly limits, and allows mercy to fall lightly from heaven on our hearts and minds.

The resurrection is big news. But St. Paul reminds us that this big news spreads in small ways, like yeast in dough. The post Do Something Small appeared first on Shawn The Baptist.

Episode 85 is about the death of Sharon Williams and the disappearance of Walter Notheis.  Sharon Williams was a mother of 2 grown sons that died in what seemingly was a tragic car accident.  But St. Louis County Deputy Cokeland knew this wasn't just a normal accident.  Three years after the case was solved, he reached out to the New St Louis County medical examiner to reexamine the case.  Dr. Mary Case WAS ON THE CASE.  Two months after Sharon William's disappearance a man in the same town, Walter Notheis went missing.  It turns out that there was a link between his disappearance and her death, but what was it? 

Episode 101 Let's talk about reincarnation, end times prophecies, and the shapes of our stories today. Kendra helps us to think deeply about how the shape of time informs the shape of our story and the ways that we make meaning in the universe.    Support this podcast on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/DowntheWormholepodcast   More information at https://www.downthewormhole.com/   produced by Zack Jackson music by Zack Jackson and Barton Willis    Transcript  This transcript was automatically generated by www.otter.ai, and as such contains errors (especially when multiple people are talking). As the AI learns our voices, the transcripts will improve. We hope it is helpful even with the errors.   Zack Jackson 00:04 You are listening to the down the wormhole podcast exploring the strange and fascinating relationship between science and religion. This week our hosts are Zack Jackson, UCC pastor and Reading Pennsylvania and I am most productive when everyone else is asleep at night,   Ian Binns 00:22 Ian Binns Associate Professor of elementary science education at UNC Charlotte, my most productive time of the day, sadly varies. Because of my ADD, I cannot pick a particular time and say that's it. It just says that it happens. And when it does I get really frustrated if people get me out of that moment, because it takes hours to get into it. So, yeah,   Kendra Holt-Moore 00:51 Kendra Holt, more assistant professor of religion at Bethany College in Lindsborg Kansas. And I used to be able to say, I was most productive at night, because I am a night owl, but the older I get, the more that varies. And I also don't feel like there is a particular time that works best if you just let the Spirit lead.   Zack Jackson 01:15 Just tired all the time. Yeah.   Kendra Holt-Moore 01:19 Constant exhaustion, and just snippets of bursts of energy. So why high? You ask?   Zack Jackson 01:38 I was asking, I was asking it very hard in my head. Anticipating that why, why Kendra answer? Why, why?   Kendra Holt-Moore 01:48 Why? Why ever? Why? Well, let me tell you, I have an answer for you. Oh, thank God. So we, we thought that today, we would talk about shapes of time, who. So shapes of time. So just to kind of start out so whenever I teach students, typically it's in like a world religions or an intro to religion class this semester. It was a world religions class, but when I'm having a conversation, in a classroom with students about different, you know, religious traditions, and how, like, what are some of the things that we can compare safely without sort of centralizing religious traditions. And one fun conversation I like to start with somewhere near the beginning of the semester, is to talk about shapes of time. And what I mean by that is, you know, cyclical versus linear conceptions of time, or, you know, some might argue also, like spiral shapes of time. And so the way this looks when I bring it up to my students is I, I typically use for my examples, Hinduism, or Buddhism, and Christianity. And I draw up on the board, just, you know, a simple like circle, and a simple, like, horizontal line, as just like two examples of shapes the circle and this horizontal line. And I talked about how, you know, time is something that we sort of take take for granted, as it's just sort of permeates everything, but we don't, we're not always like thinking about how our understanding of time, you know, like, really impacts us necessarily, or maybe I shouldn't speak for you all, but I don't always think about how time itself is like impacting my day to day, except when I'm trying very hard to get something done. And time is just slipping away that moment, or I become conscious of time, but on a grand scale. It's something that's sort of taken as just the way things are. And the way that we think about time, is I think we kind of it's easy to sort of assume, that are sort of grand notions of time and how time unfolds, that that there's nothing too complicated or like interesting about that necessarily. And, and so when I draw up this like circle and line on the board for my students, one of the conversations that I'm trying to get started is how we across like, religious and cultural traditions, we actually have very different understandings of, of of time. Time and by time I'm not not talking in this moment necessarily about like, scientific like theory of relativity, you know, kind of technical explanations of like space time. But like, cultural and social understandings of like what will happen, what has happened, what is happening and what will happen to us socially and culturally. And, and so, the circle on the board then is what I offer as like a Hindu or Buddhist example of cycles of time with regards to reincarnation and how, you know, the human soul if we're talking about Hinduism, but not not really a soul, if we're talking about Buddhism, but the the person, and the person's existence, moves through a cycle of time that is stuck in this cycle of reincarnation, of, of birth, life, death, rebirth, and that this is, the circle is, is known as samsara, if you're using a Hindu terminology and conceptions of time in samsara, is a cycle that you want to get out of. So samsara is like the way things are, from a Hindu or Buddhist perspective, in terms of thinking about time and how we exist in time, but samsara is not desirable, there are ways that you can build up better karma and be reincarnated in a way that is better or worse, contingent upon, like what kind of karma you built in your current life. But ultimately, the goal in in that version of cyclical time is to get out of the cycle to be released from the cycle. But the cycle can go on and on and on. And you can have, you know, hundreds and hundreds of reincarnations, and there's no like you, you have to there are certain practices and things you have to do in order to be released from the cycle. And, and so, you know, one of the we can put this in the show notes, but there's an article that has like some helpful kind of visuals, but I want to just kind of talk about, like, the way that this cycle of time for Buddhism is represented. And it's the Buddhist wheel of life. And you there are a lot of different I mean, if you just Google that, like, you'll find all kinds of really colorful, vibrant images that come up of this wheel of life. But the wheel of life, you can see like there are different realms, in the Buddhist wheel of life. And those are sort of the possibilities for how you reincarnate into the cycle of samsara. And so you can see like, why now, hopefully, like there's this distinction between like a cycle versus linear time, because there's not, there's not like one specific end goal that is clear to you, from the perspective of your current life, if you have the cyclical notion of time. I mean, yes, like ultimate release from it, you can see that as an end goal, but like the reincarnation cycle, it means that you, you will, again, experience what you have already experienced, you will again, experience birth, which is something that you already have experienced in the past, you will again experience you know, life insofar as you have experienced it, and you know, death will happen again and again. And again, it's not a single kind of destination point until you have achieved the right tools and practices to get out of that cycle. And so you can kind of think about like, how that might inform a person to like navigate through life itself. The other so like the linear line on the board, I uses Christianity, but I think it also applies pretty well to like the Abrahamic traditions in general of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, but I use Christianity in particular, because there's so much that has been written about Christian like apocalyptic. You know, eschatology, which is a fancy word meaning, like, study of in things, or you know, like end of time, and, and another, there are some images that we can also share, I think in the show notes of this version of Christian eschatology called Christian dispensationalism. There are different ways to kind of label this to like you may have heard Christian primo lineal dispensationalism, post millennial dispensationalism, however you slice it, it is a mouthful of a thing to say dispensationalism. But there are images, we can share that kind of show that in this version of Christian eschatology, it's not how everyone sees the end of time. But in this version of Christian eschatology that's popular in, especially some circles of like, Christian, like fundamentalism, types of theology or, you know, like some evangelical theologies, there are seven dispensations of time, and that time moves in a linear fashion. And a dispensation is just like a stage of time, I think that's the way I would describe it more simply because dispensation is also kind of a buzzy word. In this context, but there are, you know, like stages of time, that kind of unfold in this linear fashion, but the point is that we're not moving in a cycle with this conception of time, we're moving towards an end point that is the apocalyptic end of time. And after the end of time, eternity unfolds forever and ever. And it just kind of goes on in this linear, like, one, one way, there's a path a direction, and we move in that direction. And it's kind of inevitable, like, you can't really stop it from unfolding it's going to happen. And, you know, the some of these dispensations for Christian dispensationalism you have, like, the age of innocence, and that's, like, you know, Adam and Eve, you have you go up through like, 234567. But if the, I mean, I could like list all of those, but I'm, kind of move quickly. I'm timing myself this time, so that I'm not going like way over.   Zack Jackson 11:59 So it's like innocence. No innocence. Gods here, Gods there. Now it's Israel. Now. It's now it's Jesus. Now it's Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's also inherently kind of anti semitic. Yeah, in that dispensationalism, leaves Jews behind, but go on.   Kendra Holt-Moore 12:17 So yeah, you have like innocence, stage one, stage two conscience, stage three, human government, stage four, promise, stage five, loss, stage six, Grace, stage seven kingdom age. And there are, you know, specific things that happen in each of those stages that kind of map on to biblical stories, and the stages that map on to like the time of Moses, and, um, you know, just like the time of Abraham. And all of these stages as they unfold, it's like, sort of this like, progression of like God's plan for time. And the way that that ends, is with this seventh dispensation, the kingdom age where Jesus returns and rains on Earth for 1000 years, and, you know, brings peace, and, you know, after that time is kind of over, there's like the final judgment, the white throne judgment, and then time ends and eternity begins. And that, that's kind of the the ending of this, like premillennial dispensationalist. Christian theology again, sorry, for the long buzzy terminology. But the point is that this version of time, is, is is different, like it's, it has that linear shape to it. And one of the things that I think is kind of interesting about this understanding of time, and it's, there's this like piece of inevitability. And it's not the only version of like, like, this is, I think, kind of a common kind of trope in like apocalyptic literature and thought is like, the apocalypse is coming, eventually, like, it's inevitable. And that means that you can't fight it and in some ways, believing in the inevitability of the apocalyptic moment of end of time can make some people sort of lean into that and welcome that end of time moment, if it means that the there sort of conception of time will actually like, ultimately benefit them. So for example, in like this Christian dispensationalist, Premillennialism version of the entire time. Christians who hold this, believe that they'll be gone there'll be sort of taken away by God out of out of the earth out of time so that they don't have to experience the violence and trauma of the apocalypse at Self, and that they will be, you know, held close, near and dear and safe with God and protected from the end of times. And so what this means is you have Christians who hold to this kind of eschatology are, I think more likely to say things like, well, let's just like let it all burn, because we're not going to be here anyway, like, only the unsaved will be sort of judged and condemned, but you know, Christians will be safe. So any violence that happens ultimately, it's, it's not going to affect us in the end and this kind of eternal way. And, and so I think the kind of extreme response through that kind of lens of time is, it can doesn't always have to, but it can lend itself to apathy, and even like a condoning of, you know, destruction and violence. And this is me sort of using that as an example, because there was actually an article that was published very recently in the Atlantic about this language like cautioning against the language of a new civil war that's like impending in the United States. And that the whole article is pretty interesting. But there's this line that caught my eye. And it says, you know, a several paragraphs down. And I'll just kind of like read the couple of sentences for free all that says, quote, There is a very deep strain of apocalyptic fantasy in fundamentalist Christianity, Armageddon may be horrible, but it is not to be feared because it will be the harbinger of eternal bliss for the elect and eternal damnation for their foes, on what used to be referred to as the far right, that perhaps should now simply be called the armed wing of the Republican Party. The imminence of Civil War is a given and quote, and, and that caught my eye because it's really talking about a shape of time. And, you know, like, the question that kind of arises from that, for me is like, what, what are practical implications in our behavior? When we think about, like, what our own shapes of time are? Do we have notions that lead us to an inevitable end? Is that something that we experienced over and over again? And like, is that just sort of philosophy or theological pondering? Or does that kind of impact us on this, like, deep on the ground level? And, and so that, that was, that was kind of where, where my mind was going, when I think about this, the shape of time? That's kind of why I have to start us here. No, well,   Ian Binns 18:09 says while you were talking about it, especially the last part, and I mean, y'all know, I don't have the theological background that you guys do. So a lot of times the words that are used in cotton, what are you talking about, but they may me just all of a sudden just reminded me of the Left Behind series? Yes, that was written the book series, right. And so   Kendra Holt-Moore 18:31 that is a great example, and that you have given us and reminded us that is Christian premillennial dispensationalism. Yeah. So now, translation, aka left behind,   Ian Binns 18:43 right, well, and I find it fascinating. So what's interesting is that I actually got into Reading this series in like 2000, it was when I was in the Peace Corps. And so when I was in the Peace Corps in Jamaica, and the main office in Kingston, I was had a library that we could go and just get books from and blah, blah, take with us back to our home and everything and and so I think that was the time I started getting into this series, because I saw it and I was calling God sounds kind of interesting. And so I started Reading it. And I was not very strong in my faith. Want to take that back. That's actually when I first started a Bible study, but it was a different time in my life, right? So I was 23 years old, 2223 different time of my life, different things going on. And I now that I looked it up, and just looked up left behind again to remind myself some of it and I'll be honest, I did not finish this series because I found it to be this is just my opinion. Some of the writing you know, again, I was not familiar with the language, the terminology that was being used and the description that you just provided Kendra, but there were parts of the books I found as I was going further for the series that I would skip hold sections because it felt like it was Reading the same thing I read in the book before, right? Like these long sermons from a character or whatever. And so it but I, I'm curious how would I approach the series now at this point in my life and at this point in my spiritual journey, right and starting to have a better understanding of time and just religion in general and what the underlying me I mean, I get what the meaning was, but like, talk about dismiss, dismiss, what is the word again? dispensationalism.   Zack Jackson 20:33 There you go. That word can you can approach that book series straight into the recycling bin if you'd like. Yeah,   Ian Binns 20:38 I don't think we have them anymore. I think like I ended up buying several of them and got rid of them.   Zack Jackson 20:42 That's Yes, pre trim these Corinne. Aspen's pre trib, premillennial dispensationalism is what that is essentially, with the millennial in the millennial and the pre millennial post millennial mid millennial that has to do with in Revelation talks about how there will be 1000 year reign of Christ. Before then Satan is allowed to return cause havoc, and then the final judgment. And so then the thought is the question is, when does that happen? So the pre millennial is that that hasn't happened yet. And that there will be this great time and then there'll be blah, blah, blah, then there's post millennial that's like, hey, no, that's where we are. Right now that this this kingdom age? Is is the millennial reign of Christ that the the age of the church or maybe that we're almost there. And then the trim part of that is not the trip. Yeah, the is the trick Great Tribulation, as in tribulation, right? The seven year tribulation that is foretold in Daniel and in Revelation. And at what point would the people of God be raptured out of it, so that only the unrighteous should suffer? There's some interpretations that Oh, before the tribulation, all the elect will be taken out. And that's what left behind is, there's some thought that it's midway through taken from a couple of phrases from Daniel, and then there's some that everyone will have to live through the whole thing only until the end, will then there'll be judgment on it all. And I mean, I was steeped in this stuff, my seventh grade Bible teacher had a timeline on the wall of the n times, with like, how many months in between events would happen, you know, the, the two witnesses would show up here, one of them would die, and then they'd raise and then there'd be, you know, the Antichrist would rise and he would have a mortal wound, and then he'd be healed. And then he'd be like, all along the way. We knew what the mark of the beast was going to be. And when it was going to happen, it was actually supposed to start happening on y2k. But then apparently, enough, people prayed and God delayed God's hand. Or so that's what they told me when it didn't happen. But it's, it's ironic to me that this group of people has latched on to second temple apocalyptic literature, which is this period of time, it's like a 300 year period, during the Second Temple of Jerusalem, where this genre starts to arise. They've taken that and applied it directly to this sort of straight line timeline that you're talking about Kendra, that, you know, this thing hasn't happened yet. But here are the signs to know when it's going to happen and what it's going to look like. And that goes from A to B to C to D onward until the end, it's a straight line. When that is the exact opposite of the way that second temple apocalyptic literature is written and met to be read. If you look at Daniel and parts of Jesus's little Apocalypse on the on the mountain and and the book of Revelation, and you know, all of the ones that didn't make it into the the Hebrew and Christian canons, they're all using coded language for things that are happening in the moment. Now, there's a great, great part in Daniel, in which they're talking about kings of the north, and kings of the south and marriages that between them and wars between them. And it's very clearly talking about the battles between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies. And like, historically, we know this, this is lining up exactly what it is until the desolation of the abomination of desolation. And then there's a straight war and then God comes down with his angels and saves the day. Which we know didn't happen, at least not in any kind of final sort of a way. So then, what do you do with that? Well, that's how all of them are written. They're all written with this great symbolism of things of awful apocalyptic sort of images. And, in the end Godwin's, and I say apocalyptic that word means to reveal to pull back the curtain. And so what that whole genre is doing is it says hey, You see these things happening in real life, but I'm going to pull back the curtain and show you the spiritual realities behind them. So you think Rome is this unstoppable force, but hey, pull back the curtain, and it's actually just this ugly dragon. And the ugly Dragon is going to be thrown into the pit of fire. So these books were meant to be read by people who are currently suffering, so that they can put themselves in the story. And then see that in the end, God rescues them. So in a way, second temple apocalyptic literature is like a green screen, in which generation upon generation upon generation can stand in front of it and put themselves in the story. So the, the beast from Revelation is originally Nero. And then, you know, it might be Domitian. And then it might be valerian. And then it might be Stalin, you know, like, you can put you can make the beast, any number of things, as it has been, I mean, Martin Luther said, that was the pope at one point. And, you know, for all intents and purposes, for him, it was, because that's the point is these, these, these prophetic visions are cycles of things that they're true because they keep happening. And then the point is, you get to put yourself in it, and then you get to see that God is faithful, and that you'll be brought through it at the end. And so to take that kind of genre of literature, and then to take that, that circle down that spiral, and to just stretch it out and say, All right, this is what it means. This is the start. And the end of the end times is just a It's such, it's so dishonest, and disingenuous. And it's it. It does violence to the Scriptures themselves.   Kendra Holt-Moore 26:54 It also sounds a little bit like, I don't know if you necessarily intended it this way back, but like the, it seems like people when they're in the moment, especially with this dislike genre of like apocalyptic literature, being in it. The those like apocalyptic tropes, like they, it feels linear, because it's like, the cycle that you are experiencing, but you don't see it as a cycle. And, you know, obviously, like we've kind of used the premillennial left behind type eschatology is that but like, the, it's kind of easier to identify the genre of literature as a cycle, if you're sort of using hindsight to see that this happens again, and again, and again. Is that Is that how you would characterize   Zack Jackson 27:48 that's a really good insight there. It doesn't feel like a cycle while you're in it. But I think that's the power of once you realize that it is. So then, you know, everything looks bleak right now in the world. It does. And it seems like the cups, the bowls of judgment are being poured out upon us all. So then to be able to keep turning through the book of Revelation to get to the part where death itself, hell itself is thrown into the pit of fire and destroyed. And then every knee boughs and every tongue confesses, and all things are made new, and there's streams of living water and to be able to get to that point. Is there some some comfort in that?   Ian Binns 28:35 Well, it seems like in and I want to go back to that series for a minute. That's right, the Left Behind series that, you know, you talked about zakat being kind of a way, he's I think this is what you were saying a way of it, almost, you know, it seems to me to the way it was written was to help people relate to it, right, and then see that there'll be saved at the end and those types of things. And that's a very generalization, overgeneralization, I guess. But it's interesting while Reading more about the series, the efforts to turn them into films, and how they keep trying to reboot it. And they're actually in the process of doing that now, of redoing the series again, to see if that gets get more attention to it, I guess, and to get more people on board, this particular series, I just find that fascinating of what it is they seem to be trying to do, and I'm part of that part of me will be curious to see how will they try to connect or will they tried to connect it politically? Right in some way that you know, I saw I remember in 2011, or something, I guess it was when Obama was running the second time. I think that was right. Yeah. Chuck Norris and his wife came out talking about that election and that proclaim that if Obama won reelection, it would begin the 1000 years of darkness Oh, yeah.   Kendra Holt-Moore 30:07 This is a political strategy because it works because it's drama. And it's like, you know, the religious affiliation of these stories. They're all encompassing, and it just moves people. And ah, yes, yes. The fact   Zack Jackson 30:24 that people think that this is the worst that humanity has ever been blows my mind like, have you read history? We used to murder people for sport. We're not. Yeah, there's not so bad things are not as bad as you think they are.   Ian Binns 30:39 Yeah. But it's just fascinating how they, they, you know, a percentage of the population kind of latches on to that messaging. And they're a powerful group of people, because especially when you talk about politics, you know, they vote, you know, you get them to vote. And that's how a lot of times, some of the bigger elections they win is because people know that if we can get the more fundamentalist, Christian and evangelical Christians out to vote that most likely they'll vote for the Republican candidate. And, you know, they go out numbers that can help. And so by tying in that argument that they use obviously didn't work because Obama won a second term. But I just found that so interesting that that was a perspective they were trying to use as a way to encourage people to vote is if you don't vote, if you don't vote for Romney, then the 1000 years of darkness will again,   Zack Jackson 31:37 evangelicals going if you don't vote for the Mormon, then that's outside years of darkness. Right? Which, you know, that's not a personal knock against Mormons, but just the those same evangelicals would not consider a Mormon, a Christian normally. But how do you come back from that, by the way, like, once you've gone totally nuclear, that the world is going to end and Satan himself will reign if this man gets elected? Like, how do you then say something about someone else? Like there's no higher? You can't go higher than that you've already gone nuclear. So   Kendra Holt-Moore 32:16 worse than the Antichrist, right?   Ian Binns 32:18 What do we do? Yeah, it's just seems like such an interesting way to live. And as I said, in fact, they're trying to redo this series again. And they're using the actor Kevin Sorbo. Who did, Hercules, right. No,   Zack Jackson 32:37 yes. And then every low budget Christian movie since then.   Ian Binns 32:41 Yep. And so and he is someone the right has, you know, latched on to and he that's he's found his niche. And so he's gonna star and direct in the new movie, I will only   Zack Jackson 32:52 watch it if Lucy Lawless is in it, as well as Xena Warrior Princess, not as anyone else.   Ian Binns 33:00 Yeah. Doubtful. It'll happen without   Zack Jackson 33:03 a man can dream.   Ian Binns 33:15 This right, anyway, sorry. I know, I keep going on tangent. But I just found fascinating.   Kendra Holt-Moore 33:19 I didn't know that I didn't realize that they were trying to like reboot the   Ian Binns 33:24 and this is from last month. Hmm.   Kendra Holt-Moore 33:27 Okay. Well, there you go. So I was, you know, talking, talking through this, you know, the shape shapes of time. And, you know, I kind of our plan for today's recording with my husband, Chad. And he told me of a helpful kind of connection that might be familiar to, to many of you, but there is a piece Well, first of all, there's a writer, he was an American writer, Kurt Vonnegut, who recorded I think it was kind of like a short lecture, but also published in several places about his early writing his like, I think it was his thesis on the shapes of stories. And so I just, I think that's a really interesting kind of connection here, as we're talking about the shapes of time. Like, are we really just talking about the shapes of stories, and Kurt Vonnegut had this whole sort of, like, charting out of different shapes of stories. And so, you know, he was like, writing and publishing has like a lot of novels and was thinking about, like, the structure of a narrative. And I think you can find, you know, his, his lecture online. I think it's like a 30 minute piece, but, you know, he talks through how, you know, when you're talking about like, any kind of job of story, there's like this stair step ladder where you're climbing upward things are going swimmingly. You know, the lovers, they fall in love, and they're like having a grand time. And they're, you know, giving each other flowers and walking, holding hands through the park. And, and then something happens. And this stair step ladder going upwards, suddenly crashes into a, you know, a desolate trough. And that trough, there's this low point, and then you have a low point that requires a creative solution, and then you start moving up on the incline again, and you know, maybe it flattens out, there's a plateau. And then maybe there's like another, a deeper crash, a deeper trough. And then the end of the story can maybe resolve coming again, out of the trough back up into an incline, that just keeps going up and up and up, and you have like your happy ending. And you know, I'm doing some heavy like paraphrasing of this shapes of stories, not something I had seen of his before. But like the point being that you can draw on like the same way that in my classes I draw like the circle and horizontal line to represent time qurbana gets it there's like a bunch of different shapes that you can put up on the board, variations of these shapes to you can have this staircase that goes up and then crashes down and then rises back up again, you can have something that looks more like a wave that bounces up and down, and up and down, and up and down, and up and down and just has, you know, twists and turns. And you can have a story that's just maybe it is a single horizontal line. And it's maybe a boring story where there's just nothing happens. And it's just plateau from beginning to end. And I you know, there are like shapes of stories that we are drawn to, and why are we drawn to those stories? Why would we prefer a story that has the, you know, peaks and valleys versus a story that's just a flat plateau all the way through? Is there you know, an excitement that comes with different shapes of stories? And like, why do we crave certain kinds of resolution at the end of a story. And it just is like, I think a really interesting and kind of perfect, like frame that Vonnegut's sort of offered that I think really maps on to the way that we think about these like big conceptions of time out of our cultural religious lenses, and that it seems that we, like we crave order, we crave orderliness. In the midst of you know, seeming chaos, that we want to feel like we have control, we want to feel a sense of meaning. And, and so, you know, I think like one way to sort of put put these shapes of time or shapes of stories and bring them together is that that's part of what's being offered to us. And you know, for better or worse, because the shapes are different. And they mean different things to different people. But I think the motivation of latching on to certain stories, is that sort of comfort that and like sense of belonging that we derive from particular shapes. So I don't know. I'm curious what what y'all think about that?   Zack Jackson 38:39 Yeah, reminds me of the end of the gospel of Mark. Which, yeah, Mark was written in the style of a Greek epic, which they don't all have perfect, happy endings. And the earliest manuscripts, it ends with, you know, the, the women come to the tomb, they find that it's, it's empty. There's, there's an angel who's like, Hey, check it out. He's not here. He's gone. He risen Hallelujah. And it ends with Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. And that's how the book ends. But that only lasted like a couple 100 years, because then people added on to the end of it. And so all of the later manuscripts and like the ones that are like King James is based on the Latin Bibles, they all have this other lesson versus that's all like wrapping up the story, you know, the, like the end of the Lord of the Rings, where it's like, alright, well, then he appeared to two more of them. And then he appeared to everyone. And then he said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel. And then he said, I love you. I'm happy. I'll see you later. I left lunch in the fridge and everything got wrapped up in the end, and it was like they could not stand for the story tonight. And on a high note that it had to end there, or else they just felt weird about it.   Kendra Holt-Moore 40:07 I love that as an example, because it's like you go from a story shape that kind of trails off at the end and this sad sort of dangling like downward slope of trembling and fear to like the sharp upward incline of happiness and resolution, very different, very different emotional responses to   Zack Jackson 40:27 the last chapter of Ecclesiastes does the same thing. Where it's like some some later editor was like, this is just this needs, this needs a pick me up at the end, nobody's ever people are going to finish this and just be upset. So we need like, a happy ending, tacked on to the end of the bow on it. Right. And then they did the same thing to I Am Legend. Anybody ever see that? The book, the short story ends totally differently. It ends with this great like Twilight Zone esque reveal. And it's like dark, and it just ends. But Hollywood was like we can't do that we have to have a resolution, we have to have some kind of happy ending, people have to leave the theater feeling good in some way, shape, or form. Like they didn't just Well, anytime   Ian Binns 41:14 you think about with storytelling, you know, as we've already said, that having that nice ending is what people human nature is what we want, right? We want to build a wrap up something type deal. And so, you know, John, my son, John and I are right now watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then release order. And so he came, you know, maybe a month or so ago, he was just like, Hey, Dad, I really want to my friend watched Black Widow, I want to see Black Widow. And I said, Okay, that's great, but we're not seeing the others. It's not gonna make you're gonna miss some things. Oh, yeah. So what are you ready to start watching these? And he's like, oh, yeah, absolutely. So we started and we're watching an order of release, not chronological order. And so it makes me think about, you know, he and I were talking the other day, and yesterday, he was kind of trying to make sense of how they're all connected. We've gotten all the way through phase two, we just started Civil War last night. Captain America Civil War, right. And it makes he was talking about how they're all connected and stuff like that. But are they really like Captain America? The second one is really a sequel and what that means and, you know, part one, part two, and it made me think about Avengers. The third and fourth one, right. So Infinity War the way it ends, and then you have in game and and it was kind of pitched as a part one, part two aspect of things because Part One does not end. All happy go lucky as part two does at least the ends were things more wrapped up part one ends with a major cliffhanger. Right. And you think about films like that, like, for example, the last two Harry Potter movies, the four books seven. You know, they're both the Deathly Hallows, but it was part one, part two, part one did not end on a high note as part two debt. And so it ended with something that you're just kind of like, well, what and so but you knew it Part Two was comment. So the story wasn't over yet. Is my point. Right? And we love it for the story to be over and happy, as you said, and I think the two examples you gave from Scripture is just fascinating. I was not quite aware that they did that with Ecclesiastes, but I didn't know that. That's how Mark changed is that here was the original version, then they added on some things too, which I've always found really interesting. And to me, that was take that as a what does that say about the Bible? Right, you know, and those types of things, but anyway,   Zack Jackson 43:51 most people want to believe that things are gonna work out well for them. And when we are in a storyline, we put ourselves in that story. And we, you know, we then want the characters to come out on top, you know, unless you are a person who is just super pessimistic, you know, you know, somebody like, like, I don't know, Adam, who picked out Pan's Labyrinth for his movie early last year. And that movie ends spoiler alert, with like, a dead child. And yeah, it's like, oh, that's an awful ending. You know, something like Requiem for a Dream that just ends with awful tragedy. Some people like that, and I don't know why. Honestly.   Kendra Holt-Moore 44:47 I think it's like I think some, some of those stories can be really cathartic. Like, it's not that they're happy, but they reflect Something that you experience. And I think, like the cathartic experience of watching something that's super, super sad. I think what that gives people to some extent is a feeling that you're not alone and experiencing like deep sadness or trauma and that there's like a path. I mean, I guess if the story ends in, you know, death, I'm not sure that that maybe is a different message. But some of the stories that are really sad, there's still kind of a way forward through healing. And healing is really hard. And not, you know, it's not like a simple, straightforward, like, wrapped up in a bow type of process. And it's just, I think there's something that's comforting in seeing that being reflected in all its like ugliness and darkness, that kind of counter intuitively facilitates a kind of healing or a feeling of being seen. But that's a very different kind of story that I think then, you know, what we've been talking about with the sort of nice resolution that is happy, but it's, yeah, it's a different shape, with a different kind of purpose, I think. And then there's also the kind of, you know, like, storytelling problem, where people don't want the story to end. And so the story just like drags on and on and like, you think of like, a TV show that is, like, 10 seasons too long. And it's like, why didn't you just have a plan to do this? Well, in three seasons, phrase, and on and on, and on, and on, and on, and on and on.   Ian Binns 46:46 We gave that up a long time ago.   Kendra Holt-Moore 46:50 But yeah, like, Why, what's the kind of motivation of that shape, and I think it's, it's like, related to the desire to want things to work out well, in the end. But I think people also want to keep experiencing that, that like, happy moment or resolution until, like, feel part of a story for as long as possible. When, you know, really, like all stories, they do come to an end or they at least change over time. And so there's like, I think, I think we all kind of have an impulse or like motivation to find like permanence in like goodness, or permanence and like stability. And that can like influence the way that we tell stories and sort of drag them on in hopes that we can be part of them for for longer   Ian Binns 47:54 well, and so if I can we talk about in the feeling of happiness, and just feeling good, you know, John and I, in this journey of Washington, these films together and we're having a great time doing it, you know, I mean, he's really getting into it, and we're having a lot of fun. But I remember sometimes he would talk to me about what was your favorite one and your least favorite and Babalon and I had told him that you know, we're not done with civil war yet. We're gonna finish it today. But that when I saw that film, I didn't want to watch it again. Like that even though you know the way it ends it's okay, it was still a you know, for two for what over 12 films or something like that so far up to that point. It's like all the heroes maybe they don't get along at times but they're still kind of on the same side and then all of a sudden you see in this one that wait a minute to the biggest characters are now on opposite sides fighting each other. And I struggled with that I gotta be honest watching that that was tough to watch because it made me sad and like oh, this is something I'm supposed to be able to just escape into and not worry and bola and all sudden this happens and and so that was tough. And so I like how they work with it later. But that is interesting to me. How you know so watching some of it last night I'm glad we're doing it. But even he was describing this morning so what do you think so far? And he's like, I like it. But I mean it's it's really good and the plots interesting but also don't like it because we've not gotten to the big fight yet. We stopped bright for that. And we had to because bedtime fight we had we'd have to watch the rest of the film. Right and so as I said, we'll finish it today. But he just was like, but I don't like the fact that they're they're starting to not really get along because he you know, we both love Iron Man and Captain America alright, and we just but all these characters you get attached to all of them. And so it's just interesting. What that how this all relates Hmm. So   Zack Jackson 50:01 yeah, superhero movies in general, kind of have the same shape as the New Testament. Where it's like, yeah. Which is like he does the shaped Zack. I will, I will paint you a picture auditorially Yes, please. So it begins, they all begin with humble origins, an underdog story of somebody with great promise and potential, who needs to go through a hero's journey in order to find their full potential. They discover their powers, they go up against the powers that be there's some some small successes, there's some small losses. And then there's the final, there's the big confrontation in which they lose. They always have to lose at least somewhat. They need to be beaten into the ground. You know, oh, no, Iron Man is falling out of the sky, because he's all frozen. And you know, Captain America shield is broken like that. You need to be broken in some way. But then, when all hope seems last look on the horizon. And there's no, no, that's Gandalf coming over helm steep, but I was really good to the same kind of deal, right? Then there's this dramatic resurrection. And then boom, there we are. There's the happy ending that death is no more Oh, oh, Death, where is thy staying? Oh, grave, where's the victory? You know that, how we have this final win. And then then the same cycle repeats again, with the early church and the book of Acts. And then we get through these letters. And then the book of Revelation does the exact same story arc of like this humble beginnings, and then these troughs, and then at the end, there's this great victory, and it always ends on a happy note. And all of the stories in the New Testament follow that same underdog hero's journey, sort of story arc.   Kendra Holt-Moore 52:09 Shapes,   Zack Jackson 52:10 which is maybe why, maybe why I like superhero movies? I don't know. Yeah, it all   Kendra Holt-Moore 52:15 comes together.   Ian Binns 52:18 It makes you think about the matrix as well. Right? We're recording this. So less than a week before the fourth Matrix film comes out matrix resurrections. And I think that's gonna be really interesting. I'm actually excited about I really liked the series there had issues with the second and third movie. But I still liked the storyline, and the, you know, what it stood for, and stuff I thought was very interesting. But that's kind of like a superhero. Movie, or series as you just described, right. Um, and also even like the, with Star Wars, and the three separate trilogies. Yeah. Right. They help kind of follow that same, same description that you just gave us about superhero movies. And so yeah, I think it's gonna be very interesting, how they, how they bring all that together in this fourth movie of the matrix. Series. I don't know   Kendra Holt-Moore 53:13 beaking of shapes and superheroes in the Bible. Zack, do you want to tell us about a dead Christian story our How's that for a transition?   Zack Jackson 53:34 That is a wonderful transition. Because I still don't have a theme song.   Kendra Holt-Moore 53:43 Tried it? Let's try to workshop that. Okay. Did Christian Story Hour? Do you want something spooky? Um, or like uplifting? Or like Halloween theme music type of you know, intro I don't know. I'm   Ian Binns 53:58 gonna make me believe   Zack Jackson 54:00 I'm kind of I'm kind of I'm kind of into the the sort of ironic theme music something chipper and cheery like a like a, like a Mattress Company jingle.   Kendra Holt-Moore 54:16 Oh, yeah, that's perfect.   Zack Jackson 54:18 You got 805 80 to 300 M Pa. That kind of Well, welcome to part two of the dead Christian story our a part at the end of every fifth episode, in which I share with you one of my favorite stories from Christian hagiography. What is hagiography you ask? Well, I'll tell you. These are stories of dead Christians. And they are most of the time totally over the top. And I want you to take all of these with a giant grain of salt because they are not historically accurate and they aren't meant to be They are stories of heroes. And so that's what they're just meant to be. So just let them be hero stories, okay, and stop thinking too much about it because it's great. And I love them. This one comes from St. Lawrence. And St. Lawrence is the name of the borough where I live, which is named not at all after the actual St. Lawrence, but after a brand of stockings that the local knitting mill made in the 40s. But St. Lawrence, capitalism, right, it's too bad, because it's a great story. And I actually, this is the only dead Christian. That whose icon I own, I have, I have St. Lawrence in my kitchen, he holds my, my coffee scoops. And I'll tell you why in just a second, because it's great. So I'm going to take you all the way back to the mid to 50s. So this is like 200 years after Jesus. And Christianity is still kind of an underground sort of deal. But Christians in Rome, were starting to get maybe a little bit too powerful, a little bit too influential. You know, the whole thing was just kind of like back to Emperor valerian, he wasn't really having a whole lot of these Christians. So he issued an edict that all Christians in Rome must offer a sacrifice to Roman gods, or else lose their titles and land and standing. And anyone who persisted should be put to death. This was something that Roman emperors did from time to time, because they knew that Christians weren't going to do it, because Christians were stubborn. And they were in those days, kind of countercultural. pacifistic, anarchists, who loved to give the middle finger to the government. If you can imagine such a thing, that's what the church was like back then. And they were not, under any circumstance going to acknowledge of Roman God as any kind of God because they were like, it's Jesus, or nothing. Sorry, I'll die before I'll do that. And so the Romans were like, Great, then we'll kill you. So in 258, the Emperor valerian issued an edict that all of the bishops, priests and deacons of the Roman church should immediately be put to death, and all of their treasures confiscated because obviously, they would not make those sacrifices to Jupiter and such. So they started hunting down all the church leaders. And after they killed the Pope, and some of the most prominent leaders, their prefect of Rome, went after the arch deacon of the church, and demanded that he turn over all the treasures of the church. Now, deacons, for those of you who are not super into churchy stuff are the class of, of officers within the church who are tasked with feeding and taking care of the poor and the widows, the orphans, the lepers, anyone who has who has no social safety net in society. The deacons were the ones who went out and found these people and took care of them and help them so indirectly, they're also the people in charge of whatever finances the church has, which at those times was not a whole lot. But that was their job. And this fella named Lawrence was the first Deacon appointed of this church, and he was kind of in charge. So the Roman prefect went to him. And they were like, hey, Lawrence, so I gotta kill you. And I'm sorry about that, but I got to do it. However, if you turn over all of the treasures of the church to me right now, I might give you a head start. So you can get out of dodge, right? Because the prefect wants to take a cut, before he gives the rest of the Emperor. So he's, you know, he's trying to make it a little sweet for himself. So Lawrence is like, Alright, sure, I'm in, give me three days. At this point. I'm sure the prefect is like wait a second. What are these Christians? They're they're jackasses. So what, why is why is this guy on board, but whatever, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna think too hard about it. I'm gonna get some cash money. So three days later, Lawrence shows up in front of the prefix office. And trailing him is a crowd of the dirtiest people, the widows, the orphans, the lepers, the poor, the crippled the sick, following behind him in this crowd, and he says to the prefect, Behold, the treasures of the church. Yeah, because he had taken those three days and had liquidated all of the church's assets and had then just redistributed them to the poor in Rome. So the church had no money after that. And he said, we are far more wealthy than your Emperor will ever be. So as you can probably Guess the prefect was not a fan. And so instead of beheading him, as they did with the Pope, and everyone else, he's like, I'm gonna make this guy suffer. So we strapped them to a grid iron, and put him over a bed of hot coals to slowly cook him to death. And after a while of excruciating pain, he said to Lawrence, what do you have to say for yourself now? And Lawrence looked at him, and he said, I'm done on this side, turn me over. And for that, they made him the patron saint of cooks. And so the icon I have of him in my kitchen is of him happily standing there with this big smile on his face, holding a big gridiron with like a bunch of garlic and onions in his other hand, as if he was like the church chef, because he's the patron saint of cooks. And somebody told the icon maker, go ahead and make me a picture of St. Lawrence, the patron saint of cooks. And they're like, Yeah, sure, I'll give him a bunch of food and stuff. Because apparently he was a chef. He was not a chef. He was cooked alive on a gridiron. He is also the patron saint of comedians, which feels a lot more appropriate. Because dude was a smartass. And I kind of love him.   Ian Binns 1:01:24 The patron saint of chefs, even though he was cooked alive.   Zack Jackson 1:01:28 Yeah, the patron saint of dentists also got her teeth kicked out. So the people who come up with these things have a sort of sense of cruel irony, I think. Yeah,   Kendra Holt-Moore 1:01:37 very much. So   Ian Binns 1:01:38 I would say so. Yeah. I love that.   Kendra Holt-Moore 1:01:41 Is there a like a closing like, outgoing theme music that that we'll have for the fit too, because I feel like it really needs that. Oh,   Ian Binns 1:01:51 well, maybe something about magical breasts this time though.   Zack Jackson 1:01:55 No magical breast this time. Just a smart Aliki Deacon who got cooked alive and then later turned into the patron saint of yummy garlic and onions.   Ian Binns 1:02:08 Yeah, that was, yeah, amen.   Zack Jackson 1:02:12 Amen. Okay. So the next time you're having a barbecue, pour one out for St. Lawrence, and maybe give the middle finger to the government hits what he was with St.   Ian Binns 1:02:24 Lawrence for being cooked alive. Hey, go. Thank you.

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.Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors here along with pastor Shane and pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card and the worship guide if you fill it out legibly. Just toss it on the white box in the back or leave it at the welcome center. And if you give it to them at the welcome center, they'll give you a gift in return to say thanks for coming out. Also, we have two quick announcements. January 16th, 1:00 PM, we have a baptism seminar. So if you have not been baptized and you want to know more about what baptism is, please do attend the class. Let us know that you're coming, so we know how much food to order for lunch. And then also January 23rd, the following Sunday, we have a membership class right after the second service at 1:00 PM.And the membership class is where we talk about the identity, the vision, the history of Mosaic. And we talk about what it means to be a member of a church, a committed covenant member, which every faithful Christian should be a member of a church somewhere. But since you're here, you should be a member here. With that said would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for a new year, a fresh start. We thank you that you have sustained us to this point. We thank you that you are a God who promises that when we cast our burdens upon you, our anxieties, our stress, our worries, you do sustain us. And you've sustained us till this moment. We thank you for that. We pray a special prayer of blessing upon this church, upon every member and attender. That you keep us close to you in this season. That you'll give us the resolve, the power of the holy spirit, a zeal to deepen our devotion to you. To fight the good fight of faith to be ever more devoted to Jesus Christ.It's a new year, but nothing's really changed. Lord, you're still on the throne. You're still sovereign. Your plans are still coming to fruition on a daily basis. And Satan is still with his whole legion of demons, trying to thwart your plans and to take as many people with him, as many souls with him. So you've called us to this place to fight the good fight. To help transfer as many people from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved son, the kingdom of light. We pray Holy Spirit, that you today from the Holy Scriptures, encourage our hearts. Help us know that Satan is real, that the adversary is real. He's come to steal, kill, destroy. He's the accuser, he's the liar. And he does everything he can to thwart us from living lives of usefulness to you. So I pray Lord, make us faithful servants of the living God, men and women of the living God. Sons and daughters of the living God. Serving you faithfully. And bless our time, the Holy Scriptures right now. And we pray all this in Christ holy name. Amen.We're continuing our sermon series through 2 Corinthians that we're calling prodigal church season two. We have a few more sermons, a few more chapters. Lord willing we'll finish it this month, or if not the beginning of February. And then we'll start a new sermon series that'll take us through Easter. Welcome to 2022, Happy New Year everyone. Happy New Year. Thank you. Thank you. 2022. It's like 2021 plus one. It's like 2020 plus two. And I pray that it's not like 2020 2.0. I pray that. But even if it is, I say this because last year I was like, "2020 is over. It's 2021, everything's different." No it wasn't. So what I'm saying is Jesus is still king. Don't worry about it. It's all going to be good. Just stay faithful to the Lord.We hear things like, "New year, new me." It's not true. I'm still the same guy. You're the same person. Same me, same you, same world. We've been hearing a lot of talk along the lines of what in the world is going on? I'll tell you, you can never make true sense of what is going on unless you know a couple things. First of all, that God is real. He exists. And so does Satan. Satan exists. God exists. Angels exists. Satan exists. Demons exists. God has human servants, His children. Adopted children. Well Satan has human servants as well. And he uses them. Often they are unwitting, unintentional servants. And regardless of religious belief, worldview opinion, there's a great battle raging in the spiritual realm that has real consequences in the physical world. Satan is a supernatural enemy and his job objective is to lie, to accuse, to steal, to kill, to destroy. He has a true power. Although it is limited. It's still dangerous.He's called the ruler of this world in John 12:31. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 says this, "In their case, in the case of those who don't follow Jesus Christ. In their case, the god of this world," small G, "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." Meaning it doesn't matter how intelligent you are and it doesn't matter how high your IQ. It doesn't matter how well educated you are. There's a part of your mind that is blinded by Satan until the very moment that you cry out to God and say, "God, please give me eyes to see that God is real." And when you repent of our sins. How does Satan operate? With a certain spiritual hypnosis. A mass formation psychosis, where everybody just is following this narrative that there is no God. Which is the most absurd thing to believe.Though opposite of God, Satan, is nowhere near equal. He's not omniscient, he's not omnipresent, he's not omnipotent. So praise be to God that if you're a Christian, you are covered by the power of God. Two things to note here before we get into the text is if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, before you became a follower of Christ you were a follower of Satan. This is Ephesians 2:1-3. And you, he's talking to Christians, "You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, Satan. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."And even if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you can still be tempted by Satan. You can still be influenced by Satan. He can still take the sins in your life and he can exacerbate them as if he takes his fingers, demonic finger and presses them in on your sin. That's why 1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." He's not talking about unbelievers. He already owns them. He's talking about believers that Satan seeks to devour Christians to make them absolutely useless to the things of God. And even pastors, even elders can be caught in the snare of Satan. This is a warning to myself. I'm preaching to myself, pastor Shane and pastor Andy. Satan seeks to take us out. That's why ministry is such difficult anguishing work because of demonic warfare.1 Timothy 3:7, "Moreover he, the pastor, must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into the snare of the devil." So even if you're a Christian, Satan will tempt, lie, accuse and seek to cool your devotion to Jesus Christ. Because the battle for the soul starts with the mind. Creeps into the heart and then takes over the body. Lies for the mind, misguided affections in the heart. And pleasure, misguided, wrongful, sinful pleasure in the body.Today we're in 2 Corinthians 11: 1-15, I'll read the text and then we'll jump right in. "I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. For I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure Virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles. Even if I'm unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. Indeed in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied by need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. And what I do, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who like to claim that in their boasted mission, they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May you write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Seven points, and we'll talk about how to avoid serving Satan. First, don't be deceived by his cunning. Second, don't be let us stray from devotion to Christ. Three, don't proclaim another Jesus. Fourth, don't receive a different spirit. Fifth, don't accept a different gospel. Six, don't malign faithful ministers of the gospel. And seven, don't disguise yourself in righteousness.How to avoid serving Satan point one, don't be deceived by his cunning. And this, he begins in verse 1. He says, "I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me." And by foolishness, what he's doing is he finished chapter 10 talking about how the false teachers, the super apostles as he calls them, they were boasting in their credentials. They were boasting in how much they know of scripture. They were boasting in their oratory skills. And St. Paul knows that the only way to really counter this attack, where they were trying to undermine Paul's ministry with their own boasting is he's going to boast, but he's not going to boast in his credentials though he could have. He studied under Gamaliel, which is better than getting a Harvard PhD in theology. He could have boasted in his knowledge of script.He boasts in other things. He boasts in how the Lord has worked in his heart. So he is actually boasting in the Lord. He's boasting about the work that God did in his heart. So he begins verse 2 with a boast, "For I feel a divine jealousy for you, for the church in Corinth. Since I be betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure Virgin to Christ." Paul is about to boast and he's like, "All right, I'm going to boast. But I'm not going to boast about my educat.... I'm going to boast about my love for the church. I'm going to boast about my zeal, my jealousy for the church." What an interesting word to use. Because jealousy is a sin, right? Thou shalt not envy. That's a commandment. Don't do it. Don't envy. Meaning there's a sinful jealousy, a sinful envy, which is selfish. I want things for me.And there's a godly, he calls a divine jealousy. For you, I want the best thing for you. And I want the best thing for God. And he views himself, not just as a pastor, as an apostle. He views himself as the father of a bride. He views the church as the bride of Jesus Christ. And he views Christians that became Christians under his ministry as those that he has betrothed to Jesus. He's saying, "You're engaged to Jesus Christ." And at the second coming that's when we're going to have the wedding feast where a bride of Christ, the church, us, will be married to Christ, we'll become one. So he views himself as the father of the bride. And his job is to present the church as a pure virgin to Christ. And he toils for the church's purity. Paul is ready to do anything to protect the church's purity.And he sees that they're flirting with spiritual and faith, they're flirting with the Satan, with the devil. Flirting with Satan. I understand his heart here because I have four daughters. And my oldest is 13. And I look at them, I'm like, "Oh, I got a teenager in my house. That's crazy." But I view this. I dream of the wedding day of all four finally get out of the house. I'm just kidding, I love them. But I dream about that day, where it's like, all right, I'm going to walk each one down the aisle, and then I'm going to turn around and officiate the wedding. That's my dream. So my preparation right now for them as I disciple, as I raise, as I parent my daughters, is to prepare them as a bride of Christ. Clearly I want them to love Christ, to be devoted to Christ. And one day maybe a bride.But St. Paul says, "You, the bride of Christ, you're flirting with a bad boyfriend. You're engaged to Jesus. And you're flirting with some demonic teaching." Verse three. "I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." Satan deceived Eve with his cunning, Eve was Adams wife. Adam did not protect Eve from the cunning of Satan. The cunning, what is the cunning? It's plausible lies. On the surface level they make sense until you start digging deeper and they're never consistent. He says, "Cunning. Satan is cunning." You know Satan is the second smartest being in the universe. And he became Satan only because he thought he was first. He a created being, created by God thought he was smarter than God.And unfortunately he's a lot of people today. They just think they're smarter than God. They think they're smarter than God's holy scriptures. Oh, smart people don't believe in Satan. Well, if that's what you believe, you've already been deceived. Satan's smarter than you are. If you don't believe he exists, you've been deceived. If you don't believe he's smarter than you, you've been deceived. I used to have to make the case for the existence of Satan. And then 2020 happened and 2021 happened. I'm like, "All right, everyone knows there's evil out there. There's a cabal of demonic forces out there trying to destroy absolutely everything and everyone." If you don't believe that, the burden of proof is on you. You got to make the case for what... How do you explain all the evil in the world? All the lies, all of the coordinated deception in the world. How can you anticipate Satan's attacks if you don't think he's even real?Genesis 3:1, look at Satan's attack as he comes to Eve. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree and the garden? Did God actually say.'" Satan is so cunning he convinced Eve that God, the creator of everything, God the creator of Adam and Eve is a liar. That's his greatest lie. Is he hoodwinked people to believe that God is the one who's lying. In the Corinthian church Satan convinced the Corinthian Christians through the false teachers, that Paul was the cunning one. That Paul who planted the church, shared the gospel, these people became Christians because of his ministry. That Paul is the liar. And this, by the way is the same technique that he uses in places like Boston.Satan did the same with the church in Boston historically speaking. He came in here, a place where the revival started. He convinced people that the church is the one propagating the lies. He convinced people that God is the liar. That holy scripture is a book of myths. Satan to Eve. He convinced that God's liar, Satan to Boston he convinced us that God is a lie. Not us, our neighbors. Did God actually speak through Paul? That's what the false teachers asked. Did Jesus really appear? Why would we listen to him? Don't listen to Paul. Listen to us.Watch our YouTube channel. Don't forget to like and hit the subscribe button and comment below and share it with your friends. Subscribe to our newsletter, buy our books. Don't listen to them. Don't read this book, read our book. That's how it works. How do you prevent yourself from being deceived, from having your thoughts led astray by Satan? You have to know God's word. You have to know God's word. And here just a challenge. If you're not a Christian and you don't believe in Satan, I challenge you, read this whole thing. 1,189 chapters, read every single word. Four chapters a day, 20 minutes a day. You can get through within a year. Read this thing and see if Satan doesn't exist. And I will tell... I guarantee you, you will feel Satan's clammy hands pulling you away from even reading this book.You will get up, Genesis you might make your way through. Exodus is fun. You'll get to Numbers and you're like... Skip Numbers, okay, you can skip Numbers. Just keep going. Just like, okay, just keep going. I'm telling you, there will be demonic warfare on you getting you to read anything else. For Christians you got to read the word. With my daughter we did a devotional on new year's, and this is what we said, "2022 read, listen, do. 2022 read, listen, do." You got to read the word. You got to listen to God's voice. And then you got to do what it says. Prayerfully read, listen to the holy spirit, obey God's word as if he had just shown up and told you, spoken to you. Timewise, my challenge to you dear Christians. For every hour that you watch Netflix, every single hour, you got to counter it with an hour of Bible reading.And even if you're like, "That's not realistic." Why not? Why? Hold on. Why is that unrealistic? You can sit there and veg out. Watching these shows most likely written by pagans, godless pagans, just bringing a worldview into your living room, into your mind. That has nothing to do with... You got to counter. You got to counter. And even on busy days, this is what I'll say. On busy days, for as much time as you spend grooming yourself, showering, taking a bath, preparing yourself to go out in public, spend as much time washing yourself with the water of the word as Ephesians 5 says. I call it taking a Bible bath. Every day, just take Bible, just get into the word. If you don't have time, a Psalm, a Proverb, a chapter from the New Testament and watch how the Lord will transform your life. Second, don't be led astray from devotion to Christ. And this is really the key verse in verse three. Once Satan gets your mind, then he begins to attack your devotion. Your love for God. This is verse three, "But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts," he gets your thoughts, "will be led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ."Deception in the mind always leads the loss of devotion to Christ in the heart, which ultimately leads to a desertion of Christ. I've never seen someone pulled away from Christ, from the Bible with lies like a book they read or a podcast that sowed doubt into their heart. I've never seen someone do that where they begin to believe the Bible less, but love Jesus more. I've never seen that in my whole life. Lies from Satan always pull your heart away from Jesus. Satan does everything in his power to keep people from getting saved, everything in his power. But once God does save a person, Satan immediately changes his strategy to pull Christians away from a sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ. Literally here in the Greek, the word for sincere is the word for simplicity from the simplicity and purity which is in Christ.Another translation just combines the two and says from the simplicity that is in Christ. See following Jesus Christ there's a simplicity to it. That God exists. He sent us His word through His son Jesus Christ. Confirm everything through His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection. It's all true. And if you take God's word, if you repent of your sin, you follow Jesus Christ. You take God's word. You apply it to your life on a daily basis. Everything in your life begins to flourish. When you love God above all else, your marriage gets better. Your relationship with friends get better, with family gets better, parenting gets better. Everything gets better when your heart is connected to the heart of God. It's very simple. Satan complicates everything because Satan can't create. Satan can't create, he counterfeits and he complicates.The further you get from God, the more complicated life gets. Maybe not initially, but after a while, everything just gets a lot more complicated. The true Christian life is always a simple life of loving Jesus Christ and loving people and honoring God. Thomas à Kempis says, "By two wings, man is lifted from the things of earth, simplicity and purity." What is the Christian life? It's sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ, a daily abiding with Christ. It's a companionship with Christ. That Christ is always with you. His presence is always accessible to you. It's a powerful word, fellowship. You can have fellowship with the God of the universe anywhere you are. 1 Corinthians 1:9, "God is faithful by whom you were called." Called into what? "Into the fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord." So dear Christian be on guard against anything and everything that pulls you away from this sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ.The word tells us whatever you do, whether food or drink, do everything to the glory of God. Well, here's the test for how do you know that you're doing everything to the glory of God. That whatever you do to the glory of God deepens your devotion for Christ. Your love for Jesus Christ. Jesus is alive. He isn't just for Sunday mornings. He's for every single moment. To live is Christ and to die is, again, nothing matters more than this fellowship with Christ. If you don't like the direction your life is sailing, well, you got to write the fellowship of your life. The fellowship with Christ. And watch everything change.Three is don't proclaim another Jesus. In verse four, "For if anyone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed." Why are so many church buildings in Boston empty? They're empty. They're empty of life because they're empty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we go to some of these buildings and we're like, "Hey, would you sell your building to us?" And they find out who we are and that we actually believe in the Bible, just like the people who started those churches believe in the Bible. And then they're like, "Nah, we'd rather sell to a real estate developer."Christians got here in Boston, in New England, in the United States, we got here, churches got here because Christians readily put up with heresy. Usually what a lot of people don't understand is heresy isn't just outright denial of scripture. That's not how heresy begins. Heresy takes a doctrine of Christianity and it just mixes it with human philosophy. And it always has to do with the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a tremendous moral teacher. Is that true? Yes. Jesus was only a moral teacher. That's not true. Jesus Christ came back from the dead spiritually speaking. Is that true? Yeah. But he also came back from the dead physically speaking. He literally came back from the dead. Denying that truth is to deny Christ. No heretical teaching ever presents a Jesus Christ that stands up, a historical Jesus of history and scripture. The Jesus who transformed the world like no one else.In these heretical churches and these churches that reject Jesus, they never preach to Jesus that calls people to a repentance of sin. It's always, Jesus loves you. And He has a plan for you and just keep coming and everything's going to be fine. No, Jesus began his ministry literally with two words, He says, "Repent and believe, the kingdom of God is here. Repent and believe, repent." That's the first word that He ever utters as he begins his ministry. So when you listen to teachers, be they spiritual teachers, or actually any person in authority over you, be a professor, be it a government official, whoever it is, you always got to ask the following. Does this person love Jesus?Does this person love the true Jesus Christ of Holy Scripture and of history? If so, there's fruit bearing with repentance that they are children of God. If they do not love Jesus Christ, these people are children of Satan. This is how I look at politicians. This is how I look at just anyone in authority. If you don't love Jesus Christ, you're a child of Satan. There's only two categories. Children of God, adopted into his family through repentance and faith. Or you're a child of Satan. It's a cold hard fact if you're a child of Satan. And the reason why we tell you this, and the reason why Jesus tells you this, is so that you don't stay a child of Satan. Because being a child of God is so much better here now and in the future.This isn't my teaching this is teaching of Christ. In John 8:42-45, Jesus said to them, to the Pharisees who thought... They claim that God is their father. "If Gog were your father, you would love me for I came from God and I'm here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me, why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. And your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me." The true Jesus Christ preaches things like this. To awaken people and call people to repentance so that they are transformed from being children of Satan to children of God. By God's grace.Four is don't receive a different spirit. He continues here. For someone comes and proclaims another Jesus, then the one will be proclaimed. Or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received. The spirit here he's talking about is usually false teachers. They do come with a spiritual power. The fact that there is a spiritual power is not defining proof that this person is from God. Because Satan has demons as well and Satan can do all kinds of work, spiritual work, because Satan is in the spiritual realm as well. So 1 John tells us, "Hey, be careful. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world by this, the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, the one who was against Christ. Which you heard was coming now is in the world already." The spirit of the antichrist is in the world already. "Little children you are from God and have overcome them for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God and whoever knows God listens to us. Whether whoever is not from God does not listen to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." Even if there is spiritual work in a church and in a denomination, what have you. You need to ask, "What do they believe about Jesus? Or what do they teach about Jesus Christ? Does it line up with Holy Scripture?And then also you got to look at the fruit of the ministry. Only the Holy Spirit can bear fruit of the spirit and this is Galatians 5. You can tell that someone's filled with the Holy Spirit if they have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Five is don't accept a different gospel. So he says, "Don't proclaim another Jesus, receive a different spirit." And he continues, "Or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough." The gospel of Jesus Christ is that God created everything we rebelled against him. God didn't leave us in our sins, he sends Jesus Christ who lives the perfect life that we were supposed to live. Fulfills all of God's commandments on our behalf.And then He is crucified. And on the cross, He doesn't just bear the physical anguish of crucifixion. He also bears the wrath of God and the onslaught of Satan. And He does all of that to bear the curse, pay the penalty for our sins. And then He dies and He's buried. On the third day He rises triumphantly in victory over Satan's sin and death. And the very second He does all that. So that at the very second that any human being asks for forgiveness, asks for pardon, asks for, "God, please forgive me of my sin." That's what we're repentance, that God please forgive me of ever everything I've done. At that very moment you're saved by grace through faith. And all of your sins are forgiven in past present and future. Your eternity is secure. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit and power to do his work.What can you do to be saved? There's nothing you can do. There's no work. There's no gift that you can give. There's nothing you can do or say, all you can do is cry out to God. And this is where false teachers come in. They view this as an opportunity and they say, "No. You have to do something to get saved." And they begin to add works and manmade philosophy usually works this way. They add works to the gospel and they say, "Oh, hey, you're a Christian. Then why aren't you voting like us? Why aren't you marching with us? Why aren't you obeying like we are? Why aren't you a good person as defined by us?" My response is always, "Are you a Christian?" They said, "No, but I know what a good Christian should be." "Well, how do you know?" And usually they grow up and go into Catholic church or church once in a while.Most people just think this is how you're made right with God. You just have to be a good person. And a lot of churches teach that. And then after a while, people are like, "Well, I am a good person." So they stop going to church. And that's why those churches that stop preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ lose the power of God because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for anyone who believes. Adding any work to the truth that salvation is free. It's by free grace through faith alone is demonic. Also one of the things that's going just a lot of people talking about this online and people are talking about the deconstruction of Christianity. I'm deconstructing my faith. I'm deconstructing the faith that was taught unto me and the Christianity that was taught. And then I'm going to reconstruct it.What usually happens as I've been watching this little thing going on is they stop at the deconstruction. Okay, deconstruct my faith and then there's no devotion of Christ. And then you leave the faith. Usually what I say about for the most part, scripture says, "They went out from us because they were not of us." What scripture teaches is you can't do that if you're a real Christian. Once you become a child of God, God is a good father and he doesn't lose a child. Once you become a child of God, you can't deconstruct your being a child of God. I have four daughters. If one of my daughters, God forbid, if they ever come to me, I remember Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone. He divorced his parents after he became millionaire. He divorced his parents, terrible story.If one of my daughter ever came to and said, "Okay, I'm divorcing myself from this family." God forbid. "I'm getting rid of the last name." I would say, "You can get rid of the last name, but you can't deconstruct your face. Because you look just like me." Every single one of them. You have a new nature as a Christian. You're a new creation. You can't deconstruct that nature. And that whole idea of deconstructing Christian it's demonic. And it's never, okay, I'm going to deconstruct the wrong parts of my faith by looking at scripture. That's not called deconstruct that's called reformation. We believe in that, not deconstruction. Galatians 1:6-9 Paul says, "I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel."Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. It's a powerful word. That's in the precatory prayer. Let this person be cursed. What are you saying is if someone comes to you and preaches a false gospel, even if it's an angel, you say to that angel, "God damn you. May you be accursed." As we have said before so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you receive, let him be accursed. And then point six is don't malign faithful ministers of the gospel. And here St. Paul, he speaks directly to these people who've been undermining his ministry.Verse five, "Indeed I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles." So these false teachers had to come in. St. Paul had already left the church in Corinth. And they said, "Okay, Paul left. He's an apostle. Well now where are the apostles? And we're actually better than Paul because we're better speakers than Paul with better credentials than Paul and our speaking fees are higher than Paul's. Which means that we're a lot better than he is." And St. Paul heard all of this and using sarcasm, his words drip with sarcasm here. He doesn't just call them apostle, he calls them super apostles. Because they irrigated themselves over him. Verse six, "Even if I'm unskilled in speaking, I'm not so in knowledge. Indeed in every way we have made this plain to you and all things."They accused him of not having oratory skills according to Greco-Roman rhetoric. St. Paul, obviously he was trained in all of this, but he intentionally did not use the artificial synthetic stylized standards of Greco-Roman rhetoric because he didn't come to give a speech. He came to preach about the knowledge of God. That's what he said. "I might be unskilled in the speaking, not in knowledge because I know God and I know his word." And that's why he made this plain. That's what preaching is supposed to be. Preaching is supposed to be revelation, sharing of the knowledge of God. This is who God is. This is what God says. Spoken plainly, simply so people can understand. But on fire because you're devoted to Christ. Here at Mosaic, we as pastors and everyone that preaches, we take this seriously. We work hard to present the sermon, the word as skillfully as possible. But the power's not in the skilled dear friend, the power is not a skill. The power is in the Holy Spirit stirring your heart and stirring your devotion to the Lord.I say this to myself. When I listen to a sermon, my job isn't to judge the skill level, my job is to receive the blessing that is the knowledge of God. And be on guard. Make sure there's no heresy, the content. My job is to focus on the content, not the skill. The skill... You work hard, but once in a while you wake up and you have four daughters and one of them gets sick or something. That stuff. Focus on the content. That's what St. Paul he here says. And these people came in and they begin to accuse St. Paul because they're servants of Satan. Sometimes Satan accuses with lies. Sometimes with the truth but more often with lies. These super apostles became proxy accusers.And this is usually how it works. They heard something that he said, a point of disagreement, a point of confusion. They interpret as suspiciously as possible. No benefit of the doubt. Motives are questioned and speculations are issued. And these super apostles couldn't argue with Paul on the basis of scripture. So they begin to make personal attacks, ad hominem attacks on him. Verse seven, "Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge." St. Paul came and he preached the gospel for free. Why? Because he wanted to lower every single barrier for absolutely everyone to know the gospel. I want everyone to hear the gospel. I want everyone to know the gospel. This is why we don't charge admission at Mosaic. Some churches honestly do. They sell tickets.We don't do any of that. If someone wants to give to the Lord and the Lord's work tremendous, but it's free. It's free because someone else paid for it. Paul did the same thing. He preached free of charge. And here's what the super apostles, the fake teachers, false teacher, they came in and they actually accused him that because he was speaking for free, that his message was subpar to their message. Because in the Greco-Roman world, the greatest speakers had the heftiest honorariums, the heftiest fees. Just like today, if you're a person of status and you're invited to speak at a conference or something like that, or at a school, at a college, at a company, there's an honorarium, there's a fee. And I remember I found out about this for the first time I was in college and they invited Bill Clinton to come speak.And I'll never forget his speech. His speech was... His whole was no one's going to monopoly on the truth, which sounded nice at the time. And then upon reflection, I realized that he himself was trying to monopolize the truth. And in his attempt to monopolize the truth, he charged the school $200,000 to speak for 45 minutes. Those are speaking fees. And this is what the false teachers did. And they accused St. Paul of presenting a gospel that's really not worth paying for because he wasn't charging money. Obviously they were. And one of the lessons here is sometimes there's some people you just can't win with. If St. Paul came in and he charged for the speaking of the gospel, he'd be accused of profiteering. Oh, he's got the wrong motives. And he doesn't charge. And now they accuse him of being a hack.If your whole goal in life is to please everybody, you'll never succeed and you always be a little saddened because unfortunately there's a category of people that are just haters. Haters going to hate. And it is what it is. And St. Paul knew that and he responds to them. Verse eight, "I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you." He didn't rob them, hyperbolic language meaning they gave money to the ministry of the church, of the gospel where they were. And then St. Paul came in and he said, "Hey, in Corinth there's a need, would you give there?" And they did give. "And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I will refrain from burdening you in any way as the truth of Christ is in me. This boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia and why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do."I'll pause here for just a second. What he's saying here is wherever I go, I'm going to boast about the way God worked in Corinth through Paul. But then also about His love for the church. He's said, "I love the Corinth so much. I want so many people come to faith. I didn't take any money. I'm boasting in my love for the bride of Christ. I'm going to tell everyone. I know everyone that would listen so that they would be inspired to sacrifice in a similar way to love the church of Jesus Christ in a similar way." Because He says, "I love you. God knows I do." In the verse 12, "What am I doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boast admission they work on the same terms as we do."He's saying, "These super apostles who are questioning my motives, I'm preaching the gospel because I love God and I love people. They're preaching the gospel for money. Check their motives, follow the money and then you realize who's faithful to Lord and who's not." The super apostles are motivated to preach for self-gain. Paul was preaching for the gain of the Corinthians. Point seven is don't disguise yourself in righteousness. This is 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. This is where Paul takes his gloves off. "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder for even Satan disguised himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, their end will correspond to their deeds. These self-made super apostles with no calling or authority from God." Paul says, "They weren't sent by God. They were sent by Satan. Satan disguises himself as an angel.He disguises himself as an angel. An angel of light. And he works through human servants who also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. So two lessons here. Number one, be careful when someone comes to you and they look outwardly righteous. Don't be fooled by an outward righteousness unless it's confirmed from their life. That's number one. Number two, you, me, don't pretend to be more righteous than you really are. May this be the year where you and I, we're truly honest before God. Real before God. God, this is who I am. This is where I lack righteousness. True with your brothers and sisters. In your community groups and brothers and sisters you're walking with. "Pray for me, I am working on being more righteous in this area of my life." Don't masquerade. That's the easy way. But when you masquerade in righteousness and you do that over and over and over for a long time, after a while, you might become a servant of Satan.Satan is scary. Satan comes not often as a roaring lion, not physically. He doesn't reveal himself. Because if he came as he truly is, we'd be grossed out. He's too ugly, grotesque, repulsive, nauseating. He never says, "Good morning, everyone. I'm Satan, and I'm here to ruin your life. I'm going to lie. Everything I'm going to say to you is a lie. I just want to kill you. And I want to steal your joy. I want to steal your satisfaction. I want to steal your health. And ultimately I want to take you to hell. There's a lake of fire and sulfur for all of eternity I want you to burn with me. I'm going anyway so I want more people to keep me company." He doesn't do that. He comes and he says, "Good morning. I'm your friend. I want the best for you. I want you to be so happy.God doesn't want you to be as happy as I want you to be. God is the killjoy, I'm not. Don't follow his rules, they're burdensome. Forget the rules, follow me. I've got something so alluring, so exciting, so fulfilling. You can't afford to miss it." And then he pulls you into his kingdom and your life falls apart. And you end up an eternity apart from God. Thanks be to God that Jesus Christ came and He gave us a way to resist Satan by the power of the gospel through the holy spirit. James 4:7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil." Meaning Satan is resistible. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded." Thanks to be Jesus Christ the great conqueror of Satan.Colossians 2:13-15, "When you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespass by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with His legal demands. This He set side nailing to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. We await the second coming of Jesus Christ when He will have final and absolute victory over Satan and will throw them to the lake of fire and sulfur and there he'll be tormented day after day forever and ever. And in the meantime, we are to fight the good fight of faith for pure devotion to Jesus Christ." I challenge you to read Ephesians 6:10-18, meditate on that. Today and this week, Ephesians 6:10-18 memorize it, memorize it. Very easy. It's not even that big of a text. Ephesians 6:10-18 will equip you like nothing else to stand firm in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

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. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors here along with pastor Shane and pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card and the worship guide if you fill it out legibly. Just toss it on the white box in the back or leave it at the welcome center. And if you give it to them at the welcome center, they'll give you a gift in return to say thanks for coming out. Also, we have two quick announcements. January 16th, 1:00 PM, we have a baptism seminar. So if you have not been baptized and you want to know more about what baptism is, please do attend the class. Let us know that you're coming, so we know how much food to order for lunch. And then also January 23rd, the following Sunday, we have a membership class right after the second service at 1:00 PM. And the membership class is where we talk about the identity, the vision, the history of Mosaic. And we talk about what it means to be a member of a church, a committed covenant member, which every faithful Christian should be a member of a church somewhere. But since you're here, you should be a member here. With that said would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for a new year, a fresh start. We thank you that you have sustained us to this point. We thank you that you are a God who promises that when we cast our burdens upon you, our anxieties, our stress, our worries, you do sustain us. And you've sustained us till this moment. We thank you for that. We pray a special prayer of blessing upon this church, upon every member and attender. That you keep us close to you in this season. That you'll give us the resolve, the power of the holy spirit, a zeal to deepen our devotion to you. To fight the good fight of faith to be ever more devoted to Jesus Christ. It's a new year, but nothing's really changed. Lord, you're still on the throne. You're still sovereign. Your plans are still coming to fruition on a daily basis. And Satan is still with his whole legion of demons, trying to thwart your plans and to take as many people with him, as many souls with him. So you've called us to this place to fight the good fight. To help transfer as many people from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved son, the kingdom of light. We pray Holy Spirit, that you today from the Holy Scriptures, encourage our hearts. Help us know that Satan is real, that the adversary is real. He's come to steal, kill, destroy. He's the accuser, he's the liar. And he does everything he can to thwart us from living lives of usefulness to you. So I pray Lord, make us faithful servants of the living God, men and women of the living God. Sons and daughters of the living God. Serving you faithfully. And bless our time, the Holy Scriptures right now. And we pray all this in Christ holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through 2 Corinthians that we're calling prodigal church season two. We have a few more sermons, a few more chapters. Lord willing we'll finish it this month, or if not the beginning of February. And then we'll start a new sermon series that'll take us through Easter. Welcome to 2022, Happy New Year everyone. Happy New Year. Thank you. Thank you. 2022. It's like 2021 plus one. It's like 2020 plus two. And I pray that it's not like 2020 2.0. I pray that. But even if it is, I say this because last year I was like, "2020 is over. It's 2021, everything's different." No it wasn't. So what I'm saying is Jesus is still king. Don't worry about it. It's all going to be good. Just stay faithful to the Lord. We hear things like, "New year, new me." It's not true. I'm still the same guy. You're the same person. Same me, same you, same world. We've been hearing a lot of talk along the lines of what in the world is going on? I'll tell you, you can never make true sense of what is going on unless you know a couple things. First of all, that God is real. He exists. And so does Satan. Satan exists. God exists. Angels exists. Satan exists. Demons exists. God has human servants, His children. Adopted children. Well Satan has human servants as well. And he uses them. Often they are unwitting, unintentional servants. And regardless of religious belief, worldview opinion, there's a great battle raging in the spiritual realm that has real consequences in the physical world. Satan is a supernatural enemy and his job objective is to lie, to accuse, to steal, to kill, to destroy. He has a true power. Although it is limited. It's still dangerous. He's called the ruler of this world in John 12:31. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 says this, "In their case, in the case of those who don't follow Jesus Christ. In their case, the god of this world," small G, "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." Meaning it doesn't matter how intelligent you are and it doesn't matter how high your IQ. It doesn't matter how well educated you are. There's a part of your mind that is blinded by Satan until the very moment that you cry out to God and say, "God, please give me eyes to see that God is real." And when you repent of our sins. How does Satan operate? With a certain spiritual hypnosis. A mass formation psychosis, where everybody just is following this narrative that there is no God. Which is the most absurd thing to believe. Though opposite of God, Satan, is nowhere near equal. He's not omniscient, he's not omnipresent, he's not omnipotent. So praise be to God that if you're a Christian, you are covered by the power of God. Two things to note here before we get into the text is if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, before you became a follower of Christ you were a follower of Satan. This is Ephesians 2:1-3. And you, he's talking to Christians, "You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, Satan. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." And even if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you can still be tempted by Satan. You can still be influenced by Satan. He can still take the sins in your life and he can exacerbate them as if he takes his fingers, demonic finger and presses them in on your sin. That's why 1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." He's not talking about unbelievers. He already owns them. He's talking about believers that Satan seeks to devour Christians to make them absolutely useless to the things of God. And even pastors, even elders can be caught in the snare of Satan. This is a warning to myself. I'm preaching to myself, pastor Shane and pastor Andy. Satan seeks to take us out. That's why ministry is such difficult anguishing work because of demonic warfare. 1 Timothy 3:7, "Moreover he, the pastor, must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into the snare of the devil." So even if you're a Christian, Satan will tempt, lie, accuse and seek to cool your devotion to Jesus Christ. Because the battle for the soul starts with the mind. Creeps into the heart and then takes over the body. Lies for the mind, misguided affections in the heart. And pleasure, misguided, wrongful, sinful pleasure in the body. Today we're in 2 Corinthians 11: 1-15, I'll read the text and then we'll jump right in. "I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. For I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure Virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles. Even if I'm unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. Indeed in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied by need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. And what I do, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who like to claim that in their boasted mission, they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May you write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Seven points, and we'll talk about how to avoid serving Satan. First, don't be deceived by his cunning. Second, don't be let us stray from devotion to Christ. Three, don't proclaim another Jesus. Fourth, don't receive a different spirit. Fifth, don't accept a different gospel. Six, don't malign faithful ministers of the gospel. And seven, don't disguise yourself in righteousness. How to avoid serving Satan point one, don't be deceived by his cunning. And this, he begins in verse 1. He says, "I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me." And by foolishness, what he's doing is he finished chapter 10 talking about how the false teachers, the super apostles as he calls them, they were boasting in their credentials. They were boasting in how much they know of scripture. They were boasting in their oratory skills. And St. Paul knows that the only way to really counter this attack, where they were trying to undermine Paul's ministry with their own boasting is he's going to boast, but he's not going to boast in his credentials though he could have. He studied under Gamaliel, which is better than getting a Harvard PhD in theology. He could have boasted in his knowledge of script. He boasts in other things. He boasts in how the Lord has worked in his heart. So he is actually boasting in the Lord. He's boasting about the work that God did in his heart. So he begins verse 2 with a boast, "For I feel a divine jealousy for you, for the church in Corinth. Since I be betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure Virgin to Christ." Paul is about to boast and he's like, "All right, I'm going to boast. But I'm not going to boast about my educat.... I'm going to boast about my love for the church. I'm going to boast about my zeal, my jealousy for the church." What an interesting word to use. Because jealousy is a sin, right? Thou shalt not envy. That's a commandment. Don't do it. Don't envy. Meaning there's a sinful jealousy, a sinful envy, which is selfish. I want things for me. And there's a godly, he calls a divine jealousy. For you, I want the best thing for you. And I want the best thing for God. And he views himself, not just as a pastor, as an apostle. He views himself as the father of a bride. He views the church as the bride of Jesus Christ. And he views Christians that became Christians under his ministry as those that he has betrothed to Jesus. He's saying, "You're engaged to Jesus Christ." And at the second coming that's when we're going to have the wedding feast where a bride of Christ, the church, us, will be married to Christ, we'll become one. So he views himself as the father of the bride. And his job is to present the church as a pure virgin to Christ. And he toils for the church's purity. Paul is ready to do anything to protect the church's purity. And he sees that they're flirting with spiritual and faith, they're flirting with the Satan, with the devil. Flirting with Satan. I understand his heart here because I have four daughters. And my oldest is 13. And I look at them, I'm like, "Oh, I got a teenager in my house. That's crazy." But I view this. I dream of the wedding day of all four finally get out of the house. I'm just kidding, I love them. But I dream about that day, where it's like, all right, I'm going to walk each one down the aisle, and then I'm going to turn around and officiate the wedding. That's my dream. So my preparation right now for them as I disciple, as I raise, as I parent my daughters, is to prepare them as a bride of Christ. Clearly I want them to love Christ, to be devoted to Christ. And one day maybe a bride. But St. Paul says, "You, the bride of Christ, you're flirting with a bad boyfriend. You're engaged to Jesus. And you're flirting with some demonic teaching." Verse three. "I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." Satan deceived Eve with his cunning, Eve was Adams wife. Adam did not protect Eve from the cunning of Satan. The cunning, what is the cunning? It's plausible lies. On the surface level they make sense until you start digging deeper and they're never consistent. He says, "Cunning. Satan is cunning." You know Satan is the second smartest being in the universe. And he became Satan only because he thought he was first. He a created being, created by God thought he was smarter than God. And unfortunately he's a lot of people today. They just think they're smarter than God. They think they're smarter than God's holy scriptures. Oh, smart people don't believe in Satan. Well, if that's what you believe, you've already been deceived. Satan's smarter than you are. If you don't believe he exists, you've been deceived. If you don't believe he's smarter than you, you've been deceived. I used to have to make the case for the existence of Satan. And then 2020 happened and 2021 happened. I'm like, "All right, everyone knows there's evil out there. There's a cabal of demonic forces out there trying to destroy absolutely everything and everyone." If you don't believe that, the burden of proof is on you. You got to make the case for what... How do you explain all the evil in the world? All the lies, all of the coordinated deception in the world. How can you anticipate Satan's attacks if you don't think he's even real? Genesis 3:1, look at Satan's attack as he comes to Eve. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree and the garden? Did God actually say.'" Satan is so cunning he convinced Eve that God, the creator of everything, God the creator of Adam and Eve is a liar. That's his greatest lie. Is he hoodwinked people to believe that God is the one who's lying. In the Corinthian church Satan convinced the Corinthian Christians through the false teachers, that Paul was the cunning one. That Paul who planted the church, shared the gospel, these people became Christians because of his ministry. That Paul is the liar. And this, by the way is the same technique that he uses in places like Boston. Satan did the same with the church in Boston historically speaking. He came in here, a place where the revival started. He convinced people that the church is the one propagating the lies. He convinced people that God is the liar. That holy scripture is a book of myths. Satan to Eve. He convinced that God's liar, Satan to Boston he convinced us that God is a lie. Not us, our neighbors. Did God actually speak through Paul? That's what the false teachers asked. Did Jesus really appear? Why would we listen to him? Don't listen to Paul. Listen to us. Watch our YouTube channel. Don't forget to like and hit the subscribe button and comment below and share it with your friends. Subscribe to our newsletter, buy our books. Don't listen to them. Don't read this book, read our book. That's how it works. How do you prevent yourself from being deceived, from having your thoughts led astray by Satan? You have to know God's word. You have to know God's word. And here just a challenge. If you're not a Christian and you don't believe in Satan, I challenge you, read this whole thing. 1,189 chapters, read every single word. Four chapters a day, 20 minutes a day. You can get through within a year. Read this thing and see if Satan doesn't exist. And I will tell... I guarantee you, you will feel Satan's clammy hands pulling you away from even reading this book. You will get up, Genesis you might make your way through. Exodus is fun. You'll get to Numbers and you're like... Skip Numbers, okay, you can skip Numbers. Just keep going. Just like, okay, just keep going. I'm telling you, there will be demonic warfare on you getting you to read anything else. For Christians you got to read the word. With my daughter we did a devotional on new year's, and this is what we said, "2022 read, listen, do. 2022 read, listen, do." You got to read the word. You got to listen to God's voice. And then you got to do what it says. Prayerfully read, listen to the holy spirit, obey God's word as if he had just shown up and told you, spoken to you. Timewise, my challenge to you dear Christians. For every hour that you watch Netflix, every single hour, you got to counter it with an hour of Bible reading. And even if you're like, "That's not realistic." Why not? Why? Hold on. Why is that unrealistic? You can sit there and veg out. Watching these shows most likely written by pagans, godless pagans, just bringing a worldview into your living room, into your mind. That has nothing to do with... You got to counter. You got to counter. And even on busy days, this is what I'll say. On busy days, for as much time as you spend grooming yourself, showering, taking a bath, preparing yourself to go out in public, spend as much time washing yourself with the water of the word as Ephesians 5 says. I call it taking a Bible bath. Every day, just take Bible, just get into the word. If you don't have time, a Psalm, a Proverb, a chapter from the New Testament and watch how the Lord will transform your life. Second, don't be led astray from devotion to Christ. And this is really the key verse in verse three. Once Satan gets your mind, then he begins to attack your devotion. Your love for God. This is verse three, "But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts," he gets your thoughts, "will be led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ." Deception in the mind always leads the loss of devotion to Christ in the heart, which ultimately leads to a desertion of Christ. I've never seen someone pulled away from Christ, from the Bible with lies like a book they read or a podcast that sowed doubt into their heart. I've never seen someone do that where they begin to believe the Bible less, but love Jesus more. I've never seen that in my whole life. Lies from Satan always pull your heart away from Jesus. Satan does everything in his power to keep people from getting saved, everything in his power. But once God does save a person, Satan immediately changes his strategy to pull Christians away from a sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ. Literally here in the Greek, the word for sincere is the word for simplicity from the simplicity and purity which is in Christ. Another translation just combines the two and says from the simplicity that is in Christ. See following Jesus Christ there's a simplicity to it. That God exists. He sent us His word through His son Jesus Christ. Confirm everything through His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection. It's all true. And if you take God's word, if you repent of your sin, you follow Jesus Christ. You take God's word. You apply it to your life on a daily basis. Everything in your life begins to flourish. When you love God above all else, your marriage gets better. Your relationship with friends get better, with family gets better, parenting gets better. Everything gets better when your heart is connected to the heart of God. It's very simple. Satan complicates everything because Satan can't create. Satan can't create, he counterfeits and he complicates. The further you get from God, the more complicated life gets. Maybe not initially, but after a while, everything just gets a lot more complicated. The true Christian life is always a simple life of loving Jesus Christ and loving people and honoring God. Thomas à Kempis says, "By two wings, man is lifted from the things of earth, simplicity and purity." What is the Christian life? It's sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ, a daily abiding with Christ. It's a companionship with Christ. That Christ is always with you. His presence is always accessible to you. It's a powerful word, fellowship. You can have fellowship with the God of the universe anywhere you are. 1 Corinthians 1:9, "God is faithful by whom you were called." Called into what? "Into the fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord." So dear Christian be on guard against anything and everything that pulls you away from this sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ. The word tells us whatever you do, whether food or drink, do everything to the glory of God. Well, here's the test for how do you know that you're doing everything to the glory of God. That whatever you do to the glory of God deepens your devotion for Christ. Your love for Jesus Christ. Jesus is alive. He isn't just for Sunday mornings. He's for every single moment. To live is Christ and to die is, again, nothing matters more than this fellowship with Christ. If you don't like the direction your life is sailing, well, you got to write the fellowship of your life. The fellowship with Christ. And watch everything change. Three is don't proclaim another Jesus. In verse four, "For if anyone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed." Why are so many church buildings in Boston empty? They're empty. They're empty of life because they're empty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we go to some of these buildings and we're like, "Hey, would you sell your building to us?" And they find out who we are and that we actually believe in the Bible, just like the people who started those churches believe in the Bible. And then they're like, "Nah, we'd rather sell to a real estate developer." Christians got here in Boston, in New England, in the United States, we got here, churches got here because Christians readily put up with heresy. Usually what a lot of people don't understand is heresy isn't just outright denial of scripture. That's not how heresy begins. Heresy takes a doctrine of Christianity and it just mixes it with human philosophy. And it always has to do with the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a tremendous moral teacher. Is that true? Yes. Jesus was only a moral teacher. That's not true. Jesus Christ came back from the dead spiritually speaking. Is that true? Yeah. But he also came back from the dead physically speaking. He literally came back from the dead. Denying that truth is to deny Christ. No heretical teaching ever presents a Jesus Christ that stands up, a historical Jesus of history and scripture. The Jesus who transformed the world like no one else. In these heretical churches and these churches that reject Jesus, they never preach to Jesus that calls people to a repentance of sin. It's always, Jesus loves you. And He has a plan for you and just keep coming and everything's going to be fine. No, Jesus began his ministry literally with two words, He says, "Repent and believe, the kingdom of God is here. Repent and believe, repent." That's the first word that He ever utters as he begins his ministry. So when you listen to teachers, be they spiritual teachers, or actually any person in authority over you, be a professor, be it a government official, whoever it is, you always got to ask the following. Does this person love Jesus? Does this person love the true Jesus Christ of Holy Scripture and of history? If so, there's fruit bearing with repentance that they are children of God. If they do not love Jesus Christ, these people are children of Satan. This is how I look at politicians. This is how I look at just anyone in authority. If you don't love Jesus Christ, you're a child of Satan. There's only two categories. Children of God, adopted into his family through repentance and faith. Or you're a child of Satan. It's a cold hard fact if you're a child of Satan. And the reason why we tell you this, and the reason why Jesus tells you this, is so that you don't stay a child of Satan. Because being a child of God is so much better here now and in the future. This isn't my teaching this is teaching of Christ. In John 8:42-45, Jesus said to them, to the Pharisees who thought... They claim that God is their father. "If Gog were your father, you would love me for I came from God and I'm here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me, why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. And your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me." The true Jesus Christ preaches things like this. To awaken people and call people to repentance so that they are transformed from being children of Satan to children of God. By God's grace. Four is don't receive a different spirit. He continues here. For someone comes and proclaims another Jesus, then the one will be proclaimed. Or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received. The spirit here he's talking about is usually false teachers. They do come with a spiritual power. The fact that there is a spiritual power is not defining proof that this person is from God. Because Satan has demons as well and Satan can do all kinds of work, spiritual work, because Satan is in the spiritual realm as well. So 1 John tells us, "Hey, be careful. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world by this, the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, the one who was against Christ. Which you heard was coming now is in the world already." The spirit of the antichrist is in the world already. "Little children you are from God and have overcome them for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God and whoever knows God listens to us. Whether whoever is not from God does not listen to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." Even if there is spiritual work in a church and in a denomination, what have you. You need to ask, "What do they believe about Jesus? Or what do they teach about Jesus Christ? Does it line up with Holy Scripture? And then also you got to look at the fruit of the ministry. Only the Holy Spirit can bear fruit of the spirit and this is Galatians 5. You can tell that someone's filled with the Holy Spirit if they have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Five is don't accept a different gospel. So he says, "Don't proclaim another Jesus, receive a different spirit." And he continues, "Or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough." The gospel of Jesus Christ is that God created everything we rebelled against him. God didn't leave us in our sins, he sends Jesus Christ who lives the perfect life that we were supposed to live. Fulfills all of God's commandments on our behalf. And then He is crucified. And on the cross, He doesn't just bear the physical anguish of crucifixion. He also bears the wrath of God and the onslaught of Satan. And He does all of that to bear the curse, pay the penalty for our sins. And then He dies and He's buried. On the third day He rises triumphantly in victory over Satan's sin and death. And the very second He does all that. So that at the very second that any human being asks for forgiveness, asks for pardon, asks for, "God, please forgive me of my sin." That's what we're repentance, that God please forgive me of ever everything I've done. At that very moment you're saved by grace through faith. And all of your sins are forgiven in past present and future. Your eternity is secure. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit and power to do his work. What can you do to be saved? There's nothing you can do. There's no work. There's no gift that you can give. There's nothing you can do or say, all you can do is cry out to God. And this is where false teachers come in. They view this as an opportunity and they say, "No. You have to do something to get saved." And they begin to add works and manmade philosophy usually works this way. They add works to the gospel and they say, "Oh, hey, you're a Christian. Then why aren't you voting like us? Why aren't you marching with us? Why aren't you obeying like we are? Why aren't you a good person as defined by us?" My response is always, "Are you a Christian?" They said, "No, but I know what a good Christian should be." "Well, how do you know?" And usually they grow up and go into Catholic church or church once in a while. Most people just think this is how you're made right with God. You just have to be a good person. And a lot of churches teach that. And then after a while, people are like, "Well, I am a good person." So they stop going to church. And that's why those churches that stop preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ lose the power of God because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for anyone who believes. Adding any work to the truth that salvation is free. It's by free grace through faith alone is demonic. Also one of the things that's going just a lot of people talking about this online and people are talking about the deconstruction of Christianity. I'm deconstructing my faith. I'm deconstructing the faith that was taught unto me and the Christianity that was taught. And then I'm going to reconstruct it. What usually happens as I've been watching this little thing going on is they stop at the deconstruction. Okay, deconstruct my faith and then there's no devotion of Christ. And then you leave the faith. Usually what I say about for the most part, scripture says, "They went out from us because they were not of us." What scripture teaches is you can't do that if you're a real Christian. Once you become a child of God, God is a good father and he doesn't lose a child. Once you become a child of God, you can't deconstruct your being a child of God. I have four daughters. If one of my daughters, God forbid, if they ever come to me, I remember Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone. He divorced his parents after he became millionaire. He divorced his parents, terrible story. If one of my daughter ever came to and said, "Okay, I'm divorcing myself from this family." God forbid. "I'm getting rid of the last name." I would say, "You can get rid of the last name, but you can't deconstruct your face. Because you look just like me." Every single one of them. You have a new nature as a Christian. You're a new creation. You can't deconstruct that nature. And that whole idea of deconstructing Christian it's demonic. And it's never, okay, I'm going to deconstruct the wrong parts of my faith by looking at scripture. That's not called deconstruct that's called reformation. We believe in that, not deconstruction. Galatians 1:6-9 Paul says, "I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel." Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. It's a powerful word. That's in the precatory prayer. Let this person be cursed. What are you saying is if someone comes to you and preaches a false gospel, even if it's an angel, you say to that angel, "God damn you. May you be accursed." As we have said before so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you receive, let him be accursed. And then point six is don't malign faithful ministers of the gospel. And here St. Paul, he speaks directly to these people who've been undermining his ministry. Verse five, "Indeed I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles." So these false teachers had to come in. St. Paul had already left the church in Corinth. And they said, "Okay, Paul left. He's an apostle. Well now where are the apostles? And we're actually better than Paul because we're better speakers than Paul with better credentials than Paul and our speaking fees are higher than Paul's. Which means that we're a lot better than he is." And St. Paul heard all of this and using sarcasm, his words drip with sarcasm here. He doesn't just call them apostle, he calls them super apostles. Because they irrigated themselves over him. Verse six, "Even if I'm unskilled in speaking, I'm not so in knowledge. Indeed in every way we have made this plain to you and all things." They accused him of not having oratory skills according to Greco-Roman rhetoric. St. Paul, obviously he was trained in all of this, but he intentionally did not use the artificial synthetic stylized standards of Greco-Roman rhetoric because he didn't come to give a speech. He came to preach about the knowledge of God. That's what he said. "I might be unskilled in the speaking, not in knowledge because I know God and I know his word." And that's why he made this plain. That's what preaching is supposed to be. Preaching is supposed to be revelation, sharing of the knowledge of God. This is who God is. This is what God says. Spoken plainly, simply so people can understand. But on fire because you're devoted to Christ. Here at Mosaic, we as pastors and everyone that preaches, we take this seriously. We work hard to present the sermon, the word as skillfully as possible. But the power's not in the skilled dear friend, the power is not a skill. The power is in the Holy Spirit stirring your heart and stirring your devotion to the Lord. I say this to myself. When I listen to a sermon, my job isn't to judge the skill level, my job is to receive the blessing that is the knowledge of God. And be on guard. Make sure there's no heresy, the content. My job is to focus on the content, not the skill. The skill... You work hard, but once in a while you wake up and you have four daughters and one of them gets sick or something. That stuff. Focus on the content. That's what St. Paul he here says. And these people came in and they begin to accuse St. Paul because they're servants of Satan. Sometimes Satan accuses with lies. Sometimes with the truth but more often with lies. These super apostles became proxy accusers. And this is usually how it works. They heard something that he said, a point of disagreement, a point of confusion. They interpret as suspiciously as possible. No benefit of the doubt. Motives are questioned and speculations are issued. And these super apostles couldn't argue with Paul on the basis of scripture. So they begin to make personal attacks, ad hominem attacks on him. Verse seven, "Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge." St. Paul came and he preached the gospel for free. Why? Because he wanted to lower every single barrier for absolutely everyone to know the gospel. I want everyone to hear the gospel. I want everyone to know the gospel. This is why we don't charge admission at Mosaic. Some churches honestly do. They sell tickets. We don't do any of that. If someone wants to give to the Lord and the Lord's work tremendous, but it's free. It's free because someone else paid for it. Paul did the same thing. He preached free of charge. And here's what the super apostles, the fake teachers, false teacher, they came in and they actually accused him that because he was speaking for free, that his message was subpar to their message. Because in the Greco-Roman world, the greatest speakers had the heftiest honorariums, the heftiest fees. Just like today, if you're a person of status and you're invited to speak at a conference or something like that, or at a school, at a college, at a company, there's an honorarium, there's a fee. And I remember I found out about this for the first time I was in college and they invited Bill Clinton to come speak. And I'll never forget his speech. His speech was... His whole was no one's going to monopoly on the truth, which sounded nice at the time. And then upon reflection, I realized that he himself was trying to monopolize the truth. And in his attempt to monopolize the truth, he charged the school $200,000 to speak for 45 minutes. Those are speaking fees. And this is what the false teachers did. And they accused St. Paul of presenting a gospel that's really not worth paying for because he wasn't charging money. Obviously they were. And one of the lessons here is sometimes there's some people you just can't win with. If St. Paul came in and he charged for the speaking of the gospel, he'd be accused of profiteering. Oh, he's got the wrong motives. And he doesn't charge. And now they accuse him of being a hack. If your whole goal in life is to please everybody, you'll never succeed and you always be a little saddened because unfortunately there's a category of people that are just haters. Haters going to hate. And it is what it is. And St. Paul knew that and he responds to them. Verse eight, "I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you." He didn't rob them, hyperbolic language meaning they gave money to the ministry of the church, of the gospel where they were. And then St. Paul came in and he said, "Hey, in Corinth there's a need, would you give there?" And they did give. "And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I will refrain from burdening you in any way as the truth of Christ is in me. This boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia and why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do." I'll pause here for just a second. What he's saying here is wherever I go, I'm going to boast about the way God worked in Corinth through Paul. But then also about His love for the church. He's said, "I love the Corinth so much. I want so many people come to faith. I didn't take any money. I'm boasting in my love for the bride of Christ. I'm going to tell everyone. I know everyone that would listen so that they would be inspired to sacrifice in a similar way to love the church of Jesus Christ in a similar way." Because He says, "I love you. God knows I do." In the verse 12, "What am I doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boast admission they work on the same terms as we do." He's saying, "These super apostles who are questioning my motives, I'm preaching the gospel because I love God and I love people. They're preaching the gospel for money. Check their motives, follow the money and then you realize who's faithful to Lord and who's not." The super apostles are motivated to preach for self-gain. Paul was preaching for the gain of the Corinthians. Point seven is don't disguise yourself in righteousness. This is 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. This is where Paul takes his gloves off. "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder for even Satan disguised himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, their end will correspond to their deeds. These self-made super apostles with no calling or authority from God." Paul says, "They weren't sent by God. They were sent by Satan. Satan disguises himself as an angel. He disguises himself as an angel. An angel of light. And he works through human servants who also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. So two lessons here. Number one, be careful when someone comes to you and they look outwardly righteous. Don't be fooled by an outward righteousness unless it's confirmed from their life. That's number one. Number two, you, me, don't pretend to be more righteous than you really are. May this be the year where you and I, we're truly honest before God. Real before God. God, this is who I am. This is where I lack righteousness. True with your brothers and sisters. In your community groups and brothers and sisters you're walking with. "Pray for me, I am working on being more righteous in this area of my life." Don't masquerade. That's the easy way. But when you masquerade in righteousness and you do that over and over and over for a long time, after a while, you might become a servant of Satan. Satan is scary. Satan comes not often as a roaring lion, not physically. He doesn't reveal himself. Because if he came as he truly is, we'd be grossed out. He's too ugly, grotesque, repulsive, nauseating. He never says, "Good morning, everyone. I'm Satan, and I'm here to ruin your life. I'm going to lie. Everything I'm going to say to you is a lie. I just want to kill you. And I want to steal your joy. I want to steal your satisfaction. I want to steal your health. And ultimately I want to take you to hell. There's a lake of fire and sulfur for all of eternity I want you to burn with me. I'm going anyway so I want more people to keep me company." He doesn't do that. He comes and he says, "Good morning. I'm your friend. I want the best for you. I want you to be so happy. God doesn't want you to be as happy as I want you to be. God is the killjoy, I'm not. Don't follow his rules, they're burdensome. Forget the rules, follow me. I've got something so alluring, so exciting, so fulfilling. You can't afford to miss it." And then he pulls you into his kingdom and your life falls apart. And you end up an eternity apart from God. Thanks be to God that Jesus Christ came and He gave us a way to resist Satan by the power of the gospel through the holy spirit. James 4:7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil." Meaning Satan is resistible. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded." Thanks to be Jesus Christ the great conqueror of Satan. Colossians 2:13-15, "When you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespass by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with His legal demands. This He set side nailing to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. We await the second coming of Jesus Christ when He will have final and absolute victory over Satan and will throw them to the lake of fire and sulfur and there he'll be tormented day after day forever and ever. And in the meantime, we are to fight the good fight of faith for pure devotion to Jesus Christ." I challenge you to read Ephesians 6:10-18, meditate on that. Today and this week, Ephesians 6:10-18 memorize it, memorize it. Very easy. It's not even that big of a text. Ephesians 6:10-18 will equip you like nothing else to stand firm in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Young lawyers often stress about where to take their careers. But St. Louis attorney Shamon Moss is shining a light on a new path…letting the journey take you. Shamon shares her philosophy on self-motivation and giving back, and describes how she turned an empty space without a stick of furniture into a thriving satellite office for a major national firm. No matter what is in her future, Shamon Moss shows what a winning attitude can do when you let the journey lead.

Young lawyers often stress about where to take their careers. But St. Louis attorney Shamon Moss is shining a light on a new path…letting the journey take you. Shamon shares her philosophy on self-motivation and giving back, and describes how she turned an empty space without a stick of furniture into a thriving satellite office for a major national firm. No matter what is in her future, Shamon Moss shows what a winning attitude can do when you let the journey lead.

Amy was a sixth grader whose biggest worry in the world was the next day's spelling test. Then she was diagnosed with leukemia. After successful treatment, she relapsed as a high schooler. But St. Jude didn't just give her a second and third chance at life. It gave her a purpose

Satan and his minions cannot stand St. Joseph. If you don't think demons are real, listen to this homily. They are real. But St. Joseph has our back!

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 in our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.My name is Jan. I'm one of the pastors. And if you're new or if you're visiting, we're so glad you're here. We'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card. You can get the physical one at the welcome center. And then if you fill it out with a little pen that we gift you, and then just redeem it at the welcome center, we'll give you a gift here, and then you'll also get a little gift in the mail.One quick announcement. Our 10th anniversary party is October 9th, Saturday at 4:00 PM. Everybody who loves this church is invited. Everybody who loves this church. I've been getting a little sentimental recently. It might be because I'm getting older. It might be because I have a 13-year-old. As of this week, my oldest daughter, Sophia, she turned 13 and we celebrated her birthday. It hit me in a new way because she was nine months old when we moved to the city. She's more Bostonian than most of you.Raise your hand, if you've been in the city longer than 12 years and three months? Oh, tremendous. It's like seven of you. It's all to say. You should come to the birthday party. It'll be catered. There'll be a meal. Dress nicely. We will praise God for all of his blessings to date, and we will cast a vision for the next season of Mosaic.In the next season of Mosaic, we don't just want attenders or congregants, we need builders to build the church building. I'm praying for our own space. That's what I'm praying. I'm praying for no more set up and tear down. I'm praying for chairs, more comfortable than these. I'm praying for climate control. I'm praying for being rooted in the community, not for the next 10 years, but for the next century. That's what I'm praying about. So you should come. RSVP. Go to brookline.mosaicboston.com/worshipnight to RSVP. Okay?With that said, would you please pray with me for the preaching of God's word. Heavenly father, we thank you that you, the great God of the universe breathed everything into existence. Through the word of God, the son of God. Jesus Christ, you are word and you took on flesh. And you the word of God in flesh powered by the spirit, you live the greatest life ever lived, and then you word of God, author of life were crucified.Our sins killed the author of life. We pray, Holy Spirit to come down and show us that apart from the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we lost. We lost, and we need you to save us. I pray we never forget that. I pray we never forget that we need to be saved. We can't do it on our own. Well, we know who can. I pray, Holy Spirit. Bless our time, the holy scriptures. Now, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. We're going through a sermon series through 2 Corinthians that we're calling prodigal church. This is season two. Season one is online.The title of the sermon is God, the writer. This week, comedian, Norm McDonald passed away from cancer. I'm Not sure if he was a believer. People close to him say he was. A few years ago, he tweeted the following scripture, faith, grace, Christ, glory of God. Smart men say nothing is a miracle, I say everything is.I like that perspective on life. Some look around and they say, "Where's God? Nothing's a miracle." And some who have eyes to see realize that absolutely everything is a miracle. And surprised by joy, CS Lewis is describing his conversion as... He thought he was seeking God. He didn't understand that God was actually pursuing him, hounding him. He called him the hound of heaven. CS Lewis is a writer. He says, "I could not more meet him, God, than Hamlet could meet Shakespeare."And that's a really compelling illustration that Hamlet could explore his world without finding evidence, any evidence of the author, Shakespeare. Not in outer space, not behind a tree, not submerged in the depth of the ocean. In another sense, Hamlet wouldn't exist without Shakespeare. Nothing in his world would exist without the author. We should see evidence of the author all around us, but we don't.We think that we're the point of the story. And for Hamlet to know, Shakespeare, personally, the author would have to write himself into the story to show him, "Hey, Hamlet, you're not the hero of the story because I made you. You're not the hero. You're not the author and you're not free to write your story any way you want, because you're just words on my paper coming from my pen."Lewis later says, "Hamlet could initiate nothing for the two to me, it must be Shakespeare's doing. The author would have to write himself into the story." And this is the claim at the foundation of the Christian faith, that there is an author to our story, to our world. And the only way to meet him is not of your own initiation, not of your own logic and intellect and cognitive ability. It's the only way to meet him. He must act. He must write himself into human history and he has.In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh. The author entered the plot and he did it to rewrite our stories into his story. His story is actually the best part of history. The greatest story ever, the good news written by the Holy Spirit.Psalm 139:16. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. God has a book on every single one of us. And he writes our days. He writes our days as the best that we can be, empowered by the Holy Spirit. There are days that you live and you're like today was a good day. Not just because you live for yourself, there are days where you just pour yourself out. You pour yourself out.Holy Spirit fills you and you just keep doing it again. That's what we're talking about. Today, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, would you look at the text with me? Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all, and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. Non-tablets of stone, but in tablets of human hearts.Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Now, with the ministry of death carved in letters on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end. Will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory for if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness far exceeded in glory.Indeed. In this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end, it came with glory much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. Not like Moses who put a veil over his face so the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end, but their minds were hardened for to this day when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ does it taken away.Yes. To this day, whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. And then when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now, the Lord is a spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed to the image from one degree into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit.This is the reading of God's holy inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points. Number one, you aren't the hero of your story. Number two, you can't please God without faith. And number three, you can't free yourself. I've realized recently that I'm kind of an... You know those motivational speakers out there? People pay a lot of money to go see Tony Robbins. People like him made a lot of money.I'm kind of an anti motivational speaker. You show up and I just tell you, "You need Jesus. That's what I'm telling you. That's the point. So first of all, you aren't the hero of the story. 2nd Corinthians 2:17, St. Paul started the thought that he continues to 3:1, "For we are not like so many peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ."St. Paul said, "God commissioned me. God commissioned me. I didn't enlist." A lot of Christians don't understand the Christian life because they think that they enlisted. You're like, "I chose this." No, you didn't. No, you didn't. You were drafted. God chose you. You were drafted into the army of God, into the family of God. You were adopted. Same metaphor.God commissioned me. And the response that they might say, "Oh, you're being so proud. You're saying God singled you out." And he's like, "No, I didn't choose this." He says, "We're men of sincerity." And his critics would say, "Are you being proud of your sincerity? Oh, Paul's commanding himself again." What they didn't understand is the difference between self-confidence and God confidence. And if you don't know the difference and you meet someone who is rooted in God, confident in God, you're like, I have never seen that before.But the closest that I've seen that is this is a really proud person. Saint Paul says, "No. No, it's not me. It's not my power. It's not my word. It's not my message. It's not my Holy Spirit. I'm confident in God." And that's verse one. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Do we need as some do letters of recommendation to you or from you. You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all.So St. Paul started this church. He spent 18 months with these people, loved these people, knew these people. They knew him and they became Christians. He was the midwife of them coming to life. He saw the new birth in them. He saw them regenerate as he proclaimed the gospel. He loves them intimately. They are the letter of recommendation. Why even bring this in? Because he left the church and then critics came in and said, "Who's St. Paul? Who's the apostle? Who's that guy?Look at my letters of recommendation. I know what my credentials are. What are Paul's credentials? And Paul, he's not saying that the letters of recommendation are wrong because he wrote letters of recommendation himself, commending Timothy in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. Phoebe in Romans 16. Timothy and Epaphroditus together in Philippians. The Book of Philemon itself is a letter of recommendation. But he says, do we need, as some do letters of recommendation from me?Do we need it? They clearly need it because they're from the outside. They're peddlers of God's word with shady characters who use and abuse these letters. The same people demanding letters from St. Paul never got letters from him. They just saw an opportunity. He left, they came in. Paul's point is such letters would be ridiculous because you would not be the church apart from.That's what he's saying, St. Paul, "You would not be the church apart for me." That's what he's saying. "You know my calling. You know my anointing. You know my divine commissioning. Authority is a preacher of the gospel because you're believers. You know that the spirit is working through me saying because you have felt it. And then he says, "You're written on our hearts. You are our living, breathing letters written, and most interior secret dimension of his being. You are living validations of my calling and ministry," he says.Verse 3. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us. You're writing on our hearts. You yourselves are a letter written, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts." He says, "You are our letter. I didn't write you," he's saying. "I didn't write your letter. I didn't write your story. I'm just a mailman. You are a letter from Christ written by the Holy Spirit of God. You're written on my heart, but you are a letter. I'm just delivering that letter."Christ is the author. Holy spirit inspires. Saint Paul was used. God wrote the 10 commandment tablets the first time with his finger, the scripture says. With his finger. And the same God with the same fingers, metaphorically speaking, his writing on the tablets of our human hearts.And just take a step. By the way, this may be the most dense chapter I have ever preached in my whole life. I wasn't done with this. I thought I was done yesterday at 4:00 PM and then I realized I wasn't. And I wrote until 9:30 PM. Completely rewrote sections of the sermon, because I realized that I didn't get what was going on, because the way St. Paul, he just goes level by level by level, dimension by dimension, dimension.See here, I'm just going to pause every once in a while. As I get too deep, we're going to come up for a breath of fresh air, and then we'll dive back down. So a breath of fresh air. Speaking of Christ writing stories, have you ever written your story? Have you ever sat down and written your story? Autobiography?That's a compelling thought. I was meditating on that today. I was like, how honest would I be? How honest could I get about my story? Knowing that everybody would read it? How honest could I get? From here on out... And that's trippy because we know there's parts in our lives that you're like, "Ah, I can't mention that, or that, or that because I got kids and they might read my book."Well, that's an incredible thought experiment because you can kind of reverse engineer the life you want to live. From here on out, if you wrote an autobiography about what you want your life to be. This is the life I want to live the life. I want to be remembered for the things I want to accomplish from here on out. You can write that down right now and work toward it, to be remembered for the things that you want to be remembered for.But then as you write that story, here's a question. Who's the hero of that story? Who's the hero of your autobiography? Is it Jesus Christ? If not, if not, we got to reassess some things. Who's the hero of your story? And I say that because God is the one who created you, right? God is the great author who created you. He fashioned the character and the personality that you are. He created you just to make the world a little more interesting.Like if I were writing a book and you want a book with interesting, compelling characters. He created you to add value to the whole story. You make the story better. You make the story more exciting. You make the story more entertaining, but when you make it about you, that's when you lose everybody because that's demonic, because that's what Satan did. The greatest character that God ever invented with the most abilities, the most handsome, probably the funniest, the sharpest wit, the most strength was Satan.He was number two. Then Satan was such a compelling character that he confused himself. He thought that he was God. He thought he was the hero of the story. So who's the hero of your story? Your life has a letter. It's a chapter in the book that God is writing. People are reading your life now. And what are they reading? I'm telling you, Pastor Zane, Pastor Danny, and I were thinking about what we're going to do for the sermon series for the fall. And we're like, "You know what? I think there's a theology of adventure in the Bible. There's a theology of adventure because of the lives that people lived, the people that got into the Bible lived incredibly fascinating lives.I couldn't think of one boring person that made it into the Bible. Can you think of one? A lot maybe? But even then he's like an anti-character and you're like, "Ah." I can't think of one. I can't think of a one boring person. So the point is we don't have to go to adventure theology, but let's just read the Bible. Paul lived a fascinating life. Fascinating, interesting, exciting.I heard one preacher say, he said, "If your sermon is boring, you're sinning, because you take the greatest story that ever was, and you can't even tell that story. That's the greatest story ever, the trippiest. Any story that actually is worth listening to, it always copies from the Bible. It's just plagiarism all the time, like a hero dying for everybody and then dies and then comes back from the dead. It's a cliche. They stole it from Jesus, plagiarism.So my question for you is, is your life boring? Is your life boring? If you documented your week, this past week, is it even watchable? Is the episode of this... Or the past month, is that episode even watchable? Could you sit back and be like, "You know what, there were some pretty good parts in this past month." Is it even watchable?And as you watch it, who's the hero of the story? I want you to wrestle with that. Is Jesus on a day-to-day basis the hero of my story, when people look at my life and they're like, how did you do that? Why did you even accomplish that? Why did you say that? Where did you get that little nugget of wisdom? That relationship, that service to someone, that generosity, that's what touches the heart. Do you do that? Do you live a life from the heart, a life worth living?Jesus is the hero of the story. That's what St. Paul was saying. And then he continues and he says, "Look, you can't please God without faith. You can't please God without faith. So you're not the hero of your story. And you also can't please God without faith. I'm going back to the same metaphor I used in the very beginning that God is the author. God wrote Shakespeare, Hamlet, that whole thing. So you can't understand life unless you understand that you're not the author.In order to say that God is the author, he's the one that's writing on our hearts, writing the story of our lives. You need to believe there's no other way. You need to believe that he is the author and you are not. Hebrews 11:16, and without faith, it's impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.So St. Paul, he was talking about, "Look, I don't need letters of recommendation, your letters of recommendation, your letters, et cetera, et cetera." And then now he's talking about confidence. Verse 4, such as the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. The conference that we have is that you are believers because the Holy Spirit flowed through us, the Holy Spirit made you Christians. Your letter of recommendations, yours written on our hearts, such as the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us.But our sufficiency is from God who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Confidence in God is one thing. St. Paul is like we have confidence in God, but he immediately renounces self-sufficiency.Our sufficiency is from God. God used us, but it wasn't us. I'm just the vessel. God used us, but it wasn't us. The messages isn't us. The powers isn't ours. None of it is ours. Our sufficiency is from God. "I'm confident," he says such is the confidence. I'm confident that I can't do anything. Jesus Christ said, "You can't do anything apart from me."I'm confident that I can't do anything. I can't do Jack diddly-squat. I've said that to one of my daughters and they're like, "Ooh, I've never heard that term." I'm like, "Ah, man, I've got to edit that out of my story."I can't do a thing. That's what he's saying. I can't do it, but I know the one who can. God can. I'm confident I can't, but God can. And with fine irony, Paul asserts his confidence is rooted in personal inadequacy. The reason I have confidence is because I can't. This is what I'm telling you, this is one of the trippiest things. If you learn this truth, it will transform how you live your life. You're going to walk into any room like Conor McGregor doing the billionaire walk. And they're like, you're so proud. And they're like, "Nope. I'm with the one who is glorious."There's a, I guess, a humble confidence. That's what I'm saying, a humble confidence. He asserts his confidences rooted in personal inadequacy. Just like Moses. God calls Moses. Moses killed a guy and then he's in the wilderness for 40 years. And then God says okay from the burning bush, he said, "Come, you're in the holy ground. Take off your shoes," et cetera.God is like, "You're going to go into Egypt and you're going to take my people out," et cetera, et cetera. And Moses said, "I can't even talk. I can't even talk." He has a stutter. He had a speech disability. He said, "I can't even do it." God is like, "That's why I chose you to be my mouthpiece."Same thing with Gideon. You see this all throughout scripture, insufficiency, human insufficiency, divine sufficiency, Gideon. "Lord, please pick anybody else. I am the weakest in Manasseh. I am the least in my father's house." And God tells him, "I'm going to be with you. And you will strike the Midianites as one man." "God, I can't do it." God's like, "That's why I chose you."Isaiah, "Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. Amongst the people with unclean lips." God is like, "Finally, you got it. I chose you because you have a dirty mouth so to speak." And then God cleans his mouth with a coal. Jeremiah. "Lord, I do not know how to speak for I'm only a youth." The Lord said, "Whatever I command you, you shall speak."Ezekiel had an innate sense of insufficiency remedied with vision of glory of God. He saw God. A lot of you aren't used by God even like you're not even at 10% of the capacity that God has for you. You're not even at 10%, because you are so capable. You're so capable in your lives. You're so gifted. You're so talented that you don't even have to really try. The problem is when you apply that to Christianity, that I can do it, everything's easy for me, you will lose the power of God. And then you are not used by God to your full potential.Oswald Chambers said, "God can achieve his purpose either through the absence of human power and resources or the abandonment of reliance on them." All through history, God has chosen, used nobodies because their unusual dependence on him, made possible the unique display of his power and grace. He chose to use somebodies only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources.I wonder if you have. I wonder if you renounced your abilities, your credentials, your resume, your accomplishments. This is real talk. You got to do it on a daily basis. You crushed it yesterday and then you get up. You got to be like, "I haven't done a thing. I can't do a thing. I need God. I need you." And then St. Paul moves from this idea that, "I can't, but God can when I fully rely on him. My confidence is rooted in my inadequacy.From here, he launches into that's the point of the whole Bible. That's the next section. That's the point of the whole Bible. And everyone reads the Bible either through the lens. This is what God told me to do and I'm going to do it. I'm going to show, I'm going to prove to God that I am worthy of his love acceptance into heaven. That's one way of reading it.Reading the holy scripture is, "I can't do it. I read the 10 commandments and I can't do one of them apart from the Holy Spirit." So the old covenant is self-sufficiency. I can do it apart from God. Paul says, "I'm a minister of the new covenant and the occasion." And he quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34. That's where the idea of the new covenant comes from.The occasion is the reign of Josiah in 600 BC. When after rediscovery of the law, there was a time of national repentance and the people made a public covenant with God and then they failed immediately. They said, "We're going to do it. We're going to obey. We messed up that time. This time we're going to fix it. We're going to try a lot harder." They failed immediately and then God promised the new covenant.The old covenant, just to summarize, the old covenant is you can do it. You can do it. Here's the law. Here's God's will for you. You can do it. That's the old covenant. The new covenant is no you can't. Jesus did. And now by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can. Old covenant. You can do it. In new covenant, you can't. Jesus did. Now you can with the Holy Spirit.Jeremiah 31:31-34. "Behold the days are coming," declares the Lord. "When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke though I was their husband," declares the Lord."For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord. "I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts." I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer she'll each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord. "For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more."This is real salvation. This is real new life. This is real forgiveness. This is real faith. As opposed to thinking you're part of the family of God, because of your DNA. That's what Israel thought. We're born into the people of Israel. Of course, we believe in God. There were circumcised religious offering sacrifices prescribed by God's law. They weren't personally saved. They didn't have a relief. They didn't know God. They knew about God. They had words about God, but they forgot the spirit of God. They weren't saved. They didn't have a living faith.There were circumcised outright, but there was no inner circumcision of the heart. So St. Paul was saying the old covenant is external. It's the things you do for God. The new covenant is internal. It gives you a new heart and he gives you new power source. And that's the Holy Spirit. As promised in Ezekiel 36:26. "I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the hardest stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules."That was the problem with the old covenant. The old covenant was God's word, but they forgot God's spirit. That actually inspired that word. So 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 St. Paul continues. "If the ministry of death carved into letters on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end. Will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceeded in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it for if what was being brought to an end, came with glory much more will what is permanent have glory."Pause, pause. Okay. We deep dive. Let's come out. This is what I was thinking about this week. A lot of you listened to sermons like editors, and I can tell by your eyes, there's parts of my story you're like, "Nope, I get rid of that part. I would include something else. I include a little story here. That didn't slap, this'll slap. You listened to this. Because I do that. That's how I listened. I listened like an editor.I want you to listen to this sermon like a writer. If you were writing a sermon on this text, what would you say? And by the way, this is next level, but that's how you actually learn to study the Bible. If you study the Bible like an editor. Oh, I didn't like that part. Oh, I didn't like that. Ah, that book just get rid of that whole book.If you want to know what scripture means, you got to read it like a writer. Holy Spirit wrote it. I can't edit it. So I need to receive it. It's a different way of... Okay. Do what St. Paul doing it. Many have interpreted this text and this chapter, the following way that St. Paul looks at his ministry and he says, "my ministry is far superior than that of Moses. Moses was old covenant. That's old news. That's antiquated. That's what the false religious teachers are teaching you. And he ties them to Moses false of antiquated covenant.My ministry is far more superior. That's how many old covenant, it's time chronological. Jesus comes. In other languages, like in Russian, in my Russian Bible, this is the way it was interpreted because testament, the word for testament is actually covenant. Ветхий Завет is covenant. новый завет is covenant, but it's testament.So a lot of people think, okay, the old books, the old testament, that's old news. Now, we have the New Testament. The reason that interpretation is so dangerous because Christians just get rid of the Old Testament. The Old Testament means nothing to them. The Old Testament God was just mean. The New Testament God, Jesus is nicer. I like Jesus. He pats me on the head. The Old Testament God throws rocks from heavens at his enemies.I want to submit to you that's not what St. Paul is doing here. He's not contrasting his ministry with the inferior "ministry" of Moses in the Old Testament. Is he contrasting his superior ministry of Moses inferior? No. He's not doing that. He's not saying that's outdated. This is now the good news. He's not doing that. What he's doing is he's saying the old covenant was missing the Holy Spirit because they intentionally divorced themselves from the Holy Spirit. They divorced themselves from God. So they lost the point.That's why they focus on the letter instead of the spirit. Read any of Paul's letters, any of his teaching. He never says Moses ministry or his message was inferior. Hebrews actually says that what Moses preached was the gospel. It was good news. Look at Hebrews 3:16-17. For who were those who heard and yet rebelled was not all those who left Egypt led by Moses and with whom was he provoked for 40 years. It was not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient. So we see that they were unable to enter because of, what? What's the keyword, because of what?They didn't enter not because of disobedience, but because of what? Disbelief. They who were missing faith. Hebrews 4:1-3. "Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it for good news... Gospel for good news came to us just as to them. Same message. But the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened for we who have believed enter the rest as he has said.As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. And then verse 6, Hebrews 4. Since therefore it remains for some to enter and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again, he appoints a certain day to day saying through David so long after the word's already quoted. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.The reason why they needed a new covenant with a heart transplant is because they refused to believe, so their hearts were hardened. Moses message was the same as Paul's message. Moses, and before he comes... Moses with the 10 commandments. Moses with the 10 commandments. He gives us to the people.Before he gives the 10 commandments, he says, "Hey, everyone. Remember that thing we just lived through where God brought us out of Egypt? He saved us, freed us from captivity. We now have a relationship with God. Let's believe in him. He saved us. Now, here's the law." That's just like the New Testament.Live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He saved you. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. It's the same message. God saved us. Now, love him. Now, obey him. Paul explicitly said this in Romans 10 as he quotes Deuteronomy 30 in Romans 10 verse five for Moses writes about the righteous and says based on the law that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven," that is bring Christ down. Who will descend into the abyss, that is bring Christ up from the dead.But what does it say? Now, he quotes Deuteronomy. The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. The word is in your heart. Do they have the Holy Spirit? Not in the same way that we do after the day of Pentecost, but did they have the Holy Spirit? They had the holy scriptures. Well, who wrote the holy scriptures? The Holy Spirit.If they got more of the word of God in their hearts, that's what he's saying. Get it in your heart and believe it. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. You're supposed to believe. They were supposed to believe. They didn't believe. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. That's all it takes. That's all it takes.If you don't know where you stand with God that this is all it takes. Confess with your mouth. Jesus Christ your Lord, and I believe that you rose from the dead. That's it. You confess that and you're saved. That's it. That's the whole message. Let me just boil it down, the whole thing. Let me just give you a whole thing. God saves. God saves. So just ask to be saved. That's what he's saying. And everyone just complicates things.For what the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved for the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, but there's no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same. Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him for everyone who calls in the name of Lord will be saved.So the point is he's not criticizing Moses. He's not criticizing the law of God. He's actually saying you don't understand Moses. It's not like everyone understood Moses correctly. And everyone understood the Old Testament correctly, 1,400 years and then Jesus came and then they're like, "Oh, okay. We understood everything correctly, but Jesus is like I didn't come to abolish the law. I came to fulfill the law." And what Jesus said was, "Hey, everybody, Pharisees, you're not the heroes. You need a hero. You can't save yourself. And that's why they crucified him because he's like, "You're all sinners. You can't save yourselves. You're not the author, et cetera, et cetera."What Paul is saying is we've misread Paul. We've misread Moses because we've read Moses to think that we could do it, that we could actually save ourselves, justify ourselves. St. Paul isn't saying Moses ministry was wrong and mine is right. He's saying I was just more fortunate. We preached the same message. I just got more of the Holy Spirit. God just finally got to a point where he's like, "They can't save themselves. I'm going to set. I'm going to do it for them by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the day of Pentecost where the author of life sends life, the Holy Spirit." He's saying the message was the same that only God saves, love him with everything. I just got a little more revelation in the Holy Spirit saving people.2 Corinthians 11:4 says, "If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaim, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.This is the same thing you did with Galatians. This the same thing you did everywhere where he preached the gospel. How are you saved? Only by grace through faith. It's only faith trusting in Jesus Christ. Teachers would come in from the old covenant. They're like, "Yeah, but you need laws. You need ceremonial laws. And they begin to add things to salvation. Saint Paul does this with absolutely all of the churches and all that he says is, "No. Look to the scripture. Look what it says. It says that we can't save ourselves. We're not the hero. God is the author. We are not. So we need to ask him to save us and we need to ask him to free us. And that's point number three.2 Corinthians 3:12-14. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. Not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so the Israelites might not gaze the outcome of what was being brought in it. But their minds were hardened for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ that is taken away.But the old covenant, that phrase here is the only time it's mentioned in scripture. And it's mentioned to describe unbelieving Jews who thought we are God's chosen people. We are the hero and we can do it. We can free ourselves. What's fascinating is Israel even now, Israel looks back to their time in the wilderness as their golden age, as the summit of their history.Like this God led us out of captivity and this is the pinnacle of our history. When if you read the scriptures, it's absolutely clear. God intended to bring them into the promised land much sooner than he did. And they were punished for their lack of faith. God saved them with miracles from the hand of the Egyptians. And then God says, "Go into the promised land." They're like, "No, there's giants." God is like, "All right. I took you out of Egypt. Now, I got to take Egypt out of you."For 40 years, all they did was wander the desert until that whole generation died. They all died and God is like to the kids, "Do you now believe?" And they're like, "Yeah, we finally believe." And then they go into the promised land led by Joshua and Caleb. But they thought that God, you expect us to save ourselves. And God is like that burden, responsibility, I didn't place on you. I'm going to save you. I'm going with you. I freed you once. Now, I want to free you from the responsibility of thinking that you have to free yourself.Jesus is the one that frees. St. Paul isn't talking about the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, he's talking about the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. The difference between I can and I can't. So the point is the old covenant isn't before Christ in time, and the new covenant is in the year of our Lord AD. The old covenant is it was then, and it is now.The old covenant was then and is now. There's people today who are in the old covenant, the old way of thinking that you can save yourself, that you can command yourself to God in some way that you have done so much good or that you have suffered so much, and that's why God should have a relationship with you. That God look at everything I've done. Look at everything I did for you. And God is like, that's the old way of thinking.New covenant, the true covenant. Abraham was in the old covenant and in the new covenant. Moses, did he believe in the old covenant way or the new covenant way? David, when he sinned, he committed adultery of Bathsheba. Why didn't God smite him right there? Because he was old covenant. Why? Because he repented. He said, "God, I can't save myself."Psalm 52. God, I can't. Please wash me. Wash me, savior or I die. The conscious between old is new isn't the contrast between Moses epoch and Jesus epoch, it's the difference between the old man and the new man. I had a barber named Joe. I didn't know his last name until like years after because I only called him Joe, the barber. Joe, the barber in Cranston, Rhode Island, he's the one that he was Pentecostal. I remember in eighth grade he turns me around in his barber chair and he smacks me in the forehead because he's Pentecostal.He said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I prophesied that you are going to be a minister of the gospel." And then he just turned me around and kept cutting my hair.Oh, that's why. So Joe Camastrachie had a joke. He told me this joke one time. He said, "Did you know that St. Paul, his dad actually talked to Jesus?" I was like, "Oh, no way." He said, "Did you know this? Yeah, not only that, but his dad was actually crucified next to Jesus Christ." I said, "Where did you get that? Extra canonical, some kind of Pentecost, maybe have some kind of different revelation?" I was Like, "Where did you get that?" And he's like, "I got that from the Bible." I was like, "The Bible?" He's like, "Yeah, where St. Paul says my old man was crucified with Christ."That's what St. Paul was talking about, my old man, my old flesh, old covenant, new covenant, old man, new man. That's what he's talking about here. The old way of relating to God thinking that you can do something to ingratiate yourself with God. And that's the old one. The new way is God saved me. That's it. St. Paul here is saying the old covenant is relying on yourself. The new covenant is relying on Jesus Christ. That's the word for us today in Boston. That's the word for us.Have you noticed, you can talk about with your friends here. You can talk about absolutely any religion, except one. You notice that? Any religion, any faith. Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam. You could have a Koran bible study and people would come. As soon as you say, "Hey, you want to come to my house and talk about Jesus?" Everyone gets weirded out.Why? Why? Because Jesus is the only one that tells everyone, "Hey, apart for me, you can do nothing. Apart from me, you are nobody. Apart from me, you deserve condemnation. There's only one way to God."2 Corinthians 3:6, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not the letter, but the spirit for the letter kills and the spirit gives life. So he's not saying letter is the Old Testament religion or the spirit is the New Testament is spiritually gracious. Because St. Paul says the law is actually how I came to faith. That's Romans 7. The law brings knowledge of sin. You read the 10 commands and you're like, "I've broken every single one of these at least in thought on the heart level."And Jesus said, "If you've committed the sin in your heart, you committed the sin in real life." So the ministry of the law actually has a ministry. So he's not saying there's anything inherently wrong with the law. What he's saying is when you divorce the word from the spirit, when you divorce the word from the spirit, you lose absolutely everything because God says behind every single word in the holy scriptures is the spirit of God because the spirit of God wrote it.So if you just focused on the letter of the law instead of asking for the Holy Spirit to show you the spiritual dimension of the holy word, then you actually misread absolutely everything. There's one way to read the whole Bible and that's, "I can do this." The new way to read the Bible is you read the whole thing as, "I can't do it. Jesus did it. And now by the power of the spirit, I can do it."2 Corinthians 3:15-18. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now, the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed to the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit."This whole chapter is a commentary on Exodus 32-34. And I commend that you read that. I was tempted to read the whole thing today because I do that sometimes. Just read it out on your own. You know how to read. So in Exodus 32-34, it's the accounts of God's response to Israel's breaking the promise to keep the law. So at Sinai in Exodus 24, God says, "Here's my law. Here's what I expect from you. The blessing is before you and the curse in twice." You know what they say. They say, "All that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will be obedient."You know the meme of the lady was like... You know that one? That's literally right there where you're like, "Yeah, we're going to be obedient." Right away they commit sins. Moses goes up to Sinai to meet with God, to get the 10 commandments that God inscribed with his own finger.Moses has met with God. He sees the glory of God. He comes down the mountain and he hears a party. They're throwing a party in which they're worshiping a golden statue that Aaron made. "God, we're going to worship you. Oh, Moses left. Okay. Let's throw a party." And then Moses, he takes the 10 commandments, he smashes them at the foot of the mountain and it was a sin so bad that God is like, "All right, I'm done with them. We'll wipe all of them out, and I'm going to start a new Israel through you, Moses."Moses is like, "I'm pretty old. I don't want any more kids." And God is like, "All right." In the moment, Moses is like, "I'm going to intercede for them." He intercedes and God finally forgives them, but this is what happened. God withdrew his presence. God withdrew his presence. You didn't do what you were going to say, so I'm believing. God withdrew his presence. They rejected the spirit of God.God says, "If for a single moment, I should go up among you, I would consume you." But Moses begs him. He says, "Please, God. Don't leave. Please stay with us." So Moses pitches in the tent of meeting outside the camp far off from the cabinet. In the tent of meeting, a pillar of cloud will rise over the entrance and Moses spoke to God.So Moses intercedes, asks for God's presence. God says, "Okay, fine." Then he goes up the mountain again and Moses cuts two new stone tablets ascends Sinai again, and the Lord descended in the cloud. And this is where the Lord hid Moses in a cleft. The rock of ages, cleft for me. Moses is in that cleft. And Moses said, "Please, God, give me a glimpse of your glory. I just want to see a glimpse. I want to see if it's all worth it. All the sacrifice I've ever done, I want to see if it's all worth it.And God passes through and gives him his afterglow. Just a little tease. And then Moses descends from the mountain and his face is glowing. That's the story. And this is Acts 34:29-35. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets, the testimony in his hand, and he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face is shown because he had been talking God. Aaron, and all the people of Israel saw Moses and behold the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to him and Aaron and all the leaders in the congregation returned to him. And Moses talked with them.After it, all the people of Israel came near. He commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil. Until he came out. And when he came out, he told the people of Israel, what he commanded. The people of Israel would see the face of Moses, the skin of Moses face was shining and Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with them.What's going on here? What's going on here is Moses is like, "I meet with God. And while I proclaim the word of God, the glory of God, okay, you see it, but I have to cover it because if I don't, all of you are going to die. Because you sinned against God. That's why he had to cover it."In 2 Corinthians 3:12 through 13, Paul says, "Since we have such a hope, we're very bold. Not like Moses who put a veil over his face so the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end." So is he saying that Moses wasn't bold? No. So though the whole term bold, it comes from the Aramaic. Bold is you show your face. Shameful is you cover your face.He says, "We are bold." That's the word bold means, "because we do not have our shame. Our shame has been removed." But Moses would cover his face, not to cover his own shame. He would cover his face because the people of God had sinned against God and he was doing it to protect them because they couldn't handle the glory of God. And that's what he says in verse 15. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.So it's over their hearts, not their minds. So when people don't believe in God, it's not because of intellect, it's because of the heart. It's because moral reasons, their heart is covered with this veil of shame. And when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. And now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now, there's freedom because there's no shame.Yes, I have sinned against the holy God. Yes, I have fallen short of the glory of God. I deserve to be destroyed because I have sinned against God. But St. Paul says, "We are confident. We can draw near to the throne of grace because Jesus is Christ who removed the veil of shame." When did he do that?It's when Jesus Christ, remember he was the glorious son of God, transfiguration of his face shown. And then that same Jesus goes to the cross. The most glorious one takes on the most shame. And on the cross, he is shrouded with the condemnation of God because he took our sin upon himself.So now, because Jesus was killed instead of us, he bore our shame to give us a glimpse of his glory. We can approach the throne of grace with boldness and turn to the Lord who removes the veil. I made people like this. Some people are... There's two categories. One category is people are like, "I don't need God. I'm a good person." And the other category of people is, I have done so much evil. I can't come to church because God's going to strike me with lightning.Just turn to the Lord. Whoever it turns to the Lord, he removes the veil because Jesus Christ on the cross, he died. He was crucified. And the curtain that protect us from the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom.Years later, Jesus Christ took up in the final hours of his life, he held up a cup at Passover and he said, "This cup is poured out for you. It's a cup that is poured out for you. It is the new covenant in my blood. So how are we transformed from one degree of glory to another? We behold the cross. The son of man, son of God, on the cross.In conclusion, is Christ handwriting evident in your life? If someone took your life, the story of your life, would that story pass the handwriting analysis that this story was written by the son of God, in the spirit of God?And here's the test. Here's the test. In whom do you trust? Period. In whom do you trust? St. Paul in Philippians 3, he says, "Look, if we're going to play this game about confidence in the flesh, I could beat all of you." This is Philippians 3. I'm not going to read it, but Philippians 3.

When we look at the culture around us, we might be tempted to throw our hands up in frustration or even despair. But St. Paul reminds us of who our true enemies are, and Jesus has promised that when we take the fight to that enemy, we will be victorious. That's what Dr. Chris and Renae Kranz discuss in this episode of Ignition

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.Usually about this time of the year, we do this every year, where we focus on the DNA of Mosaic. The reason why we do this is because every single organization has mission leak or mission creep, where they forget why we exist. So we remind ourselves of why we exist and we communicate that with the three words, love Jesus simple. This is our DNA. Why do we use the word DNA? DNA is the information within every single organism that gives identity, that dictates function, how we are going to function, and it dictates the activity of this organism. I use the word organism because church is an organism. It's not just an organization. Church is alive. Jesus Christ says that the church is His body. It's alive. It's an organism. And the church is His bride. It's alive. It's an organism. And that's why we use the word DNA. The DNA is the blueprint, it's the recipe, the code for who we are.Last week we talked about love is the motive for everything that we do, because love was the motive for everything Jesus did. Jesus Christ loved God and loved people by primarily loving the church. So we do the same. And today we're talking about Christ as Christ is the center of everything that we are. He is our identity, and He as we proclaim Him, His word, that we proclaim Christ crucified, that is the power of God onto salvation. St. Paul said, "The power of God is in the gospel for anyone who believes." The reason why we do this series is to remind ourselves of the mission of God. CS Lewis says, "There exists in every church something that sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence." So we must strive very hard, by the grace of the church focused on the mission that Christ originally gave to it.At the center is Jesus Christ. He's the center of everything we do. He's the main point of everything we do. He's the main point of the Christian life, of the Christian faith. And this is our message that your happiness, your eternal happiness, the eternal happiness of every single person wholly depends on Jesus Christ, what you do with His life, death, burial, and resurrection. If you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, you are saved by grace through faith, saved meaning you need to be saved. By grace is a gift from God, and it happens when you believe that Jesus Christ didn't just die, He died for your sins. When you believe that Jesus didn't just come to show us the way to God, that He is the only way to God. It sounds outrageous, I know, and it always has. But when the message is proclaimed, people do get saved. So that's why we do this on a weekly basis.Our text for today is 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. I didn't bookmark it, so let's see if Pastor Jan knows his Bible. Oh yeah, right there, 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.' Where's the one who is wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and weakness of God is stronger than men. Consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you are wise according to worldly standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth. But God shows what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'"And I, when I come to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. And my speech, my message were not implausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." This is the reading of God's holy and infallible, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts.Why do we preach Jesus Christ crucified? That's why. I can just say amen and pray. That's why. The scripture says, "For each Christ crucified, that's all we do." Did St. Paul write to the church in Corinth? Did he tell them any other things other than Christ crucified? Yeah, of course, he did. But the central message that impacts everything else is that Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins. Three points to frame up of our time. First, the cross is folly. The cross is power. And the cross is wisdom. St. Paul starts with where everyone knows the first time you hear the message. The secret to the universe, the secret to reality, the secret to understand yourself, the people around you, the secret to understand all the world history is the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin. The fact that when you hear that, the first time you ever hear, the natural reaction is: "It's folly. It's foolish to believe. You believe this? You gather on a Sunday to proclaim it? You believe this?"Yes, it sounds folly. That's the point. In verse 18, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to those who are being saved, it is the power of God." On the one hand, yes, it's folly, but it's also power. Let's start with it's folly. St. Paul in this text, he talks about two groups of people, the Jews, and he talks about the Greeks. The Jews he's talking about, religious Jews, that grew up with the mosaic law, the 10 commandments that God gave through Moses. They believed that they were religious. They believed that they could save themselves through their own efforts. And then the group, the Greeks on the other hand were too sophisticated. The Jews are too religious for Jesus. The Greeks are too sophisticated.So we start with the Jews. For the Jews, the cross was a scandal, scandalous to say that God became man. It was scandalous to say that God's Messiah was crucified. That's like saying God sends a king who then loses, He's crucified. It was an impediment to them, first of all, because in law of Moses, there's a Bible verse in Deuteronomy that says, "Cursed is anybody who hangs on the tree." So when St. Paul comes in, when the disciples come in, they say, "Our Messiah died on a cross." They looked at text, and like, "You're saying our Messiah was cursed? That's blasphemous." On top of that, they hated even the idea of crucifixion because so many of their countrymen died through persecution. The Romans would come in, and anytime there was an insurrection, they would take all of the people, hundreds and thousands of them, and on the way into the city put up cross after cross after cross and execute people. So for Jews to hear that your Messiah was executed through crucifixion, they had the same visceral, emotional antagonism to it as telling a 20th-century that your Messiah died in a concentration camp. The same visceral reaction.Besides the cross, telling Jews that the Son of God died was ludicrous. They had a high view of the divine transcendent God. They had a very inflexible commitment to monotheism, that God is one. It was in their Shema. It was blasphemous to say that there's a second person, there's trinity, there's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, but it's one God, three persons. That was blasphemous to them. So they had theological, intellectual, emotional opposition to it. And we see it all culminating in St. Paul. Paul before he became Paul, he was Saul. He studied under Gamaliel. He's the greatest theologian, probably theological mind to have existed probably second to Jesus Christ.What did Paul do in his early ministry? Well, he thought that he was doing God's work by persecuting Christians. When he heard about Christian, when he heard about Jesus Christ dying on the cross, that this is the Messiah, he had such a visceral reaction that he wasn't just motivated to speak out against it. It wasn't just about him not liking the message. He would actually physically hunt down Christians, persecuting them to the point of terrorizing them and then killing them. And that ministry started with him watching the death, the stoning, physical stones were thrown at the first martyr, Stephen, and Paul was there. He hated that message. And what changed his mind was when he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.So for the Jews, the religious people, they had a visceral reaction against this truth. And for the Greeks, they just felt too sophisticated to believe that their hope, their eternal happiness, eternal life hinges on what they do to a carpenter who then became an itinerant rabbi who died in Judea on a Roman cross and that crucifixion had anything to do with God. Because there was a stigma attached to crucifixion. The elite Greeks and the Romans were embarrassed that this was even a part of their society. The scholars who study the writings of the Greco-Roman literature at that time, they point out the fact it's rarely ever mentioned. It's like the French never talking about the guillotine.This is in us. They would rewrite their own history. They didn't want it to be part of what they did as a society. Crucifixion was regarded as the worst form of death. It was worse than dying in an arena where animals, beasts were released from trap doors. They weren't fed for days and released to tear Christians limb from limb. Dying in an arena eaten by animals was considered more noble and honorable than being crucified. Being crucified was worse than even being burned to death. Crucifixion was that brutal, and any person that was crucified left a legacy as being the worst kind of criminal scum. That's why the early churches was ridiculed, mocked for worshiping. And they said, "An evil man. Your God is a criminal. Your God was crucified. How can you believe this?"Archeologists excavated the quarters of the Imperial pages in the Palatine Hill in Rome. It dates back to the third century, so the 200s. In it, they found this carving on a wall, and it's a picture of a little boy who's got his hand raised as if he's worshiping someone on a cross. It was a body on a cross. And instead of a head, they put a head of a donkey. And underneath it said, "Alexamenos worships his God." Little boys were mocking a Christian little boy who worshiped Jesus Christ dying on the cross. It was blasphemous for them to believe this is true. And you can Google it, Alexamenos worships his God, to see the depiction.Not many people worship someone who's been executed with an electric chair. No one puts little electric chairs around their necklace or a needle for lethal injection. No one hangs a noose around their neck as a little symbol of something great. No one does it with a guillotine. Yet we do as Christians. We wear little crosses to remind ourselves that our savior died on a cross, experienced excruciating pain. We had to come up with a word to describe just how bad crucifixion was. We worship a Savior who died the death of the most heinous, monstrous criminal. And on top of all of this, for the Greeks and the Romans to tell them, "It wasn't some political statesman like Cesar who died for your sins. And it wasn't some philosopher like Socrates who died for your sins. It was just some obscure carpenter, amateur rabbi." And here come the Christians proclaiming what? Proclaiming the secret to human life is found in some rabble-rousing rabbi from a distant Judea, telling people that the meaning of life is found in the life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension of Jesus Christ.And as we do so, that was crazy then, it's just as crazy now. It's always been crazy to get up and to tell someone, "Hey, unless you believe in Jesus Christ that He died on the cross for your sins, you're going to spend eternity in hell, apart from God." that's always nuts. It's always crazy to say that. But that's what the early church did in the beginning. And that's what we continue to do. And by the way, here's the other challenge of doing that. The moment you say that, that very moment, what else are you saying? What else am I saying when I say Jesus Christ is the only way to go? What am I saying? I'm saying there's no other way. I'm saying there's no other way. So what I'm saying is every other way is wrong, every other way is a lie. Jesus Christ is the only way. Right, that doesn't feel good. That sounds so intolerant.If there was another way, then Jesus Christ would not have had to die on a cross. It was the only way. That's what it took. There's no other way. So yes, I'm standing up here, and I am saying that everything else is wrong. Islam is wrong. Buddhism is wrong. Atheism is wrong. Secular is wrong. It's all wrong. And you saying Jesus Christ is one of them, that's wrong too. When our world hears that, they say, "That's folly. That's folly." But for us, we love this message. Yes, it's naturally repugnant. Yes, it's naturally faintly ridiculous. But it's also wonderful to us. What makes us think it's so wonderful? How could anyone think this is wonderful? How could anyone give their life to this message? Give their life for this message? Give their time, talent, treasure to invest resources in the propagation of this message? It's so improbable, so unsophisticated. It's so offensive to our culture or taste. It's foolish.But it's got power. And that's why we do what we do. This is the only thing that can really save us. And this is the second point, that the cross is power. 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, "For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." So the Jews would say, "Hey, we want more evidence. We want more signs. We want signs like Moses. Moses did the signs as he led the people of God out of Egypt, out of captivity. We're looking for the same political Messiah, and we want signs to go along with it.For the Greeks, they want sophia or wisdom. Their civilization astounded the world with its progress. Their advances caused many to abandon belief in traditional God. We want something that polished. The Jews said, "We want something religious." These guys said, "We want something really, really polished." St. Paul comes in and he says, "The greatest sign that God could give is that God the Son, Son of God, Son of man died on the cross for our sins, and He came back from the dead." For the Jews, a crucified Messiah was an oxymoron, like a married bachelor. For the Greek, it wasn't so much more irreverent, it was just ridiculous. But St. Paul says, "There's another piece, there's another element. It's not just this message. It's not just information. This information, when God the Holy Spirit takes it and applies it to your heart, when the God of grace gives a man, a woman by the Spirit of God a brand new heart, summons that heart to Himself, what was first thought as foolish is recognized as the deepest wisdom. Initially thought as weak and silly, it's nothing less than the actual power of God.This is where the power is. The power source is the proclamation that Jesus Christ died for your sins. Karl Barth in the 20th century was probably one of the most influential theologians. At the end of his life, he was giving a lecture in the '70s in Princeton, theological lecture. At the end, he was doing a Q&A, and one person asked him, "Hey, Dr. Barth, you have read tens of thousands of theological tomes. You've written hundreds of theological tomes. If you could synthesize the greatest, the greatest truth that you discovered, the greatest nugget of gold to share with us from your vast experience, what would it be? And he said, "That's easy. Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so." That's it. That's our message.Jesus loves us so much that He was willing to die on the cross for our sins. And when you realize, when it goes from, oh, Jesus did that thing to He died for my sins, my particular sin, when God reveals the darkness of your sin to you, the cross becomes life and life when you realize that nothing short of the death of the Son of God would be adequate to atone for our sins. And this is what we do every single week that I stand up here and I just remind you how evil you are, that you don't understand yourself, you don't understand the world, you don't understand anything. You don't understand parenting. You don't understand that they are born as little evil, cute little baby. They're evil. You're evil. You don't understand marriage unless you understand it's two evil people getting married. You don't understand the economy unless you understand it's evil people. Politics, it's all evil people. It's all evil. You don't understand any of them unless you understand that we're all evil. And it took Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sin.Every single person, there's two realities to you, to every single person. The first one is who you are on paper. The first one is whom you project yourself to be to the world. It's what you have achieved. It's what you look like. It's your LinkedIn, it's your social media. That's one part of you. And then there's the real part of you, the daily life part of you, the no one's in your car when you're on Storrow Drive part of you. My wife tells me, "Don't forget that our back windows are tinted, but the front ones are not. So when you drive, Pastor Jan, you just need to remember that people are going to see you." I'm like, "I know, I want them to see me. I want them to hear my horn when I'm discipling them to be a better driver. I want to do that."So there's two parts of it. There's the you part when you interview for a job and they're asking you, "Hey, what's your greatest weakness." "Is I work too hard. I work too hard. I care too much. I can't stop working. That's me. That's my greatest weakness. I'm going to put in 100 hours a week on this job. Tremendous." And the real part of you is one month into your job. That's The real part of you when you work 10, maybe 15 hours a week. Maybe. So your company knows that you're online, you get the little Mouse Jiggler so when you stop working it just says, "You're online. You're online." That's the real part of you. The real part of you is... Your roommates, ask them the real part of you. Your spouse. Yeah, I know the real part. That's every single one of us. And deep inside we know that for all of our moral goodness showboating, for all of our virtue signaling on our bumper stickers and our yard signs, deep inside, when no one's looking, there is so much evil right in there. We just don't have the power, most of us, to sin in the way that we really would want to sin.If you were a trillionaire, and you can do whatever you want, would you live a holy life for God? There's sin in our hearts, every single one of us. We're all moral failures, inveterate sinners, no more able to rid ourselves of our pride, selfish impurity, sexual sin, hypocrisy, dishonesty, envy and different-stored God. And that's really what it boils down to. God created you. He has power over you. And if you are indifferent toward Him as if God doesn't exist, you are living your life as a huge middle finger to God. I don't care. That's the greatest level of sin that there is. You created me. You have total claim over me. You have a moral code for me that I don't even know what it is.And then we also have standards for ourselves that we break. We have standards for other people that we ourselves break. And as soon as we realize the true weight of our sin, that we sin against the holy God, we deserved what Jesus Christ went through. He went through hell. We deserved that, but He was willing to take it. We see the holiness of God, the justice of God, and the love of God all coinciding at the cross. When you hear, and when you understand that this terrible death, it was horrifying, and it was horrifying for Jesus. It was terrible because it had to be terrible. Only such suffering, such a sinless victim that God, man, He alone could pay the terrible debt that we owe God. And when you realize that Jesus did that for me, He died on the cross for my sin and my sins, that Jesus Christ is the only one that stands between me and the judgment of God that I deserve, when you see that, now the terrible cross becomes the most precious message that you've ever heard. It's wonderful. It's powerful.Scripture says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung upon a tree.' Jesus Christ was cursed. Deserved blessing, was cursed because we deserved that curse. He was doing it for us so that He could extend blessing to us. We're like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. For the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Why did Jesus do this? Because He loves us. He loves us. That's the only reason why He did it. 1 John, 3:16, "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers."He died for us when we were His enemies, when we were His sinners. He did that because He loves us, so that He can forgive us. Jesus Christ loves you. We are not to take that for granted. Jesus Christ the God of the universe whom we've rebelled against, turned our back on Him, He loves us. 1 John 4:9-10, "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. And this is love not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." On the one hand, God loves you, but that doesn't make sense unless you understand that God hates you. It's true. A lot of us, we've just taken the message of Christianity, "Jesus loves you," put that as a bumper sticker. Your buddy, Jesus? Yeah, yeah, you're cool. Look up the word propitiation. It means He absorbed the wrath of God. Meaning God has a wrath against you. God hates you. In your sin, apart from Christ, God hates you.When people say things like, "Every single one of us, we're a child of God." No, we're not. We're creatures of God. But if you reject Jesus Christ, you're not a child of God. You're still in your sins. So for love of God to make sense, you need to understand what it took for God to not hate you anymore. And it took Him pouring out His hatred, His wrath,... on Christ for your sins. We receive the love of God when we believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.Here's what the early Christian father, Tertullian, described this. This is how he described the place of the cross, the heart of the early Christians. He says, "Every forward step and movement, every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, and all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead sign of a cross just as a reminder that the cross is the center of everything we do. The cross is power. And also, the cross is wisdom." St. Paul uses this word 17 times in the 1 Corinthians, wisdom. In the first three chapters, 16 times. In all of his other letters, he uses the word wisdom only 11 times. So this is crucial to him. It's the Greek word, sophia. I remember I loved that word so much in seminary. I named my first daughter after wisdom, Sophia, Lord give us wisdom. If anyone lacks wisdom, God gives us sophia. So anytime I say Sophia, just a reminder that I need more wisdom from God.I went on a roll in seminary, and then we had our second kid. I was still in seminary, cage stage, where everything's about seminary. And then I had my second kid, my second daughter. I liked the ESV's Bible version so much I named my second daughter ESV, Elizabeth Seraphin Vezikov. I was going to keep doing that with all my other kids. My wife was like, "That's enough. That's enough. We're not going to play that game." But he talks about wisdom here as this is how you understand the world, that you do not truly understand reality unless you understand that Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins. And that's why he does this analysis of it doesn't matter how wise you are in the world. It doesn't matter if you have a PhD from Harvard. It doesn't matter if you're a president of Harvard. Doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter you're noble birth. None of that matters when it comes to knowing the greatest truth at the center of the universe is that Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.If you don't know that, if you don't believe the greatest truth at the heart of the universe, you're wrong. If you don't know that this is true, you're wrong about the most important fact. Therefore, no matter how wise you are from an earthly perspective, you're a fool. If you don't believe that Jesus is Lord, if you don't submit to Him, you're going to die. You're going to stand before Him, and all of your eternity you're going to be saying, "I was a fool. I was wrong about the greatest truth." That's why he talks about wisdom. And that's why in 1 Corinthians 1:25-2:5, he goes on and he's like, "Consider your calling, bros. Not many of you were wise, not many by worldly standards, not many powerful, not many of noble birth, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera." And what he says, "What makes the difference, what made you a Christian, it's not your education. It's not your bank account. What made you a Christian, what made you a Christian is that God chose to save you so that no one boasts.And that's why he goes on, "God chose... " That's verse 28. He starts at 27, "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, redemption. So that as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'" So if you are a Christian and I ask you, "Why are you a Christian? Why are you a Christian?" and if you say anything along the lines that begins with I, if you say anything where it's like, "I believed. I studied. I read. I chose Jesus," then I don't know if you're a Christian. Because it wasn't you at all. The answer is, "Jesus saved me. Jesus chose to save me."Christians need a robust understanding of election and predestination. But what makes the difference between an unbeliever and a believer? What makes the difference between someone who's dead in their sins and someone who is alive to God? What makes the difference? What role did you play to decide that you are going to be born? Nothing. No one asked you. No one gave you a vote. You weren't interviewed. Nothing. Same goes with becoming a Christian. You become a Christian, the only reason you're a Christian: God saved you. The only reason I'm a Christian. God saved me. And I can't believe God saved me. If you know me, I have a hard time following Jesus as it is. But if I wasn't a Christian, if I know the Holy Spirit, I would be one bad guy. I'd be a terrible dude. I'd be a gangster or a legal gangster. That's working for the IRS and stealing money from people legally because taxation is theft. I'd do one or the other.But God saved me. That's it. This is what he's saying, he's like, "You heard the message that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. Jesus was crucified for you. You Heard it, but what makes the difference between one person hearing another person hearing is God chose you. God by the power of the Holy Spirit saved you. You need to understand, you played zero role in that. If you're like, "Well, how do I know if I'm elect?" Choose yourself. That's how I say. Choose Jesus, and then you're elect. But you only chose Jesus because Jesus chose you. That's how it works. So that there's 0% of your work in being saved because Jesus saves.You know who we are? We're the degenerate, reprobate sinners. We should have been left in our sins. I got one Bible verse, one very special Bible verse the Lord laid on my heart today. At the next Mosaic members meeting, this is the next... 2020, my t-shirt idea was, "2020, skubula happened." If you don't know what skubula is, look it up. My idea for 2021 is from 1 Corinthians 4:11-13. Let me read the text. "To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless. We labor working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted; we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things." I want a t-shirt that says, "Mosaic Boston, scum of the earth." That's what I want. Or if we ever rebranded the church, I want to be scumoftheearthchurch.com. That's what I want. This is tremendous. What's your message to the world? You're all scum. We're the worst scum of the earth.Jesus Christ died for us. The Son of God died for us? What? To make us children of God. I can't believe it. And by the way, this message is what transformed the world. St. Paul was writing to Christians who lived under tyranny. Not only was it illegal to be a Christian, but they were persecuted for their faith, made a show in arenas where tens and hundreds of thousands would gather to watch Christians getting eaten by lions and crucified upside down, et cetera, et cetera. And by the way, if you're not a Christian, you have to answer the question of how did Christianity, despite the odds, how did it grow from one Jewish guy, kind of a rabbi, kind of a carpenter? He had 11 guys and then St. Paul gets saved. And then with them in 100 years is 25,000 Christians in the Roman Empire. And then when that generation of eyewitnesses died, it became even more powerful so that by the time Constantine comes to power in 310, we go from 25,000 Christians in the year 100 to 20 million Christians by 310 A.D. In 200 years, it grew by 40% per decade, the greatest movement in the history of the world. How did that happen?It happened with people proclaiming the message: Christ crucified. Just to give you a perspective, it was illegal to be a Christian. They didn't have church buildings. They didn't have any institutional resources. So how in the world did that happen? They proclaimed the one message that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we are to submit to Him. We haven't submitted to Him. We deserve damnation, but Jesus Christ is also savior. And then once you're saved, you've got to bring everything, every part of your life in submission to Jesus Christ. And startled the message, Jesus is Lord. And they got that from Deuteronomy 6:14 where it says, "Hear all Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord you got with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."The Lord is one. Yahweh is Lord. Jesus shows up and says, "I'm Yahweh. I am Lord. I'm king over everything." God is one, and the task of our lives is to bring every aspect of our lives under the reign of Jesus Christ, every aspect of our life, from our finances to our work, to our domestic life, to sexuality. Everything we bring under the reign of Jesus Christ. And the reason why we focus on Jesus in particular is because that's how the New Testament explains how we are to do ministry. God the Father puts Jesus in a position of preeminence, and the Holy Spirit blesses the church when the church focuses on Jesus Christ. Why? Because of the role he played in redemption, but also the role that God the Father gives Jesus as sitting at the right hand of God the Father.Psalm 110:1 says, "The Lord says to my Lord," so God the Father speaks to God the Son, "'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.'" And Paul even suggested the actual function of the Lordship was given by the Father to the Son, it's passed to Jesus. Ephesians 1:20-23, "He," God the Father, "raised Him," Jesus, "from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in His age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under His feet and gave Him as a head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."So Jesus is in the position of preeminence, and that's why we focus on Jesus. That's why we talk about Jesus all the time. If you ever move away, and you're looking for a church, this is the secret sauce of finding if it's a good biblical church. When the pastor gets up there and preaches a sermon, he's got to say the name of Jesus at least 50 times. That's just from my professional experience. It's got to be at least 50 times. You just talk about Jesus. If you don't talk about Jesus, huge red flag, huge red flag. And if you change the name of Jesus, if it's like Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints, no, don't change the name, it's just Jesus Christ. You talk about Jesus Christ because the Bible tells us to talk about Jesus Christ. And when we talk about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit takes that message. It is power, and it is wisdom. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Him. Our identity, our destiny as a church must be inextricably linked to Jesus Christ. He's the only way into a relationship with God.A lot of churches talk about God in general, some nebulous idea, so that you can think God is whomever you want, that God demands whatever you think he demands. But when we say Jesus Christ, this is a historical figure who lived in a particular time, particular place, human body. He really lived. He really taught. He really died. Historical fact. We're not talking about spiritually or this is metaphor for something. He literally died for our sin, and He literally rose from the dead. So when we talk about Jesus, we're talking about what's at the heart of scripture. Jesus Christ is the door. He's the connection to God the Father.George Adam Smith, 19th-century biblical scholar, but wanted to see the holy land. He meets a shepherd in the holy land, and the shepherd was very hospitable. They spent the day together. And at the end of the day, the shepherd said, "Hey, do you want to see the fold where I keep the sheep?" And he goes into an enclosure with four walls, and there's an opening in one of the walls. The sheep all came in, and the shepherds said, "This is where they go at night." And then George Adam Smith asked, "Hey, where's the door? Where's the gate." And the shepherd says this: "When the light has gone and all the sheep are inside, I lie at that open space and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body. I am the door."Jesus Christ is the only way into a relationship with God, and He's the door because He laid down His life for His own sheep. Apart from Jesus Christ, we are nothing. Apart from Jesus Christ, we have no message as a church. Apart from Jesus Christ, we have no mission as a church. We take all of our talking points from Jesus Christ. I pray that we never become like the Church of Laodicea, which a lot of the churches in Boston, historically, they became the church in Laodicea. Church of Laodicea, Jesus Christ is standing outside the door knocking. A lot of people use that verse in Revelation 3 to say, "Oh, Jesus is standing at the door of your heart, and He's knocking." No, Jesus doesn't stand at doors, and He doesn't knock. He breaks the door down and regenerates people. That's how Jesus saves people.But he's talking about Jesus not in terms of one particular soul. He's talking about Jesus Christ is standing outside of a church. It's the Church of Laodicea. How did Jesus get outside the church? They forgot to let Him in. Jesus is standing outside the door knocking. They forgot to let Jesus in. So the question we're going to ask is, for myself, is Jesus Christ the Lord of my life? For my family, is Jesus Christ the Lord of my family? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of my community group? Do you talk about Jesus in your community group? Is Jesus Christ at the center of my conversations with other Christians, or do we talk about the Red Sox finally going to turn things around, or the Pyths, they really got a squad this year? Or are we're going to talk about politics?What really brings things into perspective is when someone dies, someone close to you dies. I had a family member that passed away this week. And we had a gathering with my family yesterday, completely different. Just the reminder of how close we are to death. You know what we talked about? We talked about Jesus. We hugged each other. We cried. We told each other how much we love each other. We focused on what matters. Every single one of us needs to live every day like that, that this day could be my last. Because there will come a day that will be I last, and we have no idea when that day comes. Imagine if we lived like that, that every time you saw an unbelieving friend, you want to tell them about Jesus. This is the only hope you have. This is the only way to God. This is the only way for your sins to be forgiven.And with Christians, why aren't we talking about Christ all the time? It could be our last day. The greatest example I see this is in Elijah. I'll do this, and I'll close with a quote from John Stott. Elijah in 2 Kings, the day before he gets taken up to heaven, it's his last day on earth, you know what he does? He wakes what's up, and he preaches the gospel in Bethel, preaches about God, preaches in Jericho, preaches in Jordan. What you realize is he's just living a normal life. It's just what he did every day. He just shared with people about God over and over and over. He followed the normal schedule. He so followed God as shepherd. Didn't have to do anything out of the ordinary on his last day alive, and he goes to heaven in glory. He's lived his day every day like it was his last.Imagine if we did. Imagine if we as a church had that kind of urgency. There's people around us who are dying, who are going to die and spend eternity either with God in heaven or apart from God in hell. It all depends on what they do with this message. I can't save them with the message, but I can proclaim the message and then let the Holy Spirit do what the Holy Spirit will do. Jesus Christ is our touchstone. He's our defining center. He's our founder. And therefore, he has preeminence in our life as a people, our life as a church.Oh, here's the last thing I wanted to say before John Stott. The gospel is something so simple that every child can understand it. And the gospel is the wisdom of God, that once you start to plumb the depth... It's like the message, "Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior or Christ crucified," and you read it and like, "Oh, tremendous." But then it's like you take the message and you pull it out. It's like an accordion. And you see it's like level after level after level after level. And then you see it's dimensions. You're not just talking about one dimension or secondary, you're talking about multiple dimensions of the gospel as it applies to every aspect of your life. That's why we focus on the gospel.Okay, John Stott, end of his life. If you want more theology on the cross, the greatest work written on this and the most accessible is written by John Stott. It's called The Cross of Christ. It's probably one of the greatest books of the 20th century. It's a modern classic. In the preface to the masterpiece, this is what he writes: "I try to show that the cross transforms everything. It gives us a new worshiping relationship to God, a new and balanced understanding of ourselves, a new incentive to give ourselves a mission, a new love of our enemies, and a new courage to face the perplexities of suffering. In daring to write a book about the cross, there is, of course, a great danger of presumption. This is partly because what actually happened when God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ is a mystery whose depths we will spend eternity plumbing. And partly because it would be most unseemly to feign a cool detachment. For willy-nilly, we are involved. Our sins put Him there."So, far from offering us flattery, the cross undermines our self-righteousness. We can stand before only with a bowed head and a broken spirit. And there we remain until the Lord Jesus speaks to our hearts His word of pardon and acceptance, and we, gripped by His love and brimful of thanksgiving, go out into the world to live our lives in His service." Let's pray.Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are the head of the church. Jesus, we thank you that you died on the cross for our sins. Jesus, we thank you for this message, and we thank you for the power that you bring by the power of the Spirit when this message is proclaimed, when this message is understood and when this message is believed. I pray for every single one of us. Make us a people who love the message of the cross and love the way of the cross and live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray that you continue to save many people in this city, in this region. And use us in the process as we proclaim your gospel and pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

St. Patrick is the saint we think we know for the Irish, beer, and four-leaf clovers—who many of us don't really know at all. Patrick was an unlearned, kidnapped, and unreligious man who overcame the odds and achieved great things for Christ. First off, St. Patrick wasn't even Irish! He was kidnapped by Irish raiders in Britain. But St. Patrick didn't allow this setback, along with his lack of education or religious upbringing, to stop him from doing what God called him to do. Our guest podcaster today is Patrick Sullivan. Patrick Sullivan is a Catholic Speaker and the President of Evango, a Catholic Media Organization that seeks to build a culture of Catholic evangelization and missionary discipleship. Patrick travels internationally to speak at Catholic events, parenting conferences, and to lead retreats and parish renewal missions. His new groundbreaking Catholic Parenting program, “Me & My House” has been streamed on Shalom World Tv, and is available on Formed. Patrick draws on his rich educational experience as well as his work in Catholic catechesis and evangelization to inspire the faithful in all walks of life to know, to love, and to live their Catholic faith. Patrick lives in beautiful Barry's Bay, Ontario with his loving wife, Kyla, and their nine children.Read more about today's featured podcaster and saint here: https://www.littlewithgreatlove.com/st-patrick/Learn more about Evango + follow here:Evango site: https://www.evango.net/Parenting Site: https://www.meandmyhouse.net/FB: https://www.facebook.com/evango.netYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/user/catholicministrytvThis podcast is sponsored by: Littlewithgreatlove.com + Redbird.love.Special thanks to slacker, Jeff Sanchez, for voiceover work; teammates Danielle Knight & Alyssa Sanchez; Karla Alfaro, and musician Rev. Dr. Martin Lohrmann.

This is Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington. It is easy to follow the crowd, to blend in, to say and do the things that will endear us to the majority. But at what cost? Sacred Scripture tells us that there is only One who we need to follow, Our Risen Lord. To do so, however, often requires us to rise above the crowd, to do what is right, holy and just. Yet it is not easy to do so, especially in these challenging times. To follow the way of Jesus will incur sacrifice in rising above the crowd. It requires courage. We may have to pay a price for being faithful to Jesus and his teachings. It may include ridicule and rejection from family, friends and colleagues. But St. Paul reminds and encourages us: “Bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.”

Audio Transcript: Good morning. Hello. Welcome to another online edition of Mosaic Boston, Brookline. If you are tuning in online, live, thank you so much. We're so glad you're here. Take a couple moments say hello in the chat below. If you are at the beach while we are watching online, enjoy. But thank you for listening after you came home, or on the ride back, and paying attention. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word?Heavenly Father, we love you and we thank you. We thank you for the gift of life. We thank you that you have designed us to be people who live lives of joy rejoicing in you, and we experience the utmost joy when we are the absolutely, absolutely closest to you. And Lord, show us that often, the fact that we don't pursue you, the fact that we don't press into you, the fact that we don't strain forward, and press ahead to get as close to you as possible.That's actually the cause of so much of our unhappiness, our sadness, our depression, our anxiety. And show us today that the secret to joy is pursuing Christ, who pursued us, pursuing Christ to His perfection. And as we get closer, we get perfected. And as we get perfected, we get more and more whole. And you give us a holistic health, which leads to joy.I pray that you give us these secrets, and give us the power of the Holy Spirit, not just to understand it with our minds, but to receive them with our hearts. And also, empower us to live this out with our wills, our actions. And Lord, I pray that you bless our time, the Holy Word, we're so thankful for it. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.One my favorite things about living in the city, living in Boston is every spring, I love that the Boston Marathon passes right by my street. I live in Pleasant Street, and the runners come right down Beacon Street. It's always amazing. The city is energy packed. It's incredible energy, incredible feel and emotion. And my favorite of all the Boston marathons was the 118th Boston Marathon of 2014.And I remember distinctly because that Easter Sunday was April 20th, the day before the marathon. And for the first time, we were meeting at the Fenway Regal movie theater, and for the first time, we moved the Easter service from theater seven to the biggest theater they had. It was an act of faith. We had no idea how many people would come, and we had hundreds show up. The energy was amazing.And we had dozens of people in the blue little jackets from the Boston Marathon. We've prayed over them. It was incredible. But that marathon was particularly memorable, and emotional because it was the year after the Boston Marathon bombings were three people were killed, and many were wounded. And the whole marathon, and the build up to it was incredibly emotion filled.And in a story book ending, the winner of that marathon, Meb Keflezighi, 38 years old. He was actually the oldest man to win the marathon in 83 years, and the first US citizen to win it since 1983. And he ran with the names of the victims written on the corner of his bib. And as he approached the finish line in Back Bay in Copley Square, as he approached the finish line, there were chants of USA.And as he crossed the finish line, an incredible triumph and joy. He raises his hands. He raises his fist, his arms, and almost collapses, but keeps going. Incredible. I love that. What a memory. Let me ask you, how did he feel when you crossed the finish line? You already know the answer. Triumphant joy, just exploding with joy. Let me ask you a question. How did he feel while he was running it?How did he feel in preparation for the Boston Marathon, the tens of thousands of hours that he hit the pavement by himself with nobody watching, just driving himself pressing into the goal, the purpose that he set for himself full tilt with every nerve, every ounce, every muscle, every fiber of his being because he had a purpose in mind. And the purpose was to win.And this is incredible. This is incredible story in it of itself. But this is actually analogy, the metaphor the St. Paul uses to describe the Christian life. That there's a starting point, and there's a finish line, and in the middle, this is what our life is. You become a Christian, that's the starting line. Scripture talks about this as justification that you are made righteous, just by grace through faith in Christ.And the end is glorification, where you have a brand-new redeemed body just like Christ's resurrected body. But in the meantime, we are called not just follow Jesus slowly. It begins with a walk just like a child crawls and then walks. But then the Lord says, we are to seek maturity, and we are to run after Christ in an ultramarathon way. And this is important because St. Paul says, I'm pursuing perfection in the text that we're going to read today.And this is important because Jesus didn't call us to be good. He actually called us to be perfect. And the closer you get to Jesus, the more you realize how much you lack perfection, and there's this holy tension between a Christian getting more holy, and realizing how unholy he or she is. And the godliest Christians are still so very aware of imperfections.Still, there's a tinge of disappointment in themselves, a personal frustration that fuels them forward to pursue Christ who is perfection. The closer you get to Him, the more perfect you get as you understand your imperfections, which fuels you to keep following him more. This world isn't heaven, we know that. And Robert Browning put it like this. He says a man's reach should exceed his grasp, else what is heaven for?A man's reach should exceed his grasp, meaning I am reaching for a higher-level amount of holiness than I can ever grasp in this life. But that reaching, that hunger, that desire for it is what actually transforms us. Today, we're in Philippians 3:12-21. Would you look at this incredible text with me? Philippians 3:12-21.Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with mindset on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. So, what must I do in order to become perfect as the Lord calls us to become? And the word perfection actually means completeness or wholeness. Assuming that we have, presupposing that we have brokenness in our lives, in our hearts, and we know each one of us do if we're honest with ourselves.So, how do we get that perfection? Well, this frames up our four points for today. Number one, acknowledge imperfection. Number two, press on for perfection. Three, keep growing in maturity, and four, remember what's at stake. One is acknowledge imperfection, you see this in verse 12. How honest St. Paul is with himself.Not that I've already obtained this, or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. If anybody qualified as a candidate for perfection besides Jesus Christ, St. Paul was number one, the most likely candidate. He had a spotless spiritual resume on the outside as he told us verses four through six.And then, after becoming a Christian, he pursued sanctification 30 years. This is where he is in his life. He's been a Christian for 30 years. He's already written half of the New Testament. He's planted churches in all four regions of the Roman Empire. He's giving everything, sacrificed everything to follow Christ. A good friend, a member of the church invited me to mass challenge, which is a startup incubator just to see his office.And in the bathroom, there's a sign that says everybody wants to change the world, but no one wants to change the toilet paper. And that's where we find ourselves in the culture. Everyone wants to change everything. No one wants to change the little things. St. Paul actually focusing on the little things, and the most important thing, the gospel actually changed literally, had a global impact with his life.And still, he says I'm not perfect. He still says I have a long way to go. And this is one of the lessons that we can extract from this text is that successful people never stop growing, always developing. They're always expanding, learning. He said I haven't obtained this. I'm not perfect. I don't consider it my own. And actually, verse 13, there's two emphatic personal pronouns before the verb.He says, brothers, I, even I, I, even I have not yet grasped it. Incredible spiritual humility that he learned from time with Christ. Dear friend, do you willingly acknowledge your own imperfections, your own flaws, your own sins? Are you willing to own your mistakes? Are you willing to face your faults, not just to excuse them, not just to play the victim card?And we can do this by the power of the gospel. Because when we acknowledge our sins, and when we show remorse for them, contrition over them, when we repent, there's always grace. Sometimes, we tend to think too highly of ourselves. Romans 12:3, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.But to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. What he's talking about here is, can you look at yourself with an honest self-assessment? This is called self-awareness to do, an inventory of your life on a regular basis. Sober self-reflection, as Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living."And why are we talking about this? Usually, this topic comes up January 1st, or the first Sunday of January New Year's resolutions, like inventory of life. By the way, this is the last Sunday of June, meaning the year is almost halfway over. This is a perfect opt and what a half a year it's been. This is a perfect opportunity to stop, and pause, and say, "Where am I? I need to do a self-inventory." Where am I? Where do I want to be? Where do I need to improve? What am I glaring weaknesses? What are my shortfalls? What are the things that I need to work on? What are my blind spots?Where do I need growth as a person, as a human being, as a Christian, as a friend, as a son, as a daughter, as a husband, as a wife, as a church member, as a child of the family of God, as a student, as a professional? This is a personal inventory. Where do I need to change? And by the way, how thoroughly am I talking about? Like this, do an inventory of yourself as thoroughly as you do an inventory of others.And each one of us, we do, we can see other people's glaring blind spots when they can't, and we feel that. We see them imperfections, and we criticize. With that same perspective, with that same magnifying glass, do an inventory of your life. The first step to pursuing perfection or wholeness, progress in the faith is to acknowledge that you haven't arrived.And this is what it means to grow in faith. Because you know what happens when we think we have arrived, you become proud, and complacent, and you stop moving. Growth always begins in the mind. It's a change of thoughts that leads to a change of feelings, that leads to a change of action. So, thought, I need to keep growing, I need to keep running, I need to keep pressing ahead.Feelings, I want to be the person that God has created me to be. I'm not that yet. Actions, what do I need to work on by God's grace? Philippians 3:15, let those of us who are mature think this way, starts with the mind, and if anything you think otherwise God will reveal that also to you. And by the way, this is so contrary to many people, but many actually Christians in the church.Today, a lot of Christians would rather pretend to be a healthy Christian. We'd rather pretend than change because change always takes work. It's painful. And yes, we're all sinners. Yes, we have problems. Yes, we struggle with doubts. For some people, reputation is more important than transformation. And St. Paul gives us an example of incredible honesty with himself.And by the way, this is a mark of maturity in the faith. There's absolute transparency. This is where I am. This is what I'm struggling with today, this week. And you voice it to other believers, and you ask them to pray for you. And what that does is that gets them to open up as well, and you together can fight the good fight of faith. Proverbs 28:13, whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.Don't conceal, instead confess and forsake. Seasoned Christians are acutely aware of inadequacies of what you need to work on. And mature Christians don't just say, "Oh, look how far I've come." That's nice. That's good. But you also have to say in the same breath, look how far I have to go. Philippians 3:12 St. Paul says, not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own.Because Christ Jesus has made me his own. I press on. I overextend myself. I go for it with all I've got. I throw myself into this straining with every nerve, ounce, muscle to reach the price. Incredible intensity, maximum effort, he understands that there's no gain without pain. It's so counterintuitive because one of the idols in our culture is comfort.So, for us, if we idolize comfort, then the opposite of comfort is pain. If we worship comfort, we only pursue comfort. We develop a resistance, a lack of tolerance for pain. And therefore, we don't accomplish the purpose that God has for us. We understand that the most valuable things in life always take pain, work, sacrifice.To create something, to build something, to become a person who edifies others, adds value to their lives, and to serve others, to give to others, which is actually a greater blessing. It's more blessed to give than to receive. What's your motivation St. Paul? That's why whenever you see a driven person, you're like, "What are they motivated by? What gets them up in the morning? What is it?"St. Paul says, this is my motivation. Verse 12, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but press on to make it my own because Christ has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. He starts with that. He says, Christ made me his own. I am reaching to grasp the righteousness that God has for me because Christ has already grasped me, made me righteous.And this is the interplay between justification and sanctification. Justification is monergistic. Yes, I'm dropping a big theological word on you. You can look it up. monergistic, meaning one way, justification, God says, I choose you, I regenerate you, I change your heart from stone to flesh. Now, you're mine. Now, you're a Christian. It says if He grasped us, as we're running the wrong way, turns us around and now, we're running for Him.That's monergistic justification. Sanctification is synergistic. There's an interplay between God's will, God's energy, God's desire, God's Holy Spirit, and our effort. We can't earn our salvation justification. However, there is an effort to our sanctification that there are things that we have to do. The metaphor for justification in scripture is accounting. You were in sin. God takes your sin upon himself and Christ on the cross.By grace through faith, He recommends you or accounts to you a righteousness that is not your own. That's justification, it's an accounting term. However, what St. Paul is doing here is talking about sanctification, and he doesn't use an accounting term. He's using analogy. He uses an athletic analogy. And athletes know this, if you want to win, you have to experience pain, discipline yourself in absolutely every single facet of life.So, it begins with acknowledging our imperfection, but it doesn't stop there. He continues and talks about pressing on for perfection. So, press on for perfection. Point two, Philippians 3:13, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the price of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. By the way, this is totally unexpected in our culture.Our culture stops at point one and says, "Yeah, I'm not perfect. Yeah, I acknowledge that I'm not perfect. Yes, I have things to work on." And we stopped there. St. Paul says, "No, no, I don't stop there. I'm not perfect, but I pursue perfection." The fact that he has not accomplished these goals actually motivates him, it actually energizes him.Starkly different from our culture, which uses our imperfections as a justification to stay in them. We use our sin as a justification to continue sinning more. I'm not perfect, and I can't stop what I'm doing. So, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. St. Paul says no, no, if you are a Christian, you have no excuse to remain in habitual sins, to remain in sins that dog you, and plague you for years. They keep you ensnared for years.He says fight the good fight, turn to Christ, repent of sin, ask for more the Holy Spirit, put a plan into place of how you're going to wage war on the sin on a daily basis. And he uses his sin, everything that he's done in the past, and he uses that as motivation to pursue perfection. He says but one thing I do, I press on, I press on, it's a present tense verb meaning continuous action. I keep pressing on.And by the way to press on. This is the same word that he used in verse six when he says as the zeal, I persecuted the church. As the zeal I pressed on to get the church. What's he doing? St. Paul is a master wordsmith. Every single word matters. Every single word is planned, and he's filled with the Holy Spirit. What's the Holy Spirit doing through St. Paul's gifts and talents? This is a wordplay.It's a play on what he said. He's saying with the same passion, with the same zeal that I persecuted the church, I am pursuing Jesus Christ, and His righteousness, and I'm trying to make that my own. With the same passion that you pursued sin before meeting Christ, with that same zeal, with that same energy, with that same planning, and you know what I'm talking about.Prior to meeting Christ, there is this part of our imagination that's fallen, where we plan things to do, we plan ahead to sin more, to put ourselves in a position where we provide for the flesh. And he says no, in the same way, you need to plan for sanctification. You need to plan for holiness. Tonight, how am I going to plan to wake up tomorrow, and pursue Christ to fight flesh, and be filled with the Holy Spirit?And what's his trick? St. Paul, how do you do that? And he says this one thing, I do, I do one thing. What do I do? I forget and this is verse 13. This one thing, I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. This is his trick. That St. Paul only do one thing in his life. No, of course not. He did lots of things. But he did everything he did with one purpose, to glorify Christ to the maximum, and to share the gospel.He says this one thing, I do, I proclaim Christ and Him crucified, meaning everything he did in the church as he evangelize, apologetics, as he wrote epistles, as he quipped leaders in the church, and plant the churches, as he defended the faith before kings, and before centurions. Everything he did, he did with one purpose in mind, and how did he make sure that every single detail his life was aligned with that purpose?He says, I forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead, forgetting and straining forward. This is important. Because St. Paul, actually, he had a past, what a past he had. Not only did he persecute the church, but as a young man, he was actually present. When the first martyr of the church was executed with stones by the Pharisees, St. Paul was there guarding their clothing, probably looking on with glee, and then he used that to go and persecute church.Did he have a past? Yeah. I was actually talking with someone this week, and we were talking about God, talking about faith. And he said, I got a past. Bad, I got a rap sheet. I said, well, what did you do? And his response was other realm, and it was on text, it was R-E-A-L-mmmmmmm, other realm. And I don't know what that means. But I will tell you this. St. Paul's other realm was worse than that.Because most likely, he was a murderer of Christians. He would take fathers, mothers out of homes to go and imprison them. And ultimately, they were executed for being Christians. And St. Paul says, I forget what's in the past. I forget all the bad things I did. I forget all the defeat that debilitates, and I forget all of my heartbreaking sin, my guilt, my grief, my grudges. And I also forget all the good things I've done, all of the wins.Because sometimes, wins actually drag us down. You get to a place where you did great for the Lord today, and you're like, "Yeah, I did really good." And you take your foot off the gas of continuing pressing forward. He says, I forget what's in the past, I'm not manipulated by my memories, I leave the past in the past. And by the way, this is what we talked about last week. He says every day, I count my gains as losses in order that I may gain Christ more.So, every day, he would sit down and tally up, look at the gains that he had for Christ, all the wins that he had. And he would transfer that to the lost column. And what that does is it empties up the gain column to get more of the Holy Spirit, more of Christ for the next day. You do that one day. The next day, your gain column is a little wider, it's a little bigger, so you can actually do more.Because what happens is if you follow Christ full tilt like this today, tomorrow, you're going to wake up, and you're going to be just a little stronger. And here, I want to use the term compounding sanctification, compounding sanctification. It's like compounding interest, compound interest, you know how that works? Compounding interest, if you don't know how it works, it's incredible.It's where you invest, and you make money, interest off of what your investment. And then, the next year, you make interest off the interest in the compounds. The same thing happens with sanctification. The more you pursue Christ today, the easier it is to pursue Christ tomorrow. So, perhaps you're in a place, and you walk with the Lord where you're like, "I can never even imagine freedom from this particular sin.I can never imagine not wanting this. I can never imagine the taste buds of my soul being so recalibrated that I want the good things, not the bad things. I want the helpful things, not the harmful things." And St. Paul says this is the trick. The trick is I forget what lies behind the good, the bad, the ugly, everything, and the wind. And I press on, I press forward to what lies ahead. That's what gave him power to run the race with Christ.And this is 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, one of my favorite passages. He says do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So, run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So, I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air. But I disciplined my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.Incredible. By the way, St. Paul must have been a fan of sports. And I miss sports so much. I can't wait for sports to be back. I'm praying with all I got that the NFL season is going to start on time. I'm going to root for the Pats, of course. Tom Brady, maybe a little, I don't know. I've forgiven him just a little bit. But St. Paul uses these metaphors because he says that's how you understand self-control and self-discipline.Luke 9:62, Jesus said, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. You can't drive a car looking in the rearview mirror, you can't run a race looking backwards. Yes, we definitely learn from our mistakes and our setbacks. But we move forward with those lessons, not with shame, and guilt, and anxiety over the mistakes. We tend to remember things that we should forget.We tend to dwell on our shame and our sin in the past. Why do you keep remembering the things that God has already forgotten? When you repent of sin, God chooses to forget that sin. He cast it behind himself, he cast it into... scripture says as far as the east is from the west, and this is by the way, is a mark of maturity that you're always looking forward, not back. You don't look back to spiritual victories, you don't look back to spiritual defeat.My parents were moving a couple years ago, and we went to help them clean out. It was their house in Cranston, Rhode Island before they moved to Jamestown, and we were in the basement helping them clean out. And my wife was with me, and she discovered my closet growing up. And by this time, we were married, I think 12 years or something.And there's a there was a box with all of my trophies from football, from wrestling, from baseball, from rugby, from all over this. And she walks out in amazement holding this box, and she's like, "Why have you never shown me this?" And I was like, "Baby, because that was high school. And I'm no longer in high school." I never want to be like Uncle Rico. You know who Uncle Rico is? Napoleon Dynamite.That's the guy who lives in a van, and he's always videoing himself throwing footballs, and says he can throw footballs over a mountain, and he's a middle-aged man still living this glory days of high school. Some of you perhaps have something similar happened spiritually where you had a time when you were on fire for the Lord. And you live in those glory days. Remember what I did for Christ?St. Paul never stayed there. What are you doing for Christ today? What are you doing for His glory and His kingdom today? And by the way, looking forward, one of the reasons why we don't look forward, and press forward, and have a forward-thinking mind. For many of us, it's because we live in a culture where youth is an idol. We idolize youth, and therefore a lot of people have a hard time aging.And we can't look back and reminisce. We can't stay there. It leads to this place where we don't enjoy what God has for us today. And I love Proverbs 31:12, and this is the wise woman, the Proverbs 31 woman, strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She laughs the time. God has given me grace today. God will give me grace for tomorrow.And how do I press on for perfection? The key is verse 12, not that I have already obtained this, or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. What's this? What's the it? What's the object? Philippians 3:11, by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.In Paul's mind, the resurrection from the dead, that's the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that's the price. So, Paul is pressing in to get Christ, to get the resurrected Christ get His power. Paul pursues perfection by pursuing Jesus. Paul pursues perfection by pursuing the light of Jesus. And he does this into his old age, and that's what gives him strength to keep going.Point three is keep growing in maturity, knowledge, your imperfections, press forward to perfection, and then keep growing in that maturity. Verse 15, let those of us who are mature think this way, and if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.I love the fact that he talks about maturity here. When you keep running after Christ by acknowledging imperfections daily, and pursuing perfection by pursuing Christ, that grows you in maturity on a daily basis. And St. Paul says, those of us who mature, we are to think this way. My daughter Milana, she's three years old today, Thursday, the day I'm preaching, this is June 25. You will listen on Sunday.But today Her birthday. And I she's turning three, she turned three, and I love the age of three. That's one of my favorite ages. Now, I'll tell you why. Because now she's in a place, and I've seen this with all four of my daughters. She's now in a place where she is growing in self-sufficiency. She's growing in maturity. She can feed herself. She knows when she needs to go to the bathroom.She can articulate what she wants. She can actually help around the house, and clean up her room. She doesn't scream as often when she doesn't get what she wants, or when she hears the word no. When you become a Christian, dear friend, you are a baby Christian. It's okay to be a baby Christian. You need someone to carry you around. You need someone to feed you, milk you.You need someone who care for you and serve you. Dear Christian, it's not okay to stay there. And I'll just be the real talk right here. A lot of the Christians I know, because of this extended adolescence in our culture, a lot of Christians I know, they stay in this little infant baby toddler child stage of Christianity. Yeah. I've got enough to get to heaven, but you don't continue to grow.And here's how you know that you are an immature Christian. How do you react when you hear the word no from someone in the church family? Number one. Number two, what kind of food do you prefer? Milk or like the mushy baby food? Or have you now gotten to a point where you love spiritual meat, steak as I call it? Children, immature Christians, they need to be served, all of the attention is on me.It's as if I am the only one that exists. That was Milana up until the age three. She's still almost there. Hopefully, we're trying to grow. And part of maturity is you now look to the needs of other people, you now want to serve other people. My daughter, Sophia is there, she's already serving, she's already caring. And that's what it means to grow in maturity. And how do we do that?We do that by pursuing maturity through God's word. Colossians 1:28-29, Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. That's the goal St. Paul says of the ministry. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. He says this is the goal of my ministry.This is the goal of our ministry is to get you to a place where you begin to serve, where you begin to feed yourself, where you begin to care for yourself, and when you begin to feed others, and care for others. And the best way to grow in this attainment, grow in this maturity is to find heroes in the faith. And that's why St. Paul says brothers, join in imitating me. Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.This is what I talked about a couple weeks ago that there's things in Christianity that must be taught. And there's things in Christianity that must be caught, where you begin to emulate the example of other people. And this is how I seek to grow in my own life. Look at the people who are few steps ahead of you and emulate them.One of my favorite heroes in the faith, and each one of us should have heroes in the faith is George Mueller, who devoted his life to preach the gospel, and also care for orphans at age 71. He wrote a letter to some of his students at age 71. He said, you know what's the key to my success? Scripture and prayer, and he said I've read the Bible cover-to-cover over 100 times.That's incredible, over 100 times, and he said, every time it's been as if I'm reading for the first time, every time it's refreshed me, and encouraged me. What an example. What an example. Can someone look at your spiritual disciplines, scripture prayer, fasting, silence, and solitude, giving, serving, worshiping the Lord?Can someone look at your clear spiritual disciplines and say, "I want to emulate that?" With George Mueller, I want to emulate him. Every Christian, you need to know that there's always someone watching you. There's always someone following you in some sense. Right now, someone's following and you looks to you to show them the way. Someone prays because they've heard you pray.One of my favorite prayer warriors is my Uncle Victor in DC. Actually, I pray in the same temple as he prays because I've never heard someone pray as passionate as he did, and he is a hero in the faith. Someone is watching you fight the good fight, fighting your battle. Someone wants to be like you, and your Christian walk, and they're cheering you on. Someone sees Christ in you and admires your strength.Someone is borrowing your faith when they don't have any. Someone believes you're the best Christian they know, and that's so true in Boston, Massachusetts. Someone is hanging tough because you're standing tall. If someone's smiling when they think of you. Someone is thanking God for your friendship. Someone is following you. So, keep going. Don't let them down, and keep growing in maturity. Keep growing the people around you in maturity.And number four, remember what's at stake. Verse 18, for many of whom I've often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to himself.Paul says, watch those who are worthy of imitation, and weep over those who are not. And he's talking about them as enemies of the cross of Christ, the cross of Christ is the general principle of the Christian faith. It's at the very center of what we do. 1 Corinthians 1:18, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.The cross tells us that there's nothing that we can do to save ourselves. The cross tells us that only God can save us. The cross tells us that God, His son died on a cross in excruciating pain, physical, and excruciating pain, spiritual in order to pay the price for our sin. Meaning, we can't save ourselves, and there's two categories of people who are enemies of the cross.Number one, it's legalist. And he talked about beware of the dogs, beware of the evildoers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh. That's the beginning of chapter three. It's people who say the cross isn't enough for salvation, we must add works to it in order to be justified. Says that's an enemy of the cross because you're saying Christ's sacrifice was not sufficient.The other group of enemies of the cross are those who are licentious, legalists, and those who are licentious. Meaning, these are people who say, "Oh, God forgives me of all my sin. Now, I can live any way I want, and God will just continue to forgive me." And St. Paul says, "No, you don't understand the cross." You don't understand that the sacrifice that was made, how precious the blood of Christ was.And he didn't just die on a cross to forgive you of sin. He died on the cross to free you of sin. And he says stop diminishing the value of the cross, and he says their end is destruction as verse 19, destruction here is talking about eternal punishment. It's not temporal punishment. It's destruction, not annihilationism. You don't cease to exist, but you experience the wrath of God, you experienced His judgment.And anytime I talk about the clear teaching about the judgment, for those who reject the gospel, I get pushback where people say, I can't believe in a god like that. But if you reject mercy, you can't expect mercy. If you reject mercy, you don't get mercy. So, receive mercy today. This is the beauty of the gospel. You ask for forgiveness. You repent of your sin. You turn to Christ.All of your sin is blotted out, everything, your whole other realm, rap sheet, everything is forgiven, receive it now. And if you don't receive that mercy, judgment is coming. Jonathan Edwards, commanded this sermon to you. It's called The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners, in which he argues, sin against God is a violation of infinite obligations.Therefore, there's an infinitely heinous crime. It's an infinitely heinous crime deserving an infinite punishment. We sinned against an infinite God. And that's an infinite crime, therefore, there's an infinite punishment, and that's a place called hell. And by the way, the destruction, the enemies of the cross, he says their appetite is their god. Their belly is their God. What's he talking about here?That's verse 19. What's he talking about? Is he talking about gluttons, or is he talking about just people who pursue sensual pleasure, or sexual morality? Yes. That's an outward working of something that happened on the inside. And in the context, this belly or this appetite is actually a synonym for the heart. In the ancient world, they felt with their innards, with their bowels.And what he's talking about here is emotions. He's talking about feelings, when feeling is not facts, when emotion is not truth, govern and regulate our life. When we pursue that which feels good, instead of that which is good. That's what he's talking about. And often, that leads to physical and ultimately spiritual destruction. And they get to a point where they glory in their shame, quagmire in a cesspool of shame.Where people take things that are shameful, sinful, hurtful, harmful, and we actually present them as good. We take bad things, and present them as good things, and whoever calls the bad things bad things is actually a bad person. That's where we are in our culture. And in Philippians 3:20, he says, but our citizenship is in heaven.And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to himself. He's talking to Philippians, who treasured Roman citizenship, and he says Philippian Christians, remember that your identity is not in Roman citizenship, Americans, your identity is not in your American citizenship.Primarily, it's in Christ. We are first Christians, second Americans. And he says we're citizens of this other kingdom. And from it we await Christ will come and power and glory. He's talking about the Second Coming, which is one of the most frequently emphasized truths in scripture. It's in every book of the Bible, except for Galatians, Philemon, and 2 and 3 John. Scripture talks about it all the time.And the same way that Jesus promised He'll come the first time, and He did. He promised that He will come in the second time and He will. C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, if you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.And when it comes to the second coming of Christ, there's two truths that we see here. That our bodies will be transformed, our lowly bodies will be transformed into a body like His glorified, our current bodies are subject to disease, death, sin. He says there will be transformation, not just outwardly, but also inwardly. Then we'll never be able or desire to sin. And second of all, he says, Christ will subject all things to Himself.So, if we are not willingly subject to Him in this world, we will be forced into subjection in the next one. Everybody will bow in knee before Jesus. He will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I can't wait. So, make certain dear friend, that you today are in submission to Jesus Christ as Savior, and as Lord so that when He comes, He is your Savior and not your judge.The four points, if you missed them, acknowledge imperfection, press on for perfection, keep growing in maturity, and remember what's at stake. That's what leads to wholeness or perfection. Robert Murray M'Cheyne said, "Lord, make me as holy as a redeemed sinner can be." Keep on the path, keep running your race, and keep your eyes on the prize who is Christ.The more you get of Him, the more perfected you become, and the more joyful that you feel just like Meb as he crossed the finish line of the 2014 Boston Marathon. That said, would you please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. And Lord, I pray that you give us strength to lay aside every weigh and sin, which clings so closely.And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus Christ, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, what a God you are. We love you, we praise you, we glorify you, we honor you, and we pray all this in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Summary: When's the last time you've seriously thought about your funeral? How do you want to be remembered by those you leave behind? If you were to write a eulogy for your own funeral, would what you say? What would you like to be included in your obituary? What would you choose for your epitaph?These are seemingly morbid questions, especially in a culture desperately bent on sheltering itself from the realities of death. However, every sober-minded person needs to meditate on the inevitability of death. The inevitability of death should guide our life. We will die. We will be remembered. Everyone leaves a legacy. What kind of legacy are you working to leave? Does your desired legacy shape your current life?Audio Transcript: You're listening to audio from 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.Heavenly Father, oh God who is everlasting before time and now and forever more, we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that you, the living word of God, came and poured yourself out. You fought the good fight, you ran your race, and you kept the faith. And you did all of that, taking your life as a sacrifice to the cross, poured out your blood in order to pour out your love into our hearts. And I pray, Lord, that you today show us that a salvation isn't achieved, it's received. And after we receive it, we are then to go and to pour ourselves out for the faith of others into their lives for their eternal souls.Lord, I pray that you make us a people who care about leaving an eternal legacy. A legacy that will transcend our lifetimes, that through us, your word will be proclaimed into this generation and beyond. And that many, Lord, a myriad of eternal souls will be converted, and will spend eternity with us in your presence in heaven. And I pray that you give us the power of the Holy Spirit. Even now we welcome your Holy Spirit. We love you and we love your presence, come and minister to us, plant within each one of us a vision for living lives that will impact eternity. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen.Today we are finishing our sermon series that we've been going through this fall called Tough and Tender: Developing A Resilience for Life. And I hope the series has been a blessing to you. Today we're talking about leaving an eternal legacy. Living to leave an eternal legacy. And by legacy, we mean how do you want to be remembered after you're gone? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? And it's a strange question to ask in our present-minded culture. We rarely acknowledge the legacy that we have inherited. For example, what are your great grandparents' names? And we rarely acknowledge that we will leave a legacy as well. Also, we live in a youth obsessed culture.We idolize youth and do everything we can to stay young. And there's nothing wrong with being healthy, but there is something wrong in staving off the reality of death, finality of death. We forget about the fragility of life. And if the Lord tarries, every single one of us will die. So do you want to be remembered for perhaps your intelligence or education? No one takes out their resume at a funeral, that's not part of your eulogy. We want to be remembered for the impact we made on our friends, on our family, on the impact that we made in the world.Early on in my life, at very formative seasons in my life, I lost three really close friends. The first of which was my friend, Pete. We grew up together. We were both bi-cultural. He was from the country of Georgia, I was from Estonia. We actually went to the same public school in Cranston, Rhode Island, in middle school and high school. And we also went to the same church, and we were just best friends and understood each other in a way that few could because of our bi-cultural past. And he was just a great guy to be around.And Pete was driving with his brother, Dmitri, to my house in January of 2004 for a Bible study. And his brother was driving, and they hit a patch of black ice, and they went off the road and Pete died on impact. His brother was in a coma for three months, came out from that. That shook me to the core, and by God's orchestration, two weeks after that, I had pre-planned a study abroad in Moscow, so God took me out of my environment in Rhode Island, out of college and I went to do the study abroad in Moscow. My first Sunday in Moscow, I went to this church, Moscow Bible Church, and it was a little church, a church plant in a basement, and I connected with a few people and I was invited to a prayer meeting that Wednesday.I show up to the prayer meeting and there were three wonderful elderly women of God, and there was this guy named Constantine, my age, who was also there to do a study abroad from another part of Russia, and we became fast friends. Fast forward after I come back to the United States, graduate, I met my wife Tanya. We got married and we went to seminary, got called by God to go into ministry. Then we moved to Boston to plant a church. While in seminary, my best friend was a guy named Rowland. Rowland and I were prayer partners. Actually, I went into my Google, into my Gmail, and searched for his name, and I saw the prayer thread email, the thread that we had going. We just encouraged one another. He was a great guy, we took a lot of classes together, and then moved to Boston in July, 2009.August, 2009 I get news that Rowland died tragically. We plant Mosaic in October of 2011. December of 2011, my friend Constantine from Moscow dies with his wife in a car accident. At very pivotal times in my life, the Lord reminded me that life is fragile, that every single one of us, we have a mission given to us by God, and when we're done, when that mission's fulfilled, we're taken. And every single one of us leave a legacy, either good or ill, it's a legacy that grows into the future. And here's a thought experiment that perhaps is on the front end, seemingly morbid, but it's actually very sobering.What do you want, if you were to encapsulate what your life was all about, what do you want on your tombstone? The inscription, the epitaph, what do you want that to say? This is really ... Honestly, come up with an answer. If you were to write your own obituary, what would you want included in that? If you were to speak at your funeral, if you were to write out a message for what your life was all about, what do you want included in that? Then is your current life lived in light of the legacy that you want to leave? This is what we're talking about today.To frame up our time, we're going to look at the last words of St. Paul. St. Paul is the second most influential person on world history, after Jesus Christ. Whenever anyone speaks a final word before they pass or write a final word, those words are really important. And today, we're going to read the final words that St. Paul ever wrote. It's in 2nd Timothy 4:1-8. And just to set the context, St. Paul is in prison. He's awaiting execution by beheading. He's in the Mamertine Prison in Rome. Our prisons today are like the Hilton compared to the prisons in Rome. His cell is actually a damp, cold dungeon, more of a hole than anything else.The prisoner would be brought down on a rope from a hole up top. He would be brought down, the rope would be taken away, and this is a bucket for human excrement. He's there in the dark, and he is meditating on the final words that he wants to write to his disciple, Timothy. St. Paul is clearly at rest. He's confident in the life that he has lived. He has poured his life out for Christ, poured it into disciples, and he's made a difference eternally. He's poured his life into the next generation, passes this torch. And this is what he writes to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 4:1-8.I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.Five points to frame up our time. We'll focus most of our attention on points one and two and then close off with the last three in rapid fire fashion. First of all, love God's word, pour yourself out, fight the good fight, finish your race and keep the faith. This is St. Paul's recipe for living a life to leave an eternal legacy. First of all, love God's word. There are only two things that are eternal in this world other than God himself: His word, which is an extension of himself and eternal souls created in the image of God.Therefore, St. Paul says, "Timothy focus on these two things. Give your life to these two things. Preach the word. Proclaim the word. And do the work of an evangelist. Meaning speak the word into people's live who are far from the Lord so they can be reconciled with God so that their souls are regenerated, so they spend eternity in the presence of God." He said, "Devote yourselves to these things, things that will outlast you." And what does he mean by this word? The very text right before our text today, if you take away the chapter divider in 2nd Timothy, 3:16 and 17, all scriptures breath out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work.He's saying eternal souls were breathed out by God and the eternal word was also breathed out by God, therefore they last for eternity. Isaiah 40:6-8, All flesh is grass. All its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord will stand forever. Preach the word. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. By evangelist, he gets the word from evangelion, which means the gospel. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ.That Christ has done everything that is needed for salvation to be achieved. So we are not saved by anything that we do, we're saved by what Christ has done. Salvation isn't achieved, it's received. All we need to do is accept God's gift of grace. We all need grace. He says, "Doing the work of evangelism is sharing God's grace." Everybody needs it and everyone is offered the same grace. Just receive it. That's what it means to be an evangelist, is sharing the good news. That's what it means to preach God's word, is sharing God's word. That's what it means to fulfill your ministry.So we as Christians are to love God's word, study, meditate upon it, ruminate on the word within the word, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So much so that it's so in us, it's embodied in us, that it just flows out of us naturally. And we talk about whatever we love. And then practically, it's sharing with the people around us, in our circles of influence. It's devoting yourself to the local church where God's word is proclaimed and to church planning, where God's word will be proclaimed.And we've received it for free, we are to share the gift of grace in the same way. An illustration just to help us grasp the eternal importance of sharing the gospel. Imagine if you contracted Ebola in a village in Africa, and there's a doctor who comes in there, offers medicine you know about, and the doctor says, "Go and tell anyone else who has the same virus that they can have healing if they come to this place." Obviously, you would go and tell absolutely everyone. It would be of first importance in our lives. Now, dear Christian, obviously we do other things in our lives other than share the gospel, but everything we do must be a means to the end of glorifying God, sharing the gospel so that other people may acquire, receive eternal life.Martin Luther King Jr. was asked, "If you were to die tomorrow, what would you do today?" And he said, "I would plant a tree." Meaning, he wanted to do something that would outlive him, and that's how he lived his life. Holy scripture says that we are not just plant physical things, we are to plant ourselves, devote ourselves to eternal things. And St. Paul understood this. He didn't have children that we know of, Jesus Christ didn't have children, but they affected the world. They influenced the world in a way that will impact not just the world, but all of eternity through the gospel of Jesus Christ, loving God's word.Proverbs 11:30 says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. And the idea here is, that we've received the gospel, God has freed us from captivity and the kingdom and the domain of darkness, and we're transferred to the kingdom of God's eternal light. And then we go and through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, we are to then capture souls. Daniel 12:3 says, and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.He's saying this is the impact that we can have for all of eternity to help people turn to righteousness. That star, he says will shine forever. St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 has this incredible train of thought that a lot of Christians miss. A lot of Christians think that, okay, I receive grace and then I just wait until I go to heaven. St. Paul says, "No, you've received grace. Now, God has made you into an ambassador of the kingdom of God, of the King. You are not your own, you're sent as a representative to a foreign land with a message that is not your own, with resources that are not your own," and then we are to fulfill the mission that he has for us.This is 2 Corinthians 5:16, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, we implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. And this is incredible. He says, "This is the message you've received. This is how you have become new creation in Christ." The message is the double imputation, the transfer of our sin to Christ, his righteousness to us. How does it happen? By grace through faith. Now, through us, the Holy Spirit reconciles many to himself.What's our message? Our message is, Jesus in my place. Our message is, Jesus got what I deserved for my sin against a Holy God. There was hostility between me and God, Jesus Christ absorbed the penalty for that hostility on the cross, in his body, in his flesh, in his soul, and now I'm reconciled with God just by grace, through faith. And God now implores others through our lives, "Please be reconciled. Accept this peace treaty that God offers through the gospel of Jesus Christ." So dear Christian, know this message, love this message, proclaim this message, share this message, and in our growing secular age, be able to defend the message.Take a course in apologetics. Read a few books to answer the questions that people have for why we believe what we believe. Tim Keller, The Reason for God or anything by Ravi Zacharias, William Lane Craig. 2 Peter 3:15 says, in your hearts, honor Christ, the Lord as Holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason, for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. And even so, we don't rely on our words, on our articulation, our eloquence, we don't rely on our apologetics. What do we rely on? The gospel of Jesus Christ.It is the power of God unto salvation for anyone who believes, and we rely on the Holy Spirit. I remember when Tanya and I, my wife, we were in seminary and we were talking about building partnerships with people to help us plant a church in Boston. I remember talking to this one gentleman, very affluent in North Carolina. And one of the things he said, we were over his house for dinner, and he said, "Nah, don't go to Boston. Anywhere but Boston." He's like, "Boston's lost." He's like "Way too many pagans up there. You can't preach the gospel there, too hard. Hardscrabble ground. Don't do it."And I remember driving home from that meeting, and it was like, thanks for the encouragement, first of all. Second of all, if I were to rely on myself, on my own resources, I wouldn't be up here. I can't save anybody. You can't save anybody. I didn't save myself, you didn't save yourself. If you're a Christian, you're a Christian by the power of the Holy Spirit, and whoever becomes a Christian becomes a Christian because God saved them, and I believe that. And we've seen that over the course of these eight years here in Boston, God has been saving people.God continues to save people, and I trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what he says in 2 Corinthians 5:20, Therefore we are ambassadors for God. But ambassadors don't go by their own resources. God making his appeal through us. How? By the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that convicts, the one that regenerates, the one that draws people to God. And finally, ambassadors. If you continue with this metaphor. Ambassadors do have to give an account. How do you represent the King of Kings? King David lived a phenomenal life, faithful to the Lord for a long time. And then he got to this place of complacency in his life, committed adultery, and then ultimately murder.And then the prophet comes to David, and speaks the word of God. And the word of God was, "You have blasphemed the name of God. You misrepresented the glorious God that you were commissioned by, whose name you are carrying." Dear Christian, every single one of us, we will give an account to God for how we lived our lives. And one of the things that a lot of Christians miss in their theology is that there will be two judgments. The first judgment is the great white throne of judgment where we stand before God, and God says, "What did you do with my son, Jesus Christ?"If you rejected Christ in your life, you rejected grace, the gospel, you go to the left. And scripture says, "Consigned to eternal punishment in a place called hell, a place of eternal darkness." Why? Because you are separated from the God of the universe who is the source of love, light, truth, goodness and beauty. If you accept Jesus Christ, and if you're not a Christian, we plead with you, accept Jesus Christ today. If you do you, you are now brought to a second judgment. And that's the judgment seat of Christ, where we stand before God, and Christ will say, "What did you do with all of the talents, treasures, time, opportunities that I gave you."And St. Paul says, "This reality that I will be judged for everything God has given me, this reality, and it's not judgment of salvation, I'm saved by grace through faith, it's a judgment for rewards." He says, "This is one of my great motivators. This motivates me that I will spend eternity with God, and God will judge me for what I did with everything he's allotted to me." 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. And then verse 11, Therefore, knowing the fear of God, we persuade others for what we are is known to God, and that hope it is known also to your conscience.And yes, this is difficult. Evangelism is difficult. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in greater Boston is difficult. And that's why he says, "Fulfill your mission, endure suffering." And our suffering isn't physical, not in our culture, our suffering is more emotional, psychological, social. Yes, people might look down on us. Yes, your reputation might suffer. Yes, people might mock, but we are to do this, and we are to share God's love. And one of the things I hear is, "Evangelism's is not my gift. It's not my thing. I have other gifts, this isn't my thing. Let the people who have the great gift of evangelism do that."And yes, God does give exceptional, extraordinary gifts to people in terms of evangelism, in terms of prophecy, and in terms of service, even generosity and faith, but their great gifts should not eclipse the fact that we have been given a responsibility. Every Christian is called to believe, every Christian is called to serve, to be generous, and every Christian has been given the great commission. How do we do this? And this is point two. We do this primarily by pouring ourselves out. In 2 Timothy 4:6, this is the metaphor that St. Paul used to talk about his life ending. He says, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come."It's a vivid image that he pulls from the Old Testament, an image that was used in the context of the ritual of the sacrifice of the lamb, where a chalice of wine was taken and poured out at the base of the altar. St. Paul takes this metaphor and he says, "This is what my life is. My life is fluid, and I need to channel my life. I need a pour my life out." And this is really incredible. What does he mean? He means his time, the greatest commodity that any one of us have is time, that any one of us has is time. And time, our life as in time, and time is in our attention.And he says, "I pour my life, I pour my time, I pour my attention into others." It's a fascinating metaphor because it can be used either way, like our life drips by, our life is like this river that keeps passing. But St. Paul uses this metaphor to talk about life that is invested by pouring into something, and the opposite of this is a life that is wasted by pouring it into things that ultimately pass.And he uses this metaphor to talk about pouring himself, his time, energy, emotions, everything he has into the faith of others. Philippians 2:17, even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with you all because I sacrifice the most valuable thing I have for the faith of other people to impact eternity.Why could St. Paul's so freely, generously pour himself into other people? Because he knew his life was not his own and he knew that this life was not all there is. He understood that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain because I get more of Christ. He understood that death wasn't the end, death is just a door into life with God. He understood that death is not cessation, death is separation. When we die and our body turns into a corpse, our soul is separated from the body. Death is separation, and our eternal soul lives for eternity either with God or apart from God.This is why we can freely pour ourselves into other people, do everything we can so that they spend eternity in the presence of God. And he says, and by the way, everybody knows this. Everybody knows that the good life isn't about things. It's not about pouring yourself into things because we brought nothing into this world, we'll take nothing out of it. We are not to be like the Egyptians who would bury themselves with their wealth thing like they can transfer that into eternity. We can't take material things with us.So St. Paul invested his life, poured his life out into eternal things, eternal souls. He says, "My departure has come," and this is another very vivid Greek word that he uses here. It's a word that can be used in the context of unyoking or loosening. Unyoking in the context of a farm animal. And he says, "I'm unyoked," meaning my labors and toils are done, I fulfilled my ministry. In the context of loosening, my departure has come, my loosening has come. It's used in the context of the bonds of a prisoner being unshackled.He's saying, "I'm unshackled from this body of flesh, from this corruptible body, loosening of ropes of a soldier." 10 he's saying, "My job as a soldier of Christ's done. The battle is over. I'm headed home. The victory is won." And this word is used in the context of loosening the mowing ropes of a ship. And he said, "I'm now leaving the stormy shores of earth and I'm putting into the calm pool of heaven. He's pouring himself out because he knows that his life is a sacrifice, the sacrificial offering.Romans 12:1, I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, because of the gospel, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, Holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. He says, we don't pour ourselves into the lives of other people because we earn salvation. We do it as a sacrificial offering, thanksgiving to God because we are saved. Different if you are a Christian and whom are you pouring yourself, in whom are you pouring your life?Perhaps if you have children, it's your children and the next generation, you're pouring yourself out and that's what it means to parent children in the faith. Perhaps it's your spouse, perhaps it's your colleagues, your friends, your family, it's the people around us. We pour ourselves into them. Why? Because our life is in our own. Acts 20:24, I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I've received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of Christ Jesus.2 Corinthians 12:15, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. Dear Christian, can you say that? Can you say, "I spend myself, I'm being spent for the souls of the people around me?" One of the things that secular stories have a really hard time understanding, they grapple with this, "Why did Christianity grow as it did in the context in which it was started? We understand why Islam grew by the sword convert or else, Christianity grew despite the sword, reject Christ or else."And one of the reasons why Christianity grew in the way it did was because Christians poured themselves out to the death to love others. They poured their love into people even at the cost of their own life. I'll give you two examples. In Rome, first century and second century, there were two plagues that swept the Roman empire. And first century is the Antonine Plague. The second century is the Plague of Cyprian. These plagues were so bad, thousands of people were dying per day in this Plague of Cyprian, there were a million people living in Rome, 5,000 were dying per day.At the first signs of the symptoms of this plague, streets would be emptied. People would leave their loved ones in homes on beds and run from the sickness. And everybody ran except for Christians. Christians stayed and they loved and they bandaged and they watered the sick and they fed them and they loved them and they encouraged them. They shared the gospel. People were dumbfounded, "Why are you doing this at the risk of your own life?"And many Christians died and they shared the gospel that this life is not all there is, that we have eternal life. And all you need to do is put your trust in Jesus Christ who has conquered death. Do you pour yourself out for the salvation of others? And this is by the way, the most effective way of sharing the gospel is by pouring your love into other people. Sacrifice your time, your talent, your treasure for other people. We understand that the most effective way of doing evangelism is personal relationships, where people know you and you have a relationship with them through hospitality, generosity, and sacrifice.I believe this is one of the most effective ways of doing evangelism today and sharing the gospel. Why? Because as Ravi Zacharias says, "We live in day and age where people think with their feelings and they hear with their eyes." People think with their feelings and hear with their eyes. Therefore, just proclaiming is not enough for many people, they don't want to see just proclamation, they want to feel your love. They don't want just the truth, they want the truth and love, and God tells us to do both 2 Corinthians 3: 14-15, for the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake died and was raised.How do we do this practically? It's got to be absolutely natural in the environment of love. I'll give you a couple of cross sticks here to think about, to think through when you think about sharing the gospel. The first one was just ABC of sharing the gospel, ABC. The first, the A stands for, do you ask the Lord for opportunities to share the gospel? Even St. Paul did this in the Colossians, he says, "Pray for me that the Lord would give me a door to share the gospel." Opportunity. Do you ask God, "God, please send me someone to share the gospel. Give me an opportunity today to share the gospel with someone of the good news to share the grace of God."If you're not asking for those opportunities in prayer, do you even really want them? So ask. The second one is belief. Believe that God can save anybody. Believe that God can save your roommate, believe that God can... Just think of the most lost person that you know, the most antagonistic person to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that God can save them? Of course he can. There's nothing impossible for God. God's saved Saul, and converted him into Paul.My goodness, God saved Kanye West. If God can save Kanye West, he can save anybody. I found out that Manny Ramirez, Manny being Manny, like 2004 Reds, Manny Ramirez has been converted. He's actually been trained. He's been in seminary for five years, he's been training to be a pastor. My goodness, what a miracle that is. God can save anybody, and if you're a Christian, the greatest miracle of salvation is your own. I still can't believe God saved me. I definitely I wouldn't. And this is the posture of heart. It's like, "I can't believe, God, thank you for saving."And then C is connect with people. Just connect naturally. Connect, and if you have a hard time connecting, a lot of people are super introverts in Boston. Here's another acrostic, FIRE, Family, Interests, Religion and just Experiences. Family, Interest, Religion, Experiences, ask about those things. Get a person talking about their favorite subject in the world. What's everybody's favorite subject in the world? Themselves. Everyone loves talking about themselves. It's just like, why? Because we're all selfish.It's like whenever you get tagged on Facebook in a group picture and you go and you look at it, who's the first person that you look at? Yourself? It's just like whenever you're FaceTiming with someone or Skyping, 95% of the time, you're looking at the small window, every single time, "I need to change the lighting." Every time. Get people talking about their favorite subject, and as they do, connect with them on universal human experiences, purpose, morality, hope, family.Two on-ramps for sharing the gospel that I like to use is beauty and death. I think beauty is one of the greatest apologetics for the existence of God and that God is beautiful. Why is it that though we live in a secular materialistic culture where we're told that material is all there is, why is it that we're so moved on like a deep soul level by creation, by the sunset, by an incredible work of music or art or film? Why is it that we're moved by the smile of a loved one and we look at them and we say, "You are so beautiful"?We're not saying, "I prefer your collection of Adams to any other collection of Adams. And it's not even my preference, it's the neurons firing in my brain, so it's not even me." No. Of course, nobody is a committed materialist. It's almost unthinkable to live like that. And the Christian explanation is that true beauty exists. A beauty that transcends the material. You look at a painting and all it is is canvas and wood and some paint. If you look at it and there's something that transcends it. Same thing with music, same thing with something that impacts your soul.And the Christian explanation is that, all that's true, all that's good, all that's beautiful is a manifestation of God. Image's God. God created everything beautiful for us to delight in and enjoy. And we understand that beauty exists in a fallen marred world, therefore we hunger for a restoration of beauty and it's coming in its perfect state. C. S. Lewis and his wonderful work, Till We Have Faces, expresses this yearning through a character. He says, "It was when I was the happiest that I longed the most, when I was the happiest I longed the most and because it was beautiful, it set me longing, always longing, somewhere else there must be more of it." And there is.The other on-ramp, and everyone can connect with this is the reality of death. This is a terror that haunts every single one of us. The anthropologist, Ernest Becker says, "We try our best to ignore mortality, but it's there, underlying everything." The current answer in our culture according to a materialist world views is that when we die, we just cease to exist. Yes, we say this, no one believes it. That's why at a funeral, you don't look at casket with your friend Joey. No one says, "And Joey, poof, cease to exist." No one says that.You know what they say, "Well, Joey's in a better place." Why do we say that? Why do we say that? Atheist philosopher, Luc Ferry says, "The question of death far from being something that we can easily dismiss, lies at the heart of our distinctiveness as humans. This is what sets us apart from all the other animals." He says, "As distinct from animals, a human being is the only creature who is aware of his limits. He knows that he will die and that his near ones, those he loves will also die. Consequently, he cannot prevent himself from thinking about the state of affairs, which is disturbing and absurd, almost unimaginable."Why is it that we even know that we're going to die? And why is it that we're so disturbed by it and we can't shrug off the existential way of this? Our greatest desire's to be loved, to be known, to be understood, and our greatest fear's being separated from our loved ones. In a word, our greatest fear is dying. And at this point, when I have conversations, you know what I say, "Wouldn't you want this to be true? Doesn't your soul want to live forever? Why do we long for this so much?" Perhaps it is true, and in the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is Jesus Christ lived and Jesus Christ died. He came back from the dead and in Christ death, we see the death of death itself. And when we believe in Jesus Christ, at that very moment, we're given eternal life. And I understand in my conversations with friends, when I share the gospel, I understand that I'm probably not going to close the deal right then and there, but you know what I try to do? I try to awaken them just a little bit from their spiritual slumber, and little by little, this is how the Lord wakes us up.So we have to know the tough truths of the gospel and present them in with humble confidence and love. And then points three, four, and five here at the end, how do we do this? We fight the good fight, we run our race and we keep our faith. Why? This is what I've seen in sharing the gospel in high school, with my wrestling friends, and with my football friends, and in college, with my rugby friends, share the gospel and they're like, "Yeah, not for me." But we're still connected. We still see each other. We're still connected on social media and you know what they want to know? Do I really believe this?And where do they get evidence to understand, do I really believe? Are you living it? See, our lives are our greatest sermons. That's why St. Paul at the very end says, "I fought, I didn't just preach the word, I didn't just do the work of evangelist, I didn't just fulfill the ministry. I fought the good fight." He said, in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I fought the good fight," the wrestling metaphor, and what he's saying is there's spiritual warfare. We're fighting on a daily basis and we're standing again. We're not wrestling with flesh and blood, but we're standing against the cosmic powers over this present darkness.And our righteousness is not our own, it's the breastplate of righteousness that Christ has given us. We have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. We stand through prayer. 2 Corinthians 6:7, with weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. See, the enemy wants to hate... He hates our legacy, he wants to taint our legacy and he does that by stealing, killing, and destroying our legacy. He wants to get us to stumble so that people look and they say, "Yeah, you don't really believe this."So we are to fight the good fight. Four is, the St. Paul says, "I've finished the race." 2 Timothy 4:7, I've finished the race. Starting stuff is easy, starting a race as easy, finishing it is much harder. Starting a diet is easy, day one super easy and you're like, "I can do this." Day two, three, four, so much harder. Starting a relationship, easy, you're in love. Flirtation, wonderful. Continuing, sustaining, much harder. Having a baby, easy, the man. Raising a child in the faith is difficult. The Christian life begins...Honestly, you come to faith, it's as if the Lord, God, the father's carrying you as a spiritual infant in his arms. It's incredible. And after a while you grow, and the enemy begins to attack, temptation comes from within, from with out, and you got to run your race. Galatians 5:7, you were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? If you were the enemy, if you are saying, "How would you try to dissuade yourself from finishing the race?" Perhaps through distractions of entertainment or money or power or comfort. Perhaps through discouragements, "It's too hard, I should quit."Perhaps through divisions between you and God, between you and other Christians or deception that your life is for yourself, live any way you want. God wants the most pleasures possible for you. All lies. And the five is keep the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7 he says, "I've kept the faith. I've guarded my faith. I've cultivated my faith. I've grown my faith. I didn't bury my faith," and we are to hold onto our faith tenaciously. Why? Because your life is your greatest sermon. Your life is your greatest plausibility structure that when you speak, your words are plausible.Are you living your life in such a way that people want to hear your words, that you words carry weight? And part of that is just don't underestimate the power of living a joyful life, a loving life, a kind life, a generous sacrificial life. And verse A in 2 Timothy, St. Paul says, "Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to those who have loved his appearing." He's not talking about a crown or award of salvation, he's talking about the reward that we get by living faithfully in our life after we've been given salvation.He's talking about reward for service. 1 Corinthians 3:10 and five talks about that. We can't do this on our own. Perhaps you look at your life and you're like, "If I died today, my legacy isn't what it should be." Perhaps there have been seasons in life where you've squandered your life, where you've wasted it, and this is where the gospel Jesus Christ is our only hope, that Jesus Christ left the greatest legacy that there was. His death on the cross, he poured himself out. He loved God's word, poured himself out, fought the good fight. He ran his race, he kept the faith in order to give us faith.And the way that the gospel impacts our legacy is through course correction. If you look at your life, you say, "Mm, I went off course here." At that moment, we need the gospel through repentance. We receive God's grace through repentance. And do you know what repentance is? In the Greek, the word repentance means, just turning around. It means, I have been running the wrong way and Jesus turned me around. I'm turning to you, I want to follow you. At that moment, he corrects us and continues to sustain us on our path.Galatians 2:20, St. Paul says, "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." It's his legacy. It's not mine. He's living in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith and the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Back to our question at the very beginning and we'll close with this before we go into communion. Do you have an answer for the question? What do you want your epitaph to be? That inscription on your tombstone, what do you want to say?Some of the most famous epitaphs in the world history, Alexander the Great was, "A tomb now suffices him for whom the world was not enough." Ludolph van Ceulen, the gentleman, the German Dutch mathematician who calculated pi to 35 numbers. Guess what his epitaph was? 3.1415926 etc, all the way to 35. Wanted everyone to know. Martin Luther King Jr, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty. I'm free at last." Frank Sinatra, "The best is yet to come." We don't know what St. Paul's was because we don't have his tombstone. We don't know where his grave is. But you know what I think an appropriate one would be, "Fought the good fight, finish the race, kept the faith."As we transitioned to Holy communion, we remember the words of Jesus Christ, he gave us Holy communion to do on a regular basis and he says, "Do this," why? "In remembrance of me." We remember his life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection because this is what sustains our walk with the Lord. The way that we celebrate Holy communion at mosaic is, the usher are going to hand out the elements, the bread and the cup. We ask that you hold on to them until everyone's received them. Here's what we're doing in Holy communion.The bread symbolizes the body of Christ broken for us and the cup symbolizes the blood of Christ poured out for us. And we eat and we drink, and what we're doing is we're internalizing these elements as a symbol for how we are saved, for how we're sanctify. We internalize by faith that Jesus Christ died for me. Who is welcome to take part? 1 Corinthians 11 says that, "Holy communion is for the converted and the repentant." For people who have repented, initially have become Christians and continue to repent. That's what it means to be a Christian. So if you today, repent of your sins. If you today turn to Christ, trust in him, you're welcome to partake.If not, we ask that you just spend this time meditating on what you've heard. After the ushers handout the elements, please hold onto them and they will partake. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. We thank you for offering up your body and your blood, and I pray as we receive your sacrifice and your offering, I pray that you forgive us for our sins. Forgive us for our pride, forgive us for our selfishness, forgive us for living as if our life is our own. It's not.And I pray that you make this time a truly meaningful for each of us, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Catholic Church & the State The Church asks for very little from the state. She only asks for religious liberty, which is an inalienable right, and that public servants execute their duties with diligence and honesty. That's it. In fact, what the Catholic Church asks of the state is the very same thing that every other religion in this country asks. But the Left is making it increasingly difficult for the Church and other Christian religions in America to freely practice our faiths, despite that the first amendment guarantees that the government will protect our God-given rights. As a matter of fact, the anti-American and anti-constitution Left is doing its level best to tear down and shred the constitution and all that America has traditionally stood for over the last 243 years. Consequently, the federal government has overreached and grabbed more and more power over the people of this country. Rather than government being the servant of the citizenry, it's quickly becoming a slave owner… and we average everyday Americans are the intended slaves. Certainly I believe in the power of prayer, and that God can save us and our nation at any time He wants, and without our help. But St. Ignatius of Loyola wisely said that we are to pray as if everything depends on God, but to work as if everything depends on us. Listen to Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy explain how we can save our nation. The Cantankerous Catholic Social Media Group https://trumptown.com/cantankerouscatholicgroup (Join) our group where subscribers of The Cantankerous Catholic can meet to discuss the issues talked about in episodes, get opinions from other like minded people, or simply discuss anything effecting Catholics. Don’t like or trust Facebook? No problem! Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy doesn’t trust Facebook either. There have been too many instances of censorship on Facebook. If you promote abortion, LGBT issues, or anything anti-patriotic, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be unmolested by Facebook. But if you promote life, decency or morality, Facebook is subject to censor your posts, take down your page, or otherwise use some underhanded method to censor you. TrumpTown.com We’ve found an alternative to Facebook. It’s a new social media site called https://trumptown.com/?ref=JoeSixpack (TrumpTown.com). Whether you like President Trump or not, this is the one social media that doesn’t censor you for upholding Catholic values and morals. You’re completely free to discuss and promote anything you want, just as long as it isn’t immoral, indecent, or anti-American. Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy has been critical of President Trump on a number of issues, as is the right of all Americans.  https://trumptown.com/?ref=JoeSixpack (TrumpTown.com) has never molested him in any way, and they guarantee they won’t. The site otherwise works identically to Facebook. That is the reason Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy chose to host https://trumptown.com/cantankerouscatholicgroup (The Cantankerous Catholic Social Media Group) there. We have the added benefit and protection of being a private group. So https://trumptown.com/cantankerouscatholicgroup (join the group) now to meet other like minded Catholics. Not a Catholic? We’d still love to have you join us. You’ll find that we’re a very welcoming people. (Matthew [25:35]) Catholic Contributions This episode’s Catholic contributor is Ascension Press. Catholic Stories This episode features a story about the famed comedian and actor of the ‘30s and ‘40s, Joe E. Brown. Resources In an effort to provide you with the best, most helpful experience we can, any resource mentioned in The Cantankerous Catholic podcast will always be listed in this section. https://conventionofstates.com/ (COS Action: Article Five Convention of States)... Support this podcast

The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is certainly the gift of God. But St. Paul considers a great deal of human effort to be necessary for its maintenance. It does not take care of itself. Fr. Pat fleshes this out.

St. John describes this spiritual danger in these words: "Fear is danger tasted in advance, a quiver as the heart takes fright before unnamed calamity. Fear is a loss of assurance . . . it is a lapse from faith that comes from anticipating the unexpected."    This spiritual phenomenon takes place in our lives more than we realize. For each person the fear is slightly different. Sometimes we fail to follow Christ because we are afraid of what it will cost us. There is a cost associated with each step of the spiritual journey; a further detachment from the things of this world, a new step of faith and trust, a great reliance upon Christ. When we face those moments of truth when the cost is made abundantly clear, we can feel very threatened and vulnerable. For so long we have lived in a certain way, for so long our security has been wrapped up in the things and ways that we are now being asked to put aside. The fears can grow very large. Other times we falter in our journey towards God because we are afraid of the reactions of others. As we grow towards God, we change. Very often these changes are not immediately accepted by those who have known us. When we move towards God in positive and challenging ways, we run the risk of misunderstanding, abuse and rejection. Once again, the fears loom large. Other times we are afraid of our own inability to do that which God has asked us to do. Perhaps we have failed so many times in the past that we are afraid of falling again. It seems easier to do nothing than to step out in obedience to the call of God. These and many others represent the nature of our fears. But St. John pushes us to see the "why" behind the "what." He isolates two factors. First we are overwhelmed with fear because of our pride. "A proud soul is the slave of cowardice. Trusting only itself, it is frightened by a sound or shadow." Secondly, we often are overwhelmed by fear through demonic oppression. St. John describes it this way: "It is barrenness of soul, not the darkness or emptiness of places, which gives the demons power against us. And the providence of God sometimes allows this to happen so that we may learn from it." How do we overcome such fears? The answer is clear: through sincere humility and heartfelt trust in God and through the rejection of all Satanic fantasies. We must not allow fear to keep us from pursuing God. We must look neither to the right nor to the left, but walk faithfully on that path which God has laid before us, looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith.