Podcasts about campbell morgan

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 23rd of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Jeremiah 18:4:”And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.” Then we go to the Gospel of John 12:24:”Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”"Heaven will be filled with broken vessels, broken upon the wheel of earth." Campbell Morgan said it, and I think it is so true. Yes, we will be made into new creatures. There is no doubt about it but it's men and women who have been broken on the wheel of earth, the potter's wheel of earth, that will fill heaven. You see, it's in dying that we live. Even as our beloved Christ was broken on the cross, so too we must be prepared to be broken. Maybe this morning you feel that your dream, your vision, has failed miserably. It's all been a waste of time. Oh no, oh no! Take heart Christians, many of those who have gone before us must have felt exactly the same way. Get up now, dust yourself off and get back into the fight.I want to give you an example, Jim Elliot, I think he must have been 29 years old, he must have felt the same way when he was being murdered in the Amazon jungle. What a waste - but I want to tell you folks that through his death and through his friend's death, thousands of young men and women have gone to the mission fields to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are still going even today. That same young man said, ”It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”Today, you and I, let us keep on. You might feel broken, you might feel that you have disappointed others. Get up and keep going because heaven is filled with people who have been broken on the wheel of earth.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

This week's podcast episode is bringing you a Co-Ed Panel straight from the Woman Evolve Conference! Hosted by Stephanie Okafor, get ready to glean from the likes of Kyle and Kobe Campbell, Bishop George Searight, Morgan DeBaun, and Isaiah Roberts. This lineup is unpacking surrender like never before, and trust us—things got REAL for both the ladies and the fellas!   ***The following episode contains content that may be sensitive to listeners who have experienced physical abuse, depression, or suicidal thoughts. Listeners discretion is advised.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

G. Campbell Morgan said that “we cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again.” Listen to the first sermon from our 'Set the Sail' series to hear about our need to return to the Lord as the starting place for revival.

Comments? Questions? Send us a message!Podcast Episode 161IntroductionWe love to hear pastors tell their own stories, and provide wisdom to others that they've gleaned and that has grown in them over their years of service. Today we have with us pastor Rich Lammay, who has been a senior/lead pastor for 32+ years in the relatively small town of Gardnerville, Nevada. Poimen Ministries recently served the church Rich serves, High Sierra Fellowship, as Rich and his wife Suzanne took three months to enjoyed a well-deserved and needed time away, to regroup and refresh. I was part of the serving team, and it was a wonderful experience for both me and pastor Phil Evans of Poimen Ministries.So now that Rich is back in the saddle, so to speak, I wanted to have him share some of what he has learned, and some of what the Lord has done. I think you'll be encouraged.____________________________________________________§  Welcome to Strength for Today's Pastor, episode 161.Poimen Ministries' focus is for the strengthening and revitalization of the church. Therefore, the goal of this podcast is to provide interview episodes that will be encouraging to pastors and leaders anywhere.§  So, today we have with us Pastor Rich Lammay, senior/lead pastor of High Sierra Fellowship, located in Gardnerville, Nevada.High Sierra Fellowship is a wonderful church, a church I've personally gotten to know. It is an impressive work of God!Rich has recently gotten back in the saddle after being given a three-month sabbatical after many years of ministry. So, we're going to hear about that.§  Rich, welcome to the program.InterviewBio StuffSo Rich, let's get to know you a bit here… you are married to Suzanne, and have been for over 50 years. Congrats on that…Give us a 35,000' view of your conversion, calling, and ministry life, if you would. (As an example, the church website does a great job telling the story concisely: https://hsfellowship.org/index.php/about-us/staff.)Lessons of a PioneerSo, you've been the lead pastor of HSF since 1992. You did that for a couple of years, and then by faith, left your corporate job to serve as a pastor-teacher full time. That was a pioneering step of faith! What did you learn, and how did that grow you?Over the years, HSF has moved its primary meeting place a number of times. How many times has the church moved in the last 34 years? Now, the church meets in its beautiful facilities right in the heart of Gardnerville. And after a relatively short time, you're already running out of room.Lessons Learned Over the YearsWhat are the top five lessons/concepts you've learned in your years of pastoral ministry?Sabbatical Experience (And the Return)A three-month sabbatical: what preparation was required to pull it off?People have no idea the pressures upon a senior/lead pastor, but there are many. Decompression is needed, and sabbath is needed. How long did it take you to decompress?What did the Lord do in you and Suzanne during your time away?What did He show you?G. Campbell Morgan made this statement: “The value of distance is perspective.” With the perspective of being away for three months, what has changed, might change, will change moving forward?Two Minute DrillRich, I'd like you to take two minutes or less to speak directly to your For Poimen Ministries, its staff, ministries, and focus, go to poimenministries.com.To contact Poimen Ministries, email us at strongerpastors@gmail.com.May the Lord revive His work in the midst of these years!

====================================================SUSCRIBETEhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNpffyr-7_zP1x1lS89ByaQ?sub_confirmation=1=======================================================================VIRTUOSADevoción Matutina Para Mujeres 2024Narrado por: Sirley DelgadilloDesde: Bucaramanga, Colombia===================|| www.drministries.org ||===================18 DE JULIOEL AGENTE DE DIOS«El Señor su Dios es el Dios verdadero, que cumple fielmente su alianza generación tras generación, para con los que le aman y cumplen sus mandamientos» (Deut. 7: 9).Campbell Morgan, famoso predicador inglés, tenía cinco hijos que llegaron también a ser grandes predicadores. Un día, alguien les preguntó:-De ustedes seis, ¿cuál predica mejor?-¡Ella! -respondieron todos al unísono y señalando a la esposa y madre.Lo interesante es que «ella», la mamá y esposa, nunca en su vida había predicado un solo sermón en una iglesia, pero su familia la veía como la personificación de un sermón continuo sobre el amor de Dios. Para ellos, las palabras y los hechos de aquella mujer que tenían por madre y esposa eran la mejor predicación; posiblemente incluso fuente de inspiración para los sermones de ellos.*Y tú, que eres madre, ¿cómo crees que consideran tus hijos tu testimonio en favor de la verdad? ¿Será tu predicación la más eficaz que reciben? ¿Será tu manera de ser y de expresarte la mejor impresión de la verdad que puedas dejar en sus corazones? ¿Ven ellos en ti el amor de Dios?La maternidad es un llamado a predicar el amor de Dios cada segundo de la manera más impactante y efectiva. Sin embargo, «solamente cuando procura seguir en su propia vida el camino de las enseñanzas de Cristo, la madre puede tener la esperanza de formar el carácter de sus niños de acuerdo con el modelo divino» (El hogar cristiano, cap. 38, p. 226).«La madre es agente de Dios para hacer cristiana a su familia. Debe dar un ejemplo de religión bíblica y demostrar cómo la influencia de esta religión ha de regirnos en los deberes y goces diarios, al enseñar a sus hijos que pueden salvarse únicamente por la gracia, mediante la fe, que es don de Dios. Esta enseñanza constante acerca de lo que Cristo es para nosotros y para ellos y acerca de su amor, su bondad y su misericordia revelados en el gran plan de salvación, dejará en el corazón impresiones santificadas» (ibid., p. 227).Tú eres el agente de Dios para hacer cristiana a tu familia. ¡Qué privilegio! Y el modo de hacerlo bien es vivir en tu propia carne la religión bíblica. Ya imagino la impresión santificada que dejarás en los corazones de tus descendientes, «generación tras generación» (ver Deut. 7: 9).«El mundo no creerá que Dios ama al pecador hasta que vean ese amor en la vida de sus hijos». Waren W. Wiersbe.* Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, NT (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 996. 208 

Summer is a great time to start laying foundational principles through the wisdom of the proverbs that keeps the mind focused on what is true and the hands busy with the Lord's work. And since summer often means more together time, lets grow in being hard to offend and being a productive agent of growth. New! Get the Ponder Bible Reading Method FreeSign up for the SPF Newsletter and get a free digital guide to help you go deeper in your daily Bible reading!She Proves Faithful Newsletter: sheprovesfaithful.com/newsletterSupport the PodcastEnjoying SPF? Consider leaving a review on iTunes or becoming a supporter on patreon at $5 a month: Join the Team!Show NotesTwo Proverbs to help you cultivate Christian culture in your home this summer (and help pave the way for the fall):Grow in being hard to offend (because you are slow to anger through good sense).Proverbs 19:11 Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offenseScripture says good sense, or prudence makes a person slow to anger - that means the person is able to be cautious and deliberate the situation instead of being reactionary.Be a hard worker (in other words be on a trajectory of building something)Proverbs 18:9 Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.This proverb punches hard when you consider what it means: there is no neutrality with work. with your work you are either building or you are tearing down. “This proverb applies this principle to work. Constructive work is the law of human life and progress. There is an active principle of destruction operating in the history of man; and he who is a slacker at his work, who does not put into it all his strength, is a brother to the man who in wickedness sets himself to the activity of destruction. No living being can be merely a spectator. Each works or wastes. Not to work well, is to aid the process of waste.” G. Campbell Morgan"We must recognize that from the very creation of mankind, God intended us to be workers, producers, and agents of growth and dominion. He connected our identity to our work. He established our telos-our purpose- as cultivators of creation. He called for a flourishing garden-a productive and beautiful place where our work does important things. God did all this." - David Bahnsen, Full TimeResourcesPop Up Tent (this is the tent I purchased two years ago - there are less expensive options): White Fang TentBook: Full Time - Work and the Meaning of Life by David BahnsenSend me a Text Message.Support the Show.Support SPF patreon.com/sheprovesfaithfulSign Up for the SPF newsletter: sheprovesfaithful.com/newsletter

Dr. Chuck Herring | Ezekiel 39:1-29The battle of Gog and Magog described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 is one of the most debated events in biblical prophecy…§  Some approach these chapters as non-literal, having only an idealist or figurative meaning, without any historical reality. §  Others approach these chapters as having a literal fulfillment, being an invasion of some kind, but differ on its participants, location, and timing. Last week we moved to the deep end of the prophetic pool as we considered the war of Gog and Magog.  The Bible predicts an end-time alliance between Russia, Iran and Turkey (along with other countries) that will come against Israel in the last days leading up to the return of Jesus.  As they cover the land like a storm it will look like a slam dunk for the invading forces, that is until God steps in!  We saw in last week's study that God will not allow this invading force to prevail but will supernaturally wipe them out on the mountains of Israel.  This turn of events will literally leave an unbelieving world gasping for answers!  It will, the Bible says, be an event that will be used by God to make His name known again to both Israel and the nations of the world.In Hebrew literature, it was common to give an account and then to repeat it to give emphasis and to add a few additional details.  Ezekiel 39:1-8 is a summary of what was described in Ezekiel 38.  ÞChapter 38 concentrates on the danger this evil coalition presents to Israel.ÞChapter 38 concentrates on the defeat of Gog.ÞChapter 39 concentrates on the disposal of Gog.ÞChapter 39 concentrates on the deliverance of God's people.Ezekiel 39:1–6… “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal; 2 and I will turn you around, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel. 3 “I will strike your bow from your left hand and dash down your arrows from your right hand. 4 “You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. 5 “You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken,” declares the Lord God. 6 “And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the Lord. Verse 4 reveals some new information not found in Ezekiel 38.  It states that the armies associated with this evil coalition will fall on the Mountains of Israel and their bodies will be given to the birds and to the beasts to eat. This is similar to the events of Armageddon as described in Revelation 19:17-18.  Some have suggested that the Gog and Magog invasion is actually describing the war of Armageddon. While there are similarities there are also some major differences. The most notable is that this war of Gog and Magog will come at a time when Israel is living in peace and security, in unwalled villages. This certainly WILL NOT be the case at the end of  the tribulation as the inhabitants of Israel has to  flee for their lives at the mid-point of the tribulation. (Matt 24:15-22, Rev 12:6,13-17)For another new piece of information look at verse 6.  This verse speaks of a fire in Magog (Russia) itself.  Let's piece together the scenario we've already been presented…§  This massive army covers the mountains of Israel and bears down on the people of God.§  God sends an earthquake that wipes out a large segment of the troops.§  Chaos breaks out within the ranks of the remaining army, and they begin to kill each other. §  Next, fire and hail are poured out on what remains of the invading army. This is a picture of the total devastation of a vastly superior army that attacked a noticeably inferior nation.  Surely anyone in their right mind would assume that these events have the supernatural fingerprints of God all over them.  Well, if that weren't enough, God unleashes His judgment on Magog (Russia) itself.  Fire falls from heaven.  All doubt as to the source of this judgment is removed.  This is the hand of Almighty God!“Not only is the Russian and allied army destroyed in Israel, but the land of Russia itself is devastated by the raining of brimstone, causing much destruction to the nation itself. It will cause Russia to cease being a political force in world affairs.”  Arnold Fructenbaum, Footsteps of the Messiah, page 115.I want you to see how verse 6 ends—“…And they will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.”  Even hard-hearted unbelievers will finally recognize that there is a sovereign, holy, and righteous God to whom everyone must answer to.  Ezekiel 39:7–8… “My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 “Behold, it is coming and it shall be done,” declares the Lord God. “That is the day of which I have spoken.”The prophet Ezekiel records the heartbeat of God.  First, that the nations of the world will know that HE IS THE LORD.  Second, in verse 7, the prophet reveals God's desire for the nation of Israel—"MY HOLY NAME I WILL MAKE KNOWN IN THE MIDST OF MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.”  This is the first time that it specifically says that God will make His holy name known to the nation of Israel and it will not be profaned anymore.  When the reality of this invasion and God's supernatural deliverance is witnessed, it will jolt Israel out of its current spiritual slumber. Though Israel was gathered to the land and lived in relative safety and prosperity, a true relationship with Yahweh had not yet been restored.  It will be after this battle. They will know, once and for all, that they are the Lord's people and they need to repent, uphold His name, and believe in their Lord God once again.  In verse 8, the living God solemnly affirmed this powerful prophecy that Ezekiel recorded.  Revival will one day come to Israel!Ezekiel 39:9–10… “Then those who inhabit the cities of Israel will go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them. 10 “They will not take wood from the field or gather firewood from the forests, for they will make fires with the weapons; and they will take the spoil of those who despoiled them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them,” declares the Lord God. The new information revealed here concerns the use of the army's equipment. Israel will “take the spoil of those who despoiled them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them.”  They will also burn the invading army's weapons as fuel for seven years! We should also note the weapons mentioned such as shields, bucklers, bows and arrows, spears, etc.  Previously in chapter 38:4 it also spoke about horses. Should this be taken literally?  Or are they symbolic of more modern-day weaponry and methods?  Wiersbe suggested that Ezekiel used language the people could understand. Ezekiel 39:11–16… “On that day I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off those who would pass by. So they will bury Gog there with all his horde, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog. 12 “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. 13 “Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to their renown on the day that I glorify Myself,” declares the Lord God. 14 “They will set apart men who will constantly pass through the land, burying those who were passing through, even those left on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. 15 “As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a man's bone, then he will set up a marker by it until the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. 16 “And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. So they will cleanse the land.” ' The effort to find and bury the remains of Gog's army would be organized and thorough.  Along with the 7 years of burning weapons for fuel, there will also be a thorough 7-month period where the dead are searched for and buried.  H.A Ironside observed…So suddenly will death claim the myriads who formed these armies that there will be no opportunity to bury their own dead. The blow will come as it were in a moment: the dead bodies will be strewn everywhere in the valley of Hamon-gog... These decayed corpses will poison the very air, and would be a source of grievous pestilence to the whole land if steps were not taken almost immediately to properly inter them: therefore, a great squad of grave-diggers will be formed whose business it will be to go throughout the entire section where Gog's army has been destroyed, and bury the bodies in order to cleanse the land. For seven months this work will continue before the last bodies will have been covered from human sight. Anyone passing through this region beholding bones or corpses will be required to set up a sign in order that the buriers may see it and so inter the body as soon as possible. In this way the land will be cleansed from its defilement and the air purified. In the meantime, birds and beasts that feed upon carrion will assist in the work of clearing away the rotting corpses. With the land needing to be totally cleansed from this event, a special burial place will be established for this purpose.  The name of this cemetery will be Hamon-gog which means “the multitude or hordes of Gog.”This will not just be the task of the government or military.  The number of dead bodies and the corresponding devastation demands that all the people of the land must play a role in this ritual cleansing (vs. 13).  There will be certain men set apart whose job it is to continually search for any remaining body or bone so that the whole land can be cleansed.  The city that is adjacent to the burial valley will be renamed as Hamonah meaning “his multitude.”  It's likely that this city will be established as a headquarters for this massive operation designed to cleanse the land.   It will stand as a continual reminder of the fate of those that oppose the living God.Look at verses 17-20…Ezekiel 39:17–20… “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. 18 “You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 “So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. 20 “You will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war,” declares the Lord God.” The section dealing directly with Gog and his allies ends with this strange picture of scavenger birds and scavenger beasts gorging themselves with the corpses of the defeated enemy.  Vawter and Hoppe viewed this as somewhat of a reverse sacrifice…“Their corpses will be a sacrificial meal that birds and animals will consume. It is a stunning reversal. Instead of human  beings consuming the animals of sacrifice, it is the animals who consume the human beings sacrificed for Yahweh's honor.” The amazing restoration described in Ezekiel 36-39 was focused on Israel, but never limited to them.  It was God's intention all along to set His glory among the nations. He would do this through the execution of His sovereign judgment.Ezekiel 39:21–24… “And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. 22 “And the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day onward. 23 “The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword. 24 “According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them.” ' ” The house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day forward: This restoration would bring Israel permanently into a new relationship with God.  This looks to the ultimate restoration described by the prophet Zechariah and the apostles Paul and John...Zechariah 12:10… “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” Zechariah 13:1… “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.” Romans 11:25–32… For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” 27 “This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” 28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. 32 For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all. Revelation 1:7… Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. Look back at Ezekiel 39:23-24… The nations will know that Israel's suffering was because of their sin and unfaithfulness, not because God was weak or unconcerned about them. Ezekiel 39:25–29… Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name. 26 “They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. 27 “When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight of the many nations. 28 “Then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. 29 “I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord God. F.B. Meyer observed…“We must never overlook the literal significance of this promise. All Israel, insists the apostle of the Gentiles, who never lost his love for his own people, shall be saved. The blindness which has happened to them is only till the fullness of the Gentile contingent to the one Church has been brought in.”If you need proof that God is faithful, I don't think you need to search any longer.  Just feast your eyes on the nation of Israel and you will see the single most important example of God's faithfulness in the entire history of the world.  Keep this in mind.  God's faithfulness is set against the backdrop of Israel's lack of faithfulness to Him.  Obviously, the height of their unfaithfulness reached its apex when they called for the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah.  One day in the future the nation of Israel will see their Messiah and turn to Him in saving faith!G. Campbell Morgan wrote…In that day of restoration, dwelling securely in their land, they would still bear their shame, that is to say, repentance for past failure would be profound, even in the day of restoration. By that attitude of mind Jehovah would be sanctified among them in the sight of the nations, but they would have the infinite healing of His unveiled face, and the abiding energy of His outpoured Spirit. With God's Spirit poured out upon Israel, they would have a relationship with God based on the work and merits of the Messiah, not their own work and merits.  It will be a day of “Amazing Grace!” 

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that you have chosen to make us yours. We are so thankful that you love us with a tender fatherly love. You are the absolute perfect Father, and we thank you for your loving kindness, and we thank you for your tenderness and, we thank you that you speak truth to us in love.You sent the word of God, truth himself, Jesus Christ. And Jesus, you came because you were moved by love. When you saw our desperate state, our sin-sick souls, and our sick bodies, oppressed by the demonic and the evil one, living in a fallen world, Lord Jesus, you were moved by love to come and deal with the root of the issue, which is our sin. You came to heal our souls, and in the process you reveal yourself to us. You give us faith and the gift of repentance, and you command us to exercise our faith.I pray today, strengthen our faith in who you are, and strengthen our faith in what you've said. And make us a people that believe no matter what. Even if things in our life occur that are against our will, make us a people that still cry out to you, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."Lord, as we look at this tremendous text, I pray that you reveal the truth to us and apply it to us. Most of all, I pray if anyone has not yet had a true saving salvific encounter with the living God, I pray they do so by meeting Jesus Christ, repenting of sin and turning to him. Lord, bless our time in the holy scriptures. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.The title of the sermon today is Eternal Misery or Eternal Joy. As many of you know, I've been dealing with a toothache this past month. I finally got it fixed this past Monday, praise be to God. As I was in the dental chair a couple of weeks ago, midway through the root canal, the dental assistant asks the endodontist, "Do you know why the next door dentist has been out the entire week?" She shook her head, and she said, "No." He responded. He said, "Because she had 10 family members who died in Palestine."The jarring juxtaposition of my temporary pain and this woman's lasting pain made an impression. My pain was temporary because I'm blessed to live in a time where healing is available just by going down the street, thanks be to God, by providing medical professionals. Her pain is lasting because the forces of evil are still alive and treacherous. Despite all of our advances in medicine, technology, people continue to destroy each other.Jesus Christ is the healing king who has come to heal our souls and restore our bodies. God loves life, and God loves people. He wants us as healthy as possible. But true health always begins at the level of the soul, and we've all come down with a terrible case of sin, and it's time to call Dr. Jesus.The main subject of our text today is the miraculous healing of a sick woman and the miraculous resurrection of a girl. The text reveals a tender side of Jesus. It reveals Jesus who is most attentive, most sympathetic to the most hurting. He's presented as gentle, approachable, the healer of the brokenhearted, a sanctuary and a refuge for the weak and helpless. He is the great comforter of the distressed even in the present midst of suffering.Sin makes our world a miserable place, and Jesus entered into this misery to save us from sin, to relieve the miserable consequences of sin in the world. And Jesus does bring a healing power, and we have access to his healing power by believing in him. When we believe in Christ, you have access to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enters your body, and your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Christians are the third temple of God, and God wants your temple, your body to be healthy, strong, resilient, and effective. Whenever we read a passage, like this healing passage before us, when we read passage like this in scripture, we are to be reminded that human health is important to God, therefore it should be important to us. And the Holy Spirit... us holistically healthy.With that said, would you look at our text today in Mark 5:21-43. Mark 5:21. "And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly saying, 'My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and alive.' He went with him."And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment, for she said, 'If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.' Immediately, the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease."Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my garments?' His disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, "Who touched me?" He looked around to see who had done it, but the woman knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.'"While he was still speaking there from the ruler's house, some who said, 'Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?' But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, 'Do not fear, only believe.' And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter, and James, and John the brother of James."They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he entered he said to them, 'Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.' They laughed at him, but he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand, he said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, 'Little girl, I say to you, arise.' Immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was 12 years of age, and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and he told them to give her something to eat."This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, fallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Jesus has presented the gospel of Mark as the king of all kings above all kings, king with ultimate authority. He has ultimate authority over God's word. He has authority over nature. He has authority over Satan and the demonic. And in our text today, reveals that he has absolute authority even over humanity's greatest enemy, death itself. He's not merely just a prophet or a miracle worker, he's the very son of God, the one promised through the pages of the Old Testament.Note the similarities between the two miracles. Both the petitioner here desires to be made well, and the word that's used in the Greek is salvation, to be saved. Both the petitioner falls at Jesus' feet, and both the person who is healed is called daughter.In the case of the daughter, the little girl had... In the case of the woman, she's been ill for 12 years, and the other, the girl, is 12 years old. The condition of the two female sufferers render them ceremonially unclean, the woman with her menstrual disorder and the other girl by death. In both cases, the uncleanness is boldly ignored, and in both cases, both the case of the woman who touches the garment of Jesus and when Jesus touches the girl's corpse, fear is mentioned in both and faith is a factor in both.Three points to frame up our time, or three sections. First, 12 years of misery end in eternal joy. Then, 12 years of joy end in temporary misery. Then, the question before us is eternal misery or eternal joy.First, 12 years of misery end in eternal joy. This is verse 21. "Jesus crossed again on the boat to the other side and a great crowd gathered about him. He was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly saying, 'My little daughter's at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live,' and he came with him."Jesus left the shores of Capernaum to escape the crowds. In the interval, he calmed a raging storm and delivered a man from the grasp of a legion of demons. That was last week. Now he returns, and the swarm is there to greet him. We meet Jairus, who's one of the rulers of the synagogue. It's an honorific type bestowed on someone who has been distinguished through their service to the synagogue. This is a person who is respectable, substantial, of good... prominent, and moral.We see that not all the Jewish authorities were opposed to Jesus. In his homeland, this person's one of the Jewish leaders, and he has particular insight in who Jesus is. He's heard of Jesus' miracles. He sees Jesus. But he's not here as a spiritual leader, he's here as a desperate father. He's heard that Jesus can heal, and he comes to Jesus asking for healing. He's interceding for his daughter.Despite his high rank and his prestige in the community, he falls humbly at Jesus' feet, prostrated before the king, acknowledging, "Jesus, I'm helpless. I don't have the power that I need. I need your authority, and authority and a power greater than mine." He's probably taken significant risk to his reputation, but his desperation brings him to his knees. There was no other option.C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain, his famous quote is... He says, "We can ignore even pleasure, but pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."His little daughter is quite ill, at death's door with an unspecified malady. The father here is the first of three parents in the Gospel of Mark coming to Jesus, begging and imploring for healing. In all three cases, the sick can't do it for themselves, and it's a parent that steps up. It's a parent that intercedes.This is a reminder for every parent. Parents, one of our main jobs is to intercede for our children, to stand on our knees before the Lord and beg for their souls, and beg for their bodies, beg for their minds and ask the Lord to protect and bless. Jesus here listens to Jairus's plea and immediately goes to heal the daughter. As he went, the excited crowd goes with him, surrounds him, making it hard to walk.Verse 24: "A great crowd followed him, and thronged about him. There was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse." Instead of alleviating her suffering, the doctors had only made it worse. It was a chronic bleeding that she experienced. Despite all of her most persistent efforts, she didn't get better. The illness became increasingly debilitating as she grew older and she spent all her money on a cure to know avail.Also, this illness makes her ceremonially unclean. She's in a perpetual state of uncleanness, meaning she is virtually ostracized from the community. She can't go to the temple. She can't go to the synagogue. Even being around her meant people were considered ceremonially unclean. It was a miserable condition.The secrecy with which she approaches Jesus shows that she knows that she shouldn't be out in public. She's violating a taboo. She too, like Jairus, believed that Jesus had the power to heal. And despite the crush of the crowd, she somehow manages to get close enough to reach out to him.I do want you to notice that the woman is at the opposite end of Jairus, as opposite as you can be, socially speaking, economically, religiously speaking. He's a male leader, she's a nameless woman. He's a synagogue official, she's ritually unclean and excluded from religious community. He has a family with a large household, she has spent all of her money trying to find a cure, impoverished by doctor's fees. How their fortune seemed to be suddenly reversed, his loss of time becomes her gain. The same crowd that slowed Jesus down toward his progress to Jairus's daughter gives her an opportunity to be healed.Verse 27, "She heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, 'If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." This moment of contact is grammatically highlighted here in the text. The verb "she touched" is the first finite verb after a series of seven participles. It's read, "And a woman being in a flow of blood for 12 years and having endured many treatments, having spent all her money on them, having not benefited but rather having gotten worse, having heard about Jesus," and then it says, "She touched his garment." The word touch here gains extraordinary intensity. This is the climax of the story.Although her uncleanliness was supposed to transfer to Jesus, the opposite here happens. His purity overpowers the disease. The idea of healing to be brought about by contact with a holy man's garments, we see this idea in the Old Testament. We see this even in the apostles, and the idea's presented all throughout scripture. In one instant, 12 years of pain just disappeared. 12 years of suffering disappeared. 12 years of humiliation, everything just changed in a second. She's healed.Verse 29, "Immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him immediately turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my garments?'"We know from text like Philippians 2 that Jesus' eternal glory and power were veiled in his human flesh. He did his earthly ministry not from his own power but from the power of the Holy Spirit. He voluntarily set aside divine attributes when he took upon himself the form of a servant. But despite his voluntary limitations, Jesus knew that God's power had gone out from him. He felt that this healing cost him something. It cost him some kind of power, some kind of spiritual energy, which is one of the reasons why we see him often escaping after a season of intense ministry where he loses spiritual power. He goes and he spends significant time with God, the Father, to recuperate in prayer.At this crucial point in the narrative, the focus suddenly shifts from the human perception of Jesus to Jesus' perception of humans. It's a switch in perspective that's often used particularly in the Epistle Galatians 4:9. "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God." From God's perspective, he does the knowing first.In Mark 5:31, "his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing around, and yet you say, "Who touched me?"'" Are the disciples being dense or sarcastic? I think they're just focused on the mission in front of him. "Jesus, we have to get to this girl. Jesus, you see how important it is that Jairus's daughter gets healed. We know that delay can be fatal. So why are you asking this seemingly silly question?" Since the crowd was so large and people thronged from all sides, the disciples here are perplexed by the question.But Jesus won't let the woman just touch him and leave. Here you have to pause and say why. She had great faith. She got the miracle that she needed. But Jesus pauses everything and in a very public way has her speak. He wants to speak with her, and he wants her to confess the power of God that she just experienced.It's not enough for a believer to just believe in your heart. There's no such thing as an anonymous Christian. If you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord in your heart, the next step is you have to confess that he's Lord with your mouth, and this is what Jesus is doing. He doesn't just want to heal her body, he wants to heal her soul, so he says, "Who touched my garments?" Whenever Jesus asks a question, he's not looking for information. He's looking to elicit a confession. He wants her to speak.In verse 32, "He looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth." She comes in fear and trembling. Her heart was throbbing. Her eyes are tearing up. Would he take the cure away? Will she be punished for breaking the ceremonial law? Would he be angry that she made him unclean or that she tried to steal healing?Jesus here, like a skillful doctor, wounds in order to heal, and he does it tenderly. This is a costly confession to her. That's why she comes with fear and trembling. To speak before a crowd above such personal matters would be incredibly humbling. But humility is an essential part of the kingdom of God.She tells him the whole truth, a phrase that's used in judicial proceedings to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. She's not ashamed to publicly testify that Jesus Christ did heal her.After her confession, Jesus turns to her in verse 34 and he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well go in peace and be healed of your disease." He calls her daughter. She's not related to him. Most likely we don't even know how much older he was than her, but he calls her daughter. He loves her with the heart of God, the Father.What he's communicating to Jairus, who's here, Jairus, who's enjoyed his daughter for 12 years, just 12 years of bliss, he says, "Jairus, in the same way that you have loved your daughter, cared for your daughter, in the same way that you are in pain because of your daughter's pain, I have felt the same over this woman. She is my daughter."The woman was healed because she touched Jesus with faith. She touched Jesus, believing that God could heal her, that this man wasn't just a man, that he was the son of God. For her, faith isn't just intellectual ascent. She knows that, "If I touch him, something will happen. I will be transformed."It's faith in Jesus or is it faith in God? Well, that's a false dichotomy. They come to Jesus, both Jairus and this woman, knowing that the power of God comes through Christ. He says, "Your faith has made you well. Your faith has saved you." The Greek says... It's a Greek word "sozo". Her bodily healing is a good picture of the healing of her soul, and that's why Jesus stopped her. Then he says to her, "Go in peace," which in the English peace is just the absence of strife or the absence of hostility. In the Hebrew, it comes from the word "shalom", which just means wholeness or soundness, holistic health. He says, "Go in this peace." After receiving the benediction, she does.The other reason why he has her publicly announced the healing is to welcome her back into the community. He announces this publicly so that the community knows she's no longer ceremonially unclean. She's been healed on a spiritual level, on a physical level. Now on a social level, he welcomes her back into the community.This story of the woman is our story. We have been, as believers, touched by the power of God, and we've been separated from the faithless crowd by our fearful and wonderful knowledge that Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is Lord, and he has the power to save our souls.The second portion of our text is point two, 12 years of joy and in temporary misery. Verse 35, "And while he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" This is the most absolute heart-wrenching news that a parent can hear. What parent has not sat 3:00 AM with a sick child begging the Lord, praying over them, "Lord, remove the fever"? What parent has not driven anxiously to the emergency room with a wounded or severely sick child?It's bad enough that she was sick, but now she's died. But knowing if Jesus had not been slowed down, he might've made it to the girl in time probably makes things worse. It seems like Jesus slowed down almost on purpose, almost like he did with Lazarus. He waited two days until Lazarus was surely dead before coming and resurrecting him. The time for emergency medical procedures passed. So why was Jesus wasting his time with this woman, having a conversation with her? Her illness wasn't life-threatening. Couldn't he just come back to her later as a sense of triage so amiss? Well, the answer to that is there's enough power of God to go around for all.My daughters were yesterday arguing, quibbling, quibbling is the word, over which holiday is the best. All three of the youngest landed on Christmas. Christmas is my favorite. Then they got an argument of like, "No, Christmas is my favorite. No, Christmas is my favorite." My response was, "It can be all of our favorites."This is access to the power of God. His power is not diminished by giving His power to one. It's not lessened to give it to another. Therefore, His timing is always contrary to our timing.Verse 36, but overhearing what they said, "Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, 'Do not fear, only believe.'" Jairus at this point must've been reeling. He must've been thinking, "Lord, take my life, not hers. Let me die instead of her." But Jairus had witnessed a miracle. He had witnessed the testimony of this woman. He witnessed how tender and compassionate Jesus was with her, and he had witnessed her faith, and that faith most likely inspired his faith.Jesus tells him, "Do not fear, only believe. Keep on believing." What he's saying is, "Ignore the reality that you're seeing. This isn't ultimate reality. This isn't all there is. What you see is not all there is. Ignore the |reality of death and clinging to Jesus' promise of resurrection."Jairus had believed that Jesus could heal his daughter. That's why he came to Jesus. But a resurrection, could Jesus really resurrect her? Jesus is calling Jairus to an even greater level of faith. Often, we do experience delays in life. It feels like when we ask for something from the Lord and it's just delay, delay, delay, sometimes it's easy to sit back and say, "I don't think the Lord loves me anymore." Jesus here is showing that his love is compatible with delays. His grace doesn't come on our timetable, therefore we're not supposed to impose our timetable on the Lord.For Jesus, there was no more problem to resurrect the girl than to cure the fever. Therefore, in times of delay, we are told to keep trusting. Do not fear, keep believing. We don't know all the facts. God does, therefore we are to trust him.2 Corinthians 4:17 says, "For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."Teresa of Avila says, "From eternity, the most miserable life in the history of the earth will look like one night in a bad hotel." From God's perspective, 1,000 years is but a day.Verse 37, "And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James." Jesus dismisses the crowds and instructs them to stay behind. He takes his three most important disciples. I'm calling them the big three from now. The big three are Peter, James, and John. He welcomes them in to see the resurrection. These three will be given a foretaste of Jesus' glory at the transfiguration. These three will be welcomed to pray with Jesus and share in his suffering at Gethsemane, so he welcomes them to go with him.Verse 38, "They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly, the families in shock." In Matthew's narrative, it's clear that professional mourners were hired and they were already brought in. In that context, you would hire mourners, wailers, and flute players who arrived. They communicated to the community of what had transpired.Verse 39, "When he had entered, he said to them, 'Why are you making commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.' They laughed at him, but he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was."The professional mourners, they know death. They're experts in death, therefore they laughed. "What are you talking about? Jesus, we know that she is dead." They laugh at Christ with derision. Jesus is using this metaphor of sleep to tell them that he is about to resurrect her. He is about to wake her up, so to speak. She's not dead but sleeping. Jesus is interpreting death from God's viewpoint.The purpose of this declaration is that death will not have the last word for God's people. God's people do not die. Physically, yes. But we, our soul, we continue living. Jesus puts all the scoffers outside and enters the room only with Jairus, his wife, and the three disciples, and the existence of a separate bedroom, for the girl is testimony to Jairus's wealth. Most Palestinian dwellings from this time were poor, one-room affairs.Verse 41, "In taking her by the ha nd, he said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, 'Little girl, I say to you, arise.'" Jesus never hesitates to contract ritual defilement by touching a leper or touching a dead person. Why? Because he's holy, and his holiness is overpowering. It's more contagious. It's more transmitting than the sickness.He says to her, "Talitha cumi," He speaks to her in Aramaic. This is interesting because Aramaic seems to have been the usual speech in the Jewish home, especially in Galilee. Greek was certainly the literary and cultural language. Hebrew was the religious language. But at home, the heart language was Aramaic. Aramaic was Jesus' heart language.The command "ephphatha" given to the mute man or when Christ was on the cross, he says, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which is Aramaic, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He addresses God as Abba, father.The risen Lord spoke to Mary in her own language, in Aramaic, and that she turned and spoke to him in Aramaic, "raboni" , which means teacher. Jesus here speaks to this little girl in her heart language. "Talitha cumi." Little girl, wake up. Little girl, arise."Verse 42, "And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was 12 years of age, and they were immediately overcome with amazement. He strictly charged that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat."Everyone was overcome with amazement. It was one thing for Jesus to calm the storm, it was something else for Jesus to cast out a legion of demons from the poor man in the text last week, but it's something altogether different for Jesus to resurrect this little girl. And he does so just by speaking. He's demonstrating that he is Lord of all, even death itself.I love this little detail at the end that he tells them, "Hey, feed her something," which for me shows... This is eyewitness account. Why in the world would you include that little detail that adds nothing to the progression of the narrative? Because it happened. Because Jesus doesn't even overlook, despite the commotion or practical need for food.That brings us to point three, eternal misery or eternal joy. Jesus here is more than a prophet. He's more than even Moses or Elijah. He's Lord of all creation. He speaks. He commands the winds and the seas. They all obey him. He is Lord even over Satan and his whole dominion. And now the people of Israel see that Jesus is Lord even over death. He is the one who has come to reverse, overturn the curse, undo the effects of the fall of Adam upon the human race.Jesus' mission wasn't just to come feed people, wasn't just to come teach people, wasn't just to come heal people. No. Jesus has come to deal with the root of all human suffering. He's doing things that the crowd does not understand. They're blinded by their immediate needs. They only see what Jesus can do for them.Jairus and the woman here are the exception. They approach Jesus not just with demands, but with faith, humble faith. They seek healing, but they also exercise faith in God. Jairus seeks help from Jesus. And when help does not come how he wants it to, he keeps trusting, he keeps believing. They come to him with faith that he is who he said he was.Even if the woman had not been healed, and even if Jairus' daughter had not been raised, they still would have believed that Jesus was sent by God and that God's will had been done even if the outcome was not what they wanted. This is the difference between faith and unbelief. Faith accepts the outcome regardless. Regardless of what happens, thy will be done, Lord.The great Bible teacher, G. Campbell Morgan, lost his firstborn daughter. Then 40 years later, preaching on the story of Jairus, he writes this: "I can hardly speak of this matter without becoming personal and reminiscent, remembering a time 40 years ago when my own first lassie lay at the point of death dying. I called for him then, and he came, and surely said to our troubled hearts, 'Fear not. Believe only.' He did not say she shall be made whole. She was not made whole on the earthly plane. She passed away into the life beyond."He did say to her, "Talitha cumi," little lamb, arise.' But in her case, that did not mean stay on the earth level. It meant that he needed her, and he took her to be with himself. She has been with him for all those years as we measure time here, and I've missed her every day. But his word, believe only, has been the strength of the passing years."Like Jairus and the woman who comes to Christ, we must also come to Christ in faith, faith that God is good and that God is loving, faith that he is the one whom God sent, Christ is. And he answers all of our prayers not necessarily according to our desires, and not necessarily according to our timing, but according to God's perfect and holy will.At times we may hear the glorious words, "The child is not dead," or we may hear the tragic words, "The child has died." But no matter what, faith accepts the will of God. Why? Because true saving, living faith understands that when Jesus raised Jairus' daughter from the dead, he's pointing ahead to the end of the age when Jesus himself will heal all of our diseases and raise all of God's people from the dead.What happened would soon become common knowledge, but Jesus strictly charges them not to tell anyone. He is managing the messianic expectations of the crowds. There was much yet for Christ to do, and we see that the raucous crowd was already interfering in some ways.The word here when Jesus says arise is the same word that Christ uses talk about his own death, that Jesus was buried, that Jesus was dead, and he did rise from the dead. This right here is one of the greatest truths about Christianity, that we will all die. And if the Lord should tarry, after that comes the judgment. And we need someone to raise us from the dead, and we need someone to bring us through the judgment that we deserve.This little girl, she died twice, as did Lazarus. Then what? Then comes the judgment. Then we stand before God. God at that moment is going to tell us either you go into eternal joy, eternal bliss, or into eternal punishment. This is Matthew 25:46: "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." I wonder when's the last time you meditated on eternity. It just does not end. It's eternity. It's not a hundred years. It's not a thousand. It's not 10,000. It just does not end. It's either eternal life or eternal punishment.2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, "This is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering, since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed."Jesus Christ came because he understands that there is eternal suffering in the future of those who would turn from him. That's what every single one of us deserves. But Jesus came in order to provide salvation. He endured infinite misery to save us from eternal misery. Jesus doesn't suffer for all eternity because he is fully God with infinite glory and power. Jesus overcame eternal suffering by overpowering it with his infinite glory.Jesus, when the woman touched him, perceived that power had gone out from him. Well, that was a foretaste. It's a foreshadowing of what happened on the cross. The reason why this woman became clean and Jesus did not become unclean wasn't because the uncleanness disappeared in thin air. No, he took her uncleanness, and he took it upon himself to the cross. He bled like the woman. He came to become unclean in our place. He had to go into death like the girl so that she could be raised to life. He lost the father's hand on the cross. “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He lost the father's hand in order to be able to extend it to us.2 Corinthians 13:4, "For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God." With his humanity, Jesus endured the crucifixion. With his divinity, he endured eternal sufferings, our eternal sufferings, the eternal sufferings that we deserve."Jonathan Edwards in his 1729 sermon, The Sacrifice of Christ Acceptable, says this: "Though Christ's sufferings were but temporal, that is not eternal, yet they were equivalent to our eternal sufferings by reason of the infinite dignity of his person. Though it was not infinite suffering, yet it was equivalent to infinite suffering, for it was infinite expense. His blood which he spilled, his life, which he laid down was an infinite price because it was the blood of God, as it is expressly called."Acts 20:28, "The Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. His life was the life of that person that was the eternal Son of God, though it was the life of the human nature. Now upon this account, the priced offered was equivalent to the demerit of the sins of all mankind, and his suffering's equivalent to the eternal sufferings of the whole world."Christ suffered infinite suffering to save you, to save me from eternal suffering. How do we get that salvation? How do we get eternal life? How do we get our sins forgiven, the condemnation removed? All you have to do is reach out to Christ in faith. In faith, reach out, and touch him. Have that encounter. Believe that as you reach your hand is there, his hand is there grasp onto yours, and then his coursing healing power goes through your being.Faith takes hold of the power of God, and faith takes hold of His transforming power. This is what saves us. It's faith in Christ. He says, "Don't be afraid, just believe." There is a purifying power in the blood of the lamb of God. No matter what we've done, no matter the uncleanness of our sin, the uncleanness of our lawbreaking, all you have to do is ask for the Lord to purify you, and He will, and He does. All you need is need. All you need is recognition of your need.How much faith do you have to have in Jesus? Just enough to come, just enough to cry out to Christ, just enough to say, "Lord Jesus, have pity on me." The Lord is so gracious. He doesn't refuse anyone that comes to him and says, "Lord, help me."Even if your faith isn't perfect, even if you're brand new to the faith... There's a guy in the scripture that says, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief." Even that is enough. Even that is enough to come and to be safe. So, come to Christ wherever you are, doubts and all, and he will begin the process of healing.At this point, I'm going to welcome a brother from the congregation, Brother Robert. Round of applause as he comes up. He's going to testify to the incredible work of God in his life and in his family's life, and just a testimony that God's power is real and he's still working amongst us today. Thank you, Robert.Robert:Morning, everyone. I'm here to share a testimony on behalf of my wife Carissa, my daughter Caitlin, and my son Thomas. For those who don't know me, my name is Robert. When I'm not here playing keyboard, I'm actually working in a biotech company. In fact, I have medical training as a surgeon. This is relevant because two years ago, the weekend of Thanksgiving, my daughter became very sick.It started the weekend of Thanksgiving. She had a party with her friends on the Friday. Saturday, she was a little tired. We thought she was recovering from the party. And on Sunday morning, she refused to get out of bed. While that's normal for a lot of teenagers, it wasn't normal for her. She was highly irritable. She just wanted to curl up and sleep. We felt concerned enough that we manhandled her into the car, took her to the emergency room. And amongst other things, they put a needle into her spinal cord, take some fluid, and it was bad news. They found white blood cells in her cerebral spinal fluid, and these cells presumably were there because of an infection that was affecting her brain.Her ventral diagnosis was something called viral encephalitis. This is where a random virus just affects your brain. It's random enough that it could be one of myriad viruses, and oftentimes you don't even detect which one. The most common viruses that cause this are the ones that cause mouth ulcers and chickenpox. But even then, it's incredibly uncommon. Happens to about one in a million people.I had the experience of actually treating a patient early in my career who suffered from this. He was a 20-something-year-old PhD student. Came into the ER because he had a fever that was so high it was affecting his brain, something called malignant hypothermia. He was rushed to the ICU. The next thing I heard, two days later, he was dead. That was going through my head the entire time Caitlin was diagnosed.Viral encephalitis has a mortality rate of about 30%. Of those people who don't make it, these patients who present late like Caitlin, because she was already quite symptomatic, that statistic gets even worse. The patients who actually do push through, the vast majority have lasting serious neurological issues. All these things were running through my mind as we were going through this.She was rushed to the ICU, had a huge number of tubes and leads hooked up to her. She was comatose. She was looking a lot less like Caitlin, and her body and face were puffing up due to inflammation and fluid retention. I was also thinking, "Did I doom her because we brought her in too late from the hospital?"At some level, I always thought through my training that I could deal with any medical situation with professionalism and dispassion. I now know I'm not able to do this. I was a broken man, devastated that my daughter was being stolen from me right in front of me and I was powerless to do anything about it.Pastors Jan and Shane came quickly when we called them. I'm sure Pastor Jan has his own story about what happened. I distinctly remember them walking into the ICU with great gentleness, knowing how grave the situation was. They also told us they usually ask for God's will to be done, but this time their sense was to pray for God's miraculous healing. I don't remember everything that we prayed about, but I do remember a distinct feeling that God was in the room and in control regardless of the outcome.A couple of hours after they left, Caitlin started discharging fluid like crazy. It was so sudden and so intense, the doctors worried about additional medical complications that could cause fluid imbalance. But her face started returning back to normal, and she showed the smallest hints of improvement, such as moaning a little when they were drawing blood.There was one particular moment when we were changing her IV fluids, and she muttered something, and I shouted at her, "Caitlin, hi." Miraculously, she pried her eyes open and said back, "Hi." That was the sweetest greeting I've ever heard.She spent four days in the ICU, another four days in the hospital ward. She missed over three weeks of school, but managed to return and still somehow managed a 4.0 GPA. She's now attending college. She's coming home next Tuesday for Thanksgiving. That will be celebrating two years since we almost lost her.I don't know how much of this experience was medical versus spiritual, but I do know that every fiber of my being was that Pastors Jan and Shane were vessels of a true miracle that happened that day. In addition, there was an absolute army of people praying for her, our community group, many of you here, were praying for her. Friends, and family, and neighbors across the US, Asia, and Australia. Literally hundreds of people covering her in prayer 24 hours a day. Prayer is powerful. Her neurologist and infectious disease specialists said that her rapid and complete recovery were incompatible with her disease, and I call that a miracle.One more thing. Caitlin liked to spend time in her room with the door just slightly ajar. When she was in the hospital, her door was open all the way, which was because we dragged her out of bed and got her to hospital. I was forced to close that door, since the open door reminded me that she was terribly sick and that she may not be able to come back home. Maybe that's similar to when Mary Magdalene saw the empty tomb, that someone took Jesus' body, which was an additional insult beyond his crucifixion. Right now, her room is wide open, and that's okay not necessarily because she returned to health. Her open door should symbolize God working for our good regardless of outcome.Her open room door is also a reminder that as great as Caitlin's miracle was, and even greater miracle is the empty tomb, Caitlin's salvation is just a hint of Jesus' redeeming power dying for all our sins and the pain, sickness, and suffering which are consequences of that sin. And he rose again that we could have ultimate hope for our own deliverance.The lesson in this storm is not just to appreciate God's ability to miraculously heal. The lesson is that whatever happened, it brought our family and this army of prayer warriors back to the heart of worship, and it helped us focus on God's sovereignty, provision, and redeeming power. Thanks for listening.

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that you have chosen to make us yours. We are so thankful that you love us with a tender fatherly love. You are the absolute perfect Father, and we thank you for your loving kindness, and we thank you for your tenderness and, we thank you that you speak truth to us in love.You sent the word of God, truth himself, Jesus Christ. And Jesus, you came because you were moved by love. When you saw our desperate state, our sin-sick souls, and our sick bodies, oppressed by the demonic and the evil one, living in a fallen world, Lord Jesus, you were moved by love to come and deal with the root of the issue, which is our sin. You came to heal our souls, and in the process you reveal yourself to us. You give us faith and the gift of repentance, and you command us to exercise our faith.I pray today, strengthen our faith in who you are, and strengthen our faith in what you've said. And make us a people that believe no matter what. Even if things in our life occur that are against our will, make us a people that still cry out to you, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."Lord, as we look at this tremendous text, I pray that you reveal the truth to us and apply it to us. Most of all, I pray if anyone has not yet had a true saving salvific encounter with the living God, I pray they do so by meeting Jesus Christ, repenting of sin and turning to him. Lord, bless our time in the holy scriptures. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.The title of the sermon today is Eternal Misery or Eternal Joy. As many of you know, I've been dealing with a toothache this past month. I finally got it fixed this past Monday, praise be to God. As I was in the dental chair a couple of weeks ago, midway through the root canal, the dental assistant asks the endodontist, "Do you know why the next door dentist has been out the entire week?" She shook her head, and she said, "No." He responded. He said, "Because she had 10 family members who died in Palestine."The jarring juxtaposition of my temporary pain and this woman's lasting pain made an impression. My pain was temporary because I'm blessed to live in a time where healing is available just by going down the street, thanks be to God, by providing medical professionals. Her pain is lasting because the forces of evil are still alive and treacherous. Despite all of our advances in medicine, technology, people continue to destroy each other.Jesus Christ is the healing king who has come to heal our souls and restore our bodies. God loves life, and God loves people. He wants us as healthy as possible. But true health always begins at the level of the soul, and we've all come down with a terrible case of sin, and it's time to call Dr. Jesus.The main subject of our text today is the miraculous healing of a sick woman and the miraculous resurrection of a girl. The text reveals a tender side of Jesus. It reveals Jesus who is most attentive, most sympathetic to the most hurting. He's presented as gentle, approachable, the healer of the brokenhearted, a sanctuary and a refuge for the weak and helpless. He is the great comforter of the distressed even in the present midst of suffering.Sin makes our world a miserable place, and Jesus entered into this misery to save us from sin, to relieve the miserable consequences of sin in the world. And Jesus does bring a healing power, and we have access to his healing power by believing in him. When we believe in Christ, you have access to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enters your body, and your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Christians are the third temple of God, and God wants your temple, your body to be healthy, strong, resilient, and effective. Whenever we read a passage, like this healing passage before us, when we read passage like this in scripture, we are to be reminded that human health is important to God, therefore it should be important to us. And the Holy Spirit... us holistically healthy.With that said, would you look at our text today in Mark 5:21-43. Mark 5:21. "And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly saying, 'My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and alive.' He went with him."And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment, for she said, 'If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.' Immediately, the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease."Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my garments?' His disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, "Who touched me?" He looked around to see who had done it, but the woman knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.'"While he was still speaking there from the ruler's house, some who said, 'Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?' But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, 'Do not fear, only believe.' And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter, and James, and John the brother of James."They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he entered he said to them, 'Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.' They laughed at him, but he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand, he said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, 'Little girl, I say to you, arise.' Immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was 12 years of age, and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and he told them to give her something to eat."This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, fallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Jesus has presented the gospel of Mark as the king of all kings above all kings, king with ultimate authority. He has ultimate authority over God's word. He has authority over nature. He has authority over Satan and the demonic. And in our text today, reveals that he has absolute authority even over humanity's greatest enemy, death itself. He's not merely just a prophet or a miracle worker, he's the very son of God, the one promised through the pages of the Old Testament.Note the similarities between the two miracles. Both the petitioner here desires to be made well, and the word that's used in the Greek is salvation, to be saved. Both the petitioner falls at Jesus' feet, and both the person who is healed is called daughter.In the case of the daughter, the little girl had... In the case of the woman, she's been ill for 12 years, and the other, the girl, is 12 years old. The condition of the two female sufferers render them ceremonially unclean, the woman with her menstrual disorder and the other girl by death. In both cases, the uncleanness is boldly ignored, and in both cases, both the case of the woman who touches the garment of Jesus and when Jesus touches the girl's corpse, fear is mentioned in both and faith is a factor in both.Three points to frame up our time, or three sections. First, 12 years of misery end in eternal joy. Then, 12 years of joy end in temporary misery. Then, the question before us is eternal misery or eternal joy.First, 12 years of misery end in eternal joy. This is verse 21. "Jesus crossed again on the boat to the other side and a great crowd gathered about him. He was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly saying, 'My little daughter's at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live,' and he came with him."Jesus left the shores of Capernaum to escape the crowds. In the interval, he calmed a raging storm and delivered a man from the grasp of a legion of demons. That was last week. Now he returns, and the swarm is there to greet him. We meet Jairus, who's one of the rulers of the synagogue. It's an honorific type bestowed on someone who has been distinguished through their service to the synagogue. This is a person who is respectable, substantial, of good... prominent, and moral.We see that not all the Jewish authorities were opposed to Jesus. In his homeland, this person's one of the Jewish leaders, and he has particular insight in who Jesus is. He's heard of Jesus' miracles. He sees Jesus. But he's not here as a spiritual leader, he's here as a desperate father. He's heard that Jesus can heal, and he comes to Jesus asking for healing. He's interceding for his daughter.Despite his high rank and his prestige in the community, he falls humbly at Jesus' feet, prostrated before the king, acknowledging, "Jesus, I'm helpless. I don't have the power that I need. I need your authority, and authority and a power greater than mine." He's probably taken significant risk to his reputation, but his desperation brings him to his knees. There was no other option.C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain, his famous quote is... He says, "We can ignore even pleasure, but pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."His little daughter is quite ill, at death's door with an unspecified malady. The father here is the first of three parents in the Gospel of Mark coming to Jesus, begging and imploring for healing. In all three cases, the sick can't do it for themselves, and it's a parent that steps up. It's a parent that intercedes.This is a reminder for every parent. Parents, one of our main jobs is to intercede for our children, to stand on our knees before the Lord and beg for their souls, and beg for their bodies, beg for their minds and ask the Lord to protect and bless. Jesus here listens to Jairus's plea and immediately goes to heal the daughter. As he went, the excited crowd goes with him, surrounds him, making it hard to walk.Verse 24: "A great crowd followed him, and thronged about him. There was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse." Instead of alleviating her suffering, the doctors had only made it worse. It was a chronic bleeding that she experienced. Despite all of her most persistent efforts, she didn't get better. The illness became increasingly debilitating as she grew older and she spent all her money on a cure to know avail.Also, this illness makes her ceremonially unclean. She's in a perpetual state of uncleanness, meaning she is virtually ostracized from the community. She can't go to the temple. She can't go to the synagogue. Even being around her meant people were considered ceremonially unclean. It was a miserable condition.The secrecy with which she approaches Jesus shows that she knows that she shouldn't be out in public. She's violating a taboo. She too, like Jairus, believed that Jesus had the power to heal. And despite the crush of the crowd, she somehow manages to get close enough to reach out to him.I do want you to notice that the woman is at the opposite end of Jairus, as opposite as you can be, socially speaking, economically, religiously speaking. He's a male leader, she's a nameless woman. He's a synagogue official, she's ritually unclean and excluded from religious community. He has a family with a large household, she has spent all of her money trying to find a cure, impoverished by doctor's fees. How their fortune seemed to be suddenly reversed, his loss of time becomes her gain. The same crowd that slowed Jesus down toward his progress to Jairus's daughter gives her an opportunity to be healed.Verse 27, "She heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, 'If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." This moment of contact is grammatically highlighted here in the text. The verb "she touched" is the first finite verb after a series of seven participles. It's read, "And a woman being in a flow of blood for 12 years and having endured many treatments, having spent all her money on them, having not benefited but rather having gotten worse, having heard about Jesus," and then it says, "She touched his garment." The word touch here gains extraordinary intensity. This is the climax of the story.Although her uncleanliness was supposed to transfer to Jesus, the opposite here happens. His purity overpowers the disease. The idea of healing to be brought about by contact with a holy man's garments, we see this idea in the Old Testament. We see this even in the apostles, and the idea's presented all throughout scripture. In one instant, 12 years of pain just disappeared. 12 years of suffering disappeared. 12 years of humiliation, everything just changed in a second. She's healed.Verse 29, "Immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him immediately turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my garments?'"We know from text like Philippians 2 that Jesus' eternal glory and power were veiled in his human flesh. He did his earthly ministry not from his own power but from the power of the Holy Spirit. He voluntarily set aside divine attributes when he took upon himself the form of a servant. But despite his voluntary limitations, Jesus knew that God's power had gone out from him. He felt that this healing cost him something. It cost him some kind of power, some kind of spiritual energy, which is one of the reasons why we see him often escaping after a season of intense ministry where he loses spiritual power. He goes and he spends significant time with God, the Father, to recuperate in prayer.At this crucial point in the narrative, the focus suddenly shifts from the human perception of Jesus to Jesus' perception of humans. It's a switch in perspective that's often used particularly in the Epistle Galatians 4:9. "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God." From God's perspective, he does the knowing first.In Mark 5:31, "his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing around, and yet you say, "Who touched me?"'" Are the disciples being dense or sarcastic? I think they're just focused on the mission in front of him. "Jesus, we have to get to this girl. Jesus, you see how important it is that Jairus's daughter gets healed. We know that delay can be fatal. So why are you asking this seemingly silly question?" Since the crowd was so large and people thronged from all sides, the disciples here are perplexed by the question.But Jesus won't let the woman just touch him and leave. Here you have to pause and say why. She had great faith. She got the miracle that she needed. But Jesus pauses everything and in a very public way has her speak. He wants to speak with her, and he wants her to confess the power of God that she just experienced.It's not enough for a believer to just believe in your heart. There's no such thing as an anonymous Christian. If you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord in your heart, the next step is you have to confess that he's Lord with your mouth, and this is what Jesus is doing. He doesn't just want to heal her body, he wants to heal her soul, so he says, "Who touched my garments?" Whenever Jesus asks a question, he's not looking for information. He's looking to elicit a confession. He wants her to speak.In verse 32, "He looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth." She comes in fear and trembling. Her heart was throbbing. Her eyes are tearing up. Would he take the cure away? Will she be punished for breaking the ceremonial law? Would he be angry that she made him unclean or that she tried to steal healing?Jesus here, like a skillful doctor, wounds in order to heal, and he does it tenderly. This is a costly confession to her. That's why she comes with fear and trembling. To speak before a crowd above such personal matters would be incredibly humbling. But humility is an essential part of the kingdom of God.She tells him the whole truth, a phrase that's used in judicial proceedings to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. She's not ashamed to publicly testify that Jesus Christ did heal her.After her confession, Jesus turns to her in verse 34 and he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well go in peace and be healed of your disease." He calls her daughter. She's not related to him. Most likely we don't even know how much older he was than her, but he calls her daughter. He loves her with the heart of God, the Father.What he's communicating to Jairus, who's here, Jairus, who's enjoyed his daughter for 12 years, just 12 years of bliss, he says, "Jairus, in the same way that you have loved your daughter, cared for your daughter, in the same way that you are in pain because of your daughter's pain, I have felt the same over this woman. She is my daughter."The woman was healed because she touched Jesus with faith. She touched Jesus, believing that God could heal her, that this man wasn't just a man, that he was the son of God. For her, faith isn't just intellectual ascent. She knows that, "If I touch him, something will happen. I will be transformed."It's faith in Jesus or is it faith in God? Well, that's a false dichotomy. They come to Jesus, both Jairus and this woman, knowing that the power of God comes through Christ. He says, "Your faith has made you well. Your faith has saved you." The Greek says... It's a Greek word "sozo". Her bodily healing is a good picture of the healing of her soul, and that's why Jesus stopped her. Then he says to her, "Go in peace," which in the English peace is just the absence of strife or the absence of hostility. In the Hebrew, it comes from the word "shalom", which just means wholeness or soundness, holistic health. He says, "Go in this peace." After receiving the benediction, she does.The other reason why he has her publicly announced the healing is to welcome her back into the community. He announces this publicly so that the community knows she's no longer ceremonially unclean. She's been healed on a spiritual level, on a physical level. Now on a social level, he welcomes her back into the community.This story of the woman is our story. We have been, as believers, touched by the power of God, and we've been separated from the faithless crowd by our fearful and wonderful knowledge that Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is Lord, and he has the power to save our souls.The second portion of our text is point two, 12 years of joy and in temporary misery. Verse 35, "And while he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" This is the most absolute heart-wrenching news that a parent can hear. What parent has not sat 3:00 AM with a sick child begging the Lord, praying over them, "Lord, remove the fever"? What parent has not driven anxiously to the emergency room with a wounded or severely sick child?It's bad enough that she was sick, but now she's died. But knowing if Jesus had not been slowed down, he might've made it to the girl in time probably makes things worse. It seems like Jesus slowed down almost on purpose, almost like he did with Lazarus. He waited two days until Lazarus was surely dead before coming and resurrecting him. The time for emergency medical procedures passed. So why was Jesus wasting his time with this woman, having a conversation with her? Her illness wasn't life-threatening. Couldn't he just come back to her later as a sense of triage so amiss? Well, the answer to that is there's enough power of God to go around for all.My daughters were yesterday arguing, quibbling, quibbling is the word, over which holiday is the best. All three of the youngest landed on Christmas. Christmas is my favorite. Then they got an argument of like, "No, Christmas is my favorite. No, Christmas is my favorite." My response was, "It can be all of our favorites."This is access to the power of God. His power is not diminished by giving His power to one. It's not lessened to give it to another. Therefore, His timing is always contrary to our timing.Verse 36, but overhearing what they said, "Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, 'Do not fear, only believe.'" Jairus at this point must've been reeling. He must've been thinking, "Lord, take my life, not hers. Let me die instead of her." But Jairus had witnessed a miracle. He had witnessed the testimony of this woman. He witnessed how tender and compassionate Jesus was with her, and he had witnessed her faith, and that faith most likely inspired his faith.Jesus tells him, "Do not fear, only believe. Keep on believing." What he's saying is, "Ignore the reality that you're seeing. This isn't ultimate reality. This isn't all there is. What you see is not all there is. Ignore the |reality of death and clinging to Jesus' promise of resurrection."Jairus had believed that Jesus could heal his daughter. That's why he came to Jesus. But a resurrection, could Jesus really resurrect her? Jesus is calling Jairus to an even greater level of faith. Often, we do experience delays in life. It feels like when we ask for something from the Lord and it's just delay, delay, delay, sometimes it's easy to sit back and say, "I don't think the Lord loves me anymore." Jesus here is showing that his love is compatible with delays. His grace doesn't come on our timetable, therefore we're not supposed to impose our timetable on the Lord.For Jesus, there was no more problem to resurrect the girl than to cure the fever. Therefore, in times of delay, we are told to keep trusting. Do not fear, keep believing. We don't know all the facts. God does, therefore we are to trust him.2 Corinthians 4:17 says, "For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."Teresa of Avila says, "From eternity, the most miserable life in the history of the earth will look like one night in a bad hotel." From God's perspective, 1,000 years is but a day.Verse 37, "And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James." Jesus dismisses the crowds and instructs them to stay behind. He takes his three most important disciples. I'm calling them the big three from now. The big three are Peter, James, and John. He welcomes them in to see the resurrection. These three will be given a foretaste of Jesus' glory at the transfiguration. These three will be welcomed to pray with Jesus and share in his suffering at Gethsemane, so he welcomes them to go with him.Verse 38, "They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly, the families in shock." In Matthew's narrative, it's clear that professional mourners were hired and they were already brought in. In that context, you would hire mourners, wailers, and flute players who arrived. They communicated to the community of what had transpired.Verse 39, "When he had entered, he said to them, 'Why are you making commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.' They laughed at him, but he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was."The professional mourners, they know death. They're experts in death, therefore they laughed. "What are you talking about? Jesus, we know that she is dead." They laugh at Christ with derision. Jesus is using this metaphor of sleep to tell them that he is about to resurrect her. He is about to wake her up, so to speak. She's not dead but sleeping. Jesus is interpreting death from God's viewpoint.The purpose of this declaration is that death will not have the last word for God's people. God's people do not die. Physically, yes. But we, our soul, we continue living. Jesus puts all the scoffers outside and enters the room only with Jairus, his wife, and the three disciples, and the existence of a separate bedroom, for the girl is testimony to Jairus's wealth. Most Palestinian dwellings from this time were poor, one-room affairs.Verse 41, "In taking her by the ha nd, he said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, 'Little girl, I say to you, arise.'" Jesus never hesitates to contract ritual defilement by touching a leper or touching a dead person. Why? Because he's holy, and his holiness is overpowering. It's more contagious. It's more transmitting than the sickness.He says to her, "Talitha cumi," He speaks to her in Aramaic. This is interesting because Aramaic seems to have been the usual speech in the Jewish home, especially in Galilee. Greek was certainly the literary and cultural language. Hebrew was the religious language. But at home, the heart language was Aramaic. Aramaic was Jesus' heart language.The command "ephphatha" given to the mute man or when Christ was on the cross, he says, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which is Aramaic, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He addresses God as Abba, father.The risen Lord spoke to Mary in her own language, in Aramaic, and that she turned and spoke to him in Aramaic, "raboni" , which means teacher. Jesus here speaks to this little girl in her heart language. "Talitha cumi." Little girl, wake up. Little girl, arise."Verse 42, "And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was 12 years of age, and they were immediately overcome with amazement. He strictly charged that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat."Everyone was overcome with amazement. It was one thing for Jesus to calm the storm, it was something else for Jesus to cast out a legion of demons from the poor man in the text last week, but it's something altogether different for Jesus to resurrect this little girl. And he does so just by speaking. He's demonstrating that he is Lord of all, even death itself.I love this little detail at the end that he tells them, "Hey, feed her something," which for me shows... This is eyewitness account. Why in the world would you include that little detail that adds nothing to the progression of the narrative? Because it happened. Because Jesus doesn't even overlook, despite the commotion or practical need for food.That brings us to point three, eternal misery or eternal joy. Jesus here is more than a prophet. He's more than even Moses or Elijah. He's Lord of all creation. He speaks. He commands the winds and the seas. They all obey him. He is Lord even over Satan and his whole dominion. And now the people of Israel see that Jesus is Lord even over death. He is the one who has come to reverse, overturn the curse, undo the effects of the fall of Adam upon the human race.Jesus' mission wasn't just to come feed people, wasn't just to come teach people, wasn't just to come heal people. No. Jesus has come to deal with the root of all human suffering. He's doing things that the crowd does not understand. They're blinded by their immediate needs. They only see what Jesus can do for them.Jairus and the woman here are the exception. They approach Jesus not just with demands, but with faith, humble faith. They seek healing, but they also exercise faith in God. Jairus seeks help from Jesus. And when help does not come how he wants it to, he keeps trusting, he keeps believing. They come to him with faith that he is who he said he was.Even if the woman had not been healed, and even if Jairus' daughter had not been raised, they still would have believed that Jesus was sent by God and that God's will had been done even if the outcome was not what they wanted. This is the difference between faith and unbelief. Faith accepts the outcome regardless. Regardless of what happens, thy will be done, Lord.The great Bible teacher, G. Campbell Morgan, lost his firstborn daughter. Then 40 years later, preaching on the story of Jairus, he writes this: "I can hardly speak of this matter without becoming personal and reminiscent, remembering a time 40 years ago when my own first lassie lay at the point of death dying. I called for him then, and he came, and surely said to our troubled hearts, 'Fear not. Believe only.' He did not say she shall be made whole. She was not made whole on the earthly plane. She passed away into the life beyond."He did say to her, "Talitha cumi," little lamb, arise.' But in her case, that did not mean stay on the earth level. It meant that he needed her, and he took her to be with himself. She has been with him for all those years as we measure time here, and I've missed her every day. But his word, believe only, has been the strength of the passing years."Like Jairus and the woman who comes to Christ, we must also come to Christ in faith, faith that God is good and that God is loving, faith that he is the one whom God sent, Christ is. And he answers all of our prayers not necessarily according to our desires, and not necessarily according to our timing, but according to God's perfect and holy will.At times we may hear the glorious words, "The child is not dead," or we may hear the tragic words, "The child has died." But no matter what, faith accepts the will of God. Why? Because true saving, living faith understands that when Jesus raised Jairus' daughter from the dead, he's pointing ahead to the end of the age when Jesus himself will heal all of our diseases and raise all of God's people from the dead.What happened would soon become common knowledge, but Jesus strictly charges them not to tell anyone. He is managing the messianic expectations of the crowds. There was much yet for Christ to do, and we see that the raucous crowd was already interfering in some ways.The word here when Jesus says arise is the same word that Christ uses talk about his own death, that Jesus was buried, that Jesus was dead, and he did rise from the dead. This right here is one of the greatest truths about Christianity, that we will all die. And if the Lord should tarry, after that comes the judgment. And we need someone to raise us from the dead, and we need someone to bring us through the judgment that we deserve.This little girl, she died twice, as did Lazarus. Then what? Then comes the judgment. Then we stand before God. God at that moment is going to tell us either you go into eternal joy, eternal bliss, or into eternal punishment. This is Matthew 25:46: "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." I wonder when's the last time you meditated on eternity. It just does not end. It's eternity. It's not a hundred years. It's not a thousand. It's not 10,000. It just does not end. It's either eternal life or eternal punishment.2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, "This is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering, since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed."Jesus Christ came because he understands that there is eternal suffering in the future of those who would turn from him. That's what every single one of us deserves. But Jesus came in order to provide salvation. He endured infinite misery to save us from eternal misery. Jesus doesn't suffer for all eternity because he is fully God with infinite glory and power. Jesus overcame eternal suffering by overpowering it with his infinite glory.Jesus, when the woman touched him, perceived that power had gone out from him. Well, that was a foretaste. It's a foreshadowing of what happened on the cross. The reason why this woman became clean and Jesus did not become unclean wasn't because the uncleanness disappeared in thin air. No, he took her uncleanness, and he took it upon himself to the cross. He bled like the woman. He came to become unclean in our place. He had to go into death like the girl so that she could be raised to life. He lost the father's hand on the cross. “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He lost the father's hand in order to be able to extend it to us.2 Corinthians 13:4, "For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God." With his humanity, Jesus endured the crucifixion. With his divinity, he endured eternal sufferings, our eternal sufferings, the eternal sufferings that we deserve."Jonathan Edwards in his 1729 sermon, The Sacrifice of Christ Acceptable, says this: "Though Christ's sufferings were but temporal, that is not eternal, yet they were equivalent to our eternal sufferings by reason of the infinite dignity of his person. Though it was not infinite suffering, yet it was equivalent to infinite suffering, for it was infinite expense. His blood which he spilled, his life, which he laid down was an infinite price because it was the blood of God, as it is expressly called."Acts 20:28, "The Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. His life was the life of that person that was the eternal Son of God, though it was the life of the human nature. Now upon this account, the priced offered was equivalent to the demerit of the sins of all mankind, and his suffering's equivalent to the eternal sufferings of the whole world."Christ suffered infinite suffering to save you, to save me from eternal suffering. How do we get that salvation? How do we get eternal life? How do we get our sins forgiven, the condemnation removed? All you have to do is reach out to Christ in faith. In faith, reach out, and touch him. Have that encounter. Believe that as you reach your hand is there, his hand is there grasp onto yours, and then his coursing healing power goes through your being.Faith takes hold of the power of God, and faith takes hold of His transforming power. This is what saves us. It's faith in Christ. He says, "Don't be afraid, just believe." There is a purifying power in the blood of the lamb of God. No matter what we've done, no matter the uncleanness of our sin, the uncleanness of our lawbreaking, all you have to do is ask for the Lord to purify you, and He will, and He does. All you need is need. All you need is recognition of your need.How much faith do you have to have in Jesus? Just enough to come, just enough to cry out to Christ, just enough to say, "Lord Jesus, have pity on me." The Lord is so gracious. He doesn't refuse anyone that comes to him and says, "Lord, help me."Even if your faith isn't perfect, even if you're brand new to the faith... There's a guy in the scripture that says, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief." Even that is enough. Even that is enough to come and to be safe. So, come to Christ wherever you are, doubts and all, and he will begin the process of healing.At this point, I'm going to welcome a brother from the congregation, Brother Robert. Round of applause as he comes up. He's going to testify to the incredible work of God in his life and in his family's life, and just a testimony that God's power is real and he's still working amongst us today. Thank you, Robert.Robert:Morning, everyone. I'm here to share a testimony on behalf of my wife Carissa, my daughter Caitlin, and my son Thomas. For those who don't know me, my name is Robert. When I'm not here playing keyboard, I'm actually working in a biotech company. In fact, I have medical training as a surgeon. This is relevant because two years ago, the weekend of Thanksgiving, my daughter became very sick.It started the weekend of Thanksgiving. She had a party with her friends on the Friday. Saturday, she was a little tired. We thought she was recovering from the party. And on Sunday morning, she refused to get out of bed. While that's normal for a lot of teenagers, it wasn't normal for her. She was highly irritable. She just wanted to curl up and sleep. We felt concerned enough that we manhandled her into the car, took her to the emergency room. And amongst other things, they put a needle into her spinal cord, take some fluid, and it was bad news. They found white blood cells in her cerebral spinal fluid, and these cells presumably were there because of an infection that was affecting her brain.Her ventral diagnosis was something called viral encephalitis. This is where a random virus just affects your brain. It's random enough that it could be one of myriad viruses, and oftentimes you don't even detect which one. The most common viruses that cause this are the ones that cause mouth ulcers and chickenpox. But even then, it's incredibly uncommon. Happens to about one in a million people.I had the experience of actually treating a patient early in my career who suffered from this. He was a 20-something-year-old PhD student. Came into the ER because he had a fever that was so high it was affecting his brain, something called malignant hypothermia. He was rushed to the ICU. The next thing I heard, two days later, he was dead. That was going through my head the entire time Caitlin was diagnosed.Viral encephalitis has a mortality rate of about 30%. Of those people who don't make it, these patients who present late like Caitlin, because she was already quite symptomatic, that statistic gets even worse. The patients who actually do push through, the vast majority have lasting serious neurological issues. All these things were running through my mind as we were going through this.She was rushed to the ICU, had a huge number of tubes and leads hooked up to her. She was comatose. She was looking a lot less like Caitlin, and her body and face were puffing up due to inflammation and fluid retention. I was also thinking, "Did I doom her because we brought her in too late from the hospital?"At some level, I always thought through my training that I could deal with any medical situation with professionalism and dispassion. I now know I'm not able to do this. I was a broken man, devastated that my daughter was being stolen from me right in front of me and I was powerless to do anything about it.Pastors Jan and Shane came quickly when we called them. I'm sure Pastor Jan has his own story about what happened. I distinctly remember them walking into the ICU with great gentleness, knowing how grave the situation was. They also told us they usually ask for God's will to be done, but this time their sense was to pray for God's miraculous healing. I don't remember everything that we prayed about, but I do remember a distinct feeling that God was in the room and in control regardless of the outcome.A couple of hours after they left, Caitlin started discharging fluid like crazy. It was so sudden and so intense, the doctors worried about additional medical complications that could cause fluid imbalance. But her face started returning back to normal, and she showed the smallest hints of improvement, such as moaning a little when they were drawing blood.There was one particular moment when we were changing her IV fluids, and she muttered something, and I shouted at her, "Caitlin, hi." Miraculously, she pried her eyes open and said back, "Hi." That was the sweetest greeting I've ever heard.She spent four days in the ICU, another four days in the hospital ward. She missed over three weeks of school, but managed to return and still somehow managed a 4.0 GPA. She's now attending college. She's coming home next Tuesday for Thanksgiving. That will be celebrating two years since we almost lost her.I don't know how much of this experience was medical versus spiritual, but I do know that every fiber of my being was that Pastors Jan and Shane were vessels of a true miracle that happened that day. In addition, there was an absolute army of people praying for her, our community group, many of you here, were praying for her. Friends, and family, and neighbors across the US, Asia, and Australia. Literally hundreds of people covering her in prayer 24 hours a day. Prayer is powerful. Her neurologist and infectious disease specialists said that her rapid and complete recovery were incompatible with her disease, and I call that a miracle.One more thing. Caitlin liked to spend time in her room with the door just slightly ajar. When she was in the hospital, her door was open all the way, which was because we dragged her out of bed and got her to hospital. I was forced to close that door, since the open door reminded me that she was terribly sick and that she may not be able to come back home. Maybe that's similar to when Mary Magdalene saw the empty tomb, that someone took Jesus' body, which was an additional insult beyond his crucifixion. Right now, her room is wide open, and that's okay not necessarily because she returned to health. Her open door should symbolize God working for our good regardless of outcome.Her open room door is also a reminder that as great as Caitlin's miracle was, and even greater miracle is the empty tomb, Caitlin's salvation is just a hint of Jesus' redeeming power dying for all our sins and the pain, sickness, and suffering which are consequences of that sin. And he rose again that we could have ultimate hope for our own deliverance.The lesson in this storm is not just to appreciate God's ability to miraculously heal. The lesson is that whatever happened, it brought our family and this army of prayer warriors back to the heart of worship, and it helped us focus on God's sovereignty, provision, and redeeming power. Thanks for listening.

2.Chr 32,7-8 Seid stark und mutig! Fürchtet euch nicht [...] denn mit uns ist ein Größerer als mit ihm! Mit ihm ist ein fleischlicher Arm, mit uns aber ist der HERR, unser Gott, um uns zu helfen (SCH2000) Kommentar von MacDonald (CLV) 32,1-8 Nachdem die Assyrer die nördlichen Stämme in die Gefangenschaft geführt hatten (2. Könige 17), bedrohten sie jetzt Juda in gleicher Weise. Hiskia, der früher Sanherib Tribut gezahlt hatte (2Kö 18,13-16), wurde von den Assyrern hart bedrängt, sich samt seinem Königreich ihnen zu unterwerfen. Als Sanherib in Juda einmarschierte, reagierte Hiskia darauf, indem er die Wasserversorgung außerhalb der Stadt verstopfte, die Mauern Jerusalems wieder aufbaute und verstärkte, Waffen besorgte, Offiziere einsetzte und das Volk ermutigte, auf den HERRN zu schauen, statt sich vor dem Heer der Assyrer zu fürchten. G. Campbell Morgan schreibt: Es scheint eine eigenartige Antwort Gottes auf die Treue seines Knechtes zu sein, dass ein mächtiger Feind gerade jetzt das Königreich überfiel. Die Erzählung hat mehr Einzelheiten nötig, als sie in diesem Bericht gefunden werden. Man kann sie in 2. Könige 18,7-16 nachlesen. Dort lesen wir, dass Hiskia das Joch des Königs von Assyrien abgeschüttelt hatte, das sein Vater Ahas bereit war, auf sich zu nehmen. Daraufhin war Sanherib in Juda einmarschiert, und in einem schwachen Augenblick hatte Hiskia ihm einen hohen Tribut gezahlt, um sich loszukaufen. Dadurch hatte er sich aber wieder seiner Oberhoheit unterworfen. Das Ergebnis war nicht das erstrebte, denn jetzt forderte Sanherib die völlige Unterwerfung. In dieser aus seinem Wankelmut entsprungenen Krisensituation wurden Hiskias Glaube und Mut erneuert. Sofort wurde er aktiv und ärgerte den Feind, indem er den Wasserzufluss unterband, die Befestigungen verstärkte, sein Heer mobilisierte und schließlich dem Volk versicherte: »Ein Größerer ist mit uns als mit ihnen.« .:: FRAGEN::. Schreib mir! bibelverse@christliche-gewohnheiten.de .:: ANKI ::. ankisrs.net .:: DER KOSTENLOSE VIDEOKURS ::.

God's Word for Today 28 Sep 2023 Make haste, O God, to deliver me!     O LORD, make haste to help me! 2 Let them be put to shame and confusion     who seek my life! Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor     who delight in my hurt! 3 Let them turn back because of their shame     who say, “Aha, Aha!” 4 May all who seek you     rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation     say evermore, “God is great!” 5 But I am poor and needy;     hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer;     O LORD, do not delay! -Psa 70:1-5 ESV GOD IS GREAT! There is a sense of urgency that David expressed. He opened and closed this psalm with an earnest prayer, that is; “Make haste, O God, to deliver me!     O LORD, make haste to help me!” 5 But I am poor and needy;     hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer;     O LORD, do not delay![v.1,5] We don't pray like David should there is no sense of desperation and helplessness, do we? When God is silent, the Lord isn't delaying, is He? G. Campbell Morgan believed that such prayers were flawed in their understanding of God. “It reveals a mistaken conception of God. God never needs to be called upon to hasten. He is never tarrying uselessly or carelessly.” We can be theologically off in prayer at times but it's our sincerity that God is after of. Job is a classic example. There is no doubt that the psalmist is hurt deeply by the scoffing and taunting of the enemies. He narrates, “Let them be put to shame and confusion     who seek my life! Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor     who delight in my hurt! 3 Let them turn back because of their shame     who say, “Aha, Aha!” [v.2,3] As he addressed God as “Yahweh”, God will be true to His covenant no matter how he felt. The psalmist to look unto God and hope, saying, “4 May all who seek you     rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation     say evermore, “God is great!” His groanings are transformed into gladness! Prayers may not change the outside circumstances. But surely, it will change our hearts. God may seem silent and distant. But, He is great!  Listen and FOLLOW us on our podcast  Spotify: http://bit.ly/glccfil_spotify  Apple Podcast: http://bit.ly/glccfil-applepcast  Google Podcast: http://bit.ly/glccfil-googlepcast Audible Podcast: http://bit.ly/glccfil-audible Follow us on various media platforms: https://gospellightfilipino.contactin.bio #gospellightfilipino #godswordfortoday #bookofPsalms 

„Keď ich však nenašli, vyvliekli Jasona a niektorých bratov pred predstavených mesta a kričali: Títo rozvracajú celý svet a teraz prišli aj sem“ Skutky apoštolov 17:6 Pastor a komentátor Biblie G. Campbell Morgan napísal: „Organizované kresťanstvo, ktoré nedokáže znepokojiť, je mŕtve.“ Kdekoľvek apoštol Pavol išiel, prišlo buď obrátenie, alebo nepokoje. V Tesalonikách sa náboženskí vodcovia […] The post Presiaknuť kultúru – 7. august appeared first on evs.sk.

„… tak aj vy bdejte;  lebo neviete, kedy príde pán domu,… Aby vás nenašiel spať, keď príde nečakane.“ (Mk 13:35-36) Významný evanjelista Dwight L. Moody zvykol hovoriť: „Nikdy som nekázal bez pomyslenia na to, že Pán môže prísť skôr, než budem kázať nabudúce.“ Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, uznávaný britský kazateľ, vyhlásil: „Nikdy nezačínam ráno svoju […] The post Prichádza späť – 14. apríl appeared first on evs.sk.

Dead Men Preaching is a monthly series aimed at bringing sermons from the past into the ears of the present. This month's sermon is by G. Campbell Morgan on Mark 11:27 through the end of chapter 12. For more sermons and other resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

The Early Church was united around common beliefs and common burdens—the belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and the burden of being persecuted by those who opposed them. Jews in the first century who believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior were killed at worst and cancelled at best. As a result of facing such real persecution, the Early Church pooled their resources and shared them with each other as needed. It was not socialism, it was survivalism. In addition, when God struck down Ananias and Sapphira for their deception, the Early Church learned quickly that “the Church pure is the Church powerful” (as G. Campbell Morgan once said). They developed a healthy “fear of the Lord” and walked in holiness before God. The Early Church serves as good examples for the Church today.

Troy and Joel take a look at G. Campbell Morgan and his incredible life of preaching. Originally rejected as one with no future, he would preach all over the world leading revivals. Special thanks to David K Martin for this episode. David K. Martin is an audiobook narrator who lives near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with his wife and children. Audio samples and contact info are available from his website DavidKMartin.NET.Join Revived Studios on Patreon for more!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

As we move into Chapter four we will see John show us another side of Jesus.  So far He has pursued his disciples and been pursued by Nicodemus, a supposedly very righteous and influential man, now He will make sure He will have a divine appointment with this very unrighteous and shunned woman of Samaria.  Just as Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus was trying to tell him, this woman will not get it either.  It is amazing how simple the Gospel is, that a little child can understand and believe, yet a grown man or woman with great intelligence will not and cannot understand it.  Have you come to that place yet where you believe?  I hope so, if not by the time this message is over I pray you will understand the truth and truly believe Jesus is the Christ, God in human flesh and ask Him to forgive you and save you. It was, more than anything else, the glory of the land of Israel, that it was Emmanuel's land Isa 8:8 He will pass through Judah, He will overflow and pass over, He will reach up to the neck; And the stretching out of his wings Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel., not only the place of his birth, but the scene of his preaching and miracles. This land in our Savior's time was divided into three parts: Judea in the south, Galilee in the north, and Samaria lying between them. Now, in this chapter, we have Christ in each of these three parts of that land. 1 When therefore the LORD knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, 1Co 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. [Jesus made and baptized] It is Christ's prerogative to make disciples, first to bring them to his foot, and then to form and fashion them to his will. These seem to be quoted as the very words which were brought to the Pharisees; and, from our Lord's conduct after this information, we may take it for granted that they were so irritated that they were determined to find an occasion to take his life; in consequence of which, leaving Judea, he withdrew into Galilee. Already the Pharisees had turned violently against John who had called them broods of vipers. It is most likely that they drew John out about the marriage of Herod Antipas and got him involved directly with the tetrarch so as to have him cast into prison. and hence they supposed they had a right to inquire into the conduct of both John and our Lord. They had on a former occasion sent to inquire of John to know by what authority he had introduced such a rite into the religion of the Jewish people. Though he feared not death and did not shrink from suffering, yet he did not needlessly throw himself into danger or provoke opposition 2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) sent to baptize with the Holy Spirit, means that it was not the habit of Jesus. This is the last mention of baptism under the direction of Jesus till the Great Commission (Mt 28:19). It is possible that Jesus stopped the baptizing because of the excitement and the issue raised about his Messianic claims till after his resurrection when he enjoined it upon his disciples as a rite of public enlistment in his service. 3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. Each time hereafter that Jesus appears in Jerusalem and Judea before the last visit there is an open breach with the Pharisees who attack him (Joh 5:1-47; 7:14-10:21,22-42; 11:17-53). 4 And he must needs go through Samaria.   Lu 2:49 And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" Or, it was necessary for him to pass through Samaria; for this plain reason, and no other, it was the only proper road. Samaria lay northward of Judea, and between the great sea, Galilee and Jordan, and therefore there was no going from Galilee to Jerusalem but through this province. From Jerusalem to Galilee, through Samaria, according to Josephus, was three day's journey. The direct and usual way was to pass through Samaria. Joseph was directed by God to go to Galilee, a place of safety. 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. The Jews, regarded Samaritans as the most abominable of mankind. So He came by going through Samaria to a city of Samaria.  Now Samaria originally was the name of the capital city of the northern kingdom.  When the kingdoms split after Solomon—Solomon was the last king of the unified kingdom (Saul, David, Solomon, and from Solomon's sons)—the kingdom split, ten tribes went north, two stayed south. The south became known as Judah.  The north as Israel. That's historic. When the kingdom was established independently in the north, Omri, who was one of the kings of the north...and by the way, all of them were evil, all of them were wicked, all of them were unrighteous, there was never a good king in the north. But Omri, according to 1 Kings 16, identified Samaria as the capital city.  Well, it didn't take long for the word Samaria to extend from the capital city to the whole region, so it all became known as Samaria. [A city called Sychar] This city was anciently called Shechem. It seems to have been situated on the foot of Mount Garazim, in the province of Samaria, on which the temple of the Samaritans was built. After the ruin of Samaria by Salmanezer, Sychar, or Sheckem, became the capital of the Samaritans. This place is remarkable in the Scriptures; 1. As being that where Abram first stopped on his coming from Haran to Canaan. 2. Where God first appeared to that patriarch and promised to give the land to his seed. 3. The place where Abram first built an altar to the Lord and called upon his name. . It was at this place that Joshua assembled the people before his death, and here they renewed their covenant with the Lord, Joshua chapter 24. After the death of Gideon it became a place of idolatrous worship, the people worshipping Baal-berith, One of the names of the city was Neapolis. Now it is the first place where the gospel is preached out of the commonwealth of Israel; so Dr. Lightfoot observes; as also that the valley of Achor, which was given for a door of hope, hope to the poor Gentiles, ran along by this city, Ho 2:15 So we read there that He came to this place, a city in Samaria called Sychar.  Probably modern Askar, still around, and located on the slope of Mount Ebal, opposite Mount Gerizim.  Do you remember Ebal and Gerizim from Deuteronomy 28?  The mountains of cursing and blessing where God warned the people, “If they obeyed they'd be blessed, if they didn't, they'd be cursed?”  That area.  Now not just near this village, and by the way, the best estimate would be that if you started in Bethany, maybe He was staying with the family of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, we don't know. But let's assume Bethany, which is right by Jerusalem, somewhere in that area.  It's about a twenty-mile hike and when I say hike, I don't mean it's a flat walk, I mean it's an exerting kind of hike, up and down and up and down and a rigorous walk, 20 miles would take it to where the modern town of Askar is, if that's close to where Sychar is—a twenty-mile walk that day. [That Jacob gave to his son Joseph] Jacob had bought this field from the children of Hamor, the father of Schehem, for a hundred pieces of money. Joh 4:1b1a) Here lay Jacob's ground, the parcel of ground which Jacob gave to his son Joseph, whose bones were buried in it, Ge 48:22; Jos 24:32. Probably this is mentioned to intimate that Christ, when he reposed himself hard by here, took occasion from the ground which Jacob gave Joseph to meditate on the good report which the elders by faith obtained. In faith Jacob said take my bones back 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. a state of weariness. The verb means to toil excessively (Lu 5:5). John emphasizes the human emotions of Jesus (Joh 1:14; 11:3,33,35,38,41; 12:27; 13:21; 19:28). So Jesus goes the twenty miles and He arrives near Sychar, and some suggest that Jacob's well (It was called that because Jacob's bones were buried nearby)—they know where that is today. It was probably between a half a mile and a mile away from the village of Sychar.  Askar is about a half a mile or so away. He arrives at that place and we read this: “Jesus being wearied from His journey was sitting thus.” What does “thus” mean?  Wearied, in a wearied condition; He sat in a slumped, wearied condition by the well. It was about the sixth hour.  The day began at dawn, which means it began say around 6 A.M. and sixth hour puts it at noon.  It is high noon; it is the middle of the day. The sun is at its peak and He has walked 20 miles, a rigorous, rigorous walk that morning.  And He's exhausted.  The word “wearied,” kopiao, means to be to the point of sweat and exhaustion.  It's an extreme condition.  He is worn out.  He is spent.  And at noon, under the blazing sun, He sits down on the edge of the well. Even though Jesus was the eternal Word, He became fully man and shared the fatigue and thirst that all travelers experience (cf. Heb. 4:15-16). The stage is set for this amazing encounter that is about to happen.  And again there you see the humanity of Jesus, don't you?  You see His humanity.  He understands all that we suffer as men and women because He was one of us. He knew what it was to be weary, to be thirsty, to be worn out, to be exhausted, which contributes to Him being a sympathetic high priest who learned from His own experiences how to sympathize with us.  That kind of thing brings shame on those who say that only the Virgin Mary or the saints can sympathize with us.  Jesus walked in our flesh.  He understands even our physical weariness. And there He is by the well. [Jacob's well] Cutting wells or pools for public use rendered a man famous, so this well was named after Jacob because he had digged it, and it was for public use. The well stands about a third of an hour walk from the present city of Neapolis and may be seen today. The word John uses here is pege, rather than the usual Frear. “On the difference between the two Loyd comments: ‘A spring is a God-given thing. God creates the spring; man only digs the well.' It is a curiosity that such a deep well should have been dug in a country where there are many springs. (Godet says that there are as many as eighty springs in the region.) The well must originally have been well over a hundred feet deep, so that digging and lining it was no small task. This has been worked into an argument that the well really was dug by Jacob. Only ‘a stranger in the land' would have gone to all the trouble to construct such a well in a land as plentifully endowed with springs! Many commentators give the depth of the well as about seventy-five feet, but according to Hendriksen a great deal of debris has been cleaned out and the well restored to its original depth.” Morris, p. 257, fn. 20. [1] Time does not permit an extensive exploration of the “well motif” in Genesis, but it has been noted elsewhere. Many of the important events in Genesis took place at a well. It was at a well that Abraham's servant found a wife for Isaac (see Genesis 24). It was also at a well that Jacob first met Rachel (Genesis 29). A spring plays a vital role in the survival of Hagar and her son, Ishmael (Genesis 16). [The sixth hour] About twelve o'clock. The time is noted here; 1. To account for Christ's fatigue - he had already travelled several hours, 2. To account for his thirst - the sun had by this time waxed hot. 3. To account for the disciples going to buy food because it was the normal time of dinner among the Jews. 7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. A polite request. Three things about this woman seem to put her at a distinct disadvantage. First, she is a Samaritan. Second, she is guilty of sexual immorality, and third, she is a woman. We have already commented about the way the Jews felt toward the Samaritans. We are not left in doubt as to how the Pharisees would have dealt with such a woman: [There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water] This was the normal employment of women, as we see in different parts of the sacred writings. The Jews say that those who wished to get wives went to the wells where young women were accustomed to come and draw water; and it is supposed that women of ill fame frequented such places also. Joh 4:1. 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Drawing water was women's work.  Men worked in the field and did the hard work; women drew the water. That's supported by all kinds of historical data.  They did it every day.  They did it every day because they needed water every day.  Water was scarce in that part of the world, as you know.  Wells were visited every day. That was a common meeting place for the women who came to draw water. What is fascinating is that they came at dusk, typically. They came when the day had cooled down in the evening.  Why is she coming at noon?  Why is she there at twelve?  Well, we can't be certain about it, but it would be a reasonable thing to assume that this woman was a woman in town who had a very bad reputation—five husbands and living in adultery.  And oh, by the way, the Samaritan religion was based upon an understanding of the Pentateuch which contains the Ten Commandments and a whole lot of other things that have to do with marriage and divorce and adultery, the five books of Moses.  This is a scarlet woman.  She would normally come at dusk if she was like other women, but if she was a woman of shame, maybe she came at noon because she knows nobody else is going to be there. And maybe she's avoiding the confrontation and the stigma that she bears.  And why this well?  Because there's some information historically that there were wells closer to Sychar. Why go this far?  Why pass other wells?  And the answer might be the same, that she avoided the very convenient places in the normal time of day to avoid the scorn of other women that she would have to face.  She is not a respectable person. Consequently by all expectations, she is not a woman worthy of attention from the Son of God.  She is not a woman who is elevated. This is condescension.  And how does He begin?  He takes the initiative.  He says to her, “Give Me a drink.  J.C. Ryle says, “This is a gracious act of spiritual aggression on the sinner.”  We don't think about aggression in terms of evangelism, but we should.  It's a shocking thing, really, very shocking.  Not so much in our culture, obviously, but in that culture it's a shocking thing for Him to do because men don't speak with women in public. That's a breach of religious etiquette.  And especially rabbis don't speak to women in public.  In fact, I remember reading years ago, a group of Pharisees and rabbis who were called the bruised and bleeding Pharisees and the reason they were bruised and bleeding was because every time they saw a woman they closed their eyes and they kept running into buildings.  Jewish men didn't talk to women.  Do you know that Jewish rabbis were not supposed to talk to the women of their own family in public. Whatever might be thought of the propriety of asking for a drink …, no Rabbi would have carried on a conversation with a woman. One of their sayings ran: ‘A man shall not be alone with a woman in an inn, not even with his sister or his daughter, on account of what men may think. A man shall not talk with a woman in the street, not even with his own wife, and especially not with another woman, on account of what men may say.'” Morris, p. 274, citing SBk, II, p. 438. So here Jesus, a rabbi, a Jewish man, not only talks to a woman, but He talks to a woman who is an outcast, despised woman, who is a half-breed pagan and worse than that, she is by every measure a well-known adulteress who probably has been an adulteress for a long, long time, hence so many divorces.  'Cause if you look into the Law of Moses in the Old Testament, you will find that Moses did grant a divorce, but a divorce, as we know—because Jesus repeated it—for immorality.  This is an immoral woman.  It's a shocking breach of everything Jewish for Him to say to this woman, “Give Me a drink.”  And somebody might say, “Well, why doesn't He have the disciples get Him a drink?”  Well, can't because verse 8 says they had gone away into the city to buy food; so He's there alone.  Why is He there alone?  Well, because they needed food.  How many disciples does it take to get food?  All of them?  No, but dismissing them was beneficial to the conversation, let's put it that way.  He wanted to be alone with the woman. Joh 4:8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Without them there to get Him a drink, and without any instrument to get a drink, He says to the woman, “Give Me a drink.”  It's just absolutely shocking.  And by the way, just a footnote, Jesus never did a miracle to quench His own thirst, satisfy His own hunger, or provide anything for Himself, never.  There's no record in all four gospels that Jesus ever did any miracle to feed Himself, provide for Himself, and thus He honored work, and He honored effort, and He honored care, and He honored sacrifice, and He honored giving and all the things that we do in life to sustain ourselves.  This was also part of His commitment to humanity.  We get what we need through either our own work, and our own effort, or somebody else's work and somebody else's effort.  He didn't do those kinds of miracles that would supply His own wants. A Jewish Rabbi would rather go thirsty than violate these proprieties. Strict Jews would not have purchased food from Samaritans as Jesus' disciples were attempting to do 9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Here is another empty waterpot that I believe symbolizes the empty religion that man seeks for himself Notice that in the verses that follow, Jesus does not answer this question. It is the gospel which changes all this: Galatians 3:26-29- 26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise  [That thou, being a Jew] Possibly the inhabitants of Judea distinguished themselves from those of Samaria by some peculiar mode of dress; and by this the Samaritan woman might have known Christ; but it is likely that our Lord spoke the Galilean dialect. [The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans] The woman's question appears to have ended with the words, "Of Samaria" and the subsequent phrase are the words of the evangelist to explain the reason for the woman's question. It certainly surprised her when He asked for a drink of water. She surmised that He was a Jewish rabbi, and perhaps she tried to “read between the lines” to find another meaning to His request. What was He really seeking?[i] Of course, our Lord's request was simply a way to open the conversation and share with her the truth about “living water.” [ii] The hatred which existed between these two nations is well known. [The middle kingdom was taken captive by the Assyrians, who then repopulated the area with non-Jews (see 2 Kings 17), and to the Jews, who so prized racial and religious purity, the Samaritans were at best a people of suspect pedigree who practiced a corrupt religion. Perhaps she was surprised that Jesus would drink out of her water pot. That he should ask this kindness; for it was the pride of the Jews that they would endure any hardship rather than be beholden to a Samaritan. 2. She wonders that he should expect to receive this kindness from her that was a Samaritan: Christ takes this occasion to instruct her in divine things: John adds, “The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”  They don't use the same utensils.  The Jews “do not use dishes Samaritans have used.” A Rabbinic law of A.D. 66 stated that Samaritan women were considered as continually menstruating and thus unclean. Therefore a Jew who drank from a Samaritan woman's vessel would become ceremonially unclean.[iii] In fact, the Jews in John 8:48 said, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”  That's what they said to Jesus.  You're nothing; that was one of their descriptions.  “You're a demon-possessed Samaritan.”  Terrible scorn for the Samaritans. Now again, you go back to 722 B.C., Assyria captures the northern kingdom. Transports everybody out.  You can read the story yourself in 2 Kings 17.  Takes everybody into captivity, leaves a few people there, a few of the Jews from the ten tribes, and into the district come Babylonians, people from Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, Sepharvaim. They're even listed in that chapter of 2 Kings.  They come in, they intermingle, they bring their gods, they get married, they lose their racial purity. This is an uncivilized time in the eyes of the Jews.  They devise some bizarre form of their own religion, they build a temple on Mount Gerizim and they carry on their own kind of worship.  We'll see more about that later.   The bitterness is profound after the Jews in the southern kingdom, Judah came back from captivity. Remember they came back from their captivity.  After they came back and rebuilt, you remember, it was Samaritans who tried to help them. Do you remember at the story of Nehemiah? The Samaritans wanted to help them and they refused to let them help. And so the Samaritans then tried to stop what they were doing and the bitterness got deeper and deeper and it lasted, and it lasted, and it lasted.   A renegade Jew, actually, it was a renegade Jew named Manasseh, who married a daughter of the Samaritan Sanballat. You remember he was the enemy of Nehemiah.  This renegade Jew named Manasseh, who married the daughter of Sanballat, he's the one that went up into Samaria and built the temple to sort of be their temple because they couldn't be a part of the new temple being built in Jerusalem.  So this rivalry had gone on.  Here we are four or five hundred years later and the attitudes are bitter and deep. Samaritans continued to worship on Mt. Gerizim and accepted only the Pentateuch as canonical. A small group of Israelis who claim to be able to trace their ancestry back to the Samaritans survives to the present day. The Samaritans professed to believe in the God of Israel and awaited the coming of Messiah (see John 4:25). They accepted only the first five books of the Law, but rejected the rest of the Old Testament Scriptures. Wherever they found it necessary to justify their religion and their place of worship, they modified the Law. The relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans was definitely strained.   10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Having captured her attention and stimulated her curiosity, Jesus then spoke a puzzling saying to cause her to THINK…. It was as if He had said, “Your shock would be infinitely greater if you really knew who I am. You—not I—would be asking!” Three things would have provoked her thinking: (1) Who is He? (2) What is the gift of God? (3) What is living water? “Living water” in one sense is running water, but in another sense it is the Holy Spirit (Jer. 2:13; Zech. 14:8; John 7:38–39).[iv]             (1.) Christ is the fountain of gardens, and well of living waters, open for every poor sinner, and freely given, that whosoever will may come unto him, and drink of the riches of his grace. (2.) Many carelessly disregard the invaluable blessings of the gospel, because they perceive not their excellence, nor their own want of them. (3.) They who would obtain the blessings of grace from Jesus and his Holy Spirit, must seek them in persistent prayer; and he who is faithful and true, hath promised, that none such shall ask in vain. Is 55:1-7, Rev 7:16-17 The word used means, the free gift of God. And this is where evangelism starts.  You initiate the conversation, you find your way in at a common point of interest, and then comes the reality that you are offering the sinner it without regard to moralit.  It is mercy with no regard for morality.  It is mercy with no regard for religion.  It is just mercy.  It is just grace. It is the gift of God. This is the unique glory of the gospel.  In opposition to all religion, all religion says, “Do this, do this, do this, do this, and God will give you this.”  The gospel says, “In whatever state you're in religiously, and whatever state you're in morally, here's a gift.”  It is the gift of God.  It is a gift of grace.  It is a gift of mercy.  Dorean, the word here, is “free gift.”  Paul loves that word.  Paul uses that word in Romans.  He uses it in chapter 5, the free gift, the free gift.  And that's where our Lord starts with this unsolicited mercy being offered. This was one of the many instances in which he took occasion from common topics of conversation to introduce religious discourse. None ever did it so happily as he did, but, by studying his example and manner, we may learn also to do it. One way to acquire the art is to have the mind full of the subject; to make religion our first and main thing; to carry it with us into all employments and into all society; to look upon everything in a religious light, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak,    Mt 12:34 "Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. [If thou knewest the gift of God] The Greek word used here signifies a free gift, a gift which is given without asking anything in return. Such a free gift of kindness was Jesus Christ to the world (chapter 3:16), and through him comes the gift of the Spirit which those who believe on his name were to receive.  2Co 9:15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, Christ will convert this woman, not by showing her that the Samaritan worship was dividing (though really it was so), but by showing her her own ignorance and immoralities, and her need of a Saviour. He hints to her what she should know, but was ignorant of: If thou knewest the gift of God, that is, as the next words explain it, who it is that saith, Give me to drink. If thou knewest who I am. She saw him to be a Jew, a poor weary traveler; but he would have her know something more concerning him that did yet appear. Note: (a.) Jesus Christ is the gift of God, the richest token of God's love to us, and the richest treasure of all good for us; a gift, not a debt which we could demand from God; not a loan, which he will demand from us again, but a gift, a free gift, Joh 3:16. (b.) It is an unspeakable privilege to have this gift of God proposed and offered to us; to have an opportunity of embracing it: thou wouldest have asked. Note: (a.) Those that would have any benefit by Christ must ask for it, must be earnest in prayer to God for it. (b.) Those that have a right knowledge of Christ will seek him, and if we do not seek him it is a sign that we do not know him. Jesus here means to denote by it his doctrine, or his grace and religion, in opposition to the impure and dead notions of the Jews and the Samaritans.  Ps 9:10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You. What is the gift of God?  What is the living water?  Well, it's salvation, clearly.  Everything that's in salvation—mercy, grace, pardon, forgiveness, justification, flowing and flowing and flowing and flowing and flowing—and endlessly flowing. [Living water] By this expression, which was common to the inhabitants both of the east and the west, is always meant spring water, in opposition to the dead, stagnant water contained in pools, ponds, tanks and cisterns; and what our Lord means by it is evidently the Holy Spirit, as may be seen in chapter 7:38-39. As water quenches the thirst, refreshes and invigorates the body, purifies things defiled and renders the earth fruitful, so it is an apt emblem of the Holy Spirit which so satisfies the souls that they no longer thirst for earthly good; it purifies them from spiritual defilement and it makes them who receive it fruitful in every good word and work. As in His conversation with Nicodemus (3:5), Jesus again alluded to the Old Testament passages that promised salvation as satisfying water (e.g., Isa.12:3; 44:3; 49:10; 55:1-7; Jer. 31:29-34; Ezek. 36:25-27; Joel 2:28-32). Isa 12:3 Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation. Jer 2:13 "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns-broken cisterns that can hold no water. Zechariah 14:8 And in that day it shall be That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. Is 1:16-18 Isa 1:2; Jer 6:19 Ps 36:9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.  Jer 17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You shall be ashamed. "Those who depart from Me Shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the LORD, The fountain of living waters." Jer 18:14 Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon, Which comes from the rock of the field? Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters? Re 22:1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? concludes his boasts were absurd, and his offers a mere joke. Jesus was speaking about spiritual water, but she interpreted His words to mean literal water. Again, we see how easily people confuse the material and the spiritual. Furthermore, this woman was concerned about how He would obtain this water, instead of simply asking Him to give her a drink of it.[v] [Thou hast nothing to draw with] Thou hast no bucket. Good water is not plentiful in the east and travelers are often obliged to carry leather buckets or bottles with them, and a line also, to let them down into deep wells in order to draw up water. She said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.  Where then do you get that living water?'”  This is sarcasm. This is a kind of scorn, kind of mockery. This woman is very used to defending herself.  12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? “You're not greater than our father Jacob, are you?  Who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”  Who do you think you are?  You've got something better than this?  How are you going to give me water when you don't have a bucket?  How you going to drop the rope a hundred feet, pull up the water?  Do you have some other well?  Are you greater than Jacob?  "There was a trace of sarcasm in the woman's reply, as if she meant, 'We Samaritans are the dirt under your feet until you want something; then we are good enough Genesis 33:18 and 19, “Dug the well.”  This is skepticism, mockery.  Again, mercy responds kindly, patiently.    Of course Jesus is greater than Jacob—and greater than the well itself! To paraphrase His reply: “Whosoever continues to drink of this material water (or anything the world has to offer) will thirst again. But whosoever takes one drink of the water I give will never thirst again!” (see John 4:13–14) How true it is that the things of this world never completely satisfy. In hell today, people are crying, “I thirst!”   We have noted before that life is one of John's key concepts. He uses the word at least thirty-six times. Campbell Morgan has pointed out that mankind needs air, water, and food in order to have life. (We might also add that he needs light.) All of these are provided in Jesus Christ. He provides the “breath” (Spirit) of God (John 3:8; 20:22). He is the Bread of Life (John 6:48) and the Light of Life (John 1:4–5), and He gives us the water of life.[vi]    [Our father Jacob] Despite of the mixture of the races the Samaritans still counted themselves as descendants of Jacob. Art thou greater? Art thou wiser, or better able to find water, than Jacob was? It seems that she supposed that he meant that he could direct her to some living spring, or to some better well in that region, and that this implied more knowledge or skill than Jacob had. To find water and to furnish a good well was considered an indication of skill and success. It was a subject of great importance in that region. Men like to commend that which their ancestors used as superior to anything else.  The world over, people love to speak of that which their ancestors have done, and boast of titles and honours that have been handed down from them, even if it is nothing better than existed here--because Jacob's cattle had drunk of the water. Her reference to "our father Jacob" was probably another barb designed to remind this Jew that Jacob was the Samaritans' ancestor as well as the Jews'. 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: Jesus did not directly answer her question, or say that he was greater than Jacob, but he gave her an answer by which she might infer that he was. He did not despise or undervalue Jacob or his gifts; but, however great might be the value of that well, the water could not altogether remove thirst. 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up (bubbling up) into everlasting life. All the comforts of the world are insufficient to give any abiding satisfaction; Christ alone can bestow the substantial portion on the soul. They who pant after the earth, and its enjoyments, drink and thirst again; It is a striking image, and especially in Eastern countries, where there are vast deserts, and often a great want of water. The soul by nature is like such a desert, or like a traveler wandering through such a desert. It is thirsting for happiness, and seeking it everywhere, and finding it not. It looks in all directions and tries all objects, but in vain. Nothing meets its desires. Though a sinner seeks for joy in wealth and pleasures, yet he is not satisfied. He still thirsts for more, and seeks still for happiness in some new enjoyment. To such a weary and unsatisfied sinner the grace of Christ is as cold waters to a thirsty soul. [Springing up into everlasting life]. This water from Jacob's well would satisfy only bodily thirst for a time. But the water Jesus gives provides continual satisfaction of needs and desires. In addition one who drinks His living water will have within him a spring of life-giving water (cf. 7:38–39). This inner spring contrasts with the water from the well, which required hard work to acquire. Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit who brings salvation to a person who believes and through Him offers salvation to others.[vii] Joh 6:35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst again Joh 7:37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. What is it?  It's living water.  It's satisfaction forever, soul satisfaction forever. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. The woman could not grasp this dark saying because of her sin and materialism. All she could understand was that if she had a spring she would not get thirsty and would not have to work so hard.[viii]                   [Give me this water] She did not as yet comprehend our Lord's meaning; but her curiosity was much excited, and this was the design of our Lord, that he might have her mind properly prepared to receive the great truths which he was about to announce. water that will prevent thirst. Neither come, "nor keep on coming" as she has to do once or twice every day. She is evidently puzzled and yet attracted. Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32  Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.  hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don't go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions [i] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 299). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. [ii] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 300). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. [iii] Blum, E. A. (1985). John. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 285). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. [iv] Blum, E. A. (1985). John. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 285). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. [v] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 300). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. [vi] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 300). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. [vii] Blum, E. A. (1985). John. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 286). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. [viii] Blum, E. A. (1985). John. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 286). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Now the name Jehovah is filled with meaning. In our English Bible it is either translated LORD or GOD when used with Adonai Jehovah – (Lord GOD). It is also pronounced Yahweh. This name comes from the Hebrew verb hayah, which signifies “to be” or “to become”. When translated in the first person, it becomes as in Exodus 3:14 - “I Am,” said twice. “I Am that I Am”. The name LORD, therefore, points to the God who is continuously becoming – “the Self-Existing One.” G. Campbell Morgan – defined Jehovah as, “The Becoming One – that is the One Who becomes to His people all that they need!” Some interpret the name LORD as containing two truths in one name. The first meaning is: “the One who exists in Himself.” The second is: “the One who reveals Himself.” The Jews well knew the significance of this great Name. When Jesus stood before them and said, "Before Abraham was I AM," (John 8:58), they knew He was claiming to be God, in the absolute sense of the word. He was claiming that the Jesus of the New Testament was the Jehovah of the Old Testament. So it is interesting that this great chapter begins with the compound name of Jehovah which is Jehovah-Rohi. Jehovah-Rohi combines the personal name of God, Yahweh (or Jehovah), with the descriptive name of God, Rohi or Ro‘i, meaning, “my Shepherd.” Elsewhere God is simply called the Shepherd. The root word is ra‘ah which means to feed and tend domestic animals by pasturing them. This name speaks of God caring for His people in practical ways as well as providing spiritual sustenance. There are at least seven more compound names of Jehovah in the Old Testament that are reflected in the contents of this Psalm. "I shall not want", tells us that the LORD is Jehovah-Jireh, which means “in the mount it shall be seen that the Lord will provide". We learn of this name in Genesis 22:14 where God on Mt. Moriah provided Abraham a substitute ram to sacrifice instead of his son Isaac. “He leads me beside still waters", speaks of Jehovah-Shalom, Who is "the Lord our peace". When the LORD ask Gideon to attack the enemy with 300 men and Gideon was afraid, He revealed Himself to him by this name of Jehovah. This is found in Judges 6:24. "He restores my soul" informs us that the LORD is Jehovah-Rophe, "the Lord who heals". The LORD reveal Himself by this name to Israel at the bitter waters of Marah in the wilderness in Exodus 15:26. There Moses was told by God to cut down a tree and throw it into the bitter water and immediately it became sweet and drinkable. "He leads me in paths of righteousness", helps us to understand that the LORD is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, "the Lord our righteousness". This name of Jehovah is found in Jeremiah 33:16 where the LORD promises to save and redeem His people and become their salvation. "You are with me" reflects the name Jehovah-Shammah, "the Lord is there". We read about this name in Ezekiel 48:35, when the LORD restores the temple and once again dwells in the midst of His people. "In the presence of my enemies", assures us that the LORD is "Jehovah-Nissi, "the Lord our banner". This name is found in Exodus 17:15 where when LORD is lifted up, He gives victory to His people. "You anoint my head with oil", reminds us that the LORD is Jehovah-M'Kaddesh, "the Lord who sanctifies". We see this name in Leviticus 20:8, where the LORD sets apart His people and makes them holy through the sacrificial blood. I pray today that you will worship the LORD in a fresh and new way as you trust Him to be all you need. Today He is saying to you and me, “I AM your ____________.” You fill in the blank! God bless!

Life Lessons: G. Campbell Morgan #NightLight #RTTBROS. #NK #NormanKissinger Meet tonight one of the best expositional preachers who ever lived. Never miss a chance to learn from past leaders they have so much to teach us. Studying the lives of past Christian leaders enables us to develop in our discipleship. You will be taking on great adventures and see how they handled conflict and obstacles. Our Podcast, Blog and YouTube Links https://linktr.ee/rttbros Be sure to Like, Share, Follow and subscribe it helps get the word out. RSS feed https://anchor.fm/s/127be410/podcast/rss https://linktr.ee/rttbros

The God Who created us wants us to know Him and have a personal relationship with Him. Psalm 19 is one of the best passages in the Bible that helps to find and know that there is a God, but it also teaches us how we can experience Him as our personal LORD. In the first six verses, David tells us how creation speaks and tells us there is a God of glory. This is what we call general revelation. Then in verses 7-11, David speaks of God's specific or special revelation, His Word, that tells us Who God is and enables us to experience the God of creation personally. The revelation of God in creation is truly wonderful, but it is limited when it comes to manifesting the attributes of God and His purposes for creation. Following the fall of man, creation has been subjected to futility and bondage (Gen. 3:17-19; Rom. 8:20-22), so we need something that reveals more clearly the attributes and character of God. That "something" is the inspired Word of God. In verse 1, when David wrote about creation, he used the name Elohim for God. “The heavens declare the glory of God – (Elohim)”. We are introduced to God by this name Elohim in Genesis 1. This name Elohim is used some 33 times in the very first chapter of the Bible that reveal's God's great power as He created the heavens and the earth and everything in them. But here in Psalm 19:7-11, when David wrote about God's Word, he used the "covenant" name LORD seven times, which is the English translation of “Jehovah”. No doubt, this is because the God of creation is also the God of personal revelation to His people. Israel was a very special nation, chosen by God to receive His law, covenants, and promises (Rom. 9:4). "He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation" (Psalm 147:19-20). Jehovah is also pronounced Yahweh. This name comes from the Hebrew verb hayah, which signifies “to be” or “to become”. When translated in the first person, it becomes as in Exodus 3:14, “I Am,” said twice. “I Am that I Am”. This the way God introduced Himself to Moses at the burning bush. The name LORD, therefore, points to the God who is continuously becoming – “the Self-Existing One.” G. Campbell Morgan defined it as, “The Becoming One – that is the One Who becomes to His people all that they need!” Some interpret the name LORD as containing two truths in one name. The first meaning is: “the One who exists in Himself.” The second is: “the One who reveals Himself.” Jesus declared Himself to be Jehovah in John 8:58 when he said: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Jesus is the Great I AM! Jesus said, “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one can come to the Father except through Me”. (John 14:6) Yes, my friend, the heavens declare God's glory, but the Scriptures tell us what God did so that we may share in that glory. There is no conflict between what God does in His universe and what He says in His Word. It was by His Word that He created the worlds (Psalm 33:6-9), and it is by His Word that He controls the worlds (Psalm 33:11; 148:8). In verses 7-11, David recorded six different names for God's Word, six attributes of the Word, and six ministries of the Word in the lives of those who receive it and obey it. We will be looking at these powerful words of encouragement over the next few days! God bless!

The Depression of SolomonThe old adage goes something like this: “Everything the Bible speaks about is true. And the Bible speaks about everything.” This is also true, especially concerning some of the timeless questions we ask ourselves, such as “What is the purpose of life?” or “How can my life have meaning?” Both questions, and many more just like them, are specifically addressed in the Scriptures, especially in the book of Ecclesiastes.Ecclesiastes is a timeless book written by Solomon, the wisest (at least at one time) and richest man who ever lived. And Solomon wrote it towards the end of his life when he should have known better than to make the profound mistakes he did (remember 700 wives and 300 concubines, just for starters). It seems as if the wisdom and fervency for the Lord Solomon had as a young man slowly dissipated as he got older, which unfortunately happens to many people, and Solomon failed to finish his life well. Actually, it is kind of depressing. But there is so much for us to learn from watching Solomon's sad decline.In Ecclesiastes, Solomon used the word “vanity” thirty-eight times and wrote about life “under the sun,” which means life on earth. It seems that was all he was concerned about in his later life. The desire for money and pleasure dominates the first few chapters of Ecclesiastes. Yet life on earth, void of a deep relationship with God, is not a wonderful thing. It is filled with pain and suffering, disease and death, and can bring out the worst in people. In fact, a Jewish writer once described life on earth as “a blister on top of a tumor, and a boil on top of that.”Ouch.Yet Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). I think Solomon may have missed that message.And the Faulty Conclusion of SolomonSo what was Solomon's conclusion right out of the gate? It's pretty depressing and self-centered.“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher (Solomon); “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3).Wow. Sounds like it's all about Solomon and no one else. And selfishness always leads to unhappiness. But note what the Hebrew word translated “vanity” actually means: “emptiness, meaningless, pointless, in vain, breath because of its transitory, fleeting character, the quality of having no value or significance, the result of being futile, nothingness.” Solomon calls it “grasping for the wind.”This is how Solomon was viewing his life as he moved closer to his day of final reckoning. Do you feel the same way?G. Campbell Morgan puts Solomon's life this way:“This man (Solomon) had been living through all these experiences under the sun, concerned with nothing above the sun … until there came a moment in which he had seen the whole of life. And there was something over the sun. It is only as a man takes account of that which is over the sun as well as that which is under the sun that things under the sun are seen in their true light.”Or, to put it another way, “Everything in life ‘under the sun,' outside of Christ, means nothing. But what we do for Christ, ‘under the sun,' means everything.” Keep listening to find out more.Our Latest Posts:549: The Problem is We Make Our God Too Small548: Keeping First Things First… Always

Day 199 Today's Reading: 2 Timothy 3 Biblical prophecy provides some of the greatest encouragement and hope available to us today. Just as the Old Testament is saturated with prophecies concerning Christ's first coming, so both the Old Testament and the New Testament are filled with references to the second coming of Christ. One scholar has estimated there are 1,845 references to Christ's second coming in the Old Testament, where seventeen books give it prominence. In the 260 chapters of the New Testament, there are 318 references to the second coming of Jesus. That means one out of every thirty verses talk about Jesus coming again. And twenty-three of the twenty-seven New Testament books refer to it. For every prophecy in the Bible concerning Christ's first coming, there are eight that look forward to His second coming! Both of Paul's letters to Timothy speak of Christ's second coming. And in today's chapter, Paul warns Timothy about the condition of humanity just before Christ comes again. The prophetic words he gives to the young pastor are not only chilling but eye opening—because the condition he describes can be easily attributed to our culture today. That means we are closer than ever to the second coming of Jesus. Billy Graham said, “Some years ago, my wife, Ruth, was reading the draft of a book I was writing. When she finished a section describing the terrible downward spiral of our nation's moral standards and the idolatry of worshiping false gods such as technology and sex, she startled me by exclaiming, ‘If God doesn't punish America, He'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.'” Consider what Paul says about what the planet will look like before Jesus comes: "In the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power." (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Paul gives nineteen descriptions in verses 2-4 to distinguish what humanity will look like and how they will be controlled. What is striking is that five of them have to do with love. It is a misdirected love, a misconstrued love, a deceptive love. It's humanity not loving the One for whom they were created but finding a very bad substitute. Look at what they love instead of God: self, money, pleasure. Then look at the other two: they are unloving or without love and not lovers of God. The phrase without love or unloving means without true love. It means that people today are not without love—it's just the wrong love. Paul wants to warn Timothy that when people are not lovers of God, they will start to believe that “there is no God, and since there is no God, let us start loving other things—self, money, and pleasure.” But we also find hope in these verses. Notice what verse one tells us: “In the last days difficult times will come . . .” Paul is saying, In the last days, Satan will unleash his worst—but God will unleash His best. Remember those words, In the last days. There is another section of Scripture that starts off with those words. It's found in Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2: “It shall be in the last days,” God says, “that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:17-18) Wow! That is so encouraging. That means the second coming of Jesus is not to discourage us but to encourage us. As the nineteenth-century preacher, G. Campbell Morgan said: To me the second coming is the perpetual light on the path which makes the present bearable. I never lay my head on the pillow without thinking that perhaps before the morning breaks, the final morning may have dawned. I never begin my work without thinking that perhaps He may interrupt my work and begin His own. This is now His word to all believing souls, “Till I come.” We are not looking for death, we are looking for Him. Early on during World War II, the Japanese army stormed the Philippines and forced United States General Douglas MacArthur to leave the islands. Upon leaving the Philippines, General MacArthur declared his famous promise, “I shall return.” And he did, walking ashore a victor at Leyte in the Philippines several years later. There is a more famous “I shall return.” This one from the Captain of the hosts, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who declared to His fearful band of disciples, “I will come again” (John 14:3).

In John 10:27 Jesus said: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” To his original followers, that made a lot of sense. Their ears could literally receive the sound waves coming out of his mouth. What about today? G. Campbell Morgan was a Bible teacher and author. He said: … Continue reading “Hear” is a verb

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Salmo 46 Dios es nuestro amparo y fortaleza 46:título Al músico principal; de los hijos de Coré. Salmo sobre Alamot.  1 Dios es nuestro amparo y fortaleza,  Nuestro pronto auxilio en las tribulaciones.  2 Por tanto, no temeremos, aunque la tierra sea removida,  Y se traspasen los montes al corazón del mar;  3 Aunque bramen y se turben sus aguas,  Y tiemblen los montes a causa de su braveza.  Selah  4 Del río sus corrientes alegran la ciudad de Dios,  El santuario de las moradas del Altísimo.  5 Dios está en medio de ella; no será conmovida.  Dios la ayudará al clarear la mañana.  6 Bramaron las naciones, titubearon los reinos;  Dio él su voz, se derritió la tierra.  7 Jehová de los ejércitos está con nosotros;  Nuestro refugio es el Dios de Jacob.  Selah  8 Venid, ved las obras de Jehová,  Que ha puesto asolamientos en la tierra.  9 Que hace cesar las guerras hasta los fines de la tierra.  Que quiebra el arco, corta la lanza,  Y quema los carros en el fuego.  10 Estad quietos, y conoced que yo soy Dios;  Seré exaltado entre las naciones; enaltecido seré en la tierra.  11 Jehová de los ejércitos está con nosotros;  Nuestro refugio es el Dios de Jacob.  Selah  Dios con Nosotros Durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, en una comunidad de una isla al norte de Escocia, los hombres jóvenes eran llamados al servicio militar en números crecientes. Cada vez que los nuevos soldados se formaban en el muelle para subir al barco que les iba a llevar, sus parientes y amigos se congregaban en aquel lugar y cantaban: «Dios es nuestro refugio y nuestra fortaleza, En apuros es pronto auxilio. Por lo tanto, aunque la tierra sea removida, no temeremos: Aunque los montes se traspasen al corazón del mar; Aunque bramen sus aguas Y se turben, sí, aunque tiemblen los montes al lado del mar. Un río hay, cuyas corrientes alegrarán la ciudad de nuestro Dios. Ahí el santuario, morada del Señor, el Altísimo. Dios en medio de ella está; nada le conmoverá. El Señor le es ayudador y pronto lo probará. Estad quietos y conoced que yo soy Dios; Entre las naciones será exaltado, En la tierra será enaltecido. Nuestro Dios, quien es Jehová de los ejércitos, con nosotros todavía está: El Dios de Jacob es nuestro refugio, y siempre lo será». Del himnario escocés Esta escena es una de las miles en las que los santos de Dios han sido consolados por este Salmo en tiempos de gran crisis. Nadie puede saber los corazones que han sido levantados por la lectura de estas líneas majestuosas en la habitación del enfermo, la casa de luto, el sótano de persecución y las cámaras estrechas de padecimientos y tragedias. Fue este salmo que condujo a uno que antes había sido monje agustino, cansado e infeliz, a Martín Lutero, a escribir el himno famoso de la reforma: «Castillo Fuerte Es Nuestro Dios». El mensaje del Salmo es válido en toda edad y perdurable en el consuelo que ofrece. Hay tres secciones distintas en este Salmo, a las que el Sr. G. Campbell Morgan ha titulado de la siguiente manera: vv. 1–3. No hay nada que temer. Dios está con nosotros. El llamado a confiar vv. 4–7. El Señor entronado en Jerusalén. El secreto de la confianza vv. 8–11. Paz en la tierra y dominio mundial. La vindicación de la confianza Generalmente se piensa que el trasfondo histórico de este Salmo fue la liberación milagrosa de Jerusalén cuando estaba bajo sitio por el lobo asirio, Senaquerib (2 R. 18:13–19:35; Is. 36:1–37:36). En aquel tiempo el pueblo de Judá estaba tremendamente consciente de la presencia de Dios de modo especial. Y así el Salmo celebra las alabanzas de Aquel que es Emanuel, Dios con nosotros. 46:1–3 Dios es nuestro amparo y fortaleza, nuestro pronto auxilio en las tribulaciones. Él también es: «muy...

Hello and welcome to Lechem Panim. Today we will be continuing our study of Acts chapter 18. So if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn with me there. You will remember that Paul has (most recently) entered into the city of Corinth, the political and commercial center of Greece. And it is here that he works as a tentmaker alongside a Jewish man and woman (Aquila and Priscilla) who themselves have been driven out (as all the Jews were) from Rome. And so during the week they make leather tents (and perhaps other leather items as well) and sell them. But on the Sabbath Paul would reason in the synagogue with the Jews and Gentiles who had gathered there to worship and persuaded some of them of the truth of the Gospel. Now Silas and Timothy eventually arrive. And 2 Corinthians 11:9 tells us that they do so bringing financial aid. And this allowed Paul to be more freed to devote himself fully to preaching the Gospel. But enemies had set themselves against Paul; and Paul had faced the rejection of many of his own people, most recently here in Corinth. And so it is a time of discouragement. And he may be wondering how he is ever going to do what God has called him to do. But God gave Paul an amazing promise that extends to you and me as well. And today I would like to take a look at that promise. Remembering 9/11— You know, most of you (myself included) remember right where you were when you heard the news that terrorists had hit the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11. It's a day we will never forget. But recently I read (I think for the first time, though I had seen part of it before) the 911 call from United Airlines Flight 93, where a very terrified passenger by the name of Todd Beamer was frantically telling the dispatcher about the hijacking of their plane. And the dispatcher confirmed for him what he had already heard, that hijackers had crashed two planes into the World Trade Center and that both towers were gone. “Oh God —help us!” he said. She told him that a third plane was taken over by terrorists, who crashed it into the pentagon; and his plane may also be part of their plan. Then Todd, in shock, asked the dispatcher (whose name was Lisa) to call his pregnant wife (whose name, surprisingly, was also Lisa) and their two boys, tell them what happened, and tell her that he loves her and will always love her; and to tell his boys that their daddy loves them and that he is so proud of them. Later in the call another dispatcher joins in the conversation. Goodwin: Hello Todd. This is Agent Goodwin with the FBI. We have been monitoring your flight. Your plane is on a course for Washington, DC. These terrorists sent two planes into the World Trade Center and one plane into the Pentagon. Our best guess is that they plan to fly your plane into either the White House or the United States Capital Building. Todd: I understand…hold on……I'll…….I'll be back.. Lisa: Mr. Goodwin, how much time do they have before they get to Washington? Goodwin: Not long ma'am. They changed course over Cleveland; they're approaching Pittsburgh now. Washington may be twenty minutes away. Todd: (breathing a little heavier) The plane seems to be changing directions just a little. It's getting pretty rough up here. The plane is flying real erratic….We're not going to make it out of here. Listen to me….I want you to hear this….I have talked with the others….we have decided we would not be pawns in these hijackers suicidal plot. Lisa: Todd, what are you going to do? Todd: We've hatched a plan. Four of us are going to rush the hijacker with the bomb. After we take him out, we'll break into the cockpit. A stewardess is getting some boiling water to throw on the hijackers at the controls. We'll get them….and we'll take them out. Lisa, …..will you do one last thing for me? Lisa: Yes…What is it? Todd: Would you pray with me? They pray: Our father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive our trespassers, And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory Forever…..Amen The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… He makes me to lie down in green pastures He leads me beside the still waters He restores my soul He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me….. Todd: (softer) God help me…Jesus help me….(clears throat and louder) Are you guys ready?…….. Let's Roll…………………… Thou Art With Me— And of course we know that Todd and the other passengers succeeded. They (at the cost of their own lives) were able to overcome the terrorists and crash the plane, saving God knows how many lives in what is no doubt one of the greatest acts of heroism in American history. Now I cannot imagine how afraid Todd and those passengers must have been. Yet they were somehow able to rise above that fear and take action. And the secret to that courage might be found in the last words Todd prayed from Psalm 23: for thou art with me. I don't know if there are any more encouraging words in scripture than those; to know that in the midst of whatever we face, God is with us. Perhaps that is why God has seen fit to interweave this promise throughout all of scripture. He says in… Genesis 28:15 ESV— Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Joshua 1:9— "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Isaiah 41:10— "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 43:2 ESV— When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Deuteronomy 31:6— "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Zephaniah 3:17— "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Matthew 28:20— "Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” A Promise That Carries Us— It is this promise of God to be with us no matter what that can help us to carry on His work in the face of the most intense trials and persecutions. And it is no surprise that it is this promise that God gives to Paul as he is no doubt discouraged from his having faced rejection and adversity in just about every place he has been ministering in, most recently from his Jewish brothers there in Corinth. And so God comes to him by night and appears to him in a vision. It says in… Acts 18:9-10 (NKJV)— 9 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” A Dark Situation— Now the reason that God said this was because remember that recently Crispus, the synagogue ruler, converted to faith in Christ in and through the ministry of Paul. And that was great, because it opened up more opportunities for Paul to evangelize. But it also brought more opposition from the enemy. The unbelieving Jews in Corinth were furious at Paul's success and set themselves against him and his ministry with the aim to silence and get rid of him. Now Luke does not give us much detail on this, but it seems that between verses 8 and 9 the situation has become especially difficult and dangerous for Paul; so dangerous that Paul may have even been thinking about leaving Corinth altogether, as he had been forced to do from some of the other cities he had ministered in. But, as we have been talking about, God always provides encouragement when we need it most. And that encouragement can come through His Word, through the ministry of other people, or even directly from God through prayer. But no matter how He does it, God speaks to us when we need Him most. And God tells Paul that because He is with him, he doesn't need to be afraid, but can speak freely without feeling like he needs to keep silent in order to be safe. Fear Not— Now there have probably been times in your life when you have heard God speaking a soft and tender “Fear not!” into your life to quiet your heart and give you peace amidst the storms of life. “Fear not!” [is the way He assured Abraham (Gen. 15:1), Isaac (Gen. 26:24), and Jacob (Gen. 46:3), as well as Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20:15–17), Daniel (Dan. 10:12, 19), Mary (Luke 1:30), and Peter (Luke 5:10).] And that is how God assures us as well. “it is a fact!”— [British preacher G. Campbell Morgan used to read the Bible each week to two elderly women. One evening, when he finished reading the closing words of Matthew 28, Morgan said to the women, “Isn't that a wonderful promise!” and one of them replied, “Young man, that is not a promise—it is a fact!”] Paul Experiences “Immanuel”— And that was definitely a fact for Paul. [Jesus had already appeared to Paul on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1–6; 26:12–18) and also in the temple (Acts 22:17–18). Paul would be encouraged by Him again when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem (Acts 23:11) and later in Rome (2 Tim. 4:16–17). Our Lord's angel would also appear to Paul in the midst of the storm and give him a word of assurance for the passengers and crew (Acts 27:23–25).] And this really shows that the title we call Jesus by (especially during Christmas time), “Immanuel—God with us” (Matt. 1:23) is a name that our Savior really lives up to. And I want to tell you today that Jesus is with you. And therefore you can take courage. One hymn speak this Word of God into our lives like no other: “Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid; I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.” “When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.” Know this week that Christ is with you in whatever you are facing; and that, if you abide in Him, He will do His work through you. Amen.

Today, we begin our discussion of the expositor sermon.I.  A Description of the Expository Sermon• Some Definitions  “An Expository Sermon is one that expounds a passage of Scripture, organizes it around a central theme and main points, and then decisively applies its message to the listeners.”  Dr. Jerry Vines.“The presentation of biblical truth, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, Spirit-guided study of a passage in its context, which the holy Spirit applies first to the life of the preacher and then through him to his congregation.” – Dr. Haddon W. Robinson“Expository preaching is the art of explaining the text of the Word of God, using all the experiences of life and learning to illuminate the exposition.” - Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse.“Being sure that our text is the Bible, we proceed to find out its actual meaning and then elaborate its message.  The text has postulates, implicates, deductions and application.” - G. Campbell Morgan“Expository preaching is the Spirit-empowered explanation and proclamation of the text of God's Word with due regard to the historical, contextual, grammatical, and doctrinal significance of the given passage, with the specific object of invoking a Christ transforming response.” —Stephen F. Olford The word exposition is related to the word expose—the expository preacher's goal is simply to expose the meaning of the Bible, verse by verse. As a method, expository preaching differs from topical preaching and textual preaching. To prepare a topical sermon, the preacher starts with a topic and then finds a passage in the Bible that addresses that topic. For example, for the chosen topic of “Laziness,” the preacher might refer to Proverbs 15:19 and 18:9 and touch on Romans 12:11 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10. None of the passages is studied in depth; instead, each is used to support the theme of laziness.In a textual sermon, the preacher uses a text as a springboard for discussing a particular point. For example, someone could use Isaiah 66:7-13 to preach on motherhood, although motherhood is only peripheral in that text, being merely an illustration of the true theme, which is the restoration of Israel during the Millennial Kingdom.In both topical and textual sermons, the Bible passage is used as support material for the topic. In expository sermons, the Bible passage is the topic, and support materials are used to explain and clarify it.To prepare an expository sermon, the preacher starts with a passage of Scripture and then studies the grammar, the context, and the historical setting of that passage to understand the author's intent. In other words, the expositor is also an exegete—one who analyzes the text carefully and objectively. Once the preacher understands the meaning of the passage, he then crafts a sermon to explain and apply it. The result is expository preaching.G. Campbell Morgan, pastor of London's Westminster Chapel and known as “the prince of expositors,” taught that a sermon is limited by the text it is covering. Every word from the pulpit should amplify, elaborate on, or illustrate the text at hand, with a view towards clarity. He wrote, “The sermon is the text repeated more fully.” A sermon's primary function is to present the text.While exposition is not the only valid mode of preaching, it is the best for teaching the plain sense of the Bible. The rest of the show notes are available on our Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/ThePreachingMattersPodcastPlease subscribe and leave a positive review.You can email me at thepreachingmatterspodcast@gmail.comThanks to Jesse Carr for the graphics.

Unfortunately, many people in the church today have the mistaken idea that being like the world is the way to reach the world. They forget that the church is the people of God, a very special people, saved by His grace. Instead of maintaining separation (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1) they promote imitation (1 John 2:15–17; Rom. 12:2), so that it's becoming more and more difficult to distinguish the people of God from the people of the world. And yet, as Campbell Morgan reminded us, “The church did the most for the world when the church was the least like the world.” Colossians: The Writer, The Readers, The Greeting | Colossians 1:1-2; Acts 9:1-20; 2 Timothy 3:10 | Bro. Jeremy Moore | Pathfinder Fellowship Group | March 27, 2022

Hosted by Mark PospisilSound Engineer and Producer: Jonathan BlosserThe Stream Roots Podcast theme song was written, recorded, and produced by Jonathan Blosser and Owen Nash.You can learn more about Barnabas Ministries by visiting www.barnabasministriesmi.orgHere are some links for the books that were mentioned during the podcast:Preaching by G. Campbell Morgan

"To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, 'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:” Only the Head of the church, Jesus Christ, can accurately inspect each church and know its true condition, because He sees the internals, not only the externals. “…, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.” (Revelation 2:23b). In these special messages to the seven churches in Asia Minor, the Lord gave each assembly an "X-ray" of its condition. But He intended for all the churches to read these messages and benefit from them. Notice at the end of each letter, the plural, “churches”: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches…” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22.) But the Lord was also speaking to individuals, and this is where you and I come in. "He that hath an ear, let him hear." Churches are made up of individuals, and it is individuals who determine the spiritual life of the assembly. So, while reading these messages, we must apply them personally as we examine our own hearts. We must keep in mind that John was a pastor at heart, seeking to encourage these churches during a difficult time of persecution. Before Christ judges the world, He must judge His own people (Ezek. 9:6; 1 Peter 4:17). A purified church need never fear the attacks of Satan or men. G. Campbell Morgan wrote, "It is a very remarkable thing, that the church of Christ persecuted has been the church of Christ pure. The church of Christ patronized has always been the church of Christ impure." When I met with the pastors of the persecuted church in China years ago, they did not ask us to pray that the persecution from the communistic dictators would cease. They said, “Persecution is good for us! It keeps us pure! Pray for us to be faithful.” These seven churches in Asia were specific churches in specific cities with specific characteristics! Some of those characteristics were very good but some were definitely bad! I also want to remind us that Jesus loves the local church! In Ephesians 5:25-27 we read these words: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Jesus wants His church to be pure and even today He is examining our churches! He wants His church to be His witness and light to a dark and dying world! We will notice that the introduction to each of the churches includes a description of a characteristic of Christ that we see in Chapter 1. For instance in Chapter 1:12, Jesus is seen “in the midst of the seven golden lampstands…” And in verse 16, there are “seven stars in His right hand.” So this same description is given to the church of Ephesus and we are told that He is the One who is speaking to the church! How interesting is that!!!! It appears that each church needed to hear from Christ in a specific way! It is my prayer that as we study these seven letters we will ask the Lord to speak to our own hearts and begin to pray even more specifically for the church that we attend to be all that Lord Jesus wants it to be! God bless!

-The supreme need in every hour of difficulty and distress is for a fresh vision of God. Seeing Him, all else takes on proper perspective and proportion.- G. Campbell Morgan

-The supreme need in every hour of difficulty and distress is for a fresh vision of God. Seeing Him, all else takes on proper perspective and proportion.- G. Campbell Morgan

Podcast Introduction Today we're going to read Jeremiah 1-6.  Commentator G. Campbell Morgan said, “Among all the prophets of the Hebrew people none was more heroic than Jeremiah.” Let's see... The post Jeremiah 1-6: Who? Me? first appeared on Lifespring! Media.

Regardless of when the book of Jonah was written, Jonah himself can be located with fair accuracy. According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah son of Amittai was a prophet from Gath Hepher who predicted the military successes of King Jeroboam II (about 793 to 753 B.C.). If one were to play a game and ask what verbal link comes to mind when the word Jonah is uttered, probably most people would reply, “big fish” or “whale” or the like. Yet we should not forget that the big fish occupies textual interest for precisely three verses—three out of forty-eight. The comment of G. Campbell Morgan is still appropriate: “Men have looked so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God.”The greatness of God is highlighted by Jonah's twin confessions (Jonah 1:9; 4:2). Here we reflect on the first: “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land” (Jonah 1:9).(1) From our perspective, as from Jonah's, this confesses that God made everything, that he is the Sovereign Lord over the entire universe. Probably the pagan sailors did not understand quite so much. For them, the gods have various domains. If this Hebrew claims that the God from whom he is fleeing is the Creator of the sea (whatever else he made), for them the claim would gain credibility precisely because of the storm.(2) But for Jonah (and for us), the claim has two other overtones. First: not only has God made the sea, but everything; and he is in charge of everything. So there is no escaping this God. Even if Jonah were to find a way to get to shore safely, this God can track him down anywhere. Jonah painfully recognizes that there is no fleeing from this God—if “the hound of heaven” is on your trail and resolves that you will not get away. That is why he invites death. Second: the sheer greatness of God is what makes sense of God's determination to give the wicked city of Nineveh an opportunity to turn from its sin. If monotheism is true, if there is but one God, then in some sense this God must be God of all, not just the God of the covenant people. This Jonah could not stand. He could see that just over the horizon Assyria would become a formidable foe of his own people, the people of God—and here is God giving them ample opportunity to repent.(3) From a canonical perspective, here once again is the missionary God—far more committed to reaching toward “outsiders” than his people are. Here too he prepares the ground, step by step, for the Great Commission that mandates believers to herald the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the whole world. This podcast is designed to be used alongside TGC's Read The Bible initiative (TGC.org/readthebible). The podcast features devotional commentaries from D.A. Carson's book For the Love of God (vol. 2) that follow the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan.

"No affliction would trouble a child of God," wrote G. Campbell Morgan, "if he knew God's reason for sending it."  But, of course, that is the difficult part‑‑why does God allow some things to happen?  "Take it by faith!" people say, but to take by faith the rest of your life in a wheelchair is no easy matter, especially if you are a young man or woman with the rest of your life before you.  In July 1967, a young woman, who was then 17 years of age, dived into the water not realizing how shallow it was.

SPECIAL EPISODE ALERT! This week, one of my best friends ever is visiting me in the city and I couldn't miss the opportunity to talk to him about his craft! This week's episode is with Campbell Morgan! Campbell and I have been friends since highschool, we were roommates in college, now we're two dudes with creative stuff to do. Campbell's main craft is writing. This episode we talk about his early works, journaling, and the short novels he's been making for the last few years! If you like Campbell, follow him on IG @_candy_warhol and follow his tiktok @midnightinthemountains If you like me, follow me on twitter @MaximOfAllen. You can also follow Don't Quit Your Day Job on Instagram @DQYDJ_pod. My DMs are open! Thanks for listening!

#bible #corinthians #biblestudy #howtostudythebible #jesus #equip #encourage #inspire #challenge #theology SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS https://www.facebook.com/anthonyprich... https://www.youtube.com/anthonyprichards https://www.instagram.com/aprichards ... https://odysee.com/@anthonyprichards:... PODCAST LINKS Apple  https://podcasts.apple.com/.../anthon... Google  https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=... Spotify  https://open.spotify.com/show/5A29AH2... Anchor https://anchor.fm/anthonyprichards Breaker  https://www.breaker.audio/anthony-p-r... RadioPublic  https://radiopublic.com/anthony-p-ric... Pocket Casts https://pca.st/pyibm8q1 S.O.A.P. is all about how to study the Bible. It's about reading 'S'cripture, 'O'bserving what it says, working out how you 'A'pply it to your life and then 'P'raying about it. Resources/References/Sources Enduring Word Bible Commentary - David Guzik (copyright) Matthew Henry Commentary NKJV Thomas Nelson Study Bible William Robert Hawkins, Evan Roberts, Charles Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers, Smith Wigglesworth, James Montgomery Boice, Alexander MacLaren, Thomas Horne, Thomas Leblanc, Frederick “F.B.” Meyer, Adam Clarke, Derek Kidner, Curtis Vaughan, F.F. Bruce, George Horne, G. Campbell Morgan, Leon Morris. D. Edmond Hiebert, Charles Bridges, Duane Garrett, Dan Philipps, Matthew Poole, Allen P. Ross, John Trapp, Bruce Waltke, Warren Wiersbe, William Barclay, A.B Bruce, D.A.U, R.T. France,

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#bible #corinthians #biblestudy #howtostudythebible #jesus #equip #encourage #inspire #challenge #theology SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS https://www.facebook.com/anthonyprich... https://www.youtube.com/anthonyprichards https://www.instagram.com/aprichards ... https://odysee.com/@anthonyprichards:... PODCAST LINKS Apple  https://podcasts.apple.com/.../anthon... Google  https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=... Spotify  https://open.spotify.com/show/5A29AH2... Anchor https://anchor.fm/anthonyprichards Breaker  https://www.breaker.audio/anthony-p-r... RadioPublic  https://radiopublic.com/anthony-p-ric... Pocket Casts https://pca.st/pyibm8q1 S.O.A.P. is all about how to study the Bible. It's about reading 'S'cripture, 'O'bserving what it says, working out how you 'A'pply it to your life and then 'P'raying about it. Resources/References/Sources Enduring Word Bible Commentary - David Guzik (copyright) Matthew Henry Commentary NKJV Thomas Nelson Study Bible William Robert Hawkins, Evan Roberts, Charles Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers, Smith Wigglesworth, James Montgomery Boice, Alexander MacLaren, Thomas Horne, Thomas Leblanc, Frederick “F.B.” Meyer, Adam Clarke, Derek Kidner, Curtis Vaughan, F.F. Bruce, George Horne, G. Campbell Morgan, Leon Morris. D. Edmond Hiebert, Charles Bridges, Duane Garrett, Dan Philipps, Matthew Poole, Allen P. Ross, John Trapp, Bruce Waltke, Warren Wiersbe, William Barclay, A.B Bruce, D.A.U, R.T. France,

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There is one chief end of man, and that is "To Glorify God and enjoy Him forever." But there are many other secondary goals that competes with this Goal, and we sadly turn those secondary goals as primary pursuits of our lives. Amongst the returning remnant of Israel, they were to display their commitment to this goal in the rebuilding of the temple. Looking at the issue of the temple in the New Testament setting we should acknowledge what has been said by G. Campbell Morgan; "Whereas the house of God today is no longer material but spiritual, the material is still a very real symbol of the spiritual. When the Church of God in any place in any locality is careless about the material place of assembly, the place of its worship and its work, it is a sign and evidence that its life is at a low ebb." [G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminster Pulpit, 8:315.] Our lives in their entirety are the temple of God, and we have this all surpassing Goal to Glorify God, knowing that “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) If you are a Christian, you are not your own. Christ has bought you at the price of his own death. You now belong doubly to God: He made you, and he bought you. That means your life is not your own. It is God's. Therefore, the Bible says, “Glorify God in your body.” God made you for this. He bought you for this. This is the meaning of your life. The first Chapter of the Book of Haggai is a Call to action and in it we are able to observe five key things; EXEGETICAL/HOMILETICAL OUTLINE 1. The Recipients of the prophecy (v.1) 2. The Rebuke For Procrastination (verses 2-4) 3. The Reaping Of Poverty (verses 5-6) The Reason For Poverty (verses 9-11) 4. The Remedy For Poverty (verses 5,7,8) 5. The Renewal Of Purpose (verses 12-15) Take time and listen to the full sermon and its application.

#bible #corinthians #biblestudy #howtostudythebible #jesus #equip #encourage #inspire #challenge #theology SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS https://www.facebook.com/anthonyprich... https://www.youtube.com/anthonyprichards https://www.instagram.com/aprichards ... https://odysee.com/@anthonyprichards:... PODCAST LINKS Apple  https://podcasts.apple.com/.../anthon... Google  https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=... Spotify  https://open.spotify.com/show/5A29AH2... Anchor https://anchor.fm/anthonyprichards Breaker  https://www.breaker.audio/anthony-p-r... RadioPublic  https://radiopublic.com/anthony-p-ric... Pocket Casts https://pca.st/pyibm8q1 S.O.A.P. is all about how to study the Bible. It's about reading 'S'cripture, 'O'bserving what it says, working out how you 'A'pply it to your life and then 'P'raying about it. Resources/References/Sources Enduring Word Bible Commentary - David Guzik (copyright) Matthew Henry Commentary NKJV Thomas Nelson Study Bible William Robert Hawkins, Evan Roberts, Charles Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers, Smith Wigglesworth, James Montgomery Boice, Alexander MacLaren, Thomas Horne, Thomas Leblanc, Frederick “F.B.” Meyer, Adam Clarke, Derek Kidner, Curtis Vaughan, F.F. Bruce, George Horne, G. Campbell Morgan, Leon Morris. D. Edmond Hiebert, Charles Bridges, Duane Garrett, Dan Philipps, Matthew Poole, Allen P. Ross, John Trapp, Bruce Waltke, Warren Wiersbe, William Barclay, A.B Bruce, D.A.U, R.T. France,

#bible #corinthians #biblestudy #howtostudythebible #jesus #equip #encourage #inspire #challenge #theology SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS https://www.facebook.com/anthonyprich... https://www.youtube.com/anthonyprichards https://www.instagram.com/aprichards ... https://odysee.com/@anthonyprichards:... PODCAST LINKS Apple  https://podcasts.apple.com/.../anthon... Google  https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=... Spotify  https://open.spotify.com/show/5A29AH2... Anchor https://anchor.fm/anthonyprichards Breaker  https://www.breaker.audio/anthony-p-r... RadioPublic  https://radiopublic.com/anthony-p-ric... Pocket Casts https://pca.st/pyibm8q1 S.O.A.P. is all about how to study the Bible. It's about reading 'S'cripture, 'O'bserving what it says, working out how you 'A'pply it to your life and then 'P'raying about it. Resources/References/Sources Enduring Word Bible Commentary - David Guzik (copyright) Matthew Henry Commentary NKJV Thomas Nelson Study Bible William Robert Hawkins, Evan Roberts, Charles Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers, Smith Wigglesworth, James Montgomery Boice, Alexander MacLaren, Thomas Horne, Thomas Leblanc, Frederick “F.B.” Meyer, Adam Clarke, Derek Kidner, Curtis Vaughan, F.F. Bruce, George Horne, G. Campbell Morgan, Leon Morris. D. Edmond Hiebert, Charles Bridges, Duane Garrett, Dan Philipps, Matthew Poole, Allen P. Ross, John Trapp, Bruce Waltke, Warren Wiersbe, William Barclay, A.B Bruce, D.A.U, R.T. France,

G. Campbell Morgan is one of the most famous preachers of the early 1900s. He, in many ways, was the bridge between the great preachers of the 1800s and one famous preacher of the later 1900s. Check out a sermon on the famous moment in Leviticus when Nadab and Abihu are struck down by God. Special thanks to Jeremiah Wheelersburg for helping us with this sermon. Jeremiah Wheelersburg is an Author, Preacher and Podcaster from Aurora Colorado. Jeremiah writes under the pen name J.N.Wheels and has been preaching and teaching the Bible since he was 17 years of age. His most recent book is called “The Minister The Ministry and Me”. You can watch or listen to Jeremiah's podcast with the same title as his book or also known as “The 3M Podcast” for short. You can find out more about J.N.Wheels and what he's up to at JNWheels.com   We are partnered with ServeNow! If you would like to give to their ministry that gives bikes to pastors in rural areas around the world so that they can spread the Gospel, please check out their website and their new book: Hope Rising. If you'd like to join the premium team go to our Patreon If you'd like to narrate a sermon, send us an email at revivedthoughts@gmail.com And if you enjoy the show, sharing with friends and a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts! Facebook MeWe Twitter Youtube Revived Thoughts Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I'm reading a biography of the short missionary life of William Borden, turn of the last century. It's called Borden of Yale '09 by Mrs. Howard Taylor. It's considered to be a good bio of the young millionaire who gave it all up to be a missionary, but tragically died before he reached his intended field. It's a good book that paints a sweet picture of a godly man raised in a godly family. This biography led me to knowledge of G. Campbell Morgan, who apparently is one of the 20th century's great expositors. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://the-end-time.org/2021/04/12/heres-why-we-should-read-old-books/ I use the NASB translation. Link to The Internet Archive Open Library on G. Campbell Morgan: https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL215594A/Morgan_G._Campbell

For episode 26 of the "50 Baptist You Should Know" Series, we will discuss the baptist preacher F.B. Meyer. During an evangelistic meeting in York, England lead by D.L. Moody, young baptist preacher, F.B. Meyer surrendered his life further to the Lord.  F.B. Meyer had a long and blessed ministry of roughly 60 years. God used F.B. Meyer along with Charles Spurgeon and G. Campbell Morgan during the mid 1800s to minister to the country of England.

Audio Transcript: Hello, welcome to the Mosaic Boston Brookline, our online worship experience week, I've lost track. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time you're watching. We're so glad that you tuned in. Today we are continuing our sermon series through the phenomenal book of Ruth. One of the things I've been meditating on regarding preaching is in the preaching process, it feels like cooking. God often compares God's word to food, be it bread or spiritual manna or honey, and one of the challenges of preaching into a camera is I'm cooking and I don't see you eating, and that's part of the joy of cooking is seeing people enjoying the meal. However, people have been writing and people have been messaging us that God's word has been impacting them. It's been changing them, it's for nourishing them, and we are so thankful for that. God's word is powerful and God's word does nourish our souls and this is what God's word does.God's word is a feast presented to us. When we come humbly before him, we get satisfied. It doesn't just feed us. It also transforms us to be the best versions of what we are, what we're designed to be by God. And there's something about nutrition where if you eat correctly, you absorb the nutrients, etc. However, when you train, when you put your body under pressure for time and pressure and then you eat, actually you get more of the protein, more of the nutrient, there's something like that that goes on with God's word in a time of pressure that when we are going through suffering, when we are going through difficulty or hardship, and we eat God's word, it builds us up fortifies us. It makes us stronger. Diamonds are formed under heat and pressure over time. And that's what we see happening with our community and that's what I pray happens with you as well.So feast on God's word today. Today we're in Ruth chapter two. And if you are new to the book of Ruth, one of the things that you realize is it's a literary masterpiece. It's one of the most profound works of literature in all of the history of the world. And it reads in four parts like a Shakespearean play and today we are in the second part. The context is that Ruth and Naomi, Naomi is Ruth's mother-in-law. They returned from Moab. They had a really difficult time in Moab and they returned to Bethlehem because they heard that God had removed his hand of rebuke and the famine is gone and the house of bread has been restocked. Ruth has been hopeful. She has developed a new faith in the Lord. Naomi on the other hand, has grown bitter against God's hand of affliction.She actually tells everyone in Bethlehem, don't call me Naomi, which means sweet, call me Mara, which means bitter and perhaps in the season you're going back and forth between Naomi and Mara. On the one hand you rejoiced to see what the Lord is doing. On the other hand, you're bitter at the negative consequences and this is where Naomi is and she says, "It's exceedingly bitter to me. The Lord has gone out against me." She recognizes God's sovereign hand in the difficulty. It might not be directly from God, but it certainly passes through his hand. She says, "For the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty the almighty." She says, "Has brought calamity upon me," and she doesn't realize the blessings that God has sent to sustain her in this difficult time. And that's Ruth.Ruth has incredible blessing to Naomi and God blesses Naomi through Ruth. And Naomi also doesn't know that God is in the details. God is behind the scenes, God is working. She doesn't know that God has preserved a kinsman Redeemer. And we'll get into that from Naomi's husband who will ultimately Mary Ruth and preserve Naomi's life and name. So Ruth and Naomi, they arrive in Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest. That was the last verse of chapter one and this coincidentally was towards the end of April. And that's where we find ourselves. But there's no such thing as coincidence with God. It's always Providence. So would you look at a text with me today where in Ruth chapter two verses one through seven to begin with, and we'll read the rest of the text during the sermon. Ruth chapter two verse one "Now, Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech whose name was Boaz.And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor. And she said to her, go my daughter. So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz who was of the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And then answered the Lord, bless you. Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this? And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she's the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers so she came and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest."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 together, grow in truth, grow in sensitivity to Providence, grow in capacity to bless, grow in humility to receive and grow in faith and works. The title is sermons grow in grace, and these are the five steps that we can glean from this text in order to grow in grace. So first of all, grow in true worth. Perhaps some of you have taken an economic hit. You're worried about your net worth with this whole Corona epidemic. Well, there's something more valuable and more important than a net worth. It's a true worth, a true worth from the perspective of God. And Boaz is here characterized as a worthy man, worthy, not just in terms of wealth.He wasn't just a wealthy man, he was a man of God. And the Yiddish, there's a word for a man like this. It's the word Manch. And this is exactly what Boaz was. He's wealthy, yes. He's built up a business, yes. He's worked hard, yes. He's been diligent, yes, but he's also got a great reputation. People around him love him. He's been adding value to everybody around him. He's been building everyone up around him, not just himself. God has blessed him and he has been a blessing to others, which is rare in Bethlehem at this time to find a worthy man. The book proceeding, the book of Ruth is the book of Judges. And the book of Judges there's two little episodes bookends about the town of Bethlehem. The first one is a story about the grandson of Moses who leaves Bethlehem and then leads the Danites in idolatry.And the second time that we see Bethlehem mentioned in the book of Judges is really sordid story, a tragic story about a concubine from Bethlehem. And what happened with her actually resulted in civil war in Israel and led to almost obliteration of the whole tribe of Benjamin. So this is unique to see a man from Bethlehem who is a worthy man, a godly man, a righteous man, a man who cares about the people around him, a man who uses his strength to bless others, to protect others, to provide for others. May God send more men like Boaz, like this guy. He adds value wherever he goes. His name literally means strength or Valor or warrior. And this is fascinating because Ruth's former husband, the name of the Hebrew means frail or sickly. And now we meet Boaz who is a warrior of man of God.He's a man of wherewithal, despite hardship during a famine. He capitalized on the situation, perhaps bought up some more real estate and actually got into the farming business, the barley business, and he's doing really well for himself. He's older in years. Ruth at this time is probably late twenties, early thirties and Boaz considers her a young woman. So there was an age gap. Perhaps he's in his late forties or mid fifties. We're not sure. We're not told he's not married. We're not sure why he isn't married. Most likely it's because God has been saying, "No, it's not time. Focus on the duties that I have for you. Focus on my will for you. The time will come." And there's lessons here that we can apply to ourselves. So Ruth wakes up they just moved to Bethlehem. She wakes up in the morning and she's looking for a way to provide for Naomi and for herself.And she knows, and perhaps Naomi taught her about the laws of Moses and Leviticus. The laws about gleaning God had included in the law provision for the immigrants, for widows, for orphans. And he did that by stipulating the harvesters must leave grain on the edges of the field and that farmers can't pick up the ears of grain that they drop. This is fascinating and we can glean from this theology of God's view of the economy, that God means to provide for people through work and through the blessing of other people. It's a redeemed view of capitalism, of industry, of work where people in need could come and they weren't just given handouts. They weren't just given social services or this wasn't just a soup kitchen. They were provided with meaningful work and the crucial difference between this and a handout was they did have to work and it was hard work and it was hot work.It was almost as if you compare it to today, it was like trying to subsist on collecting cans and bottles and recycling them, but it was enough to meet a means. And I just want to pause here and mentioned that God has been doing this throughout ages through the church. We see this in the book of acts and the very beginning that the church met one another's needs and we've been seeing this during the crisis. I want to thank everybody in the community who has been generously, sacrificially contributing to the COVID-19 fund. Your funds have paid for rent, they've put food on tables, they've paid for medical bills. Thank you so much, and may God bless you abundantly. So we see that God does care. He's got a heart in particular for the disenfranchised, particularly the weak and those on the fringes of society.And he writes into his law provision for the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. And we see that Ruth qualifies on two accounts. She is an immigrant and she's from a different people and she is a widow and she is a worthy person as well. We'll deal more with her in chapter three that she too is a worthy woman. She is a Proverbs 31 woman and what's fascinating is in the Hebrew Bible, the book of Proverbs ends with chapter 31 and very next book in the Hebrew Bible is Ruth. She is a Proverbs 31 woman. She's the epitome of a godly worthy woman. It's lesson here is grow in true worth as defined by God. Second, grow in sensitivity to God's Providence to Providence. This is Ruth 2:3, "So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz who was of the clan of Elimelech."So we hear that Boaz was Ruth's husbands, distant relative, and that's repeated again in the text, meaning he qualifies to be a kinsman Redeemer. We dealt with this last week and we'll deal a little more with this next week, but the kinsman Redeemer, the job was to keep the name of his relative going and you do that by marrying the widow of your relative. What's fascinating here is that in the text, this is emphasized that he's from the clan of Elimelech. It's emphasized because to the original audience, this detail queues that we are now in a romantic scene. It's as if the lights are cued and the music is queued, and now we're in a love story of developing a love story. Now for us, this little detail about Boaz being a relative of Naomi or of Ruth's husband, it doesn't cue romance for us unless you're perhaps from Alabama or Mississippi.Just kidding, but it did for them. For them, they realize, "Oh wow, there's hope for Ruth. There's hope for Naomi," and what the original readers immediately recognized is, "Wow, there's something going on behind the scenes. There's director guiding the events behind the scenes." And this phrase that she happened to come... in the Hebrew it literally says her chance chanced upon this as it turned out, as luck would have it. What a stroke of fortune that Ruth, it just so happened that she moves with Naomi to Bethlehem. It just so happened that they needed food. It just so happened that she woke up with a desire to work. It just so happened that she went to a field. It just so happened that she went to the field of Boaz who is single and he's wealthy and he's a worthy man and he loves God and he's literally the most eligible bachelor in Bethlehem and it just so happened that Ruth goes to his field and what the text is emphasizing is this is not happenstance.This is not coincidence. This is not circumstance. It's not chance. This is Providence. This wasn't serendipity. This was God's Providence. It's not just a happy convergence of events. It's an orchestration of events that God himself is orchestrating every single one of these details. Sometimes God works through his visible hand of miracles. More often than not, he works through his invisible hand of Providence. And the lesson I want to draw out here is that we need to develop a sensitivity to God's Providence. We need to look at events happening in our lives and learn to discern God's hand behind the scenes. And one of the ways we do this is by studying Holy scripture and by recognizing God's hand of Providence and Holy scripture. And then you begin to see that same hand, the same fingerprints in your life. I'll just give you a couple examples of the story of Esther. Tremendous story of a girl that goes from a nobody to a queen and she's put in a position of influence and power for a time such as this in order for God to use her to redeem his people.The story of Joseph, he goes from being sold into slavery, from jail, from captivity to becoming the CEO of Egypt. And when his brothers came to visit him, this is what he said. "You meant this for evil, but God, he meant it for good. God sent me ahead of you down to Egypt." Do we see God speak in this story? Did we see angels coming from heaven? Do we see a burning Bush? No. Ruth woke up. There was no angel. There was no prophetic word. There was no burning Bush. She woke up with a desire to do her duty, which was to provide for herself and for her mother-in-law, and God used that moment. We are to learn to see God's hand both in suffering and blessing. In suffering, Naomi saw God's hand and she said, in Ruth 1:13, "It's exceedingly bitter to me for your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me."In Ruth 1: 20-21 she said, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara for the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the almighty has brought calamity upon me?" She saw God's providential hand in that. But we are to also see God's providential hand in blessing and God does a blessing. And here he's beginning to bless. I've been meditating on this idea of God's hiddenness, God's at work and every single detail in our lives, but he often remains anonymous and there's incredible humility in that. When you recognize who God is, he created everything by the power of his word and humbly stands behind the scenes and we have to develop a sensitivity and when we begin to see his hand at work, we can glorify him for his greatness.There's many of you perhaps in quarantine have been watching more television or Netflix or whatever than usual. There's a way to watch a movie or a show where you just experience the story as it's presented to you and you're just there. You're just consuming. But there's another way to watch. You can watch the movie or the show as a producer and then you start thinking about all of the decisions that are made behind scenes, about the camera angles and about the script and about the plot as it's developed. And this is what I'm talking about when I say you got to develop a sensitivity to God's Providence, and this is where pride gets in the way. Pride makes us the primary character of the story, and we're so absorbed by our own life that we can't see the hand of God's Providence and this is what the gospel does, it humbles us and then we begin to see God at work all around us.You begin to see how meaningful your life is that every detail in your life is supercharged with significance. Ruth makes a freewill choice to go to this particular field and God uses her freewill. He uses her decision in his plan and as the ultimate matchmaker brings her together with Boaz. Edward Lorenz about 50 years ago. He's a mathematician and meteorologist. He developed computer models in order to map and predict weather patterns and actually that work was a major contribution to chaos theory. This is really fascinating. If you have time to do read up on this. He discovered that when he ran data on a very, very rudimentary computer and when he ran data... he ran a few data sets and one of the data sets he ran with a number 0.506127 he ran a second one of these tests and he rounded off by accident that number 2.506 so just cuts out 0.000127 and he realized that after about a month those two data sets led to radically different weather patterns.And one of the things that he drew out of this was that miniscule statistically insignificant variables lead to massive difference in weather outcomes. And he coined the phrase the butterfly effect and I'm sure you heard of the butterfly effect and he said that a butterfly in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas. The tiniest details in our lives have seismic implications. Scripture says that God has a book with our lives. Our lives are detailed in that book and every single one of our days is ordained before us as yet one of them has come to be. So don't worry. Give the weight of tomorrow to God. Jesus says, "Do not be anxious about anything today, has enough problems, let tomorrow worry about itself." That's a lesson we can draw from it. The other lesson is Ruth focused on her duty. She prayed and then she acted, and my question is where in your life in terms of your obedience to the Lord are you leaving out the 0.506127?Tiny little details if you fix them, if you turn to the Lord in those areas of your life, it can have a dramatic effect. Three is grow in capacity to bless. Ruth 2:4, "And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you, and they answered the Lord. Bless you." And we see in this one interaction, we see how amazing this guy Boaz is. Imagine if your boss walks into work back when we go back to work. When your boss walks in and says, "God bless you. Oh my dear employees, I love you so much. May you starts benedicting them in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, God." Etc. But he does that. He's created this really happy, healthy work environment where his employees respect him and honor him and he treats them fairly.He was a pious man. He was a godly man. If you want to see how healthy a person's relationship is with God, look at the details. Look how much the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of God has saturated the practical details of life, including work relationships. How did Boaz get here? He grew in his capacity to bless. We don't know how he developed his business. We don't know how big his business was, but it's large enough so that he can help others put food on the table. He's grown in a capacity to bless materially and spiritually. Verse eight "Then Boaz said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women." So he's asked the question, who is this young lady? He's come from Bethlehem.He goes to this field, he immediately notices Ruth and he already knows about her. In a small town everyone knows your business as well as you know your business and he asks about her and then he talks to her. Verse nine, "Let your eyes be on the field that you are reaping. Go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn and she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? But Boaz answered to her all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me and how you left your father and your mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take refuge."Then she said, "I found favor in your eyes. My Lord for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant though I am not one of your servants." If you watch romantic comedies, I do not, but I've learned that apparently in romantic comedy is there's a plot device called a meet cute, meet cute and it's used to introduce characters in how they meet one another. It's the moment of character meets another character and there's a romantic spark. They bump into each other ice skating or someone drops a pen, they hand it to this other person and there's a spark of chemistry. Mistaken package delivered. You bring it to the other person.All of a sudden sparks fly. This is what's going on with Ruth and Boaz. This is the very moment they meet. In any couple... a married couple like when you get to know a married couple what's the first question you ask? How'd you guys meet? And for some reason the beginning infuses the whole relationship with meaning and that's why although meeting online apparently is a thing no one wants to say, "We met online, we met on bagel and coffee or whatever that," but for them this was meaningful and we see that Boaz noticed her. Why did he notice her? Does she look her best? Obviously not. She's farming, but that's not what caught his attention as a man of worth who is concerned for his own character. Before even seeing her, he's heard of her reputation of her character and even here we see that she's humble and she's grateful.She uses the word favor twice and she begins the text by telling Naomi, I'm going to go find a field. Perhaps I'll find favor. The word favor means grace. There's no entitlement. There's no pride. She doesn't believe that anyone has to give her something. She doesn't believe she deserves anything from anyone. And she says, "I found favor in your eyes." Humility and gratefulness. Recipe for happiness. She's not looking for a handout. She's a hard worker. She's honest and he's attracted to her faith. I've heard that you believe in God. I've heard that you are faithful to God and you're faithful to Naomi. You're faithful to your people. He's recognized the sacrifices she's made. You love the people around you through sacrifice. And that right there is what he notices. So he tells her, don't glean anywhere else. This is verse eight he says, "Don't go to any other fields." In a lawless society, this is a big deal.She didn't have any protection, doesn't have body guards, she doesn't have someone to look over her. So Boaz says, "I'm taking you into the community, I'm welcoming you in. I'm giving you my hedge of protection." He's providing, he's protecting and he speaks God's word into her life. So he's also pastoring. One commentator says that Boaz is here by instituting the first anti sexual harassment policy in the workplace, recorded in the Bible. He's not a chauvinist. He's chivalrous. He treats her not like an immigrant. He treats her not like a foreigner. He treats her like family. And that's part of what it means to be a worthy person. And this is what it means to be a Christian. God said, "Love your neighbor as yourself as much as you love yourself." That's how much you are to love your neighbor, meaning treat your neighbors like family.He, says, "Help yourself to water." He gives her food and generously, verse 12 she says, "The Lord repay you for what you have done." This is what he says to her. "The Lord repay you for what you have done in a full reward. Be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel. Under whose wings you've come to take refuge." He says, you've come to Israel, you've come into close proximity to God. You're taking refuge in God's shadow. May God bless you for that and this is fascinating and he talks about reward. May God give you a reward for taking refuge under his wings. What does this mean? Does that mean this is like a paycheck or like a salary? Like God pays you for taking refuge in him? No, that's not how this works and this is why the imagery of the Eagle is so important here.God doesn't have employees. God has children so God doesn't give paychecks. He gives gifts. And this is why the imagery is so important. He says, "God is like a Papa eagle." It's a father Eagle and Ruth is like a little eaglet coming into safety under daddy's wing. And may God reward you with gifts. I love this imagery so much. I've been blessed with kids. My daughter Sophia, she loves reading. And with the whole quarantine library's been closed, she's been really blessed with a Kindle. She asked a long time ago, she said, "Dad, I want a Kindle. How can I get a Kindle? Can I get paid to wash the dishes?" And I said, "No." There's a rule in our household. There's no financial transaction for work. I'm not going to pay you for what you're supposed to do, so start washing... We are to help around the house.But you want to Kindle? Yeah, I'll give it to you as a gift. That's how it works. Do your duty and God gives gifts. That's how this works. Psalm 57:1 "A Miktam of David when he fled from Saul in the cave, be merciful to me. Oh God, be merciful to me. For in you, my soul takes refuge in the shadow of your wings. I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by." And I want to emphasize the word for. Be merciful to me Oh God, for because in your shadow... my soul takes refuge in you, in the shadow of your wings. God, be merciful to me because I've seen in you the source of ultimate security. Be merciful to me because you are great and you are good. And that's so different than how we often come to the Lord.We often come to the Lord and say, "Lord, be merciful to me. Send me blessings because I have been good." That's workspace righteousness, workspace salvation. We come to God, appealing to our own goodness. God bless me because I've been good. And the Psalmist says, "Lord bless me because you are good, Lord you are merciful. You are the great God of the universe." And when you come to God like this, humbly not appealing to your own righteousness, but to his goodness, he can't but bless you because he is great, because he is good, because he is merciful. We appeal to his goodness, not our own, and Ruth recognized that she hasn't earned anything before God. She hasn't earned anything from Boaz. Everything is grace, and she honors him for his generosity and she takes refuge in his generosity and the lesson here is that we are to take refuge in the generosity of our savior.And this is the message of the gospel. Even in the old Testament as well as the new Testament, God will have mercy on anybody, a Palestinian or an Israeli or a Moabite or an American. Anybody. Anybody who humbles himself, like Ruth says, "Lord have mercy on me. Not because I'm good, I'm not, but because you are good, you're the great God of the universe." This is the same language that Jesus used when he was talking about the hard-hearted Pharisees in Matthew 23:37 he says, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing!" All the Pharisees had to do was turn from their self righteousness from their self justification. I take refuge in Jesus Christ, take refuge in the grace of God, so I wonder, are you viewing your relationship with God as an employee boss relationship? Or God, this is what I'll do and this is what I expect.Or do you view your relationship with God as an eaglet coming to a Papa eagle and they're completely different. God's looking not for employees, but he's looking for people who will take refuge under his wings. Ruth 2:13 then she said, "I found favor in your eyes, my Lord for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant though I'm not one of your servants." She calls him Lord, so she's giving him respect. There's a toughness to him. He's strong, but then she says, "You've comforted me." You've spoken kindly to him. Boaz is both tough and tender. He's strong and sensitive.In Ruth 2:14-16 we see the generosity of Boaz emphasized again, "And at mealtime Boaz said to her, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. So she sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain and she ate until she was satisfied and she had some leftover. Then she Rose to glean and Boaz instructed his young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves, do not reproach her and also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean and do not rebuke her." Boaz is a man of action. He likes Ruth and he immediately acts with wisdom and there's strategy here and I just want to pause right now and explain the strategy. This tact. He's very tactful. Perhaps you've heard of the adage that the way to a man's heart is through the stomach. Well, I think that applies to everybody and Boaz knows that the way to Ruth's heart is also perhaps through yes, generosity, but a throw, nice meal.Come, let's have a nice meal. Let's have some carbs, a little bread. Little roasted grain. Never had roasted grain, but that sounds delicious. A little wine. Let's strengthen ourselves, enjoy the community and enjoy the fellowship and then go back to work. In the ancient East. This was more significant than it is today. Today to have a meal together, a cup of coffee or lunch. Yeah. It's meaningful in the ancient East to welcome someone to your table is to welcome them into your life. It's to approve of them. It's to accept them is to say, "I want to walk this walk with you. I want to live life with you." The fact that Boaz ate with his people tells us a lot about him. The fact that he is so generous to Ruth by giving her water and a meal tells us even more and then he goes on and he says to his guys, "Let her work. And also I want you to toss grain out."And what he's saying is I don't want just to fulfill the law of Leviticus. I don't want to just not completely maximize my profits. I want to actually lose money. I am intentionally losing money to bless this person and we see radical generosity. He's going above and beyond the law and he's saying, "I don't want to just fulfill the law. I want to give grace and I want to give grace upon grace, upon grace and this kind of generosity, this kind of kindness, this reveals the heart of Boaz and it reveals the heart of God. Generosity does take finances. This is important lesson the scripture does teach us. And Ephesians 4:28 says, "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need." God says, "Don't just work to provide for your own needs and the needs of your family, but work to have a little leftover so that you can be generous." And this is how we grow in our capacity to bless. 1 Peter 4:9 "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling." I can't wait for the quarantine to be over to start showing hospitality again.Ruth 2:17-23, "So she gleaned in the field until evening and she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley and she took it up and went to the city. Her mother-in-law saw where she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother in law said, where did you glean today and where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.""So she told her mother-in-law with whom she worked and said, the man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz, and Naomi said to her daughter in law, may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. Naomi also said to her, the man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers and Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest. Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women less than another field, you be assaulted. So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvest and she lived with her mother-in-law."We see Boaz as a worthy man. We see Boaz as a man sensitive to the Providence of God. We Boaz as a man who has been increasing his capacity of blessing. We see the same in Ruth that she has increased her capacity of blessed through her industry and hard work. Four is grow in humility to receive. This is Ruth 2:17, "So she gleaned in the field until evening and she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley." She worked all day and at the end of the day she even ground the barley, meaning she takes the opportunity that God gives her and she runs with it. She gleans everything that she can possibly glean 12 times the word glean is used in the chapter that to emphasize the fact that she wasn't too proud to stoop down and pick up what God is giving her and there's such incredible lesson here.That God gives more to those who are willing to be faithful with what he has already given. God gives her a little bit and then blesses it and multiplies it. Sometimes we miss out on so many of God's blessings because we're too proud. We pray. God give me a field. God give me a huge harvest and God says, "Hold on. Before we talk and start talking about real estate deals. How about you take what I'm already giving you? I'm providing for your needs."We see incredible humility that then leads to more and more blessing. It's humility to receive what God is giving you. Now, do you have that humility? Are you humble enough to receive what the Lord gives now and the ephah is about 29 pounds. She got 29 pounds of grain. This is a ton. Probably her biggest problem at the end of the day was figuring out how to carry this thing home in one day. She makes enough to feed her and Naomi for about two weeks and then Boaz said, "You can, you can keep doing this every day until the end of the barley harvest season." That's about seven weeks, so meaning in seven weeks, if she got as much as she got in the first day, she'd have enough food for a full year. Verse 20, "Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead! Naomi also said to her, The man is the close relative of ours, one of our redeemers."The word Redeemer... and we talked about this last week and we'll talk about this more next week. It's used over 20 times in this book. It's the kinsman Redeemer redeem. What it talks about in the mosaic law and the law of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, that a near relative becomes responsible for the economic welfare of a family when that family is in distress. So if the family is in debt, the kinsman Redeemer pays off that debt. If the family had to sell themselves into slavery to pay off a debt that kinsman redeemer pays off the debt and then also redeems them from slavery. He's responsible to maintain wholeness and security and the welfare of the family. And this is a hint of the gospel that God provides Ruth a Redeemer.And through Ruth he provided a Redeemer for all of Israel in King David and through David, God provided a Redeemer for all of humanity in the King of Kings, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And God defines love as sacrifice. Boaz sacrifices Ruth sacrifices. And that's the show is that true love sacrifices. The God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life. The gospel is that you and I, we are Ruth. We are pagans and idolaters and sinners and rebels, and we come from the wrong background and we come from the wrong pedigree and we come to the Lord empty handed and needy and the Lord Jesus, he's our Boaz. He comes, he redeems, he provides, he protects and he pastors are weary souls. And the same way that Boaz doesn't just fulfill the law in providing for Ruth, he goes above and beyond and gives her grace upon grace.And scripture says that Jesus Christ comes and he is full of truth and grace and from his fullness, we have received grace upon grace, not just the law. We found favor now in the eyes of God. He delights in us in the same way that Boaz delights in Ruth. 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you by his poverty may become rich." God who gave us his son, who gave us his best. This is a God whom we can trust with the rest. He's provided for our greatest need. Obviously he'll provide for our lesser needs. What's fascinating is that God isn't just the director of the story talks about God's hand of Providence. He's behind the scenes. He's not just the director. God writes himself into the story. He puts himself front and center. He becomes the main character of his own story in order to redeem us and in that story, what do we do with God? We killed him.And he allowed that to happen, to provide a way to kill our pride, to kill our sin, to kill our rebellion, and then offer us the riches of his grace. This is how I think of grace. I think of grace as an acronym. It's God's riches at Christ's expense. I like that. God's riches at Christ's expense. Grace is free because someone paid for it. That someone is Jesus Christ. Point five is grow in faith and works. We see this in both Boaz and we see this in Ruth that they believe and they pray, but then they also act and they also act it to answer their own prayers, so to speak, and we see this incredible intertwining of God's sovereignty and human responsibility, faith and works.You believe and you do. What's fascinating about Boaz is he's a wealthy man and he lived a very spiritually, apostate, morally corrupt environment, but he still by faith kept a relationship with God in a place where it's really hard to be faithful to God. On top of that, Boaz doesn't come from a great spiritual pedigree. Who is Boaz's mum? Bible trivia. If you get this right, you get a chicken wing right now. If you answer, type it in the comments section, Facebook go. Boaz's mum. Boaz's mum, her name is given to us in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.In Matthew 1 genealogy of the King of Kings, Matthew 1:1-6, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers and Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram and Ram, the father of Amminadab, Amminadab, the father of Nahshon and Nahshon the father of Salmon and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the King." From the story Rahab, Rahab was a former prostitute. Remember the story of Jericho that she hid the spies from Israel and then her whole family was saved.Rahab was Boaz's mom. Boaz doesn't come from a great spiritual pedigree, but nevertheless he believed in God and when you believe in God, when you believe in God's redemptive grace, your past does not dictate your future. Grace changes that, you're on one trajectory. This is where repentance does. It turns you from that trajectory and now you're a completely different trajectory. You're on a trajectory of blessing and Ruth was a poor Moabite woman, extremely vulnerable. She too overcame her circumstance, overcame her past with faith in God believed and they acted on that faith. They believed that God is true. His word is true. His will is good, and then they align their life with his will and it completely changed everything. They planned and the Lord established. We plan and the Lord establish and we believe the Lord establishes our works.Verse 12 and Boaz says, "The Lord repay you for what you have done. A full reward given you by the Lord, the God of Israel under whose wings you've come to take refuge!" This is a prayer. He's praying for her. May God bless you. May God provide refuge for you and Boaz becomes the answer to Boaz's prayer. We see an incredible intersection of faith and work. Sometimes prayer moves the hand of God and sometimes prayer changes our hearts and we see something similar on the cross where Jesus Christ on the cross has been crucified. He says, "Father, forgive them." People crucify him. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. They don't know what they're doing. They're still guilty. They still need forgiveness. Father, forgive them. Jesus, prays this and then he answers his own prayer through his sacrifice, the intersection of faith and works, God's sovereignty, human responsibility.Philippians 2:12-13, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only is it my presence, but much more my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." You work it out. "For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Work out yourself to focus on your duty and then recognize that it's God who's giving you the energy. God is the one who's working through you. Sometimes we need to look to the Lord in our prayers and ask him for help and then we need to get up off our knees and use his spirit that he's given us to work. The five points if you missed them, grow and true, worth to grow in sensitivity of Providence growing capacity of blessed, grown humility to receive and grow and faith and works.Boaz and Ruth probably did not see David's greatness. He came. He was their descendant, most likely they didn't see his greatness. Most likely they didn't really understand all the blessing that God would provide through their faithfulness. God found in them faith that he used to bless not just their life, but generations beyond. G. Campbell Morgan said, "You may be God's foothold for things of which you cannot dream." So friends grow in grace because you don't know how much you will impact eternity. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for this time and the Holy scripture. What a rich word this is. What a feast you've given us today. Lord, I pray that you make us more like Boaz and Ruth, and we love them so much because they reflect the greatest character of our scripture and that's Jesus Christ. We see Christ likeness in Boaz, we see Christ likeness in Ruth. Make us a people like this and give us the power of the Holy spirit to do it. And we pray all this in Christ. Holy name. Amen.