Podcasts about colossi

Shangri-La Frontier drops us into a future where traditional video games are considered retro relics, and anything less than cutting-edge VR is dismissed as "crap." Yet it's precisely these supposedly inferior games that have forged Rakuro Hizutome into a formidable player. Known online as Sunraku, he's built his reputation by mastering games others abandon, developing skills and reflexes that give him a unique edge when he finally steps into the god-tier VR world of Shangri-La Frontier.What makes this series stand out isn't just its premise, but how authentically it captures the essence of gaming culture. The second season brilliantly expands on this foundation, taking us deeper into both the mechanics of the game and the psychology of its players. We witness Sunraku's evolution from a pure solo "class cannon" who eschews armor for attack power to someone who gradually learns the value of teamwork and community. The series doesn't just show gameplay—it explores how gaming relationships blur the line between virtual and real connections, with characters often defaulting to using gamer tags even when meeting face-to-face.The show excels at depicting the complex relationship between players and developers. When characters discover that a supposedly unbeatable monster had been secretly buffed by developers to extend gameplay, it mirrors real-world gaming controversies about difficulty balancing. Similarly, when players discover unintended mechanics—like using an inventory space as a teleportation tool—we see the eternal dance of players finding creative solutions while developers scramble to maintain game balance. These moments resonate because they reflect genuine gamer experiences, from exploiting glitches to adapting when those exploits get patched.The animation quality deserves special praise, particularly during combat sequences where strategy and skill combine in fluid, impactful visuals. Whether it's Sunraku's lightning-fast attacks or the awe-inspiring appearance of the Colossi, the animation team delivers consistently impressive results that make each encounter feel unique and consequential.Ready to join the 30 million players in Shangri-La Frontier? Subscribe to follow our journey through this masterfully crafted gaming adventure that understands both the technical and emotional aspects of what makes gaming communities so special.Text us for feedback and recommendations for future episodes!Support the showWe thank everyone for listening to our podcast! We hope to grow even bigger to make great things happen, such as new equipment for higher-quality podcasts, a merch store & more! If you're interested in supporting us, giving us feedback and staying in the loop with updates, then follow our ZONE Social Media Portal to access our website, our Discord server, our Patreon page, and other social media platforms! DISCLAIMER: The thoughts and opinions shared within are those of the speaker. We encourage everyone to do their own research and to experience the content mentioned at your own volition. We try not to reveal spoilers to those who are not up to speed, but in case some slips out, please be sure to check out the source material before you continue listening!Stay nerdy and stay faithful,- J.B.Subscribe to "Content for Creators" on YouTube to listen to some of the music used for these episodes!

Today we bring you Al's final message in his verse by verse series through Colossians. If you summed up this letter, it would be a loving warning to the church of Colossi that they had strayed from the true gospel and were more interested in philosophy and “higher thought” than the real message of repentance and salvation through Christ. Sound familiar? That's what's so great about God's word - it's as relevant today as it was when these words were written. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1425/29

The people of Colossi were not too different from believers today - they tended to stray away from their faith and trust themselves to find the answers to a fulfilling life. Paul's letter is designed to lead them back to Christ. Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1425/29

Believers in the first century faced the constant winds of doctrines just like we do today. In the city of Colossi, the church was being afflicted by teachers who were suggesting that Christ was not all that they needed for salvation and living a life that was pleasing to God. They did not totally deny the person of Christ, they did demote Him in their teachings. When Epaphras, who first preached the Gospel in Colossi, reported the situation to the Apostle Paul, God led Paul by the Holy Spirit to pen a letter to the Colossians believers. This letter was intended to disciple them and ground them in the truth of Jesus Christ. In a day of much doctrinal confusion around the person of Jesus Christ, this message is relevant and vital for every believer today!Thanks for joining us for this episode and please take a moment to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you enjoy this content, please don't hesitate to leave us a 5-star review and share this podcast with your friends.  We'd like to extend an invitation to you and your family to join us for worship this week at Grace Baptist Church. We'd also love to connect with you online at https://gracekettering.org. Thanks again for checking out this episode, and we look forward to having you join us again right here on the Grace Baptist Church Podcast!

We're talking Shangri-La this week in Kaizoku Uncharted! Tune in to hear Justin and Jakia's recap of season 2 in preparation for the current season. Justin loves the show! Jakia isn't a fan of the alliance because of Pencilgon and Justin doesn't stan with the SLF Zoo guild. Getting into Rabituza continues to be a hot topic for many players. The crew is shocked as we learn so much more about Lycagon and the other Colossi! So much information! We also hope that Pencilgon and Sunraku help out Katsu. We're learning more about the world and how long it truly is, which is perfect right before the new SLF update drops.  

La Cina corre veloce anche nell'intelligenza artificiale. Dopo la pubblicazione delle sue performance, l'app DeepSeek ha raggiunto i vertici nei download gratuiti dell'App Store di Apple sia nel Dragone sia negli Stati Uniti, superando ChatGPT negli Usa. Laboratorio di IA poco noto in Cina, ha scatenato il panico nella Silicon Valley per aver rilasciato modelli di intelligenza artificiale in grado di superare i migliori d'America nonostante siano costruiti a un costo inferiore e con chip meno potenti. Almeno così sembra. DeepSeek, come è chiamato il laboratorio, dice di aver messo a punto un modello di linguaggio di grandi dimensioni gratuito e open source a fine dicembre che avrebbe richiesto solo due mesi e meno di 6 milioni di dollari per essere realizzato, facendo leva sui chip a capacità ridotta di Nvidia (H800). DeepSeek sarà il cigno nero per il settore tech USA? Ne discutiamo con Alessandro Plateroti, Direttore Newsmondo.it e con Filippo Diodovich, Senior Market Strategist, IG Italia.Mutui: nel 2024 richieste in crescita, aiutano le decisioni delle banche centrali La domanda di mutui da parte delle famiglie italiane ha subito nei 12 mesi del 2024 un cambio positivo di rotta: il dato medio annuale segna infatti un +12,1% (fonte: il Sistema di Informazioni Creditizie Eurisc). Lo rileva il barometro Crif, evidenziando come, da fine 2023, sia iniziata la ripresa della domanda di mutui che dal quadrante negativo ha raggiunto picchi del 30% a novembre 2024. Nel solo mese di dicembre le richieste di mutui salgono del 25,4% rispetto al pari periodo del 2023, terzo valore massimo per l anno appena concluso. A supportare la dinamica, il calo dei tassi applicati dalle banche, soprattutto a tasso fisso, che riflette i tagli della Bce che si sono susseguiti nel corso dei 12 mesi. E' inoltre proseguita la scelta delle famiglie verso le operazioni di surroga, al fine di ridurre gli oneri della rata dei mutui stipulati a tasso variabile nel periodo di forti aumenti dei tassi di interesse.Nei primi 9 mesi dell anno, infatti, il fenomeno delle surroghe segna un +19,5%, mentre i nuovi mutui erogati si sono contratti del 4,1%. Anche nel 2024 la fascia di importo preferita dalle famiglie italiane è quella compresa tra i 100.000 e 150.000 euro con un 30,6% del totale. A seguire si posiziona la classe di importo 150.000-300.000 euro con una percentuale del 28,5%, mentre il 18,3% richiede un importo tra i 75.000-100.000 euro, e solo il 5,1% supera i 300.000 euro. Affrontiamo il tema con Simone Capecchi executive director di Crif.

Neste episódio do MateCast Guri de Uruguaiana bate um papo com a jornalista e apresentadora Bruna Colossi do SBT Rio Grande.

It's Episode 13 of Siege Season... And the luck of the Loyalists has come to an end. A devastating blow at the Mercury Wall has laid low Rogal Dorn's plans. For him and the remaining Loyalists, the goal has changed. Now it is time to hurt the Warmaster's lackeys. Meanwhile, at Colossi, a gathering storm builds. Lightning is preparing to strike in our first episode of Warhawk.

On the latest RAW, Trev Downey, Dave Hendrick and Guy Drinkel analyse the away win against RB Leipzig in the Champions League. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Richard Meryon speaks on the key messages to the people of Colossi.

Durante un incontro tra il commissario europeo al mercato interno Thierry Breton con l'industria automobilistica a dodici stelle, tenutosi nel primo pomeriggio di oggi lunedì 9 settembre a Bruxelles, è infatti emerso un quadro "non roseo". Come anticipato dal Financial Times, il commissario Breton ha avvertito l'industria che il compito dei decisori dell'Ue "non è quello di indorare la pillola, o di stare seduti ad aspettare che i nostri obiettivi per il 2035 si materializzino magicamente" e "che la Cina è molto più avanti nella produzione di veicoli elettrici a prezzi accessibili". Ne parliamo con Alessandro Plateroti - nuovo Direttore di NewsMondo.it Ue, il rapporto Draghi "per evitare una lenta agonia": dalla cooperazione al debito in comuneMario Draghi ha esortato i paesi membri e le istituzioni comunitarie a maggiore coordinamento. Lo stato della congiuntura in Europa è tale per cui l'ex presidente della Banca centrale europea propone nel suo manuale di istruzioni di ridurre il numero di scelte che vengono prese all'unanimità, di aprire la porta a nuove cooperazioni rafforzate, e di promuovere debito in comune.La relazione - pubblicata oggi, lunedì 9 settembre - è uno spaccato impietoso della situazione economica in Europa. Alcune cifre sono particolarmente significative. Il divario di crescita tra Stati Uniti ed Unione europea, sulla base dei prezzi del 2015, è passato dal 15% nel 2002 al 30% nel 2023. La quota di settori nei quali la Cina compete direttamente con la UE è salita dal 25% nel 2002 al 40% oggi. Infine, sulle 50 più importanti società tecnologiche mondiali, solo quattro sono europee. Ne discutiamo con Alberto Orioli, vicedirettore Sole 24 Ore e Fabrizio Pagani, Partner Vitale&Co, Presidente Fondazione M&M e docente a SciencesPo di Parigi. Da febbraio 2014 a giugno 2018 ha ricoperto la carica di Capo della segreteria tecnica del MEF.

Kirstine looks at chapter 2 of Colossians and how Paul addresses the cultural pressures that those in the church of Colossi faced and what pressures may be keeping us from living in the full light of Jesus' resurrection today.

Perché le imprese europee sono meno competitive di quelle americane? E' colpa delle dimensione delle imprese o di quelle del mercato?Carlo Stagnaro ne parla con Alberto Pera, già segretario Agcm e presidente dell'Associazione Antitrust Italiana, in una nuova intervista LeoniFilesPreferisci seguire su YouTube?

Today we bring you Al's final message in his verse by verse series through Colossians. If you summed up this letter, it would be a loving warning to the church of Colossi that they had strayed from the true gospel and were more interested in philosophy and higher thought than the real message of repentance and salvation through Christ. Sound familiar? That's what's so great about God's word - it's as relevant today as it was when these words were written. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1425/29

Mike Holmes kicks off our series on Pauls Prayers in the New Testament by going through Paul's prayer to the Church in Colossi from Colossians 1.

Today we'll return to our verse by verse study through the book of Colossians, as we look at chapter three, verses twelve through seventeen. The people of Colossi were not too different from believers today - they tended to stray away from their faith and trust themselves to find the answers to a fulfilling life. Paul's letter is designed to lead them back to Christ. Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1425/29

We're currently enjoying a journey through the book of Colossians, and once again, we see the incredible inspired word of God coming through in this letter from Paul to the church in Colossi. Do you think God knew two thousand years ago how relevant these words would be for us today? Of course He did! Colossians chapter two has much to teach us about false teachers, and the true source of security and happiness- our Lord Jesus Christ. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1425/29

April 28, 2024 Morning Service. It seems that much of Christianity today revolves around us, teaching falsely that we are the focus of the Bible. But this is neither the central message nor emphasis of God's Word and it%u2019s damaging to our relationship with the Lord. In this week's sermon, Pastor John Friederich uses Paul's letter to the church at Colossi to help set the record straight. Let's join in as Pastor Friederich preaches a message entitled, It's Not About You from Colossians chapter 3. (Colossians 3:1-4)

Sunday April 21, 2024: Pastor Matt begins a series through Paul's writing to the church of Colossi and explores the depth of transformation we experience as we fully yield to the complete work of Jesus to include us in the perfect fellowship with The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  As we liberate our minds from the legal lens of religion, we inherit a true understanding of what Christ has made available to all of us and we begin to bare the image we were designed for.

Paul communicated an important message to the church at Colossi. He addressed them as saints and faithful brethren. They were believers. They were saved. They were disciples of Christ. They were Christians. They were like us. Much of the content of the Epistle to the Colossians was focused on how they could live the Christian life so that Christ would be promoted and pleased. In a sense, Paul was saying to them “This is how you promote and please Jesus.” Download Notes Thanks for joining us for this episode and please take a moment to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you enjoy this content, please don't hesitate to leave us a 5-star review and share this podcast with your friends.  We'd like to extend an invitation to you and your family to join us for worship this week at Grace Baptist Church. We'd also love to connect with you online at https://gracekettering.org. Thanks again for checking out this episode, and we look forward to having you join us again right here on the Grace Baptist Church Podcast!

Hablemos de Básquet, con Barham Amor y Florencia Colossi

In questa puntata del Marketers Podcast con noi c'è Andrea Ferrero, cofounder e e CEO di Young platform SPA. Andrea è partito in questa avventura con 5 compagni di scuola superiore e oggi è la piattaforma di riferimento in Italia per il mondo crypto. Ci siamo concentrati con lui su quello che è il percorso di chi decide di fare impresa in Italia. Le sfide, i momenti di gioia ma anche i momenti bui che ci si trova ad affrontare. Una puntata estremamente interessante per chiunque voglia, o già sta facendo, impresa in Italia. Buon ascolto! Se ti interessa approfondire come fare impresa in Italia ti ricordo il nostro corso https://www.getbusinessgenetics.com/, parla con un nostro consulente per capire se fa per te. Abbiamo registrato questa puntata al 21 House of Stories, la nostra base milanese. Se passate da Milano è il posto perfetto per lavorare, dormire, mangiare e date anche un occhio ai tanti eventi che fanno ogni sera. Qui tutte le informazioni e gli sconti riservati alla community marketers: https://wearemarketers.net/21houseofstories/ Trovi il 21 su ig: https://www.instagram.com/21houseofstories Per non perdere nessuna puntata e vedere un po' di dietro le quinte, spoiler sugli ospiti entra nel canale whatsapp del podcast: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaZebYhBvvsnqV5dvM14 ------------------------------ IL MARKETERS PODCAST: Il Marketers Podcast è il podcast di @dariovignali e @wearemarketers dedicato a creativi, imprenditori e professionisti digitali. In ogni episodio trovi informazioni pratiche e strategiche che puoi applicare fin da subito nella tua vita per migliorare il tuo lavoro, la tua produttività e la crescita dei tuoi progetti nel mercato digitale.

In this episode I break down the recent news of a remarkable new discovery in Egypt of a massive 62 ton box that was hiding underneath the ground where construction had begun for a new hospital. Was this box a "sarcophagus," or was it originally used for a different purpose? Next I will share the incredible true story of Sir William Siemens and the mysterious electrical phenomenon of 1859 that took place on top of the Great Pyramid. We will end the episode looking at Egypt's 1000 Ton twin titans of mystery - the Colossi of Memnon. Get ready to learn all about these colossal statues. Were they really constructed by the Dynastic Egyptians of around 3000 B.C. or are they actually much older? JOIN US FOR OUR 2024 EGYPT TOUR IN MAY & USE CODE EGYPT2024 TO GET $200 OFF GET ALL YOUR TRAVEL/ VIDEO GEAR DEALS ⁠HERE

The POWERUP Podcast Episode 59 - Wethermon The ELDEN LORD!! TOPICS: We briefly touch on the passing of our great Sensei Akira Toriyama! Rest in Perfect Peace! We talk about chapters of My hero Academia; Izuku being able to force his way into the soul of Shigaraki, with Nana Shimura We discuss latest Onepiece chapter and upcoming break for April one piece chapter 5 elders entering the fray Shangri-La Frontier Talk: Wethermon The Tombguard: One of the 7 Colossi, defending the tomb of his past lover setsuna, Sunraku, Towa, Kei take on Wethermon and Kirin. Elden Ring gameplay is spoken on a little bit To catch us online Follow us on! Twitter: @POWERUPPODCAST2 Facebook: @POWERUPPODCASTldn Instagram: @poweruppodldn Gmail: pawaappupod@gmail.com Our Gamer Tags: PSN: SuperStratz Genshin Impact ID: 705845981 PSN: @roau_86 Steam: @malczzero ESO: @AinzSungWoo YGOPRO2: @UltraJiren Game Centre (IOS): xZamasux Youtube: MzeroX

Hi! This is a re-release of co-op Episode 5 all about Shadow of the Colossus from way back at the end of the year 2020. Enjoy! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Unlike the subject of this episode, we shall not fall. We're here with the latest co-op episode and oh boy is this a great one. Roxy Polk, Alec Robbins, and Cody Ziglar all join Conner to talk about one of the more revered games of all time, Shadow of the Colossus. Don't you worry, we absolutely make time to discuss the Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle vehicle "Reign Over Me". This episode's crew of wanderers discuss different subjects such as how this game teaches you so much by telling you so little, how this game actually makes the player feel bad for toppling the Colossi, and of course bask in the glory of a few favorite Colossi that stand tall (hehe) above the rest. It's an absolute banger and we hope you enjoy! Absolutely check out this wonderful video from Jacob Geller as well. Show Notes Roxy Polk - Twitch, Etsy Store, Patreon, Twitter Cody Ziglar - Instagram, Twitter Alec Robbins - Instagram, Twitter, Mr. Boop Conner McCabe – Bluesky - Twitter – Twitch Produced, Edited, and Original music by Jeremy Schmidt – Video Games: a Comedy Show Call Me By Your Game – Instagram – Twitter - Bluesky – YouTube Super NPC Radio – Patreon - Discord-  Bluesky - Twitter – Instagram – Twitch Music Licensed through Artlist.io T.Bless - Korobeiniki - 8 Bit Version Tomer Baruch - The Girl with the Cat

ANDIAMOCI è il nuovo format mio e del buon Pelati e Fumetti.In ogni puntata ci poniamo una domanda e ANDIAMO dalle persone che hanno al risposta.Un episodio su due sul mio canale, l'altro sul canale di Pelati e Fumetti.In questo episodio ci chiediamo come è possibile per una attività resistere a colossi giganti come Netflix e Amazon .

John's Board game has 6 days remaining on Kickstarter! I absolutely insist that you buy it. Colossi on Kickstarter John's Twitter Catacombian Games

In the book of Colossians, Paul encourages the Church of Colossi to allow themselves to go through the process of growing to full maturity in their relationship with God, much like a seed being planted and growing. This teaching is part of our 2023 series, "Dwell: Abiding in the Shelter of the Most High.” In 2023, we will take another journey through the Scriptures, looking for the God-sightings in each book and seeing how we can learn to dwell in God's presence. This episode was recorded on October 29, 2023, during our 10:30am worship service. Today's speaker: Carlos Cedeño Audio Engineer: Edwin Duarte Theme Music by: Giancarlo Cordon Produced by: William Hartz ========== Christ Fellowship of Elizabeth is a Christian community whose mission is to love God, make disciples, and change the world. We hope you enjoyed this week's message. Make sure you subscribe in Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify, or your favorite podcatcher so you never miss an episode. Follow us online: Website: https://cfofelizabeth.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/cfofelizabeth Twitter: https://twitter.com/cfofelizabeth Facebook: https://facebook.com/cfofelizabeth YouTube: https://youtube.com/ChristFellowshipofElizabeth Subscribe to our other podcasts at: https://cfofelizabeth.com/podcasts You can join us in person every Sunday. We gather for worship at 10:30am at The Liberty Center at 1121 Elizabeth Ave, Elizabeth, NJ. You can also join us virtually on our livestream by visiting cfofellizabeth.com/live or visiting our YouTube page. To give your tithe or gift online, you can visit: https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithe or text "Give" to 856-317-6679. To contact the church by phone, call 908-289-6322. If this is your first time with us or you just want to learn more about our church, please visit: http://www.cfofelizabeth.com/im-new ========== ©2023 Christ Fellowship of Elizabeth Love God. Make Disciples. Change the World.

Autumn has come, and with it, the Colossi embark on their journey for hibernation. Along their side, human travelers protect these giants and guide them to their resting place. This is the story of two such travelers, and the living thunderstorm they shepherd along the way.AUTUMN OF GIANTS: https://melody-saturn.itch.io/autumn-of-giantsME LOST ME: https://www.melostme.com/LISTEN TO "RPG": https://upsettherhythm.bandcamp.com/album/rpgJAYNE DENT: https://twitter.com/melostmeBLACK LIVES MATTER: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#ALL MY FANTASY CHILDREN: http://www.allmyfantasychildren.com/YAZEBA'S BED & BREAKFAST: https://redcircle.com/shows/yazebas-bed-and-breakfastPARTY OF ONE DISCORD: https://discordapp.com/invite/SxpQKmKSUPPORT JEFF ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/jeffstormerTHEME SONG: Mega Ran feat. D&D Sluggers, “Infinite Lives,” RandomBeats LLC, www.megaran.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Do you let the word of Christ permeate every aspect of your being? Apostle Paul tells the church of Colossi to let the word of Christ dominate hearts and mind. The text is from Colossians 3:16-17

Today we bring you Al's final message in his verse by verse series through Colossians. If you summed up this letter, it would be a loving warning to the church of Colossi that they had strayed from the true gospel and were more interested in philosophy and higher thought than the real message of repentance and salvation through Christ. Sound familiar? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1425/29

Today we'll return to his verse by verse study through the book of Colossians, as we look at chapter three, verses twelve through seventeen. The people of Colossi were not too different from believers today - they tended to stray away from their faith and trust themselves to find the answers to a fulfilling life. Paul's letter is designed to lead them back to Christ. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1425/29

We're currently enjoying a journey through the book of Colossians, and once again, we see the incredible inspired word of God coming through in this letter from Paul to the church in Colossi. Do you think God knew two thousand years ago how relevant these words would be for us today? Of course He did! Colossians chapter two has much to teach us about false teachers, and the true source of security and happiness- our Lord Jesus Christ. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1425/29

GODS OF THE STORM! Clash of the Kaiju!!The Radiant Winds dive head-first into danger once more over the eternal storm of the Blasted Lands. Therein, there are two warring kaiju, an immovable object brawling with an unstoppable force. And if that weren't bad enough, deep in the acidic rain of the storm surrounding the site, two terrible annoying no-good brothers are trying to gobble the Radiant Winds up! Our heroes will have to brave the wrath of the tempest if they want to make it through this one... but what awaits them inside the Blasted Lands themselves?READY?FIGHT!BRAWL with kaminari over the perpetual storm and an infinite drop! ENTER the long-forgotten lands and find your way to the treasure! WITNESS the power of the unkillable and cower as it comes your way!All this and more in this episode of Dice Will Roll, the Queerest Pathfinder Podcast on the Planet, where we ask the Hard Questions like... what does it mean when your sword starts counting?CONTENT WARNINGS: comparisons to cancerous growths, decapitation, descriptions of being deafened by loud noises, sexy slime mommy---Sound by Syrinscape: Because Your Games Deserve Epic SoundMusic by YouFulcaAdditional Music by McRo MusicEven More Additional Music by EmdascheEven More-er Additional Music by MojimbaTheme Song by Sim @TheSimulacraeAW JEEZ THERE'S EVEN MORE ADDITIONAL MUSIC BY DANYA VODOVOZWHO'D HAVE THOUGHT? ADDITIONAL-ER MUSIC BY RAUSHNAArt by RanaOhara"Battle! VS Primal Arceus!" (XY Style / Fan-Made) by Ludwig van Larx Get extra loot on our Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Reading: Table of Duties: To HusbandsDaily Lectionary: Isaiah 64:15-65:2; Luke 2:41-52Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. (Colossians 3:19)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The gift of marriage between a man and a woman is a paradigm of the relationship Christ has with His holy bride.  As we begin to close out the season of Christmas we are drawn once again to the manger where our savior is laid.  In the manger is the church's groom who has come to redeem her and bring to her everlasting life.  The world around us delivers to us a perverse understanding of marriage.  Sin has corrupted the beautiful gift of husband and wife living as God intended.  Marriage is no longer held in high esteem rather it is seen as a cumbersome relationship where contracts are entered into before any vows are made to one another.  Marriage is for convenience and the gratification of one's desires and not for the mutual love towards a man and woman.  In many parts of the world marriage is no longer considered a part of the lives of the people.  The gift of marriage that God instituted has become a trinket of glamor and selfish adoration focused primarily on the wedding itself.  Paul directs his hearers at the church of Colossi to uphold marriage as God had intended.  It is a relationship between a man and woman that is formed under the order of creation.  God gave Eve to Adam as his wife.  The two are to become one.  The relationship between Adam and Eve is not a relationship of control and demeaning behaviors but one of love and servitude.  Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph 5).  Husbands are not bitter towards their wives but rather protect them, provide for them, and procreate with them.  The husband stands between his wife and the adversary just as Christ does on the cross.  As God exacts His judgment upon His Son for all the sins of the world our Holy Groom stood between us and that wrath.  He took the wrath of God upon himself that we may be given life.  He presents us Holy and blameless without blemish before His Father in Heaven.  His robe of righteousness covers His Holy Bride.  When we fail, He does not become bitter and cast us off, rather He draws us in and washes the stain of sin through Holy Absolution. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Gracious Savior, grant Your blessing, To this husband and this wife,That in peace they live together In Your love throughout their life, Christ, defend them from the tempter, And from all that would destroyLove's foundation You have laid here,And its threshold paved with joy. (LSB 860-Gracious Savior, Grant Your Blessing stz 1)-Pastor Timothy Paul Davis is Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church  in Athens Georgia.Audio Reflections Speaker: Patrick Sturdivant, Development and Marketing Executive at Higher Things.Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

Dean of Talbot University of Theology Clinton E Arnold and Bill have an intense discussion on the importance of  Paul's letter to the Colossians as it pertains to our Christian walk today --and the impact of excavating Colossi. Faith Radio podcasts are made possible by your support. Give now: Click here. *This encore presentation originally aired on Jun 29, 2022

In this section of scripture, Paul begins to teach the church in Colossi about baptism, philopsphy, and how to "walk in Christ"! Do you want your faith to Grow? Grab your bible and lets begin to feed your faith!! www.RiverSideFWB.com

Verse by verse chapter by chapter. Colossians teaches the church in Colossi the preeminence of Christ. Grab your bible and lets unpack the prayer paul prays over the people of this church! www.RiverSideFWB.com

* This encore presentation originally aired on June 27, 2022 Dean of Talbot University of Theology Clinton E Arnold and Bill have an intense discussion on the importance of  Paul's letter to the Colossians as it pertains to our Christian walk today --and the impact of excavating Colossi.

Dean of Talbot University of Theology Clinton E Arnold and Bill have an intense discussion on the importance of  Paul's letter to the Colossians as it pertains to our Christian walk today --and the impact of excavating Colossi.

Kyle explains 6 word pictures the Apostle Paul gives to the church at Colossi. Click here to download the Daily Word, Teaching Notes, Study Guide Questions and Artwork for this lesson.

Ryan Schrag focuses on Paul's reminder to the church at Colossi to walk as new creations. Click here to download the Daily Word, Teaching Notes, Study Guide Questions and Artwork for this lesson.

When we ask someone to do a job, one of the questions we have to think about is this: Do they have what it takes?  Can they get the job done? Do they have enough knowledge? Enough strength? Enough time? There were some people in Colossi who were teaching that Jesus was great but that He wasn't quite enough on His own. They said that you needed Jesus plus some secret knowledge; Jesus plus some secret techniques. Paul is not happy with them and he reminds us that JESUS IS ENOUGH! - Pastor Ron KoolSupport the show (https://hillsidegr.churchcenter.com/giving)

Nella puntata di oggi parliamo delle conseguenze finanziarie della guerra sulle grandi imprese russe quotate, sulla volontà sempre più marcata di Svezia e Finlandia di aggregarsi alla Nato e dei ritardatari dell'assegno unico sui figli

Nella puntata di oggi parliamo delle conseguenze finanziarie della guerra sulle grandi imprese russe quotate, sulla volontà sempre più marcata di Svezia e Finlandia di aggregarsi alla Nato e dei ritardatari dell'assegno unico sui figli

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Welcome dear church to Communion Sunday. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a generous God. In the small things, you gave us an extra hour to sleep, and in the big things, you gave us your son. And Jesus, we thank you that you gave us yourself and the Holy Spirit we thank you for your presence here with us and we thank you for writing this book. Words that define reality, define love, define sacrifice, define generosity. We love your word and we thank you that you're the author of this book. You're in the room. And I pray as we hear from your word that you interpret to us what it means, to us where we are and how to apply this. I pray that you give us a vision for generosity. The same vision that's in your heart and I pray that you bless our time in the holy word. Amen.Grace is generous gift giving. That's the title of the sermon. That's the big idea. Grace is generous gift giving. I've realized recently that a lot of Christians miss out, a lot of people miss out on some of God's greatest blessings because they don't listen to God's word the way you should. A lot of people read God's word, listen to God's word. Some things said to some people by some people a long time ago. And if that's how you approach scripture, it's always going to be theoretical, it's always going to be, this is what it means to me, it's always going to be standing over in judgment over God's word. I do not listen to scripture like that. I do not read scripture like that. I know the God who wrote it and I walk with Him on a daily basis. I'm just so thankful that God is so gracious to me as to speak to me, as to communicate with me and He cares about me.Someone said that no one cares how much until they know how much you care. And God cares about me so I listened to His word. I sit there with God and I say, "You're the author, you're in the room." What does it mean? Here's how I view preaching. I view preaching as me living vicariously through Cameron Hanes. If you don't know Cameron Hanes, he's living the life that I would be living if I were not called to be a pastor. He's a hunter. You can find him on Instagram. He's got 1.2 million followers. He's a hunter and he hunts humanely. He's a bow and arrow guy. So I view myself as I go hunting into the mountain to get the moose and then I carry it back on my back and then I dress it up, and then I cut it up, and I slice it up and then I throw it on the grill. And that's what this is, that's what preaching is. And I do not chew it for you. You have to chew it yourself or else you choke on it.I made a conscious decision to change the way I preach because I'm tired of doing the homework for you. I'm tired of regurgitating to you what you can get in the ESV Study Bible. You want historical context, literary context, you want a definition of the Greek or the Hebrew word? Open an ESV Study Bible, read it. From now on, I just assume that every single one of you has read every single word in the Bible and if there's something that you do not understand, you go into the bottom of ESV, there's cheat codes to explain it to you. I say you got to do your own homework. I say this because I send out a newsletter every Saturday and at the bottom I put the text a link to the chapter. So what am I doing? I assume that you have read it but the data shows that you have not because then I see the click through-rate in MailChimp, which is 2.3%. Having is only 2.3% of the churches with me when I am... I assume you have read. So do your homework.It's like in college where the lecture makes so much more sense if you've read the material the night before. You know what I'm saying? And then you're like, "Oh, the professor got it from the book." That's what I'm saying. I told you a couple weeks ago that we're at war. And the reason why I said that is because a lot of people don't realize that we're at war and the weapons of the enemy are weapons of mass distraction to just get you distracted from what matters. Just hours of your day, you're thinking about the Metaverse, just something out there instead of real life. That's why you need to know the sword of the Spirit, you need to know this word. So it's a conscious decision because I want to spend more time in the sermon doing application and testimony. Because when I listen to a sermon, my favorite part of the sermon is where the guy up there is like, "Before he tells me how to live, I want to know that he actually lived it."So you need testimony to do that. And today, a lot of the sermons give me testimony of the blessing that it is to be generous. And I've thought about this for a very long time. I'm 38 years old and I've experienced life from the perspective of meeting generosity and I've experienced generosity from the perspective of giving and living generously. My parents emigrated to the States in 1989. My dad was 30, my mom was 27. They have three kids, fourth on the way, $700 net worth. We were recipients of generosity. And I watched my dad from this place where he received generosity grow into a place of tremendous generosity. It's hard to be generous in a day like ours. And when I talk about generosity, I'm not just talking about money, I'm talking about wealth. And wealth consists of two parts. They sound the same; presence and presents. That's wealth. Presents. Let's talk about money, presents, with a ts at the end. Presents, this is money, this is gifts, this is things, this is services.It's hard to be generous in a time where inflation, hyperinflation. Now we're going into recession so security payments are going up by 5.9%. If you look at us car market, it's a lot higher. I think we just printed another trillion dollars. Is there going to be recession? Yeah. What else are you worried about? Gas prices, job turmoil, you might have to pick up and move. Real estate, who knows? Kids, you might have to switch schools. You're talking about generosity, you want me to give money. And then there's presence. This is your time. That's our greatest commodity. It's time, it's words, it's ideas, it's encouragement, it's discipleship. It's hard to be generous with that presence in the day when there's members in the church who haven't seen their family in two years. And just being with people is just awkward right now. And then what's the alternative? It's video meetings. And if I have to sit through one more video meeting I will get Bell's palsy.That tic, the nervous tic I get when I'm in a video meeting, that's probably going to be permanent. Okay with people, okay presence, you don't know where they stand on COVID. You do know where they stand on COVID. It's hard to be generous with words when you haven't complimented a person in years. This is my philosophy of complimenting someone. When I see that they're trying, you did something different, I'm going to notice, if I notice it. Usually I have a million things in my mind but if I notice it like, "Hey, you got a haircut? Hey man, happy haircut." If a girl is like, I just know how much it costs to do your hair. I'm like, "Oh, man. That looks good."It's hard to compliment people in a day where... It's awkward. Masks make communicating so hard, especially for internationals or someone with a speech impediment. You want to text. My gift game is through the charts. I got all kinds of pictures on already. That's why we have to talk about driven generosity because no one costs into generosity. You have to talk about a vision for generosity now, here and now, but also in your life. Are you on a trajectory? Do you have a vision in your heart to be generous because that's what love is. It's generosity. That's what grace is. Grace is unmerited favor. And you can't talk about love if you can't talk about treasure. This is why Jesus said, "Wherever your heart is, that's where your treasure is." You can't talk about love if you do not talk about wealth. So that's why we're talking about it.2nd Corinthians chapter eight. I'm going to assume you have read it. As I mentioned, this is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word. May you write these eternal truths on your heart. And also if you have not read it, I challenge you after to go and read the whole chapter. I'm going to read this as we go along and relisten to the sermon because that's another thing, I assume that if you're a member or if you go here, you do not miss sermons because we pour our life, our heart into these sermon, and we're leading the church through the preaching of God's word. We're leading. So if you're a member and you're on vacation... The average member of this church goes to church half the time, half the Sundays. Stuff just comes up. You got to take a weekend trip. "Yeah, I can't live in the city." You got to go New Hampshire, you go to the White Mountains.You just travel the world and you miss and you come back, you're like, "This is a different church. I didn't go to this church. I became a member of this church?" Yeah, keep up. That's what I'm saying. All right. 1st Corinthians 16, this is the context, verses one through four. It's there if you want. St. Paul said this, he said, "The Gospel was planted in Jerusalem through Jesus Christ." Now there's a church in Jerusalem, Jesus' brother, his younger brother, half brother James, becomes a pastor. And then God sends the Holy Spirit upon the church and then God said to them, "Go and preach the gospel in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, to the ends of the earth." They didn't so God sends persecution so they start actually doing their job. And because of the persecution in Jerusalem and because there's a famine at the time, the church isn't doing well, they can't even work, they can't find jobs because people find out that you're a Christian, now all of a sudden you're fired.So St. Paul then, he hears about the church of Jerusalem, and then he's been planting churches in Ephesus, Colossi, Philippi, in Corinth. He plants these churches and he knows that they are prospering financially. And he says, "Hey, the church in Jerusalem has a need so I'm going to ask you to collect finances and then send one representative from your church. Don't give me the money." He says, "Send one representative to Jerusalem with the finances. I will accompany you." And by accompanying you, that shows us that he has no mercenary interest in the matter. It's not for him at all but he's risking life and limb to accompany them to go to Jerusalem and he actually ends up in prison because... So it shows that he's generous with his life to be generous to the church of Jerusalem. And also what he's doing is he's healing tension, racial tension between the Jewish church and the Gentile churches. What he's saying is, "We're one big family." That's the context. Three points. Grace is generous gift giving. Grace is generous gift giving.First of all Grace is, and that's what he starts with. This the first one. We want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. Grace, unmerited favor, God saved them. They added nothing to their salvation. Grace, God predestined them before the foundation of the world. Draws them, elects them, they become Christians, it's all grace, all their sins forgiven, by the grace of God that has been given among the churches, Macedonia for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy so they're experiencing affliction as well. They're persecuted as well. Their abundance of joy. They have so much joy that God saved them. And they're extreme poverty, they don't have much money. They're afflicted, they have extreme poverty in Macedonia that have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. He's saying, "The church is poor." And if that tiny little church plant in Macedonia, that church plant is younger than the church in Corinth, if they were generous because they're wealthy in generosity, shouldn't you be more generous than a baby church?" That's what he's saying.And he's talking about grace. There's a difference between grace and mercy. Mercy is you don't get what you deserve, you don't get help. Grace says you get what you don't deserve. You get pulled over, you're doing 79 and 35 and the cop says you deserve a $450 speeding ticket. If you don't know what I'm alluding to, listen to last week's sermon. And the cop shows up and he's like, "Here's your ticket, $450." But then he tears it up and he says, "Oh, well. Why are you speeding?" And you say, "I'm speeding because my dad set my curfew at 10:00 PM." And he said, "I'm going to take your keys away because my dad said that nothing good happens after 10:00 PM." And I'm like, "Ah, that's when the good stuff started happening." And then the cop says, "I get it. I had a dad like that." And then the cop gives you $450. That's great. Did you deserve that gift? You did not.So St. Paul says, generosity starts on knowing. I deserve hell, but God promises me heaven. Jesus paid all my debts and He redeemed me. I have access to the treasures of Jesus Christ because I belong to him. Once you receive the forgiveness, you are willing to give whatever God causes you to give. They're dirt poor but the rich enjoy their overflow and wealth of generosity. Do you have a vision? Are you driven with a vision for generosity? Are you driven for this? I'm not talking about just working enough to meet your needs. I'm talking about work enough to meet someone else's needs. I once heard that Rick Warren, who wrote The Purpose Driven Life, now it's a different title. What on Earth Am I Here For? It was the best selling book of all time. Hardback books after the Bible. Best selling. He made bank. And then I heard that he turned into a reverse tither where he didn't just give 10%, he gave 90%. I remember hearing that and thinking, "Oh my. Imagine doing that." And I had this desire, I'm like, "Lord, I would love to one day to be the reverse tither."And then I became a pastor. I became a church planter in Boston. How big does your 10% have to be? But I haven't lost the vision because I believe in a God of miracles. If your crypto investments go to $10 million overnight, are you going to tithe? Are you going to give a million dollars to the church? And if you can't be generous with theoretical money. This is absolute real talk because in the same way that 2.3% of the church actually clicks the link, 2.3% of the church actually gives. So there's 10 people that give most of the giving. We'll get to the tithing. I'm just going to plant this here, make you feel a little uncomfortable knowing that we'll get there. By the time we get there you're going to forget that you were uncomfortable, okay? And what are you doing to make the vision a reality? Whoever doesn't work shouldn't eat, Scripture says. And if you do work, you're going to work hard enough to have something else to share.You work hard enough to put yourself in a position where you can be exorbitantly, lavishly, liberally generous. Not conserving, just conserving everything that you're given. So you got to ask your yourself whenever you're making... I just want to plant the vision in your heart and then it's going to be you and the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit. Once you add, "Lord, how can I be driven to be more generous? Will this decision helped me become more generous?" And then you weight decision. Even when you're young, you weigh which school to go to and what to major in, how many loans to take out and how long it's going to take you to pay off the loans so that you can be lavishly generous. This vision it's not how you change your life today.It's a philosophy of life. Verse three continues, for they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means like the widow with the two mites and Jesus watched her give money to the Temple of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord. And then by the will of God to us. They first gave and said, "God, I'm yours. You did everything to make me yours. I'm yours and everything I have is yours so Lord, what would you have me do with what you have given me, both my dollars in my days? My time, my treasure, my talent. Everything, Lord, it's all yours." And when you have that mindset and you hear of a need, you say, "Please, let me help you." He uses the word beg. They begged. You don't think of beggars as giving, as generous. And he says, "They're begging me to take their finances to help this other church."What a vision. It's like when you start a company and it's tremendous, and the idea is tremendous. It's going to help so many people, and then someone hears it's a great idea and they're like, "Please, let me invest. Let me invest. I'm begging you, let me invest." Because you know that this investment is going to turn into something a lot more. That's what it means to give in this world. It's an investment for heaven. God keeps track of everything. I've given money away I don't even remember, I don't remember. And then somebody writes to me like, "Hey, you changed my life that one time." My family is from Ukraine and Estonia. I remember we went to visit a family member Ukraine. Their annual salary, she was an engineer, she makes $500 a year. $500, here you go, cash. It changed her life. What's $500 here? Three days of rent? You know what I'm saying? Generosity has to be precise. If you really want to be generous, you always you have extra. You're waiting for the opportunity.You hear of a need and you're like, "Yeah. What's your Venmo?" I'm going to meet the need because God has met mine. Timing is everything. How can I help? And not just finances. If you're in college, you don't have much to finances but you have time. You can be present with people. Timing is everything. How can I help with this posture of heart? What would change your day today? What do you need from me right now? How can I help? And you got to get to know people and practically this is why community groups are so important because in community group you get to know people and then at prayer request time, they're like, "Hey, can you pray for this situation? I need help." So it takes humility to get to know people, it takes humility to pray for people, and it takes humility to actually voice your need. And then it takes humility to receive the gift because there's always this mentality of, yeah. But then I owe you. No. You don't. This is a gift. You didn't deserve it. Just don't forget it. Just say thank you. Just thank you.Are you adding value to someone's life with your wealth? That's true generosity. You can't meet everyone's every need but you can at least pray. That's the bare minimum. I'll think about you. I'll expand my brain energy to actually pray for you and continue to pray for you. For example for me, what do I need? My wife hates buying prisons for me because she's like, "What can you give a man who has everything?" And I hate buying presents for her, different reason. She's not hearing this service, praise God. I can be transparent. I bought her a purse one time. Nice. Leather. Big. She doesn't like big purses. I had no idea so I gave it to her. She took it back. She took it back. Don't take it back. If it was a gift just pretend you like it, okay? So what do I need? I need prayer. I ask that you pray for me, I ask that you pray for me by name. I ask that you pray for my family, I ask that you pray for the Sikkemas and the Hoots, Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy.I ask that you pray for the staff. I ask you pray for the members of this church, and I ask you to pray for a building. I was at a pastor's meeting and they're like, "Hey, can you fill out the survey?" And it's all your personal information. They said, "What's the greatest need in your town, in your city?" I wrote church building with a school. I've been here for 12 years and if people had not moved away at the rate that they were moving away, we would have a church of thousands. It'd be a different conversation. So in the back of my mind, I'm always thinking subconsciously, what will make this a church that you're like, "I will not move away." What would that take? And in my mind, I imagine a church building so nice that you're like, "Why would I go anywhere else? I'm going to figure out how to stay here." So I ask that you pray for that.St. Paul talks about this. He talks about his generosity, the generosity with his people Macedonians and then he brings in Titus. Accordingly we urge Titus that as he had started so he should complete among you this act of grace. So Titus is there and he's like "You started the collection. Let's finish the collection so that Titus with representatives from your church can go bring this to Jerusalem. Second is generous verses seven through nine. He uses the phrase excel in generosity. 2nd Corinthians 8:7, But as you excel, you excel. Does that word do anything to you emotionally? Well, if you work with Excel, it does. He says, "In the same way that you excel in faith." I know a lot of Christians like this. "I just want to know about God, I just want to know God's word, I want to memorize the whole thing." Yeah. Keep going, "Excel in speech, excel in knowledge, in all earnestness, in our love for you-- see that you excel in this act of grace also."I went to seminary with these people who have never really done anything in... I went to seminary after working for two years in the business world and I worked in government and I realized I got to seminary, none of these people know life. They don't understand how the real world works and that's why the pastors are like, "I don't want to talk about money." This is what people think about all the time. This is what you do at your job all the time. In some sense, you're thinking about creating value and getting value. He says, "Excel in this act of grace." Not just the faith part. A lot of people they take faith so seriously that it never becomes real so it's just theoretical and works. And some people are all about works theoretically. Some people somewhere should give something. That's why the government should tax everybody and the government should figure out how to be generous so that I don't have to be.That's why whenever I hear Elon Musk gave this amount of money and then all these haters show up and they're like, "Yeah, but that's only 0.001% of his net worth." What if we made your generosity public? I want to come on in on that tweet. He's talking about generosity. Giving, excelling, liberal giving. It's as important to the faith as works is it is works, it's faith with works. It's all intertwined. And by the way, generosity is not tithing. Tithing is giving 10% of your income to your local church before uncle Sam or FICA takes their cut. That's tithing. Giving 10%. Tithing is not generosity. Tithing is just not stealing from God. It's Malachi three. You look it up. He says we are to give, and I will go against any theologian who says otherwise with the like, oh, new covenant, it was the Old Testament, not the New Testament. In the old Testament the tithe remains and then they had temple tax and all kinds of stuff. It was actually computed it was 27 and a half percent, whatever it is.Did Jesus Christ talk about tithing? He just assumed it. He assumed if you love your local church, you will give to your local church because you believe in it. And do you have a verse? Yeah, Matthew, 23:23. Jesus condemning the Pharisees. Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. They were the conservatives. The sad you sees were the liberals. These are the conservatives and Jesus hits both sides. "You're so conservative with your money." He's saying, "Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you tithe mint, dill, cumin. They had a little garden. They get 10 leaves of mint. One goes to the temple." They neglected the weightier matters of the law. Justice, mercy, faithfulness.These, you ought to have done the justice, the mercy, faithfulness, the most important stuff without neglecting the others, the tithe. Do we care about justice and mercy and faithfulness? We do. Do we care about justice? I stand against any form of oppression, any form of oppression. Any form of oppression I stand against so should you, but also you got to care about giving because money flows when you love something, when you believe in something. You invest in what you believe naturally, you invest in what you love naturally. Take my money, take my wealth. Let me just apply this to dating. So all the single people, but also the married people you listen too because I'm teaching generosity here. So young men, I'm going to start with young men. You like a girl, you like a girl. She's a Christian because why would you marry a non-Christian? Marriage is hard enough.You like a girl and you know that she likes you, that's important because a lot of people just assume, you're single, I'm single, I'm of the other gender so you definitely like me. No. If you can't even read that she likes you or not, you definitely aren't ready for marriage because women communicate very differently than men do. So you got to read her, you got to read the signs. You can't be oblivious to the stuff. And if you are, you come talk to me and I will tell you, "Bro, she literally emailed me and said, Pastor Jan, please tell this person to stop. I don't like him." And then Pastor Jan is going to say, "You know what? Here's a few things that you can work on." Okay. You like a girl. She likes you. You ask her out on a date. You ask her out for dinner and you go somewhere nice. Not too nice. Not too swanky.Good food, good ambiance. You're having good conversation. Lead with the questions. Lead the conversation. You ask her about her life, about her dreams, about her vision, her beliefs, what she likes, you're a student because that's what marriage is. And then the check comes, how are we paying for this? Bro if there's any hesitation in your heart, I didn't expect her to order appetizers. If you have to do that, you're not ready. You're in the wrong place. You should be at your job, at your second job. You should be at your side hustle. There's 16 hours in the day and you're single. What else do you do with your time? Now, also you got to tip. You pay for it and you tip well, not based on, ooh, if they didn't serve me right. Have you ever been in the food industry? Some of the hardest work ever. You tip and you tip well and you'll let her know I'm a boss because that's what a girl wants.Split the bill. Let me just analyze this. It's such a cultural issue because I come in with Slavic bag. On Slavic back it's completely different. Completely. If I said I had to talk about this at church, if I said that to any of my Russian brothers, they'd be like, "Why?" They'll be like, "Oh, Americans. They don't know." You don't know. Tanya, my wife Tanya, in the first sermon, I said that she dated a guy who gave her a gift then she texted me during the sermon. She's like, I never dated him. It was just a birthday present. But this guy shows up and he wanted a date or she didn't go on a date yet. She thought he was boring because girls like to laugh and he had no sense of humor, but he had money.So he bought her a gold watch on her birthday. It didn't work. She kept the watch and she gave it to my daughter, Sophia, who still has the watch. But I had to ask, I'm like, "She's high maintenance because how big does a rock have to be to marry a girl like that?" Back to the cultural analysis, the splitting the bill you're hedging bets. And if you're hedging bets this might not work out. So I don't want to take a hit on my net worth. If you're hedging bets and you don't view this as I'm investing, if you're hedging your bets, you're in the wrong spot. You should have been at community group with her, getting to know her. Because when you get married, you got one bank account anyway so get married and your chances are higher if you pay for the bill, that's one thing. The phrase, let's go Dutch, is splitting the bill. Do you know that phrase? Let's go Dutch.Pastor Shane, who is Dutch told me that that's inaccurate. He said, "No. True Dutch people do not go Dutch in the restaurant because true Dutch people do not go out to eat. They go fishing, which is a much better date." What I'm saying is, if you really love, there's got to be generosity. And ladies, just a word, please have the humility to let the guy pay because marriage is getting an order. There's an order to creation. There's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, husband, wife, children, angels, demons and demons became demon Satan became Satan because he wouldn't get an order where you as the wife, as a woman, you're saying is, I will follow you. I will follow your lead if you're going to lead like that, if you're going to lead with generosity.No one wants to be married to a stingy person. No one wants to be married to a mooch. No one wants to be friends with the mooch. A person who all the do is mooch off of you. They go to your house and they always come with empty hands. And you're like, at some point I'm going to stop inviting you into my house. And usually those mooches are theoretically very generous. In their heart they're like, I'm bringing my presence. Yeah bro but you got to bring presence to. This is the act of grace. That's what St. Paul is talking about. You excel in the act of grace. Do you have a vision to Excel? I say this, not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. Love can be proven. It can be tested. And you can tell if you love when your time and your talents and treasure, everything just flows into the direction of the one whom you love. And Paul uses the example of generosity, Macedonians to inspire the Corinthians verse nine, for you know the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ.This is what it's all rooted in. 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 might become rich. This is the greatest act of generosity in the universe. The God of this universe, the son of God who always existed, there was never a time that He was not. He did not start being when he was born. No, no. When He was born and He took on flesh. That's His incarnation. That's when His humanity started, but Jesus always was. So you've got the whole doctrine Jesus Christ. He was the Christ here in a nutshell, one person, two natures. And we have the greatest motive. We have the greatest motive for the greatest act to ever happened. Why did Jesus do this? Because He loves us and He wants to make us rich. Jesus wants to make you wealthy so He bankrupts himself to make you wealthy. Jesus Christ was poor on purpose.I've heard of people get really rich and then they get poor but it's never on purpose unless you're dying and then you're a philanthropist and you give everything away. My dad says that money is like oxygen. You only need it when you're alive. But Jesus Christ did this intentionally. And by the way, people looked at Jesus Christ and they're like, "Bro, you're poor." And He's like, "But I own everything." And by the way He could have also used, He had a very particular set of skills that He could have used to enrich Himself on earth. He could have started a tremendous wine business or a baker but he chose not to. He chose to bring a different kind of wealth into the world, a wealth that really matters. That's what he did so He loved and He died. So Jesus Christ was rich.We live in a world that demonizes wealth because we idolize it. Jonathan Edwards has this thing where he talks about the cycle of idolization and demonization where you idolize something, this is my savior and you realize it can't save you, you begin to demonize it. The world does this with money. We do this with people. And this is why one of the things I say as a pastor all the time, do not idolize me. I'm not the guy. I'm not Jesus. I'm just here literally just talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. It's not about me. It's about Jesus. I walk with Jesus and I'm going to tell you how I walk with Jesus but it's not about me. So do not idolize me because I've seen and then all of a sudden we're not friends. Same thing the world does with money. Is it inherently wrong to be rich? No, of course not. Is it inherently wrong to be poor? No. Jesus was both.There's righteous rich and righteous poor and there's unrighteous rich and unrighteous poor. And Jesus Christ said, "I came in here. I look poor but I was wealthy." Because you can be poor and wealthy at the same time. You go to countries that are not as materially prosperous as ours and you look at their life and they live a richer life. I was reading Solzhenitsyn this week. Solzhenitsyn he is famous for The Gulag Archipelago, where he was imprisoned. And by the way, if you want to really understand what the world is going through, read him. And one of the things that he said was when he got out of The Gulag, out of the prison for speaking truth, he got out of the prison and he would write in prison and he would memorize everything that he wrote and then he would burn the papers and then when he got out, he wrote it all down and he brought his best friends into his little cabin with a dirt floor and he for five hours recited his work because that's all he could give them.And their life was changed because they were enriched. That's what Jesus is saying. What does Jesus want in return for his word? For his work? He wants gratitude. Just like each one of us when we're generous to someone just say, thank you. Romans one, they didn't thank God, we didn't thank God. That's what sin is. Sin is in gratitude toward God. Jesus says, worship me, glorify me. Verse five, and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Generosity to others as the embodiment of Christ incarnation of his embodiment. What's the most generous thing that you can do to someone? The highest level of generosity. What is the absolute generous thing you can do to someone is help them understand the greatest act of generosity for them, help them understand that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, my sins, everybody.And He wants to forgive you so that you will have life with Him now, eternal life that begins now and for all of eternity. There is no greater gift that you can give anybody than the word of the gospel. There's no greatest act of generosity and that's why I need to say the following. A very famous quote was thrown around in the church all the time and it goes like this, preach gospel at all times and use words if necessary. Francis of Assisi, it's attributed to him but he never wrote it. It's actually very anachronistic.(silence)It's an oxymoronic quote because how did you get that quote in my mind? Did you come up to me and put your hand on my shoulder and infuse and inject those words into my mind. Did you buy me lunch and through that sandwich or just in my mind? No, you use words. And I hear what you're saying. I understand what you're saying but you're saying, you're using words. The problem is that quote, a lot of people use it as an excuse to justify the fact that they have never shared the gospel with another human being. Well you're being a mooch. You're being stingy with your greatest gift.So share the gospel. That's the point. Speaking the gospel's the most compassionate, the most empathetic, the most kind generous thing you can do. It's also the most savage thing you can do. In a world that says, "No, you can't talk about that." You're like, "Oh yeah, I'm going to talk about that." You need to believe in Jesus, repent of your sin because you're going to hell. I don't want you to. Let's go to heaven instead together. Savage. Savage love. So what I'm trying to say is don't Assisi-fy Christianity. Let's do what Jesus did. Jesus didn't just give us fruit from the tree of life. He welcomes us into the garden and shows us where to get it. Three is gift giving. And this is 2nd Corinthians 8:10 through 11. These verses are just an application of St. Paul of these principles.So I'm going to read them fast and I might skip some. In this matter I give my judgment. This benefits you who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also desire to do it so now finish doing it as well. So that your readiness and desire may be mashed by your completing it out of what you have. They had begun to gather lapsed, perhaps false teachers came in, perhaps they won the money themselves, but he says, I want you to give now because everyone's generous theoretically until you have to cut the check, until you have to hit the send button, until you have to actually take from yourself and give to another. Verse 12, for if the readiness is there it is acceptable according to what a person has not according to what he does not have.What he's saying is it's not about the amount, it's about your desire to give. He doesn't care who gives what. I have no idea who gives what at Mosaic. I have no idea. I don't have access to any of the finances. I have no idea. I only know how much one family gives. That's my family. And I look at that number every once in a while. I'm like, is this commensurate with how much I love? Verse 13, for I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need so their abundance may supply your need that there may be fairness. What he's saying is, right now, you are more prosperous than those people, so you should share. We teach little kids at home, hey, you guys share. It's not your Legos and it's not her Legos. It's my Legos.This is how you know that a child is maturing because a child actually turns around at mom who your whole life and I'm saying, did you eat? Are you hungry? Did you eat? Did you eat? You try and say, "Mom, did you eat?" There's a maturity in generosity. Verse 15. This is really a principle and he gets it from the old Testament. As it is written, whoever gathered much had nothing left over and whoever gathered little had no lack. And here he goes to when Israel is in the wilderness freed from captivity but they don't have access to food because they're in a desert. They ask God, God sends manna. So every day manna would fall from heaven. I think of manna as a Los Amigos burrito. That's how I think of manna from heaven, the surf and turf, praise God. So burritos are falling from heaven every single morning.And people they go up to grab their burrito. How many burritos are you going to eat? And you know that this burrito is actually going to go bad tomorrow so you can't save it. And you have a decision to make you grab your three burritos for the day, a very nutritious meal. There's a lot of burritos on the floor. You have decision to make. If you are an able bodied, healthy human being. The question, am I going to gather more for whom? Well, it's not for me because it's going to go bad. Am I going to gather for someone else? Perhaps was weak or frail or perhaps it was responsibilities at home like a single parent where I don't have time to go out and gather burritos.And the most industrious, the most driven would say, "You know what? This is an opportunity for me to serve my brothers and sisters. I am going to gather as much as I can to be as helpful as I can." Well that kind of vision for your life, it changes a person. It changes your capacity. One day you gathered 10 burritos, the next day you gathered 12. A year goes by and you're gathering 400 because you need to figure out how to organize people. Now you're managing other gatherers of burritos and after a while you develop the skillset of how the world works, leadership, et cetera, et cetera and then you get into the promised land and you have a certain skill set that other people do not. And this is where the gleaning laws come in. God knew this and he knew that the most industrious, the most diligent, the most self-driven and most ambitious are going to build businesses.So God says, "Look, when you build a business, when you got a farm, do not harvest absolutely every single bit. Don't maximize your profits." I want you to start a business from the perspective of generosity. And he says, "Leave things on the outskirts for the widow, the orphan and the immigrant." The American church today has lost the vision of the gleaning laws. So if you start a company, are you driven by generosity? Are you driven by greed like Facebook is, like Google is, like Apple is. If you publish an app in the app store or Google play, you know how much they take? They take 30%. They didn't build it.Let me speak to my fellow entrepreneurs. My culture creators, influencers, hustlers. Let me speak to founders. I know the heart of a founder, a heart of a founder is like a heart of a father. You are always thinking about your baby consciously or subconsciously. You have dreams about your baby. Build with generosity. To my fellow employees who work for bosses, I want you to understand that when you clock out, your boss does not. You stop thinking. You're like, "I don't get paid to think about this. I don't get paid to answer this email." Well your boss does not. So there's got to be generosity. A generous employees, generous bosses, generous CEOs, managers, generous consumers. I know a guy who's the most generous guy I have ever met. I'm going to tell you a story about him after. He's generous toward everybody except for Chipotle.They mess up his order and he is on the customer service line demanding extra burritos. Bro, generous tip. You got to tip. Most basic thing you can do. Generous lawyers, generous nurses and doctors, generous scientists, generous teachers, politicians, developers, builders, executive consultants, analysts, students, professors, generous in the food industry, generous in the international relations, generous bankers, investors, VCs, designers, artists, musicians, architects, childcare professionals. I've said pastors, athletes, comedians, and everyone I left out. And I want to speak here about someone that everyone leaves out, stay at home moms. My wife was a stay at home mom. You know in Russian what they say? What is your wife doing? And they say doma sidit. She sits at home?Come in my house for a day. Sits at home. My wife is a homemaker. That's her full-time job. That was a conscious decision. We live on one income. Why is it her full-time job? Because it's a full-time job to be my wife. So husbands if your wife works a full-time job, do not demand from her that being a mom and a wife is a full-time job. If you want it to be a full-time job, make it her full-time job. This sermon I like because this topic I like because it throws everyone for a loop. Where's Pastor Jan politically on? Let me just explain where I am politically, because the last few sermons when I go real talk people are like, "Where is he politically?" I went to Brown University. Even in the Ivy leagues it's the most liberal one. Everyone's like, "Oh, you went to Brown. Oh, that's weird. That's just weird."They don't have a business school on purpose. It doesn't help the endowment. So I went to Brown University, but I will go to church on Sundays at a Russian Baptist church as conservative in every perspective as possible. They were Republicans before they even learned English to know that they're Republicans. They're Republicans before they learned the word. So at church, I am the lib and at Brown everyone's like, "What is wrong with you?" There were tree huggers before that became a thing. And Bush was President and I bashed Bush and my dad called me a lib for bashing Bush.And then the libs love Bush now so was my dad a lib? That's where I am politically. Here's my analysis of being in these two worlds. Liberals are strong in works theoretically. The ideas when they hit the pavement, they don't work. They want someone else to be generous. Let's talk about your generosity. And conservatives, they're theoretical in the faith part. God, faith, family, freedom. Great. Let's talk about the faith. All of you need to repent. All of you. Satan sometimes comes as a Republican and sometimes he comes as a Democrat. And I'm an equal opportunity preacher. All of them need to repent, everybody. Trust in Jesus. That's what I'm saying.2nd Corinthians, I say that because on the one hand, I'm like, generosity. On the other hand, I'm thinking about homeschooling my kids. So where am I politically? I don't look at things through political lenses. I look at things through biblical lenses which makes it hard for people to make sense sometimes. 2nd Corinthians 8:16 through 18. But thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus. So now he's talking about Titus generosity. The same earnest care I have for you for he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he's going to you of his own accord so Titus is generous with his time. With him we're sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. Great thing to be famous for. Was Paul generous? Of course he was, but he's not talking about his generosity here. He talks about Titus. The brother of preach the gospel. He's talking about the Macedonians.Being generous specifically when people do not deserve it. That's what we're talking about. My friend Walt is one of the most generous people I've ever met. He was our video guy so I'm going to talk about Walt for a second. I bought new couches for my basement from Bob's Furniture. Tremendous place. I bought these new couches. They're supposed to get delivered. So I'm waiting. I'm supposed to get delivered 3:00 PM. They got delivered at 10:30 PM so I'm like, these guys do not deserve anything. It was raining. I saw the guys, they pulled up to my place. I'm like, "Hey, why are you guys late?" And they said, "We got Storrow-ed." You know what that means? Yeah, look it up. They got Storrow-ed. I look at the truck. Yeah, they got Storrow-ed. The truck was too tall for the bridges on the Storrow. I'm like, oh, okay. This is the first time.And then it's raining. They're bringing the couches in. They scratched the mop. Either take my doors off. They wouldn't do that and I brought half the couch in and then Walt comes to me, there's three guys and he's like, "Hey, do you have any cash?" I was like, "For what?" Cash. "To tip them." I said, "Number one, it's not your couch. Number two, they didn't deserve it." And he said, "Yeah, that's why it's a gift." He gave each guy 20 bucks. 20 bucks and I gave him diet Cokes after. That's generosity. 2nd Corinthians 8:19, not only that but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out the act of grace as being ministered by us for the glory of himself in the show of good will. And then he continues in verse 20. We take this course meaning Paul himself is going to be with them, but he's not holding the money, representatives from each church are going so that no one's asking questions. That's verse 20.We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that's being administered by us for we aim at what is honorable, not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of man. So he's saying, I'm taking extra precautions so that no one has any questions. So there's no malfeasance. That's what he's doing. So this is very unique because St. Paul has an open heart. I want to be generous but he's got an open mind. He understands the way this fallen world works and he understands that there's measures to take to make sure that no one's asking questions. It's a discerning generosity. Jesus said, "Be gentle as doves but shrewd as serpents." Because what is generosity? What is grace? It's giving people a gift that they do not deserve but if you are a generous person, what can happen is people just start expecting you.You're supposed to be generous to me. And if they're expecting it, now it's not a gift. It's cheap grace, you paid for it, but it's cheap because they don't value it because they feel entitled to it. And this is why a lot of Christians get taken advantage of because you are not discerning that a lot of people are still sinners. You're a sinner, they're a sinner, all's a sinner. So there's an aspect of total depravity. So sometimes to these people, the most loving thing you can do is say, "Hey, get a job and I'll help you get a job." Because sometimes helping actually hurts and the most generous thing to do is not help. Let me just give you an illustration from one of my least favorite things to do in the world, washing dishes. I do not do it often but when I do wash the dishes, I expect everyone to notice.Because as soon as you've stopped noticing, I stop washing. And here in lie, the source of so much of the gender role struggles. It's a secret, I'm here to reveal the secret to you. Men and women view dishwashing differently. Women washed the dishes after they eat, men wash the dishes before they eat. Because man if you washing the dishes just gave you a lot of things, supply and demand. If I supplied too much then the price goes down. So this is the way, why wash the dishes every day and my wife might stop noticing when I can wash the dishes once a week and she's ecstatic?And the point is notice when people are generous to you. Just say thank you. Don't take it for granted because then it's not a gift anymore. St. Paul view generosity through concentric circles, generous to the Lord, generous to the church. He wasn't married. So I got to bring in a few concentric circles. I'm generous to the Lord. That's my first circle. My second circle is, how can I be generous to my wife? My third circle is, how can be generous to my daughters? My fourth circle is, how can I be generous to my grandchildren?Then I say, how can we generous to my parents, siblings, friends, coworkers, community group, church members, attenders, neighbors and I want to be a reverse tither. So how much we need? God's got it. Verse 23, as for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker. For your benefit as for our brothers, they're messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. So the churches are the glory of Christ so why wouldn't we invest? So prove before the churches of your love and of your boasting about you to these men. Give proof of your love in the context of finances. I'll close with the story before we go into communion, a story of Doyva and Rufina Angira. Rufina was from Siberia. Doyva was from Finland. They met in Narva, Estonia in the '80s. My dad was Doyva's manager at a factory that my dad worked at.And one of my dad's jobs was to give out bonuses at the end of the month, depending on who worked the best. Well there were drunks in the factory because everyone had to work. So if you got fired on one job, you just get another job and it's not about performance by you just showing up so they wouldn't really work. So he would take their bonuses and give it the Doyva. Salary was 200 rubles a month. My dad would make sure that it's an extra 50, 60 rubles a month extra for Doyva. The reason why that's important is because Doyva had eight kids and they were so poor that the whole family could not go outside for a walk because they didn't have enough sets of clothing. So my dad was generous to this guy. My dad shared with me this week, he said, one time, the first time he did it, Doyva will get his check-in and he's looking at it and he had bad eyesight. He's trying to figure out why is the number wrong?And then it finally hit him and he looks at my dad and he says, "May God bless you for that generosity." Well, one of the things that Doyva did was he was writing to the US Senate for a decade. He had been writing since the late '80s for a decade. Hey, I can't live in the Soviet Union as a Christian. I can't feed my family. I need refugee status to come to the United States. And he was granted it and he moved to Providence, Rhode Island. And he's the one that actually invited my family. He forced my dad to give them all the information. And then when my sister Aida was born, she was born in '88. My dad got the invitation and then finally he applied and he got a visa.So our family, with $700 in my dad's pocket, my family immigrated to the United States in Providence, Rhode Island and Doyva, I'll never forget, he came to pick us up in his beater and he was so happy to be in the land of milk and honey. That generosity, alleged generosity but then the cycle continued. My dad made it a mission in his life to help immigrants. How many times have you heard of immigrants coming? There was always finances. There was always groceries. He would help them and he would hire them. We live in a country where everyone's talking about theoretical generosity. We have 11 million undocumented immigrants living here amongst us. Are you generous to your neighbor? Receive the grace of Jesus Christ. If you haven't, grace is a generous gift giving. This isn't just a phrase, it's philosophy of life. Jesus lived like this so let us live like this.

1 (7m 49s): We are your children. 2 (12m 20s): Gotcha. Thank you for that gospel song that declares our sin is forgiven. Our debt has been paid Lord. We are so refreshed by that revelation, that truth God, as we open up the scripture today and we talk about forgiveness, or I pray that that truth would just continue to resonate in our souls and that we'd be so grateful. And then in turn, forgive those who need forgiveness in our lives. Lord God, that we would extend to those who have injured us, hurt us, offended us God, that we would extend the same grace that has been extended to us by our savior, that we would indeed be Jesus with skin on extending the grace and mercy that is so desperately needed in our lives in our culture. 2 (13m 14s): Lord God. So we just invite you to just do powerful and profound things through your word today. Thank you for what you've already done through just prayer and worship together and what you accomplish in the first service. Got we have great expectation that you're going to continue that good work for the second service Lord. And so God all over this campus and online, we just invite you to move to speak. God, I pray that our hearts would be tender and responsive and humble and ready, and God that we would do what you ask us to do. We love you. 2 (13m 54s): Thank you for loving us so well, we bless you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Hey, if you're in youth group, go ahead. You can be dismissed. Now kids can be dismissed and we're going to have the rest of the service. Thank you very much. Appreciate that Amanda. Hey, we're in Lima today, but before we go there, the guys had a camp out this weekend. We call it a camp out, but it was really pretty plush. It was, it was at this ranch, this 600 acre ranch out in called the sharp ranch and we call it camping cause we were intense and that sort of thing, but it was on this lush green grass. 2 (14m 38s): That was just incredible with a great outdoor kitchen and bathrooms and the whole, whole nine yards. And then we just had this incredible chapel to gather in out there at the sharp ranch. And so we gathered and got there Friday nights and had a, I taught through Hebrews 11 about faith. And then Ron on Saturday morning talked about endurance. And so worships talked about faith and enduring and worship some more. And then I said, Hey guys, go out and spend about 45 minutes and just pray and ask the Lord to speak something to you regarding what we've been learning and just what God wants to speak to you. 2 (15m 18s): Just go out there and listen to the Lord. And then we're going to come back and talk about it. So we did that. We came back and we talked about it and really the best part of the whole 24 hour period that we had out there was just the testimonies of God's faithfulness. And so if you missed it, man planned to be a part of what's going on when we do it again, we'll do it again, probably around this time. Next year we'll have another camp, but maybe sooner it was so rich and refreshing and it's just a time for men to connect. And we had great food. We had some amazing try to for dinner. And then just this amazing we had, we cooked up so much bacon for breakfast. I mean the guys went through and they took as much bacon as they wanted. 2 (15m 59s): And they came back for more. It was just, there was this abundance of bacon. You can never go wrong with bacon and try to get with guys and hotcakes and all kinds of stuff. It was just an incredible time, but God was on the move with our men, this, this last 24 hours. And I'm really refreshed by that and really grateful for it. And I think God wants to do something with us today. As we teach through files Lehman, finally, man is all about forgiveness. I've titled the message today. Forgiveness is possible. Philemon is all about forgiveness. The apostle Paul writes as he's in a Roman cell, writes this letter to his friend, Phi Lehman, his partner in the faith. 2 (16m 44s): And he affirms him and blesses him through the words that he writes. And then he challenges him to receive again, to forgive, to extend grace to his servant, this slave that he hadn't named. Onesimus when he said miss had done something to cross FY Lehman to break trust with him. And then he ran away and somehow we encountered Paul and Paul had an impact in Onesimus life, led him to faith in Christ and, and then Onesimus became this really helpful person in Paul's life as he was in the prison cell there. And so Paul writes this letter challenging. 2 (17m 29s): Oh nice for Lehman to forgive when he summits. And it's a, it's a powerful thing. We've been talking a lot about forgiveness recently. It's kind of a theme. Well, at least it's a theme in my life. As I shared my story about my journey, forgiving my dad and what God did to kind of scrub my soul and to free me up. And that's, I think that's what God wants to do. Supernaturally the things God wants to do in us as supernatural. It's like, we can't see it, but we can experience it and we can feel it. We can walk through it and experience the blessings of it. And so when we're able to walk in freedom by forgiving others who have offended us, because who hasn't been offended, right? We've all been offended. Maybe it's somebody who just cut us off on the freeway and we just have to say bless them or right. 2 (18m 11s): I forgive that person, but maybe it's a deeper offense and we just have to work through it. And like I said, a couple of weeks ago, our life is kind of like in again, as layers, peel back, things are exposed and we have to deal with those things again. And so some people are easy to forgive because it's slight offense, but other people are really difficult to forgive. Well, Paul is challenging his brother in the faith. Do what God has asked you to do extend grace and mercy and love to your new brother in the faith. Paul says he's no longer just a slave to you, but a brother in the Lord. 2 (18m 51s): And so Paul gave this pretty heavy, had this pretty heavy expectation for his friend, but he knew because of God's grace and mercy, that he could do it. And that's my confidence for us when God raises the bar in our life. I just know that we can do it by God's grace because he's working in our lives. We've surrendered to him. We've submitted to him. And when we've surrendered and submitted to him, there's just untold goodness that can flow into our lives and out of our lives by his grace. And so as we get into five Lehman, I just want you to kind of buckle up and just be ready to respond. Maybe the Lord has already brought somebody to your hearts, your mind. 2 (19m 35s): I need to forgive that fly. Can you guys see it flying around or is it just my imagination? Just my imagination. That's not the first time I've had that going on. So just avail yourself of male, yourself, to what God might want to do in your life and your relationships with your friends, coworkers, family members, neighbors, and see what he will do. Forgiveness is possible. I say this all the time, everything that God wants to do in us and with us and through us is only accomplished through the power of the holy spirit at work in our lives. And so we've got to be filled empowered by God to do what he's asked us to do. 2 (20m 17s): And so today the big ask is forgiveness. Will you forgive? Will you choose to forgive the person in your life or the people in your life that have offended you, forgiveness is possible in Christ. So this letter to Phi Lehman is all about that. It's all about forgiveness. This has been again, kind of a theme. And so it's interesting that God keeps bringing this to the surface in our church, in my life and in our lives as a congregation. So maybe the Lords preparing us for something else, getting us ready for this decision to forgive and to let go and to, in a sense, get our souls scrubbed because I tell you, when I forgave my dad, I felt like I didn't even realize, but I felt like I had been like polluted and dirty and my soul cause I've been harboring so much. 2 (21m 10s): You know, I didn't realize it until it was revealed to me. And maybe you're here in, God's going to reveal something of the condition of your soul. And he, he just, he wants to reveal it to you so he can scrub it and clean it and free it from all of that stuff. That's in your heart that you're harboring. And so this is Paul's desire to reconcile these two men to allow the spirit of God, to do a work in finally men setting him free, equipping them to do the incredible work that God has called him to do. So Paul is writing to his friend. Filey Lehman asking finally meant to forgive. Onesimus a runaway slave who has wronged him in some way. 2 (21m 53s): The first one there's only one chapter flip finally Lehman one, one. This letter is from Paul, the prisoner for preaching the good news about Christ Jesus and from our brother Timothy. So Paul he's in a prison cell. He could be having a pity party. He could be harboring his own bitterness toward those who are holding him or those who have falsely accused him. But instead he's seeing the big picture and he sees he's got work to do. He's got work, the work of encouraging the saints, the people of God to do the right thing. And he's, he's a perfect candidate to speak this truth because he's living in an unjust situation. Like he has been falsely accused and imprisoned for simply preaching the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (22m 38s): And so he's in this place and he could have a hard heart, but he chooses, he chooses to have a tender heart and to be led by the Lord. This letter is from Paul, a prisoner for preaching the good news about Christ Jesus and from our brother Timothy I'm writing to by Lehman our beloved coworker and to our sister of FIA and to our fellow soldier, Archie piss into the church that meets in your house. May God, our father and the Lord, Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. So Paul didn't just write this letter to fight Lehman. He and Timothy together wrote this letter to Filey men and to others around finally men and to the church that meets in their house. 2 (23m 22s): See what seem like this letter should be a personal letter friend to friend, but there was something going on that caused Paul to write this letter with Timothy to this group, this group of people, there was something happening in the congregation of believers. And so Paul writes to these people, he writes because number one of your unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. Unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. So it's not just about fire Lehman needing to forgive a runaway slave Onesimus is now a brother in Christ and the unforgiveness that's being harbored in fire. 2 (24m 6s): Lehman's heart is impacting those around and that's what happens. We don't just sin and I'm going to call it Sandy. Cause that's what the Bible calls it. Unforgiveness is sin. And so we don't just sit in a bubble, but our sin impacts the people who are in our sphere of influence. And so we need to understand that unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. And so Paul didn't just write the letter to buy Lehman. Paul and Timothy wrote this letter to and to the church that meets in their home. And so it's a letter meant to be dispersed to more than just a Phi Lehman. His message was a message to fire Lehman, but its implications touch the body of believers at Colossi. 2 (24m 50s): So why? Because unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. So verse four says, I always think my God, when I pray for you find Lehman, because I keep hearing about your faith in the Lord, Jesus and your love for all of God's people. So by Lehman had received forgiveness from God. And now he is growing in his faith as a believer, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ and with growth and maturity comes greater ability and greater responsibility. As we grow in our faith and growing our understanding and growing the power of God comes greater ability. 2 (25m 33s): Meaning God gives us the ability to do things that maybe we couldn't do when we were in our before Christ days or when we were young believers. But as we grow in maturity, we grow, we there, it comes greater ability and responsibility. So Paul is calling Phi Lehman to this place of responsibility. You have to own this and you have to deal with it for six. And I am praying that you will put into action. The generosity that comes from your faith, as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ. So it's time for Phi Lima to put into action. What he's been learning and experiencing. 2 (26m 13s): He, he needs to now put into action. What he's experienced, he's experienced the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And then he's walked with God for a time now. And so now Paul is saying, Hey, it's time for you to do what has happened to you. You've been graciously forgiven by a good and faithful God. And actually now you have the responsibility to forgive others in your life. You get to be Jesus skin on forgiving. Those who have offended, you extending grace and mercy to those who do not deserve it. 2 (26m 54s): It's time for Phi Lehman to put into action. What he's been learning and experiencing. He gets to be like Jesus and extend forgiveness to the one who has wronged him. And it's a legitimate wrong something happened and it caused, and he said, Mr. Runaway, and in his running, he found Paul somehow. And in his running, he found a new life in Jesus. And God was beginning to put things back together for fire Lehman. His faith is beginning to cost him. The cost is now you buy Lehman are responsible. 2 (27m 34s): You've got responsibilities within the kingdom to work beyond yourself, beyond your own ability, beyond your own capacity, to trust and to be filled with the holy spirit and do what you are called and commanded to do. He was, it was going to cost him something to do what God had asked him to do, but his faith will also give him the ability to do the supernatural God work. And it's a God work. Isn't it. When we extend grace, we're just being like God, when we say I forgive you and I love you now, there's some people that we forgive that we see still keep a distance from because they're unsafe, but we must forgive. 2 (28m 16s): So we forgive and we keep them at a distance and we bless them from a distance. And then there's others like with Phi Lehman. And Onesimus Paul saying, Hey, you bring it back to yourself and love him and forgive him and welcome him back into your world. And so maybe there are people that we have to welcome back into our world. And by God's grace, we're able to do that by God's grace. We're able to extend that kind of mercy. And then there's others. We say, I forgive you from a distance. God bless you, but you're not safe. And we need to keep our distance. So I Lehman was called to the supernatural purposes of God. 2 (28m 57s): Paul said, your love has given me much joy and comfort. My brother see the kindness, the tenderness. This is a great example. Paul's a great example of challenging the body of Christ, challenging believers to do the right thing. He's affirming him and loving him and then raising the bar in his life. He's saying you're, you're growing my brother. I'm so encouraged by your growth. Let's raise the bar in your life. There's something more that God has for you. He's been doing amazing things as a believer, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. But there's more, there's, there's this and dealt with issue in your life. And maybe there's an issue in our lives in your life that needs to be dealt with. 2 (29m 39s): You're like most of my life is good, but there's just this one thing. Maybe it's a person that needs forgiveness. Maybe it's a sin that just is not being addressed. Maybe it's an issue that you need to pray through. God would challenge us as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. You get it all dealt with and to get it all handled, to do business with the Lord. Your love has given me much joy and comfort. My brother for your kindness is often refresh the hearts of God's people. I believe that God has been preparing for Lehman and probably preparing each of us to hear this message today about forgiveness by Lehman had been growing and, and been used by the Lord to refresh the people of God. 2 (30m 22s): And now the bar was going to be raised in his life. And he was going to have the opportunity to refresh someone who had hurt him deeply by extending grace and mercy. It's a supernatural thing. It's something that we cannot do that we can't even imagine doing in our own strength and our own human capacity, but God gives us the grace to do it. So God has been preparing for Lehman for this moment, as it's obvious, his loving kindness for others has been a source of refreshing to the people of God. He's going to now have the opportunity to refresh someone who has been at odds with it. Doesn't sound like by is a bad guy. Sounds like he's a pretty good guy. 2 (31m 4s): Just struggling to do the right thing in this situation. And in this scenario, it isn't, God's so good to point out these things so that we can do business with the Lord so that we can be freed up by his grace and mercy so that our souls can be scrubbed from the ugliness that contaminates us from this world and for sin and unforgiveness. And so the Lord saying, Hey, I want to free you up so I can clean you up. And so that you can be free in Jesus name, unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. Number one, and number two, we need to realize as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, people who've received the grace and mercy of God. 2 (31m 45s): That number two forgiveness is not optional. It's not optional. It's actually required that we would forgive Matthew six, 14, and 15. Jesus said, if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your father will not forgive your sins, man. I think what Jesus is saying is listen, when you've experienced the mercy and the forgiveness, the grace of our good God and savior Jesus Christ. 2 (32m 28s): When, when you've truly experienced that, and you understand it at your core, that once you were lost and now you've been found you were blind, but now you see God resurrected your life. He has saved you. He's extended forgiveness and grace. And now out of that experience, God is calling us to forgive those that we need to forgive. He's saying, if you, if you've really experienced that supernatural work of God in your life, then you will have the capacity by my grace to extend it to others. If you, if you cannot do it, then maybe you've missed out on the forgiveness of God. Maybe you don't really have the forgiveness of God and you need to do some business with the Lord. 2 (33m 10s): I think, I think if we realize what Jesus is saying, we need to take serious. This issue of forgiveness. It's not optional. So maybe you're sitting here today and say, man, I've, I don't know how to forgive this person. Well, God knows how he does. He does. I was thinking about my life and what a scoundrel I was. And before Christ found me. And then I think about my life and what a scoundrel. I still am even as a follower of Christ. And I think God has found a way to forgive me by his grace because his mercy is so abundant and his love is so unconditional. I think, man, if God can continue to forgive me, man, I, I, by God's grace can extend that to others. 2 (33m 51s): And so if we pray, we say, Lord, I don't know how to do it, but I want to do it. I don't have the capacity, but God make me capable. Lord, would you help me? And then we just begin to do what we say, Lord, I forgive that person. I released that person from their, their debts. I don't want to hold that against them anymore. And then what happens is that your soul gets scrubbed and you begin to feel free in Jesus name. You begin to feel the, the new life that is meant to be yours in Christ Jesus in Luke 17, three through four, Jesus said, so watch yourselves. If another believer, the Greek word is your brother. If your brother sins rebuke that person, then if there is repentance forgive. 2 (34m 37s): But if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asked for forgiveness, you must forgive. Like, Lord, Lord, are you crazy? Are you being serious? Like they keep hurting me. They keep offending me. And that's why sometimes we just need to forgive and distance ourselves. So we're not continually being hurt by the same person. So there's wisdom in that. We forgive them from a distance. We love them from a distance by God's grace, but we need to continue to forgive. And so maybe if you're in a situation where you're just continuing to get hurt, continually getting hurt by the same person, just maybe it's time to figure out a way to distance yourself, get some counseling with that person, with a counselor who can help you mitigate the problems and deal with the problems. 2 (35m 17s): But, but forgiveness is not optional. Jesus is pretty clear about the topic of forgiveness. It's not optional. Paul's appeal to an Islamist versa. That is why I'm boldly asking a favor of you. I could demand it in the name of Christ because it is the right thing for you to do. Paul saying, I, as an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ, knowing the, the plans and purposes of God, I could demand, but isn't it so much better when we can from the heart, allow God to change us. And from the heart begin to extend that grace and mercy, that's what Paul wanted for five Lehman. 2 (36m 0s): He knew that if he could appeal to his heart and get a heart change, that it would be a lasting grace and forgiveness. That can be, that could be extended. He said, but because of our love, I prefer simply to ask you consider this a request for me, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner for the sake of Christ. Jesus. I appeal to you to show kindness to my child. Onesimus I became his father in the faith while here in prison. Onesimus is the name means useful and that's telling, and now this next verse goes, he, his name means useful. 2 (36m 43s): And so in verse 11 says, Onesimus, hasn't been of much use to you in the past, but now he is very useful to both of us. I am sending him back to you and with him comes my own heart. I wanted to keep him here with me while I'm in these chains for preaching the good news. And he would have helped me on your behalf, but I didn't want to do anything without your consent. I wanted you to help because you are willing not because you were forced. It seems you lost Onesimus for a little while so that you could have him back forever. You lost him as a slave for a little while, but you're going to have him back forever as a brother in Christ, living together with him forever and ever into eternity together with the Lord. 2 (37m 34s): And so you lost him for a moment. God wants to reconcile you back together, not as slave and master, but as brothers in Christ, you see at the foot of the cross, the level that the ground is level, we all come to Christ the same way in desperate need of his mercy. So whether slave or master, whether a parcel or whatever it may be, we come to the Lord desperately in need of his mercy and grace and people all around us desperately need that from us. They need Jesus with skin on maybe, and maybe just maybe your extension of grace to someone else will warm them up to the extension of grace from the living God, as they experienced it in the human realm, that they might experience it in the spiritual realm from the Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 (38m 24s): He is no longer like a slave to you. He has more than a slave for you as a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean much more to you, both as a man and as a brother and the Lord unforgiveness negatively impacts God's family. That's why Paul is writing this letter, hoping for reconciliation. That's why I'm preaching this message today. Hoping for reconciliation, that grace would be extended across the aisle and to one another in the congregation of the saints, the believers at harvest church. And beyond that, we would extend this grace and mercy to the people we know and people who we don't know, but we'd be free. And Jesus, just to let people be forgiven and forgiveness negatively impacts God's family. 2 (39m 10s): Forgiveness is not optional. Number two, and number three forgiven people must learn to forgive others. Forgiven people must learn to forgive others in Matthew 1821 and 22. Then Peter came to him to Jesus and asked Lord how often is not a great question, how what's really required of me, Lord. How often should I forgive someone in the Greek? My brother? How often should I forgive? My brother who sends against me seven times seems generous. No Jesus said not seven times, but 70 times seven can continuously forgive your brother continuously. 2 (39m 58s): Forgive those who have sinned against you. We must as the body of Christ who have been forgiven by the mercy and grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We must learn to extend that to other people. It's the gospel work in the earth that God wants to accomplish. He wants the body of Christ to be United and merciful and gracious to one another and United and gracious and merciful to the world so that we might draw people to Jesus. So if you consider me your partner, Paul writes, what's the partnership having to it's the partnership in the gospel, right? 2 (40m 39s): He said, Hey, if we're taking this gospel message to the world, if we're taking it to our world, and yet we can't forgive one, another of what, where's the power in the gospel message. If that power, if that gospel message doesn't have the power to transform our lives so that we might forgive others. Then where is the real power? So if you consider me your partner, welcome him, as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it. And I won't mention that you owe me your very soul. 2 (41m 21s): So Paul was instrumental in leading Phi Lehman to the Lord. Paul was instrumental in leading Onesimus to the Lord. And so now, as brothers in the Lord, he's working with them to help reconcile their lives together so that when the world, well, for a number of reasons, so that when the world sees us as the body of Christ, the world sees this United gracious group of people who are just trying to, by faith with endurance, serve the Lord together. And so that when they world sees that there'll be drawn in by that incredible and supernatural work of God that they're not seeing in the world and beyond just the impact that our ability to forgive others will have in the world, in the church, we get scrubbed of all of that junk. 2 (42m 14s): That's in our soul. That's holding us up and that's blocking us from really moving into supernatural life as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So Paul is giving five Lehman the big picture perspective, Hey, sometimes we can get so focused right here. So narrow and so focused on the wrong Stephan. And Paul's like, say, Hey, step back a bit and imagine what God might want to do. If you're freed up from all of this stuff, we sometimes feel justified and holding onto our unforgiveness. We want to hold on to it because it's a safe, familiar thing to us, but it's really cancer. 2 (42m 57s): And it's really eating away at us and destroying our fellowship and string our ability to trust God together and move forward together. Verse 20. Yes, my brother. Please do me this favor for the Lord's sake. Give me this encouragement in Christ. Paul's all in it. He's like I'm being impacted by this together. Let's work this out and, and find some resolution and some reconciliation. I'm confident as I write this letter that you will do what I ask and even more poly great confidence. And if I Lehman, and even as I preach this message, I have great confidence that God is working in this congregation of believers, that he's working in your hearts and minds, bringing you to a place of tenderness so that you might extend forgiveness to those in your life. 2 (43m 43s): And then with that tenderness and forgiveness, freedom in Jesus name re renewed joy and confidence in Christ, renewed passion for him, renewed love for people. When we let all that injury go and allow God to heal us where we've got capacity to love people. Again, we've got capacity to love God. Again, we've got people capacity to bring people close to us. Again, some of us have been so guarded because we've been so hurt that we've got people at a distance. We've got God at a distance and we're just trying to survive life. And God's got mad at, you said I got a better plan for you, better life for you, better purpose for you. Just let me just let me heal you in Jesus name. 2 (44m 24s): So I've got great confidence that as you listen today, and as we've read through five Lehman and going to finish up here in a moment that God's going to do profound things in our lives, I've been a testimony to it as I spoke a few weeks ago. And as I'm still feeling just the grace on my life because of the, the, the journey that God took me through and allowing me to see my need to forgive my dad. And it's just been incredible. He says, unconfident as I write this letter that you will do what I ask and even more. And one more thing you said is please prepare a guestroom for me, where I'm hoping that God will answer your prayers and let me return to you soon. 2 (45m 5s): So he says, Hey, when you deal with this thing, yeah, get, get a room ready for me. And you know what I like to eat. And you know what? I, you know, what I'm comfortable with. And so take care of that. For me, William Paul is giving five Lima, the big picture perspective, showing him how to live his life in the context of kingdom, life and perspective. And then he writes in verse 23, the pap us, my fellow prisoner in Christ. Jesus sends you his greetings. So do mark. Aaron Stark is Demas. And Luke, my coworkers may the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ be with your spirits. And that's what I will say over us. 2 (45m 46s): May the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, be with your spirits as you surrender to him and yield to God and allow the word of God and the spirit of God to direct you and to heal you and to set you free. There's great stuff in store for us. So with that, let's go ahead and stand up. We're going to worship. And so I would just encourage you to do business with the Lord. God has been speaking and he's got purpose in his speaking. And so allow God to finish the work that he's begun in your life and just watch what will happen. It's going to be good. All right, let's get ready to worship. Thank you Lord. As these guys get ready, Lord, we just, we thank you. 2 (46m 26s): We thank you, God that you speak to us and that you call us to greater purpose, that you don't let us wallow in our sin and our unforgiveness, but you call us by your grace and mercy to greater Heights and greater purpose and a greater life. And so Lord help us to walk in that by your grace in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's worship 1 (54m 2s): Your name is Terraform. We thank you for this moment that we get to sing to you. Jesus, that we get to lift your name. Hi, Thank you, father. You are good. And We thank you, father. You were faithful When we are faithless, you are faithful. So we love you. We praise you. It's in your precious name. We pray.

‘Three A-letter named Zelda friends…' ‘Three Triangles…' ‘…The Triforce Trio Rises!' ✨

Grace and Works – it’s a topic that comes up several times in the New Testament. Paul addresses the topic here in chapter 2 of his letter to the church of Colossi. Welcome to the FBC Round table discussion for this evening. If you have your Bible you can join us in Galatians chapter two […]