Podcasts about first corinthians

February 25, 2026

Rick and Svea continue their challenging journey through First Corinthians, tackling Chapter 6 which addresses conflict within the church. They explore Paul's confronting question: "Why not rather be wronged?" and discuss how the Corinthian believers were taking each other to court instead of resolving disputes within the community.They examine three key perspectives: theological (understanding our eschatological identity in Christ), ecclesiological (recognizing we're one body and conflict hurts us all), and leadership (accepting that being misunderstood comes with the territory). They share personal vulnerabilities about their own "insecurity cards"—Rick's struggle with being misunderstood and Svea's feelings of inadequacy—and discuss how the cruciform lifestyle (self-sacrificing love modeled by Jesus on the cross) should shape how Christians handle conflict.The conversation emphasizes that while conflict is inevitable, we're called to seek security and satisfaction in Christ alone rather than demanding affirmation from others. They explore practical applications for church life, leadership, and personal relationships, highlighting how choosing to "rather be wronged" isn't about tolerating abuse but about prioritizing others' needs and protecting confidentiality—even when it means taking the hit yourself.Topics discussed in this episode:00:00 Introduction01:45 Nine Sacred Pathways & Spiritual Connection04:45 Conflict in the Corinthian Church06:35 Insecurity Cards Discussion09:10 Self-Awareness & Growth12:10 Jesus & Paul Were Misunderstood13:10 Taking an Eschatological Perspective15:25 Cruciform Way of Life18:15 Three Lenses: Theological Perspective21:25 "Why Not Rather Be Wronged?"22:43 Three lenses: Ecclesiological Perspective - Body of Christ 25:20 Not Demanding Affirmation from Others27:50 Woman at the Well - John 429:10 Representing Jesus Well30:25 Three lenses: Leadership Perspective - Being Misunderstood 31:52 Leadership & Confidentiality34:35 Practical Leadership Example37:00 Decision Tree - When to Take the Hit38:15 Closing Remarks

Pastor David Harris Wednesday February 18, 2026

Pastor David Harris Wednesday February 11, 2026

Send a textWhat if your family's future could feel lighter, clearer, and more united because the foundation was already settled? We share how choosing Jesus first reframed everything—how we dated, how quickly we married, where we moved, and how we navigate conflict and calling. From missions in hard places to late-night hospitality, our story keeps circling the same truth: love that lasts is sacrificial, not self-serving.We open Scripture to anchor love in reality, not vibes. First John 4 reminds us that love starts with God. First Corinthians 13 shows how love behaves when no one is watching—patient, kind, honest, steady. Genesis 2 calls us to leave and cleave, forming a new team. Then Ephesians 5 levels up the standard: submission as sub-mission under God's purpose, and husbands loving like Christ by laying down pride and comfort. This is not theory. It looks like shared calendars, shared budgets, shared decisions, and the humility to say, “Let's pray first.”Most couples don't crash over one big thing; they drift over a thousand unsaid words. We name the usual hotspots—sex, money, and family—and offer simple ways to talk before crisis. A premarital toolkit or a quick SWOT analysis can turn a gut feeling into a wise plan, and prayer can set pace and boundaries before a move or a purchase. We also talk about relaying a shaky foundation. It's never too late to reset your home on Christ, rebuild trust with small acts of respect and service, and date your spouse with intention.You'll hear stories of contentment before marriage, a near-impossible move while pregnant, tense moments where mission and marriage had to realign, and the deep peace that only comes when your feet stand on rock. Whether single, newlywed, or decades in, our hope is the same: as you move closer to God, you'll move closer to each other. If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more families can find a foundation that holds.Cornerstonehttps://www.cornerstoneaz.org/Follow Jesushttps://www.cornerstoneaz.org/follow-...Life Groups https://www.cornerstoneaz.org/life-gr...Giving https://cornerstoneaz.churchcenter.co...Church Center App - Download then add Cornerstone Christian Center in Avondale, AZiOShttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-ch...Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...----Instagram cornerstoneaz Facebook cornerstoneaz.org Twitter cornerstoneaz.org

Mass Readings for Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - February 15, 2026 Reading 1, Sirach 15:15-20 Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34 Reading 2, First Corinthians 2:6-10 Gospel, Matthew 5:17-37

Thank you to Dave, Earl, Jade, Zach, and Don for being part of the service. Songs from this service: Firm Foundation - https://youtu.be/UfDFgYG-62Q -- All Hail The Power Of Jesus Name - https://youtu.be/T8IdK0KgJ0A -- Lead Me To Calvary - https://youtu.be/abb1FvD1YMA -- His Mercy Is More - https://youtu.be/Yv66MwwS4No -- Sing Hallelujah To The Lord - https://youtu.be/qimwYiChOWA -- I Am Thine O Lord - https://youtu.be/mi1cODPkQfU -- The Blessing - https://youtu.be/gcZ_chRtwLI Scriptures from this service: Communion - 1 Corinthians 11:17 (NLT); 1 Corinthians 11:18-19 (NLT); 1 Corinthians 11:20-22 (NLT); 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NLT); 1 Corinthians 11:26 (NLT); 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 (NLT). Old Testament Reading - Hosea 2:19-23 (NIrV). New Testament Reading - 1 Corinthians 1:4-6. Sermon - 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1:3; 1:4-6; 1:10-11; 1:12; 1:13-15; 1:16-17; 1:20-21; 1:30; 3:9; 4:15-16; 4:15; 9:24 10:1-2; 10:18; 10:19-20; 10:24; 10:33; 11:2-3; 11:20-21; 11:28; 12:27; 15:1-3; 15:12; 15:27; 15:51-54; 15:58; 16:13-15; 16:19; 16:21; Hosea 13:14. [accordion] [accordion-item title="NIV Copyright" state=closed]Scripture quotations marked (NIV) taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version© NIV© Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.[/accordion-item][accordion-item title="NLT Copyright" state=closed]Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.[/accordion-item][accordion-item title="NIrV Copyright"]Scripture quotations marked NIrV taken from The Holy Bible, New International Reader's Version®, NIrV® Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc. used with permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com[/accordion-item][/accordion]

February 11, 2026

We don't tiptoe around spiritual warfare… We name it, claim it, and wage it. We don't coddle the culture… We confront it with Scripture. We don't settle for passive minds, we take the battle to the battlefield—the mind.Today, Paul M. Neuberger tears down the myth that faith is just a private affair or a Sunday ritual. He exposes the real front line: your thought life. He calls out comfortable Christianity. He rebukes unchecked thinking. He slams the door on the victim mentality.It's time to crucify excuses, not just medicate symptoms. It's time to walk in self-control, not self-pity (2 Timothy 1:7). The enemy wants your mind—Jesus already bought it.The world will mock this message. It will call you rigid, old-fashioned, intolerant. But the truth? "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." –2 Corinthians 10:5The question is: Will you stand or will you surrender when the mental war rages?Episode Highlights:01:13 – The great battlefield of our generation isn't politics, economics or culture wars. It's in our minds. And most believers are losing not because they lack faith, but because they lack discipline. We've been taught to manage symptoms instead of confronting sources. We medicate what should be crucified. We excuse what Scripture commands us to take captive. We call it just how I think when God calls it a lie that's got to be demolished.07:45 – One of the most dangerous lies infiltrating modern Christianity is this idea that believers are victims of their thoughts rather than stewards of them. This lie sounds compassionate, progressive and understanding, but it's spiritually paralyzing. It subtly strips believers of responsibility, authority and victory, replacing them with excuses and resignation. Scripture never presents the Christian as powerless over their mind. It presents the believer as accountable for it.39:49 –Remember this, please. You're not powerless. You're not helpless. You're not a victim of your thoughts. In Christ. You've been given authority, clarity, and responsibility. Scripture says this in First Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 16, we have the mind of Christ. That's not poetic language. It's a call to live differently, think differently, and lead differently.Connect with Paul M. NeubergerWebsite

Welcome back BK fam this week I walk through First Corinthians chapter 13, slowly to remind myself even in the midst of pain what love should be! Sermon of the week: https://youtu.be/_SPRIigN8WM?si=X9aYVfYcFLPjIQ2Y Thank you guys for all the love & support! It doesn't go unnoticed! ❤️

 This week we continue onward in our study of First Corinthians entitled We Are His.Pastor Blake opens up one Corinthians chapter eight as we look at our responsibility as believers to lay aside our rights, live for others and be ambassadors for Christ in the process. So let's listen in as he unpacks how we do that in this week's message.

    On Sunday, John-Mark continued our series "Foolish Wisdom: A Study in First Corinthians." Paul's first letter to the Christians in the city of Corinth contains his thoughts on the good news of Jesus as God's "foolish wisdom." Paul's radical faith in the crucified Saviour challenges its hearers in the 1st and 21st Centuries. What insight and encouragement might we gain from "listening in" to Paul's five "essays" as we think about responding to the challenges of our own time: both within the Church and in Western culture?   To visit our teaching notes: https://stclair.substack.com/

Join host Jeff for the Friday edition of Right on Radio Live — a fast-moving, opinionated episode for both live listeners and replay audiences. Jeff opens by weighing the future of his popular “Word on Word” Bible segment, explains his editorial intent and Christian worldview, and promises a mix of scripture, current events, and unsparing commentary. The show's Bible game compares two passages — Hebrews 12:1 and Proverbs 21:21 — with listeners voting live while Jeff explains why he personally leans toward the Hebrews passage and what that passage means for perseverance in a turbulent season. Major topics and clips covered include Candace Owens' recent investigation and her “Open Letter to Erica Kirk,” Tucker Carlson's on-the-ground interview in Jordan, and Jeff's ongoing tribulation series with Tim Cohen (including a teased “Where I Disagree” episode). Jeff also critiques returning media figures like Dan Bongino and explores how editorial bias shapes the narratives listeners hear. The episode delves into highly controversial themes and allegations that surface throughout online discourse: debates over Zionism and Israel, claims about media and financial influence, sensational accusations about elite wrongdoing and state operations, and discussions of organized online bot activity. Jeff frames these subjects from his perspective as a born‑again Christian and cautions listeners that every program carries an editorial slant. Cultural symbolism and conspiracy threads receive extended attention: UFO talk and a Biblical reading of cosmology; theories about Super Bowl 60 symbolism (the TPUSA halftime alternative, Bad Bunny and Kid Rock's involvement, “puppy show” folklore and date patterns tied to February 8, 2026); and analyses of ritualized imagery and subconscious programming promoted by some commentators. Throughout the hour Jeff plays and reacts to clips — including material from President Trump, Savannah Guthrie, Bishop Williamson, Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock, Benny Johnson and others — and clarifies that many claims are presented as commentary and sourced media rather than original reporting or in-studio interviews. The episode closes with practical direction: a call to extra time in Scripture and prayer, promotion of a Saturday night Telegram prayer call and Sunday's continuation of First Corinthians, and an appeal to love God, family and neighbor even amid sharp political and spiritual disputes. Want to Understand and Explain Everything Biblically?  Click Here: Decoding the Power of Three: Understand and Explain Everything or go to www.rightonu.com and click learn more.  Thank you for Listening to Right on Radio. Prayerfully consider supporting Right on Radio. Click Here for all links, Right on Community ROC, Podcast web links, Freebies, Products (healing mushrooms, EMP Protection) Social media, courses and more... https://linktr.ee/RightonRadio Live Right in the Real World! We talk God and Politics, Faith Based Broadcast News, views, Opinions and Attitudes We are Your News Now. Keep the Faith

BOOK 5 FIRST CORINTHIANS 3 The Chronological New Testament

BOOK 5 FIRST CORINTHIANS 2 The Chronological New Testament

Session 4

BOOK 5 FIRST CORINTHIANS 1 The Chronological New Testament

BOOK 5 FIRST CORINTHIANS (background Acts 19) The Chronological New Testament

 This week we continue on in our series. "We are His," a study of First Corinthians.Pastor Blake opens up, first Corinthians chapter seven, and we look at several dynamics in marriage and how our marriages should reflect and glorify God.

BOOK 5 FIRST CORINTHIANS (Acts 18 background) The Chronological New Testament

We had planned to begin our new series in 2 Samuel this week, but due to weather and cancellations, we're moving that start date to next Sunday.In the meantime, we invite you to be encouraged by a special message from Isaac Hill, recorded at Old Lexington Baptist Church in Leesville on January 18. We're grateful for the opportunity to share this sermon with our church family.This week's group content will be standalone. Group Guide Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week. TranscriptThis morning we are going to be in Philippians chapter two. And so if you've got your Bibles, I would love for you to turn there with me. I'm going to read for us verses 1 through 11, and I'm going to pray and we'll dive in. This is what Paul says in Philippians chapter two.So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every nation bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word in the way that it reveals who you are and what you are doing and who we are and what you are calling us into. And so we would ask this morning that you would use your word to teach and instruct us, and that it would not return void in Jesus name. Amen.This morning, since we're jumping directly into the middle of a book, the Letter to the Philippians, I figured we could have a little bit of context. My Old Testament class professor always said, context is king. That was driven to my mind while I studied there. A little bit of context of the letter that Paul wrote. Paul was under house arrest when he wrote this letter to the Philippian Church. If you read the couple of chapters that are there, you find out that this is one of Paul's most encouraging letters that he has to write to the churches. We discover that he has a great and fond relationship of the church at Philippi. They mean much to him, both in his heart and then in his mission of declaring the gospel to those who have yet to hear. There's not a whole lot of correction in the letter, we do learn about some disagreements that show up between a couple members, but for the most part, Paul is really just encouraging this church to continue strong in the faith.In chapter one, which is immediately before what we're looking at this morning, Paul writes to them to let them know about his imprisonment that he was under, but more specifically to write about how he has found joy in the middle of his circumstance. It turns out that the Lord has used it as an opportunity for the continuing advancement of the message of the Gospel, both to the prison guards that were keeping watch over him and then anybody who he also got to be around. After he shares this update at the end of Chapter one, I believe that there's a transitionary paragraph that leads into the rest of the letter, and I want to read the beginning phrase of that paragraph, because I think it's going to position us to correctly understand what Paul is talking about in the passage of chapter 2. This is what he says in Philippians 1:27.Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.There's a footnote in the ESV translation, which is what I like to use, and it writes that if you were to literally translate this phrase, it would read, only behave as citizens worthy of the Gospel of Christ, that what we're going to see today is Paul is going to show for us three aspects, three characteristics of a life that belongs to a citizen of the Gospel of Jesus, that Jesus is king, he is Lord, and for those that believe and trust in him, we exist inside his kingdom, and there's a way of life that is called for us to live in under the message of Jesus. With that, let's jump in to chapter two, verse. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.He writes this language, if there is any. When he writes it that way, it's almost like when you and I would ask a rhetorical question. If you've ever been with your friend and you know somebody who did something totally outlandish, you might say, can you believe that? It's not really that you are asking. Can you show the proof and build out the reason as to why you believe that? No, you're just so confounded by what has taken place that it bursts out into question. In the same way Paul is saying, if there is any encouragement in Christ, there is. He's already written about it in chapter one, that there is encouragement in Christ as he's in prison. He writes, if there's any comfort from love, this letter is an encouraging letter, that the relationship that he has with the Philippian Church, there is comfort in love that he has from them. If there's any participation in the Spirit, he writes about their partnership with him in the Gospel. There's affection, there's sympathy. That's what Paul is seeing.In verse two, what we see is he's saying, complete my joy. He's driving toward what he wants them to understand, what he wants to instruct them in. What we're going to see is what I believe is three categories that are important for us in understanding what it looks like, our life to look like it is worthy of the Gospel of Jesus. Verse two, he says, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. I think these are the three categories here. While we talk about them this morning as three distinct categories, because that's helpful for us in engaging it, they're actually interconnected with one another, as we'll see. But as we see here, Paul wants them to be of the same mind, Number one wants them to have the same love. It's number two, and he wants them to be of one in purpose. That word purpose is another way of translating the word accord. Those are the three categories that I think Paul is getting after and that we would do well to consider and study.If you were to just read up to verse two here in the text, you would be asking some questions. What is the mind that we're supposed to be in? The same as what love are we supposed to be the same as what accord or purpose are we supposed to be full of? That's what I think verses 3 through 11 are going to help us this morning. Let's take these one at a time.First, Paul is going to write about what it looks like being of the same mind. Pick back up in verse 3.Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus.Paul begins to explain what it looks like to have this mind. First of all, he categorizes it as being the mind of Christ. We'll get to talk about that in more detail here in a minute. In verse three and four, he practically is walking through what it looks like to have the same mind. Let's work back through just bit by bit of what he said. Do nothing from selfish ambition. Ambition is that idea of drive or motivation by which we do things. What he's saying is, don't—those a negative command. Don't be driven to terminate what you do on self. Do nothing from selfish ambition. Don't let your ambition, your motivation, your drive to accomplish things be for the end and the purpose of ending on yourself. Then he says, do nothing from conceit. Conceit is the idea of thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to. The important thing about conceit is it actually has to do with our relationship with other people. The way that I can think more highly of myself is by thinking more highly of me over you.Then he goes on and starts to give the positive aspect of this, what it looks like in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves. That's the opposite side of the conceit that not only would I not think of myself as greater than you, but I would be thinking of you as greater than me. That's true humility of me bringing myself low and considering you as more than important. That's the mind he wants us to have. In verse 4 he says, look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Very practically what it looks like is not just me thinking about what I've got on my plate or whatever difficulties I'm facing or whatever wants I have thinking about you and what you're facing and what you're dealing with and what you want.To flesh this out a little bit more, I just figured I'd share some of how this passage in this last week was hitting home for me. How the Spirit was working in my heart, convicting me and thinking this in verse 4. I really appreciate Paul's language of look because in life what happens is we've got our stuff that we're dealing with, whatever it is. Your alarm goes off, my alarm goes off. I wake up and I go to my job and I sit at my desk and do my work and tackle my problems. Then I come home and I've got my house and my family and I'm zoned in. It's something about us that we've got to take care of it. We're looking at the things we're doing, and we're just looking and we're doing and we're looking and we're doing and just locked in. What Paul wants us to see—this is why I found that language of look so helpful—is that if we take a moment to pause and look, I see there's more than me. I see there's more than what I'm facing and what I'm dealing with and what I'm working at. Now I'm beginning to see you. If I spend long enough looking, I'll start to see the else who has all the things that you're doing that you're working towards, that you're facing, that you're struggling with.This is why it's convicting for me, is that I'm very driven by accomplishing, by getting stuff done, but I should slow down. I hope to consider and look and see other people. Another thing that was striking in this passage is Paul doesn't say, don't just look to your own needs, but look to the needs of others. He says, don't just look to your own interests, but look to the interests of others. I think we might find it a little easy to wrap our heads around. Well, yeah, they have a need, so I'll help them meet a need that makes sense. But he just says their interests, what they have want for. That's true humility coming all the way down low, that I would consider what you want above what I want. This is the mind that Paul is wanting us to have and to share.As mentioned earlier, Paul has a lot of commendation for the church, but he really wants to push them to grow in this way. As I was trying to consider how we might be able to connect in our own context with what Paul is writing here, I was thinking about verse one, as he's writing about the encouragement that's there, the comfort that is there, the sympathy, the affection. I was beginning to think we might say something like, the Joneses, they're just good people. They're good people. Or you might say the Millers, they're just so nice, just decent people. We might use language like that. Genuinely, we're talking about good things. We're talking about them being respectful, cordial, nice, kind. They're genuinely wonderful good qualities about people and something that we should be. But Paul is trying to drive us into something deeper because remember, he's talking about a life that is worthy of belonging to the gospel of Jesus.I don't think it's enough that we could just be good people. It's not enough for me to just be decent. Even this morning as I'm here and I'm walking and I'm getting to shake all of your hands and meet you, I said, you don't know me. Maybe after you've had an interaction with me, you might think, oh, he's a decent fella. I haven't rubbed the wrong way. I think that's a perfectly fine thing. But I can do that and still be driven as a person by selfish ambition, I can do that and still be a person that is driven by conceit, that I would think more highly of myself, or that I could be a person that is really just mainly concerned with my own interests. So it's not enough. A life worthy of the gospel of Jesus in our mind must go beyond what are good things. We have to drive deeper into the faith that we have been called into. I would be thinking of other people as more important than myself. This is the mind of Christ. This is the mind that Paul wants us to live in as people who belong to Jesus. That word humility there is the perfect summation of what he is getting at, that I would be humble. That's the first category that Paul has for us of living a life worthy of the gospel of Jesus: that we would be of one mind, the one mind of Christ that is humble.Secondly, being of the same love. Paul talks about, he wants them to be of the same love. Pick back up in verse five.Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.As mentioned already that this mind of humility belongs to Christ. Paul is about to explain here the depth of the humility of Jesus. Follow the journey of Christ as Paul has it outlined here. First we see that Jesus was in the form of God. Theologically, Jesus is God the Son, that our God exists as a triune God, he is three persons in one being, that he is God the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and Jesus is God the Son. We could have spent all morning just trying to talk about and tackle and understand what that means, and we still would just barely have scratched the surface of understanding it. But let's focus on what Paul is considering this morning along the lines of humility.Jesus has a claim to be God the man. Jesus who lived 2,000 years ago, a real person like you and I. He has a claim to the name of God that includes all the power, includes all the authority. In other scriptures we see that he's accredited with creation. He's the Creator, he's the Almighty, he's powerful, he's the Name above all names. He has the authority. Yet he, verse seven did not count—sorry, verse six did not count—equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. This is the beginning of the path of humility that Jesus takes. It starts with the mind of Christ here, right? He says, do not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He does not think of his claim to the name of God as that which should be grabbed with triumphal assertion. As one commentator put it.I have a young son now. He's almost 10 months old and yesterday we got to play together and he has this little screwdriver chew toy thing to help him with teething or whatever. He was just holding on to it. He was just grasping onto it, super excited, super cute, and that's that idea of grasping onto it like it's the spoils of victory of war, that he's got this rubber little chew toy thing. When we think about the idea of Jesus having a claim to the name of God and that he didn't count it as something worth grasping to, what does he do? He put on the likeness of man that the Son of God eternal became like you and I. He had real skin, real bones. He had muscles that grew weary as the day went on. His mind grew hazy as tiredness began to set in, or maybe hunger, a stomach that growled when it was dinner time.I want to be clear here so I don't get myself into trouble when talking about this aspect of Jesus being in two natures, fully God and fully man. When Jesus put on flesh, he didn't in any way lose his status as God. Remember, he has full claim to it. But he still did put on flesh. He still was like you and I, weak. We've gotten to talk with some of you that are much further along in the journey than I am now. I'm sure you understand that, do you not? Body begins to be weak, gets to be harder to do things. Jesus was man, with times experienced weakness. We could have spent all morning just talking about this aspect of Jesus, and still we would have just barely scratched the surface of what it means. Let's continue on along the purpose of what Paul is talking about, outlining the path of Christ's humility.First, being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. We have Jesus, who is the Son of God, eternal, creator, almighty, powerful. Then he takes on human frame like you and I, and he experiences life like you and I experience with weakness, with sadness, with tears, with difficulty. He also submits himself to obedience to the Father. We see this throughout the Gospel accounts that Jesus in his ministry submits to the will of God. See this most potently in the Gospel of John. Over and over again Jesus recounts, I do nothing of my own accord, but I do that which the Father has sent me to do. He lives in that way. Not only does he submit himself in obedience, he submits himself to death. Not only does he submit himself to death, but he submits himself to the most humiliating death. It was not honorable for him to hang on that tree. That was cursed man's death. That was the death that he went to go to.Do you see this path of humility? God eternal, Creator, Almighty, and he steps down into human form, and then he steps down into obedience, and then he steps down into death and into the humiliating death on the cross. At this point you might be thinking, did we start off this category by Paul talking about being of the same love? What does this have to do with love? That he whom for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. This is the giving of the Son, that in humility he comes. This is the kind of love that Paul is calling us to live in, the giving completely of oneself. Remember, it starts in the mind, the humility to consider for a moment that somebody might actually be more important than me. Then it shows up in real life and then I actually give of myself to that person, whatever it might be, whoever it might be, in whatever situation it might be. This is the kind of love that we are called into.Think about First Corinthians 13, a very popular passage on love. It's patient, it's kind, doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not proud, it's not arrogant. Selfishness and pride are the opposite side of this kind of love of bringing myself low and considering other people and loving and giving myself for them. This is what it looks like to live as citizens worthy of the gospel of Jesus, that I would love in a way that is giving of myself. Real love takes real sacrifice. It takes real giving. I love my wife and if I were to stand here and tell you not once have I ever had to give anything up for her, I hope you would look at me and say, you don't love your wife because it takes giving of myself—humility—to come low and to consider her interests above my own. If we never give up anything for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ, do we love them? Are we of this same love that Paul is talking about here, this love of Christ that gives himself up for the sake of others? This is what it looks like to be people of the same mind and the same love as Jesus, to live as somebody that's worthy of belonging to the gospel.That brings us to our third and final point being one in purpose. Continue on in verse nine.Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.The path of Christ's humility did not end in the grave, but Jesus rose victorious over death and over hell. Now at his name, because of his willingness to be humble and to submit himself to the Father and to submit himself to death, he now is risen and exalted above all things, risen and exalted above all names. So that at his name, every knee—your knee, my knee, the knees of all those who live around you in this area here, the knee of everybody who lives in my area—across the whole globe, across all time, in the grave, living and breathing in the spiritual realm, every knee will bow to the name of Jesus, our King. He is the King of the kingdom of the Gospel, and all will bow to him, and all glory will be due his name.This has everything to do with being of one purpose. This is the one purpose of our God, that all glory would be ascribed to him. Our purpose is to bring glory to him. When we are citizens of the gospel of Jesus, who we are and what we do is to be of that singular purpose and none other. Your glory, not my glory, not the glory of a city, not the glory of this country, of this world. The glory is to him because we are his people. What it looks like for us to live in that way is that we get to follow the same journey and trajectory as Jesus who humbled himself, that when we belong to him, we're called into the same life of coming low.Surely you all have experienced tumbling in your time. In those moments where you have been brought low, maybe it's for a purpose. Maybe it's not just random. Maybe it's not just bad luck. Maybe it's the Father trying to help us participate and join with Jesus so that our life could be worthy of the gospel of Christ. In those moments of weakness and being brought low, there is an opportunity for us to live in this way, to be people who would see others as more important than ourselves, just like Jesus did, to work and to live and to act for the interests of others, to love and to give of ourselves completely, and then ultimately and fully the same exact end result takes place. Glory to Jesus and not to ourselves.I think that the greatest danger for us who live in the time and the space that we do is that we would try to be comfortable and follow Jesus at the same time. We've been called into more than that; we belong to a different kingdom. While our cultural moment is pulling on every thread for us to terminate all things on ourselves, Jesus is calling us into something different and greater. If this morning you belong to him, that is the life that we are called into. A life of surrender to the gospel of Jesus.Maybe this morning you're thinking, yes, absolutely, that's what I want, live in that kind of life. If you think that what it's going to take is for you to walk out the doors and white-knuckle it, you're going to figure it out, you're going to change your mind, you're going to change the way you love, you're going to change the way you live, I would encourage you to look to Christ. The gospel is not about you doing and earning it. You can't. This life that Paul is talking about is not about earning anything. It's about living in what already is true, that Jesus in his humility really has rescued us and set us free from a life of selfishness. Do you know how destructive a life of selfishness is? It's so broken. But we can live into more. The gospel doesn't start at just us being set free, but his Spirit, the Spirit of the Almighty, the Spirit of the humble, comes to live within us and indwell us and empower us to live in this way. This is what it looks like for us to participate in this. As we sang earlier, how sweet it is to trust in Jesus, to trust him in this. Not to trust in our ability to execute this perfectly, but to trust in him and to come low into living this way.Let's pray, Father. We confess that we are too often drawn into a life of selfish ambition, where the things that flood our minds are the things that terminate on us. There's a possibility that we could live this life by just trying to be respectful or cordial or nice, decent. But you're calling us into something more and we want to participate in that. Father, would you fill us with your Spirit to live as people that are worthy of the gospel of Jesus and that our minds would be changed, we would look up and see other people and consider their interests, that we would think of them as more important than ourselves. Then that would call us even deeper into loving them, giving ourselves up for those that are around us, those that are sitting in this room, and that ultimately that would draw us into the purpose, the ultimate purpose of all glory being given to Jesus, of our life bowing down our knees coming low to worship Christ as king of the kingdom to which we belong. In Jesus name, amen.

Pastor David Harris Wednesday January 28, 2026

Session 3

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Pastor David Harris Wednesday January 21, 2026

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Exodus 12–13, Psalm 21; Acts 1 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus' kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible for January 25th! In today's episode, Hunter invites us to journey together through powerful passages from Exodus 12–13, Psalm 21, and Acts 1. We begin by reflecting on the first Passover—the night God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt—and how this foreshadows the redemption we find in Christ, our true Passover Lamb. As Hunter guides us through these readings, we're reminded that salvation isn't just a story of the past; it's an invitation to walk in freedom and newness of life today. We'll pray together, lift up our world, and step into this new day with the confidence that we are God's beloved children. Whether you're new to the journey or a long-time listener, Hunter encourages us to live deeply into this reality—knowing and remembering always: you are loved. Let's get started! TODAY'S DEVOTION: It was a night to remember. A horrific night. Judgment struck the firstborn of Egypt, but not for everyone. For those who put the blood of a spotless lamb over their doorposts, death would pass by. For those who were covered by the Lamb, for them there was life. John alludes to this in the first chapter of his Gospel. He says, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And Paul later on says in First Corinthians 5, Christ is our Passover lamb who has been sacrificed for us. And later on in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, he says this in chapter five, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them. Over and over again through the Scriptures, we see that the Lamb came to cover everyone. We see God's reconciling work by the shedding of his blood for all. And with that sacrifice, Jesus has won our victory. He's won our peace with God. This is a day to be remembered. It's all pointing to the cross, to the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus. It's the beginning of days where life begins. It's the Gospel. The Israelites were told to eat this Passover meal with a staff in their hand. When God rescues us and frees us from our bondage to slavery and sin through his death, he does that fully intending that we start walking with him, participating with him in this new life that he has for us right here, right now, the advancing of his work right here, right now. Part of what this new life has purchased for us is the ability to walk with him. The Israelites had to go through the Red Sea, through the wilderness and into the land of Canaan. And we, like them, have been invited to go on a life changing walk with him. This walk of life takes us into the land of promise and blessing. And it's not just out there, it's right here today, as you're listening to this podcast. You're listening as a free woman, a free man, somebody who has been delivered by the spotless lamb of God. He has wrapped you up and included you in his community, a community that is on a walk with him into a new day, a day that's free. Free from the slavery that you once lived under. You are no longer a slave. No. You are his child. You are a citizen. You are a part of the community. You've been drawn in. You've been made his. This redemption, this salvation that you have experienced is for today. And today you can begin to live in the joy and the wisdom, the strength and the confidence of it. Today you can confidently grow into the person that you really are. Not a slave, but a loved child of God. That is what you are. And the prayer of my own heart today is that I will begin to live more confidently in that reality. And that's a prayer that I have for my family too, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

To the Praise of his Glory Ephesians 1:3-14 by William Klock We'll be looking this morning at Ephesians 1:3-14.  It never ceases to amaze me the riches that come from simply slowing down as I read the Bible.  Over the last several months I've taken multiple occasions to just sit down with Ephesians, to read it slowly, to pay attention, and to be immersed in it.  To pay specific attention to Paul's choice of words and his grammar.  To notice how his choices of words and phrases bring echoes of the Old Testament into his letter and to meditate on how what Paul says here fits into the great biblical story of Israel's God and his people.  As I said last week, in Ephesians Paul gives us the view from the mountaintop.  He shows the whole panorama of the great story of redemption. Verses 3-14 are an invitation into that story.  I think a lot of us—especially if you're a theology nerd—a lot of us reading these verses easily lose the forest for the trees.  We see words like “election” and “predestined” and they stir up modern controversies over whether or not God chooses us or we choose him; over whether God elects specific people for eternal life or if he also positive elects others for damnation.  This is the fuel for heated arguments.  And, I suspect, were Paul to hear these arguments he'd ask something like, “Wait?  That's what you got from what I wrote?”  Because I think the thing that Paul wants us to notice here, what he wants to centre us on, is the praise of God in light of that great story.  In fact, I'd never noticed before, but in Paul's Greek, this whole section is one long sentence proclaiming the mighty and saving deeds of God.  It's like Paul wanted us to hear one, beautiful, heart-stirring musical chord, or get a single amazing impression from a beautifully painted image, but since words and language don't work like that, since you have to express them one at a time, Paul composed this as one, single rush of words meant to move us to praise.  Consider how be begins in verse 3, “Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.”  Blessed be God.  It's not meant to just be a factual statement that God is blessed.  To really get the sense of it in English it might be better to say, “Let us bless God.”  Because, Brothers and Sisters, that's Paul's real point here. Pagans praised their gods.  But Jews did something more: they blessed the God of Israel.  In fact, the word that Paul uses is one that for the Greeks simply meant to speak good of someone, but the Jews gave it a much fuller and deeper meaning to translate their Hebrew words for bless and blessing.  To understand this takes us all the way back to the beginning of the story.  When God created the world and filled it with life, he blessed that life that it might be fruitful, that it might multiply, and that it might fill the earth.  The fish, the birds, and eventually the man and the woman.  God blessed them.  And in the Hebrew worldview, it was God's blessing that brought human flourishing and that provided all that is good in creation.  And so, in return, the Jews blessed God.  Obviously, human beings don't have the ability to grant the goodness and flourishing with our blessings that God can with his, and so to bless God took the form of praise and thanksgiving for his goodness, for his faithfulness, and most of all for his mighty and saving deeds in history.  And all that is summed up in those words, “blessed be God”.  To this day, Jewish prayer begins with the words Barukh Attah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha-Olam, Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe.  But then when we unpack it, what we find is that at the heart of blessing God is telling his story, not just to rehearse for ourselves his greatness, but to proclaim it to everyone else.  Read through the Old Testament and you see God's people praising him first and foremost by telling the story of his mighty deeds: sometimes what he'd done for the person giving the praise, but more often for his creation and his providence, and most of all for his recuse of Israel from their Egyptian slavery.  The Exodus was the great act of God in history that showed his blessing and for which his people blessed him in return. When the people of Israel gathered together, they rehearsed what God had done, whether it was Israelites in the days of David, sitting around campfires and hearing those stories faithfully passed down from generation to generation, or the people of Paul's day reading the scriptures in the synagogue, they told the mighty deeds of God as an act of praise.  Brothers and Sisters, the same goes for us.  I suspect a lot of us hardly ever think of it this way.  We read the Bible for knowledge.  We read the Bible to win arguments.  We read the Bible because we know it's a good thing to do or because we hope God will speak to us.  But, first and foremost, we read the Bible—in public worship and in private worship—to rehearse the mighty and saving deeds of God as an act of praise and as a call to praise.  Just read the psalms and see how they proclaim the great story as an act of praise and a means of blessing God.  The modern trend in worship, I think, gets this precisely backward.  We begin our services with praise—I often hear people say it's to get us in the right frame of mind—and then we hear scripture, then we receive the Lord's Supper.  The biblical model is the other way round: To read and to hear scripture is the first act of praise, everything else follows in response.  Thomas Cranmer, the architect of our liturgy, understood this.  In Morning and Evening Prayer, we first hear the scriptures, and then we sing the canticles (which are themselves mostly scripture).  At the Communion, we hear the scriptures, we receive the Lord's Supper, and after all that, we sing the Gloria in praise and thanksgiving.  So this is what Paul's getting at in verse 3: “Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah! He has blessed us in the Messiah with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.” But why?  Because, in Jesus, God has already blessed us.  With what?  With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.  That means, with the life of the Spirit, that foretaste of the age to come and the day when we, ourselves, will be resurrected to life with God just as Jesus has been.  Because, in Jesus and the Spirit, God has blessed us by making us heaven-on-earth people.  Through Jesus and the Spirit, God has begun the work of bringing heaven and earth, God and man, separated by sin, back together—in us. But Paul doesn't just leave it at that.  He tells the Jesus story, the church story, but he does it in a way that echoes the bigger story all the way back to creation.  He never mentions Adam or Abraham, the Exodus or the Exile.  Instead, he describes what God has done for us in the Messiah using the words and phrases that Israel typically used to tell those stories. Now, because this whole passage is one long sentence and because it's clear Paul wants us to hear it sort of like a music chord, let me read through the whole thing in one go starting with verse 4.  Here's what he writes: “He chose us in him before the world was made, so as to be holy and without blemish before him.  In love, he foreordained us for himself, to be adopted as sons [and daughters] through Jesus the Messiah, according to the purpose of his will.  So that the glory of his grace, the grace he poured out on us in his beloved one, might receive its due praise.  In [the Messiah], through his blood, we have deliverance—the forgiveness of sins, through the riches of his grace, which he has lavished on us.  With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his purpose, just he wanted it to be and set it forward in him as a blueprint for when the time was ripe.  His plan was to sum up the whole cosmos in the Messiah, everything in heaven and on earth in him.  In him we have received the inheritance.  We were foreordained to this, according to the intention of the one who does all things in accordance with the counsel of his purpose.  This was so that we, we who first hoped in the Messiah, might live for the praise of his glory.  In him you too, who heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed it—in him you were marked out with the Spirit of promise, the Holy One.  The Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the time when the people who are God's special possession are finally reclaimed and freed.  This, too, is for the praise of his glory.” So Paul begins with the language of having been chosen.  It's almost like he's rehearsing the Passover story.  Being chosen resonated with the Jews.  Their father, Abraha, had been chosen and called from the paganism of Ur.  In the Exodus, the Lord had declared Israel to be his chosen.  Paul wants that mighty act of God's goodness and mercy to echo into our story—to hear the Lord declare to Pharaoh that Israel was his beloved, his firstborn son.  Paul writes in verse 5 that we've been marked out as sons and daughters of the Father because of his love for us—love poured out in Jesus, love poured out at the cross as he shed his blood—blood that has marked us out as holy and washed us clean of sin.  Blood that has united us with Jesus, his son, and made us his children by adoption. And the language of deliverance and redemption in verse 7.  This is what Paul's getting at.  Again, his choice of words is important.  The word he uses is the one used most often in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to refer to the deliverance, the redemption of his people from Egypt.  It's a word that often carries the idea of buying a slave so that he can be set free and in the Bible it very often and more specifically recalls the image of Israel being redeemed from Pharaoh's slave market and being set free by God—a freedom through which Israel was meant to proclaim and to live out God's amazing and redeeming grace.  But there's also an echo of Israel's long-hoped for deliverance from exile—an exile the people were still living out when Jesus was born.  And, unlike the Exodus, the exile was the result of Israel's sins.  And so the prophets, like Isaiah, had spoken of a new exodus, a deliverance from exile, but this time round it would be an exodus that had to address, that had to deal with Israel's sins. And that's why Paul writes of blood.  The blood of the Passover lamb was for the purification of the people.  Somehow blood would have to be shed to purify Israel and to and the long exile, so they could once again live in his holy presence and so that they could once again be fit to serve his purpose as priests and stewards of his temple.  This is why Jesus so often did things that echoed the Passover theme.  He was calling to mind this doubled tradition: The first exodus, deliverance from slavery, but also the promised and hoped-for second exodus in which God would somehow redeem his people from their sins and from the effects of that sin.  So when Paul, in verses 7 and 8, writes of the blood through which we have deliverance and the forgiveness of sins, when he writes of the riches of God's grace and how it's been lavished so richly on us, he wants us to see these layers of the great story: of creation, of exodus, of exile, of forgiveness, of redemption.  He wants us to see the glorious cross of Jesus, but he also wants us to see how the whole story has been one act after another, one great drama unfolding through history that shows us who God is, that reveals his grace and mercy, his goodness and faithfulness that then find their full fruit, that explode in one great act of glory in the events of the new exodus.  All these notes coming together a beautiful, harmonious chord. Why?  Because Paul knew that without this, we're prone to forgetting our vocation, just as Israel had.  That's why Paul goes on to talk about God making known the secret of his purpose—the great mystery—with all wisdom and insight.  In Paul's day the Jews—many of them at any rate—associated the idea of torah—of Gods' law—with the idea of God's divine wisdom.  This fusion of torah and wisdom was God's great design for life and for flourishing and not just that, but for life and flourishing that would cause his people to give him glory.  Brothers and Sisters, the gospel isn't just the good news that we've been forgiven and promised eternal life.  The gospel is also about vocation—a vocation that goes all the way back to Israel—even to Adam and Eve.  It's about being freed from our bondage to sin and death so that we might live to the glory of God as heaven-on-earth people, as the firstfruits of his new creation, as pockets of the age to come in the here and now. And Paul reminds us in verse 10 that this was God's plan, his blueprint all along, one that would be fulfilled in the “fullness of time”—when the time was right.  None of it was an accident.  What we so often take in as disconnected Bible stories, was all along one great drama, setting the scene, establishing the plot, so that at the cross and the empty tomb, God could reveal his glory by leading his people in a new exodus.  As Paul puts it here, the plan was to sum up the whole cosmos in the Messiah—everything in heaven and on earth in him.  Restoring the creation we see in Genesis, where heaven and earth and God and man were one.  Bringing to fruition the image evoked by the tabernacle at the end of Exodus: of God once gain dwelling in the midst of his redeemed people.  That image at the end of Exodus in which the people complete the construction of the tabernacle and the shekinah, the great cloud of God's glory, descends to fill it is one of the  most powerful images in all of scripture—looking back to how things are supposed to be and looking forward to a day when human beings really are fully restored to live in God's presence—no veil, no sacrifices, just life in his awesome presence.  This is what Paul describes as an act of praise, the climax of the great story, a new exodus, a Jesus-shaped Passover—all now to be at the heart of Christian praise. But God's presence entering the tabernacle wasn't the end of the story.  Remember, once God had set apart his people and made them holy and taken up his presence in their midst, they were ready for him to lead them into the promised land—to receive the inheritance that he had promised to Abraham.  And in verses 11-14 Paul shows us how life in Jesus and the Spirit is the realisation of what that was pointing to all along.  Psalm 2, for example, was pointing this way all along.  That's the psalm where God says, “You are my son and today I have begotten you.  Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your inheritance.”  The promise land and the promise of it was always pointing to something greater—to God's claim on all of creation, on all the nations, on all the peoples.  The story proclaims: someday the entire earth will be God's holy land. And here in Ephesians, Paul is saying that in Jesus and the Spirit, God has now given us—given those who are in the Messiah—this inheritance.  “Everything belongs to you,” he says in First Corinthians.  And here he says that the gift of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling, the tabernacling presence of God in us is the earnest, the down payment, the guarantee of the full promised inheritance.  Sometimes it seems like we think of the Holy Spirit in every way except for the very thing Paul tells us over and over that he represents.  Brothers and Sisters, the gift of the Spirit is the guarantee that what Jesus began when he rose from the grave, he will surely one day finish.  It's the guarantee that God's work of renewal and new creation in Jesus will, without a doubt, put a final end to sin, to sorrow, to corruption, to decay, and even to death itself.  It is the guarantee that the reunion of God and man that began when God took up his residence in the tabernacle, and that went a step further at Pentecost when he took up his residence in his people, will be fulfilled in the ultimate tabernacle of a new heaven and earth.  It's the guarantee that that the fellowship between God and human beings in the garden at the very beginning of the story will also be the end. It's easy to forget.  As Paul writes in Romans, the whole world is groaning under the weight of our mismanagement.  We still live with the effects of sin and corruption, of decay and death.  Like the Israelites when the spies returned from Canaan and warned that there were giants in the land and heavily fortified cities.  They gave up.  They became overwhelmed.  They forgot the promise.  They begged Moses to take them back to Egypt.  The things they feared were no joke.  But they forgot that the God who was with them is the God will one day dill the whole earth with his glory.  The tabernacle—God's presence with them—was meant to remind them of that truth and that inheritance.  And, Brothers and Sisters, the Spirit in us serves the same function.  In him we have the full title deed, even if we don't yet have the whole earth.  But that title deed, that earnest, that guarantee has been given to us by the Father to empower us to go out as his gospel people—to be heaven on earth, to bring his presence into the darkness, to challenge the corrupted principalities and powers of the old age, and to bring the light and life of new creation into the old.  And all, Paul finishes, the final notes in the chord, “is for the praise of his glory”. Brothers and Sisters, to live in assurance and hope of God's promise of life is to live a life of praise.  It's to live a life that blesses God and that makes his glory known in the earth.  That means that if we want to know what the life of the Christian and what he life of the church should look like, maybe we should work backward from that goal.  We should be asking ourselves what it is that we can do that makes God's glory known.  Asking ourselves what we can do that shows the world our sure and certain hope in the inheritance—the new creation—in which we live.  Not running back to Egypt in fear, but ready to march around Jericho and to blow our gospel trumpets and trust God to do what he's promised.  I think if we work backwards from the goal of filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God, it becomes a lot easier to ask whether what we do, what we value, what we invest in, how we treat others displays our hope in God's kingdom to the world around us.  So, Brothers and Sisters, let us bless God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.  Let our lives be one great shout of praise.  Rehearse and proclaim the great story of redemption that proclaims his glory.  And let this Passover-shaped, this cross-shaped, story of redemption and renewal transform you so that you—that we all—might live for the purpose of filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God—to the praise of his glory. Let's pray: Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, through whose blood you have forgiven our sins, made us sons and daughters by adoption, and brought us into the great drama of your people, shape us, we pray, with your story.  Fill us with faith and assurance in the knowledge that, having plunged us into your Spirit, you have given us assurance of the promised inheritance that we might live faithfully in hope and to the praise of your glory.  Amen.

This past Sunday we continued on in our series "We Are His," a study of First Corinthians. DJ had the opportunity to bring the message this past Sunday, opening up first Corinthians six verses 12 through 20. We looked at the dangers of letting slogans drive our theology and our living, and how that practice got the Corinthians into a dangerous place with sexual immorality. What's the pathway out?

Biblical giving and financial stewardship are essential topics for Christian spiritual growth and discipleship. This comprehensive guide explores what the Bible teaches about money, tithing, and generous giving based on First Corinthians 16:1-4 and other key Scripture passages. Learn why God addresses money in the Bible and how financial stewardship impacts your relationship with Christ. Discover the biblical principles of systematic giving, proportionate generosity, and sacrificial worship through your finances. Understanding biblical stewardship helps believers grow in spiritual maturity while supporting church ministry and missions. Paul's instructions to the Corinthian church reveal universal expectations for Christian giving that apply to all believers today. Explore how regular, planned giving differs from sporadic donations and why first fruits giving matters more than leftover generosity. Church accountability and transparency in handling offerings are crucial for maintaining trust and proper stewardship. The spiritual benefits of giving include proving genuine love for Christ, growing in righteousness, and reflecting the Gospel through sacrificial generosity. Biblical giving is not about earning God's love but responding to the love already shown through Christ's sacrifice. Whether you're new to faith or seeking to deepen your understanding of Christian stewardship, these biblical principles provide practical guidance for honoring God with your finances. Learn how proportionate giving based on prosperity differs from legalistic tithing requirements and discover the spiritual transformation that comes through generous, cheerful giving.

Pastor David Harris Wednesday January 14, 2026

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1 Corinthians 10:1-15 | Pastor Steve MillerCould ongoing disobedience be evidence of settled unbelief rather than momentary weakness?First Corinthians 10 warns that Israel experienced God's power and provision, yet drifted because unbelief led them to presume rather than obey.Big Idea: Following spiritual instruction guides us away from presumption and toward God.Join us Sundays at 9:00 & 11:00

1 Cor 3:16-23 In our passage this evening Paul is going to talk about a new temple, but not the kind of temple we might imagine. He's not constructing a physical building. He is building something spiritual. And He invites His people to be a part of it. What requirements does God have for His construction crew as it were? And why is this building so important to Him? We consider those questions as Pastor Andrew resumes his study in the book of First Corinthians.

Discover what the Bible reveals about our future resurrection bodies and why they are essential for eternal life. This comprehensive study of First Corinthians 15 explores Paul's teaching on resurrection, glorification, and what happens when Jesus returns. Learn why our current flesh and blood bodies cannot inherit God's kingdom and what makes our future bodies different. Understand the mystery of instant transformation that will occur in the twinkling of an eye when Christ comes back. Explore how our glorified bodies will be both physical and spiritual, like Jesus' resurrection body after He rose from the dead. Find out why some believers won't die before receiving their new bodies and what this means for Christian hope. Discover the difference between our gradual sanctification now and our instant glorification then. Learn about the clothing imagery Paul uses to describe putting on immortality and imperishable nature. Understand why death still stings now but has no ultimate power over believers in Christ. Explore how God's law serves as a mirror to show our need for salvation rather than a checklist to earn heaven. Learn why Christianity is unique among world religions in teaching salvation by grace through faith rather than good works. Discover practical applications for how understanding resurrection should change daily priorities and eternal perspective. Find answers to common questions about heaven, eternal life, spiritual bodies, physical resurrection, and Christian eschatology. This biblical teaching addresses fears about death, provides hope for grieving believers, and explains the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ alone.

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This week we continue on in our study of First Corinthians and entitled We Are His. We begin chapter six this week and Pastor Blake unpacks the first half of the chapter looking at the reality that we are his righteousness, and we look at how that reality should shape the way that we view slights and offenses from those around us in the church as we strive together in holiness.

Session 2

Jase skips duck season for a few days to go treasure hunting and stumbles into a reminder about how quickly towns—and priorities—can disappear. Uncle Si's joke about having the “wrong weapon” resurfaces, and Jase finally understands after it took decades to land. The guys pivot into a deeper discussion of wisdom, drawing from Proverbs to argue that wisdom isn't a list of rules, but the grain God built into creation itself.  In this episode: Genesis 9; Acts 10; Leviticus 18; John 1, verses 1–14; Hebrews 1, verses 1–4; Proverbs 8, verses 1 and 22–31; Matthew 11, verse 19; First Corinthians 1, verse 24; First Corinthians 1, verse 30; Colossians 1, verse 15; Colossians 1, verse 28; Colossians 2, verse 3; Ephesians 2, verses 8–10; First John 1, verses 1–3; First John 2, verse 6; First John 3, verse 5; First John 3, verse 24 “Unashamed” Episode 1245 is sponsored by: https://meetfabric.com/unashamed — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. https://bravebooks.com/unashamed — Get 20% off with code UNASHAMED https://chministries.org/unashamed — See why Christians are ditching health insurance for good. Get a simpler alternative at half the cost! http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters: 00:00-09:10 Jase hunts with the wrong weapon 09:11-15:00 “Unashamed” gets censored?! 15:01-24:02 The key to understanding the whole Bible 24:03-34:19 Is wisdom a person or an ideal? 34:20-44:48 Jesus as the “firstborn” of creation 44:49-54:24 How to wrap your brain around being forgiven — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pastor David Harris Wednesday January 7, 2026

Welcome to Day 2771 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom – Theology Thursday –The Prayers of Christ and the Destiny of the Faithful.   Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2771 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps!   I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2771 of our Trek.   The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Our current series of Theology Thursday lessons is written by theologian and teacher John Daniels. I have found that his lessons are short, easy to understand, doctrinally sound, and applicable to all who desire to learn more of God's Word. John's lessons can be found on his website   theologyinfive.com.   Today's lesson is titled The Prayers of Christ and the Destiny of the Faithful.   When Jesus prays to the Father in the Gospels, He does so as the Incarnate Son, fully God and fully man. His prayers are not signs of weakness or inequality, but expressions of true humanity. They reflect His relationship with the Father within the limitations of flesh and blood, taken on voluntarily to accomplish the redemption of mankind. Yet Christ's prayers do more than model dependence. They reveal His mission, not merely to forgive sin, but to lead those united to Him into eternal fellowship with Yahweh, where they will be glorified through their relationship with Him. In His High Priestly Prayer in John seventeen, Jesus says: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one” (John seventeen verse twenty-two). This is not poetic exaggeration. It is a clear expression of Christ's intent to raise His followers into the glory that He shares with the Father, restoring and transforming them in the process. The first segment is: Jesus's Prayers as Revelation of His Mission. In John seventeen verses one and two, Jesus prays: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.” Christ's authority includes granting eternal life, an existence defined not merely by duration, but by nature: incorruptibility, righteousness, and unending communion with God. Later in the same prayer, He says: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory…” (John seventeen verse twenty-four) Though Christ is fully divine, He chose to humble Himself. As Paul writes in Philippians two verses six through eight, though existing in the form of God, He did not cling to His divine status but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. Hebrews two says He was made for a little while lower than the angels, not because He lost divinity, but because He embraced full humanity. His prayers reflect this self-imposed humility and His desire to elevate those He redeems. The second segment is: The Resurrection Body and the Nature of Glorified Transformation. Scripture consistently affirms the transformation of the faithful, not merely morally, but ontologically. Psalm eight states that man was made “a little lower than the heavenly beings,” but destined to be crowned with glory and honor. Hebrews two applies this to Christ and, by extension, to all who belong to Him. First Corinthians fifteen declares that believers will be raised with glorified, incorruptible bodies. Paul...

Session 1

John 13:12–17,When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.In the year 1521, an artist named Lucas Cranach published a pamphlet of several woodcut images he had made of the pope. The printing press had been around almost a hundred years, but only a small fraction of the population could read, and so pictures were an important way to get a message across. And in these woodcuts images, Cranach, who was a good friend of Martin Luther, had two panels side by side: on the right side was a depiction of Pope Leo, but on the first side was a depiction of Jesus. And one of his most famous woodcuts features the scene of Jesus in John 13. The text beneath the image is our passage today, John 13:14–17.In this image of Jesus, you can see he is basically doing what the passage says: his disciples, a ragtag looking bunch, are huddled together in line, and Jesus is stooped down on his knees, by a water basin, washing their feet. We're supposed to contrast that image with the image on the other side: it's the pope sitting on an elevated platform, and there's a room full of dignitaries, and they're all in line to kiss his feet. It's clear that the pope is doing the exact opposite of Christ, which is why the heading at the top, on the right side, says, “Antichrist.” Some of you may know, our Reformation forefathers thought the pope was the antichrist — and I just wanna say they were not crazy to think that because the pope literally did antichrist things … And nothing made that more obvious than how the pope treated people so differently from how Jesus did. See John 13 was (and is) a standard of authenticity for every true disciple of Jesus. We should read this passage and ask ourselves: Does anything in my life look anything close to what Jesus is doing here? If you could put a picture of yourself on that right side, what would it look like?I believe it's God's providence that John 13 is our text at the very beginning of 2026. And we're gonna look closely at this passage today, but here's my goal: I want this passage to shape a prayer for our church for this entire year. The prayer is this: that we would grow as joyful servants of one another like Jesus is of us.That's the prayer — and there's a lot we could say about this — but I wanna start with the most basic this morning. Following the words of Jesus in this passage, I want to tell you three reasons we should serve one another like Jesus serves us. Here's the first. We should serve one another like Jesus serves us …1. Because Jesus is our Teacher and Lord (vv. 12–13)Look at verse 12. This is after Jesus has washed his disciples' feet. John tells us that Jesus basically cleaned himself up, sat back at the table, and then he began to teach with his words. See, the whole thing has been teaching, but now it's formal. And the first thing Jesus says, the end of verse 12, is:“Do you understand what I have done to you?”He's implying here that they don't understand, which is what he already said in verse 7. In verse 7, Jesus told the disciples: Hey, you don't get what I'm doing now, but you will later. And now is that later: Jesus is about to explain the meaning of his washing their feet — and we're on the edge of our seats for this!What Jesus did was shocking enough, but now he's gonna tell us the deeper meaning. He starts in verse 13. Verse 13:“You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.”Notice the first thing Jesus does here is affirm the disciples. He starts by telling the disciples something they get right. And what they get right is who Jesus is. He is their “Teacher and Lord.”The word “Lord” here could be just a respectful way of talking to somebody with authority, but we know it's more than that in the New Testament. This is a confession of the deity of Jesus. Jesus is God the Son. He is the Lord Jesus. And we would expect this word to be front and center in what Jesus is called.But look at that word “teacher” in verse 13 — it's another way to say rabbi. And “rabbi” or “teacher” — that was something these early Jewish disciples called Jesus, but we don't really use that language today, at least not in our circles. I grew up in the church, and I've been a Christian for about three decades, and I don't know that I've ever heard anyone refer to Jesus as their “Lord and Teacher Jesus Christ.” But why don't we say that? That's a fair question to ask, isn't it? Because Jesus says it is right to call him Teacher, but we don't. So why not?It's actually a simple answer. It's because we combine Jesus as Teacher with his identity as Lord. This comes through in our third baptism vow: We affirm that, “with God's help, we will obey the teachings of Jesus and follow him as Lord, Savior, and Treasure.” “Learn from me”So we may not use the word “Teacher” but it is absolutely implied! This is the way we relate to Jesus as his disciples — we obey his teachings, we follow him. I think it's okay that we don't commonly call Jesus our “Teacher” — but it's okay only as long as we know he is that to us. He's certainly more to us than Teacher, but never less — Jesus teaches us how to live in this world!I think of Jesus's famous invitation in Matthew Chapter 11 to come to him and find rest. Remember he says: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me …” (Matthew 11:29). Learn from Jesus how to live!Or in the Book of Ephesians, Paul warns us not to live like the Gentiles — because their hearts are hardened and they're full of greed — and Paul says, “That is not the way you learned Christ!” (Ephesians 4:20). Hear that? We learn Christ. We learn from him! Jesus is our Teacher. It is right to call him that, but what matters most is that we know that's who he is. And when we know that, when that fact is established, then of course we're gonna do what he says. This is foundational: we should serve one another like Jesus serves us because Jesus is our Teacher and Lord, and he tells us to. And we could stop here, to be honest, because that's enough. But there's more. We should serve one another like Jesus serves us …2. Because Jesus has given us an example (vv. 14–16)This is verses 14–16, and it's really the central part of the passage. So let's read it again, and notice this whole unit is an argument. Verse 14: If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.The logic of what Jesus says is grounded in the disciples' relationship to him — the Teacher/disciple relationship is implied, but Jesus names two more relationships in verse 16: master/servant, and then sender/messenger. We see that in verse 16.Now, what's the same in all of these relationships is that there's a hierarchy, and in each one, Jesus is the superior and we are the inferior. This is vital to the argument. Jesus is saying plainly in verse 14: If I, your superior, have washed the feet on my inferiors, then my inferiors ought to wash one another's feet.And in case we get stuck on the feet-washing part, in verse 15 Jesus explains that what he did was an example bigger than feet. Jesus has given us a model for how we treat one another.He has given us a pattern for all of life — it's not about one specific act of washing feet, but this is about a way of being. This is how we live together as the body of Christ: we serve one another the way Christ served us — which included washing our feet.And so, get this: if our Teacher, our Master, if he went that low to serve us, what would we consider too low in serving one another? See what he did there? Jesus has opened up for us endless possibilities of good works. Because now, following his example, nothing can be too low. Nothing can be too inconvenient. The degree of our serving is not determined by our station, but by the needs of our brothers and sisters. That is not the way it is in the world! Seriously, don't try this at work! Stick to your job description.What About Spiritual Gifts?But the local church is different. And this is where, heads up, we need to be careful with the topic of spiritual gifts. Now we're gonna get there one day in First Corinthians, but let me just offer a word of caution here … There is a school of thought that says it's incumbent that every Christian find a church where they can use their spiritual gifts. But see, the problem with this thinking is that it can lead individual Christians to hop from church to church asking the questions, “Can I use my gift here? … Can I use my gift here? What about here? Here? Who wants this gift?” And look, it's not bad to want to use your gift, but, instead of looking for the church where you can use your gift, how about commit to a church and let the first thing you ask be: What are the needs? Where can I help? Show me the places where I can follow the example of my Teacher and wash some feet!Look, I'm not gonna mention names (because I don't wanna embarrass anybody), but I've seen that kind of needs-first serving in this church over and over again. And when the whole church serves one another this way — in the example Jesus has given us — it is one of the most beautiful, compelling realities on the planet. Because Jesus is the only reason it makes sense. He is our Teacher and Lord, and he gave us an example.Here's the third reason. We serve one another the way Jesus served us …3. Because there is a blessing that comes through doing (v. 17)This is verse 17, and it's a verse that I want everybody to see. There are few keywords in this verse that we're gonna focus on, but first, everybody find verse 17. Chapter 13, verse 17, Jesus says:“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”First word to see here is “blesséd.” This is a wonderful word. It's used 50 times in the whole New Testament, and 40 of those times are by Jesus himself. I think that counts as one of his favorite words! And the most famous place Jesus used this word was during his Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew Chapter 5, Jesus starts that sermon with what's called the Beatitudes. You've heard these before …“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” …Jesus goes on to mention nine different blesséds, and none of them are what you'd expect. They turn the way of the world upside down — which tells us that Jesus's idea of “blessedness” is probably different too. To be blessed, according to Jesus, does not mean to be comfortable or to have things easy — it does not mean more power, money, and fame (that's the world's idea). But to be blessed according to Jesus means to be truly happy in relation to God — it's about the ‘good life' under the kingdom of God, which is the only ‘good life' that is true and lasting. To be blessed according to Jesus is not cheap fun, but it's a deep joy in God, given by God.Don't we want that? I'll take some of that in the New Year! The Way to BlessingWell, good news! Jesus is gonna tell us how we can get it. Everybody track with me — Look back at verse 17: Jesus starts, “If you know these things” — what things? He's talking about what he has just said. He's talking about the explanation he just gave in verses 14–15 for what he was doing in washing their feet. Jesus is saying: If you know I've given you an example! Or: now that you know I've given you an example! — Hey, it's good to know things isn't it? I'm so thankful that we can read the Word of God and know things about God and about life. It is a gift to know, amen. And we wanna grow in our knowledge! (2 Peter 3:18).But in verse 17, where does Jesus saying the blessing is?Verse 17: “If you know these things — or, now that you know I've given you an example … Blessed are you if you [have a Bible study and talk more about it] …Blessed are you if you [listen to a sermon and take good notes] …All goods things. But what does Jesus say in verse 17?“If you now know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”Do them. Like in real life, actually do the thing. Do what Jesus did!But Your Neighbor DoesYou know, thanks be to God, the heart of the gospel is that we are saved by grace, not by works. Romans 4:4, Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.Amen! We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. It's like Martin Luther said:“God does not need your good works … but your neighbor does.” Your brother does. Your sister does.Listen: there is a blessing from Jesus that you can only have when you serve others the way he serves us. That's why we're joyful servants!And again, the blessing is not comfort. It's not ease. It's not convenience. It's not power, money, and fame. In fact, in the serving it's pretty much the opposite of all those things. There are at least moments of discomfort, difficulty, and inconvenience. You stoop low, at a cost, with no fanfare. But Jesus says, in doing that you will be blessed.And we all raised our hands and said we want that blessing. All that's left is the doing. How Does That Look?What does that look like for you? (Come back at 5 tonight to hear more about this), but I want to ask you now: in this New Year, in what ways are you gonna follow the example of Jesus, and do what he did? Where are the needs in our church, the needs around you, that God would call you to meet?Hey, let me just say: for those of us who are worried about our church growing this year, if we just do this, we're gonna be okay. The question is not: Am I going to be cared for with all these people here? The question is: How can I serve all these people the way Jesus served me?And when we're all asking that … it's beautiful.And look: it starts here. It starts with me; it starts with the pastors. All of us are in the same boat in that we all want to be more like Jesus. I'll tell you a story I thought of last week, and this is kinda crazy, because I haven't thought of this in 22 years, but it popped in my head a few days ago. When I was a freshman in college and trying to figure out God's calling on my life, I went to an FCA event to hear this guest preacher who was talking about calling. And I don't remember his message other than this one story he told, about a dream he had. This guy has preached to people all over the country, and seen a lot of fruit, and he had this dream where he was sitting on a white horse … He is sitting on this horse, looking out over all the people he had preached the gospel to. And then he sees Jesus walking up to him, through this crowd of people, and when Jesus finally gets to him, Jesus looks up and says, “Hey, would you get off my horse?”The guy said: Hey, whatever Jesus is calling you to in life, it's never to be on his horse.We've actually seen in John 13, Jesus calls us to serve like he serves. And I want you to know: your pastors are in this for that. That's my heart for you. And what I'm about to say — I don't mean this as anything different from the past, but I just wanna tell you: with God's help, I'm gonna serve you the best I can this year. With all the grace that God supplies.And that's our prayer together, for all of us. It's that God would grow us as joyful servants of one another like Jesus is of us.That's what leads us to the Table.The TableI want us to sense in a new way the wonder that we are children of God. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus, and one another, and we live by him and for him. It's all grace! All gift! And at this Table we rest in that.We come here to thank Jesus for his cross and resurrection, and to receive afresh all that he is for us — Lord, Savior, Treasure, and Teacher.

In this recent monograph Sarcasm in Paul's Letters (Cambridge University Press 2023, Matthew Pawlak offers the first treatment of sarcasm in New Testament studies. He provides an extensive analysis of sarcastic passages across the undisputed letters of Paul, showing where Paul is sarcastic, and how his sarcasm affects our understanding of his rhetoric and relationships with the Early Christian congregations in Galatia, Rome, and Corinth. Pawlak's identification of sarcasm is supported by a dataset of 400 examples drawn from a broad range of ancient texts, including major case studies on Septuagint Job, the prophets, and Lucian of Samosata. These data enable the determination of the typical linguistic signals of sarcasm in ancient Greek, as well as its rhetorical functions. Pawlak also addresses several ongoing discussions in Pauline scholarship. His volume advances our understanding of the abrupt opening of Galatians, diatribe and Paul's hypothetical interlocutor in Romans, the 'Corinthian slogans' of First Corinthians, and the 'fool's speech' found within Second Corinthians 10-13. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Introduction: Hebrews 10:24-25 Acts 10:42, 1 Tim 4:1-2 1 Tim 4:13 1 Tim 2:1,8 , Col 4:2 Eph 5:19, Col 3:16 John 4:23-24 All In On Truth (1 Chronicles 13:3-14) Good intentions and enthusiasm != TRUE WORSHIP. It is PERILOUS to worship God CARELESSLY . We worship God WHO IS WITH US. John 14:16–18 1 Cor 3:16 1 Cor 6:19-20 Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Chronicles 13:3-14What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What is at stake in God's command to worship Him in truth? See, for example, another account of careless and irreverent worship in Leviticus 10:1-3.Why are good intentions and enthusiasm insufficient for worshiping God in truth? Are they better, about the same, or worse than dead, emotionless, and unresponsive “worship?”Before this message, what was your understanding of verses describing Christabiding in you? (John 14:16-18, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19-20)How should the fact that Christ abides in us inspire or change the way weworship?BreakoutPray for one another. AUDIO TRANSCRIPT Good morning, Harvest, and Happy New Year. Open your Bibles, please, to 1 Chronicles,chapter 13. It will be in the Old Testament, 1 Chronicles, chapter 13. If you want, youcan put a little bookmark at chapter 15, because we're going to be looking there briefly aswell. This morning, we're beginning a three-week series on worship. Of course, there are manyways that we worship, prayer, preaching, proclaiming the gospel. I think it's fair to say thatfor everyone who is a believer in Christ, whatever we do is worship. Everything we do shouldbe for the glory of God. There are right ways, and there are wrong ways to worship God. AtHarvest, we follow something known as the regulative principle. That simply means thatif a type of worship is not permitted in Scripture, we don't do it. We don't get to worship Godhowever we want to. We must worship Him in the way that He commands. You may wonder,"Why do we do the things we do here in worship every Sunday? Who makes that up?" Well, it'snot made up. We do what God's word says to. You'll notice that every Sunday, we meettogether. We preach God's word. We read God's word. We pray and we sing. Now, while thoseare ways in which we are commanded to worship, this three-week series is going to focus particularlyon worshiping through music and singing. Our starting point for all three of these messagesis John 4 verses 23 and 24. "But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshiperswill worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worshipHim. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Sowe see that from these verses, the right way to worship God is spirit and truth. In twoweeks, Pastor Taylor is going to cover why worshiping in spirit and truth through musicand song is so important. Next week, Pastor Jeff will take us through what it means toworship in spirit. And then this morning's message is about worshiping God in truth.So here's the point of this week's sermon. "The Lord God Almighty delights to be withus, but we must have regard for His holiness and worship Him according to His commands."You see, when we worship God that way, when we worship God in truth, it means the wordswe sing to and about Him are true. By singing true words about God, we're able to rememberlater what is true. And we learn sound doctrine. If you've ever memorized Scripture throughsinging or you've sung the old hymns that are just chock full of biblical truth, youknow what I mean. When we worship God in truth, the truth fills us with awe. We aremoved emotionally. We're moved physically by the truth that we sing. Now at Harvest,we don't use, you know, strobe lights, flashing lights, fog machines, loud music, and othertactics to manipulate you into thinking that you're worshiping just because you're experiencingone sensory overload after another. But if what we sing is true, then truth will fillus and flow out of us. When we worship God in truth, we recognize that singing His praisesis of the utmost importance to Him. He's worthy of our praises. He's worthy of all our songsabout Him. He commands our praises. He expects it. The Book of Psalms is proof of that. Andwe should therefore make every effort to worship Him the right way because that pleases andglorifies Him. Let's pray. Oh, most gracious God, sovereign of the universe, God most high,you are awesome and mighty, and you are worthy of all praise. You are worthy of all of ourattention. You are worthy of every thought. You are worthy of every song we can sing.Because Lord, you are holy and you dwell in the praises of your people. I pray this morningthat we would overflow in worshipful song because we know the truth. We know the tritetruth of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us and that He is in us. And it'sin His great name. We ask it. Amen.Now this morning's passage recounts when David wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant,the Ark of God, to Jerusalem to be near him. The passage contrasts the wrong way to worshipGod with the right expression of awe and reverence for God Almighty. Before we dive into thismessage, I need to give you some background. We need to do a brief history lesson. So youprobably all know God chose and called the people of Israel out of Egypt so that he couldbe with them. And the primary way that he demonstrated his presence with the peopleof Israel was through a movable tabernacle. That's simply a large tent and it was surroundedby a big fabric courtyard and poles. But inside the tent there were two separate places. Therewas the holy place and that was furnished with the Ark of Incense and a table in which breadwas placed every week and a lamp, a gold lamp to give light. And then on the eastern sideof this tent was basically a cube-shaped area. It was about 15 by 15 by 15. It was a perfectcube and that was the most holy place, the Holy of Holies. And it contained the Arkof the Covenant. In other places in Scripture it's called the Ark of God or the Ark ofTestimony. Now in Exodus 25 God gave some very specific directions for the Ark's constructionand its significance. It was a wooden box. It was about 45 inches long, 27 inches high,27 inches wide. Not that big. And then the wood was overlaid with gold and then on topwas a solid gold lid. It was all hammered out of one piece of gold and there were twocherubim on the top. So this is just a very simple example of what it might look like.We can't really speak in detail now about what the Ark looked like but we have the descriptionin Scripture. Now this lid with the cherubim was also called the Mercy Seat and it wassignificant for several reasons. One, the Lord was said to be enthroned above the cherubim.And two, the Lord spoke to Moses from between the cherubim. And then a third reason is onthe annual day of atonement the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and he wouldsprinkle blood on the lid to atone for the people's sins. And it's in this way that theLord tabernacled or dwelled between the two cherubim on the lid of the Ark. In this waythe Lord was present with his people and the people knew God was with them because in thedaytime there was a pillar of cloud over the tabernacle and at night it became a pillarof fire and whenever that pillar moved up and forward it was safe for the Levites, thepriests to go in, pack up the Ark, pack up the tabernacle and move it to wherever Godwas leading them. He took them wherever he wanted them to go. Now God also gave veryspecific instructions about how the Ark was to be moved and by whom. Only the Levitesand of the Levites a clan called the Coethites were allowed to carry the holy things includingthe Ark. Now this Ark was meant to be portable. It was carried on poles, passed through goldrings that those rings were attached to the feet of the Ark and in that way the Ark waslifted up over the priests heads when they carried it so all the people could see theArk was with them. Now these poles were never supposed to be removed from the Ark and beforethe Ark was moved it was supposed to be hidden. They put a big goat skin over it and thenthey covered it with a blue cloth and then that's they would pick it up and they wouldmove it. Now let's move ahead in time about 400 years to the end of the period of thejudges in 1 Samuel. At that time there was a man named Eli. He was the high priest andduring this time the Israelites fought a battle against their arch enemies the Philistinesand they were defeated. The Philistines walloped the Israelites and they were like, "Oh whatare we going to do? What are we going to do? Wait no, let's go bring the Ark of the testimonyto us. Let's bring it into the camp with us thinking this will bring us victory." Andthey were instead defeated in a very great slaughter. And Eli's two sons they were killedand the Ark was captured by the Philistines and taken away. When Eli heard his sons weredead and the Ark was captured he fell backwards over on his chair and broke his neck and hedied. This had to be a terribly bleak time for Israel. Their God, their God was captured.They had no priests, they had no prophets and as yet they had no king. Their whole identityas a people has been overthrown in a day. Now the Philistines they took the Ark to thecity of Ashtad and they put it in the temple of their God named Dagon. And the statue ofDagon fell face down in front of the Ark. So they picked him back up and set him upagain. They come in the next day and this time the God Dagon has fallen over again but thistime his head is busted off and his hands are broken off. And something else happens.The Lord begins terrifying the people of Ashtad with plague and tumors and death. So the Philistinesand Ashtad they take the Ark to Gath, another Philistine city. And the people there alsosuffered from plague and tumors and death. So they pick it up and they move it againto the city of Ekron and guess what happens? The people there experience plague, sickness,death. And they go, "Okay, enough of this. Enough of this." They decide to return theArk to Israel after seven months of being afflicted by God. So the Philistines, theysay, "What do we do with this?" They put the Ark on a brand new cart and they hitch it totwo milking cows. And the cows, instead of trying to go back to be with their calves,their babies, they instead they go straight up to a place in Israel called Beth Shemesh.The Israelites at Beth Shemesh, they rejoiced to see the Ark returned. But when some ofthe men of Beth Shemesh apparently looked into the Ark, the Lord struck down 70 of them.So the people of Beth Shemesh asked the people in another town called Keryth Jerem,"Come and get the Ark from us." Which they did. So the men of Keryth Jerem brought the Ark to thehouse of a man named Abinadab. They consecrated his son Eliezer to oversee it. And the Arkremained there, the Bible says, for some 20 years. Now after David becomes king, you know,this is a period of time Saul was king, he is dead, Jonathan is dead, David has become king,he is now established in Jerusalem as his capital. And David's got this idea, he wants to bring theArk of God from Keryth Jerem to Jerusalem. So David gets all the commanders, all the priests,and the Levites together to get their concurrence with his idea. And now we pick up at our accountin Chronicles chapter 13. "Then let us bring again the Ark of our God to us," David says."For we did not seek it in the days of Saul. All the people agreed to do so, for the thing wasright in the eyes of all the people." So David assembled all Israel from the Nile of Egypt toLebohamed to bring the Ark of God from Keryth Jerem. And David and all Israel went up to Bala,that is Keryth Jerem, that belongs to Judah, to bring up from there the Ark of God, which iscalled by the name of the Lord who sits enthroned above the cherubim. And they carried the Ark ofGod on a new cart from the house of Abinadab. And Uzzah and Ohio were driving the cart. And Davidand all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might, with song and liars and harpsand tambourines and symbols and trumpets. So this is quite a procession, quite a big celebration.It brings us to our first point. Good intentions and enthusiasm don't equal true worship.There are some huge red flags in this account. As king, actually David's a prince really,because the Lord is still the true king. You know the Bible calls David King David?He's really a prince of the true king. But as King David wants God's presence near him.The Lord has established David and Jerusalem over Israel and to have the Ark of the Covenantnearby would really cement the relationship between God and the house of David.It was a shrewd religious and political move on David's part.But notice in this account David doesn't seek God's counsel about moving the Ark.David knew what he wanted. And he apparently expected God to bless this plan. It's a goodthing, right? Bring the Ark up to Jerusalem. I mean, after all God had blessed David up to this point.So David just gathers counselors around him to agree with him and they go off and they do justwhatever it is they want to do. And you notice the phrase, "The thing was right in the eyes of allthe people." If you're familiar with the book of Judges, you know there's flashing red lights andwarning sirens going off all over the place. The leaders of Israel may have all agreed,but if something is wrong, widespread agreement doesn't make it right.Not one of the priests, Sir Levite, seemed to have suggested consulting the Lordor the Law of Moses before doing this thing. And then to move the Ark, what do they do?They put it on a cart. "Oh, but it was a new cart," you say. "Well, let's should please the Lord,right? Look, Lord, Lord, Lord, look at this fancy set of wheels we got for you. Aren't you impressed?Finest Cedar from Lebanon. The problem is they're copying the Philistinesrather than consulting God or the Law of Moses." So they got the Ark all loaded up.They got a big procession, almost 30,000 people. Can you imagine? 30,000 people. That's 12,000 morepeople than fit in PPG Paints Arena, just for perspective. 30,000 people with David,and they're celebrating with all their might, and they're singing and praising with lots ofinstruments, the liars, the harps, castanets, cymbals, trumpets. They have every intentionof worshiping the Lord, and they're super enthused. And this is just all quite a spectacle. It looksimpressive. It sounds good, but they're more interested in putting it on a show than worshipingGod. It was more about their worship experience. It was more about what David wanted than worshipingthe Lord. It was more about what they perceived God would approve without confirming than it wasabout worshiping God as he commanded. And that's the core problem here. They're not worshiping theLord the way he commanded. They're not worshiping in truth. They don't even seem to have the slightestinterest in truth. Where? Where was the counsel of the high priest in the Levites? Where was prayerin the simple request, Lord, what do you want? Where are the coethites and the poles to carry theark above the heads of the people? Where is the reverence and the awe due to the Lord?Now, you can manufacture enthusiasm while singing. You know, that's why so many churches, they usethe lights and the fog and the beautiful moving images and the sonic walls of ear-popping soundsand drums and squealing singers gesturing wildly. It looks worshipy. It sounds worshipy. It probablyeven feels worshipy. Therefore, I must be worshiping God. Have you ever heard people say, "Oh, worshiptoday was great." I had a great worship experience. Have you ever said that? Who was it that made itthe worship great? The sonic boom or the truth of God? Did you sing songs about yourself or songsthat praise God's character, mercy, grace, and love? Were you pleased with yourself or did youplease your God by worshiping Him in truth? Now, some of you hearing this are probably congratulatingyourself right now. That's right, Sprunk. That's right. I agree with everything you've said.All that exuberance, it's all fake. It's all performance. I just don't see what all the fussis about. Why? That's why when they're singing going on, I just keep my cool. I keep my reserve.Well, good. If you're thinking along those lines, that's good because this next point is just for youbecause just as good intentions and enthusiasm don't equal true worship, it is perilous to worshipGod carelessly. Look at verse 9. "And when they came to the threshing floor of Chaitan, Azza put outhis hand to take hold of the ark for the oxen stumbled, and the anger of the Lord was kindledagainst Azza, and he struck him down because he put his hand to the ark, and he died there before God.And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Azza, and that place is called ParisAzza to this day. And David was afraid of God that day, and he said, 'How can I bring the ark of Godhome to me?' So David did not take the ark home into the city of David, but took it aside to thehouse of Obed Edom the Getite. And the ark of God remained with the household of Obed Edom in hishouse three months, and the Lord blessed the household of Obed Edom and all that he had.And we may be shocked that God struck down Azza for touching the ark.I mean, can you imagine this procession of 30,000 people and boom, Azza's dead?Well, that would take the wind out of the celebration, wouldn't it?Try to think what that might have looked like. Well, if you were in Butler on July 18, 2024,and there was an assassination attempt, you probably know what it felt like.If you saw Charlie Kirk murdered, that's what it was like.But God struck Azza down, and you may think, 'Well, what's the big deal? Why did he do that?They were worshiping.' Well, we've seen there were multiple things wrong with the way Davidand the Israelites treated the ark of God. Number one, they copied the Philistines.They're worshiping like pagans, and pagans don't know the truth. They treated the Holy Lord, GodMost High, the Holy Lord of Israel, shabbily. They treated God like baggage in a wooden cart.They were careless and unconcerned whether their worship obeyed the truth or expressed the truth.And we know Israel had a history of careless, half-hearted worship.We saw that in the Book of Judges, the people after they were settled in the land,they became idolatrous and careless in their worship. They served other gods, and they treated the arkas if it was some sort of good luck charm, a lucky rabbit's foot.They had no qualms about taking the ark from the Holy of Holies and carrying it around whereverthey liked. 'Take it down to the battle,' they said. 'God will fight for us,' they said.'You've got another thing coming,' God said. And everything was lost because of their insolence.The Philistines, they thought they had completely defeated the Israelites.'We've captured Israel's God,' they said.'We'll put him in the temple of our God, Dagon, and he'll worship our God,' they said.'You've got another thing coming,' God said. For their insolence, God busted up Dagon andafflicted the Philistines with sickness and death until they sent the ark back to Israelite territory.And after the ark returned to Israel's territory, the people of Beth Shemeshwanted to get a look at the most holy thing in the nation.They treated the ark like a curiosity, as something that they were consecrated and qualifiedto look at. 'Oh, God has returned to us,' they said. 'Let's sacrifice the cows and worship,' they said.'Let's look inside,' they said. 'You've got another thing coming,' God said.And seventy men of Beth Shemesh were struck down for their insolence.And then twenty years after the ark was moved to Curious Gerum, David proposes to bring the arkto Jerusalem. 'God's established me as king over Israel,' he said. 'It's right in our own eyes tobring the ark to Jerusalem,' they said. 'Let's put it on a new cart,' like the Philistines did,they said. 'Let's worship and celebrate with all our might and loud instruments,' they said.'You've got another thing coming,' God said. And as it was struck down for the people's insolence,you see, David and the priests and the Israelites treated God with contempt, and God said, 'Enough.'And David was rightly afraid of God, but no, he was also angry. But it was a self-pityinganger. David was angry because he didn't get his way. He was angry like Cain when God rejectedCain's act of self-centered worship. Angry like someone who knows he hasn't done his best,he hasn't done something right, but he wants approval anyway. But God is not mocked. God wasnot going to allow David and the priests to disobey his commands and still claim that they wereworshiping him properly. We should see that it is perilous to worship God carelessly.David had to learn, and although the text doesn't say, perhaps he repented of his irreverent worship.He was, after all, a man after God's own heart. And when he heard that Obed Edom was blessedby God, he realized it was possible to bring the ark to Jerusalem. But he had to do it the right way.So turn your head to 1 Chronicles 15. We're going to look at verses 11 through 15.Then David summoned the priests Zadok and Abayathar and the Levites, Uriel, Asiah, Joel,Shamiah, Eliel and Abinadab, and said to them, "You are the heads of the Father's houses of the Levites.Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord,the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. Because you did not carry it the first timethe Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him according to the rule."So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord,the God of Israel. And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles,as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.This time David does it the right way. The priests consecrate themselves. They preparethrough sacrifice and washing and abstaining from anything that would make them ritually unclean.Each one got himself ready for worship. They follow the Lord's command when they carry the ark.They lift up the ark and they revere the Lord as holy in the sight of all the people.In short, they now worship according to the word of the Lord. And the Lord showed he was pleasedwith their reverence by allowing David to finally bring the ark to Jerusalem.Likewise, when we worship the Lord in truth and according to his command, he is pleased.All right, so you've been listening intently to all of this. You've been maybe taking some notesand you understand good intentions and enthusiasm don't necessarily equal true worship.You recognize it's perilous to worship God carelessly. You may even be persuaded that you needto worship the Lord in truth. But how? How do we do this? And what does that even look like?Well, we worship in truth when we worship God who is with us.When I was preparing this sermon, I recall seeing a series of memes a few years ago thatcontrasted an event or thing that was brutal with another thing or event that was epic.So I asked some folks familiar with cutting edge technology, cutting edge social media,you know, like MySpace and Vine and Friendster. Did you guys remember those memes?And they're like, no, we I don't remember that at all. And I'm like, well, aren't you people onparlor? Well, anyway, anyway, I know, I know I did not imagine those memes that juxtapose brutaland epic themes. Now, have you have you ever encountered a brutal or brute factthat has set or altered your plans, perhaps altered the trajectory of your life?You know, brute facts are hard, unalterable truths and incurable illness being laid offand debilitating injury. Now, not all brute facts are so dramatic, but we have to reckonwith them. We must adapt and come to terms with them.When I was in 10th grade, I had the ambition to row in college. And one day, the University ofWashington's head coach visited our school. The University of Washington has one of the premierrowing programs, collegiate programs in the country. And their head coach came to our school afterour men's heavyweight four won the American Schoolboy Championship. Now, I wasn't in that boat,but I was pretty excited about this coach's visit. And I was standing in the hallway and he shook myhand and they nice to meet you. And the brute fact was brought home to me that his interest was inOrsman, who were five foot 10 and taller. I had to face the brute fact that I was too short to rowfor any college program. I still am. Now, now that might seem like a silly example, but our livesare filled with inalterable facts. They are the truths we must face. Our intellectual and physicalcharacteristics can only be changed so much. Some of our earlier poor choices in life may have hadconsequences for the rest of our life. Choices or decisions made by others may affect our careers,our health, our relationships. All of us must face a variety of inconsequential to life alteringbrutal facts. But there is one glorious fact so enormous in its scope, so epic in its immeasurableproportions that all the brute facts of our lives pale in comparison. There is an epic truth thatought to completely transform how we think, how we live, and yes, how we worship. It is quite simplythis. If you have trusted Jesus Christ for salvation, he abides in you. Christ in you is your hope ofglory. It is very simple. I repent, I believe in Jesus, and now I possess Jesus. Now, recall fromthe introduction of this message that when God wanted to dwell with his chosen people, he did sothrough the Ark of the Covenant. That simple box containing two tablets of the law and placed inthe most holy place was how God chose to tabernacle with and dwell with and be with his people.John chapter one verse 14 tells us the word became flesh and dwelt among us.The word translated dwelt there is literally tabernacle. Jesus tabernacled among us. Jesuswas the most holy place, the holy of holies in the flesh walking among his people.The world's religious systems have nothing like this. We understand God is absolute power,but yet he's personal. Islam has an absolute God in Allah, but he is in no way personal to his people.Zeus and the variety of Greek and Roman gods, they were personal. They looked very human,but not a single one of them had absolute power.Christianity is unique in the fact that the absolute sovereign of the universehumbly dwells with us in a personal way. There is no other religion, no other systemthat compares with, comes close to the way of Christ.Now you might say, well, he's not tabernacling or dwelling with us now, is he?I mean, even the most ardent followers of Christ can get a bit muddled in their thinking aboutJesus' present location. I mean, I thought he ascended to heaven. He's at the right hand ofGod the Father. Well, he did. He is there. But if you stop there, you may tend to think that Jesusis far away from us. You might think he's like a regional supervisor in a big corporation.He's given us a list of commands to follow. We got to check off our list to make sure we're good.And, you know, he checks in occasionally to see how we're doing. And, you know, he approves orcritiques our performance. We have weekly meetings, right? Every Sunday we have weekly meetings.We get a message from headquarters. We have a musical pep rally. And then we get on with our week.Well, if you think in any way like that about Jesus, you are mistaken. Jesus is not limitedby time or space or location. When you think that way about worshiping Jesus, you neglect this greattruth from John chapter 14 verses 16 through 18. Jesus told his disciples, "I will ask the Father,and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom the worldcannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with youand will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you."So, where is Jesus? Yes, at the right hand of the Father and present in everyone who believes inhim through the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians reinforces this truth. Look at verse 16 inchapter 3. "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?"And then chapter 6 verses 19 and 20. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spiritwithin you whom you have from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price,so glorify God in your body." The Greek word translated as temple in these verses is naos,and AOS, naos. And it refers to the most holy place, the holy of holies, where the ark was kept.You see, beloved, we are living, breathing portable tabernacles, holy places in whom Christabides. And the law is now written on our hearts instead of stone tablets. We must embrace thistruth and worship in it and out of it and through it. The Spirit of Christ in youought to be calling out to the Father and worshiping him in truth. This awesome, glorious,almighty, inipotent Creator and Master of the heavens and earth humbly dwells with youand makes you his friend. Jesus promises to abide in us and he calls us to come and abide in him.What is your response? Maybe you're hearing this truth for the first time and you're overjoyedby this jaw-dropping reality and you're ready to praise him in song right now.Or maybe you've just considered this in passing, but you think that holy spirit stuff,isn't that for the charismatic? And I don't feel, I don't feel the Spirit of God dwelling in me.It's not about feeling. The Spirit of God in dwelling all believers is presented as a statementof fact. It is true of all believers. Look again at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 19 and 20.Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, not outside of you?We don't have to ask him to come and visit us in this place. We don't have to ask him to fall onus or anything like that. He is always with us in us. You're not your own. You were bought with a price.So glorify God in your body. This is not some charismatic mumbo jumbo. You don't need a secondbaptism. You don't need an infilling of the Holy Spirit because when you heard the word of truth,the gospel of your salvation and you believed in Jesus, you were sealed with the promised HolySpirit. You have all the fullness of Christ in you right now. You have all of him that you couldever need. All of us together being built up into a holy temple have all the fullness of Christ in us.Everything that is his, his ours already, you don't need more of him. He simply wants more of you.Every day he calls you to abide more deeply in him. Here's the problem.Some, maybe many of you don't live in this truth and you don't worship out of it.Maybe it's because you're just learning about it. Maybe it's because you don't understand the scopeof this epic truth yet. But it would be really, really bad if you understood this truth.And up to this point in time, you've been careless about it.You know, it's okay if I'm habitually late to worship. I don't feel like singing anyway, you say.You hang out in the kitchen area and you chit chat with friends because fellowship is more importantthan singing, you say. When you are present, your hands are in your pockets, your arms are crossed,you won't open your mouth to sing. God knows I can't sing. He doesn't expect it, you say.It's my choice whether I sing, even if the Lord commands it, you say.You, you may have another thing coming. You treat God shabbily and carelessly. You don'tvalue or appreciate the truth that he dwells in you. Instead, you act like he's remote anddisinterested. Instead of deep calling out to deep, you quench the spirit and you instantlybehave in a way that's right in your own eyes with such worship. God is not pleased and you aretesting his patience. Repent, repent right now and every day this week for treating the Lord JesusChrist with contempt, repent and earnestly seek his face. Here is your assignment this week. Readand reread John 14 verses 15 through 23 and then get flat on your face and ask him to reveal bothin your heart and your mind the truth that he dwells with you. Ask him to help you to liveand praise out of the truth that you are his tabernacle. He delights to dwell with youand he delights to hear you sing his praises. Now the worship team is going to come back upand help us to worship the Lord in truth. Singing his praise is of the utmost importance to him.Right now, you have the opportunity to praise the Lord in truth. Right now, make every effort toget yourself to the throne of grace with your brothers and sisters and glorify your father andyour savior in truth. Because if you didn't know it before today, you do now. You were redeemedto worship and glorify him. It is your purpose and privilege to worship God who is with us.Our closing prayer this morning is from Psalm 98. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song for he has donemarvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has madeknown his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has rememberedhis steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seenthe salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Break forth into joya song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody,with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Amen.

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, 

Notes - https://www.generationword.com/notes/Epistles/18-First_Corinthians_chapters_1-8.pdf

In our concluding episode of the Whole Church Science Fair series, we reflect upon the profound insights garnered from our extensive discussions over the past several weeks. The salient point of our discourse centers on the harmonious coexistence of faith and science, a relationship that transcends mere compatibility and delves into the intricacies of understanding our world through both lenses. We deliberate on the integration of scientific inquiry with spiritual beliefs, examining how these dialogues can foster unity within the church community. Throughout this journey, we have engaged with diverse perspectives, each contributing to a richer narrative about our faith in the context of contemporary scientific discourse. As we encapsulate our experiences, we invite our listeners to consider how these conversations may influence their own beliefs and practices within their faith communities.The final installment of the Whole Church Science Fair series features a profound discussion between Joshua Noel and TJ Blackwell, encapsulating the key insights derived from their extensive exploration of faith and science. The episode commences with a rigorous examination of resurrection as articulated in First Corinthians, which serves as a theological cornerstone for the conversation. The hosts reflect on how such a concept, often dismissed as scientifically implausible, can act as a catalyst for unity within the church, emphasizing that genuine community is forged through shared beliefs and collective engagement in faith.Throughout the episode, the tone oscillates between serious theological reflection and personal anecdotes, as both speakers recount their scientific curiosities and the lessons learned from various experts featured in the series. Blackwell's candid observations on the efficacy of probiotics, alongside Noel's insights into the rapidly changing coral ecosystems, highlight the overarching theme: the interplay between scientific knowledge and spiritual growth. The dialogue invites listeners to consider how scientific inquiry can enhance their faith journey, prompting deeper contemplation on the stewardship of creation and the moral responsibilities that accompany it.As the episode progresses, Noel and Blackwell extend a clarion call for actionable steps towards cultivating unity within the church, advocating for authentic engagement with one another as a means of fostering understanding and cooperation. This episode not only serves as a reflection on the series' journey but also as an invitation to the audience to embrace the complexities of faith and science, encouraging ongoing dialogue and exploration in their personal spiritual paths.Takeaways: The concept of resurrection, as articulated in First Corinthians, serves as a foundation for unity among believers, emphasizing that life is found in Christ. Engaging with scientific principles can enhance our understanding of faith, suggesting that faith and science need not be in conflict. The exploration of different scientific topics throughout the series has revealed the interconnectedness of faith and understanding of the natural world. The discourse surrounding original sin presents significant theological implications, particularly when considering the compatibility of evolution with Christian doctrine. The metaphor of the church as an ecosystem illustrates the complexities of community and the necessity of diverse contributions for overall health and unity. Our discussions have illuminated the importance of personal relationships within the church to foster deeper understanding and reconciliation among differing beliefs. .Check out all of the other shows in the Anazao Podcast Network:https://anazao-ministries.captivate.fm.You...

Special Patreon Release: Janelle Rupp Conversations with your Teen About Sex Puberty and Identity   *DISCLAIMER* This episode contains adult themes and is not intended for little ears.   "Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm." Proverbs 13:20 (NIV)   *Transcript Below*   Questions We Discuss: Perhaps one of the most asked questions by Christian singles is, "How far is too far?" How do you respond to that question? Knowing the importance of educating ourselves as adults, what is the most popular sexual behavior among teens? What are some wise and age-appropriate guidelines recommend for teaching our kids about sex and sexuality?   Janelle Rupp is a Christ-follower, wife & mom of three (in that order).  Upon graduating from Cedarville University with a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing and a Minor in Biblical Studies, she worked nine years as a Pediatric ICU nurse before transitioning into nine years of nursing education for the Empower Life Center of Peoria, Illinois. There she specialized in Sexual Health with an emphasis on Sexual-Risk Avoidance. After moving to the Atlanta, Georgia area, Janelle developed a Biblically-based, Christian & Home school curriculum entitled “Remember Whose You Are: Rooting Human Sexuality in Gospel Identity." Using an expositional study of Genesis 1-3 alongside evidence-based scientific research, the four-unit program builds on itself to establish how gospel identity determines holy & healthy & holy sexuality. With a passion for both science & Scripture, Janelle is currently teaching the curriculum at North Cobb Christian School while watching the Lord grow the program at schools nation-wide.  She can be reached at jrupp.rememberwhoseyouare@gmail.com.   Recommended website for Parents: axis.org   Thank you to our sponsor: Daisy Kings Use code SAVVY to Save!   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook, Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”   Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”   Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”   John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcript*   Music: (0:00 – 0:09)   Laura Dugger: (0:09 - 1:31) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. Today's message is not intended for little ears.   We'll be discussing some adult themes, and I want you to be aware before you listen to this message.   Thank you to Daisy King's, a skincare brand that meets simplicity. Their tallow-based products are made with wholesome, God-given ingredients to deeply nourish, restore, and protect your skin.   There are no toxins, no fillers, just pure, effective skincare. Visit DaisyKings.com to nourish, restore, and glow.   Janelle Rupp is my guest today, and she packed so much knowledge and inspiration into this time by educating us on a healthy view of sex, sharing God's holy and awe-inspiring design of our bodies, and ways that all of this points to Him.   She also is going to include meaningful conversations to have with our children throughout the years that they're in our home. Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Janelle.   Janelle Rupp: (1:32 - 1:35) Thanks so much, Laura. I'm so glad to be with you today.   Laura Dugger: (1:35 - 1:42) Will you just get us started by telling us a little bit about your faith journey and where it's brought you to today?   Janelle Rupp: (1:43 - 4:51) Sure. I was raised in a Christian home. I remember from a young age actually being struck with the realization that God loved me so much that He sent His own son for me.   But it really was probably more in my teenage years that I realized the depth of my sin, that it was great, and that Jesus was that bridge between who God was and who I was. Also, early on in my life, I knew I wanted to be a nurse, which is actually kind of interesting because there was no one in my family who was a nurse or in healthcare. But I had watched my mom care well for others in her family who had a myriad of mental and physical health problems.   So, I do think that the compassion that God put in my heart at a young age did find its place in a healthcare setting just over time and experiences I watched her. I really felt like my dream job would be to work in preventative healthcare, specifically with teenagers. And I had a heart for girls in really tough situations like teenage pregnancy.   It's a very marginalized group of humanity. And so, after college, I ended up in the pediatric intensive care unit at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis for about seven years. And during that time, I met my husband.   We got married. We had our first child. And then while pregnant with our second, we decided to move closer to my extended family back in Illinois.   And a few years after I had our second child, I actually ended up landing that dream job that I felt like the Lord had laid on my heart way back in college. And so, I started the Empower Life Center in Peoria, Illinois in 2008. And I worked there for nearly 10 years as a nurse educator, teaching parenting and newborn classes.   But my primary role was a sexual risk avoidance educator, specializing in sexually transmitted disease and infections. And I would teach in public schools and private schools and charter schools. It's a junior high and high school level and also a guest lecturer at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.   And I always tell people that no one grows up and hopes to be a sex teacher one day. I did not envision that God would put me in that area of education, but he did. And so, after 10 years of doing that, when our family then transitioned down to Atlanta, Georgia for a job transfer for my husband, we had chosen to put our kids, now three kids at that point, in Christian education.   And within months, the middle school principal had heard about my background and approached me to create a curriculum for their fifth through eighth graders that was centered on a biblical view of sex and sexuality. So, I spent a series of months developing that curriculum. I then decided to go ahead and accept a teaching job to teach that curriculum.   And it's entitled Remember Whose You Are. And it's designed as a four unit developmentally appropriate program for Christian schools or homeschool environments. And currently we're in the beginning stages of equipping and training other schools to implement it at their school as well.   Laura Dugger: (4:52 - 5:17) Wow, that is so interesting to hear how you got interested in teaching others this healthy view of God and sex. And at the foundation of your teaching, you begin with a theology of God. So, I'd love to zero in on just one of your points that God is a relational God.   Will you elaborate on that and share how it ties into this topic we're discussing today?   Janelle Rupp: (5:18 - 7:13) For sure. One of my goals in teaching this is just to help my students see God for who he is, fall in love with who he is. And God being relational is one of the places where I always notice that beginning to take shape.   I find evidence for that in Genesis 1:26, where it says, “and God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness.” The definition of the word relational means a desire to pursue relationship or connection with another. And before we think of God pursuing relationship with us, it's actually really critical to look at that verse and note that God is already relational within himself. So, we see evidence in that verse that he's referring to himself in a plural sense.   And when we take that alongside other areas of Scripture as well, we see God existing as Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, three in one, indicating that God does not need humanity for relationship. He only desires humanity for relationship. And one day, actually, when I was teaching that to a group of fifth grade boys last year, I said, God does not need you, but he wants you.   One of the fifth grade boys, in all complete sincerity, said, “Aww.” And it was one of the sweetest things I had ever heard because it was this very honest verbal expression of what it felt like to know that we are wanted by the God of the universe. I tell my students, “You know, someone only wants relationship with you when they love you.”   And so, while 1 John 4:8 tells us, “that God is love.” It's pretty amazing that way back in the first chapter of Genesis, as we find God creating man and creating woman, He's still incredibly loving that He even desired to create it in the first place. So, I think God being relational is such an important aspect to the who and the why of who He is.   Laura Dugger: (7:14 - 7:28) Absolutely. And I really envision this chat being a time when parents can listen alongside their teen or their tween or whenever it's age appropriate. So, will you just give us a glimpse of what you do teach in schools?   Janelle Rupp: (7:29 - 13:04) I would be happy too. The very first unit is just the who and the why of God. We focus on 10 characteristics of God, and then we transition to the who and the why of humanity.   What do all humans have in common? And we highlight eight characteristics that we all share in common. And then unit two, it's centered on the who and the why of me.   And specifically looking at Genesis 1:27, identity means that we're made in the image of God and that we are made male and female. So, Genesis 1:27 says, “So God made man in his own image, in the image of God, he made them male and female, he created them.” So, here we really want to introduce what does it mean to be made in the image of God as a social being, emotional being, a spiritual being, an intellectual being?   But also, what does it mean to be made with this physical body, male or female? And so, we introduced the reproductive system with an emphasis on puberty and human growth and development. And within that introduction, in that unit, I do something that's historically not been done in Christian settings, which is that I am teaching both the male and the female reproductive system to both genders.   And this next sentence may sound a little odd to some of your listeners. I know my students sometimes giggle when I say it, but I see the glory of God when I study the anatomy of both the male and the female reproductive systems and the intricacies of the design in order to see how they both work perfectly together. To me, it's awe-inspiring.   And so, I believe females have every right to see and begin to grasp the design of a male reproductive system. We use really basic anatomical diagrams for that. And then males equally have every right to see and begin to understand the basics of the female reproductive system using a diagram.   And my approach to that is clinical and scientific. It's definitely from an anatomy perspective. But I also make sure to take the time to point out some of, again, the beauty of the design.   For example, females, when they are born, are born with all the eggs that they will ever, ever have in their ovaries. And this design is super perfect because it means that you and I are not going to be 70 years old and find out that we're unexpectedly pregnant. Eventually, those eggs will run out about in our mid-40s.   And I always thank God for that design. It is a good design. Another one is just the female cervix.   The female cervix doesn't reach full maturity and protection until our early to mid-20s, where it then provides this wonderful protective barrier between the external and internal anatomy of the female reproductive system. When you explain things like that, I literally watch the kids have what I call light bulb moments, where they begin to see the why behind the design. And it's so important.   They've never taken the time to look at that and to hear it. In fact, I often call the reproductive system the forgotten body system. Christian kids in particular, they will get through a whole unit on the body having never talked about the reproductive system.   And if they are, then usually they're taught just about their own gender and they're missing that overarching beauty of what God designed. So, I think it's really important to highlight that reproductive system and for both genders. But in Unit 3, we move from the foundation of just gospel identity as made in His image and male and female into then specifically human sexuality.   And we use mostly Genesis 2 as we look through this about how God designed marriage and God designed sex, which is super clear in Genesis 2:24 and says, “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and take hold of his wife and they will become one flesh.” And so, God's design for marriage and sex is clear that it's between a man and a woman. And also that that man and woman should follow the order of this verse.   First, that they leave and leaving might be dating. It might be courting. It might be pursuing a relationship.   However, we set those boundaries for our kids. And then second, that they would take hold and experience the intimacy and blessing of marriage, referencing that connection that God put Adam and Eve in through marriage. And third and last in that order, but that they become one flesh, which is referencing sex.   And so, after explaining that very good design, we transition into Genesis 3. And honestly, I love how Moses starts off the chapter here, Genesis 3, by saying, “Now the serpent.” And I always tell the kids that I hear that music in my head of dun, dun, dun. Like you just know that everything is going to change.   This good design is going to change and it's not changing for the better. And so, we start then looking at all the distortions that sin has caused within the overall topic of sex. And that means not just looking at premarital sex, but also adultery, pornography, sexting, gender identity, sexual identity.   And honestly, that list just keeps on growing every year that I teach. And so, then unit four, that last unit, is what I call the now what unit. In light of taking everything that we know now about gospel identity and human sexuality, I really encourage the kids to start really thinking about how they practically should be living in relationships with someone that they're attracted to and that they want to pursue.   And we use the entire Bible to help us answer that question. We actually end that unit with the question and answer panel discussion, using questions that the students have come up with through the course of that week. And it's always a sweet time of conversation focused on, again, gospel identity and human sexuality.   Laura Dugger: (13:06 - 13:19) Oh my goodness, that is so amazing and comprehensive. If parents are listening and they're wondering just about that diagram, what age do you recommend showing something like that? How would you respond to that question?   Janelle Rupp: (13:20 - 14:08) That's an excellent question. So, we're doing that in sixth grade. You know, it always depends on what your child's exposure and experience is, what their environment is, and their curiosity.   I think each child is so different. But in general, sixth grade would be age 11, 12, I think that's 10 to 12 for sure. But even you could probably push it as you're talking about puberty, which is where we interject it, just because it gives reference to what is a period for a girl?   Or what are the changes as a male that I'm having inside my body right now? Where's that coming from? So, I think starting as young as eight or nine to 10.   No later really than 12, I think would be really, really important.   Laura Dugger: (14:09 - 14:16) Thank you. That is helpful. I'm assuming that you're everybody's favorite teacher and that this is their favorite course to take.   Janelle Rupp: (14:17 - 14:48) We have a lot of fun. And I love when the kids buy into it. You know, sometimes I'll find that kids come in and they're a little hesitant to talk about this or they feel awkward by it.   But I think, you know, coming at it from both a clinical perspective, but also a biblical perspective, doing my best to keep them at ease and have fun as we have these conversations. Eventually, they loosen up over time. And it ends up being a really sweet time to talk about stuff that really, really matters in life.   Laura Dugger: (14:48 - 15:05) It does. And you're sharing so much truth. And it is the truth that sets us free.   And I can see where that would overcome so much confusion. So, let's even get really practical. When you're teaching these young people about sex, how do you define it?   Janelle Rupp: (15:06 - 19:12) This is such a great question. No one's ever actually asked me this. And I think it's so, so important.   The CDC definition of sex, it is very complete in its definition. It does a really good job covering what I believe are really important distinctives within that definition. And so, that definition is, quote, “Sex is defined as any part of your body and or specifically your reproductive area coming into contact with another person's body and or specifically their reproductive area.”   And one of the key points that I want to point out from this definition includes this phrase, reproductive area. I find my students have no reference for that, and even adults often don't. But simply put, the reproductive area is anything on the outside of the body that covers the reproductive system organs on the inside of the body.   So, this area actually extends from the belly button down to the genitals. A lot of times we only reference those genitals, but it actually extends belly button down to the genitals. And so, again, people are often surprised by that.   But at the same time, you know, whether it's called the reproductive area or maybe a private area, people do commonly recognize the importance of keeping that area safe and private. I often stick with that phrase, reproductive area, to reference the importance of trust when it comes to keeping things safe and private as a jumping off point to just help the kids see that a person is trustworthy if they keep you safe and if they keep things private. And again, such an important thing that we need to teach our children is that if someone pushes past what feels safe for us or pushes past areas on our body that are private, our children need to know, and we need to know those are not trustworthy people.   And furthermore, we should then give our children permission to tell someone that they do trust, hopefully us, but somebody that they do trust, somebody that keeps things safe and private about any person whose words or actions don't prove trustworthy. And as a side note, giving kids appropriate anatomical names is so important for this as well. But if you aren't using those terms and they don't understand it, we're speaking a language that they can't understand and maybe aren't able to convey.   And so, I think additionally, as children get older and you continue to reference that reproductive area as an area you keep private, I think it's super important to keep going back to theology and to Scripture. And in Genesis 1 and 2, we don't see anything having to be kept private because there was nothing that needed to be private. And in fact, the end of Genesis 2 says in verse 25, “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” My students giggle when we get to that verse because that sounds so foreign to them.   But reminding them that again, God's design was so good that there was nothing to be held back. They were fully intimately known by God and fully intimately known by each other and also without sin. But then when sin enters in Genesis 3, as Eve is tempted and enticed by the serpent, Adam is tempted, and enticed by Eve.   We see in that instant that sin changes every single thing because it causes Adam and Eve to then feel ashamed before God. They want to hide from God. It causes them to feel ashamed between each other.   They want to blame each other and it causes them to lose their sense of identity and purpose. And this is what happens to us, too, when sex and sin become entwined. It causes shame.   It causes us to hide. It makes us want to blame others. It causes us to question our identity and question our purpose.   But even though sexual sin changes the heart of man, it does not change the heart of God. And so, if our heart's desire is to love God in return for the love He's shown us, then our heart's desire should be to orient our lives around His design for our lives. And I would say even especially orienting our lives around His design for marriage and sex.   Laura Dugger: (19:13 - 19:23) Perhaps one of the most asked questions by Christian Singles is, How far is too far? So, how do you respond to that question?   Janelle Rupp: (19:24 - 25:50) Yes, I mean, this is the question that inevitably somebody's going to ask in my classes every single year. And no doubt, I mean, I think everyone has asked that question at some point or another in their lives. I certainly did.   And I was told that that was the wrong question. And I want to explain why first and then tell you how I answer it. But the reason was because when we look at Scripture in terms of holiness, which is having our heart completely for God versus idolatry, which means having our heart turned to something else, we see over and over and over in Scripture that we can't serve two masters.   We can't serve both holiness and idolatry. Matthew 6:24 is a great example. It's talking about the idolatry of money.   But it does say that whenever our heart is going after two things, we will either end up being devoted to the one and hate the other or devoted to the other and thus hate the one. And so, in other words, as we apply it to this question, we actually can't just straddle the line of both holiness and idolatry. And a lot of times that's where this heart of motivation of how far is too far is like, what line is the line that I can get to and still be holy?   But we really can't try to find and live on that line, because healthy and holy sexuality and sexual immorality doesn't exist. It is one or it is the other. And so, that's an important truth of Scripture.   I'm always in complete agreement with everything that I just said. But I also recognize that the Bible is really, really clear on how to give us direction in terms of setting boundaries and learning how to escape and endure temptation rather than to be enticed by it. And so, I teach my students a method to answer this question using an acronym called GRAY, G-R-A-Y, just to help them think biblically and critically about this question.   And actually it can be applied to any what I call the gray areas of life where Scripture may not specifically be very black and white about what we can and can't do. For example, another easy gray area topic within this same kind of umbrella idea would be dating. We aren't specifically told if we're to encourage our kids towards dating or courting or maybe arrange marriages.   Right. And yet I believe that there's four specific steps that we can use to determine the heart of God for our lives when it comes to gray areas of life. And so, the G in gray stands for go to God and it refers to prayer.   James 1:5 encourages believers to ask God for wisdom. It says, “He will give it generously to anyone who asks.” And I think praying for wisdom is such a foundational place to start on any topic, but specifically this one.   And then the R in the acronym stands for read the word. I always encourage my students and I would encourage parents as well, actively study the word of God, finding verses that give direction for decision making on this question. How far is too far?   One that I think jumped out at me is First Corinthians 10:23. As it's again, speaking of idolatry of the heart and it says, “all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful. I can do all things, but not all things are building up. And so, let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.”   So, when you apply that verse to this question of how far is too far, you begin to see that the question isn't so much is kissing OK, is anything done with our clothes on OK? But the question is more what behavior is helpful for me as I try to honor Christ with my body? What behavior builds up my desire to honor Christ with my life and or what behavior seeks to honor the person that I'm with?   And so, again, I think reading scripture can help us be able to know how to reframe that question and create boundaries. And then the A in gray stands for ask for advice. And here I encourage teens to seek out someone who is doing relationships well.   In other words, is there a couple that they admire, someone older than them that they admire, maybe a friend or sibling or a friend of a sibling, a teacher, a parent, a youth group leader? I found in my own life that God often gives wisdom through people like that. And actually, in the last 10 years, as I've been teaching this type of material, I found that asking couples that I respect this very same question.   How did you answer? How far is too far? It brings some of the best responses and encouragement that then I can share with my students to help them learn and grow.   So, I think asking for advice is a vital part of this. And then lastly, the Y stands for yield. It is the last step.   And yet it's such an important part of answering this question. Yield just simply means to wait. And you and I both know this generation does not like to wait.   Instinct gratification is their thing. And yet teaching them that there's so much value in yielding when we don't have clear answers to critical questions like this. So, I actually love to literally walk this out in front of the classroom.   I will demonstrate how, when I yield, I hold back on decisions such as how far is too far. I am always allowing myself room to continue to walk forward as I feel more certainty over the answer or I feel more led with the wisdom that God is continuing to give. However, if I walk forward without clarity, if I'm pushing boundaries that are perhaps lawful, I can.   But they're not to my benefit, not to my partner's benefit. Then it's very realistic that I am going to push farther than I am able to handle. It's going to bring harm to the relationship that I am in.   And I can't ever go back. The truth is that the line between being enticed by sin versus escaping and enduring the temptation to turn from sin. It's a thin line.   And so, helping teenagers with these four steps, I think just think more critically about where to set those boundaries is important. And then I do usually go on to encourage students to be really specific in writing out those boundaries. I'm a big fan that writing is remembering.   It stores in our long-term memory. And then to even share those boundaries in order to have accountability with them.   Laura Dugger: (25:51 - 27:47) And now a brief message from our sponsor. I would like to specifically address the ladies. Because let's talk skin care.   As moms, as women, we spend so much time caring for everyone else. But what about us? If you're tired of dull or dry skin and products filled with chemicals and fillers, it is time for something better.   God designed our skin to thrive with real nourishing ingredients. 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But I think this is really helpful having you share statistics.   So, what are some statistics you think we need to be aware of to educate us on sexuality and youth in America right now?   Janelle Rupp: (27:49 - 29:55) Yes, you know, this is constantly changing. And so, I do look for these on the regular. And so, the ones I'm currently kind of using as I educate this year, the average age of first pornography exposure is currently 11 years old.   And 1 out of every 10 visitors to porn sites are actually under the age of 10. And 22% of those are regular visitors to those sites. It's not that they're just there once.   They're regular visitors. When you talk about that next age group, 11 to 17-year-olds, 53% of them are accessing pornography. In addition, 1 out of every 14 are receiving sexually explicit material through social media, through texting.   And 1 out of every 17 are sending it, which is an interesting thing. I always tell my students that means that as people are receiving it, they're sending it to more than one person. And so, you know, somehow we could think that it's a conversation maybe staying between two people.   And almost in every case, that is not the reality. 41% of teens are engaging in sexual behavior and oral sex and vaginal sex and anal sex and what I call outer course. Every 11 minutes, CPS finds evidence of sexual abuse claims.   And 2 out of every 3 of those are age 12 to 17 years old. And then lastly, and this is kind of newer from a research study that is an important one, but identifying as LGBTQ+, has actually risen in teens on average by 4% in the last 5 years. Girls being higher than boys.   Girls averaging about 5% increase and boys at 3%. And I think, you know, you give those 9 quick statistics, and I'll be honest, you know, even every time I have to say them, I get that sinking feeling in my stomach. It takes a lot to shock me after 10 years of working with teens on this topic.   But it never feels good to say those out loud. I think it just reflects such brokenness on behalf of our culture's view of sex and sexuality.   Laura Dugger: (29:57 - 30:09) Wow, that is sobering. And if that reality feels alarming or overwhelming to a parent listening, then how would you advise them to educate their son or daughter?   Janelle Rupp: (30:10 - 33:09) Yeah, I think the scariest thing is when we allow those feelings that we're having to really just cripple us and our ability to parent our children through them. I had a mom come up last year, and she said, I'm just really exhausted by it all. I'm tired of checking up on my kid.   And, you know, as a mom of teenagers, I hear that. I resonate with that. But I think we need to fight through those feelings and encourage each other to fight through those feelings in order to parent with intention and godliness when it comes to these subjects.   I developed this Remember Who's You Are curriculum for students, but I 100% believe that parents are to be the first go-to for our kids on these topics, whether they feel like they have all the answers or not. It's really not the role of the school, nor of the church, nor of the youth pastor. It is primarily and foundationally the role of parents, with ideally then the school and the church, you know, locking arms with parents, coming alongside with a similar message.   And so, when it comes to equipping parents, which is something I feel strongly about as well, in order to have these ongoing conversations, I break down educating parents with three regular statements to help them kind of combat those feelings of overwhelmed or anxiousness when it comes to these topics. And the first regular statement would be to regularly educate yourself. We can't teach what we don't know.   And so, parents need to have answers to questions, and I'm going to give a series of questions here that I think need to be answered as examples, but there's certainly more. But questions like, what is God's design? Again, what is the reproductive area?   What does sexting mean? What does sending nudes mean? Because that's becoming actually a more popular phrase right now than using the phrase sexting.   Why is not porn good for our brains if it actually keeps us from not having sex outside of God's design? That's a question I've been asked. And a follow-up to that, what does the Bible say about masturbation?   How does a condom work? I've been asked that one. What is the most popular sexual behavior among teens?   Those are some toughies. You don't just kind of like pop out an answer to that without dedicating some time to researching those answers. I don't think that this needs to be an overwhelming amount of time.   In fact, I actually just encourage parents to set aside 15 to 20 minutes once a week, maybe even once every other week, but just put it on the calendar so that you really devote yourself to that time. You know, I think we dedicate ourselves as parents to things we care about. And I don't mean to say this harshly, but many moms spend much more time exercising than they do in their Bibles and figuring out answers to these questions and apologetic type answers.   And parents, you know, we spend a lot of time talking to our kids about sports and grades. And yet these are topics that have lasting relational impacts for their lives, not just in our family, but in their family to come. And so, we have to be diligent to set aside time and regularly educate ourselves.   Laura Dugger: (33:09 - 33:38) Janelle, I love all of this that you're saying. And I just want to pause on this first step of educating ourselves as the adults and as the parents. So, listening to something like this, hopefully people feel encouraged already doing a great job educating yourself.   And so, let's just answer a couple of those questions because it can be hard to know where do I go to find out these answers. I'm careful to Google this because something may pop up that I don't want to see.   Janelle Rupp: (33:38 - 33:38) Right.   Laura Dugger: (33:38 - 33:46) So, let's go with two of them. One of them you said is what is the most popular sexual behavior among teens right now?   Janelle Rupp: (33:47 - 34:46) Yeah, I think that this one is a little bit shocking for parents. And they often are unaware of where their teens are at as they are pushing boundaries on sexual behavior. You know, when I was growing up, oral sex became, and that's mouth to genitals, but that became a really popular sexual behavior.   And I remember hearing people say, well, that makes me feel a virgin because I now have not had vaginal sex. And so, again, just continuing to push these boundaries. So, now today's teenagers are past oral sex.   That's become just something that's normal and acceptable. And the most popular sexual behavior right now that you'll actually they will talk about and do would be anal sex right now, which is the anal area, which is obviously I always point this out, not actually the reproductive system, but in fact, the expiratory or the end of the digestive system. But that is the most popular sexual behavior among teens currently.   Laura Dugger: (34:47 - 35:14) That is really helpful to hear. And even years ago, when I was practicing as a marriage and family therapist, something that we learned was that the rise in pornography exposure was also corresponding or correlating with this rise in pressure for women to engage in anal sex. And that was a lot of times where it was coming from.   I'm assuming very similar with teens.   Janelle Rupp: (35:15 - 35:59) Yes, absolutely. And as our culture continues to kind of push the envelope on trying to get teenagers and adults to accept pornography is a natural part of human sexuality. I think we will just continue to see that behavior pushed more and more and more just among teens and relationships in general, which is really devastating.   I think of so many of these behaviors that are very degrading, particularly to women, but even to men. And again, that women, that girls would be thinking that that is considered an acceptable part of a relationship is such a tragedy, really. And again, just so reflective of the brokenness of our culture.   Laura Dugger: (36:00 - 36:19) And you bring up another question I want to follow up with, Ben, because porn is so destructive for a lifetime. But how do you answer that question if parents want to educate themselves of somebody making an argument of why not pornography if it keeps them from engaging in penetrative sex?   Janelle Rupp: (36:20 - 38:18) Yeah, so, there's some excellent websites that you can find that talk about the damaging effects of pornography. And I found, you know, good resources. Anyone's welcome to email me.   I'll include that later. But to get some of those resources. But it really does change and alter, actually, the connections that are created in the brain.   And one of the, I think, more interesting studies on pornography in the brain, as they looked at men who were watching and engaging in pornography, it would continually light up an area of the brain and stimulate it, which is an area of the brain that is usually lit and stimulated when a man would use power tools. And that's concerning on, I think, a couple of levels. One, that is degrading.   And again, this human made in the image of God to something that is to be just used. Right. And then second, anytime we engage in pornography, we are we're engaging more with a screen than a person.   And so, that intimacy level, that is something that's so precious about sex. You know, sex isn't just for making babies. It isn't just for this intimate connection.   It isn't just for pleasure. But it is to be wholly represented, all three of those when we look at God's design. But when we engage with pornography, we're completely reducing it down to one person's pleasure, one person's use.   And so, again, those connections that are supposed to exist between people now exist between a person and their screen. And you'll see across the board, these are people who easily get addicted. It's meant to be addicted, experience increased levels of depression, anxiety, suicide.   Grades go down for teenagers. They lose friends. So much research showing the devastating impact of pornography.   Laura Dugger: (38:19 - 38:32) That is really helpful. Thank you for sharing that. And back to that greater question. So, when you're advising parents to educate themselves, that's the first step. What's the next step in the process?   Janelle Rupp: (38:33 - 41:29) So, the second step that I recommend is to regularly to enter in. We aren't called to be our kids' best friends. We're called to step into their lives.   And that means stepping into friendships and relationships. It actually means stepping into their phone. You know, the amount of parents that tell me, I feel really bad because it's their phone.   And yet it's something that the parent is paying for, right? And so, that is a part of our lives, too. Theirs and ours.   But stepping into social media pages, their schools, their activities. And I think we don't have to be creepy about it. And that's what I think parents most, they're like, I don't want to creep my kid out or make them pull away.   I just think we have to be really intentional beforehand that we're developing this relationship of trust and communication. So, Josh McDowell has said rules without relationship equal rebellion. And so, the flip side of that is that when I have rules where I'm entering in and I have relationships where I'm entering in, that will equal trust.   And so, we need to keep entering in because we want to keep earning their trust. It goes both ways. We want that trust and communication.   So, entering in out of a desire for relationship, but also entering in with boundaries and rules for our kids in order to continue to build that trust between us. And then the third regularly statement is to regularly extend grace to yourself. Guilt and shame cannot go away without grace.   And a lot of us live with guilt and shame when it comes to these subjects. I often hear that that's one of the key reasons that parents will hesitate to talk to their child. They'll say to me, I don't want them to ask me about what I did.   And the only remedy for shame is grace. It's why God's plan to extend grace in sending Jesus. It's the best plan for our world because we're literally drowning in guilt and shame over these subjects.   And so, as parents, we first have to learn and work through accepting grace for ourselves. But for the purpose of extending it to others, it's very, very hard to extend grace when we haven't accepted it ourselves. And so, I think it starts with us.   And then again, it extends out to our kids. My husband and I were working through something that was happening with our teenagers this year. And I thought it was so profound.   As he said this statement, by God's grace, our kids will never get caught up in it. But it's also that same grace that will provide a way for our kids to get out of it. And so, we need to remember God's grace is greater than all of our sins.   And we can rest in that even if we don't do everything perfectly as a parent. Even if we forget to answer one of the questions. Even if our kids choose a path that is different than what we had taught them.   God's grace is greater than all of our sins.   Laura Dugger: (41:30 - 43:53) And I don't think we can hear that enough. So, thank you for that reminder.   Did you know that we are now accepting donations online through Venmo?   It's just one of our additional ways that you can give to support the work of the Savvy Sauce Charities and keep us on the air where we can keep providing this content for free. We pray that you'll consider partnering with us and generously donating before your end. Thanks for your support.   Well, Janelle, I think that you're so wise to teach parents that there's obviously no formula, and that's why it's so vitally important to keep in step with the spirit as we have these conversations with our children. But also, I'm sure that you've learned some wise and age-appropriate guidelines for teaching our kids about sex and sexuality.   So, will you share those with us for the different age ranges?   Janelle Rupp: (43:55 - 50:10) Yes, I think you're exactly right. There isn't a set formula because, again, as I mentioned before, every kid is different. Every experience and exposure is different.   But there are some general guidelines in order to, again, have these regular conversations with our kids. So, beginning ages kind of three to seven, I think focusing on what it means to be made in God's image, what it means to have a male part versus female part, how that kind of defines each gender. And understanding also what is private and safe within that is important.   So, one of the things that I did with my kids is very early on, as we were bathing in those ages, we would say, Thank you, God, for our fingers and our noses, and thank you, God, for our toes, and say, Thank you, God, for a penis because you're a boy, and thank you, God, for a vagina because you're a girl, and thank you for parts that we can't see inside of us. And I would name some of those parts as well, because I think it just helps them start recognizing, again, the beauty of what it means to be created by God. And also highlighting safe pictures and unsafe pictures, safe touch and unsafe touch, and stuff that I touched on before.   I think that's important as well. But then I personally believe this is one of the best ages to begin forming a framework on the sanctity of human life, that all life is created by God and for God in the image of God. And therefore, all life should be treated with dignity, respect, and love, regardless of size, regardless of gender, regardless of skin color, regardless of neediness or challenges.   It's a really natural and important tie-in to the subject at this age. And then when you get into that next age, age 8 to 10, I kind of think of it a little bit like preteen. Just continuing on with that conversation but bringing up this word puberty.   And kids always look terrified when I say that word. And I always tell them, then puberty is not a scary word. And I'm sorry that you have this vision that it is.   But puberty really is just human growth and development that make us male and make us female. And so, I think teaching our kids not to be even afraid of that word. There are parts that we need to keep private.   And yes, we don't need to talk about that with everybody. But these are not wrong or bad parts. They're parts that are created by God for God.   And God is a good God. And God is a sovereign God. And so, He created it for our good with us in mind.   And so, just continuing to engage and encourage our kids on those ideas at age 10. And then 10 to 12, and some educators would say sex should be introduced by age 10. I found that based on just, again, the exposure that my kids had, we had this type of a conversation as they headed into more age 11.   I think it for sure should be talked about before age 12. But at that point, you want to make sure you're including just a framework on what biblical sex and marriage is and what it's purposed for. Again, purpose for procreation, making babies, purpose for intimacy, even purpose for pleasure.   Listen, no 10 to 12-year-old is going to understand that part yet, which is fine because you're going to revisit it later when they're kids. This is a regular thing, right? But you want them to hear it from you.   You want them to hear it from you first so they understand that you are trustworthy. And so, they should be taught that sex is best seen in that context of marriage. One man, one woman that have left their father and mother, they've taken hold of each other in marriage.   And as a result, then a parent and actually ideally both parents, mom and dad, are able to help a child understand that framework and also recognize basic deviations outside of that framework. Not just that sex before marriage is outside, but also sex outside of marriage, the sexual and gender identity confusion. Anything that's falling outside of God's design for marriage and sex is a deviation from what he designed.   And then in that kind of 13 and older, recommendations that I make is always that you begin to establish a really good framework on how to have God-honoring relationships with someone of the opposite gender. I actually highly recommend Ephesians chapter 5 as you make this plan with your child. And a couple key points that it talks about within that chapter is that we treat those in the faith, those that share our common belief in Jesus Christ as brothers and sisters in Christ, in friendship and in a possible relationship, but one that has a lot of purpose and a plan in place.   But then we treat those who are not sharing our faith with love, but yet an understanding that those aren't relationships that I can pursue because I can't have an expectation that they are going to bring me closer to Christ, whereas the other should. And so, as parents within that, again, 13 and older category, you really need to start paying very much attention and entering in into those relationships that they have with their friends and their peers, because this is the second biggest impact maker on their decision-making next to you. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with the wise will be wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.”   I really believe in parents. If you need to change up their environment in order to help them form more God-honoring relationships in step with that Ephesians 5, we should not be afraid to do so. And again, continuing to expand on those other frameworks before, because regular conversations, but you're just getting into greater detail, more fine-tuning.   And I actually think at this age, too, you're digging deep into the truth of Scripture with your child. So, you let them come alongside you as you're learning how to answer these questions so that they can continue to refine who they are in Christ and to refine how to keep accountable with the Word of God and to refine how to set boundaries and how to navigate relationships in what I call purposeful dating versus purposeless dating. And purposeful dating, really just the overarching idea there is just that in the end, if it does end, that there may be sadness, but that there is also learning that comes so that I am lessening the brokenness and damage that may come as a result as well.   Laura Dugger: (50:11 - 50:30) And I love how also in your teaching, you lay out specific guidelines that don't fit within an age category, but they're more so for children who are at cell phone age or where they have unattended internet use. So, will you share some of those guidelines with us now, too?   Janelle Rupp: (50:31 - 54:54) Yes, for sure. You know, I always say when you introduce a cell phone to your child, especially one that has internet included with that phone, it does change a little of those guidelines that I just mentioned in that you need to increase the speed and the ages or decrease the ages, technically, in which you are discussing these things. Just because you're giving them a lot of access to things that will speak an opposite message from what you would be saying.   And so, when I encourage parents to look at a couple things as they're making the decisions about when to give a cell phone, I think you're specifically looking at does your child understand what it means to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit? And are they showing evidence of the fruits of his work in their lives? In other words, do I see evidence of the Spirit in the life of my child?   And so, that means does he or she recognize self-control? They know when they have it and they know when they don't. Do they recognize how to be a peacemaker?   Do they recognize how to be loving in what they say and what they do? Do they recognize and show faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, joy, patience, all of those fruits of the Spirit? And do they recognize and show that not just in person with someone, but even behind the screen when they don't see that person face to face?   And listen, no parent is going to say, oh, yeah, 100% of the time my kid is showing evidence of the fruits of the Spirit. But if I can honestly say yes, my child is showing that he is growing in evidence of that. And then you decide this is the age for him to have a phone.   Most educators, I'll just be super clear, most educators that work with teens, they recommend an age of anywhere from 13 to 15. But when you do give that, those same adults that work with those teens will also say the following, that a device should not be allowed in a private room or a private place. There should be a family charging place.   And we are on phones when we are around other people. And then that you should also have no phone zones for us. The dinner table is one of our very most important ones so that we are learning how to, again, continue to engage in conversation with one another without our phones, which is growing the relationship building that we want to grow.   And so, we hold to those boundaries. Understanding that an all access, unmonitored pass to the Internet does break down identity. It does work against.   And there's so much evidence to this. You know, even five years ago, I was less inclined to say hard and fast rules on the use of cell phones for teens. However, more and more and more and more, we continue to see research study after research study.   There's documentaries. Now there's reports about the dangers of the unlimited, unmonitored access to screens and how it hurts our kids emotionally, intellectually, socially, spiritually and even physically. I mean, I think of less sleep.   Right. Something that I've learned over these 10 years is that no kid stumbles into pornography with the use of their phone on purpose. So, so, so many times the first time is an accident and it happens again because that Internet use is unmonitored.   And so, here's another hard truth as well. It often also happens because someone else in the house or the family may be viewing pornography and it's in that browser history or it's in the logarithm of the device they're using. And so, understanding what drives that first use, but then the ramifications of that first look.   So, even if it's an inadvertent look, the hook to pornography is so addicting. And again, we talked about the damaging effects on our brains, our emotions and our relationship. So, I just think monitoring phones and Internet access is, yes, exhausting.   I mean, I feel it. But at the same time, the risk is so great that there's no way that we can stop while they are in our home. Because the worry and the regret of, oh, I should have done X, Y, Z, I think outweighs any type of temporary exhaustion for me in my day to have to check and monitor phone use.   Laura Dugger: (54:55 - 55:21) That's such a good point. It's going to cost us energy on one side or the other. But that is a wise choice to go with the hard choice first and hopefully more of an easier or more fruitful path.   When you reflect on our conversation so far, what hope do we all have for the gospel of grace impacting us specifically as it relates to our sexuality?   Janelle Rupp: (55:23 - 58:58) When I hear that question, I really love it. I instantly think shame is a result of sin, connecting that to the grace that is shown from our Creator and our Redeemer. And all of that, again, is really on display in Genesis 3.   And so, I want to take us there as I answer that question. I tell my students shame has two definitions. There is shame as a verb to shame someone.   And then there is shame as a noun to feel shame as a result of something that we have done wrong. Shame as a verb is something we never want to do. That's not a good thing, right?   But shame as a noun is actually a God-given gift that is meant to bring us back into relationship with God. And you look at how Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. It makes me chuckle, honestly, because as they feel the shame of their sin, their next step is to create garments to cover themselves.   And their shame was so great, but they went ahead and put these fig leaves on top of their bodies, these parts that now have to be private because of shame. And I just think to myself, those fig leaves had to have been so insufficient. We do this too, though.   We come up with ways to clothe ourselves to cover up the shame that we feel. It might be past sexual sin. It might be present sexual sin.   And we try our best to hide it. We try our best to make ourselves look presentable with our covering so that people won't see our sin and see our shame. I mean, all of that is that feeling that comes from that feeling of shame as a result of sin.   But what's beautiful when we look at Genesis 3, when Adam finally comes clean about his sin and shame. And I will say, listen, he doesn't do it perfectly because God has to literally say, where are you? Knowing where he is, but like basically saying, Adam, come out, come clean, right?   But as Adam does come clean about his sin and the shame that he's feeling, right? What does God do? God covers Adam and Eve with garments that He provides and He makes from the very first shedding of blood that we see recorded in Scripture.   And I'm doing it now. I weep every single time that I talk about this part, because God knows how to deal with shame so much better than we do. He knows how to deal with our shame in a way and cover us in a way that is a once for always.   And it's Genesis 3 is just a beautiful foreshadowing of how Christ is going to be sent. And there he comes in Matthew, right? To cover shame forever.   And so, as we remember that Jesus spilled his blood on a cross and then resurrected, conquering death and sin and the grave. We also get covered by that blood so that we no longer have to hide. We no longer have to feel that shame.   And we can stand, Romans 8 says, without condemnation. “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ,” because Christ has covered us with garments completely and perfectly for forever. And so, our hope in this for our own sin, our past sin, any present sin, any future sin, and our hope for any sin that may rise up out of the heart of our child.   It's in the gospel that the gracious and loving covering that God gives us through Jesus is complete, making us right before God for all time.   Laura Dugger: (58:58 - 1:00:05) I love that so much, Janelle. And it makes me think of, I can't remember the research study, but they tracked people's brains when they were feeling like shame or regret or guilt. And found that sometimes people who struggle with anxious thoughts, that they have an over-functioning part of their brain where they can have those feelings of shame, sometimes when they haven't done anything shameful.   So, there's almost like a real guilt or a false guilt. And all of this conversation brings me to 2 Corinthians 7:10, where God addressed that first, because in the Bible it says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” And so, if we're going like even a level deeper to tease out that shame, sometimes we've felt that before.   Maybe, let's say, if something was done to us, and that's not the same shame that requires repentance, which is the godly sorrow. So, does that make sense?   Janelle Rupp: (1:00:05 - 1:00:28) Yes, exactly. That's exactly my point. And getting the kids to understand the difference between those shames but then seeing shame as not something that I have to push against.   Because if it is that godly shame that comes after me making a wrong choice, that is that shame to bring me closer to God in and through repentance. And again, that's a beautiful thing.   Laura Dugger: (1:00:29 - 1:00:39) It is, and it leads to freedom, which we may not think of in the moment, but that confession and bringing something to the light, that that is the best way to live.   Janelle Rupp: (1:00:39 - 1:00:40) Exactly.   Laura Dugger: (1:00:40 - 1:00:48) Are there any other important takeaways that you want parents and their children to be aware of as it applies to sex and sexuality?   Janelle Rupp: (1:00:49 - 1:02:44) Yes, you know, I think of two things here. The first being that, you know, sexual sin is really just one of many sins that Christ covers that he died for. You know, the blood of Christ covers the adulterer just as much as it covers the gossiper.   It covers the pregnant teenager and her boyfriend just as much as it covers you and I. And I think in the past, the church has overemphasized this sin and underemphasized others. But yet on the flip side, I mean, I think we really can't deny these are sins.   And even when we look at Scripture, it doesn't deny this. These are sins that carry a greater consequence and potential for enticing us towards, again, more habitual, ongoing sin in ways that just affect us deeper than other sins, which is why 1 Corinthians 6:18 says “Flee from sexual immorality.” And I'm going to pause there for just a second, because the Greek word for sexual immorality is the word pornea.   And you and I can't hear the word pornea without immediately thinking of porn. And so, I think it's fascinating that the root word for pornography is literally translated as sexual immorality. It's really an important thing.   But 1 Corinthians 6:18, again, it starts saying “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside of the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” And this means that sexual sin at its root is a problem of identity, which is, again, why you have to link that human sexuality with gospel identity.   Our aim cannot be for our children to make it to marriage having never had sex or never getting pregnant. To me, that's a low fruit. That is a low aim.   Our aim needs to be raising children with a gospel identity that is rooted in the creative and redemptive work of Jesus Christ and seeing the outgrowth from there.   Laura Dugger: (1:02:44 - 1:02:56) Wow. Well said. And if we boil all of this down, what is just one action step that you first recommend for anyone who finishes this message today?   Janelle Rupp: (1:02:57 - 1:04:19) Yeah, I'm going to give you a three-in-one just tying back to those three key regularly statements. One of the primary resources that I love to recommend in terms of educating ourselves is for parents to go to axis.org. That is A-X-I-S dot org, and sign up to receive their free Culture Translator weekly newsletter. And that will be sent to your email on a weekly basis for free.   And it gives a whole rundown of what's been happening in teen culture for that week. And just by simply opening up your email, you're going to start educating yourself. And they also have a host of other excellent resources and podcasts and a ton of material on their website that I would recommend.   But that's just one little step. And then for the enter in, I would recommend scheduling a date now. Put it on your calendar.   Find a time to take your child on a shopping date, an ice cream date, so that you can begin to enter into their lives and keep building that relationship with them. And then lastly, between now and that date, just open up God's Word. Reflect on the grace of God.   Let it wash over your heart. Let it wash over your mind. Get engaged with worship.   All of those will equip you well to do that hard work of entering in with your child when you meet them for that date.   Laura Dugger: (1:04:20 - 1:04:29) I've loved this chat so much. And if anybody's wondering about

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Click HERE to give! Get Free App Here! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on 'The Daily Radio Bible' for a daily 20-minute spiritual journey. Engage with scripture readings, heartfelt devotionals, and collective prayers that draw you into the heart of God's love. Embark on this year-long voyage through the Bible, and let each day's passage uplift and inspire you. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible! In today's episode, Hunter invites us into the scriptures on this 13th day of November, guiding us through Job chapters 39 and 40, and First Corinthians chapters 13 and 14 from the New Living Translation. As Hunter reminds us, our journey isn't just about pages in a book—it's about encountering the living Word of God, who brings us true life. Today's readings reflect on God's unmatched wisdom in creation, the foundation of love in the Christian life, and the order God desires in our communities. Hunter emphasizes that without love, all our efforts and gifts amount to nothing—love must be the root and fruit of our lives. We're invited to reflect: Have we truly received and experienced the love of God? Because it is only through knowing we are loved that we can be vessels of love to others. Join Hunter for a moment of prayer, gratitude for supporters who make this ministry possible, and encouragement to carry God's joy and love forward into the world. No matter what today holds, let this episode remind you: you are loved. TODAY'S DEVOTION: If we fail to have love, we fail. We can pursue many things, but if we fail to pursue love in this life, we are lost. Love is the foundation of our lives. Love orders our lives and our communities. The extent to which we love is the extent that our lives will function as they ought, having order and peace among ourselves and within ourselves. It all begins with love. But here's the kicker. We can't give what we don't have. And we can't live a well ordered life of love if we haven't experienced love. So let me ask you, are you loved? Have you felt it? Do you know it? If not, I understand. It can be hard to know and feel. And sometimes we get mixed messages. Sometimes we're told that God is love, but then we say other things about God that don't seem loving at all. That's why I'm so eager and so committed to stating that fact each and every day to myself as well as to you. And that fact is this, that you are loved by a God who is love, full stop. Doesn't need to be qualified with anything other than that. Because everything about God flows from his love. And that's why I come to the Word each and every day, to remind myself. I want to remind you. When we come to the Word, the living word that is Jesus, we're able to see that God is love. We see it in everything about Jesus. He is the Word of God. And he is conspiring to reveal to us the extent of his love demonstrated in his coming to us, the incarnation, in his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension. Everything about him is demonstrating to all of creation who God is. Galatians 4:19—Paul says this: Oh, my dear children, I feel as though I'm going through labor pains for you again. And they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives. May Christ be formed in you. Fully developed—his love, fully developed in our lives, healing us, setting us free. May you know his love today. May you feel it today. May you understand it today as you look to Him. That's a prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's the prayer that I have for you. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

Jase steps into one of the most personal moments of his life: officiating his youngest son Cole's wedding. He opens the ceremony with a risky joke before laying out God's blueprint for an abundant life and a marriage rooted in Jesus. Miss Kay's handwritten message to the newlyweds leaves the family in tears, and quoting Phil's classic line about marriage has the guests cracking up. Al and Zach how God's design for marriage transforms families for generations. In this episode: Genesis 1; Genesis 2, verse 24; Ephesians 5; Ephesians 6; First Corinthians 7, verse 28; Proverbs 22, verse 6 “Unashamed” Episode 1195 is sponsored by: http://frontline21.com — Embrace biblical masculinity. Download the Frontline21 field guide for men and 21-day devotional at no cost to you. https://www.puretalk.com/unashamed — Get PureTalk for just $25 a month. Make the switch today! Kimchi One from Brightcore – Improve your health, improve your life. Get 25% Off with code: UNASHAMED at https://mybrightcore.com/unashamed or dial (888) 404-9677 for up to 50% OFF and Free Shipping – ONLY when you call! https://duckstamp.com/unashamed — Get your all-new digital duck stamp today. It's easier than ever! https://preborn.com/unashamed — Visit the PreBorn! website or dial #250 and use keyword BABY to donate today. http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters: 00:00-08:15 Jase marries off another son 08:15-13:29 The bridal party drill sergeant13:30-18:48 Jase runs the wedding gauntlet 18:39-29:12 A risky ceremony joke pays off 29:13-32:22 Phil & Miss Kay's message to their newlywed grandkids 32:23-40:04 How to raise godly children 40:05-46:04 Jase wasn't crying, he had something in his eye 46:05-50:20 Talk about Jesus to your kids 50:21-55:41 Wedding night jokes — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices