Podcasts about his honor

This weekend I have been blessed with a very Special Guest, National and International Prophetess Mary Clayborn. She will provide a, "Deeper Dive," into several of God's Divine Attributes.Prophetess Mary Clayborn will be publishing From the Spreaker Podcast Platform, her New podcast messages beginning this, September 18, 2024, at 9:30 AM and every Wednesday thereafter. Her podcast is Entitled: Holy Ambassador's Global Prophetic Ministeries.Here are some additional Divine attributes of God. Try to memorize or put a few into the pockets of your heart.God is Omnipresent [He is everywhere], Omnipotent [He's All Powerful], Omniscience [He knows everything], Invisibile, Wisdom, Freedom, Righteous, Glory, Unchangeable, Truthful, Love, Holy, Merciful, Patient, Compassionate, Unchangeable, Independent, Truthful, Love, Grace, Patience, Peace, Honorable, Pure, Reliable, Infinite,Wisdom, Freedom and Jealous [meaning protective of His Honor].This is just a short list of His many Divine Attributes.Thank you for tuning in! and may God bless!Additional podcast platforms; Including Spreaker, Spotify, Apple, Google, Stitcher, Audible and iHeart.

Send us a Text Message.Two recent rulings against the ATF and their arrogance have them panicking that they're losing the power they've incrementally wrestled away from the People for decades.First, a judge gives them 60 days to return all of the Forced Reset Triggers they went door-to-door confiscating after they their definition to "machine gun", because His Honor said they were not machine guns, according to the legal definition thereof.Then, a ruling that is sure to be the foundation for a powerful challenge to the NFA very soon, when a judge ruled that the People have a right to own machine guns without registering them with the ATF, because machine guns are protected by the 2nd Amendment!!Tune in and share!Support the Show.Buy Paul Eberle's book "Look at the Dirt"Paul Eberle (lookatthedirt.com)The Deadly Path: How Operation Fast & Furious and Bad Lawyers Armed Mexican Cartels: Forcelli, Peter J., MacGregor, Keelin, Murphy, Stephen: 9798888456491: Amazon.com: BooksVoice of the Blue (buzzsprout.com)

All creation for His Honor, but for our zechuyos

This paragraph has something for everyone. All the paragraphs in Scripture do, and this one has some special perspective adjustments. Romans 12 took us from the glories of inseparable union with Christ revealed in the first 11 chapters to practical altar living. Through the last two chapters we've been urged to avoid worldliness, to live as one body, to not take personal vengeance, to submit to earthly authorities, to love our neighbors, and to live as light in a culture of darkness.Chapter 14 continues with gospel application for believers, but makes one big point from 14:1 to 15:13. What could be so important that we need to give it so much attention? The “all the commandments are summed up as love your neighbor as yourself” wasn't enough? Yeah, apparently not. Sheep still have conflict with each other. And alright. Our convictions are built like our muscles, in more than one sitting. Christians do have convictions, Christians don't always have the *same* convictions, and Christians living in the same community without the same convictions often have conflict. The conflict gets hot because we think TRUTH and RIGHTEOUSNESS are at stake. We think CHRIST'S NAME and HIS HONOR are at stake. And all of that *could* be; it depends. But as those in the culture war, as those who put on the armor of light, we can act like the man whose only tool is a sword, and tries to knit with it. There will be problems. Have you noticed that heretics usually don't identify themselves that; they present as orthodox. And Christians usually don't call themselves judgmental; they present as the *virtuous*. That can make us hard to deal with. Truth is SERIOUS and sin is RUINOUS and every hill is MOMENTOUS. We must take EVERY hill! But actually, while truth is serious and sin is ruinous, the truth is that not everything is sin. Not everything our conscience tells us is wrong is actually sin. Even more, while truth is serious and sin is ruinous, Christ dealt with sin on the hill of calvary for every Christian. He cares, He paid the cost, He calls the shots. Jesus is Lord.If we applied Romans 12:3-5 without fail, plus 12:9-11, plus 12:16, plus 13:8-10, plus 13:14, we might not need 14:1-15:13. But, we don't, so we do. There's a question that I regularly hear coming out of my mouth, and that I realize more and more is probably not going to lead to a satisfying conclusion. “What is the problem?” We don't actually know the heart of the initial problem in Rome. There's differences about diet and days, what is eaten or isn't, what days are special or aren't. But who are the vegetarians and sabbatarians? Paul refers to categories of weak and strong, who are which? The congregation in Rome had Jews and Gentiles, both groups had different upbringings, and either could have convictions about what was RIGHT for different reasons. The ways to be weak are quite a cornucopia. But there is a clear problem about our perspective toward and handling of what may not really be a problem. What is not disputable is acting like we're Jesus, but not for the sake of winning fellowship like Jesus. That's not all, because the ones who are being confronted start being critical of the church ladies and looking down on them for being so sensitive. One judgy-pants is like watching a bad individual ballet recital, two judgy-pants are like an ugly ballet mosh pit. It'll be good to sit together in this larger section of Scripture for a few Sundays and see if we can't have our minds renewed to see the good and acceptable and perfect. # The Existence of Disputable Things (verse 1)Here we tune in to the series of unfortunate arguments over personal preferences and dubious opinions. > As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. (Romans 14:1 ESV)There exist disputable things. Paul assumes their existence, he does not deny or resolve them. These things are **opinions**, thoughts and conclusions and choices that are *not* sin. But this is where it gets tricky, because some *treat* as sin what others don't. Paul isn't stepping in because people have good-natured disagreements over preferences, but because some turn preference issues into judging others. These are issues of conscience, things that don't have a verse but get turned into a virtue. Verse 2 is the first example, those who only eat veggies. But verse 5 talks about observing certain days, and verse 21 references eating meat and drinking wine (which Jews, except for Nazarites, didn't have an issue with). We'll see in verses 5-9 that personal conviction is good, and that thankfulness is the key piece no matter one's position. But the church 2000ish years later still has people arguing for *moral* betters. We still have “moral” confrontations over diet (gluten, sugar, fast food, GMOs) and alcohol, we could add in music and movies and screen time, sabbath/Sunday allowed activities, breastfeeding, recycling, and it's sheep-to-sheep grief. The **weak in faith** is not a person who is having trouble believing in Jesus for salvation. There's nothing in these chapters that suggests that such a person is a goat, let alone that they are in danger of losing their salvation. This kind of weak in faith as seen in context is one who is struggling to see his/her faith applied to some basic choices. They've got more baggage—wherever they picked it up—than verses. Two qualifications. First, when God's Word identifies a sin, it is not “strong” to sin. Second, it is *not* better to be weak. It is *not* sin to be weak, but it is better to be strong though the strong ought not act superior. The “strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak” (15:1). The last part of verse 1 provides some indication of what it may be like dealing with the weak. It can lead to **quarrel(ing) over opinions**. This has been understood various ways, tricky to translate. But the weak person here has convictions about “disputable matters” (NIV), controversial preferences, scrupulous pinching. While we ought not ostracize the weak, the church isn't the place where everyone needs to listen to their lectures. Likewise, we don't need to keep pushing the weak until they say “Uncle.”**Welccome him**. Welcome is what God has done (verse 3), welcome is what Christ has done (Romans 15:7). Let them in the door, into the circle. Since this is how the section starts, it seems that the weak were probably the minority. As we know, though, it only takes a spark to get a fire going over disputable things. There are disputable things, and it's okay for now.# An Example of Disputable Things (verse 2)Here's the first example of an “opinion/conviction” that might not always make for a healthy exchange of ideas. > One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. (Romans 14:2 ESV)Sometimes I think we must read 1 Corinthians 10:31 differently, as if it said: So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to give grief to the person doing it differently than you. Speaking of 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote Romans from Corinth. And he had previously written to the Corinthians about some who were eating food offered to idols (1 Corinthians 8:1-13), whether they could get that meat cheaper or not. But while there are similarities, there's no mention of tainted-with-idol meat. This isn't just no-idol-meat, this is NO meat. **The weak person eats only vegetables**. Why vegetarian? Were these Jews following the Daniel Diet? Were these Gentiles feeling guilty about their pre-Christian days of Bacchus banqueting? It kind of doesn't matter why, what does matter is that they turned it into a “better than thou” religious reason. It is one thing to talk about wisdom and good health and Creator-honoring stewardship. But wow do we have a hard time not turning it into righteous/unrighteous, “YOU ARE SINNING by eating *THAT*!.” There are stronger and weaker brothers, and it's okay for now.# The Exhortations concerning Disputable Things (verse 3)Paul provides equal opportunity imperatives. > Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. (Romans 14:3 ESV)The two prohibitions are similar: don't despise and don't judge. The strong are tempted to feel like the weak are annoying, petty, fussy; welcoming them seems like a guarantee of no fun. The weak are tempted to feel like the strong have sailed too far from shore in their liberty canoe; they might go right over the falls, and take us all with them. Usually the strong are more dismissive, the weak are more tyrannical. The final explanation applies to both, but is probably especially to the weak: **God has welcomed him**, so settle down. Sometimes you don't want to be in the middle, and yet sometimes you just are. Depending on which side I'm talking to, I'll probably tell them both: it's going to be alright. Both the strong and the weak need to behave themselves, and it's never okay to despise/look down on a brother.# An Encouragement about Disputable Things (verse 4)There is a God and He knows what's happening with each of His servants. > Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4 ESV)Again, this perspective adjustment is primarily given to the weaker brother, the brother who has more rules, the brother who is more sensitive about things, the brother who has concerns about what the other brother isn't avoiding. All of it applies to both, but the one eating more than veggies is going to make it, if the Lord's the Lord of them. Since Jesus is Lord, we are not permitted to be presumptuous. I thought about subtitling this sermon as: *On the Nature of Taking a Kuyperian Chill Pill*, or something like that. When we confess that Jesus is Lord, that's an exclusive claim (Lord alone), that's an exhaustive claim (Lord of all). It fires us up to be bold and drives us to be broader in our interests. But it is also an encouraging claim, a great reason to relax. Mrs. Bossy-pants on the new Brussels sprouts diet is not my Lord, and I also don't have to be Lord over all the people not doing it like I would. Jesus is Lord of our brothers, and it's never okay for us to condemn or try to control them. # ConclusionThe anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God, and the scruples of man don't produce the sanctification of God. You don't fight folly with fussiness, and you don't convince a weak person to be strong by beating them up with your freedom, not Christianly at least. If love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), and it does, then certainly we can ease up things another person is thankful for. We have “weak” among us, including weak brothers who think they are the virtuous ones, and we have those who are irritated by the weak among us acting all virtuous. What is indisputable is that we all have one Lord over us. “We are the Lord's” (Romans 12:8). Make sure to welcome the welcomed. ----------## ChargeThe charge is to live as we sing, with hearts abounding more and more in love and in multi-part harmony. The blessing of God is to give us just that, making us one as the Father, Son, and Spirit are one. ## Benediction:> May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:5–7, ESV)

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 968, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: On Ice 1: Put this letter on "ice" and you get what Mickey and Minnie are. M (mice). 2: Put this letter on "ice" and you get gaming material that may be loaded. D (dice). 3: Put this letter on "ice" and you get the kind of "guys" who "finish last". N (nice). 4: Put this letter on "ice" and you get the type of crime Crockett and Tubbs fought. V (vice). 5: Put this letter on "ice" and you get a grain grown in paddies. R (rice). Round 2. Category: Classic Monopoly Tokens 1: You wear one of these to protect your fingers when sewing. a thimble. 2: The one Lincoln wore to Ford's Theatre is in the Smithsonian. a top hat. 3: Awaiting the inevitable is like "waiting for the other" this "to drop". the shoe. 4: On May 30, 2010 Dario Franchitti claimed a big victory in one. a racecar. 5: It's also a classic combat game from Milton Bradley. the battleship. Round 3. Category: Althing 1: Formed in 930 A.D., the Althing of this country is one of the oldest legislative assemblies in the world. Iceland. 2: There are this many members of the Althing--they'll always fall one short of filling an entire checkerboard. sixty-three. 3: This position that has the country's real power (and the cabinet) is appointed by the president with the Althing's approval. the prime minister. 4: In 1874 the king of this nearby Scandinavian country vested the Althing with legislative power in internal affairs. Denmark. 5: The Althing had an upper and lower house until 1991; now it's this type of legislature, meaning "one chamber". unicameral. Round 4. Category: Capitals At Statehood 1: Augusta. Georgia. 2: San Jose. California. 3: Huntsville. Alabama. 4: Guthrie. Oklahoma. 5: Wheeling. West Virginia. Round 5. Category: Mayor Garcetti'S Los Angeles 1: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) Just north of Hollywood and Vine, the studios at Capitol Records have been used by Frank Sinatra, Green Day, Sam Smith and this band, who recorded their "Surfin' Safari" album in the tower. the Beach Boys. 2: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) The Hollywood Sign was originally the Hollywoodland Sign, a $21,000 billboard in 1923, for this 2-word type of development owned by the publisher of the L.A. Times. real estate. 3: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) Using the term "California romanza" to mean "freedom to make one's own form", this 3-named architect's first L.A. project, Hollyhock House, was completed in 1921. Frank Lloyd Wright. 4: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) At L.A.'s Griffith Observatory, the Astronomers Monument features 6 giants of the field: Hipparchus, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Herschel and this Italian genius. Galileo. 5: (His Honor, the Mayor Eric Garcetti delivers the clue.) Between 1921 and 1955 Italian immigrant Simon Rodia constructed a collection of 17 structures he called Nuestro Pueblo or "Our Town"; today, it's a National Historic Landmark known as this. the Watts Towers. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

On today's show we are going into the courtroom with my special guest, Bestselling Author and His Honor, Judge Martin Clark.A retired circuit court judge from Patrick County, Virginia, Martin is a cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Davidson College and attended law school at the University of Virginia. When he was appointed to the bench in 1992 at age thirty-two, he became one of the youngest judges in the commonwealth's history. During his time on the bench, he presided over everything from homicides to reckless driving. Besides being a retired judge, Martin Clark is a bestselling author that Entertainment Weekly said, “hands down, our finest legal-thriller writer.” The New York Times stated he is “the thinking man's John Grisham.” In today's episode we discuss:·      When Martin developed his interest in the law. ·      His father's influence on his career in law.·      Why he was a judge for almost thirty years.·      Some of the more interesting or bizarre cases he presided over. ·      Common errors in T.V. or Movies regarding judges and legal proceedings.·      How he persisted for over 20 years of rejection letters and finally landed a big-time publishing deal.·      His upcoming novel, The Plinko Bounce.·      His advice to legal-thriller writers.Learn more about Martin and his books on his website.Check out Field Training (Brew City Blues Book 1)!!Enjoy the Cops and Writers book series.Please visit the Cops and Writers website.  Do you enjoy gritty, action-packed real-life police dramas to get your fill of blood, heartache, and cop humor, and maybe even a little romance?I have partnered up with Michael Anderle and we have released a new crime fiction series called “Brew City Blues.” If you're a fan of Hill Street Blues, Southland, or Bosch you're going to love Brew City Blues! Brew City Blues is now live! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLR7FX27Avenging Adam Audiobook by Jodi Burnett Get 50% off Avenging Adam audiobook with this link! Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show

Well hello again, welcome back to the podcast. Getting the promises of God into the people of God, one episode at a time. And right now we are taking a look at a promise from the second book of the Bible, Exodus. There is a bold promise here for us, so long as we are willing to believe God for it. Ready to dive in? Let's do this! Jen Metzger's book Joyful, Patient, Faithful - A 90-Day Devotional Book for Moms available at Amazon Summer 2023 Prayer Retreat $7 Ticket Know a homeschool mom who could use some encouragement? Check out the Homeschool Super Heroes Summit (get a FREE ticket here). I'm honored to be the prayer coordinator for this event, and will be live in the prayer room daily to take prayer requests & I'd love to see you there! Looking for a speaker for your women's ministry event? I'd love to chat with you! Reach me anytime at JanLBurt@outlook.com   You're listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 152, and today's show is sponsored by Jen Metzger, author of the book Joyful, Patient, Faithful - A 90-Day Devotional Book for Moms. Such a great book for moms of all stages and ages. Thanks, Jen, for writing this devotional! You know, Exodus is an amazing book. There is so much in this book, I feel like I could have chosen any one of a number of promises. And they all would have been a great source of encouragement! I landed on a verse from chapter 14, because it just kind of jumped off the page at me. It's a big promise, and as such it can fit into all of our lives in some manner.   I'm going to read from the Amplified today.   Exodus 14:13 - AMP Then Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid! Take your stand (be firm and confident and undismayed) and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for those Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see again.”   Okay, so this is a very specific promise that was made and then immediately kept by God directly to the Israelite people who had just fled Egypt following 400 long years. I want to acknowledge that, yup, this was a specific promise and it was kept to the letter, completely fulfilled.   But when we open our Bible and read it, it is so encouraging to read what it says, even in the Old Testament, and glean from it, learn from it, grow in our faith because of it, grab hold of the promises we find because God is the same yesterday, today and forever and every single part of the Word of God is given by inspiration from God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Hebrews 13:8 and 2 Timothy 3:16 tell us those things.    God did indeed make it so that the Egyptians who were chasing after them were not seen again after that day, since they were drowned in the Red Sea when God closed it up after all His people had crossed over in the middle of it on dry ground.    But is there a promise here for us, living some 2000 years after Jesus? So many thousands of years after Moses led them through the Red Sea?    There sure is.   First, a huge promise in this verse that is found all throughout the Bible is sort of couched in a command: Do not fear. God's commands are His enablements. That's a saying that has been around for a while, and it's one worth remembering. If He calls you to something, He will not leave you unable to accomplish it. He provides where He leads, and He enables us to do as He asks of us, or as He commands us.  When He tells us not to be afraid, He doesn't then leave us to our own devices as we attempt to not be afraid in our strength. He really does make it possible for us to live fearlessly, to not be afraid. So it is a command, and it is a promise, and our God always, always keeps His promises.   Do not be afraid. Take your stand - be firm and confident and undismayed - and see the salvation which He will accomplish for you.   Another promise for us!   See the salvation which he will accomplish for you. Two things here. First, there's that word will! Y'all know how I feel about that word. Will means will, all means all, and when God says He's going to do something, we'd best take Him at His word. Second, it says see the salvation the Lord will accomplish for you. Just as He did at Calvary, on the cross, the Lord's salvation is accomplished by His own hand, by His strong arm, and we don't have the right or the ability to add even one teeny tiny iota to His perfect, finished work. Likewise, whenever He does some kind of saving work in our lives, it's HIS WORK. And so, it's HIS GLORY and HIS HONOR.   Let's make this applicable to our very own lives, right here, right now, in this very moment. Like, today.   We only have this moment, right? Because the next moment, the next day, next week, etc…it's not here yet. So we don't have it. And the past is just that, past. We have now to apply the very word of God to our own lives and situations and relationships and circumstances. And we have now to praise God, to live grateful, to express thanksgiving, to point to Jesus with our lives and with our words.   You may get a bit nervous, like feeling kinda nervy, about the state of the world. Agendas that are so unbiblical pushing against you on every side. Wars and rumors of wars, well that seems like something that's happening right now and could swamp our boats with waves of fear. Not because it's unlikely, but because it's such a real possibility. Right? We're not leaning towards fear in areas that it's unlikely. It's right in those places where you know it could happen, it is more likely than not, that's where we need to take the promise of Exodus 14, verse 13 and apply it like a balm. Make our belief of God and His promises the greater truth spoken over those things that push fear on us. The economy, coworker problems, need a big raise and haven't gotten one in a minute, parenting is hard, not enough hours in the day…I could go on. It's a long list, these things that can open the door to fear in our hearts and minds.  But God…   The Bible tells us not to be afraid, but to take our stand and be firm and confident and undismayed as we opt to believe that our God is still in the salvation business, and if He saved us from sin and death and hell, then He surely can save us from fear, and from any and every other thing, big or small, that is pressing in on us.   Can you choose to believe that today, my friend? Can you lay all your chips on the table, let it all ride on red number 7, and just rest as you see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you?   I'd like to just simply pray this verse for you today, and ask God to do what He is so good at doing, what He does perfectly, and that is to save and deliver, to bless and protect, to favor and guide you in every single part of your life where you need Him to step in and be your strong, loving, powerful God. Lord, thank You for Your word and the promises You've given in it. Today we choose belief. Big, bold, daring belief that even in the things that loom large and seem scary, we will not fear. And we ask You to make us able to not fear - that Your commands would be our enablements today.   In our workplaces, we will not fear. In our families, as we raise our children, with aging parents, difficulties with siblings, when we are lonely or misunderstood, where we've been overlooked, slighted, or maligned - we will not fear. When we face health struggles, we choose faith over fear. In a difficult economy, and with the wild and horrible threats of war all around us, we will not fear. Though the earth give way beneath our feet, as it says in Psalm 46, we will not fear.    You are the same yesterday, today, and forever, and You will do as You have promised.   So, Lord, today I ask that for the one listening to me right now, would You do as You have promised and banish all fear, even as You accomplish Your salvation? Rescue them from whatever and or whomever is making them fearful. Free them to walk in the light of Your love, unafraid, fearless. May they be firm as they stand on the solid Rock of Jesus. May they be confident, because their confidence and trust is rooted and anchored solely in You, Lord. May they be undismayed, no matter what the enemy or the world throws at them, because they know for certain that You are the God who saves - and You will be the God who saves them as often as they need it.   Thank You for Your Word. And that when You say will, You surely mean it. May we live in a state of such total belief that nothing and no one can dissuade us. Make us immovable in our belief that You, O Lord, are the perfect promise maker and the perfect promise keeper.    Take each on listening today on a faith journey with You that leaves them speechless, awash in Your love and care, filled with Your wisdom, blessed to be a child of the Most High God.   And then, do it again and again!  Thank You for making a way for us to live fearless and free, bound only to You, experiencing Your salvation.    You are the One True God, and all our praise goes to You. In Jesus Name - Amen Thanks so much for joining me today on the podcast, and for allowing me to pray for you. If you'd like more prayer content, feel free to check out my newest podcast, The Prayer Podcast with Jan L. Burt. And I'd like to invite you to grab your ticket to the Summer 2023 Online Prayer Retreat. Tickets are just seven dollars, and you'll get lifetime access to seven prayer sessions, a pdf download Study Guide, plus bonus content and I'd love to see you there. Oh, if you or anyone you know is a homeschooler, I'm the prayer coordinator for Kerry Beck's Homeschool Super Heroes summit, and there is a free ticket option that I'd like to share with you. That link, and the link to the prayer retreat, is right here in the show notes. And the final thing I want to mention today is this: some of you know that I speak at conferences and summits and women's ministry events, and I really am blessed to be able to do that. If you happen to be looking for a speaker for an event or summit in the coming months, please reach out to me at JanLBurt@outlook.com … and I have a new thingy I'm doing in addition to my speaking via in person events and online events, like Kerry's homeschool summit… drum roll… I am creating women's ministry event videos for churches and small groups to purchase at one flat rate, very affordable, and I am super grateful for this new avenue for women's ministry. Just shoot me an email if you would like to know more, and if you have a certain topic you'd like covered, over the years of speaking I've custom written more talks than I can count, so I'd be blessed to do that for your small group or moms event or other event. I'll reply quickly to your emails, and that is all my new news for today.    Don't forget, God does not want fear to have any place in your life. I'm believing You will see His salvation accomplished on your behalf in powerful ways. He's gonna keep His word to you, my friend!   Thanks again for joining me on the podcast, and I'll see ya next time.

Legislative Council SeriesIn this new series, we are looking at proceedings of meetings of the Legislative Council as concerns Lagos Colony and Nigeria. Part of these episodes will include ordinances, proclamations, bye-laws; and meetings of the Board of Education, Municipal Board of Health &c.This episode looks at the proceedings of the 9th and 14th of October, 1893 held at Government House, Lagos which includes attendance of H. E. The Acting Governor, Sir George Chardin Denton, K. C. M. G., C.B.; His Honor the Acting Chief Justice, E. H. Richards, Hons. Charles Joseph George, Rev. James Johnson; Treasurer H. M. B. Griffith, T. Welsh &c. Discussions included John Augustus Otonba Payne's Almanack and distribution amongst members, Rev. James Johnson's remarks on the Constabulary, Estimates for 1904, creation of the new post: Surveyor of Crown Lands which Herbert Macaulay was to occupy upon return from qualifying as a Civil Engineer in England and his annual fee, Inspector of Schools office rent &c. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Legislative Council SeriesIn this new series, we are looking at proceedings of meetings of the Legislative Council as concerns Lagos Colony and Nigeria. Part of these episodes will include ordinances, proclamations, bye-laws; and meetings of the Board of Education, Municipal Board of Health &c.This episode looks at the proceedings of the 15th of June and 25th June, 1888 held at Government House, Lagos which includes attendance H. E. The Governor, Sir Alfred Moloney, C. M. G.; His Honor the Colonial Secretary, Captain Denton, Hons. Mr. Justice Richards, Acting Judge; Oliver Smith, M. A., B. L., Queen's Advocate; E. G. Woolhouse, Collector and Treasurer; Rev. James Johnson; and Charles Joseph George &c. Papers laid includeSupplementary Estimates, Confirmation of Ordinance No. 1 of 1888, Allowance of Pension to Prince Oyekan agreed by the Right. Hon. the Secretary of State; the supplementary Supply Bill, Stamp Duty Bill etc. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Free Company with their Welles hosted episode, His Honor, the Mayor. There are conflicting dates for this episode, but it aired between April 5-8, 1941. Episode: Welles' personal views, regarding politics, racism, communism and religion, are expressed in this story about life in a small Texas border town. Cast: Paul Stewart (announcer), Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, Erskine Sanford, Everett Sloane, and Orson Welles On the eve of America's entrance into WWII, The Free Company was created by an independent group of unpaid, unsponsored writers and their desire to produce a series of radio dramas reminding Americans of the fundamental freedoms worth defending.

Heaven is looking for direction, not perfection. *It's not about how you start but about how Jesus transforms you!    Judges 6:14-16 14 The Lord turned to him and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you? 15 Gideon said to Him, Oh Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. 16 The Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man. Even though Gideon ends up in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews, he starts in his weakness.  God is saying I can use your weakness to show My Strength!  Join Us Today as Pastor Tim Hall explains how God uses us in spite of our imperfections that the world uses to reject us. If our heart is set on God, then He will us use for His Honor and Glory! Freedom Life Fellowship Euless, TX / Freedom Life Fellowship Live Stream Pastor Tim Hall Church Website - https://freedomlifemc.org/

Pastors Sam and Caleb return to the original focus of this podcast: "The intersection of Christ and culture". Today, we focus on the topic of Honor | Shame Culture. Sam and Caleb are joined by Emily Belvery, from Mission of Christ Network, a network that prepares missionaries to spread the gospel of Jesus. Typically, America has been a culture of Guilt | Innocence. Either you are guilty or innocent with right and wrong being black and white. However, with recent trends in the generations, it appears that we are shifting toward a culture of Honor | Shame. The underlying theme is for us to remain in places of honor with "our people" and to avoid bring shame to ourselves and "the crew" that we're part of. We also see a culture of Fear | Power, however, this is less prominent in western civilization. With all that said, how does the lens of Honor | Shame change the way we understand the good news of Jesus? How can we speak the gospel of Jesus taking our shame and replacing it with His honor? Grab a drink, pull up a seat and join Sam and Caleb at The Table as we talk about Honor | Shame Culture and how Jesus replaces our Shame with His Honor. https://linktr.ee/thetablepodcast

Hey guys! It's the last episode of the year! We are so grateful for those that have joined us since the beginning, and we pray you can continue this journey with us! We are so excited for the New Year and what God has in store for us and this podcast! We pray that God continues to make us usable for His Honor and His Glory, and that we can be BOLD in Him to share the Gospel of Jesus! We hope this episode is fun and helps you get through your day! God bless you all! May you have a safe New Year and enjoy it with your loved ones.Follow us @usedpodcast

432. Part 2 of our interview with Scott Boatright. Longtime local journalist T. Scott Boatright has become the publisher and managing editor of the Lincoln Parish Journal. Boatright, 57, brings deep family ties and more than 35 years experience in our community serving the parish through local media outlets as well as both Louisiana Tech and Grambling State universities. “I am thrilled about this innovative opportunity to continue serving the people of Lincoln Parish, where my family roots are based and I've made my home for more than three decades,” Boatright said. “And to be able to do so through a new and exciting format is gratifying beyond belief. I look forward to providing Lincoln Parish residents with the news and information they need, when they need it, on real-time platforms, free of charge. “The Lincoln Parish Journal is an extremely logical progression for local news and sports content. It's a smart concept. As publication and production expenses have badly eroded conventional, once-timely print and broadcast coverage that our parish counted upon for decades, this format provides the ‘get it now' aspect, cost-free to the consumer, convenient by using a cell phone, receiving an e-mail, and accessing social media. It's the antidote to corporate retreat from news and sports reporting in local communities,” he said, “and we will provide coverage that hasn't been possible before to bring live events and breaking news to our audience.” This week in Louisiana history. August 28, 1956. Lake Ponchartrain Causeway opened. This week in New Orleans history. Mayor Sidney J. Barthelemy, dressed in an old-time bathing suit, is duking it out with a plastic inflated shark. This photo op preceded His Honor's actual descent into the actual shark tank at the Aquarium of the Americas! This happened on August 28, 1990, several days before the Aquarium opened its doors to the public. According to the Times-Picayune, Barthelemy had bet that Ron Forman, director of the Audubon Institute (operator of the Aquarium), would not have the facility ready in time for a September 1 deadline. Forman, however, was successful and the Mayor—not he—had to take the plunge. This week in Louisiana. Louisiana Soul Food Fall Festival August 27, 2021 - August 29, 2021 12:00pm - 10:00pm 3701 Hudson St Shreveport LA 71109 Get Directions The Louisiana Soul Food Fall Festival will be filled with food for your soul. This inaugural festival will be held at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds in Shreveport. This event will showcase local and national recording artists, chefs, soul food and fun for the entire family. Please email louisianasoulfoodfallfestival@gmail.com for more information or to be a sponsor, vendor or exhibitor. Phone: 318-780-7872 Postcards from Louisiana. Brass band on Bourbon St.Listen on iTunes.Listen on Google Play.Listen on Google Podcasts.Listen on Spotify.Listen on Stitcher.Listen on TuneIn.The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.Like us on Facebook. 

UCAP OSH20 Daily Episode. Jeb, Dave and Jack talk with His Honor the Mayor of Camp Bacon, Larry Overstreet, about the legendary Oshkosh group campsite, and camping at AirVentures past and future. Uncontrolled Airspace Podcast Daily. Recorded July 22, 2020.

Are you looking for an Owensboro Church you can believe in? During this episode of the HIS Church Youtube Sermon Series Pastor Brian Gibson teaches us about The HIS Honor offering called, The Seventh Hand! Ezekiel 43:12-13 12This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. 13And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an hand breadth; even the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and the border thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span: and this shall be the higher place of the altar. YouTube Full Service | https://youtu.be/pDqMzqkuCaU YouTube Sermon | https://youtu.be/yisiulgt_uA Learn more about HIS Church today by visiting http://www.hischurch.cc/ or by calling us today at 270-926-6009.   HIS Church Owensboro Campus 4810 Frederica Street Owensboro, KY 42301   HIS Church Amarillo Campus 6300 Arden Rd Amarillo, TX 79109   HIS Church Dumas Campus 10 Elm Ave Dumas, TX 79029   HIS Church Henderson Campus Preston Fine Arts Center 2660 S. Green Street Henderson, KY 42420

We all have heard of the Exodus... we have seen the movies-watched the Red Sea part... but few have experienced or tried to undertsand what the Exodus brought about-and how God took this small band of beaten down slaves and shaped them into a mighty nation for His Honor.  Join Rabbi Hilbrant and he starts to unpack the Mystery of the Exodus and its impact on us today

Here on the Joel Natalie Show, we are the home to hear from the news makers and opinion leaders you want to hear from. On our Friday program we welcomed back His Honor the Mayor of the City of Erie Joe Schember. Our topics included taxes, LERTA, new neighborhood planning and the loss of jobs at Erie Coke.

Pastor Wade brings a weighty word with this sermon entitled, "Holiday Weight Gain". While most people are trying to keep the weight off during this holiday season, Pastor Wade challenges LCM to add the right kind of weight - the weight of God's honor! We learn that God takes it very seriously the concept of us being zealous for His Name and His Honor. It is a difficult thing to watch over His Words to us, guard His covenant with us, and truly revere God. It is all too common to say that we honor the LORD but fall prey to only adding Him to our agenda. His name and renown must be the desire of our hearts! We must have the LORD place His fear within us so that we can respond in reverence and awe of who He is and His powerful name. Let this message wreck your heart and help you with your "Holiday Weight Gain".

Pastor Wade brings a weighty word with this sermon entitled, "Holiday Weight Gain". While most people are trying to keep the weight off during this holiday season, Pastor Wade challenges LCM to add the right kind of weight - the weight of God's honor! We learn that God takes it very seriously the concept of us being zealous for His Name and His Honor. It is a difficult thing to watch over His Words to us, guard His covenant with us, and truly revere God. It is all too common to say that we honor the LORD but fall prey to only adding Him to our agenda. His name and renown must be the desire of our hearts! We must have the LORD place His fear within us so that we can respond in reverence and awe of who He is and His powerful name. Let this message wreck your heart and help you with your "Holiday Weight Gain".

Pastor Wade brings a weighty word with this sermon entitled, "Holiday Weight Gain". While most people are trying to keep the weight off during this holiday season, Pastor Wade challenges LCM to add the right kind of weight - the weight of God's honor! We learn that God takes it very seriously the concept of us being zealous for His Name and His Honor. It is a difficult thing to watch over His Words to us, guard His covenant with us, and truly revere God. It is all too common to say that we honor the LORD but fall prey to only adding Him to our agenda. His name and renown must be the desire of our hearts! We must have the LORD place His fear within us so that we can respond in reverence and awe of who He is and His powerful name. Let this message wreck your heart and help you with your "Holiday Weight Gain".

Pastor Wade brings a weighty word with this sermon entitled, "Holiday Weight Gain". While most people are trying to keep the weight off during this holiday season, Pastor Wade challenges LCM to add the right kind of weight - the weight of God's honor! We learn that God takes it very seriously the concept of us being zealous for His Name and His Honor. It is a difficult thing to watch over His Words to us, guard His covenant with us, and truly revere God. It is all too common to say that we honor the LORD but fall prey to only adding Him to our agenda. His name and renown must be the desire of our hearts! We must have the LORD place His fear within us so that we can respond in reverence and awe of who He is and His powerful name. Let this message wreck your heart and help you with your "Holiday Weight Gain".

Pastor Wade brings a weighty word with this sermon entitled, "Holiday Weight Gain". While most people are trying to keep the weight off during this holiday season, Pastor Wade challenges LCM to add the right kind of weight - the weight of God's honor! We learn that God takes it very seriously the concept of us being zealous for His Name and His Honor. It is a difficult thing to watch over His Words to us, guard His covenant with us, and truly revere God. It is all too common to say that we honor the LORD but fall prey to only adding Him to our agenda. His name and renown must be the desire of our hearts! We must have the LORD place His fear within us so that we can respond in reverence and awe of who He is and His powerful name. Let this message wreck your heart and help you with your "Holiday Weight Gain".

With our hope resting firmly in God’s character, we’re freed to live for His Honor and His Glory, which is our divinely crafted purpose.

His Honor the Mayor of the City of Erie Joe Schember returned to our microphones Tuesday for a broad one-hour conversation about the city topics that he has been working on, from LERTA tax abatement to potholes and Quality of Life ticketing. Then the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Municipal League Rick Schuettler spoke to the special issues that third-class cities and large townships face in the Commonwealth, and shared best-practices.

Are you looking for an Owensboro Church you can believe in? During this episode of the HIS Church Podcast Sermon Series Pastor Brian Gibson teaches us about giving gifts in His Honor.   Learn more about HIS Church today by visiting http://www.hischurch.cc/ or by calling us today at 270-926-6009.

Then, they shocked everyone again with the announcement of a new Star Wars themed land coming to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Universal had a gigantic hit of their own with "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," and rumors abound about what they might choose to do at their 4th Gate in Orlando. What would happen if Universal created a "Star Trek" land to rival "Star Wars" land? On this week's show, a fan from each franchise steps into the courtroom of JUDGE EB! They'll have the whole episode to attempt to convince His Honor on which IP would make for the best theme park land. In the end, he will issue is ruling... and his will be the ONLY opinion that matters!

Do you like making more money? Sure, we all do. But instead of getting a new degree from a 90s correspondence school, may we suggest something a little more practical? Making more money per customer. Video games may have brought us the microtransaction to the forefront but they also showed us how not to do them, now the time has come for us to learn the lessons from gaming in both how to and not to upcharge customers. So sit back as we walk you through a world of suggestions about how you can get more per customer with microtransactions. This Week's Episode Includes: Intro Conference Reminders We Will Miss Steve Colberg (Support a Fundraiser in His Honor) A Quick Follow Up on Last Week's Podcast What is a Microtransaction Defining Microtransactions for Haunts The Last Ride 5-Minute Escape Rooms Dare to Scare Photo Ops Bounce Back Tickets Small Merch & Food Ideas We Haven't Seen  Conclusions All in all, if you're looking to make more money per customer, this is one episode you do not want to miss!

Here the testimony of a young man that has been changed from a lifestyle of drug addiction by the Power of God. He is now a leader in his Church and God is using his life for His Honor and for His Glory. There is hope for the drug addict.

Here the testimony of a young man that has been changed from a lifestyle of drug addiction by the Power of God. He is now a leader in his Church and God is using his life for His Honor and for His Glory. There is hope for the drug addict.

Here the testimony of a young man that has been changed from a lifestyle of drug addiction by the Power of God. He is now a leader in his Church and God is using his life for His Honor and for His Glory. There is hope for the drug addict.

Here the testimony of a young man that has been changed from a lifestyle of drug addiction by the Power of God. He is now a leader in his Church and God is using his life for His Honor and for His Glory. There is hope for the drug addict.

WFHH Ep 5 by Women for His Honor

WFHH Ep 4 by Women for His Honor

WFHH Ep 3 by Women for His Honor

Listen to the testimony of a young lady that was out in the streets, but God has turned her life around for His Honor and His Glory

Listen to the testimony of a young lady that was out in the streets, but God has turned her life around for His Honor and His Glory

Listen to the testimony of a young lady that was out in the streets, but God has turned her life around for His Honor and His Glory

Listen to the testimony of a young lady that was out in the streets, but God has turned her life around for His Honor and His Glory

Disney's Streetmosphere characters have been entertaining guests for decades. They offer a sense of realism to the Fantasy Land that Walt Disney created and imagined for his guests. Recently, we lost one of those individuals. I'll honor His Honor on this week's Word of the Week – Weaver. If you've been on Main Street USA in the last 20+ years, you've probably seen Mayor Weaver. This is a tribute to the man behind the office.

A shout out to all our new subscribers, and our thanks to Roberts Bartolic LLP's ERISA Watch newsletter for plugging the prior episodes featuring our interview with Judge Alex Kozinski! This week we're on vacation (there's some sort of eclipse-type thing happening and Joe is going to watch it, while Sid continues to try to make Scottish people laugh out loud) - but we're offering a special episode consisting solely of our full, unedited interview with Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski. No travel ban update (the hearing is August 28 in Seattle ;); no Random Legal News of the Week (there was so much - but it will have to wait); not even any music! This week it's just Joe and Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski taking about everything from brief writing, to Ayn Rand, to His Honor's views on the death penalty.  Enjoy this special 90-minute episode, check back for new episodes starting in September, and in the meantime, as always, keep it legal!™

This week, Rex and Paul chew the fat about Rex's Delta food tour he gave some folks from Houston, Texas, the three Delta food groups, the IGA store in Biscoe, the historic and virtually unprecedented addition of an item to the menu at the Jones Bar-B-Q Diner in Marianna, the appearance of His Honor, the Mayor, Cypress Corner at Lexa, Pasquale's Tamales in Helena, steamboats, how Rex wore out the boys from Houston, the magnificence of Crowley's Ridge, the Louisiana Purchase monument and its booming tourist business because of Rex and Paul, Murry's at Hazen and the best onion rings in Arkansas, Paul's lobbying (that would be whining) to get on the board of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, Paul's celebrated appearance frying bacon and a bunch of other stuff at the Friends of the Library pancake breakfast at Imdoden, and a great German place -- Bavarian, really -- at Mammoth Spring. Not "Springs," so watch it.

Halloween is just a few weeks away and we start things up with a bit of a controversy. Knott's Berry Farm has closed a temporary Halloween attraction due to pressure from mental health advocates. Was it a smart move or were they wrong to bow to political correctness? We also talk about the new HBO series "Westworld," a show set in a futuristic theme park where anything goes. Is there a chance we could see a real-life version of this someday? And did you hear that someone's e-cigarette exploded into a fireball aboard the Hogwarts Express at Universal Orlando? We're not so sure the explosion was caused by a guest. We'll also have two Live Trip Reports from Halloween Horror Nights and find out if their R.I.P. (VIP) tours are worth the expense. Then, it's time to enter the courtroom of "Judge EB" as two listeners argue the case of "Fury 325 vs. Millennium Force!" Each listener will try to convince "His Honor" that their particular favorite coaster is #1! It's all this week on CoasterRadio.com!

You've got Bette Midler and Danny DeVito with a little Judge Reinhold thrown in for good measure... sorry, His Honor, Judge Reinhold. Are they ruthless enough to live up to the title? I'll tell you what's ruthless... whoever did the interior decorating on the mansion in his movie...

Appearances Can Be Deceiving This probably is my favorite time of year. I love the low humidity and the piercingly blue skies I saw yesterday. I was standing out in the yard with my daughter and we were just looking around at the sky and how fiercely blue it is. Don't you love this time of year? Maybe I'm alone in that, I don't know, but I just love to see the changing seasons, the leaves turning. I'm not excited about the fact they're about to descend under my lawn for the 12th consecutive year, and I'll have to clean them up, but I do love this time of year. And as we were standing out there, , I was just thinking about the gift of vision and what a beautiful thing this world is that He's made. And how the light just streams into our eyes and gives us the picture of the world around us. And it occurs to me as I stand before you and preach today, I desire to be somewhat of an eye doctor, a spiritual eye physician, to help you to see what ordinarily we would not see. Because there is physical vision and then there is spiritual vision, and we need to see what we do not see. We need to see spiritually what we cannot see physically. And this text, Hebrews 2:5-9, talks about what we do not see and what we see, and the difference between what ought to be or what will be someday and what is now. And so "At present," the text says, "We do not see everything subjected to Him." The "Him" is first and foremost Jesus. What is subjected is humanity under Him. We'll talk about that, but we don't see everything the way it should be. We do not see everything subjected. Things are in disarray, things are in chaos it seems. There is pain and misery and suffering, we'll talk about that. But then the next verse says, "But we see Jesus." And so therefore, it just occurs to me that my job, my responsibility is to enable you to see Jesus today. That's what I'm here for, to be somewhat of an eye physician. Sometimes it just happens by prayer. Remember how Elisha with his servant, they're in Dothan and surrounded by the Aramean army, and he's like, "Don't worry about it. There's more on our side than on theirs. We're fine." "I don't get it," says the servant. "I don't see anything but trouble today." "Oh, Lord, open his eyes. Open his eyes." And his eyes were open and he saw chariots of fire. The hosts, the heavenly hosts surrounding them and everything was fine. And so today, it's about spiritual vision. It's about being for me a spiritual eye doctor. We have some skilled physicians in this church, one in particular, a good friend of mine, an excellent eye doctor, and he's able with incredible technology to just shape the way that some people see, what had been blurry is suddenly brought into sharp focus. What a gift that is. May that happen today by the word of God. May we see Jesus today by the word of God. And if that's my privilege today, if that's my responsibility, what a gift that is to me. That I actually get to be up here and to proclaim Jesus to you, so that as a result of this time together, you see Jesus more clearly than you did before. What a gift that is. The Context of Hebrews 2:5-9 Now what is the context of Hebrews 2:5-9? Well, remember I believe that the author is writing to some Jews who had made a profession of faith in Christ, but who are now under pressure. The world was squeezing on them, specifically I think the Jewish world. Squeezing on these Jewish people to renounce their confession of Christ. Give it up and come back to what they had grown up with, what they had always known, Judaism. Come back to Christless Judaism. Old covenant Judaism as they understood it, without Jesus of Nazareth, come back to that. The only way you can do that though is to renounce Jesus because he's come now, he's been clearly proclaimed. They've heard the gospel, they said they believed it, they probably had been baptized, we'll talk about all that, but they've made a profession of faith and now they are being tempted, they are under pressure, I think, from Jewish friends and family and neighbors, rabbis, authority figures to renounce Christ and go back to the old ways. And so they are suffering in the world, they are getting beaten on, and they do not see everything arranged under Jesus. And so the author wants to give them Jesus, the spiritual vision of Jesus. That which we cannot do physically. It says in 1 Peter, "Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him." So it's all about faith today and things that do not appear as they should be or as they will be. Of a world to come, it mentions in verse 5, about this world to come, a world that isn't here yet and that we can only see by faith. That's what we're about today. And so this author is talking about what is but ought not to be, what will be but isn't yet, and how appearances can be deceiving, how what you see may not be really what's going on. And how through it all we need to see the promises of God of a future world that's going to be submitted to Christ, everything under Christ, and of Christ at the right hand of Almighty God in glory, reigning in glory. You need to see that today. And even though we are not first century Jews under persecution from rabbis and Jewish neighbors to go back to old covenant Judaism, we need to see Jesus today too, don't we? And so Hebrews 2:5-9 speaks to us. And what the author's going to do is he's going to be bringing in Psalm 8. Magnificent psalm, and he's going to be meditating a little bit on a portion of Psalm 8, and he just does this understanding the whole world view of Psalm 8. And so we have to do a little work on Psalm 8 because what he's doing is he's going back through the vision, the portal of Psalm 8 to look at how man was established in this world and how Jesus came in effect to reclaim our position of glory and status in this world through his redemptive work. I. Man’s Original Place: A Throne of Glory And so, man's original place through the vision of Psalm 8 is a throne of glory. It's a testimony really to man's surprising glory. As we look at Psalm 8, you don't have to turn there but you know the psalm and I'll just be quoting parts of it. The central issue of Psalm 8 is the central issue of the universe and the central issue of the Bible, God's glory. And so Psalm 8:1 begins, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth." The great glory of God spread out over all the worlds. How majestic is your name. And then the Psalm ends that way, Psalm 8 in verse nine, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth." But a secondary issue in Psalm 8 is man's apparent smallness in light of the immensity of God's glory. "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of us? The son of man that you care for him?" What are we that you should even notice us? How immense is the cosmos? How infinite it seems and how great the number of stars. How vast they are. And what are we? What is man that you are even mindful of him? And yet, despite all the appearance of man's immense smallness, the Psalm says, "You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet," it says. Well, that's a bit surprising. It's not what you would think. When we think about angels, angels are clearly more powerful than we are. Clearly. Angels dwell in heaven but we are dwelling here on earth. Angels see the face of God and we do not. Angels shine with the glory, a heavenly glory of God. We do not. Angels display supernatural power and we do not. So what is man in the light of angelic power and glory? And yet God, in creation, gave us a throne. So the author to Hebrews here in Hebrews 2 introduces Psalm 8 and quotes it in a rather curious way. Verse 6 says, "There is a place where someone has testified: 'What is man that you are mindful of him, the a son of man that you care for him?'" Now, before you want to get after the author to Hebrews as though he doesn't know the Bible very well. Look, let me tell you something, the author to Hebrews knows Old Testament scripture better than you will in 10 lifetimes. He knows exactly who wrote Psalm 8. He's not confused about that nor has he forgotten it. He's always doing something, this author, this brilliant, genius author of the Book of Hebrews. He's always at something and you know what he's doing right now? Minimizing man and maximizing God. Does it really matter to my argument who wrote Psalm 8? Now, it will matter in Hebrews 4 that David wrote Psalm 95 so he's going to quote David as the author of Psalm 95. He'll talk about David. So he knows all about David and his authorship of the Psalms but here he just says, "There's a place where someone has testified: 'What is man that you are mindful of him?'" So he's pushing David to the background and saying, "Just someone wrote this." And Psalm 8 makes the point the author to Hebrews wants to make here in Hebrews 2, and that is, that God entrusted to man a place of glory and honor and creation. You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under his feet. By the word of God, man was made a little lower than the angels. He made him ruler, it says in Psalm 8:6-8, "You made them ruler over the works of your hands. You put everything under his feet, all flocks and herds, beasts of the field, birds of the air, and the fish of the sea. All that swim in the path of the seas." Man was put over all that. Made a little lower than the angels. Crowned with glory and honor. Specifically, I think being created in the image of God and then given this position of rulership over the planet earth. And he did not give this position of honor and glory to angels even though they are stronger and more powerful. Look at verse 5, "It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking." The key issue then here is the world to come, and I'm going to talk more about the world to come, what it is, and Christ's rule over it, though man was originally given a place of glory and honor in this world. The Glory of Man: Rulership over the Earth So what is the glory of man? Of the human race? Rulership over the world. Genesis 1, this is our charter of rulership over the earth. Verses 26-28, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' And so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'" That's our charter as a human race, male and female in the image of God, rulership over all of these species. And so, I think we could look at it that Adam and Eve were in some way, originally invested with royal authority like a king and a queen, they were walking through their domain. Definitely under God, but they were like a king and a queen on the earth. And they were to begin in Eden, and then they were to move out from Eden through the four rivers that flowed out of the head water that came from Eden: The Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, the Euphrates, carrying them to rest of the world so that they could see the glory of the God on the earth. And they would discover various species of plants and animals, of birds, and fish, and insects, and reptiles, and geology, all of the gold and onyx, and all of the things that there was to see in the earth, they would discover them. And they would fill the world and they would subdue it, and they would rule over it for the glory of God. And that honor, that glory and honor was given to man and not to angels. II. Man’s Present Disgrace: Stripped of Glory But what is man's present situation? What is our present disgrace? Well, we've been stripped of that glory. We've been stripped of it. We lost our position of glory. Adam fell into sin, joining Satan in his rebellion against God. We joined Satan's rebellion against God. And I think we handed over the keys of the planet to him when we did it. God had commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but Adam disobeyed God and was driven from the Garden of Eden. The ground under Adam's feet was cursed because of Adam's sin. And man and nature began a somewhat adversarial relationship. God said to Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you'll eat the plants of the field. And by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." I get the image of Adam wrestling every day with the earth, and in the end, the earth wins, because Adam was going to die. And so, we have been in a great measure stripped of the glory and honor of our position in the world. Furthermore, God actually assigned to an angel the responsibility to keep man out of Eden lest they eat from the tree of life and live forever. And so, there was an angel with a sword, flaming sword flashing back and forth. The Apostle Paul speaks of the cursing of nature and the groaning of the earth. In Romans 8:20-22, it says, "For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope... " Oh, those are sweet words. That's the world to come that the author is talking about here, but, "in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. "We know," says Paul, "that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this present time." That is what we're talking about. We do not see everything subjected to Christ. We see a world seemingly at war with itself and with us. The author focuses on the word "everything." Look at verses 7-8, "You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet. In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him." He's really emphasizing the everything aspect, everything under Jesus. "Yet at present, we do not see everything under him." We don't see it. Humanity has been stripped of its position of glory in the world. At Present, We See Suffering and Death And so, at present, we see tremendous suffering in the world. Let's just talk about natural disasters for a moment. Do you realize how many significant natural disasters there have been in the last 10 years? I didn't really realize until I did some research. One earthquake after another. And you can forget them, they just happen one after the other, and you can forget them. Do you remember that on January 26, 2001, there was an earthquake in Gujarat, India, killing 12,000 people. If you live in that vicinity then, and survived it, you'd remember that earthquake. Or the next month, another earthquake hit El Salvador. There was an earthquake in Algeria in 2003, killing 2200 people. A huge earthquake in Iran in 2003, also day after Christmas, killing over 40,000 people. I think many of us certainly remember exactly a year later, December 26, 2004, with the Indian Ocean tsunami, that 9.3 on the Richter scale earthquake in the middle of the Indian Ocean that caused a terrible tsunami, that took out, it seems as close to a quarter of a million people, in 2004. 2005 Kashmir earthquake killed 80,000 people. 2008, there was an earthquake in China, Southwest China, Wenchuan earthquake, killing 69,000 people. I think we in America, we certainly remember all the hurricanes that struck the gulf coast region one after another. Certainly, Hurricane Katrina, we all remember that one but then came Rita and after that, Hurricane Ike. All of it hitting, more or less, the same part of our country. And the beginning of this year on January 12, an earthquake in Haiti killed almost a quarter of a million people and the country's still reeling from it. Still reeling. 2010 also in July, in Pakistan, there were terrible floods, heavy monsoon rains in various regions of Pakistan, displacing as many as 21 million people. Displacing 21 million people from their homes. They generally feel that the world has under-responded because it doesn't seem to be on the radar screen. This is the world that we live in. Droughts, famines, earthquakes, plagues, endemics, it's a world seemingly at war with itself. We do not at present see everything under him, it says. At present, instead, we see suffering and death. And Hebrew Christians who were going through persecution, well, they understood God's original purpose in creation as well as the author to Hebrews did. They knew the Genesis story as well as he did. In the gospel, the power of Christ is clearly proclaimed to bring everything together under one head, with Christ ruling over everything and everything at peace and orderly under his feet. We've already seen it in Hebrews 1:13, "To which of the angels did God ever say, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." I'm going to put everything under you. Christ as God overall, He's able to crush all of His enemies under His feet, but at present, we do not see this power openly and obviously. Not only is nature making life miserable for all humanity, unbelievers are specifically making life miserable for Christians. So it doesn't seem like Jesus' enemies are being handled very well. They seem to have the upper hand in one country after another. And so, the author later in this book, in Hebrews 10 says, "Remember those earlier days after you had receive the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution. At other times, you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and you joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions." That's a hard time, friends. That's a very, very hard time. And so the author to Hebrews is ministering to these hurting people who are suffering in a world that seems to want to chew them up and spit them out. How can you say everything's going to be under Jesus' feet? Doesn't seem that way. And He's trying to give them a vision by faith, of what will be. In speaking of the world to come, that's what he's talking about. Things are not as they should be and the only solution for us now, first and foremost, friends, this morning, right now, is to see Jesus. Amen? Look at verse 9, "But we see Jesus." And that you would have a spiritual vision of Jesus that is so compelling and so powerful, based on scripture that you can face the earthquakes and famines and dangers and persecutions and say, "It's true that at present we do not see everything's subject to Him, but someday we will." Amen? Some day, it's coming, and by faith, we're looking forward to that day. That's what the author is doing here, he's saying, "Let's look at Jesus." And if you look at Jesus, things in His life weren't always as they should have been, it seems. Things were not as they appeared to be either. Jesus was not who He appeared to be to His enemies. And we have to start that story by understanding Jesus' original glory. III. Jesus’ Humiliation: Incarnation, Suffering, and Death Just how glorious was Jesus before He came to earth? How magnificent, how great, was the glory of the second person of the trinity, before He took on human flesh? Well there are lots of testimonies to it, but none better than Isaiah 6. "In the year that King Uzziah died," Isaiah wrote, "I saw the Lord, seated on his throne, high and exalted. And the train of His robe filled the temple. And above Him were seraphs." Those are angels, bright, burning angels. "Each with six wings: with two wings, they covered their faces." I've often meditated on that. Because of the greater glory of Jesus. "With two wings they covered their feet, and with two, they were flying. And they were calling to one another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.' And at the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke." That's the greatness of Jesus. And if you wonder whether it's Jesus or not, as a Christian, you don't need to wonder, but Apostle John told us it was. In John 12:41 it says, "Isaiah saw Jesus' glory and spoke about Him." So we know that's Jesus. That's the greatness of his glory. But He laid all of that aside and took on a human body. He took on humiliation, really. We see Jesus' humility in incarnation. So the night that Jesus was born, all the angels gathered to celebrate it and worship Him. Apparently, Jesus had become a little lower than the angels. Seems like a lot lower than the angels. So if you're one of the shepherds that night, here are two experiences. You have an experience with angels and you have an experience with Jesus. The angels come with heavenly glory. Bright, shining glory in the middle of the night and you're terrified. Never seen anything like it. One angel lights up the whole place. And then an army of angels come and they give glory and praise to God. Glory to God in the highest. And peace to those on whom his favor rest. And this awesome glory, and then they go back up in Heaven and then the angel they're all gone. And then it's dark again. And then the shepherds say " Well, let's go see this child that's born that the angels spoke about." And they're going to go see a greater glory. Right? So they go into Bethlehem, the city of David. And they go into Bethlehem and they find a cave or a stable or something, we don't know. But a place where animals are kept and what do they see? They see a baby. A poor Jewish couple and a baby. And that's it. What a contrast, the angels are looking awesome and Jesus isn't really looking awesome. He's looking actually quite weak. He's actually laid in a manger box, I mean, basic mothering classes. You just don't put a baby where the animals feed. But there was no other place. It isn't a scene of great power and glory, it's a scene of humiliation. Angels glorious, seems far greater than Jesus. But appearances can be deceiving. All of those angels were worshipping God for sending his son into the world. That's what they were doing. They knew who was the greater. There was no doubt in their mind as to who was the greater. And God was doing a great thing by sending his son into the world, "In the likeness of sinful flesh" it says in Roman's eight. And so we see appearances can be deceiving and we can only see Jesus by faith. Even if you had been one of the shepherds that night it's only by faith you can really see Jesus to know who he is. And so there are examples of this from Jesus' life, for example, Jesus' humiliation in suffering. In the desert of temptation, Jesus fasted for 40 days out in the desert. And at the end of the 40 days in one of the great understatements in the New Testament, he was hungry. Well, he was definitely hungry, and of course, the devil came and pounded on him and tempted him severely, he responded with scripture though weakened by the fasting and at the end of the ordeal, Jesus depleted physically. You just see him, just on the ground. The Father dispatched angels to come minister to him. Says in Matthew 4:11, the devil left him and angels came and attended him. Now you remember when Elijah was running for his life? Jezebel wanted to kill him? And Elijah was exhausted, he'd done the whole Mount Carmel thing, fighting the prophets of Baal and Asher and all that. And then he runs miles ahead of the rainstorm that's coming and he does all this and then finds out Jezebel wants to kill him. Big surprise on that one. But it seemed a surprise to Elijah and he's just wiped out, he's done. He's like "I just want to die." And he's out in the desert laying under a broom tree and God dispatches an angel to make a little baked cake and a jar of water. He says "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." Well, here's Jesus about like that and actually, He sends several angels to minister to Jesus. Alright, freeze frame. There you are in the desert, here are these angels and here is this human being. Who's greater? Appearances can be deceiving, friends. Jesus was made for a little while, a little lower than the angels, and the angels are helping him because of his suffering. Or another example, in the Garden of Gethsemane. You're in the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus and the Lord, I believe, God the Father opens up in Jesus' minds eye, and in his soul and in a very mysterious way what it will be like to drink the Cup of God's Wrath. To be under the Wrath of Almighty God for our sins, what will it be like to be our sins substitute and he is, I think, literally knocked to the ground. Not surprised about the thing itself but just the magnitude of it in his humanity. Overwhelmed, and the intensity is so great that drops of blood are flowing out of his sweat pores. There's a medical condition in which that can happen and that was happening to Jesus. If you had been there at that moment and then God it says dispatched an angel from Heaven in Luke 22:43. An angel from Heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. Who's the greater and who's the less at that moment? Angel, this mighty powerful being, Jesus perhaps close to death, right there from heart seizure, heart attack or something. Right there in the Garden of Gethsemane and angels putting him back together physically so that he is able to get up and go do what he is determined to do. Who's greater? Appearances can be deceiving. Jesus was made for a little while lower than the angels. But they knew exactly who was the greater and what he had come to do. Angels are immortal, they cannot die. Jesus died, took on flesh and blood and died on the cross. Look at verse 9. "We see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels now crowned with glory and honor. Why? "Because he suffered death so that by the Grace of God, he might taste death for everyone." So as Jesus' lifeless, bloody body was taken down off the cross, gently wrapped by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, he was the very picture of human weakness and frailty. Death itself. No holy angel has ever stooped so low. Jesus seemed to be far below the holy angels more at that moment than any other time in his life. He was below the angels but appearances can be deceiving. Jesus was still the Son of God. Almighty God. And on the third day, God raised him from the dead in glory and power. IV. Jesus’ Glorification: Crowned with Glory FOR US Okay, so how does this all connect to us? How does it connect to us as believers in Christ? How did it connect to the first century Jewish believers in Christ? Well, Jesus' glory will be our glory. He is the Son of Man who fulfills God's original purpose for man and that is ruling in glory over the earth. And so look again at verse 9. "We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death so that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone." God's gracious purpose then is to restore fallen man to glory. We had traded in the keys of the kingdom to Satan, so he could rebel against God, Jesus came and won the kingdom back for us. Amen? He came and got it back for us, as a man, as the Son of Man, He came and did that. And now, He is crowned with glory and honor. We see Jesus, it says, now crowned with glory and honor. How do you do that? Well, more on that in a moment, but hopefully, it's already happening in your heart. Do you see him? Crowned with glory and honor at the right hand of God, do you see it by faith? We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor seated at the right hand of Almighty God, ruling over heaven and earth. The angels now veil their sight before Him as they did before his incarnation. And why? Why do we see that? Because He suffered death. There's a logical connection between the greatness of His glory now and the fact that He was willing to die in the cross then. It's the same connection you see in Philippians. Philippians chapter two, Jesus who being in very nature, God did consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. The next word is vital, theologically. Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place. Do you see that? There's a link, both in Hebrews two and in Philippians two, to Jesus' willingness to die and the greatness of His glory in heaven. Therefore because He did it, because He was willing to go to the cross for you and me, how great is His glory? How great is His Honor? And how great is the passion of God the Father when he said, "Sit at my right hand. I'm going to make all of your enemies a footstool for your feet." That is the greatness of Jesus. Because He suffered death for us. So that by the grace of God, He could taste death for everyone. And what does that mean for everyone? Well, for all of the children. For all of the elect sons and daughters of the living God. That's who He tasted death for. But look at verse 10, "in bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God through whom and for whom everything exists should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering." By the way, how foolish was I to think I could do one sermon on Hebrews 2:5-18. I thought I could get the whole chapter in one sermon, are you kidding me? How long do you folks want to be here today? We're not even really doing verse 10. This is not really doing verse 10. You know we're not doing verse 10 right now. But I still want to borrow a little bit from next week and talk about what Jesus was trying to do. He's trying to bring many sons to glory. That's what He's trying to do. And the only way to do that was to suffer, to suffer, to suffer death, to taste death for the sons He's bringing to glory. That's who He tasted death for. For us. And He does it to make us holy. Verse 11, "Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are the same family." And so Jesus is unashamed to call us brothers. How sweet is that? And so that's what He's doing. He's doing a kingdom of holiness, a kingdom of glory. And so now, everything is subject to Jesus as our head. Jesus is crowned with glory and honor, siting at a throne in the head of the universe. God, Ephesians 1:22, placed all things under His feet, appointed Him to be head of everything for the church. That's not in the future, that's now. He is now on His throne, everything is under Him. God appointed Him. Even though we don't see everything like that, it's going to be someday. And that's the beauty of it. And so this world to come, look at verse five again, the world to come is what we're talking about. It is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come. About which we are speaking. That world is the future world. The future world, that's where we're going friends. So when you hear about natural disasters and earthquakes, famines, heat waves, even other issues, global warming and typhoons, all of that kind of stuff... You need to be like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hebrews 11 says, they were living in tents in the promised land, and all of these great heroes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. Listen to this.This is so incredible. "They didn't receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them at a distance. Those verses exploded in my mind this morning. I said I have to write a whole different sermon but I don't have time so I'm just going to zero in on this, they saw them from a distance, what? They saw the new heaven and new earth from a distance. They didn't get it while they lived but they saw it while they lived. Do you see it friends? Do you see the new heaven and new earth? Do you see the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband, Jesus on his throne, everything in order under Him. No more strife, no more conflicts, no more typhoons or earthquakes or mud slides or any of that again. All of it brought into order under Jesus. Can you see it now in your mind's eye? They saw it and welcomed it at a distance. Verse 16 of that same chapter, "They were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God because He has prepared a city for them." That's our future, the world to come. We're going to reign like kings and queens. We're being given as an inheritance a kingdom. Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom, that kingdom prepared for you, kings and queens we'll be. And on Jesus' thigh and on His robe when He returns to bring it about, it's going to say, king of what? King of kings and Lord of lords. You will be the kings and the lords. Jesus will be the King of kings, ruling over you and me. But we haven't come into our inheritance yet, have we? Isn't it powerful how Paul rebukes the Corinthian church in first Corinthians four? It says, "Already you've become rich, already you've become kings, and that without us." We missed it. "How I wish you really had become kings, so we could be kings with you. For it seems to me that God's put us Apostles on display at the end of a procession like men condemned to die in an arena…" That's what we're experiencing now. But look at you, you're already into your heavenly inheritance. How did that happen, did we miss it?" He's really rebuking the Corinthians there for their triumphalistic way of living. We are meant to suffer now, and meant to trust now, and live in tents now, and look at a distance now toward a heavenly country that's coming, but we don't have it yet. And so what can we do? Well, see Jesus, look at him, see him by faith now. If you're lost, you've never trusted in Christ, see him now, dead on the cross, bloody, why did he die? For you. Think that, say, "He died for my sins. I have broken the law of God, Jesus died in my place, the death penalty I deserved." Trust in him. God raised him from the dead so that you could live forever. See him and then, if you're a believer, see him some more, see him more and more. Feed on the word of God, saturate your mind in the word of God. And think, not just about the past; Jesus dead on the cross, then risen, ascending, but think about the future world, the world to come about which we are speaking. By the way, verse 5, do you speak about the world to come? I'd like to talk about it more, what do you say? Let's talk more about the world to come. There's an application for you. Let's talk more about the world to come, where Jesus is going to reign on his throne and everything will be orderly under him. Close with me in prayer, please.

I. Review of Romans Please turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 2. The other day, I was at a Christian play and they advertised a local church (I think it was), and they put in bulleted form some of their advantages to going there, and it talked about contemporary worship, and also "relevant preaching." And I just had to laugh as I looked at my sermon title today, "Who is the True Jew?" Now, how many of you got up this morning wanting to be a true Jew? I mean, does the heart desire... In your heart today, as you got up, "I want to be a true Jew"? Probably none of you. So I kind of have to make a case for the relevancy of what it is I'm going to talk about today to make it relevant preaching. But I guess the thing with me and relevancy is, how can I know what's relevant for you and for you, and you, and you, over a full year or 10 years or the rest of your life? The Word of God is relevant. And as we just keep hearing its message week after week and understanding what it has to say, even a message like "Who is the True Jew?" has its proper place in our understanding of Biblical doctrine. Paul has been expounding the Gospel, and he's been explaining to us that this Gospel message, most clearly revealed in the Book of Romans, is the message that God has given for our salvation. It is the message that takes us from lost in sin and rebellion to standing in His presence full of glory, and blameless on that final day. And there is no other message that accomplishes that journey. No other message. And Paul has been laboring in these verses from verse 1... Or 1:18, and he will do so until 3:20 to show that all of us, every single person on the face of the Earth, needs this message. We all need this salvation, this great salvation, every one of us. And he's laboring to do that. And the reason he's doing that is that we don't think we do. We don't naturally believe that we need a savior. Whatever category we're in, wherever we're at in our walk of life, we don't need this. And Paul has to labor to show the relevancy of the Gospel. And so he does, for the Jew and for the Gentile. And so he's been working at that. And he's going to do so today, in direct address to the Jews, beginning at verse 17 of chapter 2. "Now you, if you call yourself a Jew, if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God, if you know His will and approve of what is superior, because you're instructed by the law, if you're convinced that you're a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you strip God of His glory? Do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written, God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you become as though you had not been circumcised. If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you, who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a law-breaker. A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God. II. Paul’s Purposes Now, as I've been trying to understand where Paul is going in Romans, God showed me something that I had never noticed before. As we've been working through Romans 1 and 2 and 3, we start to see what Paul is doing. And I think that Paul is giving us a new understanding of sin, and also giving us an understanding of the universality of sin, how it applies to every single person. And in this way, I think there's a little bit of kind of scriptural arithmetic that will help us understand the whole message of Romans 1, 2 and 3 up through verse 20 of chapter 3. Now if you look at Romans 1:23, look down on your Bibles, just a little bit lower to Romans 1:23. And there, he's talking, I think, primarily about Gentiles. Beginning at verse 22, it says, "Although they claim to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images." We've been talking about that, haven't we? That exchange of the glory of God for something else. Eventually, it works its way out in Gentile worship to be idolatry, but the exchange had already occurred. The glory of God removed from its central place and something else put in the midst. It's a sin against the glory of God. Glory of God removed, something else put in its place. Romans 1:23, speaking of the Gentiles. Now look down at 2:23, which is in the middle of the passage we're looking at today. Romans 2:23, this time speaking to the Jews, asked this question. It says, "you who brag about the law." In the NIV, it says, "do you dishonor God by breaking the law?" Could I say, do you strip God of His glory by breaking the law? So, 1:23 says that Gentiles exchange the glory of God for an idol. 2:23 says Jews rob God of His glory by their disobedience. What does Romans 3:23 say? "For all have sinned and fall short of," or "lack," what? "The glory of God." 1:23 plus 2:23 equals 3:23. You see that? Now, I want you to understand, the verse numbers came in in the 16th century, these are not inspired by God. And I can prove that to you in other places, if you'd like me to show you. But I think it's helpful for us to see the sum total of what Paul is getting at. A new definition of sin and the universality of sin is the main theme that he's getting at. 1:23, the Gentiles do it. They exchange the glory of God. 2:23, the Jews do it. They rob God of His glory by their disobedience. 3:23, all have sinned. There is no difference. No difference between what? Between Jew and Gentile. For all have sinned and lack the glory of God. Now if we keep that in mind, we'll understand, therefore, what salvation is: A re-establishment of the glory of God. And it's done in such a way that no one can boast. And so Paul has to address the Jews here, and he does it very pointedly, doesn't he? In verse 17, he says, "you then," or "you, therefore," the Jew. This is what the Word of God does to us. There's a "you, therefore" in Scripture, isn't there? It points right to us, wherever we are at. It speaks directly to our heart and that is relevant, isn't it? It speaks right to us. "You, therefore, who call yourself a Jew," that's the way it's written. Paul must strip Jews of self-confidence, or they will never seek grace in Christ Now, here, Paul is not acting, believe me, he's not acting as an anti-Semite, trying to knock the Jews down. Anti-Semitism has been a plague in human history since the beginning of the Jewish people, and so-called Christians have taken their part to our shame. But Paul is not acting here in an anti-Semitic way. According to Jesus Christ, salvation is from the Jews. Paul was a Jew. He's doing this because he wants his people to be saved. And they will not be saved if they hold on to their false understandings of salvation. And so he's got to work on them, and he does. Paul actually had an incredibly courageous passion for his own people. Incredibly courageous. You look in Romans 9, Paul said he was willing to trade his own salvation so that his people could be saved. Willing to exchange it. Now for people not well-acquainted with what that would mean, that wouldn't be much. But Paul knew fully well that he was talking about eternity in Hell under the wrath of God. He knew what that meant. And he said, "I'd make it in a heartbeat if that were the will of God. I'd do it, because of my love for my people." Paul was no anti-Semite. And he proved it in every town he went to. You who have been studying with us in the evenings, in the book of Acts, what did he do in every town? First place he went was the Jewish synagogue. To the Jew first, and then to the Greek, was Paul. And in every place he went. And he knew what was waiting for him in every place: persecution, arguments, strife and conflict, trouble in every place. He knew it, but he did it anyway. And why? It was worth it to him so that the Jews might be saved. And some of them were. When he would go in there, some of them would believe. But here, he's got a deep burden for his own people. He is concerned about them. He is anxious over them because there's some dangers to them here. And he wants to open their eyes to the dangers before it's too late. There's a danger of hypocrisy, for example, of preaching one thing and living a different way. Of holding up a standard and then living, secretly, a different way. There's also a danger of formalism. Of the outward motions of religiosity without the true heart within. "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." That's a danger for the Jews. And then there's a danger of self-righteous superiority. "Hey, I'm a child of Abraham. I'm fine. I don't need that. I'm okay. I'll teach the rest of the world, but I'm fine." Is that a danger for the church today, those three? Hypocrisy, formalism, self-righteous superiority? Is that a danger today? Oh, yes. So this is a message for us as well as for the Jews. III. False confidence #1: The Law and Jewish Identity (verses 17-24) And so Paul has to remove false confidences. And the first false confidence he works on in verse 17 through 24 is the law. The law. In verse 17, he says, Now you, "if you call yourself a Jew." It's kind of like, "I wear this banner. I am a Jew. A child of Abraham." There's a sort of self-identity thing here. This is how they identify themselves, they were Jews. And they bragged, it says, in verse 17, about their relationship to God. They boasted about God. It's a good thing to boast in God, isn't it? Let him who boast, boast in what? In the Lord. But it's not that kind of boasting going on here. There's a self-righteous boasting happening here, a dangerous one. Now, it's true the Jews were God's chosen people. We just had an international class, and one of the Chinese students said, "Why did God choose the Jews and not the Chinese?" I didn't have an answer for that. I don't have any idea why God chose the Jews. Who can say? I don't really know. But He did choose the Jews, didn't he? And He chose them for a purpose. They were to be His light in that dark world. Remember God's original purpose in creation? The earth will be filled, with what? The knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. He wanted His glory everywhere and human beings were to do it, and I think He raised up the Jewish nation to accomplish that as well. And He gave them the law. But the sad thing is, as we're going to see in the Scripture, they actually, instead of leading the Gentiles to honor and to glorify God, they actually led the Gentiles to blaspheme God. Oh, what a tragedy. And so Paul has to address them here and show them what's happened. And in verse 17, he says, "if you rely on the law." The Greek literally says, "if you rest in the law," as with an easy chair. Is the law an easy chair? What do you think? Is it a comfortable place to rest? I think not. How about Galatians 3:10? "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.'" Does that sound like a comfortable easy chair? A curse hangs over disobedience, at any point. And this is what, for this reason, what Peter said at the council when the Gentiles are coming to Christ, they're coming to put faith in Christ and the question was, "Should we circumcise them? Do they literally have to become Jews in order to be saved?" They're wrestling with that question. Acts 15, Peter stands up and says, he calls the law a "yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear." Do you get the image of an oxen just bowed down by this weight on the shoulders, the yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? That's what the law is. Is there comfort there? Are you going to find comfort there? I can't help but give you the word of comfort right now, I always want to do this. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest," said Jesus. "Take My," what? "My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find," what? "Rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." I think that's in direct contrast to the law. You're not going to find rest and comfort there. You find it in Jesus alone. And that's what Paul is trying to do here, isn't he? Point them away from the burden of the law to the freedom of Christ that Jesus can give. Now, there were some positive effects to the law. The Jews did have advantages, benefits. Paul's going to get to that more in chapter 3, the next sermon. Verse 18, it says, "Because you're instructed by the law, if you know His will, and approve of what is superior because you're instructed by the law," so there are some benefits to having the law. There's some good things that come out of it. The word "instruction" there in verse 18, that "you're instructed by the law," katēkhéō, we get our word "catechize" from that. It means if you are systematically well-instructed by the law, which they were. Didn't they go to the Synagogue week after week? Didn't they hear good instruction from the rabbi? They heard clear exposition of the word. Was there benefit in that? Oh, yes, there was great benefit in that. And look at the benefits. It says there that they know His will, and they approve of what is superior. Is that good? Obviously, it's good to know God's will. And it's good to approve of what is superior. And what a contrast to the Gentiles in Romans 1:28, Paul says, "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done." Literally, the Greek says, "Since the Gentiles did not approve of having the knowledge of God and themselves." They didn't want the knowledge of God, they shoved it away. They don't want it. They pushed it away. But the Jews went that way. They approved of having the idea of one God, a creator God, in their mind. They liked that, and they approved of it, of what was superior. So there were benefits. But the Jewish knowledge of the law did not carry them far enough, there were negative results as well, and we see that in the following verses. We see here, I think, emerging a self-righteous self-confidence. I put "self" in there twice. The focus is on me. The focus is on what I'm doing with the law. Self-righteous self-confidence. Verse 19, if you convince yourself that you were all these good things, you convince yourself that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the darkness. An instructor of the foolish or teacher of infants, that's what you convince yourself about yourself. Now there's nothing wrong in the law, in verse 20, it says, "Because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth." Is there anything defective with the law? Could God have written a better law, maybe, to have a different outcome? No, there's nothing wrong with the law. It's perfect, and holy, and righteous, and good. The problem is with what the law is working on: This flesh weakened the law, so we couldn't obey. And so the Jews, they missed the whole point. They convinced themselves that they are all these good things. Look at the fourfold arrogance here: They're a guide for the blind, light for those in the darkness, corrector for the foolish, teacher for infants. So the Gentiles, and I might say, some Jews, the Pharisees and all that called them the "mob" or the "rabble," maybe they were the shepherds that never took time to read the Word. They were not well-instructed. They were the rabble, the mob, "this mob" they were called. Okay? They are as follows: The blind, those in darkness, the fools, and the infants. Okay, well, what is the self-righteous Jewish person? Well, he's a guide, he's a light, he's a corrector, and he's a teacher. You see the whole problem here? He's missing the point. And so Paul brings the Jews through some diagnostic questions, verse 21 and 22. In effect, if you're a professor, have you enrolled in your own seminar? Have you taken your own course? Verse 21, "You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself?" Have you enrolled in your own course? Do you practice what you preach? Do you live it out? "You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?" Now this is, I think, a suggestive list. The law has more than this. For example, coveting, Paul talked about it in Romans 7. Can we survive that kind of scrutiny? Can anyone? And so they could say, "Well, I actually don't steal. No, I actually haven't committed adultery, and I've never even been in an idol temple and I certainly wouldn't steal if I were there, so I'm alright!" Is that the point? I could put other things in here, and you wouldn't survive that, either. The point is, do you practice what you preach, and if you preach the law, do you live up to it? Verse 13 had said to us, "It is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous." It's not having the law, knowing the law, teaching the law, preaching the law; it is obeying the law that declares righteous. IV. How Disobedience Dishonors God And so we come to a devastating conclusion, verses 23-24. And this is devastating. Look at it. "You who brag about the law, do you strip God of His glory through your disobeying of the law?" Do you rob God of His glory because you don't do what He says? That is devastating. The Jews were meant to be a light in a dark place. They were meant to be all of those things. An instructor for the foolish, teacher of the blind, all that, guide for the blind, but they weren't because they were disobeying the very words that God had committed to them. And so there's a tragic end here. In verse 24, as it is written, look at it, "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." God's name isn't held up in honor because of your life; it's blasphemed because of you. That's devastating. That's not what God chose Israel for. God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Now, the question we have to ask is, how does disobedience strip God of His glory? How does disobedience dishonor God? Verse 23, "Do you dishonor God by breaking the law?" Now, the central issue of life, I believe, is living the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31, "So whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Get two people at a table, both eating the same food, both drinking the same drink, same quantity, same everything. One of them eats for the glory of God, one of them does not. "Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." It's the central issue. Now, this particular verse says, "Do you dishonor God by breaking the law?" Now the word "honor" in the Greek actually refers to price, value, the worth or value, a price of something. Have any of you ever had a yard sale? I'm sure you have. Right before we went out as missionaries to Japan, we had the biggest yard sale I hope to ever have in my life. We sold everything except our clothes and the few things we were bringing. You remember that? Everything we had: Two cars, furniture. I remember, when the changing table, Nathaniel's changing table, went, there was grief, deep grief. I'll never forget that, little tears coming down from the eyes. And as we did this yard sale, we went... And to each item, we weighed a certain value. And we assigned a value with a price tag and put it on our stuff. It was very sobering, very interesting to go through that process as you look at all your stuff and put a value on it. Okay, well, this verse says that the Jews did that with God, and what price tag did they put on God? Real low. They stripped God of His value. What price tag would you put on God in your life? What honor, what value, what price, for God? Well, how do they strip God of His glory? By disobeying Him. By not doing what He commanded that they should do. Now, realize, the essence of worship, the essence of worship is worth-ship, the proper assigning of worth and value to God. That all of our heart and our mind should be involved in that process and we say, "God! God is glorious! God is worth everything. He is the center of my life." That's the value of God. That's assigning a price tag to God. That's worship. "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." Isn't that worship? That's worship. We're assigning a value to God. The Jews did that, and they assigned a bad value through their disobedience. And they had a long history of it, Old Testament disobedience. Malachi 1:6, the prophet said this, "A son honors his father, and a servant honors his master, but if I am a father, where is the honor due Me? If I am a master, where is the honor due Me? Where's My honor if I am these things for you, O Israel? You strip Me of My honor." And then in the verse I cited earlier, Isaiah 29:13, Jesus quoted this about Israel. Oh, how it must've broken his heart! "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." "They worship Me in vain. Their teachings are just rules made by men." They have stripped God of His honor and His value. And when Jesus came, the embodiment of knowledge and truth physically, God incarnate, did they honor Him properly? No. At one point, they said that He was demon-possessed. Can you believe that? The incarnate Son of God doing all these miracles and they say He's demon-possessed? Jesus said this. "I'm not possessed by a demon, but I honor My Father and you dishonor Me." Do you feel that, the weight of that? "I honor My father and you dishonor Me." And they continued to dishonor Him. The ultimate valuing or dishonoring there happened by Judas, remember? Judas sold Jesus, for what? For 30 pieces of silver. And Zechariah, you have to look it up, Zechariah 11:12, this is what he says about it. He talks about the 30 silver coins, "that magnificent price at which the people of Israel valued me." Do you feel the pain in that? That "magnificent price," 30 pieces of silver? What value are you going to assign to God? What price tag will you put on Him in your life? Salvation occurs first with a proper valuing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1, he says, "You know that you are not saved with gold or silver or anything perishable, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ." Precious blood. Same Greek word. Value, honor, the precious blood. And then in chapter 2 of 1 Peter, it says, "For in Scripture it says, 'See, I lay in Zion a stone, a precious and tested cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.' Now, to you who believe, the stone is precious," but to those who do not believe, it is not precious. It's got no value. Jesus has no value. Salvation comes when you put a proper valuing on God and on Christ. The Jewish disobedience, they dishonored God because the law was given to bring blessings and curses. And they dishonor God in that they didn't believe either one. They didn't believe blessing would come from obedience to the law. "I have a better way. I know a better kind of life Now, God says don't do these things, but I see a shortcut to true, lasting joy and happiness. I think I'll take it." They didn't believe God for blessing, did they? They thought they had a better way. Neither did they believe God for curses. They didn't think God would do anything. Look at all the bad things that people do all the time. "God never does anything. He's not even there. He doesn't see, He doesn't care. And He certainly won't call me to account." And so they dishonor God through the curses as well. They dishonored God through their disobedience. And in this way, they stripped God of His glory. And so Paul has to show them that the law is a false confidence for them, and he's pulling away that false confidence. V. False Confidence #2: Circumcision and Jewish Identity (vs. 25-27) And secondly, he has to work on circumcision. The law and circumcision, the two great pillars of their self-confidence, verses 25-27. "Circumcision has value if you observe the law." The Jews designated the entire world into two different categories. There were the circumcised and then there were the uncircumcised. That's how they defined the world, either circumcised or uncircumcised, Jew or Gentile. That's how they saw it. And they kind of boasted about this. And they realized that their covenant blessings were in Abraham, and circumcision was the sign of their relationship to Abraham as a child or a descendant of Abraham. Now, those Gentile dogs want to come into this blessing, they need to become Jews. The funny thing is, they're not far from the truth. If you get later on in Romans, Romans 11. In Romans 11, Paul says that there is an olive tree, a living olive tree, and there are natural branches that did not believe and they were stripped off and discarded. They were unbelieving Jews. Then they were wild olive branches, those are the Gentiles, grafted into the same Jewish tree. That's where the blessing is. So you see how relevant it is to be a true Jew? There's no salvation apart from it. You need to be a true Jew. Maybe you'd never use that language. Maybe it's troubling to you, "I don't want to be a Jew. I'd like to be a Christian." Okay, but understand what Paul is saying: The blessings are in the house of Abraham. And by faith in Jesus Christ, a Jewish Messiah, you have been engrafted there by faith. The natural branches that believed, they stayed, but the ones who did not believe were stripped off. It's a Jewish tree. But yet it's possible for Jews to be circumcised and yet disobedient. "Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you become as though you were not circumcised." What's the Jewish word for not circumcised? "Gentile." You've become a Gentile if you disobey the law. So then who is the true Jew? We all disobey obey the law, do you see? Paul's going to get to that. He'll tell you who the true Jew is. But it's possible to have the law, circumcision, and disobey it. But then there's these Gentiles in verse 26, "If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?" This is strange. How is it possible to keep the law and yet disobey circumcision? Could it be that there's a new understanding of the law emerging here? Wasn't circumcision a part of the Old Testament law? "On the eighth day, your boys would be circumcised." There was a command. But now we've come into a new understanding of the law, there's a new law, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself." It's a new understanding, spiritually-fulfilled law. And there are some Gentiles, guess what, who are obeying that law now. And how are they doing it? By the power of the Holy Spirit. And guess what's going to happen, Jews? On Judgement Day, they're going to stand up and by their lives, by their faith in the God of Abraham, by their obedience to that law, they're going to condemn you just by their example. And they're going to put the Jews to shame because of their faith. And so in Christ, there's a new definition of circumcision, and a new definition of what it means to be a Jew. Look at verses 28-29, "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor his circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, not by the law, the written code." Physical circumcision, folks, now means nothing. Nothing, spiritually. Do you understand that? Galatians 6:15 says it straight out, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. How much more plainly can we say it? It doesn't mean a single thing to be physically circumcised, spiritually. Doesn't mean anything. What counts, says Paul in Galatians 6:15, is a new creation. That's what matters, is a new creation. Well, what is this new creation? Well, the new creation here in Romans 2 is a circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit. It is a moving inwardly by the Holy Spirit. It's a new birth. It's being born again by the Holy Spirit, as Jesus puts it in John 3. It's a transformation from within out, where everything changes. A circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit. And what comes out of that? Well, in Romans 8, it's very clear that then the Holy Spirit then brings you back to the law and says, "Here is My way, walk in it." You see? He brings you back and then you begin to obey the law, not for salvation, not for justification, but for obedience's sake, out of love for your Savior. From within, there's a circumcision, a new transformation, and then by the Spirit, you walk in the way of the law. That's salvation. And if that walking in the way of the law is not occurring, then the circumcision hasn't occurred yet. Hasn't happened yet. So we see a new definition of circumcision and a new definition of what it means to be a Jew. Paul says the same thing in Philippians 3:3, "For it is we who are the circumcision." Who's the "we"? "We who worship by the spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh." We're not saying, "Hey, look at what I can do with the law. Give me a law, I'll follow it. Give me lots of laws, I'll follow them all." We don't do that. We put no confidence in... We have a whole history of disobedience. We turn our back on that. Instead we turned to Jesus Christ and His light yoke. We turn to Christ and His death on the cross as an atoning sacrifice, and we turn to Christ and the Holy Spirit, which He alone can give to enable us to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, fully met in us. We do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit. VI. Living for Praise From God (verse 29) Verse 29 describes that kind of a person, "Such a man's praise does not come from men, but from God." Oh, that's a sweet verse. Do you see that, verse 29? "Such a man's praise does not come from men, but from," who? "God." I didn't know that the eternal, the immortal, the invisible God was in the habit of praising flesh and blood like us. You can read it. It's right here in verse 29. "Such a man's praise is from God." It's incredible. Religious hypocrisy, I believe, has only one motive. Praise from men. Do you see that? You stand on the street corners and make long prayers. What are you looking for? Not answers; you're looking for praise from men. You give lots of money and make a big show of it. What are you looking for? You're not looking for eternal treasure; you're looking for praise from men. You fast and tell everyone how hungry you are and what a pious man you are. What are you looking for? Praise from men. No, this person circumcised in the heart is not looking for that. Looking for praise from God. And do you see how God forces the choice? John 5:44, Jesus says this, "How can you believe, if you accept praise from one another and make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the one, the eternal God." You can't believe unless you make that exchange, where you don't care anymore what people say about you. What matters is what God says through the Gospel. You can't believe any other way. And now see the beautiful symmetry. We put God's glory at the center of our lives. We put His glory right at the center, and God will glorify us with His glory. We live for the praise of God. We praise Him every day, and then He will praise us on Judgement Day. Isn't that incredible? What a Gospel. It's incredible! 1 Corinthians 4:5, it says, "At that time, each will receive his praise from God." "At that time," what time? Judgement Day. And then John 12:26, "My father will honor the one who serves Me." VII. Summary and Application Now, today, in summary, as we've looked, we've seen that Paul has been working on the Jews, and he's trying to strip them of false confidence, false confidence in the law, false confidence in circumcision, trying to pull that out from under them. Does he leave them feeble with nothing to stand on? No, he wants to put them on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, crying out to Him for grace and mercy and forgiveness. That's solid. That will last on Judgement Day. Not the righteousness that comes from the law. That is nothing, it's going to be shredded on Judgement Day. Nothing good will come from that. And he's got to sting them in order to bring them to Christ. He's got to say, "The Gentiles are blaspheming because of the way you're living. You're not obeying God; you're stripping God of His Honor and His glory through your disobedience." And then he defines what it means to be a Jew. "You want to be a Jew? You want truly to be a child of Abraham? Believe the God of Abraham, trust in Jesus Christ, and Him alone. Turn to Him through repentance, and allow the Holy Spirit to circumcise your heart from within. Let Him give you that heart of flesh instead of the heart of stone, and let Him allow obedience to the law to flow out from you by the power of the Holy Spirit." Now, in application, what is this saying to you? Just look at verse 29. Is this true of you? "Such a man's praise does not come from men, but from God"? Will God praise you on Judgement Day? Will He say, "Well done, good and faithful servant," to you? You trusted in Jesus and said, "My father will honor the one who serves Me." Did you love Jesus? Did you believe in Him? Did you follow Him? Did you obey Him? Is your praise from God, or are you looking for something here on Earth? Which is it? I pray that by the power of His Word and His Spirit, He may circumcise your heart from within, that you may walk in the newness of life that He alone can give. Let's close in prayer.