Podcasts about his spirit

In this solo episode, Jesse sets the stage for an upcoming conversation with Tony by diving into one of Jesus' most theologically rich parables — the Parable of the Midnight Friend in Luke 11. Rather than treating this as a simple lesson on prayer technique, Jesse unpacks the passage as a carefully constructed theological argument: a qal wahomer (lesser-to-greater) reasoning that ultimately reveals the character of God the Father. Set within Luke's central travel narrative, the parable is not free-floating wisdom — it is discipleship instruction delivered by the Messiah en route to Jerusalem and the cross. The episode challenges common misreadings that pit persistence against divine sovereignty and instead grounds persevering prayer in confidence in God's willing, lavish character. The culmination — the gift of the Holy Spirit — awaits next week. Key Takeaways The parable's literary structure is intentional and theological — the Lord's Prayer leads to the parable, which leads to a promise (ask, seek, knock), which is grounded in the Father's character and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The sleeping friend is not a type of God — he functions as the lesser pole in a lesser-to-greater argument; identifying him with God is a category error that compromises divine immutability and aseity. Persistence in prayer is grounded in confidence, not desperation — the point is not to wear God down, but to recognize that a God who is not reluctant, not asleep, and not inconvenienced will give all the more freely. The a fortiori (lesser-to-greater) structure is the interpretive key — Jesus deliberately invokes cognitive dissonance through an imperfect analogy so that the contrast reveals something about God's character that a direct statement could not. Ask, seek, knock are present-tense imperatives in Greek — they denote continuous action, matched by divine passives in the promises, meaning God himself is the subject acting behind every answer. The promise is absolute within its covenantal frame — "everyone who asks receives" is not a blank check, but a promise spoken to disciples praying according to God's revealed will, in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit. The passage has a redemptive-historical dimension — it sits within Luke's travel narrative where Jesus is forming the disciples' inner life as He moves toward the very cross that makes the Spirit gift of verse 13 possible. Key Concepts The Sleeping Friend Is Not God One of the most persistent misreadings of this parable is the identification of the reluctant, sleeping friend with God — as though Jesus were teaching that dogged repetition in prayer will eventually wear down a half-willing deity. Jesse is careful to reject this firmly on both exegetical and theological grounds. The sleeping friend functions as the lesser pole of a rabbinic a fortiori argument: a flawed, inconvenienced human who still yields to legitimate need. James 1:17 seals the case — the Father is one "with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." An immutable God cannot be represented by a changeable, reluctant figure. The friend's reluctance is not a window into God's character; it is a foil designed to make God's willing generosity shine all the brighter by contrast. Persevering Prayer Is Grounded in Confidence, Not Doubt A common application drawn from this parable is essentially motivational: don't give up, pray harder, keep going. While there is something right about that call to perseverance, Jesse argues it is being drawn from the wrong well. Biblical perseverance in prayer is not rooted in uncertainty about whether God might eventually come around. It is rooted in the certainty that He already has — that He is a Father who delights to give, who is not asleep, not inconvenienced, and not reluctant. This re-centers the entire posture of prayer. We are not beggars hoping against hope that a distant God notices us. We are covenant children running with confidence into the throne room of a Father who has already given us His Son and, supremely, His Spirit. The Covenantal Frame of the Promise The sweeping promise — "everyone who asks receives" — has tripped up many readers who take it as an unconditional divine guarantee for anything sincerely prayed. Jesse is careful to locate the promise within its literary and canonical context. It is spoken to disciples who have just been taught to pray "Your kingdom come... give us... forgive us... lead us not" — prayers shaped by God's revealed will and kingdom priorities. James 4 and John's Gospel reinforce the point: prayer that does not receive has asked wrongly or outside God's will. The Westminster Confession of Faith (Chapter 21) frames acceptable prayer as offered in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit, according to His will — a tripod of covenantal orientation that, far from weakening the promise, gives it its full and glorious force. Memorable Quotes We draw that persistence not out of our own willingness, not even because God might encourage us, but we should be drawn to it as a representation of His character — of in fact who He is. Jesus is not commending 'wear God down with nagging' as a technique. He's having established that even flawed human reluctance eventually yields to a legitimate need pressed persistently — and he pivots to make the positive direct application: how much more freely and immediately will the Father, who is not reluctant, not asleep, not inconvenienced, give? Even the seeking, even the knocking, even the opening that will be done for you and unto you and on your behalf is from God the Father himself. Full Transcript [00:01:03] Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 504 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse, and this is the podcast for the persistent prayers Hey, brothers and sisters. We have got something a little bit different for you on this episode. Tony will be back with me next week, and we will be continuing our journey through the parables. [00:01:27] And I thought while we anxiously await for his return, that we would set up the next parable that we're gonna talk about so we can hit all the major points together. So we're gonna be hanging out in Luke chapter 11, and we're talking about the parable of persistent prayer, or as I think Tony described it, the parable of the midnight friend. [00:01:47] You can choose whichever one you like. But before you do that, if in fact you miss Tony, here's a good way to fill that need, and that is you should go to the Reformed Brotherhood website. That's reformedbrotherhood.com. And you will [00:02:00] find all of the other podcast episodes living out there. They're all searchable by topic. [00:02:05] Everything we've recorded is right there for you. These some 10 years of lovely conversations with my brother Tony are all available for you. And while you're there, you might be thinking, "How is it that all this is so freely given?" Well, as you've heard us say before, that's because so many lovely brothers and sisters come alongside with a little bit of financial support to make sure all of the hosting and editing and distribution fees are all covered so that this can all be made available to whoever, whoever is searching for it, whoever finds it, whoever wants to join in the conversation and follow closely along with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. [00:02:41] So I encourage you to go check that out and also listen along. This will be a quick episode just to help us get our bearings on this really amazing teaching that Jesus gives us about the character of God that comes about in really a kind of unexpected story. And in fact, even the message itself, [00:03:00] the context, I think, is going to sound at first like one thing, but Jesus uses it to describe something entirely different. [00:03:07] Even the literary device He's about to use for us invokes some kind of cognitive dissonance that actually draws us deeper into the character of God than I think if He had explained it more directly. I mean, this is what parables do, loved ones. So come hang out with me in Luke chapter 11 for just a couple minutes. [00:03:24] Wherever you are, join me in this. I'm gonna read from the beginning part of that chapter all the way through the parable, though we will get nowhere near the end, because I told you, I'm saving that for Tony. We're gonna get there next week. So join me in Luke chapter 11, beginning in verse one.  [00:03:39] Luke 11 Reading and Structure [00:03:39] Jesse Schwamb: "And it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.' [00:03:51] And He said to them, 'When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread [00:04:00] and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'" Then he said to them, "Which of you has a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.' [00:04:21] And from inside he answers and says, 'Do not bother me. The door has already been shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot rise up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not arise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. [00:04:40] So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of [00:05:00] a fish? [00:05:00] Or if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" This amazing little pericope, you'll notice it follows upon the disciples' request, which is, "Lord, teach us to pray." [00:05:24] And the giving of this model prayer is the whole instruction, the whole, like outcropping of this entire little parable. And I think what we should look at first, that I wanna really hit on to set us up, is that Luke has this... It seems to me like a structure that's very deliberate. There's a pattern. The Lord's Prayer, which leads to this parable of encouragement. [00:05:45] Here's the friend at midnight. It leads then to a promise, ask, seek, knock, which then of course leads to this ground of confidence. Why? Because the Father's character, sealed in the gift of the Holy Spirit, has been given to His children. This whole thing [00:06:00] occurs within Luke's central, like quote-unquote, "travel narrative." [00:06:04] It's where Jesus is forming the disciples' inner life. He's teaching them in these really final moments of His life. It's prayer, dependence, kingdom priorities, as He literally moves toward Jerusalem and to the cross. And so I think the biblical exegesis here takes this placement really seriously, because this is not like free-floating wisdom teaching, but it's real discipleship. [00:06:28] It's real firm instruction given by the Messiah en route to accomplish the very redemption that makes the Spirit gift of verse 13 possible. All of this is wrapped up in this story. It is not just about what's being said, but I think literally where it's being said, the context in which it's being said, the very interactions that are taking place around the story itself. [00:06:50] And I cannot help but believe that, of course, God in His foreordaining wisdom is placing this all together. It's as if the experience of the disciples, their time with [00:07:00] Jesus, them literally walking en route to the place where He'll be crucified, all this gets distilled down into a single point in history, and the instruction that is on Jesus' lips is this story about the midnight friend I think we've talked about this before, but there's some principles here that I always go back to, and I think they're especially relevant for looking at this particular parable. [00:07:22] First, there's this understanding that this, there's an analogy of scripture. Like, this text should be read alongside its Matthean para- parallel, which we've talked about briefly, and the whole canon's teaching on prayer, on providence, on the Spirit. We can't look at this instance in complete isolation. We shouldn't. [00:07:39] It-- That wouldn't be proper understanding of the whole passage here, including its redemptive historical reading, which I think is important. It's the second piece here. The passage is suited and situated within this unfolding covenant of grace. This Father language is not like generic theism, but it is like the covenantal Trinitarian Christ-mediated, like all the [00:08:00] rich fullness of what God has done in the redemptive arc of salvation. [00:08:04] It's prayer offered in the name of the Son as we are sons or daughters in the Son. And so there's this light then to heavy inference. Like Jesus' argument, which I think we'll talk about with Tony, in verse eight is this kind of like rab- rabbinic like fortiori reasoning. It's, it's from like the lesser to the greater, or the, the lesser reluctant or flawed party that acts in one way, and how much more the greater than will the willing perfect party act. [00:08:36] And so, so many commentators have really flagged this as like the interpretive key to the unit. This is the thing that draws us in. It's actually this juxtaposition, this cognitive dissonance, this seeing one thing and recognizing that God is so much better than that one thing and so much far beyond it, that really draws us into understanding something about His character that would not be made manifest to us without that kind of comparison or [00:09:00] that setup. [00:09:01] And then, of course, we're Reformed, so we have to talk about the element of sola Scriptura here, that we really, we have to read this passage not as teaching either that God is manipulable by human persistence. I mean, that would com- compromise entirely the, the principles of divine aseity and His immutability. [00:09:20] Or B, that there's some kind of like bare Arminian conditionality here, as though prayer creates possibilities God otherwise lacks. Really, the Bible holds, biblical theology holds that prayer is to be a means that God has sovereignly ordained to accomplish His decreed ends. It's never a lever upon which, you know, otherwise an undecided God acts because we pull. [00:09:46] It's not that at all. So let's talk about just a couple of verses that I think will get us in the vibe here, in the jam, in the middle of this whole parable, and this will set us up for a conversation that we're gonna have next week, which is the culmination, the giving of the [00:10:00] Holy Spirit. That's really the end. [00:10:01] So it's interesting that we start with this whole idea of persistence, of a friend coming with, and it's gonna end with God giving to His children this incredible, unparalleled gift of the Holy Spirit. So let's start in verse five. We get this whole setup. "Which of you has a friend and will go to him at midnight?" [00:10:20] So of course, like, you-- we hear this, hear this in English, it's even more profound in the Greek. The construction here is like this rhetorical question. It's expecting, of course, the hearer, which is you and I, to place ourselves imaginatively in the position of the petitioner. And the scenario is, of course, like pregnant with cultural meaning. [00:10:38] Like, it's just loaded down because in Middle Eastern cultures, of course, like hospita- hospitality was a matter of covenantal honor. I say it that way because I think that's what's at play for us in the text. We're gonna get these, like, themes, this, like, little bit of shading or, like, this, this little taste on the back end of your tongue of the covenant, and it's represented [00:11:00] here even in, like, the situation here. [00:11:01] Because failing to feed an arrived guest was a social and religious disgrace, not merely to the host, but, like, to their entire community, to, like, their entire village And the petitioner has no bread, and he's looking for three loaves because that's what he needs to help feed these guests that have arrived at his house. [00:11:19] And so he comes to a friend. Notice it's not a stranger, so the relationship itself is somewhat covenantal. It's emphasized three times in the verses five through eight. And so we're establishing the premise upon which the argument from the lesser, this friendship, which is reluctantly acted upon, to the greater, which is fatherhood, gladly acted upon, will be built up so that it reaches the peak in verse thirteen I think we need to notice here that this is not some kind of isolated moral vignette, but it's like the first rung of a ladder that's being built for us here. [00:11:55] And the first rung on this, I think, is that Christ accommodates himself [00:12:00] to human experience, which is like a mind-boggling statement. I mean, we could spend all of eternity just contemplating what that means. It's certainly a la Philippians 2, but here in, especially we're seeing that there's the use of this imperfect analogy precisely because it's, its imperfection. [00:12:19] Again, a friend who is reluctant will be highlighted against in contrast to the perfection of the true referent, which is God the Father, a father who is not reluctant. And so this doctrine of accommodation is a standard, uh, that you see a lot in Reformed exeg- as a exegetical principle because it's Scripture speaks of God in creaturely terms, not because God is like the creature, but so that the creature may grasp, however inaccurately, the character of God. [00:12:50] That's what's really lovely about this parable. That's what I think kind of sits underneath the, the surface here. And so many of us wanna run to the action of the petitioner [00:13:00] here and try to equate or invoke something about that persistence as if God is saying to us like, "Please don't give up. Please keep on praying. [00:13:07] Please bend my ear." And while there is something important about that, we draw that persistence not out of our own willingness, not even because God might encourage us, but we should be drawn to it as a representation of his character, of in fact who he is. And so the friend who is reluctant responds very forthrightly with a, "Don't bother me." [00:13:28] And I find when I read this, I kind of chuckle a little bit because, loved ones, is that refusal not completely realistic? Like, it's not caricatured malice. In, in like a one-room peasant house, the door being barred and the family being bedded down on a single sleeping mat meant that practically speaking, rising would wake the entire household. [00:13:49] I mean, the friend's refusal is totally understandable, but still a refusal of a friend to a friend for a legitimate n-need. And so this is the negative pole of the entire analogy. [00:14:00] I also find this, like, totally relatable. Like, even in my own life when I'm serving my own needs and purposes, if I am on like the-- If I've descended, let's say, to like the first floor of my house, and I remember that after getting ready for the day, I've totally forgotten something on the second floor, I'm annoyed with myself. [00:14:17] Sometimes I literally have that thought of like, "How badly do I need that thing? I just don't want to go back upstairs again." And so I think this is totally identifiable I mean, how often have we been in a situation where we- we've just sat down and the phone rings, or we've just finished our day and something else pops up that we have to do, or we just shut down our computer and we've-- as we do that, we remember the one thing that we needed to do, and so we have to go back in. [00:14:40] Or you leave your office and realize that you've forgotten your car keys, now you have to walk all the way back in. I mean, I-- this makes total sense to me that in this, the context of this story, even a loving friend would be like, "Are you kidding me? Uh, we're all in bed. Please, can you just figure out another way to do this?" [00:14:59] I know [00:15:00] there's been a lot of commentators, and I think like a lot of popular preaching, that in my estimation here have mistakenly identified the sleeping friend with God, teaching that persistent prayer, like, wears God down. And that, I think, is a category error that the Reformed tradition and biblical theology generally has consistently rejected. [00:15:21] You know, that's why we read in James 1:17 that every good gift comes from the Father with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. The immutable God cannot be the referent or the reluctant changeable human host here, not according to James. The friend in the parable functions as the lesser term, and again, this argument moving from the lesser to the greater, not as a type of God. [00:15:45] I think that's important for us to keep in mind because there is, again, a temptation for us to want to say, "Well, really the person in the story who is represented by God is this other friend, and he just needs to be awoken," so to speak. And even if we don't feel that strongly, th- that's pressing us a little bit too [00:16:00] far, we, we know theologically that that's not accurate. [00:16:02] We still are prone to believe, "I need to pray harder." The point of this is to pick yourself up, pull up your praying socks, and just pray more and pray more consistently and pray harder. Don't stop. Now, there is, again, something about calling on God that is like the special benefit and privilege of the Christian to run confidently into the throne room of God as we read in Hebrews. [00:16:25] And yet at the same time here, we don't want to get this twisted. We have to set this up right so that by the time we get to, again, the pinnacle of this parable in th-- in Jesus giving the crown teaching of the giving of the Holy Spirit, that we understand it's because God is a good Father who delights to give, who is not reluctant at all. [00:16:46] And that if you ask, if you ask for His Holy, Holy, Holy Spirit, that He will in fact give His Holy Spirit to you. So verse eight: "I tell you, though, he will not get up and give him anything because he is his [00:17:00] friend. Yet because of his imprudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs." Now, the crux of this question is the referent here. [00:17:11] So traditionally rendered, you know, inopportune or inopportunity or persistence. The word literally denotes like shamelessness or refusal to be governed by some kind of social propriety. And I think either way here, the theological payload in verses nine through thirteen is all about the main point of this passage being but a foil. [00:17:31] You know, Jesus is not commending wear God down with nagging as a technique. He's, he's having established that even flawed human reluctance eventually yields to a legitimate need pressed persistently. And so he pivots in this to make the positive direct application, how much more freely and immediately will the Father, who is not reluctant, not asleep, not inconvenienced, give? [00:17:57] And so this verse does [00:18:00] teach persevering in prayer, but it grounds that perseverance not in doubt about God's willingness, but in confidence about it. This to me is very similar to how we would understand evangelism or missional or missionary type works. There is a type of Christianity that is very thin, that is maybe like a, a mile wide and an inch deep, that essentially considers that when we pray for God to work among peoples, in our families, in our communities, across the land, and across the world, that we do so almost with fingers crossed, hoping against hope that God will show up and make a way. [00:18:38] And yet what the scripture says is it emboldens us knowing that God has already done these things, that we might pray ourselves, as it were, into them in faithfulness to what God has already in-- is accomplishing through his great work. And in this way, we pray with a great empowerment. We pray with persevering prayers because we know that God will make it so because he's a God who gives promises, [00:19:00] and he always fulfills those promises. [00:19:03] And that's why we get three of them, which are beautiful in this passage.  [00:19:07] Ask Seek Knock Explained [00:19:07] Jesse Schwamb: Ask, seek, knock. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you, for everyone who asks, receives. Loved ones, are there more beautiful words than these from God the Father? This is how much he loves us that he says, "Test me on these promises. [00:19:28] In persevering prayer, come before me, ask, seek, and knock." These three present tense imperatives in the Greek, Greek. In other words, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. The present tense is conveying this continuous action. They're matched by the three future passives here, and the passives are almost certainly divine passives. [00:19:51] In other words, like it's a Jer- Jewish circumlocution, avoiding the direct naming of God as subject out of reverence, which of course, is common in Jesus' [00:20:00] teaching. But what's being unstated here is the subject acting within them. It will be given. It will be opened. Who is doing all these things? God himself. [00:20:10] And so behind these beautiful words, this promise to you and to me, is God in filling them all, so that again, God does all the words. It's as if like he's saying to us, "Seek, knock, and open." And yet even the seeking, even the knocking, even the opening that will be done for you and unto you and on your behalf is from God, the Father himself. [00:20:32] And the escalation from asking to seeking to knocking, in my view, it intensifies this effort and this urgency. Like a beggar asks, one who has lost something seeks, one who shuts, is shut out knocks on the door. And it's, I think, denoting not necessarily like three distinct kinds of prayer, though there are certainly lots of people who have talked about that. [00:20:56] The Patristics in particular, uh, Augustine was very fond [00:21:00] of kind of delineating between these as different types of prayer. I think there, there may be some usefulness in that. But I think the dominant grammatical point is this cumulative intensity. It's reinforced in verse 10 by this chiastic restatement in universal terms. [00:21:14] Everyone who asks, the one who seeks, to the one who knocks, all of these things will be given. This is the beautiful setup that's before us. It's an incredible word from God for us, practical for daily living, to give strength for today and a hope for tomorrow, that our God is one who gives us this promise. [00:21:34] And then he says, in perseverance, with the power that the Holy Spirit enables all of us, seek, ask, seek, knock. What lovely verbs for us to participate in by the power of the Holy Spirit Everyone who asks receives. I, I don't think that can be read as an unconditional blank check. And this is, I think, what trips many people up. [00:21:57] And, and certainly you've had conversations, [00:22:00] I'm sure, with others who've said, "Well, this sounds like some kind of just open-ended promise. There's no closed end to this. And so if I pray for something that I want, maybe if I pray for the thing that I feel like I desperately need, if I put all of my effort into it and pray with all the emotion, and I have, and every concentrated effort of my mental being, and God does not give that to me, it, this proves this passage to be wrong or to be ineffective." [00:22:27] And I think this would contradict directly, again, what James tells us in chapter 4, "You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly." Or John in his gospel, "If we ask anything according to His will." And so I think proper hermeneutics here resolves this not by weakening the promise, but by locating it properly within, again, its covenantal frame. [00:22:53] This promise is spoken to disciples who have just been taught to pray, "Your kingdom come, give [00:23:00]us, forgive us, lead us not." That is, it's a prayer conformed to God's revealed, revealed will and kingdom priorities. I think the Westminster Confession of Faith is particularly strong on this in chapter 21. It qualifies acceptable prayer as being offered in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit, according to His will. [00:23:22] What again, like lovely things to help shape us even as we go into times of daily worship, that we might seek to pray to God in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit, according to His will. I find in my own prayer life, in my own journey of speaking with God, and of trying to listen to Him as well, that I am much better aligned, that start in the better places, that there is more compatibility, so to speak, when I consider, even before I pray literally, that I might do that in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit, according to His will. [00:23:56] By the way, I love that in Ruth- Luther's writing on prayer, [00:24:00] he speaks so highly of what it means to pray in the name of the Son. That that isn't something that we just, of course, put as a suffix onto our prayers to signal that they are concluded. For some reason, when I was younger, I remember thinking that when you said at the end of the prayer, "In Jesus' name," it was like you were talking to somebody on the phone, and that's how you hung up. [00:24:20] Because if you forgot to say that, then God might think you were, like, as you went about your life and you were talking to other people, that you were also talking to Him, and that would be confusing. And so of course, like I, since grown out of that and realized that this is not something just out of custom. [00:24:33] It's not even saying like, "Amen, agree with me." This is a way about an, an explicit, standing in the explicit covenantal promise of God that is bound in the work of, the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ. And that when we invoke His name, we shouldn't do so even flippantly as we end a prayer. But knowing that that's not just like the grand kind of crescendo of everything that we're saying, but we are sealing it as it were, so that we might again pray in the name of the Son, [00:25:00] by the help of the Holy Spirit, according to His will. [00:25:03] And that promise of verse 10 is absolute within that frame. It's not an absolute, like, simplifier. You know, this is not special pleading, but simply reading the verse in its literary context. It's a unit that begins with the Lord's Prayer and ends with the gift of the Spirit. And its canonical context is according with the rest of the New Testament in this idea that this is what prayer really is. [00:25:29] It is praying in such a way that we are invoking God, not so that He would come and condescend to our needs or meet us where we're at. He's already done this very thing, which is why He's a good Father who gives us gifts. Instead, it is that we might l- meet the Lord in His purposes, according to His power, with His perspective. [00:25:49] And so this is the, the ladder that's being built for us. It starts with this idea of saying, you know, there's this universality qualifier, the Reformed [00:26:00] doctrinal caution, as it were, that not-- "You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly." That itself is a challenge that we should all take very, very seriously. [00:26:09] So I'm gonna stop us there, because what I'm really looking forward to speaking to Tony with next week is basically the, the rest of it, really coming into the second rung of this ladder, this human fathers and their children, which sets up a now... We're really transitioning into the setup on this reluctant friend, the lesser, to this great, loving, not reluctant at all, but lovishly la- Man, I just got two words at the same time in one mouth. [00:26:37] This loving Father who lavishes this love upon us, and proof in the pudding in that is the promises which He gives us. And so I wanna save that for next time. So now you've been warned. You yourself can go back and take a look at Luke chapter 11. You can join us there for the culmination and the conclusion of [00:27:00] this little parable. [00:27:01] And again, I encourage you, go check out reformedbrotherhood.com. Go find us on Telegram, which is just a messaging app, and we have a small little corner of the internet where there's a community of listeners who hang out, support one another, are very kind and loving toward one another, and you can be a part of that group too just by going to t.me/reformedbrotherhood. [00:27:21] Slap that bad boy into your browser of choice, t.me/reformedbrotherhood. And until next time, honor everyone and love the brotherhood. [00:28:00]

This story told by Jesus is quite different. Unlike all his other stories, this story includes specific names. This tells us it’s a true story of real people living real lives with a real destiny. These are true events. I’m a documentary junkie. It’s the only TV I ever watch. So imagine this story as we read it unfolding like a docuseries. I’ll split it into episodes for effect. Follow along in Luke 16: 19-31 Episode 1: “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores.” —— Understand this scene. In these days, the rich were extravagant in their wealth and it was most displayed in their meals. The fatter a person was, the wealthier it showed them to be because they had the pure luxury of abundance. The rich would often wipe their messy food covered hands on pieces of bread while they feasted on their massive meals. And these pieces of bread used as napkins, were what the poor man named Lazarus lay at the gate begging for. The rich man was aware of Lazarus. He was aware of his need. And fully aware of his own ability to meet his need by simply affording him the bread where he wiped his hands. The rich man passed by him each time he left his palace. But, Lazarus was left laying there longing. Episode 2: “Finally the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried and he went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side. The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’ But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from here.” —— So, they have both died, but their destinies were eternally different. Lazarus, the beggar, went to Heaven. The rich man went to hell. Why would that be? Lets be clear – it wasn’t because of money. Money has nothing to do with our future with God. You can’t buy your way into Heaven and you can’t spend your way into Hell. This is the great separation that Jesus warned us about in Matthew 25. He says, “There will be a time when all will be gathered in his presence and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. On his right, he will says, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. What you did this for the least of these, you were doing it to me.’ Then he will turn to those on his left and say ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. When you refused to help the least of these, you were refusing to help me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.” Lazarus is on his right. The rich man is on his left. Lazarus is credited as righteous. The rich man is indebted to eternal punishment. And now, after their death, there’s no changing their fate. They can’t go back. They can’t cross over. They can’t change it. When time is up, eternity is sealed. It’s easy to twist this and assume there’s a heavenly reward happening for suffering, and a hellish punishment happening for refusing help. But that’s not what Jesus is teaching. The issue wasn’t Lazarus’s poverty or the rich man’s wealth. The issue was the heart. Lazarus wasn’t saved because he was poor. And the rich man wasn’t condemned simply because he was rich or greedy. Scripture is clear that salvation has never been something we earn by suffering, by giving, by serving, or by doing enough good things. We are saved by God’s grace. So what is Jesus exposing? A heart that could see suffering and remain completely unmoved. The rich man wasn’t unaware. That’s what makes this story so uncomfortable. Lazarus was lying at his gate. He knew his name. He knew his condition. He knew his need. And he had more than enough to meet it. The need wasn’t somewhere across town. It wasn’t hidden. It wasn’t complicated. It was literally at his doorstep. And every day, he stepped over it. The rich man’s problem wasn’t that he had possessions. His problem was that his possessions had possessed his heart. He had become so consumed with his own comfort that someone else’s suffering could sit at his gate without disturbing his life. The rich man’s greatest problem wasn’t what was in his bank account. It was what was missing from his heart. Compassion. Mercy. Generosity. Love. This was a heart issue. What happens in the heart eventually reveals itself in how we treat people. And his heart condition is what led him to an eternal place of misery. A hardened heart that had refused God. Episode 3: “Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father's home. For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don't end up in this place of torment.' “But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.'” —– Now, in this place of eternal torment, understanding what really brought him here was not accepting God and allowing his heart to be transformed, his concern turns to his brothers who are still alive. He knows it’s not too late for them. He begs for his brothers to be warned so they can have a changed heart and not be tormented as well. Imagine this for a moment. Imagine knowing what you did wrong and wanting desperately to go back and warn your loved ones, but not being able to. Wouldn’t that be torment in itself? But, my sister, here’s the beauty in this – we don’t have to wait until our eternal destination and then wish we could go back and tell others. We’ve been told what is coming – we already know – so the time we have here today is our opportunity to do precisely what we would want to do from our eternal destination. We would want to warn others. We would want to tell them the truth so they could avoid future torment. AND TODAY WE STILL HAVE THE GIFT OF TIME. One day, we won’t. Notice what the rich man is told – he’s told his brothers had the opportunity to read what was written. They’ve been warned. What was written? The Bible. Scripture was always there telling the truth, inviting a change of heart. Have we forgotten the power in God’s word? When is the last time you gave someone the gift of a Bible? Do you have an extra just ready to give someone who needs to know God’s truth and God’s promises? Episode 4: One last effort from the rich man to reach his brothers who are still alive with the warning from hell. “The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.' “But Abraham said, ‘If they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'” ——- The rich man thinks of someone came back from the dead and told his brothers they would surely repent of their sins and turn to God. But God knows better. Do you know how? BECAUSE IT HAPPENED. Someone did rise from the dead – that was his son Jesus. And even with Jesus rising from the dead and reports of him being seen again, evidence of his Holy Spirit then filling people – still people choose not to believe and turn to God. It’s still happening today. Jesus came back from the dead to tell us, and we still ignore him. We have His Word. We have His warning. We have His invitation. We have His Spirit. We have the testimony of people whose lives have been transformed by Him. And most importantly, we have Jesus. The rich man wanted a miracle to change his brothers’ hearts. But he is told, “They already have what they need. They have God’s Word. They have the truth. They have the opportunity to respond.” And so do we. We don’t need another sign. We need a surrendered heart. That’s the sobering message of this story. The greatest danger isn’t that we don’t have enough evidence. It’s that we can have all the evidence in the world and still choose not to let God change our hearts. So while we still have time, let God search yours. Don’t wait for eternity to recognize what matters eternally. Don’t wait until the chasm is fixed forever to wish you had crossed it today. Don’t wait until someone you love is gone to wish you had told them about Jesus. Don’t wait until your heart is so hardened that you no longer hear His voice. Today, you can respond. Today, you can surrender. Today, you can soften your heart. Today, you can love the person at your gate. Today, you can give someone a Bible. Today, you can tell someone about Jesus. Today, you can turn toward God. Because there is one gift we have right now that the rich man no longer had: TIME. Time to choose. Time to repent. Time to believe. Time to love. Time to obey. Time to tell someone else. One day, our time will be finished. And when it is, our eternity will be sealed. So don’t waste the gift you’ve been given today. Let God have your heart while there is still time. Let this question settle into your heart today, “What am I doing with Jesus while I still have time?” Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com

What do you do when you blow it with God? In this final teaching from our series in Exodus, guest speaker Dave Nelson looks at Exodus 34 alongside the book of Hebrews and the contrast is striking. At Sinai, the people stood at a distance. Moses alone went up the mountain into the presence of God. But Hebrews tells us that because of Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, we are invited to draw near. We don't come hiding, pretending, or trying to make ourselves worthy. We come through Christ. And when we come, we discover the God who revealed Himself to Moses: merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. The good news is not simply that God forgives us when we fail. Through Jesus, He brings us near, makes us holy, and gives us His Spirit to transform us. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit

The David Alliance TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com Garth Heckman CREATE   We see the success, but I think we all enjoy the “early create” stage. Any success starts with creation.    BE LIKE DAD Humanity is made in God's image, including creative capacity Genesis 1:27 — being made in God's image includes reflecting His nature, and part of that nature is creativity itself.  humans build, invent, compose, and imagine because we're stamped with the image of a Creator God.     It runs through out the bible. Gen. 1 Creation / Curse John 1 Jesus is the creator / came to break the curse The REZ is framed as a “Re-creation” not just resuscitation  2 Cor. 5:17 anyone in him is a new creation The curse and redemption are bookend in OT-NT Rev. 21,22 speak of a New Heaven and New Earth   CREATION IS STAMPED ALL OVER THE BIBLE!      …And we are called to emulate that trait of our Father!    HOW DID DAD CREATE God creates through His word, not raw material (ex nihilo creation) Genesis 1 repeatedly uses "and God said" — He speaks reality into existence       Proverbs 8:30 describes wisdom as being beside God "like a craftsman" (or "constantly" depending on translation), rejoicing in His presence and rejoicing in the inhabited world. Some translations render this as wisdom being God's "delight" day by day. This has strong creative/imaginative overtones — a Creator who delights in the process of creating, not just the outcome.     Psalm 104: 24 "How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures." The sheer variety of creation (over 350,000 known species of beetles alone, if you want a modern illustration)     God does not expect perfection - just creation!  THERE IS NO 1 PERFECT BEETLE     True creativity does not focus on one perfect solution… one perfect beetle. But rather numerous solutions   **How to get great ideas by Jack Foster:  They asked students to come up with on great idea for a Swiss knife, they had all week to do it. They stumbled, its hard, its frustrating… they wrecked seeking perfection. So they changed their strategy. You have to come up with at least 10 and you only have your lunch break to do it. THEY ENJOYED IT MORE CREATIVE  MANY CAME UP WITH WAY MORE THAN 10 IDEAS     HOW DO WE CREATE - AS SEEN IN SCRIPTURE We create what's in us… **Remember when people hate you - they don't hate you, that just what's in them.   When people gossip When people attack your character When people steal When people posture above you When people feel insecure around you When people judge you ITS NOT YOU - THAT IS WHATS IN THEM   When we create - we create what is in us.  So make sure you are IN CHRIST!    The most successful people are not the smartest - they are the most creative… proven!    YOU DON'T NEED ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE HOLY SPIRIT.    WHY DO WE CREATE Its what we were made for…   In any activity that we find ourselves aligned/focused/flow **it is because we are operating something we were created for. AND WHEN WE CREATE - IT IS A DOUBLE BONUS - because we are creating - which is what we were created for.      NOW WATCH THIS Exodus 31:1-5 — God tells Moses He has called a man named Bezalel by name, and then says this: "I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills — to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.”   Stop and let that sink in. The first time scripture explicitly says someone was "filled with the Spirit of God," it's not a prophet, a king, It's not a warrior. It's a craftsman. An artist. A designer. God fills a man with His Spirit specifically to carve, engrave, and build beautiful things for the tabernacle.     NOW - here is the trifecta: We were created to create to bring attention to the creator!      **Lou Little, a football coach at Georgetown and later Columbia University tells the story of a young player. Not very gifted, but always tried hard. He sat on the bench most every game, but the coach was fond of him. This young mans father came to every game… one day the coach gets a telegram that this young mans father had passed away in the night. He tells the young man to take that game off - The boy refuses. Their team in the middle of the 3rd quarter is getting killed, the boy kept asking to go in, at this point the coach says… what can it hurt. The young man goes in and plays like he is an NFL superstar. After the game the coach asked him the difference. The young man said even though my dad came to every game he was blind - so today was the first day my dad could actually see me play.    What if we looked at creativity this way: God is watching us create so that we can bring him attention.   In business In art In technology In agriculture In social sciences In finance In music In sport What if we looked at it as if we are creating attention to the father.     EVERYONE WANTS TO MAKE THEIR DAD PROUD. How? By being creative in how we perform.

Words can heal a marriage, restore a friendship, calm a conflict, and bring life into a home. They can also do the exact opposite.In Wisdom for How We Speak, Pastor Kendall Lankford walks through four biblical rules for godly communication from the book of Proverbs: speak the truth, listen before you answer, deliver the truth in a way it can be heard, and never wound unless your purpose is to heal.This is an intensely practical sermon about what happens after your mouth opens. How do you speak honestly without manipulation? How do you stop answering before you understand? Does your tone help the truth land or become another obstacle to it? And when hard words are necessary, are you speaking like a surgeon trying to heal or an attacker trying to make someone bleed?None of us has used our mouths perfectly. But Jesus did. No deceit was ever found in His mouth, yet the truthful One was condemned by false witnesses so that sinful mouths like ours could be forgiven. And having risen, Christ gives His Spirit not merely to forgive our speech, but to retrain it.Commit your mouth to your King, and watch Him turn the tongue you once used to tear down into an instrument that builds up.

Friends of the Rosary,It's not possible to understand the mind of Christ by human reasoning. Saint Paul says (1 Corinthians 2:10b-16) that the things of the Divinity are understood through the Spirit.God's Spirit helps us recognize what is true. Jesus' word has real power to free, heal, and command the darkness to leave.Therefore, we ask to be filled with His Spirit. Helping us understand what comes from God, trusting His authority, and letting His word bring freedom and peace into our lives.As in the Psalm today, we praise the Lord as gracious, merciful, faithful, and just.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠September 1, 2026, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

What if what you're taking in is shaping what people see coming out of your life? Social researcher and author Shaunti Feldhahn shares the surprising story of how flamingos became the inspiration for a powerful spiritual lesson: these colorful birds get their vibrant color from what they consume, and in much the same way, what we continually take in from God's Word and His Spirit shapes the way we live and the witness we have in the world. Shaunti talks about what it means to have “faith in full color” and why thriving as a follower of Jesus isn't ultimately just about making our own lives better—it's about pointing others toward Him.Along the way, Shaunti challenges us to recognize the kingdom purposes God has placed beneath the surface of our everyday jobs and responsibilities, to look for the opportunities He puts right in front of us, and to discover the gifts He has given each of us. She also offers a fresh perspective on Jesus' promise of rest, shares fascinating research about how our words affect the way we feel, challenges the idea that venting is always healthy, and offers simple ways to actively feed our faith. It's a conversation full of practical encouragement and spiritual insight—and it may just have you asking a very important question: What are you taking in, and what is it producing in you?

Preaching from Jonah 3, Pastor Jared Richard opens with a striking observation — the greatest miracle in the book of Jonah may not be the great fish at all, but the repentance of Nineveh, one of the most wicked cities in the ancient world. Drawing on the deliberate literary parallels between Jonah 1 and Jonah 3, Pastor Jared shows that God's second call to Jonah is more than a plot device. It is a picture of mercy — the same mercy God has extended to all of His people, and the very reason we go to the lost. Just as God gave Jonah another chance to rise in obedience, He has given us, through new birth in Christ, not just a second chance but the Spirit-empowered ability to take advantage of it. From there, Pastor Jared turns to what we trust in as we go — the Word of God. He points out that from Jonah 3:5 forward, Jonah himself virtually disappears from the narrative, and it is the Word that does the work. Even with a divided heart, Jonah spoke what God gave him to say, and God used it mightily. Drawing on Philippians 1:15-18, Pastor Jared reminds the church that the mission of God does not depend on our eloquence, our apologetic skill, or even the perfect condition of our hearts — it depends on the faithful declaration of God's Word and trust in the power of His Spirit. Finally, the repentance of Nineveh — believing God, humbling themselves, crying out to Him, and turning from their evil ways — gives the church a clear and compelling picture of what Biblical repentance looks like. And because we carry a greater message than Jonah ever did, the incarnate Word of God Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ, we go with even greater confidence and an even greater promise to offer the lost. WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! Take a moment to fill out our digital connection card here: https://www.bayleaf.org/connect We hope you enjoy this programming and please let us know if there is anything we can do to be of service to you. ONE CHURCH. TWO LOCATIONS. ONE MISSION. Bay Leaf at Falls Lake: 12200 Bayleaf Church Road, Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 Bay Leaf at 540: 10921 Leesville Rd, Raleigh, NC 27613 SERVICE TIMES Come join us on Sundays at Bay Leaf at Falls Lake (8:30 AM or 11:00 AM) or at Bay Leaf at 540 (10:00 AM) CONTACT www.bayleaf.org (919) 847-4477 #BayLeafLife #Worship #Inspiration

We know we are called to parent in the power of the Holy Spirit, but then life comes at us like a train and suddenly we are back to doing everything in our own strength. I know I can easily fall into this trap. I can know all the right things, but knowing the truth and actually relying on the Holy Spirit in the middle of motherhood are two very different things.In this top 10 episode, I talk with Jeannie Cunnion about what it really looks like to parent with the Holy Spirit. We start by taking an honest look at what we actually believe about Him. Do I truly trust that the Holy Spirit lives in me and wants to guide, strengthen, comfort, and help me? Jeannie reminds us that the Holy Spirit is not an "it." He is a person, our Helper, Advocate, Counselor, Comforter, and Champion.We talk about what it means to lean into His presence instead of constantly trying to figure everything out on our own. We are not parenting alone. God has graciously given us the Holy Spirit, and there is no part of the Christian life that is meant to be lived without His supernatural power.As moms, we have an incredible opportunity to be a gift to one another. We can encourage each other, pray for each other, and help carry one another when we feel like we can't keep going. We don't have to manufacture the fruit of the Spirit through our own effort. We can stay connected to God and allow His Spirit to produce His fruit in us.If you have ever felt overwhelmed by motherhood or wondered how you're supposed to keep going, I hope this conversation reminds you that you were never meant to parent alone.In this episode, we talk about: What it means to parent in the power of the Holy Spirit Taking an honest look at what we believe about the Holy Spirit Learning to recognize the Holy Spirit's promptings What it means to be the temple of the Holy Spirit Feeding the Spirit instead of feeding the flesh Why there is no "junior Holy Spirit" when it comes to our kids Connect with Jeannie Cunnion:  Website: Jeannie Cunnion  Instagram: Jeannie Cunnion (@jeanniecunnion) Links Mentioned:  Never Alone By Jeannie Cunnion Forgotten God: By Francis Chan Mom Set Free: By Jeannie Cunnion Don't Miss Out: By  Jeannie Cunnion The Jesus Storybook Bible: By Sally Lloyd-Jones Related Episodes: Cultivating Intimacy with God in Motherhood :: Jeannie Cunnion [Ep 490] Set Free From Shame :: Jeannie Cunnion [Ep 190]  Anchoring Our Kids' Lovability in Christ :: Jeannie Cunnion {Ep 91}  Featured Sponsors: Thrive Causemetics: Amplify your look with Thrive Causemetics. Go to thrivecausemetics.com/DMA to get 20% off your first order. 

The Kingdom doesn't just name the problem; it brings the solution. Wherever Jesus went, things changed. That authority didn't retire at His ascension. It was released through His Spirit and people. We are to live like the Kingdom is real in practice. Speaker: Trip Lee

A lot of us want to obey God, but we also want to feel safe first. That tension shows up as delay, overthinking, and quiet bargaining with the very thing God already made clear. Day 12 of 31 Days of Obedience is a short devotional with a big question behind it: do we treat God's commands like suggestions when they stretch our comfort?We sit with Joshua 1:9 in the New Living Translation and slow down long enough to hear the weight of God's words: “This is my command, be strong and courageous… For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Then we make courage practical by naming its different forms: physical courage, moral courage, emotional courage, and intellectual courage. That last one gets real as we talk about questioning old assumptions, including a simple pot roast story that exposes how easily we repeat patterns without remembering why they started in the first place.We also clarify what courage is not. Courage is not the absence of fear, and it is not reckless or impulsive. Biblical obedience is purposeful. It counts the cost, moves in truth, and trusts God's presence. The heart of the takeaway is this: if God commands it, He empowers it. You are not alone, and you are not underqualified for what He is asking you to do by His Spirit.If you're ready for Christian encouragement, faith-based mindset renewal, and practical steps toward obedient living, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more women of faith can find the podcast. What's one area where you're ready to stop negotiating with God?

When a mighty man speaks, many listen. But when the King speaks, His subjects obey.In the opening episode of The King's Way, we begin our journey through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7. Before we examine what Jesus taught, we must first consider who is speaking. Matthew presents Jesus as the King of a kingdom, and as He ascends the mountain, sits down, and begins to teach, we are listening to nothing less than the authoritative words of the King.But what does the Sermon on the Mount mean for us today? Is it an impossible ideal, a future kingdom ethic, or a standard reserved for the spiritually elite? Or is it the King's own description of how His people are to live?Together, we'll see that the Sermon is a sermon from the King, for His kingdom, to be heard and heeded by His people today. It is not merely a collection of inspiring principles—it is a call to live under the rule of King Jesus.As we begin this study, our prayer is that the Sermon on the Mount would search our hearts, expose our need for Christ and His Spirit, and teach us to live as faithful citizens of His kingdom.The King has spoken. Now we must listen—and obey.

https://square.link/u/UHRU92rp - Donate HereToday's reading takes us to 1 John 3, where John shows us the family resemblance of the children of God. The Father has loved us with an otherworldly love and called us His children. That identity is not small, casual, or sentimental—it changes what we tolerate, what we pursue, and what we become.1 John 3 reminds us that the children of God increasingly look like their Father. His love names us, His life changes us, His love proves us, and His Spirit assures us. So today, read 1 John 3 and ask the Lord to make the family resemblance clear: may our lives look so much like our Father that others can see we belong to Him.

What does leading look like as a follower of Christ?   Doing,  Giving and Telling is how we can lead in our walk with Jesus.   Doing, our actions, are a way to lead as Christians. People pay attention to whether what we are doing matches with we say we believe, who/what we stand for.   Giving is another way to lead.  Where our dollars go, Jesus can go. Vicariously being a missionary is absolutely possible through our giving and it doesn't just have to be in a far away place.  Giving right here at Trinity is a form of leading by supporting the Word and Sacrament ministry that WE receive.   Finally, telling, telling others who Jesus is.  What does that look like for you personally?  Have you ever tried it?  Has God put those opportunities in front of you but you maybe weren't ready for them?  How do you get ready for them and lead people to Jesus through telling others who Jesus is?   Ultimately, we can all joyfully lead, lead people to Jesus.  There is nothing more important, but it is also quite a challenge.  With God's help, you too can lead joyfully, through the strength and guidance of His Spirit.   Isaiah 6:1-8 Ephesians 4:11-16 Matthew 28:16-20

We are often eager to know God's will for our lives, but He rarely gives turn by turn directions. Instead, He gives us himself. In this message we learn to listen to His word and His Spirit, listen to Wise Counsel and Listen to Our Life Experiences so that we can understand how God wants us to live.To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world, click here: https://pushpay.com/g/centralchurchonlineIf you've just made a decision to follow Jesus, please let us know: https://centralchurch.online/custom-forms/i-decided-to-follow-jesus/Central Church: https://centralchurch.online/

Who really changes the world? Jesus didn't change the world by building a platform. He changed the world by building people. He formed ordinary disciples, empowered them with His Spirit, and sent them to make disciples who would make disciples. In the final message of For the One, Pastor John Hill challenges us to never be content with content only and take your next step to becoming a participation in the mission of Jesus. You don't need a platform, title, or extraordinary ability to make a difference in the world. You only need to become faithful where Jesus has already sent you. “Everyday disciples make disciples every day.”  - NEXT STEPS  Looking to take your next step?  We want to help! Text the word NEXT to 909-281-7797 or visit sunrisechurch.org/nextsteps. - GIVE TO SUNRISE CHURCH Imagine what God can do through our giving. You can give today at sunrisechurch.org/give  - FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SunriseChurchCA  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunrisechurchca  Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/SunriseChurch 

1. Pray over our children The church wants to pray over the children and bless them practically with school supplies. More importantly, prayer provides a spiritual covering and protection. We are reminded to “pray without ceasing” because there are many needs around us. Prayer reaches people even through livestreams and social media. We should pray for people who are struggling, losing faith, needing healing, deliverance, and salvation. 2. The central message: Believe and Begin Again The message from Zechariah 4 is an encouragement to believe again and begin again. Many people have unfinished business in their lives—spiritually, emotionally, relationally, or personally. A setback or interruption does not mean the story is over. 3. God finishes what He starts Philippians 1:6 gives the powerful promise that God will complete the good work He has begun in us. God is the Alpha and Omega—the beginning and the end. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Even when we don't see the finish line, God is still working. 4. We all have unfinished projects Just as people have unfinished projects around their homes, we can have unfinished areas in our spiritual lives. These might include: A bad habit we haven't overcome. A negative mindset. A broken relationship. A character issue God is still working on. The important question isn't whether we've struggled; it's whether we're willing to start again. 5. The middle can be harder than the beginning Beginnings are often exciting and full of motivation. The difficult part comes when the excitement wears off and the finish line seems far away. That's often when people give up. The message encourages us not to quit simply because we're in the middle of the process. 6. There will be obstacles and opposition Zerubbabel was called by God to rebuild the temple, but the work was stopped by opposition. The project remained unfinished for years. Likewise, when we pursue God's purpose, we should expect challenges. Not every person who opposes us is necessarily our enemy. Sometimes people may be misinformed, fearful, or simply unable to understand what God is doing. We need spiritual discernment and must remain focused on what God has called us to do. 7. Learn patience with God's timing God does not always work according to our timetable. Faith requires patience when we don't see immediate progress. Sometimes God allows a process to take longer than we expected. Delay does not mean denial, and an unfinished season does not mean God has abandoned the work. 8. One word from God can change everything God encouraged Zerubbabel through the prophet Zechariah. The key word was: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.” The answer isn't always more human strength, resources, or effort. We need the Spirit of God. One word from God can bring hope, direction, and encouragement when everything seems impossible. 9. Prayer and fasting position us to see God move The message connects prayer and fasting with depending on God's Spirit. We don't fast because our strength is enough—we fast because we need God to do what only God can do. Prayer is spiritual warfare: we stand against discouragement and believe God for breakthrough. Main Takeaway Don't let an unfinished season convince you that God is finished with you. If God started something in your life, believe again, begin again, and keep going. There may be obstacles, delays, discouragement, and seasons when you don't see progress—but God's Spirit is greater than the opposition. It's not by might. It's not by power. It's by His Spirit.  

A significant portion of 1 John focuses on the believers' love for the body of Christ, so we are spending a lot of time talking about love. We are working our way through 1 John 4:7-21, which is a large section showing us that this love for one another is evidence of being born again. Last week, we examined verses 7-12, and this Sunday we will focus on verses 13-16. Although we are working through this passage in sections, it is important for us to remember that verses 7-21 are all one unit, bookended by the command to love one another. Last Sunday, we learned why this love for one another is an evidence of salvation: because God is love (v. 7-8), because God has loved us (v. 9-11), and because loving one another brings His love to its goal (v. 12). Verse 12 showed us two amazing realities. When we love one another, “God's love abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” In verses 13-16, John will show us how we know God abides in us, and (Next Sunday) in verses 17-21, he explains how his love is perfected in us. As we focus on verses 13-16 this Sunday, John repeatedly emphasizes how we know we abide in God and He in us. John uses the term “abide” for both union with God in salvation and communion with Him, but the primary sense in these verses is our saving relationship with God. We can have assurance of our saving union being real not by a special feeling, secret knowledge, or climbing a ladder of righteousness, but because: I. God has given us His Spirit (v. 13) II. We confess and trust in the true Jesus (v. 14-15) III. We have received and now show God's love (v. 16) (also 17a)

In this episode, we are reminded that it was for the disciples good (and for ours) that Jesus went to the Father, because he would send His Spirit to live in them!

Anger is a common struggle, and there are some people that seem to walk around just looking for things to get mad about. This hot headedness is not how God wants us to live. When we let His Spirit take over in our lives, His fruit of peace, joy, love, and so on are what come flooding out so that we can help others grow the same fruit in their lives.

Anger is a common struggle, and there are some people that seem to walk around just looking for things to get mad about. This hot headedness is not how God wants us to live. When we let His Spirit take over in our lives, His fruit of peace, joy, love, and so on are what come flooding out so that we can help others grow the same fruit in their lives. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/640/29?v=20251111

*Listen to the Show notes and podcast transcript with this multi-language player. Summary This conversation focuses on a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit through a people being brought into oneness. The first outpouring at Pentecost empowered the disciples to become witnesses of Christ, but it was also the beginning of an ongoing work of the Spirit. The Family describes Christ coming forth through a many-membered Body rather than through one individual. As believers become one and yield themselves to the Holy Spirit, a greater corporate anointing can be released through them. Although no one fully understands how this greater outpouring will unfold, the Family believes it has already begun. The call is to remain humble, spiritually awake, open, and expectant for the greater measure that is still to come. Show Notes The promise and first outpouring of the Holy SpiritPentecost as the beginning of an ongoing workChrist coming forth through a many-membered BodyThe unlimited measure of the Spirit that rested upon ChristThe Holy Spirit empowering believers to become witnessesTrue oneness producing a greater corporate anointingGod's people created as vessels for greater worksThe importance of humility, surrender, and expectancyThe outpouring beginning through believers who are becoming oneRecognizing what the Holy Spirit is already doing todayPreparing our hearts for the greater measure still to come. Key Quotes “He's coming forth in a many-membered Body.”“This experience is more than any kind of religious setting. This is an anointing right from the Father to endue us with power to be His witnesses.”“This is for the church today. It's for His people today.”“When we come into that level of oneness, the anointing is so much greater because of the oneness.”“We yield ourselves, we humble ourselves to be those channels.”“Our hearts need to be tender and open and expecting.”“The Lord has already begun the work of the Holy Spirit in us.”“It's going to start with believers that are truly one.”“There's more coming, and I think we're already in it.” Scriptural References The Promise of the Spirit John 14 (16–17) Jesus promised that the Father would send the Helper, the Spirit of truth, to live within His people. John 16 (7) Jesus said it was to the disciples' advantage that He went away so the Holy Spirit could come. Luke 24 (49) The disciples were instructed to wait until they were clothed with power from on high. Pentecost and the Outpouring Acts 1 (4–8) The Holy Spirit would give the disciples power to become Christ's witnesses. Acts 2 (1–4) The believers were together in one place and were filled with the Holy Spirit. Joel 2 (28–29) God promised to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. The Many-Membered Body 1 Corinthians 12 (12–14) The Body of Christ has many members, yet all are joined together through the Spirit. Ephesians 4 (15–16) The whole Body grows as every member supplies what God has placed within them. John 17 (20–23) Jesus prayed that His followers would become one as He and the Father are one. Greater Works Through Yielded Vessels John 14 (12) Jesus said believers would do His works and even greater works. Ephesians 2 (10) We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for works He prepared beforehand. Philippians 2 (13) God works within His people to accomplish His will and purpose. Zechariah 4 (6) God's work is accomplished not by human strength, but by His Spirit. Spiritual Awareness Ephesians 1 (17–18) Paul prayed that the eyes of believers' hearts would be enlightened. Isaiah 43 (19) God declares that He is doing a new thing and asks whether His people can perceive it. Takeaway The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not only a past event or a future promise. The Spirit is already working within God's people, preparing a many-membered Body through which Christ can be revealed. We may not understand exactly how the greater outpouring will unfold, but we can prepare our hearts. As we remain humble, yielded, spiritually awake, and united, God can accomplish the greater works He has already prepared. Open your heart, recognize what the Spirit is doing now, and remain expectant for the greater measure still to come.

In Acts 2:17, Peter declares the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy that God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh—sons and daughters, young and old. Pastor Derek looks at the promise of the Spirit and what it means for every generation.

Nothing in life happens by chance. In this episode, we explore trusting God's perfect plan, recognizing His Spirit at work within us, persevering through opposition, and walking boldly in obedience. Through the story of Lydia, Paul, and Silas, we're reminded that God opens hearts, doors, and opportunities in His perfect timing. We may not understand the journey, but we can trust the One who is leading us.

There is a way to live a life that is fulfilling and greater than you can imagine. God has given us His Spirit, and through the Holy Spirit you can have a life that's exceedingly and abundantly more than you could ever think or ask. Dr. Self discusses how to allow the Holy Spirit to intervene in your life and live a life better than you could have ever imagined.  Ephesians 3:20 (KJV): "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us... Help Dr. Self continue this show - partner at www.icmcollege.org/donate  Answer your call by enrolling with the International College of Ministry at www.icmcollege.org/enroll  Purchase Dr. Ray's latest book, "The Call." God called you, and you answered: this is what you need to know! Click Here  Follow and subscribe to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self on our podcast website: https://www.icmcollege.org/selftalk.   Click here to purchase Dr. Self's book – Hear His Voice, Be His Voice, or visit Amazon.com. Click here to purchase Dr. Self's book – Redeem Your Past and Find Your Promised Land, or visit Amazon.com. Or our new podcast website at https://www.buzzsprout.com/2249804   For show topic suggestions, email Dr. Ray Self at drrayself@gmail.com Enjoy free courses offered by the International College of Ministry Free Courses Show host bio - Dr. Ray Self founded Spirit Wind Ministries Inc. and the International College of Ministry. He holds a Doctorate in Christian Psychology and a Doctorate in Theology. He currently resides in Winter Park, Florida. He is married to Dr. Christie Self and has three sons and a daughter. 

Join us for a powerful time of prayer and intercession for our nation. As we come before the throne of God together in unity, we believe for breakthrough, victory, and a deeper move of His Spirit. Now is the time to show up, seek God, and stand together in faith for our nation!

Throughout history, God has entered the physical realm of earth and time to speak to us, to walk with us, and to guide us. When God entered our world as Jesus, He opened the door for us to enter eternity. From the moment we believe the truth of who Jesus is and trust Him, we are given a new role. Now we have access to God in eternity because His Spirit is with us in Time. Here we live, but there we reign.Daylight Meditations is a daily podcast from CFO North America. Please visit CFONorthAmerica.org to learn more about our retreats, and online courses. If you are encouraged by this podcast, please consider supporting us. Contributors: Michelle DeChant, Adam Maddock, Joy Peyton and Phil Reaser

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 | God chose the Thessalonians, sanctified them by His Spirit, enabled their faith in the truth, and strengthens them to persevere by holding firmly to His Word.A study of the New Testament | Michael Crosswhite

In this week's episode, Pastor Willy Rice teaches from Ephesians 2:19–22, unpacking the radical truth of how we are no longer strangers or aliens, but fellow citizens with God's holy people and members of His household—built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone—and revealing how, in Him, the entire church is being joined together and built into a holy temple, becoming a sacred dwelling place where God lives by His Spirit.Support the showFind us at! Calvary.us

Is being near God the same as actually knowing Him? This week, Pastor Alvin closes out our 21 Days of Prayer series with a message titled "God In Us." Drawing from Romans 5:10 and Acts 2:17, he reminds us that God's desire has always been communion with us, not just His presence beside us, but His Spirit inside us. Using the picture of a server tending to a table, Pastor Alvin shows how waiting on the Lord isn't passive. It's active investment, learning the heart and priorities of Jesus through prayer, prophecy, and healing. This message challenges us to move past a "God with us" faith and into the deeper intimacy of "God in us." As we invest instead of coast, our desires start to align with His. And that's when day 22 stops looking like a finish line and starts looking like a starting line. How close are you to God? And how much of Him is actually in you? Scripture references: Romans 5:10 Acts 2:17 1 Corinthians 14:4, 6 Mark 16:17-18 2 Corinthians 5:20 Isaiah 40:31 Subscribe to our channel to see more messages from Nashville Life Church: https://www.youtube.com/@nashvillelifechurch   ABOUT US At Nashville Life Church, our vision is dedicated to following Jesus & building leaders. We are here to point every person to Jesus Christ.   CONNECT Ready to connect? Click this link so we can stay in touch and get you connected here at Nashville Life: http://www.chrch.es/ap9bd   GIVE To support this ministry & help us continue to reach people all around the world: http://www.chrch.es/3a843   PRAYER REQUESTS If you have a prayer request or need, we'd love to pray with you. Click this link to let us know how we can pray with you: https://bit.ly/3fVDSDh   Follow Nashville Life Church: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nashvillelifechurch Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nashvillelifechurch/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nashlifecc Website: https://nashvillelifechurch.com/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/iYaT0c

What does it mean that you have died with Christ? God has made you a new creation in Christ and you are no longer under the reign of sin. You are reconciled to God and His Spirit lives in you.

Series: Galatians 5Main Scripture: Galatians 5:22-23a “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control"Synopsis: This week we looked at goodness as a fruit of the Spirit. Biblical goodness begins with the character of God. God is good, and what He does is good. Through the story of the Good Samaritan, we saw that goodness doesn't simply notice a need or feel compassion; it seeks what is truly good and moves toward people in practical, sometimes costly ways. Because God has moved toward us in Jesus and given us His Spirit, we can look for opportunities even interruptions to actively do good and “go and do likewise.August 23, 2026 • Matt Pye• • • • • • • •.• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Join us for service in person and online every Sunday at 10am (MST) at the City Life Community Center in Missoula, MT. We believe that you matter. We would love to connect with you and hear your story! https://www.anchorchurchmissoula.com/contactIf you would like to engage financially with Anchor Church you can give by texting any amount to 84321 or by visiting https://www.anchorchurchmissoula.comNeed prayer or have a praise report? https://www.anchorchurchmissoula.com/needFor more information about Anchor Church or ways to get connected visit us at https://www.www.anchorchurchmissoula.com or follow us on our social media platforms below.Instagram - @anchorchurchmissoula - https://www.instagram.com/anchorchurchmissoulaFacebook - @anchorchurchmissoula - https://www.facebook.com/anchorchurchmissoula

Wisdom does not stop at what we see, hear, love, or think. Eventually, wisdom comes out of our mouths. In this sermon, we turn from the being of wisdom to the doing of wisdom and ask a brutally practical question: How do you train your mouth to be wise? Proverbs teaches us that a wise tongue begins with a trained heart, learns when to hit the brakes, and stations a guard at the gate of the mouth. Our words reveal us, shape our homes, wound or heal the people around us, and often create the very world we later complain about. But the answer is not mere self-control or better communication techniques. Christ gives His people new hearts, His Spirit, and the grace to bring even our tongues beneath His lordship. The mouth that once served sin can become an instrument of wisdom, worship, truth, repentance, and life.

What is progressive sanctification, and why is it such good news for Christians who still struggle with sin?In this episode of Take Heart, Cory Wing explains that when God saves His people, He does not leave them where He found them.Through Philippians 1, Galatians 3, 2 Corinthians 3, Romans 8, John 17, Hebrews 10, and other passages, Cory shows how God progressively conforms believers into the image of Christ through His Spirit, His Word, prayer, the church, family, suffering, repentance, and daily obedience.This episode offers encouragement for weary Christians who feel like they are growing slowly: the same God who began the good work will bring it to completion.

Why Do I Need Community? In this message, we unpack why following Jesus was never meant to be done alone and why spiritual community is essential to living in holy obedience. God uses His Word, His Spirit, and His people to shape us into who He has called us to be. Community gives us people who will walk with us, tell us the truth, pray for us, encourage us, and have the hard conversations that help us grow. You'll learn how to: • Understand why you weren't meant to follow Jesus alone • See the importance of spiritual community • Experience the freedom that comes through confession and prayer • Recognize the danger of isolation and secrecy • Take a step toward finding a group and doing life with others James 5:16 reminds us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we may be healed. God designed His people to live in community, because there are parts of our spiritual lives that were never meant to be carried alone. Following Jesus isn't just about sitting in rows on Sunday. We need people around us who will help us pursue Jesus throughout the week. Sometimes breakthrough begins when we step out of isolation and into community.

What is progressive sanctification, and why is it such good news for Christians who still struggle with sin?In this episode of Take Heart, Cory Wing explains that when God saves His people, He does not leave them where He found them.Through Philippians 1, Galatians 3, 2 Corinthians 3, Romans 8, John 17, Hebrews 10, and other passages, Cory shows how God progressively conforms believers into the image of Christ through His Spirit, His Word, prayer, the church, family, suffering, repentance, and daily obedience.This episode offers encouragement for weary Christians who feel like they are growing slowly: the same God who began the good work will bring it to completion.Watch all of our videos and subscribe to our channel for the latest content >HereHere

Summary Spiritual growth does not happen accidentally. In 1 Peter 2:1–3, Peter gives believers a clear picture of what growing in Christ requires. First, we must put aside attitudes that hinder spiritual maturity: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. These sins damage our relationships and reveal what is happening in our hearts. But Christianity is not simply about stopping sinful behavior. Peter redirects us toward something better. Like newborn babies craving milk, believers should crave the pure milk of God's Word. Growth requires more than information. It requires an appetite for God and His truth. Peter's command to “long” for the Word challenges us to examine our spiritual appetites. Do we genuinely desire time with God, or has Scripture become an obligation? Healthy spiritual growth produces visible change, including changing desires and increasing maturity. Peter also gives us the motivation for growth: we have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Those who have experienced God's goodness should increasingly long for Him. When our appetite for God is missing, we should not simply feel guilty. We can honestly confess our lack of desire and ask God for help. His Spirit, His Word, and His people work together to help us grow into the men and women He wants us to become. Takeaways Spiritual growth requires personal involvement; no one else can choose to grow for us. We must lay aside malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander because these attitudes hinder our growth. Spiritual maturity is not merely stopping sin but redirecting our desires toward what is holy and good. Like newborn babies craving milk, believers should develop a genuine appetite for the pure Word of God. Spiritual growth should produce visible change in our attitudes, actions, and appetites as we follow Christ. Because we have tasted the Lord's kindness, we should increasingly long for Him and desire to know Him through His Word. To read 1 Peter, click here. Click here for other Michael Easley Sermons.

What is progressive sanctification, and why is it such good news for Christians who still struggle with sin?In this episode of Take Heart, Cory Wing explains that when God saves His people, He does not leave them where He found them.Through Philippians 1, Galatians 3, 2 Corinthians 3, Romans 8, John 17, Hebrews 10, and other passages, Cory shows how God progressively conforms believers into the image of Christ through His Spirit, His Word, prayer, the church, family, suffering, repentance, and daily obedience.This episode offers encouragement for weary Christians who feel like they are growing slowly: the same God who began the good work will bring it to completion.

God Leads Us Home In this message, you will discover why conviction is evidence of God's grace, how Holy Spirit changes a resistant heart into one that can respond to God, and how His leading brings us into the life with God we were created for. God's work of restoration begins with His initiative. Ezekiel 36:24–28 describes Israel in exile after sin and idolatry had scattered them from the land God had given them. God promises, “I will take,” “I will gather,” and “I will bring.” God comes looking for His people, cleanses them, changes their hearts, and brings them home. Conviction is Holy Spirit working within us to make our hearts responsive to God. Sin hardens the heart until resisting God can begin to feel normal, but God promises to replace the heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Conviction is therefore a gift: “The very fact that you feel conviction is proof that Holy Spirit is still working in your life.” God also cleanses what we picked up while living away from Him. Habits, fears, bitterness, loyalties, and ways of thinking can remain even after we begin following Jesus. Holy Spirit exposes these things so they can be surrendered and transformed. God fills us with His Spirit and leads us into obedience. “Holy Spirit makes obedience possible.” Conviction has a destination. God is calling us out of exile, changing our hearts, and leading us home, into a life where we belong to Him, recognize His voice, and follow where He leads. The post God Leads Us Home appeared first on Revival Life Church Boca Raton, FL.

It's easy for our faith to become about a lot of things—our circumstances, our struggles, our performance, or even ourselves. But Scripture calls us to keep Jesus at the center because no one else has done for us what He has done. In this message, we're reminded that Jesus became fully human, lived the perfect life we couldn't live, defeated sin and death, and gives us His Spirit to help us live in freedom. When we look at Jesus, we see the Father, and when we trust in Jesus, we find the way, the truth, and the life. Life isn't about chasing what can't satisfy; it's about surrendering everything to Jesus and taking the next step of faith.

What makes someone so confident in God that even the threat of death can't shake them? In this message, Wade looks at Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel to show how their uncompromising friendship with God produced a confidence that operated completely differently from the world around them. Discover how the even greater relationship we have with God through Christ—being His children, filled with His Spirit, and secure in His love—can free us from fear and form the same kind of unshakable confidence in us.  

Jonathan Gallo – Called by God Sent by His Spirit

Jonathan Gallo – Called by God Sent by His Spirit

Introduction: Why the Resurrection Means Everything (1 Corinthians 15:12-34): The resurrection SHAPES my FAITH. (1 Cor 15:12-28) IF There Is No Resurrection: PREACHING the Gospel: Meaningless. (1 Cor 15:12-14a) FAITH in Christ: Meaningless. (1 Cor 15:14b) Your BIBLE : Blasphemous. (1 Cor 15:15) Your SIN : Not forgiven. (1 Cor 15:16-17) Believers who have DIED : Gone forever. (1 Cor 15:18) CHRISTIANS : The worst. (1 Cor 15:19) The resurrection STOPS my FEAR. (1 Cor 15:29-32) The resurrection SELECTS my FRIENDS. (1 Cor 15:33-34) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Unified and Purified: The Resurrection Means Everything Jeff Miller Download Audio Transcript 00:05Open up your Bibles with me please to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. While we're turning there, just ask that you would please take a moment to pray for me, to be faithful to communicate God's Word accurately and clearly, and I will pray for you that your heart would be open to receive what it is that God has said in His Word. Deal? All right. Thank you both.00:34Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We're asking now that You would eliminate any distractions in our minds and our hearts, that we would focus solely on what it is You've communicated to us. Father, lay on our hearts the importance of this Word because of who said it.01:04that we're not here to talk about my opinion or some old preacher's opinion. We're here to talk about what you have said in your word. So I pray that that would drive the attentiveness that we give to what it is you've said here, Father. We thank you in advance for what you're going to do. We pray in Jesus' name that all of God's people Amen. Amen. Alright. Who here is a golfer? Raise your hand if you're a golfer. Some of you are shy about it. I'm sorry, is it a secret? I see some of you. Yes, it's a secret. Come on, raise them high. Raise them proud. Who's a golfer? Even if you play golf. You don't have to be on the PGA.02:06Do you know? I've never played golf a day in my life. I'm not against golf. I've just never played it. When I was in high school, I was going over to my friend's house, and he was in his, it was actually his grandparents' house, and he was in the backyard hitting golf balls into the woods, just whoosh, whoosh. So I show up. He's like, hey, I'm almost done. I'll be with you in a minute.02:34So I don't golf. I'm just like do-do-do-do-do-do. And I look, and in the tree, like where the branches split, there was a wiffle ball in the tree. I'm like, I wonder how that got there. So I pulled this wiffle ball out, and I was shocked at how heavy it was for its size. Very intriguing. I can tell you're intrigued by it. I certainly was. So he's hitting the golf balls, and I said, hey, check out how heavy this ball is. And I tossed it to him. And he was like, ha-ha. And he took a swing. Let me tell you what I think he thought was going to happen. I think he thought he was going to hit that wiffle ball like into the woods, launch it in midair like baseball style, right? So I'm like, hey, check out how heavy this ball is. I threw it. And he's like, whew. And he swings and the ball hits the middle of the golf club, like the shaft.03:34and it explodes.03:37And he's standing there holding the handle.03:39And his eyes were like as big as silver dollars.03:42He's like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.03:45I'm like, what's the matter?03:47He's like, this was my grandfather's brand new driver.03:55And I found out later it was very expensive.03:58I don't know.03:58I don't play golf.03:59I told you that.04:00But he's like, I'm like, what's the problem? He's like, this was his brand new driver. And I'm like, his driver? I said, is that important? And he's like, is that important? It's the most important club. And he got in all kind of trouble and we all laughed. Well, he didn't, but we all did. Like, why did I tell you this? That story.04:31Because here's the thing, in golf world, I was completely oblivious to the most important thing. I didn't know. I didn't know. The driver, it is important, right? It's important. Okay, all right. It is important. I was clueless. And you know, fast forward a few decades, let's get out of golf world, let's get in church world, the principle still stands, I think.04:59There are so many people in church world that are ignorant of the most important thing. And the most important thing, biblically, is this idea of resurrection. And we talk about it in church, and there are people that are like, is that important? Like, it is the most important thing. Resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 is all about resurrection.05:29And the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and this is by no means any kind of exaggeration, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most significant event in the history of the world. It's the central teaching of the church. And because Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead, the Bible says his followers too will resurrect from the dead.05:59just a few minutes ago. Dead to self. Alive. Raised in Christ. Understand that when we talk about resurrection, it's not just like this metaphor or this poetic concept. It's real. This is literally your eternal state of being. You will resurrect. So you have to know what the Bible says.06:29says about this, and you have to believe this.06:34So on your outline today, I encourage you to take some notes, but why the resurrection means everything.06:41It means everything.06:45Number one, we're going to do some theology today.06:50Number one is the resurrection shapes my faith.06:54It shapes my faith.06:56Everything that we believe in this church is tied into this idea of resurrection.07:07It shapes my faith. We started this last week. Paul talked about the evidences that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.07:13He talked about the grace that we receive, the gift of God.07:18And now when we get to this section, Paul actually plays a what-if game concerning resurrection. Paul says hypothetically, hypothetically, what would result if there were no resurrection?07:35What would result if Jesus didn't rise from the dead?07:41What would that mean?07:42What would be the significance for us, church, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead?07:47I mean, imagine the scene.07:49Imagine the scene.07:51Jesus Christ, mocked, humiliated, crucified, dead, taken from the cross, put in the tomb. Three days later, the women show up and the stone is still there. The guards are still there. The guards are like, move along, move along ladies. And Jesus is in the tomb and He stayed in the tomb.08:21What if there was no resurrection of Jesus Christ? What if? That's what Paul gets into here. Look at verse 12, 1 Corinthians 15. He says, now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.08:51has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Stop there. On your outline, if there is no resurrection, the first thing Paul says, if there is no resurrection, preaching the gospel is meaningless. Think about that. Preaching the gospel is meaningless. You are totally wasting your time here this morning. You got up and got your church clothes on and you drove here for what?09:21studying this. That was a complete waste of time. I wasted much of my week. You wasted your Sunday morning coming here today. You're wasting your time right now just listening to me blather on and on and on about what? Every sermon, every Bible study, every small group, every Christian book, every Christian podcast, every Christian conference is a complete waste of time and money if there's no resurrection.09:52Why are you here? So preaching the gospel is meaningless. Letter B, faith in Christ is meaningless. Look what he says. Rest of verse 14, he says, and your faith is in vain. If there's no resurrection, your faith is in vain. Who's your faith in? My faith is in Jesus. Oh, okay. Well, if Jesus died and stayed dead, what's so special about him? He's just in a a long list of religious leaders that showed up, said some profound things, died, and is in his tomb. Just like everybody else. There's no resurrection. Oh, by the way, Jesus throughout his ministry clearly proclaimed that he would die, and he said he would rise from the dead. So, if there's no resurrection, Jesus Christ is either crazy or he's a liar. And that's your faith? Your faith is in that one?10:52Let us see your bible is blasphemous your bible is blasphemous look at verse 15 he says we are even found to be misrepresenting god because we testified about god that he raised christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised your bible is blasphemous all of the apostolic teaching your new testament It's blasphemous. If Jesus didn't raise from the dead. Because all of these apostles preach a message and they wrote about a message and we're reading their message today that God raised Christ. It's the central thing in the entire New Testament. And we're sitting here dissecting it. For what? If Jesus didn't raise from the dead. I mean, if Jesus didn't raise from the dead, we have to ask, well, okay, if they were wrong about that, What else are they wrong about? Maybe we should just throw out the whole New Testament. So your Bible is blasphemous. Letter D. If there is no resurrection, if there is no resurrection, your sin is not forgiven. Your sin is not forgiven. Look at verses 16 and 17. He says, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, Christ has not been raised. Your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Oh boy. You know, someday you're going to die and you're going to stand before the God who created everything and you're going to have to give an account of your life. You're going to have to give an account for all of the wrong things that you've done. Your wrong attitudes, your harsh, mean words, your actions, your thoughts. You're going to have to give an account to the creator of the universe.12:52And you don't have any excuse or any hope if there's no resurrection.12:59Because your sin is not forgiven.13:02Letter E.13:06This doesn't get more comfortable, by the way.13:11Believers who have died, I mean it will, but just not yet.13:15Believers who have died are gone forever.13:18Believers who have died are gone forever.13:20Look at verse 18. He says, Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.13:31Fallen asleep, he's talking about they died, right?13:35So what about those who have believed in Jesus Christ and they died?13:38Guess what?13:39They're gone forever.13:40You're never going to see them again.13:42I have done a lot of funerals over the last almost 30 years.13:46Can you imagine?13:47No resurrection?13:48That's what I do.13:48I stand by the casket.13:50Hope you enjoyed your time with them because you're never going to see them again. It is over. If there's no resurrection, they're gone. And letter F, Christians are the worst. The worst. Look at verse 18. He said, I'm sorry, verse 19, excuse me. He says, If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are, of all people most, to be pitied.14:38Like, if Jesus just gives us some sense of contentment and fulfillment in this life, but does nothing for us after we die, He's like, we should be pitied.14:47We are miserable, pathetic people. We devoted our lives to what? We planted this church for what? We send missionaries all over the world for what? A dead prophet. You are lame. Oh, but look at verse 20.15:19He says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Verse 20 makes all the difference. Verse 20, it's the game-changing verse here. You see, He stops, enough of the hypothetical stuff at this point. He stops the what-if thing. He says, here's the reality. Jesus Christ, did rise from the dead. So, that means your outline here, since Jesus Christ did rise from the dead, you can state all of those points in the opposite and they would be true. This is reality. Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, preaching the gospel is not meaningless. No, no, no, no. Opposite. Preaching the gospel means everything.16:17This is literally a message of life and death. If Jesus rose from the dead. And he did. So this is the message of eternal life. Oh, and because Jesus rose from the dead, take the second one. Turn it opposite. Faith in Christ means everything. It doesn't matter what you do, who you know, how much you've accumulated in this life. In the end, in the end, there's only one thing that matters. Do you know Jesus Christ? Because faith in him means everything.16:49Letters see your Bible. Letters see your Bible. Let's not blasphemous because Jesus did raise from the dead. The message of the gospel is true. Your Bible is God's communication to you. Everything you need to know for life and godliness. God has given us all things through His Spirit, through His Word. We got it. Stating letter D in the opposite, your sin is forgiven. Jesus Christ takes your sin.17:17sin away. You are pronounced not guilty. There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Sin is no longer an issue because Jesus rose from the dead. Believers who have died believing in Christ, you're going to see them again someday. See, the opposite is true because Jesus rose. His people were alive. Think of that glorious reunion.17:47You know, there's a lot of people in heaven I can't wait to track down. Yes, I'm going to, Jesus first, right? Exaltation of the Son of God first, but I got to tell you, there's a lot of other people I'm so looking forward to seeing again someday. And then Christians, because Jesus rose, you're not the worst. And I'm really sorry if I hurt your feelings when I said that earlier. But that's what He said. You're not to be pitied.18:17And I don't feel right saying, well, you're going to be envied, because that's not our posture either. But just objectively, we are people in good position because we have believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have eternal life. The resurrection is the foundation of all of our theology. It shapes everything we believe.18:47Look at verses 21 through 22.18:50Because he's going to get into...18:51This is like the most deep and succinct explanation of theology that I think might be in the whole Bible right here.19:02Look at verses 21 and 22.19:05He says, For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.19:17For as in Adam, that's Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden, that Adam, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. This is just Theology 101. Man, Adam brought death. When Adam sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, brought sin and death into the world. That's why the world is in the shape that it's in. That's why we are in the shape that we are in. We live in a world of sin and death. Adam brought that. The man Adam brought death, but the man, the last Adam, Jesus, brought life. He came to restore the life that we forfeited in the first Adam.20:17So we're talking about resurrection. You're like, okay, okay. So when does resurrection happen? Okay. Enough of the teaser here. When does it happen? Well, he tells us here. Look at verse 23. He says, but each in his own order, Christ, the first fruits, then at his coming, Those who belong to Christ, then comes the end. Stop there for a second. Own order. He says each in his own order. He's like, there's a sequence here. We're talking about resurrection. And he says Christ is the first fruits of resurrection. Then, he says then, resurrection is going to happen to, he says it in the text here, those who belong to Christ.21:17to Christ. People who have received Christ will resurrect. You're like, okay, when will that happen? He tells us right here. Did you see it? Did you see it? At His coming. At His coming, He's talking about the rapture. And next week's message is all about the rapture. So you definitely don't want to miss that. But He's saying at the rapture of Christ, those who belong to Him will resurrect. And He says, Then comes the end. Like, the end. What is the end? Well, again, he gives us a great paraphrase here. Pick up in verse 24. He says, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.22:19The last enemy to be destroyed is death.22:25For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.22:32But when it says all things are put in subjection it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him.22:43When all things are subjected to him then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all. See, this passage takes us into eternity. What's he talking about here? Just very simple, right? These are broad strokes. This is like an overview of the book of Revelation. Here's what he's saying. He says, after every enemy is defeated, the redeemed are gathered together, and the bride of Christ is complete. Then Jesus returns the bride and himself to the Father. So that God is all in all. And you're like, well, thank you for the theology lesson. But what does that have to do with me?23:47Everything. Everything. Everything. Yes, this explains the origin of sin and death. This explains the necessity of resurrection. This explains why believing in the resurrection is absolutely essential. This explains where everything is ultimately heading. But, It means something today. It means something today about who you are and how you act and what you think and what your attitude should be today. It means everything today. And you're like, well, can you be a little more specific about that? Absolutely. Follow the text. Resurrection means everything because, number two, the resurrection stops my fear.24:47The resurrection stops my fear. Look at verse 29. Paul says, otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? They're like, wait, what? You know, there's a lot of people They say this is the hardest verse in the New Testament. And you can do the homework. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of interpretations. Like what in the world is he talking about here? Well, I want to show you something in the language and then show you something in the context. And I believe that Maybe it's not as hard as we make it out to be. It says here, notice he says, baptized on behalf of the dead. Now your Bible, if you have a different translation, it might say baptized for the dead. Your Bible says something like that? Okay, well, the Greek word is identical to the English word for. Okay?26:17Now, let's talk about English for a second, because the Greeks used their "for" in the exact same way. And when we use, we use the word "for" for everything. But the meaning of it changes drastically. And it always depends on the context, always. Always depends on the context. That's a little word, but it changes everything.26:47If I said to you, I'm going to the store for bread, you know what I mean, right? I am going to the store in order to obtain bread, right? But if I said to you, I took an aspirin for my headache, see the word for no longer means in order to obtain. I did not take an aspirin in order to obtain a headache. That would be silly, right?27:18I took an aspirin as a result of having a headache. You see, for, it's the context. I didn't go to the store as a result of having bread. I went in order to obtain. I took the aspirin as a result of having, and the context always makes the difference. With that in mind, look at the next two verses to see what the context is. What's he talking about? How is he using the word for, baptized for?27:47the dead. Look at verses 30 and 32. He says, Why are we in danger every hour? Some translations have and at the beginning. And why are we in danger every hour?28:01I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord, I die every day.28:09What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus?28:15If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. You see the context? The context is persecution. Because in the first century, in the first century, when you were baptized, you were marked for death. By publicly identifying with Jesus Christ, marked for death. Paul here is talking about people who were getting baptized because they came to Christ from the influence of someone killed for their faith. Meaning the living person was baptized for because of the dead. You're like, how can the death of a faithful person inspire How can that be? Do you remember Charlie Kirk? We just saw this. We just saw as a result of his faithfulness and death, we saw a spiritual awakening. And it's not up to me to determine how many of those people truly came to Christ and how many just became interested in spiritual things. God sorts that out. That's not my job.29:45how somebody being faithful and giving his life for his faith in Christ can inspire others to step up.29:55Here's Paul's point.29:58If there is no resurrection, why would anybody get baptized?30:04Why would you stand for Christ?30:06Why would you die for Christ if there is no resurrection?30:09Why would you do that?30:11And then he just simply illustrates that with his own life.30:13He says, look, I die every day. Every single day of my life, I'm living out my death. Why would you do that, Paul? Because I believe that I'm going to resurrect someday. So if there is no resurrection coming to Christ, then standing for Christ is idiotic because it brings persecution. You might as well live it up, eat and drink for tomorrow we die.30:45But, when I really believe Christ resurrected, when I really believe that someday I'm going to resurrect, it changes how I live.31:01Sharing the gospel, serving Him and His church, serving others in the name of Jesus, it all matters for eternity, so it doesn't matter what it costs me, even my life.31:16No fear.31:19That's what he's saying. The resurrection stops my fear.31:23No fear. Remember back in the day, some of you are way too young to remember this. Remember back in the day when if you had a pickup, you had a no fear decal on the windshield? How many people remember the no fear?31:35Remember that? Okay, some of you do.31:43It's a real easy sentiment when there's nothing to fear. Right? Because we say that in the church, right? No fear! I'll stand for Jesus no matter what! Yeah, well, you know, before 2020, it was so much easier to claim you have no fear, because you could sit in the church and you had nothing to fear. I was thinking a lot about that. Remember, again, some of you might be too young to remember, and I might be showing my age here, but do you remember COVID? Do you remember COVID? Do you remember COVID? Those glory days when the store would hang big pieces of plastic?32:37Between you and the cashier. And then the cashier would proceed to touch all the things you just touched and then hand them back to you after she touched them. Remember that? Fun times. COVID did so much damage. We watched churches close. We watched Christians buy into fear. Do you know how much venom was spewed at me from people who left our church? Because how How dare we? How dare we? We should close the church. I was rebuked. But you know, with all the damage that happened as a result of COVID, there have been a lot of amazing things that God has done as a result. And here's one good thing that happened with COVID. You know, when we stand here and say, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid. Well, it showed us who really meant it.33:40Do you really believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Do you really believe that? Then you'll serve God without fear. Without fear. What's the worst thing anybody can do to me? Kill me. You can't threaten me with heaven. Bring it. No fear. The resurrection stops my fear. Then finally, Number three, the resurrection selects my friends. He says, do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Do not be deceived. Paul's like, stop lying to yourself. Bad company ruins good morals. Understand this. Please hear me.34:37a whole nother big long word study. But when he talks about bad company, he's talking about people you are very, very closely associated with. Your BFFs. Okay? That's what he's talking about here. Bad company ruins good morals. Don't lie to yourself. Bad company ruins good morals. Alright? Alright? And you're like, wait, wait, wait. That seems like an awfully random proverb to just drop.35:07up in here, doesn't it? Paul's like, resurrection, resurrection, resurrection, Proverb! Like, wait, wait, wait, what? What happened? Where did that come from?35:17That's a random thing, isn't it? No, it's not. Here's why. Listen, Paul says that theology is caught, not just taught.35:34You are influenced by.35:39And you become like the people that you're closest to.35:44That's just the way it is.35:47I want you to think about the people that you are closest to in your life.35:52You're just like them.35:55Look around at your friends.35:57If your friends are all knuckleheads, guess what you are?36:05If your closest friends are not believers, you're going to start embracing their values and their ways of thinking and their ways of talking, and you're going to start living just like them if you're not already.36:19And that's contrary to the way of living God has called us to.36:25Bad company ruins good morals.36:27I don't have to give much of a sales pitch here because you know it's true. You know it's true. When you hang out with your unsafe friends, don't you find it so much easier to complain right along with them? You're a Pastor Taylor servant about complaining, but you're with them and they're all complaining and you just kind of get swept up in it. Now, yeah, everything stinks to you too. You're complaining. When you hang out with your unsafe friends, do you gossip with them? I don't normally like to talk about rumors that I heard, but boy, they're just unloading. I've got to share the stuff that I think I heard. Crude remarks and jokes, you know, when you're with the guys and all the perverted nonsense. We just go right along with it. Let me tell you some jokes that I've heard. Bad company ruins good morals. You're like, wait, wait, wait, but Pastor Jeff, shouldn't we evangelize? Yeah. Listen, we're to reach the lost, not get our theology from them.37:28or learn habits from them.37:32Look at verse 34.37:35He says, Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right and do not go on sinning.37:44For some have no knowledge of God.37:46I say this to your shame.37:51He's like, Wake up.37:52Stop sinning.37:54You're acting like people who don't know God.37:57Shame on you.37:59Those we are most closely associated with are going to have the biggest impact on us. Today, did you notice the tables when you came in? Did you notice all these tables? You know what those are for? It's small group sign-up day. And I am begging you to get in a small group. Surround yourself with people who are going to push you to Jesus.38:27Instead of dragging you away from them. Do you believe in the resurrection? If you do, you can't live like those who don't know God. You can't live like you did before you came to Christ. And Paul says you can't even keep the same closest unsaved friends.39:00The resurrection selects my friends.39:06We can have our worship team join us back up here on the platform.39:10I'd like you to bow your heads.39:16You know, we, in this service, we saw, we witnessed three brave young ladies Make a public confession. Make a public declaration. Now it's your turn. To make a declaration. Just keep your heads bowed. And in light of this passage, the first declaration you need to make is this. I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Can you say that? Say that in your heart to God. Say that in your heart to God. And if you're not there, like God, please manifest the truth.39:54of your word in my heart by your spirit. I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I believe everything that that means.40:08In light of the text, the second thing I want you to say to the Lord today, this week, the rest of your walk, I have nothing to fear.40:21This life, this body, is temporary. Heaven is eternal. My resurrected body that we're going to be talking about over the next couple of weeks, my resurrected body is going to be eternal. I have nothing to fear here whatsoever.40:40Can you say that in your heart before the Lord because of you, because of your promise? I have nothing to fear.40:53Then finally, Can you confess this in your heart? Before the Lord. God, you have called me to identify with the church, not the lost. And yes, we are to witness, we are to evangelize, we are to invite people to come and see. But when we identify, with people who don't know you.41:29It's going to have an effect on us.41:32God, you've given us a huge warning right here in your word.41:35Bad company ruins good morals.41:41So can you confess that in your heart before the Lord?41:43God, I want to identify with the church, not the lost.41:54Father, we thank you.41:59And it's, I guess, easy to have the positive peer pressure in this room to say these things.42:06But I pray, Father, that these truths from your word would resound in our hearts and minds.42:13That our lives, our very lives revolve around the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.42:23that we don't live in fear of anything except for the fear of the Lord. Father, we would find our greatest friendships to be other people who have made the great confession of Jesus Christ. Glorify your name, Father, in your church. We pray in Jesus' name.42:49Amen. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 15:12-34What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Explain 1 Cor 15:29. How do “the dead” influence people to be baptized?How can you keep friendships with nonbelievers without being influenced by them?BreakoutPray for one another.

By Mario Seiglie - The Bible is a gift from God which convicts one to the truth. But it is sealed from understanding to those without God's other gift, His Spirit. In Part 1 of this series of eight comparisons, we look at the first four comparisons with scriptural references in how God's Word, the Bible is a

On a Thursday, just before lunch, the pastor passionately reminded the seventy senior saints gathered in his church’s cinder block auditorium about the promise of their resurrection. Meanwhile, in the fellowship hall sandwiches and watermelon slices were set out, waiting to be consumed by mourners sitting on metal folding chairs placed on stained carpet. It was a perfectly normal funeral, except for the preacher. He was a well-known speaker who has preached to stadiums full of thousands. Now he was speaking just as enthusiastically to this weekday gathering. Paul told his protégé, Timothy, “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season . . . . discharge all the duties of your ministry” (4:2–5). All the duties. Not only the big ones performed on large stages with bright lights. Also ordinary, weekday duties. The speeches that won’t be recorded and broadcast for generations to come. The tasks that few will see. Do those well too. Because Someone is watching. Paul told Timothy he was serving “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead” (4:1). Your platform may be small, but your audience could not be more important. Jesus waits expectantly for your service. Do it for Him, relying on the power of His Spirit. He will be honored as you humbly, faithfully minister to others.

Do you ever find yourself looking at the changes in your life and wondering: is this really how things were meant to be?In today's episode, Lauren Burgos invites us to explore what it means to trust God in seasons that look different than we imagined. Together, we'll step into the story of Haggai, reflect on honest moments of disappointment or uncertainty, and learn how God's gentle response invites us to be strong, to work, and to trust that His Spirit remains with us. No matter what season we're in.Let's gather in community to pray for renewed trust and confidence, embracing God's faithful presence as we journey together through life's changes.Tap HERE to send us a text! Our podcast family is growing - introducing Men's Morning Devotional! Our dad, Steve Alessi, and all of our husbands are now hosting their own 5 minute devotionals every weekday - for men who want to become better husbands, fathers, and leaders! Listen, follow and subscribe here - MensMorningDevotional.comSupport the showNEW VIDEO EPISODES! You can watch our new video episodes on YouTube! Watch Our Video DevotionalsNEW TO MY MORNING DEVOTIONAL? Welcome! We're four sisters - Stephanie, Lauren, Gaby, and Richelle - and our family works together at Metro Life Church in Miami, FL. We're so blessed to produce this daily devotional podcast for you and continue the great work done by the show's founder, Alison Delamota.We pray these devotions will help you to grow in your faith, and that you'll join us every weekday for a morning prayer and some time in God's Word! JOIN THE MMD COMMUNITYSubscribe to the showShare with a friendJoin our newsletter Follow Us on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠Facebook⁠⁠Leave a reviewMORE PODCASTS YOU'LL ENJOYEnjoy more podcasts from Metro Life Studios, including:The Family Business with The AlessisMen's Morning DevotionalThe Mary and Martha Show Available on our Metro Life Studios app!Get The Metro Life Studios app 

Friends of the Rosary,We honor today Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (1090-1153).He was a Cistercian abbot known for deep prayer, love for Jesus and Mary, and his teaching on loving God.The monastic rule, which he perfected at Clairvaux, became the model for 163 monasteries of the Cistercian reform. He was a theologian, poet, orator, and writer. He is one of the last Church Fathers, the apostle of the Crusades, the reconciler of kings, and a counselor of popes. The celebrated Memorare prayer is ascribed to him.In the Gospel today (Matthew 22:1–14), Jesus compares the Kingdom to a wedding feast, inviting us to accept God's invitation with a changed heart.The invitation is wide and generous, but it must be received seriously. We cannot come to God casually, distracted, while refusing to be changed by grace.We pray to the Lord, with the intercession of St. Bernard, to cleanse our hearts and make them new, removing what is hard and fill us with His Spirit.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠August 20, 2026, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

God has given us His Spirit once we make Jesus our Lord and Savior to guide us in our everyday decisions. We need to walk with the Spirit continuously so that we are always in tune to hearing His direction and following His leading.

“What a cruel act to be untruthful,” German theologian and monk Meister Eckhart once wrote in a poem that contrasts relationships built on trust and honesty with those damaged by lies. He described truthful, loving words as “wonderful spices mixed into the days.” But lies, he emphasized, are like earthquakes in the mind and poison to the soul: “Havoc is created in the mind that can no longer trust someone once loved . . . . a plague is spread by one who cannot tell the truth.” The imagery of a plague spread by falsehoods might seem stark. But to take speech seriously resonates with how our words and their impact are described throughout Scripture. When Paul describes to new believers the difference between life before and after their union with Jesus, words take center stage. “Do not lie to each other,” the apostle emphasizes, “since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self” (Colossians 3:9-10). There are many reasons to be tempted to lie or distort the truth. Sometimes we might think it’s the best way to protect ourselves or others. But through Christ’s love, through His Spirit at work in our hearts, we learn a different way—one transformed by “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (3:12). And we learn how forgiveness and love can create the kind of trust and peace that brings rest to our souls (v. 15).