Podcast appearances and mentions of jesus chris

Pastor Brian Wilmarth describes how the resurrection of Jesus Chris brings salvation and new life.

By Frank Dunkle - Bread has been called “the staff of life.” God has used bread to track important lessons to humanity all down through history. Jesus Chris declared: “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:48)

Send us a textRenowned scholar Dr. John Sanders joins us to talk about the fate of the unevangelised. Do they go to heaven? Hell? What happens to them after they die? These are pressing questions in Christianity. We talk about the different positions in this debate and their historical precedent. This video hopefully introduces you to some of the key ideas in the field and demonstrates the great diversity of historically and theologically well-supported views.Support the show--------------------------If you would want to support the channel and what I am doing, please follow me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/christianityforall Where else to find Josh Yen: Philosophy YT: https://bit.ly/philforallEducation: https://bit.ly/joshyenBuisness: https://bit.ly/logoseduMy Website: https://joshuajwyen.com/

“Brotherly Conduct” • 1st Samuel 24 - Brother Jonah Lowrance Continuing in his historical account of the life of David, Brother Jonah teaches how fellow children of God should treat one another. In particular, obedient disciples should continue to love and show compassion toward those fellow children of God who are not following the will of God. "Cherubim and The Mercy Seat" • Hebrews 9:5 - Elder Bryce Lowrance Part of understanding how Jesus is a better tabernacle than the one Moses built is to see how all of the elements and ceremonies in the old tabernacle pointed toward the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. In this sermon, Elder Bryce shows the wonders of the omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence of God represented in the Cherubim over the ark. One of the most amazing things to see in this image is that all the power of God looks at the mercy seat for justification. This image shows that God sees salvation complete in His Son. Our hope is in the finished work of Jesus Chris plus nothing.

“God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.” (James 1:12–18 NLT-SE)

“God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.” (James 1:12–18 NLT-SE)

“But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.” (James 1:9–11 NAS95)

“But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.” (James 1:9–11 NAS95)

“But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:6 NAS95)

“But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:6 NAS95)

Happy New Year from Moody Presents!  It is our calling to continue to present the Moody Bible Institute to you, all of its ministries and above all, Bible teaching to help you take your next step with Jesus Christ.  Let's head right to scripture now as we pick up part two of Dr. Mark Jobe's message on an I AM statement telling us who Jesus Chris is.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When someone accepts Jesus Chris as their personal saviour, they are washed and redeemed by His blood and therefore one would think that all curses are broken automatically. If that were the case, then why is it that some believers suffer certain cycles of pain? In this teaching, Prophet Hari teaches us how to break demonic generational curses over our lives.  A curse is a result of certain wrong-doing; there is a sin that produces a curse. There is an invisible force introduced because of certain sins in the bloodline of an individual. When a curse is in operation, there is a limitation that is put on you as to how far you will go. The limitation of these curses cannot be explained naturally. There are some sins that impact the timeline of a person's life but there are sins that go beyond the lifetime of an individual and cause multi-generational curses.  Some of your battles are not your own, they are battles you inherited. It is important to study your family line, for that you must study 2 things – 1. Study certain events that repeat themselves through generations  2.  Study patterns of behavior that keep repeating themselves When we see that it is unnatural to humanly orchestrate certain events, that is when you know there is an invisible force at work.  The first step of deliverance is to become aware that you need deliverance in a certain area. The second step is to locate your help.  What is required is for a man to take their position in Jesus Christ and declare that this pattern and sin must stop and not be permitted to go to the next generation. The power of the blood of Jesus is enough to break every curse and stop every cycle of suffering and pain. The enemy continues to fight us because of our ignorance and unawareness of the power of the blood of Jesus. It doesn't matter how many generations a curse has been operating in your bloodline, all it takes is for you to invite the light of Jesus Christ in that area. Every curse in operation in a child of God's life is illegal.  Curses continue because of the human potential to duplicate and multiply. Curses would not be possible if there was no power of multiplication. If the enemy can succeed in depositing a sin/curse in one generation, a human being has the potential to duplicate that sin and curse to the next generation. Similarly, if we can get God to bless us in one area, we can multiply and pass on that blessing to the next generations. Our job is to produce a blessing from the Lord, and the grace to produce a blessing then becomes part of your bloodline. The enemy knows that he cannot operate in the child of God illegally for too long as sooner or later his lie will be exposed. The enemy will try to re-introduce the sin that brought the curse in the first place, he then has a legal right to allow the curse to operate in your life. We must be careful to not fall into the sins of our fathers. Curses can come in two ways – they can come because of sins or evil covenants.  There are sins that we commit unintentionally and then there are sins that produce evil covenants. The third way a curse can come is when somebody else mentions your name in a demonic covenant.  How do we ensure total victory? 1. Repent of all known and unknown sins and ask the Holy Spirit to cleanse you. Make repentance a lifestyle. 2 Repent of any evil covenant that you have voluntarily or involuntarily walked into. 3. Study your family line and anytime you observe a lack, engineer a Godly pattern in your life that will create Godly results. May you grow in awareness and may you become the mould that God uses to produce blessings.

Rob shook his head, sighing, wiping his face with his hands. “Well isn't that just somethin'. Jesus Chris. Never even occurred to me they wouldn't a told ya. What a crock a shit. It's really not fair to you, even if you are some shitty downtown whiner.” He leaned forward. “I'm talkin about the feud, Owen. The feud.” “Excuse me?” He sighed, took a swig of coffee, settled in. --Written by Alexander Saxton, and performed by Anthony Botelho. The Wrong Station contains explicit content and mature themes. Episode-specific warnings can be found at www.wrongstation.com/c-w Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the 67th podcast episode, Paul Cardall shares 9 ideas on how we can discover or re-discover our gifts, particularly our non-so-obvious gifts.  Knowing our gifts shapes our life's purpose. From asking others to let you know, looking for gifts in adversity, praying for help to recognize our gifts, and more. Overall, our gifts were give to help others. This helps us experience greater joy in our lives.   Discover your gifts: It seems everybody always says, “If you only knew how great you are.” Well, the truth is, sometimes you just don't know how great you are. When we don't feel like the smartest, the nicest, the best looking, the funniest, or the most talented, our self-assurance seems to disappear. But think about this: if we look out into the vast cosmos and see the constellation of stars with all its mystery our minds are expanded. I drove my daughter into a desert free from man-made lights so we could see the brilliance of each star. As a 10 year old, she recognized and pointed out to me various constellations. As she looked up in wonder I noticed her eyes reflected the light of the stars. Each star, like every type of flower has its purpose. We give red roses as a symbol of romance, yellow for friendship, pink for appreciation, lavender roses for love at first sight. Flowers, like stars, are part of the same family. Each has its purpose. As I think about the vast cosmos, solar systems, all the stars and the variety of roses and every other creation, I'm humbled by what God has organized. God's majesty is everywhere. God's creation surrounds us. And yet, at the heart of creation, and according to the Bible, each of us, particularly you are His greatest creation. So great that He gave us a Savior to redeem us so that who you are, who your neighbor is, who I am, can fulfill our destiny. Each of us was created by God. We are unique and diverse like roses and stars, but what separates us from those incredible creations, is that we are God's children. God made you. God made you unique. As such, the Lord of all things has given us unique gifts and talents to help us fulfill our divine potential. As we discover these gifts, we are reminded of our divine worth as His children, and we are able to draw closer to Him and help others do the same. As I've traveled performing my music or speaking to an audience, many of you come up to me and say, “I have no talent” or “God has given me any special gifts.” And yet, those who tell me this are some of the most faithful, humble, wonderful people I've met. Their devotion to their faith humbles me. And so, for any of you who don't know or believe you have talent and gifts let me give you 9 ideas to help you to discover your gifts, or at the very least help you discover or re-discover your not-so-obvious gifts. Now, grab a pen or pencil, or open your notes on your smart phones, and write these down. I will also put them in the podcast notes. While you're getting your tools to write this down, I want to thank Justina Lichner for this information that I agree will help you. Ok. You got your notes open? Just a reminder, please subscribe to this podcast. If there is someone who needs this message today—email them and share this podcast. Ask others to let you know.Sometimes we don't see in ourselves what others can see in us. Ask a friend, relative, or someone close to you at work or church to write you a note about a gift or talent they see in you.Look for gifts in adversity.During hard times we can choose between letting our best qualities or our worst qualities come out. When times are tough, focus on discovering and using your best qualities and gifts.Pray for the help to recognize your gifts.Our Father in Heaven knows our divine potential. If we have a difficult time seeing that in ourselves, He can help. You can pray for help to recognize your gifts.Don't be afraid to branch out.Do we only develop the gifts that we already know we have because we're too afraid to do something we haven't done before? Now's the time to try something new and discover unknown gifts.Search the word of God.God helps us discover and develop our gifts through clues found in His word—usually through invitations to act. For example, the 4th chapter of James says: “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or sister or judges his brother or sister, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge” (James 4:11). What gifts could you develop from this invitation? The gift of speaking kind words, the gift to calm others, the gift of restraint, and more. And that's just from one verse!Look outside yourself.Sometimes our best qualities come out when we're not focusing on ourselves but focusing instead on how we can work with and help others. When we do that, we'll see that we have many Christlike gifts.Think about people you look up to.Who are some of your role models? You can make a list of all of the gifts your role models have and, instead of focusing on which gifts you don't have in common, celebrate discovering the ones you do.Reflect on your family.What gifts do you have that your siblings, parents, or grandparents have too? Go further! Research family history, discover stories, and identify even more gifts you share with your family.Pray or Receive a Prayer BlessingYour prayer could ask God about gifts you have and should develop, and that prayer could also point you to the path that will lead to the discovery of other new gifts and talents. Or ask someone to pray over you. Think about what they said. Now, if we know our gifts how can we help others discover their gifts. We can often see things in people they don't see in themselves. For example, my wife has the gift of discipline… She has spent years in the gym taking care of the physical body or temple God has given her that houses her spirit. She takes this so seriously that with exercise, she also focuses on what is taken into her body. We talked years ago about how she doesn't want to vandalize or damage the gift of having a physical body. So with the gift of discipline she chooses foods that will heal and repair the body. She also focuses what she puts on her body. Are their products with toxic chemicals damaging the temple she's been given. And so you see, she has a gift of discipline, a gift for understanding how to take care of the body, and the gift to teach and share with others what she has learned. I'll share with you another example of a gift I had no idea about. I don't believer this gift shows up all the time or can I access this gift without the circumstances being right. The famous scripture were two or three are gathered in my name, so will I be also. One of the men in my small mens group that meets every Tuesday in a roundtable discussion, after reading the word of God, shared some personal struggles. Though he didn't go into detail, I was moved and looked at one of our leaders, who parenthetically has the gift to remember everyone's names, even the new people, well I looked at him and he knew. We needed to pray over this brother. We gathered, laid hands on him, and a few different men led the prayer. I felt impressed to also bless him. I couldn't remember what I said… But this morning, that same leader said, “Last week what you did was a gift. You knew what to say that gave our brother confidence in God so God can work in him.” The gift to listen, the gift of understanding, the gift to know someone needs our prayers, and the gift to be vulnerable enough to communicate what we feel God wants to implore into the heart of the one seeking divine guidance. The gift of fellowshipping, ministering, or simply being a friend without an agenda are the great gifts we can do… Help Others Discover Their GiftsWe see things in others that they may not be able to see in themselves. This week, share those things with a friend or family member. Here are some questions to ask yourself that can help you discover the gifts of others.What is something they've done to help you?What do you like about them?What are they good at?What are they trying to get better at? There is NOBODY like you… YOU are a child of God, never forget it. The Creator of the Vast Cosmos is real. He loves you. He is not only award of you, but cares for you. We can go to him in prayer, and how great is that. Think about it—we can talk to God and share with God our hopes, fears, dreams, things we are grateful for and things we need help overcoming… You know years and years ago, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The ability for someone to communicate their love from thousands of miles away is a miracle. The ability to not only call on a man made device, or a cell phone, and talk to someone we love and to hear them say, “I love you, I miss you, I'm can't wait to be with…” We've been able to get within our control the elements and through technology talk to loved ones across the globe. With technology, and invisible air waves, control over the elements, we can bring into our living room, Presidents, Kings, and all kinds of unimaginable things… If we can do this—I have no doubt the creator, whose children we are, deserves the credit because God has created each of us unique and given to us divine gifts. The gift of knowledge often goes to our head—so let's not forget that without our creator we wouldn't exist. And because of our creator and the various gifts he shares with us, our life has purpose. And that purpose is to love whoever God puts into our lives. And as we love, we are loved also. ABOUT THE HOST PAUL CARDALLOfficial Website - http://www.paulcardall.comFacebook - http://www.facebook.com/paulcardallmusicYoutube - http://www.youtube.com/cardallInstagram - http://www.instagram.com/paulcardallLISTEN TO HIS MUSICAPPLE MUSIC - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/paul-cardall/4312819SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/artist/7FQRbf8gbKw8KZQZAJWxH2AMAZON - Ask Alexa to play Peaceful Piano by Paul Cardall Paul Cardall is an artist who has given a new meaning to the phrase, a change of heart and how he used this radical change to take his music to an unexpected place.  Despite being born with a potentially life-threatening heart defect Paul Cardall has become a world recognized pianist. He is even endorsed by Steinway & Sons as one of the finest pianist of our time.A Dove award winner for his Christmas album, Paul's recordings have debuted on 11 No. 1 Billboard charts along with 46 other chart debuts. His music has 25 million monthly listeners with more than 3 billion lifetime streams and is often categorized as Classical, Christian, and Holiday. Although most of albums are instrumental, Paul has songs that feature Grammy winning gospel legend CeCe Winans, Matt Hammitt (Sanctus Real), Kristin Chenoweth, Country duo Thompson Square, David Archuleta, Tyler Glenn (Neon Trees), Audrey Assad, Steven Sharp Nelson (The Piano Guys), and more. Paul has performed for audiences worldwide including the White House. Forbes, American Songwriter, Jesus Calling, Lifestyles Television, Mix Magazine, and countless other media outlets have share his remarkable journey of receiving a life changing heart transplant and using music as a tool to help God heal spiritual, mental, and emotional hearts.

God forgives us through Jesus Chris's life  death, and resurrection, and gives us eternal life. But Mercy is more. It is the extent to which God went to do this in Christ Jesus, and that same Divine Mercy is shown to us to today! Let us rejoice and be glad!

John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus Chris as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world- Today we consider how Christ is able to take up and take away our sins and pardon and cleanse us from our sin once and for all through the power in his blood as a perfect sacrifice.

John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus Chris as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! Today we consider how Christ is able to take up and take away our sins and pardon and cleanse us from our sin once and for all through the power in his blood as a perfect sacrifice.

John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus Chris as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world- Today we consider how Christ is able to take up and take away our sins and pardon and cleanse us from our sin once and for all through the power in his blood as a perfect sacrifice.

Deuteronomy Chapter Twenty-two, kindness and common sense, sustainability of food sources, responsible home ownership, laws of separation, tassels, marriage violations, continuity/discontinuity, Scarlet Threads, Jesus Chris

Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is The weapon I would use against myself, To keep the miracle away from me. Father, I want what goes against my will, and do not want what is my will to have. Straighten my mind, my Father. It is sick. But You have offered freedom, and I choose to claim Your gift today. And so I give all judgment to the One You gave to me to judge for me. He sees what I behold, and yet He knows the truth. He looks on pain, and yet He understands it is not real, and in His understanding it is healed. He gives the miracles my dreams would hide from my awareness. Let Him judge today. I do not know my will, but He is sure it is Your Own. And He will speak for me, and call Your miracles to come to me. Listen today. Be very still, and hear the gentle Voice for God assuring you that He has judged you as the Son He loves.- Jesus Chris tin A Course in Miracles, Lesson 347

In this episode I am joined by Dr Yannis Toussulis, Sufi lineage holder, psychotherapist, and author of ‘Sufism and the Way of Blame'. Dr Toussulis recounts his upbringing in Manhattan, New York and how a childhood vision of Jesus Chris changed his life forever. Dr Toussulis recalls several profound mystical experiences and traces his life of travel and study with gurus and sheiks, including his time at the Esalen Institute, close studies with Tibetan Lama Khenchen Palden Sherab, experiments in psychedelic assisted therapy, travel to India, personal time with Osho, and more. Dr Toussulis also critiques new age presentations of Sufism, including modern interpretations of Rumia and early 20th century ideas of the Sarmoung Brotherhood, and considers the case of Idries Shah and the collusion between teachers and disciples to create exaggerated origin myths. … Video version: www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep179-adventures-of-a-sufi-mystic-dr-yannis-toussulis 
Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast'. … Topics Include: 00:00 - Intro 01:01 - Upbringing in Manhattan 03:04 - Inspired to attend church after a vision of Jesus Christ 04:30 - First encounter with Sufism 07:17 - Meeting first Sheikhs 08:43 - Close study with Khenchen Palden Sherab 09:32 - Return to Sufism 12:42 - A vision of Jesus Christ 15:52 - Interpreting mystical experiences 17:15 - More visionary experiences 21:55 - Realising that God is everywhere 24:09 - Psychedelic experimentation 27:16 - Psychedelic therapy in Vancouver 31:04 - Carlos Castaneda 31:39 - Travel to India and studies with Osho 39:26 - Final conversation with Osho 44:35 - What is enlightenment? 50:23 - Meeting gurus 53:15 - Meeting his Lama in a lucid dream 01:04:40 - 'Nyingthik Drak' and learning Buddhist tantra 01:08:46 - Sarmoung Brotherhood and misconceptions about Sufism 01:13:57 - What is Sufism? 01:18:25 - Origin myths and the naive audience of the early 1900s 01:22:17 - Collusion and mystification 01:25:39 - The modern inversion of Rumi … To find our more about Dr Yannis Toussulis, visit: - http://www.itlaqfoundation.com/ For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi' by Steve James

There is a set of subversive expectations that we are steeped in when it comes to Christmas. Books, movies, and the lore of the holidays promise all things can be made right and complete through the magic of the season. Our human hearts are desperate for this relief and it is found in Jesus Chris...

The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Every believer receives the gift of the Holy Spirit upon conversion. God is not seen but experienced. Jesus Christ is pictured during His ministry and hanging on Calvary's cross. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit is not pictured but is described with symbols such as a dove; a tongue of fire (flame); the wind; a lamp; rays of light; a cloud; water; and oil are just a few examples. He is a person, not it, and indwells and fills believers so we can walk in His power and guidance. John 3:5-6 says, 5 "Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Join us Tuesday, October 4, 2022, at 3:30 PM, PDT, as we consider the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Call in to speak with the host (646) 668-2946. Hope4Today is an outreach program of Yield to the King Ministry. You can reach us anytime at our website yieldtothekingministry.org    

We're live tonight with 21st Century Saints team member Sara, who has a wealth of experience in Safeguarding and Child Protection. Sara is going to share her thoughts on Safeguarding within the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints in the UK and will talk about her work with 21st Century Saints and the Britvengers to make the church a safer place. Notes: Nemo the Mormon's Petition https://www.change.org/p/a-call-to-allow-tithes-to-be-donated-to-charity-in-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_27030383_en-GB%3A8&recruiter=1176312160&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&fbclid=IwAR3GOD224zSTAyH23h-ngHZrRVKmT8MHU9sjQcZCW1Q5MUiaU1-vgn5AQU0 Dallin H Oaks (Ensign 2012): "We are all under the Savior's command to love and care for each other and especially for the weak and defenseless. Children are highly vulnerable. They have little or no power to protect or provide for themselves and little influence on so much that is vital to their well-being. Children need others to speak for them, and they need decision makers who put their well-being ahead of selfish adult interests." https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2012/11/saturday-afternoon-session/protect-the-children?lang=eng Priesthood Dispatches Channel (19) Priesthood Dispatches - YouTube --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jane-christie/message

We're live tonight with 21st Century Saints team member Sara, who has a wealth of experience in Safeguarding and Child Protection. Sara is going to share her thoughts on Safeguarding within the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints in the UK and will talk about her work with 21st Century Saints and the Britvengers to make the church a safer place. Notes: Nemo the Mormon's Petition https://www.change.org/p/a-call-to-allow-tithes-to-be-donated-to-charity-in-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_27030383_en-GB%3A8&recruiter=1176312160&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&fbclid=IwAR3GOD224zSTAyH23h-ngHZrRVKmT8MHU9sjQcZCW1Q5MUiaU1-vgn5AQU0 Dallin H Oaks (Ensign 2012): "We are all under the Savior's command to love and care for each other and especially for the weak and defenseless. Children are highly vulnerable. They have little or no power to protect or provide for themselves and little influence on so much that is vital to their well-being. Children need others to speak for them, and they need decision makers who put their well-being ahead of selfish adult interests." https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2012/11/saturday-afternoon-session/protect-the-children?lang=eng Priesthood Dispatches Channel (19) Priesthood Dispatches - YouTube --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jane-christie/message

On this episode we dive into our own religious beliefs and look at the conspiracy theory of Jesus Christ may be being a myth?Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEThe Sopranos Pizzeria Totowa, NJ Sopranos Pizzeria in Totowa New Jersey is a proud sponser of Is This Real? podcast.Support the show

Vi is back from Portland and ready to take your calls. This has been a terrible week so we can either go "more terrible" or "less terrible." It's up to you and the kind of conversations you bring to the table. Talk to us at 585-526-8774 or tiny.cc/callSG.___________________TIME STAMPS & CALL NOTES 00:00 - Intro - Vi is Back from Portland! 03:58 - Defending the Problem of Evil - Javier (he/him) - SC21:07 - What is A Woman? - Chelsey (she/her) - NC 29:47 - Becoming A Pagan… Help! - Sakura (she/they) - NY 47:44 - Teaching Children About the Crucifixion of Jesus - Chris (he/him) - SCT58:26 - A Silver Bullet for Deconverting Christians? - Kay (he/him) - N/A 1:16:23 - How To Keep Allies Around? - Philip (he/him) - OK 1:30:24 - Superchats03:58Defending the Problem of Evil - Javier (he/him) - SC Can this caller refute the problem of evil and defend God? Specifically, does appealing the “the greater good” make sense of the suffering in the world? Vi and Eric don't think so, and list out the many reasons that train of logic is not compelling. 21:07What Is A Woman? - Chesley (she/her) - NC Have Vi and Eric watched the Matt Walsh “documentary” about trans issues? What are their thoughts on the tactics Matt used to try and play “gotcha”... was it honest? Was it at least effective? The answer to all of that, and to Matt Walsh in general, is no. 29:47Becoming A Pagan… Help! - Sakura (she/they) - NY What happens when a scientist becomes a pagan? How should this caller navigate through a change in worldview while honoring their understanding of the scientific method? Can it even be done? Vi has some thoughts to share on this subject… 47:44 Teaching Children About the Crucifixion Of Jesus - Chris (he/him) - SCTIs teaching kids about the crucifixion (and everything that led up to it) immoral? Vi says their main problem is with hypocrisy: why is torutre OK to teach to children but not things like sexual orientation or gender identity? Eric, meanwhile, has stronger words for what happens during indoctrination: namely, it's abuse. 58:26A Silver Bullet for Deconverting Christians? - Kay (he/him) - N/A Kay calls back this week to discuss a silver bullet for “defanging” religion by turning theists into deists. The hosts are skeptical about how useful such a method would be. It becomes clear that while they agree on many things, Kay isn't taking the indoctrination factor into consideration, which will make things much more difficult. 1:16:23How To Keep Allies Around? - Philip (he/him) - OKThis caller has some thoughts about what was said on the show last week regarding whether cis men should be discussing the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade. Don't we need the voices of the ones in power to actually get anywhere? Eric explains his reasoning: it's important to avoid speaking over others. Meanwhile Vi asks an important question: “Who are we speaking to?” ___________________Skeptic Generation is LIVE every Sunday at 11:30am-1:00pm CTCall on your phone: 585-LA-MURPH (585-526-8774) Call online: https://tiny.cc/callSG Love the show? Become a patron: https://tiny.cc/donatetoSG Buy our new Class of ‘22 merch: tiny.cc/SG22MerchHelp with our studio: https://tiny.cc/SGwishlist Join us after the show on Discord: https://tiny.cc/SGdiscord To find out more, visit https://www.skepticgeneration.com Copyright © 2022 Skeptic Generation. All rights reserved.

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast, a preaching ministry of Venice Presbyterian Church. It is our desire that as you hear these messages preached by senior pastor Chris Romig and the preaching team of VPC you will grow in the understanding of our Triune God and as a disciple of Jesus Chris bringing the good news of the gospel to a world in darkness.

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast, a preaching ministry of Venice Presbyterian Church. It is our desire that as you hear these messages preached by senior pastor Chris Romig and the preaching team of VPC you will grow in the understanding of our Triune God and as a disciple of Jesus Chris bringing the good news of the gospel to a world in darkness.

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast, a preaching ministry of Venice Presbyterian Church. It is our desire that as you hear these messages preached by senior pastor Chris Romig and the preaching team of VPC you will grow in the understanding of our Triune God and as a disciple of Jesus Chris bringing the good news of the gospel to a world in darkness.

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast, a preaching ministry of Venice Presbyterian Church. It is our desire that as you hear these messages preached by senior pastor Chris Romig and the preaching team of VPC you will grow in the understanding of our Triune God and as a disciple of Jesus Chris bringing the good news of the gospel to a world in darkness.

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast, a preaching ministry of Venice Presbyterian Church. It is our desire that as you hear these messages preached by senior pastor Chris Romig and the preaching team of VPC you will grow in the understanding of our Triune God and as a disciple of Jesus Chris bringing the good news of the gospel to a world in darkness.

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast, a preaching ministry of Venice Presbyterian Church. It is our desire that as you hear these messages preached by senior pastor Chris Romig and the preaching team of VPC you will grow in the understanding of our Triune God and as a disciple of Jesus Chris bringing the good news of the gospel to a world in darkness.

Morning Headlines For April 13, 2022, covers The Roman Catholic Church of Idaho supporting the new law banning abortion, elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-Day Saints visiting Ukrainian refugees in Poland, and a new storefront in Rexburg.

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast, a preaching ministry of Venice Presbyterian Church. It is our desire that as you hear these messages preached by senior pastor Chris Romig and the preaching team of VPC you will grow in the understanding of our Triune God and as a disciple of Jesus Chris bringing the good news of the gospel to a world in darkness.

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast, a preaching ministry of Venice Presbyterian Church. It is our desire that as you hear these messages preached by senior pastor Chris Romig and the preaching team of VPC you will grow in the understanding of our Triune God and as a disciple of Jesus Chris bringing the good news of the gospel to a world in darkness.

Envy literally robs your life of joy! Jealousy puts me in a position where I am intentionally choosing not to be grateful for what I have, or where I am, but rather it's a yearning for what I do not have. Jealousy, like all sin, creates a false narrative that I can find contentment and joy in the things of this world. May you seek to find peace and life in the true source, the only source, Jesus Chris!

Envy literally robs your life of joy! Jealousy puts me in a position where I am intentionally choosing not to be grateful for what I have, or where I am, but rather it's a yearning for what I do not have. Jealousy, like all sin, creates a false narrative that I can find contentment and joy in the things of this world. May you seek to find peace and life in the true source, the only source, Jesus Chris!

Envy literally robs your life of joy! Jealousy puts me in a position where I am intentionally choosing not to be grateful for what I have, or where I am, but rather it's a yearning for what I do not have. Jealousy, like all sin, creates a false narrative that I can find contentment and joy in the things of this world. May you seek to find peace and life in the true source, the only source, Jesus Chris!

Christians and Muslims believe that Jesus Christ will return toward the end of times before the Day of Judgment. While the beliefs of Muslims and Christians regarding the return of Jesus Chris share some similarities, the details and definitions are very different. The arrival of Jesus Christ is one of the signs indicating the arrival of the Day of Judgment. Muslims believe Jesus Christ was neither crucified nor killed; instead, he was raised by God in the Heavens and is still alive today.Muslims believe Jesus Christ will return at the end of time when the world is in dire need. It will be a time of many difficulties, trials, tribulations, corruption, evil, immorality, nudity, fornication, killing, violence, and earthquakes when good deeds acts will decrease. Jesus Christ will fight the False Messiah — the Antichrist, a powerful figure of falsehood and temptation that will deceive many and gain a large following. Jesus Christ will defeat the False Messiah in the battle of the Great Armageddon, a battle which Christians also believe.Jesus Christ will return to complete his mission, which was left incomplete. The purpose of the return of Christ is to complete his mission and demonstrate that he, just like all Prophets, preached and taught the worship of One God to reunite the world under the Rule of God. Jesus Christ will preach the true Oneness of God, as he has always done. He will not preach the Trinity nor initiate a new religion; instead, he will break the cross figuratively or literally to demonstrate to Christians that they were wrong to describe him as divine and the Son of God. He will further demonstrate to the Jews that he never was crucified. He will kill a pig to demonstrate that he never commanded his people to abandon God's law. He will follow the teachings of the Holy Quran and the final Prophet that came after him, Muhammad PBUH. He will call all humanity to Islam.Jesus Christ will fight and kill the Antichrist, whom Muslims refer to as the Dajjal. He will lead the Muslims to victory against the oppressors, establishing peace and justice. Every person from the Book (Christians and Jews) living at the time will eventually recognize and believe in Jesus Christ and embrace the faith of Islam in which Jesus Christ will peach. Jesus Christ will eventually die a natural death, as do all humans. Today, there is an empty grave reserved for Jesus Christ in a special spot reserved by the Muslim community. He will be buried in the city of Medina, next to the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, just as Prophet Muhammad PBUH commanded it. Prophet Muhammad PBUH loved Jesus Christ and called him his brother; he stated he was the one closest to him since Jesus Christ was the Prophet right before him.According to the Holy Quran, God will ask Prophet Jesus PBUH on the Day of Judgment:“…O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'… “(Quran 5:116–118)Prophet Jesus PBUH will respond:“…He will say, ‘Exalted, are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen. I said not to them except what You commanded me — to worship Allah, my Lord, and your Lord. And I was a witness over them as long as I was among them; but when You took me up, You were the Observer over them, and You are, over all things, Witness. If You should punish them — indeed they are Your servants; but if You forgive them — indeed it is You who is the Exalted in Might, the Wise” (Quran 5:116–118)

Our world has changed greatly since the time I graduated from High School in 1964. Drive-in theaters were still a place to go on a Saturday night. Transistor radios were a hot item for teens, and most of us learned to type on mechanical typewriters. Telephones were mostly dial-up versions. Most of us had to wind up our watches unless we had one of those new ones that wound up by the motion of our wrist. But all of these are a thing of the past. Today it is all about computers. We talk directly with others over Skype or Zoom. For some, hardcopy letters are ancient history—everything is computerized, including greeting cards. Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram are the ways many interact socially. But there are equally profound social changes in society, not the least of which concerns how men and women see themselves. The feminist movement which really took off in the seventies has had a dramatic impact on culture and families. Do you realize that a reversal in the roles of men and women was predicted long ago in the pages of the Bible? I'll read that to you in a moment, so stay tuned!

Well, you have your Bible, please open up with me to Isaiah. We're going to be in Isaiah 9:1-7. Over the last couple of weeks or so leading up to Christmas, Pastor Jacob has been working through the story of Christ's birth in the Gospel of Matthew, one of the most popular text. I think we would all agree in the Bible and yet the events that we read about in that passage and Mark or in Matthew Chapters one and two and in the corresponding infancy narrative in Luke's Gospel are stories and events that didn't arise out of the blue. In other words, the event of Christ's birth were events that were planned before the foundation of the world and events that were anticipated in the Old Testament. Today we're going to look at just one of those prophecies that looks forward to Christ's birth. It looks forward to Christ's incarnation some seven hundred years before it actually took place. So hear now the word of the Lord from Isaiah 9:1-7, I will be reading out of the English Standard Version. "But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Isaiah 9:1-7, ESV This is the word of the Lord. In the year sixty-nine A.D., about two thousand years ago or so, a year that's been called the so-called "Long Year" by historians. The Roman Empire went through something of a tense period of conflict and civil war. It actually all started the previous year back in sixty-eight A.D., when one of the most deranged emperors to ever govern Rome died. His name was Nero, and in 68 A.D., Nero killed himself. His successor, a guy named Galba, Emperor Galba, became emperor. Now, when word of this event, this transition of power, reached the eastern boundaries of the empire, where two generals named Vespasian and his son, Titus, were busy leveling Jerusalem and the surrounding area because of a large scale Jewish revolt that was underway. The younger of the two generals, whose name was General Titus dropped everything to go back to Rome and congratulate the new emperor who had ascended to the throne. You see, if you were among the first to greet the new guy and to make sure that he likes you, well, in the end, that would work out on your behalf. So that was Titus' plan, get the new guy to like me. So he began his long journey back to Rome to greet Emperor Galba. On his long, way back, a few things happened. First, long before Titus even got to Rome, Emperor Galba was assassinated a few months after he took control in January of 69 A.D. A new emperor named Otho took power of the empire in Rome. Right when that happened, something else happened. Another general and another area of the empire whose name was Vitellius decided that now was his opportunity to become emperor, and so he declared himself emperor and decided to march upon Rome and against Otho and his supporters. A few months later, Vitellius successfully overthrew the second guy named Otho as emperor. Given all of this upheaval that was going on in Rome, what was Titus, the first general who was going back to Rome to congratulate the first guy who had now died, what was he going to do? In the midst of all of this upheaval, he was kind of stuck in the middle and wondering, who should he get behind? You see, if you tied yourself to the wrong guy. That wasn't good because their downfall would eventually be your downfall. Well, in the end, here's what Titus did. He decided that with all of this turmoil unfolding, he'd go back and make sure that his dad Vespasian became emperor, and a few months later, Vespasian and marched on Rome, and he became emperor, too. Now, if you found that whole historical synopsis to be somewhat dizzying and confusing, that's because it is. Un the history of the Roman Empire sixty-nine A.D. was a dark and tumultuous year of political upheaval. It saw, if you were counting four different emperors in the course of a year, it was a year of backbiting and civil war. If, like General Titus, you were caught in the middle of all that, well, your next move would seal your own fate as well. You see, your future was bound up in who you supported. Support the wrong guy and you're not going to have much of a future. When you think about it, even if you support the winner and this is the kind of environment you call home, how long do you think you really have until somebody comes for you next? Now, on the one hand, the events of that story of sixty-nine A.D. and the tumultuous time of the Roman Empire are far removed in a variety of ways from our own context. On the other hand, you and I are always faced, we're always faced with decisions in life like Titus about who or what to support who or what to hitch our future ambitions to. Whether we're talking about the world of politics or our own future ambitions, or even something that's inconsequential as the world of sports. We're always trying to navigate this world and hopefully come out on top by supporting the right causes and the right people. Be that as it may, the Bible tells us that whatever we decide to get behind in this world, whatever alliances we gravitate towards and however shrewd we are in navigating this environment of competing forces, no amount of skillful maneuvering in the present can give us the kind of triumph that we look for or the satisfaction that we long for. You see, the Bible tells us that there are many good things and right things to get behind in this world, spiritually speaking, we live in a world of sin and unbelief and darkness. This world could never and will never yield a solution to its own problems. Our only hope then, while we live in this world, is to get behind somebody who is not of this world, but who nevertheless came into this world some two thousand years ago to triumph over the present darkness. So our big idea this morning is this walk in the light of the Son. Now we'll talk about the historical setting of our passage, Isaiah chapter nine, in just a moment. For now, keep in mind that when Isaiah writes what he writes here in Isaiah nine, some seven hundred years before Christ's birth and incarnation, Isaiah is speaking into a bleak and dark situation that's unfolding in his own day. He sees God's people descending into a time of darkness and gloom. Yet, in the context of that, he also looks forward to a future day where he sees a dramatic reversal on the horizon, a reversal that subverts expectations. So as we look at our passage, we'll see first how Isaiah describes this reversal as glory that overcomes gloom and then how he explains this reversal as deliverance that overcomes bondage. First, a description of how glory overcomes gloom and versus one through three and then an explanation deliverance, overcoming bondage and verses four through seven. Most commentators break this passage down and those two parts, and so I'm following accordingly. 1. How Glory Overcomes Gloom 2. Deliverance that Overcomes Bondage How Glory Overcomes Gloom So let's begin with seeing how glory overcomes gloom. Now throughout this passage, again, keep in mind that Isaiah is looking forward. He's looking forward to a future day. He's standing in about the seven hundred B.C., and yet he's looking to a future day on the horizon. To appreciate the descriptions that Isaiah provides of that coming day, we have to first appreciate when he says what he says. In other words, we have to appreciate something about the historical context in which Isaiah is prophesying. As we'll see, it's a context of doom and gloom and darkness. Understand that in the lead up to what Isaiah tells us here in Isaiah chapter nine, the prophet has been speaking from Isaiah seven through Isaiah eight, and now into Isaiah, nine, into a particular situation that was transpiring in Judah during the reign of King Ahaz around seven hundred thirty-four B.C. You see at that time, King Ahaz and the kingdom he led, known as Judah, were faced with a kind of international turmoil of their own. You see immediately to their north and alliance was forming. Actually, an alliance had already formed between two nations between Syria and the 10 northern tribes of Israel. This new alliance that had formed just north of Ahaz decided to put Ahaz and the Kingdom of Judah in their crosshairs. In fact, they were intent with overthrowing Ahaz and the Kingdom of Judah. As Isaiah is writing what he's writing, those armies from the North are already on the move. They're already pressing down southward, taking over city after city in Judah intent on overthrowing Ahaz and his kingdom. So Ahaz is faced with the potential loss of the kingdom he governs. He has a choice to make. Would he get behind the Israel-Syria alliance so that they would stop attacking him? Perhaps he could surrender to them while he still has time left and promised to pay them tribute so that they wouldn't attack him any longer? Kind of like paying the mafia for protection. Or on the other hand, maybe Ahaz would rather than align himself with that alliance to turn to the real superpower of the day a nation known as Assyria and get behind them so that they would offer him protection from this alliance forming in the north. In short, Ahaz is faced with a decision about what alliances to form, about who to get behind so that perhaps his kingdom that was under attack would be spared. Before he makes that decision, the prophet Isaiah comes to him in Isaiah chapter seven, and he pleads with Ahaz not to get behind anyone. Rather, he tells him to forsake all of these worldly alliances and the geopolitical wheeling and dealing that's going on in the day and instead look to the Lord. To trust that the Lord is going to deliver Judah from international threats near and far, just like he's always done throughout their history. Does Ahaz listen to Isaiah's advice? Well, no, he doesn't. Instead, and we would find this out if we were looking at Isaiah seven, he proceeds with forming an alliance with Assyria and though it saves Judah in the short term, ultimately, it's the decision that would lead to the devastation of his kingdom. First, after he makes that decision, Syria and the 10 northern tribes of Israel would be devastated by Assyria, the superpower of the day. That might have been good news for someone like Ahaz, who was only living in the short term by what he could see. After Ahaz is gone later, in history after he dies, Judah would suffer at the hands of that superpower too. Throughout Isaiah chapter seven and eight in the lead up to Isaiah nine, the prophet Isaiah looks forward to the future, and he outlines the consequences for rejecting the way of faith that he held out for Ahaz. Isaiah announces that because many in Judah, including the king himself, have rejected the way of faith and have chosen instead to live in the short term by what their eyes could see, the nation as a whole would be plunged into deep darkness and gloom. Even in that darkness, here's the good news. God would preserve a faithful remnant, a portion of his people who still trusted in him. Who were marked not merely by their national identity as Israelite or Judahites, but by their spiritual identity as a people who hunger and thirst for the Lord and for his promises. For people like that, here's where we come to the burst of light in Isaiah 9:1, the day of salvation would eventually dawn. Look again at verse one where we read, "But there will be no gloom for her, who was in anguish." There will be gloom after Ahaz, gloom will set in for the nation of Judah. Isaiah is looking beyond that at this point, and he says, "But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations." Back in the early 1990s, and some of you might remember this, one of the most dangerous cities in the world was Medellin, Colombia. In fact, at the time, I think it was labeled the most dangerous city in the world. During the heights of Pablo Escobar's drug cartel, which was based in Medellin. The city had something like a murder rate of nearly 400 murders per 100,000 people. It was by far the highest in the world. To give you a comparison, the highest murder rate in the United States today is St. Louis, which is about 64 murders per 100,000 people. So that was, you know, doing the math something like eight fold what St. Louis is today. Moreover, the poverty rate in Medellin in the early 1990s was something like 50 percent. The infrastructure of the city left much to be desired. After Escobar's death that the city underwent this incredible transformation, the homicide rate plummeted, the poverty rate fell too. Over the course of the next few decades, Medellin has been transformed into what one publication calls it one of the smartest cities in the world. Now, of course, all cities have issues Medellin included, but the transformation that city has undergone in three decades is truly remarkable. Well, when our text opens in verse one, we hear Isaiah announce an even more remarkable transformation than that. He tells us that the lands to the north of Judah and Jerusalem, the lands of Zebulon and Neftali would be transformed. Now this was land that was originally settled by God's people all the way back in the book of Joshua. The people of God who lived there, the Israelites who lived there under King David and under King Solomon, they flourished in that place. After Solomon died, well, that land quickly became a land of idolatry. False worship sprang up on the mountains of Zebulon and Neftali and the surrounding regions, and the land became a setting for international conflict. It was eventually land that was devastated by Assyria, in Ahaz's own day. We learn in the Bible that after a Syria devastated the land of Zebulon and Neftali, the carried away the Jewish population that lived there and then repopulated it again with pagan gentiles who didn't worship the Lord instead. In God's providence Assyria turned this land into a place of deep darkness and gloom in more ways than one. Yet, Isaiah looks forward to a day when that depleted and dark territory would be the first to be transformed. Of course, the kind of transformation that Isaiah envisions and Isaiah 9:1 has nothing to do with the implementation of any social or technological program. It has nothing to do with any kind of earthly glory whatsoever. Rather, Isaiah sees transformation of this territory because God himself is on the move. Understand that whenever we hear about light breaking into darkness in the Bible, it's nearly always associated with the presence of the glory of God. For example, the psalmist proclaims in Psalm 104:1-2, "You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light, as with a garment." The advent of light into the world, then, is nothing more and nothing less than the emergence of God's presence into the world, to dwell with his people. And to deal with the dominance of spiritual darkness that had overtaken not only the land but also the world. As Isaiah looks forward to this day, the advent of God's glorious presence, well, he tells us in verse three that this really has nothing to do at all with a geographical plot of land. Rather, it has everything to do with what this will mean for God's people. Look at verse three, where the prophet Isaiah proclaims quote, "You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you, as with joy at the harvest as they are glad when they divide the spoil." Again, Isaiah is peering forward to a future day just like he was in versus one through two. As an aside, what's interesting is that throughout these verses, these first three verses in Isaiah, he sees these events of the future as so certain that he actually speaks about them in the past tense. He did that when he spoke of God's presence back in the land, and now he does that again when he talks about the effects that this has on God's people. So what is the effect that God's presence has on God's people? Well, first he talks about the multiplication of God's people. Remember, in Isaiah's own day as he's writing this prophecy, those who were actually looking to God by faith were few. It was maybe a small remnant among the people of Judah and Israel who actually believed in the Lord and love the Lord. In the future, Isaiah tells us when light breaks through the darkness, he sees a dramatic increase in numbers. Not only Jews, but also pagans from the nations would soak in the light of God's presence. Remember, because of Assyria, those northern regions became a mixture of gentiles and Jews, which is why Isaiah calls them here Galilee of the Nations. When light arrives, when God's presence breaks into human history, he paints this picture where even a remnant of the Gentiles will be transformed from a people of unbelief to a people of faith. God's people, then we learn when God's presence arrives would swell numerically. They would spread out geographically, and we only need to read through the book of Acts to see how that takes shape and in their growth. We also learn that their joy would increase, too. If you're looking at the imagery of verse three Isaiah likens the joy of God's people when God's presence arrives to that of a farmer after a bountiful harvest. Much of you farmers are joyful right now, that's the kind of joy that's envisioned here. Then he pictures that likewise as joy of a victorious army dividing up plunder after a battle that they won. But that leads to the question why? Why are they so joyful? Why are they filled with such joy? Well, very simply, the joy of God's people is conditioned by nothing other than the fact that with the advent of this light, they now dwell secure in the presence of God. When I was a kid, my parents were kind enough. Year in and year out to take my sister and I on a number of great vacations. Often one of the places we would go to was the happiest place on Earth, Walt Disney World. Now, as a kid who was spoiled and got to go to Walt Disney World fairly often, you would think that I would appreciate the thoughtfulness of my parents and the sacrifice that it was to take me there year in and year out and that as a kid, I would have simply just appreciated being at Walt Disney World, but that that would have been enough for me. But if that's what you're assuming, then you've never vacationed with kids. You see, without fail, every time we went on one of these extravagant vacations as a kid, even to Disney, it was never enough just to be on vacation. I always wanted something more. I remember one year in particular as a kid, that there was this toy Davy Crockett rifle that I saw in one of the gift shops, the gift shop that Disney strategically locates just to drive every parent crazy. I had to have it. For days in the so-called Happiest Place on Earth, all I thought about was this toy rifle asking my parents for every five minutes and unable to find any semblance of joy in the so-called Happiest Place on Earth until I held this overpriced faux wooden rifle in my hands. Talk about needing to shift my priorities. If we're all honest with ourselves, I think this also captures how we too often live in God's world, too. You see, when we become Christians, I think many of us can attest to the fact that God was enough. To be in his presence, to be in his church and to study his word might have felt like drinking water from a fire hose. It was a lot, but it was also a satisfying place to be. At some point we settle in and we often begin to obsess over comparatively insignificant things. Remember, in verse three of our passage, God's people are rejoicing with exceedingly exceeding joy simply because they're in God's presence. Their joy isn't conditioned by anything else other than God is in their midst. Friends, that's a game changer for God's people. That's everything in dictating our joy in the Christian life, too. But is that enough for you? Does that reality by itself produce joy in your life, or is your joy conditioned by a host of far more insignificant factors? If you profess Christ, let me ask you this, do people know you by your joy? You see, one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is joy, and we're called to be known as God's people for our joy. So do people know you as someone who professes steadfast joy in Christ? Or are you on the flip side, known more is a critical curmudgeon, as a bitter killjoy, always upset about something and always with an axe to grind. Now, of course, that's not to say we need to fake it when we walk through real suffering in life and when the world feels like a two ton elephant on our back. But even in suffering, the Bible tells us that there is a profound, not superficial, but substantive joy in knowing God and being in his presence. Joy in trusting that our identity as Sons of God is rooted and secured through the work of Christ. Friends, it's true that we live in an angry and scared and delusional world, but we're a people who don't belong to this world. We don't think like this world. We don't relate with each other in the back biting and exhausting way that citizens of this world relate with each other. Our joy is not and cannot be conditioned by anything in this world because if it is, it's understandable why we would be a miserable kind of people. We have what the world does not. So let me exhort you with this don't so obsess over the scraps of life that you fail to appreciate the feast that's laid before us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Find your joy, real joy, substantive joy in Jesus Christ. So Isaiah describes this future day when God's glorious presence would powerfully break into the world and his people would flourish in quantity and quality as a result. When we turn to verses four through seven, Isaiah puts meat on the bones, as it were, by describing for us more about the character of God's presence in the world and more reason that we have to be a joyful people as we pilgrim in this world. Deliverance that Overcomes Bondage So this leads to the second point deliverance that overcomes bondage. Now, when we turn to verses four through seven, if you're looking at your Bible, you may notice that in verses four or five and six, Isaiah begins at least in the English translation. With this word for the idea here is that in each of these verses, Isaiah is explaining both the nature of God's advent and the reasons we have to be a people of joy. In doing this, he gives us three what we call vignettes, three pictures to explain God's advent as our deliverance out of bondage, the bondage of darkness. So let's take a look at these three vignettes. First look at verse four, where Isaiah tells us that through the advent of God's glorious presence, God's people are delivered from bondage. They're pictured here as a people who were once pressed down with a wooden bar on their necks. That's this idea of a yoke with a rod in the hands of a taskmaster used against them. This symbolism pictures God's people living under an oppressive burden, a burden that that clearly goes beyond merely physical things. When the light arrives, what happens? Well, this burden is dramatically broken. Notice that the relief they experience is also likened in our passage to the relief that was brought about by Gideon in the book of Judges. That's what this reference at the final line of verse for when we hear about Midian, that's what that calls to mind. If you don't know the story in the book of judges. When God's people, particularly in the north of Israel, the land of Zebulon and Naftali were oppressed by the Midianites, God raised up Gideon to deliver them. If you were to look at the book of Judges and read about that deliverance, you would find that Gideon's triumph over the Midianites was, by all accounts, unexpected. It subverted expectations because the Lord called Gideon to go up against Midian with only 300 men. Yet, through that unexpected band of men led by Gideon, God saved his people. In the same way, I say, tells us that the deliverance that God's advent brings will come about in an equally, actually an even more unexpected way. A way that subverts expectations. We'll have to wait until verse six to hear more about that. In verse five Isaiah tells us that through the advent of God's presence, it's as if a war has also been won. The imagery is that of a military equipment being burned by fire. What's important in this imagery is that at no point in Isaiah's forward looking future picture that he gives; do we hear anything about God's people actually fighting a battle or winning a battle. In fact, the only picture we have is that of God's people enjoying the end of a battle that's already been won. As Alec Motera puts it, "They have entered the battlefield only after the fighting is done." They win a victory without actually fighting a war on their own. Now these two vignettes the one in verse four and the one in verse five are both helpful for us in explaining God's advent. They explain the character of God's presence and what it means, what he breaks into human history. They explain the reasons that we have to be a people of joy. When we come to verses six and seven, the final two verses in our passage, we also come to the vignette, the picture that holds everything else together, this is the one in verses six through seven that explains the victory. This is the one that explains the nature of the burdens lifted, and this is the one that puts flesh and blood to the coming of God's presence into the world. Unexpectedly, at least for those hearing and reading this and Isaiah's own day, the climax of deliverance is a child. Talk about deliverance through unexpected means. Yet in this child, we find that God himself has come. Notice in verse six that there are four names that are ascribed to this child. This is a famous passage; it was read for us earlier. Most of us probably all know what these titles are, we read Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now, each of these four names, when you really get down to it, would simply be inappropriate to give to any ordinary child, even a child who's born into royalty because each one of these titles are packed with notions of divinity. Let's just look at two of these. First, the title wonderful counselor may seem tame on the surface of things. It may seem as if this is simply somebody who doles out pious and positive advice, and that's about it. Kind of like a motivational speaker of sorts. That's not at all with this title suggests. In fact, one commentator named Paul House opts for a translation "wonderful planner", because this title points to one who plans supernatural things and then carries them out. It has nothing to do with somebody who just sits on high and doles out positive advice that you can take or leave. In short, the language here suggests that this child is vested with the knowledge to plan redemption and then the authority to carry it out. The next title, Mighty God, suggests even more clearly that than the first the divinity of this child. This is a child who embodies the power of God in his person. Who defeats the enemies of God, and then, like God himself, is the rightful object of worship for the people of God. Understand, then, that the descriptions and the titles that are given to this son point to a ruler that the world could never produce on its own. This is one who represents perfectly God's people before God and who in turn perfectly rules over God's people as God's true king. It's no surprise, then, that Isaiah nine, this passage that we've been reading and studying and preaching on is cited in Matthew chapter four at the outset of Jesus's public ministry in Galilee of the Gentiles and applied to Jesus. It's no surprise that Jesus, in his incarnation, is described in John one as light that had broken into the world. John 1:09 tells us of Jesus, the true light which gives light to everyone, has come. The future hope that Isaiah declares then for the small and faithful remnant in his own day, living in darkness, living in gloom has nothing to do with political deliverance from an international enemy. It has nothing to do with anything earthly whatsoever. It has nothing to do with getting behind the right earthly power or the right earthly king or the right earthly kingdom. Rather, the ultimate hope that Isaiah holds out to them and us is Jesus Christ. The one who has dealt with our greatest enemies of sin and death and the devil and the only one through whom, to paraphrase the Apostle Paul in Colossians one, transfers us his people from the domain of darkness to his own glorious kingdom of light. Application Friends, the gospel tells us that the things this world values, things that may have a veneer of wisdom and power, of things that we might be really tempted in our own lives to invest all of our capital into are ultimately things that are powerless to do what we really need from them. So often the world pulls us into thinking that our ultimate hope depends on what we get behind in this world. You see these metaphors of light and darkness, metaphors that we find all over the scriptures, are also commonplace elsewhere in life. Typically, when the world wants to baptize something as good, even if it's not good, it's associated with light. Any time the world wants to identify something as evil, it cloaks it in the metaphor of darkness. For example, the Philadelphia Eagles are a team of light, and the Dallas Cowboys are a team of deep, deep darkness. That's true. Yet the Bible tells us that the true light, the true light that has come into this world has nothing to do with this world. The true light is not found in what looks powerful in this world. Rather, it's found in what the world considers lowly and despised. It found in the one who is born to a teenage girl from a backwater town in Galilee of the nations, on the fringes of the most powerful empire in the first century A.D. By all accounts, the light that dawns in the first century A.D. in Jesus Christ subverts expectations in a plethora of ways. Yet in this child lies the power of God. Friends like General Titus and Ahaz before him, we're often driven by angst about being on the winning team. After all, nobody wants to be on the "wrong side of history". The Bible pleads with us to vest our hope not in anything that this world values, but in this child, Jesus Chris. The one who stands at the center of human history and the one who stands at the end of human history. So if you're not a Christian this morning, let me ask you this. What alliances in this world are you banking on right now? How's that working out for you? You see, the Bible pleads with us, as do I, to ally yourself above everything else with God's king, Jesus Christ through faith alone. That is our only hope in this ruthless and dark, dark world. At the same time, this passage calls all of us, whether you're a Christian or not, to check our allegiances and to align ourselves or realign ourselves with the true light and the true king. This is what I want to leave us with. That is just as we do not seek salvation from anything that this world offers, so too do not despair, the apparent dominance of darkness in this world. You see, there's much in this world that could distress us if we let it. I don't think I need to say that, but I'll say it when we look out into our neighborhoods and into our worlds, we see that the darkness of sin and unbelief hangs over everything. Then we turn inward and then we examine our own hearts and we see our own sin. When we do that, how many of us have cried out with the Apostle Paul, "wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?" While there will always, always be much to pray for, and there's always much that could drive us to despair, understand the light of the glory of God's presence has already broken into this world. The church has already spread abroad all across the world and continues to do so to this very day, even in places that we would identify as places of deep darkness and persecution for the church. The Spirit, we know is also actively at work in the church, actively at work, even in our own local church, in our ministries, at work in our members. All of us are learning day by day what it means to walk in the light of the glory of God. The Bible tells us that the light has already dawned and far from disappearing or fading into the night sky, the Bible looks forward to the day when Jesus Christ will come again in a second advent and the light of the glory of God will be so bright that sun and moon will no longer have a purpose in the new heavens and the new Earth. Revelation 21 has something to say about that. Again, there's much we could despair over in this world, but brothers and sisters, the first advent that we celebrate has already come. The second, I promise you, is on its way. In the meantime, the Lord, our God, through his Spirit, is in our midst. What alliance could be any more consequential than that one? Pray with me. Father, we thank you for what Isaiah looked forward to, that we look back upon. That is the advent and appearing of your glory and your Son. Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you that Jesus Christ was and did everything that Isaiah looked forward to in his own day. Lord, I pray that as we walk, as sojourners and exiles in this often dark world that you would help us remember who we are and whose we are. That you would help us correct any battle allegiances that we have with this world. That you would instead realign us day by day with what is true and what is right and what is good. What we ask this in Christ name. Amen.

We are in times in which many will have much to say about the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Chris. We will have those who will be in falsehood and those who will continue to scrutinize with great hatred of any who choose to put their trust in Christ. For many this is totally against human logic and those things that they can't prove with science and other physical confirmations. Remember that many in the past were just a fervent in their beliefs as those today and the word of God remains intact as it was in the beginning and for ever shall be. 

Simple question. Are Christians still persuading non believers that Jesus Chris is the way without saying follow him or go to hell? Listen to my podcast to get my thoughts! God bless!

Do you merely wear your cross around your neck, or carry your cross every day? Have you given up your "wants" to provide for the "needs" of others? What are you willing to do to bring the world closer to Jesus Chris? Taken from the 2021-09-12 worship service.

After five years as an online spiritual community builder, my dear friend Kassy has left the New Age space to pursue a life with Jesus Chris as her savior. Kassy and I sit by our Montana campfire and discuss all the incredible experiences and what's next.

3p- NBA Insider Report: Chris Sheridan, Senior NBA writer for BasketballNews.com 330p- BYU cross country coach is not member of the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints 350p- TryDayTrading.com's Market Update

www.longviewbaptistchurch.org 1 Timothy 4:1-2 1. Gods word gives the signs of every season. 2. Many well known figures are abandoning the faith! 3. Do NOT fall for rules! Have a transforming relationship with Jesus Chris!

June 15 2021 Tuesday  Barak Didn't Think He Could Ephesians 1:15-23 NLT  'Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God's people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.'  Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT 'When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.' Mark 10:29-30  100 Fold Return…  Millions of people live in chains not knowing that they have the key to break those chains.  Judges 4:6-9 KJV/NLT  Barak was promised victory, but he wouldn't go unless Deborah went with him... Proverbs 23:7  As you think in your heart that is what you are… 2 Corinthians 5:17  Born Again children of God are new creatures through Jesus Chris their Lord And Savior… Romans 8:1  No condemnation for Born Again children of God… Mark 11:22-23  Faith in God can overcome anything… Philippians 4:13  You Can Do All Things Through Jesus Christ Your Lord And Savior… God's Word Is True Above All Opinions… Romans 10:9-10 KJV/NLT  Salvation… Philippians 4:19  God will provide all your needs… Hebrews 11:6  You must believe God is who He says He is… Romans 10:13  Call on Jesus' Name and be Saved… 1 John 1:9  Confess your sins God Will Cleanse You…  John 3:3  You Must Be Born Again… Acts 10:34  God Is No Respecter Of Person… Luke 15:10  Heaven Rejoices Over One Person That Repents And Is Born Again… John 3:16  Believe On The Lord Jesus Christ Your Lord And Savior… Mark 10:29-30  100 Fold Return… Share This Podcast On Your Social Media Website https://the-prodigalson.com Email tstacyhayes@gmail.com YouVersion Bible App  https://my.bible.comi iOS App https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prodigal-son/id1450529518?mt=8 …  Android App https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.wizzard.android.prodical  Social Media https://www.facebook.com/The-Prodigal-SON-209069136315959/ https://www.facebook.com/noreligion1511/ https://twitter.com/noreligion1511 https://www.instagram.com/noreligion1511/ https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCPx4s1CLkSYef6mp4dSuU4w/featured

Reading is delivered by Mayolisia Ekayanti from the Church of Santa Anna Duren Sawit Jakarta, Indonesia; and meditation delivered by Brother Sevrin, SDB from the Salesian Theological School in Manila, Philippines. 2Corinthians 6: 1-10; Rs psalm 98: 1.2-3ab.3cd-4; Matthew 5: 38-42. REPAYING WITH LOVE Our meditation today has the theme: Repaying With Love. The law of love taught and offered to us by Jesus Christ is the principle rule in Christian life. We practice it through repaying evil and violence with love. Jesus Chris gives us his own example. When he was hanging on the cross in the story of His passion, He forgave those who had killed Him the innocent victim. The Blessed Virgin Mary, martyrs and saints like St. John Paul II also give us the same example. The virtues like understanding, patience, fortitude, forgiveness, and love are some examples of what the followers of Christ are expected to do, as their response to the people who cause them trouble, and who persecute, humiliate, or kill them. There was an elementary school boy who attended a school relatively near to the place where his family lived. It was a public school. He was the only student with different cultural, racial and religion from the majority that was practically the same religion. Every day he was the target of bullying and unfair treatments from his friends. However, this boy was given much support by the teachers and his own parents. After much patience and endurance, he was finally able to overcome that problem. He kept doing good to his friends by sharing his intelligence to them. He was always a helper when needed. He would willingly to lead the group to work together homework, and he frequently prayed for them. Gradually he himself saw the outcome. All his efforts have changed the behavior of his friends toward him. All eventually became his good friends. Everything was changed completely when at the start of the school year, he was appointed the class president. All his friends and teachers were happy and all supported him. The friends surely listened and respected him. He had actually won the hearts of those who were previously hostile to him. This boy hasreally practiced the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ about repaying evil and sins with love. Love is the golden rule of Jesus Christ and it's our new covenant. This law is the permanent opponent of the old law, namely revenge, hatred, violence, and death. This old law is symbolized by the expression from the scriptures that say: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Let's take an example from the scripture. An evil intention and action can be seen in the king Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who stole the vineyard of Naboth the Israelite, which resulted in Naboth being stoned to death. Jesus Christ was actually an unjust victim of those who lived by the old law. However, the nature of the new law is to repay evil and violence with love as what Jesus had done to his enemies. If Jesus had done the otherwise, today we may not see goodness, truth and peace. Love is powerful and always true, so it always overcomes evil and sin. Let's pray. In the name of the Father… O Lord Jesus, teach us to always to use love as the instrument to overcome conflict, violence, and evil in this world. Glory to the Father… In the name of the Father … --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/media-la-porta/message

In the 102nd Episode of The Breakthrough Secrets Podcast, Mike, Chris and our special guest Senior instructor at StrongFirst, Director of Operations at Hardstyle Kettlebell, and founder of The Better Man Blueprint Hector Gutierrez will talk about man as the leader of the house, the importance of the family, The Better Man Blueprint, women and man's first love and Jesus Chris as The Perfection Of Masculinity.Join us in this insightful and captivating talk!In this chapter you will discover:.(1:00) Introducing our special guest Senior instructor at StrongFirst, Director of Operations at Hardstyle Kettlebell, and founder of The Better Man Blueprint Hector Gutierrez @thedragao(1:10) Hector's 100 snatches a day program(2:40) The Better Man Blueprint(3:30) Training for men(5:40) Masculinity is under attack(5:50) “When you destroy the family, everything else falls” - Hector Gutierrez(6:50) Men don't ask for help cause for them, that is a sign of weakness(8:00) How men react in different ways to being wounded(9:10) Losing your gold(11:30) The feeling of being devalued(14:30) Using how you are in your advantage(15:20) Forgive or forget(15:50) Winners vs Losers(16:40) As the leader of the house, my family's energy goes where my energy goes(21:15) Strong in mind, body, emotionally, spiritually and in community(24:30) Where is your identity and who you are(31:00) Having the courage to acknowledge that something is wrong(32:00) “You can't solve the problem until you take ownership of the problem” - Hector Gutierrez(33.50) The foundation of trust(36:00) Different shadows for different aspects of masculinity(36:05) King, Warrior, Magician, Lover Book by Douglas Gillette and Robert L. Moore https://www.amazon.com/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscovering/dp/0062506064 (36:30) Your golden shadow(37:00) “The shadow is there, it's somebody who understands that shadow and chooses each day to not go into that shadow what makes you a good man”(40:00) How to determine what is the center(43:30) The 7 human goods(43:50) “Religion is man's ability to reconnect with his cause of being”- Hector Gutierrez(44:30) “Through a woman, man's first love, through a woman man will fall, through another woman man will be reborn and redeemed, and through that woman God is gonna come to reveal to you who you are” - Hector Gutierrez(48:00) Jesus of Nazareth is the perfection of masculinity(53:10) Jesus Christ split our time B.C. and A.D.(1:02:00) The family is under attack(1:02:30) Lucifer and his intent to attack women(1:09.00) “Without women we don't have a blueprint on how to become a better man” - Hector Gutierrez(1:14:00) Where to reach out to Hector Gutierrez @thedragao https://strongashec.com/kettlebell-workout-snacks/?fbclid=IwAR2gor62klQbYAH3rTDgRLZwpCIHxwjVSfXEkruIkHYIa9HTgeaNK4twVYE .#TheBreakthroughSecretsPodcast #strengthtraining #kettlebells #strength #knowledge #education #podcast #strengthshow #fitness #health #strengthhasagreaterpurpose #wellness #coaching #mindsetFind Free Resources at www.kettlebell.works Liked the show? Please lease us a review!

Thank you for listening to Mormon Sex Info. This episode is an archived episode and is only now becoming publicly available. Mormon Sex Info relies on contributions. To contribute, please visit: mormonsex.info Jennifer Limones joins Natasha on this episode of Mormon Mental Health to discuss the recent training the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints released for abuse training and protection of youth and minors. Jennifer, having taken the training, shares her insights with Natasha about the training and, although it’s a step in the right direction, she validates some of the fears of it not being run by a third party, that there is no accountability as to what was involved in the training through trauma-informed lens, and of course, nothing is being done about one-on-one worthiness interviews. Resources Mentioned During this Podcast: To find out more about a program Jennifer feels is a more healthy approach, you can check out “Darkness to Light” by Stewards of Children by going here: https://www.d2l.org/education/stewards-of-children/ You can find out more about Sam Young’s movement, “Protect LDS Children” by going here: https://protectldschildren.org

Matt Granados is a serial entrepreneur, innovator, risk taker, husband, and father. In this episode Matt shares his life, faith, and business stories. Through their company, LifePulse Inc., Matt and Maria have created a planning system the helps fortune 500 companies, branches of the United States military, startups, and people like us achieve better focus and live with greater intentionality. Matt is an international keynote speaker, author, and all around inspirational guy.Follow Matt:Instagram @matt87granadosFacebook @matt87granadosTwitter @matt87granadosFollow LifePulseInc:http://lifepulseinc.com/Instagram @LifePulseIncFacebook @LifePulseIncTwitter @LifePulseIncAsk anything: info@lifepulseinc.comSome quotes from the episode:“The reason why I lived a decent life… [my parents] understood right and wrong.”“Whether or you believe in Jesus or not, you can’t argue the principles he lived by and taught are valuable and applicable in today’s day and age.”“I get to [John] 4:23, ’True worshipers know God in both truth and spirit,’ and it hit me like a sack of bricks… I understood logically, I believed logically. I didn’t connect emotionally.”“Neither of us were seeking each other. We were both seeking God”“The biggest thing for yourself is creating habits and routines.” “Structure leads to freedom, and rhythm leads to peace.”“You’re not going to change your life in a week. But if you change your weeks, you’ll change your life.”“Learn with implementation in mind”“If you’re learning all the stuff in the world and doing nothing with it, it’s a waste of time to learn it. ‘Cause I can Google it faster than you can learn it.”“Don’t let your generosity get hit by fear.”“If you’re being pushed to do something because of [fear, obligation, or guilt,] I promise you that’s not [God] talking to you.” Fun things from the episode:Eagle University Sugar Bears or Gliders LifePlanner (Will uses it) Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book International best selling book Motivate the UnmotivatedMatt and Maria’s Podcast, REALationshipsGIFT TO YOU: exclusive gift just for listening!Other classic business reads: Rich Dad Poor Dad, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Power of Habit (one of Will’s favorites)The power of intentionality: Napoleon Hill’s Outwitting the Devil (personal recommendation Matt gave to Will)Listen to this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/I7lR7P2ksuwShare your thoughts: podcast@sarahgood.comNow That's Something Good Podcast by Sarah Good is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0

Celebrating our listener in Germany - Blue Ain't Taking Chris's Hat - Wisdom Man and Hyperbolic Boy - Matthew finds hope in Jesus - Chris shares his testimony --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chris-and-dan/message

Are you ready for the highs and lows of walking with Jesus? Chris continues through the Prepared series in Mark 1:9-20

How many times have we viewed our issues as problems or focused more on someone else's issues more than our own? In this episode, I talk about that very "issue" and I discuss how we can give our issues to someone, the only one, who has enough power to help cure us of our issues, when we press the issues of our past, towards the one who holds our future, Jesus Chris! I pray that you will be Blessed as you listen to this powerful Word! ~Dr. Lynn --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/drlynn-goebel/support

[Comment: Saving Souls] Friends of the Rosary, The Son of the Living God came down to earth to save souls. St Denis, the 3rd-century martyr and Bishop of Paris, said that there is nothing nobler and pleasing to God than to cooperate in the work of saving souls and to frustrate the devil's plan for ruining them. Jesus Chris built his Church upon the rock of Peter (MT 16:13-20) to undo the work of darkness. The empire of the Evil One was upset with the foundation of the Catholic Church, the mystical body of Jesus Christ. The Virgin Mary, the protectress of the Church, told us to pray the Rosary to save souls. Across history, we have seen the evil forces have an overwhelming fear of the Rosary. This is our spiritual sword. [Written by Mikel A][Written by Mikel A | TheRosaryNetwork.org]

The first 10 chapters of Hebrews have a very simple structure and premise – *Jesus Chris* t is compared to other leaders, systems and religious values. Jesus Christ is compared to *4 challenger* s. * The Prophets and Angels * Moses and the Promised Land * Priests and Melchizedek * Sacrifices and the Covenant.

A new MP3 sermon from Word of Life Community Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Living the Christian Life - Pt. 4 Subtitle: The Preeminence of Jesus Chris Speaker: Michael A. Williams Broadcaster: Word of Life Community Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 8/2/2020 Bible: Colossians 3:12-17 Length: 62 min.

Every major part of your life from conception to the grace is lifted up through the sacramental order as worship. Your becomes as pleasing to God our Father as that of Jesus Chris was and is. Because through Sacrament, the Holy Spirit makes your life a pleasing sacrifice to God!

Onward to Manhood w/ Eric Elliott - The Authority That Cut Us From Captivity The daily grind occupies our mind and drains our time- it can feel like captivity. Set up a “captivity alert” in you soul so that you can recognize when that danger creeps upon you. The word of God is a sword which serves as an exacting knife that cuts through strife and enables life. Many religions have tried for your soul but only Jesus Chris died for your soul. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Storm Talk 365 Radio, any of the affiliates or concerned parties represented by the network. All information, content, and music provided solely for general information, reference and entertainment purposes only. No copyrights infringements implied. **We Do Not Own The Rights To Any Music. Or The Contents of This Podcast. Used For Entertainment Purposes Only** www.stormtalk365radio.com https://www.facebook.com/stormtalk365msb/ Tags: stormtalk365 inspiration christianity religion malementoring christiantalkshow spirituality motivationaltalkshow problemsolving dailyliving ericelliott

On today's show, Tim welcomes lawyer and author of Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America Luke Goodrich to the show. Goodrich is the VP and Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and teaches advanced constitutional law at the University of Utah law school. He has been featured on Fox News, CNN, USA Today, TIME Magazine, NPR, ABC, The Wall Street Journal and more. Goodrich has spent over a decade winning religious freedom cases in courts across the country, including Supreme Court victories for the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby. Free To Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America reveals how churches, schools, ministry leaders, business owners and everyday individuals can protect their religious freedom, and in a spirit of hope rather than fear. The book is an important tool that shows why religious freedom matters, how it is threatened, and how people can protect it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, Deacon Kim Spear speaks on Psalm 145 and our Blessed Assurance in Jesus Chris. You are invited to Worship Sundays: 8 AM and 10 AM Wednesdays: 12 PM 460 N. Grandview Street Mount Dora, FL 32757 Website: StEdwardsEpiscopal.com Facebook: @stedwardsepiscopal Phone: 352-383-2832

Jennifer Limones joins Natasha on this episode of Mormon Mental Health to discuss the recent training the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints released for abuse training and protection of youth and minors. Jennifer, having taken the training, shares her insights with Natasha about the training and, although it’s a step in the right direction, she validates some of the fears of it not being run by a third party, that there is no accountability as to what was involved in the training through trauma-informed lens, and of course, nothing is being done about one-on-one worthiness interviews. To find out more about a program Jennifer feels is a more healthy approach, you can check out “Darkness to Light” by Stewards of Children by going here: https://www.d2l.org/education/stewards-of-children/ You can find out more about Sam Young’s movement, “Protect LDS Children” by going here: https://protectldschildren.org To help keep Mormon Mental Health going past 2019, please donate at mormonmentalhealth.org.

The Cross.... The Nails... The Death of Jesus Chris... The Burial... The Empty Tomb... Jesus is Alive! For Christians, all history centers around these events. But long before the crucifixion, long before the resurrection...there were signs, prophecies, there were.... Shadows of the Cross

Rejection is something that we have all experienced and many times remember it's sting. When we discover that our lord and saviour Jesus Chris was rejected for our sake, the strong holds of rejection are broken.

La ciencia sugiere que las creencias religiosas habrían surgido como una extensión natural de avances evolutivos desarrollados en la cognición social y el comportamiento. Así, con el paso del tiempo, los mismos cambios en el volumen del cerebro que permitieron al ser humano demostrar empatía hacia otros individuos, podrían haber posibilitado también la aparición del sentimiento de relación íntima con entidades sobrenaturales y, en consecuencia, la emergencia de las religiones. Usar en la misma frase ciencia y religión le ha costado el pellejo a más de un osado, no obstante, si en vez de la palabra ciencia, usamos música; la cosa cambia. Me gusta pensar que los mismos engranajes que nos han llevado a creer en entidades superiores, también nos han desarrollado la comunicación musical y además de los temas cotidianos, la crítica social o el amor, del mismo modo el ser humano siente la necesidad de expresar a través de la música su propio devocional sobrenatural. Hoy en Más Allá de Orión repasaremos algunas de las canciones y artistas más comprometidos con sus referentes religiosos. Algunos desde el éxtasis…otros, en cambio, desde la paranoia o la urgencia. Listado de canciones. 1- Jesus Chris super star –Hossana 2- Bob Dylan –Gotta serve somebody 3- Elecric Prunes –David Axelrod- Keley Elefson 4- George Harrison –My sweet lord 5- Cat Stevens –Yusuf Islam- All is for Allah 6- The Osmonds – Last Days 7- The Byrds –The Christian life (version de the louving brothers, Ira y Charlie Louving) 8- The Doobie Brothers –Jesus is just alright 9- Eric Clapton –Blind Faith- In The Presence of The Lord 10- John Lennon –God-

Rene R Martinez shares how he is intentional with the ways in which he spends his time, and how he makes sure to prioritize the DMO in each day. Also, he shares the results he has seen since attending a BYOB workshop with Simon Chan. DMO stands for Daily Method of Operation and is a checklist of what you need to do every day to build a successful MLM business online. mlmnation.com/dmo To be added to MLM Nation Insider’s waiting list, go to mlmnation.com/insider  Who is Rene Martinez Jr? Rene R Martinez Jr is a follower of Jesus Chris,t a husband and a father of 3 children Maximus Mia and Samson, and a full-time mechanic. Rene hit the Top Silver Director in his company while working 40-100 hrs per week in his Mechanic job, although 3 years prior he hadn’t even heard of network marketing. A year ago Rene and his wife decided to sell their Crossfit gym to focus on their MLM business. Best Advice The DMO works if you work. If you put in the effort it’s going to work, if you don’t, it’s not going to happen for free. You’ve got to put the work in.   Show Ambassador Courtney Cherco Facebook Contact Info Facebook Instagram What Did You Learn? Thanks for joining me on the show. So what did you learn? If you enjoyed this episode please share it on social media and send it to someone that needs extra motivation in their MLM business. Do you have any thoughts or comments? Please take 60 seconds to leave an HONEST review for the MLM Nation Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely important for me to make this show better. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes so that you get updates and new episodes downloaded to your phone automatically. Subscribe to our show  iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | TuneIn | RSS The post 498: DMO Heroes “How to Make the Most of Every Minute to See Growth in Your Business” by Rene Martinez Jr appeared first on MLM Nation.

Rene R Martinez shares how he is intentional with the ways in which he spends his time, and how he makes sure to prioritize the DMO in each day. Also, he shares the results he has seen since attending a BYOB workshop with Simon Chan. DMO stands for Daily Method of Operation and is a checklist of what you need to do every day to build a successful MLM business online. mlmnation.com/dmo To be added to MLM Nation Insider’s waiting list, go to mlmnation.com/insider  Who is Rene Martinez Jr? Rene R Martinez Jr is a follower of Jesus Chris,t a husband and a father of 3 children Maximus Mia and Samson, and a full-time mechanic. Rene hit the Top Silver Director in his company while working 40-100 hrs per week in his Mechanic job, although 3 years prior he hadn’t even heard of network marketing. A year ago Rene and his wife decided to sell their Crossfit gym to focus on their MLM business. Best Advice The DMO works if you work. If you put in the effort it’s going to work, if you don’t, it’s not going to happen for free. You’ve got to put the work in.   Show Ambassador Courtney Cherco Facebook Contact Info Facebook Instagram What Did You Learn? Thanks for joining me on the show. So what did you learn? If you enjoyed this episode please share it on social media and send it to someone that needs extra motivation in their MLM business. Do you have any thoughts or comments? Please take 60 seconds to leave an HONEST review for the MLM Nation Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely important for me to make this show better. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes so that you get updates and new episodes downloaded to your phone automatically. Subscribe to our show  iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | TuneIn | RSS The post 498: DMO Heroes “How to Make the Most of Every Minute to See Growth in Your Business” by Rene Martinez Jr appeared first on MLM Nation.

There are a lot of areas in life where it’s ok to lack certainty. However, when it comes to our relationship with God and our eternal destiny, we should want to know for certain where we stand. Thankfully, God wants His people to have this same assurance––the assurance that we have eternal life in Jesus Christ. In this sermon from 1 John 1:1–4, David Platt encourages us to believe and experience the love of God as it is revealed in Jesus Chris

Mark 7:24-37 | August 5, 2018 | Hanley Liu Personal Application Questions: 1) When was the last time you felt or were treated like an outsider? 2) Or, if applicable, when was the last time you treated someone else like an outsider? How does today's passage change your perspective? 3) Why is it important that Jesus Chris identifies with human weakness? Visit our church website: http://fcbcwalnut.org Connect with us on social media: https://linktr.ee/fcbcwalnut Subscribe to our social media newsletter: http://eepurl.com/b5qHlj

Does God care about safety? Industries, government agencies, policies, and our prayer lives reflect how deeply we value safety… but where does safety fit into the life of faith in Jesus? Chris and Wayne discuss safety and its proper place in the life of a Jesus follower, as well as explore ways to discuss this … Continue reading "Is Safety Important? – CHSBT – 036"

Eat my flesh? Drink my blood? What sounds like an apocalyptic zombie horror film is actually one of the most confusing and controversial teachings of Jesus Chris. Learn why Jesus sometimes offends us as part of His loving ministry.

Eat my flesh? Drink my blood? What sounds like an apocalyptic zombie horror film is actually one of the most confusing and controversial teachings of Jesus Chris. Learn why Jesus sometimes offends us as part of His loving ministry.

City council member floats anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, Boko Haram and their kidnapped school girls, Jim Carrey paints a picture, appointment of humanist chaplain blocked, monks angry at the sale of their holy beer, falling rates of religious belief amongst Europe’s youth, and a rape-coverup scandal hits Mormon church.

Rory Clarke encourages us that we are freed, emboldened, sanctified, healed, and empowered in Christ. God’s vision over Hillside is the release of the lion’s (apostles) and the eagles (prophets) to grow, go, and take on risk to be who He designed us to be. The household of God having been built on the foundations of apostles and prophets, Jesus Chris himself being the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:19).

Psalms 110 Watch Video Listen to MP3 Download Handout Download Manuscript → Click to view the Sermon Outline Davidic Pattern #1: The path toward kingship was marked by suffering. The humble servant had to suffer first before he was exalted as king. Davidic Pattern #2: When exalted as king, God brought remaining factions and enemies into subjection to God’s chosen king (cf 2 Samuel 5:9-12). Jesus Christ, Pattern #3: God’s chosen King suffered, was delivered from the grave and then was exalted “carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:44-50). Psalm 110 - The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.” Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; in holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside; therefore He will lift up His head. Five realities about Jesus Christ that we must all come face to face with sooner or later 1. God Has Made Christ Alone King of Creation—“Sit at My Right Hand” (v. 1) a. “At God’s right hand”—Matthew 22:44, Mark 16:19, Acts 2:33, 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 1:3, 8:1, 12:2-3, 1 Peter 3:22, Revelation 3:21 b. “The Right Hand of God” is the place of eternal rulership The ascension of Christ is as significant to the Lordship of Christ as His death and resurrection is to His role as Savior. He is both Lord/King and Savior! c. But how could any man share God’s ruling throne? Jesus Christ was not simply “any man”—“The Lord said to my Lord” (cf. Matthew 22:41-45) 2. God Has Promised Christ Alone a Kingdom (v. 2) 3. God Has Promised Christ Alone a People/Army for His Kingdom (v. 3) a. Willing volunteers b. Dressed in righteousness (holy majesty/womb of dawn, cf. Revelation 19:11-16) 4. God Has Made Christ Alone the Only Way to Be Part of His Kingdom—Christ Is Not Only a King but a Priest! (v. 4, cf. Genesis 14, Hebrews 5-9) 5. God Will Destroy Opposition to Christ Alone (vv. 5-6)  Outlined Manuscript Have you ever experienced something that you never thought you would experience in your life?  Maybe it was a sudden sorrowful thing that happened to you or someone near to you.  Maybe it was something that you waited for your whole life to happen and you just were not sure if it would ever happen (I imagine there are some parents of soon to be graduates that may be feeling that way about now).  Maybe it was something that you spent plenty of time dreaming about in your life. Wednesday night November 2, I finished up a night of youth group in the LOFT and immediately ran out to my Jeep.  I turned on the ignition and before the engine had even finished cranking over I had the radio tuned into the Cubs versus the Indians playing in Game 7 of the World Series. As I turned on to State Road 26 to begin my journey home I listened as Dexter Fowler led off the game with a home run to deep right center field. Maybe tonight would be the night that I had played out countless times in my backyard as kid in Northern Illinois.  Maybe tonight the Cubs would be the world champions. It had been 108 years since the last time the Cubs had won the World Series.  For years they had been mocked as the “loveable losers”, but tonight could be a different night. Well that game did not go exactly the way that was the least amount of stress, but early on that Thursday morning the Cubs were finally the World Series Champ.  As my 91 year old grandma that was sitting next to me said as the final out was recorded, “Well they finally did it.” Everything changed in the mind of the lifetime Cub fan.  The blues and reds of the world were just brighter and more beautiful.  They no longer were fans of the “Loveable Losers”, but now were fans of the Champs. Even in something as silly as winning a World Series there was a new realization that would make life never the same again. These realization moments can come from any changes that revolutionize our lives.  We go about our lives and for the most part we get into routines But then something in our environment changes—something either that we want to change or something that we don’t want to change. And when it changes we may take a while to believe what has happened. Here is a question for you… What is the greatest reality shock of your life? Here is what I believe it is…. We by our nature grow up in a state of selfishness that causes us to seek our own good.  We exalt ourselves to the roll of king over our own life. Think about it. From birth whenever I was hungry, I would just cry, and suddenly a bottle would appear. Whenever, I had a dirty diaper I would just cry a little bit more and suddenly my diaper would be changed. As a toddler, I want a toy, I grab it from my friend that was playing with it. As a teen, I want my own pleasure, so I experiment with sex and drugs As  a highschooler, I learn how to get attention by using my body for athletics or beauty. As a college student, I want to live the party life and sow my wild oats…. As an adult, I learn to make money to spend on toys for me. The routine of living for self is our reality What happens when you come face to face with the reality of you are not KING!! What happens when you begin to see for the first time, this world doesn’t revolve around you! My friends that is a reality for all of us, that must be faced. With those thoughts in mind please turn in your Bibles to Psalms 110. That is on page 443 in the front section of the bible in the chair in front of you. I have also printed the text of Psalm 110 in your bulletin notes if you would rather look there. This year’s annual theme at Faith is In Christ Alone And after Easter we have turned our attention to a five part series on Seeing Christ in the Psalms Much of Jesus’ life and work is said in the New Testament to be a fulfillment of the Psalms. Let me say an explanatory word about my understanding of the messianic Psalms. Many of the Psalms/Songs in the OT were written by a man called David, King of Israel. David was God’s chosen king to rule over God’s people. David, was an example or type of a man who, although a sinner and having some great sins, strived to be faithful to God. He was faithful to God in His youth. He was marked by meekness and humility and trust in the Lord. He is known for His slaying of the giant menace of Israel, Goliath, by relying on Lord—not any kind of military strength. Because of his humility, God chose him as an earthly king over his people However, the path to kingship was one marked by suffering. His enemies opposed him and often sought his life… Pastor Green at FE and Pastor Wright at FW spoke about his sufferings last week. Please notice the pattern… Davidic Pattern #1: The path toward kingship was marked by suffering. The humble servant had to suffer first before he was exalted as king. When David actually became King, God gradually brought all the fighting factions and opposing nations into submission to David’s reign. Davidic Pattern #2: When established as king, God brought remaining factions and enemies into subjection to God’s chosen king (cf 2 Sam 5:9–12). Notice this passage 2 Sam 5:10David became greater and greater, for the Lord God of hosts was with him.11Then Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David with cedar trees and carpenters and stonemasons; and they built a house for David.12And David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that He had exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel. David as a musician recorded songs about these experiences in the Psalms And Then Jesus says in Luke 24:44 Luke 24:44  44Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem…50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. There are two observations about this passage that I want to make. First, Notice how Jesus said all that is written in the Psalms must be fulfilled—Hence we have these “messianic psalms Second, Notice this pattern Jesus Christ, Pattern#3: God’s Chosen King suffered and then was delivered from the grave and then was “carried up into heaven.” In the comparison to David what does this pattern correspond to? ANSWER: David’s exaltation as King and God working to bring all face to face with the reality of Christ’s kingship. God working to subject all people to his kingship. With that back ground let’s read now Psalm 110 Psalm 110 (Notes only)       1    The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”       2    The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”       3    Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew.       4    The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”       5    The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.       6    He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.       7    He will drink from the brook by the wayside; Therefore He will lift up His head. Today from Psalm 110 we are discussing Facing the Reality of God’s Choice of Christ Alone Five realities about Jesus Christ that we must all come face to face with sooner or later. The first reality is this… God Has Made Christ Alone King of Creation—“Sit at My Right Hand.” Friends the NT recognizes Psalms 110 as one of the most significant chapters in the OT. Every human author of the NT quotes some portion of Psalm 110 except James and Jude. I have listed several of these references for you…. “At God’s right hand”—Matt 22:44, Mark 16:19, Acts 2:33, 7:55-56, Rom 8:34, Eph 1:20, Col 3:1, Heb 1:3, 8:1, 12:2–3, 1 Pet 3:22, Rev 3:21 Here is just one example: Eph 1:20 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.22And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. We focus a lot on the resurrection of Jesus Chris and rightly so. The resurrection represents so much Victory over Death The first fruits of the promise of eternal life—a resurrected body God’s stamp of approval on His Son for His life and His Sacrifice However, the entire NT is not only structured around the resurrection but the truth from this PSALM—sit at my right hand--the ascension of Christ into heaven! That is amazing. Until I studied this Psalm and the numerous quotes of this Psalm in the NT I had no idea of how much this concept of Christ being translated from earth to heaven informed the theology of the NT. Read the cross references I gave you and see how significant this is!!!.  But what is so significant about “the Right Hand of God” What does this mean? The right hand of God means “The Right Hand of God” is the place of eternal rulership Earthly Kings invited a cherished and faithful servant to be their right hand man to execute their rule. As an example, those of you who know the Bible remember the Joseph story and how Joseph after suffering was exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh. Joseph in all practical senses was ruler over Egypt— equal to Pharaoh! David after suffering was exalted to the earthly kingdom of Israel and could be said to be “God’s right hand man on earth.” But David did not ascend bodily to heaven In Christ you have something entirely greater The Man Jesus ascended bodily to heaven not just a throne on earth…God’s heavenly throne. What does this mean…God has place Jesus Christ at the place of authority over all including you. The ascension of Christ is as significant to the Lordship of Christ as is His death and resurrection is to His Role as Savior. He is both Lord/King and Savior! My friends that is the reality…Christ simply is King. You simply are not the king. This is the reality. This is the reality that you must face either now or when God His Father, makes you a footstool for King Jesus’ feet. But Here is a question for you… But how could any man share God’s ruling throne? Jesus Christ was not simply “any man”—“The Lord said to my Lord” (cf. Matt 22:41–45) I think God has a sense of humor. He planted riddles and mysteries in the OT that would perplex people only to be revealed at the right time. I have had the privilege of attending Faith Bible Seminary and Pastor Aucoin was always so excited to point out these mysteries and riddles.  As I was discussing this passage with him in preparation for this sermon, I was reminded of that excitement he has for these Old Testament mysteries, as we talked about this phrase. David wrote the beginning line of the Psalm, “The Lord said to my Lord…dwell at my right hand.” What does, “The Lord said to my Lord” mean? Is David calling himself “my lord”—that would be a strange way for David to speak about Himself. So for years the Jewish folks interpret this phrase as applying to a descendent of David….rightfully so….the coming Messiah…. But the Jewish folks completely missed something…If this applies to David’s descendent…David call’s his descendent “MY LORD”  MY MASTER///MY KING…  How could the Messiah both be David’s Son and David’s master? How? Jesus stumped the Pharisees with this question… Matthew 22:41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question:42 “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.”43 He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying,44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet” ’? 45“If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”46 No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question. How is a man sitting at the right Hand of God? Because Jesus Christ is not simply a man…He is God incarnate. In order to ascend to be at the right hand of God he had to first descend to become human. This man is King.  This Man is God Himself.  Christ is King.  Christ is God Himself. Is he your King? The second reality we must face is that God Has Promised Christ Alone A Kingdom Ps. 110:2The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.” Folks is this the reality we live in… God does not say he will stretch forth Johnny’s kingdom saying “rule”? God does not say he will stretch forth (Pastor Garner, Folden, Green)’s kingdom saying “rule”? God will stretch forth Christ strong scepter ALONE saying rule. My friends do you remember a time in your life where you began to recognize this life is simply not about building your kingdom.       What are you doing with your life?       As I said the most routine aspect of our life is building             our kingdoms Our kingdoms of people who adore us Our kingdoms of accomplishments Our kingdoms of wealth Our kingdoms of influence       Psalm 110 brings us face to face that God has promised Christ Alone a Kingdom. Let that reality sink in a bit as you evaluate your life’s efforts…what are you working for….? Think about the summer that is coming up.  What are you going to do this summer?  Is it going to be all about you and your kingdom?  Is it about the number of hours you get to spend the pool? Is it about the number of lemonades you can consume on your back porch? Is it about the number of dandelions you eliminate from your yard? Is it about how many levels you can advance in the newest video game or the number of Netflix binges you can consume?       Why not make this summer about advancing the King that has already been exalted? Spread the great news of Christ, the exalted King, by helping to share the Gospel to kids from our community by serving in VBS. Spread the great news of Christ, the exalted King, by showing up to the Community Picnic and intentionally engaging with people from our community. Spread the great news of Christ, the exalted King, by getting involved in any of the number of serving opportunities in our community this summer. God Has Promised Christ Alone a People/Army for His Kingdom       Ps. 110:3Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. The King has a Kingdom And, And What else does the King have?   an Army In the Hebrew there are simply two Hebrew words “Your people” is one Hebrew word, and then the second word is the Hebrew word for “freewill offering” Your people, a free will offering The people of this Kingdom are Willing Volunteers Why would you sign up to be a subject in anyone’s Kingdom? In the OT God warned Israel about wanting a king like the other nations in that they would force the people to become slaves.  The king would force the people to serve in the army. But this is remarkable…there is something about this king and his kingdom that people say….”Sign me up…” Why would that be? Because there is something good about this King and His Kingdom. Service for this King is not like slavery to my previous masters Service for this king is freeing… Friends have you come face to face with the reality of the tyranny of the kingdom of self and sin…and how there is a much better king and kingdom that you can join? The slavery to sin and self is never fully satisfying.  – You will always be searching for just a bit more happiness.  You will always find yourself to be a horrible king in your life. You will always find your kingdom to be lacking. The mark of the armies of Christ is that they are willfully following Him. You will find no other Master you will love to serve.   The King’s people are also…. Dressed in Righteousness (Holy Majesty/womb of dawn. Cf Rev 19:11–16) Your people are in “holy array” and “from the womb of dawn” Now, remember one thing about Hebrew poetry… Hebrew poetry uses a lot of metaphors and you have got to attempt to picture what the author is trying to communicate. Womb of dawn? What does that mean? Obviously, a womb is something that gives birth (we really do not have time to expand on that concept any more than that) In this case it is the womb of Dawn So what comes out of the “birthing canal” of dawn? Light! “Holy Array” also communicates that the King’s People are Brilliant in appearance. And the term “Your Youth like dew”—may also communicate the concept of purity Folks I believe also that Revelation 19 about the coming of the King and His People refers to this passage as well with very similar imagery. Notice God’s people are clothed in Brilliance…They are not cowering in the shame of nakedness. Notice the similarity here in Rev 19. Rev 19:11And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.16And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” The King’s People are viewed as pure!!! In the revelation passage the people of the king are in white brilliant clothing But what is the King clothed in?  Robe dipped in blood! In God’s eyes the King’s people are viewed as pure…..But the King is soaked in blood…What’s going on here? Furthermore, the King is at the right hand of God and the people are with the king So, 1. How could any person with all of our impurities be there with the King and 2. viewed as pure? How is that possible? Because of this fourth reality… God Has Made Christ Alone the Only Way to Be Part of His Kingdom—Christ Is Not Only a King But a Priest! (cf. Gen 14, Hebrews 5-9)       Psalm 110:4The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” Well now, isn’t this an obscure statement Order of Melchizedek?  What is this?  J It sounds like something you would order at a fast food restaurant….”I will take the Melchizedek meal with a large Coke Zero.” Melchizedek was the King of Jerusalem 1000 years before David became King of Jerusalem. You can briefly read about Melchizedek in Genesis 14. The significance of Melchizedek was that he is described in Gen 14 as both a priest and a king. Now, God had not allowed any of his earthly rulers to be both priests and kings. Do you know why? What does power do? Corrupt. And what does absolute power do—corrupt absolutely. Can you imagine a monarch with absolute power that controlled all aspects of the nation including down to what all the subjects had to believe and access to God. So, God made the first separation of powers long before the American government.  In Israel, God separated the King’s power of rulership from the priests’ role of providing access to God. Those kings in Israel who crossed the line into priestly duties—men like Saul and Uzziah—were severely judged by God. But here when God says of Jesus YOU ARE THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK….that means that the Messiah would be the only King who is both King and Priest. And Praise the Lord for you because that means this King and only this King gets you access to God Not because he sacrificed some animals for you but he sacrificed His body for you He is wearing the blood soak robes so that you can stand with him with God in white garments. Hebrews 7:21 but He (God) with an oath through the One who said to Him,“The Lord has sworn And will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever’ ”);22 so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.23 The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, 24 but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.25Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;         27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. Jesus Christ is sitting right now at the right hand of the Father as 1. king but not just king….as a 2. priest. And notice that there is a time frame on this….in verse 1—until the God makes the enemies of the King/priest His footstool. Since Christ ascended until this very moment, you have the opportunity to come face to face with the reality of this King as your Savior because of his priestly work. And   And you have the opportunity to learn now how to grow into the pure white clothing All of this is until—God brings everything in subjection to him and face to face with what happens if we do not subject our self to this king… God Will Destroy Opposition to Christ Alone (vv. 5–6)       5    The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.       6    He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. The king will return to earth as He ascended from it and God the father will be at his right hand executing the wrath of God. And judge those who did not come face to face with the King, His Kingdom, and His priesthood for them. Here is the reality today…. You will either be part of the army of the king dressed in brilliant clothing (the righteousness of Christ). Or you will be facing the wrath of the Father My friends, this is inescapable. This is the reality But right now the King is sitting until that time when he gets on the war horse. You today, may say I don’t want anything to do with that kind of a violent king. Let me end today with the last phrase of the Psalm…       7    He will drink from the brook (river/torrent/flood) by (on) the wayside; Therefore He will lift up His head. The phrase “He will drink from the brook by the wayside… Has perplexed the commentators. There is not agreement about what that phrase means. However, some believe it is a reference to the cup that Christ drank at the cross. Do you remember the night before Christ was to experience the violent judgement that we deserved Christ compared it to a drink. He said, “Lord, if it be your will let me not drink this cup (of wrath) but not my will but yours be done.” Thus, the phrase might be better translated and could be translated, He will drink from the torrent on the way. My friend, if you never face reality of Christ being King, with a Kingdom and a People and one day you come face to face with the reality of violent judgment of the Warrior King it will only be because you did not accept the reality today that the priestly king took the violent judgment upon Himself that you deserved. So whose Kingdom will you pursue? Your own empty kingdom? Or the Kingdom of Christ alone? Let’s Pray.

In this Podcast, Justin and Craig discuss the life of Jesus Chris. Twitter : @lifeofchristpod Facebook : lifeofchristpod Gmail : lifeofchristpod@gmail.com

Dreams are natural and everyone dreams. It is a normal part of our sleep cycle. To understand why we dream, it is important to understand a little about the sleep cycle. Sleep is how we rejuvenate and restore many of the body's functions. Sleep aids in memories, learning, moods and social behaviors, our immune and nervous systems, and growth and development. There are two types of sleep, NREM (non-REM) and REM. Non-REM sleep is divided into three stages, which include drowsiness, light sleep, and one stage of deep sleep. REM sleep is the stage in which we dream. We go through the stages of sleep several times during the night and as the night progresses, we experience longer periods of REM sleep. We can read and know about the hearts of dreamers in the Bible. In both the Old and New Testaments, there are many examples of dreamers and some were gifted to interpret the dreams of others. In our everyday life, in the midst of the cares of the world do we dare to dream no matter how big or small? Joel 2:28 says “And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." Let us not fall into the trap of lies that keeps us from dreaming. Our dreams are worth it, especially if God gives them to us! Join us for the next Hope for Today podcast and hear about true disappointment because of dreams deferred and rejoicing because of dreams realized. Any dream that comes from God is always based on His time and plan for us!  

Join us this week on Christian Devotions SPEAK UP! as Scott talks with country music journalist, Deborah Evans Price. Deborah Evans Price has covered country, gospel, and rock music for Billboard magazine since 1994. She also contributes regularly to AOL's The Boot, Country Weekly, Gospel Music Channel.com, CMA Close Up, FIRST, and other publications. A noted country and Christian music historian, she's authored The CMA Awards Vault and A History of the Country Music Association Awards published by Whitman Publishing, as well as a historical retrospective on Word Records—Word: Six Decades of Hits. She has interviewed countless artists, including Willie Nelson, Amy Grant, Third Day, Don Henley, Bon Jovi, Chris Rice, Charlie Daniels, Kirk Franklin, 3 Doors Down, Sarah Brightman, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Smokey Robinson, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Steven Curtis Chapman, Sandra Bullock, and Robert Duvall. Deborah has recently authored Country Faith Christmas which will feature Christmas memories from thirty-seven of today's top country music stars, including Florida Georgia Line, Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Darius Rucker, and Brenda Lee as well as a foreword written by Kimberly Schlapman (Little Big Town) and four Advent meditations from Charlie Daniels. The stars share their holiday stories, family traditions, memorable gifts, personal recipes, and favorite Christmas carols. 

Join us this week on Christian Devotions SPEAK UP! as Scott talks with country music journalist, Deborah Evans Price. Deborah Evans Price has covered country, gospel, and rock music for Billboard magazine since 1994. She also contributes regularly to AOL's The Boot, Country Weekly, Gospel Music Channel.com, CMA Close Up, FIRST, and other publications. A noted country and Christian music historian, she's authored The CMA Awards Vault and A History of the Country Music Association Awards published by Whitman Publishing, as well as a historical retrospective on Word Records—Word: Six Decades of Hits. She has interviewed countless artists, including Willie Nelson, Amy Grant, Third Day, Don Henley, Bon Jovi, Chris Rice, Charlie Daniels, Kirk Franklin, 3 Doors Down, Sarah Brightman, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Smokey Robinson, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Steven Curtis Chapman, Sandra Bullock, and Robert Duvall. Deborah has recently authored Country Faith Christmas which will feature Christmas memories from thirty-seven of today's top country music stars, including Florida Georgia Line, Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Darius Rucker, and Brenda Lee as well as a foreword written by Kimberly Schlapman (Little Big Town) and four Advent meditations from Charlie Daniels. The stars share their holiday stories, family traditions, memorable gifts, personal recipes, and favorite Christmas carols. 

1. Our guilt before God2. God's mercy in Jesus ChrisTime:AfternoonTexts:Heidelberg Catechism: Lord's Day 3

Revelation of Jesus Chris

A relationship with Christ provides the peace we need

As we set our hope fully on the grace of Jesus Chris, we should walk in holiness because God is holy.

Significant Walls in History In the summer of 2001, I had the privilege of going to China and visit some friends that were serving the Lord there. Then we had a little bit of time in Beijing, and like so many tens of thousands of tourists that visit Beijing, I also wanted to go to the Great Wall of China. So, we made that trek in a taxicab, and went up there with thousands of people to walk for a little stretch on the Great Wall of China. It's really an impressive structure, an amazing feat of human engineering, 5,500 miles long. If you think about it, over 5,000 miles long built over three centuries, mostly over three centuries, in the 14th to the 17th century, built with the blood of slave labor of people just who are crushed by the effort under the lash of the whip of these emperors who had one desire, and that was to keep the Mongol warriors out. They wanted to keep the Mongols out. The problem with that was that there were gaps in the wall and it didn't reach to the end. And so these folks just rode around it. But there it stands. No, it cannot be seen from the moon. They say it's the only human built structure... It cannot be seen from the moon. It can barely be seen from a shallow orbit, but it's still impressive. And I got to thinking, as I was meditating on this text today, of the efforts that human beings have made to build walls to keep people from moving where they want to go. That's the purpose of a lot of walls that are built. The Great Wall of China was built for that purpose. Hadrian's Wall, in the northern part of England, built to keep the savage northern Scots warriors, the Picts and others, from coming down and made a line of demarcation, this is where the Roman Empire ends right here. Think about the Berlin Wall, built in 1961 by the East German authorities around the circumference of West Berlin to keep East Germans from fleeing to freedom. And what an incredible time that was, as I'm sure you remember, 1989, when the wall finally came down. But all of those walls were really ineffective because as ingenious as the wall builders are, the people who want to get in are even more ingenious and more determined, and they're just going to do it. Over 5,000 people escaped past that wall, the Berlin Wall, into West Berlin for freedom, relentless drive to get where they want to go. But I say to you, the most imposing wall that has ever been built was made of fabric and it enclosed the holy of holies, it was established by God, it was hanging from flimsy acacia wood poles, it was completely movable. And it was a message from Almighty God, saying to us, as a sinful human race, we are not welcome in His holy presence. This fabric could have been cut with a knife or moved aside with the motion of the hand, but the reality could not so easily be moved aside. We are not welcome in the presence of a holy God, apart from the ministry of Jesus Christ. We are not welcome. And again, and again, in the Book of Exodus, the Lord was giving that message, an amazing kind of rhythm in some of these passages how the Lord will lay out some things. They were powerfully attractive to human beings, saying, "Come here, come here, come here, come here." And then as soon as we start to move, saying, "No more, you can't come any closer." You look at the burning bush, God does that with Moses, he puts out that flame, and the bush is not consumed and it's a miracle. And Moses, just wandering there, in the back side of the desert with his father-in-law's sheep, just another day in the desert looking after daddy's sheep, and there's this bush as though God didn't know what magnetic effect it would have on Moses. And Moses saw, and he said, "I will go over and see this strange sight, why the bush does not burn up." And the text says, "When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' Moses said, 'here I am.' [And then the next words were] 'Do not come any closer.'" Same thing in Exodus 19, where God put limits around the mountain, as we've talked about before, and then descends with such a display of divine presence and power and majesty that God knew very, very well that the people would be attracted to the mountain, not running away from it, they want to be near God. That's in your heart. We are designed, we are built for God. We are built for fellowship with God. And so God, showing such a clear display of His majesty, of His greatness and His power, even though terrifying signs, still commanded that some limits, some wall of some sort, don't know much about it, but be put at the base of the mountain and a command be given that the Israelites must not force their way up the mountain unless they be put to death. Same thing in Exodus 24, when God commanded Moses with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, and the 70 elders of Israel, to come up the mountain now. Now they're invited to come up, you can read about it in Exodus 24, but Aaron and the others must not come up, only Moses may approach. And the command to the rest of the elders of Israel was, "You are to worship at a distance." "Worship at a distance," that's the old covenant. The attraction, the compulsion to get near God laid out there. And in Exodus 24, God showed those elders a vision of the God of Israel above an expanse, like sapphire, God showed Himself, He revealed Himself to them. But the command was still hanging over them, "Don't come any closer." "You must worship at a distance." And so in the fullness of time, God, in Exodus, commanded that this tabernacle be built. We've talked about it. We'll go into some details again today to remind ourselves what we're talking about. But there is this place, a focal point, a place of worship, where the Israelites were to worship, that's where they were to go, that's where they were to make their sacrifices. It was a focal point, a place of worship. And God graced that tabernacle, that simple tent, with a magnificent display of His presence. The glory of God filled that tabernacle. A glory cloud filled it, and right there at the end, in Exodus 40, the text says very plainly that Moses could not enter because of the glory of the Lord. It's the same message, do you not see it? God is saying by the glory, "Come, come closer. You want to see this. This is very attractive to you, isn't it?" Very attractive, very interesting, a passion to get near God. And then that command, "You must not get any closer. You may not come." Same thing happened when Solomon built the temple. You remember that, how he built the temple. And the Glory of God filled that temple, and the priest could not enter. It's the same thing again and again. And so we have this attraction, this yearning to be near God, but we are told by this tabernacle, the lesson of the tabernacle in our text today, the Holy Spirit was teaching by this tabernacle, "You may not come into My presence." A New Message: Come to the Father Through Jesus! Now, the joy for me, as I preach this text, is to know that that's old news, friends. It's old. That's what the Holy Spirit was teaching back then. He's no longer saying that to us now. Now he's saying, "Come near to me. I am the way, and the truth, and the life," said Jesus. "No one comes to the Father except through Me." But if you turn it around, "you may absolutely come to the Father through Me." Hebrews 10, we'll get to it, maybe, but at any rate, eventually, that Jesus is for us a new and living way into the very presence of God. So, as we come now to Hebrews 9 and 10, we're looking at aspects of the covenant, the overall message of the Book of Hebrews, the superiority of Jesus Christ and of the new covenant that He brings. A specific focal point of this lesson was that these first century Jewish believers in Christ were going to have a very, very hard time giving up their traditions of worship. And so again, in our text, this lesson is for the present time, He says, to especially help first century Jewish believers in Christ to give up on the trappings the physical aspects of old covenant worship because their time is done now. And so the supremacy of Jesus Christ, the supremacy of the new covenant, all of these things. But now as we come to be Hebrews, this section, Hebrews 7, 8, 9, 10, especially Hebrews 9 and 10, we're looking at specific details of the old covenant sacrificial system that are now fulfilled, that are superseded by what Christ has done in a marvelous way. And as I was trying to organize this in my mind this morning, I had this thought that came to me. Recently, we were on a mission trip to Nepal, and we had one very, very long day in which we were sitting on an unmoving bus for, on and off, a total of seven plus hours. That was tough. You just run out of things to do. I was sitting next to Jenny and we were playing 20 Questions, which I don't actually love. It's okay for a little while. And 20 Questions always begins the same way, you have to decide if it's a person, a place, or a thing. Remember that game? And so that's the first few questions that you ask, is to ascertain that. And I think that that's a good kind of three-part summary of what we're looking at here, superior person, superior place, superior thing. How is that? That came to me this morning. Isn't that exciting, 20 questions used in homiletics. All right? But Christ is superior as our great high priest. He is holy. He is the Son of God. He is sinless, pure, blameless, does not need to offer sacrifices for His own sins. He will never die, but the supremacy of Christ has been the unifying theme all the way through. We've begun to look at now this superior place, this tabernacle that Jesus ministers to the true genuine tabernacle in heaven, not merely an earthly one, looking at the details of that last time, we'll look at it some more today, but again Christ ministering in a superior place. And then the actual blood that is offered is superior. The sacrifice itself is a superior sacrifice, once for all time the blood of Jesus, because the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins. And so that's kind of a summary of what we're looking at now. I. Last Week: The Tabernacle—Established by God as Merely a Symbol The last time, as we looked at the tabernacle, Hebrews 9:1 through 5, the actual tent, remember I mentioned the temple was never even mentioned in the Book of Hebrews. I think the author really wants to get at what God directly clearly established through the law of Moses, the old covenant, and the tabernacle was it. It was a tent, it was set up in a certain pattern, look at verses 1 and 2, Hebrews 9:1 and 2, "Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up." A tabernacle is just a tent. And so this tabernacle, this is one of the key ideas in the Book of Hebrews, the things that are superseded were glorious. They weren't bad. There was nothing wrong with them. We're not going to denigrate them. We're not going to talk down about them or insult them. They had a purpose. They were glorious in their own time and in their own way. God set up that tabernacle. It was an earthly sanctuary, it was man-made and temporary, but it was made at the command of God. The Israelites didn't do anything wrong in making it. They were obeying God and doing exactly what he wanted done. It was a divided sanctuary. There was the Holy Place and there was the Most Holy Place. The author gives us that two-part division of the tabernacle. There were three symbols in the holy place, as you remember, Verse 2. "In the first room, the Holy Place, where the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread, this was called the Holy Place." And so we talked about the symbolic aspects of those things. And then in the Most Holy Place, the author gives us seven symbols, in Verses 3 through 5. "Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense, the gold-covered ark of the covenant, and this ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded the stone tablets of the covenant. And above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover." So these are the seven symbols of the Most Holy Place, or what we have in the King James Version, the Holy of Holies. Holy of Holies was a 10 x 10 x 10 cube made up of fabric, as we've said, a symbol of God's throne room, a symbol of God's dwelling place. That's what it signified. II. The Priestly Ministry: Established by God But Ineffective So, now we get into the actual priestly ministry. God intended that this tabernacle be used. It wasn't to be a museum where you would walk through and look at artifacts and walk out, but it was to be a kind of a living parable, something that was going on day after day. And so when everything was arranged like this, when everything had been set up according to the commands that God had given Moses, the priests entered and got busy. They carried on their priestly ministry. And so in Verse 6, "The priest entered regularly into the outer room to carry on this ministry." And so there they were, and it was a busy place, day after day after day, these priests were offering up a variety of sacrifices and offerings, peace offerings, fellowship offerings, and there were sin offerings, and there were drink offerings and grain offerings, and all these kinds of things that the Lord had prescribed. And so it was a busy place, and the priests were constantly active and ministering. But the focus of our text here is not that outer room, that busy place where the priests were carrying on that daily morning and evening-type ministry. The focus here, the weighty focus here is the inner room, the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies, and the message of these verses is that no one was welcome there except the high priest, and that only once a year. This is all about restriction. Do you see it? It's all about what was not permitted. Restricted access. Look at Verse 7, "But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance." And so there was that restricted access. Now, all of Israel was restricted. If you weren't a Levite, you were even getting into the tabernacle, that part of the tabernacle at all. But I would have to say that no one but the Levites had such an intense, if we can even say, in-your-face reminder that they were not welcome in the presence of God because, there it was, that curtain, day after day after day, they got to look at it all the time and know that they were not allowed, on penalty of death, to go into that place. Constant reminder, "You are not welcome here. You are sinful and I am holy, and you may not come here." And so they carried on their ministry. But one day a year, one special day a year, one man, designated by the law of Moses, a descendant of Aaron, wearing magnificent priestly robes ordinarily, but then just, in Leviticus 16, a simple white garment, linen garment would go into the Most Holy Place. Leviticus 16 describes this very powerfully. It's well worth reading, if you want to take some afternoon time and read about it. All of the strictures or requirements for that, very, very powerful. But he entered, and the first thing he did was offer the blood of a bull for his own sins, and then he went back out and offered a goat and brought the blood of the goat in for the sins of the people. And he offered this blood for, it says, sins which he and the people had committed in ignorance. Now, some, in church history, the Socinians are their name and others have stated that this phrase in particular shows that in the old covenant there was no provision made for willful sins. None. Only provision made for sins committed in ignorance. Friends, that is completely false. In the old covenant, there is no provision made for the forgiveness of sins at all. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away any sin, willful or an un-willful. So, don't go with the Socinians on this one. I know you were tempted in the Socinians direction. But the fact of the matter is that sins, whether willful or done in ignorance, is still sin. The ignorance mentioned here in Verse 7 really has to do with the ignorance all of us have of Almighty God Himself. Isn't that the problem? Righteous Father... John 17, in Verse 25, "Righteous Father, though the world has not known you, I have known you." Earlier in that same priestly prayer, in John 17, "now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." All of us ignorant of God at some level. Oh, I'm yearning for a full education. Aren't you? Yearning to know God and see Him face-to-face, and know Him as He has known us, as beautifully and completely as we have been known. But because we do not know God, because we do not know His holiness, because we do not know His word, that's why we sin. Jesus said, "You're an error because you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God." So, these are sins that we commit in ignorance. And that was what was symbolically offered with the blood of animals in the Holy of Holies on that one day of atonement. III. The Holy Spirit’s Lesson: The Way In Not Yet Revealed But what is the lesson of all of this? Well, look at Verse 8, the Holy Spirit had a very clear lesson in all of this. "The Holy Spirit was showing by this," it says, "that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing." Now, first, it's just beautiful, isn't it, how the author in Verse 8 ascribes the teaching ministry here to the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, all of the laws of Moses, the regulations for worship, all of that, according to this verse, were coming from the Holy Spirit. The Holy spirit communicated the will of God to man through the prophets, through Moses. And the Holy Spirit had a lesson with the tabernacle. The Holy Spirit was intending Israel to learn something. And what was the Holy Spirit teaching by the tabernacle? Well, the author tells us in Verse 8, "that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed." Very, very powerful. What does this mean, "the way into the Most Holy Place"? Well, the tabernacle itself is just a symbol, an earthly symbol of the heavenly reality. The Most Holy Place represents the place where God dwells, where His throne is, where all of that hundred million angels are encircling Him, and worshipping Him, and praising Him. It's the presence of Almighty God, the Most Holy Place, that's what the tabernacle symbolizes. When God came down with that glory cloud, He was saying that "This is a symbol of My dwelling place. It's where I live." And what the Holy Spirit was teaching is that the way in had not yet been disclosed as long as we're under the old covenant. Now, if you knew what to look for, the lesson was still hopeful, wasn't it? God wasn't rubbing our face in it. God wasn't saying, "I am holy, you're wicked, and you will never be allowed into My presence." Just by setting the tabernacle up, in effect, He's saying, "Some day, dear friends, some day there will be a way into My presence, just not yet." And so the words "yet," "not yet disclosed," imply that at some point the fulfillment would come and the restriction would end. But it didn't come in the old covenant. The ministry of the tabernacle, the ministry of the sinful priests, the endless repetition of animal blood, all of it testified to the absolute ineffectiveness of the old covenant to deal with sin. We are not welcome under the ministrations of the old covenant into the presence of a Holy God. It's not effective. It's not good enough. IV. Unable to Clear the Conscience of the Worshiper And so the endless repetition testifies to this, the fact that the priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sins first testifies to all this, but for the average rank and file Israelite, there was a far deeper proof than that. Far deeper. It had to do with their own guilty conscience. Deep in their hearts, they knew that they were sinful. In their hearts, they knew that they could not come as they were. With the blood of bulls and goats, they could not come into the presence of such a terrifying and Holy God. These ministrations, the work of the old covenant was unable to clear the conscience of the worshipper. Look at Verses 9 and 10, "This is an illustration," it says, "for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper." Verse 10, "They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings, external regulations applying until the time of the new order." And so the author says that the tabernacle was an illustration, really a living parable. It was a type, it was a symbol, it was teaching us something. So, the tabernacle is an illustration. And he says, it is "for this present time." I already touched on this a few moments ago, but let me reiterate what I said. I think these first century Jewish Christians had a tremendous burden that very few succeeding generations would ever have, the burden of letting go of all of their traditions and worshipping in a whole new way. And so this is an illustration for the present time, meaning the time when the author himself was writing in the days immediately after the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. But I don't think that's enough. I think that's true, but isn't it for us, too, 20 centuries later? Aren't we still in the final days? Aren't we in the same era of redemptive history that our brothers and sisters of the first century where we are? So, it's an illustration for us, too, for the present time, for us today. An illustration that the accusations of a guilty conscience cannot be dealt with any other way than by the blood of Jesus. And we're going to talk more, not today, but... Next time, preach on Hebrews 9, we're going to talk about the power of Jesus to cleanse a guilty conscience. And how sweet is that? How many times, how often, how many days have you labored burdened under a guilty conscience even as a Christian? And so this is an illustration for now, for the present time, to know how you can escape a guilty conscience. David knew all about that when he committed that terrible sin with Bathsheba. And then he had Uriah killed to cover up his sin, and how for a year, it seems, as you read between the lines in Psalm 32, the baby was born and all that, that he fought the convicting work of the Spirit, he fought, he hardened his heart. He had many sleepless nights, he had physical ramifications, physical illnesses perhaps. And at core, it was all about a guilty conscience. And in Psalm 51, he rejects forever, for the old covenant people, the effectiveness of animals in dealing with that. I would offer a thousand bulls if it could get rid of my guilt, but it can't. Sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart, that's what you will not despise, but it's not going to be animals. David knew offering some sacrifices would not cleanse his guilty conscience. And so the Holy Spirit was teaching that there is a different, a new and living way that does address a guilty conscience and addresses actual spiritual guilt before such a holy God, and welcomes us right into the presence of God, there is going to be a way. That's what he was saying in the Old Covenant. And so these things were only set up temporarily, a matter of food and drink, and ceremonial washings, and external regulations. Temporary, just temporary. Until when? We look at Verse 10, "until the time of the reformation." Isn't that beautiful? Friends, we are living in that now. This is the real reformation. I'm not in any way denigrating church history and what Martin Luther did. Praise God for it. Keep calling it the reformation. I will. At any rate, this is the genuine reformation. The word here in the Greek implies something like a law that was established but did not achieve the end for which it was established, and you need to revoke it and write a new one. That's how the word is used. Or of a building that's ramshackle and falling down and needs to be renovated. That's what the old covenant was. It wasn't working, it was ineffective. It could not make us holy in the sight of God. And so God had to set it aside and establish a new order. And that new order, friends, is the new covenant in the blood of Jesus. That's the lesson of the tabernacle. And that's the glorious good news for us today, the way in to the Holy of Holies has been revealed now in Jesus. Jesus has shown us the way, He's proclaimed the way. He is the way in to the very presence of Almighty God. The old tabernacle has been replaced by the body of Christ, by the heavenly reality that it symbolized. The Most Holy Place is no longer a 10 x 10 x 10 cube of linen curtains and acacia wood polls. It's not that anymore. It's the actual presence of God in heaven. And there are spirits of righteous men and women made perfect in the presence of God now, that's the effectiveness of the blood of Jesus. The way in has been revealed. The blood of the sacrifice, the blood shed on the cross by Jesus Christ is sufficient for you and me to draw near to God. And that is the glorious good news that I have the privilege of proclaiming today. God isn't saying what he used to say anymore. He's not laying out all of these attractions, and then as we start to move toward Him puts up a wall and says, "Stop, this far you may come and no further." He's not doing that anymore. Now, neither is he opening up 50 different ways into His presence. No, no, no. There is one and only one way. We just got to minister to Tibetan Buddhists. Tibetan Buddhism offers no way in to the presence of God. Just works religion, really like animism, it's not much different than some of the things you see in tribal regions in other places. It's no way in. Neither is Islam any way in to the presence of Almighty God. Neither is our good works or moralism, or Judaism. Christless Judaism is no way in to the presence of God. There is one way in and only one way, and His name is Jesus. V. The Good News: The Way In Has Been Revealed in Christ!! And so it says very plainly, and you can turn over if you want in Hebrews 10:19-22, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God," what does it say in Verse 22, "let us draw near to God." Now, the word of God is actually commanding you to come. He is actually commanding you to come into the very presence of Almighty God. Don't stay distant anymore because of a guilty conscience. Talk more about that next time, because it says, "Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." VI. Applications So, what applications can we take from these marvelous verses? First, just marvel at the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. Amen? What a great teacher the Holy Spirit is. And how majestic and how perfect it is that He set all of this up, all the old covenant regulation for worship, the tabernacle, all that, it was the Holy Spirit's teaching ministry to us. And not only did he actually do it in space and time, but he moved Moses at the right time to write about it so that we can read centuries later what the Lord wanted us to learn. Marvel at the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. Friends, He's still teaching you today, right now. Holy Spirit is active in this room, He's moving through the ministry of the Word, and He is teaching us still. And so marvel at that. Secondly, learn the various symbolic lessons of the tabernacle. If you didn't hear the sermon that I preached on the symbolism of the outer and inner room and all that, go back and look at that. There are some things that the author doesn't even cover, like the priestly vestments, the way that he carried the plate on his plate, the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, the way he had a gold plate that said "holy to the Lord" on his turban. All of these things, symbols and pictures of Christ, go and study and learn these things. And why would we do it? It's obsolete. Yes, it's obsolete, but it's a beautiful picture of Christ's finished work on the cross, of His ongoing priestly ministry for us at the right hand of God. Study and learn so that your heart can be strengthened by these things. Celebrate the powerful fulfillment of Jesus Chris. Celebrate Jesus. It's my deepest desire when we come here, that we would have an encounter with a holy and awesome God, and be moved deeply by the holiness and the power and majesty of God, and tremble at that. And along with that, joyfully celebrate what Jesus has done to bring us in and qualify us to be in the presence of such a holy God. Celebrate. I mean, smile. I mean, be joyful. I mean, go out of your field with energy and joy and serve the Lord. Let's celebrate what Christ has done. And let's, in an ongoing forever way, trust, trust, trust the finished work of Christ. By faith, we are justified. By faith, we will be sanctified. And I've already prayed for you, but if you're here today and you've never trusted in Christ, if you are in a Christless state but you don't want to be anymore, you're feeling a pull in your heart, it's marvelous. We're in the new covenant, gospel grace era now. That pull in your heart can be consummated, you can come all the way right in the presence of God. Trust in Jesus. Turn away from your sins, they're killing you. And if you do not trust Christ, they will destroy you forever in hell. Turn away from them, I plea. Turn away from wickedness and sin, away from lust, away from idolatry, the idolatry of possessions and money and all those things, ambitions, worldly ambitions. They lead to nothing. Turn away from these things. And I plead with you, trust in Jesus, see Him in your minds crucified on the cross, His blood shed, He said the words, "It is finished," the curtain in the temple torn in two from top to bottom, physical evidence that God is saying, "You're welcome to come." Picture him in your mind's eye, go ahead three days, picture him resurrected, walking in a resurrected body, showing his wounds to Thomas, proving that He had risen from the dead, trust in Him, Jesus, for the salvation of your souls. And I don't want to talk anymore about a guilty conscience, but maybe you can't wait until I preach on that, so let me say right now, if you came in here today as a Christian with a defiled conscience, the blood of Jesus is the only remedy. It's the only one there's ever been. It's an ocean of grace for you. Receive forgiveness, full forgiveness, at the cross, and allow that grace to come and teach you the lesson of the cross, which is this is what it costs to save you from such sins as that, so you grow to hate those sins and turn away from them and do them no longer, walking in repentance and newness of life. Full forgiveness, full cleansing of a guilty conscience. And finally, just draw near to God every day. What can hinder you? Cleanse from a guilty conscience, commanded by God to draw near, then let's draw near. Amen? Let's come right in the presence of God. Don't stay distant anymore, but come right in to the presence of God. Close with me in prayer.

Pastor Prince continues the focus on the characteristics of a loving husband. Today, Jesus Chris's example of love, and being a loving leader.

I. A Tale of Two Mountains and One Inexpressible Journey If you would, turn in your Bibles to Romans 5, as we resume after a little break from this book. We've been through four chapters together and then looked at Psalms and Book of Daniel and now we're back to look at some more of Romans. And this morning we're going to be looking at Romans Chapter five verse one and two, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. In the Summer of 1987, I was on a summer mission trip. A number of our students and our members are going to be going on summer outreaches and they're tremendous experiences, but this was one of the greatest experiences I ever had. I was in the country of Pakistan in the northwest frontier province, and I've never seen any terrain as beautiful as that terrain up there, the Karakoram mountains, world class mountains, some of the highest in the world second only to the Himalayas in height. Some of these peaks towering over 20,000 feet covered with snow year round, and we traveled on a road through the Karakoram Pass into the western, far western part of China along what used to be known as the Silk Road, and it was incredible and I'll never forget it. But the glory that I saw in God's creation there, the glory that just took my breath away and I can't describe it. The glory that is in those mountains is nothing compared to the glory of two mountains in Scripture and one inexpressible journey that I want to begin with today. The first is Mount Sinai. The First Mountain: Sinai And Moses went up on Mount Sinai and received the Old Covenant from God, but he spent some time up there with God, and in that time that he spent with God, it got to a point in their relationship where Moses just couldn't wait anymore and he said, "Show me your glory," "I can't wait anymore, I want to see Your glory. I want to see You as You really are." And the Lord said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Those verses will come in later in Romans 9, but God doesn't just give this to anybody that's what He's saying. He said, "All right, I'll show you my glory." But He said, "‘You cannot see my face, for no one may see Me and live. Then the Lord said, ‘There is a place near Me where you may stand on a rock and when My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by, then I will remove My hand and you will see My back but My face must not be seen.’" And so he saw a portion, just a portion of the glory of God, and it transformed him so much that when he came off that mountain his face was radiating, there was a brilliance, a brightness, a shining aspect to his face, and the Jews were terrified and he had to put a veil across his face so that they could just be near him and be with him. That's the first mountain. The Second Mountain: The Transfiguration The second we studied recently. One day Jesus took with Him Peter, John, and James and led them up a high mountain by themselves and there He was transfigured before them. Now, some have said that Jesus is God Incognito. He laid His glory aside, He didn't look glorious, He looked like just any man, any Jewish man of His time. But for a brief moment in His ministry He took some of His glory back and He showed it to those three, specially chosen to go up that mountain by themselves. And it says in Mark chapter 9 He was transfigured before them, His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. There was a brilliance, a radiant shining aspect to Jesus but it was not His full brilliance. Do you know how we know that? Peter, John, and James survived, that's how we know. So Jesus just turned the knob up a little bit and showed His radiance, His glory, and they were overwhelmed with terror and they hid themselves. Incredible experience. So those are the two mountains and one of the inexpressible journey. Well it's the apostle Paul and he describes it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and there he says, "I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know but God knows, and I know that this man, whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know but God knows, was caught up to Paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell." Now that's amazing. Inexpressible means you can't put it into words. "Things not permitted for a man to tell" means you're not permitted to try. Now, what is that? That's the glory of God. It's paradise. And it's still just a portion. And how do we know it's just a portion? Because he survives. "No man will see My face and live," said God. Do you know that everyone of you who are called by the name of Jesus Chris, you were created to bask in the glory of God for eternity, do you realize that? Do you realize that's what salvation is all about, is taking you from eternal darkness into the eternal presence of God, and He is glorious, and not only that, you can't survive that physically and so He's going to transform you so that you can see Him face to face. II. Exulting in the Glory of God: Our Original Purpose and Final Destiny He's going to give you a resurrection body, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So He's going to give you a new body, He's going to give you a new soul, the whole thing so that you can see His glory. He's going to show it to you. And my purpose today is the same purpose of Romans 5:2, that you may exalt, that you may boast, that you may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Listen to Chapter 5:1-2 it says, "Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, you were created, the chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. You're created to glorify God and to enjoy Him, and I would say, specifically to enjoy His glory. You were created for that. Now, it's been a while since we've looked at Romans, but Romans has taken us through a journey to understand where we've been. To refresh your memory, Romans 1:16-17 is a theme verse for the whole book. There Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. First, for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel, righteousness from God is revealed, the righteousness that is from faith to faith just as it is written, the just, or the righteous, will live by faith." So the gospel message is a powerful message that can take you on a journey. It can take you from being under the wrath of God, to being in the very presence of God, blameless and with great joy. What a powerful message is that. And so Paul from Chapter 1:18 through Chapter 3:20, describes the nature of that wrath of God. It describes the nature of the judgment that we were under. Romans 1:18 says, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." It says in Chapter 2:5 that, "We by nature every day, are storing up wrath against ourselves for the day of God's wrath when His righteous judgement will be revealed." And so we're in a severe problem, all of us, both Jew and Gentile, every single solitary person on the face of the earth, is born apart from God, does not love God. Romans 3 says, "There is no one righteous, no not one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God." We're all in danger, and we're under judgment. And then the glorious glowing center of the gospel in chapter 3, propitiation through faith in Jesus Christ. So what does that mean? That Jesus is our atoning sacrifice. He steps in our place, and absorbs the wrath of God, so that we don't have to. He takes away the wrath of God, so that we can have eternal life, so that we can see the glory of God and live, that we can survive judgment day. And He takes His righteousness and gives it to us like an asbestos robe we talked about, so that you can survive the fires, the flames of judgment day, and come through on the other side, and see God face to face. And then in Romans chapter 4 it talks about faith. We are not justified, not declared righteous, we don't survive judgment day through any good works that we can do. It doesn't matter how much we serve the church. It doesn't matter how many good works we do. We can never use them to pay for sin. As I was saying to somebody recently, you remember those tests that you take and there are extra credit tests or questions? And if you get those, you can compensate for earlier questions you got wrong. There's no extra credit in the Christian life. There's nothing beyond what God intended for you to do. Can you do any better than to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself? Is there any extra credit in the Christian life? And so we can never use good deeds to pay for sin. We need an atoning sacrifice. We need the blood of Jesus Christ, and it's available, but available only to those who trust. To those who have Romans chapter 4, the faith of Abraham. And what was the faith of Abraham? You remember. This is just a review. God took Abraham out of his tent, and He pointed up to the stars. He said, "Look up at the stars, see them all." And he looked. And then God gave him a promise, "So shall your offspring be." Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. You hear a promise, you hear a message, you believe it, and you're saved just like that. But is it just like that? We can't see justification, can we? We don't get a certificate, do we? We don't get an angelic visitation. How do we know? That's what chapter 5 is about. It's about assurance. It's the way that we can know that we have received justification. And we're going to it over the next few weeks, unfold justification, so that we see what happens in the life of a truly justified person. God wants us to experience His glory. He wants us to be moved from under His wrath, all the way in the presence of His glory. And the gospel message is the only one that can take us there. III. Immense Treasures Await Us: Justification by Faith and Total Assurance Now as we look at chapter five, we see immense treasures awaiting us, justification by faith and total assurance. Now, Paul's intention here is that we would have a complete assurance of our salvation. He wants us to know that we're saved. And we're going to talk more about assurance over the next few weeks. He wants us to know. And this is necessary because we are wrestling, aren't we, all the time with our sin nature? We're struggling with sin. We're struggling with the world, the flesh, and the devil all the time. And there are times, we don't really know where we stand with God. And so Paul wants us to understand. Paul's goal here is to give you assurance, but to do it in such a way that God gets the glory for it. God gets the glory, and you get the joy. That's a good deal, isn't it? God gets the glory, you get the joy. And so we have to understand each of these treasures. And he brings out these treasures one by one, and we talked about them. Jesus said, "Every teacher of the law who's been instructed in the kingdom is like the owner of a storehouse who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old." Come and look at this, and now look at this. And what about that? It's beautiful. And that's what we get in Romans 5. IV. Unpacking the Treasures Jewel by Jewel Now as we unpack these treasures, jewel by jewel, we'll start with the first one. Look what it says. "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith... " Just stop there. "We have been justified through faith." This means by way of review, we have been declared not guilty before the judgement seat of God. Is that valuable to you? Would it be of any value to you on judgement day to stand before him and have the judge bow to you and say, "He or she is not guilty in my sight." Is that valuable to you? How valuable? What could we use? Jesus said, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world... " And we just know, it's worth more than a whole world to you to know that you can survive judgement day. And it says, "We have been justified by faith." Now, look at the verse says, "We have been justified." It's once for all times and the past. You don't get justified day after day. You don't wake up as a goal, "Today I'm going to be justified with God." You either have it or you don't. You receive it by faith and once you receive it, it can never, never be taken away. Once for all time. We have been justified, and we have been declared righteous simply through faith in Jesus Christ. Not through any achievements of our own. We have as I've said: Christ's asbestos robe of righteous covering us. And we are free from condemnation. But what's the next part? We've already talked about that, that's fourth chapter. It says, "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." What an incredible gift is this? We have peace with God. Now previously, we were at war with God and God was at war with us. Now this might seem shocking to you, but it really is no good news to declare peace with God if there wasn't a conflict before. What's the good news? Suppose this morning, the Durham Herald had "Peace!" on the front page. Wouldn't you be kind of scratching your head and saying, "What is that? What do you mean peace?" But suppose it were May 1945, and that was on the headline. "Peace, peace in Europe, V-E Day," you'd know exactly what that meant, and you would rejoice, and you'd get on your knees and thank God that Hitler's been crushed and the war in Europe is over. We have peace. And how much more again in August of 1945 when V-J Day occurs? The war is totally over, now, it's done. We have peace. And now it means something, you see? Apart from a conflict, apart from the war, the peace means nothing. But there was a conflict and there was a war. Look down in Romans 5:9: It says, "Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved?" From what? From God's wrath. Again, God has an active aggressive wrath against sin. Now there is a teaching that says that we need to feel good about God, but He always loved us. They say He's always loved us, that He has no wrath against sin. They say He has no justice that needs to be addressed. They say that there's no problem on God's side. Do you know what you call that, or what I would call that, as a theologian? I'd call that liberalism. That's the essence of liberalism. The idea that God loves all the time and does not need to be appeased his wrath does not need to be addressed. But it's not biblical Christianity it sure isn't biblical Romans. Look, again, in Verse 9. "Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him?" Now read the next part. Verse 10: "For if when we were, [what?] God's enemies, we were reconciled through the death of his son. How much more having been reconciled shall we say through his life?" We were enemies with God and God was at war with us and we needed freedom we needed peace in our relationship with God. Furthermore Romans 8:7 says: "The sinful mind, the natural mind, is hostile to God." Another word of saying "hostilities," is war. There was a war going on. We were hostile to God. Ephesians 2:3 says, "Like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath." Now stop and understand what we're saying. Have you ever looked at the sun through a filter? Like maybe it one of those times where there was an eclipse or something like that. You can't look straight at the sun. You learned that when you were three. If you look real hard at the sun you're going to be blinded for a period of time. The longer you look, the longer the blindness. The sun is brilliant and it is bright. Power of fusion churning out energy. Thousands and thousands of years. Who created the sun? God. Do you know that when Abraham went out from his tent and looked up at those stars, he was seeing 1/40 millionth of the stars in our galaxy? The Milky Way, 1/40 millionth with the naked eye, that's what you can see. Our galaxy is 100 million light years across and 2,000 light years thick, and it's just one of a hundred billion galaxies in the universe. And the galaxies are made up of stars, most of them bigger than our sun, burning, burning, burning with the power of God. And God just scattered those stars, He knows each one of them by name. And this is the God who had an active wrath against us. What a terrifying thing is that. What a terrifying thing is the wrath of God. And how much should we desire to be out from under the wrath of God? And there is a way. And the way is the cross of Jesus Christ. Look what it says: "Since we have now been justified through faith…" What do we have? "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Peace! There was a war but it's over. God is at peace with us through Christ. Now I want to make a clear division here or a distinction between the peace, peace with God and the peace of God. Philippians 4:6-7, says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Do you know what I'm talking about? "Peace of God"? It means a sense of well being, freedom from anxiety, freedom from fear, a peaceful feeling, a sense that God loves you. Is that valuable? Yes it is. Is that what this is talking about? No, it isn't. This is talking about a status of peace with God. It's a new relationship and it's permanent because it's tied to justification. When you are justified by faith you now have peace with God and nothing can change that. Isn't that wonderful? Now the two are related in this way. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, "You will never experience the peace of God until you have peace with God." But once you have peace with God, then you can many times in life as you pray and trust Him and obey Him and walk with Him, experience the peace of God in your life, peace with God. And what's the next things? We bring up the next struggle. Look at verse 2, "Through whom," Through whom? Through Jesus Christ. "We have also... " NIV leaves out the "also," I don't know why. Sometimes they just dispense these little words like they're not important. This is another thing. It's another treasure. This word "also." "We have also obtained our access," it says in NIV, "Our introduction by faith into this grace in which we now stand." Now, we have already received it. It's past tense once for all, just like we have already received justification. We have already received access or better introduction. We've already received it once for all time. Now what is this? Well, in order to understand it, it's hard for us to understand because we're a very kind of egalitarian country, but if you lived in a country where there was an emperor or a monarch, you would understand what it means to be introduced into the presence of a king. Back in the year 1262 in a city in Uzbekistan, a Venetian trader named Marco Polo met up with some representatives of the Kublai Khan. Now the Kublai Khan was Genghis Khan's grandson, and he had set up a new capital city in Peking, what we now call Beijing. He set up a city there. And as the envoys from Kublai Khan talked to Marco Polo, the envoys said, "Kublai Khan would like to meet you. Come with us." And so, Marco Polo traveled that long distance from Uzbekistan all the way to Beijing/Peking, and he was introduced into the presence of the Kublai Khan. That's the same concept we have here. But suppose Marco Polo had traveled alone and had found out where the palace was, had tried to run into the presence of the Kublai Khan, he's surrounded by 200 trained soldiers, what do you think would have happened to him, if he had tried to venture his way into the presence of the Kublai Khan? He would have been cut down before he even got into one of the antechambers. And how do we think we can just walk into the presence of God without an introduction? We must be introduced to God. And this verse says, "We have received our introduction." Through who? Through Jesus Christ. He has said, "Come and be with My Father." He's introduced us to God. It's what it says. 1 Peter 3:18, "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." You see that? He brings you into the presence of God and says, "He's with me, she's with me. You're welcome here." And from then on you have freedom of access. You see? This is past tense once for all an introduction. You have now been introduced to God. From then on you have freedom of access anytime you choose. Ephesians 2:18 says, "For through Christ, both Jews and Gentiles have access, Jewish and Gentile believers have access to the Father by one Spirit." Ephesians 3:12, "In Christ and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence." You have freedom of access. You can go right into the presence of God, but first, you needed your introduction and you've received it through Jesus Christ. You see how it works. And then Hebrews 4:16, "Because we have a tender and merciful, perfect high priest, Jesus Christ, let us therefore approach the throne of grace that we may receive grace and find mercy to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 10:22, "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith." This is repeated access. We can go there any time. Oh, what a privilege. I've already been there several times today, right here. I've come into the presence of God and talked to Him, but only through Jesus Christ, only through Christ. Well, but what does it say? We have received access or introduction to what? Into this grace in which we stand. Every phrase brings out a treasure. We are now, it says, standing in grace. It's kind of like we've transferred our countryship. We used to be part of an old country and now we're in a new country. We used to be under the law. There's two places that a human being can be, under law or under grace. They're only two. And if you're under law, you're under judgment, wrath and condemnation. If you're under grace, you're under freedom and forgiveness, and redemption, and relationship, reconciliation. There're two choices. And we have Colossians chapter one, "Been rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought over into the kingdom of the Son He loves." And so, we have received access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Now what is this standing of grace? The image I've had since I first started thinking about this, is of a hot, soothing shower. Yesterday, I chewed up more of my lawn with a back tiller. And I've used this as an illustration before, so I won't do the same old thing, but I'll tell you this, it got me dirty and hot and needing a shower. And I knew that I would need to stand up and preach in front of you clean and ready, you wouldn't like to see the grunge, so I had to stand under a hot shower. Do you know what I'm talking about? What that feels like when you just need that shower to cleanse you? That's the image I get of standing under grace. It's just pouring on us all the time and we need it. Don't we? If you say no, you don't know yourself and you don't know God. We need it all the time. Our pores, so to speak, keep putting out stuff and we need to be cleansed from it. And the grace is sufficient for it. "Where sin abounds, all the more grace is even more." You can't out sin grace. We're standing under grace all the time. Standing in grace. But the analogy falls apart as most analogies do because that's kind of an external cleansing. Actually, grace gets inside you and transforms you from within. We stand by the power of God, and He's in us enabling us to stand. On your bulletin, I printed 2 Corinthians 1:21, Look at it. It's a beautiful verse. It says, "Now, it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ." Is that not precious? You say, "How do I know I'll still be standing 20 years from now? How do I know that when I'm a senior citizen, I'm still going to be trusting in Jesus Christ? How do I know that the twists and turns of life are not going to pull me away from Jesus?" Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He's not going to let you go. That's grace. Romans 14:4, "Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master, he stands and falls, and he will stand, for God is able to make him stand." Isn't that beautiful? You're going to stand. You're going to survive. You're going to stand before Him Jude says, "Blameless and with great joy," He's going to do it. That's grace, to cleanse you from without and strengthen you from within. God's grace is working inside you at all times. 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul says, "By the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace to me was not without effect. No. I worked harder than all of them yet, not I but the grace of God that was in me." You see, grace makes you energetic. Grace enables you to put sin to death. Grace enables you to hate sin. Grace enables you to worship God. Grace enables you to read the Bible with understanding and to pray. That is the energy of grace. It's not like a warm June day when you're laying on a grassy hill, and the clouds are just floating by and you feel that gentle summer breeze. Have you ever felt that? That's so peaceful and gentle. It is not like that. It's more like the hurricane that took Elijah up to Heaven. It's powerful. It works its power in us, and it takes you to Heaven. That's what grace is, and we are standing in it. It says, "We have received access by faith into this grace in which we stand…" And now we're ready for the final goal and we rejoice, it says, "In the hope of the glory of God." Now, the word rejoice is a little weak. It actually means we exalt over it, we boast in it. I don't know if we're just at a point in our society where the only thing we exalt over or rejoice over is basketball championships. Now, I've said to people I'm not going to stand up here and talk about earthly things, but what I'm saying is that the kind of thing that makes a fan go nuts and start cheering, it's wrapped up in this word. Or talked about it the next day at the coffee pot, it's boasting. You're talking about something you're exalting in. You're celebrating it. You see? That's what this word means. We exalt in, we boast over, we celebrate the hope of the glory of God. Now, what is hope? Well, hope... There's two types. There's Christian hope and then there's just the regular hope. The regular hope, we use that word all the time. Don't we? I hope it doesn't rain this afternoon, that kind of thing. Or, I hope it does. Some of you hope... If you were God, you're trying to decide 50% prayer for rain, 50% not. And what are you going to do? Both sunshine and rain, gifts from God. Take it all from Him. It's all evidence of His grace to us, but He's God and He decides what He's going to do. But you use that word, "I hope." Now, I said I wasn't going to talk about worldly things, but I'm a Red Sox fan and so, here I go. There was a Sports Illustrated article about suffering Red Sox fans of which I'm one. And the name of the article was "Hoping for the Best, expecting the worst." That's the best example of worldly hope I've ever heard in my life. You're hoping that this year finally, win a championship. Never going to happen. I have a prophecy on that. Never going to happen. No I don't. Never going to happen. Alright? Hope for it though, that's worldly hope. Do you understand what I'm talking about? Then there's Christian hope. Now what is that? It's tied into the God of Daniel. We've already learned about Him. The God of Daniel who knows the future meticulously, accurately. Daniel 11, all these kings going here and there, and He's told you what's going to happen in the future. And He's going to make it happen, the Sovereign God. And He's told you, "In Christ you're going to Heaven." Now that's Christian hope. And what is it? It's a good thing that you look forward to and have not yet received. But you're waiting for it patiently. It says that in the Book of Romans. It says... Romans chapter 8, it says, where is it? I'm sorry. It says, "Hope that is seen is no hope at all, who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." So, you don't have it yet, but you're waiting for it. Now, what is the glory of God? There's two different ways to understand that. I think they're both fair. We're rejoicing in the hope of seeing God's glory. We're going to get to see Him so long. We're going to get to see the brightness. What Moses could not survive seeing, what Peter, James and John saw only part of, what the Apostle Paul saw but couldn't describe and wasn't permitted to describe, we are going to see face to face. Wow. And you have never seen anything in this earth that compares with it. And therefore, for you whether you're young or old, if you're a Christian, the best things are yet to come. Isn't that great? A Christian is essentially a forward looking person. Even if they're lying on their death bed, they're forward looking. I can't wait to see God. I can't wait to see it. I want to be in His Presence. I want to live there forever. Okay, that's one aspect to the hope of the glory of God. The other is, "I want to be transformed by it." There is a glory that happens in us. It's not external to us. It actually changes us. Remember Moses's face shone because he was in the presence of God. What do you think it's going to be like for you to be fully in the presence of God? It's going to radically transform you into his image, the perfection of God. And we rejoice in that hope. Someday I'm not going to be like this anymore. I'm not going to be like this. I'm not going to be a sinner. I'm not going be corrupt. I'm not going to struggle. My body's not going to fall apart. I'm going to be glorious, just like Jesus is glorious. And I rejoice in that hope. Do you rejoice in the hope of the glory of God? Are you holding on to these things today? Are these your treasures? Every phrase is yours. Take it home. It's yours free of charge through the blood of Jesus Christ. Every phrase is yours, justified by faith, declared not guilty of all your sins. Peace with God, peace with God. He said, "Peace with you." No wrath anymore. No fear of judgement day. And access or introduction into God's presence ultimately. But introduction into this grace in which He makes us stand. And on top of it all, we rejoice. We keep looking ahead, keep looking forward, we're excited even if we're on a ventilator, laying on our death bed. We're looking forward, we're excited, we're looking ahead. Not looking wishfully back saying, "I've had a good life." Hey if you're a Christian, you've had a good life, but the best things are yet to come. The best is yet to come. Are you rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God? Now if you're an unbeliever, if you've never committed your life to Christ, you can't. You're still under the wrath and curse of God. In a moment you're going to have an opportunity to just bow your head and receive by faith, forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. If you're a Christian, I want to urge you to exalt in the hope of glory of God in your prayer life. When you get down on your knees, just say, "God thank you for what's yet to come. Thank you for the future that you have bought for me." And then when Satan starts hammering on you, and attacking you, criticizing you, say, "No. I'm justified and I'm going to heaven. And nothing, nothing can stop it." Join with me on a prayer. Father, how can we give thanks to You sufficiently for what You have given us in these two small, short verses? God, You have declared us not guilty because of the blood of Jesus. He stood in our place and took away the penalty that we deserved. And we didn't do anything. We just received it by faith. Thank You so much for our justification. And thank You, oh Lord, that You are no longer at war with us. Oh what a fearsome thing. And though we felt it not, we couldn't perceive it oh Lord. It was still biblically true, that You were at war with us apart from Christ. But once we came into Christ, You're at peace with us. Oh thank You. And Father, I pray right now for any who have not trusted in You, any who have not repented and yielded to You, oh God, I pray that today would be for them the day of salvation. That they would bow before You. Father, I pray that they would come up to me and say, "I didn't know whether I was saved or not, I want to know Christ." Father, I pray they wouldn't leave this room without making that decision to trust Christ and to follow Him. And Father, for the rest of us, help us, Oh Lord, in our prayers and when attacked by Satan, that we might exalt, or rejoice, or boast in the of hope of the glory of God. It's Your Name, we pray Lord Jesus. Amen.

I. Introduction: The Bible Triumphs Over all Challenges Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3. We're going to be looking at Verses 14-17. It's hard to tell you the joy I have in my heart this morning as I get to preach, not just from the Bible, but about the Bible today, because these four verses contain some of the most incredible truths in all of scripture about the origin and the purpose and effectiveness of the Word of God, which I love so much. And so it's going to be a privilege and I've come at it a lot of different ways. When I first looked through this sermon, my sermon is about 55 minutes long, so I've worked on it and we've got it down a little shorter. There's an awful lot that the scripture says about this. And as I look with an eye of a trained church historian, over the last 2000 years, remember last week, we discussed that we are now, presently, in the last days, in the final days now, and that through that 2000 years of development, there has been a struggle, the advance of the Gospel powerfully, but also a resistance against the Gospel, powerfully. And we've seen that that advance of the Gospel has been irresistible. Nothing can stop it, but one of the main battle grounds in that advance has been this book, which we call the Bible. Is this book a human book, a book written by people about their experiences about God, their feelings about God, or is this what scripture says it is, the God-breathed scripture, the word of God, which comes down to challenge and to test and to strengthen us and to give us eternal life? Well, you already know what I believe. But it's fascinating to see how Satan has opposed this book and how vigorously, like a lion, he has sought to destroy it. But he's broken his fangs against this rock and there's nothing he can do about it. In the mid 1700s, Voltaire, who was a French atheist, rationalist, felt that we had come so far in our understanding of truth, in our ability to reason things out that we would no longer need religion, and we would no longer need the Bible. And he said, within 100 years, no one will read the Bible. It will be obsolete. That means by 1850 or so, the Bible should have been obsolete, and yet here we are, reading the Scripture, wanting to know what it has to say. The irony of the whole thing is that God sovereignly orchestrated it that a group called the Geneva Bible Society bought Voltaire's house 50 years after he died. And do you know what they did from his house? They published the Scriptures in the French language and distributed them. Isn't that marvelous? God has an amazing sense of humor about those kind of thing, to establish His word powerfully. Voltaire is in his grave and the Word of God lives. If it had been the first time it ever happened in history, we would just dismiss it perhaps as an anomaly. But in the year 303 AD, an emperor, Diocletian, issued a similar kind of attitude, only he had power to put behind it. He said, "What we need to do is we've got to stop the spread of Christianity. It's just too powerful. It's advancing too quickly. We've got to destroy the churches and we've got to burn their scriptures." And so, that's what Diocletian sought to do. The irony about that is 25 years later, another emperor, Constantine, gave an edict that the Scripture should be published at the expense of the Roman government, and distributed to people, 25 years later. Diocletian in his grave, the Word of God continues to live. But in the 20th Century, there's been a battle over the Scripture, and that battle has had its effect. 100 years ago, the strongest denominations in our country were the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the Methodists. All of them growing about at the same rate, in different levels of vigorousness, but all of them preaching the Gospel and growing. Today, that's really only true with the Baptist denomination. Presbyterians and Methodists have seen a tremendous decline in numbers. They all say it. They don't know why, but I think we do. It's because they turn their back on the authority of Scripture. And in this 20th century, those churches have continued to shrink, they continued to diminish. Any church, any denomination which turns its back on the authority of the Word of God, turns its back on its own future. There is no future for a group that says that this is a human document, because God has said in Psalm 138:2, "I have exalted above all things my name and my word." And a church, like First Baptist, which exalts God's name and exalts His Word will continue to flourish and grow so it's a joy and a privilege to be able to do just that today. Now, we've looked at 2 Timothy and we've seen how Paul was trying to get young Timothy ready for a position of leadership and authority in the Gospel ministry. Getting him ready, telling him, "Timothy, fan up that gift, that flame that's in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of courage, of boldness, of advance, of power through the Holy Spirit." So don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed of the Gospel. Don't be ashamed of Jesus, but preach it boldly. And then in Chapter 2, we saw that God has a structure, an organization. He's going to give us a multiplying ministry. He's going to show us that if we take new Christians and train them up in the faith, bring them to faith in Christ, train them up and send them out as evangelists, the church is going to accelerate and grow, and that's the very thing that's happened. So, in 2:15 he told him to give himself to becoming proficient at the scripture. That was a theme, a topic that he opened up but didn't fully develop. He develops it now in Chapter 3, Verses 14-17. So listen as I read these words. "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it and how from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." II. Charge to Timothy: Continue in the Faith (vs. 14-15) It's just four verses. How in the world can you come up with 55 minutes worth of things to say in four verses? Well, you'd be amazed at what we can do. The marvel of these verses is it shows the divine origin and the purpose and the effectiveness of Scripture in such a short list of words. He begins by saying in Verse 13, "Evil men and impostors are going to go from bad to worse. Deceiving and being deceived." So the kind of a sinful evil progress being made by those who are false teachers, they're going to go from bad to worse. "But you, Timothy, you also have to make a progress in the other direction. You need to continue in what you have learned and become convinced of." Continue on. The Christian life is a life of continuing, it's not a life of a static nature, where we come into a faith in Christ, and just stay where we are. It's not like that at all. When I was in high school, I ran cross-country. We used to go down to the New England sand and gravel pits. It was a place full of mounds of sand and stones, and we used to run up the sand hills, maybe 50 or 60 feet high. It was a great workout, very exhausting. You go up to the top and back down three or four times and you're done, you're finished, because of the energy it would take. But one thing we found is that if you didn't continue to keep your momentum up, if you slowed down or even stopped, you'd slide back down the hill. You had to keep moving up until you reached your goal. That's the way the Christian life is. You have to keep moving ahead. You have to keep making progress. You don't stay the same. If you stop, you slide back. You have to keep making progress. "Timothy, continue in what you've learned." And why should he continue? It's because "you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you've known the Holy Scripture." So he brings up the issue of godly doctrine, which he got from the Scripture, and godly teachers, both. The Christian life is a joining together of lives of people who have learned the doctrine, pouring it out into the lives of others who haven't yet. "Timothy, you can trust your teachers. Not like these false teachers that we've seen, but trusted teachers, teachers you know well." Well, he says, "How from infancy, you have known the scripture." So who are the first teachers for Timothy? Timothy’s First teachers: His Mother and Grandmother Well, we already met them in Chapter one. If you look at 1:5, we are introduced to Lois and Eunice. Do you remember Lois and Eunice? They were Timothy's grandmother and mother. And so from infancy, Lois and Eunice trained Timothy in the Hebrew Scriptures. Well, where was Timothy's father? Why did he abdicate his position of training and responsibility? Well, he wasn't a believer. He turned his back on his family. He was in Greek, he wasn't even a Jew. And so he didn't take the scripture and teach Timothy, but Lois and Eunice, they did. They were faithful and they taught Timothy the Scripture, from infancy. Isn't that a marvelous thing? I heard an illustration of this once, which is so powerful. It's the illustration of a young boy who saw a mystery on his grandfather's mantle above his fireplace. And you know what it was? It was a bottle with a narrow neck and a full grown apple inside of it. And that boy used to pick up that apple, or that bottle, and he'd look around. You know what he's looking for? A kind of a seam or something where the apple, or the bottle had been cut, and then rejoined. But he didn't find it. It was a perfect bottle with a full grown apple inside. There's no way the apple could have fit through that narrow neck. The grandfather would just look and smile and as he puzzled over it and he couldn't figure out how the apple got inside that bottle. He said, "Well, granddad, I don't know how. How did you do it?" He said, "Come with me." So he brought him out to an orchard nearby. And on the tree, it was early in the season, on the tree, there was a bottle with a twig stuck up inside the bottle. And the sunlight would come through that glass and the apple would grow up inside the bottom. That's the way it was with Timothy. At an early age, he was trained in the Scripture. It's the best way to do it. You get your children at an early age and you teach them the Bible. And that's what happened with Timothy. But then, at just the right time, along comes the Apostle Paul and he completes the young man's training. Timothy had been trained in Scripture, but He didn't know yet about the Messiah Jesus. And it was Paul, we believe, who led him to Christ. And it was Paul who placed his hands on him and gave him the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was Paul who nurtured and trained him and he said, "Come along with me and watch, and I'll train you." And it was Paul who completed that young man's training. He said, "You know those from whom you learned this doctrine. You know it. You know you can trust us. They are false teachers, but we are true." But better than that is the security that comes from knowing the fact that this doctrine comes from the sacred Scriptures. It says in Verse 15, "How from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures." It's a sacred writing, this a good way to translate it. It's referring to the Old Testament Scripture. III. The Origin of Scripture And that brings us right to the heart of the matter, the doctrine of Scripture. And Paul launches in, in Verse 16, and he says, "All Scripture is God-breathed." This is the origin of Scripture. Where does it come from? Where do we get this? Where's it come from? Don't you ever wonder that? And so, when you're a little child, you're always asking, "Where does that come from? What's this, Mommy?" Etcetera. You have a questioning heart and you want to know where something comes from. When you grow up, you know everything already. Well, no, you don't. That's when you stop learning, when you think you know everything. The question is, where does this come from, this Bible? Well, according to Paul, all Scripture is God-breathed, it comes from God. But we have to go back to the origin of the written Word of God. Do you know what the first written Scripture was? Think about it. What's the first written Scripture? It was the 10 Commandments. Do you remember? And we believe Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, but when did he write it? He wrote it while I think he had time, while they're wandering in the desert. He had all this time on his hands, and he started writing Genesis. So the first Scripture happened before that, at Mount Sinai. You know who wrote it down? It was God himself who wrote it down. Exodus 31:18 says, "When the Lord had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the testimony." That's the 10 Commandments. "The tablets of stone, inscribed by the finger of God." Do you ever wonder what God's autograph would look like? How God made his letters? Well, there it was. The first written Scripture is written by the finger of God, The 10 Commandments. Do you remember what happened to that? Do we still have it as in a museum we can go see? Do you remember what happened? Moses took it and destroyed it, threw it down. Why? Because Israel was in idolatry. And just out of rage, he threw the tablets down. So God told Moses, make two more tables and you write it this time. And that right there, in a little picture, is what all the Scripture was about. God telling Moses what to write, Moses writing it down. And it went on from there. The prophets came along later. Jeremiah 1:9, Jeremiah was one of those prophets. Jeremiah 1:9, it says, "The Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth, and said to me, 'Now, I have put my words in your mouth.'" That's what a prophet is, somebody whose words are put, God's words are put into his mouth and he speaks them. Well then, in Jeremiah 36:2, God gave him a job to do. He said, "Now, take a scroll and write down on the scroll all the words that I have spoken to you…" Jeremiah 36:2. All the words. It wasn't just that the word of God came, it was that the words of God came. God told Jeremiah everything to say. And Jeremiah said it, and he wrote it down. That's where we get the book of Jeremiah. And so, book by book, the Scripture got put together. All Scripture is God-breathed, it says. Two Key Questions for 2 Timothy 3:16 Now, we have to ask two key questions about 2 Timothy 3:16, one of the most important verses in all the Bible about Scripture. First of all, what scripture are we talking about? And second of all, what is being said about it? What was scripture to Timothy? Well, you would think that there wouldn't be any question about what Scripture. It says all Scripture. But some of the versions have re-translated this verse. The Revised Standard Version, for example, gives you a little footnote and gives you an alternate translation. It says, "Every Scripture inspired by God is useful for teaching." Do you see the change in word order? English is a word order language. And if you change the word order a little bit, all of a sudden, you've changed the meaning. Every Scripture that is inspired or every inspired Scripture, is useful. Do you know what that implies? Some of this isn't inspired. Well, how do we know? What are we going to do? Are we going to go through and try to find out which ones are the inspired ones? The ones in red. Now, those are Jesus' words, for those of you with the red letter edition. But the inspired ones, how do we find it? How are we going to tell? What mechanism, what... Is there an institution that can tell us which ones are inspired and which ones aren't? It's what I call the supermarket view of the Scripture. You get your cart, and you wander down through the aisles and you take some of this, and a little of that, some Psalm 23, maybe Psalm 51 when you need it, some other verses, and you just fill your cart and then you go out and you buy it and you leave. That's the supermarket view of Scripture. Some of it's useful, helpful, inspired, some of it isn't. We just kind of pick and choose. Is that what Paul is saying here? Absolutely not. It's a bad translation from the Greek language, because it omits the word "kai" which we translate "and". There are two things being said about Scripture here, not just one, two things. All Scripture is inspired, or God-breathed is a better translation, and useful or profitable. Two things being said, not just one. All Scripture. Alright. Well then, you say, "Okay well, let's be historical here." The New Testament wasn't even written yet, so Paul couldn't have been talking about the New Testament. Just the Old Testament. Well, Paul was talking about the Old Testament, but he knew that the doctrine that he was giving was straight from God, didn't he? Galatians 1, he said, "I want you to know, that the gospel I preach is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." And he knew that what he was teaching was the Word of God. 1 Thessalonians 2:13, he says, "We also thank God continually because when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of man, but as it actually is, the Word of God which is at work in you who believe." In other words, Paul's saying, in all those words, "Thessalonians, the things I taught you are the word of God." How much more when they were written down. New Testament, Old Testament, all Scripture is God-breathed. Now, what does God-breathed mean? Inspired or Breathed-out by God? Some of you have the word inspired, I actually prefer God-breathed. Inspired gives the sense that something's being breathed into. For example, in Genesis 2, that God formed Adam's body out of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life. That's actually, I think, a faulty view of Scripture, as though the words are there and then God breathes into them and gives meaning to them. That's not the way it is at all. It says all Scripture is actually exhaled by God, breathed out. Paul coined a new word, and never been invented before, theopneustos. I'm not used to pronouncing Greek words to you but I'm going to give you this one. Theo is the word we get theology from. It means God. The pneustos, PN, is where we get pneumonia and all that, has to do with breathing, God breathed. All the words of Scripture are breathed out, exhaled by God. Exhaled. Isn't that powerful? It's a picture of God's creative activity. Well, how did it work? When a prophet like Paul would sit down to write, how would the Scripture work? How would it be exhaled by God? On 2 Peter Chapter 1, Peter gives a very good illustration of this. Turn, if you would, to 2 Peter 1:20 and 21. In 2 Peter 1, whereas, 2 Timothy 3:16 does not tell us the mechanism whereby we get the scripture, 2 Peter 1 does. And this is a fascinating verse, as Peter has the same attitude as Paul. And he says, "First of all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture ever came about by the prophet's own interpretation, for prophesy never had its origin in the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." If you're the kind of person who writes in your Bible, you should underline the word "carried along." If it's a pew Bible, don't do it. But if it's your own Bible, you can go ahead and do it. Carried along. The same Greek word is used in the Book of Acts by Luke, the historian. And he's talking about a shipwreck, in which Paul's ship was tossed and turned by a storm. And it says the same Greek word that the wind was too powerful and they struck the sails, they pulled up the sea anchor, and they let the ship be carried along by the wind. It was just too powerful. It's moving in one direction. They couldn't fight it. That's the way it was with the inspiration of the prophets as they wrote Scripture. The wind of the Spirit was carrying them along, moving them in a direction exactly where God wanted them to go. Mysterious process, but every word exhaled by God. Christ’s Attitude Toward Scripture Now, as I said, this has been a battle ground. People have battled over views of inspiration and all that sort of thing. I think the simplest thing is just to get to the heart of the matter. We're Christians, aren't we? We believe in Jesus Christ. We're disciples of Jesus. Let's just have the same attitude towards Scripture that Jesus does. So we agreed to do that. Let's come together as Christians. We're going to have the same attitude toward the Bible that Jesus does. Now, what attitude does Jesus have toward the Scripture? Well, in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I've not come to abolish them... " But to what? "Fulfill them." "I tell you the truth, until Heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen…" That's jot and tittle, for those of you with the King James. "Not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished." Very high view of Scripture Jesus had. We should have the same, don't you think? Now you say, is that just Law and Prophets, Old Testament? No. He said the same thing about his own words. "Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words... " Plural. "My words will never disappear." Where are his words recorded? Right here, New Testament. It's still going to be here when heaven and earth disappear, still be here. Isn't that powerful? We need to have the same attitude of Scripture, the origin of Scripture that Jesus did. Jesus was tempted out in the desert. Do you remember? The tempter came to him, and had been fasting 40 days and 40 nights. And what did he say? The temper came to him and said, "If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." And Jesus, what did he do? He said, "No, I'm not going to do that." No, he didn't say that. He answered with what? With Scripture. He was teaching us how to deal with temptation. And he said, "It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God." Do you see how in concert Paul and Jesus are? Let's have the same attitude as Paul and Jesus. Every word of Scripture comes out of the mouth of God. This is not the word of man. This is the Word of God, written down for us to read. That is the origin of Scripture. IV. The Purpose of Scripture But what is the purpose of scripture? In verses 15-17, we see clearly the purpose. Now, what is Timothy's purpose? You remember Paul is committing to Timothy a ministry, isn't he? He's giving him a job to do. And what is that job? It is to make disciples for Jesus Chris. To take people who are lost, bring them into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and build them up to spiritual maturity. That is the exact same purpose of Scripture. That's why the Scripture was given. Look at verse 15. "How from infancy you've known the Holy Scriptures... " Which are what? "Able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." The scriptures are given to make us wise for salvation. No one comes to faith in Christ, apart from the written word of God. The Scripture produces disciples for Christ. Wise for Salvation…Through Faith in Jesus Christ Now, what does it mean, wise for salvation? What it means or it implies that we are naturally what? Fools. And we really are. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, the Proverbs says. Any of you who have children, you know what I mean. It's the Scripture that trains us out of our foolishness and brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ. It teaches us wisdom about God. Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It teaches us to fear the Lord, the Scripture does. It teaches us also wisdom about ourselves. We come to know ourselves through the Scripture. Psalm 51, that great confession psalm by King David. After he committed adultery with that Bathsheba, do you remember what he said? "Surely, I was sinful at birth. I was sinful from the time my mother conceived me." And listen to this, "Surely, you desire truth in the inner parts, you teach me wisdom in the inner place." Where does that wisdom come from about our sinfulness? It comes from Scripture. It teaches us also about the future. Well, what is the future? The future is an end, judgment. The wrath of God is coming, it says in Ephesians 5:5. Don't believe me, look it up. Ephesians 5:5, "Because of these things [the sinfulness of humanity] the wrath of God is coming." Well, the scripture teaches us wisdom about that wrath. Get ready. Prepare. Listen to this. Proverbs 22:3. I just found this one. This is great. "The wise man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple or the fool keeps going and suffers for it." The Scripture warns us that a judgment day is coming, and it gives us a refuge. And that's the ultimate wisdom of all. What is the refuge from the wrath of God? There's only one. There's only one Ark when the flood comes. There's only one place of safety. It's Jesus Christ. That is the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1 says so. "We preach Christ crucified, Christ nailed to the cross, a stumbling block to Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." The Scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Well, what does that last phrase mean, "Through faith in Christ Jesus"? What it means is, if you don't have faith in Christ, you can't understand this message. There's millions of Bibles up on shelves today that have never been read. And if they were, they wouldn't be understood. And why? Because you need faith in Christ to understand the message. It's a faith and only the Holy Spirit can give. Perfect example of that, it was Jesus' enemies, the Pharisees. He said, "You diligently study the Scriptures, because you think that by the Scriptures, you possess eternal life." Just because you have the Scripture, you think have eternal life. "These scriptures that testify about me." Said Jesus. "The Bible is about me." You're going to get to know Jesus when you read the Bible, and he's going to save your soul if you have faith in Him. We could say that the purpose of Scripture is the salvation of souls. I was at a Baptist convention recently and a speaker got up, did a great job, but he said one thing that I wondered about. And he said, "The greatest tool for evangelism is love." That's not true. It isn't. There's lots of people who can be loving. A Hindu can be loving, a Muslim can be loving. I think it's important that Christians be loving to one another. They'll know we are Christians by our love. This is the greatest tool for evangelism. This is the sword that's sharp enough to cut away our sin, living and active. This is the tool for evangelism. That's what produces souls for Christ. But the purpose of Scripture is not just to make converts, but to make mature disciples. It says in verse 17, "That the man of God may be complete, or thoroughly equipped for every good work." The idea is maturity. We're not supposed to be babes. We're supposed to know the Bible. We're supposed to know it well. We're supposed to be mature, keep growing, like that sand pit. You're supposed to keep going higher and higher. If you don't, you slide back. It's the Scripture that's given to accomplish that maturity. You might be very old in years, but immature because you don't know the Scripture. You might be young in years, but more mature because you do. It all has to do with the knowledge of the Scripture. It's just that simple. It's not a matter of chronological years. It's a matter of knowing the Bible. V. The Effectiveness of the Bible Now, how does this discipleship, this completion project, how does it work? Well, the Scripture is profitable or useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. That's how. It tells us how it works. Four things. Two of them positive, we could say, and two of them negative. The positive are the first and fourth. Teaching and training in righteousness. The middle two are what we would call negative. Rebuking, and correcting. But all of it is necessary for maturity. The teaching part is how the Scripture gives us what to think about every topic. About prayer, about God, about salvation, heaven and hell, about time, about everything. That's the doctrine. The training and righteousness is a whole lifetime of training that brings us up from immaturity, to full maturity in Christ. It's a beautiful word. Well, what about those negative ones? I think it's hard for us sometimes to receive a rebuke. It really is, but the Scripture has rebuked me more times than I can count. It's the Scripture that comes in and causes that sting. "You're living wrong, Andy. You're doing something wrong." I like what Lewis Sperry Chafer said. He said, "The Bible is not such a book that man would write, if he could, or could write, if he would." In other words, we wouldn't write a Bible like this because it rebukes us too much. It's too honest about our sin. Well, what happens when that rebuke comes? Then comes the correction. I brought a little prop up here with me. I asked my son if I could borrow this. You know what this is, this little thing? If I spin it around, maybe you'll know. This is a gyroscope. Have you ever played with a gyroscope? I love these things. You pull them and then it goes up on a string and it just balances there. Well, when I went to MIT, I learned why. I'm not going to trouble you with all that but it has to do with rotational inertia. But the fact is, the neat thing about a gyroscope is it spins on its axis and it stays true to the axis no matter what's going on around it. And it turns out that this man, Elmer Sperry, you probably never heard of Elmer Sperry, have you? But you probably heard of the Sperry Rand Corporation. Well, he started Sperry Company and it was a gyroscope company. And what he said is, you can use a gyroscope for lots of things. Navigation, you can use it like a compass. But one thing I like, as I was reading through what gyroscopes can do, is that big ships use this. And they are arranged in such a way that if the ship leans too much, the gyroscope tells a computer and it sticks out these fins which right the ship back up. That's what Scripture does in a healthy Christian life. If you're leaning too much in one direction, the Scripture comes and corrects you back up. Isn't that beautiful? That's what it does for a church too. If a church is starting to lean in the wrong way, it's the Scripture that gets it back right up again. If the Scripture is not there at the heart of the church, though, it'll capsize and it'll sink because it all has to do with obedience to the Word of God. Well, so far, we've looked at the origin of Scripture, it's God-breathed, from the very mouth of God. We've looked at the purpose of Scripture. It's to make disciples and to bring them to maturity, through teaching, rebuking, correcting, training in righteousness. Is it effective? Does the Bible work? Does it produce what it seeks to produce? Absolutely. Yes, it does. Verse 15, it says that the Scripture is powerful, or able to make us wise for salvation, would be a good translation. Verse 16 says that the Scripture is profitable. It produces the outcome it seeks. I found in all Scripture, no better verse for this than Isaiah 55. "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word which goes out from my mouth." Isn't that powerful? It goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it forth. The scripture is effective. It produces changes in lives. It's my prayer and my hope that there's someone here today who's never given their life to Jesus. The Scripture comes and warns you of a wrath that's coming and a judgment. Don't stand on Judgment Day with sin, but flee to Christ and trust in him. Let the Scripture today make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. That maybe that there are some others who already believed in Jesus, but you've neglected your Bibles. You haven't given yourself to careful study of them, and so you haven't continued to make progress in your Christian life. Come back to the Scripture. Immerse your mind in it. Read it every day. These are not idle words for you, these are your life. Give yourself to study the Scripture.