Podcast appearances and mentions of jesus just

In this powerful episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony and Jesse return to their parable series with an in-depth examination of the Laborers in the Vineyard from Matthew 20:1-16. This often-misunderstood parable confronts our natural inclination toward merit-based thinking and exposes the scandal of God's grace. The hosts unpack the covenantal language embedded in the text, particularly the workers' "grumbling"—a loaded term echoing Israel's wilderness rebellion. Through careful exegesis and theological reflection, they demonstrate how this parable dismantles religious entitlement while celebrating God's sovereign freedom to bestow mercy according to His purposes, not our calculations. The discussion offers fresh insights into grace, election, and the radical generosity that defines God's kingdom economy. Key Takeaways The parable operates on covenant logic, not economic fairness: The landowner's dealings with his workers reflect covenantal promise-keeping rather than marketplace transactions, establishing that God's relationship with His people is fundamentally gracious. "Grumbling" carries profound theological weight: The Greek word used for the workers' complaint is the same term in the Septuagint for Israel's wilderness rebellion—not mere dissatisfaction, but a covenantal accusation against God's faithfulness. Two types of workers represent two approaches to God: The first-hired workers who contracted for specific wages represent those relating to God through legal obligation and merit, while later workers who trusted the owner's promise represent faith-based relationship. The reversal of payment order is narratively essential: By paying the last workers first, the landowner deliberately exposes the merit-based assumptions of the first workers, forcing them to confront their entitlement. Grace doesn't negate justice—it transcends it: The landowner fulfills every contractual obligation while simultaneously exercising sovereign generosity beyond what is owed, demonstrating that mercy and justice coexist in God's character. The parable addresses the present kingdom, not just heaven: Because it includes grumbling and complaint, this parable describes life in God's kingdom now—the "already but not yet"—rather than the consummated state. Divine sovereignty in salvation is the theological climax: The landowner's declaration "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?" directly addresses God's freedom in election and the scandal of unmerited grace. Key Ideas The Covenantal Nature of the Landowner's Dealings The parable's opening establishes a formal agreement between the landowner and the first workers: one denarius for a day's labor. This contractual arrangement is crucial for understanding what follows. Unlike marketplace haggling, this represents a covenant—the landowner binds himself to provide what he has promised. Tony emphasizes that even this initial contract is an act of condescension and grace, as the master had no obligation to employ anyone at all. As the day progresses, subsequent workers are hired with increasingly less formal agreements. By the third hour, the landowner promises only "whatever is right," and by the eleventh hour, no wage is even mentioned. These later workers enter the vineyard based entirely on the landowner's character and trustworthiness. This progression mirrors the movement from law to gospel—from contractual obligation to trusting promise. The theological implication is profound: those who relate to God based on His gracious word rather than calculated merit are actually in a more secure position than those who attempt to earn their standing through works. The Wilderness Echo: Grumbling as Covenant Violation The hosts make a critical exegetical observation about the Greek word for "grumbling" (γογγύζω) used in verse 11. This is not casual complaining but the identical term used throughout the Septuagint to describe Israel's covenant rebellion in the wilderness. When the workers grumble "upon receiving" their wages, they're not merely expressing disappointment about pay inequality—they're filing a covenant lawsuit against the master, accusing him of unfaithfulness. This connection to Numbers 16 and Exodus 16-17 is devastating. The Israelites' wilderness grumbling wasn't about logistics or comfort; it was fundamentally about doubting God's covenant fidelity. By employing this loaded terminology, Matthew signals that the first workers' complaint is nothing less than accusing God of covenant violation. The landowner's response ("Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?") is a covenant defense—he has fulfilled his obligations precisely. The workers' real offense is not miscalculation but begrudging God's freedom to show mercy beyond what is contractually required. The "Evil Eye" and Begrudging God's Grace The final rhetorical question—"Or do you begrudge my generosity?"—contains another Jewish idiom often lost in translation. The Greek literally reads, "Is your eye evil because I am good?" This "evil eye" imagery appears throughout Scripture as a metaphor for envy, stinginess, and resentment toward another's blessing. The landowner's question cuts to the heart: are you cursing me for being generous? This directly parallels Jonah's response to Nineveh's salvation. Jonah had just experienced miraculous deliverance through the great fish, yet when God showed identical mercy to the Ninevites, Jonah's response was essentially, "I knew you were gracious—that's why I ran!" The parable exposes the same perverse logic: those who have received covenant mercy begrudging that same mercy extended to others. For the Pharisees listening to Jesus, this was an indictment of their resentment toward tax collectors and sinners receiving the kingdom. For Christians today, it challenges any sense of spiritual superiority based on how long we've been in the kingdom or how much we've sacrificed. Memorable Quotes Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? That 'or' is a logical connector—either I'm not allowed to do what I want with my belongings, which is ridiculous, or if I am allowed, then you must be mad at me for being generous. Those are the only options. — Tony Arsenal The grumbling in the Old Testament in this context is a covenantal accusation. These workers aren't just complaining about not getting what they thought they would—they're questioning the veracity of the covenant that was made. — Tony Arsenal Most of us are this eleventh-hour call. It's much better to be in the place of that younger brother who comes in and repents than to be the older brother who is stubborn and finds some reason to come before God with self-righteous grievances. — Jesse Schwamb Full Episode Transcript [00:01:05] Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 488 of the Reformer Brotherhood. I'm Jesse  [00:01:13] Tony Arsenal: and I am still Tony, and this is the podcast where Tony comes back. Hey brother.  [00:01:19] Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. The band is back together again, man. It's reunited and boy, do you feel it? It feels good, doesn't  [00:01:26] Tony Arsenal: it? I do, I do. I'm excited to come back. It was nice to take a break. [00:01:29] Jesse Schwamb: Good.  [00:01:29] Tony Arsenal: I, uh, I've been, you know, texted with you a couple times. Just it was, I did my best to sort of not think about the podcast because that's sort of defeats the purpose of taking a break from something if you spend a lot of time thinking about it. Um, so I'm back. I'm refreshed. I'm ready to go.  [00:01:44] Break and Work Chaos [00:01:44] Tony Arsenal: I appreciate the listeners' patience. Uh, it's been sort of a weird, crazy busy time at work. Uh, there's a lot going on. I, I lost like. 60% of my staff in the course of like three weeks. And, um, I'm still kind of in the thick of it, but we're coming out of it. So took a little bit of time to just make sure that I was having a, an appropriate space to de-stress from that and take care of my family and attend to worship. And, um, it was really a, a blessing to have that. Uh, sort of sabbatical. Ironically, the sabbatical wars were going on at the same time on Twitter, and Jesse is blissfully unaware of that 'cause he's not involved in in the Twitter. That's true. Um, but yeah, just took a little break and it's kinda like overblown it, to call it a sabbatical. Like this is a podcast, it's a hobby, but, but it was nice to have, uh, a little bit of extra time, you know, couple hours extra week, uh, uh, each week of extra time to just decompress and, uh, play with the kids and spend time with my wife and clean the house a little bit, which was good.  [00:02:36] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it is always good to have a clean house. You look great. You seem refreshed. The voice sounds good, and I'm like, I don't know, in year seven or eight of my Twitter sabbatical, it's going great so far. I feel like I haven't missed a whole lot. The world still seems wild and I'm sure, or X, right? We gotta go X on this. It's  [00:02:53] Tony Arsenal: always Twitter. It's always gonna be Twitter. I don't care what Elon Musk  says.  [00:02:56] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I'm listen. I'm totally fine with that.  [00:02:58] Back to Parables [00:02:58] Jesse Schwamb: And I teased this in the last episode, but we can't be stopped. I mean, people should know this by now, we have an inexorable march through the parables of Jesus's true. That will not be stopped. We're always gonna come back until there are no more. And on this episode, we're gonna be hanging out in Matthew 20, talking about laborers in the Kingdom of Heaven.  [00:03:17] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I'm stoked. I'm, I'm, I'm excited to get back into it. I'm excited to get back into the word together with everybody. I'm excited to clear whatever that was on in my throat out  [00:03:27] Jesse Schwamb: emotion,  [00:03:27] Tony Arsenal: live on the air. Uh, but yeah, it'll be good. I'm, I'm stoked. I mean, I love this stuff and it's good to be back.  [00:03:32] Jesse Schwamb: Listen, you had the rest. Now let's talk about labor. So speaking of labor, it's, it's time for you to work up here, Tony. Are you affirming with or denying against on this episode?  [00:03:42] Tony Arsenal: Uh, I'm affirming something and I'm hopeful, uh, that just a little behind the scenes activity here. Jesse recorded episode 487, like an hour and a half ago. I have not yet listened to it, so I don't know if you did an affirmation and I I did. If you did. I hope it's not the same one.  [00:03:58] Jesse Schwamb: I did not. You're  [00:03:59] Tony Arsenal: safe. Uh, good. So I'm safe.  [00:04:01] Artemis II Hype [00:04:01] Tony Arsenal: So, um, I'm affirming the Artemis two mission. Um, oh, nice. Have you been, I mean, I know you're not on Twitter, but I'm sure there's news elsewhere. Uh, this amazing mission around the moon, um, for astronaut, for astronauts, I think, um, the furthest man space travel, um, since the Apollo program. Um. Pretty intense, pretty amazing pictures, right? The camera technologies amazing. Increased exponentially, uh, since we were there last. Um, this is ostensibly in preparation for an actual moon landing, which who knows when that will be? Um, but as far as I've seen, the mission was a resounding success. There was no right. I think they had, they ran into a few little hiccups early on with some technical things, but nothing crazy. I have not heard. Um, I know they did touch down and they did reentry. Um, I've not heard anything one way or another, but I'm assuming since I have not heard terrible, tragic news that they made it through, did they do the reentry? I'm really, apparently I'm not actually paying as much attention to this as I thought I was. I saw a lot of information about reentry, but I guess, I don't know for sure when that happened or is happening.  [00:05:05] Jesse Schwamb: I mean, by this point, when people listen to it, it'll be old news anyway, right? So  [00:05:09] Tony Arsenal: For sure. Yeah. And either, either it went terribly wrong and I'm gonna feel awful, or it went fine and I'm gonna feel a little silly for. Throwing a caveat that it went terribly wrong out there. But, um, it's cool. It's, it's amazing. I mean, I, I commented to my wife the other day and she's kinda like, yeah, maybe we should like, spend that money on people who are on the planet. I was like, okay, I can, I can buy that wisdom. But, um, there's something very cool and very Genesis, uh, one, ask Genesis one and two, ask about flying out into space and taking dominion over Yeah, for sure. Over a, a little ball of rock, uh, you know, uh, 25,000 miles away or whatever it is. Um. And, you know, I'm like an engineering nerd. I, I don't know anything about engineering, but I love watching YouTube videos that explain stuff like this. And  [00:05:52] Jesse Schwamb: me  [00:05:52] Tony Arsenal: too, all of the videos that have cropped up now about free return and how, like they're able to basically like do minimal burn on the thrusters to get into the right trajectory and then just like meet the moon in the place it's gonna be. And then the, you know, the moon's gravity captures it and whips it back around and then shoots it back towards Earth. And for the most part, they're able to do all of that with relatively minor, um, relatively minor energy output because they're just utilizing physics and gravity and math, um, to fly to the moon and come back. Yes. It's pretty crazy amazing. So, yeah. Amazing. And the photos of like the, the sort of like new versions of the Earthrise photos are really, really phenomenal. Um, they're crisp, they're clean, they're obviously like the best, the best actual pho photographic images we've had of the lunar surface. Um. And the, the far side of the lunar surface, which we get all sorts of like telescopic photos and things of this side of the lunar surface because it's tightly locked and is facing us at all times. We don't get a ton of really great photography of the far side of the moon, which is a big part of what this mission was, so,  [00:06:56] Jesse Schwamb: right.  [00:06:56] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. If you haven't seen the photos, I mean, they're out there, they're amazing. There will be even more available once we get back. You know, they, they're transmitting only the most stellar, amazing ones. Um, and, but they're taking, I'm sure thousands and thousands of photos and, um, so yeah, it's pretty cool. I'm affirming the Artemis two mission. Um. It's just amazing what, what people can do with common grace, you know? That's right. In insight into nature. Um, I don't know anything about the astronauts. I don't know anything about their religious faith or their spiritual life or anything like that. But, um, the people who design this, the people who fly it, they're just tapping into the truth that's present in God's creation. So good on them. Uh, either I'm glad they got home, wish they have a safe home coming, or something along those lines, I guess. I don't know.  [00:07:40] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, you'll be happy to know that NASA is reporting that the four astronauts are an excellent condition after they landed in the Pacific Ocean. So  [00:07:47] Tony Arsenal: good.  [00:07:47] Jesse Schwamb: All, all appears to be well. And it says they have a giant SD card of pictures that's they've been taking. Yeah. And saving. I'm sure. They were just, they were just too big to send to over wifi.  [00:07:58] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Like massive wideness. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure they have a ton that they didn't send because you know Right. Data rates to the moon are pretty high. Yeah.  [00:08:05] Jesse Schwamb: Ex. Yeah.  [00:08:05] Tony Arsenal: This economy is crazy. So  [00:08:07] Jesse Schwamb: Exactly. In this economy. Really In this economy. Yeah, exactly.  [00:08:11] Cosmic Worship Reflections [00:08:11] Jesse Schwamb: I think you're right. This is good. I haven't talked about this at all. It's hard not to get just stoked, even in the amateur way about the science, the technology, the physics of all this stuff, and then even the astronauts just being overwhelmed by what they're seeing. [00:08:24] Tony Arsenal: Mm-hmm.  [00:08:25] Jesse Schwamb: It's hard not to get pulled into that and think about the universe that God has created and find that there is something transcendent just, uh, by observing all of these things. Yeah. Like even casually, which I think shows, again, this is literally the, the heavens and the earth crying out for God, showing his immeasurable power and, you know, immortal nature. It's incredible that we can even see and be a part of some of these things. Just wild.  [00:08:49] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, and I think it's crazy that they can get signals to the moon. I mean, I drive home from Dartmouth College and I go through half of the spot there, and I don't have a cell signal, but we can get images from the moon. Um, so yeah, it's great. It's great. Check it out if you haven't seen it. If you haven't heard about it, I don't know what you're doing. Uh, this is probably the largest major scientific advancement in our generation. Um, in terms of like big scale scientific enterprise projects. There's been a lot of really amazing technology that's been developed. But this is like the first big. Almost like risky kind of scientific,  [00:09:30] Jesse Schwamb: right?  [00:09:30] Tony Arsenal: I dunno. Gambit or I dunno, gamble that we've done in a long time. Big deal. I mean, big a lot. Deal of things. Deal. Nothing went wrong. Nothing ma major went wrong. Praise God that they all got back to the planet safely. Right. But, um, a lot of things could have gone wrong, uh, and they didn't. So check out the photos, check out the scientific data they're gonna get. I mean, I'm sure they've got all sorts of information about the way the, the, the space ship moved, all of that stuff. It's gonna be really interesting to see kind of how this all comes about.  [00:09:56] Jesse Schwamb: Get some worship on, right? Yeah. I mean this is what a one, a thing to be reminded about how big and how glorious God is. [00:10:01] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  [00:10:01] Jesse Schwamb: And, and to realize, like you said, the risks of this exploration. And this is God again, creating all of this outta nothing. Why? Yeah. Just absolutely wild. Incredible.  [00:10:12] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, for  [00:10:12] Jesse Schwamb: sure. Blown away.  [00:10:13] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. What about you, Jesse? What do you have for us?  [00:10:15] Bayes and Predictability [00:10:15] Jesse Schwamb: I got affirmation. It's equally nerdy, and actually this is as is always the case. This is why one of many reasons I miss you is it, it dovetails so nicely, so I'm affirming with a book. It's called Everything Is Predictable, how Esy and Statistics Explains the World. It's by a guy named Tom Chivers. I know this sounds super nerdy, but hear me out on this because Thomas Bayes, if you don't know this guy is first kind of like a wild and interesting guy, but this whole theory he put forward is super interesting. And this book is not like a mathematics book. It's like reads almost like a statistical thriller, which as it came outta my mouth, realized it was not maybe more ingratiating. I could have chosen better words than statistical thriller. But Thomas Bayes was alive in the 17 hundreds. And what's interesting to me at least about him, is he was an English statistician, who was a Presbyterian minister actually. He was a non-conformist and his, this whole theorem that he developed was actually published after his death. And the non-conformist part is super interesting. It's all in this book, even some of his different theological ideas. But because he was non-conformist, it basically meant like he couldn't learn. He was kicked out of all the English universities. He had to go to Scotland. Even all of that shaped how he came up with this particular theorem. But the gist of it is. Rather than treating like probabilities, as we think about it as this fixed frequency, you know, how many times does this thing occur? He argued and realized that it should represent a degree of belief and then you would update that belief rationally as new evidence comes in. And I know that sounds super quaint, but this is like what machine learning is based on medical diagnosis. A lot of like space travel is based on this in terms of understanding uncertainty and systems spam, all of that stuff. Here's an example, I think Tony, because we are, we have to carry forward with the top 50 medical podcast thing, right? We've got going on here. Lemme just give everybody an example of why you need this and why you automatically think this way. So. Statistics is really important, especially in medical testing. This was really prevalent in during COVID. So there's two ways that you can describe how a medical test performs you. You know this already, Tony, you're an expert. So one would be like sensitivity. So like how AIG  [00:12:19] Tony Arsenal: not an expert.  [00:12:20] Jesse Schwamb: Oh, you're definitely an expert in testing. Here we go. So one would be like sensitivity. How good is the test at catching people who are sick? So if you're sick, you, you want the test to identify that, that you're sick. That's sensitivity. So a test with a 99% sensitivity is gonna correctly identify 99 out of a hundred people who are truly sick. It always gonna miss one person. It's a false negative. The other half of that coin is something called specificity. So if sensitivity is all about catching the people who are sick, specificity is gonna say, how good is the test at clearing people who are not sick? And so a test with 99% specificity, you might have correctly guessed, is gonna identify or clear 99 out of a hundred healthy people. Now if you have a test. Both of those 99% sensitive and 99% specific, you might be thinking, that is the dream. That's exactly what I want. That that test is gonna be so precise and accurate. How could my intuition fail me? But this is the thing. It actually fails all the time, and here's why. Let's say that. You go out and you screen a group of people, a general population for a rare disease that affects one in a thousand people. One in a thousand people, rare disease. So if you screen 10,000 people from the general population, that means that truly only 10 of them are going to have the actual disease. I'm not gonna do all the math 'cause it'll, oh, this is already making for amazing podcasting. But here's the bottom line. That test, which sounds so good on the face, is going to identify 109 people as truly sick or truly having disease. But the problem is that only 10 of them actually have it. That means that only there's, it only has a success rate of 9%. There's only 9% chance you actually have the disease, but it's falsely identified. The short end of this is Bayes corrects that problem. He fixes it with his theorem so that we get to the right number of people. That's what's called like a base fallacy rate. It's not taking into account that really only 10 people should have this particular disease or this sickness. So I know that's sounds super nerdy, but so much of our lives are based on this. We have a prior belief or a prior set of things that we understand about the world. And then as evidence comes in, we refine that. That sounds so normal and normative, but it's revolutionary in this book actually. Bayes versus what's called like frequentist or frequent, um, probability is like hotly debated. People actually throw down over this theorem. So it's a really fun read. Go check out. Everything is predictable. Al Bayesian statistics explains our world. It really is for everybody. And then you can impress your friends with all the statistical pross you're gonna have when you're done reading it.  [00:14:56] Tony Arsenal: Like the medical administrator hat that I can't always take off is like, why would we screen 10,000 people? Are, are they all symptomatic? Are none of them symptomatic? But suppose it doesn't really  [00:15:08] Jesse Schwamb: matter for the example. That's a great, so generally what happens here is, let's say it's like some kind of rare form of cancer, unless you use Bayesian statistics, what you'll find is you'll get these false positive rates. So these tests do use Bayesian statistics. It corrects, in other words, for this problem. So there might be a lot of people that are gonna screen for this because if you, you wanna know if you have it, but you don't wanna get it wrong and say that you do. So this ensures his approach ensures that you get it. Right. It's wild. Fascinating stuff.  [00:15:34] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and I would think actually, you know, there's probably, there's other mechanisms as well where they would, where they would sort of screen out. People that shouldn't be tested or help identify false negatives, false positives. Um, but yeah, that's, that's interesting. I probably won't read that book, but it sounds like an interesting read. I just don't have a lot of room on my A TBR shelf.  [00:15:55] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, listen. That, that's fair.  [00:15:57] Goodreads DNF Update [00:15:57] Jesse Schwamb: By the way, here's like a, a side affirmation. I think you and I both share speaking like books and cataloging books. If you use Good Reads, good Reads. Right. Finally adding a list of the Do Not Did Not Finish book. That's fantastic. This, this might be an example for some people, so pick it up and even if you don't have a place for it, guess where you can put it on the did not finish list. Yeah. Good Reads.  [00:16:16] Tony Arsenal: That's finally, that's one of those like, like why didn't they add that 15 years ago? Kind of an updates and you get the email and they're like, we're so excited to introduce the did Not Finish thing. And we're like, yeah. Like of course. Like, duh. It's likes, like, we're proud to introduce that. Your keypad now has a zero on it.  [00:16:36] Jesse Schwamb: Right. So  [00:16:37] Tony Arsenal: yeah. I'm, I'm excited about the DNR, um, the DNF, um, I'm so excited. I can't even remember what it's called. Yeah. The shelf. But, uh, very, very useful. The DNR list  [00:16:47] Jesse Schwamb: is a diff it is a different list. Speaking of medical things, it's a different  [00:16:50] Tony Arsenal: list. Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely a different thing. Usually it's not a list. It's a list of one in most cases.  [00:16:56] Jesse Schwamb: Exactly,  [00:16:57] Tony Arsenal: yeah. You can't put other people on your  [00:17:00] Jesse Schwamb: DNR  [00:17:00] Tony Arsenal: This,  [00:17:00] Jesse Schwamb: I suppose. Yeah, I should clarify that. You can really, you can only really put yourself, or I suppose somebody for whom you have that kind of authority over on that list, but I was thinking that more from like a medical perspective, that somewhere there would be a database in which there might be a list of DNR. I don't know.  [00:17:15] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I'm not sure. Probably there was at some point, but I think with medical chart technology now, that's probably like a. A moot point. Yeah. They don't need to be able to like cross reference a master list anymore. They just look in the patient's electronic record. We're really like in the weeds here. You can tell it's been a while since I've, I've podcasted. I don't really remember how to do this.  [00:17:35] Jesse Schwamb: This is great.  [00:17:36] Segue to Matthew 20 [00:17:36] Jesse Schwamb: I think at this point we try to make some kind of awkward segue that is mildly successful. Again, probably has statistically like a 20 to 27% chance of being successful and really hitting the mark. Yeah. So do you have anything that's gonna move us into this?  [00:17:49] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I mean, I feel like you've been podcasting for the last several weeks without me and I've been working hard and now I'm kind of coming in as Johnny come lately and we're gonna get paid the same amount so. Even though you've worked harder for longer and I'm coming in late to the game here. [00:18:03] Jesse Schwamb: Oh man. Ple loved ones. Please tell me you got that. Please tell me you got all of that. That's, that's what you show up for here. Yeah, that was  [00:18:10] Tony Arsenal: a deep cut.  [00:18:11] Jesse Schwamb: That, that was beautiful. And I think leads us right into Matthew 20. So I think we've got at least 16 verses to get through here. Maybe again, if we're gonna keep a statistical theme here, something about engineering and math, all that stuff, we'll let everybody else pick the over under and whether or not we're gonna get through this and how many verses that's going to be. But at this point, we might as well begin.  [00:18:32] Tony Arsenal: Yes. Yeah.  [00:18:33] Read the Parable [00:18:33] Tony Arsenal: I'll start by reading. Uh, we're here in Matthew chapter 20, the first 16 versus this is the parable of the laborers in the vineyard and it reads. For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborer laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into the vineyard and going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. He said to them, you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right, I will give you. So they went, going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, why do you stand here idle all day? They said to him, because no one has hired us. And he said to them, you go into the vineyard too. And when the evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them with their wages, beginning with the last up to the first. And when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now, when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house saying, these last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. And he replied to one of them, friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me? For a denarius, take what belongs to you and go, I choose to give the last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you beg, do you begrudge my generosity? So the last will be first and the first will be last. Now I just wanna head this off. I did bite my tongue earlier and I probably am lisping and this is like a running gag. We thought that we'd resolved it. Uh, so if you hear me stumble over my words a little bit, it's just, it's just the struggle bus today.  [00:20:24] Jesse Schwamb: Listen, this is the, these are like the real things we have to deal with when the podcasting, like the real threats, the real injuries. I appreciate you like working through it. Like you just get back up and you walk it off with your tongue.  [00:20:35] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, my, my, uh, my podcasting hiatus was actually just a recovery of the last time I bit my tongue. I just needed a couple weeks to, no, I'm just kidding.  [00:20:43] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, we didn't wanna say.  [00:20:44] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  [00:20:44] Kingdom Fairness and Grumbling [00:20:44] Tony Arsenal: So, Jesse, this is a, this is a parable that follows right on the heels, um, of kind of everything we've been talking about. And I think as we go through these parables and we look at them and we, we sort of pick them up and we look at the different facets of them, we sort of compare them to each other. We kind of, we kind of place them in their context really. They all have basically the same theme, right? Like they're all kind of circulating around these same topics. In this parable, it's circulating around this idea that, um, the, the owner of the vineyard, the master of the vineyard, is allowed to pay the people he employs whatever he wants. And as long as the payment that is due to an individual is received by that individual, then what other people receive and how they receive it and how hard they've worked and how hard they didn't work. That's really not germane to whether or not the, the laborer received a fair wage, uh, in the first place. Right. So we're, we're circling around themes of kind of fairness of, uh, of sort of resentment, I think for resentment at the master's generosity, which has been a big theme in previous ones. So this will be good for us to expand on. There's always little nuggets and kernels of things that are different from other parables, and then it's interesting to always see the ways that they kind of line up and, and tell us similar things.  [00:21:57] Jesse Schwamb: And this parable is unique to Matthew. Yeah. And it does function as this exposition or expansion of what Jesus says in chapter 19 where it says, but many who are first will be last. And the last first, which is repeated with this lovely like inverted emphasis in, at the end of this as you just read. So it belongs to this like interesting cluster of teacher teachings on discipleship and reward nature of the kingdom of God. And we've, we've spoken a lot about that. I think I was just reminded of this as you were, you were. Reading this, I feel like I remember this from some teaching, like this parable is kind of like a unique chiasm that's anchored on the landowner, sovereign generosity, which you brought up. And then there's the complaints of the first hired, which is mirrored by the late comers vulnerability. And then the landowners, two speeches which divide everything, kind of provide sandwich and the like, the theological climax. It does start in that really familiar way, which we've gotten accustomed to thinking about that introductory formula of the kingdom of heaven is like, and it signals of course that what follows is not gonna be a lesson in economics, but it's gonna use all this economic language as theological disclosure for how God's kingdom operates. And it starts again, like you said, with this master of the house, which to me seems. Pretty clearly like a, a God figure himself. Yeah. It's, that's kind of like a reoccurring mathian image. I think. So we've got this vineyard, which of course has all this symbolism, steeply rooted in Israel's covenant imagination and evokes God's people and his redemptive labor among them. So, man, now that I'm saying this all loud, is this thing like super pregnant with all kinds of like imagery and meaning?  [00:23:27] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's, it's always good to remember, although parables have kind of some parables, most parables have sort of distinct discreet, symbolic elements where like, this represents that this represents that almost in an allegorical form. And, and in some cases, like purely in allegorical form, where it's like pilgrim's progress where each, each individual, each entity, each location each represents some sort of symbolic value. But we have to remember that when, when it says the parable of the kingdom of heaven is like the master of the house, it's not just like the master of the house. Yes. Right. It's like this whole scenario. Yes. It's, it's like. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like everything that follows, it's like the entire, um, the entire paree here. That's what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. And one of the things that I think is striking about this is the kingdom of heaven is like some people complaining, like the people complaining about, some people are getting the same wage for less work. Um, that is part of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. So I think we sometimes think of, of. The kingdom of heaven in, um, in the parables, we think of it as though God is just saying, this is what heaven is like. Right? Jesus Just saying like, this is what heaven is like, but the kingdom of heaven, that language is broader than what we normally would say, uh, is. We're thinking of heaven, like in the, the spiritual abode where God lives and the angels live. Um, where, where the departed saints are waiting for the resurrection, the kingdom of heaven is, is also inclusive of the, the sort of like. Time now between the victory of Christ on the cross and the consummation of the kingdom and the last day, the kingdom of heaven is inclusive of that time period too. And so this parable sort of situates us. I think it situates us in that pre consummated state where we're talking about what it's like to be a part of the kingdom of heaven here and now in our fallen state, but still solidly in the kingdom of heaven. 'cause there's not gonna be any complaining or grumbling about God's justice in God's fairness once we're in the final resurrected state. Right? Sure. Nobody's gonna be looking back and be like, yeah, you were way too gracious for that guy. Nobody's gonna be playing the Jonah part when we're all resurrected and we're worshiping for, for all time going forward. So this parable, because there are elements of. Dissatisfaction or elements of grumbling or complaining similar to like the, the parable of the prodigal son. There's this sun figure, the, the older sun figure who like is just a bonehead and doesn't get it. Well, that can't be talking about the people who are in the resurrection kingdom in the final kingdom. It's gotta be talking about people who are still awaiting the resurrection of the body and who are still not yet. Uh, and even in, in that parable, the, the older son doesn't even seem to be a figure who's, who's regener. Maybe he does become regener at some point in the future, but he doesn't seem to be. In, even in God's kingdom, he doesn't seem to be, even among God's people, he's consistently placed outside of the field. You don't even know he exists until Nick halfway through the parable. This is similar in that there are these workers, they're receiving their wages and some of them are, are outwardly dissatisfied and grumbling against the master of the house. Um, so I think if we think about parables as describing heaven rather than the kingdom of heaven, we can lose sight of, of what's actually being said in a lot of them. [00:26:50] Contracts Versus Grace [00:26:50] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that's really good stuff because it strikes me that there are like, strangely, two groups here mentioned, I, I find this really kind of fascinating. We, I think we should talk about this, like the first group has like the most formal agreement, it's almost a legal contract, right? Various was like a standard day laborers wage sufficient mostly for subsistence. And so that detail seems theologically loaded to me. These workers relate to the landowner on the basis of a contract and what is owed. And so their claim at the end of the day will be exactly that. They're owed something and they know it, and that sets up Then this contrast with a second group, which is mostly all about grace because by the time we get to that third hour, like. Approximately like 9:00 AM then we're beginning this pattern repeated at the sixth and the ninth hours. And crucially, for those workers who go out, go out and get recruited, there's no wage that's specified for them. Only the promise of like whatever is right. And so they enter the vineyard, not on the basis of a contract, but on the basis of like the owner's word and character. And that seems to be like more of a picture of trust and not, not calculation. Yeah. Separate than like the first group. And that marketplace, idleness, as I read this, doesn't imply like laziness because verse seven clarifies like they just had not been hired. Right? They were overworked, they were unemployed. They were marginalized. So it does set up, like you said, everything you just talked about, about the kind of this, I like that. Like the Jonah, the Jonah whiners or whatever, like yeah, they want to complain about this, right? There are, and there are two, two separate groups that have kind of been brought into the fold, not under different terms or pretenses, but differently. [00:28:17] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And I think too, bear's saying, um. Although there are elements of parables that are very, very directly applicable. Mm. We shouldn't read this as though every, every specific thing in the parable is not a parable. Right. Right. I think we can look at this and we can go, you know, you can read this in a way where, oh yeah, there's some people actually earn their, earn their wage, they earn ary. Right. It's a fair contract. And they work all day and he says, well, I'm gonna give you what's right, what you, what I owe you.  [00:28:45] God Owes Nothing [00:28:45] Tony Arsenal: The reality is God doesn't owe any of us anything. Right? Right. He owes us wrath and judgment and destruction. And so even, even the people who are the hard workers in the kingdom of God don't merit and never could merit, um, to, in a certain sense, in a strict sense and stick with me before you send your, your angry emails in a real strict sense. Even Adam couldn't merit. What was, well, it was guaranteed to him, according to the Covenant of Works, God had to condescend to make the covenant of works in order for Adam to have any sort of fruition of his blessedness. So there there's no natural obligation, strict obligation that God has to reward the work of his creatures because nothing they could do could ever be sufficient enough to obligate him. So the, the obligation of himself, and that's, this is where I do think this is strong, the fact that he obligates himself to these workers to give them their denarius after a hard day's work  [00:29:37] Jesse Schwamb: exactly  [00:29:37] Tony Arsenal: is itself. A covenantal, um, contractual, yes. But I actually read this as sort of a covenantal thing and the, the strange part is that the people don't recognize the sort of semi gracious covenantal nature of this. Yes.  [00:29:50] Grace In The Hiring [00:29:50] Tony Arsenal: I think, um, you know, there have been times when I, where I've been unemployed, um, not for very long. Now, I know some people face unemployment for a lot longer than I ever have, but I know there was times where I was, I was looking for work and someone would say to me like, Hey, you know, my, my, my lawn needs to be mowed. Could you come over and I'll, I'll give you 25 bucks to mow my lawn. It's a small lawn. Um. That's a gracious act in most cases. Right, right. Um, yes, I'm performing a task. Yes, they're paying me, but they didn't have to offer me that work. They didn't have to offer me that job, especially when it's something that like they could have accomplished themselves. They could have just done it themselves. Um, so I think there's an element of that here, that there's, there's a condescension of the master to these workers, to these laborers who are not part of his household. These are not, they're not slaves. These are not people who are part of his household, who are regular employees. These are people that he goes out into the market to, to find and to hire. And as we see some of, some of these mark, like the difference between the ones that are hired and the ones that are not hired until later in the day, the parable's not super clear about what it is. Just that they're not hired, it doesn't say the lazy ones were left there. The ones were exactly, that were ugly or had like limp legs or like just couldn't cut it. It just says like there was some that didn't get hired. Um, so there's a gracious element of this, and that makes the recognition at the end or the lack of recognition at the end by these full day laborers, the, the sort of like recognition, this, this entitled ness, um, that actually makes it all the worst. It's like the people who are outwardly attached to the covenant of grace. Um, I know all the Baptists in our, our group, their heads just exploded, but like are outwardly attached to the covenant of grace, um, who wanna somehow complain about like the graciousness of the covenant of grace that they're outwardly attached to it. It's just sort of like a form of, of theological and temporary insanity, I think. And that's what we see on full display here.  [00:31:40] Jesse Schwamb: It's definitely all grace. You're right that nobody's gonna get injustice right in this parable. And I think that's definitely exemplified the further out you go in this hiring order. [00:31:49] Eleventh Hour Mercy [00:31:49] Jesse Schwamb: So by the time you get to 5:00 PM which is pretty extraordinary, right? Only really like one hour remains before sense, right? It's the end of the working day.  [00:31:56] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  [00:31:56] Jesse Schwamb: You can imagine like these guys who are being hired at the hour probably can contribute very little in the last hour of the day, right? But this owner goes out and hires them and no agreement is stated whatsoever. It's just pure grace. The landowner's question, why do you stand here idle all day? I think to your point, underlies their vulnerability. They were not idle by choice, presumably. And so I think we rightly here in this, like a foreshadowing of those who are called the late in redemptive history, Gentile sinners, the seemingly least qualified for kingdom membership. All of that I think is at play and it's all, it's getting this lovely setup of all these groups to help us understand what that kingdom is actually like.  [00:32:33] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah.  [00:32:35] Reverse Payroll Setup [00:32:35] Tony Arsenal: And then we have this, um, this is where the sort of dramatic tension turns, right? The end of the day comes and, uh, the master calls the, the people that he brought last, right? He calls the people who'd only been there for an hour and he starts to go down the list of the people who, the people who were last, and the people who came in next. And the people who came in next, right? And the workers who had contracted at the beginning of the day. Um, they're watching this happen and they're kind of going, oh, this is gonna be good. Like, that guy's only been here for an hour and he got a denarius. You know, the logic is probably like, I'm gonna get 12 denarius, like I'm gonna go 12 days worth of work. Um, because I think there's an assumption on their part, um, that the master's fair that he is, he's providing an equitable wage. Um, of course the master is fair, but he's providing an equitable wage that's commensurate with the work delivered. A delivered, delivered, right? And that, that's the key to this parable.  [00:33:26] Merit Mindset Exposed [00:33:26] Tony Arsenal: I think the expectation that God. Helps those who help themselves. Right? God rewards those who put in the hard work. God. God provides blessing or salvation according to the merit provided by the one who's being saved. That perspective is what's on full display here. Yes. By the people who are, uh, the ones who contracted for the full day. They're not thinking about the covenant that they have with this person or the contract they have with this person. They're not thinking about the fact that they agreed to work for the day in order to earn a day's wage. They're thinking about how this actually is gonna work out great in their favor. They're looking at this as a strictly merit-based kind of a, a thing. And you would think that like when the, the one hour people come in, they get a denarius, and then the three hour people come in and they get a denarius. You'd think they would pick up on it at some point, but then in the course of the payroll, it doesn't seem that they do. They still get to the bottom of the list and think they're gonna get more compared to the other people who all got the same.  [00:34:22] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that display piece is critical to this. It is like complete setup. Like you can imagine he, the landowner calling everybody together at the end of the day and they're all standing around. Some of them are exhausted because they've again born all their work in the heat of the day on their backs. They're tired, they're dirty, maybe they're exhausted. And he starts in this reverse order. And by the way, we should note that there is something here that's beautiful in that the law, the landowner is law abiding because right evening payment is mandated in the Torah. So we see all this taking place as to fulfill the law in some ways. But the reversal of the order that last of first is like such deliberative and good narrative storytelling and staging, isn't it? 'cause it ensures that the first hired workers are going to witness the payment of those who work the least. And if without that order, if you just did it the other way around, the more a crisis of the parable disc like completely goes away.  [00:35:10] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  [00:35:10] Jesse Schwamb: So this execution of the payment at the owner's will, it just shows that he has. He's completely independent. His sovereignty belong. The sovereignty belongs to the master alone. And so this 11th hour workers receiving a full day's wage for one hour of work, that's like an act of sheer generosity. It's not proportional justice. And I think as reform, people, maybe all of us at some point have had this conversation about predestination and justice and mercy. And again, really I think putting a crowbar between this idea that nobody is receiving injustice, but some are receiving mercy and grace. And here these first hired workers seeing this form, like you said, this expectation that they're gonna receive more, like you said, where that came from. Yeah, it's just them, right? It's purely manufactured in their own reasoning. It's not anchored in the covenantal promise and certainly not witnessed in the grace that they should be receive, like perceiving as the payments get doled out, like sequentially moving in their reverse order toward those who have worked the longest. But their expectation reveals that they have fundamentally misread like the landowner's character. They're still operating in the register of a contract and not grace.  [00:36:16] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And you know, I think to sort of lock this covenant covenantal frame and sort of like lack of recognition of the covenant into place too, when you look at the language of this parable, um, and especially kind of what it's following up on, it's coming on the heels of this interaction with this rich, rich young ruler who comes in and he thinks that he's gonna earn eternal life by keeping the commandments. Um, and, and he, he has this outward sense or this outward display of pty. He's calling Jesus good. He's saying he, you know, he keeps the commandments, Jesus doesn't even disagree with him actually, that he has connect. Yes. You know, I think it's implied that, well, of course you haven't, but he, he still is graciously trying to like, convince this guy, no, you actually need to abandon your self righteousness and, and pursue and follow me. Um. But this is a parable where like other people are listening, right? There's other witnesses. This isn't like the rich young ruler came to him in the middle of the night, like Nicodemus. This is something that's happened on PO on in the public. So we can anticipate that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the lawyers were all aware of this. They may have been there, but they were at least aware of this happening. And I think there's some language in here that is actually directed at those people.  [00:37:30] Grumbling As Accusation [00:37:30] Tony Arsenal: And, and here's where it comes in, is you get to verse, um, we'll start reading again at verse nine. It says, when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now, when those hired first came, so we're referring to the people who are hired at the beginning of the day. Now, when those who were hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius and on receiving it, right? So this is as, this is, um, uh, just unbelievable as they're receiving the denarius on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house. Now, just the way that I read that and said the word grumbled tells you that that word is really important here. Yes. If you look at this Greek word. And you compare it to the, the word, the usage of this word in the, the, um, Sept. Yes. Which of course is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. This word most commonly appears in the wilderness wandering accounts. [00:38:22] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.  [00:38:23] Tony Arsenal: Right. And the, the primary sin of the Israelites during the wilderness wandering was grumbling against the Lord. And this grumbling against the Lord in that context is not just a general complaining, right. It's not just like a, a sort of like a, a general dissatisfaction or like murmuring. This isn't like water cooler frustration about your boss. The grumbling in the Old Testament in this context is a covenantal accusation, right. So this is tied to the, the accounts where Moses first is told to strike the rock, and he does so when the water comes out, and then second is told to speak to the rock, but he strikes it. I won't go into all the details, but the scene that's being, being displayed there is the people come, they accuse the Lord of abandoning them into the wilderness. And this scene where Moses is set up on the rock and he strikes the rock, that scene is a judicial scene. The people have filed a covenant accusation against the Lord, and in reality, it's the people who have been unfaithful. But the Lord standing in the place of the rock is the one who is struck, right? Jesus was the rock in the wilderness from which the water came. Paul says that in First Corinthians, right? So this language of grumbling in this is not just, they're not just complaining about the fact that they didn't get what they thought they were going to, they're questioning the veracity of the covenant that was made. So they're, they're still locked into this merit-based. This merit-based idea even more than it seemed at first, right? There's a logic to the idea that like, oh, if the, the master is actually paying a wage of one denarius for per hour, like there's a logic to that. But it's not just that they're saying, and this is, this explains the response of the master. It's not just that they're saying like, Hey, wait a second, like the wage rate that you're paying is not right. They're saying you have violated the terms of our covenant in the way that you have paid us. 'cause it's upon receiving it that they complain or they grumble and the master says more or less like, Hey. You agreed with me for one Denarius, I'm giving you what you've earned. I'm giving you what you agreed on. Why don't you take it and go. So the answer is not to try to justify why he is free to pay these other people more, or why he's free to pay these people a perceived less. The answer is, again, they're complaining against the covenant. He is bringing it back to the covenant saying, well, here's what the covenant relationship was. You work for the day. I give you Denarius. We're square here, we're on the same page. We've fulfilled our covenant obligations, and you've received your reward for that. So I, I think that's another thing we have to lock in here is this is not just a general idea of like unfairness that's being presented. This is not just a general idea that people are saying the master of the house is unfair. They're saying he's covenantal. Unfaithful. Right? That's a pretty big accusation.  [00:41:09] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that is, thank you by the way, for completely stealing the whole tugen thing from me. Like I was just going hot to Tugen to find that reference. And now all I can do is add to it. So that is from at least one of those occasions, a number 16, and I just wanna read the verse. This is 16 six. So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel at evening, you will know that Yahweh has brought you outta the land of Egypt. And in the morning you will see the glory of Yahweh for he hears your grumblings against Yahweh. And what we are that you grumble against us. So I'm totally with you. This is not subtle. The workers first complaint here, the first workers' complaint is like theologically serious. Uh, I think that's what you're hitting us on. Like it charges the owner with injustice. Right. And as I read it, the grievance has like two layers or two parts, I would say. One is this comparative part, which is basically saying, you made us equal to them. Right? And the second be like a meritorious part, they have worked harder and in worse conditions. And that's why they say things like, it's, it's all inflammatory language, isn't it? Like the scorching heat emphasizes like the real bodily cost and their complaint. I think if we're honest, it's not irrational, but it's spiritually revealing at least because Right, they believe their greater effort, mayors greater reward and they resent that grace shown to others. So like you said, they're bringing forward a very serious grievance and it's, it's not just like, Hey, we think maybe could you give us a bonus? Right. But that is a matter of faithfulness. And in fact, like as I'm looking at this tugen here, shout out to logos Bible software. And I'm saying that that verb that we're talking about in Exodus 16 is in the imperfect tense. So this is, they kept on grumbling and it is like an an echo of Israel's murmuring in the wilderness, which I presume like Matthew certainly had intentionally used there or had that view in part casting these workers as the same types of those who relate to God through entitlement rather than gratitude. So it's like insults upon insult here, but it is to emphasize this fact that it's no small accusation, it's not subtle, it's meant to be in your face. They're coming in hot with this and they're making a big deal about it.  [00:43:16] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and again, I think like underscoring the covenantal nature of this is so key. And I think, you know, when we look at this, we really have to land that this is not just saying. Your wage structure is not right. 'cause and, and we gotta remember, they weren't there when the master went and made this bargain, or, you know, brought these other workers into the vineyard. They weren't there to hear what covenant or contract he did or didn't make. And as we've commented, they didn't, he didn't even make a covenant with them. He basically just said, I'm gonna put you to work and I'll pay you what's fair. I'll pay you what's right. Um, and they went, okay, you need the work and thank you. Like, I think, I think that's kind of like the, the scene here is they're standing there. They recognize they're not gonna get a wage for the day, especially these ones that he's coming in at the 11th hour, they're not gonna get a wage for the day. And as you said, these are subsistence workers. Right. These are people that if you don't get a wage, and this is the, the grounding of the Old Testament, um, the Old Testament command of, of paying at the end of the day is that if they don't get their wage, they're not gonna eat. They're not gonna have food, they're not gonna have the money they need to survive. Um, so he comes in and he basically says like. You don't have a job that's not gonna be good for you. I'll take care of you. I'll, I'll give you a job and I'll take care of you. And the ones who are complaining and grumbling, they have no line of sight to that process. That, that's right. They make a lot of assumptions about the, and this is, goes back to, um. The parable of the talents, which we haven't really talked about yet. The, the, there's a lot of assumptions about the nature of this master that the, the contracted or covenanted day laborers are making that don't turn out to be accurate. Right. They, they assume that he's working, as you've said, that he's working on this one-to-one, you know, quid pro quo. You do this, I do that kind of a, a methodology and he's actually operating on a basis of a much more. Basic, uh, grace principle. Uh, and again, even, even the principle of hiring these original workers and covenanting with them is gracious in the sense that he didn't have to hire them. Right. So, so all along the way they're, they're, it's like the epitome of looking a gift horse in the mouth.  [00:45:24] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.  [00:45:24] Tony Arsenal: They've been hired, and so yes, it is right for them to expect their, um, to expect their wage, whatever that wage might be. But they, they are misinterpreting the idea of what the wages are and how the wages are to be delivered. They're, they're applying, this is actually a lot like job's, friends, right? Their, their logic is not actually all that bad, but they have, they have missing parts of the picture that makes the logic. Apply differently in this particular situation. They think that this, this master works on a strict merit-based. You do X amount of work, you receive X amount of money. And this master is actually more functioning on this covenantal principle of, I'm gonna pay you what's right, regardless of what, what work you've done, which, what work is actually owed to you. And the master makes these, this agreement with these other workers to just say, go into the vineyard and then when the evening comes, I'll pay you. Right. Well, he intended to pay them what they needed to survive, regardless of how much work they provided. Right? So they're all, even though there's a formal contract to say these, this group works for the whole day and this group, you know, and, and they receive one day's labor, at the end of the day, he's graciously providing another day of survival for all of these people, for the work that they're, they're putting forward regardless of how much they actually contribute to his bottom line. [00:46:41] Owner Defends The Covenant [00:46:41] Jesse Schwamb: And we see that in verse 13, where the landowner gives his defense, you know, it says. He and he replied, friends, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for Denarius? Now the address, because now I'm deep in the Greek Tony. Here we go. So the address I'm seeing in, uh, again, shout out to Locus Bible software, it, this use of friend is not like the warm fellows, but like a more formal or distance term of address. It's used elsewhere in Matthew. But I think the point here is that the owner's first line of defense is this contractual point, which you're saying. I have not wronged you. He's kept his agreement precisely. No injustice has been done. And that's crucial. The owner doesn't re appreciate justice. He actually fulfills it. He obligates himself and he fulfills that obligation. And what the worker receives is exactly what was promised and exactly what is due. And so by the time he gets to verse 14 where he says, take what belongs to you, and go, I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you here. I think this is like the theological beating hide of this whole bad boy. Yeah.  [00:47:37] Jesse Schwamb: The landowner explicitly invokes his will, his sovereign freedom to do and to give as he pleases, which is exactly how God behaves. It's not a negation of justice, but this declaration of something beyond justice, it is grace. He exercises his freedom and generosity to those who had no claim, and the command, take what belongs to you and go is, is kind of like a world dismissal, like, like you were saying. Yeah. We're in the courtroom. He's like, I, I've ruled on this already. Like, bring Brian, bring your grievance. Here's my ruling. Take what you have and go. Their grumbling has revealed that they're not celebrating the kingdom. They're actually grieving it. So yeah, you know, I think original invocation of like Jonah is right on the money. It's basically like, are are you mad enough? Yeah, I'm mad enough to die. Like, how dare you give me, give me this great shade and then take it away from me. Yeah. And in some ways this is even worse because what they have been given has been that were promised to them, was given to them, and they get to retain and God says, go, or the landowner as God says, go now and take what is yours. Take what I've given to you graciously. But your point that like what supersedes that, the antecedent to all of that is still God's covenant keeping, covenant making promise, making, right? That sets the whole thing up. But I love this idea that, you know, I will choose, it's my desire, it's language of divine volition. And of course the reform theology, this single verb resonates with the entire doctrine of election. It's God's free, sovereign, and gracious will to bestow blessing without reference to merit, like praise his name.  [00:49:00] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And then we come to kind of the close of this parable, right? And this is, this reall

Dear RLR Family,Report 207 discusses current events in the Middle East, taxes in the Bible, and Islam's depiction of Jesus: Just or Unjust War?Thank you for your valuable support. Alexander Alfanoaalfano@lawalfano.com+1 305 450 8550 

ON THIS EPISODE: (TIME STAMPS BELOW) A review for the new movie "Dracula" (yep, there's ANOTHER one now!), and a passage in 1 Timothy you CAN'T MISS if you've ever been told you should abstain from geek enterainment! ‍ ‍ AND MUCH MORE! 00:00:30 Intro 00:04:18 Dracula (2026) Review 00:23:23 CGC & Christian Geek News(Livestream Wednesday 2/11!) 00:26:31 More Rules & Restrictions DO NOT Equal Greater Holiness (1 Timothy Geek Bible Study) 00:43:28 Listener/Viewer Questions & Feedback(Is believing false doctrine the same as worshipping demons? Is belief in Jesus JUST to escape Hell valid? Why doesn't God do crazy miracles to show us ALL that Jesus is the truth?) ‍ ‍ GEEK WEEK 01:16:30 Intro To New “Geek Health” Geek Week Component ‍ ‍ 01:28:08 MOVIES/TV SHOWS: Fallout Season 2, Wonder Man, Dark Season 2 01:46:36 VIDEO GAMES: Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Dragon Quest 2 HD-2D Remake, Neverwinter Nights, ‍ ‍ 01:59:21 On The Next Episode ‍ ‍ 02:01:30 Essential Issues Weekly: DC Comics Reactions (Detective Comics gave me the feels, and "the thinks?" Stuff going on that reminds me why I LOVE comics! Green Lantern 30 (Oops! I should have said the Batman/GL contrast is fear vs. courage instead of darkness vs. light!), Justice League Red 5, Detective Comics 1104) ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ Get The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz & More Audio Entertainment From Spirit Blade Productions HERE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44479037 or on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNC7Qz41mx8‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions ‍ ‍ Join Our Free Public Discord Channels! Invite HERE: https://discord.gg/5CRfFy2GG5 ‍ ‍ SUBSCRIBE TO PAETER'S SUBSTACK, @PAETERFRANDSEN: https://paeterfrandsen.substack.com/ ‍ ‍ Subscribe in a reader ‍ ‍ Open In i-tunes- itms://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-geek-central-podcast/id258963175?mt=2 i-tunes Page Link- https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-geek-central-podcast/id258963175?mt=2 Get fun, exclusive rewards for your support! Visit: https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Or Become a Patron! ‍ ‍ All episodes are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare CGC Bible Study/Devotional content include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Blueletterbible.org, The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2026, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

Send us a Text Message.For an ad-free version of the podcast plus the opportunity to enjoy hours of exclusive content and two bonus episodes a month and also help keep the Bible Project Daily Podcast free  for listeners everywhere at;patreon.com/JeremyMcCandlessThis Podcast is Hosted at;https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.comSubscribe here to receive my new church history podcast every few weeks at.https://thehistoryofthechristianchurch.buzzsprout.comEpisode NotesScripture Reference:  John 2:1-11 (NIV)Key Points DiscussedThe Setting and Social Context:Jesus, His mother Mary, and His disciples attend a wedding in Cana.Weddings were significant social events in ancient times, involving the whole community.The Problem and Mary's Request:The wine runs out, causing a potential embarrassment for the hosts.Mary turns to Jesus for help, highlighting her faith in His ability to address the issue.Jesus' Response and the Miracle:Jesus initially responds, "My hour has not yet come," indicating the timing of His public ministry.Mary instructs the servants to follow Jesus' commands, showing her unwavering faith.The Miracle:Jesus turns water into wine using six stone water jars meant for ceremonial washing.The master of the banquet is amazed by the quality of the wine, noting it was better than the wine served earlier.Spiritual Significance:This miracle was the first sign through which Jesus revealed His glory, confirming His divine nature.It symbolized the bringing of true joy and fulfillment, transcending the immediate need of the wedding.Implications for Believers:Mary's faith and Jesus' miraculous intervention encourage believers to bring their needs to Jesus, trusting in His divine provision.The event strengthens the faith of the disciples, illustrating the process of confirmation in one's spiritual journey.Lessons and ApplicationsTrust in Jesus: Just as Mary trusted Jesus to resolve the wine shortage, we are encouraged to trust Him with our needs and challenges.Faith Strengthening: Witnessing Jesus' power and miracles strengthens the faith of believers, as seen with the disciples.Spiritual Joy: Jesus provides true joy and fulfillment, symbolized by the abundance and quality of the wine He created.Confirmation of Faith: The miracle at Cana serves as a confirmation of Jesus' divine nature and mission, reinforcing the faith of His followers.Reflection QuestionsHow does understanding the social and cultural context of the wedding at Cana deepen your appreciation of this miracle?What can we learn from Mary's interaction with Jesus about faith and trust in divine timing?How has Jesus brought joy and fulfillment into your life, similar to how He provided wine at the wedding?In what ways can this story encourage you to bring your own needs and concerns to Jesus with confidence?ConclusionThank you for joining me today . I hope this exploration of John 2:1-11 has enriched your understanding of Jesus' first miracle and its spiritual significance. Remember, whatever Jesus saysSupport the Show.Jeremy McCandless is creating podcasts and devotional resources | PatreonHelp us continue making great content for listeners everywhere.https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.com

Summary Chris's sermon provided a comprehensive exploration of the narrative of Noah and the flood while also addressing broader themes and applications for contemporary Christian life. Here's a more detailed breakdown: Interpreting Genesis 1-11: Chris acknowledged the challenges some may face in understanding and accepting the stories in Genesis 1-11, which contain unusual and sometimes perplexing narratives. He presented three common perspectives: Literal Interpretation: Some believe these stories to be historically accurate in every detail. Symbolic Interpretation: Others view them as based on real events but conveyed through symbolic or allegorical storytelling. Disinterested Perspective: Some may see these chapters as irrelevant or dismiss them altogether. Reasons for Reading Genesis 1-11: Chris outlined three compelling reasons for engaging with these early chapters of Genesis: Authenticity: Despite their strangeness, Genesis 1-11 represents the genuine word of God and provides essential insights into His character and purposes. Foundation: These chapters lay the groundwork for understanding the broader biblical narrative and fundamental theological concepts. Revelation of Jesus: Just as Jesus revealed how the Old Testament Scriptures pointed to Him, Genesis 1-11 offers glimpses into the person and work of Christ. The Significance of Sacrifice: Chris emphasized the importance of sacrifice in Noah's story, highlighting how Noah's act of offering sacrifices demonstrated obedience and prioritized God above all else. He drew parallels between Noah's sacrifices and the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, illustrating how Christ's sacrifice fulfills and surpasses the need for animal sacrifices. God's Promise and Human Nature: Reflecting on God's promise never to curse the ground again despite humanity's inclination toward evil, Chris underscored the enduring grace and patience of God. He acknowledged the ongoing struggle with sin but emphasized God's unwavering love and commitment to His creation. Personal Reflection and Application: Chris encouraged personal reflection on the implications of God's grace and the need for obedience. He challenged listeners to consider their response to God's voice and to prioritize faithfulness and endurance in their Christian journey. By pointing to Jesus as the ultimate example and source of strength, Chris urged the congregation to fix their eyes on Him and persevere in the race of faith. In summary, Chris's sermon provided a comprehensive exploration of the Noah narrative, weaving together themes of interpretation, obedience, sacrifice, and endurance in the Christian walk. Through practical insights and biblical exegesis, he sought to inspire and challenge his audience to deepen their understanding of Scripture and grow in their relationship with God. Bible Passages Used: Genesis 8:1-22 Matthew 24:37-39 Hebrews 12:1-2 Transcript Amen good morning everybody. We're continuing again today with the story of Noah and the great flood. We started in chapter 6 that was I think when Jonathan was speaking continued last week with Nick and you've got me on it today and actually next Sunday as well. Let's have a next slide please. I want to confront an issue head on which is kind of how do we read these chapters and I'm going to spend a little bit of time in this. You might wonder why I put up Genesis chapters one to eleven there and that's because Genesis chapters one to eleven is kind of a block and it deals I guess with with sort of prehistory. It's difficult to place in time and in truth it contains some of the more unusual stories of the Bible. So people are struggling with it you know that's perhaps understandable and once you get onto chapter 12 you're with Abraham and it's slightly on more familiar territory and I put up there where are you with Genesis and kind of three options and one is that you just think it's all a fairly stale. Two you think it's historical it's literally true in all detail and three you believe it's based on real events but it's told in stories and you wonder whether you're meant to take it all literally. So let's talk about that a little bit and in truth if you're kind of with number one you're probably not listening today but if you are then I up my plea to you would be you know keep an open mind listen you never know there may be more truth and beauty in here than you had thought. Next talking about two and three let's admit that there are sincere Christians who are in two or three in both categories and also they're probably shades between two and three it's not as clear as one block or the other is it but the fact that actually they're sincere believing Christians in in both two and three I think she encourages not to be judgmental so if you're firmly into don't be judgmental with people who are more than three and if you're firmly in three don't be judgmental of those who are in two and the reality is we probably you know are not finally going to know the answer to this debate this side of eternity you know we may well get into eternity and find that things that we thought that were stories of metaphors were actually historical truth or the other way around and that we're not going to awesome that this side of eternity but for all that I think there are a couple of dangers I think we need to watch out for and the first one is that too much of the kind of skeptical spirit of this age of a kind of western secular cynical culture gets into the way that we read our Bible you know the first temptation recorded in the Bible had nothing to do with sex or money or even power it was a temptation to doubt God's word and the second said to ease did God really say so there's a temptation to doubt God's word but I think there's also a real danger that we can't confused about our role in relation to the Bible you know we're a bit like the man in the dock in the court we start shouting out that he doesn't like the judge or the jury you think mate you haven't understood this they are here to judge you not you to judge them and it's a bit like that you know if we've got this kind of pick and choose that we sort of read the Bible think well I like this bit I don't like that bit I agree with this bit I don't agree with that bit I believe this bit I don't believe that bit we're kind of judging God's word and that's a deep confusion about our role in relation to God's word we sit under God's word and allow it to search us it's not the other way around next slide please time for a bit of CS Lewis I think what God wants for us in church is an attitude which may indeed be critical in the sense of rejecting what is false or unhelpful but which is wholly uncritical in the sense that it does not appraise does not waste time in thinking about what it rejects but lays itself open in uncommon thing humble receptivity to any nourishment that is going and I love that last line in particular you know about laying ourselves open to any nourishment that is going and I think that's what we need in church laying ourselves open God if there's any nourishment going today may I get it that's what prayer should be next slide give me three reasons to read Genesis 1 to 11 so so here goes I think my first reason is it it's because it's the real deal let me give you an example to to kind of explain that a bit more imagine that you've you kind of grown up in Sheffield and you've lived here all your life and but you've developed a kind of liking for curry and and you've got that based on supermarket ready meals but you really you know you're fond of the thing that comes from the city of Brisbane over there and and you like that but then one day you for circumstances you move to India and you're living in India and you're not living in some kind of western compound you living with local people and you're eating local food what that food strike you probably it would strike you as very strange and foreign maybe a bit dangerous a bit unusual but if you were sensible you would think about but that is what real Indian food is like the thing I had here the things raised ready meal and that was a kind of pale version of it for western parts this is me encountering the real thing and perhaps if you lived there for a number of years then you came back to the UK and you had you know the chicken tikka masala formaldi you might think this is a bit bland and it's not it's not the real thing and I think it's the same you know we actually need our pilots to be educated to appreciate the real thing of god really speaking to us through his words so yes janice is one of the it's full of stuff that strikes us as strange and foreign and odd but it is god's word it's called that all scripture is god breathe you know this is the real deal and we should come to appreciate it and the second reason I would give is that janice's contains many of the building blocks that help us understand the rest of the Bible and they did the world in which we live and it contains stories and truths and ideas that are incredibly helpful to the rest of the Bible and I say you know they're foundational in a life it says to the life of faith and the way that we look at the universe and thirdly I would say and this much of value we we read janice's one to eleven in order to find out more about Jesus and you may recall the story that after his resurrection two friends are setting off on that walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus a journey that may have been about eight or nine miles and Jesus joins them incognito on that journey and one of the things that Jesus did was he took them on a Bible study and it said starting with Moses and the first five books of the of the old Testament were known as the books of Moses and the prophets he explained to them all the things in there that were talking about him so janice's tells us about Jesus next slide so this is an illustration of what I thought about kind of in a sense foundational truths that we get from the book of janice's let's let's read this the Bible teaches us that this world was made good but went bad at sin janice's one to three she has a very foundational concept it helps us understand so much however god does not take this lying down and one day there will be a new beginning this is the rest of the Bible is all about that it's the fact that god does not walk away from this broken world god persists with this world he stays with it and he will work it all out to a better ending even than the beginning was so all of that we get in janice's anyway that was me just setting the scene let's have an up-to-do today's reading but god remembered noah and all the wild animals and the livestock with him in the boat and he sent a wind to blow across the air and the floodwaters began to recede the underground waters stopped flowing and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped so the floodwaters gradually receded from the air and after 150 days exactly five months from the time the flood had begun the boat came to rest on the mountains of ararat and two and a half month later as the waters continued to go down other mountain peaks became visible after another 40 days noah opened the window he had made in the boat and released a raven and the bird flew back and forth until the floodwaters on the earth had dried up but he also released a dove to see if the water had receded and it could find dry ground so it returned to the boat and noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside after waiting for another seven days noah released the dove again and this time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak and then noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone he waited another seven days and then he released the dove again and this time it did not come back now noah was a hundred six hundred and one years old and on the first day of the new year ten and a half months after the flood had begun the floodwaters had almost dried up from the air and noah lifted back the covering of the boat and saw that the surface of the ground was drying two more months went by and at last the air was dry then god said to noah now leave the boat all of you you and your wife and your sons and their wives and release all the animals the birds the livestock and the small animals that scurry along the ground so that they can be fruitful and multiply throughout all the air so noah his wife and his sons and their wives left the boat and all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat pair by pair then noah built an altar to the lord and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for the purpose and the lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself I will never again curse the ground because of the human race even though everything they think or imagine is bent towards evil from childhood I will never again destroy all living things and as long as the earth remains there will be planting and harvest cold and heat summer and winter day and night thank you um next slide but god remembered noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat sent a wind to blow across the earth and people who study these things have noticed that the account of the flood is written very precisely and intricately and it's a story of two half and the first half of the story is story about the flood coming and increasing and the second half is about the flood increasing and ending and most of the lines in the first half have a twin in the second half so they kind of pair you could almost think it would be like a hinge with two half and the turning point when you move from part one to part two is this line but god remembered noah but god remembered noah and the writer is clearly making a point here this is not an accident this is the key thing god is up to something and that is why things are about to change for the better god is for something here wonder it's not said in the thick but i wonder whether noah at any point felt that god had forgotten him um it's quite interesting either that when god tells noah what to do to build the art he doesn't give him any idea of how long it's going to last or what will happen next and um i don't know if you remember jane the first uh kind of episode of covid a story that was was often in the news was about uh the cruise ship diamond princess and uh you know they they got got covid on the cruise ship and for about a month this cruise ship was um had a moored off yukahama in japan while people decided you know what they should do and i don't know we see the people on the boat were very anxious that the authorities weren't kind of giving them sufficient attention that was that's about a month in a luxury cruise ship um from the start of the flood to getting out of the arc is about 13 months and i assume that the arc was no luxury cruise ship so in a sense you know no might not have been human if he hadn't wondered god how long is this going to go on for um and i did a bit of looking at this because the line and how long will or do i have to put up with all this is one that occurs frequently in the bible i did a quick look and i found 10 occasions most of them in the Psalms but also in uh some of the prophets and and one in revelation too so actually the prayer oh god how long do i have to put up with them is a good prayer and one of these is actually prayed by a figure called the angel of the lord so you know it's a prayer that's okay to pray and we should be praying oh god you know when are you going to act when are you going to act in my life in the life that people are around me in the lives of our nation the plea to god because god remembering is the crucial thing not only forgotten but he wants to hear us calling out his name then god said to Noah leave the boat all of you your wife and your sons and and and release the animals and we're not told how god spoke to Noah only that that he did so um but it didn't you know god's word to know it does not come as a boat from the blue it doesn't come in a vacuum there's a context in all that happens after all the things you know the the rain has stopped the wind blowing um that the ark has grounded the water has receded you've done the things with the birds all of it is pointing to this is over now um but Noah kind of waits for god's word but god's word when it comes is not a boat from the blue it's a confirmation of what other circumstances are pointing to right then Noah is the same having come out of the art built an altar to the Lord and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and the birds that have been approved for that purpose this is an exercise in putting first things first you know um the first thing will be recorded after the god of the art is this offering of a sacrifice to god it is putting god first i'm sure that Noah would have been very conscious that all had led to the flood with disobedience to god and he is determined to be obedient god in those circumstances and david posten tell the student get true story about his great grandfather and great grandmother who had a small shock in wake field with a couple of rooms behind but the shock was and the rooms were cramped for their family and and business was not wonderful and then one day his grandfather had got an opportunity to go to bigger premises on a new housing estate and he said those would be fantastic because there's more room for the family in the rooms that were attached and business will be better and his wife had said to him well yeah but how far is it to the chapel he goes off the find out and he comes back and he says to his wife um there's no chapel and his wife said henry we stay here and that's about choosing to put god first choosing to prioritize god and and you get the sense that that's what Noah is doing here um no it's also that sacrifice is important to Noah the sacrifice of animals is central here and you might be thinking well that's uh you know that's all right so kind of back then and that's all right for kind of primitive people or you know Jews at that time but um it's not relevant to us as Christians and actually you would be dead wrong but let me let me explain that with with an example um over a number of years we had a series of local issues with our kitchen and I think they call them kickboards a lot of boards underneath the units kept falling down and we would keep fixing them back up again and also there was a gap open between some of the linoleum tiles and and we kind of keep pushing them back together again and the gap and this went on for ages and ages and ages but um actually we haven't we haven't had to do anything like that for months now why not well because eventually we got somebody in who did a proper job he fixed it all and so we don't have to repeat it because a proper job has been done that's why Christians don't have to offer sacrifice because somebody has done a proper job it's not that sacrifice isn't important it's central to Christianity but somebody has done a proper job and so we don't have to do it again by the way if you think i'm just making that up as a life story or a illustration it's all in Hebrews eight and nine so next slide and the lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself is that very kind of down to earth thing isn't it it's but what's really clear is this is describing a person and not a thing um i remember i um i said became a christian it quite early as i in as i was growing up and um i had a kind of encounter with god and i had i really had no idea what had happened to me and i you know it was much much later before i really understood what the experience meant but but even at that time i was thinking about what had just happened to me i was thinking oh gosh god stopped being something and he became someone that's what it felt like it became real and so it is very important to us that we understand that god is more like a someone than a something he's a real person and god likes sacrifice and is pleased with sacrifice again quoting Hebrews um for the joy set before him Jesus endured across and next next slide i will never again curse the ground because of the human race even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood um so god has promised never to curse the ground and and that's i think probably christians maybe we don't get why that might be surprising because we we're kind of super familiar with all the stuff that we in a sense the surprise behind it doesn't get us there's there's a poem it's actually in scarce but you can get an english translation on google and it's called Ginnai was god by Charles Murray and it's a slightly tongue in cheek uh oil but it's very short and Ginnai was god means if i was god and it's not if i was god i would do this and it ends up if i was god before they could even launch a second arc and send a whole flood wipe the board clean and start all over again and the fact is that you know i don't think we never get the surprise that god doesn't do that why when when when humanity is really very broken when the universe but when our planet is very broken this god not either walk away from it or set bright you know throw that one in the bin and start all over again the grace that god persists with us um is remarkable even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from shall be that really cuts to the quick doesn't it um it's not that that version number of versions use the phrase even though everything they think or imagine actually i'm told but that's not quite what the original said it says something like for everything they think or imagine or because everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil so it's not so much even though it's more god saying is is this god saying if i if i'm going to act in judgment here there'll be no end to it you know um i think john carbon said god would have to if god would be moving in just we'd have to send a flood every day because you know the problem of sin is still there incidentally this tells us something about um the flood story is a story of uncreation and recreation you know during the flood the world kind of goes back to what it been before before the first creation is uncreated and then it's created again but there's still unfinished business because you see and it wasn't just knowing the animals that came out of the ark sin came out of the ark too came out carried in the hearts of Noah and the other human beings the infection of sin is still present in this new world it's not sorted we'll be later but it's not so next slide if you knew the truth about me you might not like me what do you think of that um i think actually you know there's a kind of inescapable truth about that um i think all of us and certainly i include by itself of this you know the stuff that we've done or not done or said or not said that it was wildly known other people would have a lower opinion of us that's the reality that is the reality or maybe you've been on the other side of that you thought you met somebody you got a very you know you think they're great and they go it's one of the opinion of them and then something about their you know their personality or something they don't come to that you think well i'm not sure so so you know the there's a truth about this statement but but let's think about what let's think about why i put that up there let's go back to the to the previous slide if you don't mind i think if we can go about right you see the only person whose opinion really matters already knows all about you you know there can be no dirty washing there are no skeletons in the cupboard that god does not already know about and so the god who loves you that his love for you is never going to be obscured by a cloud or something crops up that he didn't know about before and as god thinking as well as you he already knew it all in fact he probably knows a good deal more about you as him than you yourself know he already knows the worst about us and still he loves us and his love will continue from everlasting to everlasting let's uh let's go forward again and again great um i'm going to finish with two pictures and um the first picture it she's both of it's the day's day one of the key lessons of the whole story of the flood is that if god is speaking to us we need to act on that the day if you hear his voice do not harden your heart so that says in Hebrews you know if god is speaking to us we need to act on that because if we don't and if the simple habit of not acting on what god says to us develops us one day it will be too late so act now while there's still time and get your microphone so this is from matthew 24 verses 37 to 39 when the son of man returns it will be like it was in noah's day in those days before the flood the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time noah entered his boat people didn't realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away and that is the way it will be when the son of man comes did you just apply that in a very direct and specific way and and then my last picture don't you recognize that do you see it but it's the London Marathon in fact it was you kind of knew the area as Buckingham Palace is in the background and there's a large crowd of onlookers probably shouting out encouragement to the runners who are running the race and and you might think well so what's that got to do with noah actually got a lot to do with noah because again the writer to the Hebrews says and he's talking about noah and the other old estimate heroes of faith he says therefore since we are surrounded by such a great crowd of witnesses let us run with endurance the race set for out for us so we we we think of noah and others that we've known maybe much more recently in our own lives and experience who have gone before us are standing in the crowd encouraging us on but for all that the runners do not encourage the crowd witnesses are not unless they're going to risk a bad fall standing at the crowd they're looking forward and that illustrates I think both the blessing that is noah but also the limitations he know it is a kind of safer you know that the people the eight people on that boat and the animal they owed their lives to noah but for noah is obedient they ain't going to be there but when noah comes out the arc he still has to sacrifice for his own sins and you'll hear next week he's still capable of royally messing up so we don't look at noah we look at Jesus we look at Jesus but the whole story of the flood and the whole story of noah is like an appetizer or a prequel it's there to wet our appetite for one greater than noah and Hebrews 12 1 to 2 says therefore since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith let us strip off every weight that slows us down especially the sin that so easily trips us up and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us and we do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus let's let's pray Father we thank you for your word and Lord we pray that if you are speaking to us this morning Lord we pray that we would hear that we would receive your word with joy and we would act on it Lord have a messiness in Jesus name amen.

In this series we are looking at how Jesus formed a team of 12 very ordinary men into extraordinary leaders who continue to have an impact on the world. They were a strong and often difficult group of characters but what Jesus achieved in training them shows how each one of us also can change and bring positive change to others.    No matter our faults or failures, there is hope for every one of us. We have greater potential than we may imagine. Your past doesn't determine your future. You can lead a life of great fulfilment when you become a disciple of Jesus and in turn help train others to be His disciples.   Already we have seen how Peter, the impulsive fisherman who often spoke before he thought, became "the Rock" upon which Christ built His Church. Last week we saw how James, a fiery character, became one of the most well-known of Jesus's disciples and the first of the team of 12 to die because of his commitment to Christ.    Now we look at the life of the brother he left behind and that was the disciple, John. Along with James and Peter, John was part of the inner group of 3 of the 12 disciples of Jesus. And eventually he was the last surviving member of the 12 carrying a big responsibility to pass on the good news of Jesus to succeeding generations.    A true follower of Jesus knows the truth and speaks it in love. We see some simple lessons we can apply from the transformation of John's life:  1. John teaches the importance of truth (John 1:1-2,14; John 1:29; John 6:35; John 8:12; John 10:9; John 10:11,14; John 11:25; John 14:6; John 15:1,5; John 20:30-31; John 8:32) 2. John teaches the importance of love (John 13:23; John 3:16-17; John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:19-21; 1 John 3:16) 3. John teaches the importance of always elevating Jesus (John 3:30; John 8:58; Revelation 7:9-10; 1 John 3:1)  Apply  1. John teaches the importance of truth: From the beginning of His writings, John is clear on the truth of who Jesus is (John 1:1,2,14). John the disciple started out as seeker of the truth from a very young age. He clearly was looking for more than the life of a Jewish fisherman since he had already been following John the Baptist and listening to his teachings about the coming Messiah. When John the Baptist declared Jesus was the Messiah, John the disciple started to follow Jesus (John 1:29). And as such, he had a ringside seat for much of Jesus' teachings and ministry on earth. Along with Andrew, he was one of the first two disciples Jesus called, so was with Jesus for longer than the other disciples. John discovered that by following Jesus, he had found the truth he had been seeking. And just like Andrew did with Peter, having found the truth, he too went and shared it with his brother James. John recognised and accepted Jesus for who He truly is: the Son of God. And it was John who wrote down the 7 ‘I Am' statements, where Jesus said that He is the: Bread of Life (John 6:35); Light of the World (John 8:12); Gate (John 10:9); Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14); Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25); the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6); and the Vine (John 15:1,5). John was passionate about recording the truth he heard and witnessed, not as a historical record of Jesus' time on earth, but with the clear purpose that others might encounter the truth of Jesus for themselves and be saved (John 20:30-31). By devotedly following Jesus, John witnessed and recorded the truth that Jesus is the only way to God the Father. Just as John discovered, truth is not something but rather someone that we know, and that person is Jesus Christ (John 8:32). Do you know the truth of Jesus? Have you experienced the freedom that only He can bring to your life? There is no truth apart from Jesus; there is no other way to truth and fulfilment.    2. John teaches the importance of love: It was clear that knowing the truth of who Jesus is was not enough to change John. Three years spent personally with Jesus was what moved this man, who, along with his brother James, had been nicknamed the ‘Sons of Thunder', toward later being known as the ‘Apostle of love'. It was Jesus' transforming ministry and model of living which eventually turned John into a man who could confidently claim that he was the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23). John slowly learned to trust Jesus, whilst himself earning Jesus' trust. It may seem amazing that Jesus loved a man who wanted to burn up a group of Samaritans with fire from heaven. Jesus loved John, who forsook Him and fled rather than suffering for His sake. But in loving John despite and during all his flaws and failures, Jesus transformed him into a different man - a disciple who later modelled the same kind of love Jesus had shown him. John experienced salvation, not condemnation, with Jesus (John 3:16-17). The love that John received from Jesus changed his heart, so he was able to teach the love of Jesus to others. This love that Jesus taught John transformed him into a person who would even be trusted with looking after Jesus' own mother! The love that Jesus showed John, strengthened him to stand at the cross that Jesus hung on and to see Him crucified and it was the love of Jesus that sustained John into old age when he had outlived all his martyred fellow disciples (John 13:34-35). It was the love of Jesus that had changed John so much that His writings were not just full of the truth but were full of love and the importance of having love (1 John 4:19-21). The love that John had received and taught out of was not a mystical love, it was a strong, sustaining, enduring, sacrificial love. The love that Jesus modelled to him (1 John 3:16). By following Jesus and learning from Him we can receive His love and let His love change us. Have you experienced that life-changing love of Jesus? John knew the love of God personally, wants you to know it and wants you share it. So that you can be a real disciple and make real disciples.    3. John teaches the importance of always elevating Jesus: Just like the other disciples, this truth seeker needed shaping. He displayed a lot of selfishness and anger, constantly looking for ways to get ahead or gain a favoured position. He was rugged and hard-edged, just like the rest of the fishermen-disciples. And he was every bit as intolerant, ambitious, zealous and explosive as his elder brother. However, across John's writings we can see that through witnessing the love, authority and power of Jesus, his identity was transformed. He went from wanting to elevate himself, including fighting about who would get to sit on the throne next to Jesus in heaven, and arguing who the greatest disciple was, to wanting only to elevate Jesus in his writings, not even writing his own name in his gospel account - only referring to himself as ‘the disciples whom Jesus loved'. John's identity was now found in reference to Jesus, not seeking power, position or privilege for himself. John learnt humility through the ministry of Jesus and so throughout his writings he elevated Jesus (John 3:30; John 8:58). John knew that Jesus is God, and He is the God of Israel. John also recorded the 7 signs or miracles confirming the divine or Godly nature of Jesus. Later, whilst exiled for his faith on the Island of Patmos, God gave John visions of what would still come (Revelation 7:9-10). John had encountered Jesus, the experience had utterly transformed him. His life changed from fighting for position to devoting his life and writings to testifying to the truth, love and glory of Jesus Christ. Today, maybe you've heard about Jesus, but do you personally know the truth of who Jesus is? Have you experienced the life-changing love of Jesus to heal your heart and transform your life? Do you take time to experience this love on a daily basis? Once we are consumed by the love of God for us, we will be able to share the good news of Jesus confidently with others (1 John 3:1). 

In this series we are looking at how Jesus formed a team of 12 very ordinary men into extraordinary leaders who continue to have an impact on the world. They were a strong and often difficult group of characters but what Jesus achieved in training them shows how each one of us also can change and bring positive change to others.    No matter our faults or failures, there is hope for every one of us. We have greater potential than we may imagine. Your past doesn't determine your future. You can lead a life of great fulfilment when you become a disciple of Jesus and in turn help train others to be His disciples.   Already we have seen how Peter, the impulsive fisherman who often spoke before he thought, became "the Rock" upon which Christ built His Church. Last week we saw how James, a fiery character, became one of the most well-known of Jesus's disciples and the first of the team of 12 to die because of his commitment to Christ.    Now we look at the life of the brother he left behind and that was the disciple, John. Along with James and Peter, John was part of the inner group of 3 of the 12 disciples of Jesus. And eventually he was the last surviving member of the 12 carrying a big responsibility to pass on the good news of Jesus to succeeding generations.    A true follower of Jesus knows the truth and speaks it in love. We see some simple lessons we can apply from the transformation of John's life:  1. John teaches the importance of truth (John 1:1-2,14; John 1:29; John 6:35; John 8:12; John 10:9; John 10:11,14; John 11:25; John 14:6; John 15:1,5; John 20:30-31; John 8:32) 2. John teaches the importance of love (John 13:23; John 3:16-17; John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:19-21; 1 John 3:16) 3. John teaches the importance of always elevating Jesus (John 3:30; John 8:58; Revelation 7:9-10; 1 John 3:1)  Apply  1. John teaches the importance of truth: From the beginning of His writings, John is clear on the truth of who Jesus is (John 1:1,2,14). John the disciple started out as seeker of the truth from a very young age. He clearly was looking for more than the life of a Jewish fisherman since he had already been following John the Baptist and listening to his teachings about the coming Messiah. When John the Baptist declared Jesus was the Messiah, John the disciple started to follow Jesus (John 1:29). And as such, he had a ringside seat for much of Jesus' teachings and ministry on earth. Along with Andrew, he was one of the first two disciples Jesus called, so was with Jesus for longer than the other disciples. John discovered that by following Jesus, he had found the truth he had been seeking. And just like Andrew did with Peter, having found the truth, he too went and shared it with his brother James. John recognised and accepted Jesus for who He truly is: the Son of God. And it was John who wrote down the 7 ‘I Am' statements, where Jesus said that He is the: Bread of Life (John 6:35); Light of the World (John 8:12); Gate (John 10:9); Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14); Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25); the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6); and the Vine (John 15:1,5). John was passionate about recording the truth he heard and witnessed, not as a historical record of Jesus' time on earth, but with the clear purpose that others might encounter the truth of Jesus for themselves and be saved (John 20:30-31). By devotedly following Jesus, John witnessed and recorded the truth that Jesus is the only way to God the Father. Just as John discovered, truth is not something but rather someone that we know, and that person is Jesus Christ (John 8:32). Do you know the truth of Jesus? Have you experienced the freedom that only He can bring to your life? There is no truth apart from Jesus; there is no other way to truth and fulfilment.    2. John teaches the importance of love: It was clear that knowing the truth of who Jesus is was not enough to change John. Three years spent personally with Jesus was what moved this man, who, along with his brother James, had been nicknamed the ‘Sons of Thunder', toward later being known as the ‘Apostle of love'. It was Jesus' transforming ministry and model of living which eventually turned John into a man who could confidently claim that he was the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23). John slowly learned to trust Jesus, whilst himself earning Jesus' trust. It may seem amazing that Jesus loved a man who wanted to burn up a group of Samaritans with fire from heaven. Jesus loved John, who forsook Him and fled rather than suffering for His sake. But in loving John despite and during all his flaws and failures, Jesus transformed him into a different man - a disciple who later modelled the same kind of love Jesus had shown him. John experienced salvation, not condemnation, with Jesus (John 3:16-17). The love that John received from Jesus changed his heart, so he was able to teach the love of Jesus to others. This love that Jesus taught John transformed him into a person who would even be trusted with looking after Jesus' own mother! The love that Jesus showed John, strengthened him to stand at the cross that Jesus hung on and to see Him crucified and it was the love of Jesus that sustained John into old age when he had outlived all his martyred fellow disciples (John 13:34-35). It was the love of Jesus that had changed John so much that His writings were not just full of the truth but were full of love and the importance of having love (1 John 4:19-21). The love that John had received and taught out of was not a mystical love, it was a strong, sustaining, enduring, sacrificial love. The love that Jesus modelled to him (1 John 3:16). By following Jesus and learning from Him we can receive His love and let His love change us. Have you experienced that life-changing love of Jesus? John knew the love of God personally, wants you to know it and wants you share it. So that you can be a real disciple and make real disciples.    3. John teaches the importance of always elevating Jesus: Just like the other disciples, this truth seeker needed shaping. He displayed a lot of selfishness and anger, constantly looking for ways to get ahead or gain a favoured position. He was rugged and hard-edged, just like the rest of the fishermen-disciples. And he was every bit as intolerant, ambitious, zealous and explosive as his elder brother. However, across John's writings we can see that through witnessing the love, authority and power of Jesus, his identity was transformed. He went from wanting to elevate himself, including fighting about who would get to sit on the throne next to Jesus in heaven, and arguing who the greatest disciple was, to wanting only to elevate Jesus in his writings, not even writing his own name in his gospel account - only referring to himself as ‘the disciples whom Jesus loved'. John's identity was now found in reference to Jesus, not seeking power, position or privilege for himself. John learnt humility through the ministry of Jesus and so throughout his writings he elevated Jesus (John 3:30; John 8:58). John knew that Jesus is God, and He is the God of Israel. John also recorded the 7 signs or miracles confirming the divine or Godly nature of Jesus. Later, whilst exiled for his faith on the Island of Patmos, God gave John visions of what would still come (Revelation 7:9-10). John had encountered Jesus, the experience had utterly transformed him. His life changed from fighting for position to devoting his life and writings to testifying to the truth, love and glory of Jesus Christ. Today, maybe you've heard about Jesus, but do you personally know the truth of who Jesus is? Have you experienced the life-changing love of Jesus to heal your heart and transform your life? Do you take time to experience this love on a daily basis? Once we are consumed by the love of God for us, we will be able to share the good news of Jesus confidently with others (1 John 3:1). 

Acts 1:1-14 | Witnesses for Jesus - Just as the Apostles were called by Jesus to be His witnesses, we are also called to be His witnesses wherever we are and in whatever we are doing. Message by Anthony Webb, Pastor Ariah Park Baptist Church

Welcome! Church Online is a community of people all over the experiencing God and connecting with one another like never before in history. Introduce yourself in the chat and let us know when you're from! Get Connected Check us out on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram Download our new SouthPoint app www.southpoint4u.com/app Learn more about SouthPoint at Growth Track www.southpoint4u.com/growthtrack Find out more at www.southpoint4u.com Notes I want the life of Jesus… Just without the cost of discomfort Confusing comfort for contentment will make us miserable. How do we let go of the unfair expectation that comfort equals contentment? We are often our own worst enemy when it comes to finding contentment I'll be satisfied when my life is “filled more” with All of us have the default habit of dissatisfaction How do we get unconfused about comfortable equaling contentment? Jesus gave up the most comfort ever… Yet He lived the most content and exceptional life ever! Your attitude should be the kind that was shown to us by Jesus Christ, who though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God… Philippians 2:5-8 …but laid aside his mighty power and glory, taking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men. And he humbled himself even further, going so far as actually to die a criminal's death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8 Jesus gave up the comfort of: Place, Protection, Prestige, Privilege, Power, Peace, Presence And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Luke 9:22-24 Then he said to them all: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:22-24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Luke 9:22-24 Contentment doesn't come from comfort, but from connection and purpose. Practices Trust – In God Love – like Jesus Discomfort isn't a reflection of God's dissatisfaction… but proof of our Destiny

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, shares a note from his dear sister Jobje—a note written in humility through tears, as she journeys through the travails of pancreatic cancer. She is most thankful for your prayers! “The prayers of God's people” help her “to keep plodding along” what she describes as “an uncertain road.” Jobje explains, “I am truly overwhelmed, humbled, I'm so grateful that you still continue to pray even after fifteen months have gone by since my diagnosis.” She writes, “My nights have been plagued by long sleepless times as I try to relearn to rest in His promises anew, in those dark alone hours. It is amazing how the darkness of the night spawns so many doubts. So many fears, not to mention the Devil attacking my thoughts to reinforce those fears. Oh, to learn to trust during those dark restless nights in my mind and soul. Then I pray all the more in earnest, ‘Lord, help me to trust. Help me to be at peace'” She goes on to express, “I'm so glad I learned to trust in Him, my precious Savior, my friend. I know that He is with me and will be with me until the end. The thought of Jesus being with me to the end should be so comforting, and yet sometimes in those dark and deep valleys of dismay and despair, my trust seems to evaporate in the pervasive fog of that dark valley. And its surroundings make me again lose sight that He is still with me. Oh, ye of little faith.” And “Yes, it is so sweet to trust in Jesus / Just from sin and self to cease; / Just from Jesus simply taking / Life, and rest, and joy, and peace.” That shall be eternal life—rest, joy, and final peace. Ending her note with those six memorable words, “I look forward to that Day.” Please pray for Jobje.

Scripture For Today: 1 Kings 8:45 “…then hear from Heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.” The Prayer of Petition pt 8We have been studying about the Prayer of Petition for the last several days. Today, I want to go over the actual layout of your prayer. Jesus told us to “Pray to your Father in Heaven…”. He also said to “Pray in my name.” So those need to be included in your opening. Something to the effect of “Heavenly Father, the Most High God, I come before you today, in the Name of Jesus…” Just like a lawyer starts off saying something similar to “Your Honor, I stand before you today…” type of opening. You are recognizing the seat of authority. You are honoring the Most High God – who also happens to be your Heavenly Father. You are coming before Him as a Child of God in the authority of the Name of Jesus. These things have already been established by scripture. You are just presenting your authority to present your case and that authority has been granted by the Word of God – through Christ Jesus. Amen! Next, you need to state the reason you are petitioning God. What are the facts surrounding your case? The need for healing? Provision? Career choice? Perhaps if a matter of whether to marry someone? Maybe if you should move to a different geographic location? The options here are boundless. But you MUST present the reason for the petition. A lawyer is not going to go before the Supreme Court of the land for a traffic citation case. Those kinds of matters are handled way down the food chain of the court system. If a lawyer is presenting a case to the Supreme Court or to a high judge, he must state WHY he is there in the first place.  That is what the next item is on your petition. “I come before you this day to present this petition to you concerning __________” and then you state the purpose. “…to request my financial needs to be met…” “…to request this cancer be removed from my body…” Again, the examples could go on and on and on. But you get the idea. Next, you begin to present your research and list the scriptures as your “prior rulings in matters such as this…” You may list 50 or even 100 scriptures. Believe me, you are not going to bore God with your 100 scripture references. Amen! If anything, He will be impressed you actually took the time to do the research and write them all out! Don't shout me down when I'm preaching good! Amen! Present, not just the scripture reference, but the actual scripture. Write it out and then read it out loud when you are praying. Amen! That's right…I said READ EVERY SCRIPTURE OUT LOUD, one by one, all 100 or 138 or however many you have.  Doing so will take some time, no doubt. But if you were going to appear before the Supreme Court of the land and were told to take as long as you need to present your case…and that you case would only be decided using the information presented DURING YOUR TESTIMONY…would you simply summarize things and finish in three minutes? Or would you be very detailed and take 45 minute or even an hour if the case were that important to you? What makes you appearing before a human judge any better than that having an opportunity to present your petition before the One who created EVERYTHING? Amen! Don't shout me down when I'm preaching good! “I claim my healing according to the following scriptures that YOUR WORD has already established as fact:  In Isaiah 53:5, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” In 1 Peter 2:24, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” You can then add verses from the Bible where people have actually received their healings when requested to be healed. This backs up the foundation of your request. Amen!...

When we're out there doing it our way as that old song goes, living life, kind of rejecting Jesus – not completely, just a bit on the lukewarm side – the hardest thing to do can be to take the decision to open the door when He comes a knocking. It's hard that is, until we realise what His purpose is … and it may not be what we think.   Dinner with Jesus Just the other night my wife Jacqui and I were invited over for dinner by some friends of ours, James and Shirley. So we headed over, picked up our daughter from work along the way, she came with us. They'd prepared this lovely meal, a rich stew with lots of vegetables which I really like. In one sense it wasn't a real flashy meal, not up market if you will but that wasn't the point. It was a week night, they'd both been at work all day as we had. It was just such a joy sitting down sharing a meal together, sharing our lives with one another. It's those simple things in life that I really enjoy, don't you? Every now and then to just fellowship with friends over a meal is something really, really special. Not a large crowd, just us and some friends. That's how we get to know one another. That's how we get to know the heart, the life, the joys, the sorrows of someone – by sharing a meal with them. This week again on the program we're continuing our theme of intimacy with Jesus in this series that I've called, "There's a Knock at the Door" because Jesus, as it turns out, wants exactly that same sort of relationship with you and with me. And that, from where I sit is absolutely awesome. That's something worth wrapping our hearts around – His passion to be close to us. So far in this series, we've spent some time in this passage in the Book of Revelation. I'm going to read it again. It comes from the Book of Revelation Chapter 3 and it starts at verse 14: And to the angel of the Church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God's creation: “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. For you say ‘I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing.' You don't realise that you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice then open the door, I will come into you and eat with you and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the Churches. What we've seen so far is that Jesus is passionate about being close to you and me and the last thing … the very last thing He wants from us is a lukewarm response. Give Him hot or give Him cold, anything but lukewarm. But more often than not that's exactly what He gets from us – lukewarm! Why? Because we're so caught up in the here and now that we say, "I'm rich, I've prospered, I don't need anything". We don't realise that we're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Ain't that just the truth? I spent half my lifetime living like that. In fact not long after I gave my life to Jesus the pastor of my Church asked me to write down my testimony so I did. This is how it started out. “I never really needed God …” And that's exactly how it felt. I was doing pretty well in life, I had a good job, good career prospects, all that stuff and one day, the hard way, Jesus came along and opened my eyes to the truth. I thought I was rich … but really I was wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. I had money but what I was missing out on was the rich abundant life that Jesus came to give me and you know at the point of realising that, when I finally woke up – a bit like the prodigal son sitting there amongst the pigs when he came to his senses – I felt like such a dill. I realised how pitiable my pride must have looked to God and so my natural reaction was to shrink away from Him. You know when you know that you know you're not worthy. I'd always had that sneaking suspicion but when Jesus shines His light in your heart, when we can finally see all the muck that's there for what it really is – muck – what we naturally want to do is to pull away from God. I had a man contact me not so long ago who'd been a generous supporter of our ministry but he was into some stuff in his life that he knew was wrong and so he was pulling away from Jesus. He knew that that was the worst thing he could do but he was still doing it because it came naturally. We feel so inadequate, so unworthy so we pull away. Been there? Yes … me too. And it's into that situation that Jesus is speaking. Remember He's speaking here to a lukewarm Church in Laodicea that's at risk of pulling away from Him and so He comes along with the exact opposite. He calls them to come to their senses: Be earnest therefore and repent. Listen, I'm standing at the door knocking, if you hear my voice open the door. I'll come into you and eat with you and you with me. (Revelation 3:19-20) "If only you'll have a change of mind, what you hear is my knocking at the door or of your heart", says Jesus, "and what I want to do is to come in and sit down and have a meal with you. Nothing fancy, just a good honest meal so we can sit and eat together and chat together and fellowship together. You can hear my heart and I can hear your heart." That's what Jesus is saying here. It's an invitation to the sinner. It's an invitation for you and me to decide to earnestly turn our lives back towards Jesus; to open the door of our heart's to let Him in so He can fellowship with us, dine with us, draw close to us. But when we're in that place of feeling inadequate and unworthy, it's the very last thing we expect. What we expect is condemnation and punishment but that's not why Jesus came. He didn't come to condemn us, He came to save us … to save us from a life of a deluded, pitiable, poor, blind, naked wretch. That's what makes Christianity – which is a belief in this very same Jesus – totally different from any other belief system or faith or so called religion on the planet. The thing that sets the Christian apart is that he or she believes in the grace and the mercy of God. We believe that because Jesus paid for all our sin we can come to Him now and rely on what He did on the Cross for us back then. Rely on the fact that we are totally forgiven, totally set free to be totally one with Him. And just as the picture I painted for you of the dinner my family and I had with our friends James and Shirley the other night is beautifully heart warming, as simple as it is, so this picture of Jesus knocking at our door desiring to dine with a sinner, is totally wondrous and awesome and sublime. Listen, I'm standing at the door knocking. If you hear my voice open the door, I'll come into you and eat with you and you with me. So what's your response?   The Matthew Discovery Before the break we were chatting about the passion that Jesus has to come and fellowship with us, the passion He has, as it were, to share a meal with us. Yet so often that's the last thing we'd ever expect. The more we become aware of God, of who He is, of the love He has for us and all that He's done, the more aware we become of our short comings, the more aware we become of our sin, the more aware we become of that fact that we simply aren't worthy. That's what kept me running away from God for almost two decades of my life. This knowledge that if I ever came face to face with Jesus that I'd get what I deserved – condemnation and punishment. That of course was before I understood the concept of grace, the unmerited favour of God, the mercy and the forgiveness that I have when I put my trust in Jesus. Although … to tell you the truth so awesome is the Grace of God – this Amazing Grace – that I am absolutely certain that it will take me for the rest of eternity to truly come to grips with what it means. And I know that I'm not alone. So when some joker gets up on the radio and starts talking about this Jesus knocking on the door, wanting to have a meal with us, wanting to fellowship with us, man I know how difficult that can be to come to grips with. Listen, says Jesus, I'm standing at the door knocking. If you hear my voice and open the door I'll come into you and eat with you and you with me. That's the key passage that we've been unpacking. This idea that if only we'll have a change of heart, you and I, if only we'll open our hearts to receive Jesus, He'll come in and be close to us, linger with us, dine with us, fellowship with us. It's an awesome idea but is it true? Other than this verse in the last Book of the Bible, Revelation 3:20, is there any evidence that Jesus really, really wants to do that … that He really means to do that in my life and in yours? That's the question. Well right now we're going to spend some time with an outcast who, perhaps like you and me, would have struggled to begin to even comprehend that it could be true. He was a man who was loathed by his fellow Jews. He was despised by them. Why? Because he was a tax collector. None of us like paying taxes, although these days we understand that we need taxes to live in a country that provides law and order and hospitals and schools and all the other essential services to it's people. But back in the 1st Century Israel, tax collectors were essentially extortionists. They would bid for the right to collect tolls on a particular road on behalf of the Roman Emperor. That was the first thing: they were working for Rome, the occupying force oppressing their fellow countrymen. And secondly once they'd won the right to collect a toll on this particular stretch of road they'd then inflate the amount in order to pay the bribes that were required to win the contract in the first place, and also to make a handsome profit. Most of them lived a pretty high life. So you can see why they were despised by their fellow Jews. So imagine a tax collector living in a town and he hears that Jesus, this ‘rock star', is coming to town. The crowds are milling around. They've all heard about the miracles, they're all aware of His reputation as a preacher like no other. That's where we're going to pick up Matthews story. Matthew Chapter 9 beginning at verse 9: As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to Matthew, ‘Follow me.' And Matthew got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees, the religious leaders, saw this, they said to Jesus' disciples, ‘Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?' But when Jesus heard this he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice'. For I have come not to call the righteous but to call the sinners.'  Now intuitively we kind of imagine, you and I, that if the Son of God was coming to town He'd want to catch up with whom? Well the religious leaders, and in our case, maybe the Archbishop or the Bishops. Or He'd want to dine with senior politicians or maybe reputable business leaders. Imagine if instead, Jesus came into your town and my town and He walked past all of those people and He went down to a seedy cafe where the prostitutes and the drug dealers hang out. Imagine that, what would people say about Him then? That's exactly what He did here and the religious leaders were none to happy with Him when they heard. And from a human perspective, maybe we can understand that because it's not what we would expect the Son of God to do. If you or I were Matthew would we have expected Jesus to come to our place for dinner with all our outcast friends? Well of course we wouldn't, that's the last thing we would have expected. In Eastern culture table fellowship's a big thing. It confers honour on someone when a person of higher status comes to dine at their place so this was a powerfully symbolic act. Jesus did it deliberately, not just to tell Matthew and his mates that He'd come to earth for them but to explain to everyone else, especially those hypercritical self righteous religious leaders, that Jesus had come not for the righteous but for the sinners. Not for the people who were lifted up in everyone else's eyes but for the flotsam and jetsam of society, for the people who desperately needed Him. Now let's put ourselves in Matthew's shoes for a moment, how does that make him feel? To know that this amazing miracle man – this Jesus with "rock star" status who draws these massive crowds with His meetings – would come to his place for dinner. How would that make you feel? Well for me I'm thinking I'd be blown away completely by the honour. Jesus, blessing and honouring Matthew in this way without any condemnation at all, without telling Matthew what he already knew – that the way he was living his life was wrong – Jesus gets a change of heart out of the man. Jesus shows Matthew and his friends mercy, something the religious leaders apparently didn't know too much about. As a result Matthew ends up leaving his lucrative extortion business of tax collecting and becomes one of Jesus' closest twelve Disciples. Friend, that's the transformation that the mercy of God, through Jesus His Son, brings to our lives. This radical mercy and grace and love that has Him accepting us just the way we are is what sets off a chain reaction of transformation. It has to, it's so outrageous! And all we have to do is to acknowledge where we're at and turn our lives back to Jesus, because He came precisely for sinners like you and me. And wherever you are on your journey, whatever you've done in your life, whatever you're ashamed of, whatever's caused you to drift away from God ever farther each day – it's all washed away the moment you put your trust in this Jesus who came for Matthew, who came for me, who came for you. That's grace, pure and simple: the totally unmerited favour of God for all who'd place their trust in this Jesus who's knocking at the doors of our hearts this very moment and asking us to invite Him in. This very Jesus who wants to have dinner at our place, to linger, to laugh, to listen, to lead us on into a new place, a new freedom, a new eternity. He stands at the door and knocks, He waits. What a pity with so many of us He has to wait so long. After this short break we're going to take a look at that door and what it looks like from Jesus' perspective. Have you ever thought of that? It might be an interesting view of the world. That's after this short break.   Light of the World Okay, so Jesus is standing on the other side of this door knocking – the door of our hearts, your heart and my heart. There's a great painting by a man called William Holman Hunt, called ‘The Light of the World'. It was painted in the mid 1800's. It depicts Jesus standing before a long unopened door covered in overgrowth and weeds … and He's knocking. It's night time, it's dark. He's carrying a lamp, hence the name of the painting, "The Light of the World". Hunt, fifty years after painting this picture, felt the need to explain the symbolism: 'I painted the picture with what I thought, unworthy though I was, to be a Divine command and not simply as a good subject.' The door in the painting has no handle and can therefore only be opened from the inside representing ‘the obstinately shut mind.' I know it well because at the Church that I'm part of we have a large version of this painting turned into a stained glass window which is back lit. Our old building was knocked down but fortunately someone thought to bring this beautiful stained glass window into the new building. Cool painting with a powerful notion, this idea that the door can only be opened from the one side, from the inside and that it's a long, long time since this particular door was opened. Doesn't it represent the picture of many a man's and many a woman's life? So can God soften our hearts? Sure He can. But at the end of the day He gives us a free will to accept Him or reject Him when He reveals Himself to us. However, the important thing about this passage in Revelation Chapter 3 is that He's knocking on the door of the hearts of men and women in the Church of Laodicea. So these aren't people who've never met Him before, these aren't people who never heard the Good News of Jesus. These are in fact God's own people at whose door He stands; people who by all account had seriously upset Him through their lukewarm attitude towards Him. And He's standing outside this door that can only be opened from the inside, knocking. 'So because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I am about to spit you out of my mouth', says Jesus. Now if someone had seriously upset you, would you go out at night and stand outside their front door knocking? Would you take the trouble to stand there and wait for them to answer and if so how long would you stand there? What would be going on in your heart as you stood there waiting for this person who had upset you? What if that person who upset you takes forever to answer the door? Not just a minute or two, not just half an hour, not just a few hours, not just a few days but what if you're standing outside this door knocking and the person who's upset you takes months or even years to open the door? Do you see my point? Jesus the Son of God, as He always has, goes out of His way to find the lost sheep. He goes out of His way to come to us, to call us back to Himself. He goes out of His way to knock on our door and to offer to come in and bless us and to have dinner with us. Now imagine how it must feel for Him, the Son of God, the creator of the universe as He stands outside in the dark and the cold, Jesus the Son of God waiting, waiting for us to take the time to answer. Already He's humbled Himself by just coming, already He's opened Himself up to relationship from His side by dying on that brutal Cross so that you and I could be forgiven … and we leave Him standing outside in the cold because our response to Him is lukewarm. Imagine if He came to your door tonight physically and knocked on the door, would you leave Jesus outside? So why is it that as we get distracted with all the things in life we manage to leave Jesus at arms length outside on the other side of the door of our hearts knocking? His intent is clear, to come in and to dine with us and to fellowship with us, to come and bless us as He blessed Matthew and his friends … and yet we have the hide sometimes to leave Him waiting out in the cold. All He asks of us is that we earnestly repent, earnestly have a change of heart and mind and life so as to open the door. Repentance, this turning is what turns the handle from the inside and opens the door. Repentance is what opens the door and invites Jesus in to come and fellowship and dine with us: an earnest realisation that we've rejected Him, that in going our own way we've gone the wrong way. An earnest "I'm sorry", an earnest "I want to have a relationship with you Jesus, I do want to linger with you, I do want to fellowship with you, I do want to have dinner with you." He's already here, He's already knocking, He's just waiting for us to repent and open the door. You know my prayer for each of us is that today as we've heard God's Word, as we picture Jesus standing outside the door knocking, my prayer for each of us is that we are rocked to the core by the reality of a God that would come after us; the reality of a God who would send His Son to die for us so that we could be forgiven. The reality of a God who comes to seek us out wherever we are, whatever we're doing, however badly we've hurt Him, who comes to seek us out not to punish us, no not that at all, He comes to seek us out to call us close to have a relationship with Him. My prayer is that you and I would be rocked to the core today by this God, this Jesus who came for you. I stand at the door and knock. Will you answer? Will you go to the door? Will you open the door? Will you invite Him in? The decision … the decision is yours, the decision is mine.

Mark 9:30-37 (NIV) Over and over again in Mark's Gospel, you see Jesus trying to get his disciples to see what the Kingdom of God is really going to be like. And as we saw last week, Jesus started to break it down to help his disciples see more clearly. But even that is a little confusing. New Testament scholar Tom Wright points out that Jesus had been speaking in parables that asked the disciples to look for hidden meaning, and then when he starts speaking plainly about his death and the upside down nature of the kingdom, they end up trying to discover some hidden meaning. In today's passage, the disciples' argument about who would be the greatest shows us just how much imaginative gridlock they were experiencing. Jesus Just got done telling them that if you want to follow me you'll have to take up a cross… you'll have to lose your life to find it. And this kind of invitation flies directly in the face of what their culture and society, and indeed our culture and society thinks about success and honor. For the rest of the journey to Jerusalem, Jesus is trying to get his disciples to understand that following him will not result in the kind of honor and power that they imagine. He starts by inviting them to become like dependent children, who in the ancient world had no status or social power to trade… they were simply dependent. This is not what they expect to hear from a future king. For them to hear this would be like us hearing a boxer say that his strategy would be to step into the ring without gloves and with no intention to fight, but confidence that he would win… and then inviting us to come along with him. As you listen to this passage, try to hear the words afresh and allow the scene to come to life in your mind. ----------REFLECT---------- 1. What image from this passage is most striking to you? 2. How does this passage challenge your desire for honor, social power, and position? 3. In what area of your life do you find it most difficult to be like a dependent child in relationship to the Creator? ----------GO DEEPER---------- Bible Project: Mark Overview >> Bible Project: The Gospel >> Bible Project: Gospel of the Kingdom >> ----------CONNECT---------- Find an InterVarsity Chapter >> Start an InterVarsity Chapter >> Learn More >> --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dailyread/message

"Called Out to Speak Out" Last week, Called Out To Stand Out! Its not just enough to stand out! We must speak out! What are you doing to influence the life of those around you?*Power of Influence *John 1:33 - 37 * John had spent a large amount of time with these two men. Building a relationship with them. * Just by the testimony of John the Baptist, two men followed Christ. Those we influence through connections and relationships. * Family * Friends * Co-workers * How are you influencing those that are around you?*Taking the Gospel to others. Speak Truth*The story of the Samaritan Women John 4* Jesus speaks truth to her. John 4:13 Relate to relationships and stand out, speak out.Speak Truth can be: * The Gospel * Accountability John 4:16 (Funny)All this is so others can have an encounter with Jesus*Encounter with Jesus*John 1:42 Encounter with Jesus Just like the woman at the well. Andrew to Peter Changed everything about Peter !Be Gods mouth piece!You don't have to be a preacher to have a crowd follow you. Look at the woman! John 4:39 - 41 Many SamaritansGod has called us to speak out! So others may come to know Him. *Tangible people! Testimony In both stories the beginning was about the testamony but the end was about the experience. *ChallengeJohn 4:42

This episode of Where Faith Grows is all about just saying yes. Annie Moss is the creator and founder of jewelry company, the Vintage Sparrow. Today, we sit down and discuss her journey starting the Vintage Sparrow and how day-by-day decisions to surrender her walk to God and just say yes to His will for her life have led her to this very moment. Annie and I start off by discussing her story of starting the Vintage Sparrow. I loved when she said that she felt like God honored her small "yes", then used her gifts and passions to grow that flame into something bigger than she could have imagined. Then, Annie and I talk about the mission of the Vintage Sparrow to awaken courage in the heart of women. We discuss knowing our purpose and identity as women in Christ, and how to live that purpose out in every day. Annie also talks about the process of taking the Vintage Sparrow from a hobby to a business. Annie then describes how starting the Vintage Sparrow taught her beautiful lessons of faith, from surrender, to just saying yes, to trusting God's process even when we can't see the final product. Annie beautifully points out that God doesn't give a blueprint, but He does give us glimpses into what potential He sees for our lives. Finally, Annie and I talk about having faith to take the next right step with God and living that lifestyle of surrender with Him that allows Him to move mightily in us and our dreams. Annie closes with wonderful advice to any of you out there looking to start something new with Jesus - Just say yes. This episode cannot be missed! Annie's heart to awaken courage in women is so evident - you are sure to be inspired by her words and advice to say yes and surrender to all God has planned for you. When you listen, don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and share it with a friend if you love it! If you share about this episode on social media, be sure to use #wherefaithgrowspodcast so I can see what you are learning and loving!  Support this podcast

Thesis- Christians tend to neglect the mind in the role of salvation and sanctification. But the Bible has plenty to say about how the truth it proclaims should drive our lives.----1. DISCIPLINE OF GOSPEL THINKING-- - -Think about these things- - 'dwell' - live-- in the mind with these things . . . . .-- - TRUE - Truth is a person - Jesus -John 14-6--- - is absolute and foundational, not relative-- - HONORABLE - 'revere' - Jesus-- - JUST - 'righteous' - law - reveals God-- - PURE - 'holy' - undefiled - seeing Jesus----2. GOD OF PEACE FOR HIS CHILDREN-- - right thinking leads to right lifestyle-- - imitation should be truth based-- - Peace is a guaranteed promise for those-- that practice right thinking-pratice

“Why Do You Admire Him?” Matthew 21:1-11 May 19,2019 This Week’s Core Belief: Humanity I believe all people are loved by God and need Jesus Christ as their Savior. John 3:16-19 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. Scripture: Scripture: Matthew 21:1-11 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” The Message of this Passage: An article from Ligonier ministries describes these verses this way. “Riding on a humble beast of burden is not the way in which most people would expect a king to enter into His reign, but that is exactly how the Lord of glory entered His. Though almost no one could see it at the time, Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday marked the beginning of the final events that would lead to His exaltation. When we say that almost no one could see it at the time, we are not speaking of what the crowd of Passover pilgrims first thought when they saw Jesus approaching Jerusalem on a donkey. The greatest king in their history, after all, often rode through the Holy City and the Promised Land in a similar manner. Thus, the people who cried “Hosanna to the Son of David!” on Palm Sunday expected a mighty, conquering king, one who would throw off the yoke of their Gentile oppressors just as David had defeated the Philistines centuries earlier. Yet the people failed to see the true import of the Davidic king riding on a lowly beast of burden. Yes, David was a conquering king, but he defeated his enemies not in his own strength but in the strength of the Lord. Moreover, for all of his military prowess, David could not provide permanent rest to his people. After his death, his son Solomon enjoyed peace for a time, but this golden age came to an end when God brought enemies against Solomon to discipline him for his idolatry. The true enemies that had to be defeated were not pagan Gentiles but rather sin and death. This could not be done on a white horse and with great armies. Instead, it took humility, a willingness to take the form of a servant and submit to the punishment that God’s people deserve for their sin. Only by receiving the worst that sin and death could throw at him could the Davidic king “outsmart” our enemies. In thinking that they were gaining the upper hand, sin, death, and even Satan himself did not see that their actions were ultimately working under the sovereignty of God so that His wrath would be satisfied in the death of His Son. They did not see that by killing Jesus they were actually ensuring their own defeat, for the Son of David whom they murdered was stronger than death itself. Passing through death, He conquered it by rising again. Jesus took the worst that His foes could do and triumphed over it. His humble entry into Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy anticipated His final conquering act.” Taken from Ligonier Ministries For Personal Reflection and Discussion: The laying down of a cloak was a sign of submission. The palm branch was a symbol of nationalism. Discuss some of the dangers of putting a political twist on your religious beliefs. The crowd shouted “Hosanna” which is a Hebrew word meaning “save”. Basically they are saying “Save us son of a king.” From what were the crowds asking to be saved? Read Zech. 14:1-4 & Ps. 48:1-3. Picture yourself as a devout Jew living in Jesus’ day, a Jew who knew the Scriptures well. What significance would you attach to Jesus, who “drew near to Jerusalem and came . . . to the Mount of Olives” (Matt. 21:1)? How do you respond when Jesus doesn’t meet your expectations, even if your expectations were completely wrong? Holy Week is also known as Passion Week. The word Passion comes from the Latin term “Passio” which means suffer. Jesus came as a suffering servant and a triumphant king. In different seasons of your life how do you relate to these two contrasting images of Jesus? What is the difference between honoring Jesus and recognizing Him as the Messiah? How did Jesus know that the animals would be just inside the village? Did He exercise His omniscience (complete knowledge of everything) or did He prearrange to have the animals ready for His need? On what basis did you answer? Why do you think Jesus allowed this kind of worship and public announcing of Himself as the Messiah to happen when he had stopped it so many times before (e.g. Matt. 9:27-31; John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1)? In Matt. 21:1-11 people had a misconception about who He was and what He came to do. Think for a moment about your own life. In what ways do you have misconceptions about Jesus? Just a few questions to start your thinking: Do you think that there are sins you have committed for which He just can’t forgive you? Do you think that there are sins you commit about which He is not really concerned? Do you think His main concern for your life is your happiness? Do you think He is obligated to bless you in certain and specific ways because of your obedience? Do you think (or act like) Jesus’ command to make disciples is for other people but not for you? Do you deny the power of the resurrection directed toward you (Eph. 1:19-20) by living a life unaffected by the gospel? Don’t stop with my questions. Ask God to reveal to you your misconceptions about Jesus and write down what He shows you. Notes:

Order our new book today! Marriage After God: Chasing Boldly After God’s Purpose for Your Life Together https://marriageaftergod.com In this episode, we chat with Jerrad lopes and his wife about the place that the word of God should have in our life and marriage. A quote from Chapter 4 of Marriage After God “A marriage after God is one that is eager to allow the Word of God to transform them by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Dear Lord, Thank you for your word! It is living and it is active, sharper than any 2 edged sword. Lord, you created everything by your word, and faith comes by hearing your word. You tell us that man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of your mouth. We pray that as husbands and wives who love you and are chasing after you, that we would be men and women of your word. That we would make it a priority in our lives. That we would read it and meditate on it. That it would be our sustenance. That we would allow ourselves to be transformed by it and renewed by it. May our marriages be transformed by it. We pray that our lives would represent what your word says. We pray that we would take the sword of the spirit which is your word and use it to fight against the schemes of the devil. Lord, your word is good and gift for everyone. May we read it, may we know it, and may we live it out daily. In Jesus’ name, amen! READ: [Aaron] Hey! We're Aaron and Jennifer Smith with Marriage After God. [Jennifer] Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage. [Aaron] And today we're in part four of the Marriage After God series and we're going to be talking with Jerrad and Laila Lopes about our relationship with the Bible. [Aaron] Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast, where we believe that marriage was meant for more than just happily ever after. [Jennifer] I'm Jennifer, also known as Unveiled Wife. [Aaron] And I'm Aaron, also known as Husband Revolution. [Jennifer] We have been married for over a decade. [Aaron] And so far, we have four young children. [Jennifer] We have been doing marriage ministry online for over seven years through blogging and social media. [Aaron] With the desire to inspire couples to keep God at the center of their marriage, encouraging them to walk in faith everyday. [Jennifer] We believe that Christian marriage should be an extraordinary one, full of life [Aaron] love [Jennifer] and power [Aaron] That can only be found by choosing after God. [Jennifer] Together. [Aaron] Thank you for joining us on this journey as we chase boldly after God's will for our life together. [Jennifer] This is Marriage After God. [Jennifer] Thank you guys so much for joining us today. We just want to take a moment and ask you to leave a review for the Marriage After God podcast. So if you've been encouraged by this podcast, if you want to support this podcast, that's just one great way that Aaron and I would love to invite you to do that. It's really quick. You just scroll down to the bottom of the app, leave a star-rating review or a comment review and we really appreciate that. [Aaron] And then the reason we're doing this 16 part series with all these interviews is because we're launching our book "Marriage After God" and we're excited to get it in your hands. And so if you want to take a moment and go to shop.marriageaftergod.com, either now or after the podcast, and pick up your copy of our new book. Jennifer and I wrote it. We wrote it for you and it's to encourage your marriage to chase boldly after Christ's plan and mission for your marriage. And so that's what this podcast is about and we're gonna be talking about Chapter 4 today with Jerrad and Laila Lopes. Welcome to the show guys. [Laila] Hello, thank you. [Aaron] We're so happy to have you guys. We've known you guys for quite a while now. How many years actually? [Jerrad] Uh [Laila] Probably three? [Aaron] Three years? [Jerrad] I think [Jennifer] Four? [Jerrad] Yeah, like three years now. [Aaron] We've met you guys once in person. We've been doing You guys have been doing the podcast thing way longer than us. Jerrad, you're from DadTired, the podcast and the website. [Jerrad] Yup. [Aaron] And so, you guys have helped us on our journey of podcasting and just, it's been awesome knowing you guys and so we're excited to interview you both. So before we get into the ice breaker question and the interview questions, why don't you just let us know who you are, what you guys do, children, marriage, all that. [Jerrad] Yeah, well first of all, super excited to be here. We are obviously big fans of you guys and what you guys are doing to help encourage marriages. So really really honored to be here. Laila and I have been married for nine years this last week. [Jennifer] Awesome, congratulations! [Laila] January 2019, it's nine years. [Jerrad] Thank you. So nine years. We have three little ones as we're building our team. We have a seven year old son named Elijah, a five year old girl named Eden, and a brand new baby girl named Ella. [Laila] Two months old. [Aaron] Congratulations. [Jennifer] Awesome. [Laila] Thank you. [Jennifer] I love that you said building your team. [Jerrad] Yeah, yeah. So we're super excited about it. We thought we were done with two but once we decided we're not, like, we're just like, [Jennifer] How many more can we have? [Jerrad] Yeah, let's just keep having lots of babies. [Aaron] You know, God's good like that. Just changes our hearts. [Jerrad] Yeah, yup, yup. Yeah so, we totally see children as a blessing and we're excited to keep the legacy moving on and the kingdom advancing through our family. So anyway, that's our family. I run a ministry called DadTired and Laila is a nurse, an oncology nurse at the hospital. [Aaron] Awesome. Well we are so excited to have you guys and we always have an ice breaker question and this is just a fun way to get our listeners to get to you know you guys, to get to know us, but the question is for you guys. If you could have a second honeymoon, what would it be? [Jerrad] Do you have an answer to that, babe? [Laila] Um, I actually quite liked our honeymoon. We went to Maui. I had never been to any of the Hawaiian islands and I really enjoyed that. I would probably re-do our wedding if we could do that. [Aaron] You can, can't you? [Laila] I'd take a second chance at that. [Jerrad] Our wedding was terrible. It was so bad. [Laila] It wasn't so bad. [Jerrad] I didn't like it at all. [Laila] Jerrad didn't like it. [Aaron] You like your marriage though, right? [Laila] Yeah, our marriage is good. The wedding was not us, that's all. [Jennifer] I always think that [Jarred] The thing is, Laila, Sorry to interrupt you, go ahead. [Jennifer] I was just gonna say, I always think back to our wedding too and I think, well, Pinterest didn't really exist back then. So I think I would want to re-do it just for the sake of having my Pinterest board setup. [Aaron] Yeah, that's the problem. We didn't do know marriages, weddings looked like because we didn't have Pinterest, so. Well, we like. Laila and I met and then four months later were engaged [Jennifer] Wow. [Aaron] Nice. [Jarred] and six months after that were married and we didn't have a style yet. You know? We just didn't know each other very well, which is crazy to think about. And our friends didn't know each other that well yet and it really is a testament to God's grace and His hand on us, protecting us, because we really were still getting to know each other in so many ways. So anyway, now that we've obviously been in this for like a decade, we are like, alright, we would re-do it and invite more people or maybe different people. [Laila] It's just the style. It just wasn't really our, well we didn't have a style. We didn't have a "us" established yet because we were so, we had just met nine months prior to our wedding, but. [Jennifer] What about the honeymoon though? Would you do something different? [Jerrad] I'm geeking out on Southeast Asia right now, so I would do like two weeks in Vietnam, Thailand. [Jennifer] Aaron would love that. [Aaron] Yeah, I think we've known some people that have done that. And you could do the whole thing for like 500 bucks. [Jerrad] I know, I know. [Laila] It's a lot cheaper than Maui. [Aaron] Awesome. So Jennifer, why don't you give the quote from our chapter, this chapter, in the book and then we'll get into the topic. [Jennifer] So this is from chapter 4 of Marriage After God and it's titled, "Your Relationship with the Bible". It says, "A marriage after God is one that is eager to allow the word of God to transform them by the power of the Holy Spirit." [Jerrad] Nice. [Aaron] And so, this whole topic in this chapter is just, without the Bible, without our foundation there, without our hearts and minds in that thing, the very word of God, we won't know what we're supposed to be doing. We won't know how to know God and so we just wanted to talk with you guys today about our relationship as Christians with the Bible. And so, [Jennifer] Specifically your relationship with the Bible. [Aaron] Yeah, your relationship and then our prayer and hope is that the listeners would get inspired, would be encouraged, would be reminded of the importance and the vital place that the Bible has in our lives. That it is our faith, which is the word of God. So, you know, we'll just jump right in. So here is the first question. What is your current relationship with the Bible? And I know that's kind of a big question, but I just want to know, where does the Bible land in your life, as a married couple, as Christians, right now? [Laila] That's a good question. For me, it's been a bit of a journey. I didn't grow up a Christian at all. So I was really unfamiliar with it for the first 21 years of my life, actually. But after becoming a Christian, I was really in awe of the gospel and Jesus and that God loves me, as I had heard it, like, preached on Sundays. But I still, I actually wasn't interested in the Bible for a long time. My view of it was that it was, maybe just a collection of old stories or something. It just seemed really irrelevant. But now as a more mature Christian, I understand that it's actually, you know, as it says, the inspired word of God. Which I think makes it rather important. So I placed a much higher importance on reading it, learning it, and knowing what God's word says about himself specifically. [Jerrad] Yeah, and I would say for me, I grew up kind of opposite of Laila. I grew up going to church from the time I was just a young kid and so I remember learning the stories of God even as a child. But I think it wasn't until maybe, I don't know, seven, eight years ago where I started to realize, as you read the scriptures, that this isn't just a random book of stories but that there's actually a woven story in all of it of God redeeming everything back to himself and it's really this beautiful grand story and it became much more beautiful to me that this wasn't just like some stories where God was trying to get us to be more moral, behave better, but that He was actually telling a story about Himself and His relationship with His creation. So yeah, I think that's where we are now. [Jennifer] Awesome. So for everyone listening, just to encourage them, I like practical. I like to know what everybody else's routines look like so that I can look at my life and go, okay, what can I maximize here or there or do better. So what is digging into the word on a daily basis look like for you guys right now? What is, do you have some routines put in place? [Jerrad] Yeah. [Laila] Yeah we do. It's about to change a bit for me. I still work. I work two or three days a week usually and I commute about 45 minutes to an hour each way. So I use that time, just as a practical way to get into the Bible, I listen to it through some audible app or the Bible on audio and that's been really helpful. It's just a quiet time. You know, we have three kids including an infant. So there's not a lot of quiet time around here. But for me that's been really a helpful and practical way is just in my commute. [Aaron] That's a great tip. [Jerrad] Yeah, we use that. So last year we read through the Bible together from Genesis to Revelation and then we can kind of get into what that looked like practically if you think that that would be helpful. But this year, we are going through just the New Testament in a year and then next year we'll do the Old Testament in a year and then we'll cycle back through the whole Bible in a year. [Jennifer] I love that you guys are already looking ahead. Like, these are what our years look like. I just think that's so awesome. [Aaron] Yeah, and being prepared like that and having a plan, it does make it easier because you know where you guys are at and the whole family being on the same page makes it easier rather than, like well what am I gonna read today. You all know. You're like oh we're reading, you know, we're in John right now [Jennifer] Right. and we're on the same chapter and we're gonna talk about that later. [Jennifer] So could you guys share a little bit about that? Reading together as a couple. Not only how and when but how it makes you feel? [Jerrad] Yeah, I think, for us, like last year, when we read the Bible together front to back, we started out with really grand plans of sitting down and having an hour together a day and reading through the Bible together as a couple and with the family and journaling, and that just wasn't practical. It didn't work out that way. And so, we didn't want to give up on it. So we said, why don't we just keep doing this on our own as much as, like everyday we'll just read what the plan tells us to read, and then as many as times as we can do this together as husband and wife, let's do that. As many times as we can do it together as a family, let's do that. But we just didn't want to get behind and we wanted to be realistic with it. [Laila] If it came down to, should we just skip today because we can't read together, we didn't want to do that. So we just thought, you know, if we need to, we can still just make sure that we ourselves personally are filling up and then, as able, we'll get together. We did try and prioritize that, to read it together as a couple because it was really fun to see what stuck out to Jerrad and I think he enjoyed hearing what things stuck out to me. 'Cause sometimes it was different, sometimes it was exactly the same. But yeah, if it comes down to don't read at all because we're not reading it together or just get what we can when we can, then we just did it separately. [Jerrad] And the other thing is, so I travel a lot too for work and for speaking and stuff. So like [Laila] Yeah. [Jerrad] It was cool. And Laila works a few days a week. So it was cool to even know we were still reading the same thing. So even when I was on the road, we would still be doing phone calls and being like, what did you think of that passage today, what stuck out to you, or can you believe Paul said this, that was super convicting, you know? We were talking about it really organically all throughout the week and the year. [Jennifer] That's so cool. So I don't know if people are like me in this. But you guys talked about setting this goal of what you wanted it to look like and be like and then quickly realize that it wasn't practical and that you had to change things up or even go with the flow almost. And I know I have struggled with this in the past and really when it comes to anything in my relationship with Aaron, but you set these goals and when they don't happen like you want them too, I'm saying, I'm saying it as if it's not happening to me. But what I mean is I would get defeated or I would feel down and not want to move forward because it's not happening like I want it to. [Aaron] Yeah, like you failed. [Jennifer] Yeah, like I failed and so I think that this is just really encouraging to hear from you guys and to be reminded that goals are good and having expectations are okay as long as when you come up against them and things aren't working that people can still move forward and just change how it's being done. [Aaron] Yeah, so shift it quickly rather than just give up. [Jennifer] Exactly. [Laila] I would credit Jerrad for that because I am a bit like that if we've set a goal to read it together every day and now it's been two or three days and we haven't read it together then let's just quit, we'll start over next year and try again. But Jerrad's like, no it's okay. You have something you say about setting goals that I can't remember. [Aaron] What's that really good phrase you always say? [Laila] What's that good thing you say that is really helpful sometimes? [Jerrad] I have no idea. But what I do know is, as Christians, man, we can just get so caught up in being really rigorous and disciplined and we have to have our morning quiet time and we shame ourselves if we don't. But the point isn't that we read everyday as much as the point is that are we getting do know God, right? And that's like. Life happens. You might skip a day. You might like whatever. And obviously, it's cool to be disciplined and it's important. But even more important is are we getting to know God. [Aaron] Yeah. [Jerrad] If that ends up being a chapter a day, or a verse a day, or six chapters a day, whatever. Let's not forget what we're trying to do here and that's to get to know the God of ours. [Aaron] Yeah, I was gonna, this transitioned perfectly in what I was gonna bring up. Being marriages after God and chasing boldly after what He has for us and that He would use our marriages and knowing His word is the beginning of that because in knowing His word is knowing Him and what He wants, where He's going, what He loves, what He hates. And so I just wanted to ask you guys, because a lot of Christians could be listening to this and be like, okay they're talking about reading the Bible, everyone always talks about reading the Bible. Yeah it's important. I gotta read the Bible. I gotta pray. Those are the, quote on quote, Christian things to do. But it's so much more than that. It's not just, like you said, here's your reading plan because, to be honest, you could monotonously go through the Bible and not get anything out of it. But why? Why is it vital that the believer, that Christians, that marriages are in the word of God. What is that doing for us? Why is God desire us to know His word? [Jerrad] Yeah, so at the heart of it is it's bigger than just, I think what you said is so true, that as Christians we feel like, man I know I should be praying more. I know I should be reading the Bible more. I know I should be tithing more and whatever. It's these disciplines that we kind of get on ourselves about. But at the heart of it is we are all susceptible to making up our own Gods in our own minds. We don't drift towards good theology. We drift away from it. We drift towards selfishness and so often times, what happens is, we end up making our God look like us and he ends up liking the things that we like and he can tolerate the sins that we tolerate and he's not, he loves the people we love and he hates the people that we're mad at, right? He ends up looking a lot like us. And so scripture confronts us, right? II Timothy 3:16, it's useful for rebuking and correcting and training in righteousness. When we read scripture, we realize quickly God is his own person. He has his own personality. He is who he is. He is Yahweh God. And so we are trying to, if we don't learn who that God is, we will drift towards making up an own God in our mind and that is a really really dangerous place to be as a Christian. [Aaron] So we dig into the word. We learn, and I love what you said because we do make up our own gods. When we just, and this is where a lot of Christians are today and I pray that my listeners aren't there. But if they are, I pray that this snaps them out of it and says, oh we need to find out who God is, not who we think God is. But knowing who God is, what does that do to the Christian? What does that do in our lives when we're like, oh. Laila, you mentioned that you met the love of God and you're like, He loves me. And at first you weren't like, and you heard that from the pulpit. You heard that from pastors and from church. But you weren't interested in the word of God and then all of a sudden you were like, wait a minute. The word of God is who God is. You know? [Laila] Right, exactly. Well I think if I would have just stuck with what this pastor had said to me or what the Christians are saying to me then I would also be pretty susceptible to also listening to maybe what other people were telling me. Untruths and lies. And so I think having first been drawn in by hearing God's word spoken, then able to really ground myself in knowing who God is because of who God says He is and Jesus is and I wouldn't know that if it weren't for the scriptures and like I said, I would just be so easily swayed to believe who knows what if I would have just kept to what people tell me about God instead of what God tells me about God. [Jennifer] Now when you do hear people tell you things about God you can test those things because you know His word. [Laila] Exactly. [Jerrad] Christians say all kinds of really crazy things, especially on social media. Like God told me this, or just believe this, and it's like, that's not at all what God's word says. And that's why it's so important for Christians to know the word of God because even Christians, or especially Christians, will say things that are just like, man that sounds really great but that just is not at all what the scriptures teach. [Laila] They're like half-truths. So they sound really Christian-y and good, but not quite right. [Aaron] Yeah, I take the example from Christ when he's in the wilderness being tempted by the devil and the devil uses scripture [Laila] Mm hmm, right. [Aaron] to tempt Jesus. He goes to the very thing that teaches us about who God is and he takes it out of context, you know? Which is funny because this is what false teachers do today. They're using scriptures and they're drawing it out of context and they're using it to, like you said, create their own God from the scriptures rather than, well actually, this is why it's saying what it's saying and this is what it's saying and this is who it is saying it to. That we have to be like Christ. Knowing the word, so we can go back to the enemy or to these things we see on social media, and say well okay, maybe that is right but it also says this and so, therefore, that thing can't be true. [Jerrad] Right, yup. That's such a good reminder. And we remember in scripture, Satan has been doing that since day one. Didn't God say. Very first words we ever see from Satan was "Didn't God say". And so yeah. We have to know the character of God because you're right. The enemy loves to twist the words of God. [Jennifer] So talking about the character of God. Can we know God without a close relationship with the Bible? [Jerrad] I guess the only hesitancy I would say in that is there's so many believers who didn't have any actual Bible in their hand for a long time. [Aaron] Yeah. [Jennifer] Mm. [Jerrad] Who had to hear stories about God and they relied on, maybe they had one Bible in their whole village, right? [Laila] Even today. [Jerrad] Even today that's true where the word of God is being taught orally because people don't know how to read or they don't have access to the scriptures. And I believe that God, supernaturally by the Holy Spirit, can continue to work in their lives and mature believers for those that are in the situation. But that's the exception right? For an American who's listening, who's got a Bible to say, yeah I kind of got a good idea of who God is, I kind of get the jist of the Bible, to say I don't really need to read. That's just foolish thinking. [Aaron] Yeah I was just gonna say that. We've heard that before and that argument, well there's other people that don't have the word of God. But that doesn't give an excuse to all of us who have multiple Bibles and we can literally go to a hotel room [Jerrad] Right. [Aaron] and there is a Bible in the drawer. We can go to the store and get a Bible. People give out free Bibles. You can to your church. They'll probably give you a Bible. [Jerrad] Right. [Aaron] So we don't get to have the excuse of like, yeah. [Laila] Right. [Jerrad] So if you're listening right now and you don't have a Bible, I will send you one. Like that, there is zero excuse and I know you guys would too. [Aaron] So Laila and Jerrad, you guys were talking about, when you got married very quickly and how you guys hadn't established an "us" yet and that's why you couldn't do the wedding, you didn't have a style for the wedding, you're like who are we gonna invite, what does this thing look like? But things are much different now because you know each other and I just was trying to, I wanted to highlight that again because, we can know, you know the question was can you have a close relationship with God without the Bible. And I like your answer, no, I don't think we can. But the Bible does tell us, in Romans, that we can know of God just by nature itself. Just by creation itself. But that does not tell us who God is. So we can experience God. Any person in any village anywhere can know that there is a God. Which is what Atheists they have to just literally deny that there is a God. They can't just assume that there's not because there is no, the world is proof of it. But to know God, just like when you guys were getting married, you guys didn't yet know each other, we couldn't know God without knowing what He's said because that would be like being married and you guys never talking. Jerrad never explaining who his family is and showing you who they are and never telling you things from the past and how he thinks and things he's done. And you literally just, you live together and you have no clue who Jerrad is. Yeah, you're married. [Laila] Right. [Aaron] You're connected with him but, that's not a very fruitful marriage, right? [Laila] Right. [Aaron] So I wanted to bring that up, that beautiful analogy. But now you guys know each other, and you guys are consistently knowing each other and that should be the heart of the marriage after God is that we, whether we know everything now, and whether we're in the word of God four hours a day, whatever that looks like, that we have a desire to go that direction. And it sounds like that's where you guys are at. [Laila] Yeah, I would say. Right, it would be the same. I mean, that is a good analogy. If I had married Jerrad and in the first year decided that I know everything there is about Jerrad because now I've been married to him for a year. That's crazy. Every day that goes by, I am changing and when I interact with Jerrad, I learn about him. Something new about him. I mean almost daily we just learn the nuances and I think it's that way with scripture too. Last year we read through the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, and I am certain that when we read through it again, I am going to learn it in a totally different way as opposed to have having just assumed that I know what I need to know and be done with it. I mean they say it's the living word of God. It's not changing but I am and the way that I, the way that God speaks to me through His word changes every time I read even the same scripture, over and over. It's different each time. [Jennifer] I love that you give that picture that it doesn't change but I am. Like, I change because of it. So I want to kind of dig a little personal here and just ask you guys in what ways has the word of God transformed your marriage? [Laila] Well I'm reminded through scripture who God is and what He's already done and so I can count on what I know He can do. You know, like we said, we've been married for nine years and a couple years ago we had a really really hard season in marriage. It's really part of how DadTired was actually born out of that season. But it was just, it was actually really awful. But I was able to pull from scripture what I know about God and what the Bible says about marriage and instead of bailing out like what my flesh would want to do and what my emotions were telling me to do is just get out of here, this sucks, this is hard, I don't like him anymore. I was able to just know that God can change hearts and I just prayed like crazy through that season. And like what your quote from the book, "allowing the word of God to transform them by the power of the Holy Spirit". I wouldn't know that power if I hadn't been in scripture. But I just was able to trust in the power of the Holy Spirit because I know what He's done. I know what He can do. And here we are. Nine years in. And way past that awful season. [Jennifer] What a powerful testimony. Like Aaron was saying, I pray for those listening. My prayer for those listening would hear that and be encouraged. And if anyone is in that place right now where things are, where maybe they're rough or it's hard to persevere right now, I hope that they would dig into the word of God and find the same hope and endurance that you found through the word of God. [Jerrad] Yeah I was just gonna say too, to kind of piggy-back off of that is, your whole book is called Marriage After God, which is really like, that title says I want to marriage my, or I'm sorry. I want to model by marriage after God, right? In the character of God. And so to do that you have to know what God's character is like. And when you read the scripture, you learn that God is a God who is relentless in His pursuit of people who constantly turn their back on Him. And he's faithful even when people aren't faithful. And so Laila, being connected to that truth, and the truth that she learned through the word of God and who God actually is, not who she wanted him to be in her mind, she was able to pursue me relentlessly even when I was not being faithful in my love and pursuit of her. And so, that's a testimony. That's much deeper than, hey, you should read the Bible every day [Aaron] Yeah. [Jerrad] because it's a good thing to do as a Christian. It literally saved our marriage. Had she had made up some God in her mind, she probably would have said, well God wants me to be gone because Jerrad's being an, you know, he's being a jerk. But I know who God is and I want to model my marriage after who God is and as a result, I'm going to pursue Jerrad the way that God has pursued me even if Jerrad's not fully in it. And as a result of that, the Holy Spirit worked and changed my heart. And literally, the reason that we're sitting here today, doing this podcast, is because of that. [Aaron] And that's what's amazing about the word of God. When the Bible tells us that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, and we also see that in Revelation when it's describing Jesus, you know this two-edged sword coming out of his mouth. And that it cuts even to the marrow. Like it cuts through our flesh. It cuts through our desires. It cuts through our opinions, our way of thinking, down to the motives and then it reveals to us who we are. You know? And that's what changes us because, going back to that idea of creating our own little Gods. You know, creating what we believe God to be. You end up with the conclusion, Laila, is that well God wants me to be happy. Therefore, since I'm not happy, God wants me to leave. You know? [Laila] Right. Oh yeah, I would have loved to have, at the time, made that true. Jerrad's not being what I want him to be. He's not making me happy. And yeah, God wants me to be happy so I'm out. But I just knew that wasn't true. How many times we've been unfaithful to God just in our walk with him and He just doesn't bail. There's just no way around it. And he says to, you know, love your spouse that way. [Aaron] Which is crazy. [Laila] I just had nothing else I could do and I knew I couldn't change Jerrad. I could beg and cry and you know, hey, don't be a jerk. But there was just nothing I could do. We were just in a bad spot and I'm sure I was not always pleasant for him either. But I just had to pray to the one who I knew could change Jerrad's heart and it certainly wasn't me or any made up God who looks like me. But just, like you said, the power of the Holy Spirit, that was it. And I prayed a lot. [Aaron] And he's doing it. There's people listening right now that are probably gonna be finding freedom and restoration in their marriages just because of this testimony. So thank you for your openness. [Laila] And to be honest, there as a lot of eye-rolls for me when people would say, just pray about it, just pray about it. I hated that because I wanted some action, you know? But we were just at the point that I thought I literally have nothing else I can do and I would set my alarm in the middle of the night and get up and pray. It was just. I dunno. I'm tellin' ya. I really didn't like when people told me, just pray about it. But I did it because I was just that desperate and it was those prayers have certainly been answered. [Aaron] Well I think of, so our pastor always says, "Prayer isn't the preparation for the battle. Prayer is the battle." That's how we war. And the Bible tell us to pray about all things and for everything and in every place. And when we don't just. The prayer that you're talking about isn't just, "Okay, Lord, just fix the situation." It's "Lord, what do you want? Lord, where do you want me? What do you want me to do? How do you want me to pray?" Man, and just in another encouragement, I love it, the Bible tells us when we don't even know what to pray for, that the spirit prays for us. And then on top of that, Jesus is at the right hand of God right now interceding on our behalf. Which is amazing. That you could sit there in bed and say, "I have no clue what I'm doing Lord, but I need your help" and Jesus is praying for you and he's saying, Lord help them. Give them strength. Give them courage. So I would encourage everyone too. That that's a great encouragement. Don't just pray. But pray with anticipation of what God wants and His will. So I want to ask you guys another question. You know, we're talking about going through struggles. Jennifer and I, that's kind of where our ministry was born from, was struggles we were going through. It sounds like the DadTired ministry and what you guys are doing was born out of some issues you guys were going through. But another thing we talk about in the book is that having a good marriage is not the end game. Having a healthy marriage is not the end game. Getting to the word of God and knowing the God is not the end game. These things that we're talking about is to do something. That there is an end in mind. How do you guys see that, you know, the word of God changing you, you guys walking in obedience to the word and finding that restoration in your marriage, where you're at now, how has God used all of that stuff and your obedience for his sake? [Jerrad] Yeah, I think that, just kind of going back to what we were just talking about. I think that when we live out what we see God being like, we give everyone around us a glimpse of that God that we see in the Bible. And so when Laila was faithful to me in that season, she gave me a glimpse of the gospel. When she was faithful. When our kids see us be faithful to each other even when we're not happy, but we continue to pursue each other relentlessly, we continue to pursue their hearts even when they're disobedient, we continue to forgive, we give them glimpses of the gospel and the good news of God. And then our neighbors see that. The people around us see that. It's living out what we see the God of the Bible being like that gives the world a glimpse of who God is. So yeah, I think that's what God meant when he said, be salt and light, and to represent me to the world. And so anything other than that is really telling a lie about God. Had Laila bailed on me, then she would be teaching our kids that like, hey, you can just get out when it's easy, or when you're not happy, or when it's hard, I'm sorry. And when you're not happy. And that's not who the God of the Bible is. And so it would be a lie about His marriage covenant, the whole reason of a marriage covenant was to, like you said, it wasn't for the purpose of us just being happy and building our own little family for the sake of joy and having a nice little neat marriage. But it was to give ourselves, our kids, and the world around us, a glimpse of who God is. That's the whole point of marriage. And so, we don't want to tell a lie about it. We want to represent that original intent well and to show off to each other and to the world who God really is. [Aaron] That's beautiful. [Jennifer] I have tears in my eyes. [Aaron] That was really good. [Jennifer] That was awesome. [Aaron] How would you encourage those listening today to get even closer to the word of God? You know, not just like, here's a set of rules, here's your reading plan. But like, why? Why should they be closer to God, God's word? [Jarred] I think that I would probably just go back to what we were just talking about at the beginning of the conversation and what we've hit throughout this conversation and that's that, man, I don't care if you've grown up in church since you were born, if you were born in a baptismal, you know? Or like you just gave your. That's a joke, by the way. Nobody's hopefully born in a baptismal. Whether you're born in the church or you just gave your life to Christ today, we are all susceptible of just making up who we want God to be. I've been teaching the word of God for a decade now and I still do it. I still want God to be, look like I want him to look. And I'm still confronted by the scriptures and the truth of the scriptures every single day. [Aaron] Yeah. [Jerrad] We literally just read a verse this last week in II Timothy that says you're always learning but never arriving at the truth, or you know, at the knowledge of the truth. And it's like, well crud, that's convicting because I'm always learning. I feel like I'm learning and yet am I actually getting closer to Jesus? Just don't be arrogant enough, even subtle arrogance to think that you know you can wrap your mind around this God of the universe. He is way to big for you to understand fully. And it's just vital to continue to understand who this God is and to chase after Him. The other thing I would say on that is Proverbs 1 says, I think it's Proverbs 1? It could be Psalm 1. One of the Ps. One says that if you, a man in the word of God is like a tree planted near living water, right? [Aaron] Oh yeah. [Jerrad] And so we all can tell when trees are planted near water. They're alive, they're producing fruit, they're green, they look healthy. And the ones that aren't? It's really easy to tell. Hey, that tree could use some water. It's dead. It's dying. I could probably push it over right? And you can tell people, Christians, who aren't near the word of God. They look tired. They look stressed. They look like they're burned out and it's like bro, it's not that you need to have this huge crisis and figure things out. Just go plant yourself near the living water which is the word of God again. [Aaron] Yeah, and I think of the parable of the seed and the sower and the different soils. And we wanna have the soft soil where when the seed is planted, which is the word of God, it goes deep into us. And if we're not, like you were just giving that analogy of the tree. We actually had a tree die a couple years ago because we had a dry winter and we didn't realize we were supposed to water it when it's so dry. And the ground was all cracked and it started dying from the top down because the roots were, it was probably like got some sort of root rot, but because the ground was dry and the water didn't go deep, the roots didn't go deep. And so it's the same with us. If we're not in the word of God, if we don't know the word of God, those roots are going, they're shallow. And we think we're going to survive on that as a Christian in this world. So that's a good reminder. Thank you for that. [Jennifer] This has been really great talking with you guys. We have one more question and it's something that we're asking everyone throughout the series and it's, in your own words, what is a marriage after God? [Laila] A marriage after God. I would say just remembering that your marriage isn't just for your happiness. I know we hear that a lot. Marriage isn't for your happiness. It's for your holiness. But that's just really true. Jerrad's not here to fulfill me and make me happy because I would have bounced a couple times and I'm sure he would have been happy to do the same on a few occasions over the years. But just remembering that our marriage is to point each other, and our kids, and our neighbors, and just the world around us, back to God. That's what I'm to do for him and he's to do for me. We just point each other to Jesus, make each other more like Jesus through prayer and just trusting in God's spirit and just praying that, over each other and for each other. [Jerrad] I would agree with all of that except that I would have never left you. [Laila] I know I feel bad because we keep talking about how I could have left, I could have left, but I'm sure I'm not always a peach. I don't always make you happy but thank you for sticking around anyway. [Jennifer] Well thank you guys so much for being on the show today. We are just cheering for you as you pursue the ministry that God has for you and your marriage and also online. We would like to encourage everyone to take a moment and pray with us and then Aaron will close us out. Dear Lord, thank you for your word. It is living and it is active, sharper than any two-edged sword. Lord, you created everything by your word and faith comes by hearing your word. You tell us that man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of your mouth. We pray that as husbands and wives who love you and are chasing after you, that we would be men and women of your word. That we would make it a priority in our lives. That we would read it and meditate on it. That it would be our sustenance. That we would allow ourselves to be transformed by it and renewed by it. May our marriages be transformed by it. We pray that our lives would represent what your word says. We pray that we would take the sword of the spirit, which is your word, and use it to fight against the schemes of the devil. Lord, your word is good and a gift for everyone. May we read it, may we know it, and may we live it out every day. In Jesus name, Amen. [Aaron] Amen. [Jerrad] Amen. [Jennifer] Amen. [Aaron] Okay, so, everyone listening, we thank you for joining us on this episode with Jerrad and Laila Lopes. And I just want you all to go check out his podcast. It's called "DadTired" and you can get it anywhere podcasts are available. So iTunes, just search for Dad Tired. Podbean, Castbox, wherever you listen to podcasts, you can find him. And can you let us know if there's anything else that they can get from you guys, how they can connect with you guys? [Jerrad] Super grateful again to be here. If they just go to DadTired.com, we've got a free little eBook that we give away to guys on just trying to help them figure out how to lead their family well and there's a community to jump in to which a lot of guys in our DadTired community are also part of the Marriage After God and Husband Revolution family. [Aaron] Awesome. Thank you guys again for being on the show and we have 12 more episodes coming up in this series, tons of more awesome interviews, so we want you guys to stay tuned and we'll see you next week for next week's episode. Did you enjoy today's show? If you did, it would mean the world to us if could leave us a review on iTunes. Also, if you're interested, you can find many more encouraging stories and resources at MarriageAfterGod.com and let us help you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.

Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension presents us a pattern that will apply to all followers of Jesus: Just as Jesus ascended to heaven, and God the Father honored his son (Phil. 2:9-11), at the end of our lives, God will lovingly evaluate our service as well. He will then grant us some measure of reward. This week I want to examine the ultimate payoff for service: reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Once our heart is pointing toward following Jesus what's the second step in our walk with him? Listening to his Word and practicing what he says. But anyone can listen to Jesus, it's the wise person that puts his teachings into practice. How do we truly follow Jesus? Just do it. Simply do what Jesus says and watch to see where he leads.

If you have two guitars that are perfectly in tune and you pluck a string on one, that same string will resonate on the other. I want my heart to be so in tune with God's heart that mine resonates when His does. This podcast is an opportunity where God can tune our hearts to His. So wherever you are, take a moment and recognize God is here. Setlist: Speak Oh Lord / 'Tis So Sweet / Scars   Speak Oh Lord Lord, tune my heart to listen for You To know that still, small sound I'll let Your word shape my point of view I'm ready for now   Speak, oh Lord    Speak, Oh Lord I'm listening for Your voice It resonates with truth, love and grace Speak, speak Oh Lord   Whether in calm or midst of the storm I will hang onto You You are my strength, my hope, my reward I trust You'll see me through      Tis So Sweet Tis so sweet to trust You, Jesus Just to take You at Your word Just to rest upon Your promise Just to know "Thus saith the Lord"   Jesus, Jesus how I trust You How I've proved You o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus Oh for grace to trust You more   Tis so sweet to trust You, Jesus Just to trust Your cleansing blood Just in simple faith to plunge me 'Neath the healing cleansing flood   I'm so glad I learned to trust You Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend And I know that You are with me Will be with me to the end   Scars There are scars on the hands that reach out to me And they reach me wherever I roam But they never reached further than on Calvary Where they reached out to welcome me hom   How I love those scars Every wretched mark hails the story of Your grace I remember Your scars so that I won't forget That my own have all be washed away   There are scars on the feet that chase after me And they find me wherever I run Though I'll never run further than old Calvary For it's there that my soul has been won   Praise and honor be to my worthy King Who gave everything my soul to save Every bruise and scar bor

If you have two guitars that are perfectly in tune and you pluck a string on one, that same string will resonate on the other. I want my heart to be so in tune with God's heart that mine resonates when His does. This podcast is an opportunity where God can tune our hearts to His. So wherever you are, take a moment and recognize God is here. Setlist: Speak Oh Lord / 'Tis So Sweet / Scars   Speak Oh Lord Lord, tune my heart to listen for You To know that still, small sound I'll let Your word shape my point of view I'm ready for now   Speak, oh Lord    Speak, Oh Lord I'm listening for Your voice It resonates with truth, love and grace Speak, speak Oh Lord   Whether in calm or midst of the storm I will hang onto You You are my strength, my hope, my reward I trust You'll see me through      Tis So Sweet Tis so sweet to trust You, Jesus Just to take You at Your word Just to rest upon Your promise Just to know "Thus saith the Lord"   Jesus, Jesus how I trust You How I've proved You o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus Oh for grace to trust You more   Tis so sweet to trust You, Jesus Just to trust Your cleansing blood Just in simple faith to plunge me 'Neath the healing cleansing flood   I'm so glad I learned to trust You Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend And I know that You are with me Will be with me to the end   Scars There are scars on the hands that reach out to me And they reach me wherever I roam But they never reached further than on Calvary Where they reached out to welcome me hom   How I love those scars Every wretched mark hails the story of Your grace I remember Your scars so that I won't forget That my own have all be washed away   There are scars on the feet that chase after me And they find me wherever I run Though I'll never run further than old Calvary For it's there that my soul has been won   Praise and honor be to my worthy King Who gave everything my soul to save Every bruise and scar bor

Where are you in your walk with Jesus? Just getting to know Him? Needing to fall in love with Him all over again? Donna Jones, author of Seek, uses God's Word and stories to explain God's big truths simple ways that makes our little hearts swell. Every word Donna shares oozes His love! Whether you're a brand new Christian or a woman who has journeyed with God for years, this interview will make you fall head over heels for Jesus all over again.

We have heard the Christmas story told in the same way for years, probably for decades. Could it be that we may have missed some very important, and fascinating details surrounding the birth of Jesus? (Just how long did it take the Magi to get to the place where Jesus was? Did the Magi actually worship Jesus on the day of His birth?) Does it make a difference as to when these things happened anyway? Join the Grace United crew as we discover some amazing things surrounding Jesus' birth.

Our Verse: Luke 7:9 Jesus said, “I tell you, I haven't seen faith like this in all Israel!” He was powerful. He was a killer, a Roman Centurion; leader of one hundred trained Roman soldiers. With other legions, they had conquered the known world of 50 BC to 30 AD. One day, this Roman officer experienced a miracle in his own house! This man heard about Jesus while down range in Israel. He heard that Jesus performed miracles. (that's events outside the laws of physics) He might have seen one or been nearby. However he knew, he believed. He sent this message to Jesus: “Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.” Luke 7:7 Servants carried his message to Jesus. This officer valued his servant much like an owner or manager today values a good worker. Because he had faith, trust in Jesus, he knew that Jesus didn't need to come to his house. When Jesus got the message, he knew the faith of that soldier. Without even seeing each other, without touching the servant, Jesus healed! He never entered the soldier's house! Later when everyone compared notes, the healing had occurred just when Jesus said it would! That is a happy ending! The centurion got home and found his servant completely well! This miracle demonstrates that Jesus is omniscient- He sees and knows everything. Jesus knew the man's faith without seeing him and commended him for it- “I have not seen such great faith in all Israel!” That soldier, that centurion, was a Faith Powerhouse! God is powerful. He is faithful to us and He will answer our needs when we reach out to Him believing. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” Mark 9:23

Today is the day to discuss coming to Jesus Just as you Are. Roman 9:8-14. Freedom Doors Ministries, spreading the Good News of Jesus. Here on Jesus in The Morning we bring information in many different ways to our listeners, but mainly through a different speaker daily with a fresh word ...