Podcasts about Lake Winnipesaukee

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2022

Pastor Andy Davis unfolds an episode of Jesus' life that expands our comprehension of him as the Son of God and alerts us to not underestimate him. - Sermon TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark 4:35-41. We continue this incredible study in the Gospel of Mark. There's something deeply unsettling to most of us when it comes to the sea, a primordial fear of its power, and its unpredictability, and its mystery. We cannot see below the surface or beyond the horizon, and we can never know for sure what's coming at us. There is, of course, the simple fear of drowning that can seizes us all. The fact is, we cannot survive for long underwater, and death by drowning is a terrifying way to go. Beyond that is the fear of the weather, a sudden storm that can turn the once placid sea into a raging inferno of power, mighty white-capped breakers coming at us, and wave upon wave, utterly beyond our ability to withstand or subdue. Then there's the irrational terror of creatures of the deep. The summer of 1975, the summer that Jaws came out, I was in Lake Winnipesaukee. I was on an Astroturf-covered floating raft, unwilling to dive into the lake and swim back to shore for fear of a great white shark. Having no idea that that was a saltwater creature, and I was in fresh water, and there was zero chance of being eaten by a shark. That didn't matter, I was terrified. We read the accounts of the sailors that sailed with Columbus, and they were afraid of the terrifying monsters of the deep, of great whales with their immense size, and their powerful tails and their powerful mouths, or even a giant squid with their long undulating tentacles. All of these things are terrors. The sea represents the darkest side of man's terrors, and it can quickly reduce even the most courageous man to a trembling child. That's why this account of Jesus' effortless power over the wind and the waves is so compelling. It asks the fundamental question that's before us, when we read all four of the Gospels, “Who is this man?” The fundamental answer, that's so clear, only Almighty God can control the wind and the waves with the simple word of His command. This story adds more vital information to the quest of our faith, to understand the basic thesis of the Gospel of Mark, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. What does that mean? What does that mean that He's the Son of God? What does that mean for each of us individually, personally? Beyond this, this amazing account gives us a sense of the total control of Jesus over the hardest moments of our lives, and His ability to speak peace to our souls when we need it the most. That's what we're looking at today. "Only Almighty God can control the wind and the waves with the simple word of His command." I. The Setting for the Storm, and Its Sudden Severety Now, we need to set this storm, the setting of the storm and its sudden severity, and the personal setting, Jesus' ongoing, amazing ministry, his overwhelming ministry. Jesus had had a very long day of ministry just like every day. So in Mark 4:1-2, it says, “Jesus began to teach by the sea. The crowd that gathered around Him was so large that He got into a boat and sat in it out on the sea while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables.” Though Mark 4 doesn't mention any healings or demon possessed people being set free, that was of course the norm, the huge crowd that was there almost certainly were there to be healed as well as taught. So it was that same busy day, it was the end of a very overwhelming, busy day, in verse 35-36, “That day, when evening came, He said to His disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along just as He was in the boat. There were also other boats with Him,” so it was absolutely exhausting, long day. The text says that they left the crowd and took Jesus along just as He was. What does that mean? He didn't have the chance to change his clothes or refresh himself in any way, it's just there it is. It's time to go to get into the boat and go across the lake, right on the heels of a very hard day. The boat that they were in seemed to have been powered by wind and sail, not by oar. These boats generally could hold about 15 people. So we would imagine, and the text confirms, a kind of a flotilla of boats, not just one, but a group of boats going across, carrying the twelve apostles and other disciples that were following Jesus. Now, we need to look at the physical setting, which is the Sea of Galilee. Mark 4:1 mentions the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is one of the most fascinating bodies of water in the world. It's a freshwater lake that is, at the lowest altitude of any such lake in the world, approximately 690 feet below sea level. It measures about 13 miles long, 7 miles wide, about 150 feet deep at its deepest point. It's fed partially by underwater springs, but mostly by the Jordan River, which flows north to south from Mount Hermon, which stands 9,200 feet above sea level. It's a marvelous source of fresh water, supplying, even today, much of the nation of Israel with drinking water. Over the centuries, it provided an amazingly, abundant supply of fish. Although fishing is now banned in the Sea of Galilee because the stocks got to a dangerously low level, but even in our lifetime, it still was a source of sardines that were caught there every year. The biggest issues with the Sea of Galilee are the geography and the weather. The lake is in the center of a deep geological rift that cuts a gash in the surface of the Earth, running 4,500 miles long down through Africa, as far south as Mozambique. I myself have been in that rift in the nation of Kenya, I was in the Rift Valley Academy, the same gash. It makes that area vulnerable to earthquakes, seismic activity. The rift causes steep hills and cliffs on each side of the Sea of Galilee, making it effectively sit down in a deep bowl. It is therefore vulnerable to high winds, which can cause staggeringly dramatic storms to rise up. The narrow confines of the lake multiply exponentially the effect of these winds and storms, making the Sea of Galilee, a very dangerous place in a storm. The record shows in March of 1992, one storm in the Sea of Galilee generated a 10-foot wave that overwhelmed and flooded the city of Tiberius. The storm comes up with sudden severity, look at verse 37, “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped.” The suddenness of the storm is more clear from the Gospel of Matthew, as if the storm just came up out of nowhere, without any warning at all. Matthew 8:24 says, "And behold there are arose a great tempest in the sea.” The Greek word for the storm used here is also used for a hurricane, an overpowering wind of gale force, maybe as high as 80 miles an hour. The word is intensified by the additional Greek word “megale”, a mega storm, a great storm. This is a great hurricane. Matthew 8:24 uses the Greek word “seismos”, from which we get seismic, like a seismic event, an earthquake. Luke 8:24 says the waters were raging, dashing and pummeling the boat. The effect of this hurricane wind and these raging, thrashing waves was that the boat was quickly filling with water. These men, we need to understand are professional fishermen who grew up on the Sea of Galilee. In their professional opinion, their boat was about to go down — it was going down. Those conditions meant certain death for them all. II. Jesus' Perfect Humanity vs. the Disciples'Faithless Terror We see Jesus in this account, Jesus' perfect humanity contrasted with the disciples' faithless terror. Jesus' humanity is on display in that He was physically exhausted and asleep on a cushion, Jesus was fully man and fully God. This is the great mystery of theology, the mystery of the incarnation. His attributes as both fully human and fully God are on full display in this amazing account. First, we see the humanity of Jesus in His physical exhaustion. Verse 38, “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.” Jesus' physical limitations are part of the mystery. He got tired, just like the rest of us. He got very little rest. The needs of the crowd were relentless, and so also was His compassion on the crowd, relentless. It's fascinating that Mark alone gives us the detail of the cushion, Jesus sleeping on a cushion. You may ask, why did Jesus sleep on a cushion, and I would answer because it's more comfortable. There's no great mystery here. What it shows is that Jesus is no ascetic, seeking out intentionally harsh treatment for his body. If there was a cushion around, He's going to use it and support his head, it's just more comfortable. So He's not an ascetic, but at the same time, He was willing to live a very difficult physical life. He said to one man who wanted to follow Him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head,” [Matthew 8:20], so He was used to a difficult life. But in this particular case, He found a place to lay His head on a cushion. He must have been extremely tired because the wind and the waves, and the boat filling with water don't wake Him. That's Jesus in His humanity. We know that Almighty God needs no rest at all, ever. It says in Psalm 121: 3-4, "He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." Or again, Isaiah 40:28, it says, "God's power is limitless. The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, he will not grow tired or weary." But Jesus in His humanity did grow tired and did get weary. We also see Jesus' perfect humanity in His complete trust in His heavenly Father. Here, by his sleep in the storm, He is commending a life of faith to each one of us. He was perfectly at rest in His Father's hands. He knew there was literally no chance whatsoever He was going to die by drowning in the Sea of Galilee. Imagine the heavenly newspaper with the headline, "Son of God dies tragically in a boating accident. All of heaven, shocked prophecy's not fulfilled.” You know about piercing hands and feet and things like that, Psalm 22. Impossible. So Jesus thought it was a good chance for a nap. Jesus lived out every moment of His life in complete trust in His Father. Psalm 22, that same Psalm says, "You brought me out of the womb. You made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. From birth, I was cast upon you, from my mother's womb you have been my God." So He knew He could sleep, and God would watch over Him. I love Psalm 4:8 on this very matter, "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety." Wouldn't you love to live your life like that? In the midst of the deepest troubles of your life, just be able to go to sleep and know that God is going to take care of you, He's going to protect you. This is what the disciples had to learn to do, to so trust in their heavenly Father, that there's never any cause for mindless, unreasoning terror. So that's Jesus' humanity. "Jesus lived out every moment of His life in complete trust in His Father." We also see Jesus' infinite majesty as the incarnate Son of God. We have a combination, therefore, of normal weakness and infinite power. In one passage, we have Jesus' weakness and His weariness and His fatigue, but we also have Him give the display of, I would say arguably, the most physically powerful thing that any human being has ever done on Planet Earth. We have, by contrast, the disciples' faithless terror. Jesus gives us the plain example of a man completely trusting in His heavenly Father. But by contrast, the disciples are wild with terror, they're out of their minds. They wake him, verse 38, and say to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we perish?" Big picture is that Jesus came into the world because He cared that we were perishing, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16] So He cares. No one has cared more than Jesus. The disciples' faith needs to be strengthened so that they would not ever doubt Jesus' love or power, and they must also trust God's plan. They must lose their fear of dying, and Christ's resurrection will do that for them. Now, the question comes, why did they wake Jesus at all? What were they thinking when they woke Him? They certainly weren't expecting Him to do what He got up and did. They were stunned by it. Maybe they just thought it was good manners, "If we're going down, it'd be good that Jesus were awake when it happens." Or maybe they felt that He had, which He clearly did, a specific “in” with God, and that God would affect some kind of protection for them though they didn't know how. The Old Testament actually speaks much of God's protection in the midst of storms, perhaps the clearest is Psalm 107:23-29 which says, "Others went out on the sea in ships, they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, His wonderful deeds in the deep. For He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens, they went down to the depths. In their peril, their courage melted away, they reeled and staggered like drunken men. They were at their wits' end. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper, the waves of the sea were hushed.” So God spoke and the storm came, and then God spoke and the storm went away. He brings it, then He ends it. So perhaps they thought, in waking Jesus up, that He would call on His Father and that God would deliver them in the same pattern. I don't know what they were thinking, they certainly didn't expect what was about to happen. Now, as I'm walking through the account, I also want to ask, what did the disciples do wrong? They're professional fishermen who are bred and raised on this very sea. They knew it like the back of their hands. They saw the magnitude of the wind, the size of the waves, the swamping of the boat, they were bailing, they were trying to save their lives. In their expert opinion, they're going down, they're all going to drown. They didn't wake Jesus immediately, but sought to use all of their skills to survive. At the last moment, they went to Jesus and woke Him up, and He rebuked them. So why did He rebuke them? What did they do wrong? We'll get to that at the end of the sermon. Hold on to that thought. III. Jesus’ Stunning Power Over Creation Now, I want to talk about Jesus' stunning power over creation. Now we know the wind is beyond all human control. No one can control the wind. As a matter of fact, scripture says it openly. Ecclesiastes 8:8, "No man has power over the wind to contain it." Or again, John 3:8, "The wind blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going." That's the wind. But Jesus, Jesus is the master of all creation. John 1:3, "Through Him, all things were made, and without Him, nothing was made that has been made." And again, Hebrews 1:3, "He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word." He made it and He sustains it, that's Jesus. Again, He has effortless power over the wind and the waves, verse 39, "He got up, rebuked the wind, and said of the waves, 'Peace be still.'" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm, by the Word of the Lord alone. No striving, no effort, just sheer power, absolute authority. The power of the Word of Jesus. Now that's the miracle. It's a simple matter of cause and effect. There's nothing miraculous about a storm ending, all storms end, eventually, thank God. But the circumstances here directly link the end of the storm, the sudden end of the storm with Jesus' Word — cause and effect. It was because He said 'Peace be still' that everything was completely calm. That's the miracle. Note both aspects, the wind and the waves died down instantly. This is a miracle beyond all description. The wind instantly stopped this gale force, hurricane wind stops, a staggering amount of power ,just stopped in its tracks. In the text, there's not even a breeze or a gentle zephyr at the end, nothing, it's done. But for me, being more kind of mechanically engineering minded, the stilling of the waves is even more remarkable. How long would that take? The undulating white-capped waves crashing back and forth instantly leveled. Ordinarily, they would've undulated for hours, but it became as flat as a millpond on a still day, all of that at the Word of Jesus' power. Why the word “rebuke” in Matthew and Luke? Why does He rebuke the wind and the waves? Matthew 8:26, "He got up and rebuked the wind and the waves, and it was completely calm." Luke 8:24, "He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters, the storms subsided and always gone." Why this word “rebuke”? As if the wind and the waves were living beings who were doing something wrong rather than inanimate objects, air molecules or water molecules just doing what physics was telling them to do. There is a sense in which that storm, that devastating hurricane storm is part of this sin-cursed world. It's part of the cursing of nature, that's part of man's sin. And Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth, and He came, we're told in Ephesians 1, as the plan of God for the consummation of the ages to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. So they represent evil and curse, and He came to put it to an end. I think that's why it says “rebuke”. Unruly, wild nature will be subdued, brought into peaceful order in the New Heavens, in the New Earth — more on that at the very end of the sermon. I believe this is the most visually stunning miracle of Jesus' life. No other miracle is as spectacular as this. It's similar to the Red Sea crossing, it's just simply spectacular. Most of Jesus' miracles are quiet, subtle healings, they're not really much to look at. I do not say that the distilling of the storm is His most significant miracle, that's His own resurrection, far more significant than the distilling of the storm. But I'm just saying it was the most spectacular. The healings are just subtle. You think about the paralyzed man. There's nothing spectacular about a paralyzed man getting up off of His pallet and walking home. There's nothing spectacular about a blind man, a man born blind, washing mud off His eyes. Now, it's very significant for those who knew Him, or for those men themselves, it’s very significant, it's just not spectacular. This would've been spectacular, this is entirely different. If you had been there, the sheer spectacle would've taken your breath away. Then Jesus rebuked His disciples. He turns to them and rebukes them. He rebukes their lack of faith. He said to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" I mean, this is the whole point of the miracle, and indeed of all miracles. It's the point of having the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit having Mark write this down. The lesson is that we, the readers, we who hear about this would have faith in Christ, that we would believe in Jesus as the Son of God. That's the reason for the miracle and the account. The rebuke of His disciples' lack of faith is sharp. He never coddled unbelief, He never said, "It's okay to not believe in me." Notice also the clear contrast in this account. We'll see it again with Jairus, and at other times, the clear contrast between faith and fear. Faith and fear often seem to be opposites in the Bible. Faith drives out fear. If there is this kind of fear, it's because there's a lack of faith. "Faith and fear often seem to be opposites in the Bible. Faith drives out fear. If there is this kind of fear, it's because there's a lack of faith." Now, after the rebuke, the disciples have another reaction, and what is it? Fear. But it's even greater now. They seem to be more afraid of Jesus in the boat than they were of the storm outside of the boat, and with good reason. This is the presence of Almighty God, the incarnate God in the boat with you. Look at verse 41, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind in the waves obey Him.’” Fear is the constant right reaction to the display of the omnipotent Holy God, to us as sinners, as creatures. For example, Elijah and his contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Elijah prayed a simple prayer and fire fell from heaven, and burned up the sacrifice and the alter and everything there. And when the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God." There's a fear that was filling them at that moment, and so it was with these disciples, fear of the Lord. IV. Two Lasting Questions The text ends with these two lasting questions that just kind of stand over, and they're timeless questions. Jesus, to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" The questioning of Jesus to us and our faith, and then the disciples, to one another, and to the world, "Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey Him." So we take those questions and we translate this account into our lives. The point of the Gospel of Mark is to answer the question, “Who is this man?” He is the Son of God, He is your savior. That's who He is, He and no other. Along with that is the constant expansion of our comprehension of what that means. So what does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? It means this, He can speak to the wind and the waves and they obey Him, that's what it means. He can drive out any demon and they're terrified of Him. He's not afraid of them, they're afraid of Him. There's no disease or sickness He cannot cure instantly with a Word or a touch. He can raise the dead, He can raise you from the dead. That's what it means that Jesus is the Son of God. He can look at you and tell you, based on your faith in Him, your sins are forgiven, and they are. That's who this is, that's who Jesus is. But even more is to apply that faith directly to our lives, and to drive out faithless fears, wherever they may be. Many people readily connect with this account, speaking metaphorically of the storms of our lives. I think that's right actually. All of us have challenges, deeply distressing issues that cause us to writhe and roll and churn like we're being tossed about in a storm. But when we have those storms, we can turn to Christ, the one who stilled the storm to quiet this storm around us, and even more importantly, inside of us. Many songs and hymns capture the sense of Christ's power over the storms of life. I like this one by Casting Crowns, Praise You In This Storm. The lyrics go like this, "I was sure by now, God, you would've reached down and wiped our tears away, stepped in and saved the day. And once again, I say, 'Amen,' and it's still raining. But as the thunder rolls, I barely hear your whisper through the rain, 'I'm with you.' And as your mercy falls, I'll raise my hands and praise the God who gives and takes away. And I'll praise you in this storm. And I will lift my hands, for you are who you are, no matter where I am. And every tear I've cried, you hold in your hand, you never left my side. And though my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm." Or this one, It Is Well With My Soul. "When peace, like a river, attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul." Or one of my favorites, Be Still, My Soul. "Be still, my soul” [second stanza], "Thy God doth undertake to guide the future as He has the past, thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul, the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below." Oh, I could multiply these songs. What kind of storm are you going through? I don't know. Maybe you've been through some, or you're just getting ready for the one that's coming and you don't even know what's coming. I don't have a problem with this storms of life approach at all. In fact, it's normal biblical speech. The Bible often uses metaphors to speak of painful trials we endure, of the saving work that God has for His people. Isaiah 4:6 says this, "That saving work will be a shelter and a shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and a hiding place from the storm and rain." Of the trials we endure in life, the metaphor of passing through water, river, fire, Isaiah 43:1- 2 begins with the simple command, "Fear not. Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name, you are mine. And when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you." This seems to be a lasting image, this storms of life approach. Yes, Jesus' miracle was physical, absolutely. I believe that, the account says it. But His ability to bring a peaceful end to our trials is taught again and again, as well as His ability to give us peace in the middle of the storm. So the lasting lesson of this miracle is to trust Jesus and not give way to fear when you're going through a storm. So what are the storms of life? It's anything that buffets you and causes you pain, anything. Any trial that rocks your world, knocks you around, maybe even threatens your life itself. We think about the three trials we walk through with Job again and again, remember? Loss of possessions, loss of loved ones, loss of health, those three. To expand, it could be for you a chronic illness. And the treatment, it's just not responding to the treatment. It could be the loss of a child through death, it could be the long goodbye of Alzheimer's with a beloved parent or spouse. It could be a wayward, grown child that just will not submit to Christ. Any news that rocks your world and staggers you and brings you to your knees and brings tears to your eyes and causes you to cry out to God, "Why, Oh Lord?" And then all the more, if that news causes a significant change in the way you have to live your life from that point on, it’s permanent, that's a storm. This text tells us Jesus controls that storm. He wisely brings it, decides how long it's going to last and how severe it will be, and then He is able to bring it to an end. He's telling you, in the middle of that storm, He is with you. He's speaking to you in the midst of the storm, just like Job, “and God appearing in a whirlwind and speaking in the midst of the storm” to Job, saying, "I'm right in the middle of whatever storm is buffeting you." When He says, "Peace, be still," He's not first and foremost, speaking to your circumstances, He's speaking first and foremost to your soul. Philippians 4:6 and 7, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." That's Him saying, "Peace, be still," to your soul. God has the power to bring supernatural peace to your heart in the midst of the worst storms of your life. Now, the question I want to ask you is, how are you displaying faithless fear in your life? Where is the faithless fear? I don't know where that is, you have to answer that yourself. Be honest with yourself, where am I displaying a faithless fear? The whole world just went through this COVID pandemic. I wonder if it's possible that there's some people that have been scarred by the experience, and have developed a faithless fear in the midst of it. I don't know, I'm not judging people, I just am asking for people to judge themselves. Where is there an inappropriate fear of death, or fear of disease, or fear of pain or loss that is gripping your soul? Jesus would say, "Why are you so afraid? Where is your faith?" And if that's not it, there are other places. We're susceptible to faithless fears everywhere. He wants us to use our faith to drive away our fear. Now, let's circle back on this question. How could the disciples have done better? I mean, it’s a little hard on these guys; the boat's filling with water, what did you want them to do? They didn't know what they're talking about. Yes, they did. They knew better than you, that boat's going down. So why does Jesus rebuke them? Should they have waited longer to wake Jesus? Was God pushing them right to the very brink? I mean, they'd done everything they could, the bailing, all of that. I don't know what they did, but no, God wasn't pushing them to the brink. First of all, they should not been afraid that God would let Jesus drown. I mean, that's not going to happen. By extension, he's not going to let His apostles drown either. Beyond that, they should not have been terrified of death at all, but that won't really come until He conquers death with His resurrection. From then on, they would be delivered a fear of death. But this is where I'm going to land on this one. I think they should have woken Jesus earlier. Why do I say that? They tried everything they knew to do, everything in their own strength, and at the last resort, they bring Jesus in. I think that's a bad model for the storm. What do you say? “I’ll do everything I can, and when all else fails, as my last resort, I'm going to bring Jesus in.” Don't do that. Get Him up immediately. "Looking like a storm's brewing, Lord, what do you think?” I think that's what they should have done. We're going to end with Jesus' final and eternal power over creation. This awesome miracle shows Jesus' power over all creation. By that power, He's going to bring in a new heaven and a new earth, and the turbulent world of evil will finally be subdued. I want you to contrast these two statements in Isaiah. Isaiah 17:12, "Oh the raging of many nations, they rage like the raging sea. Oh the uproar of the peoples, they roar like the roaring of great waters," along with Isaiah 57:20-21, "The wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace says my God for the wicked." That, with Revelation 4:6, the vision of the throne of God, Almighty God, “Before the throne of God, there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.” A placid sea, there's no hurricanes, no storms in heaven. Jesus, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control will transform the universe and get rid of all storms. You can look forward to that. In the meantime, if He wills to bring you through a storm, He does it because He loves you and because He's wise, and He knows how long to make it last. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to look at your Word. And we thank you for the power of your Word, and we thank you for your power over every storm. And now, Lord, as we turn to the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, we pray that you would bless us with your presence through the Holy Spirit. Lord, we pray, Lord, that you would minister in this room through this ordinance. We know that there's nothing special about the bread or the juice, but there's something powerful about the combination of these elements, and the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, and the people of God. So be in our midst now, as we observe this ordinance of the Lord's Supper, in Jesus name. Amen.

The Toxic Side of Body Positivity

Drinks After Work

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2022 65:45

This week, Shannen and Abby recap their very athletic weekend getaway at Lake Winnipesaukee. The girls give updates on Justin Bieber's scary diagnosis, Post Malones big news, and the BTS hiatus. They also reflect on their trauma after Shannen thought it would be fun to weigh themselves over the weekend. With body image on their mind, they discuss the body positivity movement and whether the pressure to love your body at every stage can become toxic. Enjoy!

#3687 You're On Thin Eggs, Buddy!

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2022 78:30 Very Popular

Now Luke's having TBTL-a-Thon stress dreams, and he's locked in Kafkaesque a battle with his internet provider. Meanwhile, Andrew shares some fond memories of winters on Lake Winnipesaukee.

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#3687 You're On Thin Eggs, Buddy!

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2022 78:30

Now Luke's having TBTL-a-Thon stress dreams, and he's locked in Kafkaesque a battle with his internet provider. Meanwhile, Andrew shares some fond memories of winters on Lake Winnipesaukee.

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#3687 You're On Thin Eggs, Buddy!

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2022 78:31

Now Luke's having TBTL-a-Thon stress dreams, and he's locked in Kafkaesque a battle with his internet provider. Meanwhile, Andrew shares some fond memories of winters on Lake Winnipesaukee.

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Ten loons were trapped on a frozen lake. Biologists planned a rescue mission

VPR News Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2022 6:06

In January, a group of nordic skaters were on Lake Winnipesaukee when they came across something that shouldn't have been there. Swimming on a small patch of open water were 10 loons. And they were stuck.

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We Love Outdoors January 31, 2022 - Episode 5

We Love Outdoors with Rich Davenport

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2022 61:11

In this week's episode of We Love Outdoors with Rich Davenport, your humble host extends a heart congratulations to the Buffalo Bills for a fine season, and to the Cincinnati Bengals who defeated the Chiefs in a bit of overtime karma. While winter is in full swing, its hard to think of our pollinator friends, but DEC has announced they will be adding regulatory oversight to Neonic pesticides to assure these are only used by trained commercial professionals. These insecticides work via attacking the nervous systems, and have terrible consequences for pollinators, and even songbirds. Rules won't take effect until January 1, 2023, to give retailers and makers time to adjust. And while winter activities like snowshoeing, snowmobiling, ice skating and skiing dominate - many small game seasons and opportunities remain available and open in NY through Feb 28, which is a great activity to take your youths and expose them to these other facets of hunting, which do not demand sitting still and making no sound, like big game hunting does. You can even hunt coyote in NY through March 26, so don't just rely upon deer hunting, as small game is really the place where kids learn how to hunt. However, speaking of deer, according to National Deer Association, 2020/ 2021 saw a record in both bucks and total deer harvested across the USA, disspelling the notion that hunting is a dying sport. 2022 has started off like 2021 left off, with yet another fishing record being broken, this time in New Hampshire with a 12 lb 8.53 oz cusk, which is related to the freshwater ling, or burbot, or eelpout. Gilmanton resident Ryan Scott Ashley caught the fish from Lake Winnipesaukee just a couple weeks ago. DEC is reminding folks you still have time to comment on the fishing regulation proposed changes, as comment period runs until Feb 6, 2022. And in Ohio, fisheries personnel discovered the longhead darter, not seen in Ohio since 1939, have been confirmed present in the Ohio River! On the ice fishing front, you can still enter the Chautauqua Lake Ice Derby until Feb 12, 2022. Most lakes and ponds are now covered with safe ice, but Lake Erie is freezing up fast, with now over 80% of the lake being ice covered as reported by NOAA. With the frigid temps coming up, we may be fishing the Big E by next week. Ice progress is well ahead of normal annual progression. Your humble host updates you to the many different upcoming events, including a golf outing planned by NYSCC and the Erie County Federation Awards banquet coming up on March 5, 2022. Day old chick cooperators also have until March 25 to submit applications to become a cooperating pheasant rearer. Finally, on the renewable energy front, the suppression and deceptions of massive support for these schemes is falling like leaves in November, as more people are standing and objecting to these schemes that gobble large amounts of land, forests and farmlands, while delivering very little usable electricity. Even thee deception games are being exposed for the manufactured deceptions that they have truly become. {ush back and stand for sound energy policy and principles, not death in the name of "saving the planet". --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rich-davenport/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rich-davenport/support

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Episode 21: uncovering the clair senses

Peace and Calm Mom

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2021 26:47

Today's episode I share about the clair senses and how uncovering my clair senses I have been able to trust my intuition more. Check out my IG post for the graphic I used to help explain some of the clair senses and see which one you think you have!I do not have it all figured out, I am always learning and uncovering and growing and I am so grateful to be doing it along with you!References in today's episode:Lake Winnipesaukee in New HampshireKelly Rich - Own Your Intuition Podcast or on IG as @kellyrichintuitive https://instagram.com/kellyrichintuitive?utm_medium=copy_linkFree Flow Friday submissions of poetry can be made by emailing: peaceandcalmlife@gmail.comTo follow the Peace and Calm Mom journey head on over to IG: https://www.instagram.com/peace.and.calm.mom/Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/peaceandcalmmom)

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109 - Ericamarie Schultz

Transformation Thursday

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2021 39:47

CW: Childhood Sexual & Physical Abuse/torture and frank talk about guns and suicide ideation. We're not joking about this one, but if you can stay with it, the ending is fantastic. In this episode, Ericamarie Schultz joins Amy Stephens and Natalie Walker to share her story of overcoming childhood abuse, torture, and suicide ideation only to find her true self later in life and her religion of love at the bottom of Lake Winnipesaukee.

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Episode #123 - Ann Leahy (Turtle Grace)

The Trail Dames Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2021 49:14

Ann Leahy was born and raised in the seacoast area of NH. She spent her childhood summers on Lake Winnipesaukee and learned how to water ski and fish (thanks dad!!) She played sports all through high school (field hockey, basketball and softball) and then went on to college at UNH to study Occupational Therapy. Ann is married to Mike, who has hiked with her, even though he isn't a fan of hiking. They have two children (Hannah 25 and Haley 22). Ann has always loved the outdoors and had done some local hiking in her younger days, but her “real” hiking didn't start until she and Mike bought land in Northern NH to build a house on. She looked out at their view (which is Mount Cabot, one of the NH 48 4000 footers) one evening at dusk and said “I want to be able to say I climbed that!" She went on to do it in Sept 2013. As far as she was concerned, she was done. But after that, the summer of 2014, she began her journey to finish the 48 with a goal of ‘before I turn 50', and she did, one month before. Guest Links- Ann's blog- https://pathsandpagesblog.wordpress.com/ The 4,000 footers- http://4000footers.com/nh.shtml The Grid- http://www.48x12.com/ More about the Grid- https://sectionhiker.com/the-grid-gridiots-and-the-gridicocracy/ Connect with Anna, aka Mud Butt, at info@traildames.com You can find the Trail Dames at: Our website: https://www.traildames.com The Summit: https://www.traildamessummit.com The Trail Dames Foundation: https://www.tdcharitablefoundation.org Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traildames/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/traildames/ Hiking Radio Network: https://hikingradionetwork.com/ Hiking Radio Network on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hikingradionetwork/ Music provided for this Podcast by The Burns Sisters "Dance Upon This Earth" https://www.theburnssisters.com

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Today Was a Big Day

The Jon DiVito Show

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2021 64:12

We discussed our weekend trip to Lake Winnipesaukee over Labor Day Weekend. We had a really nice long weekend. It was one last trip to the place we love with my son Matt before he left for college. We dropped him off at his dorm today. He starts his classes tomorrow. It was hard to see our first born son leave home. We are so proud of him. He has had a difficult path. He was diagnosed at 3 with Autism, OCD, ADHD, and Tourette's. He has done so many things that the experts told us were not possible. It was strange to feel happy, sad, and proud all at the same time.. My heart is a little broken tonight..

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The Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone

New England Legends Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2021 13:49

In Episode 210, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger stroll the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in Meredith, New Hampshire, searching for a mysterious stone unearthed back in 1872. This fist-sized, egg-shaped artifact has several images carved on it, including a face, corn, and other geometric shapes. It appears to be Native American in origin, but matches nothing seen by tribes local to this region. This rock raises so many questions that some have speculated it could be a Thunderstone--a rock forged in the sky by some deity and then dropped to the earth. The mystery stone has perplexed archaeologists ever since it was discovered.

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The Lakes Region New Hampshire: Our Stay at the Cold Springs Resort, Pool, Hiking and Friends...

Permanent Vacation Project

Play Episode Play 39 sec Highlight Listen Later Aug 13, 2021 24:35

After a short stay in the Boston area, we headed even more north to Ashland, NH and the Cold Springs Resort. Its Jodi's little slice of heaven once a year where her family owns a time share since 1980. It was just what we needed, a relaxing week in the woods. We spent a day at the river, a couple hikes, great food at local restaraunts and hung by the pool with old friends.... Here are some of the places that we enjoyed and speak about on the podcast. https://coldspringresort.net/https://www.thecman.com/Stinson MountainRattlesnake MountainCheck out our full website herehttp://www.permanentvacationproject.com/Follow us on our social media channels:https://www.instagram.com/permanent_vacation_project/https://www.youtube.com/thepermanentvacationprojecthttps://www.facebook.com/permanentvacationproject/https://twitter.com/pvpflorida11Now have you ever thought about having you're own podcast?We use Buzzsprout and we absolutely love it! It is super easy, uploads all the episodes fast and to all the important directories! Trust me, we have used others that were extremely confusing and more expensive! Start with a free plan or get right into a paid plan for as low as $12 per month. Following this link let's Buzzsprout know we sent you, gets you a $20 Amazon gift card if you sign up for a paid plan, and helps support our show.https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=340120Welcome to our Podcast!! The Permanent Vacation Project Podcast is hosted by Sean Mallett & Jodi Reath. They are Former longtime residents of Massachusetts, Owners of Millions of Muscles Fitness and a couple with 3 children......Two years ago decided to take the plunge and move to Sunny Tampa!!Episode is LivePublished: Aug. 05, 2021 @ 3AM EditUnpublishAdd a TranscriptGet episode better indexed by search engines.Add Chapter MarkersListeners can tap through & see what's coming up.Visual Soundbite AvailableSquare Soundbite - 0:43Great for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.Download SoundbiteDelete this Soundbite and create a new one.Promote a BrandAdd a Brand MentionBuzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Share Episode OnFacebookTwitter

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51 - Mud Slides - Matt+Inga Chabot

BamBoozled.Boston

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2021 93:24

This podcast at Bamboozled.boston features Matt and Inga Chabot. They share with us (Eddie,Gail,Erin and I) not only their island lake house on Lake Winnipesaukee, but how they went about overcoming the ultra challenging logistics entailed with building a house in a place where it can only be reached by boat! We had been on the boat all day, and I may have had a few..... So sit back and enjoy some "amazing" jokes, general BS, and have a drink with us here at bamboozled.boston!Click:Messinger Chiropractic + Essex Physical TherapyBBB Support partners: RPM Dynamics Mistress CarrieBBB YouTube: Bamboozled.boston Youtube Channel...Click and SUBSCRIBE!!Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=bamboozled.bostonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/bamboozled.boston/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BamBoozledBost1

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Joe Lucarelli shares his experience chasing Trophy Smallmouth Bass

The SmallmouthCrush Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2021 52:11

GET 15% OFF ALL YOUR TACKLE HERE! The Reel Shot Tackle Store -https://bit.ly/2YtVLRLSMALLMOUTHCRUSHUSE CODE SMALLMOUTHCRUSH15 for 15% your order! Catching trophy smallmouth bass on a consistent basis can be a challenge. So many techniques and so many different patterns can sometimes make it confusing where to start when targeting smallmouth bass. Each Sunday join Travis Manson as he interviews guests who are at the top of their game when it comes to catching smallmouth bass.Season 1 Episode 25 Travis talks with Joe Lucarelli and he talks about his days catching smallmouth on Lake Winnipesaukee and his favorite lake to fish Lake Champlain. Joe has a large collection of tournament wins and loves fishing for smallmouth bass. He breaks down a few key techniques that will help you catch more smallmouth bass! Follow Joe Lucarelli on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/phoenix921phx/Follow Joe Lucarelli on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/joe.lucarelli.3Travis Manson is a passionate bass angler who loves catching trophy smallmouth bass. His popular YouTube channel SmallmouthCrush takes a raw, real life approach to bass fishing. His ultimate goal to help you become a better bass angler by providing unbiased reviews, bass tournament videos, and instructional videos. The purpose of this podcast is to take a more in depth look at the top smallmouth bass anglers in North America. We will learn about what it takes to catch trophy smallmouth bass on a regular basis, going beyond the sponsorship talk and baits, while digging deep into the minds of anglers who are at the top of their game. If you want to learn what it takes to locate and catch smallmouth bass by some of the top names on the water, you have come to the right place.Follow us on Instagram @SmallmouthCrush Click this link to follow!https://www.instagram.com/smallmouthcrush/Follow The Bass Lab Tackle Freak Himself Epic Eric @epicericoffical Click this link to follow! https://www.instagram.com/epicericofficial/WOW CHECK THIS OUT!! Special LIVE Show every month for Patreons! Join my Patreon to get access to a special live show once a month!https://www.patreon.com/smallmouthcrushGet your SmallmouthCrush Merchandise Here! Still have plenty of Buffs in stock and you can get 2 buffs for $13.00 Shipped Today! https://bit.ly/SmallmouthCrushStoreAre you interested in booking a One on One session with SmallmouthCrush? Now you can set up a personal Online meeting to talk anything fishing related. Do you want to talk about how to search for fish on your body of water or perhaps you have a tournament coming up on a specific body of water that you want to break down. This is the place to get all your questions answered!https://bit.ly/CRUSHOneOnOneHow to Support this Channel:#1 Sharing these videos to your social media platform is the BEST way to support the channel.#2 Purchase tackle through this link! THIS IS THE REEL SHOT LINK!https://bit.ly/2YtVLRLSMALLMOUTHCRUSH#3 If you love this channel and the content consider helping support this work by donating to my PayPal Account here!https://paypal.me/TravisManson?locale.x=en_USOr my Venmo Account Here!https://account.venmo.com/u/TravisMansonSmallmouthCrushMY GEAR! My Boat Dealer https://www.bowersmarine.com/My Nitro Boat https://www.nitro.com/My Mercury Engine https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/My Power Poles https://www.power-pole.com/My Charging System https://www.power-pole.com/chargeGajo Baits https://www.gajobaits.com/Get your MONSTERBASS BOX https://monsterbass.com/ USE CODE TRAVIS10GET ALL YOUR TACKLE HERE! USE CODE SMALLMOUTHCRUSH15 for 15% your order! https://bit.ly/2YtVLRLSMALLMOUTHCRUSH#podcast #fishingpodcast #smallmouthbass

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How Can a Man Be Righteous Before This Majestic God? (Job Sermon 15) (Audio)

bill murray ringer bill simmons richard dreyfuss what about bob van lathan sean fennessey lake winnipesaukee

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2021

Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 25-27. Bildad asks how someone can be found righteous before God. Jesus' imputed righteousness is the answer. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - This morning, we'll be looking at Job 25-27, and as we do, we come to a very challenging section of this book for the interpreters, for scholars, for preachers like me. It's a challenging section for a couple of reasons, and therefore, it's good for me to give you just some of the principles, or perhaps even remind you of some of the principles that I use as I approach the book of Job, as I approach all scripture. Really, it's beneficial for me to teach you how to read the book of Job for yourself. So that years later, when you're no longer listening to a sermon series in Job, and you may actually never hear an exegetical sermon series on the book of Job again in your lives; it's actually pretty unusual. And you may not ever hear again, expository sermon on Job 25-27 again. So how can we understand the book of Job? How can we understand this passage? It is with great reverence that we should come to the Scriptures. We should come to it realizing we're reading a document that has stood over and been involved in the lives of God's people for two and a half millennia or more. This book is going to be here long after any of us are dead, and so there's a respect and a reverence that we take to this. And also we're taught in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture is God breathed. And so we're reading the words of men. We're reading human words, but we are reading the Word of God. So the Holy Spirit is saying something to us as we read these chapters. And that's an awesome thought, isn't it? The idea that we can actually have God speak to us and talk to us, but it's not simple. It's not a simplistic thing. We have to interpret it because it's coming to us through the words of the actors, the players in this drama, through Zophar or Bildad or Eliphaz, through Job. And so we kind of filter what we're reading through them and through what we know about them and try to understand it, but we know that it's God-breathed. And so behind their human words, we have God speaking to us, and we want to try to understand that and to understand what God is doing in our lives. And so in order to do that, I think it's good to go one section before 2 Timothy 3, where we're told what the purpose of all Scripture is, and how Paul said that Timothy “from infancy had known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” So I believe the book of Job is for that purpose. It's able to make all of us wise. It's a wisdom book, but able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ. And not only that, the Scripture is given to equip us. “[So] all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” So I expect to get rebuked and corrected when I read Scripture. And I think that's going to happen for us today, and that rebuking and correcting will bring me, in some amazing way, to Christ. I expect to be brought to Christ by reading Job. And I expect, having been brought to Christ for salvation, for the forgiveness of my sins, I am brought to Christ by the Scripture for equipping and training and preparation so that I might be prepared to do good works. "So that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work," the text says 2 Timothy. So I expect that this book of Job, not only will it aid or point toward the salvation of my soul through faith in Christ, but it's able to equip me and prepare me to do good works for the rest of my life. But it does so in a unique kind of pattern here. It's a book about suffering. It's a book about a man who lived it a long time ago, we don't know when, who was blameless and upright, who was a godly man and who suffered overwhelming afflictions and trials, in his life; who lost overwhelming percentage of his wealth and his possessions; and whose 10 children died in a single day, all of them; and who subsequently then lost his health in an affliction that was just so overwhelming that his physical appearance was very different than usual. He was in agony, physical agony. So those three things, the dread of all of us who live in this world. Shouldn't be, we shouldn't be filled with dread, but we do naturally fear the loss of our possessions, our money, what might happen to our loved ones, our children, our loved ones, our spouses, and what might happen to our health, even to the point of death. These things stand over us and we are afraid of them. And along comes this man and he walks through this, and then he begins to talk and some friends, Eliphaz and Zophar and Bildad, come and they talk to him. And there's this cycle of discussions that go on that make up the bulk of the book of Job. And we're nearing—this is the end. I. Bildad’s Question: How Can a Man Be Righteous Before God? (Job 25) This is the final time that we'll hear from one of Job's friends, Bildad, his third speech. But here we come to some interpretive problems. I was thinking this, I don't know if this is helpful, but I'm going to go ahead and say it. Therefore, you shouldn't say it, but anyway, I'm going to say it. There was a woman that Jesus dealt with. It said of her that she had a problem of bleeding, she had suffered a problem of bleeding for 12 years. And it says in Mark's gospel, she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and didn't get any better, but only got worse. Hence, this text, it has suffered a great deal under the care of many interpreters and didn't get any better, but only got worse. And I'm probably one of them, because I think it's quite possible that the second half of Job 27 isn't Job, but maybe is Bildad or one of his friends. And yet there's no scene telling me that. There's no, "Bildad answered," or any of that. So it's right in the Job section, but it's so contradicts stuff that Job said earlier that you're left scratching your head. So you're either saying, "Why did the account get kind of rearranged or shredded in some way?" Or you're like, "What is up with our friend Job that he says one thing in chapter 21 and something entirely different in chapter 27? How do we deal with that?" Either way, you've got a problem. So that's what I get to preach on today. Hence all kinds of introductory comments saying, "All right, what are we going to do with this text?" But here's the thing, I think in the end, I have to be honest, it doesn't matter who said these words. It doesn't matter if it's Job. It doesn't matter if it's Bildad or one of the other friends. It doesn't matter. We know that it's not God Almighty saying it. It's coming through a human. So we're going to have to do the same thing we always do: take the words you read and evaluate them by the rest of Scripture. And we're going to find some things that will be very true and helpful, no matter who said them, and we're going to be lifted up from the present text and the circumstances to a timeless meditation that I hope will lead to your salvation and to your fruitfulness in service to Christ. So that's what we're going to walk through today. And what we're finding in the book of Job, I said this to a woman at the back of the church last week, I find this every week, the book of Job raises some of the deepest, most profound questions there are in life. Questions about life and death and suffering and pain, and about resurrection, death, resurrection. Some of the deepest questions, and I find again and again, and again, the answer is Christ. The answer is Christ. And we're going to find that here right away with Bildad. Bildad asks a question here, in his section in Job 25. And this is part of the problem, Bildad's section is so short, six verses. It's like, “Is that it? You have nothing more to say? Job has worn you out, and you have nothing more to say?” Or did his section get transposed to somewhere else? We will never know, I think. So there's some brevity here, but he asked this profound question, verse 4, "How then can a man be righteous before God?" So we could just expand it and say, "How can wicked, sinful people like you and me actually stand righteous before such a majestic, holy God?" Do you not see how that question will lead you to Christ? How that question will be useful for your salvation? That's what we're going to look at today. So we're going to walk through this and try to understand what Bildad says and the exalted language he uses about Almighty God. And then I'm going to jump over to chapter 27 and read the second half, and then kind of continue as though that's still Bildad. That may be right or wrong, but no matter what you do with it, I think you're going to have to evaluate the words anyway and their statement. And then we're going to walk through Job's statement and apply it. So in verse 1-6 of 25, "Bildad the Shuhite replied: 'Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes peace in the heights of heaven. Can his forces be numbered? Upon whom does his light not rise? How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is but a maggot—a son of man, who is only a worm!'" This is an excellent question. God is infinitely majestic, so how can a man be righteous before him? He says, "Dominion and awe belong to God." Dominion is God's sovereignty. His kingly rule over the universe. As Nebuchadnezzar said in Daniel 4:35 of God, "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?'" That's dominion. He is king. He doesn't ask permission. He's not accountable to anyone for anything he does. Dominion belongs to God and awe belongs to Him. Dread, terror, the fear of the Lord that comes upon creatures who come into his presence. "Would not his majesty terrify you?" Job 13:11. Yes, it would. And so awe, even the holiest angels cover their faces when they come into the presence of such a holy God. And it says, "He establishes peace in the heights of heaven." This is the Hebrew word shalom, which is a deep, rich, full word, has to do with a peaceful orderliness, an arrangement in an orderliness. And God in the highest heavens establishes peace or tranquility, order. God is a God of peace. He is of tranquility of mind. The heavens, therefore, where he has his throne are in perfect order around Him. Almost, you get the picture in the book of Revelation of concentric circles, all around the throne of God. Everything's in order in heaven. All of the angels are gladly and instantly obedient to Him, and they worship him. More importantly, God has peace, shalom, within himself. God is at peace with himself. He is one with himself. What that means is He has not ever conflicted within his being about anything. He never has second thoughts or doubts. He's never conflicted. His attributes never fight each other so you get half of the attributes on one side and half of the other, and he's going back and forth on any decision. It's just not the case. God is one with Himself, and we Christians understand in the deep mystery of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, God, this one, God exists in three persons. And the three persons, the Father and the Son and the Spirit are perfectly at one with one another. They never disagree with each other, ever. And isn't it marvelous to think that we, God's children, will someday be as one with each other, every one of us, as one with each other, as the Father is with the Son. Perfect unity in heaven. There's that peacefulness the highest heavens represent the realm of God himself. He is above even the highest created order, and there God is at peace. But we human beings are not so. We are not so. We are deeply divided within ourselves. We are deeply conflicted within ourselves. We battle within ourselves as Isaiah 57:20-21 says, "The wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and [muck]. 'There is no peace,' says my God, 'for the wicked.'" We have that churning mire and muck going on inside our minds and hearts. And because we, individually, are not at peace with ourselves, we're not at peace with each other, either just person A to person B or nation A to nation B, there's all this disharmony and disunity in the world because of our wickedness and our sin. Says an Isaiah, 17:12, "Oh, the raging of many nations—they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproars of the peoples—they roar like the roaring of great waters!" We see that every day on whatever news based websites you go to find out what's happening in the world. Disunity, disharmony, brokenness, strife, and conflict because individuals, sinners, are not at peace within themselves. And they're not at peace with God. But God—praise God! God brings order out of chaos. That's what's happening in our salvation. He's taking all of this churning wickedness. And in the end He will banish it. He will convert it, transform it, or destroy it. And the universe will be at peace with God and with one another. That's where we're heading. Reminds me of Jesus stealing the storm. Remember how he was asleep in the back of the boat, on the cushion, and the disciples were distressed to find their boat filling with water. And they went and woke Him saying, "Don't you care that we're about to drown?" The things they said to Jesus. "Don't you care that we're about to drown?" But you remember what Jesus did, “[He] got up, and [he stretched out his hands] and said to the wind and the waves, ‘Peace, be still.’" And instantly it became quiet. He has that power. He establishes peace. And Bildad says, "Look at the imensity of his army. He's got a very impressive army. Can his forces be numbered?" Well, we get some numbering of the forces of God's angelic army. He is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of army hosts, the angelic armies. And so in the book of Daniel, in Daniel 7, and also Revelation 5, we get 10,000 times 10,000. Some pastors will do the math and others won't, all right? So that's 100,000,000 angels, 100,000,000. See, you're looking at me. My kids never got over of the fact that I was in the math club. Say, "Dad, what is the math club? What did you do?" I'm sorry I said that. Let's move on. But actually, Bildad is implying His forces are beyond number. And it's incredible because, you know, we're told in that account about Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, that a single angel went out and killed 185,000 as Assyrian troops in one night. That's one angel, imagine 100,000,000 angels. And Bildad says, "His light illuminates the entire universe and every creature in it." Verse 3, "Upon whom does his light not rise?" That started on the first day of creation when “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” And then He delegated that job on the fourth day to the sun and the moon and the stars, but He didn't need them because in the new heaven, the new earth, they will not be needed. Revelation 21:23, it says, "The city [the new Jerusalem] does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." So Bildad is saying that all light ultimately comes from God, and there's not a single creature that God's light does not illuminate. "As a matter of fact," says Bildad, "to God who is pure light, even the moon and the stars are dim by comparison." Look at verse 5. It says, "If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes." "Bildad is saying that all light ultimately comes from God, and there's not a single creature that God's light does not illuminate. "As a matter of fact," says Bildad, "to God who is pure light, even the moon and the stars are dim by comparison."" Now what's the point of all this poetical, meditation on the greatness of God? Well, keep in mind, this is debate going back and forth between Job and his friends, Job and his friends, and their basic theology is God is a just holy God who gets involved in human affairs, who gets involved in human history, and brings justice against the wicked and great justice against those who are greatly wicked—judgments. And therefore, in their theology, Job must be a greatly wicked person because of the magnitude of the judgments God's brought on him. That's their theology. And yet, Job keeps claiming to be innocent. He keeps claiming to be righteous. And so Bildad says, "How can you, a human, be righteous before such a God?" Look at verses 4-6, "How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is but a maggot—the son of man who is only a worm!" Now, that kind of language, like "Amazing Grace," we sang earlier, "that saved a wretch like me." That's wretch language, maggot, worm is not popular with those who would like their preachers to tickle their ears and fluff up their self-esteem, but Jesus didn't come to do that. He didn't come to fluff up anybody's self-esteem. He came to heal us of a deadly contagion, which is sin. And he said, "[It is not the righteous. He has] not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” It's a great work of therapy that he's doing here. He's healing maggots and worms and rebels like us so that we'll be healthy, we'll be forgiven, pure, and holy. That's what he's come to do. And so the Scripture does this kind of leveling work in us, using very extreme language like maggots and worms, and then poets come along like John Newton and say, "Wretch, saved a wretch like me." So the central question he's asking here is how can such an evil corrupt being as I am, be righteous in the sight of such a majestic, holy, glorious, powerful God? Now, Bildad is asking this of Job. It's a tool in his arsenal against Job. That's what he's doing. "It's a great work of therapy that he's doing here. He's healing maggots and worms and rebels like us so that we'll be healthy, we'll be forgiven, pure, and holy. That's what he's come to do." Job has consistently said, "I'm innocent. I want to make my defense before God, and he will equip me." So Bildad is actually right to ask this of Job. It's a good thing for Job to feel the weight of that question: "How can a maggot like you, by comparison with a holy God, ever be righteous before such a God?" It's right, actually. And not only is it right for Bildad to ask that of Job, but it's right for all of us to ask that of ourselves. Are you feeling the of that question? You should. How can I, someone like me, stand before a God like this, forgiven of my sins and righteous in his sight? Bildad's problem is he doesn't seem to ask it of himself, doesn't seem to bother him—it's for Job to deal with. I can't help but think about Jesus' parable in Luke 18 of the Pharisee and the tax collector. “Two men went up to pray,” and the Pharisee prayed about himself. He was self-righteous and he said, "I thank you, God, that I'm this and I'm that," and he's so full of himself, self righteous. “But the tax collector beat his breast and would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but said, ‘Be merciful to me, oh God, a sinner.’ … ‘That man,’ [Jesus said,] ‘went home justified.’" So the answer to this question is Christ. That's the answer. I cannot go any further in this sermon without celebrating the answer. There is an answer. If there were no answer, we would, all of us, be condemned. God's perfect holiness would exclude us all. God's future world, the new heavens and the new earth, would exclude us all. As Revelation 21:27 says, "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful." And so only in Christ can maggots and worms and wretches like us be made pure and holy, and be able to stand in His presence. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, concerning Christ, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." So look, just look with your eyes at whatever form of Scripture you have in front of you. Look at Bildad's question, Job 25:4, "How then can a man be righteous before God?" Just stop and ask yourself that question, "How can I be righteous before God?" And you will stand before God, so will I, so will Bildad, so will Job. We're all going to stand before Him. How can we survive? And the answer in the gospel, the good news is we survive by faith in Christ, alone by his gift of perfect righteousness, alone, and no other way. If you stand before God and you pray about yourself saying, "I thank you that I'm so awesome," and you're effectively saying, "I thank you. I don't need Jesus to save me," that's what you're saying, then you will not be justified. You'll be condemned. But if, on the other hand, you like that tax collector, in some way, you're beating your breast and you won't even look up to heaven to such a holy God is this, and you say, "Be merciful to me, oh God, the sinner." And you know that mercy is found in Christ, crucified and resurrected, then you will be forgiven. II. Bildad’s Final Warning to Job (Job 27:13-23) Well, if we jump ahead now to Job 27:13-23, again, I don't know if this is the right procedure. If you want to say, this is Job speaking here, fine, but you got to pay your money, make your choice at the fork and the road. So we're going to jump ahead, and let's think for a moment that this is one of Job's friends, or maybe Bildad finishing, or it may be Job contradicting himself. That's fine. Either way, you have to make some—but let's just walk through what he says. Now, what he is going to say in this section is the wicked are going to be overwhelmingly judged by God. That's what he's saying, but you've heard that before. The wicked are going to get it, they're going to get crushed. Look at verse 13, "Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty." And what does he say? Well, their children are going to get slaughtered by the sword or die of starvation or of the plague. Verse 14-15, Job 27:14-15, "However many his children, their fate is the sword; [their] offspring will never have enough to eat. The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them." Now, the problem I have as an interpreter is this is a direct contradiction of what Job said in chapter 21. What did he say in chapter 21? He said, "The wicked actually seemed to do very well. Many of them die in their beds and their children sing and dance with tambourines." You remember that? So let me just read it again, Job 21:7-8, "Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes." So that's hard to harmonize those statements. There's not a single commentator that writes a commentary on this that says this is Job. And if you're going to say to me, "Well, how did they get disconnected?" Or "Where's the 'Then Job said,' or 'Then Bildad said'?" I'm going to say, "I don't know." But in any case, this is what this text is saying. So what Bildad is continuing—I think, his final case against Job, he's saying, and he lines these things up with what Job actually, what happened in his life. He suddenly lost his children. They died quickly. See that's what happened to you? He lost all of his wealth, instantly. See that's what happened to you. All the wealth of the wicked melts away. Other people are going to get their ill-gotten gains. Look at verse 16-17, "Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay, what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver." And the mighty mansions of the wicked will crumble though they build with marble pillars. And though they look like they're going to last forever, they won't. Verse 18, "The house he builds is like a moth's cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman." You're going to lose everything. The disasters will come on the wicked instantly. Verse 19, "He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, [everything's] gone." Doesn't that seem like that's something like one of the friends would say to Job? It seems that way. The judgements of God are overwhelming, like a man swept away by a mighty wind or a flood powerless to stand against the onslaught. Look verses 20-23, chapter 27, "Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night. The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place. It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power. It claps its hands in derision and hisses him out of his place." Well, how do we hear all this? How do we read the second half of Job 27, no matter who says it? Well, in one sense, this is going to be true, ultimately, of all the wicked. They are going to face the overwhelming judgment of God. They will lose everything, all of them, in some ultimate sense. God's wrath cannot be escaped. It cannot be avoided. There is one and only one refuge for the coming wrath, and that is Christ. He's the only refuge. And so if those words cause a sinner to flee to Christ, then they will have done good. As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction will come on them suddenly." And so that is coming. Judgment day is coming. Your own death is coming. Everything will be lost and quickly. So as I said, the problem with this being Bildad is that he's saying it to Job, saying, "Look what happened to you? You are a wicked man, in a way the rest of us aren't. You're a significantly evil man. Look, what's happened to you. This is why it's happened. And secondly, I don't need to worry about this." Those are the problems with this being Bildad saying it. III. Job Praises God’s Majestic Power (Job 26) All right. So let's go now to chapter 26 and look at Job's statement. First of all, as always, he rejects Bildad's council. We start with—almost every Job's speech starts with some version of "You guys are losers, and why should I listen to you?" Something like that. Not exactly like that, but you know what I mean. Look at verses 1-4, "Then Job replied: 'How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble! What advice you have offered to one without wisdom! And what great insight you have displayed! Who has helped you to utter these words? And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?'" All right, that's sarcasm, friends. He's not like, "Boy, I'm so glad to have a friend like you." Not at all. So he’s just rejecting. Here's a man that was beaten and crushed and struck down by trials. His friends come, they sit with him, and he has got nothing but destroyed by them, so he swats them aside like annoying mosquitoes. Then Job has his own meditation on the majestic power of Almighty God. Again, let me say to you, we talked last week about transcendence and imminence. Transcendence is the sense of the infinite majesty of God. There are a few books in the Bible that speak with such transcendent language as the book of Job above God. So any drinking in of transcendence and majesty you can get, do it, because we all have a very lax, low view of God. We're very informal, casual people. And so whatever ways we can have a sense of God's majestic power, it will do us good. Look at verses 5-6 of chapter 26, "The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them. Death is naked before God; destruction lies uncovered." God knows the living and the dead. He knows them completely. There's nothing hidden from Him. God is mighty over the heavens and its celestial bodies. Look at verse 7-11, "He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it. He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness. The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke." So Job here is touching on the mysteries of God's creation, especially of the heavens above of invisible physical forces that cannot be explained, how the earth itself hangs in space on nothing at all. Just like God created the universe itself out of nothing at all. So the earth just seems to hang suspended on nothing at all. And then Job ponders, the clouds they're made up of water, he knows, and they're heavy. And yet they just float in the air, again, suspended on nothing at all. And then those clouds, suspended on nothing, are massive enough to block the light of the moon and snuff it out entirely on some nights. He also ponders—Job ponders the mysteries of the horizon line. Have you ever watched the sunrise over the ocean? Have you ever gone where it's just pitch black and you're there throughout the whole pre-dawn, and then watch the sunrise? At some point, there's this line of light that separates night from day, and then it gets brighter and brighter. It's really quite spectacular. I think the astronauts had the clearest example of these kind of sunrises around the edge of the earth, or around the edge of the moon if they were that far. And you can see God putting a line of demarcation between night and day, light and darkness. He's talking about that. And he speaks of the pillars of the heavens, whatever they are. The heavens rest on them and do not come crashing down, yet God is able to shake those pillars, make them tremble, with his voice anytime he chooses. And he's mighty over the sea, verses 12-13, "By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent." So the sea is mysterious with its endless, powerful, undulating waves. Its breakers rolling on one after the other, frothy, foamy crashing, and it's God who stirs up the storms and controls them, and He sets a limit to the boundary of the mighty wave saying, "This far, you may go and no further." He has that power. And then he mentions Rahab, in Old Testament wisdom literature, this Rahab character shows up. Some scholars talk about some mythological dragon or serpent or something like that, that's part of the primordial creation order. It's very fascinating to me. I don't know really what the truth is, but the image here is of God, a mighty warrior, hacks Rahab to pieces and brings peace to the sea. And so the idea is God, a warrior for peace, is able to defeat wicked enemies, even one as powerful as Rahab the silent, hidden serpent. So you get the idea, part of the problem with the ocean is that it's monsters are invisible. They're below the surface. I will never forget the summer that Jaws came out, and I didn't know the difference between fresh water and salt water. We were in Lake Winnipesaukee, and I didn't want to go swimming because you can't see what's down below. You know what I'm saying? You just don't know what's down there. But what Job was saying is whatever is down there, God's sovereign and powerful over it, mighty over it. And He has the power to churn up the sea and then calm them. As we said, Jesus has that power. And His disciples looked at Him after the distilling of the storm and said, "What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the waves, obey Him." And Job says in all of that, in all this meditation we're doing, we're only touching the fringes of the edge of his garment concerning his power. This is just the absolute fringes. Verse 14, "These are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint is the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?" So as I was writing my book on heaven, this whole thing has expanded for me in ways I can't even begin to explain to you. When you die, in Christ, and go to heaven, you will begin in earnest your education in the greatness of God, and you'll spend eternity learning it. I really believe that. You're going to spend eternity finding out how infinitely majestic God really is. Isn't that exciting, to understand that you're going to be studying the glory of God? As Psalm 111:2-4 says, "Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered," or studied, "by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered," forever. And so we're going to study them forever. And we're going to find out just how great God was, is, and always will be. And that's exciting, isn't it? IV. Job’s Conscience Testifies That He Is Innocent (Job 27:1-12) Well, Job in 27:1-12 continues his testimony that he is innocent. And here's where he gets into trouble too. Fundamental is his claim that he is innocent, that God has, in some sense, wronged him. Look at verse 1-5, "Job continues discourse: 'As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice.'" Stop there. That is a problem. I hope by now, we've heard many of these sermons, whenever you see Job say these kinds of things, that's just not okay. "[God,] as surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, my tongue will utter no deceit. I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity." He cannot agree with his friends that he is secretly wicked, famously wicked though no one knows yet how wicked he is. He will never agree to that. This is just not true. And it's amazing how this same Job who just celebrated the infinite immeasurable majesty of God in chapter 26 says, "Yes, but He has denied me justice." And he even takes a Hebrew kind of vow on this, "As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice." We just need to understand when we suffer, when we hurt, when we ourselves have the cancer diagnosis or a loved one does, or we're walking through that, that trial can bring us to these points. It's never OK, but it can push us to the point where we can start saying these hard, wrong things about God. The book of Job is given to help you not do that, so that you can be fruitful and do good works in the midst of your suffering, and lead other sufferers to Christ rather than be bitter toward God, because it seems Job is very bitter toward God. And fundamental to his bitterness, it seems, is that he's accepted the same basic theology that his friends have, right? The same basic theological structure. The only possible explanation for all this suffering is I am a great wicked man. That's the only way we could understand this. And I'm not, therefore God has made a massive mistake concerning me. Like there's no other possible explanation for the sufferings that Job's going through. And this is the very blunder that God is going to rebuke him for at the end of the book. At Job 40:6-8, "The LORD spoke to Job out of the storm: 'Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?'" We should never do that, ever. Now, Job's greatest defense, he says, is a clear conscience. Verse 6, "My conscience will not reproach me as long as I live." What is conscience? Well, it's part of the original equipment of creation, inside the heart and mind of every human being that presses them to do the right and avoid the wrong, and then evaluates behavior after the fact to see whether you did right or wrong. That's what conscience is. Every human being has this as part of the original equipment. Now, conscience is only as good as two things. First of all, is it harnessed to a true system of morality, to a true understanding of right and wrong? And secondly, conscience is only as good as if you listen to it, because if you don't listen to conscience, its voice will get dimmer and dimmer and dimmer in your life. Those are the limitations of conscience. So people in false religious systems have a conscience about their religion. For example, a Muslim is taught by his religion to do the Ramadan fast, so a month of fasting during Ramadan. Well, you could imagine a Muslim secretly violating the fast, but looking like he's a righteous Muslim to all of his neighbors, and then his conscience will smite him for the falsehood. So his conscience is harnessed to a false religion, because I believe every non-Christian religion is ultimately demonic, taught doctrine of demons, Paul talks about, and so ultimately false. And yet he's conscience is smiting him because he snuck food or did something that violated the Ramadan fast. And then beyond that, for anyone, even if the conscience is tied to the Judeo-Christian system of morality, if you don't listen to the conscience, then the conscience will become what Paul calls seared, a seared conscience. 1 Timothy 4:2, it says, "Such teachings come from hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron." That means you don't feel anything anymore. The nerve endings are seared. You just don't feel anything. I read an account of an abortionist doctor who, when she performed the first abortion, went home and vomited and wept all night. Then she performed thousands of them. And after, you know, she didn't do any of that on the 1,000th or 2,000th. Her conscience was seared. Didn't bother her anymore. Now beautifully, when we come to Christ, the conscience gets healed. Our conscience gets tied to a biblical system of right and wrong, and we begin to feel things again. And I would say, it's very mysterious how Holy Spirit and the conscience work, but there is some kind of partnership there. And Paul gives us both sides of the healthy Christian conscience. He said in Acts 24:16, "I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man." Why? Because there's going to be a resurrection and a judgment day. I'm going to have to give Him an account for everything I've done in the body. So every day I try to keep my conscience clear, vertically before God, and horizontally before others to do nothing to violate my conscience. And so the author to Hebrews says, in Hebrews 13:18, "Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way." Isn't that a great statement? Wouldn't you love to be able to look someone in the eye and say that? "Pray for us. We're sure that we have a clear conscience and [we do] desire to live honorably in every way." But there is a limit, Paul says, to conscience. 1 Corinthians 4:4 he says, "My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me." So you can have a clear conscience and still be wrong. You can have a clear conscience and still you'll find out on judgment day, so it'd be good to be humble about your clear conscience. Paul was. Job had a clear conscience, and he was wrong. And he found out on a mini judgment day how wrong he was about God and about his own sense of righteousness. Job then gives some final words in verses 7-12. He says, "May my enemies be like the wicked, my adversaries like the unjust! For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? Does God listen to his cry when distress comes upon him? Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?" So there's going to be judgment for his enemies. So you could think who are his enemies? Are his friends, his enemies? I don't think he's thinking necessarily about his friends here, but I think about the Chaldeans and the Sabeans who came and killed his servants and stole all his stuff, and then there's people in the community there that were mocking him and opposed to him, et cetera. But then he zeros in on his friends, verse 11-12, he says, "I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal." Verse 12, "You have all seen this yourselves. [So] why then this meaningless talk?" V. Applications All right, applications, I've already given you the central application for this text, and I just want you to feel the weight of it. We will all appear before the judgment seat of Almighty God, and Christ will sit on that throne, and He will judge all of us. And He's going to separate everyone into two categories: the believers and the unbelievers. What about you? How can a sinner like you stand before such a holy God? You need to ask that question. What is your hope? What is your confidence? If your answer has something to do with your own righteousness and good works, you are lost. But if your answer is, "I am a great sinner, saved by a great Savior and his name is Jesus Christ," then you have eternal life. So feel the weight of Bildad's question. And isn't it beautiful that impure people like us can actually be purified by faith in Christ, purified. We are purified, perfectly pure positionally in God's sight the moment we come to faith in Christ. He sees us pure in Christ. "What about you? How can a sinner like you stand before such a holy God? You need to ask that question. What is your hope? What is your confidence? If your answer has something to do with your own righteousness and good works, you are lost." And then, as we live our lives, he then continues to purify us as we walk in the light. It says in 1 John 1:7-9, "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin." So you can be walking in the light, a Christian, and still need purification from every sin. Still need it. And how do you get that? First of all, don't deny it. Come to God honestly. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." But "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins..." And what else? "... purify us from all unrighteousness." So did you come here today with a guilty conscience? Maybe you're able to hide it from others, but others are not the point. God is the point. He knows everything. As soon as you go home, as soon as you have time alone, confess your sins to God, call them by their biblical names, whatever it is you've done wrong. However your conscience is smiting you, confess it, and receive from 1 John 1:9 the forgiveness and the purification that God has the power to give. And then beyond that, if I can just urge you do what Paul does, "I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man." Do that. Don't do anything, ever, that would violate your conscience. And then thirdly, stand in awe of the majesty of God. Go back and find some of these great passages in Job, and read them and drink in the infinite majestic Person who God is. We are way too informal and casual with God. Let's fall down on our faces before him and tremble at his greatness and realize this great God loves us in Christ, and wants to spend eternity with us. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time we've had to study today, these three chapters. So much in here, Lord. We thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit who enables us to walk through these difficult waters, to walk through these difficult words, and put some meaning to them. Father, I pray that you would help us to lift up these truths and press them to our hearts, so that we might find forgiveness through Christ and find the right way to live, that will be maximally fruitful for your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.

‘What About Bob?’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan

The Rewatchables

Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2021 83:43

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan head up to Lake Winnipesaukee to annoy Dr. Leo Marvin as they revisit the 1991 comedy ‘What About Bob?’ starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss. Hosts: Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan Producer: Craig Horlbeck

Lake Winnipesaukee Has Creepy Face Ice Formation

The Shark's Broadcast Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2021 19:44

A huge angry looking Jack O Lantern? Or a great big grumpy garlic? Whatever it is, was found scowling up in the Winter Harbor section of Lake Winnipesaukee last weekend and is getting a lot of social media attention. See it here on The Shark App!

creepy formation jack o lanterns lake winnipesaukee

Theresa Bradford: From Soil Scientist to Stay-at-Home Mom to High School Teacher

Fashionably Late

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2021 26:34

Theresa Bradford pivots from scientific field work to parenthood to high school teaching. She has found all three stages of her life to be fulfilling and today will tell you why. Currently she is greatly enjoying her role as a high school teacher, even during the pandemic. Theresa graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in crop and soil environmental science and an accompanying minor in geology. Her desire was to work outdoors with soil applications. She did several jobs for her first 3 years out of school, the most interesting of which was a stint with the AmeriCorps Program. AmeriCorps is a voluntary civil society program that matches adults with public service projects. As part of an AmeriCorps endeavor, Theresa worked in New Hampshire at Lake Winnipesaukee on a watershed project. She did adult education and water monitoring and in addition to a lot of new experience, she received a living stipend for her efforts. The work was also a great addition to her resume. Following this field work, she found something closer to home in Virginia. She began a job in community development and enjoyed the interaction with others involved, learning in this way about several fields related to her own. But soon, another career came into view, and she followed a new path. Theresa and her husband started a family. They determined they wanted to be hands-on parents and so Theresa ended her formal employment, and for twelve years, she became a stay-at-home mom. This pivot is one that we often see and is one that everyone approaches in their own way. For Theresa, she became totally immersed. Once the children were old enough, though, she began to explore the job market once again. A friend suggested that she try substitute teaching. With a degree but no teaching credentials, she gave subbing in an elementary school a try. This was not her cup of tea, but she liked working with junior high age students better. Finally, she moved into subbing at the high school level. Here she felt at home and decided to move forward with credentialing and a master's degree. In her third year now, she has a lot of enthusiasm, and a big challenge. Working with students during the pandemic has proven to be quite an experience for students as well as their fledgling teacher. She can see how different learning modalities impact student learning. All the same, she's enjoying her latest career and its challenges, and though she liked what she did in her post undergrad years, she would not go back. Theresa advises to research thoroughly when you are pivoting. She says it's important to talk to people and get out in the field to observe and/or experience. She says that perspective is important. To be able to see things from every angle makes all the difference. Topics in this episode: If parenting is in your life plan, there is more than one way to do it and still have a career How parenting can provide meaningful job experience How the Covid-19 pandemic has affected teaching and learning How testing the waters can help you to refine your preferences How continued academic studies and experience can sharpen perspective

covid-19 scientists new hampshire soil virginia tech bradford stay at home moms americorps high school teacher lake winnipesaukee

Melissa Wyman - Hartford, VT

I Am A Rural Teacher

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2020 9:29

Melissa Wyman is born and bred in New England. After growing up on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, she went to college at the University of Vermont in Burlington and eventually made her way down to White River Junction, a village within the town of Hartford, Vermont. And she’s been teaching at Hartford High School for 10 years now. Listen as she talks about her plans for a school garden, meeting students where they are, and teaching kids to value their communities. --- This podcast is part of the “I Am a Rural Teacher” national advocacy campaign. We’d like to thank our partners at the National Rural Education Association, Community Foundation of the Ozarks, Ozarks Teacher Corps, and The University of West Alabama’s Black Belt Teacher Corps. The “I Am a Rural Teacher” campaign is made possible by a grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The “I Am a Rural Teacher” Podcast is produced by Caitlin Whyte and Julia Levine, with music by Sam Douglass.

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Putt Daley's Halloween Interview

Jerks In the 4th Row

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2020 21:49

Phil and Putt discuss the creepy encounters that Putt and other's have experienced at their house on Lake Winnipesaukee and some nostalgia surrounding Halloweens past spent together!

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The HolidayMoons Podcast Travels Afar!!!

HolidayMoons

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2020 56:23

The HolidayMoons Podcast Travels Afar!!! In this week’s episode, we discuss our most recent trips to New Hampshire, and Cole's trip to Disney World. First, we discuss our trip to New Hampshire, which included time at Lake Winnipesaukee, Mount Washington, as well as many fun, small towns, shops, and sites! And, Cole talks about his "childless millennial" trip to the four Disney World parks with his two friends. Find out more on this week's episode of the HolidayMoons podcast! Join us, won't you, for this fun and informative, ad-free, and free-in-general, HolidayMoons podcast! www.stitcher.com/podcast/holidaymoons #holidaymoons #holidaymoonspodcast #autumn #fall #wdw #disneyworld #newhampshire #lakewinnipesaukee And you can follow us on the below social media sites: Twitter: @holiday_moons Instagram: @holidaymoons Facebook Page and Group: holidaymoons Website: randalmoon.wixsite.com/holidaymoons HolidayMoons was created because we love and celebrate holidays and seasons throughout the year, and we want to share our love with you. It includes decorating, going to festivals and events, watching related TV shows and movies, listening to seasonal music, cooking and eating, seasonal shopping, and best of all, enjoying how others, like you, have celebrated the holidays.

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The HolidayMoons Podcast Travels Afar!!!

HolidayMoons

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2020 56:23

The HolidayMoons Podcast Travels Afar!!! In this week's episode, we discuss our most recent trips to New Hampshire, and Cole's trip to Disney World. First, we discuss our trip to New Hampshire, which included time at Lake Winnipesaukee, Mount Washington, as well as many fun, small towns, shops, and sites! And, Cole talks about his "childless millennial" trip to the four Disney World parks with his two friends. Find out more on this week's episode of the HolidayMoons podcast! Join us, won't you, for this fun and informative, ad-free, and free-in-general, HolidayMoons podcast! www.stitcher.com/podcast/holidaymoons #holidaymoons #holidaymoonspodcast #autumn #fall #wdw #disneyworld #newhampshire #lakewinnipesaukee And you can follow us on the below social media sites: Twitter: @holiday_moons Instagram: @holidaymoons Facebook Page and Group: holidaymoons Website: randalmoon.wixsite.com/holidaymoons HolidayMoons was created because we love and celebrate holidays and seasons throughout the year, and we want to share our love with you. It includes decorating, going to festivals and events, watching related TV shows and movies, listening to seasonal music, cooking and eating, seasonal shopping, and best of all, enjoying how others, like you, have celebrated the holidays.

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Episode 19: Political Theater, The Real Hate Speech

Derate The Hate

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2020 19:46

Welcome back my friends for episode 19 of our Derate the Hate podcast. Wilk here again from WilksWorld.com and the week I am talking about what I believe to be the #RealHateSpeech and that is Political Theater.We are living through some of the most politically polarized times in the last 155 years, and I believe that is strongly in part due to the rhetoric spewed by our political class and the main stream media. I call this #PoliticalTheater, The #RealHateSpeech and I believe it's done by design. Instead of trying to unite us on what we all have in common, and the greatness within our country, much of what is spread by the political mouthpieces and their cronies in the main stream media is meant to divide, confuse, and whip people into an emotional frenzy.The Derate The Hate podcast is not meant to be political, and I will always do my best to keep particulars of specific political issues out of here. I reserve my opinions on those types of things for my blog WilksOpinion.com, but I believe that this divisive rhetoric and these demagogic tactics often transcend party lines and it can often be very damaging to our relationships and our country as a whole. This podcast's mission is truly to "Better the World, One Attitude at a Time", and with that said, I hope the point I am trying to make with this episode hits home for someone, or a bunch of someones... Do not let those within the political class and media manipulate your emotions and drive a wedge between you and those you care about like your friends, family and neighbors. This has become an all too often occurrence in these polarized times.In this weeks feel good story, I talk about a gentleman by the name of Brady Libby who was visiting friends at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. He is being awarded the New Hampshire Hero Award for saving Andy Copanas from drowning. Apparently Copanas got in over his head and began struggling when it caught the attention of Libby. His bravery and quick action saved a life proving that "not all heroes wear capes. (Read More Here). Great job Brady, it's always great to hear of ordinary people doing extraordinary things!I've started to begin each show by asking what have you done today to make the world a better place, and what have you done today to make your life a better life? I am very certain that those go hand in hand and if each of us started each day by asking those questions of ourselves, things would begin to improve greatly. With that said, when you are out among the people, be kind to one another, be grateful for everything you've got, and make each and every day the day that you want it to be!Please follow us on Facebook and download our episodes wherever you enjoy your audio. Leave us a review and share us with your friends. Your support is greatly appreciated! We'll catch you next week...

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Episode 204 – Vacation Challenge

How Was Your Run Today? The Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2020 44:36

Peter and Bryan check in from the shores of the beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee on their vacation to Geneva Point Center in New Hampshire. They chat about their runs along the trails, then discuss their progress on Week 2 of the 31 Days of August Challenge and make plans for Week 3. Plus, adventures with New Hampshire wildlife and talk of a future HWYRT retreat! Buy HWYRT merch here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/hwyrt/shop?asc=u Join our Strava group here: https://www.strava.com/clubs/HWYRT Head over to our Web site here: www.HWYRT.com Email us anything: howwasyourruntoday@gmail.com Please visit our sponsor www.pathprojects.com

Paul Poiesz Central Bucks South

A Run On Culture

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2020 53:29

In this episode of A Run On Culture, Matt Farrell (@mattfarrell_13), former Downingtown West runner, takes the mic to interview longtime Philadelphia Track & Field legend Paul Poiesz. As a coach Paul won 14 Catholic League championships while at Bishop McDevitt High School from 1981-2005; then in 2014 at CB South, he guided the girls 4x800m relay - which included his daughter Kaitlin Poiesz (@kait_katbar) - to a state championship and new state record in the 4x800m relay, running 8:51.49. In addition, Paul has also built a phenomenal career as a prominent USA Track & Field certified Master Official working as the starter at many of the largest meets around the nation, including the Penn Relays, High School and Collegiate Championship Meets and the US Olympic Trials. Central Bucks South Girls State Record 4x800 Relay - 8:51.49 Read this six-part series chronicling the 2014 record setting girls 4x800m relay that ran 8:51.49. (The Central Bucks South 4x800 Relay - A 6-part story of the perfect season by four best friends) Camp Tecumseh (https://www.camptecumseh.net/) “CAMP TECUMSEH, founded in 1903, is a residential camp offering a wide variety of activities for boys ages 8-16. Tecumseh is located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with nearly two miles of shoreline on beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee, New England’s largest lake. The campus covers over 300 acres and boasts some of the finest camp facilities in the country.” A Run On Culture podcast is designed to learn from dedicated local runners and coaches to discover the secrets behind their culture of success. The Run Culture Podcast is a project put together by Scott Burns the head coach at Downingtown West High School focused on building community with a shared purpose of continuing to learn and grow. iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-run-on-culture/id1506857114 AnchorFM: https://anchor.fm/runonculture YouTube: https://youtu.be/JaNVwhsGVJA

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The Legend Of Lake Winnipesaukee Part II

Local Legends: New England

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2020 12:46

The exciting conclusion of the Legend to how Lake Winnipesaukee got its name. Will Chief Anhanton exact his revenge? Or will Ellacoya finally have a say in her future? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

lake winnipesaukee

The Legend Of Lake Winnipesaukee Part 1

Local Legends: New England

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2020 26:22

Welcome to a new season of Local Legends: New England! I'm kicking off this season with The Legend Of Lake Winnipesaukee! A touching, native story about overcoming creed and tribal honor in the name of love. But is this a story of mourning, or happily ever after? Guess you'll have to listen and find out! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

lake winnipesaukee

Hermitage Green on new single

Live95 Limerick Today Podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2020 14:57

Today, folk-rock band, Hermitage Green have released their latest single, Lake Winnipesaukee. Joe Nash is chatting to band member Barry Murphy about releasing new music and the new drive in gig concept during the pandemic See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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What About Bob?

Movies That Make Us

Play Episode Listen Later May 25, 2020 57:58

In this week’s episode Tracy, Val, and Jake are visiting Lake Winnipesaukee, virtually of course, as we also welcome Collin from Stolendroids Podcast to discuss the 1991 comedy classic What About Bob?! This film stars Bill Murray as Bob Wiley and Richard Dreyfuss as Dr. Leo Marvin and is directed by Frank Oz. It was one of our favorites at the time, but after 29 years, does it still hold up?Our panel breaks down why the timing works, why the jokes land, and the chemistry between the two main stars- who apparently did not enjoy working together on set. This is a summer vacation classic, and the laughs just keep coming as Bob becomes more and more sane while Leo Marvin is losing it. The team agrees, this film not only holds up, it is still very re-watchable even today. Just as funny as it was 29 years ago.This movie was a lot of fun to record and talk about it. If you haven’t seen it in a while, Memorial Day is the perfect time to revisit it. I mean, you can’t really go out and travel as easily as you normally would, right? Might as well take a vacation. Maybe just a vacation from your problems. In any case, this is a great film to watch this weekend, or any weekend. Our team all agreed it was graded pretty high. What did you think of What about Bob? Do you have a suggestion for an episode of the show, or feedback for this specific episode? We want to hear it! You can send your feedback to podcast@moviesthatmakeus.com.Did you miss our live stream of this episode? Make sure you like and follow us on Facebook so you don’t miss future episodes of the show.Want to watch the video of this episode? You can find it on our YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe.We hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day, and we won’t see you at the movies… See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Hashtag 59 Season 3 Episode 29 Podcast (New Hampshire)

Hashtag 59 Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2020 15:07

Hashtag 59's Season 3 Podcast is 50 Episodes long and each episode will provide FIVE outdoor adventures in each of the US's 50 states. We are doing these episodes in ABC Order of the states and episode twenty-nine is New Hampshire. The goal is to give you ideas and opportunities to experience outdoor adventure anywhere and everywhere in the United States of America. Here's our list for New Hampshire: 1. Go leaf peeping in the White Mountains during the fall foliage. 2. Hike in White Lake State Park and explore Conway, New Hampshire. 3. Test yourself on one of the toughest mountains east of the Mississippi. Mt Washington! 4. Visit Mt. Monadnock. The world's most climbed mountain owes its popularity to several factors: you can climb it easily in a day, its trails offer options for different abilities. There’s some villages nearby, including Fitzwilliam, Jaffrey Center, Hancock, and Harrisville. 5. Visit the NH Lakes Region: South of the White Mountains is Lake Winnipesaukee, the focal point of New Hampshire's Lakes Region, which also includes nearby - and far less developed - Squam Lake and Newfound Lake. Go kayaking, sailing, waterskiing, etc. Thanks for listening to Season 3 of our podcast featuring all 50 US States and some of each state's unique and hopefully lesser known to you Outdoor Adventures. This episode featured the state of New Hampshire. Subscribe to our podcast if you enjoy what you hear and if you feel so inclined to leave a review we would be grateful. Check out www.Hashtag59.com for our old podcast seasons, hundreds of blogs, & outdoor events/team outings info.

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Basic Folk 58: Dave Godowsky

Rock N Roll Pantheon

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2020 57:58

Business or performance? According to Dave Godowsky, you don't have to choose, guys. As a professional music fan for nearly 3 decades, Dave has been an artist manager, A&R rep and several other kinds of music industry types. All the while, he's weaved in and out the singer/songwriter/performer, for which he has a great talent for. Dave's genuine good hearted nature has gotten him the trust, talent and time of many impressive well known musicians like Bon Iver, Gene Ween (of Ween), Adam Duritz and Lianne La Havas. He's also well connected to many smaller music communities. One of those communities was essential to his songwriting in the last ten or so years: The Subrosa Songwriting Retreat that takes place on Three Mile Island in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. Dave talks about how this retreat has allowed him to piece together enough songs for his last few album. His newest album, Cuts (out Feb 28), is this beautiful calming album dotted with lovely harp and woodwinds. During production, he was concentrating on keeping the band zen and working to create a" musical Xanax." He said" “if people were having a panic attack, they could put this on and it would calm them.” It's a great album and hope you go listen to it when it's out on Feb 28!

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Becky’s Mysterious Garden

New England Legends Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2020 10:13

In Episode 131, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger row out to a tiny island called Becky’s Garden on Lake Winnipesaukee to explore the fairy tale legend behind this rock and little house. It’s the smallest island on the lake, it’s been on the map since 1885, and the story behind it sounds all too familiar.

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Basic Folk 58 - Dave Godowsky

Basic Folk

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2020 56:58

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193: REPLAY Arrive- Gear rental may change the way you recreate outdoors . . . maybe it already has.

The Outdoor Biz Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 31, 2019 38:40

Your gear is waiting. Rachelle Snyder and Ross Richmond from Arrive Outdoors are flipping the script on outdoor gear ownership and renting. Show Notes First Exposure to the Outdoors Ross- I think for me it was summertime. Most of my family is up in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesaukee. My mother's the oldest of eight in a big Catholic family and we would spend the summers together and go on to a little island on Lake Winnipesaukee and do a lot of hiking and camping. That was the culture that I was born into. Rachelle- I grew up in northern Indiana and ever since I was a baby, my mom would take us camping in Michigan. We'd go on Lake Michigan to Waco Beach and go camping just up from the beach. We'd spend our days at the beach hiking, finding creeks and playing in the water. It's really fun cause now it's come full circle. In a couple of weeks I'm going camping again with my mom, my sister and my sister's three little girls. We get to take them all camping up at Waco Beach as well. Things we talked about Arrive Outdoors Reserve America Kevin Kelly Tim Ferriss Podcast Science Inc. Mike Jones Dollar Shave Club Headspace Other Outdoor Activities Surfing, running, backpacking, camping Favorite Books/Podcasts How I Built This Up First Pod Save America This American Life Give and Take by Adam Grant The Originals by Adam Grant River of Doubt by Candace Millard Favorite Piece of Gear under $100 YETI Hopper Backflip 24 ENO Hammock Connect with Rachelle and Ross Instagram Facebook Twitter Website

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Welcome to Camp Lake Winnipesaukee Part 2

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2019 130:31

The conclusion of the Halloween Special I ran for the group that plays in the weekly game of FATE. This is a one shot I didn't do any actual editing so it would be able...

Welcome to Camp Lake Winnipesaukee Part 1

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2019 103:36

Part one of the Halloween Special I ran for the group that plays in the weekly game of FATE. This is a one shot I didn't do any actual editing so it would be able...

Welcome to Camp Lake Winnipesaukee Part 2

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2019 130:31

The conclusion of the Halloween Special I ran for the group that plays in the weekly game of FATE. This is a one shot I didn’t do any actual editing so it would be able...

Welcome to Camp Lake Winnipesaukee Part 1

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2019 103:36

Part one of the Halloween Special I ran for the group that plays in the weekly game of FATE. This is a one shot I didn’t do any actual editing so it would be able...

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85 - Your Movie Warehouse Video Store

VHS Bandits

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2019 21:55

As the summer winds down Dane Train took one last vacation trip up to Wolfeboro, NH. Lake Winnipesaukee is a beautiful place and the best part about the area is a small brick n' mortar video store, Your Movie Warehouse. Laura, the owner, has been in business for 13 years selling DVDs, BluRays and wall-to-wall VHS. It's a real treasure trove of movie heaven and you never know what you're going to find. The nostalgia kicks in immediately as it's the closest thing to a real video store of the golden days you can get today. Stop in to this little shop to hear Dane and Laura talk about the store's history, it's importance to the local community, physical media, sustainability, and more. Your Movie Warehouse 4 Center St, Wolfeboro, NH 03894 (603) 569-1066 https://yourmoviewarehouse.webs.com/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-Movie-Warehouse-Wolfeboro-NH/113177515375557

170: Arrive- Gear rental may change the way you recreate outdoors . . . maybe it already has.

The Outdoor Biz Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2019 38:55

Your gear is waiting. Rachelle Snyder and Ross Richmond from Arrive Outdoors are flipping the script on outdoor gear ownership and renting. Facebook Twitter Instagram The Outdoor Biz Podcast Please give us a rating and review HERE Show Notes First Exposure to the Outdoors Ross- I think for me it was a summertime. Most of my family is up in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesaukee. My mother's the oldest of eight in a big Catholic family and we would spend the summers together and go on to a little island on Lake Winnipesaukee and do a lot of hiking and camping. That was the culture that I was born into. Rachelle- I grew up in northern Indiana and ever since I was a baby, my mom would take us camping in Michigan. We'd go on Lake Michigan to Waco Beach and go camping just up from the beach. We'd spend our days at the beach hiking, finding creeks and playing in the water. It's really fun cause now it's come full circle. In a couple of weeks I'm going camping again with my mom, my sister and my sister's three little girls. We get to take them all camping up at Waco Beach as well. Things we talked about Arrive Outdoors Reserve America Kevin Kelly Tim Ferriss Podcast Science Inc. Mike Jones Dollar Shave Club Headspace Other Outdoor Activities Surfing, running, backpacking, camping Favorite Books/Podcasts How I Built This Up First Pod Save America This American Life Give and Take by Adam Grant The Originals by Adam Grant River of Doubt by Candace Millard Favorite Piece of Gear under $100 YETI Hopper Backflip 24 ENO Hammock Connect with Rachelle and Ross Instagram Facebook Twitter Website

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Let's Talk Real Estate: July 6, 2019

Let's Talk Real Estate NH with Corina Cisneros

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2019 29:50

Corina was joined by many guests this week, including: Philip Warren, the town manager of Meredith. Philip discusses what makes Meredith special, how it has changed recently, where it will continue to change, and how the demographics will change. He also discusses the town's finances, relationships with neighboring towns, and other areas of opportunity. Captain Tim Dunleavy of NH State Police Marine Patrol Bureau. Corina and Capt. Dunleavy discuss boating safety on Lake Winnipesaukee, the Unsafe Passage Law, general rules of navigation, impairment and penalties, the need for more patrol officers this year, and riparian rights. Corina discusses her pets:) Julie Marsh from Winnisquam Marine discusses whether to rent or buy a boat, and their new location for Winni Marine (formerly Channel Marine) across from the NASWA. Catch the show at 8:30 AM Saturdays on 101.5 WEEI SportsRadio / WZEI FM & 104.9 The Hawk / WLKZ FM, on Podbean, iTunes, and Google Play. Let's Talk Real Estate is a production of Modern Media Services, LLC, CRGTV, and Mr. Strategic Alliance, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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S04E01: The Armistice Echo Episode

The Freecast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2018 89:45

News Sunday Nov 11th was Armistice day, now called veterans day. Matt The best way to honor veterans is to stop making new ones. Trove of war posters discovered at New Hampshire library http://www.wsfa.com/2018/11/11/trove-war-posters-discovered-new-hampshire-library/ Armed homeless man causes forced evacuation of several major businesses along Route 11 in Rochester Nick http://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/police-describe-tense-moments-during-lengthy-rochester-standoff/article_f7cf9bba-1ef5-5a58-9549-6525cbd4e418.html Brace Yourselves for Boring! Cord https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/john-kasich-to-reporters-im-in-new-hampshire-and-im-available-for-your-2020-questions Cultural icon, and architect of the modern comic book Stan Lee dies Monday the 11th at age 95. Matt https://nh1.com/nh1/comic-book-genius-stan-lee-spider-man-creator-dies-at-95/?fbclid=IwAR0j3bSjVfki3nZ8lyQOu1hphWoqijyCzotXnKeD4Y9YzE7ydoLM-oUGw4 Judge orders Amazon to produce recordings from Echo device seized from crime scene of Farmington double-murder Nick http://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/judge-orders-amazon-to-produce-recordings-from-echo-device-seized/article_8927285e-b8ac-5997-a283-6c18d7ada0ab.html Jim Boyle keeps winning Matt http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20181109/porstmouth-eyes-settlement-talks-with-car-dealer-jim-boyle?fbclid=IwAR3IooO62_kZJf89sYeD5PnoLFVtf9JM7L2IGK_iPNSXNHOS6EkYNvPgdpU Jury trial expected to last 31 days? Psychotherapist warns that working mothers produce mentally ill children Nick https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5451309/Psychotherapist-warns-working-mothers-produce-mentally-ill-children.html?fbclid=IwAR0-2XeDk7v_lHckWlhCeVkvD7eUy_5teIQprhQ944LJIUryOuqBdIcIjEA NH's aging population may cause problems in the job market Nick http://www.unionleader.com/news/business/nh-growing-at-slowest-rate-in-a-century/article_cb78225f-e57e-5f63-9940-6c514e5bd4be.html Events - Cord Freecoast Liberty Outreach Meetup (Just announce this week's) Dover - 1st Thursday Exeter - 2nd Thursday Hampton - 3rd Thursday - In Seabrook at Casa Tequila Rochester - 4th Thursday normally Wild Card! - 5th Thursday Rochester this time Liberty Forum https://nhlibertyforum.com/ February 7-9 2019. $149 general admission $299 All inclusive Election Recap Governor Chris Sununu (R) 52.8% 302,509 Molly Kelly (D) 45.8% 262,174 Jilletta Jarvis (L) 1.4% 8,173 Executive Council Dems 3 Reps 2 State Senate Dems 13, Reps 11 State House Dems 219, Reps 181 Constitutional amendments Allow taxpayers to sue government 82.8% 406,685 - 84,337 Right to privacy 81.0% 402,0292 - 94,375 Nick's comments on Libertarian Party of New Hampshire Jarvis' 1.4% means that the Libertarian Party loses automatic ballot access. Needed at least 4% Phinney incumbent only 377 votes, (10%) in Strafford 24 house race, single member seat. The Republican who won barely campaigned. Only put yards signs up. Phinney had switched from Republican to Libertarian during the last term Dyer incumbent only 1,113 votes, 0.83% Hillsborough district 37, 11 member seat district. Number is deceiving due to how many people are elected from that district. The last place winner from that district got 4.95% 6,722 votes If candidates want to run to win they MUST infiltrate one of the two major parties. http://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/democrats-take-control-of-nh-senate-and-house/article_7b7751b9-e928-5afc-b8f1-442f956caae5.html https://freekeene.com/2018/11/11/nh-libertarians-lose-ballot-access-is-taking-over-the-old-two-parties-a-viable-alternative/?fbclid=IwAR0L461XkNwfTHu_jfXipRXsWScCyDlqPjX-spk90I8y_XCRyXzl-lkfEDk NH History Wolfeboro. America's oldest summer resort Granted to 4 men from Portsmouth by Governor Benning Wentworth in 1759 Named after General James Wolfe who was victorious in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in the French and Indian War which lasted 15 minutes and he died from three gunshot wounds. The battle turned the tide in the war. (Also 1759) Benning's nephew John Wentworth became governor as well later on and established an estate in Wolfeboro called Kingswood next to what is now Lake Wentworth. During the 19th century the only way to get to Wolfeboro was via the road, i.e. stagecoach or horse. In 1872 a railroad was opened that branched off from “Sanborn's Station” in Wakefield from the Portsmouth, Great Falls and Conway Railroad. The railroad caused tourism to explode. What was a small village became one of the biggest tourist destinations. The rail line ended right at Lake Winnipesaukee where you could board the steamship Mt. Washington owned by another railroad. The Boston & Maine railroad. The Mt Washington still runs and stops in Wolfeboro, Meredith, Weir's Beach and Alton. Book Recommendations with Cord “Thanks A Thousand” “Them” Suggestions/Feedback Do you have a topic that you would like for us to discuss? A correction and additional piece of information that we may have overlooked, please send it in to freecastpodcast@gmail.com While you are here, follow us on Twitter @freecastpodcast and like our Facebook page.

KYD 057 - What About Bob?

Killing Your Darlings

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2018 60:43

Last week, we took a request from you, our faithful listeners, and promptly ignored it. Sorry 'bout it...we watched it this week instead. Hope you're cool with that. What About Bob? is the story of successful psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss) and what happens when his new patient, Bob Wiley (Bill Murray) a "multi-phobic personality characterized by acute separation anxiety and extreme need for family connections" decides to follow Dr. Marvin on his family vacation to Lake Winnipesaukee against the wishes of Dr. Marvin. At first, Dr. Marvin views Bob as an annoyance that is interfering with his downtime and his upcoming on-location interview for Good Morning America. But as Bob continues to spend more time with Dr. Marvin's family despite Leo's protestations, the good doctor slowly starts to be the one more in need of therapy than Bob! Featuring hilarious comic performances from Bill Murray (duh) and Richard Dreyfuss as the suffering straight man, this family friendly comedy was in constant rotation at the childhood homes of both of our hosts. But will the magical Murray charm still hold up? Join us and find out! And don't forget to RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!

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New Hampshire from Affordable Secret Adventures (ASA)

Affordable Secret Adventures (ASA) Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2017 37:03

New Hampshire has a lot to offer three seasons of the year. From skiing/snowboarding in the winter to breathtaking foliage in the fall you will enjoy vacationing in the Granite State. Long time resident Nancy will share her travel tips with you and as always on a budget.

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The Drama Classroom: There is a seat for everyone at the table

The Drama Teacher Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 7, 2017 37:17

Episode 175: The Drama Classroom: There is a seat for everyone at the table Scott Giessler is a teacher and a playwright. He went into theatre teaching without any training and not only is he still doing it, he has a strong philosophy for how to do it. He's well aware that what you need as a teacher isn't necessarily what your students need. And for Scott, he's adamant that there is a seat for everyone at the table in the theatre classroom. Enjoy this conversation from the trenches of the drama classroom and the importance of what goes on there. Show Notes Theatrefolk.com Finishing Sentences Episode Transcript Welcome to the Drama Teacher Podcast brought to you by Theatrefolk – the Drama teacher resource company. I am Lindsay Price. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! This is Episode 175 and you can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode175. Okay. Today is a great conversation. It's about stepping into a Drama classroom, what the Drama classroom means, and what is the purpose of being a Drama teacher. Frankly, I think that's about as much introduction as this episode needs. It's lovely. I think it's just lovely. I'll give you something to listen for, though. Scott, our guest – who is also a teacher and a Theatrefolk playwright – does not believe in the phrase “the show must go on.” Why, you ask? Let's get started and find out. LINDSAY: All right, I am talking to Scott Giessler. Hello, Scott! SCOTT: Hi there! How are you? LINDSAY: Excellent! And how are you? SCOTT: I am doing terrific. Thank you for having me. LINDSAY: Yeah! So, tell everyone where in the world you are. SCOTT: Okay. Well, I am currently located in a lovely little hamlet here in New Hampshire called Tuftonboro which, most people, of course, will never have heard that but, if you know where Lake Winnipesaukee is in New Hampshire, that's where you'd fine me. LINDSAY: Well, of course, we all know where that is, Scott. We know where you are! SCOTT: Okay! LINDSAY: And so, Scott is not only a teacher – and, actually, it looks like you wear a ton of hats from teaching theatre tech to performance to filmmaking and playwriting. Scott has written a fantastic little piece – not a little piece – a piece, a great piece called “Finishing Sentences” which we have. We're going to talk about it but we're going to start with you, Scott. Tell everybody how long you have been a theatre teacher. SCOTT: Okay. I've been teaching for about sixteen years. Well, it's been exactly sixteen. I started my career and stayed in my career at Kingswood Regional High School and I teach a theatre class there as well as coach the afterschool theatre program there. It's been a great run. LINDSAY: What was it that connected you to teaching? Why teaching theatre? SCOTT: Well, oddly enough, if you kind of connect it up at the play, I worked as a camp counselor when I was younger and it was really – and this is even now strange to say – it was the only I had ever really connected with for the first – I don't know – 26 years of my life. But, you know, I was also an avid theatre student in high school, did a little bit more in college. I took a break from that because I was mostly paying attention to television and radio broadcast. But, when I got out of the working world, you know, I really felt like something was missing. And then, I sort of harkened back to the days of being a camp counselor. I went back, worked at that camp – that I actually still work at now – for a summer. And then, as fate would have it, the local high school in town was looking for a theatre teacher. You know, I let them know – I was an avid theatre person; I was an actor all through high school; I was a writer in college – that sort of thing. But I had not had the formal training, but they needed somebody and they brought me in. That first year – as I'm sure everybody will kn...

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Episode 39: 1991 - What About Bob? and Herman's Head

The Throwback Show

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2016 49:10

Aaron, Dan and Matt travel to Lake Winnipesaukee revisit the somewhat forgotten Bill Murray movie What About Bob? (also starring Richard Dreyfuss and Julie Hagerty of Airplane fame). Plus, a look back to the show Herman's Head, starring William Ragsdale and Hank Azaria, and featuring a cameo by a pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston. For more, visit www.thethrowbackshow.com.

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What About Bob? :: RRP #88

Retro Rewind Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 11, 2016 77:59

The RRP crew finds themselves at Lake Winnipesaukee to witness a crazy man, drive another man into madness, or is it our good captain that is going mad watching this 90s film. Listen as Francisco and Paul discuss What About Bob?, with returning guest host Chris Cowan.

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Fishing Podcast Episode #100 - The Nerds got together with an intrepid group of New England anglers and fishy businesses for the annual Ice Fishing Grudge Match with Tim Moore Outdoors - 0ne of the best ice fishing guides in New England. The teams fishing for bragging rights were Daddymac Lures, Team Wicked Fishah and Get Bent TV. Some of the teams pre-fished Lake Winnipesaukee at 2 a.m. before the official 7 a.m. start of the match. Participants were eager to go after the legendary white perch in the lake, and knew there were also great crappie, sunfish, rock bass, rainbow trout and lake trout swimming in the depths. Clay was excited too because this was the first day he was driving his new snowmobile on the ice. Everyone had a blast and Tim and Chuck put everyone on lots of fish. This episode is full of tips and tricks to catching fish in Lake Winnipesaukee, funny stories from folks on the ice, and some special 100th episode surprises! Funding for this fishing podcast is provided by Daddymac Lures and our growing list of supporters on Patreon – the crowdfunding site for artists and creators.

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Fish Nerds Fishing Podcast – Icefishing Lake Winnipesaukee (ep.#100)

Outdoor Podcast Channel

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 8, 2016 66:15

The Nerds got together with an intrepid group of New England anglers and fishy businesses for the annual Ice Fishing Grudge Match with Tim Moore Outdoors – one of the best ice fishing guides in New England. The teams fishing for bragging rights were Daddymac Lures, TeamWicked Fishah and Get Bent TV. Some of the teams pre-fished Lake Winnipesaukee at 2 a.m. before the official 7 a.m. start of the match. Participants were eager to go after the legendary white perch in the lake, and knew there were also great crappie, sunfish, rock bass, rainbow trout and lake trout swimming in the depths. Clay was excited too because this was the first day he was driving his new snowmobile on the ice. Everyone had a blast and Tim and Chuck put everyone on lots of fish. This episode is full of tips and tricks to catching fish in Lake Winnipesaukee, funny stories from folks on the ice, and some special 100th episode surprises! Funding for this fishing podcast is provided by Daddymac Lures and our growing list of supporters on Patreon – the crowdfunding site for artists and creators.

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Out of Place Artifact: The Story of the Dorchester Pot

Strange New England

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 21, 2015 7:14

Out of place artifacts are items, objects or curiosities that are out of place or out of time. They seem to occur or are discovered at random times and places, for no apparent rhyme or reason and these anomalies lead to nearly impossible conclusions about their origins. Historians and scientists largely discount these items because they logically do not fall into the range of possibility and therefore must be accounted for through means not yet known to science. They are largely dismissed as hoaxes, although a few have proven to be actual items that simply defy explanation and lead to very interesting conclusions. The Baghdad Battery is such an item. Wilhelm Konig, a professional painter who worked at the National Museum of Iraq saw three distinct elements together in the museum that did not seem related to anyone but him. When he returned to his native Germany in the 1940s, he wrote an analysis of the three items and determined that long before anyone on earth should have known about electricity, someone in ancient Iraq had created a battery. The three pieces were a terra-cotta pot, a rolled copper cylinder and an iron rod. His idea that these items were not used to store scrolls, as was previously thought, but to produce an electric current, possibly with lemon or grape juice, wine or vinegar as the electrolyte. This wild theory was eventually tested over and over again, even taking center stage on an episode of Mythbusters, where a series of such batteries produced four volts, enough to electroplate an item. Historians and scientists had to take another look at the Baghdad Battery and at least admit that it was possible that someone in the near east at least partially understood the dynamics of electricity over two hundred years before the Common Era. New England is not without its out-of-place artifacts, from the Maine Penny to the mysterious Stone Egg of Lake Winnipesaukee. However, it is the Dorchester Pot whose provenance and history make it clear that anyone who wanted could easily make outrageous claims that the media would pounce upon and use to sell more copy. We have to travel back to pre-Civil War America, to 1852, to be exact. Just south of South Boston, the City of Dorchester is old and is considered part of the old great city itself. However, there is no way that it is as old as the Dorchester Pot seems to purport. The claim is simple. Explosives were used to remove and break up a mass of rock on Meeting House Hill. Cleaning up the loose 'puddingstone', part of the Roxbury Conglomerate, workers discovered the two pieces of the pot. Except it wasn't technically a pot. Perhaps it was a candlestick. Perhaps it was something else entirely. Bell-shaped and made of metal, is was described as being about 4.5 inches high, 6.5 inches in diameter at the base and 2.5 inches in diameter at the top. Elaborately decorated with swirls and filigree, it represented metalwork of a very high degree of sophistication. However, for it be where it was, fifteen feet below the surface of the ground embedded within conglomerate rock, it would need to be at least 593 million years old. The Roxbury Conglomerate formed as an accumulation at the bottom of a rift basin, coupled with the pressure of metamorphism during the distantly remote Ediacaran Period. There weren't too many blacksmiths working in the Dorchester area millions of years ago, but that didn't stop the editors of Scientific American from claiming that it might have been created by Tubal Cain, the first blacksmith, as mentioned in the Bible. (Genesis 4:19-24). Perhaps the crafty editor couldn't help himself. After all, one would have to wander far from logic to think that the 'pot' had actually been in the rock, instead of on it. Perhaps some time traveler dropped it as a joke, some out-of-place object that would throw a monkey wrench into our clearly defined timeline and our sense of logic. Fringe theorists existed in 1852 even as they exist and thrive today. Some believe that our understanding of the passage of time and the science of geology are wrong and that humans have been on earth for much longer than our modern theories claim. The Dorchester Pot has some modern controversy attached to it in the form of the attention given it by the Falun Gong. This religion, so popular and widely adhered to that it causes the Chinese government to clamp down upon its practice, claims on its website, "Pure Insight" that the pot is 100,000 years old. Why such attention is given to a simple Victorian ornament gives rise to the fascination and importance such groups ascribe to out-of-place artifacts. If in fact the pot was actually embedded in the rock that was blasted from Meeting House Hill in 1852, it would mean that metalworkers existed in American over 600 million years ago, or perhaps only 100,000 years ago, if you are a believer in the views of the Falun Gong. We aren't sure where the pot is anymore. We don't even know where the photo used in this article and all over the Internet and in print, actually comes from. Some websites claim that the metal has been analyzed by researchers at M.I.T., but that is a spurious, unsubstantiated claim. The pot is simply a part of history now, not even truly an out-of-place artifact. Lost or misplaced, without the actual evidence, we have nothing but a story in Scientific American and a photo of something that might be but cannot be proven to be the real Dorchester Pot. References http://secretaryofinnovation.com/2010/10/15/freaky-friday-ooparts-out-of-place-artifacts/ "A Relic of a Bygone Age," Scientific American, June 5, 1852. Fort, Charles H. (1919) The Book of the Damned. New York, New York, Boni and Liveright 228 p. ISBN 1-58509-278-9 Mentioned on page 128 of Chapter IX and The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort

But God (Ephesians Sermon 9 of 54) (Audio)

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Play Episode Listen Later Aug 30, 2015

A Soul Hanging in the Balance Well, that was a very moving story from Walter and it's amazing how God works in grace, and I have my own story to tell, this morning, not exactly like his, but a year before I came to Christ, I almost drowned in Lake Winnipesaukee. I went with my fraternity, it was up in New Hampshire, I went with my fraternity from MIT, and we went every early September to a camp there, and we would work on the camp, and then we would play in the afternoon and have a good time, and I took this small sunfish out sailing in Lake Winnipesaukee and that was a pretty bold thing for me to do. Some would say pretty stupid because I've never been sailing before, but I thought I could handle the sunfish, evidently not. It was a very, very windy day, there was a lot of chop on the lake and I was flying along in this sail boat when suddenly I hit a significant wave, and got thrown from the boat. And I immediately swam back, like you're supposed to do to the capsized boat. But then I noticed that the center board a little piece of wood from the center had floated away and I was afraid that I, you know, I was going to lose it, so I made an almost fatal decision, at that moment. I left the boat with no life preserver and swam out to get the center board. And I grabbed it and then turned around and the boat was now twice as far away from me as when I'd first swam away because the wind was blowing it away from me. So I began swimming with one arm around this board and the other just plowing through the water and I wasn't even keeping up with the boat. So then I let the center board go and just started swimming and started to feel inside my heart a rising panic and I swam for a little while and I said, "I am not going to look at the boat," because I was getting discouraged. And I just swam and swam and swam and swam and swam for a long time, and then I looked up and the boat, I had only made up half the distance to the boat, and I was getting very tired at this point. Then something strange happened to me at that moment, I went under the surface of the water because it was very choppy, and windy, and I was starting to panic and I just wanted to get my wits. So I just kind of went under the water and at that moment, this strange thought came to me. I started to decide if I wanted to live or not. It wasn't a suicidal thought. I was just tired and I just wanted to decide if I would make the effort to live and I decided that I did. I was going to give everything that I had to stay alive. Again, I was not a Christian at the time. Little did I know that at that particular moment, spiritually my soul was hanging in the balance between Heaven and Hell. So I was not a believer, I was close to death and I was not ready to die. And so I just swam and swam until I really felt that I couldn't swim anymore, and there was the boat and I reached up for the boat, but it was hard to hold on to it. It was very slick and wet and I couldn't grab hold of it. At that moment, some arms reached down and pulled me dead weight outta the lake, it was a guy on a motor boat, he had seen my plight and he pulled me out. I don't know his name, I never saw him again. He might end up having been an angel, I'm not sure, because I didn't see the boat much after he brought me to shore towing the sailfish behind. I don't know anything else about the guy, but I know that I was almost dead and almost condemned as a sinner. But God stepped in and intervened. Just like he did with Walter, so he did with me and he would not let me die at that moment. It would be another year before I came to Christ. A year of rebellion, a year of fighting the Gospel, a year of saying no, but God would not let me die. And I stand before you today a trophy of God's sovereign grace. The Two Most Important Words in the Bible “But God…” And my point, the point of my sermon as was last week, so also this week is to say to all of you who are Christians so are each of you. Trophies of God's sovereign grace. God intervened. And so we come in Ephesians 2:4 to, I think in some ways the two most important words in the Bible, if you understand them properly, "But God.” “But God." Now, I'm aware the NIV starts with, "But because." Whoever decided to be the only English translation to go with, "But because" instead of, "But God", they'll have to live with themselves. But the Greek says, "But God", and every English translation brings it over it's "But God", and it's so powerful because the word, "But", just grammaticality means we were going in one direction and now we're going in a different direction. It captures the sense of a God-centered Gospel, a sovereign grace of His activity in my life and in the lives of every Christian of intervening, interfering, whatever you want to say, of stepping into space and time and saying, "No, it's not going to go like that, it's going to go differently for you." It's a contrast, we're talking about a dynamic God intervening and working in a mighty way, God is the greatest force in the universe, He created the universe, Heaven and earth, and so these words "But God", capture His dynamic activity in the world. And you see them again and again in Scripture, if you know what to look for, they're there again and again. For example, Genesis 7 and 8, the flood of Noah, the text reads this way: Genesis 7:24, and then 8:1. "The waters flooded the earth for 150 days. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark and He sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded." Or again in Genesis 41:15-16, Pharaoh took Joseph out of prison and wanted him to tell him the meaning of a dream that he had had. "I had a dream, and no one can interpret it, but I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. I cannot do it," Joseph said, "But God will give to Pharaoh the answer he desires." Or again, later in the story, of Joseph, we have this amazing account, Joseph, now, that Jacob was dead, his terrified brothers were afraid that Joseph was going to punish them for their wicked actions against him and selling him into slavery, that he wanted to kill him. All of that, they were terrified. And Joseph said in Genesis 50:20, "You meant it for evil but God meant it for good, to save lives as He is doing now.” “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." Or the wise woman of Tekoa to King David. 2nd Samuel 14:14, "Like water spilled on the ground," she said to him, "which cannot be recovered, so we must die, but God does not take away life. Instead, He devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from Him, but may be reconciled." Psalm 73:26, "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." And then I like this one, Peter and John preaching to the citizens of Jerusalem, "You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. And we are all witnesses of this." There are probably others. Have a fun time going and finding them. But God intervenes. He steps in and he makes all the difference in the world. He's the center of the universe, everything comes from God, and He alone can make the real changes in your life that must be made if you are to spend an eternity in joy and peace instead of in the torment that we all deserve for our sins. The Uniqueness of the Christian Message So, we come to the uniqueness of the Christian message. The only hope for sinners like you and me, the only hope there is, is Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men, by which we must be saved." There's no other answer than Jesus. And so the Christian message begins with total human desperation. I think about Walter in that room. I think about me in the lake, nothing left, I had no strength left. I could not save myself from drowning but actually spiritually, the text says where it's even worse, talking about human depravity, complete inability weakness, even spiritual death. Spiritual death. The Christian message doesn't end there, however, the words “but God” means that God stepped into our spiritual death into our hopelessness and helplessness. So therefore, salvation comes from outside of us in. It's starts out there with God, and steps into us, that's the Christian message, that's the Gospel. It's God's doing, it's God's work from beginning to end. This is so hard for us, prideful sinners to accept. We as Americans, we're so used to the American dream, the idea where you can be anything you want to be. And so we have this message of, "Believe in yourself, do everything that you can. You can earn it, you can do it, you can make yourself whatever you want to be." Yes, but you can't make yourself a Christian, that you cannot do, you don't have the power to make yourself a Christian any more, than you will have the power at your own funeral to make yourself rise from the dead. You can't do that. And so this morning, our task is to understand more completely our spiritual resurrection from the dead in Christ, that we'll understand that, and that God will get the glory, more glory than ever before from you, and from me, for our salvation. And we're going to do it based on these amazing two words as a gateway to these three verses of Ephesians 2:4-6. The Apostle Paul clearly asserts that every Christian is an astonishing miracle of spiritual resurrection through faith in Christ. This is true Christianity, this is it. Do you see Christianity, that way? Do you understand yourself that way? And the point of all of this, in the end, is to God alone be the glory for human salvation, to God alone be the glory. As it is written, "Let him who boast, boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:31 and as it says three times, in Ephesians Chapter 1, "To the praise of His glory." So we're going to begin where we started last week. Ephesians 2: 1-3 with our condition apart from Christ, we were spiritually dead. We Were Spiritually Dead (vs. 1-3) Understanding God’s Grace: The Beginning Look at the verses, again, verse 1-3, just by way of review. "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature, and following its desires and thoughts, like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath." So that's what we looked at last week. This is the starting point of understanding God's grace. We vastly underestimate our natural wickedness and sinfulness our condition, and we vastly underestimate God's glory and grace and power and mercy in saving us. And so the idea of this preaching, the idea of study is so that we won't vastly underestimate them as much anymore, and that our hearts will be moved and we will be empowered to worship God and serve Him with grace. Thorough Probing of these Verses So last week we did a thorough probing of these dire verses. We started with the phrase, "You were dead in your transgressions and sins." Last week, I likened that to, spiritually, your pupils fixed and dilated, so if the EMT shone the light into your eyes, you wouldn't respond to the light. It's unresponsive to spiritual truth. Spiritual death means you're not responsive, that's the nature of that deadness. We were spiritually dead, but we were physically alive. And so the essence of the spiritual death was in our minds and hearts. In our minds the way we thought, in our hearts, what we loved and what we hated. Romans chapter 8 captures the nature of this deadness in our minds, "Those who live according to the flesh have their mind set on what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” We had dead minds spiritually. And then it goes over into the heart, The heart is that part of you that loves and hates. You were attracted to what was evil, and you despised what was good and delightful. It says of Jesus, He has “loved righteousness, and hated wickedness." We were the opposite, we loved wickedness and hated righteousness, so that's the nature of our spiritual deadness, and we were not responsive. Somebody could come and share the Gospel, we didn't care, somebody would read some scripture, it didn't hit us, we were not interested, we had no desire to be in church on Sunday, certainly no desire to read the Bible or pray. We were dead, spiritually dead, even while we lived. And we followed the ways of this world, we were surrounded by dead people, and so, we comforted ourselves in thinking we were fine because everybody else was doing the same things, but we were just following the ways of this world, and we were in bondage to Satan, the ruler of this world spiritually. He is “the god of this age” and he had blinded our minds so we couldn't see the light of the Gospel of the glory of God in Christ, he had blinded us. And he was acting as an angel of light alluring us toward wickedness and sin, could be false religions, false philosophical systems, could be just the allure of materialism, but he had enslaved us. And we had invisible chains around us, and we couldn't break free. And we were following “the ruler of the kingdom of the air. The spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” And all of us, this was universal, it wasn't just some people, this is everybody. Now, you may say, "What about my sweet little children? What about my little babes? Were they enslaved in following the ways of this world?" And all that. Well, here's what the scripture teaches. All of us died in Adam, positionally. Every human being is seen to be positionally a sinner in Adam, but it doesn't take hold in the individual heart until that person recognizes moral law and especially as coming from God. And that's written in our hearts in our consciences so that as soon as that little child, boy or girl starts to violate their conscience they die spiritually. So Paul says in Romans 7, "Once I was alive, apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died", and that death takes more and more root the more and more bad decisions that child makes, they become more and more corrupted, it becomes deeper and deeper. So early on it's very, very weak. The hold of sin on them, but it becomes progressively more and more powerful and they corrupt themselves by violating their conscience. That's what's going on in your household right now. You who have little toddlers, you who have little ones growing up they are cute, but you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? It's going on right before your eyes. And so in the end, give it enough time, all of us also lived among them at one time. And no exceptions. But God Raised Us from the Dead (vs. 4) God Raised Us in Christ Spiritually Well, that was our situation. Now, we need to meditate on this, don't we? I mean I preached a whole sermon on it. I'm going to move on now to verse 4, but we need to know this, we need to understand the nature of our spiritual deadness. We didn't feel it, we didn't know we were dead. But we were. And now, it's amazing, you can even be a Christian and not know just how bad it was. Paul's writing this to Ephesian Christians, they'd already become Christians. And he says, "I want to tell you what you were, you probably don't really know how bad it was." And I tell you, the more you meditate on how bad it was, the sweeter the Gospel gets. Actually paradoxically the happier you get, the more you meditate on these dark things, because we have been rescued from all of that. But God stepped in and would not give us over to Satan into the flesh into the world, and He has rescued us. So we get to verse 4, "But God raised us from the dead. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive with Christ. By Grace you have been saved.” Or simpler, if I could just boil it down. But God raised us from the dead, raised you from the dead. That's what he's saying here. So this is a radical transformation that happens, and I just love 2nd Corinthians 5:17, it says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone, behold everything has become new," that's what happens when you become a Christian, a radical transformation comes over. You're a new creation. Like when God said, "Let there be light," and there's light. When God said, "Let there be a Heaven," and there's Heaven. "Let there be earth," and there's earth. God created you, in Christ. You're a new creation. And we became instantly spiritually responsive. Then, if the EMT shown the light of the Gospel in our eyes, we would see it. And we saw the beauty and the attractiveness of Christ and of the Gospel and of the cross and we were allured to it and attracted to it. We were spiritually responsive, that's what God did and we understood the significance of Christ and His beauty. He became beautiful to us. And we saw the beauty of His tenderness and compassion in dealing with sinners and in His power in showing and displayed in all of His miracles, the incredible things He did, walking on water and feeding 5000 people with five dinner rolls, and raising Lazarus from the dead, after four days and just the things He could do, and then we were amazed by it. And every time we're reading the Gospels there's a new discovery of the greatness of Christ and ultimately His love and laying down His life for sinners like you and me, and the power displayed in His resurrection. We were attracted to these things and our spiritual eyes were opened. That's faith. The eyes of our hearts were enlightened, and we saw it, and we were alive, and we could see how glorious God is in Christ, and we were attracted. Unification and Freedom with Christ So, the key concept in all of this, in these verses is a mystical, spiritual union that happens between the sinner and Christ by faith. You became united with Christ. So look at the text again, "But God made us alive together with Christ." See that? In verse 6, "And God raised us up with him," see that? "and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." Now, that's four times in these three verses that this idea of our union with Christ is taught. This is central, and again, it's not something we feel, you know, like feel united with Christ. Well, you didn't feel dead either, but this is something that's true. If you're a Christian, you have become spiritually united to Jesus. You're one with Him. You're one with Him. And so, His resurrection has become your resurrection, His life is your life, His death was your death. You died in Christ, to the Law. How powerful is that? And I mean, specifically, the Law's ability to condemn you to Hell. You're dead to that, it cannot condemn you to Hell. You died to the law in that power and you died to Satan's power as well. You don't have to do anything the devil tells you the rest of your life. Amen! Isn't that awesome? You can tell him "no," “you can resist the devil and he will flee from you.” You're not one of his subjects anymore. You're not in his kingdom anymore. Those invisible chains that were around you, they have been broken by Jesus. And so, you are alive, you're not dead in Satan's kingdom of death anymore, but you are alive now, in Jesus. And you are mystically or spiritually members of His body, just like every other Christian in the world. We're members of one another and of His body. You have become engrafted into an olive tree, and now you're receiving nourishing sap from it, all these images of union with Christ. So Christ's death once for all, has become your death, and His resurrection has become yours, and His life is now flowing through you, through the Holy Spirit. You're alive. That's what happened to you and me, and that's awesome. What Moved God: Mercy, Love and Grace Salvation Glorifies God Now, what moved God to do all this? Well, the text covers that too, it tells us what motivated God to do it. And we have these attributes, mercy and love and grace. Salvation glorifies God. To the praise of His glory, you know, “praise of His glorious grace.” What does that mean? Well, salvation puts God on display. So because He saves sinners like you and me, God is on display. He's putting Himself on display for everyone to see. So what's on display? Well, nothing in all of the universe and anything that God's ever done so clearly displays His attributes, His nature, as human salvation does. It's the most glorious thing God does is save sinners. It puts Him on display. Now, we've already seen in chapter 1 one of those attributes very, very clearly, and that is God's power. God's power is on display in our salvation. So you remember back in Ephesians 1 he's praying that the Ephesian Christians, "The eyes of their heart would be enlightened, that they would know God better," he prays, "And that they would know the hope of their calling, the riches of glorious inheritance in the saints." And then the third thing is, his incomparably great power at work in us who believe, and then he just takes off on power, he says that power, that “power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all ruling authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.” "God exalted Christ from the grave to the right hand of power, and gave Him the name that is above every name," it says in Philippians. So there, that's the power of God. Now, that same power is at work in us. That's the transition from Ephesians 1-2. Just like Jesus was physically, so you were spiritually. “You were dead in your transgressions and sins, but God has made you alive.” He's already displayed His power in you. Look at verse 5, "It is by grace you have been saved," do you see that past tense? It's happened now, it's perfected action. It is by grace you have been saved. I'm not denying there's yet more salvation to come, there is, but here he's focusing on your justification, the beginning of your salvation. “It is by grace you have been saved.” He's talking about the power He's already displayed in you by raising you from the dead. “By grace you have been saved.” And so, this power's on display. Power, the First Attribute Now, power we use the word in two different senses, maybe many others, as well, but when it comes to a person and their power, think about authority, the right to command, the right to do something. Did God have the right to do this? We were sinners, we'd violated His law. Did He have the right to declare us not guilty in Jesus? Yes, He did. He is the King of Kings, He is the Lord of Lords, and He deals with His justice at the cross, He deals with that, but He has the right to do this, He has the power to do this. There's a second sense of power. Can He do this, does He have the capability to do this? Oh yes, He does. He can raise dead sinners to life spiritually, He has that kind of power. We've already seen the power, but now we're going to see these others, and that is mercy first, and then love and grace. “Being Rich in Mercy” So first, mercy, “God being rich in mercy.” So you already heard from Daniel earlier about the mercy of God, and that was a great statement. God's mercy, I think there's different ways. It's hard to distinguish between mercy and grace. I think it's actually in some cases impossible, but one way to look at mercy is that it has to do with human misery and suffering and God has moved out toward the sufferer, toward the one who's miserable and wants to rescue them out of that misery, and take that misery away. So you see, again and again, sick people or tormented people crying out for Jesus, the Son of David to what? Have mercy on us, Son of David. We're blind, we want to have our sight. My daughter is demon possessed, she's suffering greatly, and Jesus has mercy. So, it's a sense of God seeing us like in Exodus chapter 2, where God speaks to Moses and says, "I have indeed seen the affliction of my people, and their bondage by reason of their taskmasters in Egypt, and I'm compassionate on them and merciful on them, and I want you to rescue them out of it." So that's God delivering miserable suffering people from their misery and their suffering. And it says in the text that God is, “rich in mercy.” I mean, He flows in mercy. Just by way of application, can I just say, shouldn't that make us want to be rich in mercy too? Just to look around and see suffering and want to move to it, and alleviate it? I mean, shouldn't you want to find some suffering person today or this week, and go alleviate their suffering some way? That has to do with benevolence ministry, or evangelism or whatever, or even ministry of counseling in the church, but we should want to move toward misery and suffering and be rich in mercy, like God is. But that's what God did with us, we were in Satan's dungeon. We were tormented, harassed and helpless and God “rich in mercy” stepped in. Another sense of His mercy, and Daniel picked up on this, has to do with forgiveness, where God just doesn't give us what we deserve. We deserved punishment, and we knew it. But God had mercy on us, and did not condemn us, and that you get in the Parable of the 10,000 talents, where the King talks to this man who had owed him 10,000 talents of immeasurable debt. But he wouldn't forgive one of his fellow servants. He hauled him back in, and he said, "Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?" So it's a sense of forgiveness of sins. Now, this is something that God gives at His sovereign grace, He doesn't have to do it. Romans chapter 9 says, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." You can't demand mercy. No one can ever say, "God you owed me mercy." Didn't matter how many people God shows mercy to, it's always sovereign grace, and so God shows mercy or he doesn't, he doesn't have to show it. But what's incredible is, He will show mercy to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus for salvation, and He is rich in mercy. “Because of the Great Love with Which He Loved Us” Secondly, because of, “the great love with which He loved us,” the love of God. Isn't it a stunning marvel to you that God could love someone like you? I mean, it should amaze you. It's like, "No, actually pastor, you don't know me, I'm something actually." Yeah, you're something. You don't probably see yourself the way the Scripture sees you, the way the Law sees you, the way God saw you apart from Christ, but here's the thing, “God set His love on us while we were still sinners.” Well, maybe it's a different kind of thing than the way we use the word love. I actually don't think it is. Now we use this word, ”love,” a lot, don't we? You know, husband loves his wife, parents love their children. You know, a child loves ice cream. I do too, actually. A photographer loves a great action shot. A sightseer loves spectacular scenery or a sunset. A fan loves it when his team wins the championship. All of us love to be praised and encouraged. Alright, well you're saying, "What do all those uses of the word love have to do with it?" It's the same thing, only just infinitely greater. Love has to do with a heart attraction that results in cheerful sacrificial action. That's what love is. God is attracted toward us, even in our sins, and then is cheerfully sacrificing and giving for us. That's what love is. And that's what God did, he moved out toward us. He is passionately attracted to us as a husband is his wife and jealous over us. He is lovingly doting over us, the way a father is over his children. Protectively nurturing, the way a mother is with a nursing infant, all of those things are in the heart of God. And He “set them on us before we were even born, before God created the world,” because of His great love for us in Christ. And it moved Him to be generous and give us Jesus on the cross for our sins and then to give us a kingdom which we can't even imagine how beautiful and awesome it's going to be. To give us all of that, cheerful generosity, sacrificial action, that's love. “It is By Grace You Have Been Saved” And then finally, grace, and I'm not going to spend hardly any time on it today, because we'll get a second chance at it. Paul actually just kind of interrupts himself, he says, "It's by grace you've been saved, you know that, right?" He's going to come back and develop it more fully in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast," so we'll get to grace. But it's just infinitely more than just simply unmerited favor. It's infinite, blessing given to those who deserve infinite curse, that's the grace of God. Those are the things that God put on display. That's what motivated God. And what did God do to us? Seated with Christ in the Heavenly Realms Well, “He seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Look what it says in verse 6, "He raised us up with Him," spiritually raised up, "And seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Again, note the verb tense. This is a done deal. If you are a Christian, you are spiritually seated with Christ at the right hand of Almighty God. That just blows my mind. You think about that, it's like, "Wow, we are at the right hand of God through our union with Christ." What does that mean? Well, it means a number of things. It means absolute security. You know how secure you are at the right hand of God? Satan's arm is too short to reach up there. He can't get you down from there, no one can snatch you out of the Father's hand, or out of Jesus' hand. You're at the right hand of God, you are safe, spiritually. How secure are you at the right hand of God? Well, what else does it mean? We Have Access at God’s Right Hand Well, it means access, you have access to God. You get to call Him “Abba, Father,” and bring all of your mess, and all of your problems and all of your issues to Him any time you want, and He will welcome all of your prayers anytime, you have access to God through Jesus Christ, through a new and living way, open through the body of Christ, you have access now that you're at the right hand of God, in Christ. And you have honor, it's a place of honor, you're honored to be there. Jesus said in Revelation 3:21, "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne." So Jesus went out and won the victory of the battle and He gives you the honor, "Come and sit with me at the right hand of God." How awesome is that? A position of honor. What else do you get? Well, you get wisdom. Think about the Queen of Sheba, remember how she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom? She was blown away. It says in the Hebrew that, "The breath was taken out of her," she couldn't even breathe because of how awesome Solomon was. And she said, "How happy must be all of your servants who just get to stand around and listen to your wisdom." Jesus said very quietly, later on, "Someone greater than Solomon is here." We get to be at the right hand of God, and listen to His wisdom, the rest of our lives. How do you do that? Read the Bible. Through the Holy Spirit, He will speak wisdom into your hearts, you get to listen to Him be wise in your life, the rest of your life. It's a position of wisdom. It's a position of joy, you get to be joyful there. Psalm 16:11 says, "You will fill me with joy in your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand," it's a pleasureful place to be at the right hand of God. God's a happy being. Everything's under control up there. Feels like it's not under control down here, but even that's under control. God is sovereign, He is happy, He is delighted. And, “at the right hand of God, is eternal pleasures forever more.” Fellowship at God’s Right Hand And finally, it's a position of fellowship. You get to just have a relationship at the right hand of God. You get to have a relationship with God, a friendship with God. Remember how God called Abraham His friend. Well, you're His friend, you're His son, you're His daughter. You get to have fellowship with Him. I think about John 17:24, Jesus said, "Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory." Well, see my glory is awesome, but just a step before that, “I want them to be with me.” I want them to have fellowship with me, I want to have a relationship with them. Father wants that too. And so, the right hand of God is a place of fellowship, as well. Application Marvel at God’s Goodness Alright, applications really quickly. First, will you just marvel with me at all of this? Just marvel at God's goodness. Rejoice in this, celebrate, worship God for these things. Understand how spiritually, frankly, you were just like I was in Lake Winnipesaukee, you were drowning, you were dead, you were gone, and God reached down and pulled you out of the deep and gave you life. He saved you. So just marvel at that. See Believers as Miracles of Grace And secondly, just understand that you are a miracle of God's grace already. God's already displayed His power. Understand how much power God has shown in your life that you're a Christian, that you actually believe these things. Marvel at that, and then extend that to your brothers and sisters, each one of them are miracles of God's grace. Celebrate what God's done in a brother or sister, that will melt away unforgiveness and bitterness. It will melt away the divisions that can happen between people. Just understand, they are trophies of God's grace, just like you are, and be humble and energetic in evangelism. Our job is to get out and take these words and share them in this community. We need to preach the Gospel. We do need to live out the Gospel so that our preaching isn't undermined, but we need to proclaim these words. But just like Elijah on Mount Carmel with the animal there, the sacrifice and the wood, and all that, it's all there, but they're waiting. Elijah's waiting for what? Fire from Heaven, right? Only God can convert a sinner. So go out in the college campus, go out in the workplace, go out in your neighborhood, go out and interact with people you didn't even know you're going to meet. And you can do all of the arranging and you can preach the Gospel, but the fire has to fall from Heaven, and it will, if God wills. He has that power. So understand evangelism and missions that way, that's what's going on, the sovereign grace of God. Parents as you're raising your kids, the fire has to fall from Heaven. It's not behaviorism., BF Skinner, it's not that. It's that you can preach the Gospel, you seek to live it in front of them, but they have to be converted by sovereign grace, pray for it and teach them that that's what has to happen. Marvel at these attributes of God. Marvel at His mercy. Marvel at His power, marvel at His love. Focus on these things and His grace. Believers, Meditate on Your Union with Christ Cherish each one and meditate on your union with Christ. I think we need to understand that more. It's a kind of a hard thing to grasp. His death is my death, His life is my life, I'm united with Him, “I'm with Christ in the heavenly realms.” We need to ponder that mystery of our union with Christ more. It's not easy to understand, but we need to ponder that. And let's rejoice more in being seated at the right hand of God, take those six things that I listed, the fact that you have access to God and that you have security and access and honor and wisdom and joy and fellowship, all those things. And just feed on them, pray more, intercede more. You're at the right hand of God through Jesus, intercede, pray for it. You have access, you have influence through prayer. Alright, all of that is for Christians. Gospel Proclamation I'm going to finish by just appealing to you who came in here today unconverted, though I hope you're not still unconverted. I hope that as you heard the Gospel clearly proclaimed to you today, something moved inside you and your pupils were no longer fixed and dilated. You're like, "I see it, I see that I am a sinner, I see that Christ is a savior, and I call on you, Jesus to save me. And I ask that you would forgive me of my sins and I ask that you would restore me to fellowship with God. I want to be in the family of God." Call on the name of the Lord and He will save you. Prayer Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time that we've had to study these amazing words, these incredible verses, and I want to just thank you for the Gospel, I want to thank you for saving each of my brothers and sisters that are here. Thank you for saving me. Father, I pray that you would do a work of sovereign grace around us all the time with other lost people. Help us, O Lord, to see them be safe, help us to be bold in evangelism in preaching the Gospel. And Lord help us to be rich in worship this week. Even as Daniel and the team leads in closing song, help us to just sing by the Spirit of our thankfulness to you, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Kristin Andreassen

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2015

A native of Portland, Oregon, Kristin Andreassen's own roots as a performer stretch back to her early years touring as a featured dancer in the Maryland-based Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble. In 2003 she joined Uncle Earl, a pioneering all-g'Earl stringband that blended traditional and modern influences. Andreassen's debut solo record, 'Kiss Me Hello,' was released in 2007. She also recorded two albums with Sometymes Why, the irreverent and evocative trio she formed with Ruth Merenda and Aoife O'Donovan. Constantly on the road, Andreassen only put down roots in Brooklyn a few years ago, where she quickly integrated herself into the vibrant avant-roots scene. Depending on the night, she can be found driving fiddle tunes on acoustic guitar, adding bells, ukulele, or harmonica to an indie-folk outfit, or performing her own songs on her own.Kristin spoke with Folk Alley while on the road supporting her solo album, 'Gondolier.' Andreassen describes her musical journey - which moved from her early career as a percussive clogger to trad stringband Uncle Earl, the trio Sometymes Why and on to creating her own songs. Now a part of the active Brooklyn music scene, 'Gondolier' was written in part at a retreat at New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee.Hear the interview and see the video performances featuring Jefferson Hamer and Alec Spiegelman captured by BeeHive Productions in Saranac Lake, New York.

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Kristin Andreassen

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2015

new york oregon portland maryland new hampshire depending andreassen saranac lake lake winnipesaukee uncle earl jefferson hamer

Kristin Andreassen

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2015

new york oregon portland maryland new hampshire depending andreassen saranac lake lake winnipesaukee uncle earl jefferson hamer

Kristin Andreassen

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2015

new york oregon portland maryland new hampshire depending andreassen saranac lake lake winnipesaukee uncle earl jefferson hamer

The Lord -- A Warrior and Vinekeeper -- Saves His Sinful People (Isaiah Sermon 28 of 81) (Audio)

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2012

Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Isaiah 27:1-13. The main subject of the sermon is how God defends and carefully watches of his people though they are sinful. - Sermon transcript- I. The Wicked Serpent Slain All over the world in every continent there are myths and legends and stories about dragons. That was a shock, wasn't it? Dragons! It's true. In China, for example, the dragon was long the symbol of the emperor of China and of the nation itself, the fierce, winged, reptile fire-breathing dragon. A three-headed dragon is on the coat of arms of the city of Moscow in Russia, and also on the national flag of Wales. And in many cultures, there are stories about the conquest of dragons by heroes that go forth to warfare against them. All of us were encouraged... What verb do you wanna put in here? Afflicted with Beowulf when you were in high school, and read that story of the conquest of that dragon. Others have voluntarily chosen to read The Hobbit, which is Bilbo Baggins struggle against Smaug, the fire-breathing dragon. Probably the most famous abiding story is that of Saint George, who was historically, as far as we know, a third century believer in Christ, a Roman soldier, who was martyred in the end by the Roman Emperor, for his faith in Christ. But many legends around him concerning his conquest of a fire-breathing dragon. There are a lot of different versions of the story of Saint George and the dragon. He comes to a pagan town in which there is a terrifying dragon nearby that's guarding the fresh water supply. And constantly they're needing to distract this dragon with some kind of sacrifices, frequently young women from the community, so that the dragon is moved off and they can go and get the water they need to survive. And they're finally down to the princess, the daughter of the King, and Saint George comes into this situation and decides to go forth and fight the dragon. And there are a lot of stories about how the battle goes and his lance is shattered into a thousand pieces, and inevitably in these conquests of dragon stories, there's some weak spot, like under the wing of the dragon that the conquerer is able to find, and either shoot an arrow into or shove a sword into and kill the dragon. Well, those are all myths and legends, and they go back even before the time that Isaiah wrote his prophecy. If you were to have a King James version of Isaiah 27:1, you would see at the end of the verse the word “dragon”. And so we come immediately to the story of a battle. In this case, however, the hero is the Lord. The Lord is going to fight Leviathan, and if you look at verse 1, it says, "In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan, the gliding serpent, Leviathan, the coiling serpent, he will slay," the NIV gives us, "the monster of the sea." King James will give us "the dragon of the sea." This is speaking of the coming day of the Lord, and this phrase is repeated again and again in this chapter, in that day, or in that day, in those days, in a day in the future these following things will happen. So we come again to the concept of the day of the Lord, and here we have an epic battle, a hero struggle between the Lord and this monster, this Leviathan. Now who is Leviathan? How are we to understand this Leviathan? In my opinion, the simple answer is that these are the enemies, or this is the enemy of the people of God. And I speak in this language because, as I read history, as I read the scriptures, the ultimate enemy of the people of God is Satan. And he mobilizes human beings, his servants, sons of the devil, who go forth and battle against or war against the people of God, to kill them or make their lives miserable in some way. And so we have really a complex two-fold answer to the question, who is Leviathan? Leviathan is both a pagan empire that hates the people of God, the Jews in the Old Testament, and Satan who empowers them and directs them in hatred against God's people. And so Leviathan is described in three ways here. Leviathan, the gliding serpent; Leviathan, the coiling serpent, the monster or the dragon of the sea. So the images of a mighty sea serpent, a powerful sea serpent in the sea, the ocean is pictured here as something dangerous and unknown. You can only see the surface, you don't know what's going on down below and what kind of devastating beast there might be, some creature that might swim up from below and devour you. I remember well the summer of 1976 when Jaws came out. And I was forbidden by my parents from watching the movie, but I knew the story, and I'd seen enough clips, I guess on TV or whatever, and I was well aware of the effect that this movie was having on beachgoers. Well, we didn't go to the beach, we actually went to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, and I was convinced the great white shark was going to be devouring me. And it didn't matter what biology lessons my parents were going to give me about fresh water and salt water and all that. I was convinced as I was swimming and couldn't see down below that at any moment I was going to get devoured, it was going to swim up from down below. But these fears have been around for an awfully long time. Think about Christopher Columbus as he sailed west in three ships with sailors who all of them to a man were terrified of monsters of the sea. Frequently there would be charts that would show the edge of the world and beyond, it would say, "Here be dragons." And so there was a terror, a fear of the unknown. In the Book of Daniel, the sea represents the roiling, churning nations, the mass of the gentile nations with great unknown and it cannot be controlled and it's unpredictable. And Daniel 7 pictures four beasts, one after the other, coming up out of the ocean, out of the sea to oppress the people of God, the Jews. Revelation 7 picks up on this exact same image. And it pictures a dragon standing by the sea and calling forth out of the sea, a beast. And this beast from the sea will be, in some sense, a terrifying world leader who will organize his people or the peoples of the world against the people of God, many call this the anti-Christ. So there is biblical warrant here for seeing Leviathan as a symbol for both the wicked empires themselves, the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian empire, the Greeks, the Romans, and the dragon behind them, Satan, who calls them forth up out of the sea to do his bidding. And the verse says that God, the Lord will punish Leviathan and slay the monster or the dragon of the deep. So God is going to fight and he will win. Some say this is an ancient Babylonian myth that Isaiah is using here. The myth of Marduk and Tiamat, I'm not gonna go into details about that. It's not, is my answer, simply. That talks about how, in the Enûma Eliš, that's how, in the Babylonian mythology, that's how the world got created, but this is a battle yet to come. It's a battle yet in the future, in that day. So the first true fulfillment is God's conquest in amazing ways of the pagan, the gentile armies that are gonna come against his people. He's going to dismember them. He's going to sever them, limb from limb, head from tail. But then in the end, he's going to sever the whole thing. He's going to destroy Satan, and all of Satan's people in the end. And so here's a connection to chapter 26, if you were to look at the end of 26, there it describes the end of the world and the earth disclosing the blood shed on it, and all of the suffering of God's people and how God will establish righteousness in the end. And so this is a conquest that the Lord does, both in time in redemptive history, and at the end of the world. If you look back in Israel's history, before Isaiah, the Red Sea crossing, the same kind of language is used concerning the Red Sea crossing in Psalm 74:13-14, there, Pharaoh's army is defeated by the splitting apart of the Red Sea. And God splits apart the Red Sea and makes a path through the sea for his people to escape. And the psalmist in Psalm 74 says, "It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters." You see, just by splitting apart the sea, God was severing Leviathan. He was severing or dismembering this monster of the sea. Verse 14 in Psalm 74, "It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him his food to the creatures of the desert." Now, in the end, the dragon language is established in Revelation chapter 12. And you don't have to turn there, but you can look another time. In Revelation 12, depicts a warfare going on in the heavens between Michael, the archangel, and Satan. And Satan's not strong enough, and he is thrown down to the earth that, it says in Revelation 12, "Now and the great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan." So there you've got dragon, serpent, devil, Satan, in case you had any doubt who we were talking about. This dragon was thrown down, the one who leads the whole world astray. But later in Revelation 12, he opens his mouth, the dragon does, and spews forth a river that's supposed to kind of inundate and overtake the people of God. And the earth opens up its mouth and swallows this river. And so again, I think this supports the approach I'm taking, that Leviathan is both the dragon who is Satan, and the river of armies that come forth to slaughter the people of God. And in the end, God's gonna win, Amen? That's what the sermon said. If you don't understand the Book of Revelation, simply, it's this: God wins. So I like that. All the enemies that are against the people of God, God wins in the end. But the ultimate victory against this dragon is in Revelation 20:10, "The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." That is the end of Leviathan, right there. So that's who Leviathan is. What then is the sword of the Lord? This is the sword of the Lord that's going to dismember Leviathan, that's gonna cut it apart, limb from limb. Three adjectives used to describe it here, his sword is fierce, great and powerful sword in the NIV. Hard, some translations give it, it's a hard sword. In other words, it battles but no detriment to the sword, no notches in it. It doesn't break, it doesn't get dull ever. It's hard, it's strong, it's mighty, it has power, and it never changes. Well, we know from many other passages what the sword of the Lord is, don't you know? It says that we are to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Or in Hebrews 4:12, "The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword," etcetera. And so the sword of the Lord is his mighty word. By simply speaking the word, he dismembers Leviathan. Isn't that awesome? And how awesome is that picture that God, all he has to do is simply give the word and Leviathan will be dismembered. And so there is an already in a not yet aspect to this, Isaiah 27:1. In some sense, we'll talk more about this toward the end of the sermon, Leviathan has been dismembered. He has been slain and in some sense, he is being slain right now, and in some sense, he will be slain yet to come. So he didn't, God didn't just want one little quick victory over Leviathan, he wants a long drawn out dismemberment. He kind of wants to torture Leviathan and kind of sever him in many different ways. And that's what we have here. Well, the result of this, in verses 2 through 6, is a vineyard that fills the whole world with fruit. II. The Vineyard Fills the World with Fruit Basically, let me give you just an outline right now of the whole chapter, so you can understand what's going on. We have the battle between the Lord and Leviathan in verse 1, and God wins and dismembers Leviathan. You have in verses 2 through 6, a fruitful vineyard, Jacob, that fills the whole world with fruit. You have in verses 7 through 11, Jacob's punishment or the chastening of the people of God for their sins, but not as far as God could have done. He chastens them to purify them so that they get rid of the idols in their lives and crush the Asherah poles and incense altars and make them like chalk stones. He crushes their idols so that they can be pure. They get judged but not like the nations, the pagan nations, that get judged worse. And so God's people are disciplined and purged of their sins. And then in the end, versus 12 and 13, there's a trumpet call that goes out around the world, recalling the elect of God together, assembling to worship Him eternally.So that's the whole chapter. Isn't that a marvelous story? So, I think you know, in the end I'm gonna get to preach the Gospel from this chapter. You have a sense of that? Do you have an instinct? We're gonna, in the end, talk about Jesus from this chapter. How could it not be? But now we're in verses 2 through 6, and we have this, as a result of the slaying of Leviathan, you have this marvelous fruitful vineyard. Look at verses 2 through 6. "In that day," again that phrase repeated, “In that day– ‘Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. I am not angry. If only there were briars and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle. I would set them all on fire, or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.’ In days to come, Jacob will take root, and Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.” So here we have a song about a fruitful vineyard. And it happens in that day, again in the day of the Lord, when God moves out and acts powerfully, in history, when God gets going and does stuff, the results here is a fruitful vineyard. The day of the Lord brings not just judgment, but fruitfulness. The day of the Lord looks ahead to the end of the world. And here we have, for the second time in Isaiah, a song about a vineyard, but a very different one this time. You could take and flip back if you want to Isaiah 5, or you can just listen, but some of you will wanna look back at Isaiah 5, and here we have, in Isaiah 5, the first song about a vineyard. But the problem with that vineyard is it wasn't fruitful. Nothing good came from that vineyard. It produced only bad grapes. So if you look at that song in Isaiah 5:1-7, there Isaiah sings this song, he said, "I will sing for the one I love," that's the Lord. "I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watch tower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. ‘Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I look for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now, I will tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I'll break down its wall and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briars and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.’" Interpretation in verse 7, "The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; he looked for righteousness, but heard cries of distress." Now, that was the first song about the vineyard, and it's a bad song. It's a tragic song, it's a tragedy. The problem there with Judah and Jerusalem is that God was looking for fruitfulness and got nothing but bad grapes. And so then God says, in Isaiah 5, he's going to judge his vineyard by taking away its wall of protection, and it's gonna get trampled. If you don't know what that's talking about, then you haven't read a lot of Isaiah. You know exactly what's gonna happen. He's going to literally break down the wall of Jerusalem and the invaders are gonna come in and trample it. He's gonna take away its wall or its hedge of protection, and the invading armies are going to trample it. And he's gonna command the clouds not to rain on it. And this is the avenues of grace, the richness of God's grace, the rain is God's provision for his people. Let's say through the ministry of the word how the prophets come to speak God's word, but he says there's gonna be a famine of the word of the Lord, they're not gonna hear it. I'm gonna shut down the prophets. There won't be any and there won't be any words from the Lord about it. And in the end, you get briars and thorns and again that goes back to Genesis 3, that's curse language, that the land will be cursed with thorns. Well, that's Isaiah 5, go back to Isaiah 27. I like a happier song, don't you, than a sad one? I mean there's a place in God's providence for sad songs and happy songs. This one's a happy song about the vineyard. So we return to the same thing but this time it's a very different outcome. Here in verse 3, I'm in Isaiah 27 now, "The Lord waters it continually" do you see that? It's continually provided for, constant outpouring of power and grace for fruitfulness. Every moment this vineyard gets everything it needs to be maximally fruitful, and in verse 3, "I the LORD watch over it continually and will not allow anyone to trample it or harm it." Isn't that fantastic? So everything's different here in Isaiah 27 than in Isaiah 5. And he says he's going to guard it and watch over it day and night, nothing can harm it. He who watches over you will not slumber. He who guards you will neither slumber nor sleep, Psalm 121. And he says, his wrath is gone. Look at verse 4, NIV very meek there, “I am not angry.” I like ESV better, “I have no wrath, my wrath is gone.” In the past, God was enraged at Israel's sinfulness. He had an active wrath against them, he unleashed his judgments and wiped out all but the remnant, now his wrath is completely gone. He's not angry anymore. And so later in Isaiah's prophecy, he will say this to his prophet, he speaks to his prophet in Isaiah 40, and he gives him direct orders, "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin is atoned for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.” The provision for their sins is ample and sufficient. And, in verse 4, God apparently searches for enemies but doesn't find any. You get the sense of some like black belt karate expert, who's got like all these weapons and he's just looking for someone to fight. Now that's a bad attitude. But here God is saying, "I wish there were someone I could fight to show my zeal for my people, there are no enemies left. I wish that there were briars and thorns confronting me. I wish there were was some evidence of curse around me because then I would take it on and destroy it too." God is so zealous to protect his people at this point. He's almost taunting wickedness and enemies to come and take him on and say, "We'll let's see what will happen there." The Lord is a mighty warrior. And he's saying, "Oh you wanna take me on then fight me. And then you'll see my zeal for my people." And he will just burn up any briars and thorns that would be confronting him. Or he actually says at that point, "I have a better idea, suppose the briars and thorns just come and make peace with me instead," he actually says it twice, "Yes let them make peace with me." It's a terrifying thing for the Lord to be your enemy, but what a delightful thing for him to be your Savior. “It's a terrifying thing for the Lord to be your enemy, but what a delightful thing for him to be your Savior.” At one time, we were enemies in our minds, as demonstrated by our evil behavior. At one time, we were God's enemies. For if when we were God's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his son how much more, having been reconciled shall we be saved by his life? So God says, "Why don't you come and grab hold of me for refuge." The image is this Old Testament image like in I Kings, when Solomon takes the throne, remember how Adonijah almost got the throne but didn't quite make it, and God chose Solomon instead, and Adonijah at this point, I wouldn't sell him life insurance. It's a bad, bad place to be. But God granted him some measure of grace. He had run into the tabernacle and taken hold of the horns of the altar, I Kings 1:50. And then in I Kings 2, Joab did the same thing. He went in and took hold of the altar, it's a sense of running for refuge. And that's the picture we have here in Isaiah, 27. “Instead of running away from me, why don't you turn and run to me, and throw yourself on my mercy, and I will show you mercy. Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. So let them make peace with me that's a better idea, let them find refuge in me.” For it happened to Saul of Tarsus, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, the Lord threatened him with instant destruction, this brilliant light shining around him, but he's calling him instead to salvation. He deserved to die. He knew it, he deserved to die because he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man. But God showed mercy to him. And so God is ready to show mercy to his enemies. So he says, "Let them make peace with me." And the result of this verse 6 is universal fruitfulness for the people of God. "In days to come, Jacob will take root and Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.” Once Leviathan is slaughtered and the Lord is directly protecting his vineyard day and night and watering it continually, it's going to fill the whole world with fruitfulness. It's gonna be stunningly fruitful. And notice the language it's Jacob here. That's all of God's people not just the northern kingdom, or the southern kingdom, the split apart people of God. No this is Jacob. These are the people of God, and Israel. And they're going to take root, and they're going to have a fantastic root system, and they're going to draw nourishing sap from that root system. And they're going to bud and flourish, that means they're going to be very, very healthy, the people of God. And as a result, they're going to fill all the world with fruit. Friends, this can be nothing less than the fulfillment of the promise made to Abram in Genesis chapter 12 when he said in verse 3, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed because of you." Like Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "Salvation is from the Jews." And so, God would choose a remnant of his people, and He would make them fruitful worldwide, and there would be a worldwide harvest of fruitfulness for Jacob and Israel. And at last, the Lord will have what he intended from the beginning, his people will be fruitful for all eternity. III. The People Punished by Measure, But Only to Purify Now, in verses 7-11 we have the people punished. So we in effect we have to go back a bit and then we see what produces this. Again let's keep in mind when Isaiah lived and when he made this prophecy. The Assyrians hadn't come yet, the Babylonian certainly hadn't come yet. These two exiles are still in the future. And when the people go through it, they're going to be confused, they're going to be tempted to be confused, "Has God forsaken us? Are we still the people of God?" And so he is very clear and honest about this. The people of God are about to go through a very hard time. And that's what verses 7-11 are describing. And yet it's only by measure, the hard time is going to be carefully measured out to produce God's end, and God's end is to purify them of their idols. So look at verses 7-11, "Has the Lord struck her," that's Israel, I think, or Jerusalem, "Has the Lord struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her? By warfare and exile you contend with her– with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on the day the east wind blows. By this then will Jacob's guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing. The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement forsaken like the desert; there the calves graze; there they lie down; and they strip its branches bare. When its twigs are dry, and they're broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding, and so their maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor." So this is going back and explaining what's going to happen before, before the fruitfulness of Jacob in order to clear out the idolatry and the wickedness. So this is a difficult section. But Israel's about to be seriously stricken by God, smashed hard for their sins. Israel is going to be struck hard, it's going to be like on the day an east wind blows like a dry desert wind, or a Sirocco, that causes everything to wither in its path. Verses 10 and 11 describe just exile conditions when you, if you were to go to Jerusalem, you know, 10 years later or something like that and there's just nothing there it's just desolate. Like in the book of Lamentations when the prophet Jeremiah looks over the city when the exile has happened and he says in Lamentations 1:1, "How desolate lies the city once so full of people." They are all gone. So we have this pastoral scene like calves that are grazing and just wild animals roaming and roving and a few women coming and finding some dead branches that they can break off or gather from the ground to use for firewood. It's a picture of death and judgment really and a very tragic picture. But also the middle of this section there's a sense in which yes it's going to be bad, it's gonna be really bad. But it's not as bad as it could be. And so in verse 7, he asks the question, "Has the Lord struck her”, Israel, “as he struck down those who struck her?" The Assyrians and the Babylonians let's say. Did she get the same thing that they got? The implication is no, they get worse actually, that's the implication of the question, they get actually worse treatment from God. “Has she been killed, as those who were killed who killed her?” Again, no. So, there's going to be a hard time, and she's going to be struck, she's going to be in some sense killed, but not in the same way. It's not going to be as bad, well, what's the difference? Well, when the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom, they destroyed many cities, killed lots and lots of people, and exiled the rest. When the Babylonians invaded the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, they did the same thing: they crushed lots of towns and villages, they killed lots and lots of people and exiled the rest. But God has measured out Israel's punishment. NIV in verse 8, it's a very difficult verse but it says, "By warfare and exile you contend with her." The ESV is a little bit better, "Measure by measure by exile you contend with them." So God has measured out the discipline. He doesn't crush her as badly as she could have been crushed. You get this picture in Ezekiel's ministry, Ezekiel was ministering around the time of Jeremiah, and around the time the Babylonians came in. And Ezekiel was told to take a sharp sword and hone it like a razor and cut off the hairs off his head. So, shave his head remember? And then he's told to do different things with the hairs, he's told to divide them into thirds, and take a third of, take scales and measure out the hairs, and divide them up and take a third of your hairs and strike those hairs with the sword, and take a third and put them in into this his little replica of the city and burn it with fire, and kill them in the city, and then take the third pile and scatter it to the winds and chase them down with the sword. But take a few of your hairs and hide them in the cloak of your garment. Now, who are those few hairs? What are those hairs? Those are people, friends, those are seeds for the future. The Assyrians didn't get that, they didn't get that. The Babylonians they didn't get that. Have you met any Assyrians recently? Do you have any Assyrian friends? Is there a mission to the Assyrian that's going on right now? Is there a new tribes mission to the Babylonians? Friends, they're extinct. They were pursued to death, so also the Philistines, chased to death, but not so the Jews. And God said he would do this. He told this to Isaiah, remember in Isaiah 6, he calls him, "Here am I Lord, send me." All right, time for the mission. "What do you want me to say?" "All right, go tell the people be ever hearing but never understanding, be ever seeing but never perceiving, make the people's heart callous, make their ears dull and close their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts, and turn and I might heal them.", "Well, that's a really bad message Lord, how long do I have to preach that?", "Well here's the answer, until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken, and though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste, but as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land. Guys, that's the remnant, those are the few hairs stuck in the folds of the garment. That's the seed for the future. And so no, she wasn't killed as those who were killed who killed her, and she wasn't struck as those who were struck... Who struck her. They get extinction, Israel doesn't, why, because God has a plan for Israel. There is a vibrant, sap-filled root system in the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and in the promises made to them that means that they're going to come back and flourish. And so yes she'll be judged and punishment will be bitter, exile will happen, it will be like the a dry Sirocco wind, and it's going to wither everything. But the end result will be that they will turn away from their idolatry and hate it as much as he does. That's why he's doing it. So, you remember back in Isaiah 22 when God called on his people to weep and to wail, to tear out their hair and put on sackcloth remember that? And instead they partied, instead they had a big feast. Well after the exile there are actually two stories of hair pulling. It's something to look into. Okay, it's like stories of hair pulling, yes there's two stories of hair pulling, in Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra pulled his own hair, when he found out that the people had started to intermarry again. He's like, "Ugh, what are you doing? Don't you understand what's happened? And now God's opened a little door for a remnant to come back and get established and look what you're doing, all over again." That's Ezra. Nehemiah pulled their hair. That's Nehemiah, okay, "I'm not pulling my hair I'm pulling yours." Look it up. That's the zeal and the passion inside them for them to hate their Asherah poles and their incense altars and crush them like chalk stones. IV. The Elect Gathered by Trumpet Call One by One That's not the end of the story, verses 12 and 13, the elect will be gathered by a trumpet call one by one. Look at verses 12 and 13, "And in that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israelites will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound, and those who were are perishing in Assyria, and those who were are exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem." So in that day, in the coming days, The Lord will thresh, threshing is separating the wheat from the chaff. He's going to separate out the wheat of his people. He's going to call the wheat to himself. John the Baptist said he's going to gather up the wheat into his barn and he's going to burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. He's going to thresh from the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt that was the promised land. Those were the extents of the promised land. They would know exactly what that territory meant. But the call would go beyond even to distant lands where the people had been scattered and there would be this trumpet call and the people would reassemble. And then in the history of Egypt, or the history of Israel, the trumpet was a call to the people to assemble together for some purpose. Maybe the coronation of a king. Or maybe the people assembled at Mount Sinai to receive the law of Moses, assemble with the trumpet call, or maybe they would be assembled for battle to fight against their enemies, it was a trumpet call. As a matter of fact it was built into the law of Moses, the year of jubilee there'll be a trumpet call going out, and all the people would assemble together for worship and in the year of jubilee all debts would be canceled and all slaves set free, and everyone would return to their ancestral land, and it happened every 50 years so that meant probably you got one in your lifetime. Maybe if you got one when you were two and one when you were 102 you get two, but that's the exception. You might get it when you're 25, you might get it when you're 13. Okay? Who knows when it would happen? And that call would be a call of assembly and deliverance from all sin. And so this trumpet call goes out to assemble the people of God to come together at his holy mountain and worship and to praise him. Now Isaiah has already talked about this assembling at the holy mountain, and it's more than just the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It says in Isaiah chapter 2, "In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains, it will be raised above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his way so that we may walk in his path.’” And so this trumpet call is going out to the ends of the earth to get the remnants to assemble and worship, end of chapter. V. The Gospel of Jesus According to Isaiah 27 Now it's time to preach Jesus. Okay, so who is the Lord that dismembers Leviathan? His name is Jesus. How does he dismember him? By dying on the cross and rising from the dead. It says in Hebrews chapter 2, "Because the children”, the elect, “have flesh and blood, he too”, Jesus, “shared in their humanity, so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death– that is the devil– and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” I like the word destroy. For our purposes in Isaiah 27:1 how about dismember, amen? So that by his death he might dismember Satan, limb from limb. And how does he do it also? By his advancing Kingdom. As missionaries and evangelists go out and they take the good news of the gospel, and they proclaim that good news, Satan's kingdom shrinks every time it happens, and Satan is frustrated and he can't stop the elect from coming to faith in Christ. And ultimately by his second coming when he comes back in Revelation 19 and there's a sword, a fierce great and powerful sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and with it he will slay the wicked. I don't think Jesus is literally going to have a sword coming out of his mouth. I think he's going to speak the word and the Antichrist will be gone. He's going to speak the word and the armies that oppose him will be destroyed. He just simply speaks the word. 2 Thessalonians 2, "The man of sin is the one whom the Lord will destroy by the splendor of his coming and by the word of his power, the breath of his mouth.” And so, the Lord Jesus will establish his people as a fruitful vineyard, a fruitful vineyard. We are, as I've mentioned before, gentiles grafted into a tree with a root system under us that's nourishing us with Jewish kind of spiritual blood, and we're deriving life from the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and we are flourishing, and Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and we are to bear much fruit for apart from him we can do nothing. It's in Christ that we are the fruitful vineyard. “It's in Christ that we are the fruitful vineyard.” And it's in Christ or because of Christ alone that God says in verse 4, "I have no wrath. I'm not angry at you. There's no condemnation for you, my wrath is appeased. The blood of Jesus has been shed, my wrath is propitiated," in Romans chapter 3, "He is the propitiation for our sins, the one who turns away the wrath of God." God's not angry at you anymore because of your sins. And in Christ alone can his enemies run and flee and take hold of him for refuge. Can I just urge you to do that today, if you consider yourself right now, an outsider, the Bible says that you are under the wrath of God if you're an outsider. Flee the wrath of God. Come and take hold of Jesus. You're asking how do I do that? Just ask him to be your Savior. Just say, "Lord I'm a sinner, I'm on the outside, I'm afraid of your wrath, I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to stand before you and give an account for my wickedness and my lust and my laziness, will you please save me? Would you please save me from my sins." And he will. He says, "Let them make peace with me, yes let them make peace with me, that's a better idea.” Why don't you come to Jesus and let him make peace with you, let him reconcile you. And in Christ alone the remnant of Jews is saved, that remnant that it discusses here, that remnant of Jacob and Israel find their salvation and their fruitfulness in Christ alone. And God still measures out our disciplines. He doesn't crush us like our sins deserve. He'll hurt you. He'll spank you, he'll train you. But measure by measure. And he does it according to the Book of Hebrews, he disciplines us so that we may share in his holiness and may bear fruit for him. And so God measures up disciplines when you're under the discipline of the Lord realize he's dealing wisely with you, and causing you to hate your sins and crush your own altar stones, whatever they are like chalk and get rid of them out of your life. What about that trumpet call? Could it be we're called on to blow that trumpet? That we are called on to go out this week and talk to people about Jesus, that were called to say, "Hey, why don't you come to Christ, why don't you believe in him? Come from outside where the judgment of God is and come in and come to faith, and let God bless you. Let him forgive you of all your sins. We are the trumpet blasts. We're the ones that got out to the ends of the earth and say, "Come to faith, come to Christ." Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for what we've learned in your word, we thank you for Isaiah 27. It's a chapter that perhaps we're not very familiar with but I thank you for being our hero, for going out to take on the dragon and fight for us 'cause we couldn't fight for ourselves, and to deliver us and rescue us, Oh Lord. We were weak and powerless and we could not save ourselves but you went forth as a mighty warrior Jesus, and you fight and you fought for us and you died on the cross and you rose again. Oh God I pray for any lost person right now that they would hear this gospel message and be saved and help us O Lord to know how much you love us, and how much you're watering us constantly and causing us to be fruitful, help us to be fruitful for your glory, and we pray in Jesus name, amen.

Remembering Dr. Burke, My Life-Saver

Marriott on the Move

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2012

In August of 1985, I was putting gasoline into my boat at our summer place on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. I turned on the ignition switch to check the gas level, when I heard an explosion. The gas fumes had gathered around me as I stood on the deck and exploded with a spark from the switch. I was engulfed with flames. I went to the local hospital and was soon taken by helicopter to the Burn Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. I was met by Dr. Jack Burke who was chief of trauma and head...

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The Unchangeable Promise of God, the Anchor of Our Souls (Hebrews Sermon 24 of 74) (Audio)