Podcasts about like isaiah

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 14th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the first book of the Bible, Genesis 3:9: ”Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” Then we go to the Gospel of John 21:15. Jesus said to him, “Feed My lambs.” Both of these men sinned. Adam was hiding from God when the Lord wanted to speak to him in the cool of the evening, like He always did. He used to walk with Adam and Eve but they sinned, they ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and were hiding from God. Then we go to Peter, the big fisherman, who also denied the Lord three times, remember? He went back fishing. He said, ”I'm going fishing, I'm packing up, I've done my bit.” And then the Lord said to him, ”Peter, feed my lambs.”The Lord has not given up on you and me, so why are we giving up? No! Say sorry, repent, and get back into the fight. You know they both had sin but of course, both of them repented. God continued to use Adam and He also continued to use Peter. Peter became the head of the church, actually. I'll always remember, maybe I've shared this before, but as a brand spanking new Christian, still got the wrapping paper around me, I had the wonderful opportunity of preaching in our church where I got saved in Greytown and I was so nervous. My first ever sermon, in that church! We were in the vestry at the back of the church, the people were coming into the church and all the elders were standing around me. I was a young man, I was 32 years old and they laid their hands on me and they started to pray that God would give me strength, give me wisdom, give me peace, and one old man, I will never forget it as long as I live, he said to me, ”Well son, get in there and give it all you've got. I have done my bit.” Well, you know, even as a brand-new Christian, I had only known the Lord a few months. I felt like saying, ”No sir, you have never ever lost any blood for Jesus. You have never been crucified! How can you say you've done your bit?” So he actually spurred me on more than the others because I got in there and I got stuck in.I want to say to you today, the Lord has not given up on you or me. He still needs us. Like Isaiah, who said, ”Lord here I am, send me.” Today, put your hand up, and He'll use you again. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

Send Me by Kirk Hunt Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8 NKJV After standing in the very presence of God, and being purified by Him, Isaiah is in full relationship with his creator. God's man answers God's call for volunteers with simplicity and confidence. It really is as simple as saying, “Send me.” Do not confuse simplicity with ease. Isaiah's message from God was not comforting or reassuring. His message came during some of the most difficult and war-torn years of Israel's history. Traditional sources say that Isaiah, like most of the Old Testament prophets, was murdered by his own countrymen. The important part is that when God called, Isaiah answered. God's man delivered God's word with courage and integrity.  Isaiah kept true to God's calling, regardless of the circumstances or the reception. If you have a full relationship with God, your response is simple. Your confidence is complete, in Him. Inconveniences, like martyrdom by your own nation, will not distract you. Christian man or woman, you have a calling in God. Like Isaiah, start in His presence. Let Him purify you in His love, and your obedience. Then, when He calls, answer in simplicity and confidence. The circumstances may be difficult. Their response may not be positive. It is all about your relationship with Him. If there is any doubt, stand again in His presence. Think: How will I respond when God calls? Pray: “Lord, when you call, please send me.” Copyright © December 2025, Kirk Hunt This devotional is a ministry of CadreMen Press. The post Send Me appeared first on CadreMen Press Devotionals.

1. Pointing at Others2. Looking Within3. Looking AheadToday's sermon explored how America has largely become "the Grinch who stole Christmas" by reducing this sacred season to mere "happy holidays" or retail opportunities. While many struggle during this time—due to division, loss, broken relationships, or loneliness—the root cause of their emptiness is often the absence of Christ Himself. Through the prophet Isaiah's journey from pointing fingers at others to falling prostrate before God's holiness, we discovered that true Christmas joy comes only when we humble ourselves and recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah—Immanuel, God with us. Isaiah's prophecies, written 750 years before Christ's birth, remind us that this baby born in obscurity is actually the Mighty God, Wonderful Counselor, and Prince of Peace who came to heal our fractured hearts and give us lasting peace.Takeaways:- Stop pointing, start looking within: Like Isaiah, we may be quick to judge the world's brokenness, but true transformation begins when we say "Woe is me" and acknowledge our own need for God's grace and forgiveness.- Jesus is the reason and the answer: No gift under a tree, no amount of spending, and no political solution can provide the sustained joy, lasting peace, and true meaning that only a relationship with Jesus Christ can offer.- Share the greatest gift: The best present anyone can receive this Christmas is the gift of salvation through Jesus—born in a manger, died on a cross, risen in victory—so that all who believe can have peace with God.As you navigate these final days before Christmas, I encourage you to extend kindness to those you encounter, remember that a little compassion goes a long way, and most importantly, share the hope of Christ with someone who needs to hear that God is with us.May you experience the true peace of Immanuel this season.

1. Pointing at Others2. Looking Within3. Looking AheadToday's sermon explored how America has largely become "the Grinch who stole Christmas" by reducing this sacred season to mere "happy holidays" or retail opportunities. While many struggle during this time—due to division, loss, broken relationships, or loneliness—the root cause of their emptiness is often the absence of Christ Himself. Through the prophet Isaiah's journey from pointing fingers at others to falling prostrate before God's holiness, we discovered that true Christmas joy comes only when we humble ourselves and recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah—Immanuel, God with us. Isaiah's prophecies, written 750 years before Christ's birth, remind us that this baby born in obscurity is actually the Mighty God, Wonderful Counselor, and Prince of Peace who came to heal our fractured hearts and give us lasting peace.Takeaways:- Stop pointing, start looking within: Like Isaiah, we may be quick to judge the world's brokenness, but true transformation begins when we say "Woe is me" and acknowledge our own need for God's grace and forgiveness.- Jesus is the reason and the answer: No gift under a tree, no amount of spending, and no political solution can provide the sustained joy, lasting peace, and true meaning that only a relationship with Jesus Christ can offer.- Share the greatest gift: The best present anyone can receive this Christmas is the gift of salvation through Jesus—born in a manger, died on a cross, risen in victory—so that all who believe can have peace with God.As you navigate these final days before Christmas, I encourage you to extend kindness to those you encounter, remember that a little compassion goes a long way, and most importantly, share the hope of Christ with someone who needs to hear that God is with us.May you experience the true peace of Immanuel this season.

Dave Hopping preaches on Isaiah 11:1-10 on Sunday, December 7th, 2025. 

Reader: John Hudson Preacher: Jonathan Smith Before we can celebrate the birth of Christ, we must reckon with the holiness of God and the depth of our sin. Isaiahʼs vision reminds us that Advent begins with awe. Jesus who comes to us in the manger is the same Lord who sits enthroned in glory. Yet the coal that once touched Isaiahʼs lips has become the cross that purifies us forever. Like Isaiah, we who have been forgiven are now sent out with a message of hope. Red Door is an Anglican Church in Melbourne, Australia. We exist to be a community of people helping people make allbecau of life all about Jesus.

In a world growing increasingly dark and divided, followers of Jesus are called to love others even when culture grows colder. Despite America's wealth and education, statistics reveal deep brokenness: rising suicide rates, widespread loneliness, and increasing lawlessness. However, believers can combat this darkness through seven practical ways: knowing names and stories, being present and available, meeting tangible needs, practicing hospitality, encouraging others, praying faithfully, and loving sacrificially. Like Isaiah who responded to God's call with 'Here am I! Send me!' we don't need perfect qualifications—just willingness to be used by God to bring His love to a hurting world.

Audacy Sports Betting Insider and the host of the "You Better You Bet" podcast, Nick Kostos joined "Baskin and Phelps" Thursday. He talks his favorite bets in Steelers-Browns, and why he expects a big day from rookie wideout Isaiah Bond.

Sermon Title: WorshipSeries: A Future with HopeScripture: Isaiah 6:1-8Worship is the center of our life together, the foundation for belonging, growing, and making an impact.Worship draws us out of ourselves and focuses our attention on God.Engaging and inspiring worship changes us, connects us with God and one another, and opens us to God's grace.Like Isaiah, we encounter God in worship and are sent to live out God's mission in the world.Worship is not just one hour on Sunday, it shapes every hour of our lives.Reflection QuestionsWhat comes to mind when you hear the word “worship”?Why do you attend worship? What is your favorite part of worship and why?Recall a moment in worship when you experienced the presence of God. What difference did that experience make in how you see and engage the world?Where and to whom is worship sending you? Sending Davidson UMC?Is there someone you could invite to join you in worship at Davidson UMC?

Our world today is in a time of great upheaval. From Russia and the Ukraine, Israel and the Middle East, Iran and North Korea, China and Taiwan, there is intensifying political, military, economic and social instability, as well as in South Africa and the U.K. So where is God when it seems the very foundations of whole nations are shaking? Is there any hope when everything seems hopeless? And how do we cope in times of great change in our personal lives especially when people we knew and loved are no longer with us?   Only this week we in King's Church International have faced a moment of irreversible transition with the passing of one of our well-loved and most faithful pastors. A former atheist, Pastor Terry Beasley served in countless roles for over six decades since becoming a Christian at the age of 16 until his death this week at the age of 79. For so many people, both locally and in other nations, he was part of the ever-dependable fabric of our lives, always willing to help people spiritually, practically and emotionally. He was a wonderful husband to his equally faithful wife Margaret for almost 57 years. He was a devoted father and grandfather, a wise community and church leader and not least he was our Senior Pastor's closest friend since school days and an ever-dependable supporter who helped him through many seasons of life and ministry.    When we lose such sincere, life enhancing people like this, when we see the state of the world around us, it's like experiencing an earthquake when the very ground we have stood on is being shaken. And yet it is at such times that we can find a sure foundation and hope for the future by discovering God and His unshakable kingdom.   Isaiah 6:1-8 begins ‘In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.' Uzziah, also known as Azariah, was one of Judah's greatest Kings who reigned for 52 years. In the earlier part of his kingship, under the influence of his godly advisor Zechariah, Uzziah was faithful to God and did right in the Lord's eyes. However, Uzziah's success made him proud leading to his downfall and death around 740 BC.   `Pastor Terry in contrast remained faithful to the Lord all his life but now he too has suddenly gone. Yet we, like Isaiah in the time of the removal of someone who had always been part of his life, can also experience what happened to Isaiah. For it was in the very season that the old had ended, something new was happening. In a season of death, new life was emerging. In the time of great darkness, there came new light. What Isaiah experienced in a year of major change gave him a whole new perception of the condition of his own life and about the future direction of his life.  1. He had a new vision of God (Isaiah 6:1; Job 26:9; Psalm 9:4-7; Lamentations 5:19; Ezekiel 1:26; Daniel 7:9; Revelation 4:1-11; Isaiah 6:2-4) 2. He had a life changing encounter with God (Isaiah 6:5-7; John 16:8; 1 John 1:9) 3. He received and obeyed a strong call from God (Isaiah 6:8-9) Apply  1. He had a new vision of God. He had a vision of God who is high above everything (Isaiah 6:1). The God of the Bible is far above every other power and ruler. He is God Almighty, the ‘great God' that Handel said he glimpsed as he wrote The Messiah. This awesome God is the ultimate and eternal authority over all creation: the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Like Isaiah, many people in the Bible who had a vision of God in heaven spoke of God's throne (Job 26:9; David in Psalm 9:4-7; Jeremiah in Lamentations 5:19; Ezekiel 1:26; Daniel 7:9; & the Apostle John in Revelation 4:1-11). Isaiah may have been depressed or discouraged because a great leader of Judah was no longer on the throne. But then Isaiah had a vision of God in heaven. Despite Uzziah no longer being on his throne, God was still on His. And that remains true today in every changing circumstance of life. For always the Lord reigns over all. He also had a vision of a Holy God (Isaiah 6:2-4). Isaiah had a revelation of heavenly beings who constantly spoke of the holiness and glory of God. The name seraphim means “burning ones.” Holiness means that God is set apart from any other being by His perfection and purity. Holiness in the Bible refers to a majestic God whose character is without any flaw and whose awesome presence changes everything and everyone who experiences it. Just one experience, even one glimpse of a holy God, will change your whole life and perspective, just as it changed Isaiah's.  2. He had a life changing encounter with God. He saw what a sinner he was (Isaiah 6:5-7). When Isaiah saw the intense brightness of a holy God, he suddenly felt very dirty. Any self-righteousness he may have had was immediately stripped away. He felt that he was ruined because he was so unclean and living among people who were so unclean. This awareness and confession of sin is essential if we are to find God, and is one of the roles of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8). You cannot find God when you try to make out how good you are, but only when you recognise how bad you are and how great is your need of God to make you clean. In the same moment Isaiah admitted how sinful he was, he discovered how God could remove his sin, and experienced great forgiveness and cleansing (Isaiah 6:6-7). Isaiah had a powerful experience of being forgiven and freed from guilt. He discovered what the Bible calls grace. That's why Jesus, God in human form, came to shed His pure blood so that we could all be cleaned up on the inside and come to know friendship and fellowship with a holy God (1 John 1:9). Not only can we be washed clean by the blood of Jesus, we can also be touched in our lives and the words of our lips by the fire of the Holy Spirit just as the first disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, prayed ‘God of burning cleansing fire' give us ‘strength to ever do the right and power to walk the world in white.' The Salvation Army logo has long been Blood and Fire. Every one of us needs a pivotal encounter with God that William Booth and Isaiah experienced.  3. He received and obeyed a strong call from God. He heard God calling for people to represent Him (Isaiah 6:8). God was looking to recruit Isaiah to represent Him and to go and speak to his generation for Him. Isaiah was given the clear and tough task of proclaiming coming judgement to a rebellious and God-rejecting nation. It was a far from popular message, but God wanted to give every opportunity to those who would listen and repent. Isaiah's response to this great challenge was positive, deciding to obey the call of God on his life (Isaiah 6:8-9). Isaiah made himself totally available to God, committing to be sent, to go, do and say what God wanted. Today in this turbulent moment of history in our nation and in the nations, God is calling to every one of His followers to be fully dedicated to Him. Will you be a man or woman to answer the call of God? Will you as young people become unashamed ambassadors to your generation? Will you stand in the gap to carry the gospel torch that Pastor Terry has now laid down? Will you faithfully tell the good news of Jesus? Will you be a preacher, teacher, pastor or evangelist? Will you be His representative in your home, neighbourhood, workplace and society? Will you say ‘Lord here I am, send me'? 

Our world today is in a time of great upheaval. From Russia and the Ukraine, Israel and the Middle East, Iran and North Korea, China and Taiwan, there is intensifying political, military, economic and social instability, as well as in South Africa and the U.K. So where is God when it seems the very foundations of whole nations are shaking? Is there any hope when everything seems hopeless? And how do we cope in times of great change in our personal lives especially when people we knew and loved are no longer with us?   Only this week we in King's Church International have faced a moment of irreversible transition with the passing of one of our well-loved and most faithful pastors. A former atheist, Pastor Terry Beasley served in countless roles for over six decades since becoming a Christian at the age of 16 until his death this week at the age of 79. For so many people, both locally and in other nations, he was part of the ever-dependable fabric of our lives, always willing to help people spiritually, practically and emotionally. He was a wonderful husband to his equally faithful wife Margaret for almost 57 years. He was a devoted father and grandfather, a wise community and church leader and not least he was our Senior Pastor's closest friend since school days and an ever-dependable supporter who helped him through many seasons of life and ministry.    When we lose such sincere, life enhancing people like this, when we see the state of the world around us, it's like experiencing an earthquake when the very ground we have stood on is being shaken. And yet it is at such times that we can find a sure foundation and hope for the future by discovering God and His unshakable kingdom.   Isaiah 6:1-8 begins ‘In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.' Uzziah, also known as Azariah, was one of Judah's greatest Kings who reigned for 52 years. In the earlier part of his kingship, under the influence of his godly advisor Zechariah, Uzziah was faithful to God and did right in the Lord's eyes. However, Uzziah's success made him proud leading to his downfall and death around 740 BC.   `Pastor Terry in contrast remained faithful to the Lord all his life but now he too has suddenly gone. Yet we, like Isaiah in the time of the removal of someone who had always been part of his life, can also experience what happened to Isaiah. For it was in the very season that the old had ended, something new was happening. In a season of death, new life was emerging. In the time of great darkness, there came new light. What Isaiah experienced in a year of major change gave him a whole new perception of the condition of his own life and about the future direction of his life.  1. He had a new vision of God (Isaiah 6:1; Job 26:9; Psalm 9:4-7; Lamentations 5:19; Ezekiel 1:26; Daniel 7:9; Revelation 4:1-11; Isaiah 6:2-4) 2. He had a life changing encounter with God (Isaiah 6:5-7; John 16:8; 1 John 1:9) 3. He received and obeyed a strong call from God (Isaiah 6:8-9) Apply  1. He had a new vision of God. He had a vision of God who is high above everything (Isaiah 6:1). The God of the Bible is far above every other power and ruler. He is God Almighty, the ‘great God' that Handel said he glimpsed as he wrote The Messiah. This awesome God is the ultimate and eternal authority over all creation: the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Like Isaiah, many people in the Bible who had a vision of God in heaven spoke of God's throne (Job 26:9; David in Psalm 9:4-7; Jeremiah in Lamentations 5:19; Ezekiel 1:26; Daniel 7:9; & the Apostle John in Revelation 4:1-11). Isaiah may have been depressed or discouraged because a great leader of Judah was no longer on the throne. But then Isaiah had a vision of God in heaven. Despite Uzziah no longer being on his throne, God was still on His. And that remains true today in every changing circumstance of life. For always the Lord reigns over all. He also had a vision of a Holy God (Isaiah 6:2-4). Isaiah had a revelation of heavenly beings who constantly spoke of the holiness and glory of God. The name seraphim means “burning ones.” Holiness means that God is set apart from any other being by His perfection and purity. Holiness in the Bible refers to a majestic God whose character is without any flaw and whose awesome presence changes everything and everyone who experiences it. Just one experience, even one glimpse of a holy God, will change your whole life and perspective, just as it changed Isaiah's.  2. He had a life changing encounter with God. He saw what a sinner he was (Isaiah 6:5-7). When Isaiah saw the intense brightness of a holy God, he suddenly felt very dirty. Any self-righteousness he may have had was immediately stripped away. He felt that he was ruined because he was so unclean and living among people who were so unclean. This awareness and confession of sin is essential if we are to find God, and is one of the roles of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8). You cannot find God when you try to make out how good you are, but only when you recognise how bad you are and how great is your need of God to make you clean. In the same moment Isaiah admitted how sinful he was, he discovered how God could remove his sin, and experienced great forgiveness and cleansing (Isaiah 6:6-7). Isaiah had a powerful experience of being forgiven and freed from guilt. He discovered what the Bible calls grace. That's why Jesus, God in human form, came to shed His pure blood so that we could all be cleaned up on the inside and come to know friendship and fellowship with a holy God (1 John 1:9). Not only can we be washed clean by the blood of Jesus, we can also be touched in our lives and the words of our lips by the fire of the Holy Spirit just as the first disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, prayed ‘God of burning cleansing fire' give us ‘strength to ever do the right and power to walk the world in white.' The Salvation Army logo has long been Blood and Fire. Every one of us needs a pivotal encounter with God that William Booth and Isaiah experienced.  3. He received and obeyed a strong call from God. He heard God calling for people to represent Him (Isaiah 6:8). God was looking to recruit Isaiah to represent Him and to go and speak to his generation for Him. Isaiah was given the clear and tough task of proclaiming coming judgement to a rebellious and God-rejecting nation. It was a far from popular message, but God wanted to give every opportunity to those who would listen and repent. Isaiah's response to this great challenge was positive, deciding to obey the call of God on his life (Isaiah 6:8-9). Isaiah made himself totally available to God, committing to be sent, to go, do and say what God wanted. Today in this turbulent moment of history in our nation and in the nations, God is calling to every one of His followers to be fully dedicated to Him. Will you be a man or woman to answer the call of God? Will you as young people become unashamed ambassadors to your generation? Will you stand in the gap to carry the gospel torch that Pastor Terry has now laid down? Will you faithfully tell the good news of Jesus? Will you be a preacher, teacher, pastor or evangelist? Will you be His representative in your home, neighbourhood, workplace and society? Will you say ‘Lord here I am, send me'? 

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In this episode, from a chapel service held on Friday 30 May 2025, Joel Atwood, missionary in Vanuatu with the Church Missionary Society Australia, speaks on Isaiah 45 and God's word to the nation of Israel about his anointed one, King Cyrus.He reminds us that the plans of God are not our plans. When we are tempted to ask, “Why is God doing that?”, we need to remember that he is greater and more wonderful than our crude and limited conceptions of him. We can't force him or rush him; we can only follow along to his timetable.For more audio resources, visit the Moore College website. There, you can also make a donation to support the work of the College.Contact us and find us on socials.Find out more and register for the 2025 Donald Robinson Library Lectures on The Clapham Sect and their influence on Sydney (Sat 30 Aug).Please note: The episode transcript provided is AI-generated and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

Ivy Asiedu-Darquah continues our preaching series which is called "Pray Like...". It explores the different prayers from people throughout the Old Testament. The title of this week's preach is "Here am I. Send me - Pray like Isaiah". This preach was recorded at our Great Denham congregation.

David Devenish continues our preaching series which is called "Pray Like...". It explores the different prayers from people throughout the Old Testament. The title of this week's preach is "Rend the Heavens and Come Down - Pray like Isaiah". This preach was recorded at our Putnoe congregation.

Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel is commissioned by God to warn God's people about the impending consequences of their idolatry. But Ezekiel is going to be a witness (and participant) in some very weird lessons...Send Mike a quick message! Support the showCheck out outloudbible.com for helpful study resources, and to discover how to bring the public reading of God's word to your church, conference, retreat, or other event.

March 31, 2025Today's Reading: Isaiah 12:1-6Daily Lectionary: Genesis 42:1-34, 38; Mark 12:1-12“You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:1-2)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Has anyone ever been angry with you? Since you have a pulse, probably. You might have done something to anger someone, or you might have accidentally done something that resulted in another person's anger. Still, it happened. You did something, and they were angry. Perhaps that was when you learned that saying, “Now, don't be angry…” doesn't actually help someone's anger go away. Parents, siblings, teachers, classmates, and others aren't impressed when you just ask them not to be angry.But on the Last Day, God won't be angry with you. That's the promise of Isaiah. That promise makes you want to throw your hands in the air and say, “What?! How does that work?!” God has every right to be angry with you because of your sin. You live like God doesn't matter and like you matter most. You don't keep his Commandments, and sometimes your actions flaunt God's holiness, even on purpose. He should be angry with you, but because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, His anger is turned away, and He comforts you.Micah 7:18-19 declares, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” God pardons you and forgives you, and He is your salvation.  That sounds too good to be true, but it is true. This truth can't be proven or debated but only believed. Like Isaiah says, trust and don't be afraid because the Lord your God is your strength and your song. He has become your salvation. If you have ever had someone stop being angry with you, you know how difficult that is to believe. But God's grace is true and believable for you. He is your salvation.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Yet as the Law must be fulfilled Or we must die despairing, Christ came and has God's anger stilled, Our human nature sharing. He has for us the Law obeyed And thus the Father's vengeance stayed Which over us impended. (LSB 555:5)-Rev. Peter Ill, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Millstadt, IL.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Visit the timeless rhythms of the Christian life with award-winning author Harold L. Senkbeil. As he addresses the concerns and pressures of the world today, you'll discover that even while the world is dying, Christ's death brings about life. True life. One that He offers to you. Order Now!

A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany St. Matthew 13:1-43 by William Klock   Seeds.  Matthew 13—most of it at least—is all about seeds.  Well, sort of.  It's about the kingdom of God.  But Jesus told the people about the kingdom using the imagery of seeds, because it was something familiar to them.  Obviously, they lived in an agrarian society, but more than that, the God of Israel had been using this imagery of seeds going all the way back to the Prophets and even back to Abraham.  Remember his promise all the way back at the beginning: he promised to bless the nations through Abraham's seed.  In other words, to set the world to rights through Abraham's descendants, through his family.  This image carries on through the prophets.  The seed grew and became a tree—or in other places it became a vine—but it failed to bear fruit.  The Lord warned that he would come to prune the dead wood—or even to cut the whole tree down.  And yet there was reason to hope.  The Lord keeps his promises.  Even if the tree were to be cut down, the seed would remain—and it would put forth a new shoot.  No matter how bad things might get, there was always reason to hope in the Lord. And so, as Chapter 13 begins, St. Matthew tells us that Jesus sat in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, just off from shore, to preach to a crowd on the beach.  “He had much to say to them, and he said it all in parables,” writes Matthew in verse 3.  And so Jesus begins: “Look!,” he said, “Once there was a sower who went out to sow.  As he sowed, some seed fell beside the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some seed fell on rocky soil, where it didn't have much earth.  It sprang up at once because it didn't have depth of soil.  But when the sun was high it got scorched, and it withered because it didn't have any root.  Other seed fell in among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.  And other seed fell in good soil, and produced a crop, some a hundred times over, some sixty, and some thirty times over.  If you've got ears, listen!” The people had seen the Messiah things that Jesus was doing throughout Galilee.  Blind eyes and deaf ears opened, lepers cleansed and the dead raised.  Demons ran at his command.  In Jesus, God was on the move.  It was obvious.  The long winter was coming to an end.  Everywhere Jesus went the ground thawed and flowers began to spring up.  At the same time, it wasn't what they expected.  They knew the prophecies.  They knew the word of the Lord.  They knew his promises and they knew he was faithful.  And so they knew he would come to their rescue.  Like a sower sowing his seed, the Lord would one day sow Israel in her own land.  And so when Jesus began to tell a story of a sower going out to sow, they listened.  But it wasn't quite the story they were expecting.  The story Jesus told was a story of failure after failure after failure before—eventually—success!  Jesus was telling the story of Israel.  Over and over God had spoken.  Over and over he had sent his emissaries: priests, judges, kings, and prophets to speak his word and to set things to rights.  But the people wouldn't listen.  But now something was changing.  Jesus had their attention.  “If you've got ears, listen!” Jesus says.  In other words, “I get it.  This isn't what you expected.  It's hard to understand.  But things are different this time.  Really!  Stick with me.  Keep watching.  Keep listening.  And you'll figure it out.  You'll see that God is faithful.”  Eventually they would understand—at least some of them would—but for now thy were just confused. So were the disciples.  So, Matthew says, they “came to him.  ‘Why are you speaking to them in parables?” they asked.  So Jesus answered: “You have been given the gift of knowing the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.  But they haven't.  Anyone who already has something will be given more, and they will have plenty.  But anyone who has nothing—even what they have will be taken away!  That's why I speak to them in parables, so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand or take it in.” Well, that doesn't seem very helpful, does it?  Every once in a while I hear someone claim that there are secret codes hidden in the Bible.  So far I have yet to discover that any of these secret codes is actually there.  The idea itself runs against the purpose of scripture.  God speaks because he wants us to hear him and to know him.  If scripture is hard to understand, that's on us, not on him.  But if that's true, why would Jesus speak in riddles.  That's how the disciples saw it.  And they knew: in Jesus the most important thing that had ever happened was happening.  Everyone needed to know about it.  So why not just say it plainly?  The thing is that it was the same for them as it is for us.  Jesus was speaking plainly.  Everyone knew that when he told a story about a sower planting seed, he was talking about the Lord sowing his promises for Israel.  They knew their story.  They knew the prophets.  The problem wasn't with Jesus.  The problem was with the people who thought they had it all figured out already.  The problem was with the people who thought the Messiah should come, for example, to take up a sword and establish his kingdom the way other kings established theirs.  And because they thought they had it all figured out, they weren't hearing what Jesus was plainly and simply saying. So Jesus says to the disciples (verse 14): “Isaiah's prophecy is coming true in them [in the people].”  And he quotes from Isaiah 6:9-10.  This was the Lord's commissioning and sending of Isaiah.  He was to go and say to the people, “You will listen but won't understand, you will look but not see.  This people's heart has gone flabby and fat, their ears are muffled and dull, their eyes are darkened and shut; in order that they won't see with their eyes or hear with their ears, or know in their heart, or turn back again for me to restore them.” Imagine being called as a prophet and the first message you're to declare is that no one will understand you.  What the Lord had promised to Isaiah was now being fulfilled in Jesus.  Like Isaiah, he would speak plainly, but the muffled ears of the people would be unable to hear.  Jesus goes on and says to his disciples: “But there's great news for your eyes: they can see!  And for your ears: they can hear!  I'm telling you the truth: many prophets and holy people longed to see what you see and didn't see it, and to hear what you hear and didn't hear it.” Now, the disciples knew their Bible.  They knew that in that same passage of Isaiah—in verse 13—they knew that was when the Lord spoke of judging the tree that was Israel.  All that would be left was a stump, and yet, says the Lord, “That stump is the holy seed.”  It was a prophecy of judgement followed by restoration.  So this is what would be in their heads as Jesus explains the parable to them. “This is what the sower story is all about,” Jesus went on.  “When someone hears the word of the kingdom and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in the heart.  This corresponds to what was sown beside the path.  What was sown on rocky ground is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with delight, but doesn't have any root of their own.  Someone like that only lasts a short time; as soon as there's any trouble or persecution because of the word, they trip up at once.  The one sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but the world's worries and the seduction of wealth choke the word and it doesn't bear fruit.  But the one sown on good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it.  Someone like that will bear fruit: one will produce a hundred times over, another sixty, and another thirty times over.” So God's kingdom is coming.  That's the point of Jesus' parable.  But his point is also that it's not coming the way people expected.  Most people expected the kingdom to come in a blaze of glory.  The Lord would return to his people and defeat their enemies.  He would set everything to rights.  He would bring justice and peace and righteousness, beginning in Jerusalem and then extend his righteous rule throughout the earth.  But Jesus' parable says that, no, that's not how God's kingdom will come.  In fact, instead of coming with a blaze of glory, it's instead going to be like seed sown on the ground.  It's going to start quietly, many won't listen at first, but it will slowly and surely grow.  Because this is how the Lord works.  The story is as much about the history of Israel as it is about the people of First Century Judah or people today. This is how the Lord works and there's a good reason for it.  The world is not as it should be.  We long for the Lord to set it to rights.  But for him to come back in a blaze of glory to deal justly with the world's sin problem would mean that every last one of us would stand condemned.  This is why, along with his promises to set the world to rights, the Lord also spoke through the Prophets to say that he is patient and merciful and because of that, his judgement will be delayed so that (1) he can provide a means of salvation for us and so that (2) people will have time to hear this good news and believe.  The word—the seed—has to be sown and it needs time to germinate and grow. This is what the people of Jesus' day needed to understand.  Not only did they need this gospel seed in order to know God's mercy in the face of coming judgement, but so did the nations.  They thought the Lord would come, congratulate them for their faithfulness, set them on top of the heap, and then rain down fire and brimstone on the gentile nations, but the truth of the matter was, that they needed to be set right just as much as the gentiles did and it would be through the Lord's faithfulness to his people on display in the Messiah, that a new people would be born, that judgment would come on unfaithful Israel—and all of this before the eyes of the watching gentiles who would stand in awe of the God of Israel and be drawn to him in faith.  The Lord will set Israel and the world to rights, not only by judging sin, but even more so through his grace and mercy to those who believe.  This is how God would make good on his promises. Now, as I've been pondering this parable, one caution came to mind.  The parable was Jesus' way of telling the story of Israel.  God had sown the seed of his word over and over and people—or most of them—didn't listen.  The seed didn't take root.  And Jesus' point is that in him, this time, God was doing something new.  In him, the seed, the word had become flesh.  This time, through Jesus, the Lord would do something he'd never done before: he would pour out his Spirit.  And because of Jesus and the Spirit, the seed would finally grow and flourish—thirty, sixty, a hundred times over. Brothers and Sisters, Jesus and the Spirit have changed everything.  So I think we need to be at least a little cautious in how we think of this parable, because what we usually do when we hear about the seed on the path or the steed on the rocky soil, or the seed choked by thorns, what we usually do is say something like, “Don't be that kind of soil.  Don't let the birds take away the seeds.  Don't let the thorns choke it out.  Be the good soil.  Let the seed grow and put down deep roots.”  And there is something to be said for that.  People do let the cares of the world choke out gospel seed planted in them.  Some people are rocky soil and the seed looks like it's going to grow and then it withers and dies.  But here's the point—and never forget—that because of Jesus and because of the Spirit, everything is different.  They make the soil fertile and that's why God's word, ever since, has done what it has done.  That's why the church exists.  That's why this good news about the God of Israel has gone out and conquered the nations.  Because Jesus and the Spirit have made the soil fertile.  Without them the gospel seed will never take root and grow.  That's something else to remember in our ministry and evangelism.  We are stewards.  We're called to plant the seed.  But it is Jesus and the Spirit who cause it to grow. That doesn't mean we should just be passive hearers of the word.  Do the work.  Get rid of the rocks in the soil.  Pull the weeds that might choke it out.  But there's a promise here that if we will faithfully steep ourselves in God's gospel word, Jesus and the Spirit will cause it to take root and grow.  And if we will proclaim it, Jesus and the Spirit will grow the kingdom. Now, Matthew continues, Jesus put another parable to them.  Verse 24: “The kingdom of heaven is like this.  Once upon a time a man sowed good seed in his field.  While the workers were asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds in among the wheat, and went away.  When the crop came up and produced wheat, then the weeds appeared as well.  So the farmer's servants came to him.  “Master,” they said, “didn't you sow good seed in your field?  Where have the weeds come from?”  “This is the work of an enemy,” he replied.  “So,” the servants said to him, “do you want us to go and pull them up?”  “No,” he replied.  “If you do that you'll probably pull up the wheat as well while you're collecting the weeds.  Let them both grow together until the harvest.  Then, when it's time for the harvest, I will give the reapers this instruction: First gather the weeds and tie them up in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” Again, it's in our nature to want God to act right now.  We're tired of the pain and the tears.  We're tired of sin and death.  Why does God allow evil to continue?  In the next breath, Jesus tells the disciples that “the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.  It's the smallest of all the seeds, btu when it grows it turns into the biggest of the shrubs.  It becomes a tree, and the birds in the sky can then come and nest in its branches.”  But, of course, the tree doesn't grow all at once.  That takes many, many years.  And then he talks about a different kind of “seed”: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid inside three measures of flour, until the whole thing was leavened.” Just the other day I saw a video in which a woman went on an angry rant about how her first attempt at bread went horribly wrong.  She turned her bread pan upside down and the loaf fell out and hit the floor with a loud “thud”.  She picked it up and banged it on the counter: “Clunk, clunk!”  “I followed the recipe exactly!” she yelled.  “Why didn't it work?”  And then in the comments she revealed that, yes, she'd mixed all the ingredients correctly, but she never let the dough rise.  She said she didn't have time for that. And sometimes we feel like we don't have time—or we shouldn't have to wait for God's word to do its work.  I have to remind myself all the time as a pastor to be patient.  God's word doesn't grow people (or the kingdom) overnight.  You probably—or you should—have to remind yourselves that God's word doesn't grow pastors overnight either.  It takes time.  That's why the Lord uses this imagery of God's word as seed all through scripture. But this also means we need to be patient and to wait for the Lord to do his thing.  The disciples weren't sure they understood this and they asked Jesus what the parable of the wheat and the weeds meant and Jesus said, “The one who sows the seed is the son of man.  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom.  The weeds are the children of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them is the devil.  The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are the angels.  So when the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, that's what it will be like at the close of the age.  The son of man will send out his angels, and they will collect together out of his kingdom everything that causes offense, and everyone who acts wickedly.  They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  If you have ears, listen!” God's word will do its work.  The kingdom will grow.  The enemy will sow weeds in its midst, but nothing can stop God's word from bringing the life he sent it out to bring.  As surely as the mustard seed will grow into a giant tree.  As surely as the little lump of dough will rise and fill the bowl, God's kingdom will do the same.  If you ever doubt that, just remember what Jesus says here: “The one who sows the seed is the son of man”—is Jesus himself.  Jesus (and the Spirit) will grow the kingdom and nothing the devil can do will stop that.  And we can trust that one day God's justice will confront our old enemies, sin and death, and put an end to them forever.  I think that what Jesus had in mind here was the judgement soon to come on Judah, Jerusalem, and the temple but as that judgement showed God's faithfulness to his promises, it also points forward to that time at the end of history, that time when the seed has grown into the great tree, when the leaven has worked its way through the whole loaf, when the gospel has gone out and the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea, we can trust that God will deal with the wicked and with sin and death once and for all and the righteous will shine like the sun.  That's an image of resurrection that Jesus takes from the Prophet Daniel. When something doesn't seem right or when it doesn't seem like it's going to work, the experts love to say “trust the process”.  And, Brothers and Sisters, that's exactly what Jesus is asking us to do.  He's planted the seed himself.  He's shed his own blood to water the soil.  He's given God's Spirit to make the soil of human hearts fertile.  And he's done none of that in vain.  His gospel seed will surely grow and if it seems like it's taking too long, remember that it's all for the sake of his grace and mercy—grace and mercy you and I already know, but grace and mercy that the rest of the world still needs to know for themselves.  Grace and mercy that, like the death and resurrection of Jesus, reveal the God who is worthy of glory, honour, and praise. Let's pray: Heavenly Father, keep your household the Church continually in your true religion; that those who lean only on the hope of your heavenly grace may always be defended by your mighty power, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven's Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory (Isaiah 6:3). Isaiah's words rightly magnify our holy God. Join Pastor Chuck Swindoll as he discusses God's holiness, the gift of holiness for believers, and a believer's calling to pursue the same. Like Isaiah, fall before your holy God in awe of His majesty. Let His holiness propel you toward a life set apart and lived for His glory. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/82/29

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven's Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory (Isaiah 6:3). Isaiah's words rightly magnify our holy God. Join Pastor Chuck Swindoll as he discusses God's holiness, the gift of holiness for believers, and a believer's calling to pursue the same. Like Isaiah, fall before your holy God in awe of His majesty. Let His holiness propel you toward a life set apart and lived for His glory. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/82/29

Like Isaiah and Daniel, Ezekiel saw God. In Ezekiel's vision, God was with strange spiritual creatures that were hard for him to describe. The whole experience clearly communicates how transcendent God is. Ezekiel 1:4-28 The prophet Ezekiel has a vision of four-winged living creatures with a fire in their midst, huge gleaming wheels, and God Himself sitting on a throne above them. He struggled mightily to describe the scene, employing the word “like” twenty-three times in this chapter. Ezekiel 10:15-22 A little over a year later, Ezekiel was able to process the initial vision he saw. When he had a second one, he could describe it without using so many analogies. Furthermore, he realized that the living creatures were cherubim. Cherubim were on the lid of the ark of the covenant (Ex 25:17-22), standing fifteen feet tall on either side of the ark (1 Kgs 6:23-28), sewn into the curtain separating the holy of holies (2 Chr 3:14), and on the door and walls in the temple (1 Ki 6:29-35). Ezekiel 1:1-3 After five years in exile, Ezekiel was now thirty years old—the age he would become ordained and enter his service as a priest in the temple. God showed him a powerful vision far beyond what he would have experienced if he were serving in the temple back in Jerusalem. Ezekiel's vision communicates that God is transcendent. He's not like everyone else; he's extraordinary, other, beyond what we know (Ps 113:5-6; Job 36:26; Isa 40:18-28; 55:8-9).The post Seeing God 3: Transcendence first appeared on Living Hope.

May 27, 2024Today's Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8Daily Lectionary: Ecclesiastes 4:1-16; John 7:32-53And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:5–7)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Isaiah was a smart one. He knew what was going on around him. You see, for sinners, the presence of God is absolutely bad news. What happens to sinners in the presence of God? Death. Blown up. Toast. Zapped. Whatever fun phrase you use to describe it, the point is this: God is perfection, and perfection will not abide chaos and sin in its presence for very long. And so Isaiah is afraid. Isaiah is not only reflecting that the people he dwells with are unclean and say unclean things, but he is aware that he himself is a sinner. He thinks he is done for.And so what happens? Is Isaiah zapped by God? Absolutely not. What Isaiah experiences is one of the most awesome absolutions anyone has ever experienced. He confesses his sins (“I am a man of unclean lips”) and is then forgiven by God, which is the angel touching his lips with the coal. Notice that God does not say in response, “Yes, you are. Your lips are filthy” or “Yes, you are, and so you better get fixing it.” God simply directs one of his ministers (in this case, an angel) to absolve Isaiah so he can continue his work on behalf of the LORD. Believe it or not, you get the same thing. No, you don't quite have an angel touching your lips with a flaming coal, but you do still have one of the LORD's pastors ready and waiting to hear your confession and pronounce that your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. In the Divine Service, you make the sign of the cross, remembering that you are a baptized child of God. Like Isaiah, you are given something on your lips: Jesus' Body and Blood in the Lord's Supper. This also delivers to you God's forgiveness. You are covered with Jesus and are now perfect before God; you get to continue in the work that God has placed before you as you love and care for your neighbors. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Almighty, everlasting God, for our many sins we justly deserve eternal condemnation. In Your mercy You sent Your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who won for us forgiveness of sins and everlasting salvation. Grant us a true confession that, dead to sin, we may be raised up by Your life-giving Absolution. Grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may be ever watchful and live true and godly lives in Your service; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Before confession and absolution, LSB)-Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.A Complete Guide to Christian Symbols . This collection of over 600 hand-drawn Christian symbols by artist and author Edward Riojas will teach you the extensive history of the imagery of the Church. Each symbol is a beautiful and historical connection to generations of Christians that have worshiped before you. A Complete Guide to Christian Symbols. Now available from Concordia Publishing House. 

Hey! Sam Vecenie is going live to answer YOUR QUESTIONS about the 2024 NBA Draft! Send off some questions ahead of time, and I'll answer as many as I can live on the show! Already, we'll be talking about guys like Isaiah Collier, Kyle Filipowski, Reed Sheppard, Donovan Clingan, and more! CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 1:20 Isaiah Collier and Bronny James, G, USC 8:00 Kentucky, Aaron Bradshaw, Reed Sheppard 24:10 UConn, Donovan Clingan, Tristen Newton 32:32 Nikola Topic, G, Mega 40:24 Ryan Dunn, F, Virginia (plus some Pacers stuff) 46:00 Raptors stuff, plus should teams try to convey draft picks in 2024? 51:49 Biggest faller top-15 54:03 Evaluating Upperclassmen, who can find success? 58:47 Garwey Dual, G, Providence 1:00:08 Robbie Avila, Indiana State 1:01:37 Oklahoma City Thunder Trade Stuff 1:03:54 Jarin Stevenson, F, Alabama 1:05:23 Malik Mack, G, Harvard! 1:08:23 Otega Oweh, W, Oklahoma 1:10:03 Aday Mara and what makes Sengun, Jokic, Sabonis special 1:11:26 Andrej Stojakovic, Jaylon Tyson, Hansen Yang, Ajay Mitchell 1:16:45 Ignite 1:18:38 Bub Carrington, G, Pittsburgh 1:21:43 Tyler Smith, F, Ignite 1:23:13 Kyle Filipowski, C, Duke 1:29:51 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pastor Al Dagel wants us to be a bit like Isaiah, but that won't be easy.

Humility might not top the list of qualifications for a pastor, but it should! As David Mathis wrote: “Few things poison the church, and sully her reputation in the world, like arrogant pastors.” And the Apostle Paul included humility in his list to Titus: “Not overbearing [arrogant]” (Titus 1:7). In Isaiah 6, we find the prophet's specific call to ministry and his humble response. Isaiah was given a vision of the Lord, sitting on His throne. The hem of His robe filled the Temple. Surrounding seraphim covered their faces and their feet with their wings, and they cried to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty! (v. 3).” The triple “holy” emphasized the degree to which God was set apart. The Lord's utter perfection prompted Isaiah's reaction. He cried, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (v. 5). When confronted with the perfection and majesty of God, Isaiah's response was humility. He could only acknowledge his own sinfulness and that of the people. Then, in the vision, one of the seraphim touched Isaiah's lips with burning coal, an act of cleansing and forgiveness (vv. 6–7). Upon Isaiah's cleansing, the Lord uttered His call: “Whom shall I send?” (v. 8). Isaiah knew nothing of the actual assignment—He didn't know the message, the location, or the duration of the call. He didn't understand the difficulties he would face. Yet, unlike Moses and Samuel, Isaiah offered no objection and expressed no fear. He simply offered himself. “Here am I. Send me!” (v. 8). The prophet had a difficult task ahead. The Israelites' hearts would be hardened. Yet a remnant would remain. Throughout all generations, God preserved a faithful remnant of His people. >> Like Isaiah, we are not worthy. We must not become proud or self-reliant in our call. The Bible teaches us the importance of confession and cleansing. May we too adopt this beautiful posture of willing obedience.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's study, I finish up with Chapter 15. Once again before I begin I go into this study I go into a rant on some of the current events that affected our daily life, Such as Satan using the Jewish government to destroy Christian Civilization. I talk about the Rockefeller Brother Funded of the Hamas along with George Soros. I discuss ‘Pharmageddon' and how the Covid Vaccine Bioweapon Kills innocent people/The Sixth Vision "In Heaven”It is the Vision which introduces us to the most terrible of all the Visions which affect the earth; for it is followed by the Seven Vials, the seven great and final judgments which close up the whole series set forth in chapters— 16  The Great Judgments.  17  The Great Whore.  18  The Great City.IntroductionChapter 15 is the final chapter and the climax of the “Introduction to the Bowls”, which began with chapter 12.The angels of verse 1 are prepared to deliver Yahweh's wrath. However, before proceeding directly into the wrath, we see a pause in order to make a point: Yahweh's wrath is justified.Now John is giving us another insight on what is taken place in this Temple in Heaven.The 4 beasts or living creatures!"The FOUR LIVING CREATURES"--not "beasts" as in the A.V. which confuses with "the beast" of chapter 13. "FOUR" in number these "living creatures" represent things on earth or MANKIND. They have eyes on all sides. That is, they see all that is going on in all directions. They have the qualities of a LION--STRENGTH, an OX--SERVICE, the FACE OF A MAN--INTELLIGENCE, and the EAGLE of HIGH SPIRITUAL FLIGHT. Like Isaiah's seraphim (Isa. 6:1-13) each has six wings. And they sing of the mighty strenght of Yahweh PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE. (verse 7). J. P. Love suggests "It will be well worth while to read this fourth chapter of Revelation and the sixth chapter of Isaiah together and then go carefully through the hymn "Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," noting how remarkably the hymnist has blended the figures used by Isaiah and John." (Dr. J. P. Love "Layman's Bible Commentary on John--Jude--Revelation" SCM Press, Page 64). The praising of Yahweh by the four living creatures and the elders in verses 6-11 lift our hopes for the time when the qualities of ALL mankind shall be equal to the STRENGTH of the lion, the POWER and SERVICE of the ox, the INTELLIGENCE of a man, and the SWIFTNESS of the eagle.7  And one of the four beasts = See the notes on Rev. 4:6-7. Which one of the four is not mentioned.Gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials = The word used here - φιάλη  phialē ‘fee-al-ay'- means properly, “a bowl or goblet, having more breadth than depth”Full of the wrath of God = Filled with what represented his wrath;Who liveth forever and ever = The eternal Yahweh.8   And the temple was filled with smoke = smoke symbolic of judgement! The usual symbol of the divine presence in the temple.From the glory of Yahweh = From the manifestation of the divine majesty.And from his power = ‘doo-nam-is' Produced by his power; and the symbol of his power.And no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled = Until those vials had been poured out, and all that was indicated by them was accomplished. At this point in time, Heaven is locked up. The gates are closed.Observations About the Wrath of YahwehYahweh's wrath is not like the wrath of a man. A man can get angry, become carried away by his emotions, and lash out, only to regret the consequences later.Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh! Have any questions? Feel free to email me at keitner@netzero.net

The new creation will be a place of joy and restoration, and we're made to look forward to that day.

Ezekiel 2:3-4 God certainly didn't do anything to make Ezekiel's ministry look attractive! Like Isaiah, he is informed that he will have a really tough time serving God and will meet with constant resistance. Serving God in a world which largely ignores or rejects him is always hard work. Earlier today, I was reading a biography of John Newton, the slave trading captain turned Christian. Newton was convinced that God had called him to be a minister and had his eyes wide open to the challenges of doing so. In his journal, he noted that he expected to face “opposition on all sides... censure and ridicule...a larger measure of trials than others.” I'm not going to disagree with any of that. It is hard work being involved in God's work and, after 40 years of being a minister, I know from personal experience that this is true. But serving God has also been the greatest joy and honour that could be imagined – and I am sure both John Newton and Ezekiel would agree with me. Having the privilege of speaking God's word, seeing people receive it and be transformed by it, is a breath- taking privilege. Seeing people find hope in God and a confidence for the future is amazing. Amid all of the challenges that we inevitably face, in a world that is fundamentally opposed to God, serving God is life at its best - whatever he calls us to do and wherever we are called to do it. If you are a Christian leader, be encouraged, however tough the going may be at the moment. And if you are not, remember those who serve in
 this way in your prayers. Remember that many are facing life and death challenges on a regular basis, and will constantly be stretched by the demands of their work. They need your love, understanding and sensitivity more than you realise. QUESTION In what specific ways can you support your church leaders? And, if you are a church leader, how could you support your colleagues more effectively? PRAYER Loving God, thank you for those who are called to serve you as leaders. Give them your strength and peace as they serve you. Amen

The Fifth Sunday after Trinity: Fishing for People St. Luke 5:1-11 by William Klock Jesus had a big message, he was alone.  He knew the amazing and miraculous circumstance of his birth.  He knew the words that had been spoken over him as a baby, when he was too small to understand, blessings given by old saints like Simeon and Anna when Mary and Joseph had taken him to be dedicated in the temple.  Most of all, he knew the scriptures.  He'd pieced it all together and he knew who he was and why his Father—not Joseph, but his Father father had sent him.  Jesus knew what the God of Israel was doing through him.  Jesus knew what he had to do.    If he'd had any doubts about it, his baptism by John in the Jordan had driven them all away.  John knew who he was.  And then the heavens had opened, the Spirit had descended on him, and his Father had spoken: “You are my son.”  And he had proved himself in the desert as he was tempted by the devil—each time that knowledge of who he was, what he was here for, and all those scriptures he'd memorised and meditated on came flooding back.  He resisted the devil and the devil had fled.  And his Father had vindicated him, sending his angels to minister to him.  Walking out of the desert, Jesus was ready to take that big message to his people.  And he began, literally, with his people.  He went back to his home town of Nazareth and on the sabbath, in the synagogue, the rabbi gave him the Isaiah scroll to read. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, [Jesus read out]          because he has anointed me          to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives          and recovering of sight to the blind,          to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus said.  Today it begins.  Israel had been crying out to the Lord for deliverance for centuries.  He has heard your cries and he has sent me to proclaim the good news.  Deliverance and judgement are coming.  Judgement always comes with deliverance, because the faithful cannot be delivered unless the unfaithful and the wicked are judged and cast down.  So repent and believe for the kingdom of God is near. At first the people—many his friends and family—were amazed, but all they wanted was their own personal Messiah to work miracles for them.  By the time Jesus had finished rebuking them, they'd formed a mob and chased him to the edge of a cliff.  They were ready to throw him down, to kill him.  By some miracle he escaped.  He fled to Capernaum.  There, people listened.  He cast out a demon.  Word about him quickly spread.  One sabbath, after preaching his message in the synagogue, that message about the coming kingdom, about deliverance and judgment and the need for Israel to repent, he was invited to the home of a man named Simon.  Simon's mother-in-law was sick and had a fever.  Jesus healed her.  Pretty soon everyone in town with a problem was crowding Simon's house to be healed by Jesus.  In him they were getting a glimpse of the age to come, of the world finally set to rights.  They didn't want him to leave, but he had to go, he had to take the good news about the coming of the kingdom to the rest of God's people, to the rest of Judea.  Judgement was coming for Israel, and the people—everyone in Israel—needed to hear Jesus' call to repentance. So many villages and town and cities.  So many people.  So many heard and were enthusiastic.  Many even believed.  But so many didn't.  Some just saw the miracles and their only thought was for today and they missed what the good news really was.  Some got it, they heard Jesus' announcement of the kingdom, but they misunderstood or they got angry.  The Messiah was supposed to announce judgement on Israel's enemies, not on Israel!  No matter how Jesus looked at it, his mission was so big and he was just one man.  It weighed heavily on him.  A big message and even bigger task for just one person. But one day not long after, St. Luke tells us in today's Gospel, Jesus was standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee near Capernaum.  He was preaching.  It was a good spot for that.  There are coves that amplify the sound.  He was using one of them like a natural amphitheatre.  But the crowd of people just kept getting bigger and bigger.  People wanted to see the miracle-worker, but more than that, they wanted to hear the good news he was proclaiming—that in him the Lord had heard the cries of his people and had come to deliver and to judge.  Some—the hurting and the poor—needed to hear that message of consolation.  Some wanted to know just who it was that would be judged—because they'd heard Jesus calling people to repentance.  And the crowd got bigger and bigger and people were struggling to hear what he was saying. And Luke writes that there were a couple of boats on the beach.  Fishing boats.  The fisherman had come in from their night's labour, had emptied the boats, and were on the beach looking after their nets while Jesus preached.  Jesus recognised one of the fishermen.  It was Simon.  A few days before he'd been invited to his house and he'd healed his mother-in-law.  And so he called to Simon and asked him to row him out onto the water so that he could preach from his boat and let the water and walls of the cove amplify his voice.  Simon did as Jesus asked. And Jesus preached about the Lord's kingdom that was so soon to come.  Luke doesn't give us Jesus' specific words on this occasion, but we know he preached there what he preached everywhere else.  He preached about coming judgement, he preached about repentance, and he preached about the life of the age to come that awaited the repentant on the other side of that judgement.  In Jesus the Lord had come to set things to rights, but to be part of that new world and that new and restored people, the people of Israel needed to be right with the Lord.  For those who refused to repent, war with Rome waited and the death and utter destruction it would bring.  To make his point Jesus spoke of outer darkness and gnashing teeth—just the sort of judgement language the old prophets had used—Gehenna and unquenchable fire.  Jesus reminded the people of familiar passages from the prophets, from Isaiah and from Ezekiel and from Jeremiah, passages about judgement and deliverance and national repentance, and about the faithfulness of the Lord. And in the middle of all that, inspiration struck Jesus.  He had an idea.  The good news wasn't going to proclaim itself to Israel and there were only so many places and people Jesus could reach with the message in the short time he had.  He needed helpers.  He needed disciples.  And I can't help but think that a little bit of Jeremiah was running around his head—I'll come back to Jeremiah in a bit.  He may have just preached this little bit of Jeremiah to crowd, and as the great crowd finally dispersed and he was alone in the boat with the fishermen, he asked Simon to row out into deeper water and to cast his nets for a catch.  Jeremiah echoing in his mind the whole time. Simon liked Jesus.  After hearing his preaching, he'd invited him to his home.  But you can hear the annoyance in his voice when he responds to Jesus, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”  If the fish weren't there in the dark, they certainly wouldn't be there in the day.  And they'd just cleaned the nets.  And they were tired.  What was the point?  But Simon knew.  If it was anyone else, he'd have pushed him overboard, but this was Jesus.  He'd seen Jesus do things.  And, anyway, he owed him one.  So Simon and his friends rowed out into the deep water and cast their net.  And to their surprise, they caught something.  They caught a lot of somethings—and it wasn't old boots and hubcaps!  Simon started yelling to haul in the nets before they broke from all the fish teeming inside.  But the nets started tearing anyway.  Sooo many fish!  Simon was calling to James and John in the other boat, “Get over here!  Quick!  Help, before the nets are destroyed and all these fish get away.”  And pretty soon they were hauling and scooping fish into both boats.  But now it was the boats that were in danger.  There were so many fish that the boats were riding dangerously low.  The waves were washing over the sides and the boats were sitting lower and lower in the water by the minute.  The fishermen started bailing frantically. But not Simon.  Luke tells us that Simon Peter—yes, that Simon—he tells us that Simon Peter fell down on his knees in the middle of the sinking boat and wriggling fish and cried out to Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”  Simon Peter had an encounter with the holy.  He was no great theologian.  He knew nothing of homoousioses or hypostatic unions.  He simply knew Israel's scriptures and in Jesus he saw the faithfulness of the God of Israel revealed brighter than the sun at noon.  He knew that in Jesus the Lord had come to his people and Simon Peter did what everyone who has ever had an encounter with the God of Israel has done: He fell to his knees, confessed his sinfulness, and pled for that holiness that felt like it was burning into his sinful heart like a red hot poker, he pled for it to go away and leave him be.  Luke makes a point of telling us this detail of the story, because it points back so obviously to Isaiah's encounter with the Lord.  Do you remember Isaiah's response to the presence of the holiness of God?  Isaiah cried out: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5) Isaiah couldn't bear the presence of the holy either.  And that's when an angel flew down to Isaiah bearing a burning coal from the altar.  He touched Isaiah's unclean lips with the coal and proclaimed that his guilt had departed and his sin blotted out.  And then, when the Lord called out, “Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?  Who will proclaim my message to Israel?” Isaiah responded with those familiar words, “Here I am!  Send me!” And it's that scene all over again in that sinking fishing boat between Simon Peter and Jesus.  As Simon Peter knelt, shaking in the presence of the holy, Jesus announced to him, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  In Matthew and Mark, Jesus says to Simon Peter and his friends, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  These were the men Jesus needed to help him to proclaim the coming kingdom and to call the nation to repentance in anticipation of it. But what, exactly, was Jesus calling Simon Peter to do?  On the one hand it's obvious.  We've all been singing the song since we were in Sunday School.  I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men.  I will make you fishers of men if you follow me.  And if you're like me, of course you think of evangelism.  And we forget that Simon Peter and his friends fished with nets and we imagine ourselves doing evangelism as if we're fishermen casting out a line with a worm on the hook and sitting and waiting for a bite.  And that last little bit about “if you follow me”—if.  There was no “if” in that sinking boat.  Jesus just told Simon Peter, “From now on you'll be catching men.”  When the Lord calls you, Brothers and Sisters, there's no if.  Not for Abraham, not for Moses, not for Isaiah, not for Simon Peter—not for us.  They all cowered in fear and then they squirmed and they even argued “I'm not worthy”, “I don't know how”, “I can't”, but the Lord purified them, absolved them, equipped them, and sent them and they went.  Every one of them.  Not just Simon Peter that day, but James and John.   But, again, what was Jesus calling them to do?  What was he calling them for? Remember I said that I think Jesus had a bit of Jeremiah running around his head when he told Simon Peter to row out into the deep water and to cast his nets.  And I think that was the case because, first, Jesus was always preaching the prophets, and second, because of the context—he was in a fishing boat with fisherman. In Jeremiah 16 we read the Lord's words of warning to Israel.  The prophet was to announce the Lord's coming judgement on the nation and people of Israel.  Here's what he says in Jeremiah 16:10-13.  This is the indictment. “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?' then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'   Some of the specifics of the sins had changed since the days of Jeremiah, but Israel in Jesus' day was just as unfaithful to the Lord.  This was a perfect passage for Jesus to draw on in order to explain his ministry and why the Lord had sent him.  The Lord had judged Israel then and he was about to do it again and for the same reason.  Jump down a few verses to 16-18.  Because they have not been faithful to his covenant, the Lord is going to remove his people from the promised land and send them into exile.  And he's going to be thorough about it.  He uses the imagery of fishing and hunting. “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”   Jeremiah's point was that none would escape the coming judgement.  When Babylon fell on Judea like a ton of bricks, many would flee, but none would escape the Lord's judgement.  Like fishers casting their nets across the rivers and catching everything, the Babylonians would let no one escape.  Everyone would be carried off into exile. And this wasn't some bit of Old Testament prophetic imagery that the Jewish people had forgotten.  It's used in the Thanksgiving Psalms found at Qumran, in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The singer of the psalm sees himself as a fisherman with his net spread over Israel, ready to catch the children of injustice and to bring them to judgement.[1]  That's why I expect Jesus would have preached on this passage from Jeremiah, if not this day, then on some other.  But what better passage to be preaching as he stood in Simon's fishing boat. And something clicks in Jesus' head.  This time there's a way to escape the coming judgement.  That's why Jesus was sent.  Not just to announce that judgement was coming soon, but to call the people to repentance—and even to give his life as a sacrifice for their sins.  To make a new people, forgiven and full of God's own Spirit, who would be ready to live the life of the age to come, who would be ready to live in God's world set to rights, to live his law of love, and to take up their original vocation, to be his stewards and the priests of his temple.  As Jesus says in John's Gospel, “God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”  What Israel needs is fisherman, just like in Jeremiah's day, but not fisherman to catch the fish for judgement.  Israel needs a corps of gospel fishermen who will catch people that they might live.  The word Jesus uses for catch means to capture something alive.  In the Old Testament it was used to describe capturing an enemy, while sparing his life instead of putting him to death.  It's the perfect image for the mission of Jesus and his disciples.  In the face of coming judgement, these gospel fishermen will catch men and women so that their lives will be spared. I doubt Simon Peter or James or John had any idea that day the full extent of what they were in for, but they had heard the good news, they had chosen their side, and Luke writes that when they'd got their boats and nets and the fish to shore, they left it all and followed Jesus.  Like Isaiah, Simon Peter had heard the call, had been absolved and equipped by the Lord, and was ready to stand and say, “Here I am.  Send me!”  These disciples were the labourers sent out in to the harvest.  Jesus gave them authority to preach and to heal and to cast out demons.  They went out in the name of Jesus to prepare Israel for the judgement to come.  Like Jesus, they announced the Lord's coming judgement on Israel for her unfaithfulness, and they called the people to repentance.  There was life in a renewed people of God on the other side of the coming disaster, a life full of the Spirit, a life as the people Israel had always been called to be—the people who lived with God in their midst.  And that ministry drew a line down the middle of Israel.  There were those who heard this good news and believed.  There were those who rejected the message.  The disciples were to leave such people—to symbolically shake the dust from their feet and to move on and to carry the message to those who would receive it. This is why Jesus told them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6).  Judgement would one day come to the gentiles, too, but before the Lord could judge the gentile nations, he had to judge and to renew his own people—to set his own house in order.  Seeing the Lord do that, seeing the Lord come in judgement on his own rebellious people, and seeing him, through Jesus, establishing a new people, that's what would pique the interest of the gentiles.  Seeing the faithfulness of the God of Israel—something they'd never seen in their own gods—that is what ultimately prompt the gentile nations to come and glorify this God who was unlike any other.  This was the good news that would eventually conquer the world of the Greeks and Romans for Jesus the Messiah.   Now, Brothers and Sisters, it's our turn.  We're here this morning reading Luke's Gospel because the Lord has kept his promises.  Because he kept his promise to discipline his own children and, through Jesus, to put his own house in order.  Because he kept his promise to pour out his Spirit on that new people who found their identity in Jesus.  Because he kept his promise to Simon Peter, that he would, from them on, be catching people instead of fish.  Because the Lord was faithful and may in Israel believed.  Because the Lord was faithful, the gentiles saw and believed.  This God and his crucified and risen Son, and this Spirit-filled people were unlike anything the world had ever seen or heard of and so the world came, a trickle at first, but then nations and eventually an entire empire, to kneel before him and to give him glory.  And the amazing thing is that through their faith in Jesus, they became part of this new Israel, this people of God, forgiven by his Son and filled with his Spirit.  And ever since, this good news about Jesus and about his cross and about his resurrection from the dead and about his ascension to his heavenly throne and about the faithfulness of the God of Israel has been spreading—gospel fishermen casting their nets and catching fish—catching them that they might hear and believe and repent and know the life of the age to come.  Because the Lord will one day judge all the earth, just as he judged Israel, and just as he judged the Greek and Romans.  When Jesus has put every last enemy under his feet—and if the Lord's past record is worth anything, we know Jesus surely will put every last enemy under his feet—when the gospel and the church and the Spirit have done their work—and if the story of Simon Peter and this Spirit-filled church is worth anything, we know it will one day do the work Jesus equipped it to do—then the Lord will finally wipe every last bit of rebellion and sin and wickedness from his creation.  There will be outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth, but there will also be life in this world set to rights.  Brothers and Sisters, Jesus sends us out to proclaim this good news, to prepare the world for what lies ahead, to preach the death and resurrection of Jesus, to proclaim like royal heralds that he is Lord, and that forgiveness and healing and life with God are his gift, that all who repent and believe can be part of this amazing, life-filled people he has created in Jesus, but that to receive that gift of his grace, we must repent and believe that we might be transformed—aligned with the values of his kingdom, that we might be prepared for the age to come and life with him.  Today we're the gospel fishermen sent out to cast our nets, to proclaim the good news for the glory of God. Let's pray: Father, you have called us and made us your people.  You send us out, like Simon Peter, to fish for people that they might know the life of your kingdom.  When we're tempted to protest, thinking that we are unworthy of the task, that we are too sinful, that we aren't up to it, remind us that in Jesus you have forgiven us, that you have made us holy, that you have filled us with your Spirit, and that you have given us this remarkable and irresistible story to tell the world, this story of your goodness, your love, your grace, your mercy, and your faithfulness.  Give us the grace to do the work of your kingdom as we trust in your faithfulness to us and to all who hear it.  Through the Lord Jesus we pray.  Amen. [1] 1QHa 13:7-11

Holy, Holy, Holy Lesson Text: Isaiah 6:1-8 #SundaySchool #COGIC #TheProphetAndPraise God is worthy of praise and worship. Thought to Remember: The removal of sin enables one to hear what God is saying. Lessons learned: Spirit-led worship marks true believers. Through the Spirit, we worship God by bringing all our creative faculties under Christ's rule. The Spirit enables us to offer God our worship in a way that pleases Him and brings our lives into greater conformity with His will. Like Isaiah, who experienced the burning coal to purge his sin, he realized that God was more interested in purging sin than punishing sin. So, Isaiah committed himself to God's mission for his life. Considering this lesson, I must not simply worship God on Sunday but commit myself to a life of holiness that reflects the attitude of Send me God. My Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we honor You, for You alone are worthy of our worship and adoration. We live in a world where there is a lack of reverence for Your directions and guidance. Forgive us for times when we compromised by agreeing with the culture, the world's system. So use us as change agents to bring glory to this world. Allow us to bear witness that Your Word is true. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen.

Chris Carter of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, hosts the Locked on Steelers podcast.The Pittsburgh Steelers' 2023 roster could still use another linebacker on its roster, and Omar Khan is exploring options. But there's no rush in the current NFL market to finalize the Steelers' plan at the position with players like Kwon Alexander and Deion Jones still in free agency and Isaiah Simmons as a possible trade target for the Arizona Cardinals. Patience will be key for Omar Khan to make the right move again for the Steelers.Also, there's a debate for after Diontae Johnson and George Pickens, who should be WR3? Allen Robinson is an obvious choice, but should Calvin Austin III be overlooked? And when looking at the wide receiver depth chart, how much will a WR3 even get targeted in an offense that looks to establish the run and will have Johnson, Pickens, Najee Harris and Pat Freiermuth as primary options before that spot. So there's less pressure for a third wide receiver to be a key player for the offense. A big similarity can be drawn back to the 2005 Steelers when Ben Roethlisberger was in his second year just like Kenny Pickett is now in his second year with the Steelers.CALL INTO THE SHOW AT 412-223-6644 or if international, e-mail your audio message to LOSTEELERSTOPICBAG@GMAIL.COMFollow Chris Carter on Twitter: @CarterCritiques.Theme music is 'Soul Kick' by Ceddy P, and 'Too Easy' by Nerdboy. Both from their label Renaissance Music. Find more from their label here.This show is part of the Locked on Podcast Network.DONATE to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation with this link: https://finest.cff.org/pgh50finest/cartercritiquesSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That's PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONUltimate Football GMTo download the game just visit Ultimate-GM.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris Carter of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, hosts the Locked on Steelers podcast. The Pittsburgh Steelers' 2023 roster could still use another linebacker on its roster, and Omar Khan is exploring options. But there's no rush in the current NFL market to finalize the Steelers' plan at the position with players like Kwon Alexander and Deion Jones still in free agency and Isaiah Simmons as a possible trade target for the Arizona Cardinals. Patience will be key for Omar Khan to make the right move again for the Steelers. Also, there's a debate for after Diontae Johnson and George Pickens, who should be WR3? Allen Robinson is an obvious choice, but should Calvin Austin III be overlooked? And when looking at the wide receiver depth chart, how much will a WR3 even get targeted in an offense that looks to establish the run and will have Johnson, Pickens, Najee Harris and Pat Freiermuth as primary options before that spot. So there's less pressure for a third wide receiver to be a key player for the offense. A big similarity can be drawn back to the 2005 Steelers when Ben Roethlisberger was in his second year just like Kenny Pickett is now in his second year with the Steelers. CALL INTO THE SHOW AT 412-223-6644 or if international, e-mail your audio message to LOSTEELERSTOPICBAG@GMAIL.COM Follow Chris Carter on Twitter: @CarterCritiques. Theme music is 'Soul Kick' by Ceddy P, and 'Too Easy' by Nerdboy. Both from their label Renaissance Music. Find more from their label here. This show is part of the Locked on Podcast Network. DONATE to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation with this link: https://finest.cff.org/pgh50finest/cartercritiques Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! LinkedIn LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order. PrizePicks First time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That's PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDON Ultimate Football GM To download the game just visit Ultimate-GM.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store. FanDuel Make Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get started FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back to "The Power Of God's Whisper Podcast", friends. We're all in for a treat today as we dive into a profound verse from the book of Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 8, "I heard the Lord asking, 'Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?'" It's an invitation, a challenge, and a call to each one of us. But to truly understand and answer this call, we must first learn to listen, and to listen, we must learn to worship.My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Point 1: The Link between Worship and Listening Think of worship as a radio frequency where God's voice is most clear. When we worship, our spirits tune into God's frequency, aligning us with His presence. Worship isn't just singing songs, it's our hearts resonating with God's heart. And as our hearts beat in sync with His, we begin to hear His whispers more clearly. Worship opens our spiritual ears to hear God's voice.Point 2: Encountering God in Worship When we worship, we encounter God. It's like standing at the foot of a towering mountain, realizing its grandeur and your smallness. This sense of awe, of reverence, is what makes worship an environment ripe for hearing God. Like Isaiah in the temple, when we enter into a place of worship, we're more likely to have a profound encounter with God.Point 3: Cultivating an Atmosphere of Worship Creating an atmosphere of worship isn't just about music or a specific location. It's about the posture of our hearts. It's about choosing to give God the glory even when life is tough, to sing His praises even when our hearts are breaking. This attitude of worship, regardless of our circumstances, creates a spiritual greenhouse where our relationship with God can flourish._______In the words of Isaiah, we see a clear demonstration of the power of worship, the impact it has on our ability to hear God, and the transformative effect it can have on our lives. Worship is not a one-way street of us praising God. It's a divine interaction, a spiritual exchange where we offer our praises, and in return, we receive the privilege of hearing His voice.Call to Action: This week, I challenge you to create your own greenhouse of worship. Regardless of your circumstances, fill your heart and mouth with praises. Tune into God's frequency through worship and listen out for His whispers. Remember, God is asking, "Whom should I send as a messenger?" Will you be ready to answer His call?Join us next time as we explore more about the journey of listening to God's whispers and answering His call. Don't forget: age is just a number in God's Kingdom. You're never too young to make a difference. Until then, keep cultivating your spiritual greenhouse. Stay blessed!Let's Pray…Holy God, You are glorious, majestic, and beautiful. I adore Your heart  —and Your willingness to share it with me. Let me live with a strong sense of Your presence, an atmosphere in which Your words are abundant and clear. Open my heart and my ears to hear You.Thank you for reading My Reasons To Believe. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to My Reasons To Believe at myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back to "The Power Of God's Whisper Podcast", friends. We're all in for a treat today as we dive into a profound verse from the book of Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 8, "I heard the Lord asking, 'Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?'" It's an invitation, a challenge, and a call to each one of us. But to truly understand and answer this call, we must first learn to listen, and to listen, we must learn to worship.My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Point 1: The Link between Worship and Listening Think of worship as a radio frequency where God's voice is most clear. When we worship, our spirits tune into God's frequency, aligning us with His presence. Worship isn't just singing songs, it's our hearts resonating with God's heart. And as our hearts beat in sync with His, we begin to hear His whispers more clearly. Worship opens our spiritual ears to hear God's voice.Point 2: Encountering God in Worship When we worship, we encounter God. It's like standing at the foot of a towering mountain, realizing its grandeur and your smallness. This sense of awe, of reverence, is what makes worship an environment ripe for hearing God. Like Isaiah in the temple, when we enter into a place of worship, we're more likely to have a profound encounter with God.Point 3: Cultivating an Atmosphere of Worship Creating an atmosphere of worship isn't just about music or a specific location. It's about the posture of our hearts. It's about choosing to give God the glory even when life is tough, to sing His praises even when our hearts are breaking. This attitude of worship, regardless of our circumstances, creates a spiritual greenhouse where our relationship with God can flourish._______In the words of Isaiah, we see a clear demonstration of the power of worship, the impact it has on our ability to hear God, and the transformative effect it can have on our lives. Worship is not a one-way street of us praising God. It's a divine interaction, a spiritual exchange where we offer our praises, and in return, we receive the privilege of hearing His voice.Call to Action: This week, I challenge you to create your own greenhouse of worship. Regardless of your circumstances, fill your heart and mouth with praises. Tune into God's frequency through worship and listen out for His whispers. Remember, God is asking, "Whom should I send as a messenger?" Will you be ready to answer His call?Join us next time as we explore more about the journey of listening to God's whispers and answering His call. Don't forget: age is just a number in God's Kingdom. You're never too young to make a difference. Until then, keep cultivating your spiritual greenhouse. Stay blessed!Let's Pray…Holy God, You are glorious, majestic, and beautiful. I adore Your heart  —and Your willingness to share it with me. Let me live with a strong sense of Your presence, an atmosphere in which Your words are abundant and clear. Open my heart and my ears to hear You.Thank you for reading My Reasons To Believe. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to The Power Of God's Whisper at myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

In 'EPISODE 309 GOD PROMISES PROTECTION FROM TRIBULATION IN REVELATION--DOES GOD REALLY KEEP HIS PROMISES--WHAT DO BOOKS LIKE ISAIAH, EZEKIEL AND OTHERS SAY THE FUTURE HOLDS--DOES IT MATCH THE WORD OF JESUS', author/speaker and host Elbert Hardy starts out with a mighty promise from Jesus himself saying 'Because you have kept the word of my patience to persevere, and have not denied my name, I will also keep you from the hour of trial.' (Revelation 3:10). Is he talking about the Rapture? Find out the truth in this Episode.Go to itellwhy.com to read Elbert's books free of charge, no Ads and no requests for money or Email addresses. You can watch faith building YouTube Links to Videos and the listen to Elbert's Life of Christ Audio Book in 30 minute Episodes arranged and read by the author straight from the Bible, but rearranged in logical harmony of the Gospels, Revelation and other scriptures. All FREE of charge in the public interest.

2 Timothy 1:9 When Jesus met Paul on the road to Damascus, everything changed. He moved from darkness to light. He experienced the forgiveness of his sins and entered into a new life with God which would never end. His whole life changed direction and he became an enthusiastic champion of the Christian faith, encouraging everyone to discover this salvation for themselves. In this verse, he reminds Timothy that salvation is not the end of the process. God saves us for a purpose, so that we will live a transformed life of holiness. Holiness is the kind of word from which we all naturally shrink. Like Isaiah long ago, we are more than aware of how unholy we are, and how unholy our society is. However, holiness is God's intention for us because that is life at its best. Let me illustrate this by sharing the experience of living with hard water. My wife and I have spent much of our married life living in chalky areas and, as you probably know, chalk tends to fur up water pipes. It does it very gradually but, as time passes, the pipes get so clogged up that water can no longer pass through them. If sin is like the chalky deposits which restrict the water flow, holiness is like having totally clear pipes. So when we live holy lives, we are able to live life to the full. Seeking to be holy is the same as seeking to be fully alive. That's why salvation is so important. God has saved us so that we can live a holy life. Paul often reminded his readers that salvation is a gift, and it's vital that we remember that. We possess many things that are ours because we worked hard for them. Our educational and sporting achievements are the result of our effort, and our possessions are often the reward of years of work. But salvation is different. It's entirely a gift. However much effort we put into it, we cannot achieve salvation. All we can do is open our hands and receive the gift. That's amazing grace. QUESTION How would you describe salvation to somebody who is not a Christian? PRAYER Loving God, I thank you for the gift of salvation. I pray that you will teach me more each day how to live a holy life. Amen

If you appreciate this work, consider supporting it - https://www.patreon.com/seekgodtogether Today we will read John 12:23-25 which says, “Jesus replied to them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop. The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.'” This is Holy Week which began with the Triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. Holy Monday commemorates the cursing of the fig tree, and the cleansing of the temple. Today is Holy Tuesday and observes Jesus predicting His own death. Christians vary in how specifically they celebrate Holy Week, but there is value in understanding the ancient traditions. And even now, in setting out to say something of value concerning Christ's work leading up to the cross, I personally want to clasp my hand over my mouth and say nothing for fear of getting it wrong. Like Isaiah, I am a man of unclean lips and we are looking upon the most holy things of God. And yet we've been invited to look on in worship at our incredible Savior. And so we'll venture in further. Jesus' had become infamous. And His entry into Jerusalem, especially around Passover, had created quite a stir. Some Greeks wanted to see Him. But when asked if they could, Jesus seems to answer a question no one asks and says, “The hour has come.” Jesus predicts His own death.  To illustrate His death, He appeals to the principle of sowing and reaping. By Jesus dying, He (like a seed) lays the groundwork for exponential returns. His death is not the end of the story but rather just the beginning. His eyes are on His impending death yes, but more so on the crop it will yield later.  And He includes us in on the picture. Often the passion of Jesus is seen as something He does alone. And that's true. But here Jesus sees an obvious if/then. Since He will die and produce a crop, in the same way, you and I will produce a crop leading to eternal life. But how? By hating our lives. This passage has often disturbed readers. And understandably so. Let's not attempt to soften the blow of His words. But let's also consider. Did Jesus hate His life? Did He want to lose it? No. He asked that the cup of suffering be taken from Him if possible. Jesus never had a death wish. But He passionately wanted to redeem people, and please God, and accomplish His task, and fulfill scripture, and reconcile all creation. You could say these far outweighed His all-too-human instinct for self-preservation. And in the same way, we are invited to participate. In the suffering, yes. But far more in the glory. Jesus - You amaze me at every turn. I've seen You suffer. And I've seen some of the return. I want to see more. And I hardly even know what I'm asking, but I want to play the role You have for me in it. 

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.So far:Amos preached a message of divine judgment, demanding repentance.Religion without righteousness is worthless.Economic and political prosperity are not necessarily a sign of divine approval.Opulent, self-directed living plus lack of concern for the needy is reprehensible.Yahweh's reign is over all the earth, not just over Israel.Since the law demands covenant faithfulness, without which the ultimate penalty of exile will be exacted, and since Israel has refused to listen to her prophets, she will surely go into captivity.Amos encountered official opposition.Religion in Israel was closely allied with the state. Power appears to have intoxicated the priests of the corrupt system of Jeroboam.Amaziah, priest at Bethel, commands Amos to return to Judah. "Southerner, go home!"The prophet remains undaunted.Light-hearted harvest is to become heavy-hearted judgment (8:1-3)Songs of joy in the season of plenty will become dirges and laments in time of judgment.The summer fruit (in August or September) would have been figs or pomegranates.Word-play: qayits means summer fruit (2 Samuel 16:1-2); qets means end. It's the end of Israel; the time is ripe!In these verses the message is no longer “Seek the Lord and live” (5:6). Now it has become: “It's too late; you must die” (like a physician telling patient his disease is terminal).That day (v.3) is none other than the day of 5:18-20. The Assyrians will surely come, though this is still a couple of decades off.Love of money at any cost (8:4-7)8:4-7 echoes 2:6-8. The entrepreneurs are running roughshod over the poor.The rapacity of the leaders reached criminal proportions. For an illustration of how the powerful seized whatever they desired, read 1 Kings 21 and 2 Kings 9 (the incident with Naboth's vineyard).They are impatient for the Sabbath to be over, so that they can get back to business (exploiting the poor). Israel was, as it were, eager to get out of church as quickly as possible in order to return to their favorite activity: making more money.God will bring an earthquake! (8:8)The earthquake (judgment) motif is also found in 2:13, 3:14-15, 9:1, and of course 1:1. Amos' prophecies would have grown greatly in credibility after the quake (see Zechariah 14:5).“… Amos perceives [the foundations of materialistic greed] to be so firm that only an earthquake can shatter its proud structures.” Craigie 185Then the prophet's imagery moves from the common to the metaphorical.Darkness, baldness, death8:9-10 – eclipse.Interestingly, there were two total eclipses in Amos' lifetime (9 February 784 BC, 15 June 763 BC). These would not have failed to impress the Israelites!Isaiah 30:26 and many other metaphorical passages describe blessing/punishment in terms of amplification/reduction of various natural phenomena.V.10 -- baldness refers to heads shaved in mourning (Jeremiah 16:6).The loss of an only son = goodbye to continued existence, personhood or progeny. See Jeremiah 6:26, Zechariah 12:10 (also Luke 7 – the widow of Nain).Spiritual famineThe famine has been caused by godless leaders, and failure on both their part and the people's to heed the word of God.This is not like Matthew 5:6. For these persons will stumble in their seeking, yet not find (as they refuse to repent).See 2 Chronicles 15:2-4.Word of God as bread: Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4 (Luke 4:4), Isaiah 55:1-3.V.13 -- When the young men/women (youth) are gone, there's no hope for the future. It's the end of the nation.Israel will fall, never to rise again. (Read about how Israel was dismantled and destroyed in 2 Kings 17-25).ConclusionIs there any hope for Israel? Perhaps a better question, is there any hope for us?Will we escape if we continue to ignore the word of the Lord?Am I giving my heart to something bigger than myself, to the message of Christ, to the cross of Christ, to the body of Christ and being transformed into the character of Christ?How many church members fail to read Amos, supposing it has nothing to say to them, no vital message? May it never be so.And last, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?AdvancedOn their cheating in business, the ephah = 22 liters, the shekel 11g. Merchants would line the basket to make it heavier, or use a larger counterweight than legal in the scales (Proverbs 11:1, 16:11, 20:10,23).Re: v.9: This is apocalyptic language, not literal. Like Isaiah 30:26, Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2, and the book of Revelation. How many passages with apocalyptic language can you locate in the Bible?Re: v.12 – sea to sea = S to W; N to E (Dead Sea to Great Sea [Mediterranean], North to West: all four cardinal directions. The famine -- the judgment -- is national.V.14 -- "from Dan to Beersheba" means from one end of the land to another (see Judges 20:1).

Isaiah 6 gives us a grand vision of the holiness of God and reminds us that He is “holy, holy, holy.” When the prophet Isaiah saw this grand vision, he cried out because he was a man of “unclean lips.” Because of Isaiah's sinfulness, a seraphim promptly flew to him, touched his lips with a coal, and pronounced him clean. Like Isaiah, we need cleansing to dwell with God in His supreme holiness. In this session, Dr. John MacArthur considers God's holiness and why it matters both now and forever, explaining that God is holy and that He has made us His holy people. For more info: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/conferences/right-now-counts-forever-2021-national-conference/the-holiness-of-god-and-his-people --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/expositorysermons/support

Be sure to check out Devy to Dynasty Podcast and subscribe on YouTube Jason DiRienzo is @allpurposescout on Twitter be sure to follow him and all of his work Brandon Lejeune is @DevyDeepDive on Twitter be sure to follow him and all of his work SAVE 15% off ANY DynastyNerds.com MEMBERSHIP: PROMO CODE: FEVER   If you love Dynasty, you love Rookies. Look no further than The Rookie Fever Podcast. You've heard of a youth movement, Rookie Fever takes it one step further. We can't get enough, we are hot for Rookies. Stay up to date on Rookies. Rookie Fever is everything Rookies.   Be sure to go to https://campus2canton.com/ and use Code FEVER save 10%  If you love Dynasty, you love Rookies. Look no further than The Rookie Fever Podcast. You've heard of a youth movement, Rookie Fever takes it one step further. We can't get enough, we are hot for Rookies. Stay up to date on Rookies. Rookie Fever is everything Rookies. Be sure to check out our new Rookie Fever Store https://rookie-fever.creator-spring.com   Thanks for listening, please download, subscribe, 5 star review, please tell a friend. Follow us on Twitter:  @RookieFever @AardvarkTV Michael Fanaro @SwagzillaZeroG Shane Swager

Message from Jay Mosser on June 5, 2022

If you appreciate this work, consider supporting it - https://www.patreon.com/seekgodtogether Today we will read John 12:23-25 which says, “Jesus replied to them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop. The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.'” This is Holy Week which began with the Triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. Holy Monday commemorates the cursing of the fig tree, and the cleansing of the temple. Today is Holy Tuesday and observes Jesus predicting His own death. Christians vary in how specifically they celebrate Holy Week, but there is value in understanding the ancient traditions. And even now, in setting out to say something of value concerning Christ's work leading up to the cross, I personally want to clasp my hand over my mouth and say nothing for fear of getting it wrong. Like Isaiah, I am a man of unclean lips and we are looking upon the most holy things of God. And yet we've been invited to look on in worship at our incredible Savior. And so we'll venture in further. Jesus' had become infamous. And His entry into Jerusalem, especially around Passover, had created quite a stir. Some Greeks wanted to see Him. But when asked if they could, Jesus seems to answer a question no one asks and says, “The hour has come.” Jesus predicts His own death. To illustrate His death, He appeals to the principle of sowing and reaping. By Jesus dying, He (like a seed) lays the groundwork for exponential returns. His death is not the end of the story but rather just the beginning. His eyes are on His impending death yes, but more so on the crop it will yield later. And He includes us in on the picture. Often the passion of Jesus is seen as something He does alone. And that's true. But here Jesus sees an obvious if/then. Since He will die and produce a crop, in the same way, you and I will produce a crop leading to eternal life. But how? By hating our lives. This passage has often disturbed readers. And understandably so. Let's not attempt to soften the blow of His words. But let's also consider. Did Jesus hate His life? Did He want to lose it? No. He asked that the cup of suffering be taken from Him if possible. Jesus never had a death wish. But He passionately wanted to redeem people, and please God, and accomplish His task, and fulfill scripture, and reconcile all creation. You could say these far outweighed His all-too-human instinct for self-preservation. And in the same way, we are invited to participate. In the suffering, yes. But far more in the glory. Jesus - You amaze me at every turn. I've seen You suffer. And I've seen some of the return. I want to see more. And I hardly even know what I'm asking, but I want to play the role You have for me in it. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Fifth Sunday After Epiphany, February 6, 2022Epiphany Series: Uncovered Uncovered Messengers: The least qualified are the first sentFirst Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8. Isaiah admitted he was guilty of sin; in his grace, the Lord not only takes Isaiah's sin away, but also sends him out as a messenger of grace.Psalm 67: Oh God, show us your mercy and bless us with your grace.Second Reading: Romans 10:12-17. God's plan is to send saved sinners to proclaim salvation to other sinners.Gospel Reading: Luke 5:1-11. Jesus tales simple, self-admittedly sinful fisherman and removes their fears, calls them to follow, and makes them fishers of men.Sermon Text: Isaiah 6:1-8. Are You Qualified to Share the Gospel?Sin says ‘no' but God says, “yes.” Like Isaiah, like the disciples, you are qualified because God has made you so. You are because God has forgiven your sins. You are because God has called you to the job. You are really just the messenger; you can't make the message more persuasive or powerful; that is the work of the Gospel. It is the Holy Spirit who changes hearts.Amen Pastor Ron Koehler

Today I want to make sure you know what we mean when we use the phrase “the second coming of Jesus Christ”. Sometimes there is some confusion because Christ's coming again is in two phases. First we want to note that the reason we called it the “second coming” is because we believe that Jesus had a “first coming”. His first coming was when He was born of the virgin Mary in the city of Bethlehem two-thousand years ago. His first coming was literal! It is historical fact that a man named Jesus lived on planet earth for about thirty-three and a half years. His life was so significant that history dates our calendars based on the year He was born! It can be properly said, “2021, The Year of Our Lord”. Every time you write down the date you are recognizing His birth on earth! The Old Testament is full of prophesies concerning the coming of the Messiah. But what is confusing is that those prophesies do not specifically separate His first coming from His second coming. The prophets could not see the period of time in-between the two comings which we call the church age, which was a hidden mystery on the Old Testament. To be sure, most of the prophesies concerning His coming in the Old Testament were about the Messiah coming to earth to restore His people Israel and set up His glorious Kingdom where He would set on the throne of David and rule the earth! So in Jesus time, when the Jews were under Roman rule and oppression, they were looking for the Deliverer, the Messiah to come and set them free. They failed to realized He first had to fulfilled the OT prophesies concerning His first coming, like Micah 5:2, where He would be born in Bethlehem. Like Isaiah 53, where He would be despised and rejected and die as a lamb taken to the slaughter and be buried in a rich man's grave. Jesus in His first coming literally fulfilled all those prophesies! That is why I believe He will also fulfill all the prophesies concerning His second coming literally also. Now concerning the two phases of His second coming, we need to understand that it begins with Jesus coming in the air to rapture His church! (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-58) After that event the Old Testament prophesies concerning the “Time of Jacob's Troubles” will be fulfilled in the seven year tribulation. After the seven year tribulation we have the second phase of His second coming when Jesus comes back literally to the earth and sets up His glorious Kingdom. One of the clearest prophesies of this event is found in Zechariah 14:1-5, “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.” Read also Revelation 19 with this. My friend, if Jesus literally fulfilled every prophesy concerning His first coming, you can be assured that He will literally fulfilled every prophesy concerning His second coming! Jesus Himself said, “I will come again...” (John 14:3). Are you ready? God bless!

Pray what I say a prayed. And then be prepared for God to open doors for you to do things as lead of him.

In this episode, Drew begins a five-part series on the prophets and how they were able to weather the storms of life. He begins by discussing the "Prince" of the prophets: Isaiah. Visit our website: www.scatteredabroad.org and remember to subscribe to our email list "Like" and "share" our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sapodcastnetwork Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_scattered_abroad_network/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: The Scattered Abroad Network Contact us through email at: thescatteredabroadnetwork@gmail.com. If you would like to consider supporting us in any way, please reach out to us through this email.

Jesus was brought into the world to experience the full gamut of human suffering. This was God's plan from the beginning. All four gospel writers connect Jesus with the prophecies in Isaiah 53. Like Isaiah 53, Psalm 22 predicts Christ would experience human pain. God predicted Christ would suffer pain, humiliation, and heartbreak. He knows what it is like to be human. Jesus is God's answer to suffering.

A Bible podcast for youth w/Noah Olson

Introduction Waiting on the Power of God Well, after Jesus was crucified, and after He rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples in the upper room. You think about that scene, the disciples were there in the upper room with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, and Jesus came and stood amongst them and He showed them the physical evidence of His crucifixion, his suffering for them, and He said, "Peace be with you", “and He breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit.” And then He said these incredible words, "If you forgive anyone their sins, they're forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they're not forgiven." And then a week later, they were still in the upper room, and the doors were still locked for fear of the Jews. They knew that Christ had conquered death. They knew it! But they still were fearful of the work that the Lord was laying on them, the work of the Great Commission. They were fearful of what would be asked of them to change the world as would be later said of some of the disciples, “these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” They were afraid of what it would take to turn the world upside down, or really, right-side up. And so, they were there in the upper room, and they were there also because Jesus commanded them not to leave, that they should wait in that upper room until they were clothed with power from on high. And He gave them over that period of time many convincing proofs that He was alive, and then He ascended into Heaven with the statement that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them, and they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth. And they went back and they waited, they waited there in the upper room and then on the day of Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit fell on them. The third person of the Trinity was manifested first in the sound of a violent, rushing wind, and then “tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each one of the, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them,” and a crowd was gathered hearing the sound of that mighty rushing wind and they poured out into the streets, fearless of any consequences that might come on them, in the very same city where their Lord had been crucified only just a short time before that, they had no fear of death, and preached boldly the Gospel. And 3000 were converted that same day. Two Patterns of Resurrection and Power Now, in all of this, two patterns, two lasting patterns were established, that it's worth it to us to study and to understand. The first is the pattern of Jesus' death and resurrection. The pattern of dying and rising again, that was not meant just for Jesus, but was meant also for his witnesses as he said, "Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself a single seed, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." And so, the Church individually and collectively needed to follow that pattern; to be willing to die and have God raise them up, to be willing even to physically die that others might be saved. But of course, all of us tend to preserve our lives. We don't want to suffer and die. And so the second pattern is needful. There you have the Church, understanding all of the facts, understanding the Gospel, aware of the doctrine, aware of the truth, but still it seems powerless, captivated by fear. And then the Holy Spirit pours out and the Church is unleashed in a powerful way. Now, Martyn Lloyd-Jones in 1959, preaching about a revival that happened 100 years before that, in 1859, said that this is the lasting pattern. We see this again and again in Church history, this is what he said. He was speaking at an assembly there on the 100th anniversary of an incredible revival that swept through Great Britain, 1859. And Lloyd-Jones central point there is the Church doesn't really change and neither does the world. The basic issues are always the same, man in his sin, the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. The Church in a weak and almost helpless state unable to meet the challenges of its day, knowing the truth, doing some good ministries, but unable to make significant progress. Suddenly the power of God is poured out from on high, the Church is revived. It moves out in power and many in the world are saved, and they are transformed genuinely. He would say revivals tend to follow their course, they at some point get dissipated in their strength and effectiveness, and the Church returns to its weakened state, needing again the power of God to be poured out from on high. Now Lloyd-Jones is very clear in the distinction between the filling of the Spirit that we have in Ephesians 5:18, where we're commanded to be filled with the Spirit, and what he called the “Baptism of the Spirit.” Now, in this sermon, I'm going to argue that that nomenclature is misplaced, and be bold enough to challenge Martyn Lloyd-Jones on that, but that there's a real experience that our brothers and sisters have had over 2000 years of Church history that we should not discard, no matter what we call it, that there are real experiences of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the Church and the Church being, and this is the normal word, “revived”. Revival comes, and there's tremendous progress made in personal holiness and an evangelistic fruitfulness as a result of that. Lloyd-Jones says, “This is precisely what happens in revival, it is God pouring forth His Spirit, filling His people.” Again, it is not that which is talked of in Ephesians 5:18 which is the command to us, go on being filled with the Spirit. That is something you and I do, but this revival is something that is done to us. It is the Spirit falling upon us, being poured out upon us. These are the terms, “I will pour forth my Spirit,” God alone can do that, but it is you and I were responsible for going on being filled with the Spirit. We must not grieve the Spirit, we must not quench the Spirit, we must give obedience to the Spirit, and as long as we do that we shall go on being filled with the Spirit, but this is different. This is the Spirit being poured out upon us until we are filled to overflowing. The Spirit's Work in Filling Us Now, the Holy Spirit is responsible. The third person in the Trinity, is responsible for taking the finished work of Christ on the cross and applying it worldwide. That is the work given in the Trinity, the work given to the Holy Spirit of God, and He does it very well. For 20 centuries He has made certain that the unconverted elect in every generation are brought from death to life. That Jesus's name is the most famous on planet Earth in every generation, that's the Spirit's work, and He sees to it, but He does that in two different rhythms or patterns, I could say. And what I'm going to say in this sermon today is there are the ordinary ministries of the Spirit and the extraordinary ministries of the Spirit, and both of them are essential for the journey that the Lord has the Church on until His work is finished in this world. Some folks, including Martyn Lloyd-Jones, call the extraordinary ministries of the Spirit the Baptism of the Spirit. I think that's wrong. It's a wrong name for a true experience. Today, I want to talk about the Baptism of the Spirit happening to all Christians, every Christian, at the beginning of their Christian life. And then the filling of the Spirit, in ordinary and extraordinary measures. So I'm going to just lay my cards on the table. I believe that Baptism in the Spirit happens to every single genuinely-born again person, and it happens once and never needs to be repeated again. It happens at conversion. Pentecostals and other charismatics who say that you should seek the Baptism of the Spirit are not following a biblical pattern, for there are no such commands in the New Testament. There are no commands to seek the Baptism of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit happens again and again in the Christian life. And it empowers Christians to make progress in the two journeys that we talk about so much in this church; the internal journey of sanctification, of holiness, and the external journey of gospel advancement, evangelism. Ephesians 5:18 is a command to us that we should seek the filling of the Spirit. We're going to talk about that. The filling of the Spirit, as I've said, comes in both ordinary and extraordinary measures. The ordinary filling of the Spirit has been, and continues to be sufficient to make overwhelming progress that the Lord wants us to make and it should not in any way be denigrated. But the extraordinary filling of the Spirit, sometimes called revival, is also awesome and wonderful and powerful and should be sought through prayer. And it should not be in any way minimized either. Neither should it be over-emphasized as though until we get a revival, nothing will happen. That is not helpful. So therefore, a healthy Christian should see both the ordinary ministries of the Spirit and the extraordinary ministries of the Spirit as beneficial for the spread of the Gospel and growth and holiness. So there's the sermon. I would advise you to continue to listen after that, but you got it in a nutshell now. And so I want to talk about these things, and we need to begin with the terminology; Baptism. Baptism of the Spirit. What is the Baptism of the Spirit? John the Baptist Now baptism itself began in the Bible with John the Baptist. You do not see baptism at all in the Old Testaments, it's not an Old Testament thing. The word from the Greek, “baptizo”, means to immerse or plunge something, to plunge an object, or a person, in a vat or a container or a large amount of liquid. Now, that's how the word is used. So, we Baptists, who believe in complete immersion, all we're saying is we believe in complete baptism. Alright? So a baptism sprinkling, those things don't make any sense. The word means to immerse or plunge. So John the Baptist came along, the habit had been n between the Old Testament and New Testament period, intertestamental period, as Jews have been scattered because of the judgments of God from Palestine to that region of the world, more and more Gentiles became what was known as God-fearers, and wanted to become Jews, they wanted to become monotheists in the Jewish patterns. And so they were accepted in after certain rituals, the men had to be circumcised and both of them had to be bathed, they had to have a bath. They were immersed in water to cleanse them of their pagan ways. This isn't commanded anywhere in the Bible, it was just something that the Jewish leaders did. Well, along comes John the Baptist, and he is preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, "Repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." And he was baptizing Jews, this was shocking, but he was effectively saying by immersing Jews in the Jordan River, he was saying, “You're no better than pagans. You're no better than the Gentiles, you are following the same idolatrous patterns, and you need the same cleansing.” He was predicted in Isaiah 40, “the voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” That was John the Baptist. And Jewish people were just powerfully attracted to his bold preaching, and they came and they received this immersion, this plunging in water by John. They were confessing their sins. Now, the central work of John was to prepare the way for Jesus, to get the people ready for Jesus. And he did this by heightening expectations of this one who was going to come. Jesus said of John the Baptist, he was the greatest man who had ever lived up to that point. “Among those born of women, none had risen greater than John the Baptist.” Jesus' Baptisms: Holy Spirit or Eternal Fire But listen to what John said about Jesus, "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering up the weed into His barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." So there John said Jesus would baptize the people in a greater baptism than he did. He will baptize them in the Holy Spirit and in fire. Now, the unquenchable fire that John the Baptist speaks of is an interpretive key to his thinking. “Unquenchable fire,” to me, must refer to Hell, it must refer to the Lake of Fire. The word baptize means to plunge. And He said that Jesus has the power, the authority to plunge people into unquenchable fire, and this He will do at the end of the world when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will gather all the nations before Him, and He will separate them, one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He'll put the sheep on his right, and the goats on His left. And the sheep represent those that are redeemed and lived a Godly life by the power of the Holy Spirit, but the goats represent the unregenerate. “And He will say to those on his left, ‘depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” Jesus has the power to do that, the authority to do it, and it will happen. However, Jesus will never both plunge someone in the Holy Spirit and in unquenchable fire. It's an either/or proposition. We must understand, therefore, that John is speaking to a mixed group. Some of them he called the brood of vipers, the Pharisees and Sadducees and the religious leaders, but others were just humbly confessing their sins, so he's speaking to a mixed group. And I think we, therefore, need to understand Jesus will either baptize you in the Holy Spirit, or He will baptize you in eternal fire, that's the greatness of Jesus. John only baptizes in water, it's a symbol. Jesus does the real baptism. Baptism of the Spirit Happens at Conversion So what is this Baptism of the Spirit? Well, the Baptism of the Spirit happens by Jesus to genuinely converted persons. It happens at conversion. Look at the text that Jim just read for us, 1 Corinthians 12:13, "We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greek, slave or free, and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." So when does the Baptism of the Spirit happen? First of all, notice it happens to all of us. We were all baptized. There's not a group of people that are Christians, but not yet baptized in the Spirit, and so all Christians are baptized in the Spirit. When does it happen? According to the verse, it happens when we were made members of the Body of Christ. It is by the Baptism of the Spirit that you become a member of the Body of Christ, when you are converted. That's when it happens. So the immersion that we have, the spiritual immersion we have at conversion is positional language. We have been plunged into a spiritual ocean of God, of grace, and in that we live and move and have our being once we are converted. And it never needs to happen again, we are immersed in the Holy Spirit. We have been rescued from Satan's filthy, cesspool of sin, and we have been plunged into grace and into the cleansing. And we stand in that grace forever, that's true of every single Christian all over the world, Jews and Greeks, slave and free. So ethnicity doesn't matter, socio-economic doesn't matter, what matters is are you born again? Have you trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If so, you have been baptized by the Spirit into this one body, the Body of Christ. Now, but beyond this, once for all, plunging into the ocean of Christ's cleansing Spirit or grace by the Spirit. We're also given the text that says one spirit to drink. We have the freedom to drink of the Holy Spirit. This drinking, I believe, refers to an ongoing experience of refreshment that we have through the Holy Spirit in Christ. It reminds me of two magnificent texts in John's Gospel. The first is the statement He made to the Samaritan woman at the well, remember? How she was very proud of the well that Jacob, their father, their ancestor, had given to them. And Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who's speaking to you, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” She's intrigued, she says, “Well who are you? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us this well and he drank from it himself, as did also his flocks and herds.” Jesus said this, “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I give him shall never thirst, indeed the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” In other words, you can drink from that whenever you want. It's an internal heart experience of drinking the living water. John chapter 4. A few chapters later, John 7, this happened at the assembly of the Jews at the Feast of the Booths, and they were all assembled there, and in the last and greatest day of the feast Jesus stood and cried out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time, the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified. So you have that same kind of image, the image of living water. Three Observations from John Piper Now, John Piper commenting on this, John 7 text, said some very important things. First, he says, the gift of water is free. The condition you must meet is need. “Is anyone thirsty?” Well, that's the condition, and the action you must take is to drink, receive the gift. There's no thought here of earning or meriting. Anyone who knows his own thirst is invited. Are you thirsty? Come. Secondly, the human soul has thirst. We know He's not talking about physical thirst, that's clear, but what He is saying is that the soul has something like physical thirst. When you go without water, your body gets thirsty, and the soul when it goes without God, gets thirsty. Your body was made to live on water, your soul was made to live on God. That's the most important thing you need to know about yourself, you were made to live on God, you have a soul, you have a spirit, there is a you that's more than body, and that is your soul. If it does not drink from the greatness, and wisdom, and power, and goodness, and justice, and holiness, and love of God, you will die of thirst. Third, implied in the word thirst is that what Jesus offers is satisfying, it is refreshing. The aim of all theology, of all study, all Biblical learning, all preaching is to spread the satisfying banquet for you to eat with joy and to protect the kitchen from poison. The aim of cooking is eating, the aim of digging wells and clearing out Springs is drinking. Everything Jesus came to do and to teach is aimed at providing the soul with food and drink that will satisfy forever. Now to come to Jesus and drink is the same as believing in Him. John 7 says, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” So, John Piper says, “So be done forever with the sad notion that saving faith, that believing in Jesus is a mere decision to ascent to facts. No, it is a coming to Him as to a feast, it is a recognizing of a treasure, it is a banquet, a spring in the desert when we are dying of thirst.” The Effects of the Living Water Now what will happen to you when you come? John 7:38 says, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Literally it says out of his belly. The point is our inner being, call it your belly, your heart, soul, spirit. What does that mean? What it means is when you come to Jesus to drink, you don't just get a single drink, you get a spring, you get a fountain, you get a well, you get Jesus. Rivers of living water will flow within you because He is a river maker. And that's inside you. That's the point, you'll never have to search again for some source of satisfaction for your soul. Every river that needs to flow for the joy of your soul is within you, if you're a Christian. And that's what I think it means in verse 13 of our text today. 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greek, slave or free and listen, we were all given of the one Spirit to drink.” So what that means is, your soul is going to experience a perpetual cycle of satisfaction and thirst, satisfaction and thirst. You're going to get thirsty, come to Jesus and drink again. And if you're a Christian, the spring of water is already inside you, it wells up to eternal life, and you can drink of him any time you want. Now the devil is there standing offering you poison. Sweet, addictive poison, but it will kill your soul. Well, it will seem satisfying, but it really isn't. It's addictive and it doesn't satisfy. You were meant to get thirsty, to feel your need for God again and again and to drink from Jesus. Now water baptism, which we do regularly back here, is just an outward, visible symbol of the real baptism Jesus, we hope, we trust, has already done in that person. As a Baptist church, we will not do the water baptism if we don't have signs, evidence, that Jesus has already baptized that person in the Spirit, does that make sense? So we're just looking for evidence. They'll talk a certain way, they're living a certain way, it's the beginning of the Christian life, they don't have to be mature at all. Like the Ethiopian eunuch, you can be baptized right there and then. You have to talk like a disciple, you have to talk about your past sins like a disciple, you have to speak like a converted person and then we'll baptize you, because that's the evidence that we have that Jesus has already baptized you into the Body of Christ. Alright, well, what about the other outpourings of the Spirit? The Other Outpourings of the Spirit Pentecostal and Charismatic churches have used the phrase Baptism of the Spirit to speak of a second experience of grace, or third, or fourth, or whatever, experience of grace. It happens separate from conversion. They press in on individuals and say you need to seek the Baptism of the Spirit. This needs to happen to you. The problem I have is that there are no such scriptures that give us the right to press that on other people. There are no commands like that. They also tend, some of them anyway, to link it to pursuit of holiness as though there tends to be like a silver bullet for all the sin patterns in your life, and you receive this second work of grace that then kills that sin pattern, and that's just not the way the Bible teaches sanctification. Now Martyn Lloyd-Jones uses the expression, “Baptism of the Spirit” to speak of an individual or group transformation that comes as, to some degree, Heaven is open and that person has an overwhelming, powerful experience of God that was unlike anything they've ever had before, and maybe they'll never have one like that again, and it changed their entire approach to life. And it can happen to groups, and the word generally given to that is revival. I think the only error that Lloyd-Jones had is calling it baptism. I just think that's not helpful, but other than that it's a real thing, and it's beneficial. And he would say, it's a repeat of the day of Pentecost and you have evidence for that scripturally. If you look at Acts chapter 4, don't turn there. But just, you know, how Peter and John were arrested, and then they were hauled in and they were threatened, and they were let go, and they go back to the church, and the church gathers to pray. I've talked about it I think even last week. And there in Acts 4:31, it says after they were praying, the place with their meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly. That seems like a miniature second day Pentecost. Without in any way minimizing the uniqueness of the day of Pentecost that will never be repeated again. Yet there is some degree of re-enactment. So that the two cycles, the two cycles that I talked about that are essential of dying and rising again so that fruit can come, and of the Spirit poured out on people who don't do enough or much out of fear or selfishness, until the Spirit comes, both of those get re-enacted again and again. What Does it Mean to be Filled with the Spirit? The Command in Ephesians 5:18 Alright, so let's zero in on the ordinary ministry. Ordinary ministries of the Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Ephesians 5:18. We're going to look at that, that's a key passage on this, Ephesians 5:18. As I said, there is no command anywhere that you should seek the Baptism of the Spirit, but there is most certainly a command that you should be filled with the Holy Spirit. And it's in a section of Ephesians where Paul is telling them that they should “live a life worthy of the calling they have received,” Ephesians 4:1. Live a Christian life. What does that mean? Many things. But there in Ephesians 5:18, he says this, “Do not be drunk with wine or get drunk on wine instead. Which leads to debauchery, instead be filled with the Spirit.” So once we have been baptized by the Spirit at conversion, we now begin the daily Christian life. It's a life of, as I've said, of two journeys; the internal journey of holiness, of becoming more and more like Christ, the external journey of evangelism, missions of leading lost people to saving faith in Christ. That's what we were left here on Earth do. And it's only by the power of the Spirit that we make progress in those two journeys. Now, Ephesians 5:18 is a fascinating thing grammatically. It is what's known as a passive imperative. Passive imperative. So imperative is a command; You must, something you must do. Passive is you must have something done to you, so you must have something done to you. So what is it we have to have done? You must be being filled with the Holy Spirit, that's something that has to happen to you in an ongoing sense. So since the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost as wind and fire. Think of those images. Wind, think of the old tall ships, the clipper ships, remember? With all that sail. And then the wind would come and the sails would luff and billow, and then they would be fat with wind and the ship would start to move. So you're filled with the third person of the Trinity. He is filling your mind, he's filling your soul filling your heart, your emotions, you're filled with the Spirit, that feeling like a wind, and the ship just moves. Your ship, the Church's ship just moves in a certain direction where the Spirit causes him to go. Or what about the fire, the image of fire? Comes in tongues of fire. Here, I'm not talking about something that's fake dear friends. I'm not talking about a painted fire, or one of those fake cellophane orange plastic things that blows with a fan. You know? It's like we're deceived by this, and these little tongues that dance and all that. That's not a fire. A two-year-old could say that. So we're not talking about a fire painted on a wall or fake, I'm talking about a supernatural fire that comes and fills your soul with heat and light because God is there. You think about the burning bush, the supernaturally burning bush that caused Moses to turn aside and see this wonder. Why the bush is burning, but it is not burned up. Or think about Elijah and Mount Carmel, and fire came from Heaven and burned up that sacrifice. I'm talking about a supernatural fire that fills you. The Continual Need for the Spirit's Filling Now, we need to be filled with the Spirit. It's a continual need. Baptism happens only once, but we can lose the filling of the Spirit. How does that happen? Well, there are two different kind of ways, I think, that that happens. One of them I don't necessarily even know that we have lost. The filling of the Spirit, just has to do with the wisdom of the Spirit and the way he deals with us. Imagine that you have a really phenomenally Spirit-filled Tuesday. You're just so filled with a sense of God's love for you. I'm going to talk about what the Spirit does in a spirit filled person in a moment. But you just had a spiritual day, but then you went to bed and you woke up. And maybe you're a morning person, and especially, maybe you're not, and you don't feel right now, what you felt yesterday. Does that ever happen to you? I'm not in any way saying you've sinned at all, you just don't feel what you felt last night. Doesn't mean you've done anything. What it means is the Spirit wisely steps back and says, "Follow me, come after me, pursue me." So you have that morning quiet time, you get in the word. You seek Him, you drink and drink until you are filled with the Spirit, so that's just normal. You haven't done anything wrong, it's just He is urging you to pursue Him. So many Psalms are like that. Why do you stand far off, why are you not here? Why do I not feel you close right now? He's just saying, come, come and seek me. Christ is saying through the Spirit. And so, imagine back in the days of the clipper ships and all that, the ship is off a few points from optimal direction for the wind. So the ship's captain then will turn you a few points towards the wind, and then suddenly those sails are filled again. So again, there's no sin involved in that case. Alright? But then there's the other case in which, friends, you grieve the Holy Spirit because you sinned, you violated your conscience, you violated the Word of God, and you know what you did. Or if you don't, you just know the Spirit is gone but you need to find out why. And so you go to Him and you say, "Search me, oh God, and know my heart, and show me, and show me what I've done wrong." Psalm 139:23-24. And lead me in the way of everlasting. And then He convicts you of sin, and then you are aware, and you confess your sin. And you ask to be filled again with the Holy Spirit and because it's a command from God, you can turn it around and make it a promise. “You commanded me to be be being filled with the Spirit. Now, fill me, Oh Lord, fill me.” We need to do that the rest of our lives. Now, at that point then the ordinary ministries of the Spirit kick in. They've already been at work, but let me say what they are. The Effects of the Spirit's Filling Look at Ephesians 5, what happens? When you are filled with the Spirit, you're going to speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Horizontally, you're going to be talking the scripture to other people. You're going to be encouraging other people with the scripture. You're going to be “singing in your heart, making music in your heart to the Lord.” You're just happy in Jesus, there's a song in your heart, you're filled with the spirit. It's the ordinary ministry. And the Spirit also is going to mount you up and dress you and get you ready for battle with your temptations. It says in Romans 8:13, "If you, by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." He's going to get you ready for battle, He's going to cause you to fight your temptations, He's going to cause you to fight sin, that's what it means to be filled the Spirit. You're going to see the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Galatians 5 says, “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.” These attributes, look at each one, it's a package. You don't get some of them and not others. Like Tuesday is the first three fruits of the Spirit. You get the whole thing. When you're filled with the Spirit, these things characterize you. So it's a good diagnostic test. At any moment you just stop and say, "Are these things characterizing me right now?" And if they're not, you're not filled with the Spirit. Pursue Him, go after Him, fruit of the Spirit. Energetic service happens when you're filled with the Spirit. You just serve the Lord. You do good works that God wants you to do, as it says in Romans 7:6, "We serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code." So you serve Him, you do good works. You witness boldly. Filled with the Spirit. Spirit-filled people are fearless like Peter and John before the Sanhedrin. I love their boldness, they are unafraid. “‘He is the stone, you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given to men, by which we must be saved." Complete boldness there. No fear of death at all. Bold witness when you're Spirit-filled. What else? What Are the Ordinary Ministries of the Spirit? Communications of God's Love Well the Spirit will communicate God's love to you. Ordinary ministry of the Spirit, He will communicate, He will tell you that God loves you. “The Spirit will testify with your spirit that you are a child of God”, Romans 8:16. Romans 5:5 says that the Spirit pours God's love into our hearts. And that's some of these transcendent experiences that people have. It can go up, and I'm getting into the extraordinary ministry, but I don't want to do that right now. I'll get to that in a second. But you can have such a sense that God loves you and imagine just pursuing that and saying Lord, I don't really sense that you love me, I don't feel like I should that you love me. But the Spirit, ordinarily just says it. Let me say something about ordinary/extraordinary. Okay, let me just say that everything the Spirit does is supernatural. So the things that He does in the Spirit-filled life, they are supernatural, but for the Christian, they can and should be ordinary, can experience them every day. We'll get to the extraordinary in just a moment. Illumination of the Scriptures What else does the Spirit do? He illuminates the Scriptures. You sit down, have your quiet time, the Spirit moves. You say, "Open my eyes, Lord, that I may see wonderful things in your law." Psalm 119:18. Like Jesus did with His disciples. Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit illuminates the Scriptures to you and makes them clear. The Holy Spirit convicts you of sin. Like I said, Psalm 139; Search me, oh God, and know me. You just say, "God, show me, show me where there are flaws, where there are sins, things I haven't seen, things that are hurting my walk with you. Show me." He'll convict you of sin. He will also guide you and direct you which way to go. Like Isaiah 30:21 says, "Your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it.'" We have clear examples of this in the book of Acts where Paul and Silas didn't where to go, and the Holy Spirit said, "Not there, not there." And then they got the vision from the man of Macedonia and went over to Greece. The Holy Spirit will guide you, He'll direct you in patterns of ministry. The Holy Spirit, as we've been seeing in 1 Corinthians 12, gifts you for spiritual gift ministry. So that you can do your spiritual gifts and build the Body up. And He will unite us, we are to “keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” So, in a healthy church, He makes us one in the Spirit, loving each other and delighting in each other. Conviction of Sin What does He do to non-Christians? Well, He gives them, He delivers enough information to them for them to be saved. He gets the message of the Gospel to them, and then He “convicts the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and the judgment to come.” John 16. And if they are elect and if today is the day, He'll convert them. He converts them, as it says in Ezekiel 36, “I will give you a new heart, and I'll put a new Spirit in you, and I'll remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Alright, so, friends, those are the ordinary ministries of the Holy Spirit. Can you see why I'm saying that we should not denigrate them or say unless a revival comes, God's doing nothing? That is just not true. He's doing all of these things every day in countless hundreds of millions around the world. Extraordinary Ministries of the Spirit? Ecstatic Experiences in Individuals But now let's talk about the extraordinary ministries of the Spirit. I could begin with ecstatic experiences in individuals, and I could give you lots of examples of this, but let me zero in on a man named D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody was a pastor of a significant church in Chicago. He preached the Gospel clearly, people were being converted, he was satisfied with his ministry, but two women sitting right in the front pew were not satisfied. And they were fervently praying during the whole service. Finally, he was curious, and he went up, and to talk to these two women. “What are you doing?” “Well, we're praying for you.” And I wonder what was going on in inside his heart. Actually, I don't wonder too much. He said, "Why don't you pray for the people?" They said, "Because you need the power of the Spirit." He said, "I need the power. Why? I have the largest congregation in Chicago and there are many conversions week after week." But the women would not be deterred, they kept on praying for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on D.L. Moody. Soon after that encounter, the Great Chicago Fire came. Devastating. Swept away much of the city, including the building where they had been meeting. Destroyed completely by fire. Moody thought in his mind about these two women, and he went back to that, and he began to cry out in his heart for the Holy Spirit. This is actually what Moody said, "I began to cry, as never before, for a greater blessing from God. The hunger increased, I really felt that I did not want to live any longer. I kept on crying all the time, that God would fill me with His Spirit. Well, one day, in the city of New York. Oh, what a day? I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it. It is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for 14 years. I can only say God revealed Himself to me and I had such an experience of His love, that I had to ask Him to stay His hand." This is an overwhelming outpouring of God's presence into a man who was already fruitful and faithfully walking with him. He never had that experience again. Let me continue the quote. "I had to ask Him to stay His hand. I went back to preaching again. The sermons themselves were not different, I did not present any new truths, and yet now, hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should offer me all the world, it would be to me as the small dust on the scales." After that experience, DL Moody began his work as an itinerant evangelist in England, Ireland, Wales, and the US. From 1871 to 1899, he preached so effectively that hundreds of thousands and maybe millions were converted through his preaching ministry. He traced that level of fruitfulness back to that experience in New York. But that can also happen to groups. Revivals: The Outpouring on Groups As groups meet together to pray and they seek the face of the Lord. Just like Acts 4:31, they're all meeting to pray and the place where they're meeting is shaken. There are experiences like that as well. John Wesley right before the first grade awakening, spoke of this prayer time that he had with a man named Hall Ingham. George Whitefield was there, Hutching and Charles Wesley, his brother. He said, "We're present at our love feast in Fetter Lane with about 60 of our brethren." Listen to this. "About three in the morning, while we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us insomuch that many cried out for exulting joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from the awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice, 'We praise Thee, O God. We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.'" And God does this kind of thing powerfully. Now, 125 years later, Charles Spurgeon was preaching, and he prayed on a particular Tuesday evening, January 4th, 1859. He was speaking to a vast gathering that was convened at Exeter Hall. Spurgeon at that point was 24 years old, a preaching prodigy, the most famous preacher probably in the world, at that point. But that meant nothing to him, he was not in any way satisfied with his ministry. This is what he said, "We must confess that just now we have not the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we could wish. Oh, if the Spirit of God should come upon those assembled here tonight and upon all the assemblies of the saints, what an effect would be produced? We seek not for extraordinary excitements, those spurious attendants of genuine revivals, but we do seek for the pouring out of the Spirit of God. The spirit is blowing upon our churches now with His genial breath, but it is a soft evening breeze. Oh, that there would come a rushing mighty wind that should carry everything before it. This is the lack of our times, the great want of our country." Well, Spurgeon's desire was fulfilled. That year, 1859, was the greatest, most effective year of his entire ministry. In the spring of 1859, a widespread awakening began in Northern Ireland and spread to Wales. By the end of that year, Spurgeon could write, "The times of refreshing have come at last from the presence of the Lord, they have at last dawned upon our land". Spurgeon on God's Mighty Acts In one of Spurgeon's most powerful sermons during that year of revival, a sermon entitled "The Story of God's mighty acts." Let me tell you, you can listen to someone reading that sermon on YouTube. I listened to it as I was driving in, part of it. I would recommend it. I'd rather hear Spurgeon preach it, but that would be weird at this point, but there's a guy reading it, and it's very effective. He was preaching on Psalm 44:1. The text says; “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what you did in their days in days long ago”. Spurgeon catalogued the mighty acts of God across, at that point, 18 centuries of Church history. He traced out the spectacular advance of the gospel over the first 100 years after the death of Christ, how the Gospel spread rapidly across Europe into Asia for 100 years, and how heathens were baptized in huge numbers, sometimes even thousands in rivers. Spurgeon said this, "The first spread of the Gospel is a miracle never to be eclipsed. Whatever God may have done at the Red Sea, He did still more within 100 years after the time when Christ first came into the world. It seemed as if a fire from Heaven, ran along the ground." I picture a molten lava. Hot, red, igniting everything in its way. Hundred years after Christ ascended into heaven, it's true, there were congregations in northern Britannia, in Germania and other places in the Roman Empire. The Gospel was spreading powerfully, it's incredible. Spurgeon in that sermon traced out other examples of mighty outpourings; the Reformation, Luther's courage in facing the Medieval Roman Catholic Church, and then the first great awakening, 125 years before that, under Whitefield and Wesley. Spurgeon said this, "Within a few years from the preaching of those two men, England was permeated with Evangelical truth. The Word of God, was known in every town and there was scarcely a hamlet into which the Methodists had not penetrated. In those days of the slow coach, when Christianity seemed to have brought up the old wagons in which our fathers once traveled, where business runs along with steam." Now, you need to understand, in Spurgeon's day, steam was a new thing. So I thought about translating this into the digital age, but I'll just read what he wrote. "Where business flies along with steam, it seems the Gospel creeps along with a horse drawn cart. Yet the things that we notice what God did, the wondrous things that God did in olden times by His grace, we trust He will yet do again." Spurgeon said this, "The old stagers in our church believe that things must grow gently by degrees. We must go step-by-step onward. Concentrated action, continued labor, they say, will ultimately bring success. But the marvel is all of God's mightiest works have been sudden. When Peter stood up to preach, it did not take six weeks to convert the 3,000. They were converted at once and baptized that very day. They were that hour turned to God. So it is in all revivals. God's work has been done suddenly as with a clap of thunder, God has descended from on high, not slowly, but suddenly." Seek the Extraordinary Outpouring Today Friends, this is the extraordinary ministry of the Holy Spirit. God can still do that in our day. And Spurgeon made the point as did Lloyd-Jones, that it always starts with extraordinary thirst an extraordinary prayer. It starts with individuals, maybe you, maybe you, maybe you, maybe me, not okay with the status quo. You look at your life and you're not okay with your level of sanctification, you're not satisfied with the progress you're making. You look at the church and you're not okay with the number of people that we've baptized. You're not okay with the impact First Baptist Church has on Durham and Raleigh and Chapel Hill. You're not okay with it. The status quo is not enough. And you begin to pray. As Jeremy Lanphier did two years before the revival in Great Britain, 1857, he started a businessmen's revival in New York City that started with one man, him, praying. By the end of that hour, the last 10 minutes, there was no one paying, just him, for 50 minutes. Then at the end of the hour, five other people came and joined him to pray. Terrible economic reversals happened, a fear of Civil War, which was soon to come in the United States. Many other things. Those are human factors, but really what happened is the Holy Spirit was poured out. And within several months, a quarter of a million people in the New York area were converted, very rapidly. I think it was Spurgeon thought about that and said, "Why can't something like that happen here?" And began praying. So it could start. Start that way with some of you. Maybe two people who sit in the front pew and pray for the pastor, that he would have the Holy Spirit. I don't know if D.L. Moody felt offended at that point. I promise you, as best I can, I will not feel offended if you pray for me to have the Holy Spirit because I'm not satisfied. I've been here for 21 years. I'm not satisfied with the holiness level of my life, I'm not satisfied with the fruitfulness in our church, and I'm asking God to work a revival in our church, in our lives, that begins with extraordinary prayer. I don't know who's going to start it. I don't care. And frankly, I don't even care if it starts with our church. I just want to see God move mightily and powerfully in our area. Friends, Repent and Do Not Harden Your Hearts Let me say one last thing, and I'll be done. There may be some of you that are here today that came in here unconverted. I want to tell you something, a regret that D.L. Moody took with him to his death bed. Before the Chicago Fire came, he preached the Gospel and preached it powerfully. He made it very, very clear that Christ had died for sinners, that He had been risen from the dead, and that salvation was available. But what he didn't do, is he said, "I'm not going to tell you what you individually need to do about this. Come back next week and I'll tell you then." The Chicago fire happened the very next day. D.L. Moody said, I never saw those people again, that congregation. Maybe there were individuals he saw, but that assembly was wiped out by the fire. And he regretted not pressing on the consciences of his hearers the need to flee to Christ while there was time. Friends, you don't know if you'll be alive tomorrow. You've heard the Gospel today. You've heard that Christ died for sinners, you know that you're a sinner, you know that you're outside of Christ. Don't leave this place still outside of Christ. You don't need to get up or come forward to do anything, you just need to call on the name of the Lord and you'll be saved. God will forgive you of your sins today. “If you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts.” Prayer Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had to study. Sometimes I fear that my words in my own heart and in the lives of many here are like a painted fire, that they don't have a real effectiveness. Lord, I pray that you would please overwhelm all of that by the moving of your Spirit. I pray that you would pour out the Spirit in influence and in power on me and on my brothers and sisters here and on everyone assembled here. I pray that 2020 would be the greatest year of evangelistic fruitfulness this church has ever known. I pray that you would give us a sense of the presence of the Spirit in this that we have never had before. And I pray it would begin with extraordinary prayer, that we would realize that we are weak and feeble until the Holy Spirit is poured out from on high. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.