Podcast appearances and mentions of matt whitman

In this theologically rich episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Jesse and Tony delve into the Parable of the Lost Coin from Luke 15:8-10. They explore how this parable reveals God's passionate pursuit of His elect and the divine joy that erupts when they are found. Building on their previous discussion of the Lost Sheep, the brothers examine how Jesus uses this second parable to further emphasize God's sovereign grace in salvation. The conversation highlights the theological implications of God's ownership of His people even before their redemption, the diligent efforts He undertakes to find them, and the heavenly celebration that follows. This episode offers profound insights into God's relentless love and the true nature of divine joy in redemption. Key Takeaways The Parable of the Lost Coin emphasizes that God actively and diligently searches for those who belong to Him, sparing no effort to recover what is rightfully His. Jesus uses three sequential parables in Luke 15 to progressively reveal different aspects of God's heart toward sinners, with escalating emphasis on divine joy. The coin represents something of significant value that already belonged to the woman, illustrating that God's elect belong to Him even before their redemption. Unlike finding something new, the joy depicted is specifically about recovering something that was already yours but had been lost, highlighting God's eternal claim on His people. The spiritual inability of the sinner is represented by the coin's passivity - it cannot find its own way back and must be sought out by its owner. Angels rejoice over salvation not independently but because they share in God's delight at the effectiveness of His saving power. The parable challenges believers to recover their joy in salvation and to share it with others, much like the woman who called her neighbors to celebrate with her. Expanded Insights God's Determined Pursuit of What Already Belongs to Him The Parable of the Lost Coin reveals a profound theological truth about God's relationship to His elect. As Tony and Jesse discuss, this isn't a story about finding something new, but recovering something that already belongs to the owner. The woman in the parable doesn't rejoice because she discovered unexpected treasure; she rejoices because she recovered what was already hers. This illustrates the Reformed understanding that God's people have eternally belonged to Him. While justification occurs in time, there's a real sense in which God has been considering us as His people in eternity past. The parable therefore supports the doctrines of election and particular redemption - God is not creating conditions people can move into or out of, but is zealously reclaiming a specific people who are already His in His eternal decree. The searching, sweeping, and diligent pursuit represent not a general call, but an effectual calling that accomplishes its purpose. The Divine Joy in Recovering Sinners One of the most striking aspects of this parable is the overwhelming joy that accompanies finding the lost coin. The brothers highlight that this joy isn't reluctant or begrudging, but enthusiastic and overflowing. The woman calls her friends and neighbors to celebrate with her - a seemingly excessive response to finding a coin, unless we understand the theological significance. This reveals that God takes genuine delight in the redemption of sinners, to the extent that Jesus describes it as causing joy "in the presence of the angels of God." As Jesse and Tony note, this challenges our perception that God might save us begrudgingly. Instead, the parable teaches us that God's "alien work" is wrath, while His delight is in mercy. This should profoundly impact how believers view their own salvation and should inspire a contagious joy that spreads to others - a joy that many Christians, by Tony's own admission, need to recover in their daily walk. Memorable Quotes "Christ love is an act of love and it's always being acted upon the sinner, the one who has to be redeemed, his child whom he goes after. So in the same way, we have Christ showing the self-denying love." - Jesse Schwamb "The coin doesn't seek the woman. The woman seeks the coin. And in this way, I think we see God's act of searching grace... The reason why I think it leads to joy, why God is so pleased, is because God has this real pleasure to pluck sinners as brands from the burning fire." - Jesse Schwamb "These parables are calling us to rejoice, right? Christ is using these parables to shame the Pharisees and the scribes who refuse to rejoice over the salvation of sinners. How often do we not rejoice over our own salvation sufficiently?" - Tony Arsenal Full Transcript [00:00:08] Jesse Schwamb: There still is like the sovereign grace of God who's initiating the salvation and there is a kind of effect of calling that God doesn't merely invite, he finds, he goes after he affects the very thing. Yeah, and I think we're seeing that here. The sinner, spiritual inability. There's an utter passivity until found. The coin doesn't seek the woman. The woman seeks the coin. And in this way, I think we see God's act of searching grace. It's all there for us. And the reason why I think it leads to joy, why God is so pleased is because God has this real pleasure. To pluck sinners as brands from the burning fire. Welcome to episode 472 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse. [00:00:57] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother. [00:01:01] Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. [00:01:02] Jesus and the Parable of the Lost Coin [00:01:02] Jesse Schwamb: So there was this time, maybe actually more than one time, but at least this one time that we've been looking at where Jesus is hanging out and the religious incumbents, the Pharisees, they come to him and they say, you are a friend of sinners, and. Instead of taking offense to this, Jesus turns this all around. Uses this as a label, appropriates it for himself and his glorious character. And we know this because he gives us this thrice repeated sense of what it means to see his heart, his volition, his passion, his love, his going after his people, and he does it. Three little parables and we looked at one last time and we're coming up to round two of the same and similar, but also different and interesting. And so today we're looking at the parable of the lost coin or the Lost dma, or I suppose, whatever kind of currency you wanna insert in there. But once again, something's lost and we're gonna see how our savior comes to find it by way of explaining it. In metaphor. So there's more things that are lost and more things to be found on this episode. That's how we do it. It's true. It's true. So that's how Jesus does it. So [00:02:12] Tony Arsenal: yeah. So it should be how we do it. [00:02:14] Jesse Schwamb: Yes. Yeah, exactly. I cut to like Montel Jordan now is the only thing going through my head. Tell Jordan. Yeah. Isn't he the one that's like, this is how we do it, that song, this is [00:02:28] Tony Arsenal: how we do it. I, I don't know who sings it. Apparently it's me right now. That was actually really good. That was fantastic. [00:02:36] Jesse Schwamb: Hopefully never auto tuned. Not even once. I'm sure that'll make an appearance now and the rest, somebody [00:02:42] Tony Arsenal: should take that and auto tune it for me. [00:02:44] Jesse Schwamb: That would be fantastic. Listen, it doesn't need it. That was perfect. That was right off the cuff, right off the top. It was beautiful. It was ous. [00:02:50] Tony Arsenal: Yes. Yes. [00:02:51] Affirmations and Denials [00:02:51] Jesse Schwamb: I'm hoping that appearance, [00:02:53] Tony Arsenal: before we jump into our, our favorite segment here in affirmations of Denials, I just wanted to take a second to, uh, thank all of our listeners. Uh, we have the best listeners in the world. That's true, and we've also got a really great place to get together and chat about things. That's also true. Uh, we have a little telegram chat, which is just a little chat, um, program that run on your phone or in a browser. Really any device you have, you can go to t Me slash Reform Brotherhood and join that, uh, little chat group. And there's lots of stuff going on there. We don't need to get into all the details, but it's a friendly little place. Lots of good people, lots of good conversation. And just lots of good digital fellowship, if that's even a thing. I think it is. So please do join us there. It's a great place to discuss, uh, the episodes or what you're learning or what you'd like to learn. There's all sorts of, uh, little nooks and crannies and things to do in there. [00:03:43] Jesse Schwamb: So if you're looking for a little df and you know that you are coming out, we won't get into details, but you definitely should. Take Tony's advice, please. You, you will not be disappointed. It, it's a fun, fun time together. True. Just like you're about to have with us chatting it up and going through a little affirmations and denials. So, as usual, Tony, what are you, are you affirming with something or are you denying again, something? I'm, I'm on the edge of my seat. I'm ready. [00:04:06] Tony Arsenal: Okay. Uh, it is, I thought that was going somewhere else. Uh, I'm, I'm affirming something. [00:04:13] AI and Problem Solving [00:04:13] Tony Arsenal: People are gonna get so sick of me doing like AI affirmations, but I, it's like I learned a new thing to do with AI every couple of weeks. I ran across an article the other day, uh, that I don't remember where the article was. I didn't save it, but I did read it. And one of the things that pointed out is that a lot of times you're not getting the most out of AI because you don't really know how to ask the questions. True. One of the things it was was getting through is a lot of people will ask, they'll have a problem that they're encountering and they'll just ask AI like, how do I fix this problem? And a lot of times what that yields is like very superficial, basic, uh, generic advice or generic kind of, uh, directions for resolving a problem. And the, I don't remember the exact phrasing, 'cause it was a little while ago since I read it, but it basically said something like, I'm encountering X problem. And despite all efforts to the contrary, I have not been able to resolve it. And by using sort of these extra phrases. What it does is it sort of like pushes the AI to ask you questions about what you've already tried to do, and so it's gonna tailor its advice or its directions to your specific situation a little bit more. So, for example, I was doing this today. We, um, we just had the time change, right? Stupidest thing in the world doesn't make any sense and my kids don't understand that the time has changed and we're now like three or four weeks past the, the time change and their, their schedule still have not adjusted. So my son Augie, who is uh, like three and three quarters, uh, I don't know how many months it is. When do you stop? I don't even know. When you stop counting in months. He's three and a quarter, three quarters. And he will regularly wake up between four 30 and five 30. And when we really, what we really want is for him to be sleeping, uh, from uh, until like six or six 30 at the latest. So he's like a full hour, sometimes two hours ahead of time, which then he wakes up, it's a small house. He's noisy 'cause he's a three and a half year old. So he wakes up the baby. The baby wakes up. My wife, and then we're all awake and then we're cranky and it's miserable. So I, I put that little prompt into, um, into Google Gemini, which is right now is my, um, AI of choice, but works very similar. If you use something like chat, GPT or CLO or whatever, you know, grok, whatever AI tool you have access to, put that little prompt in. You know, something like since the time change, my son has been waking up at four 30 in the morning, despite all efforts to the contrary, I have not been able to, uh, adjust his schedule. And so it started asking me questions like, how much light is in the room? What time does he go to bed? How much does he nap? And it, so it's, it's pulling from the internet. This is why I like Google Geminis. It's actually pulling from the internet to identify like common, common. Related issues. And so it starts to probe and ask questions. And by the time it was done, what it came out with was like a step-by-step two week plan. Basically like, do this tonight, do this tomorrow morning. Um, and it was able to identify what it believes is the problem. We'll see if it actually is, but the beauty now is now that I've got a plan that I've got in this ai, I can start, you know, tomorrow morning I'm gonna try to do what it said and I can tell. The ai, how things went, and it can now adjust the plan based on whether or not, you know, this worked or didn't work. So it's a good way to sort of, um, push an ai, uh, chat bot to probe your situation a little bit more. So you could do this really for anything, right. You could do something like I'm having, I'm having trouble losing weight despite all efforts to the contrary. Um, can you help me identify what the, you know, root problem is? So think about different ways that you can use this. It's a pretty cool way to sort of like, push the, the AI to get a little deeper into the specifics without like a lot of extra heavy lifting. I'm sure there's probably other ways you could drive it to do this, but this was just one clever way that I, that this article pointed out to accomplish this. [00:08:07] Jesse Schwamb: It's a great exercise to have AI optimize itself. Yeah. By you turning your prompts around and asking it to ask you a number of questions, sufficient number, until it can provide an optimize answer for you. So lots, almost every bot has some kind of, you can have it analyze your prompts essentially, but some like copilot actually have a prompt agent, which will help you construct the prompt in an optimal way. Yeah, and that again, is kind of question and answer. So I'm with you. I will often turn it around and say. Here's my goal. Ask me sufficient number of questions so that you can provide the right insight to accomplish said goal. Or like you're saying, if you can create this like, massive conversation that keeps all this history. So I, I've heard of people using this for their exercise or running plans. Famously, somebody a, a, um, journalist, the Wall Street Journal, use it, train for a marathon. You can almost have it do anything for you. Of course, you want to test all of that and interact with it reasonably and ably, right? At the same time, what it does best is respond to like natural language interaction. And so by turning it around and basically saying, help me help you do the best job possible, providing the information, it's like the weirdest way of querying stuff because we're so used to providing explicit direction ourselves, right? So to turn it around, it's kind of a new experience, but it's super fun, really interesting, really effective. [00:09:22] Tony Arsenal: And it because you are allowing, in a certain sense, you're sort of asking the AI to drive the conversation. This, this particular prompt, I know the article I read went into details about why this prompt is powerful and the reason this prompt is powerful is not because of anything the AI's doing necessarily, right. It's because you're basically telling the AI. To find what you've missed. And so it's asking you questions. Like if I was to sit down and go like, all right, what are all the things that's wrong, that's causing my son to be awake? Like obviously I didn't figure it out on my own, so it's asking me what I've already tried and what it found out. And then of course when it tells me what it is, it's like the most obvious thing when it figures out what it is. It's identifying something that I already haven't identified because I've told it. I've already tried everything I can think of, and so it's prompting me to try to figure out what it is that I haven't thought of. So those are, like I said, there's lots of ways to sort of get the ais to do that exercise. Um, it's not, it's not just about prompt engineering, although that there's a lot of science now and a lot of like. Specifics on how you do prompt engineering, um, you know, like building a persona for the ai. Like there's all sorts of things you can do and you can add that, like, I could have said something like, um. Uh, you are a pediatric sleep expert, right? And when you tell it that what it's gonna do is it's gonna start to use more technical language, it's gonna, it's gonna speak to you back as though it's a, and this, this is where AI can get a little bit dangerous and really downright scary in some instances. But with that particular prompt, it's gonna start to speak back to you as though it was a clinician of some sort, diagnosing a medical situation, which again. That is definitely not something I would ever endorse. Like, don't let an AI be your doctor. That's just not, like WebMD was already scary enough when you were just telling you what your symptoms were and it was just cross checking it. Um, but you could do something like, and I use these kinds of prompts for our show notes where I'm like, you're an expert at SEO, like at um, podcast show notes. Utilizing SEO search terms, like that's part of the prompt that I use when I use, um, in, in this case, I use notion to generate most of our show notes. Um, it, it starts to change the way that it looks at things and the way that it, I, it responds to you based on different prompts. So I think it, it's a little bit scary, uh, AI. Can be a strange, strange place. And there's some, they're doing some research that is a little bit frightening. They did a study and actually, like, they, they basically like unlocked an AI and gave it access to a pretend company with emails and stuff and said that a particular employee was gonna shut out, was gonna delete the ai. And the first thing it did was try to like blackmail the employee with like a risk, like a scandalous email. It had. Then after that they, they engineered a scenario where the AI actually had the ability to kill the employee. And despite like explicit instructions not to do anything illegal, it still tried to kill the employee. So there's some scary things that are coming up if we're not, you know, if, if the science is not able to get that under control. But right now it's just a lot of fun. Like it's, we're, we're probably not at the point where it's dangerous yet and hopefully. Hopefully it won't get to that point, but we'll see. We'll see. That got dark real fast, fast, fast. Jesse, you gotta get this. And that was an affirmation. I guess I'm affirming killer murder ais that are gonna kill us all, but uh, we're gonna have fun with it until they do at least. [00:12:52] Jesse Schwamb: Thanks for not making that deny against. 'cause I can only imagine the direction that one to taken. [00:12:57] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. At least when the AI hears this, it's gonna know that I'm on its side, so, oh, for sure. I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords. So as do Iye. [00:13:05] Christmas Hymns and Music Recommendations [00:13:05] Tony Arsenal: But Jesse, what are you affirming or denying today to get me out of this pit here? [00:13:09] Jesse Schwamb: So, lemme start with a question. Do you have a favorite Christmas hymn? And if so, what is it? [00:13:16] Tony Arsenal: Ooh, that's a tough one. Um, I think I've always been really partial to Oh, holy Night. But, uh, there's, there's not anything that really jumps to mind my, as I've become older and crankier and more Scottish in spirit, I just, Christmas hymns just aren't as. If they're not as prominent in my mind, but oh, holy night or come coming, Emanuel is probably a really good one too. [00:13:38] Jesse Schwamb: Wow. Those are the, those are like the top in the top three for me. Yeah. So I think [00:13:42] Tony Arsenal: I know where you're going based on the question. [00:13:44] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, we're very much the same. So, well maybe, so I am affirming with, but it's that time of year and people you, you know and love and maybe yourself, you're gonna listen to Christian music and. That's okay. I put no shade on that, especially because we're talking about the incarnation, celebrate the incarnation. But of course, I think the best version of that is some of these really lovely hymns because they could be sung and worshiped through all year round. We just choose them because they fit in with the calendar particularly well here, and sometimes they're included, their lyrics included in Hallmark cards and, and your local. Cool. Coles. So while that's happening, why not embrace it? But here's my information is why not go with some different versions. I love the hymn as you just said. Oh, come will come Emmanuel. And so I'm gonna give people three versions of it to listen to Now to make my list of this kind of repertoire. The song's gotta maintain that traditional melody. I think to a strong degree, it's gotta be rich and deep and dark, especially Ko Emmanuel. But it's gotta have something in it that's a little bit nuanced. Different creative arrangements, musicality. So let me give two brand new ones that you may not have heard versions and one old one. So the old one is by, these are all Ko Emanuel. So if at some point during this you're like, what song is he talking about? It's Ko. Emmanuel. It's just three times. Th we're keeping it th Rice tonight. So the first is by band called for today. That's gonna be a, a little bit harder if you want something that, uh, gets you kind of pumped up in the midst of this redemption. That's gonna be the version. And then there are two brand new ones. One is by skillet, which is just been making music forever, but the piano melody they bring into this and they do a little something nuanced with the chorus that doesn't pull away too much. From the original, but just gives it a little extra like Tastiness. Yeah. Skill. Great version. And then another one that just came out yesterday. My yesterday, not your yesterday. So actually it doesn't even matter at this point. It's already out is by descriptor. And this would be like the most chill version that is a hardcore band by, I would say tradition, but in this case, their version is very chill. All of them I find are just deeply worshipful. Yeah. And these, the music is very full of impact, but of course the lyrics are glorious. I really love this, this crying out to God for the Savior. This. You know, just, it's really the, the plea that we should have now, which is, you know, maranatha like Lord Jesus, come. And so in some ways we're, we're celebrating that initial plea and cry for redemption as it has been applied onto us by the Holy Spirit. And we're also saying, you know, come and fulfill your kingdom, Lord, come and bring the full promise, which is here, but not yet. So I like all three of these. So for today. Skillet descriptor, which sounds like we're playing like a weird word game when you put those all together. It does, but they're all great bands and their versions I think are, are worthy. So the larger affirmation, I suppose, is like, go out this season and find different versions, like mix it up a little bit. Because it's good to hear this music somewhat afresh, and so I think by coming to it with different versions of it, you'll get a little bit of that sense. It'll make maybe what is, maybe if it's felt rote or mundane or just trivial, like you're saying, kind of revive some of these pieces in our hearts so we can, we, we can really worship through them. We're redeeming them even as they're meant to be expressions of the ultimate redemption. [00:16:55] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, I, um, I heard the skillet version and, uh, you know, you know me like I'm not a huge fan of harder music. Yeah. But that, that song Slaps man, it's, yes, [00:17:07] Jesse Schwamb: it does. It's [00:17:07] Tony Arsenal: good. And Al I mean, it, it also ignited this weird firestorm of craziness online. I don't know if you heard anything about this, but Yes, it was, it was, there was like the people who absolutely love it and will. Fight you if you don't. Yes. And then there was like the people who think it's straight from the devil because of somehow demonic rhythms, whatever that means. Um, but yeah, I mean, I'm not a big fan of the heavier music, but there is something about that sort of, uh. I don't know. Is skill, would that be considered like metal at all? [00:17:38] Jesse Schwamb: Oh, that's a loaded question. Probably. [00:17:39] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. So like I found, uh, this is, we're gonna go down to Rabbit Trail here. Let's do it. Here we go. I found a version of Africa by Toto that was labeled as metal on YouTube. So I don't know whether it actually is, and this, this version of skill, it strikes me as very similar, where it's, ah, uh, it, it's like, um. The harmonies are slightly different in terms of like how they resonate than Okay. Other harmonies. Like I get [00:18:05] Jesse Schwamb: that [00:18:06] Tony Arsenal: there's a certain, you know, like when you think about like Western music, there's certain right, there's certain harmonies when, you know, think about like piano chords are framed and my understanding at least this could be way off, and I'm sure you're gonna correct me if I'm wrong, is that um, metal music, heavy metal music uses slightly different. Chord formations that it almost leaves you feeling a little unresolved. Yes, but not quite unresolved. Like it's just, it's, it's more the harmonics are different, so that's fair. Skillet. This skillet song is so good, and I think you're right. It, it retains the sort of like. The same basic melody, the same, the same basic harmonies, actually. Right. And it's, it's almost like the harmonies are just close enough to being put into a different key with the harmonies. Yes, [00:18:52] Jesse Schwamb: that's true [00:18:53] Tony Arsenal: than then. Uh, but not quite actually going into another key. So like, sometimes you'll see online, you'll find YouTube videos where they play like pop songs, but they've changed the, the. Chords a little bit. So now it's in a minor key. It's almost like it's there. It's like one more little note shift and it would be there. Um, and then there's some interesting, uh, like repetition and almost some like anal singing going on, that it's very good. Even if you don't like heavier music. Like, like I don't, um, go listen to it and I think you'll find yourself like hitting repeat a couple times. It was very, very good. [00:19:25] Jesse Schwamb: That's a good way of saying it. A lot of times that style is a little bit dissonant, if that's what you mean in the court. Yeah. Formation. So it gives you this unsettledness, this almost unresolvedness, and that's in there. Yeah. And just so everybody knows, actually, if you listen to that version from Skillet, you'll probably listen to most of it. You'll get about two thirds of the way through it and probably be saying, what are those guys talking about? It's the breakdown. Where it amps up. But before that, I think anybody could listen to it and just enjoy it. It's a really beautiful, almost haunting piano melody. They bring into the intro in that, in the interlude. It's very lovely. So it gives you that sense. Again, I love this kind of music because there's almost something, there is something in this song that's longing for something that is wanting and yet left, unresolved and unfulfilled until the savior comes. There's almost a lament in it, so to speak, especially with like the way it's orchestrated. So I love that this hymn is like deep and rich in that way. It's, that's fine. Like if you want to sing deck the Holes, that's totally fine. This is just, I think, better and rich and deeper and more interesting because it does speak to this life of looking for and waiting for anticipating the advent of the savior. So to get me get put back in that place by music, I think is like a net gain this time of year. It's good to have that perspective. I'm, I'm glad you've heard it. We should just open that debate up whether or not we come hang out in the telegram chat. We'll put it in that debate. Is skillet hardcore or metal? We'll just leave it there 'cause I have my opinions, but I'm, well, I'm sure everybody else does. [00:20:48] Tony Arsenal: I don't even know what those words mean, Jesse. Everything is hardcore in metal compared to what I normally listen to. I don't even listen to music anymore usually, so I, I mean, I'm like mostly all podcasts all the time. Anytime I have time, I don't have a ton of time to listen to. Um, audio stuff, but [00:21:06] Jesse Schwamb: that's totally fair. Well now everybody now join us though. [00:21:08] Tony Arsenal: Educate me [00:21:09] Jesse Schwamb: now. Everybody can properly use, IM prompt whatever AI of their choice, and they can listen to at least three different versions of al comical manual. And then they can tell us which one do you like the best? Or maybe you have your own version. That's what she was saying. What's your favorite Christmas in? [00:21:23] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And [00:21:24] Jesse Schwamb: what version of it do you like? I mean, it'll be like. [00:21:28] Tony Arsenal: It'll be like, despite my best efforts, I've been un unable to understand what hardcore and medical is. Please help me understand. [00:21:37] Jesse Schwamb: Oh, we're gonna have some, some fun with this at some point. We'll have to get into the whole debate, though. I know you and I have talked about it before. We'll put it before the brothers and sisters about a Christmas Carol and what version everybody else likes. That's also seems like, aside from the, the whole eternal debate, which I'm not sure is really serious about whether or not diehard is a Christmas movie, this idea of like, which version of the Christmas Carol do you subscribe to? Yeah. Which one would you watch if you can only watch one? Which one will you watch? That's, we'll have to save that for another time. [00:22:06] Tony Arsenal: We'll save it for another time. And we get a little closer to midwinter. No reason we just can't [00:22:10] Jesse Schwamb: do it right now because we gotta get to Luke 15. [00:22:12] Discussion on the Parable of the Lost Coin [00:22:12] Tony Arsenal: We do. [00:22:13] Jesse Schwamb: We, we've already been in this place of looking at Jesus' response to the Pharisees when they say to him, listen, this man receives sinners and eats with them. And Jesus is basically like, yeah, that's right. And let me tell you three times what the heart of God is like and what my mission in serving him is like, and what I desire to come to do for my children. And so we spoke in the last conversation about the parable lost sheep. Go check that out. Some are saying, I mean, I'm not saying this, but some are saying in the internet, it's the definitive. Congratulation of that parable. I'm, I'm happy to take that if that's true. Um, but we wanna go on to this parable of the lost coin. So let me read, it's just a couple of verses and you're gonna hear in the text that you're going to understand right away. This is being linked because it starts with or, so this is Jesus speaking and this is Luke 15, chapter 15, starting in verse eight. Jesus says, or a what woman? She has 10 D drachmas and loses. One drachma does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls together her friend and her neighbors saying, rejoice with me for I found the D Drachma, which I lost in the same way I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. [00:23:27] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. On one level, this is, uh, again, it's not all that complicated of a scenario, right? And we have to kind of go back and relo through some of the stuff we talked about last week because this is a continuation of, you know, when we first talked about the Matthew 13 parables, we commented on like. Christ was coming back to the same themes, right? And in some ways, repeating the parable. This is even stronger than that. It's not just that Christ is teaching the same thing across multiple parables. The sense here, at least the sense I get when I read this parable, the lost sheep, and then the prodigal, um, sun parable or, or the next parable here, um, is actually that Christ is just sort of like hammering home the one point he's making to the tax collectors and or to the tax collectors or to the scribes who are complaining about the fact that Christ was eating with sinners. He's just hammering this point home, right? So it's not, it's not to try to add. A lot of nuance to the point. It's not to try to add a, a shade of meaning. Um. You know, we talked a lot about how parables, um, Christ tells parables in part to condemn the listeners who will not receive him, right? That's right. This is one of those situations where it's not, it's not hiding the meaning of the parable from them. The meaning is so obvious that you couldn't miss it, and he, he appeals, we talked about in the first, in the first part of this, he actually appeals to like what the ordinary response would be. Right? What man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one, does not. Go and leave the 99. Like it's a scenario that anyone who goes, well, like, I wouldn't do that is, looks like an idiot. Like, that's, that's the point of the why. He phrases it. And so then you're right when he, when he begins with this, he says, or what woman having 10 silver coins if she loses one, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until he, till she finds it. And of course, the, the, the emphasis again is like no one in their right mind would not do this. And I think like we think about a coin and like that's the smallest denomination of money that we have. Like, I wouldn't, like if I lost a, if I had 10 silver coin, 10 coins and I lost one of them, the most that that could be is what? 50 cents? Like the, like if I had a 50 cent piece or a silver dollar, I guess, like I could lose a dollar. We're not really talking about coins the way we think of coins, right? We're talking about, um. Um, you know, like denominations of money that are substantial in that timeframe. Like it, there was, there were small coins, but a silver coin would be a substantial amount of money to lose. So we are not talking about a situation where this is, uh, a trivial kind of thing. She's not looking for, you know, I've, I've heard this parable sort of like unpacked where like, it's almost like a miserly seeking for like this lost coin. Interesting. It's not about, it's not about like. Penny pinching here, right? She's not trying to find a tiny penny that isn't worth anything that's built into the parable, right? It's a silver coin. It's not just any coin. It's a silver coin. So she's, she's looking for this coin, um, because it is a significant amount of money and because she's lost it, she's lost something of her, of her overall wealth. Like there's a real loss. Two, this that needs to be felt before he can really move on with the parable. It's not just like some small piece of property, like there's a [00:26:57] Jesse Schwamb: right. I [00:26:57] Tony Arsenal: don't know if you've ever lost a large amount of money, but I remember one time I was in, um, a. I was like, almost outta high school, and I had taken some money out of, um, out of the bank, some cash to make a purchase. I think I was purchasing a laptop and I don't know why I, I don't, maybe I didn't have a credit card or I didn't have a debit card, but I was purchasing a laptop with cash. Right. And back then, like laptops, like this was not a super expensive laptop, but. It was a substantial amount of cash and I misplaced it and it was like, oh no, like, where is it? And like, I went crazy trying to find it. This is the situation. She's lost a substantial amount of money. Um, this parable, unlike the last one, doesn't give you a relative amount of how many she has. Otherwise. She's just lost a significant amount of money. So she takes all these different steps to try to find it. [00:27:44] Understanding the Parable's Context [00:27:44] Tony Arsenal: We have to feel that loss before we really can grasp what the parable is trying to teach us. [00:27:49] Jesse Schwamb: I like that, so I'm glad you brought that up because I ended up going down a rabbit hole with this whole coined situation. [00:27:56] Tony Arsenal: Well, we're about to, Matt Whitman some of this, aren't we? [00:27:58] Jesse Schwamb: Yes, I think so. But mainly because, and this is not really my own ideas here, there's, there's a lot I was able to kind of just read and kind. Throw, throw something around this because I think you're absolutely right that Jesus is bringing an ES escalation here and it's almost like a little bit easier for us to understand the whole sheep thing. I think the context of the lost coin, like you're already saying, is a little bit less familiar to us, and so I got into this. Rabbit hole over the question, why would this woman have 10 silver coins? I really got stuck on like, so why does she have these? And Jesus specific about that he's giving a particular context. Presumably those within his hearing in earshot understood this context far better than I did. So what I was surprised to see is that a lot of commentators you probably run into this, have stated or I guess promulgated this idea that the woman is young and unmarried and the 10 silver coins could. Could represent a dowry. So in some way here too, like it's not just a lot of money, it's possible that this was her saving up and it was a witness to her availability for marriage. [00:28:57] The Significance of the Lost Coin [00:28:57] Jesse Schwamb: So e either way, if that's true or not, Jesus is really emphasizing to us there's significant and severe loss here. And so just like you said, it would be a fool who would just like say, oh, well that's too bad. The coin is probably in here somewhere, but eh, I'm just gonna go about my normal business. Yeah. And forsake it. Like, let's, let's not worry about it. So. The emphasis then on this one is not so much like the leaving behind presumably can keep the remaining nine coins somewhere safe if you had them. But this effort and this diligence to, to go after and find this lost one. So again, we know it's all about finding what was lost, but this kind of momentum that Jesus is bringing to this, like the severity of this by saying there was this woman, and of course like here we find that part of this parable isn't just in the, the kingdom of God's like this, like we were talking about before. It's more than that because there's this expression of, again, the situation combined with these active verbs. I think we talked about last time that Christ love is an act of love and it's always being acted upon the sinner, the one who has to be redeemed, his child whom he goes after. So in the same way, we have Christ showing the self-denying love. Like in the first case, the shepherd brought his sheep home on his shoulders rather than leave it in the wilderness. And then here. The woman does like everything. She lights the candle, she sweeps the house. She basically turns the thing, the place upside down, searching diligently and spared no pains with this until she found her lost money. And before we get into the whole rejoicing thing, it just strikes me that, you know, in the same way, I think what we have here is Christ affirming that he didn't spare himself. He's not gonna spare himself. When he undertakes to save sinners, he does all the things. He endures the cross scor in shame. He lays down his life for his friends. There's no greater love than that. It cannot be shown, and so Christ's love is deep and mighty. It's like this woman doing all the things, tearing the place apart to ensure that that which she knew she had misplaced comes back to her. That the full value of everything that she knows is hers. Is safe and secure in her possession and so does the Lord Jesus rejoice the safe sinners in the same way. And that's where this is incredibly powerful. It's not just, Hey, let me just say it to you one more time. There is a reemphasis here, but I like where you're going, this re-escalation. I think the first question is, why do the woman have this money? What purpose is it serving? And I think if we can at least try to appreciate some of that, then we see again how Jesus is going after that, which is that he, he wants to save the sinner. He wants to save the soul. And all of the pleasure, then all of the rejoicing comes because, and, and as a result of that context. [00:31:22] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. [00:31:23] Theological Implications of God's People [00:31:23] Tony Arsenal: The other thing, um, maybe, and, and I hope I'm not overreading again, we've, we've talked about the dangers of overreading, the parables, but I think there's a, and we'll, we'll come to this too when we get into the, um, prodigal son. Um, there is this sense, I think in some theological traditions that. God is sort of like claiming a people who were not his own. Right. And one of the things that I love about the reform tradition, and, and I love it because this is the picture the Bible teaches, is the emphasis on the fact that God's people have been God's people. As long as God has been pondering and con like contemplating them. So like we deny eternal justification, right? Justification happens in time and there's a real change in our status, in in time when, when the spirit applies, the benefits that Christ has purchased for us in redemption, right? But there's also a very real sense that God has been looking and considering us as his people in eternity past. Like that's always. That's the nature of the Pactum salutes, the, you know, covenant of redemption election. The idea that like God is not saving a nameless, faceless people. He's not creating conditions that people can either move themselves into or take themselves out of. He has a concrete people. Who he is saving, who he has chosen. He, he, you know, prior to our birth, he will redeem us. He now, he has redeemed us and he will preserve us in all of these parables, whether it's the sheep, the coin, or as we'll get to the prodigal sun next week or, or whenever. Um. It's not that God is discovering something new that he didn't have, or it's not that the woman is discovering a coin, right? There's nothing more, uh, I think nothing more like sort of, uh, spontaneously delightful than like when you like buy a, like a jacket at the thrift store. Like you go to Salvation Army and you buy a jacket, you get home, you reach in the pocket and there's like a $10 bill and you're like, oh man, that's so, so great. Or like, you find a, you find a. A $10 bill on the ground, or you find a quarter on the ground, right? Yeah. Or you find your own money. Well, and that that's, there's a different kind of joy, right? That's the point, is like, there's a delight that comes with finding something. And again, like we have to be careful about like, like not stealing, right? But there's a different kind of joy that comes with like finding something that was not yours that now becomes yours. We talked about that with parables a couple weeks ago, right? There's a guy who finds it, he's, he's searching for pearls. He finds a pearl, and so he goes after he sells everything he has and he claims that pearl, but that wasn't his before the delight was in sort of finding something new. These parables. The delight is in reclaiming and refining something that was yours that was once lost. Right? That's a different thing. And it paints a picture, a different picture of God than the other parables where, you know, the man kind of stumbles on treasure in a field or he finds a pearl that he was searching for, but it wasn't his pearl. This is different. This is teaching us that God is, is zealous and jealous to reclaim that which was his, which was lost. Yes. Right. So, you know, we can get, we can, maybe we will next week, maybe we will dig into like super laps area versus infra laps. AIRism probably not, I don't necessarily wanna have that conversation. But there is a reality in the Bible where God has a chosen people and they are his people, even before he redeems them. [00:34:52] Jesse Schwamb: Exactly. [00:34:53] God's Relentless Pursuit of Sinners [00:34:53] Tony Arsenal: These parables all emphasize that in a different way and part of what he's, part of what he's ribbing at with the Pharisees and the, and the scribes, and this is common across all of Christ's teaching in his interactions and we get into true Israel with, with Paul, I mean this is the consistent testimony of the New Testament, is that the people who thought they were God's people. The, the Jewish leaders, especially the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, the, the sort of elites of, uh, first century Jewish believers, they really were convinced that they were God's people. And those dirty gentiles out there, they, they're not, and even in certain sense, like even the Jewish people out in the country who don't even, you know, they don't know the scriptures that like, even those people were maybe barely God's people. Christ is coming in here and he is going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like you're asking me. You're surprised that I receive sinners and e with them. Well, I'm coming to claim that which is mine, which was lost, and the right response to that is not to turn your nose up at it. The right response is to rejoice with me that I have found my sheep that was lost, that I have reclaimed my coin that was lost. And as we'll see later on, like he really needles them at the end of the, the, uh, parable of the prodigal son. This is something I, I have to be like intentional in my own life because I think sometimes we hear conversion stories and we have this sort of, I, I guess like, we'll call it like the, the Jonah I heresy, I dunno, we won't call it heresy, but like the, the, the like Jonah impulse that we all have to be really thankful for God's mercy in our life. But sort of question whether God is. Merciful or even be a little bit upset when it seems that God is being merciful to those sinners over there. We have to really like, use these parables in our own lives to pound that out of our system because it's, it's ungodly and it's not what God is, is calling us. And these parables really speak against that [00:36:52] Jesse Schwamb: and all of us speak in. In that lost state, but that doesn't, I think like you're saying, mean that we are not God's already. That if he has established that from a trinity past, then we'd expect what others have said about God as the hound of heaven to be true. And that is he comes and he chases down his own. What's interesting to me is exactly what you've said. We often recognize when we do this in reverse and we look at the parable of the lost son, all of these elements, how the father comes after him, how there's a cha singer coming to himself. There's this grand act of repentance. I would argue all of that is in all of these parables. Not, not to a lesser extent, just to a different extent, but it's all there. So in terms of like couching this, and I think what we might use is like traditionally reformed language. And I, I don't want to say I'm overeating this, I hope I'm not at that same risk, but we see some of this like toll depravity and like the sinner is lost, unable to move forward, right? There still is like the sovereign grace of God who's initiating the salvation and there is a kind of effect of calling that God doesn't merely invite, he finds, he goes after he affects the very thing. Yeah, and I think we're seeing that here. There is. The sinner, spiritual inability. There's an utter passivity until found. The coin doesn't seek the woman. The woman seeks the coin. And in this way, I think we see God's act of searching grace. It's all there for us. Yeah, it's in a slightly different way, but I think that's what we're meant to like take away from this. We're meant to lean into that a bit. [00:38:12] Rejoicing in Salvation [00:38:12] Jesse Schwamb: And the reason why I think it leads to joy, why God is so pleased is because God has this real pleasure. Jesus has this real pleasure. The Holy Spirit has this real pleasure. To pluck sinners as brands from the burning fire. You know, it was Jesus, literally his food and drink like not to be too trite, but like his jam went upon the earth to finish the work, which he came to do. And there are many times when he says he ammi of being constrained in the spirit until this was accomplished. And it's still his delight to show mercy like you're saying He is. And even Jonah recognizes that, right. He said like, I knew you were going to be a merciful God. And so he's far more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved. But that is the gospel level voice, isn't it? Because we can come kicking and screaming, but in God's great mercy, not because of works and unrighteousness, but because of his great mercy, he comes and he tears everything apart to rescue and to save those whom he's called to himself. [00:39:06] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I love that old, um, Puritan phrase that wrath is God's alien work. And we, you know, like you gotta be careful when you start to talk that way. And the Puritans were definitely careful about everything. I mean, they were very specific when they spoke, but. When we talk about God's alien work and wrath being God's alien work, what we're saying is not, not that like somehow wrath is external to God. Like that's not what we're getting at of Right. But when you look at scripture and, and here's something that I think, um. I, I don't know how I wanna say this. Like, I think we read that the road is narrow and the the, um, you know, few are those who find it. I think we read that and we somehow think like, yeah, God, God, like, really loves that. Not a lot of people are saved. And I, I actually think that like, when we look at it, um, and, and again, like we have to be careful 'cause God, God. God decreed that which he is delighted by, and also that which glorifies him the most. Right? Right. But the picture that we get in scripture, and we have to take this seriously with all of the caveats that it's accommodated, it's anthropopathism that, you know, all of, all of the stuff we've talked about. We did a whole series on systematic theology. We did like six episodes on Divine Simplicity and immutability. Like we we're, we're right in line with the historic tradition on that. All of those caveats, uh, all of those caveats in place, the Bible pic paints a picture of God such that he grieves over. Those who are lost. Right? Right. He takes no delight in the death of the wicked. That's right. He, he, he seeks after the lost and he rejoices when he finds them. Right. He's, his, his Holy Spirit is grieved when we disobey him, his, his anger is kindled even towards his people in a paternal sense. Right. He disciplines us the way an angry father who loves us, would discipline us when we disobey him. That is a real, that's a real thing. What exactly that means, how we can apply that to God is a very complicated conversation. And maybe sometimes it's more complicated than we, like, we make it more complicated than it needs to be for sure. Um, we wanna be careful to preserve God's changeness, his immutability, his simplicity, all of those things. But at the end of the day, at. God grieves over lost sinners, and he rejoices when they come back. He rejoices when they return to him. Just as the shepherd who finds his lost sheep puts that sheep on his shoulders, right? That's not just because that's an easy way to carry a sheep, right? It's also like this picture of this loving. Intimate situation where God pulls us onto himself and he, he wraps literally like wraps us around himself. Like there are times when, um. You know, I have a toddler and there are times where I have to carry that toddler, and it's, it's a fight, right? And I don't really enjoy doing it. He's squirming, he's fighting. Then there are times where he needs me to hold him tight, and he, he snuggles in. When he falls down and hurts his leg, the first thing he does is he runs and he jumps on me, and he wants to be held tight, and there's a f there's a fatherly embrace there that not only brings comfort to my son. But it brings great joy to me to be able to comfort him that that dynamic in a, uh, a infinitely greater sense is at play here in the lost sheep. And then there's this rejoicing. It's not just rejoicing that God is rejoicing, it's the angels that are rejoicing. [00:42:43] The Joy of Redemption [00:42:43] Tony Arsenal: It's the, it's other Christians. It's the great cloud of witnesses that are rejoicing when Aah sinner is returned to God. All of God's kingdom and everything that that includes, all of that is involved in this rejoicing. That's why I think like in the first parable, in the parable of the lost sheep, it's joy in heaven. Right? It's sort of general joy in heaven. It's not specific. Then this one is even more specific. It's not just general joy in heaven. It's the angels of God. That's right. That are rejoicing. And then I think what we're gonna find, and we'll we'll tease this out when we get to the next par, well the figure in the prodigal son that is rejoicing. The one that is leading the rejoicing, the chief rejoice is the one who's the standin for God in that parable. [00:43:26] Jesse Schwamb: Right, exactly right. So, [00:43:27] Tony Arsenal: so we have to, we have to both recognize that there's a true grief. A true sorrow that is appropriate to speak of God, um, as having when a sinner is lost. And there's also an equally appropriate way to speak about God rejoicing and being pleased and delighted when a sinner returns to him. [00:43:53] Jesse Schwamb: That's the real payoff of this whole parable. I think, uh, maybe all three of them altogether, is that it is shocking how good the gospel is, which we're always saying, yeah, but I'm really always being moved, especially these last couple weeks with what Jesus is saying about how good, how truly unbelievable the gospel is. And again, it draws us to the. Old Testament scriptures when even the Israel saying, who is like this? Who is like our God? So what's remarkable about this is that there's an infinite willingness on God's part to receive sinners. [00:44:23] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. [00:44:23] Jesse Schwamb: And however wicked a man may have been, and the day that he really turns from his wickedness and comes to God by Christ, God is well pleased and all of heaven with him, and God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, like you said, but God has pleasure and true repentance. If all of that's true, then like day to day, here's what I, I think this means for us. [00:44:41] Applying the Parable to Our Lives [00:44:41] Jesse Schwamb: Is when we come to Christ for mercy and love and help and whatever anguish and perplexity and simpleness that we all have, and we all have it, we are going with the flow. If his own deepest wishes, we're not going against them. And so this means that God has for us when we partake in the toning work of Christ, coming to Christ for forgiveness, communing with him despite our sinfulness, that we are laying hold of Christ's own deepest longing and joy. [00:45:10] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And [00:45:10] Jesse Schwamb: Jesus is comforted when we draw near the riches of his atoning work because as his body, even his own body in a way is being healed in this process. And so we, along with it, that I think is the payoff here. That's what's just so remarkable is that not only, like you're saying, is all heaven kind of paying attention to this. Like they're cognizant of it. It's something worthy of their attention and their energies and their rejoicing. But again, it's showing that God is doing all of this work and so he keeps calling us and calling us and calling us over and over again and just like you said, the elect sinner, those estr belongs to God and his eternal purpose. Even that by itself, we could just say full stop. Shut it down end the podcast. Yeah. That's just worthy to, to rejoice and, and ponder. But this is how strong I think we see like per election in particular, redemption in these passages. Christ died for his chief specifically crisis going after the lost coin, which already belongs to him. So like you were saying, Tony, when you know, or maybe you don't know, but you've misplaced some kind of money and you put your hand in that pocket of that winter coat for the first time that season and out comes the piece of paper, that's whatever, 20 or whatever, you rejoice in that, right. Right. It's like this was mine. I knew it was somewhere, it belonged to me, except that what's even better here is this woman tears her whole place apart to go after this one coin that she knows is hers and yet has been lost. I don't know what more it is to be said. I just cannot under emphasize. Or overemphasize how great God's love is in this like amazing condescension, so that when Jesus describes himself as being gentle and lowly or gentle and humble or gentle and humiliated, that I, I think as we understand the biblical text, it's not necessarily just that he's saying, well, I'm, I'm displaying. Meekness power under control. When he says he's humble, he means put in this incredibly lowly state. Yeah. That the rescue mission, like you're saying, involves not just like, Hey, she lemme call you back. Hey, come over here, says uh. He goes and he picks it up. It's the ultimate rescue, picks it up and takes it back by his own volition, sacrificing everything or to do that and so does this woman in this particular instance, and it should lead us. I think back to there's this virtuous cycle of seeing this, experiencing this. Being compelled by the law of Christ, as Paul says, by the power of the Holy Spirit and being regenerated and then worshiping, and then repenting, and then worshiping, and then repenting, and then worshiping. Because in the midst of that repentance and that beautifulness recognizing, as Isaiah says, all of these idols that we set up, that we run to, the one thing they cannot do for us is they cannot deal with sin. They cannot bring cleanliness and righteousness through confession of sin. They cannot do that. So Christ is saying, come to the one you who are needy, you who have no money. To use another metaphor in the Bible, come and buy. And in doing so, we're saying, Christ, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. And when he says, come, come, I, I've, I have already run. After you come and be restored, come and be renewed. That which was lost my child. You have been found and I have rescued you. [00:48:04] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And these, these are so, um, these two parables are so. Comfortable. Like, right, like they are there, there are certain passages of scripture that you can just like put on like a big fuzzy warm bathrobe on like sn a cold morning, a snuggy. Yeah. I don't know if I want to go that far, but spirits are snuggy and, and these two are like that, right? Like, I know there are times where I feel like Christ redeemed me sort of begrudgingly, right? Mm-hmm. I think we have, we have this, um, concept in our mind of. Sort of the suffering servant, you know, like he's kind of like, ah, if I have to do it, I will. Right, right. And, and like, I think we, we would, if, if we were the ones who were, were being tasked to redeem something, we might do it. You know, we might do it and we. We might feel a certain sense of satisfaction about it, but I can tell you that if I had a hundred sheep and I had lost one, I would not lay it on my shoulder rejoicing. I would lay it on my shoulder. Frustrated and glad that I finally found it, but like. Right. Right. That's not what Christ did. That's right. Christ lays us on his shoulders rejoicing. Right. I know. Like when you lose something, it's frustrating and it's not just the loss of it that's frustrating. It's the time you have to take to find it. And sometimes like, yeah, you're happy that you found it, but you're like, man, it would've just been nice if I hadn't lost this in [00:49:36] Jesse Schwamb: the That's right. [00:49:37] Tony Arsenal: This woman, there's none of that. There's no, um, there's no regret. There's no. Uh, there's no begrudging this to it. There's nothing. It's just rejoicing. She's so happy. And it's funny, I can imagine, uh, maybe, maybe this is my own, uh, lack of sanctification here. I can imagine being that friend that's like, I gotta come over 'cause you found your coin, right? Like, I can be, I could imagine me that person, but Right. But honestly, like. This is a, this is a situation where she's so overcome with joy. She just has to tell people about it. Yeah. She has to share it with people. It, it reminds me, and I've seen this, I've seen this, um, connection made in the past certainly isn't new to me. I don't, I don't have any specific sorts to say, but like the woman at the well, right. She gets this amazing redemption. She gets this, this Messiah right in front of her. She leaves her buckets at the well, and she goes into a town of people who probably hate her, who think she's just the worst scum of society and she doesn't care. She goes into town to tell everybody about the fact that the Messiah has come, right? And they're so like stunned by the fact that she's doing it. Like they come to see what it is like that's what we need to be like. So there's. There's an element here of not only the rejoicing of God, and again, like, I guess I'm surprised because I've, I've, I've never sort of really read this. Part, I've never read this into it too much or I've never like really pulled this out, but it, now that I'm gonna say it, it just seems logical, like not only is God rejoicing in this, but again, it should be calling us to rejoice, right? Christ is. Christ is using these parables to shame the Pharisees and the scribes who refuse to rejoice over the salvation of sinners. How often do we not rejoice over our own salvation sufficiently? Like when's the last time? And I, I don't want to, this is, this can be a lot of loss. So again, like. God is not calling every single person to stand up on their lunch table at work, or, I don't know if God's calling anybody to stand up on the lunch table at work. Right. To like, like scream about how happy they are that they're sick, happy, happy. But like, when's the last time you were so overcome with joy that in the right opportunity, it just over, like it just overcame you and you had to share it. I don't rem. Putting myself bare here, like I don't remember the last time that happened. I share my faith with people, like my coworkers know that I'm a Christian and, um, my, they know that like, there are gonna be times where like I will bring biblical ethics and biblical concepts into my work. Like I regularly use bible examples to illustrate a principle I'm trying to teach my employees or, or I will regularly sort of. In a meeting where there's some question about what the right, not just like the correct thing to do, but the right thing to do. I will regularly bring biblical morality into those conversations. Nobody is surprised by that. Nobody's really offended by it. 'cause I just do it regularly. But I don't remember the last time where I was so overcome with joy because of my salvation that I just had to tell somebody. Right. And that's a, that's a, that's an indictment on me. That's not an indictment on God. That's not an indictment on anyone else. That's an indictment on me. This parable is calling me to be more joyful about. My salvation. [00:52:52] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. One of the, I think the best and easiest verses from Psalms to memorize is let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Yes. Like, say something, speak up. There's, there's a great truth in what you're saying. Of course. And I think we mentioned this last time. There's a communal delight of redemption. And here we see that played out maybe a little bit more explicitly because the text says that the joy is before the angels, meaning that still God is the source of the joy. In other words, the angels share in God's delight night, vice versa, and not even just in salvation itself, but the fact that God is delighted in this great salvation, that it shows the effectiveness of his saving power. All that he has designed will come to pass because he super intends his will over all things that all things, again are subservient to our salvation. And here, why would that not bring him great joy? Because that's exactly what he intends and is able to do. And the angels rejoice along with him because his glory is revealed in his mighty power. So I'm, I'm with you. I mean, this reminds me. Of what the author of Hebrew says. This is chapter 12, just the first couple of verses. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses in this communal kind of redemption of joy surrounding us. Laying aside every weight and the sin,

In this thought-provoking episode, Tony and Jesse delve into Jesus's twin parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price from Matthew 13:44-46. They explore the profound economic metaphor Jesus uses to illustrate the incomparable value of the Kingdom of Heaven. Through careful examination of both parables, they discuss what it means to "count the cost" of following Christ while simultaneously recognizing that no earthly sacrifice can compare to the infinite worth of gaining Christ. The conversation moves between practical application—considering how believers assess value in their spiritual lives—and deeper theological reflections on Christ's perfect sacrifice that makes our entrance into the Kingdom possible in the first place. Key Takeaways The Kingdom of Heaven has such surpassing value that sacrificing everything to obtain it is considered a joyful exchange, not a loss. Both parables show different paths to discovering the Kingdom (unexpected finding vs. intentional seeking), but identical responses: selling everything to obtain the treasure. The parables are not primarily commanding material poverty, but rather illustrating the "sold-outness" required in pursuing the Kingdom of God. Counting the cost of discipleship is not only permissible but necessary to fully appreciate the value of what we gain in Christ. The ultimate treasure we receive in salvation is not merely benefits like eternal life, but God Himself—union with Christ and fellowship with the Trinity. Christ Himself is the one who ultimately fulfills these parables perfectly, giving everything to purchase us as His treasure. The irresistible draw of the Kingdom illustrates how God's grace works in the heart of believers, compelling joyful surrender. Exploring the Incomparable Value of the Kingdom The economic metaphor Jesus employs in these parables is striking—both the hidden treasure and the pearl are deemed so valuable that the discoverers "sell all they have" to obtain them. As Tony and Jesse point out, this transaction reveals something profound about how we should view the Kingdom of Heaven. It's not simply that the Kingdom is valuable; it's that its value so far exceeds anything else we possess that the comparison becomes almost absurd. As Tony notes, "For sure the worth of the kingdom of heaven surpasses anything we could imagine... there's no measure that is satisfying, there's no measure that can actually show us how worthwhile it is." This perspective transforms how we understand sacrifice in the Christian life. When opportunities or comforts are foregone because of our faith, we're not simply losing something—we're experiencing the reality that we've chosen something infinitely more valuable. The parables teach us to view these moments not with regret but with a clearer vision of the treasure we've received in Christ. The Ultimate Prize: God Himself Perhaps the most powerful insight from the discussion is the realization that the ultimate treasure of salvation is not the benefits we receive, but God Himself. As Tony eloquently states: "All of those things are attending gifts. But what we get in salvation ultimately is we get God... we get union with God, we get fellowship with Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. We get swept up into the life of the Trinity... We gain the relationship that the son has with the father by nature. We gain that by grace and nothing can compare to that." This perspective reshapes how we understand the value proposition of the gospel. It's not merely that we receive eternal life, freedom from suffering, or other benefits—though these are real. The pearl of great price is relationship with God Himself. This helps explain why both men in the parables respond with such dramatic, all-encompassing sacrifice. When we truly grasp what's being offered, nothing seems too great a price to pay. Memorable Quotes "What we get in salvation ultimately is we get God. We get union with God, we get fellowship with Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. We get swept up into the life of the Trinity... We gain the relationship that the son has with the father by nature. We gain that by grace and nothing can compare to that." — Tony Arsenal "I often say in my own line of work, that cost only matters in the absence of value... it's like at the end of days when we think about the worthiness of our God, that there's no one like him, that he's unequal, that he has no rival, that the gospel is the sweetest message that we're rescued literally from the pit. We'll just say no matter what the cost of us personally, great or small, totally worth it." — Jesse Schwamb Full Transcript [00:00:08] Tony Arsenal: All of those things are attending gifts. But what we get in salvation ultimately is we get God we get union with God, we get fellowship with Jesus Christ in the, the power of the Holy Spirit. We, we get swept up into the life of the, the God of the universe. Like the life of the Trinity indwells us. And we, we become a part of that. We get swept up into that. We gain the relationship that the son has with the father by nature. We gain that by grace and nothing can compare to that. [00:00:47] Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 469 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse. [00:00:54] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother. [00:00:59] Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. Discussing the Value of the Kingdom of Heaven [00:01:00] Jesse Schwamb: Speaking of ears to hear, we're back at it again with a whole new, or let's say different parable from our Lord and Savior Jesus. And we've been talking about how really these parables give us this view of the face of heaven through these earthly glasses. And I am pretty interested in our conversation about what's coming up because sometimes we don't like to put too fine a points to our, our point of question to our faith. And in this case, we're gonna get to ask the question, what is it all worth, this kingdom of heaven, this rule and reign of Christ? What is it all about? Who are the beneficiaries of it? And what is it all actually worth? There's a little bit of economics in this, so we're gonna get there. And while we talk and do a little affirming or denying, you should just go ahead write to just skip, go. Do not collect $200 or maybe. Pass, go and collect $200. I dunno. But just go to Matthew chapter 13 and hang out there for just a second. Affirmations and Denials [00:01:58] Jesse Schwamb: But first, I'm always curious to know whenever we talk, are you gonna affirm with something or are you gonna die against something? We've been on a string of lots of affirmations, but I'd like to think that's just because we're fun, loving, optimistic people. But there was a day where we had to do both. And now that I only have to choose one, I do find myself gravitating almost naturally toward the affirming width. But I leave it to you, Tony, are you affirming with or denying against? [00:02:22] Tony Arsenal: I, unfortunately am denying tonight. Technical Issues with Apple Podcasts [00:02:25] Tony Arsenal: So you and I already talked about it a little bit, but uh, I'm denying Apple Podcast Connect. Oh yes. So, uh, I. Obviously, like if you're affected by this, you're not hearing the episode 'cause it's not updating for you. But, uh, if you happen to be using Apple to listen to the podcast and for some reason you're listening somewhere else, maybe you realize that the podcast has not been updating for several weeks. And so you went to a different podcast catcher. Um, apple just decided for some reason that none of our feeds were gonna update. No good reason. So I've got a ticket out to Apple and hopefully we'll get it fixed. Uh, if you do know someone who listens to the show and they use Apple, please tell them to subscribe to something else or to, uh, go to the website. You can get all of the, all of the episodes on our website. You could go to Spotify, you could do something like, uh, overcast or PocketCasts. Um, it really is just Apple. It's, it's the actual account that we use to, uh, to access. Apple's Directory is not pulling new episodes and it's not pulling new episodes on another show that I run as well. So, uh, it's not just this show, it's not our RSS feed. These things happen. It'll, you know, you'll get four or five episodes all at one time. When it, when it corrects itself, usually they're pretty quick. I put in a ticket like late on Friday afternoon, so I didn't expect them to get to it on, uh, Saturday or Sunday. So hopefully by the time you're hearing this, uh, it's resolved. I would hope so, because that means it would be about a week from today. Um, so hopefully they'll have a resolve. But yeah, it's just th thorns and thistles. This is our own, our own, uh, manifestation of the curse here in this little labor that we do. It's, it's thorns and thistles right now, but no big deal. Just, uh, catch up when you can. And, uh, yeah, so denying Apple Podcasts now, really, it's, it's a great service and this is a, a little glitch. It's, it's just a little frustrating. [00:04:20] Jesse Schwamb: The sweat of our brow. Yes. Here it is. We're just toiling over getting Apple to please release our episodes. Well, it'll be your happy day if you use Apple Podcasts and then get a bunch of them all at once. That's fantastic. It's like the gift that is over in abundance. Supporting The Reformed Brotherhood [00:04:36] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it is a good reminder that you just said, Tony, that everybody should go, just take some time. Head on over to our form brotherhood.com. You can find all the other 400 some odd episodes living over there. And while you're over there and you're perusing or searching by topic to see what we've talked about before, you're probably gonna think to yourself, this is so incredible. How is this compendium, this omnibus of all these episodes just hanging out here free of cost? And I'm so glad you're thinking about that because there are so many lovely brothers and sisters who have decided just to give a little bit to make sure that all that stuff gets hosted for free for you Yeah. And for us, so that anybody can go and explore it and find content that we hope will be edifying. So if that's something you're interested in, maybe you've been listening for a while and thought, you know what? I would like to give a little bit one time or reoccurring, we would love to, for you to join us in that mission. You can go to patreon.com/reform brotherhood, and there's all the information for you to give if that's something that you feel you would like to do, and we would be grateful for you to do it. [00:05:32] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. We, we have a group of people who support the show. They make it possible for your, uh, your ear holes to be filled with our voices. And, uh, but again, you know, the costs are going up all around and, and we would, uh, certainly love to have people partner with us. Um, we've committed to making show that the, making sure that the show is free and available. Um, it's never our intention to put anything behind a paywall or to, to barrier and in that way, but we can only do that if there's people who are supporting the show and making, making sure that we've got the funding that we need to, to keep going. So, thank you to everybody who gives, thank you to anyone who's considering it, uh, and thanking anybody who decides to, uh, jump on board with that. [00:06:11] Jesse Schwamb: Right on. We're appreciative who we really are. [00:06:13] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. So Jesse, what are you affirming or denying today? Exploring Open Webcam DB [00:06:16] Jesse Schwamb: Uh, this is what I've kind of done before, but I think I've found a new place for it. I just am continually impressed and fall in love with how great and big and lovely God's world is. So I love these types of sites that give you insight into this great big world, even if it's in unexpected places or maybe in strange places. So I'm affirming with a website called Open webcam db.com. Open webcam db.com. And it's exactly like what it sounds like. It's a database that has something like 2000 live cameras streaming daily from over 50 countries, all searchable by a category. So you can find natural landscapes, airports, construction sites, and one of my recent favorites, honestly, and this is. It's so strange, but kind of awesome is this warehouse, it's called Chinese Robotic Warehouse Buzz, and it's just robots moving pallets around or like stacks of all of these items. It's mesmerizing. But I would encourage you go to open webcam db.com, search for like your stage or your country. You'll find so many amazing things. So I've sat and just watched, you know, between tasks or when you know you just need a break or you're just curious about the world. Like I look, I watched the Krakow Maine Market Square quite a bit because it's. Beautiful and brilliant, and to think about the people moving to and fro and what they're doing, what their lives are like. There's some great scenes from San Francisco Bay. There is a bird feeder in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that I often watch. So of course, like go out as we've said, and live and breathe and be in your own communities. And as well, if you're looking at scratch that itch of just seeing all these different places, all the different things that are happening in God's created world, I can firmly and unreservedly recommend open webcam db.com for that. [00:07:58] Tony Arsenal: Nice, nice, uh, little known fact at one point, Dartmouth Hitchcock, which is the hospital that I worked for, had to block a penguin cam, uh, because it was causing such a productivity drain combined with an actual measurable decrease in internet bandwidth at the hospital. 'cause so many people were watching this little penguin cam at some zoo in Boston. I think it probably was. Yeah, I, I love this kind of stuff. I think this kind of stuff is great. Uh, I use, uh, Dartmouth College has a, like a live one that I use all the time, especially when we're trying to figure out what the weather's gonna do. You can see it on the camera. Uh, we, we often will, you know, see, especially as we get closer to the season when we're talking about traveling to the beach and whatnot, uh, often look at the ocean grove. Oh, that's right. Uh, pier cam. So yeah, check it out. Uh, sounds like a fun time. Do not share it with too many of your friends at work. Or it may crash the network and Yeah. But [00:08:53] Jesse Schwamb: yeah, for [00:08:54] Tony Arsenal: sure. That was a funny email that they had to send out. I remember that [00:08:57] Jesse Schwamb: for sure. Use, use the penguin cam responsibly. I just did a quick search. There are four different penguin cams. Uh, three of them are in the United States, one is in New Zealand, and you better believe I'm gonna be checking those bad boys out. Yes. I didn't even think about. The penguin feature here and penguins are an amazing animal. Like we could stop right now and just shift our topic to penguins if you want to. [00:09:16] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. ' [00:09:16] Jesse Schwamb: cause there's so much there. And the spiritual truths are so broad and deep, but I just think penguins are kind of undervalued. Birds. Everybody should go check them out. [00:09:26] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're pretty cool. [00:09:28] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Um, I'm like, I will watch any Penguin documentary and just be astounded by Penguin. Like, whether they're Emperor Penguins or South African Penguin, wherever. I just think they're phenomenal and hilarious and seem to be living the dream. And he doesn't want a little bit of that. [00:09:46] Tony Arsenal: You just gotta get Morgan Freeman to do the voiceover in any documentary or, or nature documentary is better with Morgan Freeman doing the voiceover. [00:09:55] Jesse Schwamb: Well, I all, this might be a deep cut real quick, but I just learned this, and I'm guessing some of our listening brothers and sisters probably already know this. Maybe you do too, Tony. So, Benedict Cumberbatch, do you know where I'm going with this? Yep, [00:10:06] Tony Arsenal: yep. Pen wing. [00:10:07] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. I didn't. I cannot say that word or stumbles over its pronunciation. He did some kind of big documentary in which Penguins played at least some part. Yeah. And they were in an interview. They were giving him such a hard time because they played his reading of it like within the same kind of five minutes. And his, the word just kept degenerating in his mouth every time he said it. So it became like almost undistinguishable from the actual word. And it's like initial pronunciation. It was so hilarious. Apparently it's a big joke on the internet and I just didn't know it. [00:10:38] Tony Arsenal: Especially for someone like Bent Cumberbatch who just is, uh, like he's a world-class voice actor. [00:10:44] Jesse Schwamb: Right. [00:10:45] Tony Arsenal: And like a super smart ude guy and he just can't say the word penguin and penguin. Yeah. [00:10:51] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. He said, you got everybody go look it up. 'cause it is super hilarious. And now it's kind of gotten stuck in my head. But um, again, this suddenly became like the All Penguin episode all of a sudden. [00:11:01] Tony Arsenal: I mean like, he can pronounce his own last name just fine, but the word penguin escapes him. I like to call 'em blueberry crumble bottom or whatever. Crumble bunch. [00:11:11] Jesse Schwamb: Uh, see that's the good stuff right there. That's what everybody we know. This is what you all tune in for. This is what you're missing when Apple Podcast doesn't send everything out on time. Yeah. You're welcome. [00:11:22] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. The Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl [00:11:23] Tony Arsenal: Well, Jesse, why don't we, why don't we get into it? Because you know it, it's interesting. Let's [00:11:27] Jesse Schwamb: get into it. [00:11:28] Tony Arsenal: Well, it's interesting because when you, you know, you kind of, we, we sort of do the little lead to the episode and I, I suddenly realized that I think I've been interpreting this parable very differently than maybe you have or other people. Great. Do, uh, because I, I think I, I think I might have a different take on it. Let, let's do it. Yeah. So let's get into it. Uh, do you have the, the text in friend you wanna read? Uh, why don't we just do 44 all the way through 46? We'll do both parables in one reading. We'll come back and talk about it. [00:11:54] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Sorry, everybody. So here's a two for one for you. Beginning in where we're in verse 44 of Matthew chapter 13. This is Jesus speaking. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field again. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Interpreting the Parables [00:12:22] Tony Arsenal: I think maybe this is the, like the beauty of parables, uh, when Christ doesn't give us a interpretation. I, I think we're, we're, we're not free to like make up whatever we want, but these kinds of teaching tools are useful because the fact that there can be multiple interpretations actually is, is probably intentional. [00:12:43] Jesse Schwamb: Right. [00:12:43] Tony Arsenal: So it's funny because I think when you intro the episode here, it sounds like you're going to the kingdom of Heaven being a treasure hidden in a field, being something that we should sell everything we have and go after. And when I read this, I read it as the kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden a field. And the man who is Jesus goes and sells all that. He has. He gives all that he has and buys the field. So, and I, I think this is one of those ones where like. Probably both of those things are in play. Sure. But it's interesting 'cause I've never, I've never really read this and thought about myself as the person who buys the field. [00:13:19] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Interesting. [00:13:20] Tony Arsenal: I've probably heard sermons or read devotionals where people have said that and it just never clicked. And it didn't register until just now. And you were, when you were, uh, introing the parable that maybe you are the, maybe your way of introing your, your interpretation. Maybe that's the dominant one. So I, I looked at a couple quick, um, commentaries while you were speaking and I didn't get a chance to do my commentary reading before the episode. It seems like I'm the weird one. So, but it's interesting, um, 'cause again, I think that's the, kind of the beauty of parables is that sometimes the, the, um. Ambiguity of what the possible meaning could be, probably plays into the, the, um, teaching technique itself. [00:13:58] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I, I think that's fair. I totally can take and understand what your perspective is on this. What I find interesting is that these, we've got these two abutting each other, like the cheek to cheek parallel approach here, and in doing so, there seems to be like kind of an interesting comparison between the two. Actors in this. And I think we should get into that. Like why in one case Jesus is talking about a person who finds this in a field, which by the way, I think the, the thing that jumps out to me first about that person is this person doesn't actually own the field at first. Right. That the treasure is in. So that is interesting. I'm totally with you. But then the second one, so in the first one there's kinda almost like this sense, and I don't wanna like push this too far, but that this person who finds this treasure does so very unexpectedly, perhaps like he's even the hired hand and of course not the one who owns the field. [00:14:48] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. [00:14:49] Jesse Schwamb: And in the second case, we have somebody who almost is volitionally looking for this thing of great value, but finds the one thing above all the other things that they're used to looking for that clearly has the greatest and most. You know, essential worth and therefore the end is always the same in both of 'em. They give everything they have. They're willing for forsake all other things with great joy, recognizing the great value that's in front of them. I think there is a place to understand that as Christ acting in those ways. I think there's also interesting, again, this comparison between these two people. So I'm seeing this as we've got these varied beneficiaries of the kingdom. They both come to this place of the incomparable value of the kingdom, but then there's also like this expulsive power of the kingdom. All, all of that's, I think in there, and again, these are really, really, really brilliant, I think, because the more that you spend time meditating on these, the layers just kind of come and they fall away and you start to really consider, well, why again is Jesus using these two different characters? Why is he using this kinda different sense of things of, of worth what the people are actually after? I think all of it's in play. You're totally right. [00:15:54] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. The Cost and Value of the Kingdom of Heaven [00:15:55] Tony Arsenal: So I think, you know, when we think about the kingdom of heaven, when we think about these perils, we made this point last week, we shouldn't, um, we shouldn't restrict, we have to be careful not to restrict the comparison to just like the first noun that comes up, [00:16:08] Jesse Schwamb: right? [00:16:08] Tony Arsenal: So it's not just that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, it, it is like a treasure, but it's like a treasure that's hidden in a field. Yes. And it's not just like a treasure that's hidden in a field, it's a treasure that's hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. Right? So, so like we have to look at that whole sequence. And I think, I think, um, you know, obviously like the, the interpretation that we are the, we're the man who finds the kingdom of heaven and we, you know, we go and buy the field. Um, that, that obviously makes perfect sense now that I'm looking at a few different commentaries. It seems to be the predominant way that this gets interpreted. And we, we look at it and we say, what, well, what does this mean for like our Christian life? Like. What does it mean? Do we have to, do we have to give everything away? Do we have to sell everything we have? Is that the point of the parable? I think some people make that the point of the parable. Um, I'm not convinced that that actually is the point of the parable. Um, because it, you know, it, it, it just, there's lots in the scripture that, that, uh, doesn't seem to require that Christians automatically like, give away everything they have. Um, maybe that's your calling. Maybe it is something that God's calling you to do to sort of, um, divest yourself of your, your belongings, either to sort of fight materialism or greed or, or just because like you're gonna need to have that fluidity and liquidity to your assets 'cause you're gonna need to move around or whatever it is. But I don't think we look at this parable and have like a, like a, a command for a life of poverty or something like that. Right. Um, really this is more about the. Utter sold outness of the Christian to pursue and seek the kingdom of God. [00:17:48] Jesse Schwamb: Right? Right. [00:17:49] Tony Arsenal: And and I think that that's the same in both, even though the way that the person in the parables comes a, comes across the kingdom or they come across this, this thing of great value or thing of great price, that they find their response in both parables is the same. And to me, that that actually tells me that that's more the point of these parables. Um, or, or maybe we shouldn't even think of these as two parables, right? Some of the introductory language that we see in when we transition from one parable to another, we don't really see that here. Uh, and if, if we're gonna follow that, actually we would be going to the next parable would also kind of fall into this. But he says the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure. And then in 45 he says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. We're gonna run into something like this later on when we get to like the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of lost coins. Where there are these distinct parables, but they're kind of stacked on top of each other in order to make a specific point. All of the parables that are sort of in these parable stacks are making the same point. And so I think it's not so much about like, how do we find the Kingdom of Heaven or how do we come upon the kingdom of heaven? It's more about what do we do once we've come upon it? Once we've thrown it's, that's the point of the parable that we need to unpack. [00:19:03] Jesse Schwamb: That's right. And I would add to that, like who is it that is the beneficiary of this kingdom? We have two different, very different individuals, which I, again, I think, we'll, we'll talk a little bit about, but I'm totally with you. I, I think it's, it's easier, it's almost too narrow and too easy to say. Well, this is really just about like physical ma or about wealth. Like in some way the, what we're being taught here is that you have to get rid of everything of value in exchange for this. In some ways, that almost feels too transactional, doesn't it? As if like what, what we need to do is really buy the kingdom. We express our seriousness about this kingdom or the rule and reign of God by somehow just giving up everything that we own as if to prove that we're really worthy of receiving that kingdom that we prayed enough. Right. That we've done enough, even though that we're contrite enough. Yeah. And all that stands like in direct opposition to the mercy and grace, which God gives to us through his son by the power of the Holy Spirit to bring us into this kingdom. So we know it can't really be about that. And so that leads me back again to just like the lovely details here. And like you've already said in the first case, here's what really strikes me is. For probably most of us in the West, this idea of treasure is novel and maybe romantic. There's a adventure and an energy to it. Because we've all heard stories about this, whether it's like, I don't know, pirates of the Caribbean or the county Mount Cristo. Like there's something about treasure finding some kind of, or national treasure. Sorry, that just came to my mind. Like I couldn't go any further without mentioning Nick Cage. So you know, like there's something there that pulls us in that finding this thing almost unexpectedly in a hidden place of immense worth and value is, has a real draw to it. But I imagine that in Palestine being like a war torn region in Jesus' day, in the way people might store goods of great value in the fields they own. And then of course the owner may never be able to achieve for lots of reasons, including death. And then somebody might stumble upon it. And as I understand the, the laws there, of course, if you were to stumble upon something. I was in somebody else's property and and on earth that thing take it out of the ground. In this case, you would be by law required to bring that back to the person who owned the field. So there's something interesting here that this first person, probably the more meager and humble of the two with they at least respected, like their socioeconomic status is let's, we could presume maybe going about their normal work. They find this unexpectedly in the field and it's immediately recognized to be something of great value that it is to stop and to, again, there's like a measuring that happens behind the scenes. This person at least is measuring of all the things that I own, all things I could possibly own. The better thing for me to do is to consolidate all the rest of my wealth. And this case, again, it's not the message of the story to do this, it's the exemplification of what's happening here. This person is so sold out to ensure that they acquire this great treasure that they stumbled upon, that they will take literally everything else of value that they own to exchange it for this very thing. So I'm totally with you because I think the predominant message here is not like take all your wealth and make sure that you give it to the church or that it goes to ministry or to missions. That may all be well and good and it may all be the kind of calling that you receive. However, I think the principle message here is the kingdom of God is so valuable that losing everything on earth, but getting the kingdom is a happy trade off. Like that's actually a really, really good deal. And so having the omnipotent saving reign of Christ in our lives is so valuable that if, if we lose everything in order to have it, it would be a joyful sacrifice. [00:22:20] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I think, um, I think there is a level of. Encouragement in Sacrifice and Joy in the Kingdom [00:22:27] Tony Arsenal: Sacrifice that happens for every Christian and. I mean, I, I know there's a lot of people who they, uh, come to faith as young children and we've kind of talked about that as like, that's that testimony that, you know, I think everybody really wants is like they wish they never had a time that they didn't know Jesus and Right. I don't know any parent that I've ever spoken to, and I'm certainly not any different here that doesn't want that testimony for Jesus, but, or for, for their kids in their relationship with Jesus. But. I think most people who come to faith at some point in their life when they're able to remember it, like they, they have a conscious memory of their conversion experience. There is this sort of sense of sacrifice and e even a sort of a sense of loss. Um, I think there, there are times where, and, and you know, I think maybe, um, even people who've always been in the faith, um, they probably can resonate with this. I think there are times when we might look at how our lives could have been different or could be different if we weren't in the faith. Um, and, and sometimes there's a sort of wistfulness to that. Like being a Christian can sometimes be difficult right On, um, you know, maybe you miss a promotion opportunity because you're not willing to work on the Lord's day or because you're not willing to do something unethical. Like you, you miss out on some sort of advancement and you think, well, if I could just, you know, if I could have just gotten past that, like my life would be much different. And what this parable teaches us is. That's an understandable, like that's an understandable emotion or response. Um, and there is this weighing of the cost. And in the parable here, he, like you said, there's this calculation that goes on in the background. He finds this treasure, he makes the calculation that to have this treasure is worth. Everything it's worth everything he has. He sells everything he has, and he buys the field in order to get the treasure right. And, and there's some interesting textual dynamics going on through this chapter. We've talked about how the parables kind of like the imagery across the parables in chapter 13 here of Matthew, they kind of flip certain figures around and almost, it's almost intentional because he is getting the treasure and the treasure. The kingdom of heaven here is like the treasure, but he's also getting the field right. And the kingdom of heaven is, is the field in other parables. Um, but this, this calculation that happens, um. I don't know, maybe my heart is just sensitive to this right now. I, I, I, I feel like a lot of times we look at that sort of wis wistful second glance at what could have been if we were not Christians, and we automatically feel like that's gotta be a sinful impulse. Like, how could I ever even consider what life might have been? Like this parable implies that that's the thing we actually have to do. You have to know and consider what it is you've sacrificed or will be sacrificing in order to make this transaction happen. You can't just blanketly say like, oh, of course. You know, you've gotta, you've gotta count the cost, as it were, and then you have to actually make the purchase. So I think we should look at this as a source of encouragement. Um, like I said, I'm not sure why. I feel like maybe there's, maybe there's just a, a. I dunno, I'm feeling a little weird and charismatic right now. I feel like this is something that I definitely need to be saying, like, I feel like someone needs to hear this. Maybe it's just me that needs to hear this. And that's, I'm tricking myself by thinking of someone else. But we are able, as Christians, I think God permits us and in some sense, maybe even expects and commands us to recognize what we have given to be Christians in order that we might realize how much we have gained with that transaction. It's not just this like remorse or regret, um, for the sake of remorse or regret. It's to be able to see how good and how beautiful and how worth it is the kingdom of God, uh, to, to, to claim that. [00:26:23] Jesse Schwamb: I like that there is a great discipline and a great joy in remembering worth and worthiness. So there's gonna be times, like you said, when it's hard and if you look back, look back at the ministry of Jesus, I've often thought that he's like a poor evangelizer from like modern standards. Yeah. Because often people come to him and say things like. I, I wanna be part of the kingdom of God. Well, what do I need to do to enter the kingdom of God? And here you have like a seemingly a willing convert. And he always says things like this, like, you gotta go count the cost. Yeah. Like is, is this worth it to you? Like you have to deny yourself, you have to hate your own father and your mother, and your wife and children, and brothers and sisters, even your own life. Otherwise you cannot be my disciple. And in this kind of language, it's clear that Jesus is saying you fail often. And maybe this goes back like you're saying, Tony, it's like the parable of the soil that you fail to really take into account what it means to follow with full fidelity, to commit yourself in a fully unencumbered way. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to consider that? And as human beings, we're just not good often at counting costs. We're not good at thinking about opportunity costs. And it's interesting here that we're called out to say, even if you've already purchased the field as so to speak, that as if you've been saved by Christ, to continue to remember how good it is to be in the kingdom of God. And that the joy. Of knowing as like the Heidelberg Catechism says in the first question that all things are subservient to our salvation. Yeah. That incredible worth of, that should be a source of encouragement in times of great trial and tribulation, no matter how big or small, so that this joy that this person has when they go and sells everything he has and he buys this field, you know those details, like you're saying, do press us. It really comes to us with this idea that we should be able to see plainly why having Christ is more valuable than all other things. If the omnipotence all wise, God is ruling, ruling over all things for our joy, then everything must be working for our good, no matter how painful and in the end, God is gonna triumph over all evil and all pain. So this kingdom is a real treasure. Like it is a, it is a real. A real quantity in our life and our wellbeing and in our spiritual consistency, that'll ought demand some reflection of how valuable it truly is. And then knowing that in our minds, that like influencing our behavior, our other thought patterns, and then our actual feelings about stuff. So that when, like you said, we're passed over, we're looked over, we're ridiculed for something, we go back and we count it all joy to be worthy of being part of God's kingdom, knowing that it was because of the entrance and acceptability and the identity in that kingdom that we experience. Those things, those hardships begin with. [00:29:05] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And, and I, um, I don't want us to miss out on the fact that even as the parable may be encouraging or forcing us to think about. The cost. It, it really is trying to emphasize the great value of the kingdom. Right? Right. We, like I said, we, we don't just count the cost. In order to count the cost for its own sake. We count the cost in order to understand the great blessing that is ours in Christ. Right. All I, I count all that I have as a loss compared to the greatness of Christ Jesus. And, um, I think we just don't often do that. I, I, I think as Christians, that's probably a thought that is in our head more as young Christians, especially if we come to the faith in, in a time in our life where we're aware of things like that. We think about things like that. Reflecting on the Cost of Faith [00:29:59] Tony Arsenal: You know, I was 15 when I first came to faith and, um, I, I don't think I was in a frame of mind as a 15-year-old boy to think about, like. The cost of what I was doing, right? It's not like I was a particularly popular kid. I didn't have a, you know, I didn't, I wasn't unpopular, but it wasn't like I lost a ton of friends when I became a Christian. I didn't really lose anything that was measurable. Um, but I do think that, as, you know, someone now in my forties, looking back at, you know, 15, 20, 25 years of, of Christian life, it's easy to see that things could have been different on a sort of temporal scale. Like my, my life could probably be more comfortable in terms of wealth or opportunities or other things that might, uh, aren't, aren't even bad things necessarily. There is a sense of sacrifice. But again, God has brought us into this kingdom and he's given us parables like this and given us the ability to recognize. That we do have a cost, that there is a cost to be counted in order that we might now look at it and praise him for how great and glorious and valuable the gift that he's given us is. Understanding the Parable of the Pearl [00:31:08] Tony Arsenal: And so I think, you know, I think that's the same basic meaning of this second, second half of the same parable. I guess the, the pearl of great price or the pearl of great value. But it's not exactly the same, right? It's not like Christ is just repeating the same ver, you know, parable with, with different words for variation. Um, every word is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching correction, reproof, and training and righteousness. And I had a, I had a prophet in, uh, in Bible college who would say like, difference means difference. And he was often talking about like minute things, like the difference, um, or why, why is this word used instead of that word? This word would've worked. And, and the author chose that one. There's a reason for that. Difference means difference, but. Christ here chooses to, to tell the parable a second time, um, in a slightly different way. Uh, and Matthew chooses to record these in the same sense next to each other in slightly different ways. So what, what do we, what do we wanna pull out of this second parable that's different and what do we think it's telling us that's a little bit different than the first version Y? [00:32:14] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that's a great question. Diverse Approaches to the Kingdom of Heaven [00:32:16] Jesse Schwamb: Uh, I love this idea because not until really, I was thinking about it this week when I read through them, was I really, again, drawn to the differences between these two main characters. Interestingly, I think in both, and we can make the case that the, the treasure, the kingdom of heaven here represented in both this pearl or in this literal treasure is in a way hidden. Certainly the first man is not necessarily looking for, it's still revealed to him, but the second in a way. And on the other hand, he knew this guy knows treasure. He's been seeking it with diligence in vigor, or at least like this is what he does for a living in his vocational career. He's out there trading pearls, presumably, and he knows something about them and how to evaluate them effectively. And so it's his business and he's dedicated himself to finding them. And apparently he's seen plenty of them over the years. But then all of a sudden, and this is wild, the beautiful, all of a sudden, clearly the search comes to like an abrupt end because he finds this one of immeasurable value, so much beauty exceeding and value exceeding all the other ones. And he doesn't need to search anymore. He just finds the one pearl that he can retire on a pearl with more than everything else. Or anything else that he's ever possessed and he gets it again. He does. And this brings him into symbol two with the first man. He does the same thing, then liquidate everything else and go after this one. Great pearl. So to me, and I'm curious your perspective on this, I'm not necessarily promulgating that. Well, the first one is not a seeker and the second one is like a seeker of of God things. Right? There is though, like you said, a difference in their approach and what they're after. And so I think what we can take from this, at the very least, is that there is diversity in these beneficiaries of the kingdom of God that's covering everybody. And just by these two kind of bookended or polar examples, that's what Jesus draws us to. But I would turn the question back to you. What do you think about this second guy? What do you think about the fact that his business is searching after these things? What? What do we take away from that? [00:34:07] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. The Ultimate Value of the Kingdom [00:34:07] Tony Arsenal: And you know, the thing that drop that jumps out to me immediately in the first parable, the kingdom of heaven is, is like the treasure hidden in the field, [00:34:16] Jesse Schwamb: right? [00:34:16] Tony Arsenal: In the second one, the kingdom of heaven is the merchant who's searching, [00:34:20] Jesse Schwamb: right? [00:34:20] Tony Arsenal: Right. The kingdom of heaven is like the merchant in search of fine pearls who finds one. That's right. And so I think that they kind of are like, almost like mirror images of each other, right? One of them is about the treasure and what it takes to come upon it and then obtain it. The second is about the person who is coming upon the treasure and, and finding it. And then what it takes again to obtain that treasure. And I think, I think you're right, there is an element here that. Um, in this second parable, the person who is seeking for this treasure is one he's seeking for the treasure, right? Right. You get the image in this, in this first parable that the dude just kind of stumbles upon it. Um, I've heard this Todd as like, it's actually more like a guy who's just walking through a field rather than like a person working the field. And I'm not sure that matters that much, but there is this sense in the first parable that the guy kind of stumbles upon it. He wasn't looking, it wasn't what he was trying to do, but you're right in the second one, the kingdom of heaven, and this is where I, this is where I think I need to think more about it, is what does it mean for the kingdom of heaven to be like a merchant searching for fine pearls right [00:35:23] Jesse Schwamb: on. [00:35:23] Tony Arsenal: Rather than the pearls being the kingdom of heaven, which is what we see in the first bearable. Um, and I don't know the answer to that question. I think I need to, need to think about it and study it a little bit more. But I do like this distinction that in, in the first case, it's sort of a happy accident. And in the second case, this is, this is the life, this man's life work. He finds he's, he's in search of fine pearls. I'm not sure I know exactly what he's trying to do with the fine pearls. It seems like it implies that he's a pearl merchant or a pearl trader, but then he finds this pearl. He doesn't seek to sell it. He buys it. Right. [00:36:00] Jesse Schwamb: Right. [00:36:00] Tony Arsenal: And, and the, the, the fact that the parable stops with him buying it sort of implies that like. He actually is not going to sell it. He's just gonna keep this pearl. Now before the, the pearls, the, the source of the value of the pearls was kind of in the, the financial gain that selling or trading them could bring. But now he suddenly finds this pearl that is so valuable. It's so great, it's so beautiful. Everything he was working to obtain before all of the money he's gathered by finding and selling pearls in the previous like mode of living. He now gets rid of all of that just to purchase this one pearl and presumably to keep it. And I think that again, is kind of a, kind of a, um, statement on our Christian life is that we, we probably have all sorts of things that we've been doing our whole life and we are seeking to, to move forward in our life. And the kingdom of heaven is kind of the ultimate goal of all of that, for those who are in Christ, for those who are called according to his purpose. The purpose is not just to accumulate wealth. It's not even necessarily, uh, in and of itself to like grow in righteousness. It's to be transformed to the, uh, to the image of God's glory son, for the purpose of making him great, making his name renowned. Right. When we look at that passage in Romans that have kind alluded to, he's, he would transform into the image of Christ so that he might be the first born among many brothers. The Incomparable Worth of Salvation [00:37:24] Tony Arsenal: Ultimately, our, our sanctification and glorification is about making Jesus great and glorified, um, to give him glory, to have our glorification reflect his already intrinsic glory and the gift that he gives us, and I think that's kind of, kind of in play here, is that. Uh, we might have all sorts of goals in our life. We might have goals in our Christian life, um, that are good things that we should strive for, but at the end of the day, all of those things only serve to bring us to the kingdom of heaven, which is this pearl of great price that we, we purchase, we buy it and we just kind of hang onto it. It is its own treasure and it's, it's not about what this, this treasure can bring to us, right? Which is what the fine pearls were before they were about what the merchant can find and sell. It's, it's now about just obtaining the pearl and enjoying that pearl. Um, which I think is a little bit different than, than, um, what I would've thought of with the par before. [00:38:19] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think, I think you're actually onto something with the distinction because I think of. So much of my career has been spent in financial services among people who are buyers and sellers of things. They're traders. And the way I read this was very similar to what you were saying to me. What resonated was if this gentleman or this person is. Trading, collecting these pearls. Presumably they have appreciation for the beauty of the pearl itself. So there is like something innate that draws them to this particular thing. And with that experience and with that knowledge and with that, that appreciation of that beauty. I think when they see this other pearl, it moves from, well, why would I ever sell that? I've seen everything. This is the most beautiful pearl I've ever laid my eyes on. And now I want to keep it for me. I want to have it in my possession. I want to cherish it and not just keep it in the inventory and then turn around and sell it for markup, presumably, because there is no nothing that would be of greater value to this person. 'cause they just sold everything else that they had. So they, it's appreciation for the pearl itself. It's going after that finding and seeking that great beauty. And then that led me right into Philippians chapter four, where Paul writes the church in Philippi, beginning of verse eight. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever's honorable, whatever's just whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever's commendable. If there's any excellence, if there. Anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things and the god of peace will be with you. So this idea, like you and I, Tony, have talked about like the world has great wisdom, it has great knowledge, it has things that can lead us by way of common grace into certain amounts of peace. But the pearl of great price, the seeking after the going after all these great things is to find the gospel, to be given the gospel it revealed to you. And then say everything else I count as a loss. Everything else is worthless compared to this thing. And if you're a person that can appreciate even just by turn of mind or God's influence in your life, you know, knowledge and wisdom, and you're seeking after that, which is the ultimate expression and representation of those things, and then you find you come upon this pearl of great price, the gospel wisdom and the beauty of God represented in his son Jesus Christ. And you say, this is it. I, I know enough to know, again, by the regeneration that comes through the spirit, this is the real deal. Then I think the message still stands. We come through two different directions into the same final culminating point, which is there is a condition for having this kingdom of God, for having the king on your side as your friend, but the condition isn't like wealth or power or negotiating or intelligence or even good trading behavior or going out and finding the right thing. The condition is that we prize the kingdom more than anything else we own. The point of selling everything in these parables is to simply show where our hearts are at. And so I often say in my own line of work, that cost only matters in the absence of value. Actually, it's true for everything that we. We presumably spend our time or our money on cost only matters in the absence of value. And I think like you and I could do a fun little experiment where I don't know, you ever talking to somebody about something and you're paying a cost to have that service delivered to you and you're, and you're just like totally worth it, like I would do totally worth it. Like, yeah, that's kind of the vibe I'm getting here. It's like at the end of days when we think about the worthiness of our God, that there's no one like him, that he's unequal, that he has no rival, that the gospel is the sweetest message that we're rescued literally from the pit. We're just say no matter what the cost of us personally, great or small, totally worth it, that that's what we'll be saying for all of eternity as we worship him. [00:41:45] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and I think even more than saying, totally worth it. I think when we are given our new eyes to see, and we no longer see through a da a glass dimly, we're gonna recognize saying that it was worth, it is is like it's a pale, like it's a faulty answer to begin with because the, for sure the worth of the kingdom of heaven surpasses anything we could imagine. And in our, you know, locked in little meat brains that we have now, we're kind of com we're just comparing it to. You know, like what, what we could have had or what we, what we've given up. Um, it, it's gonna be an incomparable comparison. Like there's no, there's no measure that is satisfying, there's no measure that can actually show us how, how worthwhile it is. And, you know, we've, we've made a point of it, like the, the blessing of salvation and, and really like what it is that we're getting, uh, in, in the. You know, the Christian understanding of salvation, it's not, it's not an eternal destiny. It's not bigger mansions in heaven. It's not freedom from death. All of those things come with it. All of those things are attending gifts. That's right. But what we get in salvation ultimately is we get God we get union with God, we get fellowship with Jesus Christ in the, the power of the Holy Spirit. We, we get swept up into the life of the, the God of the universe. Like the life of the Trinity indwells us. And we, we become a part of that. Uh, not, not in the, you know, like. Eastern Orthodox deification sense, although I think there's a proper way we can talk about deification. Um, but we get swept up into that. We gain the relationship that the son has with the father by nature. We gain that by grace and nothing can compare to that. There's nothing that we could ever point to. Um, it's funny, my, my wife and I, um, this is a little corny, but, um, we'll often say to, to each other instead of saying, I love you more than anything, we'll say, I love you more than everything. Right. And, and it's, it's a way to say like. You could take all that there is in the world, everything that I have that I could possibly consider and sum up the value. And I love my wife more than that. I love my children more than that. So it's not that I love them more than any one thing, it's that I love them more than everything combined. And this is even greater than that, right? We, we will look back at our lives and if, if it's even in our mind, if we even can, can comprehend anymore. The idea of thinking about what it costs us to obtain this pearl of great value, which is the kingdom of heaven, which is just another way to say, is just fellowship with the God of the universe. Um, we'll look at it and say no matter what it was. No matter what it could have been, I would give everything I, I love God more than everything. Right. Right. There's nothing that could ever possibly be considered that even comes close to what we gain in, in Christ Jesus, in union with, with God. And I think that's the point of this, like I think the guy who, um. Christ's Perfect Sacrifice and Our Response [00:44:58] Tony Arsenal: I think about what it would take for me to even like to sell everything, like the concept of selling everything I own. I'm not even sure how I would do that, to be honest with you. Like, I don't even know the mechanism for that kind of thing. But the idea that there's anything that could be valuable enough that I would just sell every piece of human property that I have, there's probably nothing like that in this world. Like, there probably isn't. And to, to take that comparison and then basically say like, that's just what the kingdom of God is like. 'cause that's the other thing I think we miss about parables is you, you only make a comparison when you can't describe something, um, analytically, right? There's the difference between analogically and analytically Ana lot analytically means we're able to actually quantify and explain it kind of in strict terms, right? I can, I can say that, um, uh, a heavy object ways, X number of grams or it, you know, or, um. Pounds or whatever. I can, I can measure that and make an analytical statement, or I can make an analogy, an analogy that is comparative. Uh, but by definition, or almost by by nature of the thing, when you make that comparison, you're kind of saying like, not only is it like this, but it's actually it, like it's more like this than I can even describe. Right? So when we're talking about the kingdom of Heaven here, and we say it's, it's like, it's like a man who goes, he finds a treasure and then he sells everything. He has to get that treasure. It's infinitely more like that than it actually can be described. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm rambling on that a little bit. Maybe trying to describe something that can't be described is, is hard to do. [00:46:35] Jesse Schwamb: It's, that's, yeah. But yeah, that's, that's very difficult to do. I'm actually totally with you on this. I think I understand clearly what you mean, this idea that no matter how hard we actually try to value it, we'll be incapable of doing so. Yes. And at best, it almost seems like this is a strange command in a way because it's, it's asking us to do in some ways a thing that is impossible for us to do. However, I think what you're saying is it doesn't mean that we shouldn't turn our minds toward that. We're a bit like people who, I don't know if this show is still on PBS, but like, do you know that show, remember that show The Antiques Road Show? Yeah. Where people would like come, they'd ran ransack their homes or their garages with these old antique items and they bring them to this road show where there'd be experts who would value them. And inevitably we'll be like those people who come with what we think is like a. A thousand dollars clock that we got at a garage sale thinking, wouldn't it be great? I know this is valuable. It's probably a thousand dollars. It'll be, look at the return, tenfold return, I'll get on this item, and then instead finding that it's worth $10 million when it's appraised. Yeah, I assume it'll be just like that in the Beautific vision that even maybe for all of eternity will be growing in our appreciation for just how valuable this great salvation is. And yet at the same time, I think what this should encourage us to do is to pray things like God make us real in seeing and savoring Christ in his saving work above all the other things. Yeah. So that, as you said in your example, we would cherish him above everything, above all things that you have that right place in our hearts or that we be inclined to undertake that posture, which says, God, though I cannot understand it in full. Would you help me to see that? Encouragement in Our Spiritual Journey [00:48:08] Jesse Schwamb: And I wanna just say like, as a word of encouragement, maybe I'm speaking more to myself here so everybody else can disregard this if you like, but I think sometimes there can be a little bit of intimidation then when you hear these things and say like, ah, I'm just not, I just dunno if I love God enough, like I wanna love him, or I want to want to love him more. And I think even that posture is appropriate. Yeah. Sometimes there, oftentimes in my personal life, I'll pray something like, God, help me to know how much you love me and would you give me the strength to love you back? So that even that awareness, that energy, that volition, that vitality, that, that heat, all of that, that fire itself is kindled by the Holy Spirit. It's not like we need to like try to again manufacture here. Because the point of these, these stories is not again, that we just find the means to do a transactional exchange here, but that instead we really just sit in the full promises of God. And of course to that, I would say we always need to go back to, to something like Romans eight. I mean, I know that we should, like you said, Tony, the. The standard description we give for the Bible is the one that gives itself, which is that all of it, all of it's is carried along by the Holy Spirit. All of it is God breathe. All of it is useful for something. And yet, of course, I say somewhat tongue in cheek that, you know, if I have 10 minutes to live, I'm probably not gonna the s descriptions of reading a genealogy, I'm going straight from Roman and say, Romans say, I think it's just like the pinnacle of the scriptures. And so just a couple of verses at the end there, because I think this is, this is leading us into what is this great treasure? What is the kingdom of God? Why do we value it so much? What is the saving power? And uh, these verses, I mean, always just entirely get me ready to run through a wall. So this is the end of, of Romans eight beginning verse 35. Who shall separate us from the law of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake. We are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from a love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. [00:50:22] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's a good word. And I, I, I like what you're saying too, is, is I think we, we can. There's this paradoxical thing that happens when the scriptures is trying to encourage us to do something, is we often like to get our, in our own way. And, and actually that becomes a source of discouragement for us. The Bible calls us to something and we know we can't live up to it. And that's actually like part and parcel of, of reform theology to recognize that this is law, like the, the, the, the, you know, maybe not in like the strict sense, like when we talk about dividing the scripture into law and gospel, um. It may not be that this particular passage would fall under that rubric of law normally, but this idea that we need to count the cost and that we need to be treasuring Christ more and more, and then when we feel like I'm just not getting it. I'm just not there. Like, I don't, I don't treasure Christ as much as I so should. Um, that Yeah, that's right. Nobody does. Nobody can, like, that's, that's kind of the point of this, and that's why it's law is it's, it shouldn't drive you in Christ. It should not drive you to despair. Right. It should not drive you to discouragement. It should drive you to gratitude that God saved you anyways. That, that this pearl of great value is still yours even though you can't possibly deserve it. Um, you know, we're, we're a little bit different than the, the merchant and the man who finds the treasure in the field in that we can't sell everything we have and obtain it like they have the ability to do that in the, in the parables. Right. Um, we, we don't, and we never will. And so rather than let that drive you to being discouraged that like you're just not getting. I recognize God is of infinite value and we are finite creatures. So we, we could, uh, value God perfectly. Like whatever that means, and I don't even know what that means, but we could value and cherish and love God perfectly as far as our capacities are concerned, and it still would not be enough to sufficiently merit God's favor for us. Like as much as we can, even in, even in eternity. As much as we can value and worship and love and praise Jesus, he is worth infinitely more than we could ever give, even when we do it perfectly. And this is, this is why you know Christ coming to die, to live on our behalf, to die in our place. Why that's necessary is because only this is a, maybe a different take on it. We, I think we talk a lot about how, um. Only God could, could carry, bear the wrath of God and not be destroyed. Right. Right. Only God could, um, could stand up under his own wrath, could stand up under the wrath of God and bear that punishment and not be destroyed. And so therefore, um, Christ had to be not just a man, but had to be God. But on the flip side. And God requires perfect perpetual obedience, which involves loving the Lord your God, perfectly with your whole heart at all times. Right? Only God can do that too. So it's not just that God. It's not just that G

Are algorithm-driven bubbles and online debates hindering your faith? This week on Remnant Radio, we're offering a roadmap for escaping echo chambers and cultivating true Christian unity. Matt Whitman with The Ten Minute Bible Hour shares his expertise on church history, Scripture, and charitable dialogue, empowering you to engage with diverse viewpoints while remaining grounded in gospel truth. Learn how to build resilience against fleeting doctrines and embrace the beauty of the body of Christ.We discuss cage-stage zeal, the translatable power of the gospel across cultures, and how vast Bible reading—coupled with insights on topics like the atonement, free will, spiritual warfare, and end times discussions—builds resilience against fleeting doctrines. Matt opens up about his journey from overconfidence to humility, emphasizing convictional unity that honors disagreements while prioritizing gospel truth for every tribe and nation.0:00 – Introduction 1:03 – Guest Matt Whitman's Ministry and Bible Podcast Overview4:07 – Passion for Breaking Theological Echo Chambers7:41 – Drivers of Online Tension and Christian Tribalism12:20 – Finding Good Christian Content and Humility Journey15:48 – Owning Theological Opinions and Seminary Humbling Experience25:03 – Algorithms Shaping Christian Conversations28:04 – Psychological Insecurities and Theological Unity34:09 – Historical Echo Chambers vs Modern Information Access38:42 – Net Benefits of Information and Atonement Debates50:52 – Deep Bible Reading and Theology vs Hot Takes1:05:14 – Closing RemarksABOUT THE GUEST:PODCAST:  https://www.youtube.com/@MattWhitmanTMBHBOOK: https://a.co/d/dLFpN9WSubscribe to The Remnant Radio newsletter and receive our FREE introduction to spiritual gifts eBook. Plus, get access to: discounts, news about upcoming shows, courses and conferences - and more. Subscribe now at TheRemnantRadio.com.Support the showABOUT THE REMNANT RADIO:

Tim and Brady are joined by Matt Whitman. Who knows him better, his wife or his podcast co-host? Plus some podcast ideas from Matt himself.Catch the Tim and Brady version (with their wives) here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/138484227Special thanks to Camilla and Destin for helping out with this episode.Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFMJoin the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Unmade_Podcast/Catch the podcast on YouTube where we often include accompanying videos and pictures - https://www.youtube.com/@unmadepodcastUSEFUL LINKSMatt Whitman's Ten Minute Bible Hour - https://www.thetmbh.com/No Dumb Questions - https://www.nodumbquestions.fm/Matt's YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@MattWhitmanTMBHMr and Mrs (game show) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_and_Mrs_(game_show)The places Brady visited on Route 366 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/eastmidlandstoday/content/articles/2008/04/30/route366_location_list.shtmlCatch the bonus Request Room episode - https://www.patreon.com/posts/138484227

In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson sits down with Matt Whitman, host of The Ten Minute Bible Hour, to explore why so many Christians—and skeptics—struggle with Scripture. Whitman shares what he's learned from engaging millions online: people are often afraid to be wrong, shaped by graceless experiences in church and cancel culture in the wider world. The solution? Modeling curiosity, empathy, and intellectual humility. Whitman opens up about his own faith journey, the impact of church hurt, and why he makes space for disagreement and exploration in his content. From deconstructing popular biblical themes to highlighting the beauty of traditions outside his own, Matt argues that deep scriptural engagement thrives in environments where it's okay not to have all the answers. Together, Dru and Matt delve into themes like biblical coherence, the importance of interpretive grace, and what it means to approach the Bible not as experts, but as learners. Their conversation models the very ethos they preach: thoughtful, generous dialogue rooted in the belief that God's grace extends to our minds—not just our sins. For More of Matt Whitman and the Ten Minute Bible Hour: https://www.youtube.com/@UC3vIOVJiXigzVDA2TYqaa0Q https://www.facebook.com/thetenminutebiblehour https://www.instagram.com/tenminutebiblehour https://www.twitter.com/MattWhitmanTMBH https://www.threads.com/@mattwhitmantmbh We are listener supported. Give to the cause here: https://hebraicthought.org/give For more articles: https://thebiblicalmind.org/ Social Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HebraicThought Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hebraicthought Threads: https://www.threads.net/hebraicthought X: https://www.twitter.com/HebraicThought Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hebraicthought.org Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:54 Resistance to the Bible and Church Experiences 04:57 Cultural Resistance and Historical Context 07:44 Navigating Hurt and Church Experiences 10:56 Empathy and Understanding in Conversations 14:21 Normalizing Being Wrong 17:20 Internal Cohesion in Christianity 25:38 Universal Themes in the Bible 32:44 Navigating Biblical Interpretation and Truth 35:43 The Complexity of Biblical Truth 37:55 The Pressure of Pastoral Performance 42:14 The Challenge of Authenticity in Teaching 45:32 Modeling Intellectual Grace and Humility 49:40 Creating a Gracious Learning Environment 53:16 The Nature of Knowledge and Learning in Faith

In this new series, we're joined by Matt Whitman of the Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast to explore Storytelling & Scripture!! In Part 1, we discuss storytelling, “perfect” movies, and what makes a film compelling. You won't want to miss this one! Watch the episode here. The first episode of this series is available to the public; the next 3 episodes will release every Thursday in November and are exclusive content for our Premium Seating tier of Patreon Supporters. To hear the rest, go to www.Patreon.com/PopcornTheology and become a Patron Saint. Your support is greatly appreciated! To hear more of Matt Whitman, check out: The Ten Minute Bible Hour -  https://www.thetmbh.com/tmbh No Dumb Questions - https://www.thetmbh.com/no-dumb-questions Matt's Youtube Channel - https://www.thetmbh.com/the-matt-whitman-yt-channel Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE and click the notification bell. Follow & connect: https://linktr.ee/popcorntheology Support: https://www.patreon.com/popcorntheology  #MattWhitman #TenMinuteBibleHour #NoDumbQuestions #Storytelling #InTheLobby #ChristianPodcasts #MoviePodcasts #YouAreNotAMindlessConsumer #MovieDiscussion #FilmCriticism #MovieReview #FilmReview #FilmDiscussion #MovieExplanation #FilmAnalysis #CharacterAnalysis #MovieExplanation #MovieAnalysis #MovieReaction #reformedtheology #medialiteracy Music by Ross Bugden: https://youtu.be/Bln0BEv5AJ0?si=vZx_YiHK3hNxaETAI  

THIS EPISODE BROUGHT TO YOU BY: MATT'S NEW BIBLE SERIES ON YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmWfaZSszyw PATREON - patreon.com/nodumbquestions  STUFF IN THIS EPISODE: Dr. Kevin Iga of Pepperdine University CONNECT WITH NO DUMB QUESTIONS: Support No Dumb Questions on Patreon if that sounds good to you Discuss this episode here NDQ Subreddit Our podcast YouTube channel Our website is nodumbquestions.fm No Dumb Questions Twitter Matt's Twitter Destin's Twitter SUBSCRIBE LINKS: Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS ARE ALSO FUN: Matt's YouTube Channel (The Ten Minute Bible Hour) Destin's YouTube Channel (Smarter Every Day)

Supported by the Patrons who are awesome and chose to support at: COMPANY CAM - Go to https://companycam.com/ and make sure you select Podcasts and enter NDQ when they ask how you heard about them! PATREON - patreon.com/nodumbquestions  STUFF IN THIS EPISODE: Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out Archduke Franz Ferdinand House of Hapsburg Medici Family House of Hanover House of Windsor House of Tudor Merovingian Family Jenna and Prince Gerhardt's Brief Love Affair   CONNECT WITH NO DUMB QUESTIONS: Support No Dumb Questions on Patreon if that sounds good to you Discuss this episode here NDQ Subreddit Our podcast YouTube channel Our website is nodumbquestions.fm No Dumb Questions Twitter Matt's Twitter Destin's Twitter   SUBSCRIBE LINKS: Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android   OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS ARE ALSO FUN: Matt's YouTube Channel (The Ten Minute Bible Hour) Destin's YouTube Channel (Smarter Every Day)  

154 - Over 3 years ago when Jesus opened our eyes and we decided to read the Bible, we struggled with what translation. In this video we share the first few Bibles we had and the new ones we got recently. ♡ If you enjoy our content, please consider helping support our channel - here are 2 ways: ♡ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/loriandmichelle ♡ https://loriandmichelle.locals.com (Locals allows you to join our community for a small donation where you'll receive access to bonus material and exclusive content.) We appreciate any and all support as it helps keeps us going and able to produce content for you. Thank you. Bibles we have - for the exact links you can use our Amazon store link (we receive a small commission, thank you for the support) https://www.amazon.com/shop/loriandmichelle CSB Apologetics Study Bible for Students, Blue Trade Paper, Black Letter, Defend Your Faith - By Dr Sean McDowell, CSB Bibles by Holman NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible Hardcover - by Zondervan, Craig Keener, John Walton The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament - Craig Keener NLT Reflections Bible ( Ocean Blue) by Tyndale NKJV Giant Print Reference Bible by Holman CSB She Reads Truth Bible, Wide Margins Bible tabs: Tabbies Rainbow Bible Indexing Tabs Purple Decorative Bible Tabs Other things mentioned: 10 minute Bible hour - Matt Whitman https://www.youtube.com/@MattWhitmanTMBH Legacy Standard Bible, Large Print Wide Margin - https://316publishing.com/collections/lsb/products/lsb-large-print-wide-margin-hardcover Kings Folk company - where we Lori got the sticker and tabs for her LSB - https://www.kingfolkco.com ♡ Give this video a like, comment, share the video and subscribe to our channel. //MORE EPISODES// Our testimony back to Jesus from LOA| new age Our Bibles and worship playlist How we mark, highlight, & study our Bibles - Changing how we read the Bible Chiasms | I am statements in John | Reading the Bible better #biblestudy #bibletalk #newagetojesus KEEP UP WITH US: ♡ Youtube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@loriandmichelle ♡ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loriandmichelle ♡ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/purelytwins ♡ Blog: https://purelytwins.com/ ♡ Rumble: Lori and Michelle ♡ Our Podcast: Lori and Michelle Podcast Spotify -https://open.spotify.com/show/2vywzqtDiLhPEudJBMSsy1  Bible study with us: ♡ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sistersandthebible/ ♡ Our Podcast: Sister and the Bible Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/2h6KoMUBT8RELAWqpBPGjl ♡ Rumble: sisters and the Bible Songs from Epidemic Sound. We appreciate any and all support as it helps keeps us going and able to produce content for you. Thank you. Disclaimer: Please remember this is our first time reading and studying the Bible, so we don't know everything and we will continue to learn and grow. We do our best to speak God's truth. Here to encourage you to read and study God's word. Purelytwins, Lori and Michelle, will not be responsible or liable for any injury or harm you sustain as a result of our videos and information. This video is for informational purposes only and the author does not accept any responsibility for any liabilities. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transcribed, , in any form, without the written permission and signature of the author. We are not Bible scholars, pastors, or teachers. We are sharing what learn from reading and studying the Bible for the first time. Thanks for your understanding and for your support. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lm-podcast/support

On this episode, Keith welcomes the dynamic duo of denominational podcasts to discuss a trend in online Christian discourse. Matt Whitman of the Ten Minute Bible Hour and Redeemed Zoomer have both interacted with leaders from several groups and share their experience and opinions on the subject of why young men seem to be attracted to the traditions and institutions of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Check out the channels of today's guests at https://www.youtube.com/@UC3vIOVJiXigzVDA2TYqaa0Q https://www.youtube.com/@redeemedzoomer6053 Questions and ideas for future shows, contact us at KeithFoskey.com Check out our shirts and hats: https://yourcalvinist.creator-spring.com If you need a great website, check out fellowshipstudios.com Check out TinyBibles.com and use the coupon code Keith for a discount. Support the Show: buymeacoffee.com/Yourcalvinist SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OUR SHOW SUPPORTERS!!! Contributors: Duane Hankinator Mary Williams Luca Eickoff @zedek73 David S Rockey Jay Ben J Several “Someones” Monthly Supporters: Amber Sumner Frank e herb Phil Deb Horton JimP

Supported by the Patrons who are awesome and chose to support at: COMPANY CAM - Go to https://companycam.com/ and make sure you select Podcasts and enter NDQ when they ask how you heard about them! PATREON - patreon.com/nodumbquestions Thanks, Andrew MacPherson! STUFF IN THIS EPISODE: NDQ 149 - The Truth About Wrestling The Locksmith - Brandon Williams New South Pro Wrestling     CONNECT WITH NO DUMB QUESTIONS: Support No Dumb Questions on Patreon if that sounds good to you Discuss this episode here NDQ Subreddit Our podcast YouTube channel Our website is nodumbquestions.fm No Dumb Questions Twitter Matt's Twitter Destin's Twitter SUBSCRIBE LINKS: Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS ARE ALSO FUN: Matt's YouTube Channel (The Ten Minute Bible Hour) Destin's YouTube Channel (Smarter Every Day)

On this week's show, Keith welcomes Matt Whitman (Ten minute Bible Hour) to discuss theology, denominations, and what Matt calls "convictional unity". You can find Matt and his content at the following links: Website: tmbh.com Youtube.com/@mattwhitmantmbh   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6WUAPaO... SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OUR SHOW SUPPORTERS!!! Support the Show: buymeacoffee.com/Yourcalvinist Contributors: Duane Hankinator Mary Williams Luca Eickoff @zedek73 David S Rockey Jay Ben J Several “Someones” Monthly Supporters: Amber Sumner Frank e herb Phil Deb Horton Buy our shirts and hats: https://yourcalvinist.creator-spring.com Visit us at KeithFoskey.com If you need a great website, check out fellowshipstudios.com Need cigars? Visit 1689cigars.com and use the coupon code: SuperiorTheology

Ramble about Comparing Adventist Churches in LA to Orthodox or Catholic Churches. Matt Whitman interviews Orthodox Priest: https://youtu.be/KX4zpZE-Yqk?si=khhoefLyORY0ZNLl DisciplineDojo Orthodox Study Bible Review: https://youtu.be/C1uQfjbIYVg?si=GLchOBY-WOEmSkZD

What happens when a pastor/theologian loses his faith? Matt Whitman, host of the Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast, sits down with Rebecca Carrell and Liz Rodriguez to talk about the massive cultural shifts of the last few decades, how they disassembled his faith, and how the Lord put it back together. If you've found faith tricky, if you wrestle with doubt, if faith feels complicated, then this show is for you.Find out more about Matt Whitman and enjoy his content at https://www.thetmbh.com/ ,https://www.facebook.com/thetenminutebiblehour , and @theTMBHWe love hugs! And when you rate, review, and share Honestly, Though on Apple Podcasts (and all podcast platforms), we see it immediately, and it feels just like a big, warm hug. Thank you in advance for taking an extra moment to make sure others find us in the algorithms. And speaking of finding us...Honestly, Though: @honestlythoughthepodcast (FB & IG(Rebecca Carrell: https://www.rebeccacarrell.com/ ; IG - @RebeccaCarrell ; Twitter: @RebeccaACarrell ; FB - Rebecca Ashbrook CarrellLiz Rodriguez: IG: @lizannrodriguez ; FB - Liz Rodriguez - https://www.facebook.com/liz.rodriguez.92775Nika Spaulding: stjudeoakcliff.org ; IG - @NikaAdidas ; Twitter - @NikaAdidasWe have the world's best producer! Are you interested in podcasting? Do you know someone who is? Taylor Standridge can help with audio engineering, production, editing, show mapping, and coaching. Connect with Taylor at taylorstandridge1@gmail.com or on Twitter: @TBStandridge

In this episode of Haunted Cosmos, Brian and Ben continue Season Two by beginning our introductory series on Bigfoot! It is a phenomenon that has captured the imagination and fears of man for all of history. In Part I we ask, is there such a thing as an as yet undiscovered species of animal called Bigfoot? This episode of Haunted Cosmos is sponsored by our friends at The Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast, great project hosted by Matt Whitman.  Visit them at www.thetmbh.com online.This episode is also sponsored by Private Family Banking Partners. Email them at:  chuck@privatefamilybanking.com — For a free book go to: www.protectyourmoneynow.net—or if you want to make an appointment to talk to a wealth advisor click on the calendar link here: https://calendly.com/familybankingnow/30min.This episode is also sponsored by Bible Discovery Television. Check them out at their website here.This episode is also sponsored by Right Response Ministries. Visit their website here and sign up for their conference here!This episode is also sponsored by Squirrelly Joe's Coffee.Visit their website here to purchase your first bag! Share Coffee. Serve Humbly. Live faithfully. Did you know that supporters of the show at our Sasquatch Photographer Tier and above (yes, that is its actual name) can listen to entire episodes early and ad free? That's right! And that's not all: Patrons at every level gain access to our patron-exclusive show, The Dusty Tome, with bonus stories, Q+A, and more.Support the show

In this episode of Haunted Cosmos, Brian and Ben continue Season Two by exploring the many stories of mystery and woe surrounding the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Join us on this epic voyage in a dark place of the world. This episode of Haunted Cosmos is sponsored by our friends at The Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast, great project hosted by Matt Whitman.  Visit them at www.thetmbh.com online.This episode is also sponsored by Private Family Banking Partners. Email them at:  chuck@privatefamilybanking.com — For a free book go to: www.protectyourmoneynow.net —or if you want to make an appointment to talk to a wealth advisor click on the calendar link here: https://calendly.com/familybankingnow/30min.This episode is also sponsored by Bible Discovery Television. Check them out at their website here.This episode is also sponsored by Right Response Ministries. Visit their website here and sign up for their conference here!This episode is also sponsored by TinyBibles.com. Visit their website here and get a great gift for yourself, your kids, your pastor, or any other loved one!Did you know that supporters of the show at our Sasquatch Photographer Tier and above (yes, that is its actual name) can listen to entire episodes early and ad free? That's right! And that's not all: Patrons at every level gain access to our patron-exclusive show, The Dusty Tome, with bonus stories, Q+A, and more.Support the show

In this episode of Haunted Cosmos, Brian and Ben continue Season Two (gm) with a close look at the good guys—the fiery servants of our Lord who minister to his saints. Join us in this detailed look at the angelic hosts of the Most High God.This episode of Haunted Cosmos is sponsored by our friends at The Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast, great project hosted by Matt Whitman.  Visit them at www.thetmbh.com online.This episode is also sponsored by Private Family Banking Partners. Email them at:  chuck@privatefamilybanking.com — For a free book go to: www.protectyourmoneynow.net —or if you want to make an appointment to talk to a wealth advisor click on the calendar link here: https://calendly.com/familybankingnow/30min.This episode is also sponsored by Bible Discovery Television. Check them out at their website here.This episode is also sponsored by Right Response Ministries. Visit their website here and sign up for their conference here!Did you know that supporters of the show at our Sasquatch Photographer Tier and above (yes, that is its actual name) can listen to entire episodes early and ad free? That's right! And that's not all: Patrons at every level gain access to our patron-exclusive show, The Dusty Tome, with bonus stories, Q+A, and more.Support the show

Matt's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MattWhitmanTMBH/videosMatt's Podcast: https://www.thetmbh.com/gettmbhpodcastMatt's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TMBHEmail me at hello@justinkhoe.com

Matt's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MattWhitmanTMBH/videosMatt's Podcast: https://www.thetmbh.com/gettmbhpodcastMatt's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TMBHEmail me at hello@justinkhoe.com

Original long-form Episode 0.6: https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-urzyw-e3217b 0.6 Supplemental-- Literally A Detailed Description of the Gates of Jerusalem and Who Fixed Them in the Time of Nehemiah: https://popeularhistory.podbean.com/e/06a-literally-a-detailed-description-of-the-gates-of-jerusalem-and-who-fixed-them-in-the-time-of-nehemiah/ Press Conference After Daniel Didn't Get Eaten By Lions (by Matt Whitman): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epQwG-FybZY   IMAGE CRED: This episode's image is from Wikipedia since they're pretty chill about image-sharing as long as I credit them and I don't have time to go creating a new image-permission request every day, I've got stuff to talk about. Also, yes, I, a degreed librarian, consult Wikipedia during my research as they are generally a solid aggregator of resources. You have my permission to consult Wikipedia as well, just remember they are not a source in their own right or else citogenesis may occur (P.S. Randall Munroe is a treasure). Daniel in the Lions' Den (Dan. 6:11-29), Gustave Doré. Doré's English Bible, 1866. Via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:131.Daniel_in_the_Lions%27_Den.jpg 

In this episode of Haunted Cosmos, Brian and Ben end Season 1 (sad) with a barn-burner of an episode(!!) on alien abductions—asking the key question you should be asking when you hear these stories: Are aliens truly extraterrestrial and physical creatures, or something else?This episode of Haunted Cosmos is sponsored by our friends at The Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast, great project hosted by Matt Whitman. His passion for God's Word has driven him to release an episode every weekday morning—that's right, every weekday morning—where he goes through whole books of the Bible in digestible single-episode summaries or multiple-episode series. Visit them at www.thetmbh.com online.This episode is also sponsored by Private Family Banking Partners.If you want to know more, click the link below to receive a free copy of the book:"Protect Your Money Now - Build Multi-Generational Wealth and Avoid Stock Market Volatility and the Coming Bank Meltdown" go to http://protectyourmoneynow.net.You can also contact Private Family Banking Partners directly at: banking@privatefamilybanking.com.Or of you want to make an appointment to talk to a wealth advisor click on the calendar link here:https://calendly.com/familybankingnow/30min.This episode is also sponsored by Squirrelly Joe's Coffee.Visit their website here to purchase your first bag! Share Coffee. Serve Humbly. Live faithfully. Did you know that supporters of the show at our Sasquatch Photographer tier and above (yes, that is it's actual name) can listen to the entirety of Season 1—that's right, all ten episodes—right now? That's right! And that's not all: Patrons at every level gain access to our patron-exclusive show, The Dusty Tome, with bonus stories, Q+A, and more. Sign up here!Support the showSupport the show

In this episode of Haunted Cosmos, Brian and Ben close out our three-part look at Skinwalker Ranch—the Northern Utah ranch that has been called the Disneyland of paranormal activity—with a look into the current era of research under the ownership of enigmatic real estate tycoon Brandon Fugal.This episode of Haunted Cosmos is sponsored by our friends at The Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast, great project hosted by Matt Whitman. His passion for God's Word has driven him to release an episode every weekday morning—that's right, every weekday morning—where he goes through whole books of the Bible in digestible single-episode summaries or multiple-episode series. Visit them at www.thetmbh.com online.This episode is also sponsored by The Psalms Project,  an ambitious project from musician, songwriter, singer, and producer Shane Heilman seeking to put every Psalm in its entirety to music—including the essential meaning of every verse—in a marriage of King David's vision with modern music. Visit them at www.thepsalmsproject.com online.Did you know that supporters of the show at our Sasquatch Photographer tier and above (yes, that is it's actual name) can listen to the entirety of Season 1—that's right, all ten episodes—right now? That's right! And that's not all: Patrons at every level gain access to our patron-exclusive show, The Dusty Tome, with bonus stories, Q+A, and more. Sign up here!Support the show

In this episode of the Libertarian Christian Podcast, our guest is Matt Whitman, who hosts the 10-Minute Bible Hour and the Ironwood Rhino podcasts. He is a classical liberal, an ordained minister, and a committed husband and father. He's a student of History and the Humanities. He's also the co-host of No Dumb Questions, where he and Destin Sanlon, the other host and creator of the Smarter Every Day YouTube channel, discuss their different views on a wide range of topics, from science and engineering to our current connection with history. They begin by discussing the history of the relationship between the individual and the collective in different nations. Matt talks about how ancient civilizations built upon one another but ultimately had oppressive regimes, while the Persians realized that citizens' devotion was expedient for the service of the great king and therefore stressed the importance of tolerance. The Romans introduced a legal standard to ensure tolerance where they thought possible and the authority of the state where desired to keep control. However, Whitman argues that Persia has been misunderstood as an Eastern power when it was a forward-thinking culture that had a significant impact when it came into contact with Greece. The two then address the Bible's passages, such as Romans 13, that seem to advocate for submitting to the government's authority, arguing that a negative hermeneutic should be used to understand these passages in context with the rest of the Bible. They also discuss Paul's letter to the Roman church and how he cleverly wrote about the ideal government. The idea of Christian nationalism is discussed, as well as the dangers of mingling state power with faith. Both Matts believe in a more voluntary role for the state in promoting justice. They also discuss the dangers of using authoritarian tactics to combat authoritarianism, citing historical and biblical lessons. Whitman shares his personal journey from Christianity to atheism and back to Christianity, explaining that it was based on philosophical and epistemological reasons, rather than anger towards God or others. He then emphasizes the importance of patience and tolerance in one's personal life and in politics as a libertarian. The discussion concludes with a discussion of Whitman's work visiting churches and attempting to bring people together. Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com 

Talking about giving in church is always a loaded conversation, with several ways for people to walk away feeling guilted or offended. Colorado Cmmunity Church, in Aurora, CO has a  plan they call 5+5 that leaves people excited about the topic. At the core, their approach is deeply spiritual, and gives people a ton of personal choice and responsibility. I'm very grateful to Robert Gelinas, their Lead Pastor, for joining me to share how it works! Know someone who prefers their podcasts on YouTube? Consider sharing the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel with them. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Social media is the chief discipler of our age, and it isn't even close. Chris Martin has spent the last 10 years managing 100s of social media accounts for large Christian publishers. This has given him a unique window into how these platforms have a negative impact on people. He's also written two books on the topic, as well as a regular newsletter on substack. His first book is Terms of Service. His substack is under the same name. And his newly released The Wolf in Their Pockets is written specifically for Christian leaders to help them overcome the all-pervasive power of social media on the people they lead and love. I'd love it if you'd consider subscribing to the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Team Preaching typically is the territory of larger churches with a larg staff. But it can work in a small church too, and brings a lot of benefits beyond just sharing the load. I'm joined in this episode by Eric Hoke. Eric is a co-vocational pastor who works on wall street in addition to pastoring. This is Eric's story of how he set up a preaching team for his fresh-out-of-the-box church plant in the Bronx. He also has an incredible ministry to pastors with a coaching business. Eric specializes in helping pastors find additional work, or transitioning to a career in business. You can contact him from his website at https://www.ihelpastorsgetjobs.com/home.   I'd love it if you'd consider subscribing to the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

This is another classic Post Rhetoric throwback, which has been recently unearthed byway of technology. Enjoy it until we delete it forever again! 

How do you help someone heal, and continue to trust God when they've experienced unthinkable trauma? I learned so much from this conversation with Jennifer Greenberg, and hearing explain her own process of healing. Her book, Not Forsaken: A Story of Life After Abuse: How Faith Brought One Woman from Victim to Survivor, is a great resource for someone who has been abused, or for a leader who might be looking for a starting point to help someone. She also has a great, free resource for church leaders at her website. You can download her Not Forsaken: A Shepherd's Guide here. She's also a musician, and you can find her music here as well, or wherever you stream. I'd love it if you'd consider subscribing to the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

This is the story of how a church in GA did some self-examination during Covid shutdown, and came back with a radically different minsitry. In the process, they made some important discoveries about who they wanted to be, and found a lot of benefits they didn't see coming. Special thanks to Madison Tompkins, the 1-Service Church evangelist, and Lead Pastor Justin McTeer of His Hands Church in Woodstack, GA for sharing their story with me! Crowdsource requests: If your church has started a second-language service, I'd love to hear from you. Hit me with your best Easter outreach ideas so we can all steal them. I'd love it if you'd consider subscribing to the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel. This episode will have bonus content, hearing directly from Madison, the Youth Pastor at His Hands about how this benefited the youth ministry specifically. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.  

Supporting police has become a controversial idea in the US. Some communities, for good reason, have lost faith in the institution because some officers have abused their trust. Many others are trying to do good in a system that's broken, and face incredible pressures. All of it invites the question: What could we do to make it better? This episode provides a first step toward something that could help. Spoiler: I think it applies to any area of ministry. My guest is Jared Altic, who is a Full Time pastor, but also volunteers as a police chaplain in Kansas City, MO. Jared also hosts the Hey Chaplain podcast. Burner phone re-upped for another 30 days! Have a question or just want to connect? I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to give me a call and I'll do my best to pick up during normal business hours, US Mountain Time. New number is (605) 484-4146. I'd love it if you'd consider subscribing to the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel. It'll be all the same episodes, with occasional bonus content, as well as a place to leave comments. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Is watching a sermon on my phone the same as going to church? Does the device change the message in any way? Shouldn't we be utilizing these devices to reach & connect with people? Smartphones and the internet aren't going away, & every ministry needs to wrestle with these questions.  Now a classic, Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, has a lot of wisdom for the world we find ourselves in today. My guest is Dr. Arthur Hunt, a retired Professor of Mass Media & Communications, and an expert in Postman's ideas. One organization has even created a Postman Pledge for those who would like to take an extra step in putting the concepts into real life! Burner phone re-upped for another 30 days. Have a question or just want to connect? I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to give me a call and I'll do my best to pick up during normal business hours, US Mountain Time. New number is (605) 484-4146. I'd love it if you'd consider subscribing to the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel. It'll be all the same episodes, with occasional bonus content, as well as a place to leave comments. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Spiritual Formation: How does it differ from discipleship & and how can we think intentionally about the habits that shape us? This concepts means something different to anyone you ask. But I guarantee it is something that is happening to all of us. In this episode I'm joined by Rev. William Mack III to explore the idea and consider how we might think about our partnership with the Holy Spirit a little differently. “Mack” is credentialed as a Spiritual Director, and serves as the Director of Pastoral Care with Rooted Ministries – a resource to help pastors know the love of God and stay mentally healthy. Some Resources on Spiritual Formation: Two books by Dallas Willard have been very helpful for me, Renovation of the Heart, and the first few chapters of The Spirit of the Disciplines.  “Renovation” was also converted to be slightly more accessible in this book. Two books recommended by Mack: Renovated: God, Dallas Willard, and the Church that Transforms, by Jim Wilder; Anatomy of the Soul, by Curt Thompson Donald Whitney has also written some very good titles: Praying the Bible, & Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. I'd love it if you'd consider subscribing to the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel. It'll be all the same episodes, with occasional bonus content, as well as a place to leave comments. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Matt Whitman and Avi Gordon discuss getting introduced to Yoga, imposter syndrome, complacency, the gift of life and being vulnerable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can churches better support their missionaries? What would your missionary want to say to you if they felt they could? How can we support kids who have grown up in a missions context, and now feel displaced back ‘home?' In this episode I talk with Alan Steier. He and his wife Judy work fulltime with Barnabas International to provide spiritual and emotional care and support to a flock of 100 missionaries in Japan. He's spent years as a missionary, and serving missionaries and has invaluable wisdom on how churches can better serve and partner with the missionaries they support financially. Bonus: I want to connect with you! For the month of December (through Dec. 21) I have a spare number and I'd love to hear from you - (605) 484-0735. If you call during business hours, U. S. Mountain time I'll do my best to pick up. Let's have some fun! I'd love it it you all would subscribe to the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel. It'll be all the same episodes, with occasional bonus content, as well as a place to leave comments. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Not all of us will be church planters, but we all need to shift our mindset to thinking like church planters. In the post-Christian west, fewer and fewer people have a context for Christian terms and meaning. My guest, Nathan Dean planted and served a church in downtown Atlanta for 12 years. He and his wife were very successful in explaining the Christian life in ways that were not just clear, but appealing. They're now planting Blue Mountain Church in Blairsville, GA. He's also written "The Song: The Story of Our Hope and Rescue," a picture book, to explain the biblical story to beginning readers. Bonus: I want to connect with you! For the next 30 days (through Dec. 21) I have a spare number and I'd love to hear from you - (605) 484-0735. If you call during business hours, U. S. Mountain time I'll do my best to pick up. Let's have some fun! I'd love it it you all would subscribe to the Good Ideas for Churches YouTube Channel. It'll be all the same episodes, with occasional bonus content, as well as a place to leave comments. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

SPONSORED BY: AUDIBLE Let Audible help you discover new ways to laugh, be inspired, or be entertained. New members can try it free for 30 days. Visit https://Audible.com/ndq or text ndq to 500-500. RAYCON Go to https://buyraycon.com/ndq and use code EARLYBF to get 20% off SITEWIDE! That's 20% off any Raycon product, which almost never happens. Or save even bigger and get 30% off Raycon's exclusive holiday bundles STUFF IN THIS EPISODE: Brooklyn Fudge Flood (Monday) Viscosity Pepsi fruit juice flood in Russia in 2017 (Tuesday) Four Simple Suggestions to Make Church Unity Happen - The Ten Minute Bible Hour London Beer Flood (Monday) Irish Wake Cocktail Red Mud in Hungary (Monday)  Satellite Imagery of the Flood Kingston Coal Plant (Monday) Coal Ash Spill Satellite Imagery Slump Factor Great Molasses Flood of Boston (Wednesday) History Channel's “History This Week” - The Great Boston Molasses Flood with Stephen Puleo Pompeii Pompeii:  Vesuvius eruption may have been later than thought Death Lakes of Cameroon (Thursday) Lake Nyos Disaster Hunger Stones Lake Kivu Carbon Dioxide in Cameroon… Limnic Eruptions: When Lakes Explode Kivuwatt Sam O'Nella's Video About Non-Water Floods CONNECT WITH NO DUMB QUESTIONS: Support No Dumb Questions on Patreon if that sounds good to you Discuss this episode here NDQ Subreddit Our podcast YouTube channel Our website is nodumbquestions.fm No Dumb Questions Twitter Matt's Twitter Destin's Twitter SUBSCRIBE LINKS: Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS ARE ALSO FUN: Matt's YouTube Channel (The Ten Minute Bible Hour) Destin's YouTube Channel (Smarter Every Day)

How can we help someone who is deconstructing their faith? That is a critical question for any church leader today, and the topic of this episode. My guest is Ian Harber, who was gracious enough to share his own story of deconstructing and rebuilding his faith in Jesus. Ian is part of the Truth Over Tribe team, and writes at Back Again with Ian Harber at  https://ianharber.substack.com/. He also starts lots of interesting conversations over @ianharber on Twitter. Ian has also put together a playlist of resources that helped him rebuild his faith on Spotify, titled Reconstructing Your Faith - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1nSlmL6Fh3EdZzv1nxHPxZ. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Special Episode for Pastor Appreciation Month! I'd love to pray for you and your minstry by name. Reach out and let me know what I can pray for. Here's Matt's original video. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

In this episode I talk with Dr. Joshua Chatraw about his book, Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age. We all have underlying stories that we use to make sense of our lives, and the gospel story is the only one that really meets all our longings. Dr. Chatraw is executive director of the Center for Public Christianity, lead teacher for New City Fellows, and theologian-in-residence at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Raleigh, NC.  I also tell on myself for trying to order cocaine in Brazil. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

This episode is about church revitalization. How can we see new life breathed into a local church? Many thanks to Gary Kniseley for taking the time to share his story with us!  Gary is the pastor of Maywood Evangelical Free Church in Rockford, IL. The stats I mentioned. A couple highlights: - 70% of churches are plateaued or in decline. - Only 7% of churches have helped launch a new congregation ever. - Those churches who have helped start more than one new congregation were statistically 0% for this study. Some other interesting surveys that ask the question differently, specifically related to membership (not necessarily participation). Membership trends for U.S. individuals from a Gallup study. Membership trends among some protestant denominations.   Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

This week on the AntiSocial Network, we're joined Matt Whitman, the host of Ten Minute Bible Hour, to discuss his approach to ecumenical discourse!

How do you evaluate your ministries? When is the time to quit something or double down? Matt Whitman joined me to share a plan he used to answer these questions called a Ministry Audit. If you'd like a free PDF outlining how to do a Ministry Audit, email me at aron.eyesup@gmail.com. Matt is the host of The Ten Minute Bible Hour YouTube & podcast, The Ironwood Rhino podcast, and co-hosts the No Dumb Questions podcast with Destin Sandlin. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Karl Vaters joined me to discuss how to manage change in the church in ways that spiritually healthy. Karl is pastor at Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, CA, the author of several books, and the host of the Can This Work In a Small Church podcast. His book, Small Church Essentials, was the jumping off point for our conversation today. You can follow his other work here, or at @KarlVaters on Twitter. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Karl Vaters interviews Matt Whitman, host of the Ten Minute Bible Hour podcast and YouTube channel. Karl and Matt talk about the intersection of Bible teaching/preaching and pastoral care. This conversation also covers  The importance of our online presence How to avoid the temptation of living by clicks Taking care not to get stuck wandering down political and theological rabbit trails Why teaching about the Bible is as important as teaching from the Bible Links: The Ten Minute Bible Hour YouTube thetmbh.com Matt Whitman Twitter No Dumb Questions Podcast Dwell Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In How To Think: A Guide for the Perplexed For a Transcript of this episode visit the Pivot Blog  Support This Work: Visit the Website Subscribe to weekly Newsletter Contribute financially at KarlVaters.com/support Visit our Youtube Channel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Super big thanks to Daryl Paluch of The Tennis Center of the Black Hills for coming out to play ball with us! His work gives us a great picture of we often refer to as church assimilation. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Karl Vaters interviews Matt Whitman, host of the Ten Minute Bible Hour podcast and YouTube channel. Karl and Matt talk about the intersection of Bible teaching/preaching and pastoral care. This conversation also covers  The importance of our online presence How to avoid the temptation of living by clicks Taking care not to get stuck wandering down political and theological rabbit trails Why teaching about the Bible is as important as teaching from the Bible Links: The Ten Minute Bible Hour YouTube thetmbh.com Matt Whitman Twitter No Dumb Questions Podcast Dwell Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In How To Think: A Guide for the Perplexed For a Transcript of this episode visit the Pivot Blog  Support This Work: Visit the Website Subscribe to weekly Newsletter Contribute financially at KarlVaters.com/support Visit our Youtube Channel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Special thanks to Shane Heilman for joining me to share his wisdom about disarming tension and conflict before it becomes a problem. Shane is the Producer and Chief Songwriter for the Psalms Project, where he is putting every psalm to music. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jon Sanders for joining me on this episode! You can check out his learning community at EntrePastors.com. He also is a ministry coach for The 95 Network. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Nathan Jenkins for joining me! He serves as a pastor at loonmtnministry.com in Lincoln, NH. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Justin P. Taylor for joining me on the podcast! Here's the webpage for Integrity Hockey League. Justin also dabbles in music, and you can find his single, ‘Kingdom Citizen,' at Amazon, Spotify, Apple and Pandora. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Kurt Earl for joining me! You can check out his work with coaches at culturecoordinator.com. He also serves as an Elder at First Street Bible Church.   To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Daniel H. Pink.   For fun, I took Kurt's challenge to think of 10 ways Information Symmetry is changing everything. Here's a quick list of what I came up with in only a few minutes. College and Professional athletics has been impacted by this trend. Even at the highest levels, coaches who just demand respect and insist their players ‘just do as I say' aren't succeeding, and even losing their jobs. The relationship between doctors and their patients has been radically impacted by this trend. 1000s of online sources, written by credentialed MDs, with studies cited, means more and more patients are coming to their Dr. with a plan of care already in mind. A number of laboratory services have begun giving customers the option to order their own blood tests. Pharmaceutical companies have also leaned into this by advertising directly to prospective patients. Related, more people are open to trying natural medical options, or a combination of natural & conventional options because of so much information available to them. In short, people increasingly expect to be an active partner with their health, and maybe the driving partner. The same effect with pet owners and their veterinarians. This trend is spreading to public education as well. The number of people choosing to educate their children themselves (homeschooling) continues to grow for both religious and non-religious reasons. Facebooks sale groups, and other online selling forums have empowered us all to go directly to one another to buy or sell things, some evening making it a side-hustle. The last decades have seen an incredible erosion of the ratings and influence of so-called legacy media, and the proliferation of indie journalists, podcasters, and content creators going directly to their audience. The traditional gatekeepers are increasingly sidelined. Churches and abuse reporting: The expectation for real, meaningful transparency is more critical now than ever if churches and institutions want to maintain credibility in the public eye.   Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Seth Gehrke for joining me and sharing your story with us! Seth is on staff at St. John Lutheran Church, in Cypress, TX. Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? I'd love to hear from you! Shoot me an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com.

Thanks to Pastor Steve Vetter of Turtle Lake Baptist Church, in Turtle Lake, North Dakota for sharing your story with us! https://www.facebook.com/turtlelakebaptist/ Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? We'd love to hear from you! Shoot us an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com    

Good Ideas for Churches is a joint project between Matt Whitman's The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Eyes Up. Have a good idea? Something that's helped your church? Something that's made the Gospel make sense to people in your community? We'd love to hear from you! Shoot us an email at aron.eyesup@gmail.com

Matt Whitman originally went to school to study law. After a family tragedy struck, he came home to fill in for his dad as pastor of their church, which took him down a path of ministry that led to the eventual creation of his popular podcast and YouTube channel. Each day, the Ten Minute Bible Hour podcast provides listeners with a “fast, fun, deep dive” into the Bible. And as you can probably guess, it's only a 10-minute listen! Matt also has a YouTube channel, which offers video titles that range from “A Protestant Talks With A Catholic Priest” to “Who Picked What Books Went In The Bible?”Today, Matt and his co-worker Aron Utecht are talking with us about the weight of ministry, why it's important to remember that the Gospel also applies to pastors, and why people are more drawn to “normal pastors” rather than “experts.” Our conversation with these guys was interesting and full of great thoughts—I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!   Show Notes:  https://www.95network.org/the-10-minute-bible-hour-accepting-gods-grace-as-a-pastor-w-matt-whitman-aron-utecht-episode-131/Support the show

Tim and Brady are joined by Destin to discuss the moon, an astronaut guest, failure, a coronation spoon, various containers, and some time travel. Go to Storyblocks for stock video, pictures and audio at storyblocks.com/unmade - https://www.storyblocks.com/unmade Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFM Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://redd.it/sfh26y Catch the podcast on YouTube where we include accompanying videos and pictures - https://youtu.be/3YYtnU6OHew USEFUL LINKS Destin's YouTube Channel 'Smarter Every Day' - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6107grRI4m0o2-emgoDnAA And his podcast 'No Numb Questions' co-hosted with Matt Whitman - https://www.nodumbquestions.fm/ Tim's Jungle Juice pose - https://twitter.com/Tim_Hein/status/1483010758053330946?s=20&t=3xvb3FJk3_x6nmramDjgLQ Astronaut Don Pettit - https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/donald-r-pettit/biography Don Pettit wears The White Gloves on Objectivity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnZLGlMbgUI Don and Brady launch the Saturn VI - https://www.instagram.com/p/BqaPZGCACDI/ Pictures of Spoon of the Week - https://www.unmade.fm/spoon-of-the-week The actual Coronation Spoon - https://www.rct.uk/collection/31733/the-coronation-spoon Amphora - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphora Mud Larking - https://www.frommers.com/slideshows/848024-mudlarking-in-the-thames-might-be-the-best-thing-i-ve-done-in-london McD.L.T advert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTSdUOC8Kac Australian squeezey container - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4nUhD92yNU Destin's shelf is featured on Objectivity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyRO3yci9bI

Matt and Matt talk all things Christianity, over a metaphorical pint! Sign up for my free course on St. Augustine's "Confessions"!   SPONSORS Hallow: http://hallow.app/mattfradd STRIVE: https://www.strive21.com/ Ethos Logos: https://www.elinvestments.net/pints    GIVING Patreon or Directly: https://pintswithaquinas.com/support/  This show (and all the plans we have in store) wouldn't be possible without you. I can't thank those of you who support me enough. Seriously! Thanks for essentially being a co-producer co-producer of the show.   LINKS Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/matt-fradd FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/   SOCIAL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattfradd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd Gab: https://gab.com/mattfradd Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/pintswithaquinas   MY BOOKS Get my NEW book "How To Be Happy: Saint Thomas' Secret To A Good Life," out now! Does God Exist: https://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Exist-Socratic-Dialogue-ebook/dp/B081ZGYJW3/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586377974&sr=8-9 Marian Consecration With Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Marian-Consecration-Aquinas-Growing-Closer-ebook/dp/B083XRQMTF/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586379026&sr=8-4 The Porn Myth: https://www.ignatius.com/The-Porn-Myth-P1985.aspx   CONTACT Book me to speak: https://www.mattfradd.com/speakerrequestform

Nobody's reaching nobody's... ...Because it's not about us! BRANDON'S FRIDAY FIVE: 1. Another sign of the depraved minds/Romans 1 Judgement 2. Pastor Appreciation Month with Matt Whitman https://youtu.be/COpk09UBXyM 3. The "return" of Donald J Trump/Don't put your hope in man... 4. Truth or Fear with C-19 5. Sukkot on Hebrew4Christians https://hebrew4christians.com/index.html#loaded Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Just A Nobody With A Bible so you don't miss an episode! Click here- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCSVjREsdgKl47lf9FX5Dbw We're on YouTube & all major podcast platforms- just search for 'Just A Nobody With a Bible' Follow us on Instagram for even more- https://www.instagram.com/nobodywithabible/ Check out Brandon's Bible Church- https://www.apbiblechurch.com/ Biblical Truth Designs at the Heirs of the Promise shop- https://heirsofthepromise.square.site/ But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. | 2 Corinthians 4:7

This episode is a bit different than most. In it, I offer up my top four podcast recommendations (with a side plug for my church's sermon podcast). These shows are the places I turn for inspiration and learning when I need it. I have grown in knowledge and understanding as I've taken in messages from Tim Keller and listened to the background info that Tara Leigh Cobble and Matt Whitman offer. I've been encouraged to remain faithful to God's word through Alisa Childers' apologetics-themed conversations with guests. Take a listen to my thoughts about each show and then, if one strikes your fancy, give it a spin. Below you'll find website links to each show recommended. On a couple of the pages, you'll have to do a bit of scanning on the page to find the link you want. Every one of the shows is available on a wide variety of podcast platforms, so look in your favorite app and see if they're there. Timothy Keller Sermon Podcast - https://podcast.gospelinlife.com Friendly Words Podcast - https://anchor.fm/friendly-words The Bible Recap Podcast - http://www.thebiblerecap.com/start The Ten-Minute Bible Hour Podcast - https://www.thetmbh.com/podcast Alisa Childers Podcast - https://www.alisachilders.com/podcast.html

Daddy's home! Jason Dinges from Lost Rhetoric podcast is back for his third contractually obligated episode! We record and review Lost Rhetoric episode 007 (The Horizon Project w/ STEVE X) on the one-year anniversary!  If you don't like this episode, then you're missing the bigger pitcher. And also, you're a dumb son of a bitch. Here's the link, stupid:[https://lostrhetoric.buzzsprout.com/1162775/4785416-lr007-the-horizon-project-w-steve-x] Hear! Jason announce and guarantee that Lost Rhetoric will be back in September.Hear! JPX clarify threatening statements he made toward Jason in PR0032.Hear! Matt Wittman's tribute song to Jason called "Margate Ave 9". Hear! Jason nominate Cody Klewin for 3rd member of Post Rhetoric.Hear! LR007 get reviewed. Hear! Top 5 cities that listened to us last week.Hear! Top 5 things we listened to last week.Hear! Stuntman Mike bought the first appearance of Iron Man. Hear! SMM reports that Chicken in a Biskit fueled Jeff Bezos' spaceship. Hear! JPX chastise the listeners who haven't become Patreon members. Hear! The Post Rhetoric boyz announce their upcoming militant anti-cursing crusade. LINKS:LOST RHETORIC:https://lostrhetoric.buzzsprout.com/LOST RHETORIC TWITTER:https://twitter.com/Lost_RhetoricLOST RHETORIC INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/lostrhetoricpodcast/?hl=enPOST RHETORIC TWITTER:https://twitter.com/Post_RhetoricPOST RHETORIC FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/postrhetoricpodcastPOST RHETORIC INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/postrhetoricpodcast/HERB STOMP:https://www.herbstomp.com/ HEADSPIN:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1379656HEADSPIN FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/groups/780935922692338 HEADSPIN:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1379656HEADSPIN FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/groups/780935922692338

The outsiders of podcasting are back to poach another of Jason's guests. This time it's "Hacksaw" Matt Wittman from The Batshit State! Hear! Us review Lost Rhetoric episode 006 from July 23, 2020.Hear! Matt confront the Proud Boys.Hear! Matt eviscerate Jason's excuses for going on hiatus. Hear! Matt get robbed in Brooklyn. Hear! The herbstomp.com Top 5 cities that listened to us.Hear! Mike buy Captain America Comics #1.Hear! Top 5 things we listened to this past week. Hear! Mike report on the Olympics and Chicken in a Biskit.LINKS:LOST RHETORIC:https://lostrhetoric.buzzsprout.com/LOST RHETORIC TWITTER:https://twitter.com/Lost_RhetoricLOST RHETORIC INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/lostrhetoricpodcast/?hl=enPOST RHETORIC TWITTER:https://twitter.com/Post_RhetoricPOST RHETORIC FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/postrhetoricpodcastPOST RHETORIC INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/postrhetoricpodcast/HERB STOMP:https://www.herbstomp.com/THE GREEN SUNSHINE COMPANY:https://thegreensunshineco.com/ CHECK OUT MATT'S PODCAST THE BATSHIT STATE:https://open.spotify.com/show/31mRXbvlqsT51mbvIUfx1Z CHECK OUT WREATH:https://wreathfl.bandcamp.com/album/s-t-ep

Donate (Paypal)https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...___________________________________________________________________________________Exclusive Content (Patreon)https://www.patreon.com/TheRemnantRadio__________________________________________________________________________________We're social! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRemnantRadioInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theremnantr...___________________________________________________________________________________Our Favorite Bookshttps://www.amazon.com/shop/theremnan...___________________________________________________________________________________Michael Rowntree's Church Wellspringhttps://wellspringdfw.org/___________________________________________________________________________________Michael Miller's Church Reclamation Churchhttps://reclamationdenver.com/___________________________________________________________________________________Conferencehttp://propheticreformationokc.com/

Matt Whitman joins The Herd Has Spoken to chat with Brad about adding value, our connection to the outdoors, and the historical significance of the events that are happening today. Matt and Brad dig deep into why now humans are deciding to leave the largest institutions of the decades, including corporations, churches and marriage. Matt is someone who is energized by humor and people, he also released over 1000 pieces of content online through The Ten Minute Bible Hour on YouTube, and The Ten Minute Bible Hour and No Dumb Questions podcasts.

Matt Whitman is a pastor and creator of the Ten Minute Bible Hour. Click here for Matt Whitman’s Website Click here for forum Discussion Skeptiko-501-Matt-Whitman Skeptiko-501-Matt-Whitman Audio Clip: [00:00:00] Well as a Christian I guess that it would be easy for you to recite the Lord’s Prayer. Is that what we’re resorting to here, Gestapo […] The post Matt Whitman, On the Gist of Josephus |501| appeared first on Skeptiko - Science at the Tipping Point.

Matt Whitman is a pastor and creator of the Ten Minute Bible Hour. Click here for Matt Whitman’s Website Click here for forum Discussion Skeptiko-501-Matt-Whitman Audio Clip: [00:00:00] Well as a Christian I guess that it would be easy for you to recite the Lord’s Prayer. Is that what we’re resorting to here, Gestapo tactics. […] The post Matt Whitman, On the Gist of Josephus |501| appeared first on Skeptiko - Science at the Tipping Point.

This week we investigate Malcolm Gladwell’s take on history and a podcast from Destin Sandlin (whose YouTube channel, Smarter Every Day, is one of the highest ranked science and education channels) and his friend Matt Whitman, host of the Ten Minute Bible Hour YouTube channel.  Show Notes: www.whyihateyourpodcast.comEmail: whyihateyourpodcast@gmail.comTwitter: @hateyourpodcastInstagram: @hateyourpodcastYouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCqUKwHyHpYOofy4EZ1_j1Xw  Intro and Transition Music"Apero Hour" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Outro Music"Smooth Lovin" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Podcast ReferencesRevisionist HistoryMalcolm GladwellNo Dumb QuestionsDestin SandlinSmarter Every Day

Join me, Cori, to discuss Biblical Illiteracy and what it's doing to our churches as well as what we can do to stop it. Lifeway Study: https://lifewayresearch.com/2017/04/25/lifeway-research-americans-are-fond-of-the-bible-dont-actually-read-it/ Barna Study: https://www.barna.com/research/state-of-the-bible-2019/ Bible Dictionary: https://www.christianbook.com/zondervan-illustrated-dictionary-based-articles-encyclopedia/j-d-douglas/9780310229834/pd/229834?product_redirect=1&search_term=zondervan%20bible%20dictionary&Ntt=229834&item_code=&ps_exit=PRODUCT&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP Word Search Bible App: https://app.wordsearchbible.lifeway.com/ Verity by Phylicia Masonheimer: https://open.spotify.com/show/4tW2XyYTS3be0kh6oyBznc Knowing Faith (Jen Wilkin): https://open.spotify.com/show/5yTDIHevaUNaIZrfp4zwhg The Ten Minute Bible Hour with Matt Whitman: https://open.spotify.com/show/6WUAPaOoEQwyseVZXqfwvq Examples of discipleship in Scripture range from the old testament to the new testament: Moses and Joshua, Eli and Samuel, Elijah and Elisha, Jesus and the disciples, Paul and Timothy, Paul and Titus.

- Intro- Lost Rhetoric guest Hotrod is now our guest- JP reads Matt Whitman's rejection e-mail- Hotrod disses Matt Whitman- Mike and JP ask Hotrod about his Lost Rhetoric experience- JP quizzes Hotrod on Gremlins 2: The New Batch- Discussion about Aerosmith suing us- Hotrod promotes his upcoming podcast- Lost Rhetoric review- Top 5 Things Jason could have done better- Chicken in a Biskit and Patreon spot-Outro

Matt Whitman joins the guys to wrap up Season 2 of The Mandalorian. Besides being the coolest internet pastor, Matt co-hosts No Dumb Questions with Destin Sandlin. WHAT ARE THEY PLAYING WITH? Bob & Josh: Finishing up the Lego Elf Club House set # 10275 Find out More from Bob and Josh: Home http://www.thepiworkshop.com Youtube: http://youtube.com/iliketomakestuff http://youtube.com/josh_makesstuff Instagram: http://instagram.com/iliketomakestuff http://instagram.com/josh_makesstuff Twitter: Tweets by iliketomakestuf Tweets by josh_makesstuff

Matt Whitman joins the guys to wrap up Season 2 of The Mandalorian. Besides being the coolest internet pastor, Matt co-hosts No Dumb Questions with Destin Sandlin. WHAT ARE THEY PLAYING WITH? Bob & Josh: Finishing up the Lego Elf Club House set # 10275 Find out More from Bob and Josh: Home http://www.thepiworkshop.com Youtube: http://youtube.com/iliketomakestuff http://youtube.com/josh_makesstuff Instagram: http://instagram.com/iliketomakestuff http://instagram.com/josh_makesstuff Twitter: Tweets by iliketomakestuf Tweets by josh_makesstuff

Matt Whitman joins the guys to wrap up Season 2 of The Mandalorian. Besides being the coolest internet pastor, Matt co-hosts No Dumb Questions with Destin Sandlin. WHAT ARE THEY PLAYING WITH? Bob & Josh: Finishing up the Lego Elf Club House set # 10275 Find out More from Bob and Josh: http://www.iliketomakestuff.com http://www.thepiworkshop.com Youtube: http://youtube.com/iliketomakestuff http://youtube.com/josh_makesstuff Instagram: http://instagram.com/iliketomakestuff http://instagram.com/josh_makesstuff Twitter: http://twitter.com/iliketomakestuf http://twitter.com/josh_makesstuff

The guys talk about The Mandalorian with their friend Matt Whitman! Matt is a host on No Dumb Questions and The Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast, go check him out! WHAT ARE THEY PLAYING WITH? Lego 10275: Elf Club House Find out More from Bob and Josh: Home http://www.thepiworkshop.com Youtube: http://youtube.com/iliketomakestuff http://youtube.com/josh_makesstuff Instagram: http://instagram.com/iliketomakestuff http://instagram.com/josh_makesstuff Twitter: Tweets by iliketomakestuf Tweets by josh_makesstuff

The guys talk about The Mandalorian with their friend Matt Whitman! Matt is a host on No Dumb Questions and The Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast, go check him out! WHAT ARE THEY PLAYING WITH? Lego 10275: Elf Club House Find out More from Bob and Josh: http://www.iliketomakestuff.com http://www.thepiworkshop.com Youtube: http://youtube.com/iliketomakestuff http://youtube.com/josh_makesstuff Instagram: http://instagram.com/iliketomakestuff http://instagram.com/josh_makesstuff Twitter: http://twitter.com/iliketomakestuf http://twitter.com/josh_makesstuff

What can we learn from a professional Youtube and podcast host about ministry in this season? As it turns out, a ton! Matt Whitman if the Ten Minute Bible Hour and No Dumb Questions, joins us to share what he's learned from years of ministry and building community in a digital landscape.    Host Links: The Ten Minute Bible Hour Website No Dumb Questions Podcast   Resources:  Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes - Kenneth E. Bailey  Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - Kenneth E. Bailey Dwell Bible App

Sorry it's been a while but here is a new episode. We discuss the ongoing pandemic, the Portapique tragedy, a budding Nazi colony in Cape Breton, local Black liberation movements, our wretched city council, Matt Whitman's mayoral aspirations and finally discuss some exciting news for the future of Dog Island. It's a long episode but it is very good. 

In this interview, I talk with Matt Whitman from Ten Minute Bible Hour about how to talk and engage with people you may disagree with. This is one of my favorite conversations.Support us (thanks!): https://www.patreon.com/AdherentApologetics

Barry and James close out 2019 by choosing some of the best podcasts, books and movies they've come across this year. "Close out"? What does that even mean anyway? PodcastsRadio Rental; Alastair’s Adversaria; 13 Minutes to the Moon; Matt Whitman’s 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast; Theopolis; Futility Closet; Reply All (v woke); Freakonomics; John Dickson's Undeceptions; Good Book Company; Faith in Kids; The Inquisition; Simply Put.BooksAntifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Amazon UK)A Lifting Up for the Downcast by William Bridge (Amazon UK)Confronting Christianity by Rebecca Mclaughlin (Amazon UK)Seeing Green: Don't Let Envy Color Your Joy by Tilly Dillehay (Amazon UK)Born Standing Up by Steve Martin (Amazon UK)Impossible Commands by Jonty Allcock (Amazon UK)Enjoying God by Tim Chester (Amazon UK)On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson (Amazon UK)Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (Amazon UK)You're a Bad Man Mr Gum by Andy Stanton (Amazon UK)The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Amazon UK)Our theme music is by Roger Taylor and his latest album is The Rubicon Moment. Other music and jingles by Barry, who really should have better things to do with his time.If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review - it helps other people find us. And to make sure you get the next episode, click "Subscribe" in your favourite podcast app. Tweet us @cooperandcary, comment on our Facebook page, or go old skool and email us here. If you like us and would like to help us continue, please take a look at these very special goodies.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/cooperandcary)

This is part 2 of our conversation with Matt Whitman and Will Weedon as we really get in to the weeds on infant baptism and the Lord's Supper. Among other things!

Matt Whitman is the host of The Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast. He has a YouTube channel with over 70,000 YouTube subscribers. He is a co-host with Destin Sandlin of SmarterEveryday, who has over 7 million YouTube subscribers, on a podcast called No Dumb Questions that has over 1300 iTunes reviews! In this episode, Matt talks about his fascination with the Bible and the history surrounding it. He tries to get a common baseline of facts and make it something that is a good resource for both believers and non-believers. He shares some of the things that he went through and the strategies he used to overcome his difficulties and become more engaging in his podcast. He also gives great tips to help new and aspiring influencers with the content they put out. In this episode, Matt really deep dives into his story of how and why he started his influence. Matt's story is inspirational and this episode is definitely worth a listen! Subscribe to our email newsletter to be notified of our upcoming live-streamed interviews! Join our Discord community and become part of the conversation! https://whyinfluence.com/

Matt Whitman, host of the Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast, joins Andy and Sarah to talk about why he visits churches of various denominations to make YouTube videos, his experiences visiting an LCMS church (St. Paul in Hamel, IL) for the first time, and the things he learned about Lutheranism that makes Lutherans unique. Find his videos from his visit with Rev. William Weedon at St. Paul along with all of his other content at thetenminutebiblehour.com and The Ten Minute Bible Hour on Youtube.

Peter and Kevin are joined by Matt Whitman of The Ten Minute Bible Hour and Will Weedon of The Word of the Lord Endures Forever to discuss the three things Matt kept hearing about us Lutherans as he prepared to visit St. Louis for a special project.

Matt Whitman is running for mayor, Waye Mason probably is too, it's cool because their initials are mirrored, sometimes you need to think about that stuff I guess. Chris and Andrew go to the Climate Strike and talk to some people. We also talk about Moncton and how awful the city is being to street people. Thanks for listening to our show.

Have you ever read the Bible? For many men, reading the Bible is a challenge. With all of the pressures and outside commitments of being a dad, it's easy to feel like we don't have time to read, let alone read the Bible. And there's a lot of misconceptions about the Bible—what it is, what it isn't, its overarching structure and message, so a lot of guys are intimidated by the book. However, many men realize it's something they should do, so when they do try to make time to read the Bible, they attempt to read it cover-to-cover. That's just too big of a goal when you're just starting. As dads and spiritual leaders of the home, it's critical that we understand God's Word so we can apply it to our daily lives and effectively teach our kids about it. But we obviously can't do that if we're not reading and studying it regularly. My guest today is on a mission to help all of us bridge that gap. His name is Matt Whitman. Matt is a pastor at Free Church in Lander, WY as well as the creator of the YouTube channel The Ten Minute Bible Hour. Our conversation touched on a variety of topics including: You don't have to believe the words of the Bible to be a great dad, but the wisdom found in the Bible equip men to experience the full purpose of fatherhood. We need to understand the world we live in so we can equip our kids with the knowledge they'll need to thrive within it. Skeptics of Christianity should consider the undeniable practical wisdom found in the Bible that has stood the test of time. If there were no value there, it would have died out a long time ago. Good places to start reading the Bible as it pertains to the ideas and execution of fatherhood. Matt reminds us that practical takeaways from the Bible are great, but if we don't use them as tools and tactics to dive deeper into the broader message of the Gospel, then we're missing a larger opportunity to discover our true purpose. And you won't want to miss Matt's interpretation of what it means to leave an inspired legacy. He had a great response! You can find Matt at The Minute Bible Hour (http://thetmbh.com). Also, check out No Dumb Questions (nodumbquestions.fm), a podcast Matt co-hosts with his friend, Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day (http://www.smartereveryday.com/). And Matt's sermons from Free Church are available (for free) at https://www.landerefree.org/sermons/ Thanks for listening! The next episode will be released Monday, April 8.

Matt Whitman of The Ten Minute Bible Hour joins us to talk about the ministry of Satellite Gaming. The Ten Minute Bible Hour Satellite Gaming Website Twitter Instagram Discord Server Music by LÚNE --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/satellite-gaming/support

Interview with Matt Whitman I can’t wait to introduce you to Matt Whitman, a husband, father and pastor living somewhere in the confines of the reclusive state of Wyoming. He is the creator of the 10 Minute Bible Hour, a YouTube channel that, in my opinion, is the best online Bible Study video series out there. […] The post Interview with Matt Whitman first appeared on DarrenHibbs.com.

Matt Whitman of the YouTube channel "The Ten Minute Bible Hour" joins the BBB to talk about Romans 13 ("Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities"). Is it is a blank check for a government to do anything and expect its good bible toting citizens to fall in line? We break it all down and tell you exactly what to think. Just kidding. But we do show that there's more going on then a flat reading seems to suggest. And we have fun doing it. Matt made a sweet video on Romans 13 you can see HERE. Check out The Ten Minute Bible Hour on YouTube. Follow Matt Whitman on Twitter @MattWhitmanTMBH   Get all feedbacky with us:-Subscribe to Bros Bibles & Beer on Apple Podcasts-Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts!-https://www.facebook.com/brosbiblesbeer-https://twitter.com/brosbiblesbeer-https://www.brosbiblesbeer.com-Instagram: @brosbiblesbeer-Email: brosbiblesbeer@gmail.comBros Bibles & Beer is: Mr. Jeff Pearson, Mr Scott "the scoot" Hulbert & Mr. Zack KraterEdited by: Zack KraterFind us wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Oh, and tell a friend!Grace. Peace. Cheers!  

Today we are joined by Matt Whitman from Ten Minute Bible Hour as well as the No Dumb Questions podcast. We discuss his race ready Oldsmobile 88, speeding through Montana and so much more. SHOW NOTES: Geoff’s Rims Found Aston Martin V8 Cygnet Porsche 911 Singer Studebaker Alfa Romeo Spider   Matt Whitman Ten Minute Bible Hour Matt Whitman Twitter No Dumb Questions Podcast   2012 Ford F150 King Ranch 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 2005 Ford Freestar Dodge Durango Subaru Outback Trailblazer Chrysler Pacifica 1999 Saturn SL1 1993 Isuzu trooper Oldsmobile 88 1984 Toyota Corolla Toyota Tercel Dodge Daytona 1974 Mercury Comet 1978 Buick 1979 Datsun 210   Support Us On Patreon Join The Episode Discussion LISTEN TO THE SHOW: Listen On iTunes Listen On Android Listen On Spotify RSS Feed CONNECT WITH US: Website Twitter YouTube Instagram Show Off Your First Car   Dan's Twitter Dan’s YouTube Geoff's Twitter Geoff’s YouTube

SPONSORED BY: AWAY TRAVEL For $20 off a suitcase, visit awaytravel.com/ndq20 and use promo code ndq20 during checkout! STUFF FROM THIS EPISODE Matt Whitman - Google Images Matt Whitman’s Big Mouth Keeps Getting Him Into Trouble Halifax councillor Matt Whitman barred from committees for 3 months Matt Whitman stands by white supremacists’ message Halifax councillor under fire for retweeting pro-white group Matt Whitman’s Idiocy and Free Speech Matt Whitman’s Deafening Silence Matt’s Wikipedia Page Chris Pratt’s Instagram Define Vacillate Chris Pratt responds to A Quiet Place Alberto Brandolini - The B.S. Asimmetry Cargo The Movie Trailer TMBH - 5 Insane Bible Conspiracy Theories Daughters of Reddit who have a great relationship with their fathers…   CONNECT WITH NO DUMB QUESTIONS: Support No Dumb Questions on Patreon if that sounds good to you Discuss this episode here NDQ Subreddit Our podcast YouTube channel Our website is nodumbquestions.fm No Dumb Questions Twitter Matt's Twitter Destin's Twitter SUBSCRIBE LINKS: Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS ARE ALSO FUN: Matt's YouTube Channel (The Ten Minute Bible Hour) Destin's YouTube Channel (Smarter Every Day)

This week we share the second half of our conversation with musician Kayo. After 3 hours of chatter, we were tired and decided to relax and have some fun! Listen to our foolery as well as the pros and cons of being an independent or signed artist. 3:00 - Introducing our guest: Kayo 7:28 - Where do you get pizza at Pizza Corner? 8:53 - The Breakfast Club 10:45 - 11 minutes in and still haven't introduced the topics 15:20 - Matt Whitman returns again during the weekly recap 20:25 - What will happen when cannabis becomes legal? 25:45 - Someone pissed Terrence off 28:53 - "LoLo means penis in St. Lucia" 30:36 - Who is Yogi the Producer? 32:50 - Independent artists Vs. Signing to a "Label"

On the first episode of Pod for Parents, Matt Whitman, Director of Cortland Area Communities That Care and Mary Dykeman, Prevention Specialist at Cortland Prevention Resources discuss why good communication with your teen is important. This is part 1 of a 3 part series on communicating with your teen.          

An extra episode this month because a lot went down. We discuss Jamie Baillie's resignation, Matt Whitman's seemingly endless buffoonery, Lindsay Shepherd's recent SMU appearance, and the latest (and hopefully final) chapter in the Cornwallis statue "debate".   Check out the Nova Scotia Health Coalition event Chris talked about: Building a Truly Universal Health Care System - AGM +Workshop

Matt Whitman and he is the creator of the 10 Minute bible hour- a show that is loaded theologically to teaching the Bible well covered with punchy humor at the same time.

There are 23,000 people in Nova Scotia who self-identify as Metis. Saint Mary’s prof Darryl Leroux explains why he questions those claims. Plus, we talk about Jamie Baillie, Legacy Rooms and Matt Whitman. 

Former Halifax journalist has grown into one of the few dedicated environmental reporters in Canada. Now based in Toronto and writing for Vice News, Beaumont has recently covered stories such as the in South Dakota, the Arctic's , and the ridiculous number of permanent across the country. Also, the and its many exemptions limps toward a final approval in 2018, how will it look for Haligonians to , and Matt Whitman's weekly dose of .

Matt Whitman, host of the Ten Minute Bible Hour on YouTube joins us and it was a blast! Why did he change the name from Ten Minute Bible Hour to the Worst Christian Ever and the back to TMBH? Why he wants both conservatism and progressives to lose? And shocker: Turns out experiencing tragedy in life WILL definitely affect how you see people and your views of God. Grace. Peace. Cheers! Check out Ten Minute Bible Hour on YouTube, on Twitter and on Facebook Show notes and resources at bbbpod.com Here's our socials: Facebook - Twitter - Instagram Music by The Classic Crime

Join us this week on Christian Devotions SPEAK UP! as Scott chats with Youtube Phenom Matt Whitman . Matt was raised in Fort Collins, Colorado before moving to Chicago where he graduated from Trinity College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He met his wife Camilla on his first day of college in his first class. They've got three kids together and now live in the mountains of beautiful western Wyoming where Matt works as the Senior Pastor of the Lander Evangelical Free Church. Matt's a teach-straight-through-books-of-the-Bible kind of guy and uses his appreciation of history, humor, culture, and narrative to help people understand God's Word. In addition to church and family, Matt spends a lot of time filmmaking. He writes, acts, directs and also hosts a YouTube program called The Ten Minute Bible Hour in which he teaches books of the Bible in a tight, informative, and funny format. This program is also highlighted on the popular Christian network Theology Mix (www.theologymix.com). Matt is the editor and co-author of the book Putting God in His Place: Exalting God in the iCulture published by Nextstep Resources. In addition to writing and film, he enjoys rock music, competitive team sports, and travel. Connect with him on Twitter @TenMinBibleHour.

Join us this week on Christian Devotions SPEAK UP! as Scott chats with Youtube Phenom Matt Whitman . Matt was raised in Fort Collins, Colorado before moving to Chicago where he graduated from Trinity College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He met his wife Camilla on his first day of college in his first class. They’ve got three kids together and now live in the mountains of beautiful western Wyoming where Matt works as the Senior Pastor of the Lander Evangelical Free Church. Matt’s a teach-straight-through-books-of-the-Bible kind of guy and uses his appreciation of history, humor, culture, and narrative to help people understand God’s Word. In addition to church and family, Matt spends a lot of time filmmaking. He writes, acts, directs and also hosts a YouTube program called The Ten Minute Bible Hour in which he teaches books of the Bible in a tight, informative, and funny format. This program is also highlighted on the popular Christian network Theology Mix (www.theologymix.com). Matt is the editor and co-author of the book Putting God in His Place: Exalting God in the iCulture published by Nextstep Resources. In addition to writing and film, he enjoys rock music, competitive team sports, and travel. Connect with him on Twitter @TenMinBibleHour.

Join us this week on Christian Devotions SPEAK UP! as Scott chats with Youtube Phenom Matt Whitman . Matt was raised in Fort Collins, Colorado before moving to Chicago where he graduated from Trinity College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He met his wife Camilla on his first day of college in his first class. They've got three kids together and now live in the mountains of beautiful western Wyoming where Matt works as the Senior Pastor of the Lander Evangelical Free Church. Matt's a teach-straight-through-books-of-the-Bible kind of guy and uses his appreciation of history, humor, culture, and narrative to help people understand God's Word. In addition to church and family, Matt spends a lot of time filmmaking. He writes, acts, directs and also hosts a YouTube program called The Ten Minute Bible Hour in which he teaches books of the Bible in a tight, informative, and funny format. This program is also highlighted on the popular Christian network Theology Mix (www.theologymix.com). Matt is the editor and co-author of the book Putting God in His Place: Exalting God in the iCulture published by Nextstep Resources. In addition to writing and film, he enjoys rock music, competitive team sports, and travel. Connect with him on Twitter @TenMinBibleHour.

Join us this week on Christian Devotions SPEAK UP! as Scott chats with Youtube Phenom Matt Whitman . Matt was raised in Fort Collins, Colorado before moving to Chicago where he graduated from Trinity College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He met his wife Camilla on his first day of college in his first class. They’ve got three kids together and now live in the mountains of beautiful western Wyoming where Matt works as the Senior Pastor of the Lander Evangelical Free Church. Matt’s a teach-straight-through-books-of-the-Bible kind of guy and uses his appreciation of history, humor, culture, and narrative to help people understand God’s Word. In addition to church and family, Matt spends a lot of time filmmaking. He writes, acts, directs and also hosts a YouTube program called The Ten Minute Bible Hour in which he teaches books of the Bible in a tight, informative, and funny format. This program is also highlighted on the popular Christian network Theology Mix (www.theologymix.com). Matt is the editor and co-author of the book Putting God in His Place: Exalting God in the iCulture published by Nextstep Resources. In addition to writing and film, he enjoys rock music, competitive team sports, and travel. Connect with him on Twitter @TenMinBibleHour.