Podcasts about maybe jesus

Daily Dose of Hope June 6, 2025   Scripture - Matthew 9:1-17   Prayer: Abba Father, Prepare our hearts for your Word today.  Help us approach this Scripture with an openness to learning something new from you.  Jesus, thank you for your perfect example of mercy and love.  More of you and less of me.  In Your Name, Amen.   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, a Deep Dive into the Gospels and Acts.  Today, we start Matthew 9.   We start with Jesus heading back across the lake into Capernaum, as the scripture refers to his own town.  It seems in no time at all, a paralyzed man is placed before him.  While Matthew does not give the details about the man's friends digging a hole in the roof and lowering him down, this is most likely the same story we find in Mark 2.  Notice how he sees the faith of the friends and heals the man.    But what does Jesus say to the man?  Jesus tells the man that his sins are forgiven.  This stirs things up.  Of course, the teachers of the law speak among themselves, thinking this is blasphemy.  But it's Jesus and he is God so he knows exactly what they are thinking and he calls them out.  What the teachers of the law cannot see is that Jesus is authorized to speak and act on God's behalf. He is God's anointed, the Messiah. As a demonstration of his authority to forgive sins, Jesus tells the paralyzed man to stand up, take his mat and return home, which the man promptly does. Jesus boldly demonstrates his power to bring both spiritual and physical healing, and the crowds respond by being amazed and glorifying God.   We go right from this healing to the calling of Matthew.  I love how Matthew writes about his own conversion.  He doesn't give a lot of details.  It is most likely that he has seen and heard Jesus before.  After all, tax collectors were usually set up in visible places in town.   By the way, the phrase “sitting at the tax collector's booth” is filled with meaning.  At the time, tax collectors were hated.  The Roman Empire took bids for the right to collect taxes.  These tax agents paid a set amount to Rome, and could keep all the rest that they collected.  Thus, tax collectors were quite wealthy.  But they enriched themselves by preying on the poor, stifling trade, and operating kind of like a local mafia.  They were also despised for how they collaborated with the oppressive Romans.   One thing that is interesting about this whole situation to me is that Matthew did not choose Jesus, but rather Jesus chose Matthew.  In the Greek, the word “follow” is in the imperative.  It was a command.  Jesus isn't giving Matthew a choice.  And Matthew got up and followed him.    What would you have done?  Jesus' call is always action-oriented.  When we follow Jesus, it is a call to do something for his Kingdom.  It is also a call to leave the past behind.  How many of us try to follow Jesus without fully leaving our past commitments and issues behind?   Later on, at Matthew's house, Jesus is dining with some of the less desirable folks in town.  Scripture says he ate with tax collectors and sinners and those two groups were seen as pretty synonymous.  This very much perturbs the religious people.  How dare he cavort with such scum?  But Jesus says that it is the sick people who need a physician, not the well.  He came to call sinners.    My guess is that part of the Pharisees' frustration is that Jesus seems to be simply be eating and drinking with the sinners, not providing treatment.  But Jesus was all about relationship.  I think we can learn a lot here.  There were times in which Jesus preached and called for people to repent.  There were times when Jesus performed miracles to demonstrate his power and authority.  But much of the time, Jesus simply sat at the table with people and built relationships.  It is through relationship that life change is most likely to happen.    Think about your own life.  How have your grown the most in your spiritual walk?  Was it through a sermon?  Probably not.  Was it through a Bible study?  Again, maybe not.  Was it through relationship with other Godly people who taught you, poured into you, and showed you the life of Christ?  Most likely.    To effectively point people to Jesus, we have to first get to know them.  Especially for those who have been hurt by the church or just by life, we have to earn the right to speak into their lives.  Jesus did just that.  And he was genuine and loving at the same time.  My guess is there was no condemnation at that dinner table with Matthew and his friends.  They were talking and getting to know one another.  Maybe Jesus did a little teaching at times, but it was probably subtle.  He was giving them the opportunity to get to know him, as he listened to them.    Who sits around your table?  When is the last time you invited some people “on the fringe” to dine with you?  How about unbelievers?  How are you intentionally building relationships with those who don't yet know Jesus?    Our text for today ends with a discussion on fasting.  John's disciples ask why Jesus' disciples don't fast like them.  We don't know if this is a dig but it kind of feels like one.  Jesus responds with an analogy to a wedding feast.  Fasting might be appropriate on some occasions, but certainly not at a wedding feast when the groom is right there. Right now, Jesus is with them.  Thus, this isn't the right time for fasting.  It is time for feasting and enjoying his presence. The point is that Jesus is with his disciples just as the wedding guests are with the groom. It is a time for celebration—not deprivation. It is a time to enjoy the relationship and absorb his teaching and example while they can. When the bridegroom is taken from them, there will be a time for fasting.  As we know, that's going to happen pretty soon. Blessings, Pastor Vicki    

A Sermon for Ascension Sunday Acts 1:1-11 by William Klock The King came to Canada this week and I can help but reflect on how providential this event has been—the King of Canada coming to take his throne in the Senate chamber in Ottawa—in the same week that we remember and celebrate the ascension of Jesus.  I might be tempted to title my sermon: A Tale of Two Kings. So a new Parliament needed to be opened.  A throne speech had to be read.  That's normally done by the Governor General, but these are not normal times.  The new President next door, in what has always been Canada's best friend and ally, is now making economic war and daily challenging the country's sovereignty.  It was time for the Sovereign to come and save the day.  And so the King came, and he ascended to his throne in Parliament, and he read a speech.  The last time the Sovereign did this was almost fifty years ago, so this is no small thing.  And yet the King was here for all of about twenty-four hours.  The speech he read was written by government speech-writers, not by the King.  And even then, it's vitally important in our constitutional monarchy that the King avoid any openly political speech—and so the big concern of the day, the big thing that threatens the nation's economic well-being and sovereignty—was only hinted at obliquely.  And everyone applauded.  And then the King got back into his jet and flew home.  And maybe it's just because I'm an American, but it doesn't seem to me that all the pomp and circumstance and expense really accomplished anything.  The King didn't go to Washington to negotiate peace with the belligerent bully or to rough him up a bit or even to give him a good talking to.  Instead, he came here, he sat in the Senate chamber, and recited back to the government the talking points it gave him.  Again, I mean no disrespect to the King or to Canada's constitutional monarchy, but watching and listening to this week's events as an American—although I suspect even the staunches of Christian monarchists can't help but notice it too—that there's a big—an enormous—difference between the ascension of King Charles III in Ottawa this week and the ascension of Jesus that we read about today in both our Epistle and Gospel. I listened to the throne speech and even though I know that the King can't actually do anything, when it was over I still felt like: What now?  The King flies all this way, he ascends to his throne with great pomp and circumstance, he reads a speech intended to stir patriotic feelings—and even as an American, watching and listening I felt pride for Canada—but then he got back into his airplane and went home.  He didn't do anything about the current crisis.  The enemy is still there.  In fact, the King's talk of Canadian sovereignty just seemed to provoke a new round of fifty-first state talk.  It's kind of a let down.  I don't know what I expect the King should do, but he's a king after all and I sort of have a mental image of him taking off his pinstripe jacket, putting on a shining suit of armour, going to Washington, and popping the President in the nose.  In real life that probably wouldn't solve anything.  It's just that kings are supposed to deliver their subjects in times of trouble and cast down their enemies.  Right?  That's what kings are for. This is why the disciples were so discouraged when Jesus was crucified.  They thought he was the Messiah, the anointed king, and then he got himself killed—and that's not what was supposed to happen to the king.  He was supposed to defeat his enemies and take his throne.  And then Jesus rose from death and he met them and they were so excited to go declare the good news to Jerusalem that Jesus actually had to calm them down and tell them to wait.  Enthusiasm isn't enough.  They also needed the power of God's Spirit—but that's for next week.  But for forty days Jesus has been teaching them.  He's been walking them through the scriptures and showing them how it was there along: the Messiah had to die in order to defeat his enemies and take his throne.  Like I said a couple of weeks ago, those forty days must have been the most thrilling days in all of history as Jesus taught them and as it all came together.  And yet, even then, the disciples were still stuck on the wrong things.  But now I'm getting ahead of myself for today.  Keep this all in mind and let's look at our Epistle again.  The first chapter of Acts.  Luke writes: Dear Theophilus, the previous book which I wrote had to do with everything Jesus began to do and teach.  I took the story as far as the day when he was taken up, once he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to his apostles.   Luke is talking about his Gospel.  He goes on in verse 3: He showed himself to them alive, after his suffering, by many proofs.  He was seen by them for forty days, during which he spoke about God's kingdom.  As they were having a meal together, he told them not to go away from Jerusalem, but to wait, as he put it, “for the Father's promise, which I was telling you about earlier.  John baptised with water, you see, but in a few days from now you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”   So good so far.  Forty days of Bible teaching with Jesus.  All about the kingdom.  He thinks they're ready to do the proclamation part of their new ministry, they just need to wait a minute so he can ascend to this throne and send the Spirit who will empower that proclamation.  Jesus thinks their ready to be set loose on the world.  But have you ever taught something to someone, explaining it to them, and they're nodding and you think they understand.  You're ready to turn them loose.  And then they ask you a question and you realise that they still don't understand the central point of what you've been trying to teach them? I took calculus as a freshman in college.  Twice.  The only class I ever failed.  I understood the instructions.  But no matter how hard I tried and no matter how long the professor explained it to me—I had the benefit of sitting next to him in the church choir—I never understood what it was all about.  I didn't get it.  I thought that at least I could just follow the instructions to solve the equations.  I found that usually worked pretty well with math.  But it didn't with calculus.  So he—or my friends who understood calculus—would explain it to me and I'd say, “Right.  I do this, then this, then this, and so on.”  And they'd smile and say, “Yes!”  Like it was finally sinking in for me.  And then I'd do what I thought were the steps and it wouldn't work and they'd ask me to explain it, and I couldn't, because I never could wrap my head around the concept at the heart of it all. Brothers and Sisters, the kingdom was the heart of everything Jesus was teaching and doing.  And the disciples knew this.  That's, again, why they were so discouraged when he died.  Dead kings don't establish kingdoms.  But now Jesus is alive again and they're excited and especially so because for forty days Jesus has been teaching them even more about the kingdom.  And then they ask, “Master, is this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel.”   I remember the look on my calculus professor's face when he through I'd finally got it through my thick skull and how his smile faded away when he realised I didn't get it at all and I can picture the same look on Jesus' face.  Disappointment and exasperation.  I don't know.  Maybe Jesus knew that no amount of talk would get them straight on this and that it would only fall into place once they saw him ascend and once they'd received the Spirit.  But it's clear: despite all the teaching, the disciples still didn't get it. See, this idea of the “kingdom of God”, for the Jews it had become shorthand for the idea that one day the Lord would fulfil his promises, come back to Israel, take up his throne.  He'd defeat Isreal's enemies and he'd set Israel to rights—and then they'd all live happily ever after with God as their king and the pagans under their feet.  They sang songs, like Psalm 2, about the nations raging and the kings of the earth getting together to plot against the Lord and his people.  And in the middle of the song the Lord bursts out in laughter, mocking the nations and their feeble kings.  And then the Lord lets loose his wrath and announces, “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.”  And then the king speaks: “The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have begotten you.  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.  You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”  And then the Psalmist can announce to the nations: “Now, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.  Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.”  It's the king in shining armour come to crush his enemies and set his people to rights. They sang songs like the one in Isaiah 52 about the beautiful feet of the one who brings good news and who announces to Zion, “Your God reigns.”  “The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.”  This was the same song in which they sang about the suffering servant who would be exalted only after he had borne their griefs and sorrows, only after he'd been stricken and afflicted.”  This was the hope of Israel and this is why the disciples had followed Jesus.  They believed he was the Messiah, the king who would rescue his people and defeat their enemies.  Again, for those three days he was in the tomb it looked like they'd been wrong, but now Jesus was alive again.  They knew with absolute certainty that he really is the Messiah.  And so now they're asking him: “Your resurrection put the story back on track, Jesus.  So when are you going to fulfil those old promises, defeat the nations and their kings, and set Isreal on the top of the heap?” And Jesus says to them in verse 7: “It's not your business to know about times and dates.  The Father has placed all that under his own direct authority.  What will happen, though, is that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.  Then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth.”   I've noticed a lot of people read this and think that Jesus is saying something like, “No.  It's not time to restore the kingdom.  I'll do that sometime in the future and only the Father knows the date.”  But that's not what Jesus is saying at all.  Think of the pair Jesus met on the road to Emmaus.  They were saying that they'd hoped Jesus was the one who would redeem Israel, but well, he'd been crucified so scratch that idea.  And that's the point when Jesus explains to them that it was actually through his crucifixion that he would accomplish God's long-promised redemption.  Even though it was there all along in songs like Isaiah 52, it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone that the Messiah would usher in God's kingdom by his suffering and death.  And yet when Jesus says this, suddenly a lot of other things he said and did finally make sense.  Think of the stories—the parables—he told.  Over and over: The kingdom is coming—yes!—but it's not coming like you think.  Instead, the kingdom is coming like seed planted in the ground.  The kingdom is coming like leaven in a lump of dough.  The kingdom is like a man who had two sons.  Or when Jesus and the disciples were approaching Jerusalem and they asked this same question: Is the kingdom finally coming now?  And Jesus said that the kingdom is like a nobleman coming back to see if his servants have been faithful with their stewardship.  Over and over Jesus has been saying, “Yes, the kingdom is coming right now, but you keep missing it because it doesn't look like what you expected. At that last Passover meal Jesus ate with his friends, he told them that he would not drink with them again until the kingdom had arrived. And here they are, these forty days after the resurrection eating and drinking with Jesus as he teaches them.  The kingdom has come, Brothers and Sisters.  Too many Christians live as if the mission of the church is to prepare for Jesus to become king, when the church's mission is, in fact, really all about announcing and living out the reality that Jesus is the king even if his kingdom isn't quite what a lot of people expected. And then, just to make all of this absolutely clear, Luke says in verse 9: As Jesus said this, he was lifted up while they were watching and a cloud took him out of their sight.   We're prone to missing the significance of this image because we're not steeped in the Old Testament the way they were.  The disciples, however, understood exactly what was happening: Jesus was acting out the prophecy of Daniel 7.  That's the chapter were Daniel has this nightmare full of beasts coming up out of the ocean.  It's a vision of the nations and their kings raging against God's people.  But then “one like a son of man” is taken up and exalted on the clouds to sit beside the Ancient of Days.  He's given a kingdom, power, and authority so that all people, nations, and languages should serve and obey him.  It's a vision of the kingdom being restored to Israel.  And now, all through Jesus' ministry, we've heard him talking about himself as this son of man, as Israel's representative, and now—in answer to the disciples' question about the coming of the kingdom—Jesus literally acts out Daniel's vision.  He fulfils it.  In fact, in Matthew's telling of the ascension, Jesus even says—echoing the words of the Ancient of Days in Daniel—“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  So you must go and make all the nations into disciples.” The ascension proclaims: Jesus is king and his kingdom is here.  One day Jesus will return to finish what he's begun, but never forget that it has begun.  As Paul says in Romans 15, “He has to go on ruling until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” So the disciples were thinking that Jesus was going to lead a revolution—like Judas Maccabeus or Simon bar Kochba—except this time it wouldn't fizzle out.  This time it would be successful and it would be forever.  And Jesus is saying (and acting out) that no, the kingdom has been inaugurated and it's going to take shape and grow—the nations will be put under Jesus' feet—not as the disciples take up arms, but as they go out into the world as witnesses of Jesus: as they go out and proclaim the good news that Jesus crucified and risen, is the world's true Lord and as they live out the reality of his kingdom.  Like Jesus did, the disciples would work miracles—miracles that underscored that in the kingdom all the sad thing are beginning to become untrue; and they would live lives transformed by the Spirit's fruit, but maybe more than anything else, they would confront the kings of the present evil age with the reality of Jesus' lordship.  And through their witness, the world would begin to change. It's not a linear, always progressing, always upward change.  That was the idea of theological liberalism a century ago, but two world wars and nuclear bombs and fascism and Communism blew that idea up.  But through the witness of the church, the world is changing.  I've mentioned before Tom Holland's remarkable book Dominion and how, in that book, he writes about the profound changes that the gospel brought to Western Civilisation.  Each generation lives in its own brief age and so, if we don't know anything about history, we're prone to not even noticing the changes that have happened, but happen they have.  Christians began taking in the unwanted girl babies of the Greeks and Romans, left to die of exposure, and we taught the world the value of life.  The influence of the gospel put an end to gladiatorial games and slavery.  The gospel has taught the world mercy and grace, the value of life, the dignity of each person.  And on and on.  The church, when we are faithful witnesses of Jesus and living the new creation life the Spirit gives, builds and spreads the kingdom and someday, when the work is done, Jesus will return—not to take us away, but to restore heaven and earth, God and human beings, and to put an end to death and sin once and for all.  To consummate his new creation. But there's work to do in the meantime.  He created us in the beginning to be his stewards—to cultivate his garden.  That's why, when it came time to set us back on that track, God called and created a special people for himself: to be his representative, to be his stewards, to be his living kingdom in the midst of the old.  And so Luke says, They were gazing into heaven as he disappeared.  Then, lo and behold, two men appeared, dressed in white, standing beside them.  “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven?  This Jesus, who has been taken away from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”   Brothers and Sisters, there's work to do.  Like Jesus said, they needed to wait a few days before going out, so that when they did go out, they would go out in the power of the Spirit.  The kingdom doesn't happen in our power.  But it does happen as we go out to faithfully fulfil the mission we've been given to witness Jesus.  Our task is to go out in faith, to till the soil, to steward the garden.  It's an overwhelming task.  That's why it takes faith to go out and do it.  But we go out in faith knowing that God has given us his Spirit who infuses what we do with divine power.  We go out in faith knowing that in Jesus—at the cross and in the resurrection—God has already done the impossible part.  Now, as Paul wrote, all he has to do is go on ruling until all his enemies have been put under his feet.  There's no “if”.  It's just “until”.  It's a sure thing.  And so is the witness of his church. It doesn't always seem that way.  Sometimes it seems like we're going backwards and things are getting worse.  People won't listen or won't take us seriously.  Sometimes we're tempted to give up.  Sometimes we act like all Jesus did was come to earth to give us a rousing pep talk, then he went back home to heaven.  But read the Gospels and that's not it at all.  He hasn't just gone back to heaven and left us alone.  He's ascended to his throne, where he rules and reigns over his kingdom, which—remember—is like seed planted in the soil and like leaven in a lump of dough and like a man who had two sons.  And one day, through his people—through us—the work of his word and the work of his Spirit will be done.  The world will know his death and resurrection, it will know the forgiveness of sins, it will know the end of death, it will know mercy and grace.  The knowledge of his glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.  Because Jesus died and rose again, because the Lord's word does not return void, and because he does not give his Spirit in vain. Let's pray: O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus the Messiah with great triumph to your right hand in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us for the task you have given, and that we might look forward in hope to the day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.  Amen.

Who do people say Jesus is? And more importantly, who do you say He is? This sermon by Richard Bruce dives deep into the most crucial question of faith, exploring the identity of Jesus as the Messiah and the profound power held within His name. Discover how an encounter with Jesus can be a life-transforming choice, just like it was for a beggar at the temple gate. Are you ready to consider what it means to call Jesus your Lord, Savior, and Friend? Tune in to explore the step of faith. To catch up on the latest sermons from Deep Creek, go to iTunes, Spotify ordeepcreekanglican.comand check out the website for more info about whats happening. We are a welcoming and growing multigenerational church in Doncaster East in Melbourne with refreshing faith in Jesus Christ. We think that looks like being life-giving to the believer, surprising to the world, and strengthening to the weary and doubting. Transcription Taken from Mark chapter eight, verses 27 to 38, Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, who do people say I am? They replied, some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah, and still others one of the prophets. But what about you? He asked, who do you say I am? Peter answered, you are the Messiah. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me, Satan, he said, you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his father's glory with the holy angels. This is the word of the Lord. Sermon: Richard Bruce Well. Good morning. It's good to be with you. My name is Richard Bruce, and, I'm feeling very old today because, the last time I spoke at Deep Creek, Bob Brown invited me, and I looked this up. It was a men's breakfast out there in 2006. So, that was some time ago. And I'm also feeling, old, but also encouraged because, I've known Megan for a very long time. I was her first youth group leader, and, I was there the night that she made a commitment of faith. So it's been wonderful to journey, along with her over many years. I do want to encourage you to continue to keep all of the candidates, that had their names put forward for the archbishop in your prayers. It's a pretty tortuous process that they go through and very vulnerable. There's not too many jobs that you have. Nearly 800 people, considering you for, but that is that is the Anglican way that we do it, in Melbourne. But, encourage you to keep the candidates in your prayers. My role, currently, I am the archdeacon for Diocesan and Parish partnerships, working centrally, in the diocese. And what that looks like on a day to day basis is, I work with our prison chaplains, our hospital chaplains, op shops. And then there's a whole range of, individual church programs that work with Anglicare Victoria, Brotherhood of Saint Lawrence Benitez and other Anglican agencies. So I'm I'm kind of like the go to guy, for those things. If a parish wants to investigate doing a program like a. A breakfast program for homeless people or an op shop or something like that. I'm the person that they come to. I go and meet with the parish, talk about it, and then we work out who are the organizations or agencies that they might connect with to partner with in doing that. So I live locally in Warren, and I normally do come along and sit over quietly with my two boys. Over on the side we come in. Just the service begins and then we sneak out just as it finishes. Previously been on staff at a number of churches, but it's, It's good to be with you this morning as we finish, this, series of together. And I get to start my timer now for the sermon. So. Yeah. There we go. Megan said we had to be very careful about our timing. So there we go. Yeah, it was very encouraged that, she made it very clear that as a senior minister, the timing does not apply to her. But anyway, here we. Here we go. Who Do You Say I Am? I love this. This is. This is perhaps my favorite passage of scripture. If if someone said you could talk about any passage of scripture, what would it be? This. This would be it. I love the fact that as Jesus is walking along with his disciples, he asked that question who do people say that I am? And then he asks them, but who do you say that I am? I wonder if we we went down to the ponds this morning or we went to your favorite cafe this morning, perhaps to your workplace, to your social club, whatever it might be to to the people that you engage with. If we ask them, who do you say Jesus is? I wonder what the responses would be. I think they would be quite varied, wouldn't they? Quite varied. For the disciples, we see that when they first interact with Jesus, when they first start walking along with him, they ask that question, who? Who is this man? Who is this guy? When Jesus calms the waters. When? When they're out in the boat, what's their response? Who is this man that even the waters obey him? All the way through to this point in Jesus life and ministry, where the disciples have been walking with him for nearly three years, they've been living with him 24 over seven. Where Peter declares, you are the Messiah, you're the one that we have been waiting for. You're the one that's going to save us. Jesus shows his identity to his disciples, to those that are closest to him. And if you read the gospel of Mark and Matthew, you will see this come through clearly, where Jesus shows his authority and shows the power of God working through him in these five areas to teach his authority over sickness, over nature, over death, and the authority to forgive sins. So for the disciples, the people that are living with him. Where if there was anyone that would have said, this guy is a fraud. This guy is not real. There is. There is weakness. There is inconsistency. It would be the disciples, wouldn't it? So this is the power of Jesus asking this question of the disciples. The other people who are not living with him every day they say, well, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still some others. One of the prophets. They're all good things. But when Peter says, you are the Messiah, this is a declaration that the disciples see him in his true identity, in the fullness of his glory, in his purpose living out. This is powerful. That's why he says, don't go telling people because he knows what the implications would be. For Jesus to fulfill 300 to 500. Old Testament prophecies about who the Messiah is. In just a few years is powerful. This is part of the proof of who Jesus is. To the disciples, as they are looking for the Messiah to come. They see it living out before them in an undeniable way. It is not insignificant that Peter says you are the Messiah. You are the one that we are looking for. The Name of Jesus Now we hear the name of Jesus many times a day. If you like me in all kinds of circumstances. We hear the name of Jesus. It is one of the most used swear words in our society, isn't it? All you've got to do is watch a movie. Hear people talking. Jesus. Jesus Christ, Lord almighty. Or as one of my bosses used to say, Jesus wept. It is used all the time as a profanity in movies, TV shows, sporting fields, whatever it might be. People use the name of Jesus, don't they? But predominantly it is a swear word. Now I find it amazing that it is socially acceptable to use Jesus name as a swear word, but yet as a Christian, as a as I like to call myself as a professional Christian, being an Anglican minister, most people know that instantly when I say I'm an Anglican minister, that I'm a Christian. If I was to use the name of Jesus and start to talk to people about Jesus, they'd get all offended and upset and I'd be told to shut up. But no one predominantly tells people if they use the Lord's name in vain, to be quiet. Not to do that. That's not inappropriate. That's not appropriate. We don't see other people's names being used as a swear word, do we? People don't go, oh, Richard. But Jesus socially acceptable? It's the norm. The third of the Ten Commandments is you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for your Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. There are consequences to speaking the name Jesus, and if you misuse it, that is sinful. That is against what God wants us to do. So if you've ever misused the name of Jesus, you have sinned. But the good news is that we are all sinners, and it is in fact by the name of Jesus that we can be saved. Romans 623 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now the other thing that I find amazing and I've discovered over the years. Is that people are happy to talk about God. But when you start talking about Jesus, you get a reaction. You see, it's it's kind of easy to talk about God because God's this, this thing, this power, this thing which is up there and out there that isn't really tangible. And so people are happy to talk about God. But as soon as you start talking about Jesus, I get a response. Sometimes a reaction from people, particularly for those of us who have grown up in Western culture, most of us would know about Jesus. We know about the Easter story that this guy, Jesus, died on a cross and apparently rose from the dead. But the confronting thing about Jesus is that Jesus died for me. Jesus died for you. We we have this reaction, this personal response to what someone says they have done for us. I think we see that in Anzac Day, don't we? There is this response that even though it was so long ago, there are people who laid down their life for you and I today. And there's a there's a reaction, there's a personal response. A bit of a who am I that someone who doesn't even know me, laid down their life, went to war to sacrifice themselves? That I can live the life that I live today. And I think that's part of why the name of Jesus commands such a response in us, where it's nice and easy to talk about God, but talking about Jesus, well, that's personal. That's personal. The Power in the Name of Jesus Now, the Bible has a lot to say about Jesus, and we could spend hours here just going through the Bible passages which reference his name and the power of that. But I'm just going to go through a number of Bible passages. I'm going to read them out. And as I do, I want you to just take on board the name of Jesus, the person of Jesus. And I want you to ask yourself this question if if what is being said about Jesus is true? If what is being said about Jesus is right, then what are the implications for me? Where do I stand? What is? What does this mean for me? If this is the truth? How am I going to respond to it? So let's let's have this. Bible passages: Matthew 121. He was given the name Jesus because he would save his people from their sins. John 112 to 13 yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God. John 129. The next stage on the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him and said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John 318. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only son. John 2031 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Acts 221. Talking about the Day of Judgment, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans ten 9 to 13 that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Philippians two 910 Therefore God exalted him, Jesus to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and under and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. They're pretty confronting passages, aren't they? Pretty daunting to think the power and authority of the name of Jesus, that everything in all of creation at his name should bow and give honor to Jesus? The name that is used as a profanity as a swear word. Is the name by which the whole of creation ought to be bowing in honor, the name by which every person can be saved. Is Jesus Christ more than a swear word? You'd better believe it. If what the Bible says is true. Then that impacts how we live our lives. For when we acknowledge that something is the truth, we either have to live by that truth or we ignore it, don't we? We all live by the truth that we believe that gravity is real, don't we? No one came in walking around wearing really heavy shoes with because we don't believe in gravity. And if we don't have really heavy shoes, we might, you know, float away. A little while ago on my social media feed. For some strange reason, I started getting all these video clips about flat earthers. I don't I don't know what I did to for it to happen, but I started getting all these clips about people trying to convince me that the earth is flat. And I was absolutely intrigued at the flat earthers. They are 100% convinced that it is the truth. I remember watching one clip where this guy started out to prove to people who believed that the earth was round, that it was actually flat. And as he did this experiment where he had a flat bit of paper and he had a light and he started to to to curve the bit of paper and talked about angles and everything. You could see that he'd suddenly convinced himself that the earth wasn't flat. So as he was trying to convince people that it was flat through this experiment, you could see the look on his face as he suddenly was like, oh, hang on a second. Hang on a second. I've. I've just just proven what I was trying to prove. And you could see him starting to think about all the consequences of this truth that he had just come to realize. That's what happens to us as we start to explore Jesus. We start to say, is this is this real? What if what are the consequences? How has my life going to change? For most people, coming to faith is a journey rather than an individual one off event. The Crippled Beggar Healed I'm going to read to us from acts and I'm a visual person, so I like to whenever there's a Bible story or something like I close my eyes and I try to visualize and and put the people into place and, and see what it's like so that I get the, the kind of full experience. So I want to invite you if you feel comfortable to close your eyes. As I read this story from acts three 1 to 16. And then I'll, I'll bring us back into the room at the end of it. But I want to encourage you to to try to picture what's occurring in this interaction. One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer. 3:00 in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, look at us, said the man gave them his attention, expecting that he was going to get something from them. Then Peter said, silver or gold? I do not have but what I have, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Taking him by the right hand. He helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called beautiful. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished, and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them, Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness? We had made this man walk. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus. This man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus name and the faith that comes through him that has given his complete healing to him. As you can all see. Isn't that a powerful story? Here is a man from birth. A cripple. As these disciples, as these followers of Jesus go in. They offer him Jesus healing. Can you imagine what's going through this cripples mind. He's sitting there thinking, this is. This is my life. This is how I make money. This is my identity. I'm the cripple that sits at the gates and gets money. So when Peter reaches out, his hand says, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk. Here's a choice, doesn't he? He can sit there and go, dude, I'm a cripple. I don't walk. This is. This is who I am. This is how I am. Nothing's going to change. No. Jesus of Nazareth. This. This is it. So here's a choice to make. Do I keep living the way that I've been living? Or do I accept? Do I reach out my hand in faith? And say, well, maybe this Jesus can transform my life. Maybe Jesus can perform a miracle and heal me. But what are going to be the consequences if I'm healed? What am I going to do? Don't have a job I've been begging my whole life. I'm going to be the former beggar. Everyone's going to know. Everyone's going to ask me questions. Oh, you're the guy that used to beg and Jesus healed you. What? Tell me about that. His decision to reach out his hand wasn't just a simple thing. It was a transformation of his life. It was an incredible act of faith. That would mean he was never going to be the same again. For him, for whoever his family was, for his community, for the people in the temple that day I was there the day that miracle occurred. I was there, I saw him when I went in. He was a beggar inside. He was walking around. Unbelievable. When we come and we engage with Jesus, there is a transformation that occurs. We see that throughout the Gospels. We see that from the apostles, from the disciples, even after Jesus ascension. And there are many people in this room today that could give testimony of Jesus transformation in their lives. Maybe not as miraculous as being born a cripple and being healed, but we could. All who are Christians give our testimony of what it was that caused us to give our lives to follow Jesus. How miraculous or mundane that may be. Just like the disciples, we have a testimony of a relationship with the living Jesus that has transformed our lives, that continues to transform our lives. What Good Is It? The last part of that Bible passage that we read talks about what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet to forfeit their soul? It's a great question, isn't it? I love Jesus questions. He kind of just. Really puts it to us. So many people in our world are trying to gain the whole world. I've known people who have acknowledged who Jesus is. I've been using these Bible passages since Meghan was a teenager. This is who Jesus is. Are you going to acknowledge who he is and accept him or reject him? Because they're the only two options. And there's going to be consequences to that decision. What are you going to do today? What are you going to do tomorrow? Next week? It's a daily decision to pick up our cross. For those who are Christians, to pick up our cross and to follow Jesus. So whether you are a person of faith or not. Jesus is who he is. He is the Messiah. He is the Christ for me. And for many people, this is the undeniable truth. Who do you say Jesus is? Who do you say Jesus is? For me, when someone asks me that question, I often get asked, why are you a minister? Or why are you a Christian? I go to a local gym in Doncaster and we were meant to be. I was meant to be going with a group of them to the football game yesterday afternoon to watch Carlton lose again. And I said, so I started to help arrange this social activity, and I ended up saying, I can't go. I've I've got to go to an Archbishop selection. And for some of those people, they were kind of like, oh, you know, it's great conversation about being an Anglican minister and conversations of, of faith. And, I was I was sitting at the archbishop's election with my daughter Bella on the, the phone here. she's she's saying I'm talking with the people from the gym, and they're I'm trying to explain what an archbishop's election is. And so I'm sitting there typing away as people are asking her questions, and I'm thinking, what a great witness. My daughter's there explaining to a bunch of people what it is about a faith and an election. I'm expecting over the next few weeks, as I'm at different gym sessions for people to to come and ask me questions of faith. Who did you elect? What was the process? Why are you a Christian? Who is Jesus? My response is always Jesus is my Lord, my Savior and my friend. The characteristic that always gets people is that last one friend. Jesus is your friend, isn't he? Like 2000 years ago. And I say, well, no, he's alive and well and I have a living relationship with my Lord and my Savior today. Just as real as the disciples had 2000 years ago as Jesus walked this planet. So what words? If you're a Christian, what words would you describe Jesus as to people? If you're not a Christian sitting here today, what words would you have used to describe Jesus? Called to be Friends One of my other favorite passages is I come to to land this message. John 1512 to 15 if we could have that up on the screen. John 15 says, my command is this love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than they lay down their life for their friends. You are my friends. If you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends. That everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you. Throughout this series you. If you've been coming along each week, you have heard testimonies. If you've been invited along by someone this morning for the first time, or maybe the 10th time. Ask them for their testimony. Ask them, why are you a Christian? Or maybe you are someone who has been a Christian for a while and you've been struggling, and there's a sense there of, I just need to recommit my life to Jesus afresh. there's nothing wrong with doing that. I've probably done that a hundred times. But today is one of those days where you have the choice. Like that beggar. Am I going to reach out my hand to Jesus? Or am I just going to sit there and say. I am a sinner. I'm a cripple. I'm not worthy. You, Jesus can't do anything. You have that choice to make. when you came in today, you will have got a bit of paper, a little bit smaller than this, but a bit of paper on the one side of it. Is a prayer of commitment or recommitment. I imagine. During the service or during the sermon, you've had a chance to read through that. On the back is what are some next steps that you can take in your journey? Like the disciples going from who is this guy? Jesus? Maybe you're not at the point of like Peter declaring that Jesus is the Messiah. But I want to encourage you with you. You've been a Christian for five minutes or for 50 years, or you're not a person of faith yet to look at. What are those next steps, particularly to do the Alpha course? I've seen so many mature Christians, faith, become alive and fresh, and have a new confidence in being a Christian in their world. From doing the Alpha course and inviting people from their world along. So if you're a Christian, I encourage you to to do the Alpha course, but during the next two songs. Want to encourage you to to privately or if you've been invited along by someone, if you want to pray. Pray this prayer of commitment to pray that prayer. Maybe you're someone that likes to do things physically. there's plenty of space down the front, down the back. If you don't. If you don't want to be seen by people, you know, go down the back, kneel, stand, do something physical in your response to Jesus. But I want to challenge you to have an encounter with the living Jesus today, here, now, that will transform your life. Closing Prayer I'm going to pray, just quickly. And then I'm going to I'm going to sit down the front just in case anyone doesn't want to come down the front. You're not alone. I'll be sitting down here, but let me pray for us. And then, the band is going to lead us in our final two songs. Heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you that you call us friends, that you know each person, you know every person here. You know our hearts. You know our minds. You know how we view ourselves. You know, you know our relationship with you. You know our fears and our struggles and our joys. And I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to each and every person here today to let us know that you know us, that we are loved by you no matter how much we love ourselves or how we value ourselves, no matter how distant we think we are from you. And I pray that we may this day have the faith to reach out to you, to ask you afresh or the for the first time to be our Lord, our Savior and our friend. That we may either begin that journey with you or strengthen that journey with you. But speak to us. Open our hearts, our minds, and our ears as spirits to hear from you this day. We pray this in your mighty and precious name, Jesus. Amen.

This story is uncomfortable for us, and is probably intended to be. We know Jesus is compassionate and not prejudiced but it sounds bad here. Maybe Jesus has more going on here than meets the eye. Maybe Jesus is confronting us more than He is this woman. Do we have what it takes to pass … Continue reading Humility and Faith →

A Sermon for the Third Sunday after Easter St. John 16:16-22 by William Klock On Easter morning we heard St. John's account of the empty tomb.  How Mary Magdalene had come running to the house where he and Peter and the others were hiding.  How she sobbed out that someone had taken Jesus' body.  How he and Peter ran to the tomb as dawn was breaking and how they found it empty, with the linen graveclothes lying there neatly.  And we heard John say that “he believed”.  Somehow…inexplicably…Jesus had risen from the dead.  John believed in the resurrection of the dead.  They all did.  It was their hope.  But it wasn't supposed to happen like this.  Maybe it was fear, maybe it was confusion, maybe he just wanted to be more certain, but he didn't say anything.  They went back to the house where the other disciples were.  They went back into hiding.  Doors locked, windows shuttered, no lights, no fire.  When things blew over, they could sneak out of Jerusalem, slink back to Galilee.  Maybe they could go back to their old lives and everyone would forget that they'd been followers of Jesus. But then the next week we read from John's first epistle.  We read those words: Everything that is fathered by God conquers the world.  This is the victory that conquers the world: our faith!  That doesn't sound like the same John afraid to even tell his friends that he believed Jesus had been raised from death.  And last week we read from Peter's first epistle and he exhorted us to bear patiently with suffering.  Peter went from hiding behind locked doors on Easter to boldly preaching the risen Jesus in the temple court just fifty days later.  He would eventually find himself proclaiming that gospel in Rome itself, where he would be martyred for that holy boldness.  What happened? Brothers and Sisters, hope happened.  Jesus, the risen Messiah, appeared to them in that locked room.  They saw him, resurrected and renewed and yet still the same Jesus with the scars of the cross in his hands and feet.  They saw Jesus risen from the dead.  Not a ghost, not a spirt, but Jesus bodily raised.  It wasn't supposed to happen that way.  It was supposed to be everybody all at once, not just one person even if he was the Messiah.  But there he was, proving the old doctrine of the Pharisees and the Prophets and their fathers true—just not the way they expected.  But even that's not so much what motivated them to leave their hiding places and to proclaim the risen Jesus to the world.  It's what Jesus' resurrection meant.  Because Jesus' resurrection was more than just an astounding miracle.  Jesus' resurrection was the proof that God's new world had been born, that new creation had begun, that the promises he made through the prophets and the hopes of God's people were being fulfilled.  Jesus' resurrection meant that the hopes of God's people were finally becoming reality.  Jesus had kindled God's light in the midst of the darkness and they knew the darkness would never overcome it.  But as they worked this out, they also realised that while Jesus had inaugurated this new creation, it would be they—Peter, John, Mary, the others, you and I—who would carry and announce God's new creation to the world.  Again, this hope, made real, made manifest in the resurrection of Jesus, is what sent the disciples out, not just to announce that God had performed a miracle in raising Jesus, but to announce the God's new creation had been born and that Jesus is its king—and if that proclamation cost them everything, even if it got them killed—they knew that God would raise them and that he would vindicate them, just as he had Jesus. Nothing else changed.  They were hiding in that locked and darkened house because—usually—when the authorities crucified a rebel or a revolutionary, they would also round up and crucify his followers.  As it turned out, it doesn't seem that anyone was seriously interested in doing that to Jesus' disciples.  But they didn't know that.  The real danger came when they went out and began proclaiming the good news about Jesus—as they challenged the false gods and the pretend kings of the darkness with the light of the Lord Jesus, as they confronted this fallen world and its systems with God's new creation.  That's when they were mocked, beaten, arrested, and martyred. Think of Paul.  He was one of the one's breathing threats against Jesus' disciples.  He was there looking on while Stephen was stoned, holding coats so people could better throw stones at him.  And then as Paul was on his way to round up Christians to bring them before the Jewish authorities, he was met by the risen Jesus.  And, again, it wasn't just an amazing miracle that inspired Paul to take up his own cross and to follow Jesus—to follow Jesus and to be beaten, stoned, imprisoned, and eventually murdered for the sake of the gospel.  It was hope.  It was what the resurrection of Jesus meant.  Jesus, risen from the dead, was proof of God's faithfulness and proof that his promises of forgiveness and new life and new creation and of humanity and creation set to rights—everything the Jews (and Paul!) had hoped and longed for—it was proof that it was all true and that it was coming true in Jesus.  The light has come into the darkness and the darkness has not and never will overcome it.  It was proof that if we are in Jesus the Messiah, we have a share in God's new creation and that no amount of suffering and not even death can take that away.  People aren't going to risk their lives to report a miracle.  What drove Peter, John, Paul—and all our brothers and sisters since—what drove them to risk everything to proclaim the good news was the knowledge, the assurance, the hope that through that proclamation God's promised new creation would overcome the darkness, the sadness, the tears—that it would make all the sad things of this broken world come untrue—for them and eventually for everyone who believes.  The kingdom would spread and grow until heaven and earth, God and humanity are at one again. All of this is what Jesus is getting at in our Gospel today from John 16.  It's from the middle of the long teaching that Jesus gave to his disciples when they were in the Garden of Gethsemane, after they ate that last Passover meal with Jesus.  Over and over Jesus exhorts them saying things like, Don't let your hearts be troubled…trust God and trust me, too.  And: I chose you, and I appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last…If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.  If you were from the world, the world would be fond of its own.  But the world hates you because you're not from the world.  No, I chose you out of the world.  And at the beginning of Chapter 16 he says to them: I've said these things to you to stop you from being tripped up.  They will put you out of the synagogues.  In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will suppose that they are in that way offering worship to God…I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you will remember that I told you about them.   I expect the disciples were remembering that part of what Jesus said very well when they were hiding.  “Jesus said they'd come to kill us,” they whispered in the dark.  What they didn't remember—or at least what they didn't understand were the words we read today.  In verse 16 Jesus says: “Not long from now, you won't see me anymore.  Then again, not long after that, you will see me.”   They expected—like pretty much everyone else—that the Messiah would bring some kind of revolt or revolution.  He would overthrow the pagans and take the throne of Israel and, ruling over Israel, he would restore God's people to their rightful place and status in the world.  So it's no wonder that when they heard this, they started murmuring amongst themselves.  John goes on: “What's he talking about?” some of his disciples asked each other.  “What's this business about ‘not long from now, you won't see me, and again not long after that you will see me'?  And what's this about ‘going to the Father'?”   Maybe Jesus was going to finally do what the Messiah was supposed to do.  Maybe he was going to go gather his army and come back to battle the Romans.  John writes: They kept on saying it.  “What is this ‘not long'?”  “What's it all about?”  “We don't know what he means!”  Jesus was doing that thing again where he would say cryptic things or tell a confusing story.  It got their interest and then he could fill them in.  Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, John says. “You're discussing with each other what I meant, aren't you?” he said.  “You want to know what I meant by saying, ‘Not long from now, you won't see me; and then again, not long after that you will see me.'  That's it, isn't it?  Well, I'm going to tell you the solemn truth.”   I can see them all stopping the whispers and leaning forward.  “Yes, Teacher.  Tell us what you mean!”  So Jesus goes on in the silence:  “You will weep and wail, but the world will celebrate.  You will be overcome with sorrow, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”  I can picture the confused looks coming back to their faces.  The Messiah was supposed to make everything all better.  He was supposed to set everything to rights and to wipe away all the tears.  The Messiah was supposed to bring an end to weeping and wailing!  So Jesus gives them an illustration they could understand: “When a woman is giving birth she is in anguish, because her moment has come.  But when the child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering, because of the joy that a human being has been born into the world.”  And then he adds in verse 22: In the same way, you have sorrow now.  But I shall see you again, and your hearts will celebrate, and nobody will take your joy from you.”   Even with the childbirth illustration, it was still pretty cryptic.  Even with what follows—which we'll come to in our Gospel for Rogation Sunday in two more weeks—even with that, the disciples really didn't understand—yet.  It was all there in the Prophets and it was all there in the things Jesus had been teaching.  The son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the legal experts.  He must be killed and raised up on the third day,” Jesus had said at one point.  It doesn't get much clearer than that.  And yet the events of that first Good Friday and Easter Day came as a complete surprise to them.  But then when they met the risen Jesus it all started to come back to them and it started to fall into place.  The wheels started turning.  Mental light bulbs started turning on.  The one thing left that they needed was the Holy Spirit—but I don't want to get ahead of the story.  We're still in that fifty days between Easter and Pentecost. And I think those fifty days must have been some of the most exciting days in the history of the world.  The disciples sat with Jesus—risen and glorified, the first bit of God's new creation real and tangible and true right there with them—and he taught them.  He went back over the scriptures—no doubt saying things he'd said a hundred times before—but now, in light of the resurrection, it all started to make sense.  And I can imagine their excitement growing between being there with Jesus in all his resurrected glory and as they connected the scriptural dots and as they saw how the story they had grown up with, the story they lived every year at Passover, the story that defined who they were, the story they knew so, so, so well began to unfold in a new way.  They'd always known it was a great story about the mighty and saving deeds of the Lord, but over those forty days in the presence of Jesus and hearing him teach and explain the story turned into something more glorious than they ever could have imagined.  The God they'd known became so much bigger and more glorious than they ever thought he could be.  And then it was time for Jesus to ascend and he had to tell them, “Wait.”  They were ready and eager and excited to go out into Jerusalem and Judea to start telling everyone the story—the story everyone knew, but now seen in a new and glorious light through the lens of Jesus' resurrection—and about this new hope they knew.  God's new creation had finally come and they'd spent the last forty days living in his presence.  But Jesus said, “Wait.  Your excitement about what God has done is only part of what you need.  Wait.  Just a little bit—ten more days—so I can send God's Spirit.  Couple this good news with the power of the Spirit and not even the gates of hell will stop you!” And, Lord knows, the gates of hell have tried, but the gates of hell had already done their worst at the cross, and Jesus rose victorious.  And that's how and that's why those first disciples took up their crosses and followed Jesus.  Peter was crucified at Rome, Andrew was crucified in Greece, Thomas was speared by soldiers in India, Philip was martyred at Carthage, Matthew was martyred in Ethiopia, Bartholomew in Armenia, James was stoned to death in Jerusalem, Simon was martyred in Persia, and Matthias in Syria.  Only John survived, after being exiled to Patmos.  You see, in the risen Jesus they saw the proof that sin and death have been decisively defeated, that the false gods and kings of the old evil age have been exposed, and most of all they saw that God's promised and long-hoped for new creation has been born.  The resurrection gave them hope and that hope sent them out to proclaim the good news even though it meant following in the suffering of Jesus.  And their stories have been the stories of countless Christians through the ages—of the Christians who died in the Roman persecutions, who died at the hands of the Sassanids, the Goths, the Vikings, the Caliphs, the Turks, the Kahns, the French revolutionaries, the Communists, the Islamists.  It's been the stories of countless missionaries who marched into hostile territory for the sake of the gospel, knowing they very well might die for it, but also knowing that the way of the cross is the path into God's new creation. Brothers and Sisters, too often these days we've lost sight of this.  Maybe it's the prosperity gospel, maybe it's that we haven't known any meaningful persecution for so long, but we Christians in the modern west seem to have forgotten this.  There's no room for suffering and the way of the cross in our theology.  We gloss over what look like “failures” in church history.  I was listening to a sermon this past week.  The preacher was telling the story of a missionary named Peter Milne.  Milne was a Scottish minister and part of a group that called themselves “one-way” missionaries.  When they shipped out to far off lands to proclaim the gospel, they packed their worldly goods in a coffin.  It was symbolic.  They were going out as missionaries with no expectation of ever returning home.  They would die—one way or another—in the land they went to evangelise.  Peter Milne went to the New Hebrides in the South Pacific.  It was a land of head-hunting cannibals.  Milne wasn't the first to go.  Others had gone before and were killed by the natives.  Milne was the first to go and to survive and to have a thriving gospel ministry.  When he died fifty-some years later in 1924, he was buried in his coffin with the epitaph: “When he came, there was no light.  When he left, there was no darkness.”  When he'd arrived there wasn't a single Christian on the island.  When he died, there wasn't a single person who wasn't a Christian. But here's the thing—and the preacher I was listening to completely missed it: Following Jesus means first taking up a cross.  It's not about the glory of “successful” ministry.  It's about dying to self, and living for the hope of God's glory and the spread of his kingdom.  The preacher I listened to said nothing of the others who had gone before Milne to the New Hebrides and been martyred.  They don't fit in with our prosperity and business model theology.  We admire their willingness to give their lives for the sake of the gospel, but they sort of get chalked up as failures.  But to do that is to miss what it means to follow Jesus, to know the pangs of childbirth, but to also experience the joy that makes the pain and the sorrow pale in comparison. As Tertullian said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, but so are all the other good-faith “failures”.  There was a week when we were church-planting in Portland that I found myself all alone.  Veronica's mom was sick and she and Alexandra had travelled up to Kelowna.  The other family that was helping us to get things off the ground had to be away that weekend.  It was just me.  But The Oregonian newspaper had just run a story on us.  I'd had several contacts that week.  The show had to go on.  We were meeting at a Lutheran Church on Sunday evenings, so I asked the pastor there if one of their organists could come and play that evening.  She came and she and I sat there waiting.  And 7pm came and went.  And 7:05, and 7:15 and we knew no one was coming.  I was discouraged and it was obvious.  She and I said Evening Prayer together and then she told me her story.  She and her husband, a pastor, had been Lutheran church planters in Jamaica for almost ten years.  They had a very small group that had asked them to come to help them plant a church and for ten years they tried and nothing ever happened.  When they finally decided to quit there were no more people than when they started.  She said that she and her husband found the whole thing utterly discouraging.  They had made significant sacrifices to be there and nothing had happened.  It was tempting to be angry with God.  They returned home thinking they were failures and wondering why.  They'd been faithful in proclaiming Jesus.  They'd spent hours every week in prayer with that little group of people.  And then several years later they received a letter.  It was from a pastor in Kingston.  Not long after they'd left, he'd arrived to plant a church.  His group moved into the building left behind by the Lutherans and quickly began to grow and thrive.  And he wrote to thank them.  “You soaked this place in prayer and you cast gospel seed all through the neighbourhood,” he wrote.  He didn't know why it never grew for them, but he knew they'd been faithful and he was now reaping a harvest he hadn't planted and he wanted to thank them for their faithfulness.  That elderly Lutheran organist told me that story with tears in her eyes and said, “Be faithful and don't be discouraged.  Whatever happens, if you are faithful, the Lord is at work.  Some of us plant, some of us water, some of us reap, but it's all the Lord's work.”  She reminded me of the hope that lies before me—and that lies before all of us—and that Jesus doesn't just call us to follow him; he first calls us to take up our crosses.  Just it was necessary for Jesus to give his life that he might be raised from death, so must we die to ourselves that we might live.  Brothers and Sisters, fix your eyes on Jesus.  He knew the joy that was set before him and so he endured the cross.  He scorned its shame.  And because of that the Father raised him from the dead and has seated him at his right hand.  His kingdom has been born.  Now the joy of the kingdom, of new creation, of God's life is before us.  May it be the reason that we take up our crosses and follow our Lord. Let's pray: Gracious Father, as we come to your Table this morning, give us a taste of your great kingdom feast; let us see Jesus, risen from the dead; and make us especially aware of your indwelling Spirit that we might be filled with the joy of your salvation and the joy of your new creation.  Strengthen us with joy, so that we will not fear to take up our crosses and follow Jesus.  Amen.

Daily Dose of Hope May 5, 2025 Day 1 of Week 6   Scripture - Mark 12:35-44   Prayer:  Lord, We come before you on this Monday as we start a new week, and we pray for you to speak to us.  We need you.  We need a new word from you.  We need your guidance, your wisdom, your help.  Help us set aside the distractions of our day, our many scattered thoughts, and focus on you.  During these next few moments of silence, Jesus, help us remember that we belong to you...In Your Name, Amen.   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, a Deep Dive into the Gospels and Acts.  We are finishing Mark 12 today.  We will learn more about what it means to be the Messiah, as well as how different God's economy is from the economy of the world.  Let's get started!   The first part of the text is a little puzzling.  What is Jesus speaking of here?  Whose son is the Messiah?  The scribes and the Jewish leaders knew that the Messiah would be a son of David.  They thought he would be a human descendant of David, someone who would come to save them from the Romans with strength and military might.  Again, they are purely thinking in human terms.    But when Jesus quotes from Psalm 110, he is showing that the Messiah would be more than simply a son of David.  The Psalm calls the Messiah, “my Lord.”  In Jewish thought, a descendant of someone could never be also the Lord of that person.  Jesus is saying, if the scribes agree that Psalm 110 is talking about the Messiah, how then could David call his son his Lord?   Essentially, Jesus is telling the scribes and Jewish leaders that the Messiah would be greater than they thought, greater than simply a human leader who would come to defeat the Romans. He is wanting them to stretch their thinking and begin to consider that the Messiah may come in a totally different form than they are expecting.  Remember, at this time, even the disciples still have a narrow view of Messiah.    Think about Friday's Scripture from earlier in Mark 12.  Jesus had a conversation with a particular scribe/teacher of the law.  When Jesus tells him that the greatest commandment is to love God with his own heart and mind and to love his neighbor as himself, he tells Jesus that he has taught truth and answered well.  This scribe seems open to what Jesus is teaching, possibly open to changing his ways of thinking.   It's on the tail end of this discussion that Jesus brings up the “whose son is the Messiah” topic.  Jesus gives everyone who is listening, including this one scribe, enough information to stretch their thinking about Messiah and possibly get them to consider changing their minds.  This scribe is open to Jesus and Jesus sees that.  He wants to offer him another piece of the puzzle.  He wants to see if he will consider new information about the Messiah and possibly be open to true belief in Jesus.  We don't know what this scribe does with the information.  Did he come to believe in Jesus as Messiah and Lord?  Does he come to accept faith in Jesus Christ?    But it got me thinking.  When someone is open to new information about Jesus, are we open to sharing more?  Are we paying attention?    The second part of the text is pretty harsh.  Jesus is still speaking of the teachers of the law and scribes but this time it's a warning.  He speaks of how they seek the best seats in the synagogue, they wear flowing robes (that clearly identify who they are), and they pray obnoxiously long prayers.  But it's all insincere.  It's all for show.  Really, their hearts are far from God as they “devour widows' homes.”  What does this mean?  It's possible that the scribes find ways to take the widows' homes, either legitimately or illegitimately.  Or, it could be that traveling scribes used up the few resources that widows had in their possession.  Basically, they are without mercy.  They take advantage of the vulnerable in order to serve their own selfish needs.  We have already learned that whoever wants to be first must be last, but these teachers of the law have things totally upside down.  Jesus is clear that they will be punished for their lack of compassion.    While we hopefully don't have hearts that devour widows' houses, we definitely need to look at our own lives here.  What is our motivation for giving?  Do we want our names on a donors' plaque?  Is recognition important?  And most importantly, are we demonstrating true compassion for the poor?    Mark is telling this story to provide a stark contrast with the next portion of the text.  This is what we typically call the “widow's mite” story. The widow, who is desperately poor, gives all she has.  And Jesus holds her up as an example, saying she has given so much more than those who have much and give a fair amount.  Does this mean we should give everything we have to the Kingdom?  Maybe, I don't really know.  It's definitely challenging.    What we can discern is that the things valued in the Kingdom of God differ from the human realm.  Should we give our money to buy a new A/C unit for the church?  Should we give to a new roof?  I mean, those things are necessary for sure.  Are they valued in the Kingdom?  Or should we give the money to a homeless shelter?  How do we make these decisions?  How do we know what Jesus is calling us to do?  It's clear that he expects giving to be sacrificial.    Here is something even more challenging.  In our world, time is money.  Maybe Jesus is calling us to give our time in a sacrificial way.  What does that look like?  Sometimes, its actually easy to write a check but what if Jesus is calling us to give of our time in a way that is really hard?  What would that look like?   There is a lot to think about and pray about today.  Spend some time with Jesus before you end your devotional time.  How is he speaking to YOU personally about sacrificial giving?   Blessings, Pastor Vicki          

Jesus said to her, “Mary.” — John 20:16 On the morning of Jesus' resurrection, Mary Magdalene went to visit his tomb early—and when she saw the stone rolled away, she quickly went to tell Jesus' disciples. They came and saw and then returned to where they were staying. But Mary couldn't leave. She was overcome with sorrow about Jesus' death and couldn't imagine life without him. So she lingered in the garden and wept. Through her tears she saw two angels in the tomb. She explained why she was crying, and then she turned around and saw Jesus there but didn't recognize him. It's hard to know why she didn't recognize him. Maybe her vision was clouded by tears. Maybe Jesus' resurrected body was somehow different. Whatever the reason, she mistook him for the gardener and asked where Jesus' body had been taken. And Jesus simply called her by name: “Mary.” How often do we encounter Jesus and not recognize him? Maybe we are talking with a person in need. Maybe someone is calling us to repentance. Maybe someone is showing us kindness or grace. Or maybe Jesus is present in a random event. Maybe our vision is clouded by busyness or worry, fear, or inattention. But then Jesus, who knows everything about us, gets our attention, and we immediately know he is there. We can tell that he loves us and is always with us. We know that his grace is for us, and that he calls us to follow him in everything we do. Jesus, thank you for knowing us and calling us to enjoy new life with you. Amen.

From Luke 11:37 to the end of the chapter Jesus is dealingwith the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, scribes, and the lawyers (who were supposedto be the experts in interpreting the Law of Moses). At this stage in Christ'sministry, it is obvious that the Pharisees and religious leaders were bent ondestroying Him. In the previous verses (vv. 33-36), Jesus was exposing thedarkness of their hearts. Their hearts were so dark that they refused to acceptthe very Light of God that was in their midst.  It is reasonable to believe that this “certain Pharisee”invited Jesus to his home for a meal with a devious motive. If he had beensincerely seeking truth, he would have talked with our Lord privately. It seemsobvious that he was looking for an opportunity to accuse Jesus. And sure enough,when Jesus did not practice the ceremonial washing before eating, he thought hehad it (Mark 7:2-3). Jesus, knowing what the host was thinking, responded bygiving a "spiritual analysis" of the Pharisees. A good title for today's chat would be “Truth or Tradition”.You might remember years ago that there was a popular television program called“Truth or Consequences”, hosted by Bob Barker. Jesus exposed the darkness oftheir hearts with the truth. If you want to know or recognize what a lie is,you must know what the truth is. I'm convinced the main reason we have majorissues in so many areas of culture and society today in America is that very fewpeople have any idea what the truth is anymore.  The truth is only found in a Person, Jesus Christ, and HisWord  (John 14:6). When we ignorant ofthe Truth or we reject it after we are exposed to it, we have no choice but tobelieve the lie. That is why Jesus said to the Pharisees and religious leadersin John 8:44-47: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of yourfather you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not standin the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaksfrom his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because Itell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And ifI tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God'swords; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God." It is interesting to note that in the above passage the Phariseeresponded to this stinging rebuke by saying: “Then the Jews answered andsaid to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have ademon?"  (John 8:48). This is whatalways happens when truth is rejected. Maybe Jesus had this verse from Isaiah5:20 in mind when He was exposing these Pharisees: “Woe to those who callevil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” In verses 39-40, Jesus exposed the basic error and thinkingof the Pharisees which was that righteousness was only a matter of externalactions, and they minimized internal attitudes. They were very careful to keepthe outside clean, but they ignored the wickedness within. They seemed toforget that the same God who created the outside also created the inside, the"inner person" that also needs cleansing (Ps. 51:6, 10). Jesus called them, “foolish ones”, another way of saying “senselessones”. They lost their sense, their ability to reason in a sensible way. Today,in many of our churches we have done the same thing when we chose our traditionover the Truth of God's Word. I'm afraid many of our churches today are full ofhypocritical Pharisees, and often the biggest ones are the pastors and leaders.They refuse to make any changes in their methods or music to reach a lost worldbecause of their old “traditions”. They are afraid that grandpa and grandma whoare buried in the cemetery behind the church will get upset!  Today, I trust we will choose Jesus over our manmadetraditions and share His love with everyone we can! God bless!

Daily Dose of Hope February 23-24, 2025 Days 1 & 2 of Week 48   Scripture:  Zechariah 9-14; Psalm 94; 1 John 5; 2 John 1   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope daily reading plan.  I have to apologize that I didn't send a devotional yesterday.  With the women's conference, I totally forgot!  Please forgive me.  I am combining yesterday and today's Scripture for today's devotional.   Let's start with Zechariah.  The rest of the book is very different from what we have already read.  We get to see images and allusions that describe the coming of the Messianic Kingdom.  In chapters 9 and 10, we read about the coming of the Messianic king who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.  Does this remind anyone of anything?  Maybe Jesus riding into Jerusalem in the Palm Sunday passage?  But in chapter 11, this king is now represented by a shepherd who is caring for his flock and he is rejected.  He is first rejected by his people and then by the leaders.  And the price that he is worth?  Thirty pieces of silver.  Again, we see these themes that are echoed in Jesus' betrayal story.   In chapters 12-14, we see images and themes related to the future Kingdom again.  But they are a bit different.  It's obvious that God is going to confront evil and defeat it.  How does he address his own people?  Well, he pours out his Spirit on them so they can repent and realize the errors of their ways.  Then, we see a gathering of the nations in the new Jerusalem and we get a picture of the River of Life flowing out of the Temple, bringing healing and restoration to all of creation.    Zechariah is a lot.  There is a lot of symbolism and deep imagery.  What are some of your thoughts?  What were your big takeaways from this book?   Let's head over to the New Testament.  We start with I John 5.  At the end of John's first letter, he continues to focus on what it means to love God. God is love and all he does is out of love. When we love him, our mission is to follow his commands AND demonstrate his love to others. In fact, loving God and others cannot be separated. John continues to weave this theme through every chapter of the letter.   I want to especially focus on one verse today.  Take a moment and read verse 15 again...brief but very important. Why is John writing this letter? To lead people to faith in Jesus and the assurance of eternal life. Let's look at the wording again, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” That is John's mission statement. He is all about pointing people to a closer, deeper relationship with Jesus, one in which they are assured of eternal life, SO THAT they can do the same for others. What's your mission statement? I feel like, as a whole, Christ-followers have experienced mission drift. We have focused on battling culture (a losing battle) rather than leading people to Jesus. You may disagree with me and that's okay. I've really done a lot of reflecting lately on my own mission. My mission is to demonstrate the love of Christ in all I do, teach the truths of the faith, and point people to Jesus. Take some time today and write your mission statement. What do you need to do in life to get in alignment with your mission?   We also are looking at 2 John.  John's second letter is the second shortest book in the New Testament. John clearly wants to encourage his followers and motivate them to action. He wants them to love each other, walk closely with the Lord, and avoid false teachers. This book and 3 John are the only books in which John refers to himself as the elder. This connotates his position in the community and his relationship to the listeners.   By this point, he was older but the term itself most likely points to his authority in the church. Interestingly, the recipient of the letter is “the chosen lady and her children.” This wording has led to all kinds of discussion in the scholarly literature. Is this a specific woman John is referring to? Most likely, no. John is probably referring to a local church and its members. The term “chosen lady” would have been one of respect and admiration.   This chapter gets to the core of John's message to the church. First, love one another. What does love look like? When we walk in obedience to God's commands, when we live in truth and do what God called us to do. Two words for today: LOVE and TRUTH. We love God when we obey him and live his truth in meaningful ways. Part of this obedience is loving others. Love of God and love of others cannot be separated. They are intricately linked. Over and over again, John is making this point. How are you living God's truth? How are you loving others? This is not an either/or proposition. It's a both/and command. This is hard stuff, my friends.    Blessings, Pastor Vicki    

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. (Hebrews 11:32-35a). As Jericho's walls fell, the first period of Israel's history closes. Its time to speed up the story. Our author rattles off a few prominent names of judges, kings, and prophets, recalling what faith both produced and suffered. He wants us to see that under and behind and within all the outward events recorded, there lived faith in God. History is the record of what God has done through and for those who trusted Him. Notice how much faith accomplished: kingdoms conquered, justice established, lions quieted, flames stilled, swords sheathed. See also that among those mentioned in these verses, few are remembered for their strong faith. Their faith was faltering and feeble. Maybe Jesus was thinking of them when he told his disciples that with faith the size of a mustard seed, they could move mountains. Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah were hardly shining examples of godly folk. Yet, they make the list. How encouraging for us who have a faltering faith. We see that God does not promise the faithful a life free from difficulty and danger. Rather, faith is called into exercise when human resources are exhausted and danger looms. We would never learn to know either God or ourselves as His children through a life of ease. Trials can accomplish two things. They give us the opportunity of honouring God by waiting for him in trust and they give God the opportunity of showing how faithful He is in watching over His children, working for and in us. In difficult times our hearts are drawn towards our heavenly father, in dependence and humility and trust. When we face hardship God can reveal in our open heart all the tenderness and all the saving power of His love. Suffering is the school of faith; it is the place where Christians grow spiritually. It is also true that selfishness is the death of faith. When we seek to be strong in faith, for the sake of our own comfort and goodness and power, we will fail. Gideon and Barak, David and Samuel, were all people who lived for their nation and God's cause in it. They were God's chosen instruments for doing His redeeming work in His people. Likewise, when in our weakness, we give ourselves to God and others, we have the right to claim God's mighty help. Faith is not so that we can reap benefits for ourselves from God. Rather, it is for the advancement of Christ's kingdom and the building up of his church. What a work there is to be done! Our involvement in God's church, in his mission beyond it, in our fight against injustice in society and the workplace, in promoting the welfare of all in our schools and public spaces, in our struggle against sin in our own hearts, faith is needed. In all those places and more, weak Christians become heroes of faith as we learn to trust in God to subdue kingdoms, to work righteousness, to obtain promises! Let us offer ourselves to God for the struggle. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

As entrepreneurs, we have the ability to make a difference in the world and in those we serve by aligning our  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth expert Jason Hull sits down with Ryan Pineda, real estate investing expert and author of The Wealthy Way to talk about real estate, business, and faith. You'll Learn [01:34] Getting Started in Entrepreneurship [08:07] Faith and Business [17:16] Having Impact as a Business Owner [29:50] You are What You Consume [45:35] Don't Wait to do the Work Tweetables  ”There's no more efficient business model for positively changing the world than business.” “ When you start becoming process-driven more than results-driven, your life changes.” “ We should expect things to be hard and worth it.” “ You are what you consume in all areas of life.” Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive TalkRoute Referral Link Transcript [00:00:00] Jason: There's so much wisdom in there and if you can at least just be willing to extract wisdom wherever you can find it, then you're not an idiot And so at least start there, everybody listening, just look for wisdom, be a seeker of wisdom and look for the things that are better and higher.  [00:00:16] Welcome DoorGrow property managers to the DoorGrow show. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you are interested in growing in business and life, and you're open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow property manager. [00:00:34] DoorGrow property managers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate, high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. [00:00:54] At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I'm your host, property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. [00:01:13] Now let's get into the show.  [00:01:17] So my guest today, I am honored to hang out with Ryan Pineda. Ryan, welcome to the show.  [00:01:22] Ryan: Hey, happy to be here. Good to see you.  [00:01:25] Jason: So Ryan, I'd love to kick things off by getting into your background of how you kind of got into this journey of entrepreneurship. But before we do that, your company's called Wealthy Investor, right? [00:01:36] Yep. And you've worked with a lot of real estate investors. My target audience listening to the show are usually the vehicle or the support mechanism for a lot of investors. I think the audience would be interested in hearing a little bit about how you got kind of started into entrepreneurism first of all, and then maybe how you got into real estate. [00:01:57] Ryan: Yeah, I'll give the quick story. You know, I never wanted to get into real estate or entrepreneurship. I was a baseball player growing up and that was all I wanted to do. I was grateful and thankful that I was able to actually do that. You know, I ended up getting drafted by the Oakland A's and got to play professional baseball for eight years. [00:02:15] But, I didn't get paid much in the minor leagues. I never made it to the bigs. I was making 1200 bucks a month. And so I had to make money elsewhere. And that's what led me in entrepreneurship. You know, I got my real estate license in 2010. Yep. And, you know, so I've been in the game for about 15 years now. [00:02:32] And, you know, I've seen a lot. You know, started as an agent and hated it. My mom was actually a property manager. I didn't tell you that. So, I watched her do that for a little bit while being an agent as well. So she was an agent herself, but you know, watching her, I had no desire to be an agent or do anything in real estate because when I got in in 2010, she had just lost everything. [00:02:53] You know, and she's like, you need to get like a safe job. You need to get something that has a salary and a pension. That was literally her advice. Well, and I was like, yeah, maybe, I don't know. Hopefully this baseball thing works out. But while I'm playing, I can't get that. So I'm going to have to do something. [00:03:11] So anyways, I become an agent. Hate it. Do it for a few years. Ended up getting into other weird things. I started flipping couches. I was a substitute teacher. I was just doing anything that could make a buck on the side. And then eventually that led to flipping houses in 2015. [00:03:27] And that was when I, for the first time, started to make some real money. And yeah, I mean, by my third year, I had made, you know, I became a millionaire after year three, flipping houses. And it was just like, wow, this is crazy. And since then I flipped, you know, I think almost 600, 700 homes. And. You know, I've bought rentals. [00:03:47] I own apartment buildings through our syndication. You know, we've coached people, like you said, with wealthy investor. We've coached thousands of students and held really big events. You know, I've started another subsidiary businesses for real estate investors. You know, we have a lead generation company called Lead Kitchen where we help them get leads for sellers. [00:04:05] We have, you know, I had a tax firm, you know, I've kind of done almost everything you can imagine in the real estate world, but  [00:04:10] Jason: Yeah, that's a lot. So I'm curious you said your mom was a property manager and she gave you the advice It was kind of like maybe steer clear of this stuff. [00:04:19] What does your mom think now about everything?  [00:04:22] Ryan: You know what? She's still always hyper cautious so, you know, I retired my parents in 2019 I bought him a house bought him all the cars and everything and my dad actually started working for me in 2018 as a project manager. So he would oversee a lot of our flips and even to this day, he still does it. [00:04:42] Not cause he has to, because he's just like, well, if you're going to, you know, pay for us, I might as well like earn it, you know, and he just wants to support and whatever. So, You know, my dad understands the game. My mom though, obviously she's seen the results, but she's still always hyper cautious. [00:04:57] And so, she doesn't think I need to get a job now, but she does think a lot of times the big risk I take, I shouldn't be taking.  [00:05:05] Jason: Yeah. Looking back, when do you see in hindsight that there were clues that you were maybe destined to be an entrepreneur? Maybe even doing baseball. [00:05:16] Ryan: Yeah. I look back in hindsight, even as a kid and I was always buying and selling and thinking about money. Like I started an eBay account when I was like 12 years old. I remember. You know, buying stuff and bidding on stuff and getting good deals on eBay. And then I remember I was selling Pokemon cards and Yu Gi Oh cards, you know, in middle school and stuff. [00:05:37] And it's just like, You know, the signs were always there. And then even I was always attracted to just making money myself. So like I was good at poker, you know, I won poker tournaments and I played online and I made money that way. And so in hindsight, it was always very clear. I was never going to have a job. [00:05:53] Really the only true job I ever had was playing baseball. And even then it's like, yeah, there's not really a way to be an entrepreneur. I mean, you kind of are you're in charge of your career and how well you want to do and like how well you want to train and. And so, yeah, even in that sense, baseball is kind of in that same vein. [00:06:12] Jason: Yeah. So I'm sure even to get as far as you got in baseball, there was a lot of drive involved and a lot of effort involved, even though there wasn't a lot of pay, it sounds like.  [00:06:25] Ryan: Yeah, I think yeah, for me, like, I had to learn how to like win, you know, at the end of the day, losing is not an option, right? [00:06:33] It's a zero sum game in sports. One person wins, one person loses, you know, for the pitcher to succeed, you must get out. And so, dude, I'm like, I'm going to just figure out how to win. I'm competitive. And so I think competitiveness has always fueled me. It's different in business now because I understand the games that we play. [00:06:52] It's like, you know, We both can have good podcasts. We both can win in business. You don't need to lose for me to win. But that doesn't mean I'm still not competitive.  [00:07:00] Jason: Sure. Yeah. I'm sure in the different industries that you have businesses that you focus on, you have competitors and you probably want to win. [00:07:09] Ryan: I don't want to lose.  [00:07:11] Jason: Right. I want to be the best. I think that's true of most entrepreneurs. There's this drive or, this bite to win. You know, I remember early on, I think some of my first clues as to that I might be an entrepreneur is I was into music. And I remember in college, I was going around door to door pre selling CDs so that I could fund doing an album. [00:07:31] And yet I still at the time was thinking I've got to get a degree to get some sort of job to rise the corporate ladder. And I had no clue that entrepreneurism was like a path at the time. So it's interesting and Entrepreneurism sort of found me In that I needed a way to not be doing a nine to five job to be able to take care of kids because I ended up as a single father right and divorced and like went through all this stuff. [00:07:57] And so I was like, all right, what can I do? And so I sometimes joke that my kids turned me into an entrepreneur. It was just what needed to be done, but there were always clues before, right? So you know, one of the things that you've talked about a lot, I've noticed on your social media, on podcasts is you're very faith forward. [00:08:15] Like you're very comfortable talking about your faith and like the things that kind of motivate you and drive you. And you're involved in some charitable sort of, you know, businesses or charitable entities or organizations as well. How does faith sort of play into all of this when it comes to business for you? [00:08:33] Ryan: Well, you know, I grew up in the church. So, you know, for those who don't know, I'm a Christian. And you know, I grew up in a baptist church and you know, faith was always a part of my life. And I felt like for the most part, I did things the way God wanted me to. You know, I didn't really rebel and go crazy in college, got married young. [00:08:51] You know, I've always tried to put God first and everything. And You know, I think in the last couple of years, God was just pushing me to get even more deep in faith and more bold and to really embrace the spiritual and supernatural side of faith because I was always a very theologically sound person. [00:09:11] And you know, I've read the Bible many times, and, you know, I spent a lot of time, like I said, in church and serving and other things, but you just realize in everything in life, especially with faith, that there's so little that you actually know, and you know, as I've grown in my faith, I've learned to hear from God better. [00:09:29] And tune out all the noise of everything else going out in life, right? I mean, there's so many distractions in life. There's your business, there's social media, there's your kids, your family, you know, the recession, the election, it's like distraction. I think that's Satan's biggest, yeah, that's Satan's biggest tool is to distract you from the truth. [00:09:49] And so the truth was God wanted me to get more bold and to really use my platform for him, not for me. And, you know, with that, I became convicted to just really go all in because I mean, one thing I guess people would notice about my career too, is like, there's no really lukewarmness, you know, when I go all in on something. [00:10:09] It's like, yo, if we're going to throw an event, it's going to be crazy. If we're going to start this, we're going on a blitz. And so I said, you know what, we need to start something for Christian entrepreneurs and Christian business people. And so, you know, I created Wealthy Kingdom last year and you know, we're a nonprofit and, you know, we have three goals. [00:10:27] Well, I shouldn't say three goals. The one goal, the mission is to bring the kingdom to the marketplace. And what I mean by that is so many entrepreneurs just think it's the church's job to, you know, go get people saved and to go disciple people. And it's like, yeah, you know, just invite them to church on Sunday. [00:10:44] It's like, no, our job, every Christian has this goal or mission. You know, Jesus tells us right before he left, he said that the mission here is you need to go make disciples of all nations. We all have that same mission. And it's like, it's not to make the most money. It's not to do the thing that you love. [00:11:05] Like, Jesus never said do the thing that you love. Like that's another big lie that, you know, people have been told.  [00:11:12] Jason: Jesus didn't even do what he loved necessarily. Like to a degree, he said, I don't even do my own will. Yeah. He does the will of him who sent me. Right. He's like, I'm not even doing my own will. [00:11:22] And so if that's a model, then maybe it's not about just selfishly doing our own will all the time.  [00:11:29] Ryan: Absolutely should not. Our will, as we grow should be more aligned with the father's will. And that's what sanctification is. So anyways, to, to long story short. God called us to go be disciples where we're at. [00:11:42] We don't like, we need to go make disciples of all nations right now. That's in our job, in our career, in our business, at an event, whatever. And so I took that to heart. So we started you know, looking at everything that we currently do. And we said, well, let's do it for the King. And so I said, all right, well, let's get a kingdom based community. [00:12:01] And so, you know, we started an online community because that's something we currently do in business. It's like, well, let's get one kingdom based. And so we have that it's completely free. Anyone can join it. Then I said, let's throw events. We throw a lot of events. Why are we not throwing kingdom events? [00:12:14] And so we started throwing big events for the kingdom. And in fact, in my secular events, I just started throwing worship services and pastors in the middle of the event without even telling anyone. Because I'm like, look, this might be the only time they ever hear the good news in their entire life. [00:12:31] And, you know, whatever they might like it, they might not like it, but I don't really care. They need to hear it. And so we started incorporating faith into our events. You know, and then the last thing was really just discipling the current believers because I'm all about the lost. I want to get the lost at the events. [00:12:50] With our content, with our community, but also too, what about the people who are already saved? Well, we need to disciple them and make them better. And so we started running Bible studies all across the country. And I think we're close to a hundred, actually across the world right now, that meet every single week in people's offices, in their homes. [00:13:07] And we all go through the same studies together in these Bible studies, across as a body. And it's really cool. So, yeah, we're trying to attack it from a lot of different angles.  [00:13:18] Jason: It's a lot to organize.  [00:13:20] Ryan: Oh, yeah. But here's the thing, right? It's weird because I just said, Hey, don't do your will. Do God's will. [00:13:26] Right. But on the same hand, God gave us all talents, abilities and different life experiences. And so, you know, he calls us to use those to do his will and it's like all right god gave me a lot of influence online. Why am I not making videos and content, you know helping people understand what that means? [00:13:47] God gave me the ability to throw massive events. We threw wealth con every quarter a thousand plus people every quarter for years. Why am I not throwing massive events for the kingdom? God gave me the ability to organize communities and groups and all these things. Why am I not organizing and using my administrative gifts to do that? And it's like it's all the same thing, and they're all the same gifts and they're all the same skill sets, but on one hand you're putting him first and on the other hand you're putting yourself first  [00:14:16] Jason: Yeah, I love the idea of you know positively impacting the world I think business a lot of people don't realize I think business really there's no more efficient business model for positively changing the world than business, right? [00:14:31] I don't think charities don't function as well like businesses. There's an exchange of value And if there's value like behind it and there's a mission and a purpose behind it Then even the team members the employees everybody Are more lit up and excited and so business is a very efficient business model and you know, one of my past mentors, Alex Charfen, and he would say something to the effect of like entrepreneurs are the people that have changed the world throughout history. [00:14:57] They're the people that kind of think differently. And you know, you mentioned the word disciple like several times and I love the scripture where it's like, how do you know who's a disciple, right? And it's by this shall men know, right? You're my disciple. If you have loved one towards another and I think you know this spreading this message of like sharing true principles Which I think is what makes scripture, right? [00:15:20] It's that there's true principles that can be applied to things that are useful and I think a really good business book will have maybe one key principle it teaches, but then you take a book like the bible and it's just full of lots of different instances of principles that these levers that you can apply to various situations in your life or in decision making. [00:15:39] And you know, that's always been sort of my purpose, I feel is to bring principles to people and to share principles of truth to others, because I feel like that's the easiest lever to impact people's mindset or change their lives is to bring some truth or light or some true principles that they can apply, especially if it's facilitating more love or more kindness. [00:16:01] And there's so many different things different principles that apply in business in order to figure things out like related hiring related to you know running an efficient business  [00:16:11] Ryan: How do you know like a non profit is a business right? I mean, it's a non profit.  [00:16:15] Jason: Yeah, it is. It is a business. Yeah. [00:16:17] Ryan: A church is a business technically based on its designation, Wealthy Kingdom is a business. [00:16:22] It's a nonprofit, right? I mean, in many cases, well, I shouldn't say this because every nonprofit's different, but like for me, I make literally nothing from it. You know, I do it out of a, you know, I just want to do it. Now we have employees, we have staff, we have marketing, we have event costs, we got to pay for all this stuff. [00:16:38] Right. And so we got to figure out, man, how do we use the resources we have in the best way possible? Well, it's the same thing we ask ourself every day in business. We have a limited amount of labor, a limited amount of capital, a limited amount of time. What do we do, you know, to make the most of it? So it's all the same. [00:16:57] And I think too, right, you don't even have to have a nonprofit for this to be the example, right? This is just simply the idea of stewardship. You know, God talks a lot about stewardship and it's like, well. I've given y'all different varying degrees of talent. I've put y'all in different places. Y'all are going to be judged accordingly based on how you used your talent. [00:17:16] And I think that, well, I know that 1, 000, and a lot of Christians don't realize this. A lot of Christians, so, for all the Christians on the show, this is going to hopefully convict you, okay? A lot of people think that when you get saved, that's the end of the journey. Yeah, when literally that is like they've arrived they're done. [00:17:39] You just started! Great! [00:17:41] Jason: Yeah.  [00:17:41] Ryan: Now guess what you your whole rest of your life now actually begins and so many people like, God tells us that hey, guess what? Once you're saved, you know, there's a new judgment now. Because before it was like, all right, what happens in eternity, right? You're going to be in heaven. [00:17:58] You're going to be in hell. That's like the salvation question, but then there's this next question about judgment and stewardship and what you did with what he gave you because Somebody like myself and you will be judged more harshly than other christians and people are like, what does that mean? [00:18:18] Well, it means that if he gave you more resource and he even says if you're a teacher and you cause other people to stumble, you are going to be judged significantly more harshly than others. And so I take that super serious because I'm like, all right, yeah, I'm saved. I'm not worried about that, but man, I better do everything in my power to be a great steward and to understand if I have influence and I'm teaching people, I know exactly what I'm saying. [00:18:44] Jason: Yeah, it's much like the Parable of the Talents, you know, the worst was like to try and bury it and hide it, hide the money. The person that did the best with the money that he trusted with the most money, like, made twice as much money, like, he increased it significantly, right?  [00:19:00] Ryan: And he was also given the person's talent that, who buried his talent. [00:19:04] Jason: Exactly. He's like, I'm going to take it away from you because you don't know how to use this or how to deal with it. And so I think there's a nice summation of business in that for us, like where much is given, much is required and yeah, I've got a little bit of an audience. [00:19:18] You've got a little bit of an audience as well, right? We've got these audiences and people are listening, people pay attention to what we're doing And you know, we have a ripple effect. And I have a ripple effect through my clients who have a ripple effect through all the families that they support, the investors, the team members that they have. And that's significant and to me, that's exciting. Like, that's what motivates me to do what I do. [00:19:43] That's inspiring. But yeah, I could see that some people would maybe it would convict them. Maybe they would feel maybe they feel a little ashamed if they thought about it, man, you know, the energy I'm putting out into the world and in the universe here, isn't the ripple that I really feel is the best ripple I could create. [00:19:59] Ryan: Well, the other part, too, is obviously we have ripples here on Earth, but, you know, there are ripples for eternity based on our decisions for the people we help and everything else, and, you know, the Bible talks about how, you know, you store up your treasures in heaven, and if you read, you know, a lot of Christians also don't know this, they think that Heaven is this place where everybody's equal and, you know, we're all in the same thing. [00:20:25] No, it's actually not like there's hierarchies in heaven there. Like it's clear when the disciples are talking to Jesus and they're like, man, dude, I want to sit on your right hand. He's like, you don't even know what you're asking for. And. you know, they're clearly trying to be in that inner circle after this too. [00:20:43] And, you know, you could read all about it. There's hierarchy with demons. There's hierarchy with angels. Hierarchy is going to be in heaven. It's already there. And it's like, you know, you got a lot of investors on this podcast who are like, Oh man, I got to invest for the future. I got to get my net worth here. [00:21:01] I got to get my cashflow here. I got to. And it's like, we're investing trying to build for the future of this life. And once you truly understand that this life is so short in the span of eternity, you start thinking very differently. And you're like, well, I would rather invest for eternity. And actually, we just read this book in our Wealthy Kingdom group. [00:21:21] It's called Driven by Eternity by John Bevere. It's a great, one of the most convicting books I've ever read. But, he goes, alright. He's like, I learned this in math. Anything divided by infinity is infinity. And it's like, eternity is infinity, right? But if you were to try and even just, finitely say it with our brains, let's just say the next 24 hours, we're going to dictate the next thousand years of your reward here on earth, right? [00:21:48] How you spent the next 24 hours would dictate what reward you got for the next thousand years. You'd be like, that's insane, right? That doesn't seem right. That, you know, this is going to be  [00:22:00] Jason: proportionately skewed. To this moment. Yeah, it's- [00:22:04] Ryan: that's not even close to infinity.  [00:22:07] Jason: Yeah.  [00:22:08] Ryan: We spend 100 years here on this earth thinking we have all this time. In the scheme of infinity, it's worse than way where it could be 24 hours to 10, 000 years to a million years, a billion years. It's still not infinity. And yeah, people just don't, they don't think about it because it's so hard to grasp. But it's like I wish and this is why god has you know kind of got me more vocal about it. [00:22:33] So we're talking about it now But it's like I want investors because I'm an investor right now, you know, like I'm always looking for the best investment I'm always looking for the best use of my time, but I want people to start thinking about man, Invest for eternity. That's way longer than this! Your retirement is way shorter than infinity and eternity. [00:22:54] Jason: Though, could Jesus be a house flipper in the eternities? Because he says in my father's house, there's many mansions, right? And he said, I'm going to prepare something for you guys. And so I think what you're talking about is maybe we should be paying a little less attention maybe to just our real estate assets and our investing here and maybe do some heavenly real estate investing. [00:23:17] Ryan: I'm being 1, 000, that's 1, 000 percent what I'm saying. And it's changed my mindset so much in the last year that I could care less about my net worth. I could care less about how many properties I own. I could care less about any of it. Because eternity is so much greater.  [00:23:36] Jason: So some people might be saying, Ryan, come on. [00:23:38] You're wealthy now. You run Wealthy Investor. You've got money. So it's easy for you to say that. What would you say to the naysayers?  [00:23:46] Ryan: I would say that I've had a certain level of contentness, no matter how much money I had. I made 1200 bucks my entire 20s a month. Okay. So like, I understand what it is to have nothing. [00:23:57] And you know, people always make an excuse, right? It's like, I got three kids and a wife, five, five and under, man, I got a special needs son. I spend a lot of time with my kids. And it's like, well, you know, that's cause you, everybody's default is that's cause you have money or this or that. [00:24:14] It's like, no, all these things were built with nothing. They were all built simultaneously. It wasn't that, oh, this came after that. It's like, no, they were all built in the same construct. So people just need to realize it's just an excuse. It's a cop out. Right. And the other part too, is it's just a fact of not trusting what the Bible says. [00:24:33] So if you're not Christian- [00:24:34] Jason: which essentially is just not trusting God,  [00:24:37] Ryan: Yeah, and if you're not Christian and you don't believe it, that's one thing. But if you are a Christian, you cannot say that you are a Christian and then claim that. It is a lie. And it's like, if you read Matthew 6:33, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, then everything else will be added to you. [00:24:54] And so this is where it comes into play of like, if I'm seeking those eternal rewards, everything else will be added to me. Now, does that mean I'm going to be a hundred millionaire billionaire own all these prop-? No, but I do know I'm going to be just fine here on earth. Like, I don't have to worry about that. [00:25:11] Like I'll be taken care of. It'll be added to me. So I just trust that promise.  [00:25:17] Jason: Yeah. I think I've always just trusted, even when money was tight, I've always trusted in my ability to figure things out and that God's going to take care of me. I just, I bought  [00:25:27] Ryan: money's been tight for me many times after I've been rich. [00:25:30] Jason: Yeah. Yeah.  [00:25:31] Ryan: Like so many times every business owner every you know, Elon Musk, dude I mean the richest man in the world, right? This guy struggles with money like, you know Yeah, dude, he had to buy Twitter for 50 billion dollars he didn't have 50 billion dollars just laying around It was like the last hour to figure out how to go buy that thing. You know, they tell the story of how he invested all of his, like, 300 million he got from PayPal into Tesla and SpaceX and they were going to both go bankrupt and not make it. [00:26:01] Yeah. So, you know, I guess it all just is, like, it comes back to this idea that people think that there's a certain amount of wealth that prevents you from, you know, ever having to work again. And that's not true. It's just not true. Like, it can all be taken from you instantly.  [00:26:16] Jason: So, here's a thought I have that I think might convict, as you say, you know, Christians or just other people that claim to believe in God. [00:26:24] Is one thing I've noticed is you know, especially among, I guess, poor christians or people that have money issues is that I've noticed this action of cursing reality while claiming to love god. It's like oh well this sucks and this and they're kind of they're negative about everything showing up in reality and my favorite name for God in a lot of instances is reality because he says I am what is I am the truth he's the ultimate and reality always wins God always ultimately wins and I don't think it's fair for a christian to claim, I'm like so like faithful to god yet I'm going to curse my reality and complain about reality and complain about how everything is and complain about my family and my spouse and my job and the world and everything else. And there's such a difference I think in people that are at odds with reality which reality will always win. Reality doesn't lie reality is what is and those that are actually in alignment with reality, and align their will to god. [00:27:29] What do you think of that?  [00:27:30] Ryan: Yeah, I mean look god has been here way before us and here's another thing. I tell people I'm just like, all right, look, you know Even if you're not a Christian, right? I think majority of people believe there is something after this life. People believe there is, you know, some supernatural thing. [00:27:47] Most people would believe in the afterlife and whatever. And then, you know, almost everyone agrees there was nothing and then there was something right. And we would call this the creation of the world. But you know, my belief is, you know, It's based on the Bible, and the Bible tells us that there was a supernatural world well before this physical world you know, God talks about there was angels, there was all these things happening well before he created the earth, and the earth is going to pass away, and then, you know, You know, it's going to be back to how it was. [00:28:16] And you know, it's like, and you know, there's going to be a new heaven, new earth, all these things, but my point with that is God was always, that's just the best he has always been. He will always will be. He will always like he's past, present, future. He's just all present. And you know, The other part I struggle with a lot of Christians is they just don't understand the power that they have. [00:28:44] You know, they walk in weakness. And in reality, it's like, Do you realize, an axe, Jesus said or not an axe, but in the Gospels, and then it happened, an axe. He said, look it's good that I'm leaving you, because you're going to get something far better than just me being here with you physically. You're going to get the Helper, and then an axe, they receive the Holy Spirit, literally God living within them, inside of them. [00:29:08] And it's like, you have literally the same God that has always been here, that created you, that created this world living inside of you, and you're worried? What would you ever be worried about? You know, just think like back to just metaphors, you know, would you ever be worried if like, you know financially if you had just like all this money just with you at all times? [00:29:31] No, you wouldn't be worried financially. Would you be worried for your physical safety if you had the most elite killers as bodyguards around you at all times? No, you wouldn't be worried about your safety. You know, like, we have something so much better than all of those things, and we're worried. [00:29:46] We think we can't do things. We don't trust.  [00:29:50] Jason: So this is a good question. Let's bring this back to entrepreneurism. How can people, maybe they don't believe in God, maybe they, they do, but how do they bring themselves, do you feel, and how do you do this? How do you bring yourself in alignment with this greater power for those that maybe can just believe that or towards the universe or the God that created it? [00:30:12] How do we start to get ourselves in alignment? So we know we're on the right path.  [00:30:15] Ryan: Well, this doesn't apply to just God. But this is just everything in life, right? You are what you consume. So if I consume junk food and crap, then, you know, I'm going to be fat and my energy will suck and all those things, right? [00:30:30] Or like for another example, right? If I consume the news all day, 24 seven, right? I'm probably going to be a very skeptical, not trusting person. I'm going to have biases, all these things. Yeah. If I consume entrepreneur content all day and I watch all these guys I'm probably just going to be thinking about making money 24 seven, right? [00:30:48] You are what you consume in all areas of life and you know, you are the average of the five people you hang around with all of these things are a form of just what you consume And so if you want to become more like jesus you have to consume and get around people that are like Jesus. And so, you know, what does that look like? [00:31:05] Well, it looks like reading your Bible every day. It looks like praying every day. It looks like hanging around, you know, other Christians who are walking the walk. It looks like going to church on Sundays. It looks like listening to sermons, listening to worship music. You know, you just have to immerse yourself in it and consume it. And that's how you're going to become more aligned. It's crazy because like, I'll tell you this, and this could sound extreme to people, but it's like, you start to realize the rest of the things in the world that are deception, right? It's like, I used to not think rap music and things were like bad. [00:31:38] You know, I used to listen to gangster rap all the time, man. I love Tupac and all these guys. And then you start to just like, you know, they call me little Ryan. You know, you look, you listen to the lyrics, you know, from a different point of view and you're like, Oh my gosh, this is not good. This is crazy that I listened to this when I was a kid, I should not have been listening to this. [00:31:59] Right. Because you start to get convicted if you watch porn, it's like you're going to start looking at your wife a different way because you're just you're consuming the wrong things. Yeah. Yeah, and even little things start to convict you too. It's like, for the first time ever, we didn't celebrate Halloween this year. [00:32:15] Because I just became convicted that you know, its origins are demonic. And it's like, you just watch all of this stuff with it. And it's like, yeah, definitely none of this glorifies God. If it doesn't glorify God, why would I do it? You know? And it's like it glorifies demons and, you know, all of these dark things, it's like, that doesn't seem proper. [00:32:39] Jason: Yeah, like, you know, it's kind of that balance of how to be in the world, but not of the world, right? Like Jesus was hanging out with publicans and sinners and he was around people, but he also wasn't like just doing everything that they were doing. And so, yeah, I think that's an interesting concept. [00:32:53] I like, though, what you said about. And that wasn't even where my head was going, when I asked the question, but I love that you said like look at the people that you're choosing to be around. There's a consumption there and There's this book called the Dark Side of the Light Chasers it's by Debbie Ford and it's interesting because she talks about in it that we each have this golden side and we also have this dark side to us and the golden side Is the side of ourselves that we see reflected in others that we of the people that we look up to. And there's different people that kind of trigger that in us. [00:33:25] Some people, for example, like look at Donald Trump, very polarizing figure. Some people look at him and are very triggered and their dark side is triggered. They see a narcissist, they see all these negative attributes and then there's some that look at him and they're like, Oh, he's an entrepreneur or he's strong or he's masculine or whatever. [00:33:42] Right? And they look at the golden side. And I think what we see in other people and the people we choose to be around, we want to choose to be around people that we perceive as having a light. Somebody that has something that we want and attributes that we want to become more like. And I think choosing to do that, especially in choosing mentors, is important. [00:34:01] Because you're going to ultimately become a little bit more like them. And that doesn't mean every mentor that I choose is, like, ahead of me in every key area of life. But if they're at least in the area a little bit ahead of me in success in the area I'm getting coaching from then I'm going to absorb that but I'm careful not to take on everything else and to be discerning and to use discernment. [00:34:23] I think it's important like you said to be around people that you perceive as being a high caliber or people that you believe are moving towards greater light.  [00:34:33] Ryan: I agree with all of it.  [00:34:36] Jason: Love that. All right. So Ryan, what if somebody is listening to this and we talked a lot about like kind of faith, God, religion, stuff like this, and somebody who's like, okay, maybe I'm willing to entertain the idea that God exists. [00:34:54] Maybe Jesus is somebody I should like figure out, what would you say is a good first step for those people?  [00:35:02] Ryan: Well, you know, obviously like the Bible is the truth, right? That's God's revelation to us. And so a lot of people are like, well, I don't even know where to start with the Bible. I would say step one buy a study Bible. [00:35:13] So I would just go on Amazon. I would just, I would get an IV study Bible. It's very simple. So that way it has you know, just notes on the side for you to help you understand what it's saying and different questions. And so, you know, I have a study Bible right here. So this is, you know, maybe you can find this one on Amazon. [00:35:31] This is called the Quest Study Bible. Now, this Bible is like 15 years old. So maybe this one, they don't make this one anymore. But actually, I know they do make a version of it. It's not called the Quest Study Bible anymore, but just look at the NIV Study Bible. And I would start in Matthew. [00:35:44] That is the very beginning of the New Testament. I would just start in Matthew and read it all the way through. So, unlike other books where you start at the very beginning. You're going to start about two thirds of the way through in Matthew and just trust me, it'll make sense. So that would be step one. [00:35:58] Step two, I would say, you know, obviously you want to get plugged into a local church. That, that's a lot harder for somebody who doesn't know anything. So here's what I would advise is join us at Wealthy Kingdom. So it's wealthykingdom.Com. Everything's free. You can be a part of the community and you can get plugged into a Bible study with other entrepreneurs in your area or virtually. So that's going to be your best place to really build connections because you're going to also be around other people who understand the actual life that you live right now. And they're open. We have lots of non believers in our Bible studies who are there to learn, man. [00:36:34] They're like, look, I'm here to learn. I don't know. I don't believe. I don't even know what you believe, but I'm here to learn. And so we, we love those types of people. So I would, those would be the two steps I do because I don't know everybody here listening is listening to different things. So I don't know what local church you should go to or anything. [00:36:52] So come join us virtually. And then you're probably going to meet people in Wealthy Kingdom that are in your area, especially the local Bible study. And they're going to know what local church for you to go to.  [00:37:02] Jason: Got it. You know, this is maybe a controversial hot take of, mine But I feel like a lot of people get so caught up in trying even among christians or non christians trying to prove whether the bible and everything in it is factual history or not It's like facts and data. [00:37:19] They're trying to prove it and I think both sides miss sight of the most important elements, which is are there true principles that are applicable? Can you apply these things to your life? Are they useful tools? And I think that's the real measure of a principle, whether it's true or not, is you try it out. [00:37:38] You test this, try this on in your life and see if the fruit is good. See if it gives you positive results. Does it give you positive results to believe these things? Or does it cause, you know, does it take you in the opposite direction? Do you feel like you're moving towards something higher? Or is it taking you backwards? [00:37:57] Ryan: Yeah, there's biblical truth to that. You know, there was a reason Jesus performed miracles, you know, like a lot of people, a lot of people are like, well, why? Right? He could have just said all the things he said, hey, you know, don't steal. You know, follow the Ten Commandments. Love your neighbor. [00:38:13] Everybody can agree with those things. But it's like, yo. I'm going to make this person the lord of my life, which he was asking them to do, to believe that he's the son of God, to believe and give their entire life to him. It's like, well, dude, you better show me something else if you want me to commit to that degree. [00:38:31] And you know, that's why he performed signs and wonders to show them that, hey, look, I am the one. And You know, it's true, right? Like, that's why he did it. And that's why all of the disciples you know, were killed for preaching it well after he was gone, because they saw it, they believed, and they knew that the reward, you know, was going to be great eternally, right? [00:38:52] Look, Jesus says it to Doubting Thomas too, when he returns, right? A lot of the disciples believe, they're like, Oh dude, like he's back. And then Thomas is like, I ain't believing until I see him. Until I see the holes in his body. And so Jesus comes back and he's like, Look, Thomas, feel the hole, right? [00:39:08] Shows him the hole in his hands. And he's like, blessed are those who believe without seeing.  [00:39:12] Their faith is stronger, but still, it's all good that you needed to see to believe. Like, it's all good. And so. There are going to be people who listen to this and they're like, I believe all this makes sense. [00:39:26] And then there are going to be those who say no, I need to see the fruit. I need to see why I should believe. And in fact, I still believe miracles happen today. I've seen them with my own hands. I've prayed for miracles that cannot be explained other than they were miraculous. And you know, with that, it's like both happen. [00:39:43] Jason: I think that I think if we're really created in the image of God,. Then I think that is a clue that we might be a lot more powerful than we realize and you know there's even evidence that the placebo effect is getting stronger as time goes on. So like as they do drug testing and stuff like this drugs have to pass a certain test that they're stronger than placebo. The challenge is drugs are having a harder and harder time showing that they're stronger than placebo because the placebo effect is actually getting stronger. And I think that humanity worked our consciousness is raising a bit. [00:40:19] I think that people are realizing that we are creators, that we are more powerful than we give ourselves credit. And, you know, Jesus says, if you have faith, like a grain of a mustard seed, you could like move a mountain or something. Right. And so I think that I think there is something to, you know, this idea that we can create this positive future or alter our reality or alter things real time, like people's physical health or blessing people or different things. I do think that miracles can occur and there's evidence of it happening all the time. And I think in religion, see, I grew up Mormon. And I'm a very ultra conservative. [00:41:00] I was a Mormon missionary for two years and then eventually left it. I didn't even try alcohol until I was over 30. And I'm the only one in my family that, that left. I'm the black sheep and I'm the oldest of five boys. So, sorry mom, sorry dad.  [00:41:14] Ryan: I'm not happy with you.  [00:41:15] Jason: They still love me, but I think one of the things that I, and I'm grateful for all that I learned, like we, we did, I did a lot of religious study growing up and I was the one that just kept digging until I took my way out of it, I guess. [00:41:26] Ryan: Mormon apologetics is a tough thing to defend.  [00:41:30] Jason: Yeah. So I think you know, there's a lot of people think that they need to sell some sort of gospel or good news of, Jesus or the christian church by convincing people their life is going to suddenly be magical or better and that's not always true, and I don't think that's the whole point is that you don't magically make everything about your external circumstances in your life better, but I think being more in alignment with god and being more connected allows you this greater strength to weather what's happening. [00:42:02] I mean if you look at what happened to Peter or any of the apostles, like they suffered horrible deaths. I don't know that their life magically became more amazing because they followed Jesus, but they had that conviction and they knew truth. And I think in a lot of instances, becoming Christian or believing in Jesus or following his principles may make your life in some instances, more challenging, you know, maybe there's more fiery darts thrown at you by the adversary, for example, but I do believe that there's some sort of there's some sort of power and confidence that comes with knowing that your personal life and will is in alignment with God wants for you. [00:42:45] Like you're following that calling and that knowing within, and there's a strength that comes from that, that nobody else can shake. It doesn't matter like what your parents are saying to you. It doesn't matter what your spouse maybe is concerned about. It doesn't matter if you know, you're doing what is right, then you're willing to just let the consequences follow. [00:43:03] And that's different than just looking for this better life or a mansion here on earth instead of a mansion in heaven.  [00:43:10] Ryan: Yeah, and you know, Jesus said hey you got to pick up your cross and follow me. It's like picking up your cross literally means dying to your old self and giving your all to Jesus And you know somebody's like oh, but like I got to say bye and to my dad and I gotta bury and he's no. [00:43:27] No, this has nothing to do with your current family. This is about you and me You know, whether or not you're going to follow. And you know, I've met many Mormon, ex Mormons, Jews, Muslims, people who have given their life to Jesus. And you know, it's tough because there's so many family dynamics that go on to it. [00:43:46] And it's like, it ain't easy. And I feel for those people, cause that, that's very hard. But I also am a believer that, you know, through your faith and through, you know, those who make that commitment, they have the chance to impact their families. So much more and they can be sanctified through them. [00:44:02] Jason: Yeah, I mean I had a meeting with the mastermind this morning and we were talking about distractions And we were all these they're all men and we're all sharing like what's distracting us and what's holding us you know back from the things we should be doing and you know and I was thinking about you know, just how can I be a better father? [00:44:21] How can I be a better partner, a better spouse? How can it be a better business leader? And at the stage I'm at now, it's just more discipline. It's less distractions. And it's all like cutting out all of the fat and the little things that are so easily taking us. And that's kind of what you led us into here in the beginning. [00:44:39] You know, what do you, what would you say to those that are just, they're trying to run their business, they're dealing with a lot of distractions, which is common for entrepreneurs. We see shiny objects everywhere. How do they get focused and how they start, how did they start listening to that inner voice that connects them with the divine so they can start making the right moves? [00:45:00] Ryan: Well, I think it's very simple, right? You just make God the focus. You just have to trust that if you make him the focus. Everything else will fall into place. And then it goes back to Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and everything else will be added to you. And that's faith. [00:45:18] That's faith in a nutshell, because you'll be like, well, don't understand the fires that I have, Ryan. You don't understand the drama and the problems. My kids are doing this, my relationship with my wife sucks. Like I got to focus over there in order to fix. You know, well, before I can go worry about God. [00:45:35] I mean, that's like the biggest thing I hear all the time too. It's like, well, I. Once I get my life right, then I'll start going to church. I'm like, no, you can't get your life right. That's why Jesus paid the price, because you can't. It's the same funny thing I hear when people are like-  [00:45:49] Jason: it's like saying once I get abs, I'll stop eating candy bars. [00:45:53] Ryan: Yeah, well, I was going to use a health example too where I hear this actually from people because I was in sports for so long Hey, I'm going to get in shape first, then I'm going to go get a trainer and start you know, because I'm not ready to go train with them like, that's too hard. I got to like get in shape first and I'm like, dude. [00:46:09] No, that's why you need a trainer like no, And yeah, it's the same thing with faith. It's like if you follow god and you seek his ways I mean just like you've been saying from a practical standpoint. If you follow what the Bible says, your relationship with your wife will get better. Like, you're just going to be a better leader, you're going to serve her, you're going to be different. [00:46:27] Your relationship with your kids will get better. The relationship with your employees will get better. The way you act in business will be better. You know? And it doesn't mean that it's going to be easy. I didn't say it was going to be easy. I just said, it's going to get better. And you know, I've had, yeah. And I had, I've had so many difficult situations in business, you know, lost millions, investors pissed, customers pissed, lawsuits. [00:46:53] I've dealt with everything you could imagine in business. And guess what? Every time I've been able to get through it and it's because of my faith and I didn't know how I would get through it. I didn't know what the outcome would be. I didn't know how I would solve it. But I can tell you I slept pretty good throughout all of it because I just knew God would take care of it some way somehow. [00:47:16] Jason: You knew it would be figured out and you felt like you had somebody on your side that's pretty powerful.  [00:47:21] Ryan: I mean, God promises to be on my side.  [00:47:23] Jason: Yeah.  [00:47:24] Ryan: You know, Romans 8, 28 says that, you know, he works all things for my good, for those who believe.  [00:47:30] Jason: Even the tough stuff.  [00:47:32] Ryan: All things, not some things.  [00:47:34] Jason: Whom God loves, he chastens. Despise not the chastening of the Lord, right? So may not necessarily be easy, but yeah, it'll be worth it.  [00:47:41] Ryan: Don't expect anything to be easy.  [00:47:43] Jason: Right. I think we go into it, we should expect things to be hard and worth it. And I think when we're, it's kind of like the old stoic adage, you know, hard choices, easy life. [00:47:53] Easy choices, hard life. We all know people that they're focused on ease. They're focused on trying to have comfort They're focused on how do I how do I avoid doing stuff? I just want to relax. I just want my weekend I just want time and I think as i've grown into adulthood and you know focus more on stepping more into my masculinity. [00:48:13] I've realized that you know, nobody's coming to save us, except maybe Jesus, right? Nobody's coming to do it for us. There's a level of work that's expected and we need to get beyond always seeking comfort because comfort is a deceptive and alluring sort of drug and we need to be willing to put in the work put in the effort and focus and put in that discipline and then life gets a lot easier overall Like life gets a lot better overall when we're disciplined. Disciplined people don't cheat on their spouses. [00:48:47] Disciplined people like, you know, take care of their kids and spend time with them on the weekend. Disciplined people you know, focus and take care of their health so they have less health issues. They're putting their own oxygen mask on first, so to speak, so they can take care of others, right? [00:49:02] And that's it. That's discipline. And I think that's important. Well, Ryan we're about out of time. I really appreciate you coming on the show. This has been I think inspiring conversation. It's got my brain sort of running in a bunch of different directions thinking about, you know, how can I be better and how can I evolve as a human? [00:49:19] What would you like to say in your final words to those listening to this podcast and maybe how they can get in touch with you or your various businesses.  [00:49:30] Ryan: Yeah, I think you know, as far as getting in touch with me, that's easy. You can just go on social media, search Ryan Pineda, wherever. [00:49:37] So that part's easy. I would say the final thing to leave him with, I mean, we've talked a lot about faith and eternity and everything else. And that's usually the final thing I leave on podcasts because I don't depending on where the conversation goes, right? You know, I'll always draw it back to faith. [00:49:51] So I would just say that, man, I mean, like, look there's a common theme for what we're saying. It's like, life's going to be hard one way or the other, you know, you're going to go through tough times. You are going to have uncertainty. You're not going to know if things are going to work out or not the way that you're hoping. [00:50:08] You know, One thing I know for sure is, and this will apply for both ways, not just faith, but also business and faith. When you start becoming process driven more than results driven, your life changes. Because you're never going to be up and down with the result. You're always just trusting the process. [00:50:28] And so, you know, baseball, we had to learn this every day. It's like, I don't know who's pitching tomorrow. I don't know. Like, I just got to trust my routine, my process, and then I'm doing the right things every day. And if I follow that, I know I'm going to get the best result that I possibly can get. In the long run, and I think you were referencing that when it comes to, Hey, you know what? [00:50:46] Even if you don't believe these biblical principles are going to change your life, that's a form of trusting the process. And if you do, you know, you'll end up getting better results just overall, whether you believe or not, and you just follow that process. And then, you know, I would say even to take it a step further, it's like, man, if you trust that he is the creator of this world and he has promised to take care of you then that's a process to choose to have faith and trust that's the case, to trust that his plan is better than your plan. And it's not easy because we all want control. We all want certainty. That's, you know, that's our human nature. [00:51:21] That's why we're trying to get financially free. That's why we're trying to you know, get enough cash flow and I teach on these things like I get it. But there's a better plan. And you know, if you just trust the process every day of following him, he will make your path straight, you know? And so I've seen that in my own life. [00:51:42] I'll tell you this. I never thought I'd be a podcaster, an events guy, a social media guy. I never thought that was going to be the thing, but. I felt like God was calling me down that path, and here we are. And I don't know where he's going to call me the next 10 years. I don't have a 10 year plan. I don't have any of that, and I don't care. [00:51:59] All I'm trying to do is whatever God's calling me to do at this moment, and I want to be flexible to his will, and be very careful not to just insert my will. And that's it, right?  [00:52:10] Jason: Yeah, appreciate it. You know, appreciate you coming on the show. I think, I agree. I think you know, even if you, For some reason don't want to be christian you don't you don't you're opposed for some reason. [00:52:23] Some people are just like opposed to the bible, just look at the bible through the lens of what are the principles that have made this book one of the greatest books of all time? Why has it stood out? Why has it stood the test of time? Why do so many people look to it for wisdom and for insight? There's so much wisdom in there and if you can at least just be willing to extract wisdom wherever you can find it, then you're not an idiot And so at least start there, everybody listening, just look for wisdom, be a seeker of wisdom and look for the things that are better and higher. [00:52:53] And that's going to eventually lead you to better and higher things and help you to weather the storm. And you can tell Ryan has, you know, he has this confidence that comes from knowing it's not all reliant on him. He trusts that there's something greater than him that's going to give him a source of power or ideas or decision making or guide his paths and to not have that for those of you listening must be terrifying. It must feel a little bit scary to just not have nothing else above you to reach up to. And so there is a god. There's somebody reach up to, go ahead and test it out. [00:53:29] My way of aligning towards God is to sit, read things that I feel like lead me closer to something better and higher. That could be scripture, whatever, or to meditate on something, but then to think, how can I align my will with that? What is that voice inside? What is that calling telling me to do and take those actions and do it. [00:53:47] If you don't take those actions, listen to it, that voice will get quieter. But if you start to listen to that voice and take those actions, it's going to get more and more clear to the point where you have that confidence to go out and make decisions. So I think that's a good ending note here. [00:54:01] So Ryan this is a very different podcast episode than we've ever done here on the DoorGrow show. So there we go. I like it. The most impactful one though. I appreciate you inspiring us to get into faith and chat about that. All right. And And that'll be it for today's show until next time everybody to our mutual growth If you are struggling within your property management business to figure out how to figure out what you need to do next in your business operationally or how to add doors, reach out to us. We'd love to support you. Check us out at doorgrow. com and that's it. Bye everyone. [00:54:33] you just listened to the #DoorGrowShow. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet in the DoorGrowClub. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC, pay-per-lead content, social direct mail, and they still struggle to grow!  [00:54:59] At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge: getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today's episode on our blog doorgrow.com, and to get notified of future events and news subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe. Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow Hacking your business and your life.

Preaching for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Martha Ligas offers a reflection on being open to the Promised One who draws near in times of despair: "Maybe Jesus is reminding us of something that we need to hear when we're at our lowest. When we feel the most despair, the most fear, the most anxiety, that is when God is the closest to us. That is when we are the least alone. That is when the Promised One is right at our door." Martha Ligas (she/her) serves as the Pastoral Minister at the Community of St. Peter in Cleveland, Ohio, and Program Associate at FutureChurch. Both spaces give her room to ride the coattails of the Spirit by reimagining what it means to create faith communities of belonging. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Ministry from Fordham University. Martha lives in Cleveland, OH with her partner and their pets. Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11172024 to learn more about Martha, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

I'm gonna talk about who the best people in church are. No spoilers, you'll have to wait. There's a story where Jesus says that whoever welcomes a little child welcomes God. Whaaaat? What did he mean by that? I have three suggestions: 1) Maybe Jesus said it because kids teach us that our imaginations can help us understand the things of God. Jesus tells his followers that he will suffer and die and rise after three days. Jesus invites them to imagine a world where death doesn't have the last word, a world where the hardest suffering can lead to unthinkable joy. But the disciples can't seem to imagine it. Can we open up our imaginations? How can the world be different? How can we make it different - more just and generous for everyone? 2) Maybe Jesus said it because kids teach us to ask the hard questions. Again, Jesus tells them he'll suffer, die and rise again. They didn't understand and were afraid to ask. You know who isn't afraid to ask questions? Kids. They'll ask all the hard questions. Good questions lead to a deeper understanding of the divine. 3) Last one - I think Jesus said that about children because they show us what divine power and greatness look like. Children are completely vulnerable - in every place in the world they're vulnerable. Power and greatness are found in vulnerability. Greatness is defined by serving others and sacrificing ourselves so that others might flourish. We know this in the deepest parts of ourselves. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 9:30-37 http://bible.com/events/49322529

 Audio recordingSermon manuscript:Jesus said, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” Being recognized is a deep human need. Being recognized is when a person is accepted and appreciated for who they are. People can be recognized for all kinds of different things: “You are talented.” “You are hard working.” “You are funny.” It feels good to be recognized. Usually people cultivate their lives in such a way that they can continue to be recognized. Funny people enjoy being recognized as funny, and so they are always coming up with new bits. What do you want to be known as? Smart, successful, caring, hard-nosed, charming? You'll do what's necessary to continue to be known and recognized as such. This is simply how we are. There would be no sense in trying to get rid of this impulse. We need to be accepted and appreciated. To try to do away with this would be as silly as trying to do away with sleeping, eating, or drinking. That said, the desire to be recognized can go awry. For example, what often happens is that a person not only wants to be recognized, he or she doesn't want others to be recognized. Let's say a woman is pretty. Maybe she'd like to be the prettiest. That means she'd like it if nobody was even close to being as pretty as her. Or let's say there are many children in the family. Which of them is the favorite? There can only be one favorite. To be the child that mom or dad loves most feels good. I think you can see where problems arise. Being the prettiest can bring about meanness and conceit. With favorites in families there can be lifelong resentment. It's not hard to see how these things can be bad. What is to be done? I think a lot of people believe nothing can be done. We have no other choice than to accept things as they are. The best will be the best and the worst will be the worst. Since that is the way things are, you should try your hardest to be the best. Then you'll get that recognition you crave. If someone is not getting recognition, then it's because they aren't trying hard enough. If they tried harder, then they'd be recognized too. This is a very powerful philosophy. It makes sense. It's assumed to be correct. It's everywhere. To learn something different, therefore, will require effort. You'll have to learn new and different rules. Take Jesus's statement in our Gospel reading. He said, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” To be first be last. It almost sounds non-sensical. Those are opposites of one another. If the first are last, then they can't be first. The first are first and the last are last. But Jesus helps us with what he says after that. “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” Being the servant of all throws a different light on things. It shows us a different way that we might use what has been given to us. What comes naturally to us is to use whatever we have to promote ourselves. We try to make the case that we are the greatest. But if we would serve, then we would use what we have for others—to lift them up, to do them good. Consider something I've already mentioned—prettiness. It can seem to be something that is only good for the girl who has it, but it doesn't have to be used that way. A pretty girl can give her prettiness to her man. She wants him to enjoy her prettiness instead enjoying her prettiness for herself or using her prettiness to distinguish herself from others. Or a pretty girl can love the girls who have not been given what she has been given. She can forget about her prettiness and associate with the lowly—not in some ostentatious, obnoxious, ugly way, but in a genuine, friendly way. Thereby she gives away her prettiness to those who are less so, and who might be somewhat shunned because of it. Boys can do this too. Boys often value different things than girls. Athletic boys can hang out with non-athletic boys—bearing with them, not ridiculing them and demeaning them. Boys who know how to use guns or tools or other desirable things can take in those who don't. In this way a boy gives cover to another. You know how it usually goes, though, don't you? A hierarchy is what comes naturally. The best are at the top. The worst are at the bottom. Those at the top differentiate themselves from the rest with their greatness. They are not like them. They are best. The rest are not. Those at the bottom should know their place and burn with envy. That's the way it is—so so many say. That's not correct if Jesus is correct. Maybe Jesus is a fool. Lots of people don't believe him. But he says that greatness is not when you use what you have for yourself. Greatness is when you are the last of all and the servant of all. Greatness is when you lift up others, when you help and improve others. The lowlier the people you can help, the better, because when you are helping really lowly people you are being like Jesus. Think of the way that Jesus is. If ever there was anyone who is the best, then that would be Jesus. But how does Jesus use his greatness? Does he point at disappointing people and say, “Look at how much better I am than you!” “Look how sinful you are and how righteous I am!” No. Jesus doesn't do this. He could if he wanted. He truly is so much better and so much more righteous than we are. But he doesn't use what is his to stare at himself in the mirror, admiring himself, comparing himself to those who do not have what he has. He uses what is his to help those who are without. He makes others better. And there's no one who's too low for him. There's no one about whom he says, “Ach! That one is too disgusting!” He rejects no one. The rejection is always on the other end. The sinner says he doesn't want to associate with him. The proud one says, “I won't have your condescension and charity!” But as far as Jesus is concerned, he is willing to be last of all. He is the servant of all. The word “all” means without exception. He will help you. You can see how Jesus's friendliness, Jesus's reaching out, Jesus's free acknowledgement, acceptance, and approval of people is beautiful, helpful, and good. Another word that we could use to describe all this activity of Jesus is “love.” Jesus loves us, therefore we should love others. The apostle John has written, “We love, because he first loved us.” There are a lot of people who want to be recognized. They are aching for it. You can give them that. Now I'm sure you could come up with excuses for why you shouldn't. I'm sure that if you used your eagle-eye glasses for fault-finding, you could find faults in anyone. Thank God Jesus didn't do that to you. If Jesus were looking for faults in you, so as to excuse himself from help you, I'm sure he could have. But he didn't. He loves you, so you should love others. And, as I mentioned before, the lowlier the person, the better. The more like Christ you will be. So love that person whom you have found to be distasteful. Love that person from whom you will get no benefit in return. Jesus says that we should love even our enemies. Jesus's saying is a strange recipe for greatness: “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” You might be saying to yourself, “That won't make me happy. That will make me miserable.” Don't be so sure. Loving and being loved are the highest things in life. The more you love the more you're loved. There's no limit to how much you can love. Jesus says that he can become the water of life in us so that we become like a spring. A spring of water just keeps going and going. Life and love bubble up even unto eternal life. To do the opposite of this cannot turn out well. This is an important warning. People think it is neither here nor there if they are as vain and conceited as peacocks. Not so! James warned us in our Epistle reading that jealousy and selfish ambition are demonic. Demons hate and hamper and destroy life. So do the proud and cruel self-promoters. Hell, because it is the opposite of heaven, would seem to me to be the place where there is no love—a truly terrifying possibility. No love! You know how good love is, so don't shut yourself up away from it. Do not strive to be the greatest by comparing yourself. Greatness is when you use what has been given to you to make other people better. Greatness is being like Jesus. Love like him. Be the last of all and the servant of all.

A Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity St. Luke 10:23-37 & Galatians 3:16-22 by William Klock Jesus had commissioned seventy disciples to preach the good news throughout the cities and towns of Israel and when they came back to him they were excited.  Wherever the good news went, amazing things happened.  Above everything else, the seventy rejoiced that at the name of Jesus, even demons obeyed.  And Jesus rejoiced with them.  “I know,” he said.  This is what the prophets foretold.  Isaiah and Ezekiel told of their visions in which the Satan fell like lightning from heaven.  It's happening now.  God's kingdom is breaking in, God's light is driving away the darkness, and it is toppling the rulers of this present evil age—and you're a part of it.  And with that in mind Jesus said to them, “Don't rejoice that spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Having your name written in heaven—that meant being written in God's great book that you belong to him, that you are one of his people.  And Jesus draws a connection here that I don't think we really emphasises often enough and that's that God's people are marked out in the present by their kingdom priorities and their kingdom life. Jesus is hinting here—actually, I think it's more than just a hint—that in him, the God of Israel was renewing Israel and creating a new people.  Because the Jews already believed their names were written in heaven, but Jesus hints that something is changing.  That it's not just about being the biological children of Abraham or about keeping torah, but that it's now connected with this good news and with him—with the Messiah.  The long-awaited age to come, the age when the Lord would judge the wicked and set the world to rights, in Jesus the Messiah it was breaking in as the prophets had foretold.  And so Jesus—and these are the first words of our Gospel today beginning at Luke 10:23—Jesus turns from the crowd to his disciples and says to them, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.  Let me tell you, many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, and they didn't see it; and to hear what you hear, and they didn't hear it.” But then, Luke says, a lawyer got up and put Jesus on the spot.  He knew what Jesus was saying and it really bothered him.  Because everyone knew that God's people are marked out in the present by their keeping of the law: by things like circumcision, sabbath-keeping, and diet.  Maybe Jesus was the Messiah, maybe God's kingdom was breaking in, but this suggestion that Jesus' disciples had their names written in heaven because they were somehow connected with Jesus—that they were “in”—well, that meant that others were “out”.  So the lawyer stood up and shouted at Jesus, “Rabbi, what should I do to inherit the life of the age to come?”  He was sure his name was written in heaven, but if Jesus was calling that into question, he wants to know what criteria Jesus thinks mark God's people out in the present.  Was Jesus really excluding good, torah-observing Jews like him? And Jesus, as is the way with rabbis, responded with another question: “What is written in the law?”  And it's easy to imagine the exasperation on the lawyer's face as he answered the question they'd all learned the answer to as little children: “You shall love the Lord your with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your understanding; and your neighbour as yourself.” And Jesus responded, “Well said!  Do that and you will live.”  The lawyer frowned and grit his teeth.  No, no, no.  If that's what it's about, then we're all on the same page, but Jesus is clearly saying that his disciples will see the age to come and that others might not.  The lawyer wants to know how or where Jesus is drawing the line.  Who's in and who's out?  More than that, he knows Jesus is wrong and he wants to get his error, his heresy out into the open for everyone to see.  So he throws out another question, “Ah!  But who is my neighbour?” “And Jesus rose to the challenge.  ‘Once upon a time,' he said, ‘a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was set upon by brigands.  They stripped him and beat him and ran off leaving him half-dead.'” Everyone knew the road.  Very soon Jesus would be travelling it himself, going the other direction, up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover—and to become the new Passover himself.  That road was steep and windy and notorious for the brigands hiding in wait for unwary travellers.  The wise travelled in groups or well-armed.  Travelling it alone, like this man did, was foolish.  This lawyer, listening to Jesus, would be shaking his head and thinking to himself that anyone dumb enough to travel that road alone was a candidate for a Darwin Award. But Jesus goes on.  “‘A priest happened to be going down that road, and when he saw him he went past on the opposite side.'”  Now, you and I shake our heads and think, “What a horrible priest!  How could he not stop to help the man.”  But we only think that way because we've been shaped by the gospel and by Jesus and the Spirit.  The cross of Jesus has taught us mercy.  That God would not only humble himself, but would shed his blood on behalf of his rebellious children has taught us mercy in a way never understood before the gospel.  But that lawyer—and the crowd and maybe even Jesus' disciples—they lived in the dark world on the other side of the good news of the cross.  They saw nothing wrong with this priest passing by the man.  The priests kept themselves ritually pure.  They had to in order to enter the temple.  Even though this priest is going in the opposite direction—probably on his way home from serving his rotation in the temple—he still kept himself pure.  He couldn't tell if the man was dead or alive and if went over, rolled him over, and found him dead, well, then he'd be impure.  That was okay for normal people, but not for a priest.  And everyone knew this.  And, again, no one had a problem with it. “Then,” said Jesus, “a Levite came by the place.  He saw him too and went past on the opposite side.”  He might not be a priest, but being a Levite, he too served in the temple.  Again, he's going the opposite way—like the priest, he's probably on his way home from serving in the temple.  But, still, being a Levite, he can't chance becoming impure.  And, again, this was all normal and good and right as far as most people were concerned. “But then,” said Jesus, “a travelling Samaritan came to where he was.”  Everyone frowned at this.  Samaritans were filth.  They were the Jews who intermarried with the native Canaanite peoples when the people of Judah were in exile.  They worshiped at their own illicit temple at Shechem and they compromised torah with pagan practises and pagan philosophy.  They were traitors of the worst kind.  Just being on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho meant he was fouling the promised land with his impure Samaritan feet.  And yet, Jesus said, “He came over to the man and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.  Then he put him on his own beast, took him to an inn, and looked after him.  The next morning, as he was going on his way, he gave the inn-keeper two dinars. ‘Take care of him,' he said, ‘and on my way back I'll pay you whatever else you need to spend on him.'” “Where's Jesus going with this?”  Everyone was thinking.  “What's his point?”  There's no way this would happen in real life.  But that's kind of the point.  Jesus looks the lawyer in the eye and asks, “Which of these three do you think turned out to be the neighbour of the man who was set upon by the brigands?”  Jesus is going make the lawyer come out and say it.  And the lawyer does, because there's no escape for him.  “The one who showed mercy on him,” he said. “Well,” Jesus said to him, “you go and do the same.” So what just happened?  Jesus brilliantly turned the prophecy of Isaiah 6:1-11 into a parable.  I don't think anyone figured that out until the lawyer answered the final question and said “The one who showed him…mercy.”  And as soon as that word “mercy” was out of his mouth, I expect it sank in.  Hosea 6 is where the Lord, through the Prophet, rebukes the people of Israel because their love for God is “like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.”  It's the prophecy in which Hosea accuses the priests of acting violently against the helpless saying, “As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy” (6:9).  The Prophet denounces the “evil deeds of Samaria” (7.1).  And that's why Jesus puts a Samaritan in the centre of his story.  It flips everything around.  As Jesus tells it, it's now the people of Judah, and especially the priests and Levites who are acting violently against the people.  This is why, when Jesus cleanses the temple he condemns the priests for having made it a “den of robbers”.  As the unfaithful northern kingdom of Israel had been judged by the Lord, so judgement is now barrelling towards Judah and Jerusalem and the temple and its priests.  The Lord is indeed, in Jesus, preparing to judge the wicked and to set the world to rights.  The long-awaiting age to come is breaking in.  As the Lord promised through Hosea, he will come to heal his people, to bind up their wounds, to revive them after two days, and to raise them up on the third day (6:1-2).  But whom will he heal and revive and raise up?  Whom will he take with him into the age to come?  The answer: Only those who share his values and his priorities and the values and priorities of the age to come.  In Hoses 6:6 the Lord declares those well-known words, “I want mercy and not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than whole burnt offerings.”  I want mercy.  And I think those well-known words of the Prophet came crashing down on that lawyer like a metaphorical ton of bricks as he gave his answer and said, “The one who showed him mercy.” There was no mercy in the heart of the priest and no mercy in the heart of the Levite—and there was no mercy in the hearts of the people of Judah who saw nothing wrong with the priest and the Levite leaving the man to die.  For that matter there was no mercy in the hearts of people who saw the Samaritans as unredeemable, reprobate scum.  And that was the heart of the problem.  And that was the problem that Jesus came to fix.  Because the only people who will have a share in the age to come—in the kingdom of God—are the people who share the values and priorities of God.  The people who are poor in spirit, who mourn the state of the world, the meek, the people who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the pure in heart, the peacemakers—and the merciful. Everyone wants to see evil judged and removed from the earth and everyone wants to be part of the age to come when God has set everything to rights, but very few want—or even recognise their need—to first be transformed by the life of that kingdom.  Like so many in Judah, we want to enter the age to come as we are.  We don't want to change.  As much as we want to see everything made right, we still hold tightly to the very things, the very values, the very systems, the very sins, the very gods that have made the world the mess it is.  And we can be relentlessly unmerciful in our condemnation of everyone else we don't think meets our standards.  We can be relentlessly unmerciful to everyone we think is the problem.  All while forgetting that we're all the problem.  We've all contributed to the mess the world is in and if God were to set the world to rights and then transplant us into it as we are, well, we'd just ruin it all over again—because we're the problem—every last one of us. But when we let go of it all.  When we take hold of Jesus in faith as Messiah, as the one who died and rose again triumphant over sin and death, he not only washes our sinful past away, he also plunges us into the Spirit, into the very life of God.  And in doing that, Jesus makes us fit for the life of the age to come.  Not instantly, of course.  It's a process.  But through word and Spirit he makes us new bit by bit, just as he does the same with this world as he sends us out with his good news to spread his kingdom bit by bit until one day the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.  One day that glory will fill us to—like the blood that courses through us from head to toe—and we'll be fit for the kingdom. And because of that, Jesus' people should be known for having a wide view of God's mercy.  That's what the people of the northern kingdom lacked when the Lord warned them through Hosea that he desired mercy above sacrifice.  And it's what the people of Judah lacked when Jesus told his parable about the good Samaritan.  Maybe instead of calling the it the “Parable of the Good Samaritan” we should really call it the “Parable of the Unmerciful Priest and Levite”.  In both cases, the people of Israel and the people of Judah, they of all people, should have had a sense of the Lord's mercy.  This is where our Epistle today, beginning at Galatians 3:16, can help us understand.  St. Paul stresses God's promise to Abraham and how it was fulfilled in the family of the Messiah—this people made up of both Jews and gentiles. Paul writes in Galatians 3:16, “The promises were made to Abraham and his seed”—that is, his family.  It doesn't say ‘his seeds,' as though referring to several families, but indicates a single family by saying ‘and to your seed,' meaning the Messiah.”  There was a group of Jewish Christians in the Galatian churches that were pushing for Gentile believers to be circumcised and, at least superficially, to keep the torah and Paul's letter to them is a rebuke and an exhortation.  On the one hand he rebukes them for falling backwards into torah and on the other hand he exhorts them to press forward by faith in Jesus the Messiah, because it's faith, not observance of the law that marks out the people of God.  Abraham had no torah.  He just had faith in the promises of God.  Torah, the law, that came hundreds of years later.  The law, Paul writes, was a good thing, but temporary—like a babysitter meant to keep the Jewish people out of trouble until God's promises were fulfilled through them in Jesus.  Why?  Because they were the unique people, called and set apart by God—by faith, Paul stresses—to carry God's promises to the nations.  In light of that, they should have remembered all along that God's plan was to redeem not just Israel, but all of humanity.  And knowing that, they should have been a people with a heart for the lost and a people of mercy. Brothers and Sisters, it is an awful thing when people who have themselves experience and known the amazing mercy of God become unmerciful.  The Lord rebuked Israel and Judah for their lack of mercy, but it's even more awful when we who have known God's mercy through Jesus fall into unmerciful patterns.  Maybe we become self-righteous.  Maybe we become jaded and cynical.  But whatever form it takes, we sinners who have known the amazing mercy of God through the blood of Jesus poured out at the cross, we outsiders who have known the amazing mercy of God by being grafted into the vine of Israel, we who were dead who have been filled with God's own Spirit, we have no business being unmerciful.  To the contrary, because of the great mercy we have known ourselves, rivers of mercy ought to be flowing from us to the world. But, somehow, our eyes fall.  Instead of looking up, we look down.  Instead of keeping our eyes focused on Jesus, we're distracted by the things around us.  Like the guests in another of Jesus' parables, we're invited to his great feast, but we have excuses: I've bought this parcel of land and I need to go have a look at it; I've bought a yoke of oxen, and I need to go collect them; I've just got married, and well…I can't come.  The systems, the philosophies, the values, the gods of the old age that is passing away—the things we once forsook for Jesus—entice us back.  Maybe it's the troubles and trials of life that cause us to lose perspective and doubt Jesus and to doubt God's faithfulness.  Whatever it is, we take our eyes off of Jesus and we begin to stray and we begin to lose hope—like someone shuffling along a mountain trail with his eyes on his shoes, missing the glory to be seen all around.  And to us Paul practically shouts, “Look up!”  (That's Colossians, not Galatians, but it doesn't matter.)  Look up!  You've been raised with the Messiah, so set your sights on things above, where Jesus sits at the right hand of God.  That's what should mark out the people of God.  And as we look up, as we find our hope in Jesus, as we find our identity in Jesus, mercy flows.  The Spirit's fruit grows.  And we don't just pray “on earth as in heaven”, but we become the “on earth as in heaven” people.  That's what the people of Israel should have been in Hosea's day.  That's the Priest and the Levite and the lawyer and all those other people in Judah should have been in Jesus day.  Thanks be to God that he gave his son to set them to rights and to make it possible for us, by faith, to be grafted into that family.  And so that's what we ought to be too.  On earth as in heaven people.  Brothers and Sisters, the Lord invites us to his Table this morning, once again to participate in the great exodus in which Jesus, by his blood, has led us out of our bondage to sin and death.  Come to the Table and know again his mercy.  Eat the bread and drink the wine and know the goodness, the graciousness, the lovingkindness, the faithfulness of our God.  Then, renewed with a send of his glory, go out and take heaven, take his glory with you to the world. Let's pray: Almighty and merciful God, by whose gift alone your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Do you bristle at the religious word, repent? If you do, you should understand that it's Jesus' word. He said in Matthew 4, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” The word used here for repent simply means: Think differently. Maybe Jesus is calling you to think differently. Do you blindly follow the thinking of everything that's thrown your way? Or do you take the time to seriously consider the ways of Jesus? His kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven? God's kingdom is above all kingdoms and all authorities. God's kingdom is solid and stands firm. God's Kingdom is also a place of grace and hope and love. And God's kingdom is for you. Always remember, there is hope with God. radio.hopewithgod.com Find out more at https://hopewithgod.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Ministry Collaborative program staff (Ryan Bonfiglio, Adam Mixon, Amy Valdez Barker, and Adam Borneman) discuss our outdated modes of measuring ministry, paying attention to multiplying opportunities for discipleship, and what it might mean if the stories become our interpretive lens. Read the original blog post here.

Mark 6:1-13Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their own hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, expect that he laid hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.Then he went about among the villages, teaching. And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money for their belt; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. There is a great, strange, quiet little show on MAX called “Somebody Somewhere.” It's got a serious Schitt's Creek vibe to it in my opinion, but not many people know about it, from what I can tell. It came to mind as I fumbled around with this week's Gospel, because “Somebody Somewhere” tells the story of a woman named Sam who returns to her hometown, somewhere in the cornfields of Kansas, to take care of her dying sister. Her family – broken and struggling in so many ordinary ways with sibling rivalry and addiction and aging parents and broken marriages – needs her help, too – whether any of them know it or not.The short of the long is that Sam connects with an old classmate she doesn't even remember, but should have known in high school, and the show is the story of their friendship and the underlying buzz of what it means for Sam to be back – as an outsider in her own family and as a stranger in her own hometown.And, while it's not at all the main focus of the show, the notion of what a truly inclusive, welcoming, loving Church is, can, or should look like is a noteworthy undercurrent, if you pay attention to that sort of thing. Anyway, four stars. Highly recommend. You're welcome.And, it made me wonder, in a very simple way, if the writers and producers of “Somebody Somewhere,” knew something about Jesus and the Gospel of Mark. Because after being out and about in the world, beginning a ministry of healing all kinds of people of all sorts of illnesses, after casting out demons, after calming storms, and after teaching with all manner of new insight and wisdom, Jesus comes home to Capernaum, like somebody, somewhere.And, instead of a warm welcome and a happy homecoming, Jesus is greeted with questions and contempt. “Where did this guy get all of this?,” they asked. “Isn't this one of Mary's kids – the carpenter?” “Who does he think he is, anyway?”So, we have to wonder what was it that made it so hard for Jesus to go back home? Why was it that no one wanted to believe what he was teaching? Why did they take such offense at all he was preaching and teaching and saying and doing? Maybe Jesus wasn't old enough. Maybe he was teaching them too much too fast. Maybe he was trying to pour too much new wine into too many old wineskins. Your guess is as good as mine.Whatever the case, I'm sure they knew that Jesus was onto something because they had most definitely heard about his ministry: how he'd healed the paralyzed man, stilled the storm, raised Jairus' daughter, and cured the woman who had been hemorrhaging for years. All of this had to make them wonder – and maybe even hope, in spite of their suspicions – that Jesus knew what he was talking about. And I imagine it was nice to suspect that Jesus was onto something … from a distance. I imagine they were proud to know that this hometown prophet, this local hero, was theirs. I imagine they liked to say that they knew him when, or maybe that they had worked with him, or that he'd lived around the corner or just up the road, at one time. I imagine it might have been fun to cheer him on from the sidelines.But then he came home…back to Capernaum…then he started preaching and teaching and healing right there in front of them. Then they couldn't help but realize that his message was for and about them too.And forgiveness sounds great until you have to offer it yourself, and mean it.And faith sounds easy until your own is challenged.And loving your neighbor sounds nice until you know more about who's living next door, or until you realize that “neighbor” has nothing to do with proximity - or your address - a lot of the time.So no wonder it was hard for Jesus to be back home again. What if that's why he hasn't tried it since? What if that's why Capernaum – and the world for that matter – hasn't seen the whites of his eyes since he left so long ago?Are we ready for what he would teach or preach or perform for us, now? Just like the family and friends from his hometown, it can be easy for us to claim Jesus as ours … from a distance. Just like his family and friends in Capernaum, it can be comforting to proclaim that he's one of us and that we're one of his. Just like his family and friends and neighbors, it's easy to cheer Jesus on from the sidelines.But what if he came home today? Would he find us forgiving as much as we ask to be forgiven? Would he find our faith solid and steadfast and sure? Would he find us loving our neighbor – no matter who they are or what they do or where they live?…Have you ever had the opportunity to “go home again” like Sam in “Somebody Somewhere” or like Jesus in Mark's Gospel? Have you ever taken a trip to your old hometown? Have you ever gone back to an old school or to a former Church or to a house where you once lived? I've done it many times – and it's never the same.Not that it's always bad. Not that I've been driven out by angry friends and family. Not even that I wouldn't go back and visit again sometime. But it's never exactly the way I remember it. Rooms always seem smaller, familiar faces are gone or simply not so familiar anymore. And what used to be doesn't always match up with what has become – of the people or of the places or of me.I imagine that's kind of what Jesus found when he returned to Capernaum: rooms – and hearts and minds – that were too small to hold the grace he was trying to share; faces that were once familiar but that had been changed by their doubt and fear, suspicion and sin, maybe; and I wonder if he found that the world from which he had come was nowhere near, or any longer, the place that God had in store for him.So what does this mean for you and me? What kind of welcome would Jesus find if he showed up on your doorstep, or in your office; at your next staff meeting, doctor's appointment, or family dinner? Would he see our faith or would he be amazed by our unbelief? Could he tell we were following? Would he find a warm welcome? Or would he shake the dust from his sandals and move on?Because whether it's Capernaum or Kansas, we are the hometown that waits for Jesus' return. So what does all of this mean for us?I think it means that we make room – in our churches and in our hearts and minds – for whatever and whoever shows up at the door. It means that we allow our faith to be challenged by the breadth and depth – by the size and scope – of God's grace. It means that we work hard to make this world more like what God had in mind in the first place.It means that we go out into the world, too, practice forgiveness… that we preach and promise a new word about love and hope and peace so that when Jesus does come home again, he'll be amazed by something other than our unbelief. He'll be astonished, for a change, at what we've learned and at what we've shared and at what we've become … so that somebody somewhere – and everybody everywhere – will be welcome to the grace that we share, in his name.Amen

This canceling business is not uncontroversial. It's also not new, even if the lingo is. I remember back in 2003 when the Country music trio then-named The Dixie Chicks responded to the US invasion of Iraq by telling a London audience, they were ashamed that our President was from their home state of Texas. The backlash was intense and immediate - with radio stations refusing to play their music and their music sales dropping dramatically. They even received death threats. So did the Beatles, of course, back in 1966, when during an interview John Lennon remarked that his band was currently more popular than Jesus. Aside from the death threats, some Christian groups organized public bonfires of Beatles records and paraphernalia. The Beatles considered ending their US tour early for their own safety. And then there was St. Paul, and even Jesus. Jesus, in describing conflict resolution at one point instructs his followers that if someone inside the community sins egregiously and is unwilling to apologize and atone, they should be treated like "a Gentile or a tax collector". Which is to say they should be treated as outsiders. Maybe Jesus was an early proponent of cancel culture. Want to support our podcast?Give Here https://redeemercincy.tpsdb.com/Give/podcast

Jesus in the wilderness, tempted by the evil one. Okay, I've preached on this like six times between Matthew's story and Luke's. But a different angle today. This is always the story that begins Lent, and we need the lessons in this story because of what it says about Jesus. 1) We need the Jesus of the wilderness. Jesus knows anxiety, knows depression, knows social isolation, knows hurt, knows pain. We need to know that Jesus knows this. Because as we make our way through this wilderness world, how can we make it unless we have a God who knows the way. 2) Jesus didn't choose this. The Spirit led him there. We don't choose our wilderness. I'll give a few examples of this. Does God want us to suffer? I don't think so. But this story tells us that God is ready to shape us and mold us even in the wilderness. 3) The wilderness can last a long time. Forty days and nights! What did that do for Jesus? What can it do for us? Maybe Jesus needed to experience the reality that God's love would hold even in the wilderness - that the Father's love is and always will be an "always and no matter what" kind of love. And with that knowledge, when the tempter came he found that he wasn't at his weakest, but at his strongest. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11 https://www.bible.com/events/49215871

Today, using the account in Mark, we read about the baptism of Jesus by John at the Jordan, and we remember and celebrate our own baptism. A question that often arises with the baptism of Jesus is why would Jesus need to be baptized like the sinners to whom John was preaching, “Repent and be baptized”? Maybe Jesus was baptized and the spirit descended to proclaim he was beloved in order to demonstrate that Jesus was very much one of us and we, too, are beloved. In our own baptism God declares us to be beloved just as Jesus was proclaimed beloved. In our baptism, we are all loved uniquely, and we are thus all of one family, created in the image of God who loves everyone. It is incumbent on each of us to realize that not only are we beloved of God, but everyone is, and we need to reflect that in our relationships. When we are feeling down, we must realize that we are beloved. If we get angry with someone, we must realize that they are also beloved. Remembering our baptism is a way to reconnect to that deep feeling of being beloved.

Mitch and Isi discuss the differences between a German and a British Christmas in their festive cabin. What do you eat? Who delivers your presents... and on what day? They discuss Mrs Claus, raclette, Zulu, zuzhing and of course... booze, booze, booze. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Transcript Mitch: [0:00] For those who are listening and have children in earsight, we may approach subject of Santa, Weihnachtsmann, of the Christkind. So there might be some spoiler alerts for little ears. Christmas song? Bing bong, bing bong, bing bong, bing bong. Isi: [0:23] Oh, my singing is fantastic. No one has Christmasy mood now. Intro Mitch: [0:58] Okay no, let's have a relaxing one. Okay. Let's imagine we're in a little log cabin. Isi: [1:03] Ooh. Mitch: [1:04] It's snowing outside. Isi: [1:06] Mm-hmm. Mitch: [1:07] We've just opened a bottle of whiskey or red wine. What would you like? Isi: [1:11] Red wine. Bottle of whiskey! Mitch: [1:14] Or Prosecco. Isi: [1:16] Prosecco. Mitch: [1:17] Okay. And the fire's on. I'm just going to open up and throw a log on the fire. All the sparks go up in the fire and it's Christmas day for our listeners. Isi: [1:29] And we're alone in a cabin in the woods or what? (Yeah, this isn't another survival episode.( And we are live, let's be authentic here it's the 20th, not far away from the 25th. So we are recording this five days before for Christmas day. (But for you guys.) For you guys, it's a Christmas day today, if you listen on Christmas but it's the 25st of December and this podcast will be a short one, a short hello for Christmas because we didn't want to go on a break. We wanted to produce a little something, something podcast. (A snippet.) A snippet um... to talk about Christmas and say hello and wish you a merry Christmas obviously only if you celebrate and otherwise a good end of the year a good start out into 2024 because it will be our last podcast of the year. Mitch: [2:21] Isi, what does Christmas Day look like for you as a German? And then we can compare notes. (Yeah.) Isi: [2:28] So in Germany, we start celebrating Christmas on the 24th, on Christmas Eve. That is like the big day. Mitch: [2:36] We do 25th in England. Isi: [2:37] Yep. We celebrate in the night. Mitch: [2:41] Day. Isi: [2:42] And that's, yeah, Christmas Day is like morning through the whole day, isn't it? Mitch: [2:46] In England, the whole day is dedicated to... Isi: [2:49] In Germany, we have the 24th, 25th and 26th for Christmas. Mitch: [2:53] Hmm. We just have 25th. Isi: [2:55] No, you don't. Mitch: [2:56] Yeah. Isi: [2:57] Boxing Day. Mitch: [2:57] Oh, 25th and 26th. (Yeah.) Yeah, yeah. Sorry. But 24th, I even worked one day on the 24th. Isi: [3:04] Hmm. Mitch: [3:04] And I was driving home for Christmas. Isi: [3:09] What else? We do have gifts. (But are you open on the 24th?) On the 24th. I mean, not everybody does the same,we do it we we do gifts first and gifts and drinks and then dinner. (Gifts, drinks, dinner. And in England we go; drink, drink drinks, drinks, gifts, drinks, drinks, drinks, drinks, little sleep, then dinner, then another little sleep whilst watching the film Zulu, or the great escape and then...) What is Zulu? Mitch: [3:40] It's like an old Michael Caine movie. (Okay.) And then After Eight / Bailey's session and then pass out on the sofa again. Isi: [3:48] Okay. On the 25th, we usually in our family rest. Because our Christmases usually, are very long into the night. Mitch: [4:00] Hibernating like some grizzly bears. Isi: [4:03] And we also have like some good food or so. but it's like, it's a day of not doing much. We also have a small family so um there was no one else to visit on that day so we just chilled, long walks, good food. But um... (Is that normally the day you do a visit the old and wrinkly people?) Hey! (Sorry.) No, other families go either yeah, grandparents, aunts, uncles somewhere or you go visit your friends or so. But it's the day where you change places to celebrate with someone else. And then, Boxing Day for us, is not called Boxing Day, obviously. Mitch: [4:39] I don't know why it's called Boxing Day. I'd have to look that up. Isi: [4:42] Then people meet again. My parents always meet friends on that day. Have a little Christmas. We always, my sister and I, have been meeting friends for the past, nearly 20 years. And do like a Friendsmas, or however you call that. Friends Christmas. And in some countryside regions, people go to pubs and they keep a stone with them and if you forget a stone you have to buy a round or so, I never understood it, I don't know. (And who is Santa Claus for you? He has many names he goes by, like the devil.) we don't have Santa... well, it depends if you... if you celebrate Christmas, in the religious way, then it's the Christkind coming on the 24th, bringing the gifts, which is basically, I don't really know. It has the looks of an angel. Mitch: [5:31] The Christ child in English, I guess. Isi: [5:34] It's the Christ child. So basically it's Jesus. But it looks like an angel and it comes, I think, with a sledge as well. It's a bit, yeah, that's how I know the pictures. It sits in a sledge. Mitch: [5:47] Like a cherub? You know cherubs that fire little love arrows? Isi: [5:50] Yeah, it's like the typical angel thing. But yeah, I don't really know. It has like a white dress on. Mitch: [5:56] Floaty dress. And they bring the presents? Isi: [6:01] They bring the presents. Um... and then there's also Nicolaus who looks a bit like Santa Claus, but more religious. (Yeah.) And he comes on the 6th of December and brings gifts then already. (Ah, you have Nicolaus Day or something, no?) Well it really depends what you teach your children, really. So you can also obviously just have Christmas for the traditional way and not for the religious way and then you would maybe also say Santa Claus comes. But I don't know. Oh yeah, the Weihnachtsmann. Mitch: [6:35] Do you think? Isi: [6:36] Oh yeah, we actually do have Santa Claus. Mitch: [6:38] Okay. When he comes on the 5th. Isi: [6:40] The Weihnachtsmann. Christmas Man Mitch: [6:41] Christmas Man. (Weihnachtsmann.) Isi: [6:43] He comes also on the 24th. Mitch: [6:47] After or before the lady Jesus? Isi: [6:48] Either Christkind or Weihnachtsmann. Or baby. Baby? Did I say baby? Mitch: [6:52] The baby? Isi: [6:53] You said baby. Mitch: [6:54] I didn't. Isi: [6:55] Maybe Jesus, you said. Mitch: [6:56] I said after or before the lady Jesus. Isi: [6:57] Lady Jesus. I don't know if it's a lady. Let's say it's a baby. Mitch: [7:02] Baby Jesus. Who delivers the gifts? Weihnachtsmann or Baby Jesus lady? Isi: [7:07] I think they can both deliver the gifts. I'm not well prepared for this. Mitch: [7:10] Should we make a disclaimer at the beginning of this, warning parents that your children may lose all faith? Isi: [7:16] So, yeah, one of those come. Or maybe... maybe for some they come together. I guess it's like how you define your own Christmas story. Mitch: [7:25] It's very confusing. We just have one man and he comes through the chimney, through keyholes. He has a magic key. He has magic reindeers, that can fly. He has a sleigh and in that sleigh, holds enough presents for... how many people are there in the world? 6 billion people? Isi: [7:44] A lot more. Mitch: [7:45] But he has enough presents for everyone around the world. He has a naughty list. He has a wife. He lives in the North Pole. (He has a wife?) Mrs. Claus. She looks after the elves, who they make the presents. They make the fur... Isi: [7:57] She looks after them? What does that mean? She cooks for them? She gives them the salary? She does the accounting? Mitch: [8:03] I don't know the details. Yeah, maybe. Isi: [8:04] Company management? Is she an HR? Mitch: [8:07] HMRC should make sure she's, you know... the elves make the skateboards, the rollerblades, PlayStation 4s. They make all that stuff, that goes on the back of the sleigh. He comes, when he comes on the 24th night, you're supposed to be in bed and not see him. He has big black boots and you're supposed to leave out a mince pie for him to eat; a glass of sherry or whiskey depending on what he... your grandad likes to drink. And a carrot for his reindeer. One of the reindeers has a red nose called Rudolph. There's a weird song in British culture of a kid coming downstairs to see his mum making out with Santa Claus, yeah. I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus, underneath the mistletoe that night. (But it's not a real Christmas song, right?) And it's sung by Michael Jackson, so the morals are all over the place. Isi: [9:00] Let's stop it right here. Kids sing that? Mitch: [9:03] Yeah. Isi: [9:06] Isn't Christmas so confusing anyway? Such a confusing thing. And the elves, they make all the gifts. Mitch: [9:13] In the North Pole. Isi: [9:14] Whatever you want? They know how to do it all Mitch: [9:16] And he and you... sometimes... (If i want a new laptop, are they building it?) Yeah exactly, they make... they work with Apple to build laptops they work with Sony to make Playstations they work with Hitachi to make TVs. (We need to put a disclaimer in here as well, laptops you can also get by other companies.) Yeah, yeah, laptops available outside of the north pole. Isi: [9:42] So, what is the dinner? I think we've talked about this before on the podcast. So, what will you consume, eat, drink over the day? Give us a quick round up here. Mitch: [9:51] It's a roast dinner, but zhuzhed. Isi: [9:53] What? Mitch: [9:54] Zhuzh, is a really good kind of, phrase of the week to go into, but let's not do the theme tune. You can zhuzh something up. So, let's say… Isi: [10:04] Where does it come from, zhuzh? Mitch: [10:07] Zhuzh. It could be like a... it sounds Yiddish doesn't it? Let's say, you have a Christmas tree, just a Christmas tree, like a pine tree on its own. You would zhuzh it up by adding lights and decorations, to make it look prettier. (Yeah. )You can zhuzh yourself up a little bit. Oh, I just need to zhuzh myself. Isi: [10:25] Lipstick? Mitch: [10:26] Lipstick, whatever. A bit of cologne. Yeah, but it's nice to say, isn't it? (Wait, let's look that up. How do you write that?) It's a verb. Zhuh. Uh. Zhuh. Isi: [10:39] UK informal. To make something more interesting, more attractive by changing it slightly or adding something into it. The stylist says he would zhoosh up the outfit with a hat. Zhoosh. Mitch: [10:50] Zhoosh. Isi: [10:50] Zhoosh. It's like that H, U, Z, H. Ah, and it's Yiddish. Mitch: [10:56] Is it? Isi: [10:57] Yeah. Interesting. That's a nice, nice phrase. Mitch: [11:00] And how... (Ah, zhoosh me up. )It's a zhooshed up roast dinner. Isi: [11:04] Give me a minute. I need to zhoosh me up. Mitch: [11:06] I need to zhuzh up my face, zhuzh my life up. And so, yeah, it's a zhuzhed up roast dinner, basically. Isi: [11:14] What does that mean? What is different? Mitch: [11:15] This is the time we'd crack out the turkey, because usually roast dinners you'd have either lamb, beef, pork or chicken. For Christmas dinner, it's usually turkey. Don't know why, because turkeys are Christmas animals, apparently. And you'd really just fill it with more stuff. These things called pigs in blankets, which is sausage, wrapped up in a bacon blanket and then, you know, fried or oven-baked. What else would you have? Isi: [11:41] Oh, yeah, I remember when we had English Christmas in your family, your mum did vegan or vegetarian picks and blankets. Do you remember? Mitch: [11:50] I do remember. Or as Boris Johnson says, vegan. (Yeah, does he?) Vegan. (Very German.) Isi: [11:57] Okay, go on. Mitch: [11:59] Yeah, yeah, that's kind of, to be simple, that's what it is. (What do you drink?) Yes. Uh... so but um... specifically, I mean this might not be every family but in the mornings it's nice to have something called a Buck's Fizz or in the U.S you'd say a Mimosa. Buck's Fizz is an orange juice mixed with a fizzy wine, and then you'd work your way up slowly throughout the day, until you basically cannot stand. You'd usually end with like a Baileys or an Amarula. Something creamy. Isi: [12:31] Mm-hmm. Very nice. Mitch: [12:32] I'm also someone who likes this thing called a Snowball, which is eggnog, basically. Vodka and egg. And then you make a shot of that and then you fill the rest of your glass with lemonade. It's like a good pick-me-up drink when you're hitting that kind of, slump hour. Just after you've watched Zulu and it's like a three and a half hour film and you're like, oh God, I'm dying here. Then you have a quick Snowball and you're back in the game, ready to play charades with the family. And what do you do in Germany? Isi: [13:08] Oh, everybody does it differently, really. Some people have... Mitch: [13:13] A zhuzhed up something. Isi: [13:15] We do raclettes often. um often some other people do fondue, which is putting meat into hot water basically, or into oil, or both, then... (You can have a cheese fondue.) That as well, some people do like a traditional thing more like, the English dinner like, duck with like a gravy and like potatoes and like red cabbages that kind of stuff, which is a bit like a roast. Um... some people and I don't really know where it's coming from, but there's something that it's traditional to have a potato salad and a Wiener sausage, Wiener Würstchen with it. (Really?) Which is like super, super, super easy, simple food. And I don't know where it comes from and probably has a, has a story. So some people even do that. And then on the 21st do like a big dinner. So it's very mixed up. Like it's in England it's always the same, right? (Yeah.) Mitch: [14:09] But I feel like there's something we have in common, which is typically for a typical Christmas dinner is mum just completely overworked, sweating, because she's having to cook for like 10 people. And then your dad, getting really annoyed because he has to find where the raclette is somewhere in the loft. And he's all covered in dust. And he's fallen over a couple of times, because he's had a few too many drinks beforehand. And then, not doing anything from about 4pm onwards, because he's too busy trying to fix the... DVD player or whatever, so everyone can watch Home Alone. Isi: [14:40] Yeah, that's true. Mitch: [14:43] I'd like to hear, well... we'd both like to hear how Christmas looks for you guys. So feel free to send us a message, write to us, speak to us, go to easyenglish.fm or write to us at podcast@easyenglish.video. Isi: [14:57] And if you don't celebrate Christmas and have another celebration, another holiday that you celebrate, please tell us about that too. That's it, we do a quick one this this year we would like to remind you of our 30 Day Challenge, our first ever 30 Day Challenge starting on January 2nd, 30 days until January 31st, you can practice your English with us, every day, for continuous 30 days we give you little challenges it will be fun it will be about different topics about speaking writing understanding English. And it's all happening on our Discord server, where we anyway are every day chatting with our members. And you only have to do one thing. Become a member, join our community, and go to easyenglish.video/membership And yeah, join us. We are so much looking forward to this. We hope you all come there and spend a month of learning English with us. Yeah. Please, please join. That will be fun. Mitch: [15:57] Yeah, we have a nice community on Discord, don't we? )Yeah.) you'll get to meet and chat with and yeah, we'll be there to chat with you as well and to get to know you. (Yes yes.) all right, that's it. (That's it, end of the year, we want to thank you all, thanks for listening, thanks for it's it's incredible still to me, to you probably too, that people actually listen to this. Yeah, have a good and... and hopeful end of the year. We hope you can all relax, you're healthy and next year will be a brilliant year. Te-ra!) Merry Christmas. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Curious about who Jesus is? Maybe Jesus isn't who you thought. In this episode, Brian teaches through Luke 1:1-4 and shares about the person of Jesus and the certainty we can have in who He is. 

Clint is back with another Fluid addition of the "Off N Beat W/ Clint Nelson" Podcast. Enjoy! Go follow the show on spotify or apple podcasts.In Episode 207, Clint Rambles about: (0:28) Bible Thumper Ruslan KD response to Killer Mike.(4:15) Intro to the Pod.(5:35) harvard study on "What makes people happy?"(6:48)"I want a little Thor" blaming having children for your lack of competence(9:42) i've been looking into real estate...financing is not normal(12:12) going through your partners phone(13:52) "if you can kick someone in the face..."(14:10) Fake Flexibility(16:37) Faux Fur + Cardi B & Offset more drama(18:30) Artists okay just dropping music every 6 years.(21:54) Entitlement in Pursuit(24:52) Dark Web Desires(27:52) The Design is never good enough(28:42) "Religious goons" Arrogance with people of faith...(such as Ruslan KD)(32:28) Maybe Jesus is a coward(35:48) Jesus lovers have no real belief(38:00) The Yacht Girls(44:12) Outro to the PodClick the Link Below & leave a thumbs up on the video and subscribe. Thank you!https://youtu.be/LDk-SHmcC40

How do you see Jesus? We are called to cast our eyes on Him. We are told to see Him and we are given descriptions of Him. For me, for a long time, most of my images of Jesus had Him on the throne at times, but often looked back into His ministry on the earth. Maybe Jesus healing people. Maybe Jesus on the cross. Those are great ways to visualize His love. But those are past events. Those are earth bound events. They don't exactly picture where He is now, or fully embody who He is. So let's give some attention to the book of Revelation. John is show a representation fo Jesus, and it is both comforting and terrifying. We are asked to take in two converse ideas of Christ: slain lamb, and yet powerful and wrathful lamb. Let's see Jesus in His present place, and perhaps find ourselves on our faces like John being lifted up by the soft yet firm hand of our Savior and King. - If I asked you to picture Jesus, what image would come to mind?- How can seeing Him on earth be a slightly limited view of Jesus?- How does Jesus look to you if you imagine Him presently in heaven?- How do you balance the view of a pure and loving Christ with flaming eyes?- How will it shape your faith to see both the shed blood and the pertruding sword?

Maybe Jesus swag comes to us in grace, that unearned and underserved love of Jesus that everyone sees in how we love and care for our neighbor.

Here we are on Palm Sunday…or at least it happened on Sunday, and the Preacher Dad helps us to get into the shoes of the multitude. And while they might have been looking for deliverance from Rome, Jesus came to save them from a much greater tyrant – sin itself. Maybe Jesus has done something […] The post 050 – Unexpected Deliverance appeared first on Preacher Dad.

JESUS IS HELPED BY SIMON OF CYRENE  – Jesus Walking in the Way of the Cross (VIDEO)   LYRICS TO MUSIC: Brother Simon of Cyrene You know not what you mean You know not what you mean Chosen from the ranks unknown Enlisted in an army   The only one worth fighting for The only one worth fighting for Lost I'm sure but what you hold Was made to save the world No broken tree so beautiful Water blood the stains to come But your sweat joins in the mix Like no others ever did Like no others ever did   MESSAGE SUMMARY:  Here stands a man, ‘on his way in from the country,' (Luke 23:26), who stumbles upon a spectacle like no other. In front of him trod criminals to their death, convicted and condemned, being led out of Jerusalem carrying the instruments of their own mortality on their backs. The criminals were minutes away from the ends of their lives; Simon was minutes away from town.   He had made a nearly nine-hundred-mile journey from Cyrene, a city residing in what is present day Libya in North Africa. He was most likely in Jerusalem for the festival of Passover, as many Jews from his home had made custom. But the singularity of this moment went well beyond an annual ritual. He was ‘seized' by some Roman soldiers, and made to help one of the criminals. Undoubtedly a confusing circumstance, this was not what Simon had traveled all this way for. It must have been quite unnerving. It was not a part of his plan. But Simon did as instructed. He lifted the beam with the Savior of the world. He sweat with Jesus, as each step became more difficult than the one before. They made progress together, toward the hill where the cross would be lifted. The blood of Jesus could have stained his clothes. Maybe Jesus spoke to him, words unique and perfect. Simon took on a one-of-a-kind role. No other man in history fulfilled such an appointment and none ever will again.   There is much we don't know about Simon of Cyrene. We don't know if Simon knew that the man he was helping was the one some called the Christ. We don't know if he had even heard of Jesus before. What we do know is that he did not volunteer his aid. Simon was compelled to help Jesus. He was forced by a soldier out of his role as bystander, and into the canon of scripture forever. He was enlisted for a purpose unknown to him, part of God's divine system, perfect and mysterious. And in this plan, he was made to help carry the cross of Christ, regardless of whether he was averse or indifferent to the matter. Simon had no choice.   Though in many ways we are like him, this is where we differ greatly from Simon. Jesus calls his disciples to choose the cross daily. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” (Matthew 16:24-25). Taking up our cross means choosing to suffer under the weight of the cross beam with others. It might mean entering into the lives of those in need and walking with them along their path, even if it is difficult or painful. We have no Roman soldiers to compel us. No spears at our backs to make us act. We must step forward to join Jesus on his ‘Sorrowful Way.' We must help him bear his cross, and in turn, help lift the crosses of others. Written by Jesse Braswell Roberts / Poor Bishop Hooper golgothamusic.com // poorbishophooper.com // Second edition ©2022 Jesse Braswell Roberts / Poor Bishop Hooper   TODAY'S PRAYER: Who do you know that has a heavy cross to bear? Pray for them. Pray for those in your life that you should help. Pray for the courage to step forward and join them in carrying their burdens. TODAY'S AFFIRMATION: Today, I affirm that because I am in Jesus Christ, I will trust in the Lord with all my heart. I will trust in the Lord with all of my heart and lean not on my own understanding.  In all my ways I will seek to know Him, and He will make my pathways straight.   From Proverbs 3:5f SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Mark 15:21: “A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.”. Further Reading: Matthew 27:32; Luke 23:26. A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org. THIS SUNDAY'S AUDIO SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach's Current Sunday Sermon: “How Does God Say He Loves You: Part 5 The New Covenant”, at our Website: https://awtlser.podbean.com/ DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB

Is the Resurrection hypothesis the best explanation for the know facts? Perhaps there are other hypotheses in circulation that rely on a natural explanation. Did the disciples experience a grief hallucination? Could the women have gone to the wrong tomb? Could Jesus have fainted on the cross? Maybe Jesus was an alien. These objections and more on today's episode. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chan-hearron/message

The Last Supper is the final meal that Jesus shares with his 12 best friends, the disciples. And if we examine what Jesus did during this time together, it reveals to us that Jesus has a plan for your life. The key is that we need to walk alongside Him. In our Passion Series, we are following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ during the last week of his life and one of the cornerstone events of this week is The Last Supper. Before Jesus shares a meal with his friends, he does something truly scandalous. He kneels down and washes their feet. The God of the Universe serves and honors his followers by washing their feet - a job usually saved for servants. And this communicates something to us, that we too are guests of honor! When Jesus invites you to his table, he is saying 100% that you are accepted and loved absolutely exactly as you are. You do not have to change a thing to sit down with Jesus. Jesus doesn't need anything from you, but he does have so much for you. So, how do you invite Jesus to transform your life? Accept His invitation to step into life together. Follow Him daily. Do the things that He does. So, how will Jesus transform your life? Maybe Jesus wants to replace your angry heart with one filled with peace. Maybe Jesus wants to take doubts and your questions and help you explore a depth of faith you've never experienced before. Maybe Jesus wants to see you conquer your feelings of self-inadequacy so that you can embrace who God called you to be. Maybe Jesus has a plan and a future for your life that He can't even wait for you to discover. What we know for sure is that Jesus has a vision for you and your life, which you can experience if you will walk along with Him. Watch this message from Pastor Zach Taylor, and learn about Holy Week, the most sacred 7 days in Christianity. #LiquidChurch #TheLastSupper #Passion #HolyWeek #JesusWashesTheDisciplesFeet #APlanForYourLife #Jesus #Christianity #ChristianChurch

Sometimes we think we have to go to an extreme length to be a Good Samaritan or a Good Neighbor but maybe it's a little simpler than that. Maybe Jesus is calling us to all shapes and sizes of Good Neighboring. So, how will you Go First in being a Good Samaritan, or Neighbor, today?

What happens when the sheep fire the shepherd? The Jews were accustomed to thinking of themselves as the special flock of God - even though their own scriptures revealed a pretty dismal track record of following Him. When the Shepherd finally showed up in person, there was outright revolt. But were they dismissing the Shepherd, or themselves? Maybe Jesus' fold is made up of whoever will hear His voice, and follow. Here's Jim with more of, The Good Shepherd; Ninety-and-Nine. Listen to Right Start Radio every Monday through Friday on WCVX 1160AM (Cincinnati, OH) at 9:30am, WHKC 91.5FM (Columbus, OH) at 5:00pm, WRFD 880AM (Columbus, OH) at 9:00am. Right Start can also be heard on One Christian Radio 107.7FM & 87.6FM in New Plymouth, New Zealand. You can purchase a copy of this message, unsegmented for broadcasting and in its entirety, for $7 on a single CD by calling +1 (800) 984-2313, and of course you can always listen online or download the message for free. RS02142023_0.mp3Scripture References: Matthew 18

Matthew 5:1-12When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he began to speak and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. We've all heard that experience is the best teacher. Some of us have stories confirming that to be true… but maybe others don't agree with the age old adage. For example, experience is the best teacher doesn't seem to hold up well with most if not all of the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the merciful. These are not characteristics or situations our culture celebrates. Afterall, there's no scholarships for those who show mercy or are gentle and content! There are no greeting cards that say “hooray, you're mourning!” And if you've ever been or felt poor in spirit, felt like you were in despair and totally hopeless toward your inner life: your thoughts, feelings, confidence, and you beg God to help because you are completely unable to help yourself, if you've felt that way, did it feel like a blessing?I think of the neighbors of the church I served in Glendale, AZ. By neighbors I don't mean the families in the houses surrounding the church, but our neighbors who slept on our campus under the bushes out front or in the breezeways. Most, if not all, struggled with addiction, and with undiagnosed or unmanaged mental illness. Many had lived on the streets for years, some more than a decade. As I got to know them, I listened and heard their feelings: despondent, helpless, begging God to help break their addiction, for the system to work, to feel loved. They were poor and spiritually poor, but I'm not sure I'd called or they would call themselves blessed.Maybe Jesus is wrong on this one, maybe these things, these beatitudes just aren't right and true. If that's the case, Jesus can chalk this one up to inexperience: he just doesn't know any better, he doesn't know the way the world works yet. He hasn't experienced how the merciful get screwed over, or the one's who fight for justice don't see the fruition of their efforts, or the peacemakers pale in comparison to the violence of this world. Afterall, he's still young… What is he? 29? Maybe 30? Heck, this is his first sermon! And coming from a 29 year old about to have a child, I feel very confident that there certainly is more I don't know or haven't experienced compared to what I do know and have experienced. If experience is the best teacher, then maybe Jesus needs a little more.But that's not the case. Jesus is speaking from experience, it's just not included in the part of the text we read today. Just before Jesus climbed the mountain, he had been off in Galilee, and Jerusalem, and beyond, where he'd been “curing every disease and sickness among the people.” As he traveled, people brought the sick and the lame, people with all sorts of diseases and demons, pains and paralysis. And we have to remember, that to be one of these people in the time of Jesus didn't mean you were just sick: you were an outcast, viewed as a terrible sinner who deserved their plight. You were poor, likely unable to work, and forced to the margins of society. These people were the poor in spirit, the meek, and the mourning. These were the people who hungered and thirst for justice because they've been starved by injustice. After calling his first disciples, these are the people Jesus goes to; Not the rich in spirit, not the joyful, not the ambitious, but the opposite. If experience is the best teacher, no wonder Jesus preaches with such potency. And if experience is the best teacher, no one knows or has lived these beatitudes more fully than Jesus himself. He's the poor in spirit who cries out in abandonment asking “why, God?!”, the one who mourns a world full of oppression and sin, the meek one who put all people before himself, the one who hungers and thirst for justice in every land, the giver of mercy to the least deserving, the pure in heart who sees God's will and does it, the peacemaker who overcomes death not with violence but self-sacrifice, the persecuted and reviled One who willingly went to the cross. Like my neighbors in AZ, I, and most people, wouldn't call that blessed. Which is precisely the point. In the beatitudes, Jesus isn't just describing reality, he makes reality. When Jesus speaks, the Word creates what it declares. In other words, The beatitudes are promises, promises to all who find themselves in these situations. You are and will be blessed. Not because of what you have done or didn't do, but because of what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do through the cross. In that way, those who are poor in spirit, persecuted and reviled, they are blessed because Jesus is there beside them and makes it so. My neighbors in AZ, they are blessed because Jesus promises to be there with them. And it's not blessed as in lucky, wealthy or successful, but blessed as in favored by God because that's where God is at work. Hopefully, there is some comfort in knowing that no matter how helpless or desperate or mournful you feel, Jesus has felt that too. And we see that most clearly in Christ crucified. Now I want to be clear. These beatitudes are not imperatives. They don't command you to become poor in spirit or meek or mournful as if that would save you. They aren't goals you can check off. On the cross, Christ became all these things, each beatitude for you, giving you grace. So the beatitudes are not demands, but a warning and a promise. A warning to potential disciples back then and to followers today. Picture yourself on that mountainside and it's as if Jesus is saying: “because you follow me, because you will speak and act and live in ways different from the culture around you, you will find yourself poor in spirit, meek and mournful, hungry and thirsty. You will be merciful and people will take advantage of you. You will attempt peace and you will be a lonely voice. It will be hard. You'll feel pain, maybe even despair. But I promise, you're blessed because I am there with you”.As followers of Jesus, heed the warning and trust the promise. Know it won't take very long and we won't have to look very hard, till we find ourselves in these situations, like: mourning the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols; hungering and thirsting for justice for our black and brown siblings; acting meek by refusing to take part in violent and unjust systems; making peace in our own families and communities. May experience be the best teacher and may you be blessed.Amen.

Scripture Reading: John 17:1-26 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you— 2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me at your side with the glory I had with you before the world was created.6 “I have revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they understand that everything you have given me comes from you, 8 because I have given them the words you have given me. They accepted them and really understand that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying on behalf of them. I am not praying on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you have given me because they belong to you. 10 Everything I have belongs to you, and everything you have belongs to me, and I have been glorified by them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. 12 When I was with them I kept them safe and watched over them in your name that you have given me. Not one of them was lost except the one destined for destruction, so that the scripture could be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience my joy completed in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. 18 Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. 19 And I set myself apart on their behalf, so that they too may be truly set apart.20 “I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, 21 that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. 22 The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, even if the world does not know you, I know you, and these men know that you sent me. 26 I made known your name to them, and I will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them, and I may be in them.”Main ThemesJesus' Last Will and TestamentChapters 13 to 17 resemble a testament, what we now call a will (the full name being a Last Will and Testament). Chapter 17 is particularly reminiscent of the genre, given the frequency of blessings and wish-prayers in testaments. Although recognizing the “testament flavor” of this chapter does not teach us much theology, it certainly does tell us something about the mood. To Jesus' audience, he sounds like someone who is saying good bye in light of his upcoming death. We should keep in mind this somber tone when reading the text.Praying With Eyes OpenIf we saw Jesus pray, we would probably think his mannerisms were quite strange. As in many modern cultures, we pray with our eyes cast down, probably closed, and our hands together. First century Jews and Greeks prayed quite differently. Their eyes would be open with their gaze directed up to the heavens. Their hands often would be lifted up. This is by no means the main point of this passage, but awareness of our cultural practices is always valuable. If someone does not bow his head to pray, he is not necessarily a heathen.A Fulfilling PrayerChapter 17 is a long prayer. It can roughly be divided into three sections. Jesus prays for himself, then for his disciples, and finally for all future believers. Before we proceed to analyze each section, we should consider how Jesus is fulfilling different Old Testament types.The prayer is thoroughly Jewish while being thoroughly Christocentric. The common Jewish motifs of the unity of God's people; the people's love for God; God's glory; the paramount importance of obedience to God; the setting apart of God's people; and, the crucial role of God's agent are all present. However, each of these themes is reinterpreted through the lens of Christ. Perhaps a better word than reinterpreted is fulfilled. Let's review the Old Testament types that express these themes.Jesus Fulfilling MosesIn chapter 17, Jesus is the greater Moses. Recall Moses' interaction with God immediately after the Golden Calf incident. Exodus 33:3-18 (edited for brevity):[The Lord said to Moses,] “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.”When the people heard this troubling word they mourned . . . .Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.And when Moses went out to the tent, all the people would get up and stand at the entrance to their tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent. And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people, each one at the entrance of his own tent, would rise and worship. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his servant, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have been saying to me, ‘Bring this people up,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. But you said, ‘I know you by name, and also you have found favor in my sight.' Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your way, that I may know you, that I may continue to find favor in your sight. And see that this nation is your people.”And the Lord said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”And Moses said to him, “If your presence does not go with us, do not take us up from here. . . .The Lord said to Moses, “I will do this thing also that you have requested, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”And Moses said, “Show me your glory.”Notice the similar themes between Moses' intercession for Israel and Jesus intercession for his disciples. Particularly, both Moses and Jesus pray for a display of glory. We have discussed glory many times before. It is a pregnant term with a large range of meaning. We normally associate it with exaltation. However, its main (although not exclusive) meaning is revelation. “Show me your glory” could be paraphrased as “show me who you really are; show me all of you.” Besides glory, the other theme strongly shared between Moses' intercessory prayer and Jesus' intercessory prayer is the request that God's presence go with his people.Jesus Fulfilling the High PriestThe comparison between Jesus and the office of the high priest is not an inference—it is made explicit in the New Testament.Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death. For surely his concern is not for angels, but he is concerned for Abraham's descendants. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:14-18)What was the role of the high priest? Let's consider what a Christian website tells us (edited for brevity):The high priest was the supreme religious leader of the Israelites. The office of the high priest was hereditary and was traced from Aaron, the brother of Moses, of the Levite tribe (Exodus 28:1; Numbers 18:7). . . .Because the high priest held the leadership position, one of his roles was overseeing the responsibilities of all the subordinate priests (2 Chronicles 19:11). . . . [T]he Hebrew people would go to the high priest in order to know the will of God (Numbers 27:21). . . . In the New Testament, we find a reference to the high priest having the gift of prophecy (John 11:49-52).The high priest had to offer a sin offering not only for the sins of the whole congregation, but also for himself (Leviticus 4:3-21). . . .The most important duty of the high priest was to conduct the service on the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month of every year. Only he was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place behind the veil to stand before God. Having made a sacrifice for himself and for the people, he then brought the blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat, God's “throne” (Leviticus 16:14-15). He did this to make atonement for himself and the people for all their sins committed during the year just ended (Exodus 30:10). It is this particular service that is compared to the ministry of Jesus as our High Priest (Hebrews 9:1-28).In light of chapter 17, consider the following prayer by the high priest:The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is the way you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:“‘“The Lord bless you and protect you;The Lord make his face to shine upon you,and be gracious to you;The Lord lift up his countenance upon youand give you peace.”'”“So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:22-26)There are is an unmistakably common theme between the high priestly prayer in Numbers and Jesus' prayer in John: “Lord make [your] face to shine upon [your people].”Jesus Fulfilling the ProphetsThe main role of the prophets was to receive the word of the Lord and communicate it to the people. However, there were instances in which the prophets acted as intercessors. Consider the prophet Amos:The Sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw him making locusts just as the crops planted late were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest.) When they had completely consumed the earth's vegetation, I said,“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel!How can Jacob survive?He is too weak!”The Lord decided not to do this. “It will not happen,” the Lord said.The Sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw the Sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields. I said,“Sovereign Lord, stop!How can Jacob survive?He is too weak!”The Lord decided not to do this. The Sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.” (Amos 7:1-6)The intercessory role of the prophets is natural—indeed, nearly inevitable. If the Lord communicates terrible news to you, you could hardly avoid responding, “Oh Lord, relent!”Just like there is a similarity of themes between the messages of Moses and Jesus and the high priest and Jesus, there is a similarity of themes between the words of the prophets and Jesus. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus has shared not only the words of God but God's very image with the people. In chapter 17, Jesus considers the tribulation to come and prays that God may show favor to his people.Jesus Prays for HimselfAs I pointed out above, Chapter 17 is a long prayer. The first section (vv. 1-5) can be considered a prayer for Jesus himself.Mutual GlorificationJesus begins by highlighting the mutual glorification between the father and the son. Remember, for example, John 12:23-28:Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. The one who loves his life destroys it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards it for eternal life. If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow me, and where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.“ Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me from this hour'? No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”God receiving glory by glorifying his servants is also commonly found in the Old Testament in relation to Israel. For example:Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes;shout out, you subterranean regions of the earth.O mountains, give a joyful shout;you too, O forest and all your trees!For the Lord protects Jacob;he reveals his splendor through Israel. (Isaiah 44:23, emphasis added)Glorification Through HumiliationAbove I said that “glory” has a large range of meaning and that revelation is its primary aspect. Sure, it's primary but certainly not exclusive connotation. Glory also implies honor. Notice how Jesus will be “glorified”: through crucifixion—the most shameful punishment imaginable. To quote Tom Holland (the historian, not Spider-Man):Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion—an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus—was to be worshipped as a god.To further quote Tom Holland:“We preach Christ crucified,” St Paul declared, “unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.” He was right. Nothing could have run more counter to the most profoundly held assumptions of Paul's contemporaries – Jews, or Greeks, or Romans. The notion that a god might have suffered torture and death on a cross was so shocking as to appear repulsive. Familiarity with the biblical narrative of the Crucifixion has dulled our sense of just how completely novel a deity Christ was. In the ancient world, it was the role of gods who laid claim to ruling the universe to uphold its order by inflicting punishment – not to suffer it themselves.Holland's statement that “[f]amiliarity with the biblical narrative of the Crucifixion has dulled our sense[s]” hits me quite hard. We have a difficult time understanding the offense of Christ praying, “Glorify your Son,” as he means “May your Son be crucified.”Authority Over All HumanityIn verse 17:2, we read to that Jesus has been given authority over all humanity. Depending on the translation you are reading, your text may read “all flesh” (the literal Greek) instead of “all humanity.” The meaning is exactly what it seems: Jesus has been given authority over all people. This is an attribute exclusive to God, hence emphasizing Jesus' divinity. It is also a powerful restatement of prior teachings, such as:The Father loves the Son and has placed all things under his authority. (John 3:35)Now This is Eternal LifeIn a striking statement, Jesus says eternal life is to know God and know Jesus. Because we understand the Jewish conception of eternal life and that Jesus has consistently referred to eternal life as something quite literal, we need not consider a gnostic interpretation of the statement. Instead, we need to understand how eternal life is tethered to having an intimate connection with God.And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us insight to know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:20-21)Jesus Prays for the DisciplesIn verse 6, Jesus begins to pray for the disciples—and I mean his disciples present at the time. In verse 20 there is a shift towards future believers.They Belonged to GodJesus begins his prayer for the disciples by specifying that they “belonged to [God].” We should consider, in what sense? Obviously all creation belongs to God, so the statement must mean something beyond that. There are different interpretations available. One alternative is that these men were part of Israel's remnant—the few Jews still faithful to God. Because they were already true believers, they belonged to God and recognized his voice.Jesus replied, “I told you and you do not believe. The deeds I do in my Father's name testify about me. But you refuse to believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. (John 10:25-28)Another alternative is that there was nothing particular about the disciples, not even earnest faith. God simply placed them in the right place and at the right time such that they would be the ones to hear and follow Jesus.Regardless of which interpretation one takes, in chapter 17 Jesus makes clear that the disciples have come to believe that Jesus and his words are from God and that they are true (“they accepted them”). Notice, however, that this belief alone will not keep them from deserting Jesus in the darkest hour.Jesus Returns Custody to the FatherThe disciples belonged to God, and God gave them over to Jesus. Jesus watched over them and kept them safe while he was in the world. As Jesus leaves, he returns custody of God's people to God. “Holy Father, keep them safe in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.” (emphasis added) “When I was with them I kept them safe and watched over them in your name that you have given me. Not one of them was lost except the one destined for destruction . . . .” (emphasis added) “They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth.” (emphasis added)Given the context of persecution in the prior chapters and alluded to in verse 14 of the current chapter, the safety for which Jesus prays is partly physical. But notice that the prayer for Jesus' disciples alludes to even greater dangers: deserting or antagonizing the community of believers; being lost and destroyed; and becoming separated from “the truth.” At the expense of opening a theological pandora's box, I think I should point out the prayer at least partially about apostasy.The apostasy that Jesus prays about is hardly theoretical. In John's letters we learn that it happened often.Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. We know from this that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us. (1 John 2:18-19)Three verses down from the quotation above, John defines an antichrist as follows: “Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22) This verse is most likely referring to the apostates who no longer confess the unity of Jesus and the Father (as opposed to someone who does not make that confession but never made it to begin with).In the World but Not of the WorldThe phrase “in the world but not of the world” is a popular Christian mantra (and I say that without a hint of criticism). It is in fact a true and accurate statement, found nearly word for word in the Gospel of John. Notice that Jesus does not pray for a less awkward situation. Jesus could say, “Father, give them their nation.” Or, “Father, rapture them into the heavens.” But he does not. He says, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world.” (emphasis added) But, “keep them safe from the evil one.”What safety is Jesus praying for? This relates to my prior discussion of apostasy. Of course some level of physical safety is in view here, but the passage returns again and again to the idea of keeping Jesus' disciples “in the truth” (e.g., v. 17). The prayer is that disciples will not fall away or be misguided as the world hates them and the enemy opposes them. Remember the Lord's Prayer:And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:13)Forgive me as I go a bit off script here, but I think we should consider a practical application of this “in the world but not of the world” idea. Consider Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 5:I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. In no way did I mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers and idolaters, since you would then have to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what do I have to do with judging those outside? Are you not to judge those inside? But God will judge those outside. Remove the evil person from among you. (1 Corinthians 5:9-13)Notice that Paul, in a very practical setting, repeats the theme found in Jesus' prayer. He advises the early church not to take itself out of the world. Not at all. Who are the real problems? To use the words in John, those who are not “one just as [Jesus and the Father] are one;” those who claim to be but are not “in the truth;” those who claim to be found but “are lost.” Indeed, those that John might call “antichrists.”I acknowledge that the words of Paul take a great deal of wisdom to apply. What I have written here is by no means a comprehensive discussion of the topic. The purpose of this detour is to show how the spiritual truths discussed in John have very real, practical applications. Jesus Prays for Later DisciplesBeginning with verse 20, Jesus changes his focus from his current disciples to his future disciples.Those Who Believe Through TestimonyFor centuries now, critics and scholars have attempted to recover the “historical Jesus.” Many claims have been made. Maybe Jesus really was attempting to lead a coup but failed when he died. Perhaps Jesus really thought he was divine but was proven sorely mistaken upon his defeat on the cross. The theories are countless. However, notice that in the Gospel of John we have a clear and accurate prediction of events.(1) Jesus will submit to his persecutors and be killed.(2) Jesus' sacrifice will glorify God, which in turn will glorify Jesus.(3) Jesus will be gone from the disciples for a little while.(4) Then Jesus will appear to them for a little while.(5) Jesus will send another Advocate to play the role of Jesus to his disciples.(6) Then future disciples will be made through the testimony of the current disciples.The plan is crystal clear. And although critics can deny the spiritual implications of these events, no one can deny these events played out exactly as set forth. (Of course, the text could have been written later to conform to the facts, but at least there is consistency between the text and reality.)Moreover, we should pause for a moment when we read that future believers will come through the testimony of current believers. God could have chosen to spread his word differently, but this is the method he chose. We should also remember that the Advocate bears witness with believers. There is a spiritual dimension to what is happening.The Unity of Later DisciplesJesus prays that later disciples will be like his chosen, twelve disciples. All believers ought to be one with one another just like Jesus and the Father are one! In a prior session I remarked how shocking this comparison of unity really is, and now we see clearly that it applies not only to the twelve but to us. And to make matters more spectacular, every believer is to be united not only to one another but to God himself (“I pray that they will be in us.”)! And what is the purpose (or at least one of the purposes) of this unity with each other and Christ? That the world might believe that God sent Jesus.Wait, what? Literally in the prior verse Jesus tells us that future believers will come to faith through the testimony of current believers. A few words later Jesus is telling us that future believers will come to believe by the unity of believers with one another and God. Which one is it? Of course you know where I am headed with this, but it must be made explicit lest we miss it. That testimony in verse 20 is clearly not only words—unity itself is integral to that testimony. This theme of unity as testimony is found all over the epistles of John, so much so I had a hard time selecting just one passage. Nonetheless, here is one example:Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. The person who does not love does not know God because God is love. By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:7-14)As a closing thought, consider this shocking comparison:I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. (John 17:20-21, emphasis added)So they took away the stone. Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you have listened to me. I knew that you always listen to me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.” (John 11:41-44)Our unity should reveal Jesus like raising a man from the dead revealed Jesus.Love, Love, LoveJesus imminent departure will not mean abandonment. Jesus has and will continue to make God known to his disciples. The result will be unity and that we might know “[God] ha[s] loved [us] just as [God] ha[s] loved [Jesus].” (v. 23, 26) God loves us like he loves Christ. May we rejoice in that forever.

Conspiracy theories abound about Jesus' death and resurrection. Was the idea of physical resurrection borrowed from other myths? Maybe Jesus was only in a coma? Maybe someone stole the body, or it was the wrong tomb, or the authors just made the whole thing up. Join us as Pastor Jon analyzes and debunks each theory.   Speaker: Jon Thompson Date: 05/15/22

If you knew you had only TODAY to live, how would you spend it and why?  That exercise will tell you what is ACTUALLY most important to you. Maybe Jesus can give us some clues!

Courtney says the chemistry was instant and she thought their first date was great. Maybe Jesus thought something different because he's really avoiding her now. We'll find out what's up when we get him on the phone.

There's a great scene in the 5th chapter of John where Jesus encounters a certain man who had been sick for 38 years. Much of that time was spent lying next to a pool that had some lore attached to it. He had tried for decades to make it into the pool when the water stirred because, it was believed, you would be healed if you were first to the stirring water. For years and years this man was in that spot…waiting…not getting any better…doing not much else. Jesus saw him lying there and asked him, “Do you want to get well?” Seems like a harsh questions—mean even. But it's a fair question. Had this guy not figured out a way in all that time to do what was needed to be done? Had he realized either 1. how to accomplish the task or 2. he wasn't able to and could move on with his life beyond lying there. Have you been dealing with an issue in your life for a long time? Maybe you have an addiction to something. Maybe something dangerous…or maybe something not-so-dangerous, but still problematic Maybe you struggle with confidence…you just can't seem to get out of the rut of intimidation Maybe you have had an idea for your house that you have been meaning to accomplish…and the task is still unfinished. Maybe you have some goals in your ministry that have captivated your heart, but you have been reluctant to try them…or maybe even bring them up to your colleagues who may not share the same passion. Maybe you have been meaning to eat better… or spend less… or rest more… or invest more time with your family… We all have something…most of us multiple somethings that we want to see done…and they remain undone as time rolls on. If Jesus encountered you today and knew exactly what your struggle was…maybe his question of “do you want to be healed” wouldn't seem so strange. There is no time like the present, right? If not now, when? Get busy living or get busy dying We could utter a number of sayings that get at the same point. The point is this… Do you really want the change? If you aren't living right now like you want the change…then it may be time to consider how badly you really want it. I've worked with many people over the years in many types of jobs. There are always those people who show up late and/or underprepared. They claim it's just their nature. As a manager or boss my response is always the same: “If I told you I would pay you $1,000,000 to meet me on the 13th step of the 15th floor of the Empire State building at 11:32am on Thursday June 2nd, 2022…how confident would you be that you would get the $1,000,000?” Most people say, “I guarantee you I could get there at that time.” So…then why can't you be at work on time? The answer is…it's not important enough to them to be at work on time. It's not important enough to be prepared. Maybe Jesus was asking that certain man to consider just how important it was to be healed. If he were healed…it would mean he had no reason to lie by that pool day after day. He'd be expected to get up, find work, and live his life with responsibility. How badly did he want to get busy living? And maybe the way he'd spent the last couple of decades had already answered that question. I know…I'm being really rough on this poor guy. Maybe he HAD tried everything he could to be as healed as possible. Only he and God know the facts on that one. But what about you, friend? How badly do you really want that change? Let's commit our time right now…today…and then tomorrow…and then the day after that to showing ourself and the world just how badly we want to see the passions of our heart become a reality. You can do this. With prayer, faith, hope, and love…you can do just about anything you commit to. Or maybe it's time to change course on that idea. And that's okay. Sometimes it's just as healing to change course as it is to get what we've been longing for. Wherever you are and whatever is on your heart, may it bring you peace and healing. May you live today like you are

This letter spends a lot of time in the context of the different religious temples and gods and goddesses, and certain practices that some folks in the community participated in. The Nicolations were a group within this church who chose to view other religions' practices as fine to incorporate into their daily life. Essentially a blending of other religious practices from their surrounding community and previous contexts, within their daily life as Jesus people. So the letter written to this church is essentially saying, "See how some folks are choosing to blur some of the lines and practice some kinda sketchy things alongside following Jesus? Well, don't do that. Here's what you should do instead." If you really think about it, we aren't that different in the world today! We choose to ignore certain standards, allow violence to be enacted against our enemies via physical harm or gossip or slander, look past neglected and marginalized communities in need of justice. Our inaction and complacent acceptance of such wrongs is what it looks like to devote our attention to other gods. So how do we remain faithful? How do we overcome? Well, maybe we dwell on the sword that comes out of Jesus' mouth; we dwell on the truth. Whatever is true, noble, right, and so on, think on such things, as it talks about in Philippians. What we fill our minds with impacts how we live. But maybe it's even more than that. Jesus says, "To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna." Maybe it's not enough to just avoid things that harm us. Maybe we're meant to overcome. Maybe Jesus is calling us to find things that are wrong in the world and work with him to set them right. And maybe it's only when we step into that work - the work of justice - that God gives us hidden manna...gives us exactly what we need to endure. ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 2:12-17 http://bible.com/events/48889715

Questions Jesus Asked: Part 1 Who do you say I am? Today we begin our new 4 part teaching series “Questions Jesus Asked” Often, we are quite content to ask questions of Jesus. Who are you? Where are you? Do you hear me? How could you let that happen? What do you want me to do? We often ask questions of Jesus, but do we pause to hear the questions he asks of us? Throughout this series we will explore Jesus' tendency to ask questions at pivotal times – one question from each of the four Gospels – and seek to understand what He meant by asking them and how the answers can help us live lives of faith today. ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16:13-20‬‬ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. C.S. Lewis once said “You must make your choice: either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. We begin our series here with this simple question of Jesus identity. A true understanding of who Jesus is lies at the very heart of our relationship with Him and our eternal destiny. What do people in your circles say about Jesus? At school or at work? Maybe Jesus is just a swear word, a name brought into the damning or swearing of everyday conversation. Perhaps a nice person, or good teacher, a moral example even. Maybe they would say Jesus is a hoax, a ancient manipulation tool for the weak at heart. (A growing number of people hold this view today). Jesus is dangerous, a tool of oppression of free thinking and expression. What about you today- Imagine Jesus looking right into your eyes and asking you-“Who do you say I am?” The apostle John said things like In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. But, who do you say that I am? What would it look like for you today, no matter how you answered that question, what would it look like for you to know him more? To know him intimately, with a sure conviction like Peter? If the question of who Jesus is not only affects our life now, but our eternal life forever, we MUST know him more.

JESUS IS HELPED BY SIMON OF CYRENE  – Jesus Walking in the Way of the Cross (VIDEO) LYRICS TO MUSIC: Brother Simon of Cyrene You know not what you mean You know not what you mean Chosen from the ranks unknown Enlisted in an army The only one worth fighting for The only one worth fighting for Lost I'm sure but what you hold Was made to save the world No broken tree so beautiful Water blood the stains to come But your sweat joins in the mix Like no others ever did Like no others ever did MESSAGE SUMMARY:    Here stands a man, ‘on his way in from the country,' (Luke 23:26), who stumbles upon a spectacle like no other. In front of him trod criminals to their death, convicted and condemned, being led out of Jerusalem carrying the instruments of their own mortality on their backs. The criminals were minutes away from the ends of their lives; Simon was minutes away from town.   He had made a nearly nine-hundred-mile journey from Cyrene, a city residing in what is present day Libya in North Africa. He was most likely in Jerusalem for the festival of Passover, as many Jews from his home had made custom. But the singularity of this moment went well beyond an annual ritual. He was ‘seized' by some Roman soldiers, and made to help one of the criminals. Undoubtedly a confusing circumstance, this was not what Simon had traveled all this way for. It must have been quite unnerving. It was not a part of his plan. But Simon did as instructed. He lifted the beam with the Savior of the world. He sweat with Jesus, as each step became more difficult than the one before. They made progress together, toward the hill where the cross would be lifted. The blood of Jesus could have stained his clothes. Maybe Jesus spoke to him, words unique and perfect. Simon took on a one-of-a-kind role. No other man in history fulfilled such an appointment and none ever will again.  There is much we don't know about Simon of Cyrene. We don't know if Simon knew that the man he was helping was the one some called the Christ. We don't know if he had even heard of Jesus before. What we do know is that he did not volunteer his aid. Simon was compelled to help Jesus. He was forced by a soldier out of his role as bystander, and into the canon of scripture forever. He was enlisted for a purpose unknown to him, part of God's divine system, perfect and mysterious. And in this plan, he was made to help carry the cross of Christ, regardless of whether he was averse or indifferent to the matter. Simon had no choice.   Though in many ways we are like him, this is where we differ greatly from Simon. Jesus calls his disciples to choose the cross daily. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” (Matthew 16:24-25). Taking up our cross means choosing to suffer under the weight of the cross beam with others. It might mean entering into the lives of those in need and walking with them along their path, even if it is difficult or painful. We have no Roman soldiers to compel us. No spears at our backs to make us act. We must step forward to join Jesus on his ‘Sorrowful Way.' We must help him bear his cross, and in turn, help lift the crosses of others. Written by Jesse Braswell Roberts / Poor Bishop Hooper golgothamusic.com // poorbishophooper.com // Second edition ©2022 Jesse Braswell Roberts / Poor Bishop Hooper   TODAY'S PRAYER: Who do you know that has a heavy cross to bear? Pray for them. Pray for those in your life that you should help. Pray for the courage to step forward and join them in carrying their burdens.   TODAY'S AFFIRMATION: Today, I affirm that because I am in Jesus Christ, I will trust in the Lord with all my heart. I will trust in the Lord with all of my heart and lean not on my own understanding.  In all my ways I will seek to know Him, and He will make my pathways straight.   From Proverbs 3:5f SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Mark 15:21: “A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.”. Further Reading: Matthew 27:32; Luke 23:26. A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org. THIS SUNDAY'S AUDIO SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach's Current Sunday Sermon: “How Does God Say He Loves You: Part 5 The New Covenant”, at our Website: https://awtlser.podbean.com/ DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB

Dean was deaf.  It was that simple, but it was inordinately complex at the same time.  Life can have its sinkholes.  Sometimes there's a bunch of them, enough of them to cause a broad and crippling implosion where things just cave in all around us.  Life then becomes a litany of foggy responses to trauma where we move zombie-like through whatever the day or the moment holds.  There is no forward movement in times like these.  When our worlds collapse it all becomes about survival because often that's all it can be about.  Soon survival becomes the norm where we strive to survive for the sake of survival itself.  Life becomes abjectly meaningless other than getting through the day to fight the meaningless that will face us again tomorrow. Dean was deaf.  But he was mentally retarded as well.  Tenderly kind, compassionate and invitingly soft underneath it all, he was the by-product of the sink-holes that had scattered themselves all around his life.  In the end, it all imploded and he retreated into his deafness and his mental retardation, finding there some seclusion away from it all.  He sat along the roadside of life watching some of it go by and ignoring the rest of it.  He surrendered to isolation and held the world at bay, barricading himself many fathoms deep within himself.  He effectively placed himself out of reach of anything.  He was a treasure lost in the stratified subterranean layers of his fear.               He had never mastered his deafness.  Some lean into their disability and shape it to serve them.  He never leaned into it.  Some work to compensate for their handicaps by strengthening the things that are not handicaps.  He never compensated.  Rather, he decompensated down into a silent oblivion where he sat hunched and utterly alone. Sign language and the reading of lips never broke him out of the prison that deafness had thrust him into; that place so many fathoms deep that no one could get down there.  He was somehow held inside with the world held outside.  Each could see the other from their variant vantage points, but neither could bridge the gap nor plumb the depths.  Whatever separated him from the rest of us seemed intractably immovable.   A Conviction of Greatness Life sometimes persuades us to believe that there is so much more to something or some person even though we can't see it.  We engage that thing or that person with a certainty that there lies within them something profound despite the fact that it's completely hidden.  It seems that we walk circles around them, looking and probing for some crack or tear that will grant us a peek inside.  We look for some chink to wriggle through or a knob that we can wrestle with long enough until some hidden door opens and grants us entrance to the riches within.  There emerges a dogged persistence about it all because we dare not bypass what lies within even though it's held away from us. That was Dean.  He was a kid that I could not let go of even though there was nothing to hold onto.  His mild mental retardation put him even further away; a young man of riches unearthed that always provoked me back to him.  He was frustrating and abrasive at times, being unable to break through his own deafness and reach up and out to everything outside of himself.  His coarse and sometimes rash behaviors seemed to be an expression of his deeply engrained trepidation of the world, combined with his own frustration of choosing to seclude himself.  Because he couldn't break out, he reinforced his isolation from the inside out, pushing everything away so that he would have a sense that it was he who was locking it all out.   Somehow he found solace in thinking he controlled it because it gave him a sense he could get out of it.  He couldn't. I didn't choose to be relentless with this kid.  I had no choice but be relentless.  Sometimes what you see in another is far too convincing and too terribly compelling to let it go of it even when you meet with nothing more than outright rejection and ever-thickening walls.  And walls there were; thick, fortified and towering.  I found myself relentless in pursuit and then disappointed into withdrawal, only to do it all over again because this kid was somehow just too precious to let go of.  He needed to hear, maybe not with his ears, but at least with his heart.  I prayed that God would pull Dean aside and open up something that would open him up.         Deaf to Life Rejection and scorn was his lot due to the assumption of sin that others had about him.  The world was loudly silent for him.  Something was missing that he could not identify because he had never known it.  Life is indeed an orchestra full and complete, absolutely masterful.  But for the deaf man it was absolutely silent.  The musical pieces and masterful renditions for which life was created were soundless for him.  Notes and scores that were casually written across the faces of friends, that were penned in the raucous flamboyance across bustling open air markets, that found subtle notation in droning bees gently drifting from blossom to awaiting blossom all gave the faintest hints of the melodies they illustrated, but the sounds were never there.  The sheet music ran in front of him in endless reams, but they didn't spawn a sound. The haunting call of myriad geese aloft, the pounding surf throwing itself against a forever beach, or the fingers of the wind rustling through listless treetops were silent for him.  The roll of a distant summer thunderstorm on a humid horizon, or the raucous laughter of life rising from the soul of humanity itself was nothing more and nothing less than the sound of silence.  Entombed in a vacuum of deafening silence, the orchestra had always played soundlessly for this deaf man; vigorously indeed, but vigorously silent.  He was deaf and he was starkly alone. He attempted to interact and engage with the music and the melodies.  But to try to participate in a world you can't hear leaves you ever outside of that world despite how hard you try.  His lips were slow and drawn with words that were ill-formed.  He arduously attempted to wrap words around voice and syntax and intonation that he had never heard.  He spent himself in perpetually frustrating efforts to do what he couldn't conceive and could much less imagine, to put sounds to words he'd never heard. His words were slurred, distorted, verbally twisted and linguistically bent, readily inviting and successfully garnering ridicule, mockery and confusion from those that lived in the world of sound.  His was a life forced out onto the fringes of life, exiled there in a lonely land where silence is a hated, but forever companion.  There was no breech in the wall to slip back through in order to touch humanity so as to belong to something other than the silence. Rejection by others was based on the errant assumption that some sin had caused his deafness.  This conclusion was elevated as full-fledged fact, rendering him an outcast on the falsest of premises.  Rejection and silence are both isolating, the difference is that one is a choice, the other is chance.  What they have in common is that the person upon whom they both fell chose neither.  It was something like a full emasculation of everything it is to be human.  This is what it was to be deaf and mute.  And so his life went. There was a rumor that circulated.  A distant murmuring unheard by deaf ears, but caught by others said that Jesus was in the Decapolis.  This prophet and miracle worker had come.  The verdict as to who this Jesus was remained a point of discussion and debate.  Some of that was quite heated and some of it was really rather innocuous.  Yet, He was coming and the captivating risk that He was something more than a mortal man was compelling. Had those around this deaf man tired of his dependency, these friends of his, or did they care for him?  Was he little more than an object that could be used to entice a miracle of this prophet?  Was their intent little more than a ploy for a cheap thrill?  The text is unclear.  The motive is foggy and indistinct.  But they take the deaf mute to Jesus.  It didn't appear to be an action of the deaf man' own accord as there is no hint of self-determination or self-initiation.  There doesn't appear to be any sort of remote inkling that the possibility of being ushered into the world of sound is a distinct possibility.  How can you possibly know what you're missing if you've never had it?  How can you desire something if desire has no place to be cultivated because we've no idea that there's anything to be desired?  Sometimes we see in and through others what we could not otherwise see because it's not within us to see.  Sometimes we experience the passionate and vigorous pulse of desire vicariously through the heartbeat of others and we sense the pulse in them.  Sometimes our vision of the possible is only possible because we see that vision reflected in the eyes of another and we watch it listlessly dance about in their smile.  Sometimes we actually end up dancing because others have caused us to believe in the dance and have ushered us out on the dance floor even when we can't hear the music ourselves.  Such were the deaf mute's friends.       And so, the rumor draws them to Jesus.  Soon the embedded mass was found.  Ushered by these friends, the deaf man pressed through the crowd.  The small entourage cuts a swath through a fluid array of assorted humanity that swelled and eddied around Jesus.  The clamor of a world of never-ending needs simultaneously sought relief.  The world clamored around Jesus seeking some shred of hope and some healing that arises from that shred of that very hope.  The crowd swirled around this wandering prophet as if in the grip of the undertow of all creation, an irresistible current from which all other currents find their sole source.  Passing through a cultural morass of assembled humanity the deaf man is drawn toward the center. The aged, stooped and shuffling in the grip of long years wandered about in a cloudy curiosity.  Children darted in and out.  The blind walked about groping, stretching trembling arms outward, substituting touch for sight and sound for vision.  Stumbling, they made their way to Jesus.  Crutches that were terribly crude and deeply weather-worn were nothing more than primitive prosthetics that sought a miracle for an absent leg.  A cripple, his fingers clawing the arid soil drug useless appendages and tattered garments that trailed in the talcum dirt behind him. Limp in his mother's arms an infant teetered on the chilling precipice of death, the pallor of death strangely awash across the face of newborn life rendering his skin hues of suffocating purple.  His mother stood on panicked tiptoe, stretching her neck to catch a glimpse of something, anxiously groping toward the center of the mass.  It was all silence to the deaf mute.  It was all wildly alive, vibrant, turbulent and wonderfully riotous, but deathly silent.  From his vantage point, the drama was only partly revealed. Pressing onward and inward, it was more of the same.  The scene was packed tight with shifting layers of broken humanity, the curious, the destitute, the rich and poor alike.  Finally the last layer of jostling, clamoring humanity parted like the parting of some glorious tapestry.  A man of silent stature stood in the crowd, yet infinitely above it.  The nucleus of the swirling mass of people and their needs was deafening in silence.  Jesus back was to them.  Slightly stooped, His hands gently rest on the shoulders of an elderly woman.  The look of astonishment was set in her eyes and splashed across her face.  A worn cane lay abandoned at her feet.  Something unusual had transpired.  It was immediately clear that there was thick compassion in His touch, His stance, and His mannerisms.  A parting word to the woman and He turns. His gaze shifted and panned the crowd.  Mussing the hair of a playful child, both smile deeply and invade the heart of the other in a superbly divine intersection.  Another step and this Jesus was drawn to the outstretched arms of an ecstatic infant.  He moved toward her, His face electrically alive with love and aflame with anticipation.  To squeals of laughter He took her, held her high, pulled her to His chest, ran His hand across a misshapen leg and it was straight.  The convergence of two souls, He drew her deeply to His face.  And then He handed her back to an elated set of parents who now held a daughter who was wholly whole.  All of it was too much for words; it was too inexplicable to embrace in the confining catacombs of human understanding.  The only question that one can formulate is “Who is this?” Before the answer can be formulated Jesus is drawn to the pleas of those who have brought the deaf mute, pleas the deaf man cannot hear.  The man, this Jesus stepped toward them, fastening His attention on those who had brought the man.  He seemed discerning and listening with some sort of intuition and understanding that superseded anything they could comprehend. He then turned intense eyes and fastened His gaze on the mute.  His eyes were more than human, although they appeared to be something that was fully human at the same time.  They were infinitely deep, profoundly thoughtful and intensely focused.  A soft but chiseled spirit enamored the crowd and drew the deaf man to Jesus.  It was all a terrible yet inviting contradiction of commanding power and gentle softness.  Jesus' eyes had the breath of infinity behind them.  The deaf mute found himself becoming entirely lost in them until Jesus took his arm, gestured and began to move out of the crowd.  God was afoot; the Creator of the universe in intentional motion toward an intentional destination.  It was all terrifying but exhilarating at the same time. This fluid mass of humanity parted a second time, but from the inward out.  Shifting layers of broken humanity sliced a swath to the edge of the mass.  Jesus breeched the fringes of the crowd, walking with a man whose life had been lived on the fringes of life.  Jesus was in the process of isolating a man who lived isolated in deafness.  In a moment, the crowd was far behind them, their voices falling into a distant murmur.  Those that advocated his healing were absent.  Suddenly, inexplicably, this deaf mute was alone with God. Ears and tongue; the world is drawn in through one with the self being released through the other.  They both engage in a partnership of exchange, drawing in and letting out.  They draw in the world to process it and then release it back into the world with part of the person attached; adding to life, flavoring it, affixing yet another unique note to the chorus of the ages.  There, in the world of the deaf, this dance was never initiated.  The deaf man was isolated from the world and to the world. Drawing the man along, Jesus sought isolation.  It was within isolation that isolation would be broken.  One on one, God and man in relationship echoing back to a lost garden.  The Creator and the created rectifying lost creation in an act of recreation.  In this joint journey they walked past the rancor and raucous of an open air market filled with bartering and bantering, scales and sweeping gestures.  They skirted around scurrying children and walked past stray dogs milling close to tables spread with red meats.  A pair of centurions laden with weaponry strode past in the service of oppression, granting Jesus and the deaf mute no notice.  Passing priests in ceremonial robes stepped in pompous cadence on errands of perceived righteousness. And then, an unexpected turn into a vacant alley made up of basalt stones that cut a manmade canyon.  The sun found scant room to watch the making of a miracle.  It casts angled rays, canting itself to catch the pending phenomenon.  The din of the open air market and the jostling of the vendors was put at a sufficient distance, becoming gradually muted and fading soft and indistinct into the background. Then, a miracle was wrought with gestures that were so familiar to the mute.  Gestures were the very means of understanding and the way in which the deaf mute had navigated his world.  Jesus was not a God interacting in mystery, but in intimacy.  There were no methods cloaked with indiscernible actions or unfamiliar rituals.  All was simple, direct and familiar; fingers in ears and a touch of the tongue.  Saliva was a symbol of the fullest sharing of self as a participant in the miracle right along with the deaf mute.  Jesus engaged the man not as a distant entity cloaked beyond recognition in some sort of misty immutability.  Salvia was believed to have had a curative quality; a belief entirely fictional in nature.  However, the symbolism of the act provided a needed vehicle that outweighed the myth of the act itself.  So Jesus ingeniously chose to use myth as a vehicle for a miracle; a miracle done in the simple language of the deaf mute's isolated world to obliterate his isolation. And then there was something for Jesus Himself.  Something the deaf man could not hear or participate in.  Jesus looked up to heaven.  There is a weighted sigh of a God whose love eliminates His ability not to feel.  It was a reflection of both His heart and the heart of His Father.  It seemed to be the private pain of a God grieving over His own creation, escaping the lethal weight of it all only by virtue of His divinity.  Jesus's sighing was likely the plaintive moan of God once again embracing the awful reality of fallen mankind as manifest in this single, mute life.   It was likely the expression of a great angst that arose from an infinite understanding of how far this man's life was from God's original intent for him. There, in that alley God would meet the need of one man.  In a few days, He would meet the need of thousands with a scant seven barley loaves and a few small fish.  A few months beyond that and He would meet the need of all mankind on a barren hill.  It would be a hill that would not be sandwiched between the walls of some abandoned alley, but between two crosses and two worlds.  However, there was the need of the moment. “Be opened!” (Mark 8:34, NIV) said this Jesus.  Not just his ears, but his life as no miracle is excluded or in any way restrained solely to the obvious.  “Be opened!”  Be free to live fully, to hear in perfect pitch the richness of the notes and measures, the scores of life and living.  Be opened to engage everything else in life that was open.  Be opened so that being closed simply cannot be. Jesus took a step back and watched life unfold as the miracle reverberated far beyond the miracle; something like when a stone is dropped in a mirrored pool, sending ripples far beyond the point of impact.  An alien experience transpired for which the man had no point of correlation.  Sounds began to filter through.  The orchestra gradually swelled and expanded.  The void of silence filled to capacity. Suddenly, he heard the crunch of gravel beneath his feet, shifting his weight again and again to reproduce the sound his stunned and hungry mind had never imagined.  The barking of a dog floated in from afar, the source of the sound and everything that defined it was entirely unknown.  Birds darted overhead in tangles of wild flight, cheeps and chirps synchronizing the feathered masses journey.  He was caught in the rapture of hearing his own breath.  And then words, the first he had ever heard, annunciated clearly, perfectly and concisely.  His own voice now came back to him perfect!  The cycle was now marvelously complete. Jesus stood silently, giving the man room and time to embrace the wonder of the moment.  Miracles become freeing and claustrophobic at the same time; opening up entirely new venues that are often bigger than our ability to embrace.  Time was needed to allow this astonished man sufficient time to reorient to the miracle of a life restored.  Maybe Jesus saw in this man, this deaf mute the liberation that the cross would extend to billions. It may be that the individual miracles, like this one, allowed Jesus to foresee in this solitary face what the cross would do in an endless sea of faces across endless spans of time.  Not the kinds of miracles that would eventually fall to the deterioration of frail bodies and the eventuality of death, but miracles that would be eternally fresh because they open up all of eternity to all who seize it.  I wonder if maybe it might have been these moments that allowed Him to endure the long moments on a lonely cross.  And then, the first words of another human being that he ever heard.  “Don't tell anyone,” Jesus said.  The first words seem irrational and inexplicable.  The world of sounds brings with it responsibility to the world it unveils.  Miracles bring with them accountability to both the Restorer and what has been restored.  A relationship with God brings obedience, the responsibility to act on faith even when that action appears irrational, contrary, odd or plainly wrong.  “Don't tell anyone”.  But containment failed.  The measure of the miracle was larger than the measure of the man to contain it.  But that is what happens when an infinite God interacts within our finite frames.  What He does is always bigger than us and bigger than our ability to contain it.  Our faith may be big enough to elicit a miracle, but our faith is seldom large enough to embrace it once it happens.  Jesus took his arm, gestured and began to move out of the alley and into life.   Aside in an Alley And so, Jesus pulls me aside at times and isolates me in my isolation.  He places creation aside and draws me to a secluded place, away from the crowds that surround me and the world that has so often thrust me to its fringes.  Often I am afraid to be there because I am confused and frightened to be one on one with God.  I would much prefer to have Him heal me at a safe distance, or intersect my life in the companionship of others, or touch me as part of something larger within which I can meld.  But one on one in some alley in my life; secluded with God?  Sequestered with the Creator?  It is both terrible and wonderful. And then, to have Him connect with me intimately in that place of isolation?  The God of the cosmos coming to me in my isolation?  Not just in proximity or in earshot, but in my language and in the raw essence of my being.  God steps into my isolation and speaks to me there.  Not standing outside of my isolation and beckoning me out of it from out there.  But coming in, gently taking my arm and gesturing me out of it.  Partnering with me and in the partnering coming squarely into my isolation to commandeer me and rescue me. Cutting through the mass of issues, pain, self-absorption, and self-hatred that surrounds me and drawing me along with Him. And there, in those isolated alleys of my life He frees me.  He relishes watching me come to life and then fumble with a life that's so new that I have little idea how to hold it.  He is as amazed at watching me come to life as He was when He first formed Adam from the dust and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7, NIV).  It is just as poignant for Him, never being diminished for a God whose love for His creation rages undiminished.  God is always revealing that creation can only exist if it is constantly creating.  “He has done everything well . . .” (Mark 7:37, NIV).  Harkening to yet another statement . . . “and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10, NIV).  In that alley God was creating all over again as He always does, doing everything well and good.   Dean's Alley It was all experimental, but the doctors said that the surgery might restore Dean's hearing.  He was not enthused at all.  Dean walked through the process more like a laboratory rat that had no idea of what was happening or what the possible outcome might mean.  He was lethargic through it all, demure and distant. But the day came quite by accident.  I turned and there he stood.  My first response was to say “hello” out of some prescribed tedium and routine, knowing that he wasn't reading my lips.  Sometimes rote and ritual turns life lifeless.  It robs us of expectation and hope.  I felt that way with Dean.  But I said “hello” anyway. He simply looked, canting his head a bit and registering something in those crystal blue eyes that I had never seen.  Sometimes we imagine something so much for so long that when it's ours it's both wonderful and terribly different than we had ever imagined it being.  I think that was the case for Dean.  He had heard my voice.  The surgery had worked.  For the first time, he had taken in the tone and flavor of the single word that I had uttered and had found himself awed by the utterance.  He smiled and seemed to wait for more.  I paused.  “Can you hear me?” I said tentatively, desperately hoping that he was no longer locked in and I locked out. Instantly he grabbed my arm, turned and in the rush of wonder pulled me down the hall and into his room.  He stopped in the middle of that quaint room and pointed at the various objects around us in frantic gestures.  It was all so new for me that I had no idea of what he meant.  He continued to point in a manner insistent and adamant, walking around the room in a rigid gait and incessantly pointing. Finally, I realize what he wanted; he wanted me to pronounce what the objects were, to speak their name, to say them so that he could hear them for the first time.  Picture, telephone, window, bed, floor, light, wall, rug, Craig; it was a young man surging alive with an urgency that flooded the room with a terrific and wonderful energy.  He was hearing it all, for the first time. Sometimes you sense that you've been put in a place of privilege that you are completely and wholly undeserving of.  That's where I was on that day.  God came aside this young man through the hands of a caring doctor and an experimental surgery.  Now I was privileged to stand beside him as well, inundated in a tsunami of wonderment and life. It all went on for days and days.  I couldn't wait to see Dean.  In indescribable awe, I watched a young man come alive in a way that makes coming alive worth all the pain and disappointment and deafness that we have to endure to get there.  A miracle came to me through Dean.  Deafness was abated in infinitely more ways that simply physical hearing.  Dean reminds me of deafness and what it can do to a person and a life.  Dean also reminds me of deafness abated when God comes along side of a single life and renders deafness deaf.               Repeated Deafness Unlike the deaf mute and unlike Dean, my deafness and my inability to speak to my world come often.  Frequently I need Jesus to put His fingers in my ears and touch my tongue.  Sin, selfishness and the lure of the world renders me deaf and ill-suited to speak as I should.  My condition is pitifully recurrent.  God's presence is likewise persistently recurrent.  Daily I am in this alley with Him.  While I tire of it and find myself sweltering in embarrassment, He never tires.  He likes, it seems, these alley encounters.  He relishes taking me aside.  And I know that one day He will take me aside for that final time, that time when I will ascend to a place where deafness and speech deficits will simply not exist.  Their memory will be vanquished.  And there, in that place, I will stand eternally before God in perfection with new worlds perpetually opening up to me.  In that place the layers will constantly part to reveal something new.  His smile, the relish in His face will never be old, but always new.   Pondering Point The loud voices in life, those that clamor for our attention are most often not the vital voices.  The fact that they have to clamor suggests as much.  It is the smaller voices that are weak, thin and easily drown out that are rich.  It is these that tend to be the priceless voices.  Their worth easily lost in the pompous and presumptuous voices that say much but hold little.  It is easy to become deaf.  And when we are, we miss the precious voices whose worth is immutable.

Luke 4:1-13Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness were, for forty days, he was tempted by the Devil. He didn't eat anything during those days and when they were over, he was famished. The Devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus said to him, “It is written, ‘one does not live by bread alone.'”Then the Devil led him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. He said to him, “I will give to you their glory and all this authority, which has been handed over to me, and which I give to anyone I choose. If you will bow down and worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus said to him, “It is written, ‘you shall worship the Lord, you God, and serve only him.'”Then the Devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple and said, “Throw yourself down from here, for it is written ‘he will command his angels concerning you,' and ‘on their hands they will bear you up so that you won't dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘do not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'”And when the Devil had finished every test, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time. The wilderness seems pretty close these days.In First Century Galilee, Jesus apparently had to be “led out into it,” by the spirit. He had to go somewhere else to find it, it seems. …away from the river where he'd just been baptized along with crowds of people. …away from towns and villages like Cana and Capernaum. …away from whoever was looking to follow him, as would happen soon enough. Maybe Jesus had a hunch about what was to come in that regard, so he let the Spirit lead him out … lead him away … lead him into whatever and wherever the wilderness was for him.And if “wilderness” is a metaphor for something… if “the wilderness” is a place of uncertainty, loneliness, disconnection, temptation, and fear … I'm not sure Jesus would have had to go very far to find himself there, if he were walking around in the world today.“The wilderness” seems right around every corner, or maybe even following us around, no matter where we go, these days.Maybe it's the constant presence of social media in our lives …Maybe it's the news these days – the 24/7 nature of it all reminding us about our own broken politics, our own divided nation, and everything going on in Russia and Ukraine, of course.Maybe it's the ever-evolving list of prayers and concerns and challenges we wrestle with as God's people in this place and out there in the world, ourselves…Whatever it is, the wilderness doesn't seem so hard to find… or so very far away… or too difficult to get to, if you ask me.So I hope it's strangely comforting for us to see Jesus out there in the wilderness this morning, doing his thing with the Devil.The point of Lent – and the point of this Gospel story, for me, anyway – is to wonder what it means to be called into the wilderness. I think we're invited to wonder – not so much about conversations with a guy and his pitchfork – which is how this story with Jesus gets reduced and dumbed-down a lot of the time. I think, instead, we're called to wonder about the lonely places … the uncertain places … the scary places in the world where – and the lonely, uncertain, scary times in our own lives – when we are tempted to choose the darkness. I think, in these days, we're called to seek out and to put a finger on the sin, the evil, the faithlessness and the temptation in our own lives. We're called to name it, to stop denying that it finds us from time to time, and to confront it in ways we would rather not.But that's hard to do, this wilderness wandering – whether it's the First Sunday of Lent or any other day of the year – or we would do it more often, more faithfully, with more resolve and courage and success, I believe. It seems to me we don't head out into the wilderness enough, following the Spirit's lead. We're more likely to find ourselves pushed there, dragged there, kicking and screaming, against our will. Or we end up there, in the wilderness – much to our surprise – before we know what's coming. And then the temptation of it all is to let it overwhelm us – the grief of it; the fear of it; the unknown and uncertainty of whatever the wilderness is for us.And so we fail the tests too often, don't we? We fill ourselves with all the wrong things too much of the time. Where Jesus refused to turn a stone into bread – we grab the potato chips or the ice cream; the booze or the weed, the cigarettes or the pills. Where Jesus turned down the offer for more power and glory, we go after as much as we can grab and look for it in all the wrong places – our ego, our work, money, things and stuff.And where Jesus refused to put God to the test, we do just that … every time we throw up our hands and wonder why God won't – why God hasn't – just fixed everything that's wrong with us, with the world, and with this wilderness.Where Jesus went… followed… left...? We stay home… stay put… and stay safe… so much of the time.And I think the reason we fail the proverbial tests so often is because we forget something Jesus knew and held onto, from the start. Remember, Jesus entered into the wilderness “full of the Spirit,” “led by the Spirit,” and on the heels of his baptism. I like to imagine his hair was still wet when he met up with the devil in the desert, because he was fresh from the Jordan River where the heavens had opened, a dove had appeared out of nowhere, for crying out loud, and God had declared him beloved, “the Son, the Chosen” with whom the Creator of the Universe was well pleased. And it's with all of that in his back pocket, that Jesus made his way into the wilderness to duke it out with the Devil, which makes it easier for me to imagine how he might have resisted all of that temptation and passed all of those tests, in the first place.And that gives me hope. To remember, however and whenever we find ourselves in the wilderness (whatever that is for us) that – just like Jesus – we can enter it all on the heels of and filled with the promises of baptism. And we can go there, led by God's spirit of wisdom and understanding, God's kind of counsel and might, with faith and fortitude to endure the lonely, scary, uncertain, dark wilderness places that wait for us in this world.In our Stephen Ministry class Thursday night we had a pretty hard, holy, heavy discussion about suicide – and tending to someone who may be in the throes of that kind of wilderness struggle. We were wondering about what to say and what to do and how to find the words and wisdom to respond in such a circumstance – should we ever find ourselves in that kind of wilderness with somebody else. I shared something with the class that seemed to resonate with them, so thought it might be meaningful to share with you all this morning, too.It's not rocket science, but whenever I find myself headed into a wilderness like that – an emergency of some sort, a crisis full of uncertainty, a scary situation where something is required of me that I'm not sure I'm prepared for (that maybe there is no preparation for, to be honest) – I try to remind myself that God is already in that place, around that person, gathered together with whatever or whoever has called me into their wilderness with them. And that kind of prayer, that sort of reality check, that exercise of faith has proven to be helpful and True over the years, and I believe it's something like we see Jesus trusting, doing and believing this morning – out there in his own kind of wilderness, way back when. See, I believe Jesus was able to enter his own wilderness because he knew he didn't go there first, or alone. He let the Spirit of God lead him there, remember. And he was full of the Holy Spirit in the first place.So, when the wilderness looms, when it seems too close… too easy to find… too hard to navigate… too difficult to escape... When the temptation to quit… to choose the selfish, prideful, destructive way… to get lost in it all… to take the devil's hand and follow his lead – remember that God is already out there, too, in your wilderness, waiting for you.I like to think of God, in the wilderness, as like a dad in the swimming pool promising to catch his terrified toddler about to jump from the diving board into the deep-end. Or maybe God, in our wilderness, is like a mother, waiting in the front office, to rescue her child from a bad day at recess. Or like the good friend who walks with you after the divorce, or the diagnosis, or the death, because they've been through it already themselves.Whatever the case, we can enter into any wilderness trusting that God will be there waiting to walk with, stand beside, and catch us, even, if necessary. And we can go there, with the waters of baptism still dripping from our foreheads and divine promises of grace always ringing in our ears…And we can go, following Jesus' example so that we don't have to be so afraid about any of it. So that we might even enter it all willingly – whatever our wilderness brings – and go boldly, bravely, with faith, to see God transform it all into something sweet, something safe, and something sacred, on the other side.Amen

 Shalom FAITH PARTNERS & welcome back to Keeping' Tha F8th Podcast and a brand New Season! You're listening to Season 4 of our new mini-series WHO R U? Episode 1 of the Chameleon Chapter- Do Not Conform.  The chameleon is the master of disguise. No matter what environment it's placed in, it will change its color to disguise itself and fit in. One of the fundamental aspects of being a Christian is that we are easily identifiable when placed against the backdrop of the world. Today, we will look at an obvious statement from the Bible regarding our topic: Do Not Conform. Romans chapter 12 & verse 2, written by the Apostle Paul. That tenacious tentmaker from Tarsus. Said, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” In this sentence, Paul shows us the contrast between fitting in vs. standing out. You may have friend groups that know nothing of your faith or who you are in Christ. Yet, just like we experienced in high school (or other places), these are false communities who only like us for who we're pretending to be. Are you a great pretender? Who are you? God is calling us as followers of Christ to stand out rather than to fit in. It's not an easy process, but it's an important one. Some of the questions we'll be tackling throughout this chapter of this mini-series are; What does conforming look like in my life? What are the patterns that tempt us as humans to conform? What does true transformation look like in our lives by Christ's definition? Then, once we know what transformation looks like, what is the purpose behind it?  We first have to get a grip on what conforming looks like in our world. The word “conform” means “to assume a similar outward form (expression) by following the same pattern (mold, model).  Confronting Your Conforming  I wonder how many of us have tried to model our behavior after someone we looked up to or admired. As you grow up, it's almost like you “try on” others' characteristics to see what “fits.” But what happens when those patterns and behaviors grow with you and become your habits and traits? What if you don't like them? What if you don't like who you've become? There must be a confrontation. You see, the path to profound transformation has to begin with confronting the hostile, worldly patterns in your life. Maybe Jesus is trying to call out things in your life that bring no eternal value. Perhaps you have been following the ways of those around you because it is much easier to fit in rather than stand out. Maybe you know you can keep friendships if you just fit in and follow others' lead. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus is offering you the best way of life, here and now. Just like his encounter with the woman at the well, He provides you with living water and abundant life (John 10:10). What will you do with His invitation? 2.  Do You Want to Get Well?  In John 5:1-9, Jesus meets a man who has been an invalid for 38 years and is lying at the pool of Bethesda. Actually, to get to this particular man, it appears Jesus must've passed by many others who were also sick or handicapped (verse 5:3). So what was so special about this one man, Pastor K? Why didn't Jesus just heal everyone in the pool that day? I'm not sure I know all the answers to the questions this passage brings up, but I do know it was time for the man to confront his conforming. The World Conforms you; the Bible Transforms you.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/keepinthaf8th/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/keepinthaf8th/support

Kathleen's wedding was more like an aftergrad. Chugging wine. Blue Rodeo. Musicians get more stage time than comedians. Bouquet toss. Northern Queen made Kathleen a THC wedding cake and High Times shouted it out. Surprised by her own idea. Alberta is Wuhan. Women used to use moss? Sean holds scissors all episode for some reason. Maybe Jesus is a time traveling doctor. Vaccine passports. Greta is telling off adults again. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Resurrection Life: John 11:1-43Sisters, Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus lived in a town called Bethany and were very close friends to Jesus. While Jesus was away from their town, Lazarus became sick. His sisters sent word to Jesus expecting Him to come immediately and heal their brother.When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He stated to His disciples that the sickness was not unto death and it would be for the glory of God. Instead of leaving immediately, Jesus stayed two more days before heading to the town of Bethany. As He was nearing the town, Martha met Him and said, “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”Jesus responded, “I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Martha said, “Yes, Lord, I believe…” Martha went to her house and told Mary to go see Jesus. Mary goes to meet him and says the same thing that Martha had said. By this time there were quite a few people that had followed Mary and they were all weeping and grieving with Mary. Jesus asked Mary where the body was. She took Him to the cave where he was buried with a stone over the tomb. Jesus told the people to remove the stone. Martha says it's been 4 days and by now he stinks.  Jesus replies, “Didn't I say if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”  They took away the stone and Jesus thanked God the Father, stating that He always hears Him and said He would do this so those around would believe that He had sent Him. With a loud voice, Jesus shouts, “Lazarus come forth!” Immediately, Lazarus comes out of the tomb with his grave clothes. Jesus tells them, “Loose him, and let him go.”  There are three accounts in the Bible of Jesus raising someone from the dead including Lazarus. In this story, the scriptures reveal that Jesus groaned in His spirit, was troubled, and even wept before He called out to Lazarus. Was Jesus emotional because his friends, whom He loved, we're grieving and sad, or was He disappointed that they didn't have enough faith in Him that He could raise up Lazarus from the dead, or did He hate the fact that death was an enemy caused by Satan? Maybe Jesus was groaning because Lazarus was in a better place and now He had to bring him back. The Bible does not elaborate.The point is, Jesus is the resurrection and the life. When we believe in Him, and have received Him as our Lord and Savior, physical death is not the end. Although our bodies will die one day, we, our spirit and soul, will live forever with Him.  Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly. Not only that, He planned for your birth and loves you so much. He has a great plan for you so that your life will be a testimony of His goodness and will give glory to God. (John 3:16; Jeremiah 29:11-13)Personal Development Tip of the week: There are exactly 130 days left in 2021. It might sound like a lot but it is going to go faster than you think.I challenge you today to take some time today to review the year you have had so far. I would write down things that you accomplished that you are proud of and areas you would like to improve before the end of the year.Also, set one end-of-the-year goal that if accomplished you could say this was a great year. See the example below.What have I accomplished this year that I am proud of?What is an area of my life I would like to improve?What is one thing I could accomplish by the end of the year that when looking back if accomplished I could say this has been a great ye

Is there evidence for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Do Christians blindly believe in this Jesus or are there facts backing their faith? We ask these hard questions in this podcast episode with Lead Pastor Phil Hopper. A foundational point to make in taking on these questions is that you don't have to choose between faith and reason, rather they go hand in hand. We don't tend to question the lives of historical figures in our textbooks because we have written records and eye witness accounts of their existence. So why do people question the life of Jesus? It isn't necessarily due to the lack of evidence, rather their unbelief stems from an unavoidable choice on what to DO with Jesus, if He is indeed who He says He is, the Messiah, the Son of God. Pastor Phil examines the questions of skeptics and common conspiracy theories surrounding Easter. Maybe the women went to the wrong tomb. Maybe the disciples stole Jesus' body. Maybe Jesus didn't actually die. Hidden behind these theories lays a heart which is unsettled because there is evidence to disprove all of them, and the conclusions all point to Jesus as the Christ. The most compelling evidence can be found in studying the lives of Jesus' disciples, before and after His resurrection. They go from living in deathly fear, to facing fearless deaths for the cause of Christ. It's what the disciples saw with their own eyes that's what transformed them. It's one thing to acknowledge the evidence historically and another to trust in it personally. “If you declare with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 To learn more about having a relationship with Jesus and making Him Lord of your life, go to livingproof.co

A frustrated Pastor sparked an idea: Why is God allowing church disruptions now? Why is it so hard to get church back to normal, and minister to people? Maybe Jesus isn't pleased with normal? Maybe we should flip church upside down...

In this week's message, Pastor Noah Herrin dives into the idea of being left with a cloak, but no calling. Maybe Jesus is asking us to to burn some things. Take a listen, and be challenged!