Podcasts about son god

On Trinity Sunday, the Rev. Nick Lannon preaches a sermon detailing how the Father (God above us), the Son (God for us), and the Spirit (God with us) work together to accomplish the salvation of sinners: God creates, redeems, and sustains us.

Our study today begins with 1Jn 5:6 concerning Divine certainties, Divine assurances. Here is God's testimony which we can take to heart, concerning the Person and Work of the Son God, Jesus Christ. One of the goals of the Unchanging Word is Love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. Now here is Dr. Mitchell to continue our study in 1Jn 5:6.

The Son: God's final wordSeries: Hebrews Preacher: Dave BottDate: 26th January 2025Passage: Hebrews 1:1-4

Friends of the Rosary, Merry and Holy Christmas! Today, December 25, we celebrate with joy the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas, and the Birth of Jesus Christ, January 12. It's also the First Day in the Octave of Christmas. The Christmas season begins on the Vespers of December 24 and ends on the feast of the Baptism of Christ. Throughout Advent, the faithful have longed for the coming of our Savior. Today, we celebrate His first coming. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” The Eternal Word became man to dwell among us and give us a share in the everlasting divine life. For us and our salvation, He descended upon earth. The longings of the patriarchs and prophets were finally fulfilled. With the shepherds, we hurry to the manger and adore the Incarnate Son of God. On this day, the custom of exchanging gifts recalls us that God Himself gave to us the greatest of all gifts, His beloved Son: “God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son” (John 3: 16), as we are reading in the Gospel of John 1:1-18 today. We acknowledge that all blessings and graces come to us from Christ. Ave Maria!Jesus, I Trust In You! Come, Holy Spirit, come! To Jesus through Mary! + Mikel Amigot | RosaryNetwork.com, New York

Luke 1:26-38; “Mary's Story”  The Christmas story is familiar to most of us, but Pastor Dodge gives us a fresh view of this well know story over the next few weeks beginning today with the story of Mary, Jesus' mother. Mary's name means bitter.  She was born in an obscure village, raised in a difficult time when the children of Israel were in bondage to Roman master. BUT her Son would not only redeem Israel - He would redeem the world. Very little is know about Mary. What we know is that she was a virgin born in the town of Nazareth, a town not even mentioned in the Old Testament. However, God chose an obscure little town and an unknown young woman to be the carriers of His promised Savior. Though Mary's name means bitter, God changes things! He turns bitterness into joy! A unique birth, a unique mother and a unique child!   Today, Christmas is under attack. Yet perhaps it's more than that. The battle is larger than the attack on Christmas, it's a battle that goes back to the garden of Eden. It's not a war on Christmas, it's a war on God. The human race, since our fall, has been hostile to the things of God. But! The magnitude of God's love is that He breaks into our world even when we are His enemies. Let us pray that God would move in the lives of people to reveal His incredible goodness. This well-known story shows us many things:     ⁃    God breaks into the life of Mary and He still breaks into our lives today.     ⁃    Mary willingly listened to God's message to her through the angel Gabriel and His Word is still active and alive today!     ⁃    Gabriel tells her what to name her son. She is to name Him Jesus, meaning “God saves” and God continues to save His people today through faith in Christ Jesus.     ⁃    Mary asked “I am a virgin, how will this be?” Gabriel responded through the Holy Spirit and the angel goes on to say in Luke 1:37 “For no word from God will ever fail.” God's promises are assured. He does the impossible!  He does what no human being can accomplish - our redemption! Jesus alone redeems and saves.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit using the Virgin Mary to conceive and bear a Son - God's one and only Son - Jesus breaks into our world with His saving grace! Today's reading ends with Mary saying, “I am the Lord's servant, may your word to me be fulfilled” and then the angel left her. Such a powerful example of trust - she hears the word of God, receives it, believes it and rejoices in it. So much to learn from Mary. She's not just our Savior's mother, she is an amazing role model for any who desire to be servants of the Lord.  Things that stand out about Mary that we can apply in our own lives as well:     1.    Devout Faith - trusted God even when what Gabriel told her seemed impossible.  We too are called to devout faith in God today.     2.    Humility - humble individual who knew it wasn't about her, but about God. A truth for us to internalize too.     3.    Obedience - she listened, obeyed and followed God. Faith saves and when we have faith we will obey!  Faith shows itself in obedience.     4.    Worship - sing praises- thank God for what He has done. As we celebrate Christmas we're not simply looking back to what happened long ago at Jesus' first coming. We're also looking forward to His final coming when He returns - when He reigns and rules forevermore! Check out our website –   https://www.awakeusnow.com Watch the video from our website! https://www.awakeusnow.com/2-year-study-of-the-gospels-upper Watch the video from our YouTube Channel!! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTaaqrC3dMOzMkhPyiNWwlJRpV6Bwpu01 St. Luke's Account is part three of our Two Year Study of the Gospels. The Gospel of Luke takes a look at the life of Jesus, beginning with the well-known Christmas stories. Luke, a non-Jew, offers a unique perspective into the story of Jesus' life. This study is great for large group. small group or home group Bible study.

Send us a text“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.... “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-5, 14).“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). And as the Word of God, You were there in the unity of the Spirit and the Oneness of God (John 1:1).Written and sent out from the morning prayer time of Tommy Hays each day.God bless you and may you have a great day!—Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministrieshttp://messiah-ministries.org

An episode from THE BIBLE Baptist Church, a Bible believing, Bible preaching church in DeLand, Florida. What THE BIBLE Baptist Church (TBBC) Believes: “A church is not a social organization or a club. It is a gathering of men and women who have put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. These people meet together to worship the Lord, to praise Him, to encourage one another to live lives pleasing to the Savior and to be instructed in the truths of the Holy Bible. It is also a place from which these believers go forth, individually and in groups, to spread the gospel of Christ Jesus to men and women the world over. The extent to which the blessing of the Lord abides upon a church and the effectiveness of a church in the aforementioned areas depends upon its understanding of and obedience to the words of God. There are certainly clearly stated truths found in scripture to which all believers must steadfastly adhere. A collection of individuals, each living in accord with their opinions or religious notions, can accomplish little for Christ. A gathering of men and women who have a like-minded faith in a foundational set of Biblical truths can do great things for the Lord. Below are those truths upon which we have built THE BIBLE Baptist Church. Should you have other questions please feel free to ask. Our people and leaders are available and more than happy to let you know what we do and why. It is our hope and prayer that the Lord will direct you to become a vital part of the gospel work which He has given us to do.” You may write to THE BIBLE Baptist Church at: 872 Glenwood Rd. DeLand, FL 32720 Have A Blessed Day, THE BBLE Baptist Church    The KJV Bible Preaching Churches Podcast is directly supported by Doss Metrics LLC | Ministry Services based out of Cleveland Texas. If you have any questions regarding this podcast, or the churches hosted on the podcast, please reach out to us directly at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠dossmetrics@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or write to us at:   Doss Metrics | KJV Bible Preaching Churches Podcast 1501 McBride Rd. Cleveland, TX 77328   God Bless #KJV #BaptistChurches #BiblePreaching #KJVPreaching #KingJamesBible #ChurchSermons #ChristianPodcasts #BibilicalTeaching #JamesKnox

I am going to share with you 30 Questions That You Should Ask Yourself If You Deny That God Is Distinctively Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 1. Did Jesus ever say He was the Father (Read John 14:6)? 2. Did Jesus authenticate His distinction from the Father (Read John 5:36)? 3. Did Jesus authenticate His Oneness with the Father as well (Read John 10:30)? 4. Are Believers commanded to honor both the Father and Son (Read 1 John 2:23)? 5. Did Jesus state that The Son is to be honored just like The Father (Read Also, John 5:23)? 6. What do the Scriptures call a person who denies both the Father and Son (Read 1 John 2:22)? 7. Is the Holy Spirit a force or a part of the Godhead (Read John 14:26; John 14:16,17; John 15:26; John 20:21,22; Acts 1:4,5; Act 2:32,33; Acts 10:38; Luke 1:35; John 3:34; 1 Cor. 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22)? 8. What is attributed to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ( Read Matthew 28:19)? 9. Are you believing in the unity of the Godhead or three separate Gods if you say you believe God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Read Ephesians 4:5-6)? 10. Did The Father Send The Son, Did the Son Become flesh and the lamb of God? Plus, was He conceived by the Holy Spirit (Read John 3:16, John 1:14, John 1:29, Matthew 1:20, Luke 1:35) 11. Are you believing in three Gods or distinctions in the Godhead if you say you believe God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Read 1 John 1:2)? 12. Was God mainfested in the flesh ( Read 1 Timothy 3:16)? 13. Does one of the Gospels give us great details, insights, and overwhelming confirmation about the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? (Read Genesis 1:1, 26, 1 John 5:7, John 5:31). 14. Did Jesus say The Father sent The Son (Read John 3:16, John 6:38)? 15. Did Jesus say that the Father always hears Him? (Read John 11:41-42). 16. Did Jesus say the Fathers loves The Son (Read John 5:20)? 17. Did Jesus say He was doing the Will of His Father (Read John 4:34)? 18. Did Jesus pray to Himself or to the Father (Read John 17). 19. Did Jesus say He was.given authority to raise His life up again by means of The Father and Himself (Read John 10:11-18)? 20. Why was Jesus almost stoned (Read John 10:33)? 21. Did Jesus say He was "I Am," and does that means He is the Father or confirmation that He was one with the Father (Read John 11:25)? 22. Did Jesus pray that His Father's Will be done, or His Own (Read Luke 22:42)? 23. Was Jesus that Eternal life that has always existed with Father (Read 2 John 1:2)? 24. Did Jesus ever say that He was ascending back to Heaven to be with His Father ( Read John 20:17)? 25. Is Jesus Christ the Only Way to the Father, or is He the Father (Read John 14:6)? 26. Are their titles in the Bible attributed to the Father and also attributed the Son (Read John 1:1-2, Hebrew 1:8)? 27. Is the mystery of God becoming man something a finite mind can fully comprehend (Read 1 Timothy 3:16)? 28. Was it hard for Jesus to grasp His equality with God (The Father) (Read Philippians 3:6) 29. Are there any Scriptures that confirms the Father calling the Son God? (Read Hebrew 1:8). 30. Did Jesus confirm His previous glory with the Father before He was conceived by Holy Spirit and became flesh ( Read John 17:5)? #trinity #fathersonandholyspirt #unityofthegodhead #God #questionsandanswersfromthebible --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/biblequestionsandanswers/support

Ask Your Evangelism Question Now!SHOW NOTES:It might be good to remember 2 key elements. –The truth never changes – The doctrine of the Trinity was forever settled before time and won't be changed when time is no more. –The truth may need to be explained differently to an agnostic, than it does to a Muslim. Perspective changes everything. That means we have to ask questions and listen as much as we talk. • One God in 3 persons –God the Father –God the Son –God the Holy Spirit While I can understand the concept, I can't imagine the reality.  It is not illogical, it is just impossible! As Jesus said “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) I'm okay with having a God that is bigger than I am. This is a faith thing. If anyone is going to have a relationship with God, they are going to have to choose Faith! • There are a lot of things that a person doesn't have to know to be genuinely saved. But when it comes to Who Jesus is – You have to get that one right! A person doesn't have to know about the trinity to be saved, but a person can't disbelieve the Trinity and especially the deity and the humanity of Jesus and genuinely be saved. When we explain the Gospel it is not always necessary to bring this subject up. When it does come up, simply explain it from the Bible. Be careful with “easy” illustrations – they often lead to error.Support the showSubscribe to our podcast today! More Tools:

We are a Spirit-Empowered church Acts 1:4-5, 8  //  On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Dunamis Acts 17:6 (NKJV)  //  These who have turned the world upside down have come here too… What is it? Cessationism Practical Cessationists We reject things we don't understand. He is not an it. THE TRINITY: God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit THE TRINITY: God for us God with us God in us Ruach – a wind, breath, a violent exhalation, blast of breath. Genesis 1:1-2  //  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Pneuma – a current of air, blast of breath, a strong breeze. He's not weird. He is my inner voice. John 16:8  //  “When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” 1 Corinthians 12:3  //  No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. He is my teacher. John 14:26  //  “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” 1 John 2:27 (NLT)  //  But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don't need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know... He is my guide. John 16:13  //  “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” Isaiah 30:21  //  Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” He is my friend. John 14:16  //  “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.” Parakletos 2 Corinthians 13:14 (MSG)  //  “The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.” Ephesians 4:30 (MSG)  //  Don't grieve God. Don't break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don't take such a gift for granted. “Holy Spirit show me.” Ezekiel 36:26-27  //  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Psalm 139:23-24  //  “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” “Holy Spirit change me.” 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NLT)  //  For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom... And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. "Holy Spirit fill me.” Ephesians 5:18  //  “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” Acts 13:52 (NASB)  //  And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Holy Spirit doesn't make me better than you, it makes me better than me.

Hebrews 1:1-4While God's revelation from the prophets revealed him "in many times and many ways," God's revelation in Jesus is greater because God has spoken finally through his own Son -- God himself!

"...I am your Father." -A quote from one of the most famous movies ever created. The Star Wars media franchise began with a single movie released in 1977, and has now grown into a giant media franchise dominating the science fiction sub-genre known as "space opera" - a melodrama set in outer space. -Notice, we are talking about science fiction and space opera. We are talking about multimedia entertainment for the masses which has been wildly popular for nearly a half century, showing no signs of fading anytime soon. So what does a line from a science fiction melodramatic film have to do with Bible Study? What does it have to do with how we understand, not only the scriptures (the Word of God) - but the very nature of God - who He is? There are some who believe they are the present day chosen vessels to reveal the words that Jesus somehow forgot to say anywhere in a King James Bible. Since He forgot to tell anyone to write it down during His earthly ministry. He forgot to tell Paul to write it down as one of the many revelations given directly from Him as our risen Glorified Savior. He forgot to tell John when he was caught up and given his revelation. It is an unwritten mystery - one that is claimed to only be "revealed to whom God chooses to reveal it to." Four words - "I am your Father" - that could have easily been spoken from the mouth of Jesus, the Son of God - on multiple occasions. So, we are going to search for any recorded instances of Jesus ever speaking these words. We are also going to search for any evidence of written words in scripture which indicate the following claims, as taught by the "Star Wars Jesus" crew: -Jesus is His own Father -The Father IS the Son -The Holy Spirit IS the Father and/or Son -The Father and Holy Spirit's names are "Jesus" -The Father has no individual attributes because it is the "Soul of God" -The Son has no individual attributes because it is the "Body of God" -The Holy Ghost has no individual attributes because it is the "Spirit of God." -Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are only "titles" (and not individual manifestations of ONE God.) -Paul is the only one who reveals the truth of the Godhead/No one understood the Godhead before Paul. -The definition of Godhead is limited to the theory that "Father = God's Soul, Son - God's Body, Spirit - God's Spirit." -The claim that this idea does not originate from and/or has no relation to Modalistic Monarchism, Sebellianism, Patripassianism, or Oneness Pentecostalism (Jesus Only doctrine.) -The claim that the concept of the "Trinity" was an invention of the Catholic church and based on Paganism. -The lie that a belief that our God is Triune, is somehow the same as "not believing Jesus is God." -The claim that the word "person" is not used anywhere in a King James Bible to refer to God. - The assumption that an understanding of the Triune nature of God is equivalent to believing and worshipping in 3 (and sometimes 4) different "gods." - And more.... This is the first installment in this series. We are going to do our best to locate this "Star Wars Jesus." We invite you to come along with us on this explorative adventure. Like us on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/truthtimeradio Visit https://TruthTimeRadio.com to subscribe to our Podcast & Blog. For Bible questions call 1-888-988-9562. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/truthtimeradio/message

"...I am your Father." -A quote from one of the most famous movies ever created. The Star Wars media franchise began with a single movie released in 1977, and has now grown into a giant media franchise dominating the science fiction sub-genre known as "space opera" - a melodrama set in outer space. -Notice, we are talking about science fiction and space opera. We are talking about multimedia entertainment for the masses which has been wildly popular for nearly a half century, showing no signs of fading anytime soon. So what does a line from a science fiction melodramatic film have to do with Bible Study? What does it have to do with how we understand, not only the scriptures (the Word of God) - but the very nature of God - who He is? There are some who believe they are the present day chosen vessels to reveal the words that Jesus somehow forgot to say anywhere in a King James Bible. Since He forgot to tell anyone to write it down during His earthly ministry. He forgot to tell Paul to write it down as one of the many revelations given directly from Him as our risen Glorified Savior. He forgot to tell John when he was caught up and given his revelation. It is an unwritten mystery - one that is claimed to only be "revealed to whom God chooses to reveal it to." Four words - "I am your Father" - that could have easily been spoken from the mouth of Jesus, the Son of God - on multiple occasions. So, we are going to search for any recorded instances of Jesus ever speaking these words. We are also going to search for any evidence of written words in scripture which indicate the following claims, as taught by the "Star Wars Jesus" crew: -Jesus is His own Father -The Father IS the Son -The Holy Spirit IS the Father and/or Son -The Father and Holy Spirit's names are "Jesus" -The Father has no individual attributes because it is the "Soul of God" -The Son has no individual attributes because it is the "Body of God" -The Holy Ghost has no individual attributes because it is the "Spirit of God." -Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are only "titles" (and not individual manifestations of ONE God.) -Paul is the only one who reveals the truth of the Godhead/No one understood the Godhead before Paul. -The definition of Godhead is limited to the theory that "Father = God's Soul, Son - God's Body, Spirit - God's Spirit." -The claim that this idea does not originate from and/or has no relation to Modalistic Monarchism, Sebellianism, Patripassianism, or Oneness Pentecostalism (Jesus Only doctrine.) -The claim that the concept of the "Trinity" was an invention of the Catholic church and based on Paganism. -The lie that a belief that our God is Triune, is somehow the same as "not believing Jesus is God." -The claim that the word "person" is not used anywhere in a King James Bible to refer to God. - The assumption that an understanding of the Triune nature of God is equivalent to believing and worshipping in 3 (and sometimes 4) different "gods." - And more.... This is the first installment in this series. We are going to do our best to locate this "Star Wars Jesus." We invite you to come along with us on this explorative adventure. Like us on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/truthtimeradio Visit https://TruthTimeRadio.com to subscribe to our Podcast & Blog. For Bible questions call 1-888-988-9562. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/truthtimeradio/message

Second Sunday after Epiphany January 14, 2024 Faith, Okemos I Samuel 3:1-20, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18, I Corinthians 6:12-20, John 1:43-51 O God, you search me and you know me.  All my thoughts lie open to your gaze.  When I walk or lie down you are before me; ever the maker and keeper of my days. You know my resting and my rising.  You discern my purpose from afar, and with love everlasting you besiege me; in ev'ry moment of life or death you are. Before a word is on my tongue, Lord, you have known its meaning through and through.  You are with me beyond my understanding; God of my present, my past, and future, too. Although your Spirit is upon me, still I search for shelter from your light.  There is nowhere on earth I can escape you; even the darkness is radiant in your sight. For you created me and shaped me, gave me life within my mother's womb.  For the wonder of who I am, I praise you; safe in your hands, all creation is made new.                                                                                     All Creation Sings, 1082 I was struck this week as I read and pondered the texts for this Sunday, especially Psalm 139 and John 1, struck by the awareness that God knows, Jesus knows, my every thought.  This was especially evident on Thursday morning when I noted with alarm an email that I had just purchased some software for well over $200.  Included in the notification was a number I could call if this was in error.  That began an hours-long journey through a thicket of multiple layers of fraud, cleverly masked as legitimate enterprises.  I was increasing anxious when one purported helper noted that nearly half of my saving account had through the night been withdrawn. In the words of Psalm 139 and John 1, the Lord knew my every thought, every emotion; knew my increasing anxiety.  Enter Mara, our middle child, whose family has been living with us as they, after moving from Virginia, look for a new home.  She sat next to me as we made call after call to finally purge the threat.  I know that I, and I think all humans, can't think clearly when we are anxious.  Mara was much less anxious: “Dad, this doesn't feel right.  I think we should hang up on this caller.”  We learned that hackers are masters of deceit.  We learned that they can mimic credible organizations like Pay Pal and Microsoft and Amazon and even our local bank. O Lord, you have searched me and known me…you discern my thoughts from far away.  You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways…   When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit… God know us intimately.  Jesus knows me intimately.  This is both disconcerting and immeasurably comforting. The psalmist writes:  Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.  You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.  For me on Thursday, Mara was a little Christ, God's knowing what I needed, hemming me in, so to speak, preventing me from falling into the hands of those who would exploit me.  And God was in the credible security folks we finally reached who placed new guard rails to protect me. God who “fearfully and wonderfully” made each of us, loves us, all of us, quirks and all.  Sins and all. We know this best because, in the words of St. Paul in Romans 5, “God proves his love for us in that while still were sinners Christ died for us.” Who of us has been and/or is not hard on ourselves?  We may be ashamed of how we look or how we act or how dumb we feel.  We may feel guilt for words spoken in unbridled anger or for our indifference to those neighbors who need our help.  Or like those masters of deceit I experienced on Thursday, we may lie to protect ourselves or to benefit from other's innocence or naivete.  “While we were still sinners…”    Here a word about Jesus and Nathanael about whom Jesus said, “truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”  You may remember the story of Jacob and Esau.  Jacob deceived his blind, dying father, Isaac, receiving the blessing of the birthright that rightly belonged to his elder brother Esau.  Just before the brothers were reconciled when Esau forgave Jacob after years of deep hatred and estrangement, God came to Jacob in the night in the form of a man and wrestled with him until daybreak… When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.  Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.  But Jacob said “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?”  And he said, “Jacob.”  Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” When Jesus said to Nathanael, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you,” he saw not just his physical body but, I think, also his heart.  Which led Nathanael to proclaim, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!  You are the King of Israel!”  When Nathanael said to Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Jesus knew his thoughts, his skepticism, knew he was an Israelite, one who struggled with God and humans with perseverance and honesty.  “Truly,” said Jesus, “an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” I so love these texts for today.  I love that God loves us so much that in the Son God has taken into Godself all of our darkness, all of our hatred and anger, and died on our behalf as a criminal.  I love that the LORD of Psalm 139 and the Jesus of John 1, one and the same, knows my every thought, my every emotion, my every word.  And in the words of Professor Craig Nessan, whom I heard in a talk at Bethlehem Lutheran Friday afternoon:  through Jesus' suffering and death on the cross, God enables us to transmute the energy of our darkness, our hatred and anger, our alienation from one another into words and acts of mercy and forgiveness, of kindness and generosity. I love that Jesus comes very near to us, certainly through the bread and fruit of the vine in Holy Communion, but also through those sisters and brothers sitting near to us this morning, whether physically or virtually.  I love that Jesus was sitting with me on Thursday in the wisdom of Mara. The challenge for all of us this afternoon and tomorrow and beyond is to remember and trust that the Son of God and King of Israel is hemming us in, behind and before, in every moment of our lives. God, be the love to search and keep me; God, be the prayer to move my voice; God, be the strength to now uphold me; O Christ, surround me; O Christ, surround me.  Walking behind to hem my journey, going ahead to light my way, and from beneath, above, and all ways; O Christ, surround me; O Christ, surround me.  Christ in the eyes of all who see me, Christ in the ears that hear my voice, Christ in the hearts of all who know me; O Christ, surround me; O Christ, surround me.                                                                           All Creation Sings, 1084, vss. 1, 4 and 5 Amen.  

This sermon was preached on December 24, 2023 at Antioch Presbyterian Church, a mission work of Calvary Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America located in Woodruff, South Carolina. Dr. Joseph A. Pipa, Jr. preached this sermon entitled "God's Son / God's Sons" on Galatians 4:1-7. For more information about Antioch Presbyterian Church, please visit antiochpca.com or contact us at info@antiochpca.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antiochpca/message

A new MP3 sermon from Antioch Presbyterian Church (PCA) is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: God's Son / God's Sons Speaker: Joseph A. Pipa Jr. Broadcaster: Antioch Presbyterian Church (PCA) Event: Sunday Service Date: 12/24/2023 Bible: Galatians 4:1-7 Length: 37 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Mount Zion Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: God Calls His Son God Subtitle: Exposition of Hebrews Speaker: Pastor Jeff Pollard Broadcaster: Mount Zion Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 11/26/2023 Bible: Hebrews 1:8-9 Length: 73 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Christ Covenant Reformed Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Virgin-Born Son - God with Us Subtitle: Through Matthew Speaker: Jason Montgomery Broadcaster: Christ Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 10/29/2023 Bible: Isaiah 7:10-16; Matthew 1:18-25 Length: 67 min.

Jesus asks a question of the Scribes about the nature of the Messiah. Was he just a man, the son of David, or something much more. Pastor Gene looks at Jesus's answer to that question in today's sermon.

Jesus asks a question of the Scribes about the nature of the Messiah. Was he just a man, the son of David, or something much more. Pastor Gene looks at Jesus's answer to that question in today's sermon.

Jesus asks a question of the Scribes about the nature of the Messiah. Was he just a man, the son of David, or something much more. Pastor Gene looks at Jesus's answer to that question in today's sermon.

Hebrews 1:8-14 8 Of the Son [God] says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness beyond Your companions.” 10 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of Your hands; 11 they will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 12 like a robe You will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.” 13 And to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? Key Words: Throne, Forever, Scepter, Footstool, Ministering Keystone Verse: verse: Your throne O God is forever and ever. (Hebrews 1:8) Download Bulletin

Subject: Matthew 16:13-16 Speaker or Performer: Matthew 16:13-16 Date of Delivery: August 20, 2023 Sermon by Bro. Tommy Miller at UVBC in Beebe, AR

     God the Father is seen as the initiator, planner, and orchestrator of the salvation of mankind, and this because He is loving, merciful, and kind, and “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4), and is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). Salvation is necessary because of the problem of sin in the human race. All mankind is utterly helpless to bring about a remedy by human effort (Rom 3:10, 23; 5:6-10; Gal 2:16, 21; 3:21-22). Everyone is said to be “darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (Eph 4:18), and “dead” in their “trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1; cf., Col 2:13). This refers to spiritual death, which means separation from God. We are trapped in sin and stand guilty before a holy and righteous God and are completely unable to save ourselves. Wiersbe observes: The unbeliever is not sick; he is dead! He does not need resuscitation; he needs resurrection. All lost sinners are dead, and the only difference between one sinner and another is the state of decay. The lost derelict on skid row may be more decayed outwardly than the unsaved society leader, but both are dead in sin—and one corpse cannot be more dead than another! This means that our world is one vast graveyard, filled with people who are dead while they live (1 Tim 5:6).[1] If God had not made a way for us to be saved, we would be forever lost. Lightner states: God is the only one who could solve the problem which man's sin presented to Him. After man's fall God the Father began in time the plan of salvation which He devised before time began. This divine plan centered in his divine Son: “He gave His only begotten Son” because He “so loved the world” (John 3:16). “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9).[2]      But God intervened. He broke into time and space and displayed His mercy, love, and grace upon mankind. The apostle Paul wrote: But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:4-9)      The Father's actions are based on His love for all mankind. He loves because of who He is and not because of the beauty or worth of the object. Scripture reveals that “God is Love” (1 John 4:8), which means love is part of His nature. God loves because it is His nature to love. The Father's eternal plan for salvation      God the Father's soteriological work is traced back to what He planned before time began. He was motivated to provide for our salvation before we existed. According to Lightner, “We are often led to believe that our salvation began when we made our decision to trust Christ as Savior. The fact is, God was at work on our behalf long before that time.”[3] Paul wrote that God the Father “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph 1:4). That the Father elected us to salvation is straightforward in this passage, and the doctrine of election will be addressed later in this work. For now, this passage is noted because it speaks of the Father's salvation-work “before the foundation of the world.” According to Lightner: God the Father's work in salvation centers primarily in what he did before time began. With infinite love and compassion he acted on our behalf even before we were born. Paul told the Ephesian Christians that they had been chosen in Christ by the Father before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). To the Roman Christians the same apostle wrote about the Father's foreknowledge, predestination, and call of them before time (Rom 8:29–30). Peter, writing to saints scattered throughout Asia Minor, described them as “elect” of God the Father (1 Pet 1:2). While evangelicals differ on how these and other such passages are to be understood, they all agree that God the Father initiated the plan of salvation in eternity past.[4]      God's election starts with His sovereign choice, but also includes the individual choices of those who trust in Christ as Savior. Both are true. Though there is tension at this point—and this because of limited information and limited human capacity to comprehend—both God's sovereignty and human volition must be acknowledged at the same time. Lightner states, “God the Father is sovereign. He must be to be God. Human responsibility is just as biblical as divine sovereignty. Jesus stressed both. Jesus said no one can come to him unless drawn by the Father but he also said none who come to him would be cast out (John 6:37).”[5]And Paul Enns states, “While there is human responsibility in salvation, there is first a divine side to salvation in which God sovereignly acts to secure the sinner's salvation.”[6]The Christian must be content to live with this tension and not try to force a solution one way or another.      The salvation of mankind, with all its details, was fully comprehended and planned by God the Father from eternity past. It's not as though God was surprised by the fall of Lucifer and mankind. He is eternal, and His plan is eternal. Lightner states, “We must never view salvation as an afterthought or as the only possible way out of a hopeless dilemma on the part of God. The plan of salvation is as eternal as God is. God was not shocked when Satan and then man fell. He is eternal, and his plan is from eternity past to eternity future.”[7] God the Father commissioned God the Son      God the Father commissioned God the Son to provide our salvation. God the Son agreed to the Father's mission, came into the world, added humanity to Himself, and executed the Father's plan perfectly. Though Jesus said and did many things during His time on earth, of which many books have been written, His primary mission was to save sinners. Jesus said, “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), and “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus lived a sinless life and then sacrificed Himself on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of humanity. Through His death, burial, and resurrection, salvation is offered to all who believe in Him as Savior. Bruce Ware notes, “In eternity, the Father commissioned the Son who then willingly laid aside the glory He had with the Father to come and purchase our pardon and renewal.”[8] God the Father sent the Son to die      It was the Father's will for the Son to go to the cross to die for lost sinners, and the Son willingly went to His death and bore the Father's wrath in our place. This was explained in Isaiah, where the prophet wrote about the Suffering Servant, saying, “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering” (Isa 53:10a). It is simultaneously true that the Father sent and the Son went. In the Gospel of John, we're told, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17). Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:29), and “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). The apostle John wrote, “God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10), and “the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). Walvoord states: Jesus Christ's main purpose in coming to the world…was to provide salvation for those who put their trust in Him. Jesus expressed this in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” In His public ministry Jesus spoke of many truths, and His teachings were so comprehensive that a systematic theology could be written based on what He said and taught. However, this was a background to His dying on the cross for our sins. In this supreme act of dying, He fulfilled His main purpose in becoming incarnate, of being “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).[9]     [1] Ibid., 18. [2] Robert P. Lightner, Handbook of Evangelical Theology: A Historical, Biblical, and Contemporary Survey and Review (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1995), 189–190. [3] Ibid., 192. [4] Ibid., 191. [5] Ibid., 191. [6] Paul P. Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1989), 328. [7] Robert P. Lightner, Handbook of Evangelical Theology, 192. [8] Bruce A. Ware, “Tampering with the Trinity: Does the Son Submit to His Father?,” in Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood, ed. Wayne Grudem, Foundations for the Family Series (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2002), 248. [9] John F. Walvoord, What We Believe, 73.

Hosts: Forest Antemesaris and Hiram Kemp  |  Released Monday, August 7, 2023 If Hebrews could be summarized in a sentence, it would be “Jesus is better.” He is better than the angels, better than Moses, and better than the Levitical priesthood. He offers a better sacrifice, mediates a better covenant, and provides a better kingdom. The superiority […]

Deuteronomy 21:18-23 18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Rev. Rodney Henderson Matthew 27:32-54

John 21:24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. The testimony of John is true and reliable. There are others who have verified what he has written. He wrote, “We know…”. Who is the “we”? Probably he had in mind the rest of the disciples who also were eye witnesses to the life of Christ and the things of which John wrote. The preponderance of the scriptures calling God's people to live to love with Jesus come from John's gospel and letters. All the other NT authors testify to love as the outstanding characteristic of followers of Jesus, but John's testimony is unquestionable. Jesus is the Son God and the life and light of the world. That life and light is love. Everyone who has the Life loves Him and with Him. As we live to love with Jesus we testify that we believe that John's testimony regarding Jesus Christ is true. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 3:1-17Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus said to him, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can one be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?”Jesus said to him, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of heaven without being born of water and spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I have said to you, ‘You must be born of the spirit.' The wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”Jesus said, “Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak about what we know and we testify to what we have seen and you do not receive our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Let me start by saying that I've always really liked Nicodemus. Every sermon I've ever preached about him has expressed as much. He's always been a figure of faith and courage for me … someone who took some risks to show up to Jesus – which was hard for someone like him, being a Pharisee and all – one of those Jewish believers and religious leaders who were so often at odds with what Jesus was trying to do and say and teach and bring into the world.So, I've always been inclined to love his honest curiosity. His hard questions. His rebellious willingness to approach Jesus under cover of darkness – probably risking his reputation, maybe even risking his life by consorting with the enemy, which is likely how he'd been convinced to understand Jesus. After all, what would all of his buddies, his fellow Pharisees say, if they knew where he was that night, hanging out with that heretic from Nazareth?And I always saw it as an admirable sign of surprising deference and humility – a reverent kind of respect – that Nicodemus called Jesus “Rabbi,” and “Teacher,” before approaching him with his questions the evening they met … in secret … “by night” as the story goes.So bear with me … because this time I wondered, for a change, if Nicodemus' motives weren't purely innocent when he showed up at Jesus' door or window or whatever, under cover of that darkness? What if he was B.S.-ing Jesus? What if he was faking all of that deference, humility and curiosity? What if, as happened more than a few times throughout the course of Jesus' ministry, Nicodemus was just another religious leader trying to trap Jesus with some trick questions?(Before I go on, it's important to say, in these times when anti-Semitism is rearing its sinful head in ever-prolific ways, that when I make note of the flaws of the Pharisees in Scripture, I do that, not because they're Jewish – as too many misguided souls believe – but because they look and smell and act too much like religious people of all kinds in the world as we know it. They are meant to be more like reflections in our mirror, than like targets of our derision and judgment.)Because there was that one time we're told some other Pharisees plotted to entrap Jesus … so they sent their disciples to him…saying, “Teacher,” …Tell us what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”And another time, not long after that, we know some Pharisees heard about how Jesus had silenced the Sadducees and one of them, another Pharisee who was also a lawyer, asked Jesus a question deliberately to test him. “Teacher,” that Pharisee wanted to know, “which commandment in the law is the greatest?”There was that other time, too, when a different lawyer stood up, again, specifically to test Jesus, we're told, and asks him “Teacher … what must I do to inherit eternal life?” That little inquisition leads to one of the greatest stories ever told – by Jesus or anyone, for that matter – the story of the Good Samaritan.And finally, later on in John's Gospel, which we just heard, the scribes and Pharisees bring a woman before Jesus who had been caught in adultery and, we're told … again … in order merely to test Jesus so that they might have some charge to bring against him, they say, “Teacher … in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women…what do you say?”Teacher… Teacher… Teacher… Teacher… Test… Test… Test… Test…In each and every one of these stories – appearing in some way, shape or form, in each and every one of the Gospels – the inquisitor – a Pharisee of some sort – calls Jesus “Teacher” before testing him or trying to trap and trick him into some sort of trouble. So, as much as I've always been inclined to want to like good ol' Nicodemus … this time around, for the first time ever, I started to wonder if he just might be up to some similarly sinister shenanigans.And this only matters, because of the state of our world these days and because of how things pan out for Jesus, for Nicodemus, and for the Good News we stand to gain from it all.See, if we're allowed to imagine that Nicodemus had ulterior motives that were less than pure … if not downright dangerous and deadly for Jesus … then what if his friends were waiting outside? What if there were others waiting for a word or a whistle or a warning from inside the house so they could finally catch Jesus in the act of blasphemy or heresy or whatever it was they thought they could use to justify his arrest or worse?Because it feels like that's how we live in the world these days … like everything is a trick or a trap; like there's a single right or wrong answer to everything depending on your political party or religious affiliation or race or station in society or according to any other of the various and sundry labels and measuring sticks we use to identify ourselves and judge each other at any given moment on any particular topic.And the consequences of that are closed minds and what we've come to call “cancel culture.” The effects of this way of life are resistance to honest reflection and a disdain for curious inquiry. The results of this phenomenon are banned books and culled curriculum and conspiracy theories; racism and religious fanaticism and dying churches; echo chambers and siloes of exclusive, similarly-minded souls; and fear and suspicion and hatred, even, of “the other” and of the outsider and of anyone who doesn't think or believe or behave like we do.And none of it is Christ-like – which is what Jesus shows Nicodemus and the rest of us, that night we read about in this morning's Gospel. Because if we imagine that what I proposed about Nicodemus and his motives is true … it is Jesus who was brave and vulnerable, humble, full of faith, and gracious – as always. If Nicodemus was just like every other religious leader who had approached him before, Jesus had to be suspicious – if not downright afraid – of this stranger at the door … in the night … and whatever he had up his sleeve, that might be hiding behind and beneath his questions.But Jesus welcomes him and his questions and his curiosity, anyway. He responds to Nicodemus without a lot of hard and fast, black and white certainty – “the wind blows where it chooses,” he says … you hear it … but who knows where it comes from or where it's going? (What in the world does that even mean?)Jesus offers Nicodemus honesty and patience and his own kind of curiosity – “If I speak to you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I speak to you about heavenly things…?”Jesus speaks from his own experience, nothing more and nothing less – “we speak about what we know” … “we testify to what we have seen…”And he gives Nicodemus something to think about, extending to him simple grace and good news – the Gospel in miniature, as Martin Luther calls it: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son … God did not send the Son to condemn the world, but in order that the world would be saved through him.”And something about all of that honesty, patience, lived experience, grace and good news reaches Nicodemus. And, if what I imagined about his motives this time around is true, it changed something for Nicodemus – and changed him big time. If he didn't mean it when he called Jesus “Rabbi” and “teacher” at the start of it all, he seems to have learned a thing or two from Jesus, in the end.Because we know Nicodemus hung with Jesus after that night. He defended Jesus in front of his accusers later on in John's Gospel, and it was Nicodemus who showed up, after his crucifixion and death to tend to Jesus' body, along with Joseph of Arimathea.All of this, for me, means that if the Church and its followers want to live like Jesus and encourage others – our kids, our neighbors, our supposed enemies, and anyone/everyone who could be blessed by the grace we proclaim – if we want them to join us for this journey of faith we share, we're called to be brave in times like these. We're being called to be patient, curious, and open to hard questions and different points of view. We're being called to testify to what we've seen and experienced about God's grace in our lives. And we're being called to remind each other and whoever will listen – especially those who aren't sure about any of this – that God's grace and goodness belong to them, and to the whole wide world, just the same;that God showed up in Jesus – humble, brave and vulnerable, too;willing to be condemned, not to condemn;but to save – all of it – at all costs;even when that meant his very life, in the end.Amen

Have you ever seen the painting “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci? If so, did you see the yellow sun globe around Jesus head? Did you ever depict what it meant on a deeper level? You see a lot of the stories in the bible are meant for allegory and metaphors as it was meant for a deeper truth. For example back in ancient days the Egyptians gave the name Neter to the great and supreme Force of all, the “One God,” the source of all Creation, all that is and all that shall be. They felt that to know this one God was to know the many faces, qualities, and attributes of this sacred source, and the more they learned of these faces, the closer they got to the divine origin. From the Neter emerge the Neteru, there are countless Neteru, so from the One come the many. These Neteru are Cosmic principles, laws, and forces of Universal Nature and the Consciousness that permeate the whole universe. They are the means by which the Neter sustains creation and manifests through it. You and I are a part of God's creation. How we express ourselves are different, but nonetheless a part of the many faces of the source of all creation. The ancient Egyptian people reasoned that no one on Earth could ever lay claim of ownership to the Great Orbit of the Day. It must belong to the unseen Creator of all. It became, figuratively speaking, not man's, but “God's Sun”. God's Sun was truly the light of the world. Come listen in and find out if “God's Son is God's Sun” allegorically and see if there's any expression of truth figuratively for us to live by today. 

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston inour neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visitmosaicboston.com. Today we're thrilled to celebrate Christmas. Merry Christmas to you all. I forgot to say that at the beginning. Merry Christmas. Thank you. And we are going through a series, we started it last week, in the book of Philippians; Philippians 2:1-11. And this is not necessarily a traditional Admin or Christmas series, in that we're not going through the themes of hope, love, joy, peace. We're not walking very closely in the birth narrative of Jesus Christ. What we're doing is gleaning from this section of scripture that really consolidates the whole Christian message within a small, beautiful, concise statement. And we're pulling out themes around the realities, the spiritual, the historical realities of Christmas that you cannot quite dig into as much while going through the Christmas season in those more traditional methods. If you want to dig into the birth narrative of Jesus, want to go through hope, love, joy, peace as you go through this holiday week, feel free to go to our website and we have several years of those traditional series for you. So this last week I painted a big picture about God, generally. We talked through how Jesus was in the form of God, but did not count equality with God to be grasped. I tried to draw unity around who is God, by talking about Isaiah 6:1-8 a lot. Today we're going to talk about God a little more specifically in the person of Jesus Christ, but there's going to be a lot of overlap because I think the overlap is really good. My mind has just been taking off. I think a lot of people really enjoyed the thorough description of God and his glory, but I don't think quite as many people took whom the idea that his infinite glory has become our intimate glory. And that's where the gold is. So I'm going to repeat that next week. Tyler Burns, our teens director and hospitality director here at Mosaic, will walk us through the infinite glory, the exalted glory that Christ has and what that means for us today. So please join me and listen as I read the word of God from Philippians 2:1-11. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love being in full chord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This is the word of our Lord. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you for who you are. We praise you that in the person of Jesus Christ, we can look upon him and know your glory, not just generally, but personally. We pray Holy Spirit, that you would enliven our eyes to see the heart of God more and more in the person of Jesus Christ today. We pray, Lord, that as we reflect upon the humility shown by him, that our hearts would in turn be changed, that as we live and go forward in his glory, we would reflect his humility and power to the world. Holy Spirit, just wake up our hearts. Let us grow our expectations for this season that we would not just expect a season, a moment, a period, couple days or weeks of good tidings, but a lifetime of comfort and joy in the Holy Spirit of God by our faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, awaken our hearts and fill us that we may go and serve and be your lights in the world from this day forward until eternity. I pray, Lord bless this, the reading, the preaching of your word, may you be glorified in all that we do. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. So if you weren't aware, last week, there was a big event in world history at 10:00 AM in Qatar. It was the World Cup final. Last week, I preached both services and I tried to ignore the fact that it was taking place because I didn't want any of you to pull out your phones and check the score. It fell perfectly in between both of our services. But what took place? Lionel Messi, who has statistically proven himself over the last 16 years to be perhaps the best soccer player in history, the most popular sport in the world, perhaps the best player in history. Lionel Messi got the crowning achievement. He led his country, his band of teammates; all guys who grew up just worshiping as their idol, to victory in his fifth World Cup. And he got player of the tournament and he just had moments of just holding that trophy. I honestly just got chills thinking about it. I grew up with a coach from Argentina, played a lot of soccer myself. And praise God. I got home, I worked till 6:00 PM last week. I somehow got through the whole day without anyone telling me the result of the final. So I got to really enjoy the moment in the right way. Watched it with my son, didn't realize it went into extra time and he stayed up till about 10:00 PM, going into Monday. We felt that all week. But as I watched Messi, I just was rejoicing for him. I said, "Wow, look at the immortality that he has. The rest of his life, no one's going to doubt him. No one's going to question him. All of his critics are silenced. Look at the piece that he has. No one can count anything against him in his career." And furthermore, that internal, that battle that he had, that question of his worthiness, his greatness is taken away. That voice in his own head. Look at the love that he has. Look at the adoration of the fans. Look at the adoration of his wife and three kids, sitting there, just snuggling the trophy together. Look at the joy, just the pure exuberant happiness in a guy who is generally very mild mannered. And honestly, I looked at him and I said, "I want that. I want that now." And the little boy inside of me said to my 34-year-old self, "It's not too late, Andy. Dig in, go out and train. Practice. You're 34 years old, but you can still get that with soccer." And I believed it for a moment and then I stood up and my back hurt, and baby number three started crying. And very quickly, that goal was put away. But in all seriousness, for a moment, watching Messi just kiss that trophy, the most liked Instagram picture in history, watching him get paraded around the stadium in front of thousands of fans and then having that peaceful moment of just rest with his family, I really wanted what he had; the immortality, the peace, the love, the joy, the status, the guaranteed riches. This was even right after I preached last Sunday, which shows how quick we can stumble, how fickle we are as humans. I genuinely got caught up in the moment and really desired what Messi had, but after preaching my sermon from last week to myself, I realized that through Christ, I have what he has and so much more. And why does this matter this week? To restate myself from last week, because Christmas is all about understanding that God's infinite glory has become our intimate glory. And last week I painted this picture of God's infinite glory and brought us pretty quickly, to the end, how... Sorry. How his infinite glory becomes our intimate glory. But this is really what happens at Christmas. Beneath the details of the birth narrative, beneath hope, love, joy, peace is the reality that upon Christmas, the infinite has become intimate. I want to build off this today. Our great God, in all of his exhausted holiness, who would be fully just to leave man in the predicament before him in his state of sin, faces his sin and sends a messenger from heaven. And not just any messenger, God sends himself. Heaven itself reaches down, touches the sinner. The light of heaven breaks through the darkness caused by man sin. When the infinite glory becomes intimate for us, we realize that the greatest... There's actually an even greater glory than God's transcendent glory. It's God's transferred glory. Christmas is the season that should bring us to our knees in absolute awe as we reflect upon the holiness, glory and character of God and see that he is graciously reaching down from heaven to touch our lives and not just cancel our sin, but to graciously give us a right, a new nature in Jesus Christ. And we talked about this last week. I sped through it, but too often churches preach a half gospel. It only talks about the removal of the debt of sin. They preach as if when someone's made right before God, that it's like going to a bank and paying a debt. And you get a zero sum balance between you and God. And when they preach that lives are not actually changed, it soothes people's conscience for a period of time. But the true gospel says that when God saves people something greater than forgiveness of debt happens. God doesn't just forgive our sins when he saves us, he graciously gives us his own righteousness, his holiness, his glory, the power and presence of his Holy Spirit as we go forward through all of life and eternity. How is this possible? Our passage from Philippians 5 says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. When the passage says, he, Christ was in the form of God, it traces Christ's preexistence before creation as the only holy begotten son of God, a member of the Holy Trinity of God, the Father, God the Son God the Holy Spirits. Christ existed with God in the heavenly of heavenlys. He was infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness justice, goodness and truth, just as much as God the Father and God, the Holy Spirit. He was fully satisfied within the Trinity, fully joyful, fully loved. He did not need worship from man. And yet he, Christ took on flesh that he might save man and give him the chance to worship him. Scripture says of Jesus, in Hebrews 1:3, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And when he walked the earth, though truly tempted to sin, he retained his perfect righteousness throughout his life, walking blameless before God's law. But on the cross, he positioned himself intentionally to receive the wrath of God, due to man, for his sins, his unrighteousness, his imperfection before the law. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that because Jesus Christ, God himself, took on flesh and lived the sinless life before God that we could not live, when one turns away from their sin and turns to God once and for all, all sins of past, present and future or are forgiven. And once for all, the righteousness of Christ is applied to them by God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Once truly in Christ by faith, the Father promises to never leave or forsake his children and gives them esteemed status as heirs of his eternal glory, with his firstborn child. So 2 Corinthians 5:21 captures this gospel in a concise statement, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. So that's for our sake. He, God made him, Christ to be sin on the cross, who knew no sin in heaven and on earth, so that in him, Christ we might become the righteousness of God. And so what I'm talking about is typically called double imputation, in the theological world. By faith, our filthy, sinful record is applied to Jesus and his perfect, right, holy record before God is applied to us by his Holy Spirit. If you just pause and take in what I said, this is a deal that works so much for our benefit and just is not very fair to God. This is something that you have to pause and meditate. If Christ came from infinite glory in heaven and took on flesh as a baby in Bethlehem, to live a life with the lowliest of people for the primary purpose of going to the cross, that should wow you. That should make you in awe of God. That should make you in awe of Christ. And when you pause and think about who you are in your sin before a holy God, the only way you can justify why God would do such a thing, send his own son to go to the cross in your place, is you find that it's only love. There's no reason that he loves you in his holiness. He loves you because he loves you because he loves you. That is a freeing love and that's what we get offered to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But we want to see this. I want to press upon you and just keep building off of what I said last week, that Christmas offers us so much more than the chance of getting a right balance before God. It's not just a chance to receive a shot of jolliness or nostalgia that powers us through a few days or a few weeks. Christmas is all about this transfer of glory. That light in the distance that we foresaw in the prophets, in the symbolism of the sacrifices and the temple and the tabernacle, that light far off, that's God's light coming into history and man are no longer left to toil. Peace on earth, goodwill to man, praise be to God. The gospel is now going to be transferred and offered to the world, not just a single people, the Israelites. That's the beginning of what is happening. And so some verses that describe the transfer of glory from God's manic Christmas and scripture are Ephesians 1:3-1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. 1 Peter 29, he says to Christians, Peter says, "But you are a chosen race." Christians, we are a chosen race. We're like a new form of immortal being, "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." Going further, scripture talks about God's gracious transfer of glory to his children in the church is something that angels, even in their present heavenly glory long to look at in wonder and amazement. And the Christmas story verses mention this. Luke 2:8-13, and in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. This is close to where Christ was born. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly, there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased." This is legions of angels, lighting up the sky to look upon God's taking on of human flesh and they are brought to worship to see this taking place. 1 Peter 1:10-12 mentions how prophets of old and angels further long to look ahead to Christ's life on earth in this gracious salvation that it garnered. Concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, Christians, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them, the prophets, that they were serving not themselves, but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. The angels, long to look at the gospel of Jesus Christ being played out, his taking on of the flesh, his righteous life, his going to the cross in our place, his rising from the dead, his ascension to the right hand of God the Father. And they're also waiting with us for his pending return. And when you pause and think about the prophets who prophesied about this grace that was to be ours, that says the God of the Old Testament is not a mean God, who wants to punish us and hold his authority over his head. This is a common myth about Christianity. The God of the Old Testament and New Testament is the same. He's a God of grace. Going back to the Garden of Eden. All he wanted to do was to walk in the garden and enjoy life with man. This relationship where God is creator, man is the created one and man finds his ultimate joy and freedom walking with his father, with his creator. And man breaks that relationship. And so there's a few confusing things. But even in Genesis 3, the gospel is first preached. When it says the serpent will bruise the heel of the man, the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head. God all along has been planning for this gospel to come forward and we're seeing it take place at Christmas and Jesus Christ being born. This is the middle of history. This is why history's called his story. It's Jesus' story coming to this earth to be our savior. In Ephesians 3:7-10, the apostle Paul once said, of this gospel, as made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me though, I am the very least of all the saints. This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring light for everyone. What is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities, and the heavenly places? Isn't that amazing? The rulers and authorities in heaven, they already have access to God in all of his holiness, at least greater access than us. And they're even more excited to look into this gracious transfer of glory to man on earth through the Son of God. The gospel for them, it gives them a deeper understanding of God's heart, his heart of love for his created children. So at Christmas we celebrate the gracious heavenly glory becoming our intimate glory. And this should cause us to take a view of the life that Christians get to live. At one point during the World Cup celebrations, while still on the field, there's a moment where a great Argentine soccer legend and world soccer legend who's retired, Sergio Aguero, lifted Lionel Messi onto his shoulders while he held the trophy and carried him around the stadium as Argentine fans cheered and sang and cried in celebration and worship. It's this beautiful picture, but the grand picture of our life as Christians is even greater than that of Messi being paraded around the stadium on another soccer legend's shoulders. The grand picture of our life is one of Jesus himself, the son of God, parading around with us, not with him on our shoulders, but with us on his shoulders. That's the life we get to live and the power of the Holy Spirit of God, all thanks to faith. Scripture talks about life as a Christian, as a triumphal procession, like the parade taken by a victor of war who is then given dominion to reign in the conquered territory by his Lord. In 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, it says, but thanks be to God, who in Christ, always leads us in triumphal procession and through us, spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one, a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. Do you view yourself, your life as a triumphal procession, as one commissioned by God, as a righteous victor over sin in Jesus Christ who God uses to call other people, living in the domain of darkness and death, into his kingdom of heavenly light and resurrection power? Do you? How many of you feel like you're just limping through life, feeling bad for yourself because you have to face the challenges that come with walking through life in this world as a Christian? Living in Boston, perhaps three or 4% evangelical Christian that's in four or five years old now? Being of the extreme minority? How many of you are just feeling bad for yourself? Are you forgetting that the very Holy Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is in you? Some of you who just come here at Christmas and Easter, we are very glad you're here. But are you just ashamed of being Christian in a day where it's not popular or are you too busy? You're not understanding all that you have in Jesus Christ. Christians who know what a blessing it is to be saved and made righteous in Jesus Christ, to have his glory should look at Messi and realize that he has nothing on us. We know a greater glory in our salvation. We have a greater glory living within us. We have a greater joy, love, peace, and true eternal hope of victory. Do you know this? Do you know that Christ's glory is already yours today if you're in him? Or that it can be yours today if you receive his invitation to follow him? Or are you stuck pursuing your own glory or watching other people pursue earthly glory, living vicariously through them while rotting away on the inside? Can you look upon earthly heroes, those athletes, artists, musicians, those people who live in the neighborhood next to you who have multi-million dollar houses... or if you have one, there's the ones who have bigger houses than you, and say that I have more in Jesus? Or are you caught living vicariously through people or trying to catch up with them? I met this one guy. It was the weirdest thing. He tied his peaks and valleys and development in life to the peaks and valleys of the career of the famous tennis player, Roger Federer. It was just the weirdest thing. His whole Facebook, social... multiple social media profiles were him with, not Roger Federer, but pictures of Roger Federer; pictures of him with the TV, watching him. It sounds crazy, but a lot of us practice such functional ideology. One thing that I don't understand is America's obsession with the British royal family. Why does the media make millions and millions by telling us about this royal family? What's our fascination with them? Why are we living through life through their experience? Didn't we say goodbye to them a while ago? But if you think about it, the Kardashians, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Hillary, Obama, anyone else who is known by only one name, your soccer team, football team, basketball team, baseball team, social media influencers, Jesus Christ took on flesh that we might take on an infinitely greater glory than any of those people or groups. One of the things that Christians who really understand the glory that they have in Jesus can actually say with confidence is that life in Christ is just better. That's one of the things that I say in my evangelism. Just life... I've tasted some things of the world and I wish I never even tried to because life in Christ is that much better. A lot of us Christians are afraid to go too close to a prosperity gospel and say this, but even in suffering with Jesus, it's better. Life with Christ is better. It's the most rich and glorious life to live in this life and in eternity. And so the apostle Paul, he knew this, that our writer of Philippians, and that he commented on his knowledge of his present glory with a really just powerful statement in Philippians 3:7-16. He said, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God and Christ Jesus. Let those of you who are mature think this way. And in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Paul, perhaps the most influential Christian, aside from Christ, renounce all spiritual, ethnic and professional privileges. And he had many, he was the Jew of Jew, the Pharisee of Pharisees, the top at the top PhD program in his course of study and he gave it all up for the sake of knowing Christ and becoming more and more conformed to his glory and likeness as his life went on. Will you leave your vice grip on those things to which you desperately cling in order to conjure up your own glory, your own righteousness before God and man? Your own faux hope, fake hope, peace, love passing riches in order to receive something far better? That's the offer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so with all of this, I think I've made myself clearer in trying to get you to realize that the greatest glory of Christmas is realizing that God's infinite glory has become intimate glory. But I want to expand on what I've said to say how we make this glory our own today. How can we continually increase our experience of this glory in our lives today? I had one sister say to me this week, "I'm really captivated by the idea of that infinite glory becoming my intimate glory. But what does that mean for my day-to-day life?" This is what Philippians 2 is all about. Have this mind among yourselves. This is an active thing. We're to take on this mind of Christ when he in humility, took on flesh. This is what the whole book of Philippians is about, if you want to explore it further in detail this week. Paul, as he talks about in the quote that I just read, this making his identity in Christ's own, pressing on, holding true to what we have attained. Our lives as Christians should be marked by continual progression in making Christ glory our own. So how do we make Christ's infinite glory our own intimate glory on a day-to-day basis? And so first, we have to believe the gospel. We have to really want the glory of God, the righteousness of God in our life. Do you really want that? Then we repent of our sin, of living for our own glory and trying to conjure up our own righteousness, before our heavenly Father and see that it's only in Jesus that we can be made right before him and receive a new nature and glory. And then we do this on repeat, every day, every hour, every time you begin to slip again. And if we cannot see, we ask God to help us see his glory and our sin before him. And then very quickly, the grace that he offers to us, the glory that he offers to us in Christ. And once we believe, the way that we make God's infinite glory, our intimate glory in a sense that it becomes personal to us and changes us, is by realizing that we're given such a gift of glory in order to live for God's infinite glory. And this is where I want to expand on my statement of the past two weeks. The most glorious part of Christmas is understanding that God's infinite glory has become intimate glory for his infinite glory. God's infinite glory has become intimate glory for his infinite glory. And so it has become our intimate glory for his infinite glory. So we don't get saved and then continue to live for ourselves. We don't become Christians and then continue to live as Johns and Joes and Marys and Amys, trying to use God's power to get that better job or bigger house, or more friends or spouse or children, or retirement nest egg or whatever it is that we believe will make us happy. We become Christians.What does Christian mean? Little Christ. We follow in his way. The original Christians are called the way because they lived like Jesus, for his glory. So how did Christ live? Philippians 2 says, being born in the likeness of men, he humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross. How did Christ live? He continually died to himself and ultimately, died on the cross. Christ showed great humility. The Christian life is the glorious life. But the paradox of Christianity is that the way we access that glory personally, and the way we bring more glory to God is by dying daily. And that's something really hard. The world wants us to be firm, be proud, be strong in our own strength. The Christian life is one where we step out constantly to the ends of our own strength so that we get to see God's power at work in us and through us. It's a constant cycle of extending yourself, praying that God would work in you and through you and serving others beyond your capacity, stretching the limitation of your gifts and saying, "God, use me." So how can you have the best Christmas? How can you have the best life from here on? Believe in Jesus, take up your cross daily and follow him. Live for his infinite glory, not your own. And this should not be a forced dying. It shouldn't be a drudgery to follow in the way of Christ, but a joy to do this. In Philippians, Paul calls the church of Philippi to rejoice over and over again. He says, "Live in this way and rejoice. I say, rejoice." And he says, "It will be the source of my rejoicing to see you live and die like this." That's what we should want to see when we do evangelism, when we make disciples and we invest in people. We want to see people who don't just adhere intellectually to the faith, but take that information, learn how to use it for wisdom and just in their daily dying. We want the Lord... We can't feel bad, we can't nurture our babies, spiritual children in the faith. We can't nurture our own physical children. What do I want with my children? I want them to grow up and I want them to lay down their lives for Jesus. And I have to accept that that's going to be a life of risk taken, not following the way of the world, but standing on the word of Christ and laying themselves down to get his truth, get the lord's heart and character across to people. And as Christian, in living in this way, all of your life becomes a song that you sing with dally life. A song that you sing by laying yourself down like Jesus, with the hope of being used by him to draw more and more people into his flock. And historically, this section of Philippians 2:5-11, it's been called the Hymn of Christ, the Song of Christ. And in the original language, there's some elements that would suggest that Paul wrote it to be a song. As you reflect on how great God's glory is, how amazing it is that he offers you glory, your life becomes a song, a form of worship as you joyfully lay yourself down for others as Christ did for you. That's the view we are to have of this life. Not sitting around feeling bad for ourselves. Even in modern day Boston, our life can be this song. We can have joy to die to ourselves. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, let us lay aside every weight and sin which sings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. In other words, Christ's joy and life song to take on flesh and endure the cross for us. It should be our joy and life song to take up our cross daily in this life so that others might get to experience the glory that we know. And who do you lay yourself down for? That's a really important question that Christians need to ask. And it's more confusing than ever with just the amplification of social media, the existence of the internet, the way to engage in life in a variant, impersonal way, essentially without human, people incarnate in front of you. But who do you serve? Who do you lay yourself down for? The people that God has placed right in front of you. And that's probably the people that you are going to celebrate Christmas with today. And you know what? They're probably the hardest people to lay yourself down for in life because you know them. You know their sins, you know their shortcomings and their stubbornness, and it's really hard to love them sacrificially. And I say this about my family. They're great, they're lovely, my wife is incredible, but every day I say, "Lord, fill me up. Give me your power to love her well, as Jesus Christ did, to lay myself down as Christ did for his bride, the church." So who do we lay ourselves down for? For your wife, your husband, your kids, your roommate, brothers and sisters in the church, physical neighbors, parents, in-laws, siblings, coworkers, friends. And probably that order, especially when you gather together at Christmas. And I just want to close with a reading from Ephesians chapter 1. I actually don't have the verses in front of me. My Bible doesn't have verses here, but where do you get the power to keep loving? You look to the Lord. You look upon his infinite glory and see that in Christ, he has given you his infinite glory. That's how we continue to lay ourselves down. That's how his glory becomes more personal. That's how it grows in us, and we grow more into the likeness of Jesus Christ with our lives. So this Christmas, my prayer is that which the Apostle Paul has here for the Church of Ephesus, very much like he had for the Church of Philippi, just with grander language. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also into the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head, over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give us your fullness. Give us the fullness of your joy. Give us the fullness of your love, your mercy, your grace, your humility. Lord, light a fire in our souls whose source is your heavenly glory so that when we just go out and spend time with our family, our neighbors, our friends, those people who are to believe, we can begin today properly serving you. Lord, we know that you want us to be your children. We know that your power is what truly saved us. Help us to know how we can walk in it. Let your joy, your light, your love just grow in us. And we pray that as we do so that other people would see you in us. Lord, let us go forward with confidence that we have greater glory than the greatest champions, the greatest icons, the most influential people of history. We have greater power than them. You have called us to be your ambassadors in this world and let us take to the world your love, hope, and grace today. I pray this in the name of Jesus' holy name, amen.

This week Donna talks about all three parts of God and that to grasp the Holy Spirit we have to understand all of the parts of God.

The genealogy Matthew gives for Jesus in the opening verses of his Gospel lays the foundation for showing how it is that Jesus, the most unlikely of candidates, should be recognized as the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. The problem is, in v16 Matthew is almost at pains to point out that Joseph, King David's descendant, is not Jesus' father. In v18-25 Matthew explains not only how it is that Jesus can legitimately be called the son of David, but also how he comes to be called both Jesus -Yahweh saves- and Immanuel -God with us-.

The genealogy Matthew gives for Jesus in the opening verses of his Gospel lays the foundation for showing how it is that Jesus, the most unlikely of candidates, should be recognized as the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. The problem is, in v16 Matthew is almost at pains to point out that Joseph, King David's descendant, is not Jesus' father. In v18-25 Matthew explains not only how it is that Jesus can legitimately be called the son of David, but also how he comes to be called both Jesus -Yahweh saves- and Immanuel -God with us-.

What Is This Person Like?   If you don't see the Holy Spirit as a person, you'll never develop a personal relationship with Him.   “God, the Father” “God, the Son” “God, the Holy Spirit”   HOW DO YOU DEFINE A PERSON   A person is a being with a soul   “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! Matthew 12:18 NKJV   He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Matthew 26:38 NLT   Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” Hebrews 10:38 NKJV   A person's soul is made up of three components: mind, will, and emotions. 1. The Mind of the Holy Spirit “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT   When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. John 16:13 NLT   “the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything” John 14:26 NLT   Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:27 NKJV   2.  The Will of the Holy Spirit   Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.  Acts 16:6 God's General Will   God's Specific Will   Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”Matthew 28:18-20 NLT       And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Romans 8:17 NLT   We come to know the general will of God by His Word, while we come to know the specific will of God by His Voice.   When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.  John16:13 NLT   No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days,' God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. Acts 2:16-17 NLT   3. The Holy Spirit's Emotions   But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23 NLT   And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30 NLT   Grief is deep sadness you feel at the loss of intimacy with someone.   So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. And “don't sin by letting anger control you.” Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need. Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.  Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:25-32 NLT   Sin does not grieve the Holy Spirit because He is a killjoy and doesn't want you to have fun.  Sin grieves the Holy Spirit because it hurts people and He loves people.   Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” Acts 8:22-23 NKJV   Bitterness will poison you emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically.  Sin is an event; iniquity is a lifestyle. Sin is an act; iniquity is a habit.   INVITE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO SHOW YOU   Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Psalms 139:23-24 NLT   INVITE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO CHANGE YOU   Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.  Psalms 51:10 NLT    INVITE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO FILL YOU   Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 NLT    Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NLT

Baldur's mom is who? On this episode Nick and Cam react to the reveal of Baldur's mother and why it all makes sense. Then they talk about the epic battle on top of a Dragon and how they need to start from square one to get to Jotunheim. Join the Patreon squad for bonus episodes, discord access, prizes and even more goodness: https://www.patreon.com/autosavepod Follow @autosavepodcast on Twitter! While you are there say hello to @thisiscamco and @nickandrade, or reach out to the show over email to say hey: podcast@autosavepod.com If merch is your thing, be sure to check out the store: https://bit.ly/atsmerch You can also join us on twitch, because you never know when we will pop in for a live show: https://www.twitch.tv/autosavepodIf you enjoyed this episode, please rate AutoSave 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.

Questions Covered: 09:01 – What was the creation of Jesus like? Begotten not made? Was he created since he is the Son God not Father God? 14:32 – If a bishop claims he is afraid of death, should we also be afraid of death? 21:45 – Do we know if the pope listens to Catholic radio, EWTN or Catholic Answers? 29:18 – Is it wrong to wait a few days to go to confession after committing venial sin? What’s the gravity of venial sin vs mortal sin? 38:14 – I was baptized as a Baptist at 8. Then I was baptized by a Sedevacantist priest and now am in full communion with Rome. What sins would I have to confess because I don’t know when I was validly baptized? 46:51 – Is the Deut. 32:8 worldview in The Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser compatible with Catholicism? 51:17 – In the Exodus story, did God take away Pharaoh's free will when he hardened his heart? How do we understand that phrase? …

The quality and outlook of your life is solely based on the daily decisions you make. God has promised in Jeremiah 29:11 to prosper us, and it's imperative that we walk continuously with him believing that his word will not return void.  5:42 - There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. John 3:16 states, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…God knew & loved you before you entered this world! He desires to have a genuine relationship with you.  10:25 - Are you expressing to God that you want everything he has for you? Are you willing execute on everything he wants you to do? 22:30 - Make God a part of your decision making. God's word declares he knows the plans for our life to prosper us. Satan fights what pleases God, which is our faith. Operate in faith actions with God although you may not fully understand. Proverbs 3:5-6 29:40 - Your gifts can't make room for you if you aren't using them   Focus Scriptures: Matthew 7:8 states we should ask, seek before finding, and knock on the doors of God first before anything becomes available in our life. There's nothing that's too small to converse with God about! Bring every situation to him so that he can order your next steps. From there it's up to trust those directions an apply them moving forward.  Psalms 51. Don't go before the lord proudly with an ego! Acknowledge your shortcomings so that Daddy can hear you. A decision to turn away from behaviors that separate you from God needs to be made in order for him to move fully in your life. Ask for faith and strength to follow him wholeheartedly! Takeaways  Come to God with that specific area Humble yourself…  Include God in every decision you make Operate in your gift as much as you can

So today we start back into our series on the Book of Psalms, and just to remind you, the Book of Psalms is an ancient collection of prayers and poetry that are in the Bible to remind us that our hope is in God's promised King, the Messiah, who is Jesus.Every psalm, one way or another, is pointing to Jesus, and Psalm 45 points to Jesus in a fascinating way. Psalm 45 is a wedding poem, but it's not just for any wedding, this is for the wedding of the Promised King. And so right away I just wanna be super clear about the ultimate meaning of this psalm. There are three things here I want us to see, and I'm gonna try to say them as clearly as I can:The King is Jesus.The King is Jesus and he is worthy of adoration.The King is Jesus and a wedding is coming.We're gonna look more at each of these in more detail, but first, let's pray again for God's help:Father in heaven, we praise you! Hallowed be your name! Thank you for this morning and for this moment when your word is open before us. We ask that your pour out your Holy Spirit now and show us the glory of your Son! We ask this in his name, amen. #1. The King is JesusThere are two ways to approach the kingship theme in Psalm 45: One way is to read the whole psalm and then ask at the end, Who is this ultimately about? The other way is to say from the start who this is ultimately about and then read the psalm with that in mind. And that's the way we're gonna do it, okay: The King in Psalm 45 is Jesus.Here are three reasons why — and I'll say these quick, but I need you to hang with me …First, we know the King is Jesus because in all the kingship psalms, Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment. So throughout the Book of Psalms, some of the psalms about kingship are more directly about David or Solomon or God himself as king, but the office ultimately belongs to the Messiah, who is son of David AND God the Son. And so right away, when we see the mention of a king here in Psalm 45, we should think: this is telling us something about Jesus.Secondly, we know the King is Jesus because in the New Testament book of Hebrews, in Chapter 1 when the author is describing the glory and uniqueness of Jesus, he quotes from Psalm 45. This is Hebrews Chapter 1, verses 8–9:But of the Son [God says], Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; That is verbatim Psalm 45, verses 6–7, which means the New Testament authors, without a doubt, understood Psalm 45 to be about Jesus. (And we all should all say: it's good enough for the New Testament, it's good enough for us!) The Book of Hebrews just settles it: Psalm 45 is about Jesus. But also, thirdly, let's take a look at what Psalm 45 is doing in the context of these surrounding psalms. Right before we get to Psalm 45, Psalms 43 and 44 show the psalmist in a desperate place. In Psalm 43 his soul is cast down, and he feels rejected. He's in mourning and he's oppressed, verse 2, and so he's preaching to himself to hope in God (verse 5). But then in the next psalm, Psalm 44, verse 9, the psalmist says again that God has rejected his people, and he's asking God why. The psalmist says that God's people have become the laughingstock of their enemies (44:14), and he implies that God has treated his people unjustly (44:17–21). Which means this is a very low moment for the psalmist, and yet still in Psalm 44, verse 23, he practices what he preaches to himself in Psalm 43, verse 5: The psalmist hopes in God. He hopes in God enough to pray. He calls on God to act! Look at Psalm 44:23, he says: “Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!” And then the psalm concludes Psalm 44 with a clear petition for salvation. The psalmist says, verse 26: “Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!” (44:26)That's the last verse in Psalm 44. Does everyone see what the psalmist is asking God there in that last verse? The psalmist is asking God to help his people. He's asking God to redeem his people for the sake of his steadfast love. Psalm 44 ends with that bold request. And now we wonder, how will God answer that?Well, Psalm 45 comes next and it happens to be about a King. … Because the King is the answer. How will God save his people? By sending his King … and Yahweh's King who saves is Jesus. In Psalm 45 the King is Jesus.Now the second thing to see here in Psalm 45, and I think the most central thing and it's that:#2. The King is Jesus and he is worthy of adoration.Look at verse 1. In verse 1, the psalmist is being unusually self-aware. He's describing both his emotion and what he's doing. The actual song starts in verse 2, but in verse 1 he wants us to know the process. He wants us to know where this is coming from …He says, verse 1:My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. Calvin actually says verse 1 is another reason we know this psalm is about Jesus, because nobody talks this way about a human king. We can hear the exuberance and joy in verse 1. There's not a trace of inhibition — the psalmist loves the king and he wants everybody to know — and my guess is that for most of us, most of the time, we don't know what that's like. … I want to slow down on this for a minute.I wonder for us if we know what it's like to have this kind of overflowing love for Jesus. I mean, can you imagine that when you pray, you just overflow with praise like this? A lot of times, just to pray at all, we have to [shock our hearts.]I want us to be more like Psalm 45. I want the praise of Jesus to come easy for us. And whatever is standing in the way, I pray that God would free us from it.So here's a simple question just to think about for a minute: do you love Jesus? It's not a trick question, and don't overcomplicate it. Just think about it: Do you love him?I can remember the moment when it first occurred to me that I loved Jesus. I was in college, standing in the kitchen of my apartment, in the afternoon, frying an egg. I was a Christian; I believed in Jesus; I had heard the gospel as long as I could remember, but I think that because I knew what Jesus's love looked like for me, I felt like couldn't really say that I loved him (or something like that) — but I was standing there that day, praying, talking to Jesus, and I don't know how to describe it other than that it just occurred to me that I loved him. As imperfect or whatever it might be, my heart welled up with affections for Jesus. I knew that I loved him, and it brought tears to my eyes, and then I ate my egg. I remember.And here's the deal, I remember that because that's pretty much all I really want in life. I want to know the love of Jesus and to love him. That's what I want for my family; that's what I want for you, as your pastor and brother; that's what I want for these cities. I want us to know Jesus the way the psalmist knows him here. I want us to be able to adore him as easily as we read the psalmist do it here.We don't run out of things to say; we never get stuck; we just open our mouths and adoration gushes forth, because Jesus is worthy of such adoration. That's the point. We're not working something up here or putting something on, we're just saying of Jesus what he deserves. He deserves our adoration. Look what the psalmist says:Jesus is better.First, Jesus our King is better. There's nobody like him because he surpasses every comparison. Verse 2: “You are the most handsome of the sons of men.” Now to be clear, this description of Jesus here in Psalm 45 is Jesus in his resurrected glory. In his first advent, when Jesus humbled himself and came into this world in the First Century, “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). But in his resurrected body, Jesus as our glorified and exalted King, he is the most handsome of the sons of men — which is the ancient Hebrew way of saying that if we could see Jesus now we would not be able to take our eyes off of him, because he's better than anything we've ever seen before; he's radiant in glory. Look at verse 7: “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” See, Jesus is set apart! “My beloved is chiefest among ten thousand” (Song 5:10).Which means, line up ten thousand kings, put them all in a row and consider each one, and you will find out what the apostle Peter says in John 6, that there's nobody out there like Jesus. He is chiefest among ten trillion. Only Jesus has the words of life (John 6:68). “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus is in a category of wonder all his own, and so when we think about him we should think about that. When we think of Jesus and pray to Jesus, we are thinking and speaking to someone who is unlike anyone else we know, because he's better than anything that we can imagine. Adore him!Jesus conquers in righteousness.Also, here, the psalmist tells us that Jesus conquers in righteousness. Verse 3: Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! 4 In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! 5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; the peoples fall under you. So Jesus our King will always conquer, and he will conquer righteously in all ways. We can never separate his power from his justice … which reminds us of John's description of Jesus in Revelation 19, when he saw the heavens opened, … and behold, a white horse! And the one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. (verse 11)See, at one level, Revelation 19 is a terrifying scene, because … Jesus's eyes are like a flame of fire,and he has a dazzling crown on his head,and his robe is covered in blood,and the armies of heaven are following behind him —— which is terrifying, but then we remember that Jesus is faithful and true and that everything he does is right.Jesus never does anything wrong. He never misuses his power. He has never said a wrong word or taken a wrong step or given bad directions. He is a ruler who is completely and exhaustively perfect. In Jesus, the greatest power belongs to the hands of greatest good. And so he strikes down the nations and he heals the brokenhearted;he rules with a rod of iron and he makes the blind to see;he slays the wicked with the sword from his mouth and he says to the dead little girl in Mark 5, “Sweetie, wake up.”Jesus destroys his enemies and for his people he wipes away every tear from their eyes.He has the greatest power, and he has the best heart.“The scepter of your kingdom, Lord Jesus, is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.” And so we adore you! Adore him! Jesus conquers in righteousness.Jesus is eternally blessed.Also we see here that Jesus is eternally blessed. This is in verses 2 and 7.The end of verse 2: “therefore God has blessed you forever.”The end of verse 7: “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” [and then in verse 8 we read the signs of God's blessing] … your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; 9 daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Now in verse 7, the word “anointed” there is where we get the word “Messiah”, which is translated into Christ. So you could say here, “God, your God, has Christed you…” Because to be the Christ is to be the most blessed of God. It reminds us of Jesus's baptism where we see that the Christ of God is also the Son of God. God the Father says of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” This is the Son I love, and I'm happy with him!And that gladness of God surrounded Jesus throughout his entire earthly ministry. We know that even when Jesus faced the cross, when he prayed in the garden just before we entered into the valley of suffering and death, he prayed that his disciples would know the love that the Father has for him. He wanted them to see the glory that God the Father has given him (see John 17:24). The Book of Hebrews tells us that “for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (see Hebrews 12:2). So even in his suffering, the blessing of God was on the mind of Jesus. He thought of God's joy. Of his joy. Of him being seated on his throne. Which is what Psalm 45 envisions. Psalm gives us an image of Jesus after his suffering and death. This is after Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended. The vision here is Jesus eternally blessed, on his throne, receiving the adoration he deserves, and with the King is his queen. That's the last thing I want to say about Psalm 45.#3. The King is Jesus and a wedding is coming.Psalm 45, verse 9 first mentions the queen. And so if this King is Jesus, we should ask: who is she? Well, we know from the New Testament that the bride of Christ is his church. That's the metaphor of the church that we find in the Book of Ephesians Chapter 5, and also in the Book of Revelation Chapters 19 and 21, and it's also alluded to in the Gospels. Ultimately the church is in view here in Psalm 45.And how she gets to be here is the best part of the story. She is here because the King came here to rescue her. This the bride for whom Jesus died and was raised.Ephesians 5 tells us this, that Christ loved the church (his bride), and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Verses 25–27)And those last few lines here from the apostle Paul are looking to a time in the future. Psalm 45 is doing the same thing. Notice that the mention of the bride is a summons for her to bow to the King. The psalmist describes the bride as beautiful, but her beauty comes after we see her allegiance. This is a vision of the church fully sanctified and cleansed, and having been washed and purified, the church is presented to Jesus as his bride in glory. The church will be radiant like we see in Ephesians 5 and Psalm 45, and on that day of her radiance, there will be a wedding. That's the image. A wedding is coming.And speaking of weddings, I think Psalm 45 fits nicely as our kick off to summer, because we are now in wedding season, right? I wonder: how many of you in here know of a wedding that's happening within the next few months? [raise hands] Most of us probably have at least one wedding on our calendar. Weddings are coming, and we look forward to them. They are meant to be looked forward to.And the same goes for this one. We are to look forward to this last, great wedding that is to come. John describes it for us in Revelation 19 as the marriage of the Lamb. Revelation 19:6,Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. [we hear kingship there] 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— The rejoicing and exulting and glory and purity of this future day is an understatement. It's an ending so good that we can hardly believe it. This is a joy so thick that we have to stretch our imaginations just to think about it, and the image of a wedding is here to help us. Because weddings are the happiest events we get to celebrate in this life, and they're always pointers to this.And there's one moment especially in weddings that I think is the most profound. It's right at the beginning. It's when everyone stands, and the doors in the back open, and there's the bride. And everyone is standing to honor her.I always tell the groom to anticipate that moment, and to know that in that moment, when those doors open and he sees his bride and everyone standing for her, in that moment he is the richest man in the world. He is.And now to think that one day Jesus will see us like that. Us. We, his church, his rescued people, redeemed by his blood, we will be the sign of his blessing, forever. He will take joy in us, and we will take joy in him. And it will be — and I don't mean in any trite kind of way, but as deeply as I can say — it will be “happily ever after.”Because God's joy is deeper than the universe, and this one great wedding celebration is where all this is headed.Which now brings us to the Table.The TableFirst, I want to say for anyone who is here and does not trust in Jesus, I invite you to trust him now. Put your faith in him. Bow to this King and be saved.And for those of you who do trust him, at this Table each week, when we eat the bread and drink the cup, we are “proclaiming Jesus's death until he comes.” Which means we are looking forward to the wedding celebration that Psalm 45 points to. And so this morning as you receive the bread and cup, receive it in that hope. A wedding is coming.

Join Chris and Peach as they take a look at some of Christianity's foundational teachings on who God is. Topics Covered: God is Father - A Perfect Father God is Son - God's Love in the Flesh God is Holy Spirit - Transforming and In Dwelling Stay connected with us! Instagram - @biblebuffoons Twitter - @biblebuffoons Email - thebiblebuffoons@gmail.com

Meet the older son in Luke 15. He's the son who stayed home and always obeyed. He's the son who looks good on the outside, yet on the inside is no better than the rebellious son who ran away. 

In Luke 15, Jesus shows the heart of God towards both sinners (the younger son) and self-righteous (the older son). It's a surprising story that exposes misunderstandings about God, sin, and the way into the kingdom. In this episode, we walk in the shoes of the younger son who runs away––in the next episode, we walk in the shoes of the older son who stays home. Prodigal God | Tim Keller