Podcasts about that christ

267. Apologetics with Ray Comfort   Acts 4:20 NKJV "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”   **Transcription Below**   Ray Comfort is a best selling author - having written over 100 books, including his most recent one, entitled Fifty Years of Open-Air Preaching: Everything I've Learned. He is a cohost of an award-winning television show that airs in 190 countries.   Living Waters Website Living Waters YouTube Channel   Questions and Topics We Cover: What are some memorable encounters you've had over the years as an open-air preacher? What fears do you notice holding believers back from evangelizing? What's an easy win or next step we can take today so that the inspiration from this conversation turns into action?   Related Episodes on The Savvy Sauce: School Series (Legal) Gospel Sharing During School Hours with Joel Penton Stories Series: Faith Building Miracles with Dave Pridemore Stories Series: Testify to Glorify with Richard Gamble   Thank You to Our Sponsor:  Sam Leman Eureka   Connect with The Savvy Sauce Facebook, Instagram or Our Website    Please help us out by sharing this episode with a friend, leaving a 5-star rating and review, and subscribing to this podcast!   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)   Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:09)   Laura Dugger: (0:10 - 1:18) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.    Leman Property Management Company has the apartment you will be able to call home, with over 1,700 apartment units available in Central Illinois. Visit them today at lemanproperties.com or connect with them on Facebook.    I'm delighted with this opportunity to interview my special guest for today, Mr. Ray Comfort. Ray is a best-selling author of over 100 books, one of which we'll be discussing today, about 50 years of open-air preaching.   He's also a co-host of an award-winning television show that airs in over 190 countries around the world. So, I'm pleased to welcome Ray Comfort and get to hear all of his stories and inspiration. Here's our chat.   Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Ray.   Ray Comfort: (1:19 - 1:27) Well, thank you for having me. Can you explain Savvy Sauce to me? Absolutely.   That means knowledge, knowledge poured out.   Laura Dugger: (1:27 - 1:46) Well, savvy is synonymous with practical or insight. And my husband having a background in Chick-fil-A, people always talk about the Chick-fil-A sauce or the secret sauce. And so, when we were creating this podcast, that just became the favorite question that I wanted to ask every guest.   Ray Comfort: (1:47 - 1:50) Oh, that's great. Yeah, it's great to be with you. Thanks for having me on.   Laura Dugger: (1:51 - 2:00) It's truly my pleasure. And I just love how everybody has a unique testimony. So, would you be willing to share your salvation story with us?   Ray Comfort: (2:01 - 4:47) Yeah, sure. I came from a non-Christian background. My mother was Jewish.   My dad was Gentile. And when my mom met my dad, it caused problems in the family. So, they brought me up with no Christian instruction or any instruction whatsoever.   Until at the age of 10, an aunt taught me the Lord's Prayer, which I prayed every night for 10 years. I believed in God. And at the age of about 20, 21, I had an epiphany, just a revelation that I was part of the ultimate statistic.   10 out of 10 die. And I thought, this is ridiculous. We're all waiting around to die.   And you can have fun while you're dying. You can play sports or save money. And I'd achieved everything I wanted to achieve by the age of 21.   I had my own business and my own house, my own wife. I'd made one child by then. Everything material I could want.   And I remember one night just going to sleep, or my wife had gone to sleep just before I went to sleep. I looked at my wife, we're newly married, and I just wept at the thought of her dying. And I just cried out, why?   Why is this thing called death? It's like there's an elephant in the room stomping on all humanity and nobody talks about it. And so, I cried out, why?   I didn't know I was praying. I didn't know God heard. And six months later, I was on a surfing trip, and there was a young Christian guy there, and he had a Bible, and I remember reading parts of it.   And my eyes fell upon, you've heard it said, by them of old you shall not commit adultery. And I thought, well, if there is a heaven, I'll make it there because I've never committed adultery. But then I read the words of Jesus, but I say to you, whoever looks upon a woman to lust for her has committed adultery already with her in his heart.   And it was like an arrow went into my chest. And I thought, whoa, boy, am I undone. Because like every red-blooded male, I was filled with unlawful sexual desire and eyes full of adultery, as scripture says.   And that's when I understood the cross. I realized I had sinned. Jesus bore my sin.   And we broke the law, the commandments. Jesus paid the fine. And that meant God could forgive my sins, grant me everlasting life.   And I cannot express to you the joy, it was unspeakable, that's why I can't express it, that I had and the knowledge my sins were forgiven. It was like an explosion of gratitude filled my heart. And for the last 50 years, it's been the high-octane fuel that's driven me to live for God's will and honor.   So everywhere I go and everything I do is centered around sharing the gospel with unsaved people. And every Christian should be like that. I call myself a normal, biblical Christian.   Laura Dugger: (4:48 - 4:59) I love that. Well, and something that you speak about and that you live out is open-air preaching. And I just want to read a piece from the dedication page, if that's okay.   Ray Comfort: (5:01 - 5:03) So, make sure you speak in a New Zealand accent.   Laura Dugger: (5:03 - 5:28) Oh, goodness. I won't even attempt. But you define open-air preaching saying, going somewhere I don't want to go, to preach a message I don't want to preach, to people who don't want to hear it, but the love of Christ compels me.   And so, Ray, what was your journey to becoming an open-air preacher?   Ray Comfort: (5:30 - 9:18) Well, I'll go back to when I was 16. I was in high school, and the teacher had the bright idea to have class speeches. And I was horrified at the thought of class speeches.   Have to get up and make a speech? Because I was kind of introverted, and the day came when I got caught. I used to stay away when they had class speeches, but my name was left on the roster, and it was last.   And the teacher got me up, and I thought I'll speak on the subject of surfing because I just loved surfing. And I dried up in the middle of that speech. My heart just went thump, thump, thump, thump till I could hardly hear.   It was like a drum beating, and I couldn't think straight. And I sat down humiliated in front of my peers at the age of 16, which is huge. And I vowed never, ever to speak in public again.   But I got born again. I became a new person in Christ. And I had a message that I could not be quiet about.   And I remember one day I was on a bus going to the city, and I remember looking at the people that were sitting on the bus, and I thought most of them probably not Christians. They die. They're going to Hell.   I've found everlasting life. I should stand up and speak to them. And I thought the bus would stop, and a whole lot of them would throw me off.   And I thought, what do I do? And I remember praying, oh, God, if there's just some way where I could speak in public to people knowing there wasn't. And two weeks later, they legalized public speaking in our city through just strange circumstances.   And I thought, whoa, what an answer to prayer. Horrors. And I remember avoiding any thought of going into that speaker's corner for the next two weeks until I opened a newspaper.   Remember what newspapers were? I opened a newspaper and had a picture of an elderly lady with a Bible in her hand, and underneath it had the Bible lady sharing her Christian testimony in speaker's corner. And I felt so ashamed that here was an elderly lady, and here I was hiding like Jonah.   So, I went in, took a deep breath, and preached the gospel to a crowd that was standing or sitting there. And I went back about 3,000 times and commuted to it for about 12 years, almost daily for 12 years. So, I broke the sound barrier, and I've been doing it ever since.   And I'll tell you why I do it, because the average church wouldn't reach as many people in a year as a good open-air preacher can reach in 30 minutes. And you just have to learn how to draw a crowd and what to say, and you've got to have the will to say it. And if you're a Christian and you've found everlasting life, you should be saying with the disciples, I cannot but speak that which I've seen and heard.   And I'm so glad the disciples didn't stay in the upper room. They found everlasting life. God granted eternal life.   They didn't carpet out the room, put in pipe music, with a little notice outside their door, tonight, 7 o'clock, all welcome. They didn't do that, because they knew fish don't jump into the boat. That's not normal.   If you're a fisher of men, you've got to go where the fish are. So, they went open-air and preached. And as you read the book of Acts, that's all they did.   They preached open air at peril of their lives. And so if we want to walk in the steps of Jesus, in the steps of the disciples, in the steps of Spurgeon, Wesley, Moody, Whitfield, others down through the ages, then we've got to open our mouths and lift up our voice like a trumpet and show these people their transgression. And so, I am thrilled that you want to do an interview on this book, because I've often said the church has as much excitement about evangelism as you and I have about having a root canal.   It's not exciting. But we all have fears, and we can learn to overcome them.   Laura Dugger: (9:18 - 9:38) Ray, you make already such a compelling argument for why we as Christians are called to evangelize and deliver the good news and specifically calling it as open-air preachers. So, will you still share a few more arguments or reasons to try and help people understand why this is of utmost importance?   Ray Comfort: (9:39 - 10:47) Yes, we have a moral obligation. We're like doctors with a cure to cancer. We must speak, as the disciples said.   And if you've got fear, let me ask you a question. Could you jump into a pond that had big chunks of ice in it? It was so cold that you would die if you stayed in it for three minutes.   And most people say, no, no, you wouldn't get me jumping into that pond for anything. Let's say a four-year-old boy fell into that pond and his feet couldn't reach the bottom, and he began to drown. You wouldn't hesitate.   You'd just jump in. You wouldn't worry about how cold it was. Grab that kid and pull him out.   And the waters of personal evangelism are freezing. Ice cold. We're not excited about it.   Last thing we ever want to do is get involved in something like this. But love cannot but do something. Love couldn't stand there and watch a child drown.   And love cannot sit on a pew while sinners sink into Hell. So, if you've got problems with fear, don't pray for less fear. Pray for more love because that's the problem.   Laura Dugger: (10:48 - 11:02) Ray, I'm curious. You seem so confident and comfortable with this, but clearly you've been doing it, like you said, for many years. So, was there fear at the beginning for you?   And is there still fear when you do this today?   Ray Comfort: (11:03 - 18:09) No, there wasn't fear at the beginning. Fear is here. Terror is here.   Mortification is here. I was up there somewhere. So, the first time I did it was terrifying.   Second time wasn't quite so terrifying. But after all these years, I still battle fear, always. Every person I got a witness to on a one-to-one basis looks like Goliath.   It goes from a Zacchaeus to a Goliath in a split second. I think a witness to that guy, he's anti-Christian. I can see it by the look on his jawline.   He hates Christians. Can't wait to get his fingers around the neck of any Christian because I've got overripe imagination. I remember once I was driving my car and I saw a dead dog on the road about 100 yards ahead of me and it was such a sad sight.   I could see its head was all twisted back and I could see its ears. It was a German shepherd. And as I got up to it, it was someone's jacket that had fallen off his bike.   That's all. And I just had an overripe imagination. And that's exactly what it's like when it comes to fear.   I have an imagination that some guy's going to kill me if I share the gospel with him. So, I've learned to not listen when fear speaks. I've learned to think about the fate of the person rather than myself.   I mean, think of a firefighter. He arrives at a fire, and he looks up and he has to climb a 60-foot ladder. At the top of the ladder is a woman and two children leaning out of a window and the place is on fire.   It's the fifth story. And they're screaming because they're going to be burned alive in about three minutes. So, he's got to climb that ladder amidst the screaming, amidst the smoke and the sirens.   He could drop one of those kids. He could drop that woman. And so, would he rather be at home with his wife and kids watching an old black-and-white movie?   Of course. Is he terrified? Absolutely.   But he doesn't listen to his fears because of this one fact. He's not thinking of himself. He's thinking of that woman and her terrible fate and those kids.   And that's the key to overcoming fear. When I get my fears, I don't listen because I'm not thinking of myself and my silly little fears, my imagination. I'm thinking of this person and their terrible fate, that they die in their sins.   Lake of fire. Damned. If you think death is fearful on this side, wait till the other side.   It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And the apostle Paul said, Wherefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. So, if you've got a wrong image of God, it's kind of like a Santa Claus sitting in a cloud.   You won't have a terror in your heart. You won't fear God enough to obey him. You know, Jesus said, “Why do you call me Lord and do not the things that I tell you?”   And so, if we are submitted to Christ, if we yield to him, if he's our Lord, when he says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” We go. He didn't say to stay. Think of what he said.   Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I've actually studied the original Greek words of the word all, every, and go. Go actually means in the original, I think it's passe.   The original Greek, it actually means go. Into all the world and all the world. That word all means all in the original Greek.   And to every creature means every creature. So, when Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”, in the original Greek, he actually was saying, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” So, we're so fortunate to have Greek lexicons and things that we can go back and see what Jesus was actually saying.   And so, it's very simple. We shouldn't stay. We shouldn't want to fill our churches with people when they come in, where to go out and get them.   And one of the most effective ways is with open air preaching. And so, we teach people how to get a crowd. Now, when I first started speaking, I would begin open air preaching with an anecdote, something very gripping.   And it was always difficult because if I didn't live up to that, I didn't get a crowd. And so, for about four or five or six years, it was very difficult. And then I started asking trivia and giving away money.   And I've been doing that for 30, 40 years, where you say to a crowd, I've got some trivia questions, giving away money. And a preacher giving away money is like water running uphill. It's kind of unnatural, so it gets people's attention.   So, I'm going to ask trivia questions. I've got money here to give away. When you get it right. What's the capital of France? Anyone know?    And someone says, “Paris?” That's right.   Here you are. What's the capital of China? Beijing or whatever it is.   Give out a dollar. Say, “What's your name?” Fred.   That's right. And you give Fred a dollar and people laugh, and they gather around and it's just a great way to get rapport with a crowd. And while you're doing that, you look around to see who's got confidence.   This guy over here, or Fred, laughs when I say, “Here's a dollar, and he yells out answers.” I say, “Fred, you want to go for $5?” He says, “Sure.”   So, jump up on the box. So, we've got a box for the hecklers. So, you think you're a good person?   He says, “Yeah, I'm a really good person.” So, if you are, you get $5. If you're not, give me $5 anyway.   Just being a good sport. So, we're going to go through the Ten Commandments to see how you're going to do on Judgment Day and if you are a good person. Let me take him through the commandments as Jesus did with the rich young ruler.   How many lies have you told? Ever stole something? Ever used God's name in vain?   Ever looked at women with lust? And Fred says, “Yeah, I've done all those.” So, Fred, you've just told me you're a lying thief, a blasphemer, and an adulterer at heart.   And you have to face God on Judgment Day. You're going to be innocent or guilty? He says, “Guilty.”   Heaven or Hell? Hell. Does that concern you?   Yeah, sure it does. And the crowd's listening. It's not some sweaty preacher pointing a finger at them.   They're just listening to the gospel. And so, it's a great way. And then you go into that Christ died for our sins, took our punishment.   And Fred, “Thanks for listening. I really appreciate this. Here's your dollar.”   I've got a book for you that I wrote. I hope you enjoy it. Nice to meet you.   He shook his hand. He's off. Anyone else, like any atheists here, never be intimidated by an atheist.   Atheism is the epitome of stupidity. It's just so dumb. Every time I meet an atheist, I ask him one question, and I've seen so many atheists backslide when they've heard this.   I say, “Do you really believe the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything? Puppies and kittens and flowers and seeds and the marvels of the human eye and the miracle of childbirth. All this happened because nothing created it. Do you really believe that?”    They say, “Oh, no, I don't believe that. Oh, there was something in the beginning.”   I say, “Oh, it just wasn't God. Is that it?” Yeah, that's it.   It was something, but it wasn't God. Well, let's see if we can find out why you don't want it to be God. When did you last look at pornography?   I say, “Oh, it was last night. What do you think God thinks of that?” And you realize the issue isn't intellectual.   It's moral. They're running from God like Adam, hiding behind bushes. And so, you've just got to flush them out and then use the Ten Commandments to bring the knowledge of sin and address the conscience rather than the intellect.   Let's take a quick break to hear a message from our sponsor. With over 1,700 apartment units available throughout Pekin, Peoria, Peoria Heights, Morton, Washington, and Canton, and with every price range covered, you will have plenty of options when you rent through Leman Property Management Company. 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Renters may be excited to learn about their flexible leases, pet-friendly locations, and even mini-storage units available in some locations.   Leman Property Management Company has a knowledgeable and helpful staff including several employees with over 30 years working with this reputable company. If you want to become a part of their team, contact them about open office positions. They're also hiring in their maintenance department, so we invite you to find out why so many people have chosen to make a career with them.   Check them out on Facebook today or email their friendly staff at leasing@lemanprops.com. You can also stop by their website at lemanproperties.com. That's L-E-M-A-N-P-R-O-P-E-R-T-Y. Check them out and find your place to call home today.    As you've done this, what has been your experience along the way? And would you even share a few stories of times that this has gone miraculously well and times that have been such a struggle?   Ray Comfort: (20:19 - 30:16) It's always a struggle. But let me share the two great keys that I use when it comes to evangelism. I don't even like using the word evangelism because it scares Christians.   Apologetics. And that is this. I address the conscience, as Jesus did.   When you're in apologetics, and I believe in apologetics, we've got what's called the Evidence Study Bible, which is pregnant with apologetics. So, I believe in apologetics, but they have their place. Apologetics are like bait when you're fishing for men.   If you stay with bait, you're going to end up with fat, happy fish that get away. You've got to have a hook, and that hook is God's law. So, you bait the hook.   And so, it's important if you bait the hook with apologetics and address the intellect to realize this one fact. Romans 8:7 says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” What does that mean?   It means the carnal, natural mind of man is in a state of hostility towards God, particularly His law. It's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And you can see this enmity by the fact that human beings lavished with life by God use His name as a cuss word, and the name of Jesus as a cuss word.   Nobody in history has had their name used as a cuss word except Jesus, Jesus Christ, and God. And that shows the enmity they have towards their Creator because they're criminals. And as criminals hate the police, so sinners hate God without cause.   So, you want to move away from the carnal mind because you're going to get enmity. If you say, “Look, I'm going to show you that Noah did build an ark. I'm going to prove it to you there was a big flood.” And so you go through the whole thing that the ark was really big and the animals were small and it could have happened. Then we've got oceans and that's evidence that the earth was flooded. You get this guy who was a skeptic who'd say, “Okay, I believe there was a big flood and Noah could have built an ark.”   Well, great. Now you've got a mountain to climb of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish. Children of Israel shouting and walls coming down when they shout.   Balaam's donkey speaking with a man's voice. Samson with strength in his hair. And you've got all these stories, and they're all an intellectual thing, and they're like a mountain you've got to climb to convince them to believe there's an easier way.   And the early Christians didn't try and convince anyone the Bible is the word of God because they didn't have a New Testament. There was no printing press. No one could read or hardly anyone could read.   Now they just preached the gospel, and you do it not by going for the intellect and trying to intellectually convince someone that God exists or the Bible's the word of God. You do what Jesus did with a rich young ruler. You address the conscience with the commandments.   You shall not lie, shall not steal, shall not commit adultery. It's all written on the heart of man. Conscience means knowledge.   So that knowledge is there. So, the commandments echo the truth, or the conscience echoes the truth of the commandments. When Paul used the commandments in Romans chapter 2, you who say you shall not steal, do you steal?   You say, “You shall not commit adultery; do you commit adultery?” He was addressing the conscience. Romans 2:15, same chapter, would show the work of the law written on their hearts, the conscience bearing witness.   So, I have an ally right in the heart of the enemy. I have a judge on the court and in the mind of every sinner that's going to affirm the truth of what I'm saying and point guilt to the sinner or show him that he's guilty. That's the conscience.   The second great tool I have or weapon I have is the will to live. Human beings are not dogs, horses, cats, or cows. We're completely different.   We're not primates. We're made in the image of God and God has written eternity upon our hearts. He doesn't seem to have done this with my dog.   My dog's only concerned with chasing cats and eating. I don't think there's anything else that really interests her, although I love her, but she's not worrying about eternity, but human beings do. So, I know, according to scripture, that everybody has this will to live.   So, when I go to the local college, and I go there twice a day, to interview people for our YouTube channel. I often say this, “Would you like to go on YouTube?” They say, “Yeah.”   I'm going to ask you, “If you think there's life after death.” I say, “That's okay, and this is my first question. Are you afraid of dying?”   And they go, “A little bit.” A little bit? It's huge.   It's a tormenting fear of death. It haunts you, and that's what the Bible says, this fear of death that we have. And I can tell by the look in the eyes of this person, they're saying, “How did this guy know?”   I haven't told mom or dad. I haven't told my boyfriend or my girlfriend, my brother, my sister, but there's something in me that's terrified of dying. Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us.   Amplified Bible, so I'll quote it a little louder. It says, “That God has caused the fear of death or the will to live to be haunting,” it uses the word haunting, “within every human being all their lifetime.” Remember when I was a kid, maybe nine or ten, I used to play wars, cowboys and Indians, and someone would shoot me. I'd roll down a hill and lie there for two minutes and then get up.   And then one day as I got older, I thought, I'm not going to get up one day. And that's that haunting fear of death. That revelation that comes to us, as light comes to us, as we get older. And so, I address that, and this is what I say, “Ever read the Bible?”    “No, never opened it.”    “Why not? It's the world's biggest selling book of all time. Did you know in the Old Testament, God promised he would destroy death? And in the New Testament, we're told how he did it. Did you know that?”    They say, “No.”    “Is he interested?”   And even if it's an atheist, he's going to say, “Yeah, I'm interested.” Because he's got that haunting fear of death. And so, then I go through the gospel. This is the verse that I share with so many people, and it's the most illuminating verse, and I can see light coming to them as I say this.   I say, “Have you ever heard the Bible verse, the wages of sin is death?” And they say, “Maybe.” It's saying that God is paying you in death for your sins.   Like a judge who looks at a criminal who's committed murder, but he thinks he's a good person. The judge says, “I'm going to show you how serious your crime is. I'm giving you the death sentence.”   This is your wages. This is what you've earned. And I say, “Fred, sin is so serious to a holy God, he's given you the death sentence.”   You're on death row. You're in a holding cell. It's got a nice blue roof, good air conditioning, good lighting, but this life is a holding cell, and your death will be evidence to you that God is deadly serious about sin.   That has a sobering effect on people because now they've got a reason why they die. Now they know what's going to happen after they die. It's appointed a man.   It's appointment. It's appointed a man who wants to die, and after this, the judgment. And as you go through the commandments, it shows them how they need a Savior.   And so many people say, I'm going to really think about this. Thank you for talking to me. I say, “When are you going to repent and put your trust in Jesus?”   And so many people lately have been saying, “Today.” So, the pandemic, that plague that no one calls a plague, the pandemic did us a huge favor because it made a whole generation think about their mortality, made them realize they're going to die one day. And so, the harvest fields are white.   One other thought regarding the fear of death and the will to live, the same thing. Think of a waitress who has to approach three men, businessmen wearing dark suits and little briefcases sitting at a table. They're obviously wheeling and dealing millions of dollars.   Is she intimidated? No. She just walks up and says, “Can I take your order?”   Why is she so bold? It's because she knows she has what they want. They're there for food.   And so that makes her bold. And you and I have what this world wants. Right at this moment, there are people in torture chambers called gyms, lifting weights that are far too heavy for them, pulling things they shouldn't be pulling.   And I believe in physical fitness is great. And at the same time, there are people drinking green slime. They would love a chocolate shake, but they drink because they want to increase their life just that little bit more.   We have found everlasting life. So, if the world knew what we had, they would ask us. This is what Jesus said to the woman at the well.   If you knew who it was that was speaking to you, you would ask me. And if the world knew what we had, everlasting life, they'd plead with us. So, because we know we have what the world wants, like that waitress, we must be bold.   And when they realize that we have the answer to death that Jesus Christ has abolished death. When that revelation comes to them, what causes death. That Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, he destroyed death, bringing life and immortality to light through the gospel. That's when the light goes on and they say, “Thank you so much. Thank you for talking to me.” I've just about worn myself out.   Laura Dugger: (30:16 - 30:30) Well, that's incredible to hear, especially the breakdown practically of how you do that. And I would say, “Do you even give people permission to use some of those examples if they want to give this a try?”   Ray Comfort: (30:31 - 31:18) I would plead with them to do so. We've got the evidence Bible. It's filled with how to do these things.   And that book, Fifty Years of Open-Air Preaching: Everything I've Learned is filled with stuff like this. How to get a crowd standing up nice and orderly. There's a picture, I don't know if you can see it, at Berkeley University.   They're all standing around nice in a big circle. That's where you get stoned to death, Berkeley. But because we understand these principles, we just drew a circle out of chalk and said, stand behind the circle.   If anyone got in front of the circle, approached us, we wouldn't talk to them unless they got to the edge of the circle. And people are like sheep. If you say, “Move back behind the chalk line. Do it now.” Okay. They'll do it, if you've got a little bit of authority.   And so, you just learn to do things like that. And it means the gospel can go out. So yeah, please, please use these principles.   Laura Dugger: (31:19 - 31:34) And then can you also just paint a picture. If somebody's never seen this before, they've never tried this before, are there any memorable encounters that you've had as you reflect back on these years of open air preaching?   Ray Comfort: (31:35 - 33:54) Yes. Oh, I've got beaten up by a woman once. Oh dear.   I'll have to tell you. I was in Santa Monica many years ago, and I had a crowd of maybe 40, 50 people. And there's a woman there that was very vocal and kept calling me, using the F word a couple of times.   So, I said, “Ma'am, can you watch your language? There are ladies present.” And she said, “I'm a lady.”   I said, “Ma'am, you may be a woman, but you are not a lady.” And with that, she ran at me like a bat out of heaven and began beating me up. Now, most women go scratch, and hair pulling, but she was like Mike Tyson's sister. She got in six punches, knocked me to the ground before my team pulled her off.   They held her back. And she said, let me go and get my purse. They let her go.   And she gave me a kidney punch and took two weeks for the bruising to go, but she doubled my crowd. She can come back anytime she wants. But that was my fault.   And that was very memorable. So, I talk nicely to ladies now. One to one, one of the most memorable ones is a guy named Mario.   Our YouTube channel's got 1.57 million subscribers, just past 314 million views. And one of the best, most gripping encounters was with a guy named Mario. I went out on my bike.   My dog's on my bike. She's on a platform. She wears sunglasses.   I wear sunglasses. It gets people's attention. She's the best bait I've ever had when fishing for men.   Saw this guy standing by a tree on a pathway, and I said, “You want to come on camera?” He said, “Yeah.” I was surprised because I didn't have to talk him into it.   And he was quite arrogant, very handsome young man. And as we went through the commandments, I saw a tear well in his eye and roll down his cheek. And I thought, oh, no, God's doing a work in the heart of this guy, and I don't want to mess it up.   And so, I did my best to end up praying with him, and he was just beside himself in sorrow for his sin. And I think that's something like 4 million views on a YouTube channel. If you go to the most popular to see it, you'll see him there.   But that was a very memorable encounter. One that I often think when I'm going out on my bike each day. Lord, give me a Mario today, please.   Laura Dugger: (33:55 - 34:58) When was the first time you listened to an episode of The Savvy Sauce? How did you hear about our podcast? Did a friend share it with you?   Will you be willing to be that friend now and text five other friends or post on your socials anything about The Savvy Sauce that you love? If you share your favorite episodes, that is how we continue to expand our reach and get the good news of Jesus Christ in more ears across the world. So, we need your help.   Another way to help us grow is to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Each of these suggestions will cost you less than a minute, but it will be a great benefit to us. Thank you so much for being willing to be generous with your time and share.   We appreciate you. It's compelling to hear this and inspiring, but then also if we're going back to talking about the fears. What fears do you see holding people back from giving this a try or from evangelizing in general?   Ray Comfort: (34:59 - 37:37) That is a great question, and you provoke something very important. I've traveled on about 2,000 flights, itinerating over the years, and so many times I've prayed, and when there's an empty seat on a plane beside me, I always pray for the person who's going to sit there. This is the prayer I subliminally pray.   Lord, please don't let this guy show up. That's what I pray. And then he shows up, and I share the gospel with him.   My hardest, my biggest mountain to climb was how do you bring the subject up? Okay, I'm on a plane. This guy's a businessman.   He's wearing a three-piece suit. He's very intimidating, and I've got to talk to him about the things of God and sin and righteousness and judgment. How do I bring the subject up with this guy?   Oh, see those clouds? Guess who made the clouds? God.   No, it's just terrifying. But I learned something many years ago that just dissipated that fear of man and the fear of women, and that's this. I just say to any stranger, “Do you think there's an afterlife?”   That's a simple question. Do you think there's life after death? I haven't mentioned God, Jesus, Heaven, Hell, sin, righteousness, judgment, any of those things that make him feel uncomfortable.   I just said, do you think there's an afterlife? And this is how I do it, and I've done it many times. I'm at the ministry now in our studio.   Many a time I've had workmen come. Let's say there's a plumber working on something. I go up to him and say, “Hey, how are you doing?”   He says, “Good.” I'm Ray. What's your name?   He says, “Eric.” Nice to meet you, Eric. Eric, what?   I've got a question for you, “Do you think there's an afterlife?” Eric stands up and says, “I don't know.”   I say, “Do you think about it much?” Yeah, all the time. His all the time just dissipated my fears.   He's not antichrist. He hasn't stabbed me to death. He's a normal human being.   He thinks about the issues of life and death all the time. And so, I've got confidence. And the thing that got me in there was that question, do you think there's an afterlife?   You can ask anyone. Even Uncle Arthur at the Christmas lunch, sitting there and usually he's working. Uncle Arthur, do you think there's an afterlife? Haven't mentioned God, Jesus, Heaven, Hell. Just let him talk.   He says, “Oh, I don't know about heaven.” So Rich, “You ever read the Bible?” Oh, let me get you my Bible.   Let me lend it to you. It just opens the door and lets them do the talking. So never forget that.   You can talk to any stranger about the things of God by just asking that question. Do you think there's an afterlife? And I do it every day.   Laura Dugger: (37:38 - 37:57) Wow. And I love it, even before we began recording when we were just getting to know each other for a moment. And then you said, well, before we begin, shall we do this in the flesh, or should we pray?   And I love that. I think that's such an approachable first step to this.   Ray Comfort: (37:57 - 38:07) Well, you just have to do something in the flesh to know how terrible it is. You need a pulpit, and you think, oh God, I need your help. So, I always pray.   Laura Dugger: (38:08 - 38:24) Absolutely. That's very relatable. And so, if we're considering this invitation to evangelize publicly, what do you think this looks like for men and for women?   And do you see any difference between the two?   Ray Comfort: (38:25 - 39:21) Yes, I do. When I look at my wife, I see different from the local workman that comes to work around our home. But physically, no, I don't.   Yeah. When Jesus had gone to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he didn't say, “Oh, that's just for men.” No.   Look at the woman at the well. She went off and shared the gospel with the whole village. And so, if a woman's got the courage to stand up and do what men won't do, God bless her.   I think that's wonderful. And so, I'm all for women and women stay silent at the church. Well, that's for the church.   That's church discipline. But when it comes to sharing the gospel, telling people how they can find everlasting life, women can do just as well with men and a woman can do good with five people or 10 people. Now she can gather a crowd of 200 at a university and share how to find everlasting life.   God bless her. And thank you for her, Aud.   Laura Dugger: (39:22 - 39:35) Thank you for sharing that. And can you think of just an easy or approachable next step, something that we could do today that takes inspiration from this conversation and turns it into action?   Ray Comfort: (39:35 - 39:38) Yes. Get the book.   Laura Dugger: (39:40 - 39:41) Absolutely.   Ray Comfort: (39:41 - 39:48) And I'll watch our YouTube channel too. I love it. It'll really help you build confidence.   Thank you for that.   Laura Dugger: (39:49 - 40:01) My pleasure. So, if we do determine that we're going to apply what we've learned today, then there's another side to this as well. What kind of attack can we expect from our enemy?   Ray Comfort: (40:02 - 42:34) Oh, full on. You're going to get negative thoughts. You can't do this.   You shouldn't do this. What are you going to do if you dry up? The dry up thing is a real big fear.   I'm going to get up there and I'll say, “My mind's gone blank.” Well, just have a Gospel of John in your pocket, a little New Testament, maybe a little Gideon in your pocket there. And if you dry up, just say, “Oh, excuse me, I want to read this to you.”   You've got John 3:16, corner turned down. Just say, “For God so loved the world and gave his only begotten son who believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Please think about that.   Close it and get down. Or you can keep speaking. And so, if you've got an out, that will dissipate your fears if you know you can get out if that happens.   I've used it many a time. I mean the fear of every preacher is drying up in a pulpit. I remember I was in a church of 3,000 once and I lost my place.   So, you know what I did? I just said, look at that over there. And everyone looked at the wall.   I said, I just lost my place. Or I'll say something like this. “Turn to Leviticus 15:3.”   And everyone goes, shh, shh, shh. I look for my place. I've got my thoughts back.   And they say that was a fake scripture. I don't know what it is. I wanted to do something while I was trying to find my place.   And there I've never had problems drying up in the pulpit because I know that's my way out. And it's the same with open air preaching. If you dry up, you're just going to quote John 3:16 or begin reading Genesis chapter 1 to the crowd.   “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And just knowing you've got that out will help dissipate your fears. And when you're finished, you'll have such a joy.   I say to our team, whenever you go to preach the gospel, you're dragging your feet. When you come back, you'll be clicking your heels.   And that's exactly what happens. You'll have such satisfaction that you did what you know you should. You overcame that Goliath.   You ran at Goliath and overcame your fears. And so just do it. If you want to learn to swim, you don't study water.   You jump in. That's the best way to learn to swim. And, you know, if you're going to drown, it's a pity more people don't know this, but if you just relax, you'll float.   If you panic, you'll probably sink. And it's the same with this. Don't panic.   Just trust in the Lord. Say, “Lord, you'll fill my mouth. You'll help me out with this.”   And he'll float. He'll float you. He'll take you by the hand, and you'll be fine.   I've done it thousands of times, and God's never let me down.   Laura Dugger: (42:36 - 43:00) Amen. I hope we all are willing to give it a try. I think that you really articulated it well when you narrow it down to that fear of man, fear of woman.   And I love also that just do it, and we can do it scared. But you're so full of these practical tips. There's one about hecklers that we haven't covered yet.   Can you share your perspective on hecklers?   Ray Comfort: (43:01 - 44:02) Hecklers are wonderful. If you fear hecklers, you're fearing the thing that could make what you're doing a great success. A good heckler, if he's handled well, can take a crowd of 15 people to 150 people in about 30, 40 seconds.   And all you do is let him vent. There's one, I think we've got, it's called The Angry Atheist. I think it's one of our videos.   And this guy was furious, a Christian. So, I just let him vent, and the crowd thickened up, and then we started one by one dealing with his problems. And just always remember a soft answer turns away wrath.   If someone's angry, you just speak, what's your name? And they'll say, “Oh, John.” Nice to meet you, John.   That's a nice sweater. I remember once a lady came up, this young lady. She was really angry, and I did say the sweater thing to her when she was yelling at me.   I said, “That's a nice sweater.” She said, “Really?” I said, “Where'd you get it?”   And so, a soft answer turns away wrath. So, you just learn these little things that can really help.   Laura Dugger: (44:03 - 44:14) I love that. And just as a model for us, if we want to share the good news of Jesus, you've done this time and time again. Will you share it with all of us now?   Ray Comfort: (44:16 - 46:05) What are you trying to do to me? You mean you'd like the gospel? Absolutely.   One-minute gospel presentation. Okay, let's do a nutshell. Let me say, I'm meeting a stranger.   I'll talk directly to them. You know, God's placed a will to live within you. Something in you says, I don't want to die.   Did you know the Bible says, “Jesus Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel?” And the reason you're going to die is because you've sinned against God. And all you have to do for a few minutes with an honest heart is go through the commandments.   The seventh commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery, but Jesus said if you look at a woman with lust, you commit adultery in your heart, lying lips and abomination to the Lord. No thief will inherit God's kingdom.”    Ever stolen something? Ever used God's name in vain? And if you've been honest, you'll know you've sinned against God. And if all your sin comes out on Judgment Day as evidence of your guilt, you're going to end up justly in Hell, and that breaks my heart.   And God is not willing that any perish. The Bible says, “He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and he's provided a way for you to be forgiven by Christ dying on the cross.” We broke God's law.   Jesus paid the fine. It's as simple as that. That means you can leave the courtroom.   God can dismiss your case. He can take death off you because of what Jesus did through his death and resurrection. And all you have to do is so simple a child can understand it.   You must repent, turn from your sins. You'll never do that while you think you're a good person. And trust in Jesus like you trust a parachute.   The minute you do that, you've got God's promise, and he cannot lie. He'll grant you everlasting life as a free gift, not because you're good, but because He's good and kind and rich in mercy. And don't put it off until tomorrow because you may not have tomorrow.   Fifty-four million people die every year. Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart.   Laura Dugger: (46:07 - 46:10) It just never gets old hearing that.   Ray Comfort: (46:10 - 46:10) No.   Laura Dugger: (46:10 - 46:28) Thank you. And you also bring up even so clearly from scripture but sharing repent and believe. And is there anything else that you would want to make sure that we wouldn't leave out of a conversation if we were evangelizing to someone?   Ray Comfort: (46:29 - 48:02) Well, another good question. Yeah, a lot of people are saying all you have to do is believe. Just believe.   They say if you repent, that's works. Well, by saying you have to believe, that's works. If you have to do anything, believe.   No, the Bible says, “By grace you're saved through faith, through faith, and not of yourselves.” It's God's grace that saves us. But if you read scripture, it comes through repentance and faith.   And the reason they want to drop repentance is because they don't see the true nature of sin. And what the commandments do, the Ten Commandments, they open up the law and show sin to be exceedingly sinful, and that necessitates repentance. Like with David, when he realized he'd committed adultery and lied and stolen his neighbor's wife, covered his neighbor's wife, murdered his neighbor, that's when he cried out, “Oh, have mercy upon me, oh God, according to your lovingkindness.”   If Nathan hadn't said, “Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, and David hadn't said, I've sinned against heaven, he would have just said, oh, just believe. No, he had to get before God and agonize. Scripture says, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners.”   Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Let your laugh to be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.” That's contrition.   And the law that shows us the nature of sin produces contrition, sorrow for sin, which works repentance, godly sorrow, works repentance unto life. So, it's most necessary to preach, as Jesus did, repent and believe in that order.   Laura Dugger: (48:04 - 48:13) That is so good. Ray, where can we go to continue learning from you and continue to be inspired by the faithful work that you're doing?   Ray Comfort: (48:14 - 48:46) Very kind of you to say that. LivingWaters.com, sign up for our newsletter. We've always got interesting stuff.   We give away a lot of stuff. Watch the YouTube channel. We have different videos each day.   We put one up four days ago that's had 4.6 million views. And so, it's a wonderful way to reach the lost. So, follow us.   Just become part of a YouTube channel, subscribe, and that really helps us and helps further our reach. So LivingWaters.com and LivingWaters YouTube.   Laura Dugger: (48:47 - 49:05) Wonderful. We'll make sure to add those links in the show notes for today's episode. And as you already know, our podcast is entitled The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge.   And so, as my final question for you today, Ray, what is your Savvy Sauce?   Ray Comfort: (49:06 - 49:12) My wife. Is that okay to say that?   Laura Dugger: (49:12 - 49:17) I love that. Do you want to say anything more specific about her?   Ray Comfort: (49:17 - 49:44) Sue and I have been married for 108 years, 54. We love each other. She's my best friend.   She works at the ministry and also I love my dog. And one thing I might say just as we close is don't call this anything to do with evangelism. That'll kill.   Use the word apologetics or say Ray Comfort says this about his wife. Anything other than evangelism that scares Christians off.   Laura Dugger: (49:45 - 49:50) Wow. Interesting. So that's been your experience.   That makes sense.   Ray Comfort: (49:51 - 50:25) Yeah. That's a principle we use at the ministry. If we have a conference, don't mention evangelism.   No one will come. It's like someone saying to me, “Hey, want to go door knocking, tell people about Jesus?” I go; I just wouldn't want to do that.   And there's a reason for it. As a new Christian, I knocked on someone's door, fully aware that Jehovah's Witnesses had stolen our thunder, and I said to this lady, “Hello, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness.” She said, “Well, I am.”   And so, I've got this aversion to door knocking, and that's what most Christians are like when it comes to evangelism. So, call it something else.   Laura Dugger: (50:25 - 50:50) Wow. So practical, again. And Ray, you've just stewarded your many gifts that God has given you.   You've stewarded them so well and so wisely. I can just imagine God greeting you someday and having just, well done, good and faithful servant. So, thank you for generously taking the time to share with us today.   I'm grateful for you, and I just want to say thank you for being my guest.   Ray Comfort: (50:51 - 50:52) Well, thank you for having me.   Laura Dugger: (50:53 - 54:35) One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term gospel before?   It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there is absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior. But God loved us so much, he made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus.   We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So, would you pray with me now?   Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you. Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life?   We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.   If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me, so me for him. You get the opportunity to live your life for him. And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason.   We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you ready to get started? First, tell someone.   Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes & Noble and let me choose my own Bible.   I selected the Quest NIV Bible, and I love it. You can start by reading the book of John. Also, get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ.   I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps, such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. We want to celebrate with you too, so feel free to leave a comment for us here if you did make a decision to follow Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “In the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” — Ephesians 3:17 Beyond measure it is desirable that we, as believers, should have the person of Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our love towards Him, and to increase our knowledge of Him. I would to God that my readers were all entered as diligent […]

SURVIVAL GUIDE: Whatever Happens—Hope in Christ | Philippians 1 | Pastor Bill MonroeLife doesn't always go like we planned, but whatever happens, Christ is enough.In this powerful and practical message from Philippians 1, Pastor Monroe shares Paul's survival guide for uncertain times. From a cold Roman prison cell, Paul penned the most joyful letter in the New Testament. Why? Because his hope wasn't in comfort or control—it was anchored in Christ.“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)“That Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.” (Phil. 1:20)In this sermon, you'll discover three unshakable truths that will help you thrive—not just survive:Whatever happens—my hope is in ChristWhatever happens—to live is Christ, to die is gainWhatever happens—live a life worthy of the GospelPaul's message still speaks loud and clear: You may not get to choose your circumstances, but you can choose Christ as your center, source, and strength.Gospel Message: Salvation isn't in religion, politics, or success—it's in a Person: Jesus Christ. If you've never trusted Him, today is the day. He died for your sins, rose again, and offers eternal life to all who believe. (John 3:16, Romans 5:8)If you need hope, if you're tired of just “muddling through,” this message is for you. Let Jesus become your anchor in the storm.

The Lord Jesus declared in Acts 1:8 "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. "Before He ascends into heaven, The Lord Jesus tells His disciples in Luke 24:49 "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And we see that this spreading of the gospel would go from Jerusalem (Acts 1-7), and in all Judea, and in Samaria (Acts 8-12), and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 13-28 to the present hour).The question that begs to be asked and answered is exactly what is the church called to be a witness of? Let's look at a few passages of Scripture that will shed some light on what we are to be witness of. Acts 2:32 "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." Acts 3:14-15 "But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses." Acts 5:30-32 "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him."These, and many other passages indicate that these Spirit filled witnesses testified of the fact that Jesus Christ had accomplished the Father's plan of redemption on the cross, was buried and was raised from the dead on the third day. The Lord Jesus declared in John 5:36 "The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me."You and I as disciples of Jesus Christ have been called to bear testimony or witness to the works that Jesus has finished. 1 John 5:10-11 "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."The record or witness of God is that Jesus Christ is the risen, exalted Son of God and that He gives eternal life unto all those who believe on Him. Hallelujah! 1 John 4:14 "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. "Acts 26:22 -23 "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles." SELAH

‘He left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and He lodged there.'—Matthew 21:17‘That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love'—Ephesians 3:16 & 17

After warning His disciples of the cost of discipleship (8:34–38), Jesus tells His disciples that He will provide a glimpse into His final victory. 9:1–13 display the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in such a way that would encourage His followers uniquely as He prepares to shepherd them through His impending death, burial, and resurrection. What is the hope which Christians must cling to? That Christ will be victorious in the end!

Christ's ascension into heaven has glorious results for us children of God.It means:- That Satan can no longer accuse us before God's throne.- That Christ now intercedes for us before the Father.Time:MorningMinister:Rev. Joe PoppeTexts:Romans 8:33–34Job 1:1–12Romans 8:28–39Revelation 12Series:Romans

Apr 20, 2025 GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCHNeil McClendon, Lead PastorGod's Big Picture Plan for Resurrection SundayLuke 24:36-491. That something hard to believe would happen, v. 36-43     Two responses to Jesus…          a) doubt, v. 38          b) disbelieved for joy, v. 41“"If Christ is not risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is risen, nothing else matters.”              - Jaroslav Pelikan2. That we would have a Bible we can believe, v. 443. That Christ should suffer, v. 46     Luke 9:22Three reasons Christ had to suffer…     1) because we've all sinned and fallen short of God's standard     2) because our sin separates us from God     3) because sin requires a sacrifice for us to be reconciled to God4. That on the third day He would rise from the dead, v. 46     Some examples of the third day pattern…          a) Genesis 1:9-13- God creates dry land, vegetation, plants, trees          b) Genesis 22:4- “On the third day, Abraham saw the place…”          c) Jonah 1:17- in belly of the fish for three days and nights          d) Hosea 6:1-25. That change would be possible for everyone, v. 47     a) “of sins”     b) “in his name”     c) “to all nations” 6. That we would have the capacity to do what God requires, v. 49Mental worship…. 1 How often do you struggle with doubt and are you doubting anything these days?  2 When is the last time you experienced something so good it was hard for you to believe it? 3 What is one thing you would be willing to start believing about the Bible? 4 Have you gotten to your “third day” yet? 5 Do you need forgiveness for sin or do you need God to change how you  feel about what you did? 6 Do you ever experience this power that God promises?

There is no joy on Easter Sunday without the sorrow of Good Friday. There is no resurrection without the cross. And there is no salvation without them both. Without the events of Sunday morning the events of Friday afternoon were merely a terrible tragedy.The cross was necessary, as it was here Christ bore the wrath of God against sin and took the full weight of its punishment so that our debt of sin against God could be paid in full. Romans 5:10 says “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”The Resurrection was necessary, for a dead Savior cannot save anyone. As we read in Romans 4:25, Christ “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”That Christ rose from the dead three days later proves that His sacrifice for sin was accepted by the Father and that Jesus truly has power over both sin and death. The Resurrection proves that Jesus is who Scripture says He is!Listen to this sermon on Matthew 28 to gain a fuller appreciation for the reality of the Resurrection, the reactions people had and have to this reality, and the right response to the truth that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.See the full transcript of this episode at ReasonableTheology.org/EasterGet a free trial of Logos at ReasonableTheology.org/Logos Support the showGET THE NEWSLETTEREach edition of the Reasonable Theology newsletter contains my latest article or podcast episode PLUS: A Theological Word or Phrase Explained Quickly and Clearly A Painting Depicting a Scene from Scripture or Church History Audio of a Hymn or other Musical Selection to Enjoy A Recommended Book or Resource to Expand Your Library SUBSCRIBE HERE

Acts. 10:23-48, note especially verses 44-46. [Read in the context of Luke 24:49 & Acts 2:1-4, The Jewish Pentecost].The Jewish believers in Jerusalem, after the resurrection of Jesus, were admonished to be in quasi hiding which refer to as an “”upper room” (1:4, 2:1).. They were told to not go anywhere until they received “power from on high”” (Luke 24:49) or baptized, immersed, bathed in the Holy Spirit's power: only then go out in His direction and power(1:4). They were not told when this would happen or that it would happen in 50 days later, at the Jewish feast of Pentecost: note the word “suddenly”(2:1). The Spirit came in His time and manner and in grand fashion(read 2:1-4, The primary sign was “Other tongues”(Verse 4), not also verse 3, “Tongues of fire”. Tongues have to do with communication, Supernatural Communication. It's not just the words of the gospel preached but the anointing or power of the Spirit behind them even in their praying (1 Corinthians 13:1; 14:1-2).The time and manner for the Gentiles Spirit Baptism comes a little later in Acts 10 where God uses the Jewish believer, Peter, to reach out to the nations predicted in the Old Testament(Isaiah 49:6). Peter was not very opened minded so God had to give him a vision, or to open his religious mind; That Christ sacrificed is the cleansing, atoning for all people: 10:15 “...Don't call anything impure that God has made clean “(repeated 3x - he's a little stubborn). At this point the centurion's men came to beckon Peter: God thought their devotion to the Jewish God deserved the progressive revelation to them, Peter was doing a pretty comprehensive job(10:23-43), but spoke too long according to the Spirit who was eager to empower the gentiles, so He interrupted Peter - (See verse 43) and similar to Acts 2:1-4, the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on them (verses 44-46)Notice that their experience was exactly like the Jewish Pentecost. Peter and his circumcised entourage were “astonished” and pleased when they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God just like them (see 2:1-4; also Galatians 3:26-29)The Spirit is depicted here as being very eager to Baptize them, but He couldn't wait for Peter to finish his verbal dissertation in the Gospel. Peter was convinced(note verses 47-48) at least for a time:consider the confrontation Paul had with him in Galatians 2:11-21. Peter's openness seems to have suffered a set-back in Galatia. He and we need to keep growing in our liberality towards those different from us.  What can we today learn from this powerful story in Acts 10:1)That God Prepares His people for further experiences in His Holy Spirit: a time of prayer and preparation (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4,8; Peter and all involved had to be prepared.Peter had to experience divine trance, or vision unrequested by him. He had to experience it; ex. To get him ready and be willing to go preach to the gentiles. Cornelius's household were devout and clearly open Acts. 10:1-7. More prepared than Peter pre-vision.II. God expects His people to be obedient even if what He asks of them is challenging. And He is willing to do His part, by His Spirit, to gift them to action: He did this to the early Spirit filled Jewish believers; He did it to Peter by His visions. THe promise of Luke:24:49 and Acts 2 is enacted through the book of Acts and Christian history by the Spirit's power we also need in our day in His time and manner.III. God is eager, is His time, to extend His call to the Gentile that He interrupts, even Peter's eloquent sermon. It's not only about his or our words, dogmas etc. it's by His Spirit(read Zechariah 4:4:6… Not by [human] might [only] but by my Spirit, says the Lord.Read also Acts 1:8Amen

Introduction: Congratulations to the Peacemakers! (Matthew 5:9) Who are the Peacemakers? Those who Love unity and actively seek to Promote and Defend it in all circumstances. Why are We Congratulating the Peacemakers? For they shall be called Sons of God. Galatians 2:11-14 - But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. How Can I Become a Peacemaker? By Resting in the peace that Christ purchased for me. Ephesians 2:13-14 - But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. Colossians 1:20-22 - And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. By valuing the good of others above my Feelings and Preferences . By having a healthy view of Conflict . I shouldn't Desire tt. I shouldn't Avoid tt. Romans 12:18 - If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Audio Transcript Maybe you have a hard time being happy for anyone else besides yourself.Maybe you're envious of the person you're supposed to be congratulating.You know, at times we all struggle with truly congratulating other people.But do you know whose congratulations are always 100% genuine, heartfelt, and passionate?Jesus Christ.Over the past two months, we have been digging into the beatitudes.These are Jesus' blessed statements from the Sermon on the Mount, where he congratulatesthose who we would never think to congratulate on our own.We've already seen him congratulate the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, thosewho hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, and the pure in heart.Jesus doesn't congratulate these people to make them feel good about themselves.He truly congratulates these individuals because he means it.He gives his most sincere congratulations to his followers who choose to go against thegrain and be different than the rest of this world because he knows that they will experienceeternal rewards that defy expectation and imagination.So this morning, we will zero in on Jesus' next round of heartfelt congratulations tothe peacemakers.So let's join our Lord and Savior in congratulating the peacemakers, okay?Great job, everybody.I'm very proud of you.In all seriousness, this is such a chaotic world, isn't it?Hatred, slander, betrayal, shattered relationships, broken families, murder, and war all aroundus and in our faces 24/7.Do you ever get tired of it?I know that I do.There is so much trouble in so little peace.There are so many trouble makers and so few peacemakers.I hope and pray the Lord will use His word this morning to recruit more peacemakers inthis room and watching online for the work of His kingdom.So let's go to the Lord in prayer.Please pray for me to faithfully communicate God's word and I will pray that you faithfullyreceive and submit to it.Father, we thank you for this most important appointment of the week.We come together as your people to worship you together and come under the preachingof your word.But maybe take this seriously.Maybe take what your word has to say to heart and live it out, not just today, not justthe rest of this week, but the rest of our lives.We thank you in advance for what you will do.We ask all this in Jesus' name.Amen.So as Pastor Jeff and Pastor Rich have said over the course of this series, the Beatitudesare not random and isolated statements to be read and understood on their own.The Beatitudes are like steps on a staircase and rungs on a ladder that work together tolead us towards a specific destination.This means that we cannot become peacemakers until we walk the previous steps and climbthe rungs that Jesus has already laid out before us since the beginning of February.With that in mind, let's read the entire Beatitudes and really keep track of what Jesus is tellingus here.Matthew chapter five verses one through 10."Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciplescame to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.Blessed are those who are persecutor for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdomof heaven."So let's follow the logical flow of what Jesus is preaching here.You cannot be a peacemaker if you do not recognize your spiritual bankruptcy beforea holy God.You cannot be a peacemaker if you do not mourn over your sin and seek after repentance.You cannot be a peacemaker if you are not meek and do not put aside your self-interestfor the ultimate interest of God's glory.You cannot be a peacemaker if you have no appetite for the things of God.You cannot be a peacemaker if you demand mercy for yourself but you refuse to show mercyto other people in your life.And finally, you cannot be a peacemaker if your heart is set on perversion rather thanpurity.At this point, you may be thinking, "Okay, Taylor, I get it.I need to exhibit all the rest of the Beatitudes to be a peacemaker."But what is a peacemaker?Who are the peacemakers?Well you must have read my mind or pay attention to the whole entire series and how it reallyrolled out before you.But that is the first question on our outline this morning.Who are the peacemakers?In the original Greek, the term "peacemakers" only used once in the entire New Testamentand it's found right here in the Beatitudes.Is a compound word of peace and to make or to do?Let's unpack each individual word so we can better understand the whole term.In Scripture, peace is such a beautiful concept that goes so far beyond our limited Americandefinition.To most people in this country, here is what peace looks like.Gas prices are down and there's no major wars right now.We can breathe easy for a minute.Or yay, no one's fighting in my family today.We have peace.The biblical definition of peace is so much greater than that.That is a worldly view of peace that is based on circumstances and what happens to you.It can easily be changed and stolen away.Biblical peace is way more than the absence of conflict in your life.Biblical peace is the presence of God in your life.The missing puzzle piece in your soul has been found and filled.You experience a sense of fullness and completeness that no one else can take away from you.It is an eternal reality that works its way outward into your life and other people aroundyou.And there is no true peace apart from the one true God.There is no true peace apart from submission to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.And the word make and peacemaker brings an important reality into focus.Peace isn't just something for you to experience on your own.It is meant to be shared with others.For this to happen, you must be active and not passive.Peace is what you need to be taken to bring this God-given peace to others.So here is the definition of peacemakers that I want you to write down and meditate uponfor the rest of this week.Who are the peacemakers?Those who love unity and actively seek to promote and defend it in all circumstances.When you put the words peace and make together, you don't get a picture of someone just sittingback in their lazy boy recliner saying, "Man, I love peace.I love them.People get along.That's my jam.Can't really do much about it."That's a peacemaker, not a peacemaker.Peacefakers talk of big games.But do nothing to back up their empty words.While peacemakers do something about their desire for harmony with the people who Godhas placed in their lives.Peacefakers pretend like nothing is wrong.But they seed with anger on the inside.While peacemakers refuse to sweep issue after issue onto the rug, they just rip the rugup to deal with all those issues.Peacefakers put the ball other people's courts when it comes to resolving disagreements.While peacemakers grab the ball and run with it.Peacefakers do nothing to contribute to the solution.While peacemakers find God's answer, the problem.Now, some people take a sinful step beyond peacemakers.Some people take a sinful step beyond peacemaking and become peacetakers.Where they realize that or not, peacetakers prefer dysfunction.And they actively seek the dismantle unity everywhere they go.Peacefakers, actually peacetakers stir the pot on purpose.They toss grenades in the people's laps.And then they act like they did nothing wrong.They act like they're totally innocent in the situation.While peacemakers seek to diffuse tough situations with the Word of God in a calm attitude.Peace takers look at conflict as a contest to win.While peacemakers look at conflict as an opportunity for relationships to be restored.Peace takers badmouth those they have conflicts with to make themselves look like the goodguys in the situation.While peacemakers refuse to speak poorly of anyone out of respect for people's publicreputations.I want to challenge you this morning to figure out which label best describes you.Are you a peacemaker who puts on a performance?Are you a peacetaker who makes matters worse?Or are you a peacemaker who brings people together?It's so easy to spot peace faking and peace taking tendencies in others.But it's so difficult to see it within yourself.You can ask your loved ones for their perspective in counsel.Talk to your spouse, your kids, a close friend, a pastor, an elder at harvest after service.Others can point out the blind spots that you cannot see on your own.But I beg you, please do not assume that you're doing just fine in this area of life.Evaluate yourself and allow others to evaluate you as well.So we figured out who the peacemakers are and who they are not.Now we need to answer the second question of the morning.Why are we congratulating the peacemakers?Why are they worthy of these big balloons that Pastor Jeff pointed out earlier?Why are they worthy of this big party?Well Jesus clearly tells us why in Matthew chapter 5 verse 9.He says, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God."So why are we congratulating the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God?I don't want to bore you with my seminary homework, but in the original Greek, "shallbe called" is a verb in the continual future, passive tense.And some of you who didn't do very well in English like, "What in the world does thatmean?"Let me make it really simple for you.Jesus is describing something that will be repeatedly declared about peacemakers in eternity.On this earth, peacemakers are often misunderstood.In this life, Christians are hit with the wildest of lies and accusations.Has that ever happened to you personally?A family member cuts ties and walks away even though you did nothing wrong.Someone at work causes others to think poorly of you because of a slight that has no basisin reality.A friend turns his or her back on you for seemingly no reason.In our culture, biblical peacemakers are called a lot of rude and untrue things.But if you are a genuine peacemaker, take heart in this astounding truth.One day, all of heaven will openly and eagerly acknowledge what is already true of you rightnow.You are a child of God.More specifically, you are a son of God.Ladies, you may be scratching your heads and thinking, "I'm a son, but I'm a woman.I don't want to be called a son of God."Trust me, you really do.2,000 years ago, sons were the ones who received the inheritance.They were heirs of so many blessings and privileges.In God's family, His daughters are treated like sons and heirs of His infinite riches.Both men and women enjoy the reward of sonship.We aren't equal footing with one another.Whether you're a man or a woman, you do not earn your sonship by being a peacemaker.You simply demonstrate your sonship by being a peacemaker.Let me encourage you.Those who label you with hateful names right now are showing themselves to be children ofthe enemy.Children of Satan who follow in His footsteps of slander and accusation.While you prove yourself to belong to your heavenly Father when you follow in His peacefulfootsteps and refuse to sink to the level of this world.Sometimes my kids don't act the way that I would like them to in public.They can really embarrass me at the store by yelling, "No!" or questioning me.To be honest, in those moments, I wish I could take a massive step away from them and justsay, "Whose child is this?There's a lost kid here.Excuse me, I need help.Can any other parents relate to me?"Okay, you know exactly what I'm talking about.Thank you, Jillian.One person was honest enough.Several years ago, my son, Sam, had a Christmas concert at school, and he was the only kidin the entire school who cried the whole time and didn't sing any of the songs.Kate and I just wanted to slide down in our seats and just fall through a trap door inthe floor.Unfortunately, there was no trap door underneath of us.But the next year, Sam had a complete turnaround.He did awesome.He sang every song.He did all the motions, and he even gave the crowd a big thumbs up after he was done.I'll never forget how I felt in that moment with tears in my eyes.I wanted to yell out, "That's my son.That's my boy."God feels the same exact way about you if you're a peacemaker who actively seeks to promoteand defend peace everywhere that you go.He wants everyone to know that you are one of his precious children.An eternity, the courts of heaven will ring out with God saying, "That's my child.He belongs to me.She is mine."Angels and other believers will wholeheartedly accept and agree with that truth.No one will ever misunderstand you ever again.You will be fully known by God and other believers forever.Does that sound worthy of congratulations?At this point, you may be thinking, "Okay, I get it.I know who the peacemakers are.I get what the reward is.I'm sold.How can I become a peacemaker?"Paul provides the answer to that question in Galatians chapter 2 verses 11 through 14,where he provides a personal example of peacemaking from his own life.Please turn there with me.Galatians chapter 2 verses 11 through 14.Galatians chapter 2 verses 11 through 14, "But when Cephas," that's the apostle Peter,"came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.For certain men came from James.For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles.But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him.So even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I saidto Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like aJew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"This passage may seem random to you.It may seem off-topic, maybe thinking the word peace isn't even mentioned in theseverses.It seems like Paul is picking a fight and causing trouble.But that's not true at all.I chose this passage because it demonstrates three important lessons about becoming a peacemaker.So how can I become a peacemaker?Number one, you're outlined by resting in the peace that Christ purchased for me.By resting in the peace that Christ purchased for me.You throughout biblical history, there was a tension between Jews and Gentiles.Jews held to restrict diet and schedule of worship while Gentiles did not.Gentiles did things that seemed very unacceptable to the Jews.And the Jews did things that seemed very strange to the Gentiles.These two groups didn't hang out and spend time together.They stayed as segregated as humanly possible.Their relationship was one of hostility, not peace.But that all changes with Jesus Christ.Christ came to bridge the massive gap between a holy God and sinful humanity in the processhe did the same for Jews in Gentiles.Listen to what Paul has to say about this in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 13 through 14.But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the bloodof Christ.For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His fleshthe dividing wall of hostility.There are many differences.Cannot compare to their greatest similarity, salvation in Jesus Christ.Before the cross, there was a wall that divided Jews and Gentiles from one another, but ithas been torn down by the death and resurrection of Christ.Both Jewish and Gentile believers belong to the same God, have been adopted into the samefamily and have experienced the same peace.But this doesn't mean that Jewish and Gentile believers always sing kumbaya around the campfire and enjoy perfect peace during the days of the early church.Peace must be actively promoted and defended or both parties are going to fall back intobad habits.And that's what happens in this passage.The apostle Peter becomes a part of the problem.He used to eat with the Gentiles and now he decides not to.Unity is broken.Peace is disturbed.Paul and Barnabas and the rest of the people they led astray are acting like peace takersand not peacemakers.They are trying to rebuild the wall that Christ has already demolished.They are making the gospel look very bad.And Paul is very concerned that they are making Christ look bad.And they are ruining the reputation of the church.So Paul knows he can't stand by and do nothing.Paul can recognize this issue because his spiritual antenna is always up to catch anythingthat threatens the unity of the church.Paul can seek after the right solution because he cares about the gospel more than anythingelse.Paul can be a peacemaker because he has personally rested in the peace that Christ purchasedfor him on the cross.As I said earlier, only Christians can enjoy the peace that God offers.You cannot share the peace of Christ if you have not personally experienced the peaceof Christ for yourself.So I have to ask the most important question of the entire message.If you're just totally tuned out, please tune back in.Are you at peace with God?Are you at peace with God?And I know that question may seem so dumb to some of you.And you may say, "Well, of course I'm at peace with God.I'm sitting here, aren't I?I'm a good person.I do the right thing.If I weren't on good terms with God, I wouldn't be sitting here."All of those answers are wrong and unbiblical.Your peace with God has nothing to do with you and your list of accomplishments.Your peace with God has everything to do with Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished.Apart from faith in Jesus Christ, you hate God.No matter how much you say that you love Him, you are an enemy of God.You were at war with Him, not at peace with Him.But the great news this morning is that doesn't have to be true of you any longer.Colossians chapter 1 verses 20 through 22 tells us this, "That Christ came to reconcileto himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of Hiscross.And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, He is now reconciledin His body of flesh by His death in order to present you holy and blameless and abovereproach before Him."Christ purchased never-ending peace on the cross with His precious blood.But that peace can only be given to you if you ask for it and you accept it.You can be at peace with God right now if you turn from your sin and turn towards JesusChrist for forgiveness and eternal life.If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raisedfrom the dead, you will be saved.You will transform from an enemy of God into one of His beloved friends.So the first step to become a peacemaker, you must first bow the knee to the Prince of Peacewho freely offers what the world can never give.How can I become a peacemaker?Second step, by valuing the good of others above my feelings and preferences.By valuing the good of others above my feelings and preferences.Since Paul is so concerned with the integrity of the gospel and the unity of the church,he deeply cares about the ultimate good of his Christian brothers and sisters, Jewishand Gentile alike.But before we can talk about what Paul says and does, let's talk about what he doesn'tsay and do.First of all, he doesn't take Peter's side and ignore the Gentiles.But also notice from this text that Paul doesn't sidebar the Gentiles and say, "Man, I can'tbelieve what Peter and Barnabas are doing to you guys.They are such jerks.You should be so angry with them and ignore them right back."That wouldn't be good for the Jews or the Gentiles.That would be childish behavior that belongs in the school playground and not in the church.Kids are obsessed with their feelings and preferences.I don't want milk in the blue sippy cup.I want it in the orange sippy cup.Kids not naturally care about the good of others.Susie's so weird.I'm not going to sit with her at lunch.Billy was mean to me, so I'm never going to talk to him ever again.I'm not going to say sorry and you can't make me.You may smile at those examples, but you may not be much better.So many professing Christians are little kids wearing adult clothes.They look like grown-ups.They certainly do not act like grown-ups.I have to ask you this morning, is that you?Are you a little kid in the church wearing adult clothes?Do you keep a mental file with personal offenses?Do you give the silent treatment to those who offend you or offend a loved one?Do you ignore people who frustrate you?Do you completely write people off?Face those ungodly attitudes and behaviors with godly disciplines.If someone offends you in a small way, you don't have to dwell on it and hold on to it.You can let it go.Proverbs 1911 says, "It is your glory to overlook and offense."That should become the new life first for many of us in this room.If someone maybe in the aisle next to you constantly annoys you and frustrates you instead of writingthem off, write them notes of encouragement.And I promise you, your attitude towards this person will begin to change.If someone sins against you and refuses to apologize, pray for that person every singleday.I can tell you from personal experience, it is so hard to hold on to anger and bitternesstowards someone that you constantly lift up before the throne of grace.Harvest, it's time to put childish ways behind us.It's time to grow up and become peacemakers.It's time to put yourself last so others can come first.It's time to care more about the good of others than your petty preferences and flaky feelings.It's time to stop caring about what you want and to start caring about what other peopleneed.How do I become a peacemaker finally by having a healthy view of conflict?By having a healthy view of conflict?So we've covered what Paul does not say and do.Now let's talk about what he does say and do to promote and defend peace at Antioch.Galatians 2.11 says that Paul opposes Peter to his face.And according to verse 14, Paul did this in front of everyone.Peter sinned publicly so he must be rebuked publicly.In verse 14 also lays out exactly what Paul says.If you though a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentilesto live like Jews?In other words, you are acting so too faced right now.You used to eat with the Gentiles, but now you act like they're inferior and they haveto keep the Old Testament laws to be at the table with you.Cut it out right now.Paul isn't rude, but he is firm.Paul proves that peacemaking sometimes involves direct and uncomfortable conversations.A bone must be reset before it can be repaired.A wound has to be cleansed and disinfected before it can be healed.For a plant to thrive, the parts that are dying need to be cut off and primed.Biblical peace cannot be enjoyed in Antioch apart from this conflict between Peter andPaul.We often think that conflict gets in the way of peace, but sometimes it is the way towardspeace.Paul has a healthy view of conflict which makes him a productive peacemaker.Every single one of you in this room, and myself included, we need to imitate his exampleand view conflict the way that he did.So what is a healthy view of conflict?Well really quickly, letter A in your outline, I shouldn't desire it.I shouldn't desire it.Paul isn't a fake tough guy looking to get into fist fights and arguments.He isn't making big deal out of nothing.He isn't just blow up at people who rub him the wrong way.Paul doesn't desire conflict and neither should you.But maybe you do desire conflict.Maybe you like drama when it pops up and you add fuel to the fire with gossiping and complaining.But please, don't be hungry for the next controversy, debate, and dispute.Instead, work hard to be the calmest and most collected person in every single room.Endeavor to be the person that other people invite into conflict because you are knownfor your helpfulness, your humility, and your wisdom.For this to happen, you must be quick to listen.Slow to speak and slow to anger.Or what is a healthy view of conflict?Letter B, I shouldn't fear it.I shouldn't desire it, but I shouldn't fear it.Paul isn't afraid of conflict.He isn't pacing on Antioch wondering what's going to happen if he opposes Peter.Oh no, what's going to happen?Were people going to think about me?No, he is confident.He's confident not in himself, but in the word of God and the spirit of God who liveswithin him.If you want to become a peacemaker, you have to get over your obsession with being likedand appreciated by everyone.When you are convinced that God approves of you, the disapproval of mere human beingsloses its hold.And sometimes you need to hurt someone's feelings to tell them the truth.You can't make a peace on without breaking a few eggs.You can't rise above a painful situation without stepping on a few toes.You will fear conflict if you care more about the opinion of man than the commands of God.This may be hard for you to believe because I'm a pastor and I talk in front of peopleall the time, but I was painfully shy growing up.And I used to dread ordering food at a restaurant.And so I made my family do it for me.And my family who's not here right now, but they'll be happy to tell you more about thatlater on.So I used to tell them, "Okay, I'll give them my order."They would tell the waiter or they'd go to the cashier and tell them what I wanted.But there was just one particular Sunday after church growing up, my family was done.They were done with my avoidance tactics and they forced me to go up and order my own chocolatefrosty at Wendy's.I got to tell you, I was terrified.I'll never forget that moment, just shuffling up to the counter with my crumpled up $1 bill,getting to the cashier, putting my head down, putting my hand up and saying, "Smell frosty."Guess what?Everything worked out just fine.The cashier was nice and I was able to enjoy the blessing of eating a chocolate frostythey ordered myself.I'm so glad that my family forced the issue and I stopped avoiding this important task.Maybe you need to force the issue.Maybe you need to stop avoiding the important task of dealing with a specific conflict inyour life.If you need to confront someone or have a painfully honest conversation, do not procrastinate.Do not push it off any longer, rip off the bandit and do it today, not tomorrow, not nextweek and not some magical may have time when things slow down because guess what?Things are never ever going to slow down.You may be wondering, "Didn't Pastor Jeff already tell me this two weeks ago during his sermonon mercy?Jeff, didn't you say this already?"Yeah, he did say that.But did you listen?Did you follow through?Or did you decide not to listen and not to follow through?Now is your chance.Stop avoiding conflict because by doing so, you are delaying the blessing of true peace.And I know what some of you are thinking right now.Taylor, that's all well and good, but you don't know my spouse.He or she is so stubborn.You don't know my family.They are never going to change.Or you don't know that situation in my friend group that history is so long, it's so messy.My attempts to make peace will fall on deaf ears and not accomplish anything.Well, it seems like you have a very low view of what God is capable of.It seems like you've already decided that God cannot and will not change that personin situation.Is that mindset honoring to God?It's insulting to him.It's destructive to those you care about.It's harmful for your own soul.You have to take your eyes off of the results that you do or do not expect and choose tofocus on your God-given responsibilities.What is your God-given responsibilities?Well, Paul tells us in Romans 12, 18, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceablywith all."You are responsible for the action of your peacemaking, not the response to your peacemaking.You cannot control other people's actions and reactions, but guess what?You can control your actions and your reactions.Do your small part of peacemaking and trust God with His big part that He will take careof the results.As the worship team comes forward, I have some final questions for you.Are you sick and tired of giving into the temptation to be a peacemaker or a peacetaker?Are you ready to make some big changes?Have you truly rested in the peace that Christ purchased on the cross?Are you willing to place your feelings and preferences aside so you can focus on thegood of others in the unity of this church?Are you willing to deal with conflict in the biblical and healthy way?If your answer to those questions is yes, then I want to offer you my heartfelt congratulations.Congratulations to the peacemakers.Congratulations to the peacemakers for you shall be called sons of God.Let's pray.Father, we come to you and we admit our faults.We admit our sins.Lord, there's not one person in this room who shouldn't be feeling the conviction ofyour word.All of us can be peacepakers or peacetakers in different ways and around different people.Lord, I pray that by your spirit we would stop.Lord, we would put off anger.We would put off bitterness.We would put off giving people the silent treatment.And we would put on unity and harmony and love.Lord, we thank you that you didn't turn your backs on us.We want nothing to do with you.But you pursued after us through your Son and you gave us your perfect peace.Lord, help us to pursue after others to share that peace that you have given to us.We ask all this in Jesus' name.Amen. Small Group DiscussionRead Matthew 5:9 & Galatians 2:11-14What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What is biblical peace and how do we share it with others?How do you see yourself being a peace-faker or a peace-taker right now? How is the Lord calling you to address these issues and move forward?Which do you struggle with more: desiring conflict or avoiding conflict? Why are both harmful? BreakoutPray for one another.

If Thou Endure Well by Neal A. Maxwell and Song- It is Well With My Soul.  ACU Sunday Series. None of us can or will be immune from the trials of life. However, if we learn to endure our struggles well, they will be turned into blessings in eternity. If Thou Endure Well. Neal A. Maxwell.  1984 Watch this video at-   https://youtu.be/t023RmGUF6Y?si=hZpDhGPIurrmjwqv BYU Speeches 228K subscribers 753,022 views Aug 25, 2020 Introduction: 0:00 Enduring Well: 0:50 The Savior Endured: 2:26 The Role of Faith: 3:42 Endurance is for Everyone: 4:49 A Scripture About Endurance: 6:42 Disappointing Ourselves: 7:31 Life is not Linear: 8:33 Enduring Temptation: 9:17 Be Steady: 10:29 Intellectual and Behavioral Endurance: 11:35 The Gospel Feast: 13:17 Don't Give Up: 14:55 Conversion Process: 18:33 Enduring Uncertainty: 20:05 A Schooling Process: 26:01 Gethsemane: 31:09 Lightening Our Loads: 37:10 Cares of the World: 42:24 The Business of Living: 49:12 Conclusion: 50:44 This speech was given December 4, 1984. Listen to the speech here: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neal-a... Read more about Neal A. Maxwell here: https://speeches.byu.edu/speakers/nea... Subscribe to BYU Speeches for the latest videos:     / byuspeeches   Read and listen to more BYU Speeches here: https://speeches.byu.edu/ Follow BYU Speeches: Podcasts: https://speeches.byu.edu/podcasts/ Facebook:    / byuspeeches   Twitter:    / byuspeeches   Instagram:    / byuspeeches   Pinterest:    / byuspeeches     It Is Well with My Soul (arr. Mack Wilberg). The Tabernacle Choir Life can be so unpredictable—joys and sorrows, beautiful blessings and distressing difficulties, can come unexpectedly. Our life's dreams and plans can change in an instant. We all know this to be true. So how can we find peace amid such turbulence? Horatio Spafford knew something about life's unexpected challenges. He was a successful attorney and real estate investor who lost a fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Around the same time, his beloved four-year-old son died of scarlet fever. Thinking a vacation would do his family some good, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to England, planning to join them after he finished some pressing business at home. However, while crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship was involved in a terrible collision and sunk. More than 200 people lost their lives, including all four of Horatio Spafford's precious daughters. His wife, Anna, survived the tragedy. Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to her husband that began: “Saved alone. What shall I do?” Horatio immediately set sail for England. At one point during his voyage, the captain of the ship, aware of the tragedy that had struck the Spafford family, summoned Horatio to tell him that they were now passing over the spot where the shipwreck had occurred. As Horatio thought about his daughters, words of comfort and hope filled his heart and mind. He wrote them down, and they have since become a well-beloved hymn: When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll— Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know It is well, it is well with my soul. Perhaps we cannot always say that everything is well in all aspects of our lives. There will always be storms to face, and sometimes there will be tragedies. But with faith in a loving God and with trust in His divine help, we can confidently say, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”   Watch this video with subtitles at-  https://youtu.be/Eg5O2y1UXw4?si=JvgZ32hBe4iqMK3J   The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square 891K subscribers 5,209,607 views Aug 2, 2017 For the story behind this song:     • It Is Well with My Soul - The Spoken ...   The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square perform Mack Wilberg's arrangement of "It Is Well with My Soul," by Philip P. Bliss. Follow The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square Instagram:    / thetabernaclechoir   Facebook:    / thetabernaclechoir   Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ZOowwN   Lyrics to "It is Well with My Soul"   When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.   Refrain: It is well with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul.   Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.   My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!— My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!   For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live: If Jordan above me shall roll, No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.   But, Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait, The sky, not the grave, is our goal; Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord! Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!   And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul   Aired June 25, 2017.   General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ 586K subscribers 12,448 views Feb 12, 2015 https://www.lds.org/general-conferenc... For Come Follow Me lesson manual and materials visit- Come, Follow Me For Individuals and Families: New Testament 2023 https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/manual/come-follow-me/2023?lang=eng   For a list of 100+ episodes of ACU Sunday Series visit- https://www.podbean.com/site/search/index?kdsowie31j4k1jlf913=85cb8104bdb182c048b714ad4385f9e82a3aeb49&v=ACU+Sunday+Series+ Note- Click on “100 Episodes Found” in upper right corner.   For many different Podcasts based on the ‘Come Follow Me' program visit- https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=come+follow+me+   Subscribe to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the latest videos: http://bit.ly/1M0iPwY Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/churchofjesu... Twitter: @Ch_JesusChrist Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ChurchOfJes... Website: ChurchOfJesusChrist.org The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints   BYUEducationWeek Get a Free Book of Mormon | ComeUntoChrist Church of Jesus Christ https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org › requests › free-...   The Book of Mormon brings you closer to Jesus. Click to download a free digital copy of the Book of Mormon and learn about it with online missionaries.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the Strength of Youth To help you find the Way and to help you make Christ's doctrine the guiding influence in your life, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has prepared a new resource, a revised version of For the Strength of Youth.   For over 50 years, For the Strength of Youth has been a guide for generations of Latter-day Saint youth. I always keep a copy in my pocket, and I share it with people who are curious about our standards. It has been updated and refreshed to better cope with the challenges and temptations of our day. The new version of For the Strength of Youth is available online in 50 different languages and will also be available in print. It will be a significant help for making choices in your life. Please embrace it as your own and share it with your friends. This new version of For the Strength of Youth is subtitled A Guide for Making Choices. To be very clear, the best guide you can possibly have for making choices is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the strength of youth. So the purpose of For the Strength of Youth is to point you to Him. It teaches you eternal truths of His restored gospel—truths about who you are, who He is, and what you can accomplish with His strength. It teaches you how to make righteous choices based on those eternal truths.13 It's also important to know what For the Strength of Youth does not do. It doesn't make decisions for you. It doesn't give you a “yes” or “no” about every choice you might ever face. For the Strength of Youth focuses on the foundation for your choices. It focuses on values, principles, and doctrine instead of every specific behavior. The Lord, through His prophets, has always been guiding us in that direction. He is pleading with us to “increase [our] spiritual capacity to receive revelation.”14 He is inviting us to “hear Him.”15 He is calling us to follow Him in higher and holier ways.16 And we are learning in a similar way every week in Come, Follow Me.   American Conservative University Podcast (ACU) is not an official representative for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. All opinions, selections and commentary are solely those of ACU.  We post a variety of selections from various Christian denominations.   ACU Endorsed Charities -------------------------------------------------------- Pre-Born! Saving babies and Souls. https://preborn.org/ OUR MISSION To glorify Jesus Christ by leading and equipping pregnancy clinics to save more babies and souls. WHAT WE DO Pre-Born! partners with life-affirming pregnancy clinics all across the nation. We are designed to strategically impact the abortion industry through the following initiatives:… -------------------------------------------------------- Help CSI Stamp Out Slavery In Sudan Join us in our effort to free over 350 slaves. Listeners to the Eric Metaxas Show will remember our annual effort to free Christians who have been enslaved for simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, join us in giving new life to brothers and sisters in Sudan who have enslaved as a result of their faith. https://csi-usa.org/metaxas   https://csi-usa.org/slavery/   Typical Aid for the Enslaved A ration of sorghum, a local nutrient-rich staple food A dairy goat A “Sack of Hope,” a survival kit containing essential items such as tarp for shelter, a cooking pan, a water canister, a mosquito net, a blanket, a handheld sickle, and fishing hooks. Release celebrations include prayer and gathering for a meal, and medical care for those in need. The CSI team provides comfort, encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on while they tell their stories and begin their new lives. Thank you for your compassion  Giving the Gift of Freedom and Hope to the Enslaved South Sudanese -------------------------------------------------------- Food For The Poor https://foodforthepoor.org/ Help us serve the poorest of the poor Food For The Poor began in 1982 in Jamaica. Today, our interdenominational Christian ministry serves the poor in primarily 17 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Thanks to our faithful donors, we are able to provide food, housing, healthcare, education, fresh water, emergency relief, micro-enterprise solutions and much more. We are proud to have fed millions of people and provided more than 15.7 billion dollars in aid. Our faith inspires us to be an organization built on compassion, and motivated by love. Our mission is to bring relief to the poorest of the poor in the countries where we serve. We strive to reflect God's unconditional love. It's a sacrificial love that embraces all people regardless of race or religion. We believe that we can show His love by serving the “least of these” on this earth as Christ challenged us to do in Matthew 25. We pray that by God's grace, and with your support, we can continue to bring relief to the suffering and hope to the hopeless. --------------------------------------------------------

Why does the Bible say we are to seek the Kingdom of God? What does the Kingdom consist of? The Kingdom of God, also referred to as the Kingdom of Heaven, includes sharing the gospel (the good news)...about salvation through Jesus Christ. That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. - 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 The gospels record the good news that Jesus preached and demonstrated which also includes physical and mental healing, deliverance from demons, provision, protection, and eternal life! The preaching of the Gospel is to show man the way of salvation, which gives us the only way into heaven...the way to the Kingdom of God! Listen as Bill and Annette provide deeper insight into the Kingdom of God. For more information about Bill Wiese and Soul Choice Ministries please visit us at: https://soulchoiceministries.org/  You can find more of Bill's teachings at: BillWieseTV-YouTube

Eph 3:14-17 14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; The Holy Spirit prepares the way for our Lord Jesus to dwell in our hearts. It is through this strength that we can contain the power of Christ in our mortal bodies. Want to learn more about The Unsearchable riches of Christ? Listen to this sermon and be blessed.

October 26, 2024 Today's Reading: Introit for Pentecost 23 - Psalm 131; antiphon: Psalm 130:1-2Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 28:1-22; Matthew 18:1-20O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! (Psalm 130:1-2)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Psalm 130 (all eight verses, not just the two from which the antiphon for tomorrow's Introit is derived) is popular at funerals. It's a psalm that pastors often pray out loud as the procession moves from the hearse to the graveside. There was a country song released recently called “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.” I wish that, too. Most painful of all, though, is when a child dies. Why would God allow something like that to happen? Psalm 131 (tomorrow's Introit) gives us wise counsel. “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me” (verse 1). Like a weaned child trusting its mother, the psalmist then cries out, “O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore” (verse 3).There are many things in life we will never understand, and the death of a child is certainly one of them. But whether we understand something or not, it is always good to “trust in the LORD.”  Why? Because with the LORD “there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption” (Psalm 130:7). In His Word, God has revealed to us that He did not put Jesus on the cross only to leave us at the mercy of things we don't understand in this life. He put Jesus on the cross for you and me so that the only hands we are at the mercy of now in this life and the next are His. That's a good place to be because those hands were nailed to the cross for you and me to save us from all our sins.Along with tomorrow's psalmist, we, too, can “wait for the LORD.”  For in His own timing, perhaps not until eternity, He will make it clear to us how He was always present, always good and merciful in all He sent or allowed in this life. In “the depths,” that seems impossible to believe. But the promise of your Baptism, the forgiveness you will hear from your pastor tomorrow, and the redemption you will receive in Communion all promise you that the Lord's got this. The Lord's got you. And there is nothing at all to fear. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate And hath shed His own Blood for my soul. It is well with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul. (LSB 763:2)-Rev. Bradley Drew, pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Metairie, LA.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.In Embracing Your Lutheran Identity, Author Gene Edward Veith Jr. will guide readers through that heritage, starting with the Early Church and moving through the Reformation to Lutheranism today. Readers will learn about key people in the history of Lutheranism, from two teenagers who were the first martyrs of the Reformation, through the Saxon immigrants who left everything behind so they could practice Lutheranism freely, to the Lutherans who have stood strong for the faith in our own day.

On this episode of the pod, my guest is David Cayley, a Toronto-based Canadian writer and broadcaster. For more than thirty years (1981-2012) he made radio documentaries for CBC Radio One's program Ideas, which premiered in 1965 under the title The Best Ideas You'll Hear Tonight. In 1966, at the age of twenty, Cayley joined the Canadian University Service Overseas (CUSO), one of the many volunteer organizations that sprang up in the 1960's to promote international development. Two years later, back in Canada, he began to associate with a group of returned volunteers whose experiences had made them, like himself, increasingly quizzical about the idea of development. In 1968 in Chicago, he heard a lecture given by Ivan Illich and in 1970 he and others brought Illich to Toronto for a teach-in called “Crisis in Development.” This was the beginning of their long relationship: eighteen years later Cayley invited Illich to do a series of interviews for CBC Radio's Ideas. Cayley is the author of Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey (2022), Ideas on the Nature of Science (2009), The Rivers North of the Future: The Testament of Ivan Illich (2004), Puppet Uprising (2003),The Expanding Prison: The Crisis in Crime and Punishment and the Search for Alternatives (1998), George Grant in Conversation (1995), Northrop Frye in Conversation (1992), Ivan Illich in Conversation (1992), and The Age of Ecology (1990).Show Notes:The Early Years with Ivan IllichThe Good Samaritan StoryFalling out of a HomeworldThe Corruption of the Best is the Worst (Corruptio Optimi Pessima)How Hospitality Becomes HostilityHow to Live in ContradictionRediscovering the FutureThe Pilgrimage of SurpriseFriendship with the OtherHomework:Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey (Penn State Press) - Paperback Now Available!David Cayley's WebsiteThe Rivers North of the Future (House of Anansi Press)Ivan Illich | The Corruption of Christianity: Corruptio Optimi Pessima (2000)Charles Taylor: A Secular AgeTranscript:Chris: [00:00:00] Welcome, David, to the End of Tourism Podcast. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. David: Likewise. Thank you. Chris: I'm very grateful to have you joining me today. And I'm curious if you could offer our listeners a little glimpse into where you find yourself today and what the world looks like for you through the lenses of David Cayley.David: Gray and wet. In Toronto, we've had a mild winter so far, although we did just have some real winter for a couple of weeks. So, I'm at my desk in my house in downtown Toronto. Hmm. Chris: Hmm. Thank you so much for joining us, David. You know, I came to your work quite long ago.First through the book, The Rivers North of the Future, The Testament of Ivan Illich. And then through your long standing tenure as the host of CBC Ideas in Canada. I've also just finished reading your newest book, Ivan Illich, An Intellectual Journey. For me, which has been a clear and comprehensive homage [00:01:00] to that man's work.And so, from what I understand from the reading, you were a friend of Illich's as well as the late Gustavo Esteva, a mutual friend of ours, who I interviewed for the podcast shortly before his death in 2021. Now, since friendship is one of the themes I'd like to approach with you today, I'm wondering if you could tell us about how you met these men and what led you to writing a biography of the former, of Ivan.David: Well, let me answer about Ivan first. I met him as a very young man. I had spent two years living in northern Borneo, eastern Malaysia, the Malaysian state of Sarawak. As part of an organization called the Canadian University Service Overseas, which many people recognize only when it's identified with the Peace Corps. It was a similar initiative or the VSO, very much of the time.And When I returned to [00:02:00] Toronto in 1968, one of the first things I saw was an essay of Ivan's. It usually circulates under the name he never gave it, which is, "To Hell With Good Intentions." A talk he had given in Chicago to some young volunteers in a Catholic organization bound for Mexico.And it made sense to me in a radical and surprising way. So, I would say it began there. I went to CDOC the following year. The year after that we brought Ivan to Toronto for a teach in, in the fashion of the time, and he was then an immense celebrity, so we turned people away from a 600 seat theater that night when he lectured in Toronto.I kept in touch subsequently through reading mainly and we didn't meet again until the later 1980s when he came to Toronto.[00:03:00] He was then working on, in the history of literacy, had just published a book called ABC: the Alphabetization of the Western Mind. And that's where we became more closely connected. I went later that year to State College, Pennsylvania, where he was teaching at Penn State, and recorded a long interview, radically long.And made a five-hour Ideas series, but by a happy chance, I had not thought of this, his friend Lee Hoinacki asked for the raw tapes, transcribed them, and eventually that became a published book. And marked an epoch in Ivan's reception, as well as in my life because a lot of people responded to the spoken or transcribed Illich in a way that they didn't seem to be able to respond to his writing, which was scholastically condensed, let's [00:04:00] say.I always found it extremely congenial and I would even say witty in the deep sense of wit. But I think a lot of people, you know, found it hard and so the spoken Illich... people came to him, even old friends and said, you know, "we understand you better now." So, the following year he came to Toronto and stayed with us and, you know, a friendship blossomed and also a funny relationship where I kept trying to get him to express himself more on the theme of the book you mentioned, The Rivers North of the Future, which is his feeling that modernity, in the big sense of modernity can be best understood as perversionism. A word that he used, because he liked strong words, but it can be a frightening word."Corruption" also has its difficulties, [00:05:00] but sometimes he said "a turning inside out," which I like very much, or "a turning upside down" of the gospel. So, when the world has its way with the life, death and resurrection and teaching of Jesus Christ which inevitably becomes an institution when the world has its way with that.The way leads to where we are. That was his radical thought. And a novel thought, according to the philosopher Charles Taylor, a Canadian philosopher, who was kind enough to write a preface to that book when it was published, and I think very much aided its reception, because people knew who Charles Taylor was, and by then, they had kind of forgotten who Ivan Illich was.To give an example of that, when he died, the New York [00:06:00] Times obituary was headlined "Priest turned philosopher appealed to baby boomers in the 60s." This is yesterday's man, in other words, right? This is somebody who used to be important. So, I just kept at him about it, and eventually it became clear he was never going to write that book for a whole variety of reasons, which I won't go into now.But he did allow me to come to Cuernavaca, where he was living, and to do another very long set of interviews, which produced that book, The Rivers North of the Future. So that's the history in brief. The very last part of that story is that The Rivers North of the Future and the radio series that it was based on identifies themes that I find to be quite explosive. And so, in a certain way, the book you mentioned, Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey, [00:07:00] was destined from the moment that I recorded those conversations. Chris: Hmm, yeah, thank you, David. So much of what you said right there ends up being the basis for most of my questions today, especially around the corruption or the perversion what perhaps iatrogenesis also termed as iatrogenesis But much of what I've also come to ask today, stems and revolves around Illich's reading of the Good Samaritan story, so I'd like to start there, if that's alright.And you know, for our listeners who aren't familiar either with the story or Illich's take on it, I've gathered some small excerpts from An Intellectual Journey so that they might be on the same page, so to speak. So, from Ivan Illich, An Intellectual Journey:"jesus tells the story after he has been asked how to, quote, 'inherit eternal life,' end quote, and has replied that one must love God and one's neighbor, [00:08:00] quote, 'as oneself,' but, quote, who is my neighbor? His interlocutor wants to know. Jesus answers with his tale of a man on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho, who is beset by robbers, beaten, and left, quote, 'half dead' by the side of the road.Two men happen along, but, quote, 'pass by on the other side.' One is a priest and the other a Levite, a group that assisted the priests at the Great Temple, which, at that time, dominated the landscape of Jerusalem from the Temple Mount. Then, a Samaritan comes along. The Samaritans belonged to the estranged northern kingdom of Israel, and did not worship at the Temple.Tension between the Samaritans and the Judeans in the Second Temple period gives the name a significance somewhere between 'foreigner' and 'enemy.' [00:09:00] In contemporary terms, he was, as Illich liked to say, 'a Palestinian.' The Samaritan has, quote, 'compassion' on the wounded one. He stops, binds his wounds, takes him to an inn where he can convalesce and promises the innkeeper that he will return to pay the bill.'And so Jesus concludes by asking, 'Which of the three passers by was the neighbor?'Illich claimed that this parable had been persistently misunderstood as a story about how one ought to act. He had surveyed sermons from the 3rd through 19th centuries, he said, 'and found a broad consensus that what was being proposed was a, quote, rule of conduct.' But this interpretation was, in fact, quote, 'the opposite of what Jesus wanted to point out.'He had not been asked how to act toward a neighbor, but rather, 'who is my neighbor?' And he had replied, [00:10:00] scandalously, that it could be anyone at all. The choice of the Samaritan as the hero of the tale said, 'in effect, it is impossible to categorize who your neighbor might be.' The sense of being called to help the other is experienced intermittently and not as an unvarying obligation.A quote, 'new kind of ought has been established,' Illich says, which is not related to a norm. It has a telos, it aims at somebody, some body, but not according to a rule. And finally, The Master told them that who your neighbor is is not determined by your birth, by your condition, by the language which you speak, but by you.You can recognize the other man who is out of bounds culturally, who is foreign linguistically, who, you can [00:11:00] say by providence or pure chance, is the one who lies somewhere along your road in the grass and create the supreme form of relatedness, which is not given by creation, but created by you. Any attempt to explain this 'ought,' as correspond, as, as corresponding to a norm, takes out the mysterious greatness from this free act.And so, I think there are at least, at the very least, a few major points to take away from this little summary I've extracted. One, that the ability to choose one's neighbor, breaks the boundaries of ethnicity at the time, which were the bases for understanding one's identity and people and place in the world.And two, that it creates a new foundation for hospitality and interculturality. And so I'm [00:12:00] curious, David, if you'd be willing to elaborate on these points as you understand them.David: Well if you went a little farther on in that part of the book, you'd find an exposition of a German teacher and writer and professor, Claus Held, that I found very helpful in understanding what Ivan was saying. Held is a phenomenologist and a follower of Husserl, but he uses Husserl's term of the home world, right, that each of us has a home world. Mm-Hmm. Which is our ethnos within which our ethics apply.It's a world in which we can be at home and in which we can somehow manage, right? There are a manageable number of people to whom we are obliged. We're not universally obliged. So, what was interesting about Held's analysis is then the condition in which the wounded [00:13:00] man lies is, he's fallen outside of any reference or any home world, right?Nobody has to care for him. The priest and the Levite evidently don't care for him. They have more important things to do. The story doesn't tell you why. Is he ritually impure as one apparently dead is? What? You don't know. But they're on their way. They have other things to do. So the Samaritan is radically out of line, right?He dares to enter this no man's land, this exceptional state in which the wounded man lies, and he does it on the strength of a feeling, right? A stirring inside him. A call. It's definitely a bodily experience. In Ivan's language of norms, it's not a norm. It's not a duty.It's [00:14:00] not an obligation. It's not a thought. He's stirred. He is moved to do what he does and he cares for him and takes him to the inn and so on. So, the important thing in it for me is to understand the complementarity that's involved. Held says that if you try and develop a set of norms and ethics, however you want to say it, out of the Samaritan's Act, it ends up being radically corrosive, it ends up being radically corrosive damaging, destructive, disintegrating of the home world, right? If everybody's caring for everybody all the time universally, you're pretty soon in the maddening world, not pretty soon, but in a couple of millennia, in the maddening world we live in, right? Where people Can tell you with a straight face that their actions are intended to [00:15:00] save the planet and not experience a sense of grandiosity in saying that, right?Not experiencing seemingly a madness, a sense of things on a scale that is not proper to any human being, and is bound, I think, to be destructive of their capacity to be related to what is at hand. So, I think what Ivan is saying in saying this is a new kind of ought, right, it's the whole thing of the corruption of the best is the worst in a nutshell because as soon as you think you can operationalize that, you can turn everyone into a Samaritan and You, you begin to destroy the home world, right?You begin to destroy ethics. You begin to, or you transform ethics into something which is a contradiction of ethics. [00:16:00] So, there isn't an answer in it, in what he says. There's a complementarity, right? Hmm. There's the freedom to go outside, but if the freedom to go outside destroys any inside, then, what have you done?Right? Hmm. You've created an unlivable world. A world of such unending, such unimaginable obligation, as one now lives in Toronto, you know, where I pass homeless people all the time. I can't care for all of them. So, I think it's also a way of understanding for those who contemplate it that you really have to pay attention.What are you called to, right? What can you do? What is within your amplitude? What is urgent for you? Do that thing, right? Do not make yourself mad with [00:17:00] impossible charity. A charity you don't feel, you can't feel, you couldn't feel. Right? Take care of what's at hand, what you can take care of. What calls you.Chris: I think this comes up quite a bit these days. Especially, in light of international conflicts, conflicts that arise far from people's homes and yet the demand of that 'ought' perhaps of having to be aware and having to have or having to feel some kind of responsibility for these things that are happening in other places that maybe, It's not that they don't have anything to do with us but that our ability to have any kind of recourse for what happens in those places is perhaps flippant, fleeting, and even that we're stretched to the point that we can't even tend and attend to what's happening in front of us in our neighborhoods.And so, I'm curious as to how this came to be. You mentioned "the corruption" [00:18:00] and maybe we could just define that, if possible for our listeners this notion of "the corruption of the best is the worst." Would you be willing to do that? Do you think that that's an easy thing to do? David: I've been trying for 30 years.I can keep on trying. I really, I mean, that was the seed of everything. At the end of the interview we did in 1988, Ivan dropped that little bomb on me. And I was a diligent man, and I had prepared very carefully. I'd read everything he'd written and then at the very end of the interview, he says the whole history of the West can be summed up in the phrase, Corruptio Optimi Pessima.He was quite fluent in Latin. The corruption of the best is the worst. And I thought, wait a minute, the whole history of the West? This is staggering. So, yes, I've been reflecting on it for a long time, but I think there are many ways to speak [00:19:00] about the incarnation, the idea that God is present and visible in the form of a human being, that God indeed is a human being in the person of Jesus Christ.One way is to think of it as a kind of nuclear explosion of religion. Religion had always been the placation of a god. Right? A sacrifice of some kind made to placate a god. Now the god is present. It could be you. Jesus is explicit about it, and I think that is the most important thing for Iman in reading the gospel, is that God appears to us as one another.Hmm. If you can put it, one another in the most general sense of that formula. So, that's explosive, right? I mean, religion, in a certain way, up to that moment, is society. It's the [00:20:00] integument of every society. It's the nature of the beast to be religious in the sense of having an understanding of how you're situated and in what order and with what foundation that order exists. It's not an intellectual thing. It's just what people do. Karl Barth says religion is a yoke. So, it has in a certain way exploded or been exploded at that moment but it will of course be re instituted as a religion. What else could happen? And so Ivan says, and this probably slim New Testament warrant for this, but this was his story, that in the very earliest apostolic church. They were aware of this danger, right? That Christ must be shadowed by "Antichrist," a term that Ivan was brave enough to use. The word just has a [00:21:00] terrible, terrible history. I mean, the Protestants abused the Catholics with the name of Antichrist. Luther rages against the Pope as antichrist.Hmm. And the word persists now as a kind of either as a sign of evangelical dogmatism, or maybe as a joke, right. When I was researching it, I came across a book called "How to Tell If Your Boyfriend Is The Antichrist." Mm-Hmm. It's kind of a jokey thing in a way, in so far as people know, but he dared to use it as to say the antichrist is simply the instituted Christ.Right. It's not anything exotic. It's not anything theological. It's the inevitable worldly shadow of there being a Christ at all. And so that's, that's the beginning of the story. He, he claims that the church loses sight of this understanding, loses sight of the basic [00:22:00] complementarity or contradiction that's involved in the incarnation in the first place.That this is something that can never be owned, something that can never be instituted, something that can only happen again and again and again within each one. So, but heaven can never finally come to earth except perhaps in a story about the end, right? The new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem come down from heaven.Fine. That's at the end, not now. So that's the gist of what he, what he said. He has a detailed analysis of the stages of that journey, right? So, within your theme of hospitality the beginnings of the church becoming a social worker in the decaying Roman Empire. And beginning to develop institutions of hospitality, [00:23:00] places for all the flotsam and jetsam of the decaying empire.And then in a major way from the 11th through the 13th century, when the church institutes itself as a mini or proto state, right? With a new conception of law. Every element of our modernity prefigured in the medieval church and what it undertook, according to Ivan. This was all news to me when he first said it to me.So yeah, the story goes on into our own time when I think one of the primary paradoxes or confusions that we face is that most of the people one meets and deals with believe themselves to be living after Christianity and indeed to great opponents of Christianity. I mean, nothing is more important in Canada now than to denounce residential schools, let's say, right? Which were [00:24:00] the schools for indigenous children, boarding schools, which were mainly staffed by the church, right?So, the gothic figure of the nun, the sort of vulpine, sinister. That's the image of the church, right? So you have so many reasons to believe that you're after that. You've woken up, you're woke. And, and you see that now, right? So you don't In any way, see yourself as involved in this inversion of the gospel which has actually created your world and which is still, in so many ways, you.So, leftists today, if I'm using the term leftists very, very broadly, "progressives," people sometimes say, "woke," people say. These are all in a certain way super Christians or hyper Christians, but absolutely unaware of themselves as Christians and any day you can read an analysis [00:25:00] which traces everything back to the Enlightenment.Right? We need to re institute the Enlightenment. We've forgotten the Enlightenment. We have to get back to the, right? There's nothing before the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment is the over, that's an earlier overcoming of Christianity, right? So modernity is constantly overcoming Christianity. And constantly forgetting that it's Christian.That these are the ways in which the Incarnation is working itself out. And one daren't say that it's bound to work itself out that way. Ivan will go as far as to say it's seemingly the will of God that it should work itself out that way. Right? Wow. So, that the Gospel will be preached to all nations as predicted at the end of the Gospels." Go therefore and preach to all nations," but it will not be preached in its explicit form. It will enter, as it were, through the [00:26:00] back door. So that's a very big thought. But it's a saving thought in certain ways, because it does suggest a way of unwinding, or winding up, this string of finding out how this happened.What is the nature of the misunderstanding that is being played out here? So. Chris: Wow. Yeah, I mean, I, I feel like what you just said was a kind of nuclear bomb unto its own. I remember reading, for example, James Hillman in The Terrible Love of War, and at the very end he essentially listed all, not all, but many of the major characteristics of modern people and said if you act this way, you are Christian.If you act this way, you are Christian. Essentially revealing that so much of modernity has these Christian roots. And, you know, you said in terms of this message and [00:27:00] corruption of the message going in through the back door. And I think that's what happens in terms of at least when we see institutions in the modern time, schools, hospitals, roads essentially modern institutions and lifestyles making their way into non modern places.And I'm very fascinated in this in terms of hospitality. You said that the church, and I think you're quoting Illich there, but " the church is a social worker." But also how this hospitality shows up in the early church and maybe even how they feared about what could happen as a result to this question of the incarnation.In your book it was just fascinating to read this that you said, or that you wrote, that "in the early years of Christianity it was customary in a Christian household to have an extra mattress, a bit of candle, and some dry bread in case the Lord Jesus should knock at the door in the form of a stranger without a roof, a form of behavior that was utterly [00:28:00] foreign to the cultures of the Roman Empire."In which many Christians lived. And you write, "you took in your own, but not someone lost on the street." And then later "When the emperor Constantine recognized the church, Christian bishops gained the power to establish social corporations." And this is, I think, the idea of the social worker. The church is a social worker.And you write that the first corporations they started were Samaritan corporations, which designated certain categories of people as preferred neighbors. For example, the bishops created special houses financed by the community that were charged with taking care of people without a home. Such care was no longer the free choice of the householder, it was the task of an institution.The appearance of these xenodocheia? Literally, quote, 'houses for foreigners' signified the beginning of a change in the nature of the church." And then of course you write and you mentioned this but "a gratuitous and truly [00:29:00] free choice of assisting the stranger has become an ideology and an idealism." Right. And so, this seems to be how the corruption of the Samaritan story, the corruption of breaking that threshold, or at least being able to cross it, comes to produce this incredible 'ought,' as you just kind of elaborated for us.And then this notion of, that we can't see it anymore. That it becomes this thing in the past, as you said. In other words, history. Right? And so my next question is a question that comes to some degree from our late mutual friend Gustavo, Gustavo Esteva. And I'd just like to preface it by a small sentence from An Intellectual Journey where he wrote that, "I think that limit, in Illich, is always linked to nemesis, or to what Jung calls [00:30:00] enantiodromia, his Greek word for the way in which any tendency, when pushed too far, can turn into its opposite. And so, a long time ago, Illich once asked Gustavo if he could identify a word that could describe the era after development, or perhaps after development's death.And Gustavo said, "hospitality." And so, much later, in a private conversation with Gustavo, in the context of tourism and gentrification, the kind that was beginning to sweep across Oaxaca at the time, some years ago, he told me that he considered "the sale of one's people's radical or local hospitality as a kind of invitation to hostility in the place and within the ethnos that one lives in."Another way of saying it might be that the subversion and absence of hospitality in a place breeds or can breed hostility.[00:31:00] I'm curious what you make of his comment in the light of limits, enantiodromia and the corruption that Illich talks about.David: Well I'd like to say one thing which is the thought I was having while you, while you were speaking because at the very beginning I mentioned a reservation a discomfort with words like perversion and corruption. And the thought is that it's easy to understand Illich as doing critique, right? And it's easy then to moralize that critique, right? And I think it's important that he's showing something that happens, right? And that I daren't say bound to happen, but is likely to happen because of who and what we are, that we will institutionalize, that we will make rules, that we will, right?So, I think it's important to rescue Ivan from being read [00:32:00] moralistically, or that you're reading a scold here, right? Hmm. Right. I mean, and many social critics are or are read as scolds, right? And contemporary people are so used to being scolded that they, and scold themselves very regularly. So, I just wanted to say that to rescue Ivan from a certain kind of reading. You're quoting Gustavo on the way in which the opening up of a culture touristically can lead to hostility, right? Right. And I think also commenting on the roots of the words are the same, right? "hostile," "hospice." They're drawing on the same, right?That's right. It's how one treats the enemy, I think. Hmm. It's the hinge. Hmm. In all those words. What's the difference between hospitality and hostility?[00:33:00] So, I think that thought is profound and profoundly fruitful. So, I think Gustavo had many resources in expressing it.I couldn't possibly express it any better. And I never answered you at the beginning how I met Gustavo, but on that occasion in 1988 when I was interviewing Illich, they were all gathered, a bunch of friends to write what was called The Development Dictionary, a series of essays trying to write an epilogue to the era of development.So, Gustavo, as you know, was a charming man who spoke a peculiarly beautiful English in which he was fluent, but somehow, you could hear the cadence of Spanish through it without it even being strongly accented. So I rejoiced always in interviewing Gustavo, which I did several times because he was such a pleasure to listen to.But anyway, I've digressed. Maybe I'm ducking your question. Do you want to re ask it or? Chris: Sure. [00:34:00] Yeah, I suppose. You know although there were a number of essays that Gustavo wrote about hospitality that I don't believe have been published they focused quite a bit on this notion of individual people, but especially communities putting limits on their hospitality.And of course, much of this hospitality today comes in the form of, or at least in the context of tourism, of international visitors. And that's kind of the infrastructure that's placed around it. And yet he was arguing essentially for limits on hospitality. And I think what he was seeing, although it hadn't quite come to fruition yet in Oaxaca, was that the commodification, the commercialization of one's local indigenous hospitality, once it's sold, or once it's only existing for the value or money of the foreigner, in a kind of customer service worldview, that it invites this deep [00:35:00] hostility. And so do these limits show up as well in Illich's work in terms of the stranger?Right? Because so much of the Christian tradition is based in a universal fraternity, universal brotherhood. David: I said that Ivan made sense to me in my youth, as a 22 year old man. So I've lived under his influence. I took him as a master, let's say and as a young person. And I would say that probably it's true that I've never gone anywhere that I haven't been invited to go.So I, I could experience that, that I was called to be there. And he was quite the jet setter, so I was often called by him to come to Mexico or to go to Germany or whatever it was. But we live in a world that is so far away from the world that might have been, let's say, the world that [00:36:00] might be.So John Milbank, a British theologian who's Inspiring to me and a friend and somebody who I found surprisingly parallel to Illich in a lot of ways after Ivan died and died I think feeling that he was pretty much alone in some of his understandings. But John Milbank speaks of the, of recovering the future that we've lost, which is obviously have to be based on some sort of historical reconstruction. You have to find the place to go back to, where the wrong turning was, in a certain way. But meanwhile, we live in this world, right? Where even where you are, many people are dependent on tourism. Right? And to that extent they live from it and couldn't instantly do without. To do without it would be, would be catastrophic. Right? So [00:37:00] it's it's not easy to live in both worlds. Right? To live with the understanding that this is, as Gustavo says, it's bound to be a source of hostility, right?Because we can't sell what is ours as an experience for others without changing its character, right, without commodifying it. It's impossible to do. So it must be true and yet, at a certain moment, people feel that it has to be done, right? And so you have to live in in both realities.And in a certain way, the skill of living in both realities is what's there at the beginning, right? That, if you take the formula of the incarnation as a nuclear explosion, well you're still going to have religion, right? So, that's inevitable. The [00:38:00] world has changed and it hasn't changed at the same time.And that's true at every moment. And so you learn to walk, right? You learn to distinguish the gospel from its surroundings. And a story about Ivan that made a big impression on me was that when he was sent to Puerto Rico when he was still active as a priest in 1956 and became vice rector of the Catholic University at Ponce and a member of the school board.A position that he regarded as entirely political. So he said, "I will not in any way operate as a priest while I'm performing a political function because I don't want these two things to get mixed up." And he made a little exception and he bought a little shack in a remote fishing village.Just for the happiness of it, he would go there and say mass for the fishermen who didn't know anything about this other world. So, but that was[00:39:00] a radical conviction and put him at odds with many of the tendencies of his time, as for example, what came to be called liberation theology, right?That there could be a politicized theology. His view was different. His view was that the church as "She," as he said, rather than "it," had to be always distinguished, right? So it was the capacity to distinguish that was so crucial for him. And I would think even in situations where tourism exists and has the effect Gustavo supposed, the beginning of resistance to that and the beginning of a way out of it, is always to distinguish, right?To know the difference, which is a slim read, but, but faith is always a slim read and Ivan's first book, his first collection of published essays was [00:40:00] called Celebration of Awareness which is a way of saying that, what I call know the difference. Chris: So I'm going to, if I can offer you this, this next question, which comes from James, a friend in Guelph, Canada. And James is curious about the missionary mandate of Christianity emphasizing a fellowship in Christ over ethnicity and whether or not this can be reconciled with Illich's perhaps emphatic defense of local or vernacular culture.David: Well, yeah. He illustrates it. I mean, he was a worldwide guy. He was very far from his roots, which were arguably caught. He didn't deracinate himself. Hmm. He was with his mother and brothers exiled from Split in Dalmatia as a boy in the crazy atmosphere of the Thirties.But he was a tumbleweed after [00:41:00] that. Mm-Hmm. . And so, so I think we all live in that world now and this is confuses people about him. So, a historian called Todd Hart wrote a book still really the only book published in English on the history of CIDOC and Cuernavaca, in which he says Illich is anti-missionary. And he rebukes him for that and I would say that Ivan, on his assumptions cannot possibly be anti missionary. He says clearly in his early work that a Christian is a missionary or is not a Christian at all, in the sense that if one has heard the good news, one is going to share it, or one hasn't heard it. Now, what kind of sharing is that? It isn't necessarily, "you have to join my religion," "you have to subscribe to the following ten..." it isn't necessarily a catechism, it may be [00:42:00] an action. It may be a it may be an act of friendship. It may be an act of renunciation. It can be any number of things, but it has to be an outgoing expression of what one has been given, and I think he was, in that sense, always a missionary, and in many places, seeded communities that are seeds of the new church.Right? He spent well, from the time he arrived in the United States in 51, 52, till the time that he withdrew from church service in 68, he was constantly preaching and talking about a new church. And a new church, for him, involved a new relation between innovation and tradition. New, but not new.Since, when he looked back, he saw the gospel was constantly undergoing translation into new milieu, into new places, into new languages, into new forms.[00:43:00] But he encountered it in the United States as pretty much in one of its more hardened or congealed phases, right? And it was the export of that particular brand of cultural and imperialistic, because American, and America happened to be the hegemon of the moment. That's what he opposed.The translation of that into Latin America and people like to write each other into consistent positions, right? So, he must then be anti missionary across the board, right? But so I think you can be local and universal. I mean, one doesn't even want to recall that slogan of, you know, "act locally, think globally," because it got pretty hackneyed, right?And it was abused. But, it's true in a certain way that that's the only way one can be a Christian. The neighbor, you said it, I wrote it, Ivan said it, " the neighbor [00:44:00] can be anyone." Right?But here I am here now, right? So both have to apply. Both have to be true. It's again a complementary relation. And it's a banal thought in a certain way, but it seems to be the thought that I think most often, right, is that what creates a great deal of the trouble in the world is inability to think in a complementary fashion.To think within, to take contradiction as constituting the world. The world is constituted of contradiction and couldn't be constituted in any other way as far as we know. Right? You can't walk without two legs. You can't manipulate without two arms, two hands. We know the structure of our brains. Are also bilateral and everything about our language is constructed on opposition.Everything is oppositional and yet [00:45:00] when we enter the world of politics, it seems we're going to have it all one way. The church is going to be really Christian, and it's going to make everybody really Christian, or communist, what have you, right? The contradiction is set aside. Philosophy defines truth as the absence of contradiction.Hmm. Basically. Hmm. So, be in both worlds. Know the difference. Walk on two feet. That's Ivan. Chris: I love that. And I'm, I'm curious about you know, one of the themes of the podcast is exile. And of course that can mean a lot of things. In the introduction to An Intellectual Journey, you wrote that that Illich, "once he had left Split in the 30s, that he began an experience of exile that would characterize his entire life."You wrote that he had lost "not just the home, but the very possibility [00:46:00] of home." And so it's a theme that characterizes as well the podcast and a lot of these conversations around travel, migration, tourism, what does it mean to be at home and so, this, This notion of exile also shows up quite a bit in the Christian faith.And maybe this is me trying to escape the complementarity of the reality of things. But I tend to see exile as inherently I'll say damaging or consequential in a kind of negative light. And so I've been wondering about this, this exilic condition, right? It's like in the Abrahamic faith, as you write "Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all begin in exile.And eventually this pattern culminates. Jesus is executed outside the gates of the city, nailed to a cross that excludes him even from his native earth." And you write that "exile is in many ways the [00:47:00] Christian condition." And so, you know, I've read that in the past, Christian monks often consider themselves to be homeless, removed from the sort of daily life of the local community in the monasteries and abbeys and yet still of a universal brotherhood. And so I'd like to ask you if you feel this exilic condition, which seems to be also a hallmark of modernity, this kind of constant uprooting this kind of as I would call it, cultural and spiritual homelessness of our time, if you think that is part of the corruption that Illich based his work around?David: Well, one can barely imagine the world in which Abram, who became Abraham said to God, no, I'm staying in Ur. Not going, I'm not going. Right? I mean, if you go back to Genesis and you re read that passage, when God shows [00:48:00] Abraham the land that he will inherit, it says already there, "there were people at that time living in the land," right?Inconvenient people, as it turns out. Palestinians. So, there's a profound contradiction here, I think. And the only way I think you can escape it is to understand the Gospel the way Ivan understood it, which is as something super added to existing local cultures, right? A leaven, right?Hmm. Not everything about a local culture or a local tradition is necessarily good. Mm hmm. And so it can be changed, right? And I would say that Illich insists that Christians are and must be missionaries. They've received something that they it's inherent in what they've [00:49:00] received that they pass it on.So the world will change, right? But Ivan says, this is in Rivers North of the Future, that it's his conviction that the Gospel could have been preached without destroying local proportions, the sense of proportion, and he put a great weight on the idea of proportionality as not just, a pleasing building or a pleasing face, but the very essence of, of how a culture holds together, right, that things are proportioned within it to one another that the gospel could have been preached without the destruction of proportions, but evidently it wasn't, because the Christians felt they had the truth and they were going to share it. They were going to indeed impose it for the good of the other.So, I think a sense of exile and a sense of home are as [00:50:00] necessary to one another as in Ivan's vision of a new church, innovation, and tradition, or almost any other constitutive couplet you can think of, right? You can't expunge exile from the tradition. But you also can't allow it to overcome the possibility of home.I mean, Ivan spoke of his own fate as a peculiar fate, right? He really anticipated the destruction of the Western culture or civilization. I mean, in the sense that now this is a lament on the political right, mainly, right? The destruction of Western civilization is something one constantly hears about.But, he, in a way, in the chaos and catastrophe of the 30s, already felt the death of old Europe. And even as a boy, I think, semi consciously at least, took the roots inside himself, took them with him [00:51:00] and for many people like me, he opened that tradition. He opened it to me. He allowed me to re inhabit it in a certain way, right?So to find intimations of home because he wasn't the only one who lost his home. Even as a man of 78, the world in which I grew up here is gone, forgotten, and to some extent scorned by younger people who are just not interested in it. And so it's through Ivan that I, in a way, recovered the tradition, right?And if the tradition is related to the sense of home, of belonging to something for good or ill, then that has to be carried into the future as best we can, right? I think Ivan was searching for a new church. He didn't think. He had found it. He didn't think he knew what it was.I don't think he [00:52:00] described certain attributes of it. Right. But above all, he wanted to show that the church had taken many forms in the past. Right. And it's worldly existence did not have to be conceived on the model of a monarchy or a parish, right, another form that he described in some early essays, right.We have to find the new form, right? It may be radically non theological if I can put it like that. It may not necessarily involve the buildings that we call churches but he believed deeply in the celebrating community. As the center, the root the essence of social existence, right? The creation of home in the absence of home, or the constant recreation of home, right? Since I mean, we will likely never again live in pure [00:53:00] communities, right? Yeah. I don't know if pure is a dangerous word, but you know what I mean?Consistent, right? Closed. We're all of one kind, right? Right. I mean, this is now a reactionary position, right? Hmm. You're a German and you think, well, Germany should be for the Germans. I mean, it can't be for the Germans, seemingly. We can't put the world back together again, right?We can't go back and that's a huge misreading of Illich, right? That he's a man who wants to go back, right? No. He was radically a man who wanted to rediscover the future. And rescue it. Also a man who once said to hell with the future because he wanted to denounce the future that's a computer model, right? All futures that are projections from the present, he wanted to denounce in order to rediscover the future. But it has to be ahead of us. It's not. And it has to recover the deposit that is behind us. So [00:54:00] both, the whole relation between past and future and indeed the whole understanding of time is out of whack.I think modern consciousness is so entirely spatialized that the dimension of time is nearly absent from it, right? The dimension of time as duration as the integument by which past, present and future are connected. I don't mean that people can't look at their watch and say, you know, "I gotta go now, I've got a twelve o'clock." you know.So, I don't know if that's an answer to James.Chris: I don't know, but it's food for thought and certainly a feast, if I may say so. David, I have two final questions for you, if that's all right, if you have time. Okay, wonderful. So, speaking of this notion of home and and exile and the complementarity of the two and you know you wrote and [00:55:00] spoke to this notion of Illich wanting to rediscover the future and he says that "we've opened a horizon on which new paradigms for thought can appear," which I think speaks to what you were saying and At some point Illich compares the opening of horizons to leaving home on a pilgrimage, as you write in your book."And not the pilgrimage of the West, which leads over a traveled road to a famed sanctuary, but rather the pilgrimage of the Christian East, which does not know where the road might lead and the journey end." And so my question is, What do you make of that distinction between these types of pilgrimages and what kind of pilgrimage do you imagine might be needed in our time?David: Well, I, I mean, I think Ivan honored the old style of pilgrimage whether it was to [00:56:00] Canterbury or Santiago or wherever it was to. But I think ivan's way of expressing the messianic was in the word surprise, right? One of the things that I think he did and which was imposed on him by his situation and by his times was to learn to speak to people in a way that did not draw on any theological resource, so he spoke of his love of surprises, right? Well, a surprise by definition is what you don't suspect, what you don't expect. Or it couldn't be a surprise.So, the The cathedral in Santiago de Compostela is very beautiful, I think. I've only ever seen pictures of it, but you must expect to see it at the end of your road. You must hope to see it at the end of your road. Well the surprise is going to be something else. Something that isn't known.[00:57:00] And it was one of his Great gifts to me that within the structure of habit and local existence, since I'm pretty rooted where I am. And my great grandfather was born within walking distance of where I am right now. He helped me to look for surprises and to accept them also, right?That you're going to show up or someone else is going to show up, right? But there's going to be someone coming and you want to look out for the one who's coming and not, but not be at all sure that you know who or what it is or which direction it's coming from. So, that was a way of life in a certain way that I think he helped others within their limitations, within their abilities, within their local situations, to see the world that way, right. That was part of what he did. Chris: Yeah, it's really beautiful and I can [00:58:00] see how in our time, in a time of increasing division and despondency and neglect, fear even, resentment of the other, that how that kind of surprise and the lack of expectation, the undermining, the subversion of expectation can find a place into perhaps the mission of our times.And so my final question comes back to friendship. and interculturality. And I have one final quote here from An Intellectual Journey, which I highly recommend everyone pick up, because it's just fascinating and blows open so many doors. David: We need to sell a few more books, because I want that book in paperback. Because I want it to be able to live on in a cheaper edition. So, yes. Chris: Of course. Thank you. Yeah. Please, please pick it up. It's worth every penny. So in An Intellectual Journey, it is written[00:59:00] by Illich that "when I submit my heart, my mind, my body, I come to be below the other. When I listen unconditionally, respectfully, courageously, with the readiness to take in the other as a radical surprise, I do something else. I bow, bend over toward the total otherness of someone. But I renounce searching for bridges between the other and me, recognizing that a gulf separates us.Leaning into this chasm makes me aware of the depth of my loneliness, and able to bear it in the light of the substantial likeness between the Other and myself. All that reaches me is the Other in His Word, which I accept on faith."And so, David at another point in the biography you quote Illich describing faith as foolish. Now assuming that faith elicits a degree of danger or [01:00:00] betrayal or that it could elicit that through a kind of total trust, is that nonetheless necessary to accept the stranger or other as they are? Or at least meet the stranger or other as they are? David: I would think so, yeah. I mean the passage you've quoted, I think to understand it, it's one of the most profound of his sayings to me and one I constantly revert to, but to accept the other in his word, or on his word, or her word, is, I think you need to know that he takes the image of the word as the name of the Lord, very, very seriously, and its primary way of referring to the Christ, is "as the Word."Sometimes explicitly, sometimes not explicitly, you have to interpret. So, when he says that he renounces looking for bridges, I think he's mainly referring [01:01:00] to ideological intermediations, right, ways in which I, in understanding you exceed my capacity. I try to change my name for you, or my category for you, changes you, right?It doesn't allow your word. And, I mean, he wasn't a man who suffered fools gladly. He had a high regard for himself and used his time in a fairly disciplined way, right? He wasn't waiting around for others in their world. So by word, what does he mean?What is the other's word? Right? It's something more fundamental than the chatter of a person. So, I think what that means is that we can be linked to one another by Christ. So that's [01:02:00] the third, right? That yes, we're alone. Right? We haven't the capacity to reach each other, except via Christ.And that's made explicit for him in the opening of Aylred of Riveau's Treatise on Friendship, which was peculiarly important to him. Aylred was an abbot at a Cistercian monastery in present day Yorkshire, which is a ruin now. But he wrote a treatise on friendship in the 12th century and he begins by addressing his brother monk, Ivo, and says, you know, " here we are, you and I, and I hope a third Christ."So, Christ is always the third, right? So, in that image of the gulf, the distance, experiencing myself and my loneliness and yet renouncing any bridge, there is still a word, the word, [01:03:00] capital W, in which a word, your word, my word, participates, or might participate. So, we are building, according to him, the body of Christ but we have to renounce our designs on one another, let's say, in order to do that. So I mean, that's a very radical saying, the, the other in his word and in another place in The Rivers North of the Future, he says how hard that is after a century of Marxism or Freudianism, he mentions. But, either way he's speaking about my pretension to know you better than you know yourself, which almost any agency in our world that identifies needs, implicitly does. I know what's best for you. So Yeah, his waiting, his ability to wait for the other one is, is absolutely [01:04:00] foundational and it's how a new world comes into existence. And it comes into existence at every moment, not at some unimaginable future when we all wait at the same time, right? My friend used to say that peace would come when everybody got a good night's sleep on the same night. It's not very likely, is it? Right, right, right. So, anyway, there we are. Chris: Wow. Well, I'm definitely looking forward to listening to this interview again, because I feel like just like An Intellectual Journey, just like your most recent book my mind has been, perhaps exploded, another nuclear bomb dropped.David: Chris, nice to meet you. Chris: Yeah, I'll make sure that that book and, of course, links to yours are available on the end of the website. David: Alright, thank you. Chris: Yeah, deep bow, David. Thank you for your time today. David: All the best. And thank you for those questions. Yeah. That was that was very interesting. You know, I spent my life as an interviewer. A good part of my [01:05:00] life. And interviewing is very hard work. It's much harder than talking. Listening is harder than talking. And rarer. So, it's quite a pleasure for me, late in life, to be able to just let her rip, and let somebody else worry about is this going in the right direction? So, thank you. Get full access to ⌘ Chris Christou ⌘ at chrischristou.substack.com/subscribe

I started my chat today thinking we would finish Luke 3, but as you will see I won't get past verse 22. Several things have caught my attention in verses 21-22 that I would like to highlight today.   When Jesus came to be baptized by His cousin John in the Jordan River, no doubt there was a great crowd of hundreds of people from all over Israel there listening to John preach his message of repentance. I imagine that John would then give an invitation and for the people who came under conviction and wanted to be baptized to get into orderly line. As a very long line of people formed, it appears that Jesus has been there in the back of the crowd, and He gets into the back of the line.   I assume this because verse 21 says, “When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized…”. Jesus waited all day at the back of the line! He didn't show up and force His way through the crowd telling everyone that He was the Messiah and to stand back while He makes His first public appearance. Remember Luke is presenting Jesus to us at the perfect “Son of Man” who identifies with us sinners.   Paul would later write in Philippians 2:5-8, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”   Our first picture of Jesus and the beginning of His ministry is one of humility and obedience. Jesus humbly takes His place with sinful men and submits in obedience to a baptism of repentance. The great lesson for us to learn from this is that if we are to have a ministry like Jesus that pleases our Father in heaven, we must humble ourselves and be willing to get in the back of the line where we are not noticed and present ourselves as servants. And we also should be obedient to the Lord and His Word. We have often said over the years that baptism is the first act of obedience in believer's life!   Next verse 21 says, “and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.”  Again, only Luke tells us that at this point that Jesus prayed as He comes up out of the waters of baptism. Do you want to open the windows of heaven pouring out the Father's blessings on your life and ministry? I see three necessary things here. Humility, obedience and prayer. Prayer is an indication of a heart that is totally dependent upon God's grace for everything I need in my life to love and serve Him in a way that impacts the world of broken people all around me!   It was then that the Holy Spirit visibly appeared and came upon Jesus and the Father spoke from heaven and said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." Here you have the evidence of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Scripture teaches that now my body is the temple of God: “…For you are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16). That Christ dwells in me: “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). And my body is also the temple of the Holy Spirit: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). How awesome it that? Is there evidence of the Trinity dwelling in you as a believer!   The Father has a ministry for you today! Will you humble yourself, live in obedience to His Word, and begin every day of ministry with prayer receiving instructions from your Father? It is then that you will experience the fulness of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, guiding and directing your life. And you will quietly hear the voice of the Father saying, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”!   God bless!

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” — Ephesians 3:17 Beyond measure it is desirable that we, as believers, should have the person of Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our love towards Him, and to increase our knowledge of Him. I would to God that my readers were all entered as diligent […]

Ephesians 3:17 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love..." To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29

Ephesians 3:17 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love..." To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29

This week Pastor Mattie finished the series of Atonement Theories by discussing the Moral Example model. That Christ's death wasn't just to save us, but also to show us how we love, by laying down our lives for the good of others.Support the Show.

In our last session, we discussed the reality that WHEN Christ returns, as well as HOW Christ returns is not nearly as impactful in our lives as the reality THAT Christ is returning. Chapter 5 does begin to give us a picture of what that day will look like…. And it will be unexpected! The reality of Christ's return informs everything in our lives…including how we encourage one another. Join us for our final session in 1 Thess.

3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

MON PM SERMONWatch/Listen here using the Embedded Subsplash Playerdiv.sap-embed-player{position:relative;width:100%;height:0;padding-top:56.25%;}div.sap-embed-player>iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;}Central Baptist Church of Ponca City, OKDATE: March 25, 2024SERMON BY: Evangelist Dave YoungSERMON TITLE: The Praying We NeedSERMON THEME: God is Exceedingly, Abundantly AbleSERMON SERIES: Spring Revival 2024SERMON VERSES: Eph 3:14-21Eph 3:14   For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.— — —Watch/Listen here using our Subsplash WebShare Playerhttps://cbcponca.subspla.sh/yx47xvzListen on Archive.orghttps://archive.org/download/032524-mon-facebook-stream/032524MON-FacebookStream.mp3

COMBINED ADULT SSWatch/Listen here using the Embedded Subsplash Playerdiv.sap-embed-player{position:relative;width:100%;height:0;padding-top:56.25%;}div.sap-embed-player>iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;}Central Baptist Church of Ponca City, OKDATE: March 24, 2024SERMON BY: Evangelist Dave YoungSERMON TITLE: The Strength We NeedSERMON THEME: God Wants Us To be Empowered by His SpiritSERMON SERIES: Spring Revival 2024SERMON VERSES: Eph 3:14-211. We ought to believe in spiritual power2. We ought to seek spiritual power3. We ought to begin living in spiritual powerEph 3:14   For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.— — —Watch/Listen here using our Subsplash WebShare Player https://cbcponca.subspla.sh/cq4vn4yListen on Archive.orghttps://archive.org/download/032424-ss-facebook-stream/032424SS-FacebookStream.mp3 

SUN PM SERMONWatch/Listen here using the Embedded Subsplash Playerdiv.sap-embed-player{position:relative;width:100%;height:0;padding-top:56.25%;}div.sap-embed-player>iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;}Central Baptist Church of Ponca City, OKDATE: March 24, 2024SERMON BY: Evangelist Dave YoungSERMON TITLE: The Fullness We NeedSERMON THEME: It's Hard to Run on EmptySERMON SERIES: Spring Revival 2024SERMON VERSES: Eph 3:14-21Eph 3:14   For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.— — —Watch/Listen here using our Subsplash WebShare Playerhttps://cbcponca.subspla.sh/7nch8x6Listen on Archive.orghttps://archive.org/download/032424-pm-facebook-stream/032424PM-FacebookStream.mp3

SUN AM SERMONWatch/Listen here using the Embedded Subsplash Playerdiv.sap-embed-player{position:relative;width:100%;height:0;padding-top:56.25%;}div.sap-embed-player>iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;}Central Baptist Church of Ponca City, OKDATE: Sunday AM, March 24, 2024SERMON BY: Evangelist Dave YoungSERMON TITLE: The Growth We NeedSERMON THEME: That Christ May Dwell in Our HeartsSERMON SERIES: Spring Revival 2024SERMON VERSES: Eph 3:14-21Eph 3:14   For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.— — —Watch/Listen here using our Subsplash WebShare Playerhttps://cbcponca.subspla.sh/5g3cnzrListen on archive.orghttps://archive.org/download/022424-am-facebook-stream/022424AM-FacebookStream.mp3

We are about half way through the book of Philippians, and Paul has already packed a lot in. Over the next two weeks, we are going to look at instructions Paul gives regarding Timothy and Epaphroditus. This isn't just Paul taking a break, and getting some logistics out of the way. Rather than this being a nice bonus for the the Philippians, Paul's sending of these men is more integral to his care for them. This is actually at the heart of Paul ministry to the Philippians. And in the next few moments, I hope with God's help, to show you that in the text. The way our text is structured this morning is fairly straight forward. We see Paul say at the beginning and at the end stating what he wants to do, and he explains why in the middle.Verse 19,“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you”In verses 20-22, he commends Timothy to them, and explains why Timothy is the guy to send.Verses 23-24,“I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust also in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.”I want to send Timothy to you, why? Because I have no one else like Timothy who cares for you all. Therefore I am excited to send Him to you, and trust Jesus that I will come soon as well.What Paul wants to do is clearly laid out, and we are going to spend the majority of our time developing the why in Paul's mind. Why is Timothy so valuable? And why does Paul see it as important to send him?We are going to do a lot of foundation work, to understand Paul's relationship to Timothy, which helps us in turn understand why he is eager to send him. So there are 3 answers to the “why” question we will cover this morning. Why does Paul want to send Timothy? 1) Because Paul was a father to Timothy.2) Because Timothy, was a son to Paul.3) Because being physically present matters.1) Paul was a father to Timothy (v.22).Verse 22, “But you know Timothy's proven worth, as how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel”This is how Paul characterizes his relationship with Timothy.What do fathers aim to do? Ephesians 6:4,“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”It's at least that, not exhaustive but a good overall picture of what father's do.A father wants to live out a Godly life.A father wants to live out and pass along a Godly life (a Godly mission and vision).What I mean by mission, is what we are called by God to do or be. What are our lives supposed to be about?What I mean by vision, is what it looks like to actually live it out. This could be summarized as a way of life or a “manner of life.”Put together, it is a singular passion to help your sons have a: “manner of life worthy of the Gospel of Christ” (1:27). That is what Paul is trying to teach to the Philippians, and has taught to Timothy.Paul's goal in life was to live for the glory of God, and to live as an example of Christ, which is to walk worthy of the Gospel of Christ. So Paul having this Godly passion, lives it out for the good of others. And he does this, with a fatherly disposition. Let's look at a three basic pieces of what it looks like to pass along a passion in a fatherly way. Let's look at the fatherliness of Paul to Timothy.A father invites his son to join him in the work.A father invites his son into work that he is doing, he instructs his son in how to enter the work and share in it, and he works along side his son. They may not be doing the same exact thing at every point, but they are working together for a singular purpose. They are working together on something, not two different goals. The father is inviting the son to join him in a worthy passion and purpose. Fathers (& mother's) ought to have meaningful work to invite our children into.And Paul tells us what is most important, we don't need to find it on our own.For example, I was working along side my son, Jude. We were going to do some yard work. So I said to Jude, “I would like you to come outside and work hard to help me clean up the yard. Then if we get everything done and you listen well and are helpful, we can go to the store together and get some ice cream.” I'll help with toys, then leaves together, cut wood together, stack together, etc… (join me in the work).An example from Paul in Acts 16:1-5,“Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.”Paul is doing worthy work for the Glory of God and the sake of the Gospel, and he invites Timothy to enter into the work with him.A father is deeply invested in accomplishing his task.Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, contrasts his care for them with that of many others.1 Corinthians 4:15–16,“For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.”At minimum, there is an investment of care and concern Paul has for the Corinthians. There is a difference between a teacher and a parent. Paul's affections for the Philippians are poured all over his letter to them.Philippians 4:9,“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”They are to practice things that have been displayed for them. They haven't just been taught, they have been modeled certain things.In my example of cutting wood, I did not give Jude the instruction manual, or buy him a book called “Chainsaw-ing for Dummies”. Dummies should probably stay away from chainsaws.I had him watch how I stood and what I did. I cautioned him, I told him how to shut it down, I carefully instructed him where to point it, and how to hold it. And if your stressing at this point, I firmly put my hands over his, so that he couldn't move them even if he tried.Great care is taken when things are important and have real consequences.An example from Paul,1 Timothy 4:15,“Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.”2 Timothy 2:2,“You then my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”Paul is working with Timothy, and is passing something along to Timothy.He is deeply invested because he is entrusting something to him. Entrusting the gospel and a manner of live = how to live, not just how to think.He know he won't always be there for Timothy, and I wont always be there to hold the chainsaw for Jude.That is the current case in Philippi, Paul just said “obey much more in my absence” (Phil 2:12).A father desires to reward His Son.It is a fathers delight to not only work with his son, and invest in his son, but to commend his son. To reward him with words of honor, or encouragement, or blessing, and sometimes also with ice cream. This is part of the whole thing. Back to the yard work… I told Jude to join me in the work, to work hard, I will help him and teach him, and if he does well, we will get ice cream. The ice cream wasn't just after the task, but it was part of the task. The father's job is not done yet just because the task is finished.To encourage and reward a son is the privilege and joy of the father. He delights in rewarding the son. And the “well done” from dad, is greater than the ice cream cone.That's what I did. I was a proud father, he worked really hard, and I told him that and there was joy in being able to reward him, and shared in the reward of ice cream as well.An example for Paul: Paul commends Timothy in the letter that Timothy helped him with. Philippians 2:20–23a,“For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon…”2) Timothy was a son to Paul (v.20-22).Paul was a good spiritual father to Timothy. We have seen the fatherliness of Paul. But, Paul's focuses in these verses is not mainly on how he was a father to Timothy, but how Timothy was a son to him. We may naturally think, Paul was such a good father to Timothy, but let us not miss what Paul says, that Timothy was such an amazing son to Paul.There is responsibility and blessing on both sides. This is a two sided relationship. Paul can only benefit Timothy as a father in so much as Timothy responds as a faithful son. Paul described himself as a father to the Corinthian church, in Galatians, in Philemon. He was fatherly by nature to many. But with Timothy he praises his sonliness to Paul: “My beloved and faithful child,” “my true child in the faith,” “as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.”Timothy was a model son to Paul in the gospel. Lets look at Timothy's life and how this came to be.It started at home with a physical lineage of faith.2 Timothy 1:5,“[Timothy], I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.”For all the talk of Paul being a spiritual father, Paul does not overlook his mother, and grandmother from whom he was not only a physical descendant, but a spiritual descendant.There is such a valuable investment of physical father and mothers, and Paul also wants us to have eyes to think of the spiritual family as well, and to consider a meaningful investment there as well.There is good reason to believe Timothy was taught and raised well, which was bearing fruit in his life and was a good foundation for him to remember and draw encouragement from.Timothy had displayed a pattern of faithfulness and was ready to receive instruction.Acts 16:1–5,“Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.”Timothy took advantage of what was in front of him, he wasn't just sitting around. And when the opportunity came to join Paul in his work he gladly joined him and sacrificed for the work. As a son working with and learning from his father.A faithful father has a Godly passion that he wants to live out and pass on. And a faithful son, responds by embracing and participating in the Godly vision a father has laid out for him. The son responds with a heart that says: “If my father wants to instruct, then I want to learn.”Paul has laid out his heart and life before Timothy, and he is so bold to tell him to imitate him and follow his example. And Timothy does that very thing, He comes under Paul wing to learn the ways of Christ from him.For us: To be invested in by a spiritual mother or father is an immense blessing, and something good to desire. And Timothy didn't just sit around idle waiting for older help. He pursued Christ with the brothers around him. Most of our relationship will be brother to brother, sister to sister. We aren't guaranteed, nor are we entitled to the investment of a spiritual mother or father. May those type of relationships happen more and more, as God sees fit, and may we like Timothy, take whatever God has given us right now and make good use of it. Timothy having learned from Paul, now stands out uniquely as a partner in the gospel. Now Paul mentions three ways in which Timothy serves Paul so well as a son who is of one mind and spirit in Paul's passion.Verse 20, “For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.”Timothy has seen Paul's love and care for the Philippians, and he has the same passion.There is a sincere care and concern for them. This isn't just duty for Timothy, It isn't half-hearted or lip service. Traveling is not an inconvenience for Timothy, it is closer to a no-brainer, of course!Verse 21,“For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”Paul contrasts Timothy with those around him. I don't think Paul is saying there are no other Christians around him, but that they have not learned, and are not living out the example of Christ, and the example of Paul.But Timothy is looking to the interests of Christ Jesus, which means he: “not only looks to his own interest, but also the interests of others”, and “in humility counts others more significant than himself.” His care for the Philippians is the interest of Christ.Timothy has been able to get his own interests and concerns out of the way, so that he can seek the interest of Christ, and genuinely, sincerely, care about the welfare of the Philippians.He doesn't need to carve out his own little niche of significance. He is content with serving the interest of Christ, by showing genuine concern for the Philippians and serving them in the gospel.Timothy is unique here, but what kind of uniqueness is this?“I have no one like Timothy”“They all seek their own interests”Is it a uniqueness like, “there is no one who can shoot a basketball like Steph Curry? Something that we have no chance of accomplishing even if we devoted our whole lives to it? No, its actually something that any Christian around Paul could be but they are not.1 Cor. 4:17,“That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.”Paul is a model for everyone, and he expects that you can and should imitate him.This is a commendation for Timothy and a convicting word for others. Would Paul, or would Jesus, find anyone like Timothy here? How are we doing? Can we get our own interests, and our striving for empty glory out of the way, to serve the interests of Christ by caring for the welfare of one another?Can we follow the example of Timothy, who was imitating Paul and Christ?Can we serve others, when it doesn't align also with our interests, or is inconvenient?Verse 22,“But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.”Last, Paul appeals to the fact that they already know this about Timothy. They should not need any convincing, because they themselves have witnessed Timothy's proven worth as a son to Paul and as a Godly example to them. Proven: tried and tested as he has spent time with Paul and time in Philippi. Timothy has learned Paul's ways, so that Paul can say if you imitate him you imitate me.To summarize where we are, we have covered two reasons why Paul wants to send Timothy to the saints in Philippi. 1) Because Paul has been a father to him and trained him in the gospel, and 2) because Timothy has been a proven son to Paul in the gospel. Both of these focus on why Timothy, and last here we will focus on why send anyone?3) Being physically present matters (v.19, 23-24).Paul values face to face interaction. It is so much more to him than a luxury, being with them gets at the very heart of his ministry. To see real faces, to shake real hands. Paul not only wants to send Timothy, but he wants to get there soon himself. As I mentioned at the beginning, sending Timothy isn't just icing on the cake, but is part of the completion of Paul's care to them. Paul, with Timothy, in this letter has laid out:His love and thankfulness for themHis singular mission in life “to live is Christ” (and labor for their good)That Christ is our substitute, and is also our exampleHe has commanded them to walk worthy of the gospel of Christ and work out their salvation with fear and tremblingAnd now he seeks to send a visible, tangible example to them (to put it all together)Paul sends Timothy to show them again what it is like to be united in mind and spirit, to in humility count others more significant, and to have the mind of Christ and walk worthy of the gospel of ChristPaul and Timothy want to go to the Philippians because: 1) They love them, he wants to hear good news and he anticipates joy from being with them again. 2) They are confident that the Lord is working in them, he is excited to see what the Lord has done, and he is excited to share about how he was delivered by their prayers. 3) And, because they want to be Christ to them, Paul wants to send more than words, it wasn't enough for Paul to just tell them about unity, and humility, and walking according to the gospel, he wanted to show them.Paul seems to think you can't just mail that, or stream it to one another.Face to face he wants to remind them that “what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.”The Philippians are starting to suffer for the gospel (1:29), and Paul wants to encourage them that God is working through it to advance the gospel, his life is a testimony of it and he wants to be there in person to further encourage and help them in the suffering that God is allowing among them.Sometimes, all a situation might need is a godly, mature example present. An example to help steady the ship, or right the ship. Paul is confident that through the grace of God, and the work of the Spirit, in tandem with Timothy as a living example of Christ, that the Philippian church will be united and strengthened under the gospel and be of one mind and one Spirit.In all of this, Paul goes to great pains to get there and care for them, because the salvation they have in Christ matters more than anything else. We have spent a bit of time this morning talking about horizontal relationship. Paul and Timothy's relationship. There connection and friendship with the Philippian church. But make no mistake, what animated Paul is the advance of the gospel for the glory and pleasure of His heavenly Father. In the gospel, we have a father that does everything we talked about at the beginning.“God [the father] so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”“[and] to all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”And as a son or daughter of God, we have a father who has a mission to save and sanctify us. He works for us, and with us, and in us through His Spirit. And! He loves to reward His children. He works in us, so that he may in turn say to us “well done!” It is the joy of a father to be able to commend his son or daughter.It is your fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom.The TableThis table reminds us that Jesus died for our sins, so that by believing in Him we would become children of God and enjoy the smile of God the Father over us.

Pastor JT refocuses our hope from WHEN Christ will come to the truth THAT Christ will come. From the New Testament, we know that Christ will return, coming to raise the dead and execute perfect justice as He establishes His kingdom without end. 

We all have a pretty specific version of what we think of when we think of the Christmas story. The apostle John, however, records a different version of what happened. His focus is not just on THAT Christ was born, or HOW he was born, but WHY he was born. This week, Pastor Jimmy Nimon kicks off our series, Receiving Jesus, with a message about how to receive God's promises.

RATE! REVIEW! FOLLOW! Email me your thoughts, comments or questions: caniberealpodcast@gmail.com Show Notes: ○ Colossians 1:24-2:5 (NLT) § Colossians 1:24-29 § Paul was tasked with bringing the Good News all over the world. God wanted people to know that Salvation was for everyone, Jew and Gentile alike! § The secret, that had been kept hidden for "centuries and generations" is this: Christ lives in you! □ Read Romans 8:10-13 □ Read Colossians 3:11 § "…warning everyone and teaching everyone…" □ It is our duty to go out and tell people about Jesus ® Read Matthew 28:18-20 □ We were saved by grace through faith for good works (Ephesians 2:8-10) ® We have this good news, this secret- we know about the riches and glory of Christ…are you talking about it? Are you sharing your faith? Are you taking your faith with you into every setting you go into? ® How can we set back and watch the world, God's creation, burn, and not tell someone the secret- that Christ lives in you! That we are God's masterpiece! That Christ died for you to put you back into right relationship with the Father! So that you could be called holy and righteous! □ We are called to love God and love people, and the most loving thing we can do for someone is tell them about Jesus! § Colossians 2:1-5 § …I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love… □ Read 1 Peter 1:22- "You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other with all your heart." § …I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself……so that no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments □ Read 1 Corinthians 2: 7-16 § Paul mentions the church at Laodicea □ This is the church that in Revelations 3, John writes the church a letter on behalf of Christ ® Read Revelations 3: 14-22 □ I leave you with the reminder: live as you should and make sure your faith in Christ is strong --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rachel398/message

“That Christ might create in himself one new humanity” Eph 2:15

Join Pastor Aaron as he teaches us to see the posture of worship, consider Paul's 4-part prayer, and remember the power of God. The four parts to Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 are 1) That they would be strengthened with God's power, 2) That Christ may dwell in their hearts, 3) That they would know the bigness of Christ's love, and 4) That they would be filled with the fullness of God.

I have a powerhouse on the podcast in the form of Kelly Balarie. Kelly is an author and a speaker who is passionate about Jesus and the Word of God. She is a sister in the trenches and a self-proclaimed spiritual cheerleader. Every book she has written, she writes from a place of “this is where God has been faithful to me in this season.” Or “this is what God has been teaching me,” full of authenticity, and powerful scripture-saturated insights for women who desire to walk well and be filled to the fullness of God.    In our conversation today, you'll hear about her latest book Taking Every Thought Captive: Exchange Lies of the Enemy For the Mind of Christ. We unpack that term,“the mind of Christ,” and what it means, how to connect deeper into the heart of God as we yield our minds and hearts to His love, plans, and purposes for our lives. We go deep and wide about spiritual warfare and even the differences between spiritual possession and oppression.  We'll talk about the goodness of God in the “even ifs” of life, how our thoughts in suffering can impact us, how God can and will meet us in the feelings He gave us, and so much more. Kelly's love for the Lord and the power of His word is vivacious and galvanizing and I truly believe it will serve as a balm to your soul today.    God is not finished with us. He is not finished with the Church. He is not finished with this world. Even when things are hard, or everything looks like it is past redemption, hope and His love get the final word. You matter, friend. Your story matters.    Connecting with Kelly: Current Book: Taking Every Thought Captive: Exchange Lies of the Enemy For the Mind of Christ Facebook Instagram Website   For great resources for Bible study and getting into God's word check out the Daily Grace Co!   Please consider joining our Patreon community. If you have enjoyed what you have heard on the podcast today or from other episodes, we would so appreciate your support to keep the Simply Stories Podcast going. You can sign up for as little as $3 a month and each tier offers gifts that I hope will bless you in return. If you feel you cannot financially commit at this time, would you please consider leaving us a star rating and/or review on Apple Podcasts? My family and I are so grateful for each of you and how you are part of our story. Scripture References: Ephesians 3:19-21- Filled to the fullness of God 2 Corinthians 10:5- Take every thought captive  Philippians 2:1-11, Ephesians 3:16-21- We are powerful in Christ Jesus  Psalm 42:7- Deep calls to deep  Matthew 4:1-11- Jesus in the wilderness  Luke 4:1-14- Jesus was endowed with power (after His temptation) 1 Corinthians 11  1 Corinthians 2:9- No eye has seen, no ear has heard what I have for You Philippians 4:7- Beyond our understanding 1 Corinthians 2:10- These things are revealed by the Spirit 1 Corinthians 2:11, 2:12-13-Who can know the Lord's thoughts… but we can understand these things for we have the mind of Christ  Romans 5:8- Jesus died for us while we were still sinners John 10:27- “The sheep that are my own hear and are listening to My voice and I know them and they follow me.” 1 Peter 5:7- Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you.  Psalm 23:5- You set a table from me in the presence of my enemy Psalm 27:13-14- What would have become of me if I had not believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living  Jeremiah 29:11- Plans of a hope and for a future 2 Peter 1:3- You have everything you need in Christ Matthew 14:22-34-Peter hops out of the boat  Hebrews 12:1-3- He's the Author and Perfector of our faith 2 Corinthians 5:17- I am a new creation  Galatians 2:20- It is no longer I who live, but Christ in me Romans 6:11- I am dead to the old and alive to the new Romans 13:14, Colossians 3:12-15, Ephesians 6:10-18-Clothing ourselves in God's word Matthew 6:11- I receive today our daily bread  Exodus 16- The manna in the wilderness, trusting every morning He would provide 2 Corinthians 3:18- We are being transformed into the image of Christ Genesis 3- Eve's desire to know what it was like on the other side of the bite Ecclesiastes 3- There is a time for everything and every season under Heaven John 16:33- In this world you will have trouble, but take heart I have overcome the world 1 Peter 1:12-Angels marvel at the mystery of the Gospel Isaiah 14:27-Who can stop the Lord almighty?  Revelation 12:11-We triumph by the blood of the Lamb and the Spirit of testimony  Job 13:15-Thou He slay me, I will trust in the name of the Lord  Matthew 13- The enemy comes and eats the seed that's been laid by the Lord  Demon possession in scripture  Ephesians 1, 3 -Holy Spirit is inside of those who believe in Jesus Matthew 16:23- “Satan, get behind me” Psalm 121:4- The Lord never sleeps or slumbers Psalm 91 Rest  Romans 8:28- God works all things together for the good of those who love Him Proverbs 26:2- A curse without cause cannot alight Psalm 24:3-4-Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? Those with clean hands and a pure heart Psalm 51:7- Wash me  2 Timothy 1:7- We don't have a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind Romans 8:37-I am more than a conqueror in Christ Proverbs 18:21- The power of life and death is in the power of the tongue  Genesis 1, Psalm 33:9- God spoke the world into being Nahum 1:1-7-, Isaiah 14:27- Who can stand against the Lord Almighty? Ephesians 3:17-That Christ would be more and more at home in your hearts Ephesians 3:14-21- The power to understand God's love  (I LOVE this scripture as a prayer) Exodus 3:14 · John 8:58, John 17- He is a triune God  Romans 12:3-13-We need each other in community 2 Corinthians 12:6-10- Paul had a thorn in his flesh, God said His power is made known in His weakness Isaiah 55:8-9-Our ways are not His ways Psalm 139:14-We were perfectly and wonderfully made Philippians 1:6- He is not finished with your story  Psalm 23:6- Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of our lives Psalm 37:4- Give the desires of our heart Psalm 145:13, 2 Peter 3:9, Hebrews 10:23, Isaiah 55:11- He is faithful to His word  Psalm 56:9- This I know, God is on my side Galatians 5:22-24- Where the Spirit is there is no law Psalms 33:18-22- Trust and obey Isaiah 30:21-A voice behind me will say “this is the way walk in it”   References: Nutella Latte Fear Fighting Battle Ready Rest Now Keep your head where your feet are (12 Step) Spiritual possession vs oppression (spiritual warfare) Real witchcraft in the world  Witchcraft in scripture   Connecting with Emily and Simply Stories Podcast: Instagram (Em life // Podcast Life) Facebook Twitter Blog 

Love WithinText Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, READ 1 Corinthians 13.We come to Ephesians, chapter 3, verse 17, And I think the key words in understanding what Paul is saying in verse 17 are the words HEART and LOVE. The heart is the seat of our emotions, where the deep emotion of love is seated.…Read the NOTES HERE.This sermon was recorded at Ballymacashon, apologies for the poorer sound quality and echo! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Discover the untold story of Artemis of the Ephesians, a goddess who challenges traditional beliefs about women's roles in the first century. Join Dr. Sandra Glahn as she uncovers surprising connections between Artemis and the early church, leaving us questioning everything we thought we knew. Are we ready to face the truth?My special guest is Sandra GlahnPrepare to indulge in an enriching discussion with our guest today, Dr. Sandra Glahn. A distinguished professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, she is admired for her profound knowledge in media arts, worship, and gender studies combined with an in-depth understanding of women's culture and the role of the arts. Her diverse background and versatility have enabled her to contribute to over 20 books, broadening perspectives and sparking thought-provoking debates. With her forthcoming book, Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament, she invites us to delve into a distinct historical journey tackling the intriguing cultural context of Artemis of the Ephesians. Sit back and prepare for an enlightening chat!Jesus is stronger. And I think that what he is saying is, women will be saved... That Christ is going to show himself the ultimate midwife. - Sandra GlahnIn this episode, you will be able to:Explore the transformative roles of women in the early church and society and comprehend their lasting impact.Unveil the mystical cultural context surrounding Artemis of the Ephesians.Gain insights into the intricate gender dynamics and power structures that shape the church.Appreciate the importance and benefits of an egalitarian approach to partnership between men and women.Discover the deep significance of language and cultural diversity in understanding the scriptures.Mystical Cultural ContextUnderstanding the cultural and religious framework of the first century is crucial to make sense of Biblical texts and the reference to figures like Artemis. This was a period marked by different beliefs and practices, and Artemis's portrayal deviated considerably from the fertility goddess stereotype. Sandra's research unlocks this mystical cultural context, providing a fresh perspective on Biblical narratives and their meanings.The resources mentioned in this episode are:Purchase Dr. Sandra Glahn's book Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament to learn more about the connection between Artemis and the Book of Ephesians. https://www.ivpress.com/nobody-s-motherExplore Dr. Sandra Glahn's other books, including Vindicating the Vixens, Earl Grey with Ephesians, and Sanctified: Sexuality and Sexual Intimacy in Marriage. https://sandraglahn.com/Visit the Dallas Theological Seminary website to learn more about Dr. Sandra Glahn and her work in media arts and worship.Join the conversation about Artemis of the Ephesians and the Book of Ephesians by engaging with the A World of Difference podcast and Dr. Sandra Glahn on social media. https://twitter.com/sandraglahnArtemis of the Ephesians was as likely to take out women as she was men... She might have been the inspiration for Wonder Woman, but she is not as nice as Wonder Woman. - Sandra GlahnThe key moments in this episode are:00:00:02 - Introduction, 00:01:15 - Dr. Glon's Background and Book, 00:07:28 - Artemis as a Midwifery Goddess, 00:09:50 - Wonder Woman and the Amazons, 00:14:27 - The Discounted Mother, 00:15:19 - Fear and Communal Culture, 00:16:41 - Misinterpreted Verses, 00:19:08 - Church Fathers' Views on Women, 00:22:55 - Partnering and Imaging God, 00:29:29 - The Importance of Female Metaphors for God, 00:31:44 - The Dignity of Women in Christianity, 00:32:28 - Jesus' Relationship with Women, 00:33:52 - Expanding the Definition of Women's Callings, I had to go back to start over with Scripture and ask where I've picked up that idea. - Sandra GlahnTimestamped summary of this episode:00:00:02 - Introduction, Lori Adams Brown introduces the podcast and guest, Dr. Sandra Glon, who has written a book called "Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament." The book explores the connection between Artemis of the Ephesians and the verses about women in the New Testament, especially in the Book of Ephesians.00:01:15 - Dr. Glon's Background and Book, Dr. Glon shares her personal journey of infertility and pregnancy loss and how it led her to question the traditional view of a woman's primary calling as motherhood. She explains that her research on Artemis of the Ephesians began when she discovered a connection between the goddess and the phrase "she will be saved through childbearing" in Paul's letter to Timothy.00:07:28 - Artemis as a Midwifery Goddess, Dr. Glon discusses her findings that Artemis of the Ephesians was not a fertility goddess but rather a goddess of midwifery. She explains that Paul's advice to Timothy regarding marriage and childbearing was influenced by the context of Ephesus, where virginity was highly valued.00:09:50 - Wonder Woman and the Amazons, Dr. Glon mentions the connection between Artemis and the Amazons, who were real women warriors buried with weapons and horses. She explains that while Wonder Woman may have been inspired by Artemis, the ancient goddess was ruthless and not as benevolent as the fictional00:14:27 - The Discounted Mother, The discussion focuses on Artemis, a mother figure who was often discounted in the culture at the time. Paul's writings in First Timothy acknowledge her influence but also emphasize that Jesus is superior.00:15:19 - Fear and Communal Culture, The fear of childbirth was a significant concern for women in the community, as it was the leading cause of death. The communal culture added to the fear, as being wrong could bring disaster to the whole community. Paul's message of Jesus as the ultimate midwife provided comfort and salvation for women.00:16:41 - Misinterpreted Verses, The verse about women being saved through childbearing has often been misinterpreted. It cannot refer to salvation in the traditional sense, as Paul consistently taught salvation by grace through faith. Understanding the cultural context and the influence of Artemis helps interpret these verses accurately.00:19:08 - Church Fathers' Views on Women, Many church fathers, influenced by Greek philosophy, held views that women were defective or weaker. Augustine's views on women were shaped by his broken sexual history. It is essential to critically evaluate their teachings and focus on the essential equality of men and women.00:22:55 - Partnering and Imaging God, The early church got it right by emphasizing the partnership between men and women. Art depicting men and women officiating communion together demonstrates the importance of unity and collaboration. Rather than focusing on gender differences, we should recognize that both men and women bear00:29:29 - The Importance of Female Metaphors for God, The conversation begins by discussing the use of metaphors and similes for God as a female in the Bible. The guest emphasizes the importance of representing both male and female voices as the voice of God in dramas. The influence of traditional depictions of God as a male figure with a long white beard is also mentioned.00:31:44 - The Dignity of Women in Christianity, The guest highlights the significance of the Incarnation and how it represents the dignity of women. The fact that Christ chose to inhabit a woman's womb for nine months challenges the notion that women are considered dirty or inferior. The guest emphasizes that women have an important role in Christianity and should be listened to and valued.00:32:28 - Jesus' Relationship with Women, The guest discusses how Jesus listened to and elevated women, setting an example for his male disciples to do the same. His appearance as the resurrected Lord before a woman further emphasizes the importance of women's voices in the faith movement. The guest encourages Christians to recognize the significance of women in the church.00:33:52 - Expanding the Definition of Women's Callings, The guest shares her personal journey of realizing that motherhood and being a wife are not the only callings for women. She hopes that her book will help set people free from narrow views of women's roles and inspire them to recognize the diverse ways in which women can live out their callings.

More episodes: https://www.thebereancall.org/get-biblical-understandingMore about the Bible: https://www.thebereancall.org/topic/bibleFree eBook: https://davehunt.orgDownload our app: https://www.thebereancall.org/app1 CHRONICLES 28:20 And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD. 1 CORINTHIANS 16:13-14 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity. 2 CORINTHIANS 12: 9-10 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. EPHESIANS 6:10-13 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. EPHESIANS 3:16-19 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. PHILIPPIANS 4:11-13 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. PSALM 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. Our website: www.thebereancall.orgStore: store.thebereancall.org

More episodes: https://www.thebereancall.org/get-biblical-understandingMore about the Bible: https://www.thebereancall.org/topic/bibleFree eBook: https://davehunt.orgDownload our app: https://www.thebereancall.org/app1 CHRONICLES 28:20 And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD. 1 CORINTHIANS 16:13-14 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity. 2 CORINTHIANS 12: 9-10 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. EPHESIANS 6:10-13 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. EPHESIANS 3:16-19 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. PHILIPPIANS 4:11-13 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. PSALM 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. Our website: www.thebereancall.orgStore: store.thebereancall.org

From Come Follow Me:Because the Church and its doctrines were relatively new in Corinth, it's understandable that Corinthian Saints encountered confusion. Paul had previously taught them the fundamental truth of the gospel: “That Christ died for our sins … and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). But some members soon began teaching that “there is no resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:12). Paul implored them to “keep in memory” the truths they had been taught (1 Corinthians 15:2). When we encounter conflicting opinions about gospel truths, it is good to remember that “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). Listening to the Lord's appointed servants and holding to the simple truths they repeatedly teach can help us find peace and “stand fast in the faith” (1 Corinthians 16:13).The thoughts, ideas, and beliefs we express on this channel do not officially represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  For additional information or official statements, please visit the website below.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng#biblestudy #oldtestament #religion #churchofjesuschrist #ldspodcast #christianpodcast #missionary #lds #biblestories #christ #faith #faithinchrist #scriptures #bookofmormon #doctrineandcovenants #pearlofgreatprice #temples #houseofthelord #mormon #mormonbeliefs #chritiansandmormons #god #endure #ironrod #faithineveryfootstep #generalconference #prophets #followtheprophet #commandments #love #service #charity #keepstriving #keeponstriving #gospelgrowthandgoodtimes #become #newtestamentSupport the show

There is no point to your Faith without the resurrection. That Christ rose from the grave, defeated death and sin. He died our death and He rose.

Enjoy this “throwback” episode from the Woman at the Well Ministries radio program, as Kim Miller brings us a message out of Ephesians 3:16-19, which says, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Mentioned in this Episode Ephesians 3:16-19 Listen Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Podbean Social | Facebook | Instagram This podcast is brought to you by Woman at the Well Ministries and is supported by our faithful listeners. For more information and to engage with Woman at the Well Ministries, visit us at http://www.watwm.org or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/watwm.

In the baptismal service, we briefly return to our Gospel Worship series and consider why it is that only ministers of the gospel -pastors- should administer the sacraments. That Christ has called and ordained certain men to be stewards of the gospel mysteries found in His Word, and so, has also made them the stewards of His sacraments which are His Word made visible. We will also consider the great gospel mysteries in the Scripture that are revealed to us that we might understand how baptism portrays the washing away of our sins. 1 Corinthians 4-1.

The Messiah was prophesied and promised long ago, and Paul's speech in Acts 13 has one purpose: to demonstrate to the Jews how the promises of God to them were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The ultimate proof? That Christ rose from the dead. We'll see that because Christ has risen, He is therefore worthy of honor and praise. Will you crown Him King 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,or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Today, we are continuing our sermon series committed talking about the essential habits of an abundant life. I think we are eight weeks into this series and we got about three weeks left to go and then that's going to bring us up to Easter Sunday already. And so looking forward to that. And this week we are tackling what is probably the most ambitious topic in this entire sermon series. I sat down to prepare the sermon this week and I realized this really could have been like three separate sermons and so tons of editing to get it down into one. And I promise I'll talk fast. If you listen fast, we'll try to get through all of it. But this is not going to be an exhaustive sermon on this topic. But hopefully it's at least a good introduction into our topic today because our topic today is the topic of calling. And the question before us is what is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of life? What is more specifically your purpose in life? Why are you here? I think one of the most frightening and dreadful feelings that a person can have is the sober consideration of a meaningless existence. It's contemplating the possibility that your life might have no purpose. Or even worse that it does, but you are failing to find that or to fulfill that purpose. We live in a world where we have so many options of what we could spend our lives doing, that we are oftentimes paralyzed by all of the possibilities before us. And rather than helping us come to a decision, all of the options actually seem to make the problem even more complex of finding out what is our purpose. Because now in addition to figuring that out, we have the pressure of making sure that of all of these options before us that we choose the right thing. And what if we get that wrong? I think about the opportunity cost of getting something like that wrong. We only have one life to live. How are we supposed to live it? And that can be terrifying. Like what if we are to reach the end of our lives only to look back and see that we never truly lived, that we never truly figured out why we were here, what we were supposed to be doing. And that's a very real fear that most of us have experienced at one time or another. And the only real solution to this is something that Christians have often referred to as calling. And John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, he wrote this. He said that, "The Lord bids each one of us in all of life's actions to look to his calling. For, he knows with what great restlessness human nature flames, with what fickleness it is born hither and thither, how its ambition longs to embrace various things at once, therefore less through our stupidity and rashness everything be turned topsy-turvy, he has appointed duties to every man in his particular way of life. And that no one may thoughtlessly transgress his limits, he has named those various kind of livings, callings. Therefore, each individual has his own kind of living assigned to him by the Lord as a sort of century post so that he may not heedlessly wander about throughout life." As Christians, we believe that God has a plan, he has a purpose for every one of his children. And that this purpose is something that we can know, that we have a calling that we need to discern and to answer. And my hope today is that we will look to God's word together and as we do learn to discern what God is calling us to do throughout the various seasons of our life. And so if you have your Bible open, up the Colossians chapter three. We're going to go through this entire chapter actually all the way through chapter four verse one. And I'm not going to read the entire text up here up front because it's a little bit longer. We're going to take it just section by section and work through it together. And as we do, I want us to focus on helping you to discern and to commit to four things. Number one, to commit to your general calling. That's going to be the first 17 verses. Second, commit to your seasonal calling. That's the next few. And then commit to your particular calling. And then at the end we'll look at this idea of commit to receiving an inheritance in heaven and leaving a legacy here on earth. And so I'm going to start just by reading the first 17 verses. This is Colossians chapter three, beginning in verse one. And the Apostle Paul writes this. He says, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality and purity, passion, evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry and account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these you two once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jews circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians and slave free. But Christ is all and in all. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord is forgiving you, so also you must forgive. And above all of these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. In whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." This is the reading of God's word for us this morning. Would you please join me in prayer for our sermon today? Lord, we thank you that you are a God who knows each of us individually, that you care for each of us individually and you have gifted and equipped each of us individually according to your purposes and plan. Lord, help us today to know how each of our lives can bring you the most glory, can do the most good according to the unique gifts, opportunities, and personality that you have given us both together as a church and individually as your people. Lord, help our words, our deeds, whatever we do to be done for your glory and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and out of thankfulness in our hearts to you our God and Father. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, point number one today is to commit to your general calling. Before we get into the topic of discerning and committing to or your specific or your particular calling, we need to understand that God has given a general calling to all Christians, to everyone who is a follower of Christ that we need to answer. And we know that first of all, we are called to Christ, that through the call of the gospel we are called to become followers of Jesus. But then Paul shows us that in Christ we are also called to a few different things. We are called as we see in this text to live with a new identity, to live as part of a new family, the household of God, and to live in a new way, a new manner of living as well. And so first of all, we say that we're called to live with a new identity. Verse two, Paul says, "Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God." And in verse nine he says, "Don't lie to one another saying that you've put off the old self with its practices and if you've put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator." And he says here, "There's not Greek or Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free. But Christ is in all." And the big idea here is that he wants us to see is that when you are called to Christ, that you're not just given a better life, that you are given a new life, that the old you dies and that you become a new creation in Christ. And Christ then becomes the centering principle of your life. That this is your identity. And so your past, your reputation, your ethnicity, your job, your bank account, your education, your pedigree, none of that matters. That Christ is all and is in all, that you become a Christian period with no adjective to qualify that statement. We stand before the cross of Christ, all of us from our various backgrounds, we all come, we stand before level ground and we are all then unified, made one body in Jesus Christ. And this is our new identity that we are called to live in, to walk in. And this new identity, it leads directly to the second thing that we're called to do, which is to live and to love a new family. That we're saved out of the world and into the body of Christ, into the church. And Paul gives us instructions of how we are to behave as children in this family, as members of this body. And in verse 12 he says, "And so therefore put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord is forgiven, you also must forgive. And above all these things put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called in one body and be thankful with the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and an admonishing one another with all wisdom and singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts." To God, this is how you are to behave and relate to one another in the church. The Jesus saved you out of the world and into this family, the God the Father, he finds us as orphans lost in our sin and he adopts us into his family by the blood of his son Jesus Christ. And this is important because one of the reasons that I think a lot of Christians struggle with discerning God's will or sensing what he is calling them to do and perhaps therefore feel like they're lost, like they're wandering throughout life. Well, it starts because they have failed to answer this first calling, to join themselves to a local body of believers, to surround themselves by the body of Christ because scripture tells us plainly that when Christians fail to do this, that a Christian without the church, it's like a leaf being blown about in the wind or it's like a child that is stunted in its growth, that is suspended in a state of adolescence, not growing, not maturing. And Paul talks about this in Ephesians chapter four. He's describing the church and the purpose of the church and God's vision for the church. And he says that God gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers in order to equip the saints, all of us, the church, the members of the body to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning and by craftiness and deceitful schemes, rather speaking the truth and love or to grow up into every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joint and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. And so before we can begin to discern our particular callings in life, we need to understand before anything else that this is God's will for you, for me, for us. His will is for us to understand, to live in this new identity that we have in Christ and in this new family to become members of a local church, to commit ourselves to a group of believers who are going to know us and can encourage us and hold us accountable and support us throughout this life of following Jesus. Because the third thing that we're going to see as we follow Jesus, as we're called to Christ, is that we're also called to learn a whole new way of life, a whole new manner of living. And we're going to need people around to help us do this. This is not going to be easy. Verse five, he says, "And so therefore put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." He says, "The wrath of God is coming and these you two once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth and do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his creator." Says, "Jesus calls us to a whole new way of life, a whole new manner of living, a new morality with new purpose, new identity, new family." And we need a proper understanding of this general calling that we all have because this is going to be like the prerequisite foundation to everything else that we're going to talk about this morning, that we can't begin building the rest of our lives and answering the rest of our callings until we have this solid foundation. If you want to know what God is calling you to do specifically, you always need to begin with what he has already called you to do clearly and generally in his word. That God is never going to call you to do something that contradicts his will, that contradicts his word revealed to us in scripture. And so commit to your general calling. And then number two, commit to your seasonal calling. Verse 17, Paul says, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." And then he shifts. He just got done saying, this is how you're going to need to live and behave. This is how you're called to be in the household of God and now this is how you're going to be called to be in your household. And so he begins giving instructions for the household. He begins with wives. Verse 18, "Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. And fathers do not provoke your children less they become discouraged." So he shows us how to relate to one another. In God's household, here He shows us how to relate to one another in our households. And obviously this is not an exhaustive teaching, like scripture has a lot more to say about these familial relationships than what we see here. But for our purposes today, I just want us to begin by seeing this, that God is going to call you, he's going to assign to you certain responsibilities throughout different seasons of your life and those things are going to change and evolve over time. And your responsibilities as a child are going to look a lot different than the responsibilities that the Lord assigns to you as an adult. You're going to have certain things that God calls you to do when you're single that are going to be different than the things he calls you to do if and when you get married or if and when you have children. And we don't think about this here in Boston very often because we're a very young city, but someday you're going to have the responsibilities as a child again. And if you haven't experienced this yet, the day is coming where you're going to be not under your parents' care. Your parents in some ways are going to come under your care. If they get sick or as they're aging, as they're approaching the end of life. And eventually they're going to need you to be there in that season. Eventually you're going to be in that season yourself needing the help of others as you approach that season of life. And so like our general calling, these seasonal callings, they are prerequisite considerations as we try to discern our particular callings. And we're going to get to the particular calling here in a little bit. But first I want us to take a closer look at some of these seasonal callings that Paul talks about in the text. He begins with instructions for the wives. Verse 18, it says, "Wives submit to your husband's as is fitting in the Lord." Pretty short verse, but probably one of the most famous and detailed teachings, descriptions of God's vision for a godly wife in scripture comes from Proverbs 31. You're probably familiar with Proverbs 31, the Proverbs 31:10 says, "An excellent wife who can find. She's far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not harm all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands. She's like the ships of the merchant bringing her food from afar. She rises while it's yet night and provides food for her household in portions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it. With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hand to the distaff and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She's not afraid of snow for her household, for all of her household are clothed in scarlet. She makes bed coverings for herself and clothing. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them. She delivers sashes to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing. She laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also and he praises her. Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates." Long passage. And obviously this is a very idealized vision of what a wife, what mother can be in God's eyes, but that's what God does. He calls us to pursue these ideals of perfection and then he gives us grace for what's real as we work our way towards those ideals. But the point here is if you're in the season of being a wife, of being a mother, and you're trying to figure out what is God calling me to do right now, this is a great place to start. Proverbs 31, it shows us a wife who supports her husband and she cultivates peace and order and beauty in her home. It shows us a mother who loves her children. She's strong, she's hardworking, she's selfless. She's nurturing and wise. It shows us a business woman who is savvy and charitable and resourceful. Most of all, what Proverbs 31 shows us is it shows us a godly woman, a woman who is known at the city gates, not for her beauty, not for her charm. She's known for her kindness, her humility, her generosity, her wisdom. She is known for fearing the Lord. And I pray that God would raise up more strong women like this, but I also just praise God because I know that we have so many strong women like this here at Mosaic. And the big idea here as it relates to our calling is that what scripture shows us is the primary calling of the wife, of the mother, is to create order, to create beauty, to create shalom in her home. And then as she commits herself to this good calling, we see that if God gives her the margin and the opportunity to do so, she may also be called to expand that shalom outside of the home, into the community, into the marketplace. And so the home comes first, it takes priority, but as we see the Proverbs 31 woman, she's selling in the marketplace. She's purchasing real estate, she's planting a vineyard, she's caring for the poor. She's not doing these things to build up herself or her ego or her career. She's not doing these things to escape her home, but she's doing these things to bless her home and to make her home a blessing to others. And this is not easy. This takes hard work, humility, wisdom. And this is going to look different in every household in some ways, right? Husbands and wives need to work together, pursue the Lord together, to discern and to determine where they need to draw those boundaries, where they draw those lines and keep those priorities straight. It takes a lot of wisdom. But verse 26 says that she opens her mouth with wisdom and that the teaching of kindness is on her tongue, that she looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. And as a result, her children call her blessed, her husband praises her. And in the creation story, God's first observation of something less than good, less than perfect is the absence of Eve. That it was not good for Adam to be alone, that he needed help, he needed a support. He needed a help made to come along and to help him fulfill his calling and purpose. And that God said creation was not good without her. He creates Eve and then he gives them the commandment for the two to become one flesh, for them to be fruitful and multiply to fill the earth and subdue it. And God establishes this family unit as the means of fulfilling his cultural mandate. And I say all this to say that motherhood is one of the highest, most vital and most noble callings that a person can have. And it's also one of the hardest. And that's why we as Christians, we need to support the mothers in our lives. Our culture has been degrading marriage, has been degrading motherhood for generations and it is tearing our world apart. And Proverbs 31 tells us that a godly wife, a godly mother, is far more precious than jewels. It's a high calling to be a wife and a mother. And as Christians, we must value and honor the mothers among us even and especially when the culture around us refuses to do so. And so Paul addresses the wives and the mothers. And then he addresses the husbands as well. It says verse 19, he says, "Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them." Again, he doesn't give us a lot here. Just one little sentence. If Proverbs 31 is the most famous and detailed description of a godly wife, then I would I'd say that Ephesians chapter five is the most famous and detailed description of a godly husband. And this is the parallel passage that Paul gives us in Ephesians chapter five, verse 25. He starts out the same way. He says, husbands love your wives, but then he continues. He says, "Love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the words 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. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. And then he quotes Genesis, "Therefore, man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I'm saying it refers to Christ in the church, however, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. If Proverbs 31 asks us an excellent woman who can find, I think what Ephesians five is telling us is this, that bro, if you find her, she's out of your league. You're not going to find the perfect, excellent Proverbs 31 woman. And if you do, she's probably not going to be interested in you. Your job is not to find the perfect wife. Your job is to build the perfect life, to build the perfect marriage, to find a woman who fears the Lord and commit to her. To commit your life, to laying yourself down, to loving her, to cherishing her, to nourishing her with the word of God so that then the two of you can grow old and excellent together, where you're both through this relationship being sanctified into the people that God is calling you to be. Scripture calls moms to cultivate and care for the home. He calls husbands to cultivate the marriage. Husband, God is going to hold us responsible for the health of our marriages and the health of our marriages are going to dictate the health of our families. It's a high calling. Just like Proverbs 31 seems almost unattainable, Ephesians 5, I mean, you're literally being called to love your wife the way Christ loved the church. It's an impossible calling, but God gives us grace where we fail and then he gives us more grace to get up and to keep pursuing that goal, that standard as husbands. And so your wife's calling is to cultivate shalom in the home. And she can only do this as you commit to your primary calling. And husbands your primary calling, your responsibility is that God has called you to provide, to protect, and most importantly, to pastor your wives and children well so that they are loved, so that they are led, so that they are cherished and treasured so that as you do so that they can flourish to do all that God has called them to do. So practically husbands, as you seek to discern your more particular calling, if this is the season of life that you're in, understand that God is going to call you to sacrifice a lot of things for the sake of your marriage and for the sake of your children. He's not going to call you to sacrifice your marriage and your children for anything else that this world has to offer. Not your job, not your ambitions, not your hobbies, not your friends that you as a husband, if this is the season of life that you're in, this is your highest and most important calling. Second only to your calling to be a disciple of Jesus and to be a child of God yourself. And so he gives instructions for husbands and wives and then he begins to talk to children and parents. Verse 20, he says, "Children obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord. And fathers do not provoke your children less they become discouraged." So we're all children and we will always be children. And this command, this calling as children, it's going to look different throughout our lives. But the one thing that continues is the calling that we will always be called to honor our fathers and our mothers. And as a young child, you do this through your obedience to your mother and father. As you're an adult, you grow older, you honor your father and mother through the honorable life that you build and live. And then as your parents' age, you may find yourself in a season again where you now need to honor them by sacrificially caring for them the way they sacrificially cared for you. First Timothy 5:3 says, "Honor the widows who are truly widows, but if a widow has children or grandchildren," he says, "Let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and it makes some return to their parents. For this is pleasing in the sight of God." And then in verse eight he says, "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for the members of his own household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." We live in a culture that has devalued motherhood and marriage and children. That's also a culture that devalues the aging and the elderly. And as Christians, this should not be the case. And we should honor our father and mother. And whatever season of life you're in, Paul says that it pleases the Lord when we do this and it doesn't end the day that we turn 18 and go off to college. Actually, some of you college students, you probably need to work a little harder on making sure that your Honor and mom and dad now that you're out on your own and getting that taste of freedom, but it's a commandment that stays with us. And then parents, likewise your relationship to your children, it's going to change throughout the seasons of your life. But the greatest season of influence and responsibility that you have is obviously going to be when your children are young, when they're growing up, when they're under your roof. And so throughout scripture we see Proverbs 22:6 is parents need to train up a child in the way that they should go so that when they're old, they will not depart from it. Deuteronomy 6:4 through seven says here, "Oh, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all of your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your children." Talk with them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. Just throughout the course of everyday life, you're constantly teaching, discipling your children. Colossians 3, the parallel passage to this is Ephesians 6. And again, Paul expands on it a little bit more there. And he says, "Honor your father and mother for this is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land." And then he says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord." I think one of the things that we wrestle with a lot of times as parents is how do we do this? How do we strike this balance between discipline and instruction on the one hand and not provoking our children to anger? On the other hand, this is something that I've personally been trying to get better at as a father, as a dad. And what I've been learning is one of the most important things you need to do is you need to know what kind of situation you're in and what you're dealing with at every given moment. Because getting the situation wrong is often what leads you to provoking your children to anger rather than giving them the discipline and instruction that they need. And so for example, is the situation that you're dealing with sin. Because if it's sin, then you need discipleship, right? Sin is the child has sinned against the commandment of God, and yeah, they might need discipline and correction, but with that you need to talk about the gospel. We need to talk about how God is holy and God is just and he has instructed us how we ought to live, and that when we sin against him, we need to repent and we need to confess our sins. And that when we do this and come to him, he forgives our sins, he cleanses us of unrighteousness. He takes away our guilt and shame. And he does this because Jesus Christ died on the cross and our place and we need to talk about this with them and pray about that with them. And then when we as parents, I mean I've never done this, but maybe some of you have, when we sin, we have to go to our kids too. If we sin against our kids, say, ask for your forgiveness. I need to pray. I need to repent and model that for our kids. Sin needs discipleship, and disobedience needs discipline. And what's the difference there? Well, sin is you've sinned against God. Disobedience is you've sinned against mom and dad. So the Bible never says, thou shall not run out into the street or play in the parking lot or jump on the furniture or anything like that. But mom and dad say that. We need rules in our household to keep things orderly and peaceful, but we shouldn't confuse those rules with God's rules. And so if there's disobedience, a dishonoring of father and mother, there needs to be correction and discipline, but it's a little bit different situation than if they've sinned against God. Is the situation ignorance? Sometimes kids are just... They're foolish. They're ignorant. They don't know what they don't know. And as parents, it's tempting in those situations to get frustrated and want to correct with discipline where actually what the child in that time needs is instruction. They need guidance. They need help seeing what they can't see. Fourthly, it could be weakness. It's not that they're ignorant, they know the right thing to do, they just aren't quite mature enough to do it or they're having... They're struggling. And again, in those situations, they need encouragement from their parents. It could be mistakes. Somebody's always going to spill the milk. Someone's always going to knock over the lamp. And as parents, it's easy for us to get frustrated and want to lash out in discipline where actually everyone makes some mistakes. And in those times as parents, we got to show sympathy. We got to show compassion. Mistakes need compassion. Six, are they just being annoying? Because if you have kids, you understand this, sometimes they're just like, oh, you're driving me nuts. And it's not that you're doing anything naughty or wrong, it's just that you're a kid. And sometimes kids drive us nuts. They're annoying, they're loud, they're crazy, they're rambunctious. And in those times as parents, sometimes we just need to show patience. We just got to let the kids be kids. And then finally is the situation success? Because let's not forget that too often we get really focused on correcting what's wrong, we forget to celebrate what's right. And success needs celebration. When your kid does something well, they should know that you're pleased that you celebrate that with him. So Paul covers all of these seasons in life, husbands, wives, parents, children. But there is one season that he doesn't cover, and ironically, it's the season that he himself is in. And it's a season that many here in this room today are in as well. So I feel like I should say something about this. The season of singleness in adulthood. We live in a very young city with a lot of young single adults. And so the question is how do we live? What does God call us to in that season? I think Jesus kind of anticipated this because in Matthew 19, he was teaching his disciples about God's high standard for marriage. That marriage is a covenant that is foreign between one man, one woman for a lifetime, that you are committing to one another through thick and thin, till death do you part. And he says to them in verse nine, Matthew 19:9, "Whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery." And his disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it's better to not marry." They thought this seems like an impossible standard. And he said to them, "Not everyone can receive the same, but only those to whom it is given. For, there are eunuchs who have been made so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this, receive it." Now, obviously Jesus isn't talking literally here, but I think what he's getting at is that there's going to be some people who for a variety of reasons, either can't get married or won't get married, not due to no fault of their own, perhaps they even have the desire to be married, but it just doesn't happen. But then he also says there's going to be some people who choose for themselves to forego marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Well, Paul was one such person. In First Corinthians 7, he talks about this. First Corinthians 7:6, he says, "Now, as a concession, not a command, as a concession, I say this, that I wish that all were as I myself am speaking of his singleness, but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind, one of another." So Paul says, "I'm giving this as a concession." This is not necessarily the ideal situation, but in a fallen world, what he's saying is that while it might be ideal, it might not be ideal for a person to remain single. In a fallen world, singleness is redeemable by God's grace. And in God's grace, this concession, as Paul describes, it can also be described as a gift. And it might not be a gift that you wanted, might not be a gift that you asked for, but he goes on in verse 32 to explain why it should be viewed in that manner. Verse 32, he says, "Because I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife." And then verse 35, just to make it clear, he says, "I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord." And so if that is the season that you're in, you're an adult and you're in the season of singleness, just a couple of things I want you to know. First, it's a unique calling and Paul says, it can be viewed as a gift and it's one that you share with the apostle Paul himself. Secondly, if you are single and you find in yourself a strong desire for a godly marriage, don't feel guilty about that. That is a very good desire. And if you have that desire and it hasn't been fulfilled, you should persistently pray and prepare and pursue yourself for marriage unless God has made it abundantly clear to you that he is calling you to remain unmarried. And along the way, if you have that desire and there are factors outside of your control keeping you from being married as you desire to be, don't lose heart. Ultimately, no, marriage is not going to give you the ultimate satisfaction in life that you're looking for. It's not going to scratch that itch, that ultimately you can only find that in Jesus Christ and in your relationship with him. And then thirdly, in your singleness, know that you are not being sidelined. That on the one hand, God has a very good purpose in marriage and we should not undermine that. Obviously our culture is, and even some spheres of Christianity, it feels like that's being undermined and that should not be the case. God has a very good purpose in marriage that it is a picture of the gospel and it is the means by which he ordained the cultural mandate to be fulfilled. But as we see here, God has a good redeeming purpose in singleness too. And so Paul says, what is that? He says, you're free from the anxieties of marriage and parenthood. And there there's a lot of anxieties, a lot of responsibilities that come with marriage and with parenthood. He says, you're free from those anxieties in order to be anxious about the things of the Lord, that in your singleness you have a greater bandwidth and capacity for ministry, for serving others, for building friendships in the church, for blessing and building up the household of God. And so to summarize, like unless God has clearly called you to remain single, you should pray and you should pursue marriage. And while you're single, make sure that you steward that gift well. And then through all of it, you need to rest and find your ultimate satisfaction in Jesus Christ. So these are the seasonal callings, and these callings are going to affect the way that we approached the final calling that we're talking about today, which is point number three, committing to our particular calling because in verse 22, Paul shifts. Again, he's talked about God's household, he's talked about our household, and now he begins to talk about what we might call like the workplace career, vocation, things like that. In verse 22, he says, "Bond servants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye surface as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work hardily as for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrong doer will be paid back for the wrong he's done. And there is no partiality. Masters treat your bond servants justly and fairly knowing that you also have a master in heaven." And so the general principle is in the workplace, whether you are an employee, an employer, you're the boss, the manager, whatever you are, that you need to first of all be treating the people that you work with, with dignity, with honor, with respect, and you need to be working hard. You need to be working as if Jesus Christ were your boss. And Paul says actually that is the truth that you are serving the Lord when you are at work. And with this, one of the reasons that I think many Christians struggle when it comes to sensing God's calling for discerning God's will for them in this area, they get anxious about what is God's will for my life in this area. Well, I think one of the reasons is that too often we as Christians, we start in the wrong place. We tend to want to start with this, with what is my particular specific calling in life? And then we kind of try to build our faith, our family, our church, things like that around that. And scripture tells us, you got to do the opposite. You need to seek first the kingdom of heaven and then all of these other things will be added unto you as well. And the point is not that God is unconcerned with our careers or our vocations, the point is that God is just... He is far less concerned with your career that he is with your character and with your holiness. And so before we kind of complete this discernment of our particular callings, scripture makes it very clear what God's will is for us. First Thessalonians 4 tells us this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor. Not in the passions of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one transgress and wrongs his brother in this manner because the Lord is an adventure of all these things. As we told you beforehand and solemnly warns you, for God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. And he goes on in verse nine, he says, "Now, concerning brotherly love, we have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God, how to love one another for that indeed is what you're doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you brothers to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. It's a very simple view of God's will for us to just live quiet, godly lives. And we need to understand that more than anything, this is God's desire for us, is our holiness, is our sanctification. And so I picture this process, it's kind of like looking through the lenses of a telescope. And so the first lens, you begin looking through the lens of the general calling that we talked about that before anything that I know that I have been called to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, strength, that I've been called to commit myself to the body of Christ, to the local church, to live a holy life, to grow in sanctification. Anything that God calls me to do in life, it needs to pass through that lens first. And then the second lens is that seasonal calling that we talked about, that I need to ask myself, what are my commitments? What responsibilities has God assigned to me in this seasonal life? Because again, anything else that he's calling me to do, it needs to pass through that lens as well. And when you bring those two together, that's when you begin to kind of be a frame and focus God's particular calling on your life right now. And so how do you take that last step of framing, of focusing God's particular calling? What is he calling you to do right now? Well, I don't think there there's any one right thus sayeth the Lord way to do this. There's no chapter in the Bible that clearly says this is how you discern God's will. But I do think that there's many principles throughout scripture that you can bring together that are helpful. And so I'm going to share just something that I know many people have used, that I myself have used for many years at many times to help me discern God's will, to help me discern what God has been calling me to do in particular seasons of life. Because never in my life have I heard the audible voice of God come down and say, "This is what I want you to do." But I have used this filter on several occasions to help me discern what God's been calling me to do. And it has in the past it's never let me down. I call this the diagram of discernment. So my wife made this cool graphic for us. We all love our Venn diagrams here in Boston. You get the idea. You got the five circles, and what you're looking for is that sweet spot in the middle where they all overlap and come together in agreement. And so you see the first one there is you got to consider your convictions. You got to consider your gifting, your opportunities, your character wise counsel. And when all of those come together, well, that's what you're looking for. So first of all, consider your convictions. What has God put on your heart? Is there something that you're passionate about, something that you're burdened for, something that you feel like you ought to do, that you need to do to be faithful to the Lord? This is a good place to start. It's a good indication of God's calling. It's a good place to start. It's not a great place to finish though because scripture tells us that our hearts are deceitful and wicked, and our feelings often lead us astray. And so we can't just say, well, this is what I feel, and so this is what God's calling me to do, but our convictions, they're a good place to start. We need to go beyond that though. So we also need to consider our gifting. If you're passionate about something, if you feel God's put something on your heart, are you skilled and equipped to do something about it? If God is calling you to sing on the praise team and you're tone deaf and you have no rhythm, well, I'm sorry, but I don't think that's the voice of the Lord. You might be called to serve in a variety of other ways. It just might not be that. And that's okay. You got to consider though, am I gifted? Is this what God's wired and gifted and equipped me to do? Maybe I can't do this. Maybe there's another way that I can find to support this thing, but consider your gifting. Third, consider your opportunities. Something you're passionate about, you feel skilled, equipped to do something about it. The next thing you need to ask is there a legitimate need for this? Are there opportunities for me to use my gifts in a way that's going to be helpful, that's going to glorify God, that's going to help others consider your opportunities. Fourth, consider your character. Understand that God is never going to call you. He's never going to call for your ambitions or your influence to outgrow your integrity, to outgrow your character. That you might have big, big plans to do great, great things, but if your life is all tangled up in sin and you're living this double secret life of hypocrisy, well, God's going to call you to work on your heart before he calls you to go and work on anything else. And then fifth is to consider wise counsel. You're passionate about something, you're skilled and you're equipped to do something about it. You've got opportunities. You feel like your character, your heart are in the right place. The final, and probably I'd say this is the most important step, is to bring that sense of calling. Present it to other spirit-filled godly brothers and sisters in Christ. Say, hey, what do you think about this? God's put this on my heart. This is something I've been sensing. Do you agree? Right? Does it seem good to you and to the Holy Spirit that this is what God... And if all of these things line up, well, that's a pretty good indication that this is what God is calling you to do in your life right now. If they don't, there's red flags that come up along the way. Well, maybe you need to take some more time, spend some more time considering, discerning to figure out what's next. But just that's a helpful resource that I've used. I think it'll be helpful for you as well as you commit to your particular calling. And once you figure it out, commit to it, work hardily at it with all of your might in a way that glorifies God. Finally, point number four today is commit to receive inheritance in heaven and leave a legacy on earth. Just one more quick reminder before we wrap out. Whatever season of life you're in right now, whatever particular calling that God has placed on your life, whatever that is, whatever you do, verse 23 says, work hardily as for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord, you'll receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. First Corinthians 7:17 says, "Only that each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all of the churches." And so my hope and my prayer is that whatever it is that God has assigned you to do, whatever he is calling you to do, that he would make that clear. That as that becomes clear, that you would commit to do that with all of your mights, so that as you approach that day, when you're coming to the end of your life, you can do so with just a fearless confidence and hope that your life has not been wasted, that it has not been meaningless, that you have fulfilled your purpose in life, that you have done what God created and called you to do. And so that as you reach that goal, you do so, and you're able to just look back on the legacy that you are about to leave and look forward to the inheritance that you are about to receive. And this is not just my prayer for you, it's my hope for you, but this is God's will for you as well. So I'm going to close by reading the benediction, the closing verses from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 13 verses 20 through 21 say this. This is now. "May the God of peace who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will. Working in us, that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Let's pray. Father, the we thank you that you have not left us to wander aimlessly through this life like sheep without a shepherd, but you have sent your son Jesus Christ, our good shepherd, to bring us into your fold, to love us, to lead us into good pastures of abundant life. Lord, I pray that you would help us to see your good purposes and plans for us, and to give our lives to those things with all of our might. Lord, if any of us lacks discernment, if any of us are uncertain of what you're calling us to do, I pray that you would fill them with wisdom, with your Holy Spirit, surround them by wise council and help them come to know your good, your pleasing, your perfect will. And Lord, if there's anyone here today that still feels lost and wandering outside of your fold, Jesus, I pray our good shepherd, that you would lead them home, that you would seek them, that you would save them today and bring them back into the fold of God. And for all of us, Lord, we pray that you would help us to live lives that bring your name the most glory, that do others the most good, and that leave a legacy of faithfulness and godliness that will impact generations to come for the sake of your kingdom and glory. Lord, we love you, we worship you, and we just want to sing your praises together right now. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what [is] the width and length and depth and height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. - Ephesians 3:17-19 NKJV

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what [is] the width and length and depth and height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. - Ephesians 3:17-19 NKJV

You think Christianity is diverse today? Fundamentalists? Roman Catholics? Mormons? Methodists? Branch Davidians? Episcopalians? Russian Orthodox? And on and on? In fact, the wide varieties of Christian today pale in comparison with what you could find in antiquity, with beliefs that virtually defy belief. How could people with views that seem so far beyond the pale (that there were many gods? That the Creator was evil? That Christ never died?) call themselves Christian and claim they were following the teachings of Jesus? That's what we discuss in today's podcast.

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.   2 Chronicles 7:14   Prayer is a conversation that leads to an encounter with God.   “How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey.” Psalms 119:103 NLT   But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. James 1:6-8 NLT   I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 NLT   Paul has 3 desires for them... 1. That Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1 NLT   2. That they would be established in the love of Christ.   There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13 NLT   But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 NLT   3. That they would be filled with all the fullness of God.   The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10 NLT   …to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ… Ephesians 3:18 NLT   I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Ephesians 1:18-19 NLT   may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Ephesians 3:18 NLT   How wide is the love of God...   “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.” Isaiah 1:18 NLT   He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. Psalms 103:12 NLT   How long is the love of God?   You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Psalms 139:13-16 NLT     I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me. John 10:28 NLT How deep is the love of God?   Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form. Philippians 2:7 NLT   My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:38-39 NLT   “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”  1 Peter 2:24 NLT   Jesus cried out in a loud voice,...“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46 NLT How high is the love of God? Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! John 17:24 NLT   'It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 NLT    

What is the foundation of it all? This week, Steve highlights the importance of the most fundamental aspect of the faith: That Christ came to save sinners.Support the show