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Evangelism On Fire
A highlight from The Manual Flores' God Story
"Welcome to Evangelism on Fire podcast. My name is Mark Thomas, an ordained pastor, a teacher of the best selling book of all time, your host, and most importantly, your evangelism coach. Every episode, I bring you an inspiring message to help you live the most exciting life God has created you to live by actively sharing your faith in Jesus with others. I believe in the power of the gospel and the potential of all Christians to live out the mission of the great commission. I believe the best way for Christians to grow is to go. It's time for a revolution in every Christian's life around the world so that every person everywhere around the world can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ from a friend or a family member through one -on -one evangelism. I'm so thankful for our time together today. I absolutely love spending time with you, evangelism on fire nation. I believe this podcast will truly inspire you and I believe it will inspire so many people that you know. And if you're inspired and feeling moved to share this, then please message some friends, post this on social media and let people know about this episode so we can get this message out there more. I appreciate you and everyone listening right now. And a quick reminder, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, to rate it, to review it, spread the word on social media and spread the message of evangelism on fire forward. The youth today represent the future of our country. Many of them are putting their hope in everything other than God. They are being deceived. Grandparents aren't taking their grandkids to church like they did in the past. The church has been dwindling which means the younger generation is not hearing about God and his word nearly as much as they used to. That's why it is so important for us to get in front of them and make sure that worldly desire is not leading them astray. We want to let them know that there is hope for them through a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. In order to do this and to make an impact, we need your help. We need you to join us on this mission of being an inspiration for the younger generation. To do this, become a partner at Evangelism on Fire Ministry. Being a partner means making a commitment to give whatever you can to help us on our mission. We can't do this without you. We can't do this without the support of God's kingdom. Let's reach the world with the most important message that exists, the gospel message. Join us for the plans we have for ministry in 2023 by becoming an Evangelism on Fire Ministry partner by going to today's show notes and clicking on the giving link to become a monthly partner by setting up a monthly donation or go to our website evangelismonfire .com, click on the donate button to give a monthly reoccurring donation or a one -time gift. Thank you for joining us to give hope to the world. All right, welcome Evangelism on Fire nation to today's special God story episode. I have a great friend of mine with us today. He's here to share his amazing God story. His name is Emmanuel Flores and I just want to thank you, my brother, my good friend for being here today with us here at Evangelism on Fire studios. How are you doing, man? Hey, thanks for having me back. It feels great to be here and opportunities to talk about God again. Yeah, I know one thing about you, man, any opportunity that you have to talk about God, you're all about that. Absolutely, gotta put them first and put them in the front of the conversation, yes. That's what I'm talking about. Now, you originally came on our podcast episode 11th, on November 2021, and this is round two for you. Yeah, feels good to be back. Man, it's so great to have you here. Now, you and I, we were talking the other day and you recently, now, one thing I love about you, man, is you're always living your life on mission. Trying my hardest. Everywhere you go, you are living on mission. You're taking the gospel to whatever people put in your path. Here in our city, we live in the Richmond Metro area, RVA, and you're just living on mission, taking God's love throughout our city, man. And that's one of the things, many things I love about you, but that's one of the things that I love. Yeah. This time, you went out of the country on a mission trip to take God's love. Where did you go, man? Tell our audience where you went. Yeah, so this is my third trip. We went down to Nicaragua. We flew into Messiah, then drove over to, I'm sorry, we flew into Managua and then drove over to Messiah. We went down there with Chosen Children's Ministry. We flew in on Saturday, flew out on Saturday. We worked in the barrio called Mount Zion for the week. We worked there Monday through basically Friday. We visited the community we went to last time and did Sunday church with them on that Sunday. So we visited them. And then on that last Friday, we went to the third neighborhood called Paradise and I visited with them. Paradise. That's where my little girl was. Your little girl. Yeah, I adopted a little girl many years ago and this is the first time meeting her this time down in Paradise. She was six years old. I met her mom. I was able to bless her with a bunch of stuff. It was great. Yeah, that's awesome. What's your little girl's name? Oh Lord, Yaris, but it sounds real different than that. I can't say it right. Right. Yeah, but you know, it was great meeting her, absolutely. That's awesome. Now, you know, one of the amazing things is when you go there and you see a child that God puts in front of you and you become their sponsor. What has been one of the greatest things about sponsoring Yaris? What kind of joy does that bring you? Well, you know, what we get to do is through Chosen Children's, we are able to share pictures of me, my wife and Isabel with her. We're able to write letters to her. We wish her happy birthday. Merry Christmas. So it's a relationship that builds. And then when you get down there and you actually are able to see them and hug them, it just adds to it. It's like, that's my child now, you know? So I care for her, you know, like you would, another child. And we send her gifts and, you know, just love spending time with her. And the number one thing she wants from us is pictures and letters. Can't go wrong with that. You got that right, brother. And then when we met her, obviously we've already shared the word of Christ with her and showed her God's love. So it's just building on top of that. That's beautiful, man. And one of the great things that you did on this mission trip, I didn't go on this mission trip with you guys. Manuel and I were on a mission trip a few years back. And listen, if you haven't heard his amazing story of The Nine, go back to Evangelism on Fire podcast on November 11th, 2021, okay? Episode 64, man, you've got to go back after listening to this episode and the hear miracle of The Nine, okay? So go back and listen to that. If you've listened to it, you're going to want to listen to it again. If you've never listened to it, you're going to need to go back there. After you listened to this episode, you got to hear this miraculous story. I'm getting pumped up just talking about it, man. The Nine. This time around, when you went to Nicaragua, walk us through that trip. Like when you first got there, man, all right, you landed in the airport. How'd you feel, man? It felt, it was almost like being home. I missed a year, so I was really anticipating going back. Before I got down there, I was very anxious, to be honest with you, because I missed that trip. So I was very focused on what God was trying to tell me. I felt like on this trip, he wanted me to focus on, obviously him, but patience and trusting him. We just finished up a Bible study in Job, and I felt like that was a couple of the big principles is patience and then just trust him. So that's what we did this trip. I made sure I focused on patience and trusting him. When you say patience and trust in him in regards to the mission trip, what specifically do you mean? Like, what are you talking about? Well, a lot of times opportunities arise, and I tend not to give God the opportunity or the option for him to move, and instead I move. I make decisions on things that I think are a good idea, but in time, I haven't prayed about it to see what his will is. So this time, I really took the opportunity when something was asked of me to pray about it, even if it's eyes wide open, to give God the opportunity to move. It was amazing. It was amazing when that happened. Yeah, so what did you experience when you're focusing on those things? So it's opportunities of when people are standing in front of you and when you're talking to them about Christ, it's not mentioning the first word that comes to mind. It's when they say something, you have to absorb those words that they had and then give God an opportunity to fill your mind with the words that need to be repeated back. It's not me first conversations. It's God first conversations. That's so good, man. That is so good. What's that expression? People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care? Right. That type of thing. Is that what you're talking about? Exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah, so when you were telling me some of the things that you experienced over there, some of the encounters you had, you were over there building in homes for people. What was the highlight for you, man, when you were over there? So there was a bunch of highlights over there. Wait a minute, wait a minute. He said there were a bunch of highlights. Come on, talk to us, share that with us. Yeah, so a lot of times what I did was door -to -door. I didn't necessarily work on the construction team, so I did door -to -door. So for our listeners and they're hearing door -to -door, what exactly is door -to -door? Yeah, so it literally means door -to -door. It's a team, three to six of us, usually two interpreters, and then we walk out the front door of the church and take a left or take a right, and then we try to meet everybody we can on every street and go door -to -door meeting everybody. This time it was a lot different. Last time we went, it was basically barbed wire and sticks, so you were able to see inside a lot of their houses. What they'd done this time is they put up a lot of metal, and so it was really hard to see. But what we learned is if you're a little bit louder walking down the street, the dogs will start barking, and then they come to see what the dogs are barking at. So generally, it took us about an hour to figure this out, but once we figured it out, we were in the middle of the street just being loud, basically, and dogs would start barking, and when we heard the dogs starting to bark, we would kind of walk that direction, and then there they were. Their number one question is, what are y 'all doing? What's going on? And so what we would do is we were down there with the church called Mount Zion. That's where the church was daily. What we were doing is we were doing vacation Bible school. We were having a time for adults to have a special time for them, and then we had a time after that for the feeding. So we were planning on feeding 150 to 250 kids daily. 150 to 200 kids daily? Yeah. Man. And it was more like 250 daily. It was never a 150 day. Right. We were usually running out of plates and cups and stuff like that, and they would run up to the store and get more. Now, when you're feeding all these people, you're talking about 150 to 250 some people. Now, I remember when I went there as part of your team, when we went together, right? I remember that that's the meals that we were giving out. It could be their only meal of the day. Absolutely. So you're feeding 250 people, and that could potentially be the only food that they get for that day. Yeah. I know for sure that happened multiple times. Yeah. That that was the only meal they were eating. Yeah. Yeah. And then a couple of conversations of just meeting people in door to door, I haven't eaten in two days was a pretty common statement. Wow. Yeah. Like they're drinking water, but they haven't eaten food of substance. Yeah. Yeah. That's normal there. Right. Yeah. So when you're going to door to door, what is the main goal of meeting people when you go door to door? So there's a couple of goals. Obviously the first one is to make sure they're connected with God somehow. In some way, shape or form, have they heard of them? You know, did they deny them? But at least start that conversation. The second thing is we point everybody back to the church so that one, they can be fed physically, but they can also be fed spiritually. So we're trying to connect on that too. And then, you know, if they choose not to go, we're still there to pray with them. So we ask what they want prayer for. You know, 99 % of everybody says house and health and you know, their job situation. And that's when this trip was very different because we started asking, well, specifically, what do you need God to do for you? You know? And then that way, when it happened, you would know that God did that for them. Cause let's be honest, we can all get a new job and you know, somebody can all help us with some food, but to have a God encountered movement, that's, you would have to know what it was that you were specifically asking for. And then when it happened, you knew it was God moving on your part. Yeah. That's so powerful. So you're asking people, what specifically do you want prayer for? What specifically do you, you know, want God to help you out with? So when you're asking those questions, what were some of the things that people told you? Yeah. So I think it was the second day we were behind the church. It was in the afternoons and it was, you know, right after vacation Bible school. So you can hear the kids just yelling and going crazy and we're a street or two away and you can still hear it. So we walked up on this one lady, I can't remember her name, but she was sitting there. She had her feet up. She, we just started talking to her and she was a Christian. She believed in God. She had all those bases covered, but I asked her, do you hear the kids yelling? And she was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. But I don't know what that is. And the church was literally in her backyard. Yeah. So we told her what was going on at the church. We invited her to come eat some food. And that's what she told us. She was like, I can't, I can't walk. And I, you know, her knees are right there. I looked down and she doesn't have any scars. She's not wearing any braces, nothing out of the ordinary. I was like, well, why can't you walk? And she says she has like, I can't think of the word, arthritis in both of her knees so bad that it hurts. So the only time she walks is when she has to go use the bathroom or get something to eat. I was like, when was the last time you ate? And just like we were talking earlier, I haven't eaten in two days. I was like, oh, that's why you're a believer. Why don't we, why don't we pray for God to fix these knees? Yeah. And she gets, you know, it's something to the fact of, you know, God's got better things to do, or I don't know if God would pay and fix my knees or, you know, it was a disbelief and that God would help her. Yeah. You know, so I asked her, I said, well, you know, I believe God can move mountains and I think he can heal these two little knees of yours too. You know what I mean? I heard that bro. So, yeah. So, you know, I was with, I think it was three others of us right there. And you know, before this encounter, I'd, you know, I'd put my hand on someone's shoulder to pray with them in belief, but you know, I felt like God was telling me that day, put your hands on her knees and pray because her knees are going to, her knees are going to get healed. And I'd never done that before. So I was extremely nervous, but you know what? I prayed about it and he said, put your hands on them little knees. So that's what I did. We put our hands on our knees, prayed for our knees and said, amen. And I said, so how do the knees feel? And she said, I don't want to test it yet. And they said, I don't want to test it yet. Yeah. I don't want to test it yet. They usually always hurt. Let's just leave them where they are. Right. I said, all right, cool. We're going to bring you two plates of food today. So you don't have to walk anywhere, but be ready for them knees to work. You told, you told her that you declared that be ready for those knees to work. Right. Right. So what we did is, you know, we said, amen. And we moved on down the street, looking for someone else to talk to. We brought her a couple of plates at the end of the day, you know, fast forward to the next day. And we're out doing door to door again. We, you know, we've found a knee brace for her actually in the convenience store. So we're going to take the knee brace back to her, you know, bring her another plate or two to make sure she was taken care of. So we turned the corner of the street that she was on, you know, she's maybe a block away and we could see someone hobbling across the street. And so we take a couple more steps and it's her. So, you know, we quickly move up to her. We give her our arms so she can support herself. And as soon as she seen us, she was just crying. I mean, Niagara folks crying. Yeah. And so she grabbed her arms and we went back across the street and she, the first thing she says, my knees have never felt so good in my life. Come on. I said, what do you mean? She goes, I can't remember the last time my knees felt like this. Yeah. They're still sore, but they feel wonderful. Yeah. I said, this is one day one. God's going to keep moving. Yeah. I said, come on. Let's pray with his knees some more. And we sat down. We put her knee brace on. We kept on praying for these knees. Yeah.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from IP#502 Adam Blai The History of Exorcism, Part 2 on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Discerning Hearts podcasts
"Discerninghearts .com presents inside the pages insights from today's most compelling authors I'm your host Chris McGregor and I am delighted to be joined by Adam Bly who is a church to create expert on religious demonology and exorcism for the Pittsburgh Diocese he's helped train exorcists for over 15 years and has attended hundreds of solemn exorcisms his journey started in brainwave research and psychology and is now focused on the spiritual realities of miracles angels demons and possessions he's also the author of several books including the exorcism files with Adam Bly we go inside the pages of the history of exorcism published by Sophia Institute press we now continue with part two of our conversation a lot of times we look at those things that the action of the enemy that is what 90 % is temptation the our father lead us not into temptation but also as we just said the oppression and obsession those are things that can be dealt with especially in the sacramental life that we have within the mass within confession isn't it been said Adam that one good confession could be worth of a hundred exorcisms these are all just kind of turns a phrase but essentially yes for the average person the average Catholic who has access to the sacraments deliverance comes primarily through the sacramental graces and that means baptism confirmation confession and the mass those are the the mechanisms that sanctifying grace comes into your life for the average person and then of course matrimony for some people people underestimate the importance and power of the sacramental graces and they want the drama of the exciting prayer thinking you know you'll do this kind of magical incantation and make these problems go away versus the person doing the the work of conversion in themselves of making it to mass of having a good confession of doing the work of building a daily prayer life all of those things are actually what lead to deliverance primarily it's not just the exciting prayers if a person is unwilling to make any changes in their life is an unwilling to walk away from sin is essentially unwilling to have conversion in their life usually the prayers don't work because Jesus is looking for conversion and change so if somebody has done something to get into trouble spiritually they can't just come to the church and say well wave the magic wand and make the suffering go away I don't like it but I'm not gonna change my life because Jesus knows our hearts and so I've seen this over the years that even in the case is a full -blown possession he wants to see spiritual growth in the person he wants to see a movement towards him and trust and love and a turning away from sin in addition to coming to the church for prayers and so the sacramental grace is for the person that isn't possessed actually that is the engine that drives deliverance it's so important that in your book you have a section called Jesus as exorcist and that ultimately that's the lesson is the turning towards him right summately and that's what the team in their particular response to the individual is helping that individual to turn towards them it's not so much it is the actions of what they're doing during the liturgy that's what it is exorcism is a liturgy but it's that reception of that person to a life of faith is that a fair way of saying it yes that's that's a big part of it they also are repenting of their sins through sacramental confession if they're Catholic and then another important piece that most people don't think about is they're forgiving the sins of others and so a demon can hold on to or it gets traction from our sins that we're unwilling to let go of or keep trying to let go of and get away from but they can also hold on to when we are unforgiving of the sins of others that have hurt us and so as we know from the our father forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us we know that God wants us to forgive as he forgives us you know the parable of the king who forgives the debt of the one slave and then that slave goes and beats up another slave and says give me you know the little bit you owe me and then when the the king finds out about this he throws the first guy who he had forgiven who's now being mean in turn in jail so we see this played out time and time again God expects us to be merciful and that that is part of it and then you know in an interesting twist sometimes the unforgiveness towards yourself becomes a stumbling block to total freedom because if a person feels they deserve to be punished and suffer and they're not forgiving themselves even though they know they've been sacramentally forgiven they even understand and believe Jesus has forgiven them but if they feel that they can't forgive themselves and that they deserve this that also gives the demon traction to hold on so there's kind of a pastoral process that is woven through exorcism over time working with the person outside of the sessions before and after and chatting with them and you know basically spiritual direction and that's the part that's missing in the movies oh yeah that's an incredible part of it because as I alluded to earlier you know it's the opening of doors I mean we can for example I have priests come through our house and bless our homes place Benedictine metals at windows go through the whole ritual as family but then we go downstairs and put on a television screen or open up online and allow something that's evil in character into our house or to do actions what was the point of the of the prior blessing I don't think we appreciate the fact that there is a need for repentance and a conversion of action not just of words and correct yeah and again Jesus knows our hearts so we can't just give lip service to these ideas because he knows what's going on with us for real and he's looking for real conversion and so you know it's just so important because ultimately he doesn't allow this stuff just because he wants to allow it you know he doesn't enjoy the fact that we're suffering but he allows it as a corrective experience so we realize the thing that we're embracing and we turn and run back to it so ultimately he's looking for closeness with us and possession is something that happens to people that generally are running away from Jesus and are far from him and specifically are embracing demonic spirits in some way and so he's not allowing this to be mean he's saying I'm gonna let you see the monster that you've chosen hoping that the person will then turn away and come back to him no I thought it was really important in that particular section in closing from the exorcisms by Jesus that you point out that he does Commission the 12 but in the 72 as well to go out but it's important that it's not only the priests and the bishops who have the authority to cast out demons and that would be revealed over time but it took centuries in a way for the church to find the need to limit the exercise of the use of exorcism and you really broke that open I thought that was so fascinating the research you did on that well it was a journey the church went through and you know one thing we have to remember in the very early church it was just apostles and followers you would have the equivalent of a bishop in your city or your region who would be you know the current apostle but there wasn't this whole hierarchy of you know deacons and priests and formal offices within the church because we're you know for the first 300 years the church was under terrible persecution it wasn't this big wealthy institution with buildings and schools and everything else it was it was a struggling little movement and so we have to remember in those very early centuries there weren't priest exorcists because there weren't priests in the very beginning it quickly came about but again with the persecution in the early church things just weren't that organized and then as the church spread around the world communication wasn't there we didn't have an internet letters could take weeks months or never arrive you know sending information around the world at that time and so it was a very different world it took centuries for the church to figure out this ministry and then through hard experience and seeing how difficult the ministry is and how it can chew people up and how it can lead to pride which leads to destroying people and causing heresies to develop and all kinds of other problems the church wisely said we need to regulate this so that qualified people are doing it it's not just you know somebody deciding they're gonna pick it up because they'd like to the church wanted to make sure people were qualified and then had kind of a proper context to keep them safe and effective essentially yeah it isn't a game and there isn't something that you oh I'm fascinated I'm curious about this I want to explore more yes reading your book is the great way to do that if you have that inkling but the actual ministry of it there is so much involved and you go into the different types of exorcism and how they developed for anybody who wants to understand more about the free masonry dynamics that are addressed by exorcism that's fascinating but also it's a very real issue isn't it yeah so the minor exorcism what's sometimes called the Leonine exorcism because Pope Leo the 13th wrote it in 1890 was originally explicitly directed against Freemasonry it wasn't a general exorcism against the devil it was it was against Freemasonry and Freemasonry since it's you know within 20 years of it coming into existence in the world in the early 1700s the church was identifying it as the church's greatest enemy in the world and there's been you know papal statements I think there's at least seven different popes have made formal bulls and statements about Freemasonry condemning it reminding Catholics that their ex communicated if they become Freemasons which is still the case by the way and so yeah the the minor exorcism actually was all about Freemasonry and that's why I took that kind of a side in the book to explain the history of Freemasonry and where it came from so that we could see it kind of from the church's perspective and imagine you know how they were seeing Freemasonry and why that may have led to this prayer being written we'll return to inside the pages in just a moment did you know that discerning hearts has a free app where you can find all your favorite discerning hearts programming father Timothy Gallagher dr. Anthony Lewis Monsignor John s of Deacon James Keating father Donald Haggerty Mike Aquilina dr. Matthew Bunsen and so many more they're all available on the free discerning hearts app over 3 ,000 spiritual formation programs and prayers all available to you with no hidden fees or subscriptions did you also know that you can listen to discerning hearts programming wherever you download your favorite podcasts like Apple podcasts Google Play I heart radio Spotify even on audible as well as numerous other worldwide podcast streaming platforms and did you know that discerning hearts also has a YouTube channel be sure to check out all these different places where you can find discerning hearts Catholic podcasts dedicated to those on the spiritual journey show your support for streaming platforms such as Apple podcasts Google Play Spotify and more with a collection of insightful podcasts led by renowned Catholic spiritual guides such as father Timothy Gallagher Monsignor John sf dr.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Hope for the Cursed (2)
"Well, let me ask you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings 7, and we're going to read verses 1 -20. 2 Kings 7, beginning in verse 1, this is the infallible, inerrant word of our God. Then Elisha said, hear the word of the Lord, thus says the Lord, tomorrow about this time, a saith of fine flour should be sold for a shackle, and two saith of barley for a shackle at the gate of Samaria. So an officer, on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God and said, look, if this thing be, and he said, this is Elisha now talking, and he said, in fact, you shall see it with your eyes, or you shall not eat of it. Now there were four lepers, men at the entrance of the gate, and they said to one another, why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, we'll enter the city, the famine is in the city, and we'll die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live, and if they kill us, we shall only die. And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. And when they'd come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise, no one was there. For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses, the noise of a great army. So they said to one another, look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us. Therefore they arose and fled at twilight and left the camp intact, their tents, their horses and their donkeys, and they fled for their lives. And when the lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank and carried from it silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried some from there also and went and hid it. Then they said to one another, we're not doing right. is This day a day of good news and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. So they went and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them saying, we went to the Syrian camp and surprisingly no one was there, not a human sound, only horses and donkeys tied in the tents intact. The gatekeeper called out and they told it to the king's household inside. So the king arose in the night and said to his servants, let me now tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we're hungry, therefore they've gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the camp and they'll catch them alive and get into the city. And one of his servants answered and said, please let several men take five of the remaining horses which are left in the city. Look they may either become like all the multitude of Israel that are left in it or indeed I say they may become like all the multitude of Israel left from those who are consumed. So let us send them and see. Therefore, they took two chariots with horses and the king sent them in the direction of the Syrian army saying, go and see. And they went after them to the Jordan and indeed all the roads was full of garments and weapons which the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. So the messengers returned and told the king and the people went out and plundered the tents of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shackle and two seahs of barley for a shackle according to the word of the Lord. Now the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate but the people trampled him in the gate and he died just as the man of God had said who spoke when the king came down to him. So it happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king saying, two seahs of barley for a shackle and a seah of fine flour for a shackle shall be sold tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria. And that officer had answered the man of God and said, now look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could such a thing be? And he had said, in fact, you shall see it with your eyes but you shall not eat it. And so it happened to him for the people trampled him in the gate and he died. The grass withers and the flowers fade but the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is true truth and we pray that that truth would reach into the minds and hearts of your people this evening and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, there's congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. You may recall from last week that I said from chapter 6 verse 24 all the way down through the end of chapter 7 where we're dealing with a text that hangs together. It's a single narrative. I chose to divide it up for practical reasons but I do want you to know this, the chapter break, chapter 7 is a bit arbitrary. Now on the previous Lord's Day, we focused on chapter 6 that highlights some of the implications of Israel's desperate predicament. The Syrian army had besieged Samaria which meant there was a blockade around the entire city, nothing going in and nothing going out. And just as the siege intended, it created in Samaria a catastrophic famine where something as unsavory and unappetizing as a donkey's head or dove dung cost an absolute fortune. So the people simply had nothing to eat. Now you'll remember from last week the implication of their predicament was much worse than donkey heads and dove dung. King Jehoram went out and he was inspecting the city walls and he encountered an evil. That's truly breathtaking. There were mothers who were killing and eating their children and it's important to pause here and remember what we learned last week, that Syria besieging Samaria, the famine and even that grotesque cannibalism were actually implications of Israel's predicament. Their predicament, their actual problem is that on account of their idolatry and disobedience, they had fallen under God's covenant curses. Now if you want to explore God's covenant curses as they relate to this passage, you can check them out at Deuteronomy 28 verses 52 through 57, Leviticus 26 verses 27 through 29. We looked at that passage last week. The point is God had given them over and he's pulled back his hand of restraint and we're Well even Jehoram seemed to be shocked by the events and he made a show of tearing his clothes so that people could see he seemed to be mourning and then underneath the clothes on the outside he was wearing sackcloth on the inside and that of course is a garment typically associated with repentance and his repentance was a sham. We know that because instead of seeking out God's prophet for a word of direction or a word of comfort or a word of deliverance, the king's impulse was to have Elisha murdered. He actually sent an assassin to take Elisha's head but of course the prophet of God to whom God reveals himself knew what was happening and barred the door from the messenger and assassin. And as the men held the door, the king showed up right on the heels of the assassin likely wanting to make sure that the job got done and we began to learn there near the end of chapter 6 that the reason Jehoram was filled with bitter anger toward Elisha is because he's the one who told the king that those events that Samaria was experiencing were the Lord's judgment and that he must repent and wait on the Lord. And now having learned what those women were doing Jehoram's done waiting and chapter 6 ends with Jehoram making it clear that from his perspective the one to blame for this whole sordid mass is Yahweh. It's his fault. Look there at the end of verse 33 in chapter 6. Surely this calamity is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? Most of Israel is living in spiritual darkness choosing to worship false gods. Samaria is enduring God's just covenant curses and they aren't at all bashful in telling their king that they're engaged in the worst imaginable kind of evil, cannibalism. And King Jehoram no longer has patience to wait for Yahweh and the reason he wants to take Elisha's head is because he can't get to Yahweh's head. And one of the most surprising truths that unfolds when we make the transition to chapter 7 as great and shocking as Samaria's sin is, as great and shocking as Jehoram's sin and impatience is, we come to something more shocking, something that's gloriously shocking. We learn that God's grace and patience eclipses their sin and impatience. We're getting a picture that God's grace is greater than all our sin. I mean the king is at Elisha's house to kill God's prophet and God's going to announce through his prophet a message of good news. That's why I entitled the message this week and last week Hope for the Cursed and that's what we pick up this evening. Look there at verse 1, it sets the stage. Then Elisha said hear the word of the Lord, thus says the Lord, tomorrow about this time a saya of fine flour shall be sold for a shackle and two sayas of barley for a shackle at the gate of Samaria. He said don't miss this. Elisha provides a kind of double affirmation to make it clear what he's about to speak is a divine message. Hear the word of the Lord and then thus says the Lord. It was a way of saying this is God's word you're hearing, don't miss this. This isn't just my voice you're hearing, you're hearing God's voice. And the message from Yahweh is that in just 24 hours there will be relief. Prices will return to normal, commerce will resume at the marketplace, at the gate, at the entrance of the city. It's amazing news and it's nothing less than God's good news of deliverance to people who utterly don't deserve it. Of course the news is so amazing and so good that Jehoram's captain is convinced it's simply too good to be true. And listen to the poetic way he describes his skepticism. Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven could this thing be? The captain sure knew how to turn a phrase didn't he? But his eloquence simply masks his rank on belief. God's made a glorious promise. He's offered good news in a context of utter despair and hopelessness but that's not for him. He can't make sense of it so he just settles in his doubt. God can't possibly do this thing. And by the way we can rightly criticize this captain but isn't that a thought that plagues our minds often? We hear the promises of God and in the back of our mind. We think God can't really do this thing can he? I think we can struggle with that as well. Well as hope begins to emerge here in chapter seven we also do get this word of judgment. Because where there's salvation there's going to be judgment. And so Elisha tells the captain you're going to see God pour out this promised abundance on his people. You'll see the promise fulfilled but you won't participate in the cursed estate. And we'll see when we get to the end of the chapter that not only is God's word of promise and salvation fulfilled but there's always his word of judgment so sort of hold that thought for a couple minutes. Now Elisha didn't tell Jehoram or his officer how God would fulfill his promise but we're sort of privy to what's going on. You know it's something they used to do in the older movies. Meanwhile over here and that's sort of what we get. Meanwhile over here we find God's rescue and deliverance is going to begin in an unlikely place and with some unlikely man. We're told in verse three that there are four lepers who are at the gate of the city. That's an interesting place to be because lepers were driven out of the city and they wouldn't have been normally hanging out at the gate. They would have been pressed beyond it. So you have to think it's because there's a blockade and because the gate's closed they've gotten over there. Because lepers ordinarily can't enter the city where God's people dwell because they're unclean. So the gates shut up tight. But here's the thing, they're in this weird predicament where they can't get into the city to get away from the Syrians. They're sort of pushed between the Syrian and Samaria and they're in a desperate place. And they start to take stock of their situation and they apply some leper logic. If they stay at the gate they'll die. They think if we manage to find a way to get into the city and this famine continues we'll die. On the other hand if we go to the Syrian camp we could very well die. I mean they may very well kill us but at least there, there's this slim possibility, just a slim possibility that they might let us live. So having weighed their options leper logic said we're going to the Syrian camp. And we're told there in verse five, and they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp to their surprise no one was there. And what a surprise it must have been. They certainly thought when we get to the camp we're going to be in grave danger. But they're not. And they must have wondered what in the world has happened. And again we're privy to what God was doing. Yahweh had made the Syrians here what sounded like a great army, an army with a mighty cavalry and they heard these incredible sounds. It's hard to contemplate the volume, the decibels that must have been thundering outside of Samaria. And the Syrian soldiers they're sure that Jehoram has hired mercenaries to come from the Hittites and the Egyptians and the Syrians were so terrified at these loud sounds of soldiers and armies that they don't even bother breaking camp. They simply beat feet out of there leaving behind their tents, their livestock, even their gold and silver. What they heard struck terror in their hearts and then they fled for their lives. It's really something isn't it? And you'll remember we learned this just a couple weeks back. It shows us the story of the sovereignty of God over his enemies and ours. God had blinded the Syrians to protect Israel and especially to protect his prophets. God was feeding intelligent reports to Elisha again to protect his people and protect his prophets. Now he overcomes their enemies with the sounds of a great military. Again, behind this is God's willingness to fight for his people, to ensure this victory for his people. Whether it's blinding, deafening sounds, secret intelligence reports, God is fighting the battles of his people. And when the lepers, again they don't really know this. We know this, but the lepers don't know this. They enter the abandoned camp and they experience what will be for them. A life changing, transforming reversal of fortunes. In that moment they went from poverty to plenty. And basically they're granted all the benefits of the spoils of war without ever having to lift a finger to fight it. And as soon as they get their bellies full of food and drink they actually start stockpiling gold and silver. One moment these poor four lepers were destitute and the next moment they've got a fully funded retirement account. And this really is one of those passages that you read and you can't help but see all kinds of gospel reflections, right? I'm sure some of those have come to your mind. Let me just mention a couple. First, the lepers were transformed from a state of desperation to a state of salvation. They were little more than the walking dead, right? Now they have life and they have it abundantly and it was all God's doing. It was the sheer undeserved grace of God. These lepers didn't deserve kindness any from God and yet they're the objects of the exceeding kindness of God. And this certainly describes how God saves sinners, doesn't it? It's a little picture of that. How God saves sinners and grants us new life in Christ. Even when we were the walking dead, dead in trespasses and sin, God made us alive together with Christ by grace. You've been saved, Ephesians 2 .5. And we've been raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly places so that in the coming age we will see the exceeding riches of God's grace for us in Christ, Ephesians 2 .7. Grace and riches are what deliver us from the dead lepers experienced. It's only a faint blip on the radar screen compared to the grace and riches God provides us in Christ. And again, we don't lift a finger and the victory is won for us and we enjoy that inheritance forever. A second way we see a gospel reflection is that the lepers experienced sovereign grace. Now it's obvious as day just reading through this passage that the lepers good fortune is clearly God's doing and all of God's doing. But there's a little detail in the text that seems to be inserted here to show us just how precisely God's orchestrating these events. It says in verse 5, the lepers left for the Syrian camp at twilight. And then we see in verse 7, it was right at twilight that the Syrians fled. By the way, this word twilight in the whole Samuel, Kings, Chronicle narrative is used three times. Once back in 1 Samuel 30 and then twice here. So this word is meant to catch our attention. The lepers left at twilight. The Syrians left at twilight. And perfect timing. It's not arbitrary, not accidental, and not coincidental. It's to highlight that God's working out the purposes of his will to bring a salvation to these lepers right down to the precise time that one leaves and the other shows up. God's superintending over the details to provide salvation and an undeserved inheritance to the lepers. And then we see and isn't that what we have? In Christ we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to him who works out all things according to the counsel of his will. Ephesians 1. There are a number of little gospel gems here, but I'll leave it there. The lepers, they're enjoying their new fortune. And some are very critical of the lepers because it took them a while to realize this, but they do realize something. They realize while they're enjoying God's blessing, there are still people inside Samaria who are starving. And so in verse 9 they said to one another, we're not doing right. This day is a day of good news and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. Indeed it is a day of good news and they want to proclaim it. You know it's interesting, we heard something of that in Psalm 96 this morning, didn't we? Psalm 96 verse 2. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. These lepers, they've experienced that good news and they want to proclaim it to the folks in Samaria. The word good news in Psalm 96 and in 2 Kings 7 is from the root word that means that's besor or besorah. And it's the Greek translation of that word is probably one you've at least heard echoes of. It's euangelizumai, it's the evangel, it's glad tithings, it's good news, it's gospel. And for these lepers having personally experienced this good news, it's their impulse to go and tell others and they know if we don't do that we'll be guilty of being stingy with the good gift God's given them. Now you could probably arrange a whole sermon around what this teaches about evangelism and frankly some very wonderful expositors have done that but we don't have time but you could ground a whole sermon on evangelism from this text and you wouldn't be stretching the text. You could describe how these lepers were beggars who had nothing to eat and all they were looking for was scraps and once they had been given bread they wanted to go and tell other beggars where they could find bread. You could work that kind of thing out or you could point out that the lepers were outsiders who are now saved and go to tell insiders, right? Because these are the people who weren't allowed into communion and fellowship with the covenant community and now they're the ones with the gospel. I was talking to someone very recently within the last couple of weeks and I mentioned to them that America receives the second highest number of missionaries of any country in the world, right? So again the harvest is plentiful and those of you who like and have been blessed by the ministry of Alistair Begg, he came to this country some 30 plus years ago to be a missionary and you know what he identified as his mission field? The evangelical church.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from God's Plan for World Evangelism (Part 1)
"Mark chapter 16 in your Bibles. Mark chapter 16, last chapter in the book, I believe. Mark chapter 16. God's plan for world evangelization. And I'm happy to say here this morning that he does have a plan. No FNS or buts about it. For world evangelization. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Okay? Let me ask the question, why is Trinity Baptist Church here? I could say a lot of negative things and then I would think of some more. Trinity Baptist Church here is not here just to make a name for itself, even though I might say that it has. It's not here to entertain people. It's here to carry out a tremendous commission that God has given us that we're going to read about here in just a moment. But it's tremendous and great responsibility that the Lord has given to us. It says it all right here in these verses I'm going to read this morning. Here in Mark 16, we're going to start reading in verse 15. And he said unto them, his disciples, who was following him, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. And he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up servants or serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. Would you bow with me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for this opportunity just to stand here and open this precious book called the Bible, the Word of God. Lord, we thank you for this month already. Here it is, the first day, first Sunday, Lord, that we now have entered into our missions month. Father, I will first of all want to thank you for how you have used the Trinity Baptist Church down through the years in the area of missions. That's been made possible because of faithful people that have followed your leadership, your guidance, and have been obedient to doing their part in making this ministry what it is, and of course I believe it's going to grow. The sun never sets on the ministry of this church. We're so thankful we gave you all the honor, the glory, and the praise for it. And then Father, as Brother Shelton said, we do thank you for those visiting today. We thank you for every person that's here today. We pray for that person who may be here today, who's never trusted Christ. May this be that special day in their lives when they repent of sin and give their hearts to Christ. And then I'll pray, Lord, for the encouragement and strength of your people. And Lord, I think I said it, but I want to repeat myself, and I'm thankful that the church appreciates their pastor, but not any more than I appreciate every one of them. Thank you, God, for them and their faithfulness in doing what they're doing to make this church what the Bible says it ought to be, and even carrying out and doing what our passage reads we have read here this morning.
The Eric Metaxas Show
A highlight from Pastor Greg Locke
"Ladies and gentlemen, looking for something new and original, something unique and without equal. Look no further. Here comes the one and only Eric Metaxas. Hey there, folks. Welcome to Friday, which means I'm in California. I've never traveled this much. Chris, I don't know who I am anymore. I don't know where I am. It's unbelievable. I find it best to get a Sharpie with someone as busy as you are to kind of write it down on your arm so when you wake up in the morning, you know. You can just look over. Oh, Iowa. Thank you. Before I forget, in this hour, we're talking to our friend Pastor Greg Locke from the Nashville area in Tennessee. He has a book out. Very exciting. Yesterday, I was on the phone with my friend Ken Fish. And, you know, these are the two people, Ken Fish and Greg Locke, that are talking about deliverance and are involved in the ministry of casting out demons. Now, if you don't believe in that, you might as well say you don't believe in the periodic table or science. This is reality. If you've ever been around it, I defy you to tell me what you think is going on. But anyway, we're talking to Greg Locke and that'll be our one today. I'm not sure who we have an hour or two yet. It'll be somebody great. But it will be somebody great. That's the only thing I can say. And my hair looks like it was styled by Vivek Ramaswamy's people today. I don't know what's going on with my hair, so please try not to look at it. Yeah, Eric, it's very important. You don't want to go full Bollywood with your hair. It just will look too fantastic and terrific. That's what Vivek is doing. He's going full Bollywood. It's kind of like Elvis on steroids. Elvis, Prince, Jerry Lee Lewis is kind of a pompadour kind of thing happening. OK, but listen, we don't want to talk about that. We want to talk about the fact that I'm traveling so much. Why? I don't know why, but I will tell you next week I'll be in Grand Rapids doing an event at Cornerstone University. After that, I go back to Dallas, where I'm doing something Christ for the Nations. 7th. That's October Then I go to San Antonio. I'm speaking in San Antonio October 11th. Sorry, October 10th. Then I go back to Dallas. We're doing a number of Socrates in the City events, which are totally sold out. I'm sorry about that. But if you go to Socrates in the City dot com, you can watch it live. It's going to be October 12th live and you can watch it. I hope you will. I want people to understand that, you know, it can be fun to watch it live because it's not edited. So all the flubs and fluffs and a lot of cursing. I'm just being honest with you. A lot of cursing. We have some guests. It gets very wrong. It's very salty. But we edit that out eventually. But if you want to see it, if you want to hear it, if you've never heard. I was just going to say I now can just you tell it what you want to leave in. And, you know, if you want to keep in the word, you know, honky tonk, it will leave that in. But it'll it'll delete other words you don't want in there. So that's Socrates in the city dot com. You can sign up for that's that's the event we're doing on October 12th on October 13th. I'm going to stay there in Dallas, Fort Worth, and we're doing some Socrates in the studio sessions, one of which will be with the great John's Mirack. He has a book coming out called No First Amendment. No First Amendment. Sorry. No Second Amendment. No first. It is a book worthy of John's Mirack writing. So I'm glad he wrote it. So we're going to be doing a Socrates in the studio session with him on October 13th. It just gets crazy. After that, I go to Augusta, Georgia. I'm I'm reading this Augusta, Georgia, Houston. I'll be in Houston on October 19th. Johnson City, Tennessee. That's right. I'm going to Johnson City, Tennessee. From there, I'm doing a number of appearances where we're promoting the letter to the American Church documentary film. So I'm going to Albuquerque, going to San Diego. I'm going to the L .A. area again to promote that. Then I'm going to be in Omaha, Nebraska. Am I making this up? I'm going to be in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm going to be in Colorado Springs. I'm going to be in Rocky Mountain Cavalry Church in Colorado Springs. I'm going to be in Chino Hills with Jack Hibbs. It's crazy. And I actually ask you to pray for me because this is a very solid, crazy schedule that I will need. I need prayer support. And I believe in that. I know there are people who pray because it gets tough.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from IP#501 Adam Blai The History of Exorcism, Part 1 on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Discerning Hearts podcasts
"Discerninghearts .com presents inside the pages insights from today's most compelling authors I'm your host Chris McGregor and I am delighted to be joined by Adam Bly who is a church decreed expert on religious demonology and exorcism for the Pittsburgh Diocese he's helped train exorcists for over 15 years and has attended hundreds of solemn exorcisms his journey started in brain wave research and psychology and is now focused on the spiritual realities of miracles angels demons and possessions he's also the author of several books including the exorcism files with Adam Bly we go inside the pages of the history of exorcism published by Sophia Institute press Adam thank you so much for joining me sure Chris it's great to be back with you I'm very grateful for the history of exorcism I think it's an important work I think it's one of those things that needs to be brought out in the light because people have a lot of different ideas about what exorcism is but also maybe not an appreciation of its role in the life not only of the church but even before that and you bring that forward so clearly so thank you so much the history is all there so I really didn't do a whole lot except try to put it together and maybe synthesize it a little bit but I found it to be a really interesting story which is why I wanted to to get it out to people in the form of a book because yeah as you said most people really have no idea where this came from they've just kind of seen the movies you know they have their ideas from there which which is really distorted obviously Hollywood doesn't know much about this so yeah I'm hoping it'll kind of demystify it a little bit and and also it had some interesting twists in the road through the history of this so it's kind of a neat story I thought and I'm not saying that about like my own book I'm saying that the history of it is just it's a neat history well I'll say it for your book it is a neat book I found it fascinating and I think context is everything isn't it so to understand something more fully you need to be able to put things into context don't you mm -hmm yeah I think you do and hopefully it'll help not only with the idea of solemn exorcism but the whole deliverance world it kind of puts the whole range of prayers in a context because it shows back when it was more of a gray area and prayer was just prayer and you know deliverance and exorcism weren't well defined in the early church in terms of where the lines were between them so I hope it'll lead people to understand why exorcism is is really a qualitatively different thing than just deliverance prayers how did you become involved in the ministry that that helps to free people from a captivity that the church wants to be able to offer them well it's a long story but it's about 15 or 16 or 17 years ago I was doing graduate work in adult clinical psychology and mainly brainwave research and I was curious whether any of these strange experiences were real or if they were an artifact of the brain or mental illness and so I started looking into it stumbled across a possessed person early on it wasn't like anything I had seen clinically or been trained for clinically the interventions that you would do in psychology for psychosis had no impact and that led to you know obviously questions and then as I got to meet specialist clergy and got drawn into this and saw full -blown cases of solemn exorcisms I started seeing things that you can't explain and so once I realized it's a real phenomenon it's a real spiritual reality I then decided to basically as long as God was willing dedicate my life to it because there was so few exorcists around at that time you know 27 well about 17 years ago the ministry really you know it had faded out it was almost gone and so we've been working you know as a community for a lot of years and now there's a lot of exorcists trained up in the United States you know a few hundred at least and there's more every year so things are really kind of rolling at this point well the really good news about that is it as you said in the past maybe 15 years or so institutes have developed the one that I'm more familiar with is the Pope Leo XIII Institute that is established by priests and also their particular teams which include practitioners as you are someone who is not only devout in his faith but somebody who has an understanding of the human person which can help them to provide their ministry and then that's an important thing isn't it yeah and it's good to mention of course I'm a lay person I'm not a priest I don't actually do exorcisms only a priest with permission from their bishop can do that but God seems to have called me into a kind of unique role of training and teaching and essentially coaching priests and particularly new exorcists so the best way to learn is kind of in the situation so I do teach at the Leo Institute and I've taught at other national conferences for years and things like that but really the at the end of the day you have to do it and kind of be mentored by other exorcists and people with experience basically and just wanted to be clear so people don't make the mistake of assuming I'm an exorcist I know from the founders of the Pope Leo XIII Institute I know Monsignor John S.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"first ministry" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Welcome to the Heart for God podcast. With many years of experience pastoring and helping to start churches, Dr. Jim Townsley has some practical and biblical advice that can be a great help to you and your ministry. On this podcast, Dr. Townsley and other guests with special expertise cover a variety of topics. His goal is to help you lead your church to be a healthy, strong, and balanced ministry, and for your family to be happy, healthy, and living for the Lord. Welcome to the podcast today. I'm glad that you joined us. I have with me here Brother Matt Barber, and he is an evangelist. He's been at our church since Sunday. This is now Wednesday, so he's had several opportunities to speak to us and preach the Word of God. Matt, it's good to have you with us this morning. Good to be here. It's a pleasure. So I want you to just say a little bit about your background, who you are, your family, what God has called you to do, and where you were before. Well, I was raised in a pastor's home. I had great opportunities to hear the gospel. I got saved as a child. When I was 16, the Lord finally got a hold of my heart, and I surrendered to him, and that's when I felt called to preach. I went on to Bible college. I went to Baptist College of Ministry up in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, back in the early days of the college there, and that's where I met my wife. So a lot of good things happened in those days. And then our first ministry was in Woodridge, Illinois, where I went there as an assistant pastor. So that's in the Chicago area? Yep, that's right, southwest suburbs of Chicago. And within six months, I found myself the pastor of the church, and we stayed there for 13 years. And you have family? Yes, sir. Yep. So my wife, Chelsea, and then we have five children, and so the Lord's blessed us richly. And the years at Woodridge were wonderful. We learned a lot. The church grew. It had been through a lot, and we were kind of in a re-establishing, rebuilding phase at the church. And then in 2018 and 2019, I began to feel the Lord stirring my heart towards evangelism, and that's where I felt called originally. And by 2021, the Lord finally gave us the green light, and we stepped out by faith. And so we've been traveling full-time now the last two years. So stepping out by faith is no small exaggeration, because for an evangelist, to get started, people don't know you, they don't know your name. So how does that all come about? How do you end up getting meetings? Well, that's a good question. When I first announced it to our church, they were shocked that we were moving on, but I felt that the church was ready for another hand at the till, so to speak. The church was established, and I guess they thought that I was going out into evangelism by popular demand, and that was not the case. I didn't have anything on the schedule, and I was just trusting the Lord. I expected to be working full-time or part-time as we got meetings lined up, but God and His mercy just allowed the meetings to come in. And they didn't come in all at once, but the Lord stayed ahead of us by three or four weeks or a month or two, and He just filled up our year. We found ourselves traveling two or three weeks a month, plus Sundays and Wednesdays here and there, different places that first year. This second year has been a lot more busy. We spent the whole summer just packed all the way through. We're out west and got to see some beautiful country. But the best thing is we've been seeing God's blessing and seeing God just confirm the step of faith with meetings and with fruit. Dr. Darrell Bock So you're traveling with your family. So you've got a pole-behind trailer, and you've got seven people in that thing. How do you live in that? David Jones Well, you know, the Lord already provided the Ford Excursion. That's right. It's a 2002 Excursion. It's the gas kind, the gas guzzler, but we already had the Excursion, and when the Lord was stirring us up to go, of course, the first question is, can we do this? And the first thought is, no, we can't do this. This is impossible. But then we began to look into it, and we found some pole-behind travel trailer options that would work for our family. In fact, we only found one option big enough that I could actually haul with our truck. And so it's got several slide-outs, and it has a lot of roomy space for the kids to sleep. I say roomy in relative terms, but it works for us. It's tight, but we've been doing fine the last couple of years. Dr. Darrell Bock So you've been a pastor. Now you're traveling as an evangelist. There's got to be a pretty good perspective you have. What is the difference in what are some of the things that people might be interested in, the difference between being a pastor and being on the road as an evangelist? David Jones Well, there's some stark differences, and I guess just going back to the root of it is there are two different gifts in the Bible. We have them listed in Ephesians, Chapter 4. Of course, you have the foundational gifts of the apostles and prophets. Those are no more because the foundation has been laid. But then it goes on to mention evangelists and then pastors and teachers, and I think pastor-teacher is kind of the one idea of pastoring and teaching a flock. So what is the evangelist? Well, if you think about it in the order of events, before you have a church, you have to have gospel preaching so people can be saved so you can have a church, right? So an evangelist, the word evangelist comes from the word evangel or gospel. So an evangelist preaches the gospel, but all of us do that, right? But it's a special gifting that focuses on the gospel. So as an evangelist, I think God gives a special desire, burden, boldness, or even I think also clarity in preaching the gospel so that people can understand. And that's not something to boast of, it's just something that God begins to reveal what your strengths are, what his giftings are. So evangelism is a pioneering gift. Oftentimes evangelists will plant churches, but that's not always the case. My older brother Nathan is a pastor. He planted a church. He would not call himself an evangelist, but he planted a church. So God can use different gifts for different things. I was an evangelist, but I was pastoring for 13 years. But the whole time, I knew I was an evangelist who was trying really hard to be a pastor. It's hard to explain that, but I knew that. But I'm thankful for that background so I could understand the ins and outs of being a pastor and how a church works. But an evangelist is a pioneering gift. You lay the foundation. But an evangelist can also be a restorative gift. I think of Paul. Obviously Paul was an apostle, but if you look at the way he traveled, he was trailblazing. And that's not something just an apostle can do. There were others who did that. In fact, when Paul and Barnabas split up, Barnabas took Mark, and he went off in a different direction doing the same thing that Paul was doing. So there were many who were traveling around in an itinerant way, preaching and laying new foundations through church planting. But then Paul continuously came back and had a desire to circle back and establish and strengthen the churches that he had been a part of. Well, that's itinerant work. I think in America we see a lot of the typical evangelist who travels itinerantly, preaches revival meetings. But that's not unfounded. There's a basis for that in Scripture. I just think the evangelist is more than a revival man. An evangelist can plant churches. An evangelist can go to the mission field. But I think there is a desire in evangelists to not only plant or lay a foundation, but then to be used of God to establish or to even bring an outside perspective that can help a church. And the pastor is there day in, day out. God uses that outside perspective and that special outside gifting to complement the pastor and to help the church grow. Dr. Darrell Bock So what would you say your goal is? As you go from church to church, what is your purpose and goal? What do you feel you want to accomplish by doing that? Dr. Mark Bock Well, a lot of evangelists focus on the word revival, and that's a good word. It's actually more of an Old Testament word, although we see the concept in the New Testament as well. But basically the way I look at it is churches need to thrive and new churches need to be started. My role in that would be to preach the gospel so folks can be saved. But then if I'm going back through established churches, then my goal is to see churches restored, revived to a place where they can grow again. And obviously individuals in that church being, to use another word, quickened. David talked about that. He says, quicken thou me according to thy word. And I think the evangelist can be used of the Lord to have God's power to open eyes, to quicken, to revitalize a church so they can grow. Not that he brings revival with him. Not that he has anything better than the pastor has. But it's a different gifting that complements the work of the pastor. Dr. Darrell Bock So a different train of thought here. From the perspective of a pastor, having an evangelist come into your church, how can a pastor best prepare to have an evangelist come, and how can he take care of him while he is there? Well, I mean, going back to Ephesians 4, they're called the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church, right? So the pastor, I think people see that clearly, the pastor is a gift to a church. If you have a pastor, you have a gift. God has gifted and blessed your church. But I think sometimes pastors forget that the evangelist is also a gift to the church. And there are many pastors now who aren't having evangelists for various reasons. And I would say they're robbing their church from a gift that God wants to give them. Not because the evangelist is so special, because it's a gift God designed for the health of the church. So knowing, seeing it as a gift that God has established, make room for it, you know, promote it.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Ministry of Evangelism
"Welcome to the Heart for God podcast. With many years of experience pastoring and helping to start churches, Dr. Jim Townsley has some practical and biblical advice that can be a great help to you and your ministry. On this podcast, Dr. Townsley and other guests with special expertise cover a variety of topics. His goal is to help you lead your church to be a healthy, strong, and balanced ministry, and for your family to be happy, healthy, and living for the Lord. Welcome to the podcast today. I'm glad that you joined us. I have with me here Brother Matt Barber, and he is an evangelist. He's been at our church since Sunday. This is now Wednesday, so he's had several opportunities to speak to us and preach the Word of God. Matt, it's good to have you with us this morning. Good to be here. It's a pleasure. So I want you to just say a little bit about your background, who you are, your family, what God has called you to do, and where you were before. Well, I was raised in a pastor's home. I had great opportunities to hear the gospel. I got saved as a child. When I was 16, the Lord finally got a hold of my heart, and I surrendered to him, and that's when I felt called to preach. I went on to Bible college. I went to Baptist College of Ministry up in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, back in the early days of the college there, and that's where I met my wife. So a lot of good things happened in those days. And then our first ministry was in Woodridge, Illinois, where I went there as an assistant pastor. So that's in the Chicago area? Yep, that's right, southwest suburbs of Chicago. And within six months, I found myself the pastor of the church, and we stayed there for 13 years. And you have family? Yes, sir. Yep. So my wife, Chelsea, and then we have five children, and so the Lord's blessed us richly. And the years at Woodridge were wonderful. We learned a lot. The church grew. It had been through a lot, and we were kind of in a re -establishing, rebuilding phase at the church. And then in 2018 and 2019, I began to feel the Lord stirring my heart towards evangelism, and that's where I felt called originally. And by 2021, the Lord finally gave us the green light, and we stepped out by faith. And so we've been traveling full -time now the last two years. So stepping out by faith is no small exaggeration, because for an evangelist, to get started, people don't know you, they don't know your name. So how does that all come about? How do you end up getting meetings? Well, that's a good question. When I first announced it to our church, they were shocked that we were moving on, but I felt that the church was ready for another hand at the till, so to speak. The church was established, and I guess they thought that I was going out into evangelism by popular demand, and that was not the case. I didn't have anything on the schedule, and I was just trusting the Lord. I expected to be working full -time or part -time as we got meetings lined up, but God and His mercy just allowed the meetings to come in. And they didn't come in all at once, but the Lord stayed ahead of us by three or four weeks or a month or two, and He just filled up our year. We found ourselves traveling two or three weeks a month, plus Sundays and Wednesdays here and there, different places that first year. This second year has been a lot more busy. We spent the whole summer just packed all the way through. We're out west and got to see some beautiful country. But the best thing is we've been seeing God's blessing and seeing God just confirm the step of faith with meetings and with fruit. Dr. Darrell Bock So you're traveling with your family. So you've got a pole -behind trailer, and you've got seven people in that thing. How do you live in that? David Jones Well, you know, the Lord already provided the Ford Excursion. That's right. It's a 2002 Excursion. It's the gas kind, the gas guzzler, but we already had the Excursion, and when the Lord was stirring us up to go, of course, the first question is, can we do this? And the first thought is, no, we can't do this. This is impossible. But then we began to look into it, and we found some pole -behind travel trailer options that would work for our family. In fact, we only found one option big enough that I could actually haul with our truck. And so it's got several slide -outs, and it has a lot of roomy space for the kids to sleep. I say roomy in relative terms, but it works for us. It's tight, but we've been doing fine the last couple of years. Dr. Darrell Bock So you've been a pastor. Now you're traveling as an evangelist. There's got to be a pretty good perspective you have. What is the difference in what are some of the things that people might be interested in, the difference between being a pastor and being on the road as an evangelist? David Jones Well, there's some stark differences, and I guess just going back to the root of it is there are two different gifts in the Bible. We have them listed in Ephesians, Chapter 4. Of course, you have the foundational gifts of the apostles and prophets. Those are no more because the foundation has been laid. But then it goes on to mention evangelists and then pastors and teachers, and I think pastor -teacher is kind of the one idea of pastoring and teaching a flock. So what is the evangelist? Well, if you think about it in the order of events, before you have a church, you have to have gospel preaching so people can be saved so you can have a church, right? So evangelist, an the word evangelist comes from the word evangel or gospel. So an evangelist preaches the gospel, but all of us do that, right? But it's a special gifting that focuses on the gospel. So as an evangelist, I think God gives a special desire, burden, boldness, or even I think also clarity in preaching the gospel so that people can understand. And that's not something to boast of, it's just something that God begins to reveal what your strengths are, what his giftings are. So evangelism is a pioneering gift. Oftentimes evangelists will plant churches, but that's not always the case. My older brother Nathan is a pastor. He planted a church. He would not call himself an evangelist, but he planted a church. So God can use different gifts for different things. I was an evangelist, but I was pastoring for 13 years. But the whole time, I knew I was an evangelist who was trying really hard to be a pastor. It's hard to explain that, but I knew that. But I'm thankful for that background so I could understand the ins and outs of being a pastor and how a church works. But an evangelist is a pioneering gift. You lay the foundation. But an evangelist can also be a restorative gift. I think of Paul. Obviously Paul was an apostle, but if you look at the way he traveled, he was trailblazing. And that's not something just an apostle can do. There were others who did that. In fact, when Paul and Barnabas split up, Barnabas took Mark, and he went off in a different direction doing the same thing that Paul was doing. So there were many who were traveling around in an itinerant way, preaching and laying new foundations through church planting. But then Paul continuously came back and had a desire to circle back and establish and strengthen the churches that he had been a part of. Well, that's itinerant work. I think in America we see a lot of the typical evangelist who travels itinerantly, preaches revival meetings. But that's not unfounded. There's a basis for that in Scripture. I just think the evangelist is more than a revival man. An evangelist can plant churches. An evangelist can go to the mission field. But I think there is a desire in evangelists to not only plant or lay a foundation, but then to be used of God to establish or to even bring an outside perspective that can help a church. And the pastor is there day in, day out. God uses that outside perspective and that special outside gifting to complement the pastor and to help the church grow. Dr. Darrell Bock So what would you say your goal is? As you go from church to church, what is your purpose and goal? What do you feel you want to accomplish by doing that? Dr. Mark Bock Well, a lot of evangelists focus on the word revival, and that's a good word. It's actually more of an Old Testament word, although we see the concept in the New Testament as well. But basically the way I look at it is churches need to thrive and new churches need to be started. My role in that would be to preach the gospel so folks can be saved. But then if I'm going back through established churches, then my goal is to see churches restored, revived to a place where they can grow again. And obviously individuals in that church being, to use another word, quickened. David talked about that. He says, quicken thou me according to thy word. And I think the evangelist can be used of the Lord to have God's power to open eyes, to quicken, to revitalize a church so they can grow. Not that he brings revival with him. Not that he has anything better than the pastor has. But it's a different gifting that complements the work of the pastor. Dr. Darrell Bock So a different train of thought here. From the perspective of a pastor, having an evangelist come into your church, how can a pastor best prepare to have an evangelist come, and how can he take care of him while he is there? Well, I mean, going back to Ephesians 4, they're called the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church, right? So the pastor, I think people see that clearly, the pastor is a gift to a church. If you have a pastor, you have a gift. God has gifted and blessed your church. But I think sometimes pastors forget that the evangelist is also a gift to the church. And there are many pastors now who aren't having evangelists for various reasons. And I would say they're robbing their church from a gift that God wants to give them. Not because the evangelist is so special, because it's a gift God designed for the health of the church. So knowing, seeing it as a gift that God has established, make room for it, you know, promote it.
The Eric Metaxas Show
A highlight from Katy Faust
"Hey you, have you checked your bucket list lately? Are you ready to take care of item number seven? Listening to The Eric Mataxas Show? Well welcome, tune in, and then move on to item number eight. Skydiving with Chuck Schumer and AOC. Here now is Mr. Completed My Bucket List at age 12, Eric Mataxas. Hey there folks, welcome. I'm excited to have back as my guest Katie Faust. Faust, Katie Faust. New book called Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City. Katie, welcome back. So good to be with you. You've got a nice little feature in my storyline of authoring. I didn't write my first book until you were like, Katie, you need to write a book. And I was like, I don't have time. And you're like, well, then your little global children's rights movement is going nowhere. And I was like, well, then I guess I write a book. So credit to you for getting Stacy and I into the official publishing world because we wouldn't have done it without your coercive prompting. Wow, that's terrific. Now, the problem is biblically you have to tithe unto me after the order of Melchizedek. That's biblical since I was the one behind this. And you are without genealogy and eternal, is that how this is working? Well, this is Salem radio, so I guess it all makes sense now. Oh, my God. Oh, that is creepy. The priest of Salem, Melchizedek. All right. I love the fact that tons of people are saying, what, what, what are you talking about? Read your Bibles, people. All right, I don't have time. So Faust, Katie you are your organization is called Them Before Us. Talk about that a little bit before we get into the new book. Yeah, well, I am really passionate about two things. One is when it comes to the changes in culture, law and technology that are taking place in our world today. I'm very passionate about don't touch the kids. Leave the kids alone when it comes to changes in marriage, family, parenthood, reproduction. And right now the world is looking at kids and they're like, those are accessories that I can cut and paste into any and every adult relationship. So the first book is about no children have a right to be known and loved by their mother and father. All adults need to conform to those rights. So whatever is going on in your personal life, leave the kids alone. But I'm also very passionate about something else, and that is leave my kids alone. Don't touch my kids. But that's very challenging because this culture is insane and it's absolutely after our kids. They are hell bent in destroying children's life, family, mind and body. And they do that highly and very effectively through indoctrination, whether that comes through the schools, whether it comes through social media, whether it comes through mainstream media, their friend group, sometimes infiltrating their churches. And so my co -author Stacey and I have written a book about how we have been able to raise collectively our seven kids between our two families in one of the most hostile, progressive cities in the world, Seattle, and largely sending them to public schools. And you can't capture our kids. Like we have been able to locate our worldview in our kids to the point where they can spot the lie. They can stand against the crowd and they can push back. Right. And look, there are a few things that need to be said. First of all, the fact that we are now at a point where the left, broadly defined, is coming after our kids. This is when you move from like mere leftism or from liberalism or whatever we called it in the past into full blown Marxism, cultural Marxism, where they say and they believe the family is the enemy of the state. They want to crush families. They want to divide children from their parents. They want to divide husbands from wives. They want to destroy the family because the family, like God, like people of faith, is their enemy. And so this is something that we need to recognize. It's a new iteration in the long march to the institutions. They have now gotten to a point where they're open about wanting to steal our children, steal our children's minds. And you're quite right. You know, the buck stops here. That's that's not going to happen. We will die as parents before we let you do that. And we will die happily. That's right. Children from these vile ideas. So your book, the new book is Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City. Now, I want to say there are other options, folks. You don't need to live in a woke city. Perhaps you don't need to send your kids to public school. You can homeschool your kids. I would say the first thing to anybody would be homeschool your kids. You know, go to Sam Sorbo, ask her how to do it. Everybody who says I'm not qualified to do it is totally qualified to do it. But what you're saying, Katie, is that even if you can't do that, even if you can't send your kids to a genuinely faith based traditional school, there is hope. Well, and the deal is like the woke is coming for your kids, even if you're homeschooling them, even if they're in a great private school, it is seeping into their world. I mean, I've got friends at great conservative Christian schools where the woke is infiltrating them as well, where kids are talking about being pansexual. You know, and it's a private Christian school. And I'm surrounded by homeschool kids who are awesome. And I love them. I'm currently running the youth ministry at our church and there's a lot of homeschooled kids. These kids are great. They're also battling these woke ideas. It is also infiltrating their world. So like you cannot bubble wrap your kids. And honestly, you should not try to bubble wrap your kids. There is an appropriate way to shelter your kids early on and then strategically expose them to these ideas. You, the parent, introduce them. You don't let the world introduce it to them. You introduce this in age appropriate ways, in developmentally appropriate stages. And that's what we do in the book is we kind of lay out sort of these stages of learning for kids what you need to be covering in each of these different phases, how to strategically make sure that you are getting to your kids first rather than letting the world introduce these concepts to your kids and thereby establishing yourself as the expert. And parents need to be doing this regardless of your zip code, regardless of how your kids are being schooled. You we all need to inoculate our kids against the woke virus. And if we can do it in Seattle with our kids going to public school, you can do it, too. Well, that's amazing. And listen, what you're saying is, is that, you know, when you say you can't bubble wrap your kids, the point is you want to let them understand why the ideas on the left are bad. Not just say that they're bad, but actually make them understand. No, no, no, no. They're actually bad. They're actually harmful. They're stupid. They're illogical. They're irrational. They're anti -human. They're inhuman. They are failed and failing and will fail. Our kids need to get that. So it's not just my parents believe that and they told me I have to believe that. No, no, no. It's actually true. It's like teaching your kid math. You know, then they can do it on their own. They don't they don't need you once they learn how to do it. So that's an important point to make. So the book is brand new folks raising conservative kids in a in a woke city. And I'd forgotten, Katie, that you lived in Seattle. Of course, I live in New York. And it needs to be said, you said it, but it needs to be said again and again that a lot of these places that we trusted, a Christian schools, Christian institutions, churches have themselves about the need to bail or are perfectly willing to go along with bowing the need to bail. A lot of the institutions that we once took for granted as on the good side have gone to the dark side. Christianity Today magazine completely gone over to the dark side. Campus Crusade, now called Crew, has opened the door to tons of bad ideas. The Gospel Coalition, which was once OK, has opened the door to tremendously pernicious ideas. And so it really does fall to us, the parents, to take this seriously and to understand it is our job. We can no longer entrust our kids to these to these places we once thought were safe. Well, and we talk about in the conclusion, like sometimes it feels like, what can I do? I don't have a huge platform. I'm not in political office. You know, I don't I'm not an author at any of these outlets. You actually have the most position as a parent. Do you understand the power of raising the next generation to embrace conservative ideas? And by that, we define conservatism as you're just recognizing historical, economic and biological reality. That is what conservatism is today. On team reality, folks, it's called reality. We believe in reality. That's right. It's no longer just return to the gold standard, you know, kind of people or or, you know. Hawks on foreign policy, it's like if you recognize that men and women are different, if you recognize that the free market is the best way to conduct ourselves in the economy, if you recognize that life begins at conception, if you recognize that, you know, we are defined by the content of our character, not the color of our skin. I mean, like if you recognize those things, you're a conservative. Welcome to the welcome. Welcome to the red pill, baby. And it's amazing. We have to go to a break. What's the website then before us? Then before us dot com is where you can keep up before us dot com. Katie Faust will be right back with the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Lots of companies are coming out saying they'll pay for employee abortion travel and expenses. Most of you have heard about some of these companies. You've decided to stop shopping or doing business there. But did you know that you most likely own stock in those companies through your 401ks, IRAs and other investment accounts? Folks, this is a huge problem. And we need to do something about this to send a message to Wall Street through our investments. You need to go to inspire advisors dot com slash Eric and get a free inspire impact report. This biblical investment analysis will educate you on what's really in your investment accounts, like companies paying for abortion travel. 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Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Soul Winning 101 - The 5 W's of Evangelism
"All right, hey folks, good evening. This is Daniel Karzewski coming to you live from Washington, D .C. again. Here on tonight's episode, we're gonna talk about soul winning 101, or also known as evangelism 101. And so, first of all, there's five basic questions that you have to answer, and that's the five Ws, the who, what, where, when, why. And what are we doing this for? So, number one, what is evangelism or what is soul winning? It is going out and snatching the souls out of the gates of hell, or out of the pits of hell. But furthermore, what is evangelism specifically? And it comes from the root of the Greek word angel, which also means messenger, or also known as the act of sharing the message of God's word. And that's where we get our commission and our commandment from in Matthew 28. And we're supposed to go forth and share the gospel, which means the good news with everybody, because sinners need to have their sins forgiven, and lost people need to know that they're lost, and they need to know that they can get a savior, and they know that they can get out of their wicked, wretched lives that they're living that's not taking them anywhere, especially not in eternity's sake. And then number two, why do we evangelize? Well, number one, we're commanded by God there in Matthew 28, like I just mentioned, and then also for the glory of God and the good of man, and 2 Peter 2, 9 tells us. Then where are we to go, and where are we to share it? Well, everywhere, near and far, indeed, the whole entire world, just like Acts says in chapter one, verse eight. And then, when are we supposed to do it? Anytime, anytime the Lord leads us and tells us. I think it's almost always that we've got tracks on us, and we're handing them out to everybody that we meet. We don't even know these people, but God knows them, God sees their heart, and God wants to save them. In 2 Timothy 4, verses two, that's where it tells us, anytime. And then who are we supposed to do it with, and who are we supposed to share it with? To everyone, to all, to all people in the whole entire world Mark 16, verse 15 commands us. And then, of course, there we've got some different tools in the toolbox, we've got spiritual warfare, we've got different equipment, different weaponry, and Ephesians 6 that we see putting on the whole armor of God, using prayer as a weapon, as a sword. Then we've got apologetics in 1 Peter 3 .15, be ready to answer every single man. And then we've got different techniques, we've got Jesus's example, we've got different ways to relate and create and convict and reveal to people. Then we've got one -on -one situations, we've got tracks, we've got door -to -door, we have different events and signs, public proclamation that goes out, we've got people that go out and play music and dramas and do skits on the street, in churches, whatever the case may be, there's all different types of ways to do it. And then, what's the biblical method of the gospel presentation? Well, I mean, it's just like, what would Jesus do? Ray Comfort has a great ministry called the Way of the Master, and he goes out every single Saturday, matter of fact, I've been out there with him on occasion and seen him and got to pray with him and got to watch him, and it's really just such a blessing to be able to see that man's ministry the way that he does it, and that's the same way that we're trying to do it. And if you're looking for a good example of a way to evangelize, follow Ray Comfort's way, the Way of the Master, and it's the biblical way, and it's the law in the evangelism, because you've got to get the sinner lost, oftentimes, before they can realize their need for a savior. And that's just like John 4, verses three through 30 tells us, it tells us we need to use the law in the evangelism, as opposed to some type of life enhancement where it's Christianity and getting saved and Jesus Christ on the cross, it's some good luck charm that we wear on our necklace, and that gets us saved, that couldn't be farther from the truth, and so we need to get people out of that thinking, and we need to use the law to convict people that they are sinners and that they are in need of a savior from hell and eternal damnation and hell fire and brimstone and get them to realize that heaven is so much better. I mean, we shouldn't have to scare people into heaven, but it says, just like in Jude, verses 21 through 23, that there are some that are saved by fire and some that are saved by compassion. And God tells us unto the proud man, he's gonna receive judgment and rebuke and reproof and condemnation and judgment. He's gonna receive the word of God because he's not understanding the spiritual things. He can only understand the natural things of man. But then under the humble, he receives grace and mercy, love and kindness, forgiveness, and he's willing and ready to receive, you know? And I've seen people like that on the street before. And then who is to evangelize? Who is qualified? What are the qualifications? Ephesians chapter four, verse 11 through 12, and then we've got the examples in all of scripture, Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, Peter, James, John, Paul, and the list could go on. We could go on all night listing every single person in the Bible who was somebody that was out there evangelizing and witnessing and using God's word as a message to reach the loss for their generation. And that's what we're called to do. We're called to reach our generation for the loss. However many years that may be, I don't wanna go another day without telling somebody about Jesus. I mean, life is a vapor, and what are you gonna do? You gonna get to 80 and, oh, well now I'm gonna start working. And matter of fact, I've seen that. I've seen a 72 -year -old woman get saved, and she said, wow, I wasted 72 years of my life, and nobody wants to be like that. I sure don't wanna be like that, you know? In the 30s, thinking about, man, okay, well, what should I do for the next 40 years? Should I just waste them and see as much gain as I can get? Well, I mean, Solomon told us that all is vanity. He was chasing after the wind his whole entire life. He strived after every pleasure he could possibly get his hands on. And he said all was vanity. And the end of the preacher is to do God's word, obey his law, be righteous, and worship God and serve man. That's the end of the law. That's the end of God's word for man, is to obey him and worship him and serve others. And that's the 10 commandments. That's the whole entire word of God summed up. It'd be Jesus said it too. He said, love God with all your heart, mind, soul, body, spirit, and love your neighbor as yourself. And if we do those things, we've done all the law and the prophets, praise the Lord. And then finally, evangelism and you. There's different styles of evangelism. Everybody can evangelize in some way, shape, or form. You don't have to talk, but I remind you that Moses and Jeremiah and many other preachers and prophets said, Lord, I can't speak, I'm a small person. I mean, David started out small too and we all start out somewhere, but there's different types of serving. You can just give somebody a bottle of water and a track, whatever the case may be. Anytime we give food to the homeless, we always give them a track with it because you never know. We don't give money unless we're given to specific charity or we're given our time or we're given to a local New Testament church that's gonna gain, gather food and we're gonna go out and serve the food ourselves. And I really don't give to a lot of big charities out there because unless I know that they're extremely reputable and they're serving the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, I know my friend Matt, he's down in Malawi, South Africa. He's doing the Lord's work there. He takes 12 disciples every three years and disciples them and sends them out as pastors. It's a perfect biblical ministry and I love it and I love supporting him because every time I send them 50 or $100, I know that's gonna feed one of their students for a month or two on end. It's gonna be wonderful. And so there's a great need for evangelists and the urgency of evangelism in today's day and age. And so that is Soul Winning 101 wrapped up. I love y 'all, God bless. Like, comment, subscribe, send us a note. We love you all, take care and God bless. We'll see you next time.
Mark Levin
New Details on Suspended Diplomat Robert Malley’s Security Clearance
"Into the thinking inner workings iran's foreign ministry to crucial time in the nuclear diplomacy even as tayron's portrayal of events is questioned if not flatly denied by others involved in the IEI they show how iran was capable the kind of influence operations that the united states and its allies in the region often conduct more specifically a German professor in the IEI this cabal offered to ghost write opinion pieces for tayron officials and others in the network sought Iranian foreign ministry staff advice about the US and Israeli conferences hearings per semifore quote the IEI participants were prolific writers about beds and analyses and provided insights on television and twitter regularly touting the need for a compromise with tayron on the nuclear issue a position in line with both the obama and rahani administrations at the time it reported the IEI again this cabal at particular access during the final years of former president barack obama's administration asan rahani was then the Iranian president quote the Iran experts initiative that's the IEI was born from a rahani administration eager to end tayron's pariah status following eight years of muhammad yabba dabba doo's presidency in he which courted holocaust denial and promoted the eradication of israel summit 4 reported quote quote this initiative which we call iran experts initiative IEI is consisted of a core group of six to ten distinguished second generation iranians of established
Evangelism On Fire
A highlight from Sydney Sundance Smith's - God Story
"Welcome to Evangelism on Fire podcast. My name is Mark Thomas, an ordained pastor, a teacher of the best selling book of all time, your host, and most importantly, your evangelism coach. Every episode, I bring you an inspiring message to help you live the most exciting life God has created you to live by actively sharing your faith in Jesus with others. I believe in the power of the gospel and the potential of all Christians to live out the mission of the great commission. I believe the best way for Christians to grow is to go. It's time for a revolution in every Christian's life around the world so that every person everywhere around the world can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ from a friend or a family member through one -on -one evangelism. I'm so thankful for our time together today. I absolutely love spending time with you, evangelism on fire nation. I believe this podcast will truly inspire you and I believe it will inspire so many people that you know. And if you're inspired and feeling moved to share this, then please message some friends, post this on social media and let people know about this episode so we can get this message out there more. I appreciate you and everyone listening right now. And a quick reminder, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, to rate it, to review it, to spread the word on social media and spread the message of evangelism on fire forward. Many people are looking for hope these days, especially young people. They wanna be part of something bigger. And here at evangelism on fire ministry, we have big plans to reach them in 2023. Here's where you will not find hope. You won't find hope in the culture. You won't find hope in technology. You won't find hope even in many ways in politics. Now, all of these things have their place, but true hope can only be found in God. The message that we wanna share is that God wants to give hope to the young generation and all generations, that there is hope for them through a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. And we wanna offer this hope to as many people as possible in 2023 through our outreach ministries, which of course includes our EOF podcast ministry. I'm asking you to join us at EOF ministry and become a partner. A partner is just a friend that makes a regular commitment to us each and every month. They stand by us. That enables us to respond to the opportunities that are coming our way. In many ways, we live in a hopeless world, but through Christ, we have hope. Life without God is a hopeless end. Life with Him is an endless hope. Join us right now and become a part of our team and let's reach the world with the most important message that exists, the gospel message. Join us for the plans we have for ministry in 2023 by becoming an Evangelism on Fire ministry partner. Are you ready? Well, this is your next step. Go to today's show notes and click on the giving link to become a monthly partner by setting up a monthly donation or go to our website evangelismonfire .com. Click on the donate button to give a monthly reoccurring donation or a one -time gift. Thank you for joining us to give hope to the world. All right, welcome Evangelism on Fire nation to today's podcast episode. Man, I've got a big time treat for you guys today. We have on our podcast episode today, Sydney Sundance Smith. She's 31 years old. And let me tell you what, she's on a mission to be one of the world's top female bare knuckle fighters. And listen, she has her eye on the title. And you know what? Something that I love about Sydney is that she is a true spiritual warrior and she carries her faith and her father's memory with her everywhere she goes and into the ring. Sydney Sundance Smith, welcome to Evangelism on Fire podcast. How are you doing? I'm blessed and highly favored. Yeah, I'm doing well. I feel really good. You know, I'm in a really good place in my life, so. That's awesome. I'm so happy for you. So you know what? So my audience, Evangelism on Fire Nation, so they know more about you. I gave you a little introduction, but tell us more about who you are. Oh, wow. I feel like that's such a big question, right? Like the, what does Shrek say? Like an ogre, I have like an onion, I have ears. Yeah, I don't know, man. I'm just like a kid from the middle of nowhere. I grew up on a horse farm. All three of us, my brother and my sister and myself, we were all born at home. We were not born in a hospital. Oh, you were born at home? Not a hospital, at home. Oh, wow. And so for my sister's birth, my dad actually had to deliver her because the midwife was somewhere else. And so she didn't get there. Oh, wow. So my dad had to deliver my sister. That is wild. What was going on with the midwife? It starts wild. She was delivering another baby like across the county. Right. Wow, that's such a cool story to start this podcast off. Hey, it's interesting from starting to talking with that. You know what I'm saying? But yeah, I mean, I don't know. I just grew up out like in the middle of nowhere in a place called Middlebrook. Doesn't even have enough people to be considered a town and still considered a village to this day. When I first heard about you, I was when I was training at Mixed Martial Arts Institute here in Richmond, Virginia. And I would hear your name mentioned, you know, in my training sessions. Then I got to be good friends with Gigi, who she owned MMA Institute around the area that she lived. In Charlottesville, yeah. Yeah, for a little bit. And through Rick McCoy and Tyus Thomas and David Gladfelter, I got to know more about you because I would just hear your name around, you know, the Institute. So let's get right into it. How did you come to faith in Jesus Christ? So I actually, I grew up in it. I just kind of always believed he was there, that he was and that his son existed. And I didn't really know too much about the Holy Spirit growing up. That wasn't really something, it's not really something that Presbyterians talk about a lot, you know. And so, yeah, I mean, I had a relationship with him for, you know, most of my life, but it really didn't, it was like, you know, like the shockwave kind of hit more when I was like 16, 17. And I was really starting to go through like some really serious suicide and depression. And I got really, you know, just really into the word. And, you know, my mom bought me a study Bible on Easter, the year I turned 17. And I still have it, I still use it every day. And so that really just kind of, cause I just have this insatiable appetite just like to know things. I don't know why I just do. And so, yeah, so giving me a study Bible was a great way. And I just never looked back, you know. And that's, I mean, I've had my ups and downs, right? You know what I mean? I'm not saying, I've walked a perfect path since I was a teenager that is far from true. But, you know, it doesn't mean that I've ever stopped believing in God or loving God or talking to God. You know, I think that I just kind of have this different understanding of who he is and like what he wants to do. Like he's never gonna give up on you, you know? And I think that's something that's really important and not something that I really want to get out there is that I'm not saying go out there and do all these bad things. We shouldn't sin much so that grace can abound much. But what I'm saying is that like, grace covers a multitude of sins. That's what I'm saying. And there's no shame, no condemnation for those that are made new in Christ. And that's what I'm trying to come and talk about is there's a way, we've kind of gotten to this point as a society where if anybody starts saying like, thus sayeth the Lord, or you quote the word in a way that people know that you're quoting the word to them, they just shut down, right? And so I don't know, I just feel like God has written it on my heart in a way that, you know, I just talk about it. I'm not trying to shove it down your throat. I'm not trying to like preach at you, but I just, I feel like God is so enmeshed in everything and every single moment of every single day that I mean, his word is just one more example of that. And speaking it is very powerful and that's something I learned along the way. And so to speak it, you have to know the word. Say that again, Sydney, maybe that one more time. To speak the word, you have to know the word. So yeah, you know, write it on your heart. Yeah, to speak the word, you have to know the word, you know, and I've read some articles about you that you are in the word daily. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Every day. In my study Bible, Josephus, you know, I've got like the concordance, the Hebrew and the Greeks dictionaries. Like I really do, like, I truly go through it all, all the time. I just love it, you know. I think it's really interesting. And I think that when you study the different translations, not that anyone is better or worse than any of the others, but I think that, you know, they all have something to offer. And, you know, that goes for like the Hebrew and the Greek too, because their vocab, like, I don't know how to explain it, but their vocabulary was richer. It was like more dense than ours is. I feel like the words that they chose to communicate what was going on or how they were feeling or what God was saying were chosen for specific reasons. They did a lot of like play on words with, you know, like was it Adam and I can't remember the other one, like that that's similar to his name, but it's like Adan or whatever, you know. And like, so one means Adam and one means something that's like completely opposite and bad that he did or whatever, you know. Hey, you know what, if someone's listening right now, right, so this is mostly a Christian podcast, but a lot of those listeners out there right now, they're not reading the word daily, say like you are or I am. What encouragement would you give to them to pick up the best -selling book of all time, the Bible, right, and get in the word and, you know, taste that a little bit every day. What would you, what encouragement would you give to them? I mean, what do you have to lose, right? Like there's so many places in the Bible where it talks about how we should meditate on God's word. And that's not just sitting there and being like, oh, you know, I'm thinking about your word. But the Hebrew and the Greek actually means to like speak on the utterance, to talk to yourself about it. And honestly, you know, you shouldn't look at it as a chore. I know for a long time, you know, it's not like I've read my Bible every single day for my entire life, right? Like we all go through stages and phases and seasons, but, you know, habits are what you consistently do. So, you know, it's gonna take time to get to that point where, you know, you make it, it's just part of what you do every day. You have your coffee and you sit down and you spend time with God first thing, you know, that's kind of like what I like to do. Just pick a time that works for you. It doesn't have to be like, oh, I'm spending 45 minutes, you know, just literally anything is better than nothing, right? Like God just wants you to say, hey, you're important to me and I'm taking this time out of my day to just spend this time with you. Set yourself up to like read five verses or read a chapter a day or, you know, start with small bits. But I mean, honestly, try not to look at it as a chore. I mean, you're meeting with the creator of the universe and magnificent things happen. Ah, come on. I mean, you know, Jesus is the word, right? Yeah. So, I mean, if you shun the word, you're kind of like shunning Jesus in a way. And he came to give us life more abundantly. So how can you have abundant life if you kind of like refuse the one who's trying to give it to you? Wow, that is, that's deep. That's profound. That is so good. That's the Holy Spirit now. That's the Holy Spirit. Speaking in and through you. Just do the talking. Cause I ramble. People know that. I'll talk forever, especially when it's about God. So I was like, God, please just let the Holy Spirit. Isn't it cool when the Holy Spirit speaks in you and through you and you hear what you just say and you're like, wow, thank you, Holy Spirit. That was totally you. Yeah, that was not me. You're like, whoa, that was good. Yeah, that was fire. That was fire, straight fire. Yeah, I was praying for like tongues of fire to be dropping on people in Albuquerque and stuff. Like it would be so heavy in the arena. Like I pray for that kind of stuff. Like to me, when I walked into church on Sunday, cause I've been doing like a really in -depth study on Joshua. I actually did a pretty in -depth study on judges. And then I went back and did Joshua cause God was like, go read Joshua. And I was like, all right, cool. So that's what I did. And you know, so I walked into church on Sunday and I just, I felt God say, take your shoes off. This is Holy ground, you know? And that was what I prayed over the ring the last time I fought in May, cause they let you go out and check the ring out. And so like, I prayed in the spirit and, you know, people call that speaking in tongues. To me, I call it praying in the spirit. It's personal between me and God. But you know, and I just remember saying like, this is Holy ground. Do you know what I mean? And I like closed the whole circle of it and like, you know, I just, and I pray about it before I go, pray about like his spirit being there, you know, and the Bible says that, that God himself is enthroned on the praises of Israel. And then people want to ask me, like, why do you walk out to Christian rapper, Christian praise music? And I'm like, why wouldn't I, you know, I'm inviting, I'm inviting God to come in and like come into my situation. You know what I mean? And just, and yeah. So to me, it's, it's a lot different, you know? So much of it is spiritually based for me. I mean, even like the hashtag, watch me rise that I use, right? That actually comes from one of my favorite verses in Judges. And it's because it was a woman judge who spoke at Deborah. And you know, I'm always about like the women warriors, like the outcasts that, you know, in society it's like says to be ladylike and they're like, no, I'm going to go fight with the dudes. Like that's who I've always identified with, you know, like Mulan was my favorite Disney movie. Like, yeah. So yeah, I mean, I don't know. I lost her. So, you know what you, you mentioned a moment ago, August. So you have an upcoming fight Albuquerque, right? Just trying to trace that one back, but yeah. But you also mentioned that how you went into the ring and prayed at your last fight. Now your last fight, you beat your opponent. You landed 98 punches to her 26. And you know what I'm like that. Yeah. And you only suffered a few bruises. Tell us about that fight. You know, there was a lot of craziness going into that fight that, you know, I just kind of briefly spoke on and that's pretty much, you know, most of like that's like the gist of what I'll say about it just to like, you know, maintain a modicum of respectability, but basically my corners last minute abandoned me for no good reason. And like one of them wasted a promotion flight and all this stuff, like it was insane. And I'm like at the airport, you know, trying to figure this stuff out. My friend drove down from South Carolina with her mom and her four year old son and like to corner me. And man, it was just wild. Like so many God moments happened. You know what I mean? It was like for every curse, there are two blessings. Like that was, that came true. You know what I mean? Like that was just so evident. And it wasn't just for me. It was for so many other people around me too. Like my friend who came down, she had been, you know, kind of like, you know, a rough state, a stagnant place in her faith with God. And, you know, I guess was feeling some type of way. And when she saw like everything that had happened and how God just like made everything just boom, boom, boom, boom, she was like, look, I told my whole family, there's no way I'll ever question again, if that is real, you know? So literally it was just nothing but God. I was just having a blast. Like I had to put all that stuff out of my mind. I didn't feel any emotion. Like, you know what I mean? I felt some, but I just prayed for protection and peace and to stay on point for what we came there to do. You know, like I had, like I have people who like, I have prayer warriors who literally like that is what we do is we pray over these events. It's not just we're praying over my fight. We're praying over the event as a whole, you know, we're praying over all of the millions of live viewers, you know, that's what we're doing. And it, I mean, hey, I couldn't have, I mean, it was other than, you know, just wanting to push the pace a little bit more. I feel like, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't a bad start to be KFC, you know what I'm saying? And you know what? BKFC, now, one thing I love about you, okay? You're a different breed, okay? You have martial artists, you have your MMA fighters, but tell my audience, maybe some of them don't, they do not know what BKFC is. You're a whole different beast, okay? All right, you're a whole different human beings. So evangelism on fire nation. If you don't know what BKFC is, listen to this. Tell my audience what type of fighter you are, Sydney Sundance Smith. So I started off in MMA, but I was waiting very patiently for them to open my weight class. And when they did, we fight with no gloves, just a little bit of wrap support around your wrist. And you know, I take down some of that. You're talking bare knuckle. Bare knuckles, yeah. Bare knuckles. 100%. She said 100%. Facts, yes. I'm so like, okay, so they're coming up with this new card. It's one in Thailand. It's like the super fight or whatever. And they're letting them do, it's a special rules, bare knuckle Muay Thai. Ooh. I have been bugging the crap out of them. Like, hey, can we get a bare knuckle Muay Thai? And they're like crickets. And then this happens and I'm like, I see y 'all. I see what's happening. Y 'all keep me in mind at 1 .15, I told them, I told all of them, I've told my manager, I've told Dave Felt, I mean, you know, I've told them all. I said, if you start a bare knuckle Muay Thai, don't even ask me any questions, you just sign me up. Sign you up. Every single time you have a fight for me, don't even ask me, don't ask me no questions, just sign me up. Don't do that until the day I cannot fight for. That appeals to me. So how do you go from MMA to bare knuckle fighting? How does that transition happen? Very carefully, I guess. It's hard not to kick people and knee people. I mean, honestly, I was just waiting for them, like I said, to open my weight class. It's been around for five years now. So you're a straw weight, correct? Yeah, yes. All right. They had 1 .25 for a while and I, you know, I've been offered a couple of different, different promotional bare knuckle, you know, fights at 1 .25. But I just, you know, I had a lot of medical issues and stuff and, you know, even now healthy, I have to, I have to work to be at like 1 .32 walking around, you know, like a healthy 1 .32. So there's no way I could fight at 1 .25. Those girls cut from like an insane amount and yeah, no. I'm good at 1 .15, you know, like I can make the weight. It doesn't bother me. I make 1 .15, like my body just automatically knows like, oh, it's time to cut weight. And it just does it. Like I really, you know, I just have this really good system and as long as I stick to it, then I really don't have any problems. I cut weight and I feel so strong. It's so weird, but it's just, I've gotten it down to that, down to that point, you know. You know, one thing that I've heard about you, tell me if this is true, but I've heard that you're a fighter who likes to get hit. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so like, you know, Donald Cerrone, you know, he kind of like a little bit of a slow starter sometimes. He's got to get hit a few times to like kind of wake him up. And then he's just like, you know, like back in the day, that's, that's kind of like me. You know what I mean? It's like, if you don't, if you're not going to exchange with me, it's kind of hard. Like, yeah, I mean, I still fight you, right? But it's not going to be the same level of fight. You know, if you're, if you want to bang with me, you're going to, like, I know people think like, maybe I'm just, you know, exaggerating or whatever, but like, you're going to get a different, a different side of me. Like you're going to bring out something in me that is like, oh, okay, you think that was hard, like my turn. You know what I mean? Like I get to hit you now, right? So I don't know. I just, I love it. I've always loved it. I fought Chelsea McCoy for my first fight, right? Like Rick McCoy's daughter, first ever MMA fight. She hit me so hard, I fought double. I'm not even kidding, right? I didn't know what to do. I had never, like, I was training out of a basement with some, you know, with a guy who had a few amateur fights under his belt. Like, it wasn't like I was Rick McCoy's daughter trained at the MMA Institute, right? I apparently even knew what the MMA Institute was. And I was just like, yeah, I'll fight her. Everybody was like, you're really going to fight her? And I was like, yeah. And then like, I didn't get knocked out or submitted or anything, right? Like we had a good fight, but yeah, she made me see double and I was just kind of like, you know, it was in that moment where it was, it was kind of like, you're either going to do this and you're going to love it. Like, that's going to, that's going to do it for you. You know what I mean? Yeah. Or you're done. You know what I mean? This is not for you. Yeah. And I was just like, I shook my head and I was like, well, then I was like, just pick one, you know? So it kind of solidified that. And you know, so it's not the last time I've seen double in a fight.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Mystery Meat
"Morning. Ashley wasn't kidding. I am glad to be back. I really, really love this church. It's evident every time we go away, and I absolutely love preaching and teaching the Word of God. I get a little jealous when I'm away, to be honest with you, when I see someone else standing behind my pulpit. Just truthfully, I'm jealous over this. I love doing this. It's the greatest privilege in the world. Well, if you're just visiting us, we go through books of the Bible, and we're going through one of the, as if they can be ranked, right? But John has done some incredible work down through history. This book has been used to convert souls, the most unlikely of souls. And so whenever we have taken a little bit of a break, I've been gone for two weeks, and so some of you may have no idea. Some of you can't remember what you did last night, let alone two weeks ago, right? So whenever I'm away for a little while, I like to do a two -minute review of the purpose of the book so that you know why this book was written. In case some of you are here and are not familiar with the Bible and how it works, it's a library. As a matter of fact, biblio means library, and so there are 66 of these books, and each one of them has a different purpose. And the Gospel of John has its own unique, distinct purpose, and here's the job of every interpreter. Every interpreter's job is not to find clever ways to make it mean something that's relevant for their culture. That's not the job of an interpreter. The job of an interpreter is simple. Get in the head of the original author to the original audience. I have to try to find out what John meant. Who cares what we think it means, right? Give me an amen. We want to know what John says it means, and we want to know what John says it means to the first readers. We're not the first readers. This was written to a unique people group a long time ago in the Middle East. And so let's start up again by reframing our mind according to what the author says he wrote this for. At the very, very end of the book, it's 21 chapters long, and at the very, very end of the book, he tells us flat out why he wrote the book. Here's what he says. He says, Jesus performed many other signs, miraculous signs that is, in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. In other words, you're going to have to go somewhere else for those. These, the contents of this book, these have been written so that, here comes the author's purpose statement, so that you may, say the word, be. So that's purpose number one, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And there's a second purpose, that believing you may have life in his name. This, what you're reading, is a true, historical, eye -witness account of the life and ministry of a man who lived in the Middle East, who rose from the dead. That means, if someone raises from the dead and defeats something that you can't defeat, you should probably listen to what he has to say, don't you think? John says, I'm recording every word that man who rose from the dead had to say, so that you can, two things. One, believe, and two, live. Here's the point of the book. The point of the book is to help people believe an eye -witness account to the life of a man who died, and then three days later, got up and walked around. But it's not just so that you can say, okay, I believe. No more John. No. It's so that as you experience seasons of doubt in your life, you come back to John and say, oh yeah, this is why I should keep on believing. And when I'm struggling to believe, John will help to reaffirm your feet on solid ground, so that you go through your whole life saying, I believe. Tomorrow, I'm going to believe again. The next day, I'm going to believe again. John is for the person sitting here who's not a believer. And they know they're not a believer, and someone drug you here. You're here on purpose, and John is written for you. But John is also for the person who's been a believer for the last 66 years. And you know John, but maybe you're in a season of doubt. Maybe you're struggling because you just lost your spouse. John is a book for you. So, before we go any further and dive back into John, we are in, I started in April. That's about five months ago. We're in the fourth chapter of 21 chapters, and we're about halfway through the fourth chapter. And so, I'm sure that all of you remember exactly where we left off, but just in case there's one person who can't remember, let's repurpose our hearts. Let's go before God, every individual. I'm not going to do this for you. You're here as a worship service. That means there's a part for you. You're going to go before God right now, and you're going to say, Lord, I'm here to hear from you. And you spoke through John, and so speak to me through your servant John. Let's do it together. Father, I'm just a tool to act on behalf of the people who are here to meet with their God. As Craig said, you are a living God. No one else can claim that, but we can because Christ is alive. And so, we put our faith in you. I pray that you would help every person here to commit their heart and mind to not just listening to the word of God, but doing what it says. Lord, speak to us, for we are listening. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Fourth chapter of John, it reads like a movie script. I read it again. It's like the 20th time that I've read it just this month. And this week as I was preparing, I read it, and I'm like, some chapters read like a movie script, and some are not like that. Fourth chapter of John, it literally is set up for a producer and director to just go and put this on film. And I couldn't help but this week as I was reading it, my mind went back to a show that I watched when I was growing up. It was the original Batman show with Burt Ward and Adam West from the 70s. How many of you know what show I'm talking about? Just curious. I had a feeling. I grew up on that show. My mom would put it on for me when I'd come home from school. And there was this thing that they did in the show where whenever they would transition to another part, the narrator would come on and say, meanwhile, back in Gotham City, or meanwhile in the Batcave, and then you'd see the transition. The screen would roll, and you'd hear the doodle -a -doodle -a -doo, remember? It's showing you what's happening at a different part at the same time. John 4 is written like that because the text we're going to start with opens up in a meanwhile in another part of town, and my mind just went back to the old Batman as I was raised on. Here's what you're going to learn. If you've been here for a while, then you know that we're in one of the most beautiful dialogues that really I've ever taken in history. It's between Jesus and a promiscuous Samaritan woman, and he is tender with her. Isn't he tender with her? We're going to get back to that dialogue next week, but the writer, the narrator of the story, interjects. He pauses the story, and he wants you to stop thinking about the woman and Jesus for just a moment because there's an absolutely important lesson that Jesus wants to teach his disciples, and it is a major, major pause. And so this morning, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to John 4. We're going to start in verse 31, and we're going to go down through 38. Not very much, but it's a meanwhile, so you can see the screen roll in your head, and here's what it says. John 4, 31 through 38.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Our Mission at EBCC
"September historically has been the kickoff month for our new church year. In the past, this month was when his kids on Wednesday evening began and when we also started up our prayer meeting on Wednesday nights after taking the summer off. But COVID kind of put a crimps on his kids as well as Stanley's stroke. And Wednesday night in Bible study actually was moved virtually before COVID but then it became virtual during COVID and has since moved to Zoom. So, you know, we still kind of consider this month as our traditional historical, our month for kicking off our new church year. This last Sunday, a past Sunday in September marks my anniversary year as your pastor here. Last week I finished 26 years of ministry here and I'm starting my 27th year. Where has the time gone? Except I see some people that I knew when they were real little kids and now they're now they're grown and married. I had part in marrying them, you know, so I do know I'm getting older but, you know, I thought about this over the passing of time with COVID and we've had deaths in our family and we've kind of been apart and now we're together again. It's very easy for us to forget why we are here, why we exist. In the midst of all the activities, we lose sight of our mission. So, on this Sunday that we have dedicated to missions with our multicultural mission event planned for tonight with Curt and Carol here with us this morning and tonight, I want to spend a few minutes this morning refreshing our memories. You know, Peter talks about refreshing memory in second Peter chapter one, about bringing back to your remembrance things I've taught you in the past. And so, I want to spend a few minutes this morning refreshing our memory and what is our mission here at EBCC? Why do we exist? Well, our mission is simply this. It's to share Christ and to build believers, to share Christ and to build believers. This is our mission statement. This is why we exist. We're here to make and build true, genuine, fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. But how do we do that? How are disciples created and built? Now, I find this question, how are disciples created and built intriguing on two counts. First of all, we who have accepted the invitation to come to me that Jesus says, all you who labor in a heavy laden and I will give you rest. We are now Christ's disciples and we are in the process of being made or being built up in Christ.
Let's Talk About It
A highlight from Episode 67: Maternity Housing, the good, the bad, and the beautiful An Interview with Faith Cintron
"Hey welcome back to Let's Talk About It with Jackie and Megan. We like to talk about things that are messy, awkward, hard, or controversial and create a space for healing. Well hey everyone welcome back to Let's Talk About It. Today we are joined by Faith. We are so excited to have her on. She was one of our favorite co -workers back at our job where Jackie and I actually met. It's been a long time coming. But we are going to talk to Faith today about running a maternity home, sort of the good, the bad, and the beautiful. So before we start, Faith could you just tell our audience a little bit about who you are, what you do, fun fact about you. Yeah yeah and and I asked for apologies ahead of time. I'm working tonight and I just had a mommy baby pop in for a second so there might be crying babies. There might be some interruptions. So I am Faith Centron. I've been doing maternity housing ministry for 12 years now. Seven of those have been with the organization I'm currently with. I don't know if we're name dropping or not. And yeah I love it. Fun fact. I don't have any fun facts. Yeah yeah I kind of exist on a plane of insanity so like every day of my life is just hilariously funny. I mean you just taught someone how to make meatloaf. That's like pretty fun. I just taught. We have two residents from Colombia and they have only been in the country for a very short time and so when we were menu planning this week I said let's try American food and I taught her how to make meatloaf and they actually liked it. I think because ketchup. I have learned that Colombian ketchup on everything and that was what won them over. Nice. Can't blame them. A fun fact is that Faith and I both went to the same university. We did. Before I did. Yeah before you did. I don't know how much sooner before I did. I don't know how much older you are. I think a lot, Jackie. I think a lot. Fairly at all. Like a year. Yeah we just missed each other. We totally should have besties on campus. Totally. Well awesome. Wow. 12 years in maternity home work. That is pretty incredible. Did you do anything to celebrate like 12 years or 10 years or anything? I didn't and it like and the anniversary like just passed. No I didn't do anything. So it's still time to celebrate. Right well you know I am where I'm actually taking a week -long vacation starting next week. So I guess that will be my celebration. Yes well deserved. So you've been doing this line of work for a long time and what motivated you to become involved in maternity housing and did you ever think that this would be your career for 12 years? Yeah I you know it kind of happened by accident as all good things do. You know I grew up in a in a very large, very Catholic, very pro -life family and I was actually thinking about this the other evening. You know my my grandparents probably sometime like the early 90s they met this homeless pregnant woman outside of their church and they brought her home and they and she lived with them until their baby until her baby was probably a year old and it was just like I think my grandparents did it wasn't a big deal but like it came to mind I was unloading the dishwasher and I was like huh they kind of set this groundwork and they were very very active in their you know in their in their pro the pro -life organization at their church.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from An Introduction to Acts
"So good to be back again on a Wednesday night. Good to see your faces and appreciate your prayers so much. As I was talking to Pastor Nathan, what's on my heart, I'd like to begin a series of studies from the book of Acts with you tonight. The Acts of the Apostles, or more appropriately, the Acts of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ and through the Apostles' labors. We want to remember some things before we try to delve into the text, actual text. We need to remember that Luke, the beloved physician referred to in Colossians 12. We know that he traveled with the Apostle Paul and most commentators that I've read claim that Luke was a Gentile and that as a Gentile grew up in Antioch of Syria. And if you recall in Acts chapter 13, remember the Apostle Paul and Barnabas were members at the church at Antioch. So that's where the relationship actually began. And Brother Luke is a special character in the tapestry of God's witnesses because he in the gospel narrative that is bearing his name chronicled historically the birth and ministry of Christ as well as his death, burial, and resurrection. And I want to go to Luke chapter 24 and show you how Luke ended his gospel message that was written about 60 to 62 A .D. and connected to the first chapter of the book of Acts. Here we find Christ appearing to his disciples and verse 45, he opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, which would relate to the Old Testament. Remember that's all they had at that time. They had the Old Testament Scriptures, the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi. That's the reference here to Scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things. Now I just want to make this note here. It's Brother Luke that mentions that the gospel is to go to all nations. Now that includes the Gentiles.
The Charlie Kirk Show
A highlight from Tough Love with Charlie and Erika Kirk
"Hey, feeling unsure about your finances these days? You're not alone. That's why Noble Gold Investments is here to help. Just hear it straight from the people who they've helped. The Noble crew walked me through everything with no stress. With their help, I could finally sleep easy at night. And now this month, Noble Gold Investments is handing out a free 5 -ounce silver America the Beautiful coin if you qualify for an IRA. Invest in gold and silver with Noble Gold Investments. Go to noblegoldinvestments .com right now. That is noblegoldinvestments .com right now. Hey everybody, a conversation with my wife, Erica Kirk, about dating, marriage, and relationships. Now, some of this you might find very offensive, especially if you are in your 30s as a female and you're unmarried. If you find it offensive, then that's more of a problem with you than with what we say, because what we just say is true, and maybe you need to hear it. It's hard truth, speaking plainly, in love, so that maybe the Holy Spirit wants you to hear that. So that is your warning, so enjoy the conversation. Email us freedom at charliekirk .com, subscribe to our podcast, open up your podcast application, and type in charliekirkshow. Get involved with turningpointusa at tpusa .com. That is tpusa .com. Start a high school or college chapter today of turningpointusa at tpusa .com. If you want to read the entire Bible in a year, my wife does a Bible ministry, biblein365 .com. That is biblein365 .com, or you can go to proclaimstreetwear .com. That is proclaimstreetwear .com, and get your made in America gear. It's pretty amazing. Check it out right now. Proclaimstreetwear .com. Enjoy this conversation. It's unscripted, telling the truth that people need to hear. I think you'll enjoy it. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here.
The Refiners Furnace
A highlight from A MAN'S GIFT
"Hi everyone good morning you're welcome to the refinance on his podcast once again and I'm your host the beneath the bassin I trust that the Lord is he then has been so gracious to you all right without wasting most of your time I I just wanted to share a bit of what the Lord is laying in my heart this morning with you and I'm trying to bring a corrective doctrine and let's bring a balance to this very subject because it has been it has been trending for a while and I just want us to have a proper understanding what scriptures really talked about our central text will be taken from Proverbs chapter 18 from verse 16 and it is actually talking about the wisdom in getting along with others okay so I got to understand that to actually relate properly with other people that there is a certain kind of wisdom that the Lord has the Lord expect of us yes there's something that the Lord expect of us yes there is an attitude there's a lifestyle it expects us to live so I I trust that the Lord will help us this morning in the name of Jesus so Proverbs chapter 18 from verse 16 I'm gonna read it in different translations and how the myths of God explain it I mean bit by bit so the Bible says in King James Version a man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men all right the good news Bible says that do not do you want to meet an important person is it take a gift and it will be easy that's a good news translation so let's go to the passion translation the person translation says would you like to meet a very important person is it take a generous gift it would do wonders to gain entrance into his presence you see this very scripture is bringing so much attention to what has been trending so they must gift make it room for him so a lot of people used to think it is what they call it now it is relating to someone's inherent talent someone's order calling now like let's say gifting oh I was born with a gift but the scriptures in Hebrew chapter 18 is practically talking about your relationship with other people and in verse 16 the Bible says if you want to get access you want to meet an important person if you want to be faithful by an important person now we're not talking about bribery as in Proverbs chapter 17 essentially Proverbs chapter 17 was talking about bribery no it's not bribery but this is this gift is giving you access now this talks about access to to important personalities amen so the Bible says if you want to meet an important person get a generous gift and it's going to do wonders I think that's a passion translation you're going to do a lot of wonders so I also carefully look at this in some other perspectives so the Proverbs is a simple recognition of factual generosity and politeness opens many many doors so you can just go to meet an important person for example the let me get let me get let me get that scripture straight but I want to really place so much emphasis I mean so much so much emphasis on on this very subject because I know that there has been a whole lot of misappropriation miss everything has been I mean everything has been taken in the wrong direction so Deuteronomy chapter chapter come chapter 16 verse 16 the Bible says three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose in the feast of unleavened bread and in the feast of weeks and in the feast of tabernacles and they shall not appear before the Lord empty amen so this is not talking about your talent not talk about your gift this is more of your reverence your honor to a person that you you revere highly this is having to talk about your attitude your your the level at which you are not a person that this important person you're going to me so it must make it so all that can be very foolish and they go to meet an important person empty handed okay but you came with a gift you have so much access okay you have so much attention because you you have whole not this person coming to it you did not come to meet this person empty handed you came with something so a gift is more is more general than bread so here the proverb simply says that a gift can expedite matters but says nothing about bribing judges no so in Genesis chapter 43 verse 11 Jacob knew well and therefore paid his sons to take a present for the governor of the land presented a governor of the land though it were though it were both of every good thing a little so saw in first so was very very I mean King Saul was very very attentive to this very fact so his father's ass got missing and the guy said is there no man of God and the servant of which he was talking with said there is one there's one we know there's one we know and then when he went to go and see the man of God to inquire about is the loss as he did not go empty okay so it can it can it can also be an innocent courtesy of very early con that's a gift to reconcile that like a present Minha sent to the captain that was in first how much as a 20 generous at the 43 verse 11 that's King that's also please you have to take note of this very passage so that say that um you can really understand where I'm coming from and what I'm actually talking about so a lot of people misuse this very subject I mean they talk about their giftings and how talented you are and you see a lot of people start to charge before they can be a blessing to God's people they collect so much money some will be asking you how much is your honorarium budget because they believe that that the scriptures here is talking about what they have inside of them what the Lord gave to them is it freely I have given and I mean freely I've received and then free you have to give so they don't you know that very very scripture they go ahead you go ahead to scatter the the context of scripture just to suit their personal lost I think I made this I made something about this podcast episode happy some some some weeks ago about how people will go about decontextualizing the scripture just to suit their personal lost so a minister who is drawn after Mammon or who is was so much lost for money will now be selling what God gave to him freely and that he was supposed to to give out freely because God gave it to him freely so a man of God will start mechanizing the gift the giftings of God and then using the scripture to to back it up please I beg in the name of God we need to go back to our Bible studies we need to we need to check yes I know you spent so much I know you spent a whole lot to improve on yourself yes second Timothy chapter 2 I think from verse 15 apostle Paul was speaking to Timothy is a study to show yourself approved a workman and it's not patient so the Lord invested in you of course you will need to you will need to work that out you need to make him know that truly you're not wasting that which he bestowed in you amen you need to prove that okay I'm not saying that ministers of the gospel the mind of God should not be cornered of course when they are the concept I know you are still asking me to give you a million dollars you are outside the kingdom of God I'm telling you the truth now I expect to you in all honesty I tell you nothing I am NOT talking because I'm perfect I'm into the full image but I am bringing by the message how do you say part of the money to account before you come now we take the context or the lifestyle of the world to God's Kingdom yes the Lord is supposed to the Lord is supposed to sincerely yes but this is not the root the Bible says he blessed the works of your hands yes now now believe me the fact that you're doing ministry does not mean that you should not walk amen now the fact that you are you a minister of the gospel doesn't mean that you should be I don't know except and unless the Lord sends you I said oh go and do justice and if the Lord asks you to I mean give yourself totally to this cause which he has chosen you for I'm sure he's going to make provision not you make challenging and looking for ways to provide for yourself no how about some sweet little Lord is my shepherd I shall not want if you really know the God in which you are serving you should understand it now to Elijah the Bible says that the Lord commanded arabian arriving to what to feed him now I want you to understand that the Lord cannot really I mean the Lord truly sent you on an errand and then he leaves you empty it's impossible I mean it is extremely impossible like you I mean deconstructorization You are a spiritual, you should, you should, you should talk of midterm dancing.
Leading Saints Podcast
"first ministry" Discussed on Leading Saints Podcast
"This is before the meeting is? No, it's like right in the middle of the meeting. Oh, OK. Gotcha. It's what made it so amazing. So you've got 20 people up there. They're like, what are we doing up here? Right. But there's 20 of them. And then he shares the scripture again and says, what did you just see? And people noted that this personal one on one ministry, getting down on the level of the individual on your knee, eye to eye, bringing them up, walking with them, bring them to the front and then turning around and inviting them to do the same is powerful. So we started to teach this as a stake presidency to our elders quorum presidents. We said, presidents, one thing we maybe are not as great at as a stake is that we have a lot of endowed members who don't have active temple recommends. And at one point in their life they did. And they made covenants in the temple and they had this active recommend and now they don't. And so what we'd invite you to do is to identify with your counselors six people who have elapsed recommend that you can go out one on one and visit and invite them back and then invite them to do the same and invite somebody else. And in the course of just a few short months, we've seen some tremendous miracles because it's this, again, one on one personal ministry. Most elders quorums oftentimes see their calling as a lesson, an activity, maybe a little bit of ministering here and there. But when we look at it as a true personal ministry, it blows the lid off of it and people start to go out and miracles happen. People come back that haven't had recommends in decades and we start to see a lot of change. So it's just the idea of, again, the organization will rise no higher than the effectiveness of the leaders. And if the leaders are looking to constantly improve and do things in a different way and have a personal ministry, the Lord can do his own work and he'll take care of the rest. Yeah, that's so powerful. Just thinking, going back to that where you started with considering your own effectiveness as a person or your own as a disciple, because sometimes the lid of these opportunities is the calling, right, that I'm a bishop, so I can only do this much. I'm an elders quorum president this much. But to sort of step into the posture with God to say, what if we remove the lid that I think is there and what does that look like? And then the invitation to come. And I love that the story of that invitation that it often comes to that, like he wants you to step into that, whether it's personal ministry or whatever. Yeah, it's a powerful concept. It's, again, kind of shaped our presidency. And I know it's been on my mind a lot. I oftentimes think, OK, I need to point people to the Savior and I need to be improving my own personal effectiveness as a leader because I don't ever want to be the barrier to our effectiveness as a leadership team, as a stake presidency or as a stake in general. And so we're pouring a lot of time and attention into training and just really helping all of our leaders at all levels understand and get trained. Right. We just and trained according to the handbook, but also trained according to just fundamental principles of interpersonal communication and meeting effectiveness and public speaking and and things that we hope will help elevate the culture of the stake. That's great. Any other concept or principle that we need to tackle or we do it? I think we did it. It's a powerful one as you take it back. So maybe the next step, you might say, so what do I do if I'm listening to the podcast today? I think there are a couple of things that come to mind. First of all, in Preach My Gospel, there's a self-assessment of Christlike attributes. It's a really great place to start where you can go through and work this self-assessment and ask yourself, how am I doing with regard to these various traits or characteristics of the Savior and then continue to set goals to develop in certain areas to increase your personal effectiveness? I know with teaching in the church, there's also a teaching assessment that you can do. Let's come out with our Come Follow Me teaching instruction. You can look that up on the church's website and you can assess yourself as a teacher. How well do I do engaging the class, asking good questions. And so these types of assessments give you a good benchmarking to figure out what to improve. I think most importantly is, again, go to the Savior and ask him, turn to the Savior and ask, Lord, what lack I yet? What could I do to be a more effective husband, father, mother, wife, brother, sister, church member, a more effective leader? What can I do to just be more effective? And the Savior will tell you, he will show you and then continue improving. And as you do, that lid will just get higher and higher. Your effectiveness will increase. The people you serve will be blessed and you will feel that strong connection to the Savior.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Matthew: The Temptation Of Jesus Christ
"In chapter 4 of Matthew, our Savior was led out into the wilderness where He was tempted for 40 days by the devil. But what did the devil think He was going to accomplish? Did He really think He could convince Jesus to sin? And why did Jesus undergo this temptation in the first place? Those questions will be the focus of today's study. Does the Devil Think that He Can Win? Does the devil think he can win? In today's text we are considering this temptation of Jesus which occurred when Jesus goes out in the wilderness at the very outset of His ministry and the devil comes and tempts Him at least these three times over a course of some 40 days. And given the lengthy amount of time that went by and given the amount of intervals in which the devil went at Him, you have to wonder, did the devil think that one of those approaches or all of them might succeed? Did the devil think that he could be victorious? Did the devil think that he could win? It probably depends on how you define winning. If the question is, does the devil think he can win? It probably depends on how you define winning. You see, we tend to define winning, especially when it's mono e mono or one force against another force. We tend to define it in, I guess, I don't know, wrestling terms. Two men enter and one man leaves sort of thing. Whoever is the last man standing is the one who wins. When we think of this sort of conflict with these sort of stakes, we think that he who is standing at the end of it is victorious. Now, under that definition, if you think long term, we think that only God will be victorious at the end of days. We see the devil cast into the pit of fire and we say there's only going to be one standing, only one standing, that will be God Himself because He's bigger and stronger and more powerful and transcendent and all these things. Well, here's the thing. I don't think the devil defines winning the way we might. I don't think the devil believes that he can out muscle God. I really don't. I don't think that's something he believes is an option. He's going to out muscle God. However, however, he may have thought this. He may have thought that although he might not be able to out muscle God, he may have thought that he could at least become equal to God. Maybe he thought that he could at least share the stage with God. In fact, I can prove it. Isaiah chapter 14, we read this, how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, how you're falling from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mountain of the congregation on the farthest sides of the earth. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. I don't think the devil thinks that he can make God subordinate to him, but I do think that in his perverted sinful mind, he thinks that he and God can be equals. In fact, he's always had a complex with that. And Isaiah 14, he says, I can ascend. I can be like the most high. He overtly says that. And God says, no, and that's why you're being judged the pride that you think you could do that. But what was the temptation to Eve? He comes up to Eve and he offers the same idea. Eve from the tree, what will happen? You'll be like God, knowing good and evil. I think the devil has a complex about this, the idea of being like God. Now, how could that equality occur? Is it possible? Well, we know, no, it's not. But theoretically, how could that sort of equality occur? Can the devil ever rank up, you know, perk up, rise up to God's level? Can he ever do that? Can the devil ever graduate and become the level that God's at in terms of power and authority and might? Well, probably not. However, maybe the objective of the devil isn't necessarily that he's going to rank up to God's level. Maybe, maybe the objective is to bring God down to his. And that's how the equality would be attained. When a child rebels against a parent, the objective isn't necessarily that I'm going to overthrow my parents. They know that's not an option. But if a child can make the parent frustrated, if a child can make the parent break ranks from their previous attitudes, if a child can make a parent sin, then what happens? Well, then we're both wrong. Sometimes children in sin are just looking to get their parents to that point of anger and heat and temper where they do something wrong. And what is the net effect of that? It brings the parent down to their level, right? We're both wrong. There's an equality that could perhaps be attained if you can take the parent down to your level as a child. Well, what do you think's going on here in the wilderness? The devil's tempting Jesus to do what? To sin. And what would be the outcome of that? Well, suddenly, suddenly then, the differences between the devil and Jesus are just a matter of degree and not of nature. It's very possible. I can't say this dogmatically because I don't know what dogmatically, but it's very possible that that's the objective. To somehow even the playing field to be like God, if I can't rise up to His level, maybe I can break Him. Whatever the case, the objective here clearly is that the devil wants Jesus here to do that which He shouldn't do, to give in the temptation of the human flesh. And as we're going to see in the text, Jesus won't fall for it. All right, let's expand on this now. Let's look at verses one and two and then just work our way through this short passage. Verses one and two. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This is not an accident. This is intentional. God sends him there. The Spirit leads him there. And when He had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, which is a significant number, afterward He was hungry because He was a man of flesh and blood, just as He was fully God, He was also fully man. All right. As we said a few moments ago, this passage occurs at the outset of Christ's ministry, really at the start. It's right after He was baptized and before He recruits His disciples, which will occur later on in this same chapter. Now, verse one suggests that the Spirit, remember, had come down as a dove at Christ's baptism and lighted upon Him. The same Spirit drives Him out after the baptism. After God has said, this is my Son in whom I am well pleased, He's driven out into the wilderness in order that He would be tempted, in order that He would be tested, in order that His obedience would be put to the test in the most difficult of landscapes. Now, again, at face value, you can stand back and go, well, why? I mean, I get it happened, I read it happened, but why? Why did God the Father, why did the Spirit hand deliver the Son into just the most rugged landscape on earth, which if you've ever been there or looked out upon it, it's like the moon. It's hard to describe. When you look out at this, it looks like the least desirable place you could possibly ever spend a day, let alone 40, 40 days here. So why would He go out into that environment in order to encounter the world's toughest spiritual adversary? You're sending someone in the worst circumstance, the worst environment, in order to encounter the worst adversary they'll ever face. Why? Well, let me answer that question as best I can in the shortest amount of time I can answer it. R .C. Sproul, the Presbyterian theologian, he explained it in this way, and I'm partial to this, but he says, all right, here's the first Adam, way, way, way back in the garden, was tempted by the devil, right? The devil basically asked him some variations of the same thing, or asked Eve some variation of the same things that we're seeing here, put God's word to the test, and without any hesitation, Adam and Eve, our first parents, yielded to temptation and did that which was wrong. So the first Adam messed up, and the result of the first Adam messing up is that you and I are messed up. We might not like it, but that's the way it is. We are fallen as a result of being the progeny of our parents' first sin, our federal heads first sin all these years back. So Adam messed up. Well, in Romans 5, we see that, all right, if Adam is messed up, then what do we need? Well, we need a better Adam to come along. If Adam messed up, we need a better Adam to come along and do that which is right and live up to God's standard and to pass the tests and temptations that he might face. Well, Sproul makes the case, and I agree, that the whole objective here going out in the desert is that the second Adam would do what the first Adam failed to do, be tempted and yet stand. But here's the difference. If you think about Adam and Eve, think about the garden. Was the garden a nice place? What do you think? I would think so. Based on everything we read there, it sounds pretty grand. So Adam and Eve are just in this lush garden. There's fruit on all sorts of trees. I mean, there was one tree not to eat from. Everything else was cool though, right? So there's animals and plants and flora and fauna and just good times. It's the garden of Eden. It can't be that bad. Contrast that to the wilderness here. And what you see is that one difference between the test of the first Adam and the second Adam is the environment.
Liberty Station
"first ministry" Discussed on Liberty Station
"The ability to teach is not just something reserved for the position of pastor and teacher evangelist and apostle and prophet. It is something that we are all supposed to be doing at a very minimal level. We're always have room for that. We need to learn from our passes and teachers. We need to be given into the word and study so we can so we can lead people, not just to our churches, but lead people into discovering how to discover truth on their own. I teach a class hermeneutics class at the church, and I invite people to come in and learn, but I focus on the men so I can empower them to be the teachers of their families. So they can go and have that position within their households to be the teacher. I tell them all the time. I don't want your wives come to me for a question. They should be able to come to you. If they have a question, you don't know, come to me. But you need to take that position of spiritual authority in your home. I am not the spiritual authority in your home. I was watching your podcast with Lucas. Oh, yeah. The other day. And he talked about the spheres of authority. As pastor, that sphere of authority does not cross into your home. You are the shepherd of your home. So my job is to empower you to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. You as a man, your first ministry is your home. So you need to be able to teach. So our job is to empower them, and not just say, hey, everybody come to church, listen to my pastor. He's amazing. That's all well and good. And we should feel good about our pastors. And we do need to take that seriously. We do need to communicate in a way that's going to that's going to draw people to the lord. But once we get them in, the goal is to get them out. It's a family model rather than a corporate model. A corporate model says, let me get a good product together and let me get my clients and we got to keep our clients. We got to keep our clients helping keep them happy. And this is where you get into trouble with pastors who want to keep their clientele happy and don't want to lose them, so they will forgo the truth in order to make sure that they're offering plates stay full. Yeah, that's a danger of treating a church like it's a business. But we treat it like a family. Yeah. What do we want with our children? We want to raise them up. We want to instill in them all that we have learned and pray dear God. Let them be better than me. And then send them out to do what God has called them to do and then stay on our knees and watch them soar. This is the way pastors need to approach their churches. I want to see ministries come out of the church. I want to see men rise up and be better teachers and better passes not necessarily from the pulpit, but
Liberty Station
"first ministry" Discussed on Liberty Station
"So twofold, what we're doing now is once the baptism occurs, we tell them how important that walk is. You got to get in the work. Once you're back, this is the key. This is the best business book that's the best marriage book. This is the best book for anything in life. Every answer is here. This is how you get to know him. And Satan's going to try to push you away from that. The word of God. So if you know he's pushing away, that's how much he wants you in that. So that's number one is to get in the word of God. We were putting on small groups to bring people in to gather to know more about Christ. And then through the process of knowing pastors and good churches that are out there that teach them biblical values and not itchy ears that I trust, we fill up a lot of churches. We send them to churches in California all over the United States that if we trust that particular pastor, we're going to say go find your home there. There, go in. There's a building here. Go into that particular church and you'll be fed. So we don't compete with other ministries. We actually try to fill other ministries. Yeah, that's great. Well, I'm not sure how familiar you are with what turning point is doing. Charlie Kirk's organization, but TPUSA faith rob McCoy is the co chair of that, and he's our pastor here. And he's running around the country, making sure that. The word is spread of what's going on and get these other churches to participate and wake up and stand boldly and all that. So maybe there's some synergies there because we're getting these churches around the country to recognize what's happening and he and Charlie are doing amazing work for that. So your pastor has got it right because that's what it's all about. It is teamwork. It is not competition. At the reawaken tour, we had passed her lock, bring in a patriot to accept Christ. As soon as he accepted Christ, he came over to me and a baptism. I baptized them, and out of the water he came, he got prayed over by pastor Todd coconut. That's what it's all about. It's a matter of one ministry better than another. It's all about the glory of God. And let's team up as one is ecclesia. Yeah, because we would not they could not lock us down if we all are standing. And that was the very first problem in the initial lockdowns was the grasshoppers kept us all this ants all thinking that we couldn't stand up to them. That's right. And you know what? We can't allow it to happen again. We the people through Jesus Christ are the majority and will always be the majority. He was then as a stronger than he was in the world.
Exponential Podcast
"first ministry" Discussed on Exponential Podcast
"You know so. I'm so resentful spewing this all over the place who would wanna come home. We were just in this cycle of. I would say you're gone. He would say no. You guys are priority and so it was just. We couldn't meet each other. And so that night. I was trying to say that. I'm okay like yeah. Nothing's wrong because david really put on pretty fabulous night in man. I was like way to go. This is incredible. But i also felt like too late dude. I've got nothing left and so you want to build this kingdom. Go ahead i'm out. That's kind of where we were. And i'll just add this amazing thing is. I would've i would've told you. As i said we are together you know the theme of exponential this year i would have felt. I really thought we were together. And yet if you look at my calendar and you look at our marriage you said dude. You can't see your missing it. You are not together. You're off doing your ministry with starting his church and sort of taking care of the family and you don't see it until that night and when she said that again. There's so much more of the story but in the moment when she said that on i finally listened to her because she said i've been bitter and resentful. Now i'm just numb. God spoke to me. It was this miraculous moment. Where i didn't hear an audible voice but god through his spirit that lives right here said repent and i knew what repent meant. I knew god was saying you are lukewarm. You're doing ministry but you're not connected with me. I mean we're speaking around the country at that point about marriage and here we are. You know and. I don't even realize how bad it is but repent meant you know. Go back and do the things you did it. I john i mean. Excuse me revelation to the church emphasis you know. I applaud you for these things. But you've lost your. I love and so the night ended and again. We're cutting out all the details but the night ended with me on my niece because i realized i thought it was a marriage problem and it really was. That's what we call. Vertical was a vertical problem. The horizontal can be fixed just by talking but i needed to get right with god and again. I'm not insane. I'm not in moral stint. It was just i was. I was misdirected. I was giving my life to the ministry and again gotta call us. But i was forgetting net. You can't do that if you're not together at home. And this is your first ministry so long story. Short i repented out loud. I said god i have not put you in first place. I put the ministry in front of the one administering four. I need to put you back on the throne. My life helped me be the husband and dad. You called me to be. And i honestly dave thought okay now. Let's talk because we need to talk. And i was just about to get up back on the front seat of this car and i look over and hands on her knees and she's brain. Yeah i just..
KZSC 88.1 FM Santa Cruz
"first ministry" Discussed on KZSC 88.1 FM Santa Cruz
"In the Israeli negative desert. Palestinian prisoners resisted the move. Some of the leaked footage is showed gods praying Palestinian prisoners with pepper spray and beating them with rifle butts and batons. Islam Abdu is a spokesperson for the Palestinian detainees at First ministry. In Gaza. Yeah, This is unacceptable collective punishment. It is unacceptable to punish these detainees for the escape of their colleagues who all deserve freedom. There needs to be action to put an end to the Israeli attacks against our detainees. Earlier management. Abdu told KPFA that various detainees institutions in Gaza, including his ministry, held a press conference to call for international intervention. Earlier this week, high profile Palestinians tunneled their way to freedom in one of the most dramatic such present breaks in Israel. The escape has prompted a massive Manhunt in northern Israel and the occupied West Bank. Various Palestinian institutions, including the Western backed party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have warned Israeli security forces not to harm the prisoners if they find them. Zakaria Zubeidi, who belongs to the Fatah party, and has been held under administrative detention since 2019, along with five other detainees from the Islamic Jihad party, were able to make their way out of the Garbo detention facility, which is believed to be the largest of 15 Israeli detention centers. Reacting to the event, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says that Israel is open to all possible scenarios, including a new wave of violence and the region. But Dr Mahmoud allies remain at Gaza based veteran political analyst downplays Bennett's remarks given what he believes to be previous Israeli military failures. He adds that Israel needs to revise its longtime detention policy. In this are the importance of this escape for Israel cannot be overstated. The Palestinian response will mainly depend on the fate of those six detainees who were able to break out of prison Corn Valley. A statement from the ruling Hamas party called escape a victory for the will and determination of heroic Palestinian prisoners. And a real challenge to the Z honest security system, which the occupation boasts as being the best in the world..
The Loveish Podcast
"first ministry" Discussed on The Loveish Podcast
"If I'm saying, I have 50 million things to do. Someone asks me, could you come and help me do XYZ? And I say, yes to that. Knowing full well that I am beyond my capacity of functioning, then that now falls on me. And then I wonder why I end up frustrated, exhausted and lonely at the end of the night. We gotta stop doing that. And we have to divorce ourselves from this cultural thought process that I have to do is simply because of your role in my life. What I mean by that is so many times we think to ourselves, oh, I have to do this because this is my feeling the blank. Because blood is thicker than water because this is how we handle this. No, you don't. If it is out of alignment with number one, what God told you to do, number two, what you need to do, then it's a no. And I know some of us listening are probably like, okay, but I don't even know if this is what God told us to do or told me to do. There's some basic commands that the Holy Spirit gave us. For example, taking care of your children, taking care of your family, that's your first ministry. If that is my first ministry, then some things I just don't need to be told. It's out of alignment with what God has for me if it impedes on my ability to take care of my first ministry. Because I am called to be obedient regardless. That's like if you tell a child to clean their room or make their bed, you don't have to tell them every single day. Make your bed make your bed, make your bed. No, it is a set expectation. So now if you're not making your bed, you're not meeting expectations and you're not being obedient. God doesn't need to tell us repeatedly to pause and take care of your family, pause and do this. Like I told you to do if he gave you an assignment if he told you to do something, it is up to you to obey that assignment and to do that thing. And we have got to stop being distracted by the tactics that the enemy uses to throw off our focus. Culturally we're taught to ignore boundaries. And that's not biblical. Everything, every relationship has boundaries. Every relationship functions well with boundaries. And the Bible says there is a time a season and a purpose for everything. So we have to remember that. There's a time in the season. And some seasons call for you to hustle responsibly. While others leave a little wiggle room for you to be a bit more relaxed, but the assignment remains the same. All right, Charles, so before we hop into the very last way that you can be more authentic, we're gonna pause and have a word from our sponsor for this episode. Hey, girl. Did you know that statistics show black women have a higher chance of developing high blood pressure and other subtle life threatening diseases?.
The Confessionals
"first ministry" Discussed on The Confessionals
"Yeah you can just talking to her about things She she looked at things different than i did. She was going to be She thought she was going to be a non so She was very strong. I i and i like the catholic church and we live two blocks from the church and when mom went in the hospital They they would come over and hang out the non square. They were really nice. They weren't those mean nuns. You hear about super nice. I didn't have any any Anything against the catholic church. My experiences were good but Yeah yeah we were. We were raised catholic. Dad wasn't but he would attend church when we were young but Anyway that's it for the. Don't how i grew up I get like i did mention to you. I think you know. Maybe an email not email tax that i was involved Senior high school with the ministry and as soon as they were vangel man. He's a bench list and they had three boys. And as soon the night i graduated i moved to their house and traveled with them for a while and Yeah i lived with him for a while then they moved to tulsa and i live with them for a while there too. So yeah i've been. I was involved in ministry. I was okay. Then we go to toast. Can i go to tulsa now to show. You can get one so Because of the one ministry they introduced this can pagan and kenneth copeland and That ministry that was in the oregon. And what's that. They're heavy hitters. Those are big names. I yeah they are and So i went to raymond. That's hagans school and coppola became a lot I actually talked to his wife. One time too but And i was involved in. Raimo was involved in some of the teachers. I better look at my notes to see where i'm going from here. Okay so i moved in with the teacher and his family took care of the boys For short time in between not having a job. And i got a job at fama. Pike.
Joseyphina's World
"first ministry" Discussed on Joseyphina's World
"Greater than this series is dedicated to all choristers who are serving in god's house with all of their heart and strength. Your ministrations have helped and comforted many. Don't give up when it gets tough. Just keep going in the might of the lord name in re part six here the musical service which was slated for the coming sunday was postponed to accommodate one of the head pastors colleagues. Who had come down from the uk. His sermon style of preaching was a fresh sound in the ears and one could tell by the response of the congregation to the pastor's words the energetic amen. You are preaching. God bless you with enthusiastic. Claps was the reaction which had been on the low for some time. Charlotte wondered what was going through her pastor's mind as he sat cooling watching his colleague willing his church folks with the word. Many people got up from their seats to drop money into the offering ball after catching the raimo. Even the choir ministered with a fresh anointing and those known to never get up from their seats to dance but would rather fold their arms and now their heads and tap their feet were standing dancing and singing along did he feel jealous of his friends. Unique charisma did he feel betrayed by his congregation for showing more interest in a visitor sermon than his. Maybe not. he's a man of god after all right ministers were matured in the likes of her. Who were petty enough to entertain such negative emotions. But one would never know the thoughts of the unassuming man minister. Remember the visiting pastor left after leading short prayer session when he was done preaching to the offer tori and announcements the head. Pastor walked to the pulpit to say the closing prayer and shared the grace but he had some few words to share. I it is indeed true that a prophet is not honored in his hometown. The same thing happened to jesus and that is why the bible records that he didn't do many miracles there due to the people's unbeliev. If only you'd honor me is god's chosen vessel. God will demonstrate his power in this church. I will soon start sermon. Series titled why. You should honor your leader. Sandra drew close to charlotte and whispered in her ear jealous much. Charlotte stifled a chuckle. After service frank announced that there would be no rehearsals. He needed them to rest since intensive rehearsals would resume the next day. Charlotte side thankfully. She needed the rest on tuesday. Frank posted on the choirs. Whatsapp group. Page that sandra had fallen ill and was being admitted at a hospital. How could that happen. She was perfectly fine on sunday. Charlotte thought worriedly. After work. she went to the hospital to visit her dear friend. Charlotte couldn't hold back her tears when she noticed that sandra had lost her voice. She seemed very weak. How could you fell ill at this time. She couldn't see herself holding the ford for the entire musical service. Well she could but she didn't want to. She had grown to see sandra's or other half their vocal harmony has come to sync with their budding. Friendship and sunday was going to be a big day for both of them. Sandra touched her hair charlotte in her with red eyes. Don't cry. I'll get well soon. Sandra said faintly a nurse came in with frank followed by comfort ama- james and a few other choir members. Sandra smile here comes. My family. Tried to say how are you feeling of comfort. Asked holding sandra other hand. Sandra nodded i had planned to come alone but comfort suggested that all come to show how much we care we have a big event ahead of us and we need to be on the podium with us. I'm not feeling well. I don't think i'd recover in time for sunday's program. Sandra said in her horse voice. Don't say that nothing is too hard for god to do. We believe that if we join hands and pray in faith you will be healed. Do you believe that comfort. Ask sandra. I believe sandra said tears running down her face comforts smiled and squeezed her hand. Charlotte was deeply touched by their presence. She had always seen the choir is some group. She had joined. But no real connection with apart from sandra but she was wrong. Sandra was right in calling in a family. Shall we pray comfort. Said they all help hands around her bed. I'm a raised a song and they all began to sing. The song came at harmoniously and full of heartfelt emotion. Comfort prayed in at the end. It was charlotte. who was crying comfort. huckster her and rocked her till she stops sobbing. She'll get well soon. And while she became sandra discharge two days later on their last rehearsal. On friday night they sang almost perfectly. The few lapses were met with playful teases and warm laughter unlike the usual spiteful remarks. Everyone felt at home singing so the harmony came out naturally. Brotherly love was in the air. Frank looked really pleased with himself. Okay before we leave for the night. Let's decide on who would be leading the worship and praises. Sandra would you to. I think comfort should handle the worship. Sandra said shocking. Everyone she shrugged. She has the passion to worship so she should do it. What do you say comfort. Sandra asked turning to look at her. But my voice. Don't worry charlotte. And i have got your back. Whenever you're losing it we will be right there at your rescue. She assured her glancing at charlotte who recovered from the shock yet. Sure you ever at your backup service. Sandra cecchini great and praises. Sandra in charlotte stared at each other and with an unspoken exchange. They smiled armagh. They both said you upper it. Frank asked she nodded eagerly great so charlotte and james with one duet. Sandra and i with another you to with a couple. I think we're good to go. Anyone has any concerns. Everyone shook their heads he nodded. Let's go through the songs one more time shall we. After the rehearsal. Sandra walked up to comfort. She hugged her before comfort. Could say anything. Thank you for coming to visit me at the hospital and praying for me. I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for your prayers. Sandra gratefully we. Thank god for your healing. And i'm glad that i can count on you on sunday. We're all vessels of one ministry. You fall. I hope you get up and vice versa. Comfort smile charlotte. Watch them feeling. So impressed and proud of sandra. She was amazed at the change of heart atmosphere in the room. The selfish competitive spirit was gone and in its place was a heart of love and fellowship. Thank you lord for working on us. She prayed wordlessly. What are you smiling about. Sandra asked as she walked towards her. I'm just happy that you're back. It wouldn't have felt the same without you I can still picture you crying. Your is out at the hospital. What were you scared of. I didn't want to stand on stage alone without you sing that. I didn't want to Ain't that sweet. I'm glad i'm back to can't wait to rock the stage. Can you charlotte chuckled. Neither sunday service was an extraordinary one. Comforts worship session was powerful and avas praises time was uplifting a couple of times comfort. Turn to look at sandra who winked at her and then stepped in so comfort. Get the time to find her voice. Range again no. One tried to outdo the other everyone saying to his or her best ability but in harmony and their dance was equally delightful to watch and it was glorious. comfort did the altar call before their last ministration. The end of the song was met with a standing ovation with a loud applause. Charlotte and sandra held hands and the others followed suit. They bowed their heads in appreciation. Charlotte smile this was what it should feel the minister. This was a new beginning and she was ready to start afresh. And do things the right way not to perform for personal glory. God's so help me. God copyright josephine amoco 2017 kindly subscribe to my newsletter thanks..
Horizon Talk Radio's podcast
"first ministry" Discussed on Horizon Talk Radio's podcast
"In the last few years with jimmy savile ventilate gina and movie. Cently the former soccer coaches at the elite level of the game such cases along with high profile incidents involving rings. Now i've finished yet but them pay the forming. This of dissipated will have i is pumped Slash from the british public against what was perceived to be widespread institutional failures in the safeguard of children. Now the ics. I the international independent inquiry to chop sex. The booze it when in england and never really done much for the for the victims skies one definitely did it south of funds to help claimant and this very Loan in people to put up rocatien skies child abuse inquiry funded Address screaming rs one while the could be addressed because often i mean the the the money of i'm gonna say it. You know the poor kids dressed to be buggered and then you know the goldmans redressing them. Well that's about compensation scheme old sexual injury. Whatever you wanna call is good but of redress game. It just seems that. Tighten the Anybody this article talks about royal drive institutions around the world dumb. Been guilty of covering up and go onto. I liked what you just said you know about. I i really liked that and that that that putting Use of undress and redress that. That's that's really that's how he's greens think. And there's no way you could convince me that there is not an element of satanism in our government. Like when you think about government ministry government ministries like the ministry of environment the ministry of health the ministry of whatever i mean ministry. Where on earth did they come up with that one ministry ministry of satan. Is that what they're talking about. Because it's clearly not a ministry of the church. It certainly not in a secular society that all of our modern democracies are i mean. Britain is secular Pool you know. It's a secular government and canada's also a secular government australia's as secular government a nonreligious on theocratic government. So what are they doing calling these government ministries..
KQED Radio
"first ministry" Discussed on KQED Radio
"Can I have a covert A covert positive history and when returning to Taiwan travelers must complete a 14 day period of self health monitoring? That includes five days of avoiding crowds and public transportation. These trips to Palau are also restricted. You have to join a group tour offered by a select number of travel agencies and all of your activities are limited to a set itinerary. I would say I'd like to go back to the law again, just In my own terms because it was hooking bythe time. Demand for the trips has dropped since the bubble opened the airline offering those flights canceled a couple of its pullout trips because so few seats were booked. Ones. Ministry of Health is relaxing protocols for returning travelers and travel agencies are offering discounts. Eva Airlines was planning to begin flights to pull out, but now they're waiting to see if the demand goes back up. Still Oscar Andre Kiddos, a pilot for Eva says it's encouraging. To see tourism return brings you the mental idea that all okay people certain to travel Now it is possible we could. We can have a life after this. Jason weighing is the director of Stanford University's Center for Policy Outcomes and Prevention as low as it's been to take off. The arrangement between Taiwan and Palau, he says, is a model for the rest of the world. This is the way that the world's gonna open up travel bubbles of corridors. Gonna get set up between countries that have contained the virus or have very low cases or be vaccinated and then slowly, the bubble will grow. Australia and New Zealand made a similar deal with each other and Taiwan is considering opening bubbles with Singapore, Vietnam and others. Still, Wayne says. There's a lot of details in Consider when opening up borders to outside travelers. You have to decide which places they could go. Do you only want them to visit the 10 places that you told the bill so that in case anything happened, you could you know, look into those 10 places or do you want to mingle with your population, he says. Governments will have to continuously find to health protocols for each new bubble. They also have to trust that each participant in any travel bubble scheme is being responsible and transparent for the.
Other People's Shoes
"first ministry" Discussed on Other People's Shoes
"It almost looks hawaiian. When i first started interacting with you i was like oh is this like because she was from hawaii just some hawaii origins this way to maybe paid tribute to that. But that's that's not where it's coming from either right. No no actually. The the where it got started. Is that our our first ministry mexico. We came to to mexico's missionaries almost fourteen years ago. Actually fourteen years ago this month and the first ministry we were in was a very conservative. Like don't draw attention to yourself. It takes away from the gospel like no bright colors. no bright. no you know very little jewelry like the whole bit right. And so i sort of took the fun part of me. That loved color in. That loved fun and i stuffed it dutifully down into my floor. Length skirts and and all of that and it wasn't until a few years later in a different ministry at a different situation. I was getting ready to teach an online class and it was a hot human day as it is here income very almost every day right and i was running out of time to get myself ready and i grabbed my daughter's headband. And stuck it in my hair and so everyone on the glow. I love your flower. I love the flower in your hair. And i didn't think anything of it until next week's class i didn't wear it and like where's your footwork. Like that was really awesome. We loved that. And so i just i started wearing it more often and the way that i felt when i wore that flower. It was almost as if god reminded me like. You are beautiful. It is okay to be you and to enjoy the colors and the fund that i've created and it became sort of like this this crowning visual reminder to me that god delighted in me the way he made me not the way man expected me to be for for this hour the other reason and so it's you know it's become something i don't just do it for podcast appearances. I just do it. When i when i travel or or speak like literally as something that i put on every day just like the rest of my clothing i wear so it's really become a special thing. The reason why. I bring that up. There's a couple of things that i bring that up or maybe even helped me with this a little bit. If you can't i i love unique stuff and i think that comes from being the youngest child wanting to stand away from the crowd. The instagram people subscribe to that or not. I'm hurrying new things about the this..
Coach's Corner with Paul Ybarra
"first ministry" Discussed on Coach's Corner with Paul Ybarra
"There's people that need it right. There's people that. I was saved through a church in a building. I get it. I was an altar. There i gave my life to christ however my ministry is totally outside of the building. My ministry is is building somebody one by one one person at a time connecting with people meeting people where they're at and this is where it's imperative like you said that there are pastors in. I'm not bashing patch pastors pastor. I've got my own flaws. That i worked through all the time but there are so many that are bound to s- to a sickness that is a disease that re truly a spiritual disease that is causing the church. Not to prosper. You wonder why that anyone is under a certain covered covering the isn't prospering. Because they're cover. Ain't right you probably. If it's not in alignment. It flows off the beard. The anointing flows off of the beard. And so if you're in this place and you're in this place of understanding listen to altogether and you just gotta follow me. That's just control my friend but if you were being strictly Transparent which are people invulnerable saying. Listen here's the struggles that i have. But i'm gonna continue to walk this out so pray for me because we are coming together as the body my job is the messenger. Batali what i'm saying so when we finally get to that place. There are those seasons that i had to step back and say you know what i'm not doing this i can't. I've got to make sure that my household is good. I gotta make sure that my first ministry is good. We had to literally shut down. Set free ministry for about three years and all i did was online quotes little videos but we set it down. Why because my family was a mess. And so once once we reconstructed and and you know god brought us together. Then it's like okay. Now it's time to relaunch now it's time to get back out there and so we have to understand too that as leaders..
Exponential Podcast
"first ministry" Discussed on Exponential Podcast
"Care to to walk through all of that Our our lead pastor went through their assessment. We went through the training together and Yeah over the last several years of have gone through that process but all through that Married a beautiful wife. We went to school together. Got married in two thousand eight right after we graduated and right before we moved to colorado. I have three wonderful children My daughter salem is nine. My son judah is almost six. And i have a son elijah. Who's a about one and a half right now so good good homeschool names if you didn't think we were home schoolers where we are home scores even even before covid. We were home homeschool. Now it's been a it's been good men. Yeah ice bossom homeschool. I didn't i never really thought about it that way. But yeah. I always think about like ultimate nays prophet names. Oj like you know. They've got some connection with jesus. Yeah if you got a jo- sira has a kaya in your family. You're probably a home school or like that's you know. So we have. Sailor judah elijah. Yeah so for first. Born is named salem. Then you probably a worship leader. Yeah that's that's kind of a given as well so nice all right andrew. Today we're talking about vision in a church planter. That is something that's critical to be able to have but not just yourself but to be able to share it you know vision is a gift you get to share with other people. I i love the quote. I think allen keller said it she said the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision and i know a lot of young adults to work with a lotta. Young adults My church and a lot of times they kind of sometimes lactation for you know what they wanna do in their life and i know a lot of churches that almost kind of kind of fit that description they like exist but they're just trying to keep their doors open. They're not exactly under clear about where got his taking them. And it's hard for them to to build momentum and we'll first before we go any further if you're joining us and you have any questions. I just want you to know. We want to make this interactive and so as we say things and maybe we say something. You don't understand you have questions. please feel free to put a question in The chat and we'd love to be able to answer some of your questions today as well but but andrew. So you've given so much time in your attention you've gone through a lot of trainings. You're helping church planters with understanding their vision articulated. Why are you so passionate about helping churches and church leaders discern and articulate their vision. Yeah it's it's definitely been something that's grown In my heart in ministry. I think early on when i was when i was in college. You know taking courses like at a at a christian college on leadership in and things of that nature. It was always something that just seemed a little abstract to me. A little like a theory on. I was like a while when we get there. We'll we'll talk about it. You know My i remember my first ministry in a in the denver area and was part of a a church with a very visionary leader like just forward thinking like what's next time and it was just something that i I didn't get a whole lot but We he was making decisions or leadership was making decisions based on vision and investing in different missionaries based on that vision..
Chasing Elephants Audio Podcast
"first ministry" Discussed on Chasing Elephants Audio Podcast
"Set before you with patients as you look to christ and is so important. I think also having a strong family with you your personal family and remind reminding yourself that this is my my first ministry. They're going to be the wants to hear my church tomorrow and tell me to leave. But i've got a family that's forever and it's my my wife. My kids and and i really have focused in on that. Make sure that i've done that. I learned early in ministry of because i was driven into beginning brit. I would say. I was really really driven and i remember one time. I came home After you know my wife had a note there for him and read it out loud she. It was called the candyman she says. I'm married to the candyman candyman. He gives candy out to everybody else all day long he gives candy candy and then she says i can't wait for him to come home he's gonna give me candy. But when he shows up he only hands me rappers. And i was like oh my god i am neglecting my first ministry and and i made a commitment. I was going to be at every one of my kids games. I was going to take them to school to pick them up. And so i organized my ministry around my family not my church a having to to tolerate my family in that sense. I made it very clear that they were my first ministry. And that i was gonna give my time and effort to them. I and i think offer church allow that and so That was those words some of the very important issues and then building rhythms into my life. You know You came to preach for us. When i was taking a sabbatical in two thousand nineteen did a great job. They still want. When is that red haired guy. Going to come back and preach russell wilson but but finding ways to have rhythm in your in your life. It's so important Because it will take out of you the ministry around you can kill the ministry within you and you just gotta be river cheerful to lead out a reflection to lead out of rest to lead out of a sabbath rest that you have with god and making room for that. Make a margin for that in your life so poorly. No that was that was so good. And how you had mentioned. Just the why and everything at the beginning of that answer I think that is so important for just any of any age. Just whatever you're doing wherever you're going into your passions and Whether you're in college graduate college or you're near the end of your life just always going back to in reminding yourself of what that why is because you can just lose sight so easily just what. You're exactly what you're saying. But then when you went into the parts about on the end of rest and finding that rhythm. And i wanna of talk about that for a second. We always like to pull in the practical areas of leadership of talking with our listeners. About that so let's talk about that a little more. What's are some more practical ways that we can talk about and maybe it's it's disciplined it's habits that we can do on a daily basis That we can apply to our lives to help further in that longevity. What are some things that you specifically do. So you mentioned rest and by. I want to kind of give Our listeners a little bit more. So what are some practical ways in that. Well first of auden. Thank you taylor but first of all nobody is going to washes they..
In The Pews
"first ministry" Discussed on In The Pews
"The lord is asking me. Your first main street is at home. Yes as to be hospital to be a dad. Anything else we'll wait. So i had to learn the hard way. You are spread too thin. That's what it wasn't. Yeah and the and the problem is the determination is going to be there to make you feel. You're doing great people. Yes keep doing that. Because you're star. And you'll believe that i believe that. And then he was through the formation by the way thought. Oh this is gonna be the end if you add defamation on top of everything else that i'm doing this is going to be really bad for my family. All it was the opposite. 'cause lord in charge what's going to take care of everything and make sure that your first ministry was going to be intact so once. The academic formation came in at. It really helped a lot really helped you weren't spread as thin is actually i. Now how the oldest support to really say no too many initiative and say their formation is my priority right. Now i keep you know being active as much as i can keep doing unbound here and they on for example a in in my work. I work every other friday off choice. They called nine hundred. Eighty four nine days and you can relate. Yes well that friday off. I never had off. Because i was always booked a session or book a talk with someone book you know helping people. Yes data spending that friday with my wife for example having launch were her strengthening. Your marriage yes. So but but thanks be to god you know i. I learned a lesson. He taught me the lesson and he gave me a wonderful for opportunity to learn that lesson in information to become a deacon to be able to help but at the same time healing. If i can use that word my marriage threatening my marriage and making sure that together we are strong as ever and i can tell you these ready and i was talking to my wife the other day because we have to attend saturday's formation together with never been so close and so good as a couple You know as we've been after which dot whether the echinacea. So i'm i'm forever grateful. That's that's very similar to what deacon ray said when he when he came in how it strengthened his marriage. So you so we talked about. The healing ministry talked about unbound. Is there anything else real connection so there was a group of a group of man that we wished i'd this journey thinks six years ago. An interesting off. A friend of ours lost haste boy. Us five years old through cancer. So i do know another friend of mine. Came to me and say khaderah Help us help us to get back to a faith in an innocent. Why what's their motivation. Here well this random hours who lost the baby. The child he talked to him and said don't wait to be my position to give back to. God don't wait to suffer. What suffering to get back to your fate. So i said okay. Let's do it together but you will. You guys will lead the pack and by the way this is not going to be a sect meaning is not my interpretation or what you would like to hear. We're gonna learn the real catholic church doctrine. We're going to go by the catechism. Oh we're not gonna be emitted interpreting by ourselves and saying where we like to say. No we're going to learn the real church. And i'm very proud to say that most of those guys are now serving steen. That's all very active. Because they all you know we're committed to learn the real faith into put it in practice so that was taken a of time because know every other monday we met with the men and then of they said we want our spouses to also delays. Help in this post as well. It was the monday as well that i had to do with the spouses. Plus again the that had in the in a in a. I mentioned to you that i had that rosary weekly basis so i do have a weekly rose ray with my family and friends that reconnect virtually and have been doing that. Since that kid in ill yes wished out of the rosary and we have predicted that rosary. So every single thirsty you know in the last six years we've been meeting element. Put it this way. Go to a point. Where he that. I needed not a commitment. I need so. I could be in day or this side of the world with twelve thirteen hours difference and i will call because it is. I need is like if i if like for me. Oh i'm gonna decide. I'm not going to eat today right. Yeah the same thing. I cannot keep that so it was the real connection. A was rosaries. A was the unbound who was the healing ministry and on top of that it was talking to be because reality has this or marching eat. And when you start being deface right because you are rating or you are talking or you. Are you know in a session here. And they were. You found the the church when you are in the healing ministry people will come to you and then so what do you say. Oh you know what. I'm too busy thought on hold. Well i was not ready to say no other time. I mentioned you're saying yes yes to everyone but my house but my family. I had no for my family but not for all this. So how do you. How can people look into this. This group that you were talking about with the husband's well you know we have. Is it open. It is open for anyone but at the moment with the pandemic is being we've been we've been having the stations now got often. We never made it as an ministry because we do believe there are many minister scheme independent We've talked eventually we while ago with father. Deacon randy see how we can actually make an official group But it was about a time where the information they told me you need to put things on hold. We've been very careful not to out to do too much things. That's why at the moment. I think it is a need for something like that. Yes because the purpose of real connection is to for people to get back to their roots right. Nah those catholics. That they have not even been sunday. Catholics catholic because were baptized. But they're being ten years. Oh the last time they came to mass. Or they're like ceo's christmas and easter only lucky. There will be those but we have a lot of men a hurry successful man you know that are not in our church anymore and they're catholic so i do definitely feel. There's a need out there for that and eventually the lore will Will make sure that we we get we get there okay. So this was just a group of guys that got together and wanted to learn a little more bats. That's awesome so you that approach. You thought you were going to be light and they told you. Oh we think you're good for the deanna. So what happened next then. Then i talked to my wife and we we discerned and you thought she was going to say it's was completely sure she was going gonna say you're crazy. You're you're you're the divorce she said no. She said we're going to do it. So what happened next as you go to a meeting with the and information is a meeting where they will explain what is all about. And i'm sure that the rican ray mentioned this is not an easy. Meeting.
Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution!
"first ministry" Discussed on Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution!
"And doing dishes and doing laundry and all all the things that we're doing and you work is so important in. You're so valuable in this army of christians that the lord has you any new talk again at abbas while about the body of christ. We are all a part of the body of christ oftentimes as christian wives. We care for our home so that our husband can go fight a different part of the battle in as husbands and wives. We hopefully are fighting the same battle in our homes and raising up christian soldiers But but god has called us to something very specific and our role is mom is to take care of our children to take care of her home and take care of our husbands but sometimes like we said at the end of the last podcast. Sometimes god has a special assignment for us and sometimes there's just for a season you know right now. Abby i par part of our our special assignment is that the lord has called us to do this podcast and we love it. We find so much joy in doing this because we know that it blesses you and encourages you and we're a is. I've said this before you know. Were not some super homeschool moms. Who know everything about homeschooling. We have it all figured out where the perfect parents and we have the perfect marriages and we have the perfect home and everything is in order. And we've got it all figured out. That's not at all shoe we are. We are moms and wives just like you who are in the midst of this battle trying to figure it out and so Right if you could see us sitting in our bedroom because this is the other thing is this is our special assignment but a special assignment never takes precedent of the bigger. So we said yes this podcast in this this home school ministry. It is our special assignment but never ever an any vet. And i hold each other accountable. Never does it come before our first ministry. Which is our family. Which is why. I'm surrounded by laundry in my bedroom As i have the kids eating out in the other room because because that's my first ministry and we're just regular moms doing this. But god has placed all of us yvette myself and everybody listening in this world. I mean i keep saying man like i know. God didn't make a mistake making me right now. Raising children in twenty twenty one. But he didn't. He made us for such a time as this on purpose. It wasn't a mistake and would it have been my choice. Absolutely not take me back to the little house on the prairie day. All day long But that wasn't god's plan god's plan was for us to be here now and so with that said you know what does that mean. And how can we live fully in the time that he's called us to live. Yeah and and what can we learn from his word. I mean we've talked about a lot of scripture and we i at the end of the last episode. I told you guys said over the past couple of months. I've read the book of esther a few times. And i have read the book bester before but when i read it a few months ago it i read it with completely. Different is and the ad it came alive to me like. That story has never come alive to me ever before and i just i wanna make. I know that there are movies that have been made about astern and books that have been written. But i'm like. I wanna i wanna make a movie about this. Because his just so good in. It's actually kind of funny. I mean i mean there are parts of it that are funny In in a weird way but the book of esther. If you have not read it mommy i just say a soon even even before you listen to the rest of this podcast pause this go grab your bible. Grab your kids ghabra husband. If he's home and read the entire book of esther. It's i think it's eight chapters. It's not very long. Even put it on your audio bible. You know we use you've version and so you it will even read it for you but haven't read the book of esther or take a few days or a week or a couple of weeks to read through it but I'm going to give you kind kind of a very very brief for those of you. Who may be are not really familiar with the book of esther. One of the things that i find most interesting about it is that did you. And i don't know if you know this but the only book in the bible that does not ever mention the name of god yet and yet amazing the evidence of god his unbelievable in there yes it everywhere it is everywhere. I mean god's presence literally just permeates throughout the entire story esther and nothing that happens in. This story is a coincidence not and god is clearly in control of this entire story. Just like god is completely in control of our story of the world that we're living in the chaos that that is surrounding us of the unsurety and and unrest that were feeling in our nation right now. God is in control and And so i'm gonna kinda just very briefly. Describe unpack this so In the beginning of of the story In we were talking about this before most people call him kings oxy's but our family usually reads the esp and in the esp him as king hasawara s. And so i'm going to read a little bit from so when you hear me king hasawara. It's also kings. He just. I don't know why he has two different names. I i'm not sure But nonetheless that's his name so here. The kind of characters in the story are king house. Us i'm king varsity. Who was his lovely wife. And the king is having this grand party and so he calls for queen bashed in. He wants her to come in. Basically flaunt her beauty and front of all his buddies and she's like no. I'm not gonna do that so basically kicks her to the curb. he's i get out. I never wanna see you again. This is the queen but she basically humiliated humiliates him in front of all of his friends and so he says i'm done with her so then he's like well. I need to have a queen and she must be beautiful and so he has all the pure beautiful girls in the kingdom. He's he's a queen. The king of the persian empire so he has all the young beautiful pure women brought to him and one of those beautiful. Young women is queen esther. I'm whose name i'm sorry. No reggie now. Queen is her name. Blogging synchro gal. She's also refer to as head data her actual name is but she's always refer to as esther in the bible and so basically they take this group of girls these young girls and they Basically go to a spa for like a whole here. Wouldn't that be nice and a pamper them and they make them even more beautiful than they already are. Walking a hassle takes a liking. He sees esther and he's like a haughty and so through some events she becomes the new queen and she has his cousin named mordecai and more chi has taken care of her queen. Esther's parents had died when she was young in some mordechai has taken her kind of as his own daughter and he raises her and so he is kind of outside of the castle gates as he's outside he discovers. Wendy that two of the king's unix wanna hurt king harassed so he tells esther about astros and tells the king and the unix are hanged and she basically saved the king's life but really it was mordecai who saved the king's life by telling esther while then in in comes heyman and heyman is a really really bad guy and he becomes second in command to the king and he wants everybody to bow to him. And mordechai as a jew esther is a jew and they don't mordechai doesn't want about to him and he refuses to bow to heyman because you know he bounced to god and so heyman gets really mad about this and.