40 Burst results for "Heaven"
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Cause of Conversion
"Thank you gang, good morning everyone. Typically when I'm preparing a sermon I do my very best to make sure that it's balanced and here's what I'm looking for when I say balanced. There are lots of ways you can deliver a passage of the Bible and I'm trying my best to keep some parts of the sermon theological and some parts practical. If you aren't familiar with that first word, as I wasn't until I was like in my late teens, theological meaning I want us to think, I want us to think right thoughts about God. That's theology. And then practical, based on what we know about God, I want us to act. So a sermon, I try my best to balance them, theological thinking about God and practical acting on what we know about God. And yet when you go through the Bible, some parts of it are more one than the other. And that's okay, that's the way the Bible works. Today is going to be one of those messages that are a little bit more heavy on the theological side than the practical side. So on days like that you have to pray and you have to ask God, remember what Jesus said? We're supposed to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind. So I'm going to ask that God would grant a very attentive mind. Because I'm going to ask you to worship the Lord your God through the word with a mind that thinks right thoughts about God. So Lord, that's our goal. We want to think. You've given us a mind, a working mind to be able to think. It's unlike the animals who can't think didactically like we can, but we can rationalize. We can think in ways that honor you and we can think in ways that don't honor you. So I'm asking that you would grant first, that you would grant in this room a very attentive mind, that we would all aim our minds toward God to tune out other thoughts and to just spend a little time on a Sunday thinking about nothing else but the greatness of the glory and the beauty and the majesty of our great God. So help us now as we worship through the word to love you by thinking about you. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. We're in John chapter four. So if you have a Bible, grab it, open it, go to John. That's in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, fourth book of the New Testament and open to the fourth chapter. We're almost done with it, sort of almost done with it. We're about three quarters of the way through with it. Let me catch you up as you're tuning there. Jesus has been having a conversation with an immoral Samaritan woman, and no one wants to be around this woman, but Jesus did. And so he intentionally met her at the well. And boy, what a meeting they've had. John, the writer of this book, records the true historical account of what happened between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, and we've gone through most of it. Let me tell you what we've seen so far. Right now, Jesus has revealed certain things to this woman that she's gone away from this conversation knowing only one thing. She doesn't know about the cross, she doesn't know about the grave, she doesn't know about anything except she knows one thing. I met a man who told me everything there was to know about me. And she runs off and tells the townspeople, who she's going to in our passage today. She doesn't know about him being a savior yet. She just knows, I met a man who has the ability to tell me things that a mere man doesn't have. So she thinks, I just met a prophet. That's it. That's all she knows. Last Sunday, if you were here, as you're reading through John 4, John takes a pause, and he tells us this other lesson that's related that Jesus wanted to teach his disciples about this. And here's, in a nutshell, what that lesson was. Jesus says, look around you guys, God's field is full and it's ready for the picking with women and people just like this woman. The time has come when God's mission field is full of women like this one I'm talking to, women and men and children whom God wants to save. They're unconverted and God wants to bring them to the truth. And so now John is going to bring us back to what happened with the woman. So there's a story about the woman, I'm going somewhere with this, follow me, story about the woman, an intentional pause, and then it returns to the narrative about the woman. If you were paying close attention last week, if anybody comes up to me afterwards and says they knew this, I'm going to be shocked. If you were paying close attention last week, I skipped three verses. Usually I go one verse, then the next verse, then the next verse. We don't skip anything. And that's a big no -no. We don't skip verses. And so I skipped three verses because as I was studying, I realized these really belong with the text I'm going to show you today. So I purposely skipped them to save them for today. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to look at those three verses I skipped, which is found in verse 28, 29, and 30. Then we're going to skip the passage I preached on last Sunday, which is verse 31 through 38. And we're going to take the part I skipped and join it to the part where you'll see why. Can I show you why? This reads, this portion, you're going to go, wow, that reads so smoothly. It's almost like there was no interruption. Watch how smooth the narrative goes now, okay? So starting in verse 28, where I skipped, 29 and 30, then jumping down to 39, the narrative reads smooth. Check this out. So the woman, she's just finished talking with Jesus, and now this is what happens after. So the woman left her water jar and went away into the town and said to the people, come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, he told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it's no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. Now, there is a primary lesson that most preachers, when they preach this passage or if you've ever been in a Bible study or a Sunday school class, there's one primary lesson that's being taught here. In the job of an interpreter, you when you're home and you open your Bible in the morning with your cup of coffee or your spot of tea or whatever you drink and you're reading the Bible, you're all interpreters at that moment, there's only one lesson. And the job is to get at that one lesson. What did the author mean? If we get somewhere else, we've missed the interpretation. So our job is to find out what John meant by what he wrote and then get at that meaning. The meaning of this is not real difficult. It's very simple. Here's what happened. A woman had an encounter with Jesus and she went home and told everybody about it. That's it. That's the story. That's what happened. So if this passage is preached a hundred times this year in a hundred different churches all over the world, 99 out of a hundred times, here's what the sermon's going to be about. She's a witness. She's really the first witness in the Gospel of John. And so the message is going to be about witnessing. And they'll tell you, go home and do likewise. And they'll take you through it piece by piece, showing you how she witnessed, because she did a good job, and they'll say, this is how you witnessed. And I'm telling you, that is the faithful way to handle this text. A hundred percent of the time, that's the way to do it. I'm not going to do that today. Here's why. Knowing the majority of the people at our church and knowing that the majority of you have been in church your whole life, you've probably heard this preached 20 times. And I'm knowing that I could give you the main lesson in about 30 seconds, which I just did. I want to show you how the Bible can be like an onion, like an onion, and how you could read this. My grandmother's 105. You're probably getting tired of me telling you that. She woke up this morning and read her Bible for close to an hour. I'm telling you. You know how I know? She's done it her whole life. She's probably read this passage 105 times, I'm exaggerating. Every time, there's some new layer of the onion that gives her food for her soul. I want to peel back a layer. Again, there's only one meaning, but there's lots of ways, vantage points, to look at that one meaning and glean new food from this never -ending nourishment that is God's word. In narratives like the one we're reading, especially the gospel narratives where you're reading about a true historical account, this really happened in history, and where there's lots of different people in the story, you can look at it from her perspective or the perspective of Jesus or the perspective of the Samaritans. If there were other people, we could read it from different perspectives, and every time you do, you peel back a new layer of the onion. Isn't the Bible awesome? It'll keep you nourished for the rest of your life. Well, this week, I looked at the woman and I said, Lord, I'll preach this. If that's what you want, I'll just go and I'll preach a message on witnessing. I just couldn't do it. I wanted to peel back a little bit and look at this from the lens of the Samaritans. I wanted to see how it was that God converted them through first this woman and then through an encounter with Jesus. And so this morning, what we're going to do is we're going to do a case study in conversion. The Samaritans were my focus this week, which is why I've entitled this sermon, the 20th sermon, by the way, in our series through John, The Cause of Conversion. Would you give me two minutes before we start picking apart this text? Would you give me two minutes to define conversion? Because I imagine that there might be a lot of different definitions that people would come up with as to what that word means. What is that? Most people may have grown up believing, as I did, that conversion was the same exact thing as being born again. It isn't. Oh, it's related. As a matter of fact, you might think of conversion as the other side of the coin of being born again. Let me explain. Get your thinking cap on. Here we go. Being born again, theologians have a term for it just like they do conversion, and the term is regeneration. How many of you have heard the term regeneration before? How many of you have read the book of Genesis? Genesis is the beginning. When you were born, you had a Genesis. When you were born again, you had a re -Genesis. God made your birth happen again on the inside. Conversion is not the same thing, and here's how. What happens on the inside when you're born again, when God takes your dead soul, which is the way you were born, you're dead in your sins, so was I, when God makes you alive to Christ, that happens at the soul or the heart level, and at that very same instant, you mind falls, but at that very same instant, after God makes you alive, something happens in the mind. What happens in the mind is conversion, and it's really important. Here's why it's important. Look what Jesus said. This is going to get juicy. Jesus said, truly I say to you, unless you are, say the word, and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So you tell me, is conversion important? You better believe it. Here's the word Jesus used. He used the Greek word, strepho, which simply means, look on the screen, to be changed, or a better definition, to turn and go another direction. Someone is born again. At that moment, their eyes are open to see the truth. Once that happens at the soul level, something happens instantaneously in the mind. In the mind, you are able to believe the truth about Jesus. You see him as he truly is. You no longer see your old life the way that it was. You turn away from it, and you turn to something new. That is the moment when conversion begins. It continues throughout your life. God continues to make you into something new. We call that process sanctification. It starts the moment you're converted, and it continues throughout your life. He's continually renewing your mind, changing how you see first God, then you, then the world, then every little thing continues this process of being converted into the image of Jesus Christ. So conversion is the flip side of the coin of regeneration, but it's not exactly the same thing. caused Conversion is by having the eyes of your heart opened, listen to these words, to a knowledge of God that you were prior blind to, and it's this spiritual knowing and believing that I see in this text. Martyn Lloyd -Jones said something about conversion that I think sums it up better than anybody else. Look what Martyn Lloyd -Jones said. He said conversion is the first exercise of the new nature. So once you're born again, the first thing you do, the first act is conversion in ceasing from old forms of life, my old sinful life, and starting a new life. It's the first action of the regenerate soul in moving from something, something I used to be, to this new life. That's the best definition of conversion that I could find, a way that I think will be helpful to you in your life in understanding salvation. In this text, I see a great case study of how conversion works. These people went from believing something to suddenly having their eyes opened to see something new. If you did what I did, some people, it's funny, they think that preachers somehow have some supernatural funnel from God where he pours information in your head. That is not at all what happens to a preacher. It's just discipline. That's all it is. Discipline to study the Scriptures and sit in it and sit in it, and then when you're done, sit in it some more. And God does for a preacher what he would do for you if you spent as much time in a text as I do. I spend on average about 20 hours a week preparing for a sermon, roughly 20 hours, sometimes more, sometimes less. If you spent as much time as I did in this little text, I promise you, you'd start to see little observations popping out, little things you're like, oh, I never saw that before. And if you spent as much time with me this week looking at this text and looking at it, looking at it, looking at it, can I show you a few things that might start popping out to you? There are three because statements in this text. If you're reading in the morning in 20 minutes and you're reading the story about the woman at the well, you're not going to stop on the word because, would you? Because it's just the because. No one stops at the word because. But if you did stop, you would see the cause of things. Can I show you these three because statements in the text? Take a look. I put them on the screen for you. Well here's the whole text. You'd see these three because statements. Here are the three because statements popping out. Put those up for me, Logan. You have the first one? Poor Logan. The first because statement, we'll get to the second one in a second, many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. So they believed in him because of the woman's testimony. Look at the second because statement. Now Logan. And many more believed in him because of his word. But now here's the cause that changed my whole trajectory of this sermon, verse 42. They said to the woman, look at this, look church, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves. And we know, it's the first time this word is used in the chapter, we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. Church, look at me. Something caused the water bottle. What was it? Me. I pushed it. All I want to do is look at this text as a case study of what caused you to be born again, to be converted. I want to look at this as a case study to see what caused them to be converted so that you will know first how to pray for your unbelieving family, but second even more importantly, to know whether or not you're converted. There are lots of people who've been going to church for years who may not be converted. There is a major difference between being convinced and being converted. There is a major difference between being convinced about Jesus and being converted by Jesus. Not all belief is the same kind of belief. I'm telling you, I want to show you this morning, based on verse 42, there's a journey, a progression of conversion that I want to show you in this text. They were convinced and called by this woman's testimony, but they were not yet converted because they did not yet know him. There is a kind of belief in Jesus that does not cause conversion. It's the kind that maybe the brother of Jesus was talking about when he wrote this. Look on the screen. You say that you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Well, good for you. Even the demons say the word. Wait a second. And they tremble in terror. So according to James, there's a category of belief that does not cause a creature, a human creature or a demonic creature, to be converted. So just because you see belief in the Bible doesn't mean it's the same kind of belief that leads to conversion. My prayer all week this week is that God would bring us somebody who needed to be converted today. What I aim to show you in this case study is the call to salvation used by God. This woman was used by God to invite them. Being convinced about Jesus. And then finally being converted to Jesus. Here's the big idea. I'm going to spell it out for you. If you want to snap a photo of this with your phone so that you can't forget it, it's fine with me. Some people are convinced because of a personal testimony. And God uses personal testimonies to convince people. Others are convinced because of a personal experience. Lots of people have had spiritual experiences and God uses those to convince people. But there's only one cause of conversion. The cause of conversion is knowing Christ as personal Savior. Let me show you this in the text. I'm going to split the big idea into three parts. Everybody still with me? Part number one. Some people, they're called during someone's testimony. They feel God calling to them. And they're convinced when they hear someone give a personal testimony. But it's not the same thing as being converted. Here's what I'm going to show you in this text. God has been pleased down through church history to use people's personal testimonies. To draw people to himself. Theologians call this an effectual call. He calls out to people, come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. By the testimony of someone that you love or a friend. And people feel and hear God's call. But it's not the same thing as being converted. Let me show you that right here in the text. Verse 28, 29 and 30 and then verse 39. Look what it says here. So the woman left her water jar. There's lots we could say about that. She left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people. So now she's suddenly an evangelist. Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? God in this moment is using a vessel, a woman's mouth who just had an encounter with Jesus to call people to come. Come meet Jesus. That's what's happening here. They went out of the town and were coming to him. Many Samaritans from that town believed. And now based on what you just read about James, you should go, wait a minute, what kind of belief? So glad you asked. We're going to get into that, okay? Many from Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony he told me all that I ever did. So remember something. Follow me, church. All she knows at this point is that she met a prophet.
Mike Gallagher Podcast
Fresh update on "heaven" discussed on Mike Gallagher Podcast
"The United States Border Patrol has exciting and rewarding career opportunities with the nation's largest law enforcement organization. Earn great pay with outstanding federal benefits and up to $20,000 in recruitment incentives. Learn more online at cbp.gov slash careers slash USBP. I went and read a book on Marx, a quartet practiced in the park, and we sang dirigence. The great Don McLean, Don McLean, McLean, the music died, is 78. We were singing bye bye. So Mike Gallagher is 11 years old for American Pie and I do too. Is this eight and a half minutes of masterpiece or just a butt whipping? I run across people who go, American Pie, ugh, what's the matter with you? I think it's a masterpiece. You know, disc jockeys always loved it because it was the song they put on when they had to go to the bathroom. Stairway to Heaven, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, Mike Crosby, Stump Fashion Young, yeah buddy. I need a potty break. It is time. Well listen, here we go, first Monday in October, a Supreme Court in session and some fascinating decisions they're going to have. We got all kinds of shenanigans and hijinks happening with the Republicans and Matt Gaetz and I want to start something, I want to start a conversation with you about this rift between Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz and the punditry that has decided to go after Matt Gaetz. This is very interesting to me. I get it. I appreciate, I'm going to speak for me and then I want to find out, pick your brain on where you think this is all going with the aversion of averting the government shutdown, no funding for Ukraine in this particular resolution. That's right. So we've taken out the funding for Ukraine, the government doesn't get shut down and the Democrats continue to implode as Gavin Newsom appoints a woman from Maryland to replace the Dianne Feinstein. Now they're scrubbing all references to the fact that she lives in Maryland because her dedication to abortion trumps everything else. Yes it does. You don't have to be a Californian to be a California senator. You've got to be all about abortion, which is we have got to, boy, I've got my final week of my preborn campaign and I hope people will make a contribution just to counter the nonsense going on in California right now with Gavin Newsom and this Emily's List lady. But let me go back to Matt Gaetz for just a moment.
Crypto News Alerts | Daily Bitcoin (BTC) & Cryptocurrency News
A highlight from 1419: Bitcoin ETF Will Push BTC Price to $400,000 - Scaramucci
"Say goodbye to your credit card rewards. Big -box retailers led by Walmart and Target are pushing for a bill in Congress to take away your hard -earned cash back and travel points to line their pockets. Senate Bill 1838 would enact harmful credit card routing mandates that would end credit card rewards as we know it. If you love your credit card rewards, visit HandsOffMyRewards .com and tell them to oppose credit card routing legislation paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition. And here's your prescription. I know just the pharmacy to get this filled. Who are you? A pharmacy benefit manager. A middleman your insurer uses to decide which medicines you can get, what you pay, and sometimes even which pharmacy you should go to. Why can't I go to a pharmacy in my neighborhood? Because I make more money when you go to a pharmacy I own. No one should stand between you and your medicine. Visit PHRMA .org slash middleman to learn more. Paid for by pharma. Welcome everyone to the number one daily Bitcoin pod. Let's get it. In today's show we'll be breaking down the latest technical analysis as Bitcoin recaptures $28 ,000. In this just in, Japanese 10 -year bond yields are surging, hitting the highest levels not seen in a decade. Max Kaiser's response, the yen -carry trade borrowing yen at virtually zero and investing in higher yielding currencies is broken. This has been the mother of all Ponzi schemes funding global financialization for 30 years and now it's moving in reverse. He also says the Bitcoin is a state of heaven that exists entirely beyond anyone's reach except the owner preach. Also in today's show VanEck, Ethereum strategy ETF set for the CBOE listing. We'll also be discussing FTX founder Sam Bankman -Fried. Mold giving Donald Trump five billion dollars to not run for president. That's right. We'll also be discussing Grayscale submits and SEC filing to convert the Ethereum trust to a spot ETF. I'm also going to be sharing with you a Bitcoin price prediction model which suggests $170 ,000 per BTC in 2025 as well as skybridge capital's Anthony Scaramucci says Bitcoin ETF can push the Bitcoin price much higher in early 2024. In fact they'll be sharing with you Scaramucci's $400 ,000 Bitcoin price prediction alongside 1 billion Bitcoin users. We'll market all this plus so much more in today's show. Yo what's good crypto fam. This is first and foremost a video show so if you want the full premium experience with video visit my youtube channel at Cryptonewsalerts .net. Again that's Cryptonewsalerts .net. Welcome everyone just joining us. This is pod episode number 1419. I'm your host JV. Today is October 2023 2nd as the October pump continues. Let's freaking go. Shout out to everyone today in the live chat. Make sure to let me know where you're tuning in from. Of course at the end of the show I'll be reading everyone's comments out loud as this is a live and interactive show. Seven days a week and the after party FYI will be on rumble. So let's get it. Let's kick off today's show with our market watch as we do each and every day shall we. As you can see here on coin 360 we got Bitcoin up roughly 3 % for the day trading at roughly that 28 ,000 mark just under it. We have Ether consolidating trading under $1 ,700 while BNB, Cardano and Solana are all in the green and checking out coinmarketcap .com. We're finally climbing again at a market cap of 1 .09 trillion. We've been stuck around this 1 trillion level for quite some time. We got roughly 46 billion in volume in the past 24 hours meaning volume is up roughly 60 % and Bitcoin dominance is massively on the climb. I think the bull market is in full gear 49 .6 % for BTC with the ETH dominance at 18 .3 % and checking out the top 100 crypto gainers in the past 24 hours Satoshi vision leading the pack up 23 % trading at $39 .37 followed by e cash up roughly 9 % followed by Bitcoin cash. Now it's interesting that the Bitcoin forks are the top gainers for the day. I think anything associated with the name Bitcoin is pumping. It is what it is and checking out the top 100 crypto gainers of the past week Satoshi vision lead in the pack here up 23 and a half percent alongside our LB up roughly 12 % and XCC up roughly 9 % and checking out the crypto greed and fear index we're dead in the middle 50 which is neutral yesterday was a 48 last week a 47 and last month a 39 in fear. So there you have it fam how many of you are currently bullish on the king crypto now that we in October let me know and make some noise and put God candle and maybe the Satoshi and God's watching above will send it let's freaking go and with that being shared fam now let's dive into today's Bitcoin technical analysis and check out some of the charts and what's popping with the king crypto where Bitcoin is likely to go next Bitcoin aim for 25 at the October 2nd Wall Street open at a bullish start as the month continued which you can see here in the Bitcoin one -day candle chart data from Cointelegraph and trading view showed Bitcoin price action staying strong into October's first US trading session Bitcoin made swift gains into the weekly close following a contrastingly cool monthly candle completion that saw Bitcoin finish at 26 ,000 970 now popular analyst right capital says this monthly close despite now being more than 5 % below the spot price called for caution quoting him here Bitcoin performed a September monthly candle close below twenty seven thousand one hundred and he also said technically that black line was solidified as resistance for September so he acknowledged the October breakout but said this would invalidate the bearish predicament should it endure now he also says because the Bitcoin monthly closed below the black line there's always going to be a chance that this price action could end up as an upside wick as he shares here alongside this chart Bitcoin offered upside wicks of up to 8 % long before but right now Bitcoin is up four and a half percent this month so technically anything up to twenty nine thousand four hundred could theoretically end as an upside wick so there you have it let me know if you agree disagree with the analysts say goodbye to your credit card rewards big box retailers led by Walmart and Target are pushing for a bill in Congress to take away your hard -earned cash back and travel points to line their pockets Senate bill 1838 would enact harmful credit card routing mandates that would end credit card rewards as we know it if you love your credit card rewards visit handsoffmyrewards .com and tell them to oppose credit card routing legislation paid for by the electronic payments coalition now closer to home market observers noted the ongoing encouraging signals on the exchange order books quoting jelly here spot bid continues while funding is negative this reeks of disbelief and as he shared here Bitcoin still spot -driven perhaps haven't done much yet to be honest yeah so Bitcoin shrugs off fresh US dollar surge just as eager to hit new local highs in the day was the US dollar after Congress avoided a government shutdown the US dollar stays the sharp rebound from losses seen late last week and at this time the DXY circled 106 .7 barely point two points off its recent 2023 highs and for crypto analyst Nebraskan Gooner a breakout from here would put 108 in play mark in new 11 -month highs as outlined right here now it's interesting the Bitcoin is pumping alongside with the dollar is usually it's inversely correlated maybe it's a sign of the times now together with the hype on yields and the oil prices economist Mohammed el -irian described the DXY strength as neither the US economy nor the markets enjoy Bitcoin nonetheless remain unfazed let's freaking go and as Kaiser points out here well he responded to this news the Japanese 10 -year bond yields are surging hitting the highest levels not seen in over a decade max responded the yen carry trade borrowing and at virtually zero and investing in higher yield currencies is broken this has been the mother of all the Ponzi schemes funding the global financial ization for 30 years and now it's moving in reverse and quitting max again Bitcoin is a state of heaven that exists entirely beyond anyone's reach except the owner preach that's why everyone needs to be stacking them sass and with that being shared fam now let's break down our next breaking story of the day a theorem ETF futures launch today October 2nd that's right check it out investment management firm Vanek is set to launch as a theorem strategy ETF today October 2nd with the product now listed on the website under the ticker EF UT and set for trading on the CBOE the Vanek a theorem strategy ETF will look to accrue capital by investing into a theorem futures contracts and has no direct exposure to eat the fund will expose cash settled eat futures contracts on CFTC regulated commodity exchanges Vanek also touts the benefits of the product being a C Corp structure which includes tax benefits the long investors compared with registered investment company structures here's the announcement here on X from Vanek when you are ready enter the ether how many of you have seen this commercial let me know in fact they launched two of them they're quite fascinating the investment manner has been advertising the launch of the East spot ETF on its social media accounts over the past few days with to enter the ETH themed TV commercials promising the upcoming launch now Vanek also announced that intends to donate 10 % of all their profits from its upcoming ether futures ETF to a theorem core developers over the next decade and as reported 15 different ether futures ETFs from nine issuers are currently awaiting approval from the US SEC and I guess they have until the end of September of 2023 analysts cited sources with the SEC of saying the regulator wanted to approve either future ETFs before potential US government shutdown but meanwhile bitwise asset management confirmed that trading for its to ether if futures ETFs would commence October 2nd as well with investors getting access to eat futures trading on the CB OE so there you have it we all know that futures are not in investors best interest in fact investors are most likely going to get wrecked we want the real deal baby which is the spot ETF and a little later in the show we're gonna be discussing grayscale converting their product to not only a Bitcoin spot ETF but also a spot a theorem ETF here in just a little bit but first we have some breaking news coming in surrounding FTX founder Sam Bankman freed I mean you can't make this stuff up he allegedly was trying to bribe Donald Trump with five billion dollars to not run for president good freaking Lord check this out how many of you seen this story let me know former FTX CEO SPF once looked into paying Donald Trump not to run for president of the United States according to Michael Lewis the author of the new book documented the rise and fall of SPF Michael Lewis author of going infinite the rise and the fall of a new tycoon spoke about the former crypto billionaire and the FTX founder in a 60 minutes interview yesterday October 1st one of the revelations in the book is that SPF looked into paying Donald Trump to not run for president that only shocks you if you don't know Sam as Lewis added the following Sam's thinking that we could pay Donald Trump not to run for president like how much would it take the number that he was kicking around was five billion dollars and he added before saying that SPF was unsure if that number came directly from Donald Trump and here's your prescription I know just the pharmacy to get this filled who are you a pharmacy benefit manager a middleman your insurer uses to decide which medicines you can get what you pay and sometimes even which pharmacy you should go to why can't I go to a pharmacy in my neighborhood because I make more money when you go to a pharmacy I own no one should stand between you and your medicine visit ph RMA org slash middlemen to learn more paid for by pharma SPF was also looking into the legality of it according to Lewis who added that they were still having these conversations when FTX blew up it just didn't happen because SPF didn't have the five billion any longer very interesting if you haven't watched the video check the show notes below the video in the description and after the show you can catch it out this clip taken from 60 minutes now according to Lewis SPF saw Trump as trying to undermine the democracy of the United States thinking he belongs on a list of existential risk crazy Lewis spent more than 70 days in the Bahamas on a dozen different trips to visit SPF in 2022 and the pair became close I would say in spare bedrooms I had codes to every room including the penthouse he told the Wall Street Journal and speaking on the fallout between the collapse of FTX in November he shared it was like the aftermath of Pompeii clothes and belongings left behind frozen in time many headed to the airport leaving company cars with the keys inside at the curb now Cointelegraph contacted legal representatives for SPF and Trump mark botnik who handles communications for SPF case said there was no comment from his legal team and according to the trial schedule calendar released last week the high -profile SPF trial begins October 3rd which is tomorrow less than 24 hours out with their jury selection the trial then begins on October 4th so it's going to be an interesting week the trial will involve seven fraud cases against SPF two substantive charges where the prosecution most convinced the jury that Bankman freed committed the crime and five other conspiracy charges so there you have it I wouldn't put it past Bankman freed whatsoever he was supporting the Democratic Party making mass donations to the Dems in support of Biden and heavily against Trump so I mean good lord could you say fraud I mean I could see Trump saying hey give me you want to give me five billion and not run for president sure let's make it happen but fortunately enough Sam Bankman freed didn't get away with that particular crime that we are aware of as he lost the company and the company went kaboom thanks to CZ calling him out firsthand on his FTT scam tokens but anyways fam let me know if that's surprising or shocking to you or you're not surprised at all now let's discuss the etherium spot ETF which is way more significant than any futures ETFs will ever be let's break this one down following the approval of the first ether futures exchange traded fund grayscale investments is looking to convert its grayscale aetherium trust to a spot aetherium ETF kudos to them because they're doing the same thing with their Bitcoin product as well they want to spot Bitcoin ETF the new New York Stock Exchange arca filed the conversion with the United States SEC October 2nd today grayscale's existing trust invested in ether futures contracts as an indirect means of exposure to aetherium but a spot ETF will invest in the underlying asset itself that's what makes it that much greater it's not derivatives or paper it's the real deal they have to hold the underlying asset as Michael Sun and shine shared here grayscale has filed to convert their grayscale aetherium trust to a spot ETF thank you for your continued support we can't wait to get started yeah so he also says as we file to convert the ethe to an ETF the natural next step in the products evolution we recognize this as an important moment to bring aetherium even further into the u .s.
Mike Gallagher Podcast
A highlight from The Mike and Mark Davis Daily Chat - 10/02/23
"The United States Border Patrol has exciting and rewarding career opportunities with the nation's largest law enforcement organization. Earn great pay with outstanding federal benefits and up to $20 ,000 in recruitment incentives. Learn more online at cbp .gov slash careers slash USBP. I went and read a book on Marx, a quartet practiced in the park, and we sang dirigence. The great Don McLean, Don McLean, McLean, the music died, is 78. We were singing bye bye. So Mike Gallagher is 11 years old for American Pie and I do too. Is this eight and a half minutes of masterpiece or just a butt whipping? I run across people who go, American Pie, ugh, what's the matter with you? I think it's a masterpiece. You know, disc jockeys always loved it because it was the song they put on when they had to go to the bathroom. Stairway to Heaven, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, Mike Crosby, Stump Fashion Young, yeah buddy. I need a potty break. It is time. Well listen, here we go, first Monday in October, a Supreme Court in session and some fascinating decisions they're going to have. We got all kinds of shenanigans and hijinks happening with the Republicans and Matt Gaetz and I want to start something, I want to start a conversation with you about this rift between Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz and the punditry that has decided to go after Matt Gaetz. This is very interesting to me. I get it. I appreciate, I'm going to speak for me and then I want to find out, pick your brain on where you think this is all going with the aversion of averting the government shutdown, no funding for Ukraine in this particular resolution. That's right. So we've taken out the funding for Ukraine, the government doesn't get shut down and the Democrats continue to implode as Gavin Newsom appoints a woman from Maryland to replace the Dianne Feinstein. Now they're scrubbing all references to the fact that she lives in Maryland because her dedication to abortion trumps everything else. Yes it does. You don't have to be a Californian to be a California senator. You've got to be all about abortion, which is we have got to, boy, I've got my final week of my preborn campaign and I hope people will make a contribution just to counter the nonsense going on in California right now with Gavin Newsom and this Emily's List lady. But let me go back to Matt Gaetz for just a moment.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
The Guardian Angels Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr John Esseff - burst 1
"Angel reminds people on earth to pray for you so often you know some people who are not yet and may be in purgatory and not yet settled in their in their home forever in heaven that angels work is to go to the people on earth or to others to pray for that soul and I really believe that many of us are reminded oh my grandmother or my uncle so -and -so or having a mass offered for so is really inspired by the angel who comes and asks why don't you have a mass said for your dad why don't you have a mass said for your aunt Tilly so that there's there's that reminder to pray for the dead
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from The Guardian Angels Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr John Esseff
"Discerning hearts provides content dedicated to those on the spiritual journey to continue production of these podcasts prayers and more go to discerninghearts .com and click the donate link found there or inside the free discerning hearts app to make your donation thanks and God bless discerninghearts .com presents building a kingdom of love reflections with Monsignor John Assef Monsignor Assef is a priest of the diocese of Scranton Pennsylvania. He has served as a retreat director and confessor to St. Teresa of Calcutta. He continues to offer direction and retreats for the sisters of the missionaries of charity. Monsignor Assef encountered St. Padre Pio who would become a spiritual father to him. He has lived in areas around the world serving in the Pontifical missions a Catholic organization established by Pope St. John Paul II to bring the good news to the world especially to the poor. He continues to serve as a retreat leader and director to bishops priests and sisters seminarians and other religious leaders. Building a kingdom of love reflections with Monsignor John Assef I'm your host Chris McGregor. Angels are so much on my mind today to talk to you about and I would like to begin with the guardian angel. I was very much enamored of my angel as a child. Ever since I can remember my brother and I were roommates and we had in our room you know that picture of guardian angel guiding this child across a bridge and we certainly he and I had so many scrapes as children we have some of them in our book but as two boys growing up and we were so companions because I can't remember being my memories go way back but they they don't go back before my brother because I was only a year and a half old when he came along so I always had this companion and so it's kind of easy for me to believe that I have a companion the angel the guardian angel is given to us from the first moment of our conception the guardian angel is interuterine he is given to you from your mother's womb and from the first moment that that egg fertilizes that is for that seed fertilizes that egg that soul that's blown into that person who now is going to be that's the beginning that's the moment your guardian angel begins to protect you and watch over you so he's with you and assists you in your life in the womb because how many more things are being told to us these days about what happens to the child in the womb it's a whole life in there if you're a single birth if you're you know are you my mother tells the story about that what do they talk about when a child is turned around and I was a breach breath I was going to be a breach birth and what happened to me is I got turned around and there's like all kinds of assistance that goes on within the womb guardian angel is right there assisting you in the birthing you know I think so many times we've it's good for a mother to know that that baby is being watched over and protected how that life is there and how the mother loves that baby from the moment that she knows she's pregnant and so the the baby is being watched over and cared for within the womb and then in the birthing your guardian angel comes with you that that angel stays with you from that moment of conception not only until you die but if you fail to go to paradise that angel reminds people on earth to pray for you so often you know some people who are not yet and may be in purgatory and not yet settled in their in their home forever in heaven that angels work is to go to the people on earth or to others to pray for that soul and I really believe that many of us are reminded oh my grandmother or my uncle so -and -so or having a mass offered for so is really inspired by the angel who comes and asks why don't you have a mass said for your dad why don't you have a mass said for your aunt Tilly so that there's there's that reminder to pray for the dead so until that's also because even in the liturgy itself it says at the death of a person may the angel lead you into paradise may the martyrs receive you on your way so as we go into the eternal city the angels are individually created angels do not multiply like humans so therefore if there are six billion people in this universe and each one of us has a specific guardian angel then there must at least be six billion angels God in making angels we always hear scripturally that there are myriads you know what myriads is millions and billions he just makes them and he creates them individually the least angelic creature is greater than any human creation you know after all man is only half spiritual half of him is material or physical he's half animal half spirit so that our bodily part it's no less beautiful it's a creation that we have feet and arms and legs and and we have a sex to us know that individual creation of my body is a very beautiful creation God has made the the marvel of a human body you know when I go to doctors and see especially if a person becomes ill the functioning of a healthy organ and a body is such a magnificent the eye the complexity of what an ear is or what a face is so what a brain is this is a magnificent each one of us who are human have been given this body creation and we have be given a spirit which is that part of us we are a body soul composite so that when we do die it's not only that the soul goes on to live because that's the part of us that will live eternally that's the part of us that's immortal but so is our body going to be so when the body and we believe that it's going to be raised from the dead we believe in the resurrection of the body so that it will participate in the glory of God in heaven forever or in the damnation in the fires of hell or whatever there is for eternal damnation and torture so we do know that we have any we are not made to die we are made to live eternally and because of Jesus who gives us a new life we are called now to live eternally in heaven he has given us the opportunity of salvation when he died on the cross Jesus saved everyone from the time of the cross back to Adam and Eve but they were not able to enter into glory because of Adam and Eve sin so he by his death on the cross brought salvation to every human being from Adam and Eve down to the year 33 and from the third year 33 to the end of time so that the cross is the salvation of all of mankind the desire of God was to save all of the human family each member of that family has a guardian now I'd love to go over that prayer angel of God my guardian dear to whom God's love commits me here so that God has sent an angel to be with me to watch over me to guard and to assist me to enlighten me to inspire me to guide me so this and we usually like to use the word guard because I think each of us is dealing with a lot of hostility in the world in which we live so there's a protective nature to this friend of ours and be careful watch for yourself and these inspirations that we receive daily and how many times you know driving along there's like an inspiration of why don't you take this street instead of that or that some different you slow down here this is like our guardian protecting us and I I often think how important it is to develop that relationship with our guardian angel to become more familiar I developed a very strong relationship with my guardian angel I think I had it as a child I kind of lost it and then it came back to me very early in my priesthood and I remember meeting a long tradition with Carmelite nuns who said to me why don't you ask your guardian angel its name because your guardian angel has a name it's a particular spirit and if you ask your guardian angel what your name is you would be able to become more familiar because you could call him by name and you could become more dependent on him and ask him and and then develop a closer relationship with him because every guardian angel has a nature it's an angelic nature it is hugely powerful and not incidentally every guardian angel is not the lowest rank of angel you could have a guardian angel from the archangel class you can have an archang you can have an angel that's your guardian from the seraphim or cherubim or Thrones I'll talk about those choirs of angels because they have enormous power each one in gradation and they they come according to the power that was given to them in their nature which is vastly different from each other they are all invisible creatures but they are all creatures made by God who have this nature and it's a particular nature I'm starting off with guardian angels because they're the ones I think that we're most familiar with we'll return to building the kingdom of love with Monsignor John Essip 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.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
Fresh update on "heaven" discussed on Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
"Discerning hearts provides content dedicated to those on the spiritual journey to continue production of these podcasts prayers and more go to discerninghearts.com and click the donate link found there or inside the free discerning hearts app to make your donation thanks and God bless discerninghearts.com presents building a kingdom of love reflections with Monsignor John Assef Monsignor Assef is a priest of the diocese of Scranton Pennsylvania. He has served as a retreat director and confessor to St. Teresa of Calcutta. He continues to offer direction and retreats for the sisters of the missionaries of charity. Monsignor Assef encountered St. Padre Pio who would become a spiritual father to him. He has lived in areas around the world serving in the Pontifical missions a Catholic organization established by Pope St. John Paul II to bring the good news to the world especially to the poor. He continues to serve as a retreat leader and director to bishops priests and sisters seminarians and other religious leaders. Building a kingdom of love reflections with Monsignor John Assef I'm your host Chris McGregor. Angels are so much on my mind today to talk to you about and I would like to begin with the guardian angel. I was very much enamored of my angel as a child. Ever since I can remember my brother and I were roommates and we had in our room you know that picture of guardian angel guiding this child across a bridge and we certainly he and I had so many scrapes as children we have some of them in our book but as two boys growing up and we were so companions because I can't remember being my memories go way back but they they don't go back before my brother because I was only a year and a half old when he came along so I always had this companion and so it's kind of easy for me to believe that I have a companion the angel the guardian angel is given to us from the first moment of our conception the guardian angel is interuterine he is given to you from your mother's womb and from the first moment that that egg fertilizes that is for that seed fertilizes that egg that soul that's blown into that person who now is going to be that's the beginning that's the moment your guardian angel begins to protect you and watch over you so he's with you and assists you in your life in the womb because how many more things are being told to us these days about what happens to the child in the womb it's a whole life in there if you're a single birth if you're you know are you my mother tells the story about that what do they talk about when a child is turned around and I was a breach breath I was going to be a breach birth and what happened to me is I got turned around and there's like all kinds of assistance that goes on within the womb guardian angel is right there assisting you in the birthing you know I think so many times we've it's good for a mother to know that that baby is being watched over and protected how that life is there and how the mother loves that baby from the moment that she knows she's pregnant and so the the baby is being watched over and cared for within the womb and then in the birthing your guardian angel comes with you that that angel stays with you from that moment of conception not only until you die but if you fail to go to paradise that angel reminds people on earth to pray for you so often you know some people who are not yet and may be in purgatory and not yet settled in their in their home forever in heaven that angels work is to go to the people on earth or to others to pray for that soul and I really believe that many of us are reminded oh my grandmother or my uncle so-and-so or having a mass offered for so is really inspired by the angel who comes and asks why don't you have a mass said for your dad why don't you have a mass said for your aunt Tilly so that there's there's that reminder to pray for the dead so until that's also because even in the liturgy itself it says at the death of a person may the angel lead you into paradise may the martyrs receive you on your way so as we go into the eternal city the angels are individually created angels do not multiply like humans so therefore if there are six billion people in this universe and each one of us has a specific guardian angel then there must at least be six billion angels God in making angels we always hear scripturally that there are myriads you know what myriads is millions and billions he just makes them and he creates them individually the least angelic creature is greater than any human creation you know after all man is only half spiritual half of him is material or physical he's half animal half spirit so that our bodily part it's no less beautiful it's a creation that we have feet and arms and legs and and we have a sex to us know that individual creation of my body is a very beautiful creation God has made the the marvel of a human body you know when I go to doctors and see especially if a person becomes ill the functioning of a healthy organ and a body is such a magnificent the eye the complexity of what an ear is or what a face is so what a brain is this is a magnificent each one of us who are human have been given this body creation and we have be given a spirit which is that part of us we are a body soul composite so that when we do die it's not only that the soul goes on to live because that's the part of us that will live eternally that's the part of us that's immortal but so is our body going to be so when the body and we believe that it's going to be raised from the dead we believe in the resurrection of the body so that it will participate in the glory of God in heaven forever or in the damnation in the fires of hell or whatever there is for eternal damnation and torture so we do know that we have any we are not made to die we are made to live eternally and because of Jesus who gives us a new life we are called now to live eternally in heaven he has given us the opportunity of salvation when he died on the cross Jesus saved everyone from the time of the cross back to Adam and Eve but they were not able to enter into glory because of Adam and Eve sin so he by his death on the cross brought salvation to every human being from Adam and Eve down to the year 33 and from the third year 33 to the end of time so that the cross is the salvation of all of mankind the desire of God was to save all of the human family each member of that family has a guardian now I'd love to go over that prayer angel of God my guardian dear to whom God's love commits me here so that God has sent an angel to be with me to watch over me to guard and to assist me to enlighten me to inspire me to guide me so this and we usually like to use the word guard because I think each of us is dealing with a lot of hostility in the world in which we live so there's a protective nature to this friend of ours and be careful watch for yourself and these inspirations that we receive daily and how many times you know driving along there's like an inspiration of why don't you take this street instead of that or that some different you slow down here this is like our guardian protecting us and I I often think how important it is to develop that relationship with our guardian angel to become more familiar I developed a very strong relationship with my guardian angel I think I had it as a child I kind of lost it and then it came back to me very early in my priesthood and I remember meeting a long tradition with Carmelite nuns who said to me why don't you ask your guardian angel its name because your guardian angel has a name it's a particular spirit and if you ask your guardian angel what your name is you would be able to become more familiar because you could call him by name and you could become more dependent on him and ask him and and then develop a closer relationship with him because every guardian angel has a nature it's an angelic nature it is hugely powerful and not incidentally every guardian angel is not the lowest rank of angel you could have a guardian angel from the archangel class you can have an archang you can have an angel that's your guardian from the seraphim or cherubim or Thrones I'll talk about those choirs of angels because they have enormous power each one in gradation and they they come according to the power that was given to them in their nature which is vastly different from each other they are all invisible creatures but they are all creatures made by God who have this nature and it's a particular nature I'm starting off with guardian angels because they're the ones I think that we're most familiar with we'll return to building the kingdom of love with Monsignor John Essip 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.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from The Guardian Angels St Bernard of Clairvaux from the Office of Readings Discerning Hearts Podcast
"From the Liturgy of the Hours of the Roman Rite, from the Office of Readings. From a sermon of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. He has given his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. Let them thank the Lord for his mercy. His wonderful works are for the children of men. Let them give thanks and say among the nations the Lord has done great things for them. Oh Lord, what is man that you have made yourself known to him? Or why do you incline your heart to him? And do you incline your heart to him? You show him your care and your concern. Finally, you sent your only Son and the grace of your Spirit and promise him a vision of your countenance. And so, that nothing in heaven should be wanting in your concern for us, you send those blessed spirits to serve us, assigning them as our guardians and our teachers. He has given his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. These words should fill you with respect, inspire devotion, and instill confidence, respect for the presence of angels, devotion because of their loving service, and confidence because of their protection. And so the angels are here. They are at your side. They are with you, present on your behalf. They are here to protect you and to serve you. But even if it is God who has given them this charge, we must nonetheless be grateful to them for the great love with which they obey and come to help us in our great need. So let us be devoted and grateful to such great protectors. Let us return their love and honor them as much as we can and should. Yet all our love and honor must go to him, for it is from him that they receive all that makes them worthy of our love and respect. We should then, my brothers, show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be our co -heirs, just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed and set over us by the Father. We are God's children, although it does not seem so, because we are still but small children under guardians and trustees, and for the present little better than slaves. Even though we are children and have a long and very long and dangerous way to go, with such protectors what have we to fear? They who keep us in all our ways cannot be overpowered or led astray, much less lead us astray. They are loyal, prudent, powerful. Why then are we afraid? We have only to follow them, stay close to them, and we shall dwell under the protection of God's heaven. Let us pray. Lord God, in your all -wise providence you send angels to guard and protect us, surround us with their watchful care on earth, and give us the joy of their company forever in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
A highlight from The Professors Disillusionment
"Welcome to Gospel in Life. This month we're looking at directional signposts through history that point us to Christ. All through the Old Testament from Genesis to Jonah, you see signs that point us to Jesus. Listen now to today's teaching from Tim Keller on Pointers to Christ. Verses 15 to 26. Then I thought in my heart, The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise? I said in my heart, This too is meaningless. For the wise man, like the fool, will not long be remembered. In days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise must die. So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things that I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days, his work is pain and grief. Even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless. A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God. For without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness. But to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after, the win. This is God's word. one Now, of the things that an awful lot of people have said is that Ecclesiastes is a great book. In chapter 97 of Moby Dick, I know it so well, Melville says the truest of all books is Ecclesiastes. Thomas Wolfe in a pretty well -known American novel, You Can't Go Home Again, he says, one of his characters says this, Ecclesiastes is the greatest single piece of writing I have ever known, the noblest, the wisest, the most powerful expression of humanity's life on earth, the highest flower of eloquence and truth. There's an awful lot of people who talk like that, say this is the best book in the Bible, this is the truest, this is the greatest. But I can almost guarantee you that none of them felt that way the first time, not the first time they read it. Because what you have when you first read Ecclesiastes, what you're struck with, is a teacher, a professor, as we'll see, in absolute despair. The very first verses, the first few lines of Ecclesiastes go like this, meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. And of course, the passage I just read is just the same. And so you have someone in utter despair with the bleakest view of life, and the reason people generally get very confused when they read it, people who are believers, people who believe in God, people who have the traditional faith, they say, I'm confused because it seems like he's contradicting everything the rest of the Bible says. And people who don't believe or have trouble believing or who are not as believing, when they read it, I'll tell you what they say. What they say is, who needs this? They say, this guy is a professor, this is the kind of guy who drinks himself into a raise on the left bank talking about the meaninglessness of life, this is the kind of guy who makes these art films that, you know, are so bleak and terrible that play in obscure little corners of Greenwich Village. Of course, the world has people like that, but most of us aren't like that, we don't see life like that. Who needs this rant? Who needs this pessimism? Now, the reason why it's so confusing is because a couple of things are missed. The first thing is because people don't realize the instructional approach. We don't exactly know who wrote Ecclesiastes, I won't get into the debate, it's debatable that Solomon writes, it doesn't matter because in the very first line, he calls himself a teacher, a word that can mean a professor. And if you read Ecclesiastes, you'll realize that this man, and it's the only book like this in the Bible, this man is running a seminar. He's not lecturing, he's not preaching, like a good philosophy professor, he's running a seminar. He is making you think. He is goading you with questions. Ecclesiastes, unlike any other book of the Bible, is not pedagogy, it's andragogy. Pedagogy literally means child instruction, memorizing, wrote, you see, drill, spoon feeding. Andragogy is a word that means adult instruction. Goading, asking questions, getting people to look at their own foundations, discovering truth for themselves. That's one of the reasons why Ecclesiastes seems so odd. But the other reason it seems so odd is because people, I don't think notice, unless you look clearly and I'm going to try to show you this morning, that the teacher is looking at life all the time. He's always saying, I see, I see, I saw this, I looked at life and I saw this, but he looks at life in two different ways and he goes back and forth between them. Let me show you the first way he looks at life and the second way he looks at life. It'll teach us a great deal. The first way he looks at life, in the first view, let's say how he looks and what he sees and why he sees it. Now, the first way he looks at life is he looks at life under the sun. You notice how three times in this passage, verse 17, 20 and 22, he says, I found this meaningless under the sun. I saw all my work under the sun was meaningless. This is a term that's used 30 times in the book. This is a term that is not used anywhere else in the Old Testament, so it's clearly critical to and very important to the whole book. And what he means by this, almost all the commentators I've ever read agree, what he means by under the sun is life here and now considered in isolation from anything else. Life under the sun is, he says, I'm going to look at the world as if this life under the sun is all that there is. I'm not going to look at life above the sun. I'm not going to think about God or eternity or heaven or hell, see. I'm not going to think of anything beyond. I'm going to look at life as if this is the only life we have, at least the only life we know. You know Carl Sagan in the beginning of every one of his Cosmos PBS segments, in the very beginning you'd hear Carl Sagan's voice come on and he would say, the cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Now most people are not atheists in the strict sense like Carl Sagan. What Carl Sagan is saying is, this life, this world, there is no heaven, there is no hell, there is no eternity, okay? There is nothing but this life, life under the sun, there's nothing else. Most people aren't atheists. Most people would say, well, I believe in God, but the modern person says, I believe in God or something, but we can't know. We can't know God's will for sure. We can't know about the after. We can't be sure. And so essentially the modern person says, we have got to live life as if this is the only life we know. And the teacher says, deal. I'm going to look at life as if it's the only life we know. That's how he's looking at it. That's the first way he looks at it. I'm going to look at life under the sun. But what does he see? What he sees is absolute inconsequentiality. Now, he kind of looks at it in several ways. He notices the injustice. If you look down, he says, it's unjust. Some people work very, very hard and never enjoy the fruit of their labor, and other people who don't deserve it at all enjoy it. And then he says, and worse than that, it's possible that you could work very hard to accomplish something in life, and then when you die, not only don't you get it anymore, but some fool comes along and takes over, and next thing you know, everything you've worked for is gone. You build an institution. You establish a school of thought. You do some good deeds, and somebody else comes along afterwards and just ruins it. But you see, that all is just, those are all just symptoms. Because up in verse 15 and 16, he really gives you the bottom line. In verse 15 and 16, as I read, he says, the fate of the fool will overtake me also. He says, therefore, this is meaningless, for the wise like the fool will not long be remembered. Now what he's bringing out here is something, again, incredibly modern, but something he's trying to grab you by the scruff of the neck and show you. And we're going to talk about why, but for now, let's say the what. We'll talk about why he's doing this, but right now, let's say what he's looking at. And what he is saying is, a wise life, a wise action, or a foolish life, a foolish action, a compassionate life, a compassionate action, a cruel life, a vicious action. In the end, makes no difference at all. None at all. If it's really true that life under the sun is all there is, if it's really true that when we die, that's it, and eventually the solar system dies, in other words, eventually something will sweep everything away, civilization will all be swept away, it won't make a bit of difference how you've lived at all. And therefore, there is no way, if you realize that life under the sun is all there is, that you can say one action is more significant than another, because it makes no difference in the end at all. Now, that's very bleak, you say. And the question comes up, why, you know, we're all smart people, we walk around, why is it that the average person, and the average person in Western culture who shares the teacher's premise that this life is all we know, but they go on out there and they don't feel that life is meaningless, they don't say one thing is as insignificant as another, that everything is ridiculous, everything is meaningless and vain and futile, no. So why does he, and here's the reason why. He looks at the whole of life, the big picture, and we refuse to. The key is, take a look at this question that he brings out, I have been meditating on this question for some years, and I just saw something this week that I'd never seen before. Here's the question he asks, and he dares you to ask the question. He says, down here in verse 22, what does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? That's the question. Every word is significant. First of all, he says, assuming that this life is all there is, first of all, he says, what is the gain? What do you get? What is the difference? Now, why do you ask that question? Because he's really showing us that you ask that question about any individual piece of your life, do you not? If somebody says to you, I would like you to go to the corner of so -and -so place, and I would like you to stand there for an hour tomorrow, you would say, for what? Well, the person says, I don't want to tell you, I'd just like you to do it. And you say, no, no, no, no. I want to know what difference it'll make, what gain there will be, otherwise it's a waste of time. You would never do anything. If it made absolutely no difference at all, if nothing came of it at all, you'd never do anything. But the thing that, in other words, we look at every part of our life like that. But the reason that the teacher comes to despair, existential despair, is because he uses a little word in that question that is so critical, and that is the word all. What do you get from the whole of your life? And the reason the average person shares the teacher's premise but does not share the teacher's despair in this world, in this Western culture, is because we refuse to use the word all. See, the average person, I mean, there's probably a lot of people right here listening to this, and you're going to sit through the 30 minutes or whatever, but you would never sit through 30 minutes personally with somebody. If somebody sat down and said, well, what do you believe about life? And you said, well, I'm kind of an agnostic, I'm kind of a, I sort of believe in God in general, it might be true, but the one thing is all we know is that we're here, we don't really know for sure why we're here or where we're going or, you know, we can't be sure. Now, the person says, well, in that case, you must, you have to look at life and say that nothing means anything, that there's no right and wrong ultimately, there's no significance between one action over another, that no one action is more meaningful or more significant than the other. And you wouldn't stand for that. You would say, oh, give me this, I took philosophy 101, this meaning in life, so philosophers need this, philosophers ask the big questions. The average person, the average person lives for the daily things. Sure, I don't know, I'm an agnostic, but I'm optimistic about life, why? Because when I take a boat ride in Central Park, I feel good, it's meaningful. When I hug somebody I love, it's meaningful. When accomplish I something at work, it's meaningful. When I do a compassionate deed as opposed to a selfish deed, it's meaningful to me. I'm having a fine life. You can't throw all this on me, you can't put me back into philosophy class. Now, you know what you're doing? You're refusing to ask the word all. There was an old Mutt and Jeff cartoon some years ago. Remember Mutt and Jeff? And at one place, Mutt, Jeff comes up and there's Mutt, and right in the middle of a street, right in the middle of a, you know, a road, a street, he has built a very, very tall pile of stones, and at the top of the pile of stones, there's a lantern, and Jeff says to Mutt, oh, Mutt, why did you build this pile of stones? Oh, he says, that's easy, so I could put the lantern up there. So that it's up high so that it gives a lot of light. Oh, okay. Why did you put the lantern up there? Well, I want the lantern up there so the cars will see the pile of stones and they won't crash into it. Why did you put the pile of stones there for the car to crash into? Well, so that I could put the lantern up there. Now, what is he doing? It's very simple. He's finding meaning of one part in the meaning of another part, but he's refusing to ask the question, does the whole thing have any use, or is it just stupid? Why do you work? Usually, a person says, I'll tell you why I work, so that I can do things that I like to do. I have avocations, I've got hobbies, I've got leisure, I like travel. Why? Well, that really recharges my batteries. Why? So I can work. See, the lantern is for the stones, the stones are for the lantern, and if you refuse to stand back and say, but what is the whole thing for? What is the whole thing for? How do you know your whole life isn't stupid? That your whole life isn't pointless? How do you know your whole life is not just a very, very large stone lantern in the middle of a highway? How do you know this? Now, here's what the teacher is saying. The teacher is saying, grow up. This is not pedagogy, this is andragogy. Don't be an ostrich. Ask yourself the question. If you would never do one thing, if it made no difference at all, okay, it would be meaningless, it would be a waste of time, unless it made a difference. What difference does your whole life make? What are you living for? What difference does it all make? Now, the average person just does not want to hear this. I had a little conversation with somebody, by the way, I know very well, I'll get back to why I think this was a valid conversation, but it's a dangerous one. I had a conversation not too long with somebody I knew very, very well, and this person had just said, what he said was, he says, you know what, the way you know what's right and wrong is, there's no reasons for it, there's no way to know what's right and wrong, you just have to know what's right and wrong in your heart, and if you know in your heart, then it's right, and then you just need to do it, and that's how you live, that's how you find meaning in life. And I said, well then, what do you say to Hitler? He felt it real hard in his life, and he did it, so that was okay. Oh no, my friend said, well you know, he says, the trouble is, most of the people's hearts in the world know that what Hitler was doing was wrong, therefore it was wrong. And I said, well you know, up to 150 years ago, most of the hearts of the world thought slavery was just fine. Do you think slavery was just fine? No. Why not? And he just looked and he shrugged and he says, you know, these things are so complex, if you think about this, you'll just dig a hole. Now this is a person I knew a very long time, and it was very, very cordial. Now here's the question. The teacher is saying, when someone says, I don't need to ask this question, I don't need to ask this question, what you really are saying is, my optimistic agnosticism, and that's the worldview the teacher is trying to absolutely smash, my optimistic agnosticism will fall apart if I ask that question. It can't deal with that question. It is demolished by that question. It is absolutely inadequate to that question. Optimistic agnosticism. Life under the sun is all there is, but there's moral truth. There's human rights. There's human dignity. Listen, if your origin isn't significant, you come from nothing, and if your destiny is insignificant, you're going to nothing, have the guts to admit that your life is insignificant. And stop talking, as if, on the one hand, you feel like you can poke holes in other people's inconsistencies. You'll poke holes in Muslims who say, I believe in God, but then they do something wrong, or Christians who say, I believe in God, do something wrong. You'll poke holes in everybody else's inconsistency, but you won't look at your own. You know, Jean -Paul Sartre made a very interesting statement. His most famous essay was right after the war, 1946. He wrote his essay called Existentialism and Humanism, and this is what he said. He says, God does not exist, and we have to face all the consequences of this. The existentialist is strongly opposed to a certain kind of secular ethics which wants to abolish God with the least possible expense. The existentialist, indeed, thinks it is very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding any values disappears with God. There can be no a priori good, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it. So nowhere is it written that we must be honest. Nowhere is it written that we must not lie, because the fact is we're on a plane where there's only us, human beings. Dostoevsky said, if God didn't exist, everything would be permissible. That is the very starting point of existentialism. If God does not exist, there is nothing within or without that can legitimize any conduct. Now, you know what is very interesting to me? Sartre took this idea, life under the sun is all there is, and you know what he says? He says, don't talk to me in any way that says that you believe that one kind of conduct is more legitimate than any other kind. One of the things that's come out recently, he died in 1980, one of the things that's come out over the last few years is what a misogynist he was. Jean -Paul Sartre was very bad to women, the women he knew, and he was very misogynist, but you know what? Whenever I read the people who accept his premise about life, and then get very upset about it, if he was alive, he would rise up, and he was only 5 '2", so that's, he would rise up, and he would say, please. He would say, you want to be free. You want to say, I am free to do what I want to do. You want to be free. As far as I know, this life is all there is. I'm not controlled by eternity, by moral absence, by God. I want to be free. Then you have got to have the guts to accept the utter meaninglessness of all distinctions. You want to be free, fine, but you have to accept it. Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. Come on. You know, Christians look like real hard -nosed skeptics compared to a view that says, life under the sun is all there is, but I'm optimistic. I have meaning in life. I can enjoy things. I know some things are right, some things are wrong. I know it's better to be compassionate than to be violent. I know these things. Talk about blind faith. Talk about naive religiosity. why Now, is he doing this? Because he also tends to see life, the preacher, the teacher, the professor sees life in a different way. One of the biggest obstacles for people to believe in Christianity is that they think they already know all about it. But if we look at Jesus' encounters with various people during His life, we'll find some of our assumptions challenged. We see Him meeting people at the point of their big, unspoken questions. The Gospels are full of encounters that made a profound impact on those who spoke with Jesus. And in His book, Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller explores how these encounters can still address our questions and doubts today. Encounters with Jesus is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life reach more people with the amazing love of Christ. Request your copy of Encounters with Jesus today when you give at GospelInLife .com slash give. That's GospelInLife .com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.
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
Fresh update on "heaven" discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"But we're hearing him. How is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, Asia, for it all over the place. Egypt, the whole bit, right? Cretans and Arabs, then their own tongues, their own languages, speaking the mighty deeds of God. And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, what does all this mean? But notice how the miracle has facilitated people asking a question. What does this mean? And notice. The suggestion is. Some were mocking others, saying they must be drunk. They're full of sweet wine. Peter takes his stand with the 11 right there on the steps of the Temple, raises his voice and declares to them, men of Judea and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you. Give heed to my words. These men are not drunk, as some of you suppose. It's only the third hour of the day. Hasn't been time to get drunk yet. Doesn't even make sense. This is what was spoken of through the Prophet Joel, and he quotes from the Old Testament and Joel 2 to prove it. He says in verse 22, men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which he performed through you or through him in your midst. Just as you yourselves know, we've been going through Mark's gospel this year, right? How many miracles did Jesus do? A handful, right? A handful every couple of minutes. He did countless miracles of all kinds. They saw all of that. Notice how Peter begins by saying, listen to this. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man that you saw do miracles that God did through him. Attesting to who he is. Just as you yourselves know, this man was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. You nailed him to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. Many of these people, no doubt, were the ones that said 40 days ago we want Barabbas. He's addressing that very crowd. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death. Since it's impossible for him to be held in his power. Indeed, David says of him and he quotes from Psalm 16 to show that this is exactly what was going to happen. God will not abandon my soul to Hades nor allow your Holy One to undergo decay. The Holy One of God will not rot in the tomb. Verse 29, David says, brethren, I may confidently say to you that David know that regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried in his tomb is with us today. You can find David's bones in his tomb. You will not find Jesus's bones in his tomb. Because he was a prophet, that is David, and knew that God had sworn of him with an oath to seat one of his descendants, the Davidic Covenant, the seat as descendant of David on David's throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Christ. David was writing about Christ's resurrection when he wrote this text, Psalm 16, that he just quoted. This Jesus, God raised up again, verse 32, which to which we are all witnesses. And again, they were hard to convince of the resurrection, right? Well, we're witnesses that he had that God did raise him up. Jesus, this Jesus, God raised up again to which we're all witnesses, therefore having been exalted the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. He was poured forth this which you both see in here. That is the speaking in tongues, speaking in languages which you understand, for it was not David who was ascended into heaven, but he himself says in Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Jesus is right now seated at the right hand of the Father, having risen from the dead, just like God said. Notice how many quotes from the Old Testament he uses with this audience that would have been familiar with the Old Testament. Therefore, let all the House of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus whom you crucified. He preached the gospel. He preached the good news. Well, how is that good news? He just told them that they murdered their Messiah. Well, verse 37. Notice their reaction. Now, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, then what do we do? And he said, repent each of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Slip down to verse 40. It says, and with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. Be rescued, be saved, be delivered. Notice he is pleading for them to be reconciled to God. Verse 41, so then those who received his word were baptized and that they were added about what 3000 souls they they were immediately added to the church. Verse 42, they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles, teaching to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer, and everybody kept feeling a sense of all many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. All of those who had believed were together. They had all things in common. They were selling their property and possessions and sharing them with everybody as anybody might have need day by day, continuing with one mind in a temple, breaking bread from house to house, taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people in the Lord, kept adding to their number day by day. Those who are being saved. That's the way you see the Great Commission being fulfilled from the very beginning. That's what we're still supposed to be doing. Minus the miracles because they're not needed anymore. We have the complete revelation of God right here. Notice in verse 42 they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles, teaching and fellowship, teaching them to observe whatsoever I've commanded you, continuing to teach, continuing to learn, and then together worshiping God corporately, like what we've been doing today, giving attention to his word, being instructed from his word, and then living out in our lives in accordance with the instructions that were being given. And what is the chief number one instruction that God has given to us in his word as disciples of Jesus Christ? It is not to be God's kind of husband. It is not to be God's kind of wife. It is not to be God's kind of son, daughter, father, mother, employer, employee. It is to be making disciples. We all exist, you know. Some of you guys can sing really well. But not as well as you will in heaven. Some of you guys can play really well, but not as well as you'll be able to play in heaven. Do you know the one thing we won't be able to do in heaven? That we can do here. We can share the good news with people who are lost. There won't be any lost people in heaven. This is your one chance to live for God in a sin cursed and fallen world. This is your one opportunity in your life to point somebody who's lost to Jesus Christ. This is it. That's what we're here for. That's why he's left us here. You know, it's amazing. When you when you go to 1st Thessalonians Chapter 1. If you want to turn there with me. 1st Thessalonians Chapter 1. I still remember the first time I studied through this and preach through this text here 20 some years ago. And finding out that the church in Thessalonica was about a year old. And Paul calls them a model church that all churches can follow their example. And I was looking around and we were 6770 years old at the time as a church and I went, you know what? If they can be a model church in less than a year, there's no reason why we can't be a model church today. Let's just learn from them and follow their example. How would that be? And so that's what we started to do. Paul says in verse 2 we give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers constantly bearing bearing in mind your work of faith, your labor of love and your steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father knowing brethren beloved by God is choice of you, knowing that you're elect. How do I know you really are God's people? How do I know you really are Christians? Verse 5 because our gospel, our proclamation of the good news did not come to you in word only. We didn't just talk, but it was all obvious also that it came in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction. Just as you yourselves know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. We lived what we preached and we preached what we live and what we believe in what God says. And you know we saw you became imitators of us and of the Lord. You received the word, the preaching and teaching we gave you in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit. So much so verse 7 that you became an example to all believers in Macedonia Nicaea to the whole region.
Game of Crimes
A highlight from 118: Part 1: Marc Cameron - From Deputy US Marshal to Arliss Cutter to Tom Clancy
"Well, again, here we are. Episode 118. Murph, we have 118. This is like surviving 118 attempts on our life. We have dodged all the bullets. Our listeners are loyal and they protect us. You guys protect us. So welcome back again. Episode 118, Game of Crimes. Thank you, thank you, thank you guys for joining. I am your host with the most hair. Just got it cut, Morgan Wright, here literally with my partner in crime. Murph, who's almost bald and your hair looks like crap. My hair doesn't look like crap. It looks like crap. No, it doesn't. It looks marvelous. I've got so much. She says, the person who cut my hair said, when you come in after six weeks, it's like most people's eight weeks or 10 weeks. So I get a lot of hair. Hey, when I go in and get a haircut, it takes like three minutes. I'm in and out. There you go. You sure that's a haircut? Be nice now. I'm just starting this. Please, please don't pay attention to him, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry, okay. We're trying to gain some professional help. Yeah, whatever. All right, how's that working out for you? Okay, let's just do some quick housekeeping before we get started. Hey guys, head on over to that Apple Spotify. Hit those five stars. It helps us out a lot. Remember, the other thing we learned that too, guess what guys? Not only did Stitcher go away, Google Podcasts is going away. So you're gonna have to, if you're on Google, make sure you pick a new service to keep listening to us. Make sure you hit that subscribe button too so that you do not miss. Deliver to your digital inbox every week on a Monday and Tuesday, these episodes like this one's coming out. Also head on over to our website, gameofcrimespodcast .com. In fact, when we talk about our guest today, Mark Cameron, we'll talk about his book. That'll be listed on there. And we've got a lot of great stuff on there. So make sure you head on over there. Gameofcrimespodcast .com. Also follow us on that thing they call social media at Game of Crimes on Twitter, Game of Crimes podcast on Facebook and the Instagram. But Murph, I'm telling you, we're gonna have some fun on Patreon. Patreon .com slash Game of Crimes. I have a 911 call coming up for you. Of all the 911 calls, I guarantee you nobody, nobody has taken a call like this before that I'm aware of ever, anywhere. Looking forward to hearing this one. Holy cow. There's gonna be a couple. This one, I don't know if I can make an entire case out of it, but I've listened to it. And just the sheer confusion on the call taker, they've never been presented with this before. So we'll have to talk about that. But guys, we just did our warden of the throne. It's a unique little thing we're doing now. Rather than just taking one topic, Murph brings two topics. I bring two topics. We're allowed to get into things that are catching our interest for the previous month or some stories. So we just did one talking about Philadelphia and the looting, Iran, and what they call the Iranian experts initiative. People have had their security clearance suspended. You talk about some tragic cases up in New York, the Bronx, baby dying at daycare center, and the recent death of that CEO by a sexual predator who should have still been in prison, but wasn't. Right, in Baltimore. So those are a lot of good things. We've got Q &A coming up, 911, what's your emergency case of the month? So guys, all good stuff. You don't hear this anywhere else, but on patreon .com slash Game of Crimes. But the other place you gotta be though too, Murph, our favorite mafia queen with the iron fist with the velvet glove. You gotta head on over there, watch what Sandy Salvato is doing with our Game of Crimes fans page. Just go to Facebook, type in Game of Crimes fans, answer a couple easy questions, get admitted to the Inner Sanctum in YouTube. You will see what goes on behind the scenes, behind the curtains. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain because that's one of our favorite people happening over on Game of Crimes fans. It's a lot of fun. There's a lot of humor there. A lot of dark humor too. If you saw some of the stuff people have posted, I hope you guys, I hope your healthcare plan supports you with an employee assistance program. I'm telling you. I don't know what you're talking about. Here's what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about now because you know what time it is. Guess what? I'm gonna ask you, do you know what time it is? Guess what time it is? Come on, give me a clue. It's time for Small Town Police Blotter. Hey, this because in honor of our guest that's coming up, Mark Cameron, the author, we'll talk about him in a second, but he went from Texas, lives in Alaska. So I thought we should have an Alaska theme. There you go. For our Small Town Police Blotter. So Murph, gotta ask you. Yes. This comes out of the Alaska Dispatch News. You know, a lot of fishery stuff, a lot of crabbing, a lot of lobster stuff, a lot of that goes on in Alaska, doesn't it? Mm -hmm, mm -hmm. So you have an idea. You go, hey, we're gonna take a crabbing boat and we're gonna convert it into a floating bar and strip club. What could go wrong, right? Oh my gosh. So 54 -year -old Darren Byler of Kodiak and his 46 -year -old wife, Kimberly, own the Wild Alaskan, a former crabbing boat that's been converted into a floating bar and strip club. Apparently it's doing pretty well. They've been running the business since June, but now they're in serious legal trouble and Murph, it's not for stripping. Uh -oh, what is it? This gives new meaning to, you know, why this is on a crabbing boat. So if you're out there floating, you have to provide facilities for people to use, right? So if they use the facilities, number one and number two, you should probably find a way to take care of that other than dumping it into the ocean. Oh, come on, come on. So they were just indicted by a federal grand jury for improper disposal of human waste after they were caught dumping feces from their bathroom into the harbor, as they say in Maine, into the harbor. Instead of taking the waste tanks to the proper places on shore, they both could be facing up to one year in jail and $25 ,000 in fine, but that's not the worst part. The worst part is the Coast Guard said they lied about dumping the tanks, and if they're convicted of that, making false statements to the Coast Guard investigators, that could get them five years in prison and $250 ,000 in fines. Cha -ching. I tell you what, you gotta do a lot of stripping to make that kind of money. It's a shitty situation they got themselves in. It's terrible. This whole thing just stinks. It stinks, man, stinks to high heaven. Tell you what, you know, you had a turd in one hand and wishes in the other. Anyway, we could go lots of places with that, so. These people didn't move to Alaska from Florida, did they? I don't believe so. Thank goodness. Hey, but I went back into the archives too, so I pulled some articles out of the Alaska News Archives, the Fairbanks Daily News Minor. This comes to us January 21st, 1955, and I'm telling you, the stories are hilarious. These are quick hits. And not always, but this is what's in Alaska. This is what's important in Alaska, January of 1955. The Tokyo police hire pretty hostesses. Tokyo police, grieved by complaints that their headquarters is unattractive, have assigned four pretty girls to meet people at the building's two entrances. Officials have also ordered the women to take charm courses. That is what's important in the Alaska, you know, the Fairbanks Daily News Minor. The other thing you gotta do here, be prepared. And this comes to us, it's out of Tucson, Arizona, but in the Fairbanks Daily News Minor. This is 1955, a 15 -year -old boy with a loaded .38 caliber pistol in his waistband was removed from high school class here by police. His explanation for carrying a gun, a couple of those teachers were giving me a hard time. Well, geez, okay. Okay, but this one though, this one has gotta be, this is it. This is St. Monaface. I believe this is Alaska, no, Manitoba. This is St. Monaface, Manitoba. All right. Police were certain the worst of the winter is upon them. Pete Nikoluk has started his annual jail term for vagrancy. Nikoluk has spent the past 21 winters in jail on vagrancy charges. Police says he always manages to get arrested just before the coldest part of the winter sets in. Who says this guy's not smart? Three hots and a cot, and I get through the toughest part of winter. Oh my goodness. That's, well, you know, that's prior planning, I guess. Prior planning prevents piss -poor performance, the 6Ps. There you go. Yep. You ask my children, they'll tell you what the 6Ps are. That's right. Murph, now, we'll finish up with this. I went and looked at what are some of the strangest laws in Alaska, and these are definitely Alaskan. It is illegal to whisper in someone's ear why they are moose hunting. Okay. It's legal to shoot bears. However, it is illegal to wake a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph. Why would you wake a sleeping bear? Isn't that the truth? Here's another thing, and I don't get it. It is considered an offense. It's illegal to feed alcoholic beverages to a moose. What? Why? Huh. Apparently, it's also illegal to sell stun guns to children. That one, I kind of get that makes sense. Well, if you're in Fairbanks, Alaska, if you love a vuvuzula, remember what they did during the World Cup. You know, you blow those things that make a lot of noise. Those annoying things? Yeah, it's illegal to blow a horn in a manner that disrupts the peace. Good. Yep. So, it's illegal to fatten up a sheep, cow, or pig within the city limits of Fairbanks. Are we talking about people or animals? Well, maybe it's meatball, and you'll have to listen to her. You'll have to listen to our warden of the throne. All right, it is also a crime to speak so loud that you offend a sensitive person enough to make him, her, or her leave if you're in Fairbanks. What? Okay, well, hey, be nice. That's just be nice. And you can only carry a concealed slingshot if you have received the appropriate license. The license. Do you have a license for that slingshot? All right. Oh, okay. I didn't know you had to have that. But Murph, this is the craziest one. This reminds me of an episode of you and JP on Narcos where you were accused of doing this, not a moose, but it is an offense to push a live moose out of a moving airplane. Well, you know, I gotta agree with that, but have you seen how big a moose is? How do you push it anywhere? Well, how do you get it into the damn airplane to begin with is what I wanna know. And who wants a moose, a pissed off moose, in their airplane? Uniquely Alaskan. So Mark Cameron, as we get into this, and again, we wanna thank our buddy, Patrick O 'Donnell, Cops and Writers. Go listen to his podcast. Hooked us up with him, but Mark Cameron is an interesting dude, moved from Weatherford, Texas to Alaska. And we're gonna talk about his book that was just released. It's an Arliss Kutter novel, Breakneck, by Mark Cameron. But the interesting thing too, Murph, was he wrote the last seven Tom Clancy novels. And this is a guy that used to be a marshal, which most of the reports were saw bad guy, put him in jail, you know? Not extensive reports in the marshal service. Saw a fugitive, arrested, same.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
Fresh update on "heaven" discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Now in this household of faith. I think we focus on baptism faithfully. I think we push people and encourage people that the first act of obedience that Christ requires is baptism and join the church. Be publicly identified with him. I think we do a faithful job on that. If you've been here more than about two or three months, you have probably actually you've probably been invited over to Chuck and Gina's house and then Chuck is cornered you and said, So what's taking so long? You should be actively involved in ministry by now, right? Oh, what's the hold up? And and if you've met Albert, he's probably said, you know you got about two weeks before Pastor Brian says it's time to hit the road, right? So I think we're pretty faithful on focusing on the importance of being publicly identified with Christ and being an active, vibrant member of a church. If you think this is a biblical church, you ought to join the church. You ought to be a part of the body because this is this is the Great Commission being publicly identified with Christ and as a member of his body. I'll show you in Acts 2 that that's exactly the way this was put into practice right from the beginning. That's why we do that. I think we do a faithful job there. I think you'll also find that we do a faithful job in most contexts, whether we're talking about Wednesday night where the guys have very wisely chosen to take on the whole of systematic theology in a everyday discussion. Even though they haven't had the classes yet. I think that you'll find that in Sunday school we approach significant issues and we seek for biblical answers. I think it is a regular exercise in the pulpit ministry. I think that you can see that we're seeking to actually teach the Bible, the content of the Bible in context, and we're consistently to the best of our ability conforming what we believe, what we practice, not just corporately, but individually in our households to be in conformity with what we're learning. The Bible teaches. I think we do all that well. You know what I don't see us doing as well as a church? The going. The looking around the people around us every day that we encounter every day that don't know Christ that we've never spoken to Christ about. And pointing them to Christ. Broaching the subject. We just maintain a degree of arms distance. I think we have a negative view of the state of our nation. That's not unjustified at this point. But frankly, a biblical view of our nation is to have a negative view of the moral decline of our nation and at the same time recognize that there has never been more fertile ground for evangelism and counseling and a biblical witness in this nation, especially in Southern California than there is right now. There is more open antagonism to Christ in Southern California today than the first day I set foot in this state. People talk about leaving to go someplace where it's the America that I grew up in. You know what? I'm happy here because it's very obvious I'm needed here. Does that make sense? You know, we went down to where do we go yesterday? San Luis Obispo or someplace like that. I don't remember. Somewhere down by there. You know, it's really pretty there. It really is. And Kath goes, Oh, look at those houses and we could see the beach and all that other stuff and we could retire here and everything else. And you know what I said, or we could wait until our retirement home has streets of transparent gold. And we could be where God put us and spend the rest of our life to the best of our ability, pouring into this household of faith and pouring into the ministry here where it's needed. See that that's folks. That's got to be your focus in your Christian life. This world is not my home. I'm not home. I'm a short guy from Ohio and Ohio isn't home. I spent the last 20 some 25 however many years. OK, I don't math anymore. I'm too old, but I spent the last long time here in Southern California. And this is not my home. This is where, Lord willing, I'm going to die. Maybe right here in this pulpit. I say Amen and I die when I get to my seat. That'd be great. That'd be great. Or I say let's pray and Christ returns. That'd be great. That'd be great, and in the meantime I just want to be faithful. I want to be faithful because this is what Christ has called us to. You know there are a lot of amenities. There are a lot of good things about the world in which we live, and especially the American context in which we live. We have so many privileges, so many blessings, so many gadgets, so many hobbies, so many cool things. It's really easy to get distracted. Do you know the one thing that really matters? You are not here for all of that. And neither am I. Neither am I. Retiring from a secular occupation should not take you into a mindset where oh good night. I spent all the first part of my life doing what I needed to do to provide for my family and satisfy my employer and now the rest of my life I get to live for me. Well, you can do that if you're a normal American, but if you're a Christian you gave your life to Christ. And that does not. That does not change when you retire. All that changes is the amount of time and availability you have to be able to live for Christ. Want to talk about a motivation for evangelism? I'd say it starts right here recognizing that this is this is the. You know this is not one of the 10 suggestions. You know those those little good ideas. Be a good idea if you didn't murder. Be a good idea if you didn't steal. Be a good idea if you didn't covet. This is this is not. It'd be a good idea if you evangelized OK in the same way the 10 Commandments are Commandments of God. So too this is a commandment from Christ himself and he sets the tone of it when he says all authority has been given to me in heaven and on Earth and therefore here's my charge. Make disciples and what goes into making disciples. It's not just that the teaching others to observe. It's not just that first time when you when you publicly identify yourself with Christ and with one of his local assemblies. It's also can going and sharing Christ pointing those around you to Christ because that's that's involved in the disciple making process. That's where it all begins. You want to see what it looks like? Take your bibles and jump to Acts 2. Another passage we're very familiar with. Acts Chapter 2. It's the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes down and there's a miraculous sign. The apostles are filled with the Spirit and immediately even though even though they're from Galilee and they speak with a Galilean accent. OK, the best I can do is is compare it in America to like a southern drawl. OK, so they talking in a southern drawl. But they're actually they're talking in a Galilean drawl. But they're they're they're praising God in other tongues in other languages. In Coptic and Latin and Aramaic and Ethiopian and etc. They're praising God in other languages. You still hear their their Galilean drawl or twang, right? But they're speaking and praising God in a way they can be understood as praising God. And all the people there that are there for the day of Pentecost. 40 days after the Passover when Christ was offered up and crucified. They're hearing this as they're going into the temple for the celebration on Pentecost. And they're going. What is going on? These guys have a Galilean drawl. They say in verse seven they were amazed and astonished, saying why are not aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it? How would they recognize their Galileans? We're in Jerusalem. We're in Judea. How would they recognize? Because it got that Galilean drawl.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from Monday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart Podcast
"A time of Lectio Divina for the discerning heart. Monday of the 26th week in ordinary time. As you begin, take a deep breath and exhale slowly. For the next few moments surrender all the cares and concerns of this day to the Lord. Say slowly from your heart, Jesus, I trust in you. You take over. Become aware that he is with you, looking upon you with love, wanting to be heard deep within your heart. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew chapter 18 verses 1 through 5, 10 and 12 through 14. The disciples came to Jesus and said, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? So he called a little child to him and set the child in front of them. And he said, I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Anyone who welcomes a little child like this in my name, welcomes me. See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven. What word made this passage come alive for you? What did you sense the Lord saying to you? Once more, give the Lord an opportunity to speak to you. The disciples came to Jesus and said, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? So he called a little child to him and set the child in front of them. Then he said, I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Anyone who welcomes a little child like this in my name, welcomes me. See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in my name are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven. What did your heart feel as you listened? What did you sense the Lord saying to you? Once more, through him, with him, and in him, listen to the word. The disciples came to Jesus and said, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? So he called a little child to him and set the child in front of them. Then he said, I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Anyone who welcomes a little child like this in my name, welcomes me. See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in the kingdom of heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven. What do you hope to carry with you from this time with the Lord? Let us now close with a prayer to the Father that Jesus gave us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who love us, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
Fresh update on "heaven" discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"And finally, I think it's important to remember that when you when you point people to Jesus Christ, when you share the gospel of Christ, the good news of Christ and who he is and what he did for us. You understand that's a spiritual service to God. It's it's an expression of worship. It really is. That's all it is. It's a glorious and wonderful way to just be obedient to the command of God to share Christ with lost people around you and your glorifying God just by broaching the subject. You don't have to beat anybody up with your Bible. You don't have to condemn people. That's not your job. That's not my job. When I go to share the good news with somebody, I'm inviting them to be reconciled to God. I'm not inviting them to repent before me because I'm some kind of an authority. Does that make sense? Sometimes I think we have just a complete wrong attitude about what evangelism is even is. What I'd like to do today, and I know for the most part we have a pretty good understanding of this, and we've been doing this for over 20 years. These kinds of campaigns. And what I hoped what I hope to accomplish today is to answer the question why we should be motivated to participate in evangelism together. This month, and then as a pattern in life for the rest of our days until until Christ returns for us or he calls us home. What I want to do is I want to share with you three biblical motivations for evangelism that I really help move you to focus your attention over the course of this next month on one or two or three people. The names, the faces, the people that you thought of when I first started this this message this morning. I'd like you to fix your attention on them. I like you to write that name down in your Bible. Write that name down on the sermon notes at the top of the page. OK, carve that name into your heart for this month and start praying for them and start praying that you will be faithful to share the gospel with them and start looking for an opportunity to do just that. And if you want to know specifically how to pray for that, then come back next week and we'll go through that. But for today I want to give you three biblical motivations for evangelism and there's a bunch of passages we're going to go through. So put on your crash helmets, strap yourselves in. We're going to hit about Mach 11, I think. So that's going to bust some blood vessels in some of us, I think, but it ought to be a lot of fun. We're going to take a look at the authority of Christ, the certainty of judgment and the sufficiency of the cross as biblical motivations for evangelism. I'll give them to you again. You ready? This is just the skeleton upon which we're going to hang our thoughts. Three biblical motivations for evangelism. Number one is the authority of Christ. The authority of Christ. I think that should be the chief and primary motivation for doing evangelism. The second is the certainty of judgment. And by this I don't mean judgment of us, I mean judgment of the world. And the third is the sufficiency of the cross. I think if you consider for a moment. Just how glorious and wonderful what Christ did for us at the cross is. I can't imagine you wouldn't want to share that. So filled with thanksgiving for the salvation that God has given to you, the love that God has shown to you. I can't imagine you wouldn't want to share that with somebody else. How many of us have ever gotten a great deal on something? OK, and what immediately do you think you want to do? Tell all your friends about it. Right? I don't care if it's a car. I don't care if it's a book. I don't care for the video game. I don't care if it's tickets to something. I don't care what it is, right? I don't care if it's it's swishy swashy tape stuff. OK, as soon as you find something really cool, don't you want to tell everybody about it right? Hey, this is on sale. You got the lobby hobbies and the what's the other one? I don't know. Michaels and whoever. Yeah, whatever. OK, all those places where most of my salary goes. OK, that listen. You find out something's on sale and you want to tell everybody about it. Something's really good news. You want to share it, right? Is there any better news than that Christ came? And pay for our sins. OK, that's that attitude that you felt right there. That's the attitude I want you walking out of here with this morning. Alright, let's take a look at these in order. Ready, we'll start with the authority of Christ. This is not going to surprise anybody, but you want to know where the first motivation for evangelism really comes from. Believe it or not, it comes from the Great Commission. Take your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew 28. We have been through this so many times, probably even without trying to. You have memorized it now in three different versions, probably including my own translation from the Greek. Which you've never seen. Matthew Chapter 28. Jesus has gone to the cross. He has died and paid for our sins. As he as he yielded up his spirit, he said it is finished. It's accomplished. And we're told in the Gospel that the veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom. Well, why is it that God? This is taken the crucifixion happens outside the city, right? And Jesus yields up his life. He dies. And as soon as that happens inside the city up on the Temple Mount in the holiest of holy places there in the temple, this huge 50 foot curtain, 2 inches thick, rips from top to bottom. Why? Why would God do that? Because it demonstrates when Christ died once and for all the way to God is open forever through Jesus Christ and what he just did for us at the cross. Remember, the disciples were really easy to convince that Jesus had risen from the dead. Resurrection Sunday morning rolls around. The women go up to the tomb and they get there and they've got the burial spices and etc. The ointments and whatnot. They want to show respect to Christ in his in his burial because they weren't able to do that because of the Sabbath and the festival and all those kinds of things. So it's the first day of the week. It's Sunday. They're going to go and they're going to honor him and they're all talking amongst themselves about how we going to get in because the the stone has been rolled in front of the tomb and when none of us can lift it. So what are we going to do? And they get there and lo and behold, what do they find? There's an angel that says, ladies, what are you doing here? Jesus isn't here. He's risen. You shouldn't be here. And just like he told you, he it's the third day and he is risen from the dead. Go tell the apostles. Go tell his disciples. And what do they do? They run to Peter and John and the rest of those guys and they walk in and they go, guys, we went to the tomb and Jesus isn't there. And Peter goes, well, duh, don't you women ever listen to us? He's been telling us that for the last 10 weeks. No, not so much, not so much. They didn't even believe him. They saw an angel and they didn't believe him. Jesus told him repeatedly and they didn't believe him. You get to the end of Luke 24. Jesus shows up at the end of the day on resurrection Sunday in their midst and they think they're seeing a ghost. He has to open their mind to the truth. They've seen him. They put their fingers in the nail print. They put their hand in his side. And then he opens their mind to be able to see the truth and he says, now, this is what I've been telling you from the beginning as I walk through the whole Old Testament. This has always been what God's plan has been. And you are my witnesses and you are to go into all the world and preach that message. This is always what God has intended. We're in Matthew 28. After that day, he sends all the disciples up to Galilee and he goes and he meets them in Galilee, where he spent the most of his ministry. And by the way, we're told here in verse 16, the 11 disciples, because Judas has hanged himself, the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated. This may have been where he did this. Gave the Sermon on the Mount. This may also have been where he did the feeding of the five thousands. One of the five thousand. One of those places. Or another one we don't know, but it's up in Galilee where he spent most of his ministry and it's probably the location that he spent, I think, the feeding of the 5000 where he was trying to spend most of his time instructing them. So he sends him back up there and so then he meets him there and when they see him, they worship him. Some are still doubtful. Notice that some of them are still trying to put the pieces together. And Jesus comes up and speaks to them and he says all authority has been given to me in heaven and on Earth. Having accomplished the work of redemption on the cross, I have been given all authority, not just in heaven, but also on the Earth. And this is the command I give to you. This is how I am exercising that authority first and foremost. What is Jesus want from his disciples? He wants his disciples to go therefore. Notice that therefore therefore since I have all authority everywhere. This is my commandment. Go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo, I'm with you always even to the end of the age. If you looked at this in the Greek, you would notice there is one imperative, one command, and that's make disciples. The three words go baptize and teach. Define what goes into making the disciples. You could even translate it this way. Therefore, make disciples having gone baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and continually teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. That's the ministry. That's the Commission. That is what the apostles were assigned as their task. That's the purpose of the church. And by the way, you can see this is absolutely applicable all the way down to us because he says lo, I am with you even to the end of what your lives. Your season, your ministry, no to the end of the age. This is the mission of the church all the way up to today.
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.
Abundant Encounters
Unlocking Heaven's Abundance: Discover the Power of Stewardship
"We share a beautiful inheritance. It's bountiful, abundant and it is the Father and it's heaven's supply and it's worth our attention. It deserves our value. And when we begin to bring that within our intentionality, maybe we, it's like the size of a tiny cloud in the sky, you know, it just grows until it becomes a full on deluge. It's called stewardship. It's this concept of stewarding. But when we steward not just the resources of earth, but the resources of heaven, then we get heaven's fruitfulness and reward. That's what Jesus paid for. And I pray that's coming to you right now where you're at, that you can even feel the increase coming in like a flood. Yes, Lord, let the deluge begin, the spiritual outpouring, the refreshing, the reconnection to you, to the family of God. Let that begin right now and I'll pray, Lord Jesus, thank you. Let me just enter your gates with thanksgiving. Thank you so much. Thank you that you're real and thank you that you don't hold back from us. You're not holding anything back from us. In fact, you did a light in us moving towards you, you're running towards us with a ring and a rope. You are ready to bring us into our full inheritance. We can start cutting checks for the family and we are in this thing. I mean, you are fully invested in us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you so much. And I take authority that you so generously gave to me, Jesus, and I take that authority and I say, in Jesus' name, anything that's trying to hinder this time, create distractions or obstructions, just cancel your assignment. We have no time for you, no patience for you. You just get removed right now in Jesus' name. That's it, done. And Holy Spirit, come and fill that space. Ministering angels, come and fill that space. Just come and bring hope, peace, life, abundance. Thank you, Jesus. And thank you, Father God.
Abundant Encounters
Unlocking Heaven's Abundance: Discover the Power of Stewardship
"We share a beautiful inheritance. It's bountiful, abundant and it is the Father and it's heaven's supply and it's worth our attention. It deserves our value. And when we begin to bring that within our intentionality, maybe we, it's like the size of a tiny cloud in the sky, you know, it just grows until it becomes a full on deluge. It's called stewardship. It's this concept of stewarding. But when we steward not just the resources of earth, but the resources of heaven, then we get heaven's fruitfulness and reward. That's what Jesus paid for. And I pray that's coming to you right now where you're at, that you can even feel the increase coming in like a flood. Yes, Lord, let the deluge begin, the spiritual outpouring, the refreshing, the reconnection to you, to the family of God. Let that begin right now and I'll pray, Lord Jesus, thank you. Let me just enter your gates with thanksgiving. Thank you so much. Thank you that you're real and thank you that you don't hold back from us. You're not holding anything back from us. In fact, you did a light in us moving towards you, you're running towards us with a ring and a rope. You are ready to bring us into our full inheritance. We can start cutting checks for the family and we are in this thing. I mean, you are fully invested in us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you so much. And I take authority that you so generously gave to me, Jesus, and I take that authority and I say, in Jesus' name, anything that's trying to hinder this time, create distractions or obstructions, just cancel your assignment. We have no time for you, no patience for you. You just get removed right now in Jesus' name. That's it, done. And Holy Spirit, come and fill that space. Ministering angels, come and fill that space. Just come and bring hope, peace, life, abundance. Thank you, Jesus.
Abundant Encounters
Unlocking Heaven's Abundance: Discover the Power of Stewardship
"We share a beautiful inheritance. It's bountiful, abundant and it is the Father and it's heaven's supply and it's worth our attention. It deserves our value. And when we begin to bring that within our intentionality, maybe we, it's like the size of a tiny cloud in the sky, you know, it just grows until it becomes a full on deluge. It's called stewardship. It's this concept of stewarding. But when we steward not just the resources of earth, but the resources of heaven, then we get heaven's fruitfulness and reward. That's what Jesus paid for. And I pray that's coming to you right now where you're at, that you can even feel the increase coming in like a flood. Yes, Lord, let the deluge begin, the spiritual outpouring, the refreshing, the reconnection to you, to the family of God. Let that begin right now and I'll pray, Lord Jesus, thank you. Let me just enter your gates with thanksgiving. Thank you so much. Thank you that you're real and thank you that you don't hold back from us. You're not holding anything back from us. In fact, you did a light in us moving towards you, you're running towards us with a ring and a rope. You are ready to bring us into our full inheritance. We can start cutting checks for the family and we are in this thing. I mean, you are fully invested in us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you so much. And I take authority that you so generously gave to me, Jesus, and I take that authority and I say, in Jesus' name, anything that's trying to hinder this time, create distractions or obstructions, just cancel your assignment. We have no time for you, no patience for you. You just get removed right now in Jesus' name. That's it, done. And Holy Spirit, come and fill that space. Ministering angels, come and fill that space. Just come and bring hope, peace, life, abundance. Thank you, Jesus.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from Sunday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time A Time of Lectio Divina for the Discerning Heart Podcast
"A time of Lectio Divina for the discerning heart. Sunday of the 26th week in ordinary time. As you begin, take a deep breath and exhale slowly. For the next few moments, surrender all the cares and concerns of this day to the Lord. Say slowly from your heart, Jesus, I trust in you. You take over. Become aware that he is with you, looking upon you with love, wanting to be heard deep within your heart. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew chapter 21 verses 28 through 32. Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people, what is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, my boy, you go and work in the vineyard today. He answered, I will not go, but afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, certainly, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the father's will? The first, they said. Jesus said to them, I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you a pattern of true righteousness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him. What word made this passage come alive for you? What did you sense the Lord saying to you? Once more, give the Lord an opportunity to speak to you. Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people, what is your opinion? A man has two sons. He went and said to the first, my boy, you go and work in the vineyard today. He answered, I will not go, but afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, certainly, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the father's will? The first, they said, Jesus said to them, I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness, but you did not believe him. And yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing that you refuse to think better of it and believe in him. What did your heart feel as you listened? What did you sense the Lord saying to you? Once more through him, with him, and in him, listen to the word. Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people, what is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, my boy, you go and work in the vineyard today. He answered, I will not go, but afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, certainly, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the father's will? The first, they said, Jesus said to them, I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness, but you did not believe him. And yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing that you refuse to think better of it and believe in him. What touched your heart in this time of prayer? What did your heart feel as you prayed? What do you hope to carry with you from this time with the Lord? Let us now close with a prayer to the father that Jesus gave us. Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and from evil. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Hearing Jesus: Daily Bible Study
A highlight from BONUS // The Best New Podcast for Christian Children: Hearing Jesus for Kids
"Did you know that the Hearing Jesus podcast has a companion show for kids? We take the same content from the adult show and I teach it in a way that kids can understand. It's geared for kids ages 6 to 12 and we're going to show you a quick preview of one of the episodes. I pray it's a blessing for you. Stay tuned. Hey friends, welcome to the Hearing Jesus for Kids podcast. Do you ever feel like you want to know more about the Bible but then it's kind of hard to understand? Do you want to share your faith with your friends but have a hard time figuring out how to do that? Do you want to learn how to connect the Bible to your real life? Well then this is the show for you. My name is Rachel and I'm your host. I've been a children's pastor for a long time and one of my favorite things is helping kids learn how to understand the Bible. I think that sometimes people think that the Bible is just for adults, but God actually really wants kids to know about him. So on this podcast, we're going to learn all about God's big story and how he shows himself to us through the Bible. As we learn together what the Bible stories actually mean, we can learn how to live out our faith in our everyday life. Hey friends, welcome back to the Hearing Jesus for Kids podcast. I'm your host Rachel. Today we're talking more about prayer. Yesterday we learned some important things that the Bible has to say about prayer, but today we're going to start looking at a very special prayer in the Bible. In Matthew 6 verses 9 through 13, Jesus shares what we call the Lord's Prayer. I could tell you all about it, but I think it's better to go to our Bibles and read what it says for ourselves. So I'm going to read it now. It says, Pray like this, Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. The first thing we read about in this section of this prayer is the words pray like this. Jesus doesn't tell us to pray this prayer word for word every time we pray. Instead, he says pray like this because this is a prayer of example of how we should pray and some of the things that we could pray for. If you think for a minute about some common books that you may even have at your house called How to Draw Books, the way that How to Draw Books are is they have an example set up for you to copy. If you had, let's say, a monster truck that you were trying to copy, you would look at the How to Draw Book and you would look at the steps that they had and you would try to copy it on the other side of the page. Well, our prayers are kind of like that. The Lord's Prayer is kind of like the How to Pray model. When we copy it, it's not going to look exactly the same. It's going to be our version of that kind of prayer. So the Lord's Prayer shows us how to pray, but our prayers will look a little bit different than this, and your prayer is going to be a little bit different than my prayer. But Jesus gave us a prayer as an example of how to pray, but it doesn't mean that we have to pray like that every single time, and it certainly doesn't mean that we have to use those same words every single time.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
Day 9 The Angels St. Michael and the Holy Angels Novena Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts
"A novena to St. Michael and the Holy Angels. O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and never shall be, world without end. Amen. Day 9. The Celestial Choir of Angels. The Angels' primary focus is the caretakership of humanity and the world. While the lowest ranked of all the angelic beings, if one accepts the idea of a regulated angelic organization, angels are nevertheless members of the heavenly host and thus possess the profound and beautiful attributes given to them by their Creator. They are beings of pure spirituality and exist to fulfill the task given to them by God. Chief among these are to act as messengers of the Lord to the earth and guardians of the human soul. By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial Choir of Angels, may the Lord grant us to be protected by them in this mortal life and conducted hereafter to eternal glory. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. O glorious Prince St. Michael, chief and commander of the heavenly hosts, guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits, servant of the house of the Divine King, and our admirable conductor, thou who dost shine with excellence in superhuman virtue, vouchsafe to deliver us from all evil, who turn to thee with confidence, and enable us by thy gracious protection to serve God more and more faithfully every day. Pray for us, O glorious St. Michael, Prince of the Church of Jesus Christ, that we may be made worthy of his promises. Almighty and everlasting God, who by a prodigy of goodness and a merciful desire for the salvation of all men, hast appointed the most glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of Thy Church, make us worthy, we beseech thee, to be delivered from all our enemies, that none of them may harass us at the hour of death, but that we may be conducted by him into the august presence of Thy divine majesty. This we beg through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from Episode 12 The Drama of Atheist Humanism Fr. Joseph Fessio S.J., Vivian Dudro, and Joseph Pearce FBC Podcast
"Welcome to the Foreign Book Club where David Duda, Joseph Pierce, and I, Father Fassio, continue to discuss Henri de Bloch's classic work, The Drama of Atheist Humanism, where he takes three great figures of the 19th century, whose thought influenced the whole of the 20th century, and is still influences now. We've covered Nietzsche, and then Feuerbach Marx, trying to take it as one moral person there. And now we're about to finish, the least known, I believe, in America anyway, Auguste Comte, who is the father of sociology. We're on page 248, in this chapter, positive transpositions, that is positivism, which was the form of thought and practice that was developed by Auguste Comte, transposed many elements of the Catholic church into its own humanist church. And we'll continue seeing how that happened on this section called Sociocracy, page 248. In the middle of that page, Lubbock says, in the last analysis, Christianity in general had been looking forward to the kingdom of heaven. Positivism in general, in the last analysis, an organization of the kingdom of the earth. That kind of sums it up. And then at the bottom of that page, the last word, if, and to the next page, if the advent of sociology had meant the elevation of politics to the rank of an exact science, the advent of sociocracy was to be the religious consecration of the said politics. It becomes a religion. Joseph, you're leading us in this book. Yeah, well, that's actually a good introduction to the first thing I had highlighted, which is really just three words, but I think very, an ominous few words. This is the middle of page 250, where Comte says that he has given his creed, that the motto order and progress, both words are capitalized. And in one sense, if you're going to look at those words sort of amorphously or ambivalently, everybody believes in order and progress, in the sense that the Catholic church will say an ordered life is a virtuous life, and that's progress towards the kingdom of heaven. No one's going to argue, if we're going to use the words very amorphously, what that means. But when you capitalize them as something subject to this sociology, the order is going to be state imposed order, and the progress is going to be worship of a utopia in the future for which everybody can be sacrificed. And that's what happens when you suck the divine out of notions of order and progress. So the next thing I have is 253, so I don't know if anybody beats me there. Well, the very last line of 252, I just barely squeezed in ahead of you, Joseph. The box says, since nothing could be done unless a, quote, proper nucleus of true sociocrats, those quotes, was formed. But in the field of action, the watcher was politics first. From the very outset, the new system must seek to lay hands on power. And, well, you, you may have done the same thing I'm going to do, so you take it away with 253, Joseph. Well, yeah, I mean, just commenting on that, that's the whole point is that we saw this with Nietzsche and with Marx, that it's no longer about truth, objectively understood, but about subjectively applied power and that in itself. But what I felt further down here is very interesting. This is different from Marx. Marx obviously believed somehow that the working class were going to be the people that would gain power, at least in theory, were very much an elitist. And for him, halfway down page 253, and this is ominous, it's almost like exactly what we're seeing in the capitalist ideologies, bankers. So it's actually the international financiers, the super rich, like the George Soros's. These men possessing great wealth must, provided they keep us to the pitch of their social vocation, also have the leading part in the government, that they are naturally trained for this role, by their habit of seeing things in perspective and by the spirit of calculation, that the middle classes are to disappear, leaving only a patriciate and a proletariat, that for the whole of the West, with its 120 million inhabitants, the patriciate is to number 2000 bankers. So he's actually saying that we're going to hand over the government of the world to 2000 super rich financiers. That's his idea.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"heaven" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Warning to you, making you confront the reality of your mortality. And reminding you how closely eternity lies at hand, but the good news of his infant and mercy and kindness is this that God is warning you of it, not to strike fear and panic into your soul, but to call you, to come to him to find peace and hope in an answer for all of your sins. In his son Jesus Christ, because God's love the sinful guilty world that he gave his son. Whom he sent to bear the full weight and punishment of sin on behalf of sinners. He died on the cross as the perfect and sufficient substitute for sinners. Who can never pay for the sins that they had committed. Except by their own eternal damnation. But Jesus suffered the eternal wrath of God for all who repent of their sin and trust and to sufficiency of what he has done that he has paid it all by his life and death and resurrection. And so if you today, if you confess that you are a hopeless sinner before God, and you put your hope and trust in Jesus is saving work, then you will be forgiven of all sin, and you'll be declared righteous in his sight. And he will grant to you. The hope and gift of eternal life in him. In his presence, to be in his garden forever, never to be cast out. If you're here and you have not found refuge in Jesus Christ, the fact that you are still breathing right now is in and of itself, the evidence of God's
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"heaven" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Ecclesiasts ecclesiastes 7 two says that it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. Oh, to save that. It's a greater blessing. For our souls to attend the funeral, then a wedding. Why? Because he says for this is the end of the all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. It's a greater blessing to our souls to attend a funeral than a wedding because our minds and hearts are most sober at a funeral. We are made to come to grips with the reality of our own death as we stare at it face to face and those who are wise will take heed and take it to hearts. And it's in this spirit that whenever violent atrocities occur, we must not get caught up in all the hysteria and panic as everyone else does and instead to learn to receive such news with not only compassion and sympathy, but also with great solemnity and spiritual sobriety for our own souls. We need to look past all the sensational details and the media frenzy surrounding those events and instead hear through them the chimes of the Gates of eternity. Which we will all one day have to stand before and the same goes with how we are to process tragedies of natural disasters, Jesus continues in verse four by referring to another contemporary incident. Or those 18 on whom the tower in salome fell and killed him. Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you're repent, you will all likewise perish. Salome was the name of a water supply system in Jerusalem. Which is referenced in Isaiah chapter 8, but also it's the pool, the pool salome, where the blind man washed himself in John chapter 9, you might be familiar with that. And apparently there was a tower erected as part of that reservoir system and one day, the structural failure suddenly led to its collapse and aching of the people who are walking by were killed.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"heaven" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Now, when we hear of these various kinds of sudden shocking tragedies, mass shootings, natural disasters, all kinds of catastrophes. We wonder, what do we make of this? How are we to interpret these kinds of calamities? What is God saying if anything at all through these happenings? And while Jesus tells us actually very plainly, he says to us, that whenever you witness these horrible tragedies, don't be so preoccupied with a details of how such and such a person died, what kind of gruesome or unfortunate way in which their lives ended. But rather, focus on the fact that for all of you, your life on earth will also end. It's all the same in the end. And so are you prepared for that day? Are you ready to stand before your maker and judge? Are you right with God? Having repented of your sins and then forgiven of them. You see, God ordains for these tragic deaths to occur, not to scare us about what could happen to us. But to remind us all about what will happen to every one of us eventually. These are all alarms designed by God to alert us to pay attention to our own souls to make us contemplate our own eternal fate after death. So that we might cling to him for hope and mercy in life that has found in Jesus Christ alone. Tragedies are the means by which God frequently rouses and awakens a drowsy world.
Food Heaven Podcast
"heaven" Discussed on Food Heaven Podcast
"Twenty <Speech_Female> times <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> You're ready to start <Speech_Female> the day for me <Speech_Female> like <Speech_Female> a good indicator <Speech_Female> of quality is <Speech_Female> that i just wake up. <Speech_Female> Naturally you <Speech_Female> know. I don't <Speech_Female> have to use an alarm. <Speech_Female> My sweet spot <Speech_Female> is eight hours <Speech_Female> like uninterrupted <Speech_Female> and <Silence> so <Speech_Female> like on <Speech_Female> weekends when i don't have <Speech_Female> any like responsibilities <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> to be up for <Speech_Female> it's nice <Speech_Female> because i can usually <Speech_Female> within hours <Speech_Female> like i'm very attuned. <Speech_Female> I just wake up <Speech_Female> naturally. I don't need <Speech_Female> an alarm or anything <Speech_Female> like that. So that's <Speech_Female> one sign <Speech_Female> also like <Speech_Female> having consistent energy <Speech_Female> levels. <Speech_Female> I was assigned to <Speech_Female> us today. My energy <Speech_Female> is like very <Speech_Female> quickly dipping. <Silence> Because i had <Speech_Female> a terrible <Speech_Female> dream last night <Speech_Female> and like the <Speech_Female> qual- like got <Speech_Female> eight hours but the quality <Speech_Female> just all <Speech_Female> there and so if you <Speech_Female> find that you're like <Speech_Female> struggling to stay awake <Speech_Female> that's <Speech_Female> a red flag <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> If you <Speech_Female> find yourself like <Speech_Female> always needing to take <Speech_Female> naps multiple <Speech_Female> times a day that <Speech_Female> may be assigned <Speech_Female> that you know. Your energy <Speech_Female> levels are not really <Speech_Female> consistent throughout <Speech_Female> the day <Silence> <Speech_Female> Yeah <SpeakerChange> any <Speech_Female> other things dress. <Speech_Female> Yeah i would say <Speech_Female> your eyes <Speech_Female> will <Speech_Female> feel rested <Speech_Female> and this <Speech_Female> is the biggest <Speech_Female> indicator from <Speech_Female> me that i didn't get enough <Speech_Music_Female> sleep. It's so <Silence> basic but <Speech_Female> my eyes will be <Speech_Female> read <Speech_Female> irritated and <Speech_Female> most importantly <Speech_Female> their dry. I <Speech_Music_Female> don't know what that's about <Speech_Music_Female> <Silence> By <Speech_Female> i can tell <Speech_Female> like instantly <Speech_Music_Female> if it wasn't enough sleep <Speech_Music_Female> especially when you have to like wake <Speech_Female> up at four. Am to <Speech_Female> catch a flight <Speech_Music_Female> or something like my <Speech_Female> eyes were so red <Speech_Female> in so red <Speech_Female> and dry like it's <Speech_Female> hard even open them <Speech_Female> also just being able <Speech_Female> to concentrate. I've <Speech_Female> noticed like <Speech_Female> when. I don't have <Speech_Female> enough sleep. <Speech_Female> You're tired <Speech_Female> your energies low. So <Speech_Female> you have a really hard time. <Speech_Female> Getting work done <Speech_Female> concentrating. <Speech_Female> I feel like. I need <Speech_Female> to take multiple naps <Speech_Music_Female> day <Speech_Female> So that's <Speech_Female> another one. <Speech_Female> Yes so you'll be able <Speech_Female> to concentrate <Speech_Music_Female> on <Speech_Female> school or work <Speech_Female> or whatever <Speech_Female> it is you have <Speech_Female> for the day and not <Speech_Female> feel like <Speech_Female> five minutes. <Speech_Female> Go by and you're <Speech_Female> constantly like picking <Speech_Female> up your phone distracted <Speech_Female> because <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> your brain <SpeakerChange> is just not <Speech_Female> functioning optimally <Speech_Female> so those are <Silence> just a couple of <Speech_Female> things <Speech_Female> that you <Speech_Female> might want <SpeakerChange> to look out for <Speech_Female> and kind of our <Speech_Music_Female> sleep packs <Silence> as people who <Speech_Music_Female> <SpeakerChange> have struggled <Speech_Music_Female> with sleep <Silence> and <Speech_Female> are working <Speech_Female> on slash <Speech_Female> you know have found <Speech_Female> things that are helpful <Speech_Female> curious <Speech_Female> way works for <Speech_Female> you all so <Speech_Female> make sure <Speech_Female> to <Speech_Female> let us know like senna's <Speech_Music_Female> dm on <Speech_Female> instagram <Speech_Female> at food heaven <Speech_Female> so <Speech_Female> we can continue <SpeakerChange> the sleep <Speech_Female> conversation. <Speech_Female> Yeah and we <Speech_Female> wanna do more like <Speech_Female> hack episodes <Speech_Female> so if <Speech_Female> there <Speech_Female> are ideas that <Speech_Female> you have that you think will <Speech_Female> be good for us to cover <Speech_Female> definitely let us <Speech_Female> know where china like <Speech_Female> mixed things up. <Speech_Female> Have a range <Speech_Female> of topics on <Speech_Female> the podcast. So <Speech_Female> yeah just shoot us a dm <Speech_Female> or leave <Speech_Female> a comment on <Speech_Female> the i j <Speech_Female> and <Speech_Female> that's about it <Speech_Female> we'll catch you guys next <Speech_Female> time. Bye <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Female> bye thanks so <Speech_Female> much for listening to another <Speech_Female> episode of <Speech_Female> the food heaven. <Speech_Female> Podcast if <Speech_Female> you haven't already <Speech_Female> make sure to connect <Speech_Female> with us online <Speech_Female> where most active <Speech_Female> on the graham at <Speech_Female> food heaven but we're <Speech_Female> also on facebook <Speech_Female> and twitter at food <Speech_Female> heaven show. <Speech_Female>
Food Heaven Podcast
"heaven" Discussed on Food Heaven Podcast
"And that lizzani black blekinge blah blah blah right love. That's how do you navigate creative. Differences will wendy's favorite line is. I'm not crazy about it. She hates it or no. Yeah nah my second favorite. I think we do it just like one person. Really strongly or she'll say i'm not strong. I don't feel strongly about it either way. It's like levels so when he'll say i'm not if it depends on how strongly we feel your name about it. Yeah i don't think it's that really that big of i think that's we don't agree a lot but it doesn't mean it's not like who are you like. I don't think there's a lot of ego we don't care. yeah. I don't feel strongly whatever right or wrong. Okay pretty much. It's like that. Is the food heaven sophy. whatever right. that's right. Yeah yeah it's been working. It's been working for us all right so we ended with this question i fun. What is your favorite ice cream flavor. So it used to be growing up black cherry okay but now and i hope i'm pronouncing right. It's obey the the purple as Girl trader joe's just fine. it is in its edible. Yeah i'm gonna try. A cool is a sweet super sweet. No i don't like sweet sweet but not rich sweet. Is it a sorbet. It's like ice cream. i don't do sorbet. i look fat. Yeah okay mize's tasha specifically tasha that has all the little crumbles and love that so. That's the last question. Do this was so much fun though that we did this. It's like more lay snow if you like these kinds of episodes because child some of these heavier topics be awareness out. We're like oh my god contemplating life. I know concentrating ending life way. Then no yeah just like wow heavy. Heavy heavy the la august. I mean. I guess are phenomenal. That has contemplating these things. But yeah sometimes. I mean yeah. We're all about balanced. And i don't wanna say love and light because i'm not a peace and blessings type of person but as you do need some love and leah in the makes so cheers to ten year. Okay thanks so much for listening to another episode of the food having podcast. If you haven't already make sure to connect with us online where most active on the graham at food heaven but we're also on facebook and twitter at food heaven show. If you like this podcast make sure to rate review subscribe share with a friend. Yup our podcast is released every wednesday and each week. We take a deep dive into topics like health at every size food and culture intuitive eating mental health and body acceptance if you're looking for a sustainable and inclusive path to wellness coming out with us to learn how to take care of yourself from the inside out. We'll catch you next time. Bye only.
Food Heaven Podcast
"heaven" Discussed on Food Heaven Podcast
"Know. It was just doing that by the pool. Yeah i know that's why you're over. I was okay. I know we're cousy every morning No that's okay. Yeah i was okay with the. I'm i'm learning to like be flexible. Okay okay. it's really the ratchet. Podcast is like really bothers me. Yeah good to know so if you listen to this podcast or you follow wendy and i. It's no secret that we don't eat meat now. I always have to say with the caveat. It is not because we think there's something wrong with me or that you have to eat. You know vegetarian pesca -tarian to be healthy. That is not the case whatsoever. And interestingly enough we survey our community majority of you guys eat meat and you always ask us which type of meat we recommend that you buy and how to make sure you're getting high quality meat so luckily our podcast sponsor today but your box believes that everybody deserves high quality humanely source meat and it could it be easier to sign up so was sign up lecture box and they ship it to your door every single month. All their meat is free of antibiotics and added hormones and each box is nine to eleven pounds of meat. Nefer twenty four individual meals. It's also packed fresh and shipped frozen and vacuum sealed. So that it stays that way. And you can customize your box or go with one of their standard packages now in this box. You're gonna get one hundred percent grass fed beef free range. Organic chicken heritage breed pork or wild caught salmon. That might be a little bit hard to find at the grocery store and the coolest thing for all you. Bacon lovers which is like my family is the biggest bacon fans out there. All you have to do is go to butcher. Box dot com slash food been and they have a program where you get free bacon for life as long as you have your subscription so again. It's butcher box dot com slash food heaven and get you some high quality meat that you can incorporate seamlessly into your meals now onto episode all right. Next question is has building your brand ever gotten in the way of relationships. Any tips for balance. No not that dedicated. Yeah i feel like. I have pretty strong. Bond is my priority is my relationships always period family and friends. I'm not that person like if there is a special event if there's a birthday my party is to be there and if that means making less money than this is what it means and not to knock people who you know. Go about things and other way. Think that we're very unique in that way. That's probably why we've been able to work together for so long because it's just never that serious for us and It was never intended to be a business. Nice that it is but it's like if it doesn't work out on the business side and we'll figure it out you know it's no yeah. We don't put much pressure on that side of things sideways as long as as a real saying kind of made that up. I don't when he says that. All dan sing it. Yeah i like. I got it from fancy jay. Who's funny because he doesn't even speak spanish but just did a little translation and he's always like as as mommy and i'm like yeah look as it is what it is all right. So let's see. Oh they were actually a lot of questions about the renovations what's going on with the projects Someone as how good do. I need to be in spanish. Stay at bow. He'll so why don't you tell us how it's going with joshua tree. I can literally write a book on what i've gone through that and we just broke ground this week. Jay which has major that is. I know it just feels like it's. I am not as excited because it just feels so delayed but i bought the land. We closed in december end of december. So i guess it's like you know taking five months to like at the loan together and to get. The permits permits took three months. 'cause i was super like on top of it the loan i ended up switching lenders midway. And maybe that's why kind of was delayed actually. Now that i'm thinking about it but yes so anyway so it took a while to get the loan. Construction loans are just bit notoriously very different because it's time consuming difficult like but it closed and i have a like good terms and all that and i have my contractor. I'm so excited yeah. We broke ground. We did a lot of pre work that we have done like there. The water meter had to be installed. There's a lot of duffy have to do so much but yeah it it's going. It's going and in terms of timeline. It should be done. I mean he told me he could build it in three months but with inspections longer obviously and like in that area they only come out to inspect like two days a week or one day a week. So that's what holds things up so it it probably will be done. Maybe five six months you know late fall is my goal. Your what about you. I am aiming to open things up in august mid august which is right around the corner. i've been doing pre bookings ever been promoting it much but you know. I think it's like fascinating that people are pre booking and i don't have any photos really of days. Thank you for trusting me with It's gonna be beautiful. It's gonna be gray and like you know. I don't really take that lightly when it comes like people's money and stuff but Yeah it's going really well. I mean the bulk of the renovations are done. I as well did not know that it was going to be so much work It's really you know tested. My limits physically emotionally thankfully. I've been able to do this. What might add. He's been a huge support and he's just like able to do so much with me So that's a really nice experience and the spanish. So here's what i think when it comes because the thing is like where my property is. It's not as touristy as other places in the dominican republic which is very intentional. Because you know. I think a lot of people come to dr for the resorts. And you don't actually get to connect with the culture and the people and so. I think it's a really nice experience to be able to stay in a place that is more local however if you've never traveled outside the country if you don't know some basic spanish words then it might not be a good fit and that goes i mean that's even when i traveled to places where i don't know the the country i try to do my research i try to learn some basic terminologies so i can get around and so you know those are the recommendations that that i have. It's not like you have to be fluent in spanish but the meal. Orla gimme you gotta try. Yeah because in santiago like a lot of people don't know how to speak english and they aren't going to accommodate necessarily the tourists there aren't like english menus like does not a thing but it's a really fun place and they're like you know there's just so much nature around so yeah.
Food Heaven Podcast
"heaven" Discussed on Food Heaven Podcast
"I question if you could move anywhere in the world where would it be one two three mexico city no question which by the way. We really need to move. If he's not on board aj justin. I actually went there for the first time together. We were like what in the world it was kind of like a stop on always somewhere else away like damn we need to extend our trip and then after that we just kept going back and that was back how many years ago it was maybe like six or seven years trip was like the fall of twenty thirteen. Yeah yeah and then. I went back in january of twenty fourteen in state for like five weeks. Yeah and then you've been back. We both been back. Yeah yeah yeah. I love it there just so people are always like well. What is it. It's everything it's the food. It's the vibe. People are so warm it's also like the architecture youthful design and architecture of many colors. Yeah the there's a lot of parks greenery. They got everything the culture the people. Yeah so hospitable. And also i mean i know were tourists. So it's like but there. There's a lot of tourists. Yeah it's it's a very local vibe. There's a lot of people from latin america that go to visit which is cool just missing and they don't accommodate to americans in english which i love. That's my favorite thing because it's like then going to be you know trying to talk to you in english. It's like you need to bring your spanish and bring it right. Yeah but they're not rule. No they know people like you know. I feel like some places you go to i france and as like what are you doing. But they're like very nice berry. All right that's question. You'll least favorite foods. Oh you can start Asparagus is one of them which i was shocked. Learn yesterday. e-egypt. I it's like. I have these experiences with food and then have strong versions to them so with asparagus I was in bolivia doing this trip. And they serve this like creamed asparagus. I was fine with the spike up until then but it didn't sit well and i was like throwing up asparagus and after that. I never eat asparagus yen. You'll be surprised to know that sweet potato is also on that list. I can name your list sweet potato. You don't really like avocado while 'cause i got food poisoning and then i haven't been able to really eat it after that You don't like squash. Yeah lots of vegetables. Not that many you like more lights like the sweet and savory ones. I don't do carrots beets. That's why i really don't do sweet. Potatoes is just. They really can't do sweet. And savory bothers me so much. What about you so minuses. Mushrooms eggplant but you like the mushrooms up of. I'll be able to tolerate them but you in like choice. Yeah it's it's more than. I don't wanna gross anybody. Oh let's so In sacramento we have slugs and i grew up in sacramento so anything that resembles a slug like eggplant mushrooms. It's just too psychologically challenging for me. Okay those are the two main which is like unfortunate because a lot of vegetarian stuff. They use mushrooms and eggplant. Yeah isn't that. Like i mean besides like an probably in okra. Yeah yeah i like. That's pretty common. I've heard that a lot with like. Just the slimy nece and the texture. It's yeah some people are not into a lot of people are not into okay. Next question is what are your biggest pet peeves in life evola. I'll let you start. Everything's oh i had a lot to okay. You can start. Because i have to think about like what am i top. There's a lot but People who don't reply all when needed we were just talking about that. A lot of he will soon reply all and then you have to go back and ask people to the cia because especially with me and wendy in business like everything is both of us so we're both a change order replies to what about the other didn't get it it's like then you gotta go back. Oh they didn't get it. So that's that's one. I'll let you give one. I really don't like when people add dot dot dot to the end of their applies because just like what are you actually saying is there's something else coming and why don't you just say it's like that drives me mad. Like y is that he wouldn't do that anymore. So many peo- so many people dads what i feel like i used to say dot dot dot not people literally them just like. Are you going to follow that up with something. I hate it. Yeah it's weird. I another pet peeve in this is more on the I don't wanna say we're influencers but like we kind of are just i dunno whatever so we get a lot of stuff ship to our house which you know. I'm grateful that we get stuff and you know. That's nice of the brands. But my biggest pet peeve is a lot of the brands use a lot of waste when they send stuff. Yeah it really bothers me ages because california is like kind of more anti a lot of ways and you know there's compost and there's like any time i go to the trash i'm like thinking okay. What's what compos recycling trash. Whatever and so you're recycling bins in your trash. Bins are really small in order to get a bigger one. You have to pay more because they encourage you to not have a lot of trash so any time with these brands you know like on the surface or like oh were a great brad sustainable but then behind the scenes like why are you sending twenty five pounds of styrofoam one apple or something. It just really makes me pissed. Yeah yeah true. And i mean it's just annoying habit in bring all that stuff down and like hit anxious with step. Oh yeah for you. Because you're in a five story walkup. Yeah bring it down. My super hates means more. Yeah i am so sorry make. i'll do another one. I really hate when white people use black and brown emojis. It drives me nuts. You're not black and brown. So why are you using like the brown like brown hand brown thumbs up and like it's like in your bio or you're like a little leg brown emoji person. It just doesn't make sense to me. And i'm like it's almost like a social media face in a way that i see it and a lot of people do it a lot of who actually i've seen some dietitians do it. Well and also in. My people use like terms like this happens. Stop just please stop it. Okay i have my biggest pet peeve. Okay guilty so it's listening to music or even ours is doing it all day today or a podcast or any audio on the phone. Oh like like out loud okay. That's a real issue my relationship. You don't like when people though okay really it. Just like i'm also. Hsp highly sensitive person. So it's a lot of noise and stimuli that i don't want yeah and also to with music it's like the quality people like it's not good quality on the phone. Yeah it doesn't sound as bad. Yeah so like literally with my husband like. It's just like the podcast. We listened to her differently. Kisses like breakfast club and Million dollars worth of game all those where you're just like screaming at you and like the sports guys and mine's like buddhist calming. Yeah so yeah you.
Food Heaven Podcast
"heaven" Discussed on Food Heaven Podcast
"This accessible business fantasize. I mean i definitely think it takes discipline sacrifice to be incredible at anything to be incredible athlete to be an incredible mother to be incredible leader. In incredible teacher it requires the abnormal. it does. I don't think everybody has to be incredible entrepreneur to make money intake great live. that's not what i set up to do. I did not set out just to make money or else. I would've picked a different. Business is activist alarm fins as occupies my health at one point. I sacrificed at negative consequences. My personal life relationships. I have twenty times in my twenty Thirty years old married. No kids you know. There are things that i chose not to do or not to focus on. Because i was focused on my mission and purpose of blabbity. Now that doesn't have to be forever. But i do think it would have been very difficult to be very good at blabbity. It very good mother very good life and be a very good friend like it's just it's too much for me. It was too much for me. I'm sure there are women who could do. I could not so twenty seventy now my thirties. Now we out like balance it's vacations. It's sunday dinner. It's movie night is working out in the morning. it is eight hours of sleep. It is do not disturb agai though. But i can do that because i earned it and i really did earn it and i feel comfortable with that. I feel comfortable having the momentum of my twenties now now being able to sit for a little bit of a ride on a hill to slightly gliding. But i still work very hard. I could also more efficiently because apetit. I just have a quick fall of question about the team. Because that has been something that i am always thinking about and it sounds like you're able to be really successful because you have this team in place for people who are entrepreneurs and maybe you know. They're thinking of growing their business but they have a hard time with delegation and finding that right team. Do you have any tips or like things that you look for. When you're first to like expand or scale yes i'm i'm really great to great co-founders i've had three co founders to were still in the business jeff jeff is our cto cio. And i think that when it comes to early people that you're working with and you're starting out a business it about offsetting your weaknesses and then had building her high trust relationship with them so that instead of it just being one and a half addition to the team three people relate was for because we're able to operate so effectively and so now we've been in business. I went to college with these guys. So now we've been in business and have known each other for over ten years. And so i know a lot about them. They know a lot about me. We could work can work in flow. Think for anyone who is starting out and trying to figure out how to higher and higher. I buy recommendation generally is that you do a couple of things one. I talked about this in detail on works part podcast which i just started but basically look at your task on a daily basis. What are the things that you do. I call your daily operating tasks and then you also make a task Have only do nightcrawlers. Your ceo tasks right so for you. All wanting that only you can do is come up with. E what is the like nutritional conversation that we wanna add this month and the themes like the creative visionary work but someone else could be editing episodes. Someone else could be posted on instagram. Someone else could be ready to captions. You might still be doing it to this day but you can actually outline things it only you can do your see yellow tasks and things that you do but you could delegate to someone else and then the question becomes how do you then decide who hire or what are for and generally what i do is i look at your operating task and i have some bucket end and then i say okay. If you if you gave this work to someone else how much what would you do. What more one other. ceo to ask. Would you do with the replacement of your time and do the things that you replace them with making money and therefore can you offset the cost of hiring this person because more time to make money could be. Yeah if i hire this person now have more time to go out buying partnership decks. I have more time to make more content. I have more time to write. But if he's had more time to watch netflix. Asian hire anybody. Because you're gonna lose money talk to circle though. Oh my god. Yeah like very outlined. And i must say kate. Your assistant is on it. I was like child we need. We need a kate was like. She's the best so organize. I mean k. Case only been with me for about two months months at this time like but she is incredible sometimes on the meeting says. Oh my god because it's hard to find good people you know. I mean i don't know what your experience has been like but with us it's like a lot of turn around and talking with brandon. Seems like they have similar experiences to like getting someone who does quality work. Who will stay with you. Were saying like it seems like once people know that they're like it that they have all these skills they just go on to start their own business and then leave us. You know does happen. I had a credible. I worked with And my personal business bottom co aaliyah and she was also entrepreneurial which worked really well together and at some point she was like my businesses going. I'm like your business is growing like but now we're good friends and now i can work with her company and so you know it's an ecosystem But i do think that hiring good people is really difficult. And it's something that you have to learn through trial and error especially when you're hiring as an entrepreneur. You're trying to hire someone with the domain expertise to maybe you don't have your like hiring someone better than you. A function Those are the hires for me. When i was starting out. I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot about hires end. There's consequences about hires tara. Money frustration emotional trauma like all things things up firing To fire someone. For the first time. I was upset. I was crying the staff that was long time ago. I don't cry anymore. You know it's hard to be boss. It is difficult at to hire and fire people into responsible for some livelihood. I've another question on that because one thing how it appears with you. Is that people get along with you. Well right and so it's like how do you make that balance of like girl but also i'm your boss like i have a hard time with that. I'm wondering because i see on instagram with your stories. And i'm like oh she must be so fun to work with but also you get stuff down. So how does this work. I don't think i'm going to work with i. Don't think maintain. Okay i take. She is fine they would say she is. God have high expectations. And i think that i'm difficult to work with. I'd say that's out on average. I time difficult to work with people. Don't respect me respect. We will good working relationship. But it isn't like any easy..
Food Heaven Podcast
"heaven" Discussed on Food Heaven Podcast
"You set goals we therapists. They hold you accountable and make sure that you're making progress towards those goals and therapy can really help you. Shift your perspective especially now. It's been such a difficult year and therapy can be incredibly helpful for getting some crazy and just working through all of the stuff that comes at us talk bases the number one online therapy platform. They have thousands of licensed therapists. They're trained in over forty specialties including depression relationships and more. I love that as affordable for a fraction of a cost of imprisoned therapy. You can get your very own therapists and instead of waiting for an appointment you can send unlimited messages to therapists twenty four seven and they engaged with you on daily five days a week. Also there's out of secure and private and it complies with the latest hippo regulations and has listener of this podcast. You will get one hundred dollars off your first month with talk space to match with the license therapist. Today go to talks base dot com. You can use our code food heaven to get one hundred dollars off your first month and show support for this show fast food heaven and talk space dot com all right. We're going to get back into episode so in terms of like the logistical stocks. I feel like for people that want to start a business for us. It took us years to like incorporate like because it was a passion project and we had no intention of actually having a business with food heaven. So what are some just entry level recommendations that you have before people actually start a business. I think people can just get going. I don't. I don't think that there has to be like unofficial business plan. Our official excel spreadsheet with mass in it in like all that stuff. I think you could just build things and then start charging people for them and you should charge. Whatever people are willing to bag you know and and go from there right like the thing about entrepreneurship is especially for black style businesses businesses. That are fueling your day to day. Lifestyle you're replacing your income from your day job. Were or entirely quit. Your day job saw not like he needs to go make five hundred thousand dollars a year out the gate. You'd have to make enough money to offset the income that she would be. Make a if you had working for somebody else is if you make eighty five k. You need to be able to make that much a year start there. That's my recommendation. Generally like start with fat math equation. How much could i sell are. What do i need to do to replace my income. So i have more time to grow in my business. There's so many different ways that i think. People get caught up mentally with the concept of entrepreneurship because of instagram. Because of the books in the by guys in all these things bike complicated. We're just running people to pay us to do something or make something. Watch big right yeah. It's not that complicated. I like that. Okay so what. I'm thinking is burn out at the top of this call or recording. You mentioned twenty five eleven businesses fifty nine. How are you not burning out and you and you said you still love it. Like tell us the ways like. How do you stay energized with so much going on in successful businesses at that successful the ones who know about our. I think that. I do get burned out completely. I mean there's been months in blabbity blah. I've been in business for seventy years flappy. Yes a long time and seven years not seven years in. We're fine on. Pj seven years. You know seven years which includes on the floor. You know i gotta go make payroll and transfer money from this to this bank like raising money in front of brooms of all white men. Investors like seven tough years and. I'm grateful for them. But i haven't scars time periods where i'm like obviously serve six months in there. I could tell you what i was doing you know. I'm sure that i was not the best. Ceo the best allender the best girlfriend best daughter like is definitely absence lows in this life on As an entrepreneur at as someone who's ambitious you ask someone who has a grander vision of the future. I i have learned how to see that. See that coming my way when you are getting close to a breaking point you're getting close to not being in full control over your actions and being too reactionary to stress because the stress is constant. That's one thing i've expected. Things will always be changing. Things will always go wrong. Things go right battery life and it's really about how you're able to manage it so i've developed a core set of principles in high make decisions what i will do what i won't do. I've also invited others into helping me stay balanced so my executive assistant Also in my personal business defining how avid director of operations some very transparent with with them about on feeling what i need And i also just moved. I just moved to nashville partially to stay grounded instead. I can have some more balanced parents. Live here Living in la are living in san francisco york right gogo and i did not work for me. You know i wanted. I wanted to be routed. Family where my mom Marketing off my high horse It doesn't care is your mom. So yeah i think for anyone who's a burnout or is trying to figure out how they can be an entrepreneur. Be someone with the grand vision in and keep that up. You have to learn for yourself how to manage how to manage yourself miniature energy. You know one of those. I wanted to do this podcast with you because a lot of it has been about what i'm putting my body in my routine and by relationship with It took some time to figure out how to stay balanced even with my food mateen's enriching on a daily basis What are some of like the day to day boundaries. That you've got up to make sure that your needs are met outside of the business like is it like you have to get a certain amount of beach deny etc etc like socially 'cause along the lines of what i was telling you earlier like with the startup podcast and like reading about all these entrepreneurs it's like oh my god how can i buy. Oh hack my way to success. Or like i am about to get a divorce because my marriage is falling apart and i barely you know see my wife and kids and like etc etc. And i'm just like oh my god it's like it almost seems like sacrifice you like. We're told that sacrifice is just part of it like you have to sacrifice everything that's really important in life. In order to have.
Food Heaven Podcast
"heaven" Discussed on Food Heaven Podcast
"The product or building business. I had started a business. That was all about the back end databases of analytics insistence in enterprise. I would have failed. Because that's not an alignment with who i am now. I started a business based off of people and stories and end like being unapologetic and not asking for permission. And that's me you know so. I think it's important entrepreneurs aligned with air personal energy. I love that. I also think that there are a lot of people who they think about. Starting a business and i think especially people of color black people. There's a lot of anxiety a lot of fear. There's also a lot of us have imposter syndrome where we're like. Who do i think i am. I don't have whatever to start a business. How do you recommend that people deal with that. You know because. I know there's a lot of people out there who like even dietitians who listen to this podcast. Who were maybe working in a job but maybe they feel deep down that they are that entrepreneur spirit and they want to do their own thing. But they're like oh. I'm just going to wait till the perfect time. I gotta put in twenty years. Do you have any words of wisdom for those folks. Yeah i think that fear is a part of the process to me when you are deciding to start as a out as a small business owner and entrepreneur. There is a level of fear and not knowing what will happen. You have an idea policies. You have a gut reaction what you wanna do. But you cannot guarantee what will happen next. And that being said that's actually something that we as human beings deal with every single day and so the muscle of stepping out on faith in following. Your intuition is actually something that we've been doing since we were children and so people have to if you're considering being an entrepreneur but you're kinda like well i don't know seems risky i. I have bills. Responsibilities is can't fail the about failure is that it doesn't just happen all at once. Typically you're like failing constantly consistently and my recommendation to people is not to be scared of failure but to fail in a way that is faster instead. You're making constant adjustments along the way so you're very conscious of the things that are doing well so when there's tension because it didn't work out as expected it's actually a moment to adjust into learns that you can reduce the likelihood of that happening again but i need to see as when people fail and they keep doing the same day added so hard it on my people doing the same thing that you know. It's not gonna work. are you still doing. how long do it for. Because that's you. Could you hear like could i'm just thinking of us. What these courses that we were like. You think oh. I have to tweak it a little bit or but you keep pushing the same thing like at what point do you realize. This is not working time to pivot a year six months. I've watched your business as you all know for for a while now from youtube channels to either the bug to So i do believe in trying a lot of different things. And i think it's a i try to measure. It is tactically. It's a margin of growth comparatively in other words from testing. Three to four. Things at one thing is going to times faster than the others. The not spy winner. And and then you gotta let go. The steph told me down even if it's growing at five percent for a week or five percent per month but something else is growing at twenty percent per week or twenty percent per month but his former five percent over here. I can still do it. No you can't because you need to focus on the team that's working really really well. You may not like that thing as much may not make you happy. But if he's bringing the prophet in it's driving the business you know if you continue to grow at a fast rate you can hire somebody else to take over even figure out other ways to keep that going and then come back to the thing that was growing percent right so sometimes i think we hold on. Ask because what we want. We don't the data. Yeah i know that data so important. And also i think with social media and the internet. It's so easy to fall into that comparison trap like. Oh i'm gonna do a course because everyone's doing a course. I feel like the courses have been hot now and yeah we only fell into that and it just didn't resonate with our audience and we kept pushing and pushing like we even though like so many other things. We're working so yeah. I think it's also important to be honest and and not get so caught up with all the things that are going on social media and how people are making money and you see. It doesn't mean that they're making money off of it. I the i talk to people around like banded make any money you know and sedona soon just because someone is also doing big over and over again. The air taken on the prophets program and by programs are the worst smart programme where we advise entrepreneurs small business owners Grow together business. And what i see oftentimes with bad as if not ever great. It's very manual. Meet with people every do weeks. We get on his own. We talk. they have homework. They submitted i read it in advance. I give the like. Didn't do the automated program i tried. It didn't work. i moved on. I said you know that's not my style. I need to get in the weeds. I need to look at you and need to be able to tax you in call even like says you know which means i can't serve hundred people a year you know i can only do thirty. Forty maybe fifty. I can't do ten thousand core sales by other people by you have to also know what makes you happy in also the results that you want for your customers your clients. Did you know that may is mental health awareness month but it really shouldn't be a focus just for me. It's important to be working on our mental health all year long the positive effects of therapy creates lasting change in all areas of life from relationships career overall happiness and can help you identify habits and patterns. That might be holding you back and how to move forward in a direction that works for you. We have spoken about the importance of therapy on our podcast and i wholeheartedly recommend talks base. Our podcast sponsor this week for therapy talks space. Lets you send and receive unlimited messages with your dedicated therapists and the talks based platform twenty four seven with.
Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"heaven" Discussed on Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"Then the miracle happened two weeks before he died suddenly. He started asking for the us to be brought to him. You'll by now. He had been longtime since he's been able to go to mass and he came out of the alzheimer's enough to ask for the eucharist to be brought to him so his wife. My mother in law called up the church and a nine started bringing communion to him often for those final two weeks. We have no idea what changed his thinking. What happened in his spirit. What the lord did in his spirit that awakened him to this special. Very close connection. He had with the lord at the end of his life but we know that in his asking for the eucharist to be brought to him. Something special had was happening between him. And the lord simply asked the lord and do it as often as you feel bothered worried that may be. This person is going to die without salvation or die without the the faith. Gross that you're praying for lord. Do not let them die before they dot dot dot fill in the blank for some people. What works is going to a retreat. Going to a conference that is spirit filled. And you know if they're if they're willing to say yes to coming along with you on that you don't have to say anything but hey let's get away for a weekend and yes. It is a christian retreat. But they're not none of us they and myself were not going to try to force our beliefs on you but i think if you just go and relax and see if the lord has anything for you You know just just come along and if nothing else you get a time away at a nice pretty lake or wherever the retreat house might be for some people that will work and when they are. They're their faith is awakened. Faith comes alive. Each person is different. I cannot tell you what will work for your loved ones. But i can tell you what won't work. What won't work is trying to convince them. With words. words become debate debate. Never wins souls for christ debate. Never awakens the faith of anybody. Debate never increases a week faith into a strong faith debate. Never brings repentance telling somebody that they are thinking wrong but leaving wrong doing something wrong. Does not motivate them to change. We debate people. We do get into arguments because we care we care so much we want them to we we. We are filled with wisdom and knowledge and truth that has been put into us and we want to make a difference in them. We want to share our knowledge with them. We want to share with him. The benefit of the truce. That that we that we've learned and we care so much you know we we hammer them with it. You know we have so much we want to share. But you know what sometimes the best we can do with. Our words is to i and this is a very important point. I listen listen to them. Listen to their false teachings listen to their sinful life styles. Whatever they're talking about listen to them asking the holy spirit silently within yourself asking the holy spirit to show you reveal to you inspire in your thinking in awareness of where they have a little bit of a door open. Where is there something. That's a little bit of where the lord has his foot in their door. And you can use that as an opportunity to be the lord's instrument where are they willing to consider a different point of view..
Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"heaven" Discussed on Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"Sometimes get stalled sometimes we get sidetracked when we walk with jesus in the power of the holy spirit to the destination that god the father designed for us. The results are better than we could ask for. or imagine. and. Now here's your host terry modique. Let's begin this podcast by praying together in the name of the father and the son the holy spirit we ask you lord to speak through me what you want me to share and open the ears and the hearts and minds of those listening to this podcast for them to receive what you want them to receive nothing more and nothing less than what you want them to receive. We asked this in the name of the father son. The holy spirit amen. Okay think of the special someone whom you've been praying for because he or she has left the church or maybe never had true faith at all. How do you feel about it when you are praying for them. How do you feel. do you feel angry. Fearful worried worried about their salvation. Worried about how. Their lack of faith is messing up their lives today. I'm sure you feel something. Something strong enough to motivate you to pray and there's something in you that is connected to the holy spirit your spirit. Your own human spirit is connected to the holy spear in such a way that you really care. You're praying because you know this person needs god and needs your prayers support. You are an intercessor for them. They are not lifting themselves up to christ they are not lifting themselves up to the holy spirit for the holy spirit to help them know the truth because you know jesus said that he would give us the spirit of truth. The holy spirit is the spirit of truth. This is how we recognize truth when we hear it. It's the holy spirit in us saying what you're hearing now is truth. I mean if what. I'm saying to you meet terry deka. If what i'm saying to you is resonating in your spirit. Is is inside your. You're going yes she's speaking truth. That's the holy spirit in you working with your human spirit to teach you what the holy spirit wants you to learn or to reassure you or or whatever it is at the holy is communicating to you..
Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"heaven" Discussed on Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"Tell us join with others in following my example brothers and sisters and take note of those who live according to the pattern. We gave you four as i have often told you before and now say again. Even with tears many lives enemies of the cross of christ. You see by the way. Let me insert into the scripture. Here notice how. Paul is talking about the tears. He felt when you've have tears over what is going on. What is frustrating you. Those tears are not necessarily a sign of being frustrated. They're not a sin. They can be tears of morning. They can be tiers of feeling concerned about the state of the other person's soul those are holy tears because as paul said many lives. Enemies of the cross of christ their destiny is destruction. Their god is their stomach in their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things but our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there the lord jesus christ who by the power that enables him to bring everything under control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will become like his glorious body. Get your eyes off the people who hurt you and look at your own relationship with god who is love god whom you rejected when you gave to others your anger and frustration. Instead of god's love look back at god. Put your eyes on him as i like to say. Keep your eyes on. Jesus how my jew be an enemy of the cross. We need to look at that going back to that earlier. Step of examining your own conscience and looking at her own sense so we can repent. How do we become an enemy of the cross by rejecting our own crucifixions people who hurt you are nailing you to the cross their nailing you to their belief system their garbage their sinfulness. And when you're frustrated you're fighting the cross. Jesus showed by his example that going to the cross for someone is good. Consider this example. Jesus allowed you to crucify him to your garbage. But how can it be a good for you to be nailed to someone else's unloving behavior john chapter twelve versus twenty four through twenty six. As i tell you the truth..
Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"heaven" Discussed on Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"Were that other person. The way he sees them through his loving is because i corinthians thirteen again this is versus four to seven describes god and how he's treating us how he's treating you. Let me read that again. Because god is love look at that scripture from the perspective of describing god god is patient the holy spirit in you is patient god is kind the holy spirit in you is kind. God does not envy god does not boast god is not proud. God is not rude. God is not self seeking the holy spirit in you is not self seeking but is only concerned about the other person or other people who are impacted by the situation that is so frustrating. God is not easily angered and the holy spirit in you is not easily angered god keeps no record of wrongs and the holy spirit in you is helping you if you avail yourself of that if you tap into if you connect yourself to the holy spirit in you through prayer god in you is erasing the memories that you're cleaning to break into connection. I'm not saying it's gonna make you forget because sometimes we really do need to remember in order not to fall into the trap of being abused or whatever being stuck on remembering what is bad what happened that is frustrating. You claim to that memory keeps you in a loop of evil keeps you in a loop of focusing on something that is not jesus himself not god and all of his goodness god does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth the holy spirit in you is not focused on the where of yes but not focused on what is evil in the other person who is frustrating. You or in the situation. That's frustrating you bite rejoices. In the truth the holy spirit in you know what is going to happen the holy spirit knows what is good about it. The holy spirit knows that if it's a person who is frustrating you what god has in mind to bring that person change that is needed. Always spirit knows how long it's going to take the always knows the truth and you can tap into that truth. Through the gifts.
Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"heaven" Discussed on Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"Three is down. You tend ten war pretty much because the last machine will not support all worker. The other ones now i previously. I love the way. Jesus poses questions to people that essentially turn things around to make them realize how they are. Sometimes when you speak the truth straight out they just get defensive. You ask a question it gets them. Thinking so brand is like are well. This'll take your this much take this and then you're gonna be dead in the water. Emmy could be able to do a thing for you. The question was Do you really want to take that chance. Which is a nice way of saying. Are you stupid enough to insist on having your way because you're in charge you have the power that stupid. Are you really dumb that you wanted system when i told do. That's not a good idea. And what happened. They kind of looked at each other. Why guess that makes sense. Yeah so what do you suggest we do. They just gave the power. He gave me the power. I was terrified. These people can fiery another thing. What do you think we should do. They actually conceded their power because they realize did not have what it took to take. The four responsibility of what would happen is wrong. And while ralph was going through this experience with those managers in the back of his mind he was asking the heus spirit. Weren't you words to give me terrified. It was like my job could possibly along with a history of be bold. Be courageous be fearless. I am with you many times in our lives. I'm sure he relies in your work situations in your family situations. You're afraid you're terrified. You're frozen what we see. What would you should. Should i push this issue. When i know full well that if i don't push it get worse or i keep my mouth shut and just pray that things will work out behold be courageous for the lord. Your god is with. You always always. If we're doing with lord approves of the lord is always there will always come through for us will give us the words and we do need to have a good relationship with the spirit in order to receive those words because jesus told us that he would give us the holy spirit to teach us all things whenever we needed to know to provide the worst. When we're up against the judge. Jesus gave us his holy spirit so that we could live. The lives empowered by the spirit. We like to be in control but we need to let the holy spirit being control and realize that we are as instruments will we are the ones through. Who god's control can make a difference Use the word control because guy doesn't go against anyways free will but god's power makes a difference takes charge. The king of the universe takes charge in circumstances of your life our lives when we entrust it to the spirit. And so whether you're in a position in your world or your family or your friends will you have great power and great responsibility or if you're in a situation where you have great responsibility little power trust that god will work in that situation he will inspire you and give you what it is you need to bring about his kingdom and remember you have the great power and routed lose his job i think was a great power Me be service. Point is by trusting god. The power of guy works through us and by having that as a focus of our power. That is the source of our power. We don't have to worry about what can go wrong. We don't have to worry about Having that attitude the pharisees had of. I'm the boss. I tell you how to live your life. And although i don't have to limit myself that way i here are the rules. We don't have to be worried about sitting with pride and the kind of control is being a control freak. We just have to trust the holy spirit to work through as in realize it. We are his servants. That's what you were wanting to get the servant hood of all this meant like we're supposed to show the world what god is like. We're supposed to be servants whether it's in the home with our spouses children or the were played workplace or apple world. We're who servants where to be serving as serves. You know not. Hey i'm in charge. You gotta do what i gotta do. I'm in charge. This is what god wants us to do where he wants us to go with this. So keep that in mind psych. We're all sort of role to be servants. Being servant does not necessarily mean. You will always have all the power that you need do. The power of the holy spirit doesn't mean you have all responsibility all the time which will responsibility some of the time. Use it wisely. It's not us is in control. It's got this holy spirit percha. Let's do that and father. We thank you for this day. We ask you to bless us solo center out there in the that are watching hearing us lured. Help us to know that was great. Power and responsibility and you don't have great power. We still have power to your holy spirit. We have responsibility responsibility to be servants. Servants have all and lord you've told us and he tells time and time again be strong. Stand firm be fearless in undaunted forever. You go lord shiva. For more faith. Builders or learn more about good news ministries come visit our website at g. N m dot org. You'll find online resources and lots more to help you know the father's love and grow closer to christ and be filled with the holy spirit visit. Gee am dot org today..
Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"heaven" Discussed on Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"We could ask for. Or imagine we're ralph and terry deka of goodness ministries of tampa bay and we'll bring you good news today. There are some of us that work world in our family life. We have great power but with that comes great responsibility and just as there's great power great responsibility. There's many times you have responsibilities but very little power. But still we want charge. Wanted control the pharisees won't be insured we all over my eyes because we're we're not you know there's so much that goes on in our lives that we we crave the control. The we get sick when we don't wanna get sick. Someone leaves us when we don't want them to leave us or we'd lose a job job. There's so many circumstances that we cannot control that we created the control because we're creating the order were craving to to make or chaos and the feel more secure because curious one of the human psychological needs but in order to really have security into really have power we need to be the servant and jesus told the james and john. The sons of zebedee is muslim. Hey i watched to pull rank and and get my son's position right you left and you said okay. Can they handle responsibility require of them. Can they drink of the cup. Oh yeah sure many times. We said that sure we can do that. Okay you want to be great servant of everyone whether you have great responsibility in great power go along with it or great responsibility very little power to law it you come to the right place. You want to talk about this today. One of my favorite scriptures that. I find very consoling comes from the first book of joshua very beginning. So you can't really screwed up you go joshua go down. The first chapter versus sixty nine. God spoke to joshua said be strong. Stand firm you're the person to whom i will give possession of this land who your people be strong and stand very firm. Be careful to heat the whole law. Do not swear from this to the right or left and then you will succeed. You will succeed wherever you go. Have this book the law always under the meditate on it day and night that you make carefully keep everything is written. Then you're you're undertaking will prosper. Then we will have success. And here's my favorite line. Have i not told you. Ralph reed. I want to be strong. Stand firm be fearless and undaunted wherever you go the lord. God is what you our club. The corporate world with a lot of very large companies like fortune fifteen companies. These are some of the biggest companies in the country. Enforce the managers that he's in these companies have power they have power and they don't always have the breeds or they don't always have the spirits or the talent there to be the servant. The more we have a power therefore you have to do what we tell you. Do or fiery. Well that can be scared to get up. You know so you can lick having roommate head providing for the family of ambien elites of so a lot of people out there are afraid. You're you're afraid to speak to when when you know better you have responsibility but gemma the power to speak up. Maybe you do have the power but you have to responsibility. Either way you're fix you'd realize your servant you are using that power wisely. Great power responsibility now. I was in a situation with with this one company. And i have a checking will leave it at that. And he's technological guru computer cover right okay. That means things don't always add apple listening. But it's all one zero zero's anyway at the computer joke but anyway we're planning to do this one maintenance operation on a large system and the analogy us with this operation. Is your whole spinal cord a machine do something to it and put it back in a simple job right very simple chord out but it back in a done every day right now. We're in a meeting with managers of this fortune. Fifteen company. that's at all we want. You do four of these on one night. Now keep in mind. Operation on one machine took four people. And i was one of those four people. The other three people have worked all day long so they were tired. Y'all know how well you can think and not make mistakes when you're tired especially when you take the spinal cord output back in so he's married want you to four machines in one night and partly is like yeah. They could probably haven't fire. If i said that's not a good idea I'll try to do this. Only things. don't screw up but the holy spirit Be strong courageous. Don't be afraid of those versus again that you're being from first chapter joshua verses six through nine bold and courageous fearless and somehow terror. I spoke up in this route of it. Had to be like about a dozen very high level very powerful managers as a not on. My watch is happening to say that kind of looking at how. How dare you say that but but let unm job tomorrow. Yep they stare to me. One just turned to my manager and said. Is there anyone else that can do this planning your enemy now. My manager also be very holy man also was emboldened turns the one that nope ralph's do when those you'd better listen to them and then they were still unconvinced so i started to elaborate. You know. here's what we found out doing something and it back in the machine now. This takes four hours at best. Do this for three people. That haven't had much sleep and they haven't done this process before i've done it before. So that's why. I'm hidden up the team. Now if we have a problem with machine that machines now totally dead for about three days. That's what's gonna take to revive it. major machine. Major machine ran a major company. Right said you only do this on fortunes machine. We can survive in that one machine for three days because the machines can take over the workload. That's okay but what we do. Four sheen's if i have problems with two of them you now down fifty percent and that's been impact business and then a rush to try to do machine. Number.
Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"heaven" Discussed on Footsteps to Heaven Podcast Show
"Than ever before with your love your piece. Your hope face which is a gift from you. Holy spirit piece which is given to us through the way spirit from christ as a gift from the father. Fill my friend. Holy spirit with especial anointing that gives them a personal relationship. Not only with jesus closer than ever before and also a deeply trusting relationship with god the father but more than ever before also holy spirit a deeper relationship more profound relationship and more miraculous relationship with the holy spirit and now my friend i ask you to simply pray. This come holy spirit. You have my permission to change me. No my friend that right now. God is with you. God is hearing. Your prayers is answering your prayers. Got his doing something for you right now. It's impossible for god to do. Otherwise god loves you fully right now and he cannot sit still. he cannot be inactive. He cannot sit idly by his he watches. What's going on in your life. He's concerned about everything that you're concerned about. Let it go into his heart into his hands in his dreams for you while you just sit back and relax in the eternal now that god is bringing to you in his relationship with you in the name of the father son. Holy spirit amen. This podcast was made possible by supporters of good news ministries who hope to strengthen and build.